Thursday, October 18, 2013

I was too tired to blog last night (Thursday) so here's yesterday's blog.

We were on the road by 7:45 am.  We only had a few miles left in Missouri and then headed into Oklahoma.  This early in the morning there is some ground fog and I see a deer on the roadside.  As we move into Oklahoma, the ground is flatter than Missouri.  We are in Indian country and there are signs for the different tribes and their casinos.

At one of the rest stops in Missouri, the lady gave us tips for driving to Dallas.  She suggested we turn off I44 at Big Cabin and head south on state roads.  Big Cabin is a relatively small town and my imagination decides that back in the wagon train days the directions were "take the trail until you come to the BIG CABIN and turn south for Texas."  I haven't taken the time to look it up.

I'm glad we have Satellite radio, as we listen to it all day.  The trip is bringing back the years we used to drive the 14  hours to DC several times a year.  I remember now why we stopped doing that!

As we approach Texas, the terrain gets hillier.  Not quite as hilly as Missouri, but hillier than southern Illinois.  Traffic hasn't been bad, but we hit Dallas around 4, so we're in rush hour traffic.  We do manage to find the right Uhaul place and they help us get the car off the trailer.  Looks like everything made it OK.  We've heard from Natasha - they have landed and are waiting for their luggage.  Mike is there to pick them up.  I love it when a plan works!

For now, we're headed to the hotel to check in and park the truck.  There is no place at the apartment to park it overnight.  So, back into rush hour traffic.  I'm driving the car and Steve the truck.  We get there with no major incidents.

Here are some pictures from Thursday:

 

 

More tonight!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

We were on the road by 8:30 am, which is good for me.  We headed for Joplin, MO, which is about halfway between Springfield, IL and Dallas.  Google estimated 5 hours drive time, so we hoped to make it to the Drury Inn there in time for the evening free food.

As we approached St. Louis, the flat farmland changed to gently rolling farmland.  Still lots of fields of corn and cows, with lots of color in the trees - gold, orange and red among the green.  Occasionally, we see horses, sheep and even llamas.

Then the road signs indicate an intersection with I70.  Surely we're farther from home than that?  A bit depressing, even if we know we've made good progress. 

Then we spot the Arch in the distance.  We're almost to St. Louis.  I wanted to take a picture of the arch as we crossed the Mississippi, but we needed to concentrate on getting on I44.  It takes two of us to make sure we don't miss a sign!

But we made it and headed across Missouri.  Once again, we are mostly following the route of old route 66.  Missouri seems to be making it more of a tourist thing.  We see more signs and the tourist information centers (of which there are a number) highlight route 66. 

The terrain has gotten hillier.  At points, the highway has been cut through the hills, exposing stone walls which remind me of Pennsylvania.  And occasionally we get glimpses of views which stretch for miles.  The Lake of the Ozarks and Branson are both in Missouri, rightly attracting lots of tourists.

We notice more RVs, although still not a lot.  Some motor homes, some fifth wheels and a few trailers.

After lunch, I take a turn at driving.  I've never towed anything before and this truck is the biggest thing I've ever driven.  But with a few tips from Steve (make very wide turns) I'm on the highway and Steve gets a break.  Salami has gotten comfortable enough to crawl into his lap and they both fall asleep.

Traveling straight down the highway doesn't take a great deal of skill.  I manage fine until the next rest area when I pull over.  Steve had his nap and my leg was tired.  Steve asked if I've learned anything.  Oh, yes!  I definitely will use the adjustable pedals and cruise control in our new truck and I want a rear view camera on the trailer!

The truck parking at this rest stop is far away from the building, but they've marked the sidewalk like a road and the picnic shelters like building along Route 66.

It made me smile.  The floor in the visitor center had a map of the whole Route 66 from Chicago to California embedded in the floor.  Some day maybe Steve and I will drive the whole route.  I think tomorrow we leave Route 66 when we turn south to head for Dallas.

Salami started getting comfortable after lunch, but didn't want to lay down on her seat.  She wanted a lap.  So she rode on the lap of whoever was sitting in the passenger seat.  She's also comfortable enough to bark at noises in the hotel room.  We only had two barks last night and she's already barked more than that.

We did make it to Joplin, MO tonight in time for free food.  But 5 hours of driving should have gotten us here before 5 pm, even allowing for stops.  But we didn't arrive until 6.  Since we have about the same number of miles to cover tomorrow, we're going to try to leave earlier in the morning.  We'd like to get to Uhaul in time for them to help us unload the Prius and they close at 7 pm.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Deb

Tuesday, October 15, 2014

Steve and Natasha got up early and went and got the Uhaul truck.  The loading took a few hours, but we beat the heavy rain. 

 I should say they got the truck loaded, as Steve, Natasha and Olga did almost all the work.  Salami and Sonia quietly stayed out of the way in their crate.  Quietly, but not happily! 

 

Maria slept and entertained herself. She jabbers away and plays quietly.

 

 

Olga made us an early lunch and then we headed out in the pