Hot Springs, SD---Day 2, May 23rd

Up and at'um bright and early today...we had a lot of road to cover, 192.6 miles to be exact!  Started off at The Mammoth Site...www.mammothsite.com.  Check out their site, they can tell you a lot better than I can remember.  What a neat place that was (pictures below).  The fact that we were standing on a site where millions of years ago roamed these gigantic beasts and some other little critters, was really cool. 

The most complete skeleton unearthed to date

That's me pullin' the tail of the "Beast"  they were pretty BIG

and me holdin' a femur bone

Dan standing in front of a full skeleton

 After we finished at The Mammoth Site we headed north to Wind Cave National Park....check the site
www.nps.gov/wica.  In 1903 it was the first cave to be designated a national park and the only place that charges you $9.00 to walk down 300 steps in the dark to see wet drippy rocks with stuff growing all over them, I mean really, 225' underground in the dark for $9.00.  They should have paid us.  All kidding aside, it was a neat place and the pictures will tell the story.  The kid, Alvin McDonald was just 16 when he started to explore the caves.  He did so with a candle and a ball of string to find his way out.  His hand written journal can be seen on the web site.  Unfortunately no mishaps or slips to make this more interesting.

Map of Wind Cave...all the tunnels are under 1 square mile

 

some of the unique boxwork on the ceiling

The guy in front of me (center of picture) show a little perspective

To continue with our day we again headed north through Custer State Park hoping to get to Mt. Rushmore before midnight. Below are pictures of some of the sites, again no mishaps or misdirections, just the two of us, that's right NO CATS, taking in the glorious views of our great country.

OK, it's a little blurry, but snapping pictures out the car window is not an easy task you know

an old one lane bridge

Pronghorn, better known as "speed goat", that's cause they're really fast...as you can see not at all fazed by passing vehicles with crazy people taking pictures

We're almost there I promise, just a few more turns on one of the windiest roads in the world, called Iron Mountain Road.  There were 4 tunnels that were only wide enough for one car, so you had to honk your horn before entering.....pretty scary.  So around the last turn we come and and civilization hits in the way of the parks service parking garage charging $11.00 to park your car.  Just as we find a spot on the top floor it starts to drizzle,  oh well, we're here to see this great monument and memorial and a little rain won't stop us.  

So there they are...very impressive site.  Mind you we're at a fairly high altitude 5700' + and it's rainy and they's a cold front coming through and there are people in shorts and flip flops...guess a Florida girl will always be a Florida girl and like the sun and warm!


On the way down the mountain we came to the town of Keystone, population 310, your perfect tourist town.  Reminded me of that stretch of road in Kissimmee when Disney first came to town.  I'm thinking they make their living in about 6 months of the year...the rest is too cold.  Just out side Keystone we were coming into another group of homes and saw the funniest thing, wish I could have gotten the camera out soon enough, but alas that didn't happen...use your imagination.  Now most of this houses are up hills and have fairly long driveways.  Well, these folks are using there noggins, there was an elderly man checking his mail on his riding lawn mower....only in South Dakota.  We made it back to our home on wheels and crashed.  Stay tuned for more adventures in SD.

Valentine NE to Hot Springs, SD---May 22nd

Are we having fun yet???  You betcha!  It didn't rain when we left Valentine, something must be wrong.  It was sunny and very windy.  We were headed west right into the stupid stuff, so guess what, we got about 2 miles to the gallon.  There were hardly any cars on  the road, we chalked that up to being 8:00am on a Sunday until we started reading the populations of the towns...53, 119, 24, 12.  There just weren't enough people to be out driving.  Finally reached the road to go north to South Dakota...what a difference, still lots of land but all agriculture. 

 Everything was planted with corn or wheat.  Realized we were on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation a huge place.  Headed west on the chosen road, driving along minding our own business and all of a sudden there's this big ole sign that says "Road Closed, find alternate route".  Now we're out in the middle of know where on an Indian Reservation and the only alternate route will take us back to Nebraska....we just came form Nebraska and we didn't like the roads the first time we drove on them, why would we want to go back to stinkin' Nebraska!  Along comes a car from the direction we need to go, so Dan decides to ask about the travel.  Nice old Indian guy with a sedan covered in mud said we really didn't want to be goin' where he came from especially towing a trailer.  The road had washed out and was under construction with tire ruts that were like "gumbo", his words not mine.  So back to Nebraska we went. 

 Now we had talked about taking the route just south of the Nebraska border, but wanted to see more of SD.  Look where that got us, back to stickin' Nebraska.  So we plug along to Chadron which is the next available road to SD...it's lunch time and we need gas so we pull into a Big Bats.  Don't ask, 'cause I don't have a clue, but there was a Subway and gas so we stopped.  Did I mention that there's a Subway on every corner in every city in Iowa, Nebraska and SD.  They have as many Subways and the south has McDonalds.  We knew it was a little windy but we weren't expecting hurricane force gusts...almost sent us both flying!  Despite all the "hoopla and drivin' around" we made it to Hot Springs, SD.  Not sure of plans for tomorrow so stay tuned!

Wednesday, May 25th

First of all...Happy Birthday to my brother, hope the burn heals fast!

Now on to the important stuff.  We have been having a wonderful time and I do have 3 posts ready to go, but due to the inability to upload pictures at the Hot Springs Campground I'm going to hold off one more day until we get to Casper on Thursday.  Hopefully being in the city and not buried in the side of a mountain will allow me to do the "technical" things a girls gotta do to keep the blog alive.  So stay tuned for the next installment coming to a computer near you in the very near future!

Onawa, IA to Valentine, NE---May 21st

I'm beginning to believe that you can't camp without setting up or breaking down in the rain.  So far only one night has been dry....yuk!  We got on the road pretty early around 8:30am CT because we were planning on a little longer drive than usual.  Towns that have RV parks or anywhere to camp are few and far between in Nebraska.

Charlie and Max waiting for Dan to get us checked in...they want out of the truck sooooo bad!

I wanna see, I wanna see....

We drove across the Missouri River and had to pay a toll of $2.00....with the condition of the bridge, they should have paid us.

The sign at the end of the bridge

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, just a lot of very flat land and believe it or not straight roads...the truck really liked that part.  We've decided that driving in Nebraska is much preferred to driving in Iowa or Missouri...2 states we won't be revisiting, according to the driver.

We arrived in Valentine about 2:30pm CT and without fail it started to rain, just a little sputter, but the wind was blowing at about 30mph sustained so the rain felt like pins sticking you.  Sure hope the weather changes soon.  It's now 6:30pm and the wind is still blowing and the trailer is really rocking...hope we don't end up at Auntie Em's.  If any of you watch the weather channel and see a white pick up with turkey guts on the front go flying by in someones video, wave....we'll see you on the other side!

This really is pretty country around here.  The Niobrara River is just south of town and is quite a picturesque spot.  Lots of cows and lots of pasture land, I'm talking hundreds of thousands of acres full of cows.

A few interesting tidbits about our trip...I know ya'll are just dying to know all this stuff...hey, there's not much to do while driving 250 miles each day except wrangle cats.

• Total miles driven to date---2250.7
• Total driving hours---48.5
• Average miles per hour---46.4 
• Total spent on gas to date---$807.37
• Average per mile spent on gas---36 cents
• Total spent on RV parks---$329.72
• Approximate amount saved by camping---$1000.00
• Total cost for an excellent adventure---PRICELESS

Headed to Hot Springs, SD tomorrow and will spend 4 nights there...hoping to do lots of exploring.

Stay tuned....

Albia, IA to Onawa, IA---May 20th

Not sure why we thought it would be any different today....rain, rain, rain and more rain.  After listening to the weather report for this area we felt certain that we were in for some really foul and I mean foul weather.  They were expecting severe thunderstorms with hail and strong winds all along our route.  Fortunately it just rained enough to need intermittent wipers.....always a good thing when you're traveling on winding roads.

OK, ladies, put on your thinking caps and go way back, really way back to the early 70's.  Remember a place called "Trimette"?  Everyone dressed in black leotards and tights and you got tortured by all sorts of machines, the purpose being to loose weight and firm up. Yeah right...that never happened at lease not for me.  Looking back I would kill to see that 110 lb mark again...that ain't gonna happen either.  If only there was a crystal ball into the future.  I digress, back to Trimette.  There was a machine that you put around your hips and when it was running it just jiggled the crap out of you, well I guess it was supposed to jiggle the FAT out of you, but again that didn't happen.  By now you're probably wondering why I've taken you on this odyssey to relive your youth.  Well, the roads in Iowa do exactly the same thing that stupid machine did at Trimette.  I felt like old St. Nick with his stomach that shook like a bowl full of jello.  I mean it was ridiculous the amount of shaking going on.  I truly expect to get home and find that I've lost all those unwanted pounds.  A girls can dream can't she!

Here's a couple of pictures of our home for the night...On-Ur-Wa RV Park and Campground located in beautiful Onawa, Nebraska.  Clever name don't you think.

Kingdom City, MO to Albia, IA---May 19th

Well, the rain didn't go away, so off we went in the rain.  The gas gods are not looking over us for a number of reasons.  First, several gas stations wouldn't recognize our credit card and second, the people who lay out the entrances to above mentioned gas stations sure don't want to accommodate people towing trailers of any kind.  We've had a heck of a time.  Not to be discouraged, we forge ahead driving through Macon and Atlanta before getting to Kirksville....where Capt. James T. Kirk was born and raised before joining the Federation.

For the most part the road through Missouri have been abysmal...narrow, no shoulders and lumpy.  Then, we get on to US 63 and it's heaven, nice 4 lane road with no cars or trucks to bother us.  So on we go into Iowa, just movin' up the road, when what to my wondering eye should appear....a BIG FAT TURKEY!  Smack, bang, crash...I never saw so many feathers in my life, they just kept flying in every direction.  Dan never saw it coming.  It took off from the shoulder and his mirror and window support blocked his view.  He heard me yell and then saw the rest.  Before anyone emails...no we didn't keep it!  Dan went to survey the damage and did take pictures for insurance purposes...I DID NOT want to see them!  I couldn't even watch from inside the truck when he pulled the little guy from the grill.  Dan said his legs were stuck through the grill like he had karate chopped it.   YUK, YUK, YUK!  Now of course the gory picture is on the Internet and in the USAA files.  The plastic grill will need to be replaced and probably the hood as it bent the entire front side of it and also put a few dents in the A/C condenser.  We were lucky it wasn't anything bigger, we had passed several deer that tried to cross other than where the deer crossing signs were and met their unfortunate demise.  We're going to keep our fingers crossed that this is the worse thing that happens on this trip....it's inconvenient, but not life threatening.

There are a lot of Amish communities in KY, MO, and IA...we did see one buggy with two young men riding on the shoulder.  

Other interesting sightings....

• Home Depot with a drive thru lumber yard....can you hear the intercom;  "Welcome to Home Depot, would you like to add fries or super size your order of 2 X 4's today?"
• Don't let anyone tell you that Iowa is flat...I know first hand that it's not.  It was like we were back in Missouri.
• If you hit a worker on an Iowa road, you pay a $10,000 fine and loose your license...WOW!  Didn't seem to slow the folks down.
• Iowa has rest stops along their highways that have free Wi-Fi...all those farmers want to keep track of corn futures, I'm sure.
• The above mentioned corn fields are meticulously planted and the hills are terraced and vacant except for the little corn sprouts.  I'm sure about 10 days ago it was a different story with all the man power and equipment it takes to plant hundreds of thousands of acres.  Tried to take pictures, but you really couldn't see anything but dirt and we've all seen dirt.

We pulled into Albia, IA about 2:30pm CT and set up in the rain, we're gettin' pretty good at that these days.  Stayed at a place called Indian Hills Inn and RV Park.  The son of the original proprietor is running the place with his wife.  The Dad was a WWII veteran and POW so the place is filled with pictures.  Now get this, there's an indoor swimming pool, spa and sauna.  I'm sure the building harkens from the days of the old Motor Lodges, it has that look.  When we checked in we received coupons for 2 free drinks and 10% off our dinner at the White Buffalo Restaurant and Lounge adjacent to the hotel, which by the way was on both sides of a divided 4 lane highway...go figure.  The couple running the place have small children and mom puts them in a wagon and takes off across the street to do what needs to be done....interesting.  Back to dinner, with all the free coupons and such we just had to try out the White Buffalo Restaurant and Lounge...well not the lounge part.  They had a pretty decent menu, but the buffet looked really appealing.  You wouldn't believe all you got for just $9.99 and we got 10% off that, hot damn lets eat.  There was salad, fried chicken, green beans, pizza, cinnamon rolls, ice cream and the list goes on and or yeah chicken and rice soup...the owner was making some kind of crack to Dan about maybe it was turkey soup, can't imagine what he was talking about.  Anyway, the food was the best we've had in a long time...everything was great.  WE tried to get them to open and establishment in Inglis, but they thought that was a bit far to commute...no walking across the street.

Stay tuned for more adventures to come.

Poplar Bluff, MO to Kingdom City, MO---May 18th

I didn't realize it would be so hard to keep up with this blog.  Being in the woods and mountains together equals very poor Internet connections and when we do get one it is sooo sloooow.  Our trip to Kingdom City was pretty much uneventful...no wrong turns from the navigator (thank you little bouncing ball).  I feel certain that I won't have to worry about cleaning up cat hair when we get home because it'll all be on me or in the truck!  I'm also going to add "Cat Wrangler" after my name...they're getting more adept at trying to escape when we get in and out of the truck.  I'm sure the people in parking lots must think we're a little looney, one of us on one side of the truck tapping on the windows to get their attention while the other opens the door and jumps in hoping to get their butt in the seat before the door slams shut.  I'm sure it's a site.

Whoda thunk that anyone would see a gas station selling gas for $3.64 per gallon and say "boy, that sure is cheap gas"!  Hope it doesn't get much worse.  A couple of interesting things we saw along the way...on one of the rural roads and I mean rural we come around a big bend to see an honest to goodness Drive-In theater.  It was still operating and showing first run movies..Fast Five.  There was a playground and snack bar and everything.  Brings back memories from my youth.  We would get dressed in our pajamas, jump in the back of the '57 Chevy wagon with the air mattress in the way back, just in case we should fall asleep, which I'm sure we always did.  I never remember seeing the movie, just playing in the playground and eating popcorn.

While in Kingdom City, well southwest of the actual city, we stayed at Hanson Hills RV Park, pictured below.  It was a nice little park with a few full time residents and us.  Off the beaten path to be sure nestled in the woods.  The park needed some work, but could be a super destination if the work got done.

Dan even put out the awning to keep us dry during the rain

The view from my "front door"

Hopefully the rain will go away for our next leg...to Albia, IA.

Leaving Clarksville, TN---May 16th

It's Monday, May 16th and we're leaving our home for the last 4 nights.  Our time in Clarksville was enjoyable and I'll devote an entire post to the reunion as soon as I get Dan to send me the pictures.  In an effort to take a break from all that has been happening with WAR, Inc and the fact that we're going on a "vacation" Dan decided not to bring his computer.  He did however ask me to get him an iPhone so he could occasionally check in with the WAR gang.  Well, he has yet to put it down and I mean that literally, good thing I got the unlimited data plan or we'd be stranded in Poplar Bluff having spent all our money on data download so he could "occasionally" check in....  Any way, I'm glad he's havin' fun, since he's doing all the driving.

OK, back to Monday and leaving Clarksville.  As expected the cats were a tad stressed that we put them back in that nasty ole truck and they were not "one" with the universe.  For that matter neither was the truck...it choked and sputtered as we climbed the first hill over the interstate..."what the hey, thought I was done pullin' this stupid trailer...the last 3 days have been sooooo nice!"  The only thing everyone liked was the 48 degree weather.  We were hoping to get to Poplar Bluff, MO (that's Missouri).  We tried in vain to locate information about whether or not the bridge across the Mississippi at Dyersburg was open or closed due to all the flooding, but nothing was concrete. We though what the heck lets give it a shot, the worst that could happen is that everything would be flooded and we'd have to go south to Memphis.  That's something neither one of us wanted...we did it in 2006 and were not impressed and the thought of doing it towing the beast was really depressing.  So we all put on our happy face and headed west through the rain and gray skies.  As we neared Dyersburg the sun began to shine and we didn't see signs saying "turn around, don't drown" so onward we went.  Here's what we saw...

flooding right up to the road

another view

a pretty good whirlpool tossing someone's cabinet

We did get across the mighty Mississip and here's the proof

from water...

and from land

Once in Missouri the terrain changes dramatically.....

and boy did the truck like that.  It was so happy to be on flat ground once again it actually started to reward us by getting more than 9 miles to the gallon and jumped to a whopping 10.3...halleluiah.  Means we can stop for more coffee to keep the driver from nodding off.

see the eyes starting to droop....not good

even Charlie, his cohort in crime was a little sleepy

Well, we made it to Poplar Bluff, a sleepy little town of 16,600 that swells to 60,000 on any given day because they're the only town within 60 miles that has any SHOPPING!  or restaurants (do you hear my voice rising in astonishment).   I think everyone of those 60,000 people were on the road as we made our 20 minute trek through town.  Fortunately we found the campground without a problem and got nestled in among the trees, still relishing the nice cool, dry weather.  Actually it was cool enough to turn on the heater, least our tender Florida toes freeze off.  Decided to stay a second day to see parts of the Mark Twain Nation Forest and get some much need exercise.  Unfortunately the parks were open but the trails were closed due to FLOODING.  So here I am updating this blog while Dan and the cats nap.  I'm gonna make him take me out to dinner....the gourmet kitchen has had a work out the last few days.

you remember the gourmet kitchen right...

We leave tomorrow for Kingdom City, MO...wish us luck!

Trying to get back on track

It's been a very busy last 3 days...sorry for no posts, will attempt to catch up since we'll be hitting the road again Monday provided we can find a way over the Mississippi River without going to Canada!

The end of day 2 wasn't all that great.  From reading reviews on the Internet (probably should have know better) we called Jay's Marina and Landing and RV Park in Decatur, AL.  We're gonna be right on the Tennessee River we said, how bad can that be?  Well let me tell you, it can be pretty bad.  The full time residents were less than desirable, the factories across the river never stopped and then there were the train whistles at all hours.  Yeah, no sleep for the deprived, so it was no surprise that

Day 3, Thursday:  proved to be very trying.  It started off just fine leaving Decatur and finding our way to Tennessee.  The roads seem to be nice, the cats, bless their hearts have settled down, no Max crying or Charlie panting...onward we go.  Stop at a convenience store for Dan's coffee fix just outside Dickson, he picks up a paper so we can see what's been going on in the world.  I don't do well reading in a moving vehicle so I put it aside and look up to see all these lights and fire engines and American flags, big ones and people all along the road.  Figure a fallen soldier or firefighter, then I remembered something from the paper...a State Trooper killed in the line of duty, funeral Thursday.  Oh Great! looks like we're in front of the procession and we both sigh thinking we really don't want to be stuck in Dickson, TN for 3 hours, not that we don't have compassion for this Trooper who gave his life, but....  The next thing we know traffic is stopped and we have to detour, the cops won't even answer our question as to where do we go now?  how do we get back on the road we need to be on?  nothing, they just wanted us to turn right or left.  Well, left it was to look for further detour signs to guide us.  Unfortunately the sign was placed about 2 feet from the turn, know how hard it is to stop a truck and trailer on a dime...it doesn't happen believe me.  By now I've figured out that my fancy new phone has a neat little Google app that will show you directions with a little blue bouncing dot, so I find out where we are and how to get back on track.  We follow the road, if you want to call it that and the little blue dot says we're almost to the road out of hell, when we see more flashing lights, crap.  This time they're TDOT people who are kind enough to tell us that because of this funeral procession they've had to close US 48 through the entire county...huh??, the entire county, how can you do that?  Well, the guy says we can turn around and go back to where we came and take this other road and it will take us exactly where we want.  I'm guessing this guy hadn't been to the eye doctor in a while. He couldn't see the 25' monster that was behind the truck he was telling us to turn around on a road that was maybe wide enough for 11/4  cars with creeks on both sides.  Dan was on his best behavior, trying to reason with this man, finally he let us go telling us to follow the road straight ahead and it would bring us out on US 48 in the next county.  What he didn't tell us was that the road wasn't really a road, but more like a path that some vehicles had driven on occasionally. So onward and upward, literally.  As we come around the last turn, we know we're home free, then more flashing lights, I'm sure Dan's going to run the blockade because he's had enough of this.  Our 2-3 hour drive has turned into 4 and we still have 80 miles to go.  Fortunately the lights were detouring drivers in the other direction and we were able to get to Clarksville just in time to get set up before the rains came.  Then it was on to the hotel for the B Troop reunion.  More on that to come.

We're on the road again...

Day 2:  We left Pine Mountain about 10am and headed up US 431 to LaGrange, then through Anniston, Gadsden and finally landed in Decatur, AL.  The cats were a little better today, but not much.  It was pretty much the same as yesterday, up a hill and down a hill, up a bigger hill and down.  A couple of interesting notes....

• To anyone who might be interested in following our Great Escape (and I know everyone is), when you're driving north on US 431 towing a trailer, don't plan on finding a gas station that's convenient.  They're all on the wrong side of the road and when one is on the correct (right) side it had a drive that went straight to the top of the mountain.
• The tornado damage is absolutely devastating, it was unbelievable to see it first hand
• We watched a squirrel cheat death by pick-up about 5 ways to Sunday...you had to be there
• We're driving along lookin' at the sights when a police car drives right at us in OUR LANE with his lights on (not sure he realized how hard it is to stop a truck and trailer traveling 55 mph down hill).  He motioned for us to pull off the road into a parking lot of a defunct lumber store with the aforementioned driveway to "heaven".  Being the law abiding citizens that we are, we obliged as did the other dozen or so cars and trucks.  Now we're all circled round in the lot wondering what the heck...an accident most likely.  So we waited and then a truck and another and then....  

an entire house...

and the "man cave"

  The traffic behind it was backed up for miles.  

There have been several things both Dan and I have been great full for on this trip...that we were going in the other direction from where the house was going and that both Georgia and Alabama saw fit to repave the roads we were traveling on.

Stayed tuned for day 3!

Two days down and many to go....

Day 1:  Well, we actually got out of the driveway on time Tuesday morning....OMG.  We headed north on US19 straight into Georgia.  Traveled through Thomasville, Meigs, Elmodel, Leary and that's where I made a strategic mistake as navigator...did I mention that Google's written instructions STINK!!!  Anyway we missed a turn and ended up going 10 miles further west then needed, so of course we had to make the 10 mile trip back to the east to get where we were supposed to be which was Manschester.  I tried to quit my position, but the boss man wouldn't have any of it.  Lets hope I learn how to read Google maps better or we might not be home until Christmas!

We finally came to rest in Pine Mountain, GA just the other side of Calloway Gardens and FDR's summer White House.  Nice place with full amenities...water, sewer, electric, wi-fi (free) and cable (not the channels promised) all for the low price of $40.  Well don't believe everything that's written (Google maps come to mind)...the wi-fi was free if you wanted dial-up speeds anything else required your credit card number.  The reason this post didn't get made until today.

Now, the biggest reason we're doing this trip with a trailer in tow, the cats.  They don't much like us right now.  They spent almost 8 hours in the truck on an empty stomach, so we wouldn't be tasked with cleaning up the inevitable mess.  Now we were nice enough to give them water and a place to relieve themselves, but do you think they would consider indulging...NO, all Charlie did was pant heavily sitting on the center console sniffing the AC and Max spent the entire trip crying in all octaves.  Dan likened it to having bamboo shoots stuffed under his fingernails.

Now for the trailer itself.  For the most part it's OK.  Didn't have problem finding places to store all the "stuff" I thought we would need.  Dan says it handles pretty well on the small 2 lane roads through the Georgia and Alabama mountains.  The biggest complaint and probably the most significant is the bathroom....it's way too SMALL.  Note to self...try to stand in the shower and sit on the toilet before you buy an RV of any sort.

OMG...Twelve Hours and Counting

Only 12 hours left before we take off.  Dan wants to be leaving the driveway at 9am....I'm guessing it's gonna be more like 10am, the last hour spent getting the cats to co-operate and get in the truck without making us bleed too badly.

I promised pictures and pictures you shall get...

Our home away from home for 30+ days

We have a front door and a back door...uptown you bet ya

The front door lead directly into the kitchen and our lovely refrigerator with separate freezer

My spacious counter for preparing gourmet meals

and the 3 burner GAS stove to cook those gourmet meals

The bedroom...it is a queen size bed and yes we bought a new mattress.  The ones that come with these homes on wheels are really the pits

And lastly our very large and spacious bathroom.  Directly across from the toilet is the shower that even has a tub, however I couldn't get a picture....just no room

Almost Ready

T -2 days and not a whole lot has changed....still tons of work to do and no time to do it!  Today is load the trailer day with just about everything from the house going with us.  Anyone who's traveled with me knows that I don't travel light.  Think it goes back to my Girl Scout days and always being prepared.  Need to have the stuff when you need it.  Anyway, I'm sure Dan will be shaking his head when he sees what's going in...maybe he'll need to run errands or something  LOL  So, here I go to start the packing, wish me luck.  Next time they'll be pictures so you'll be able to see how we're traveling in style.

Countdown

WOW...it's T -6 days and counting before we leave on our most excellent adventure.  Despite the fact that there's a months worth of work to do in 6 days, we're so looking forward to exploring a part of our great country we've never seen.  Hope you'll join us for the discovery, the laughs, the unknown and of course the missteps as we and the two cats "camp" our way to Wyoming and back in 30 days or more.  I promise to post as often as we can find "hotspots".  So stay tuned for updates leading to the Great Escape!!!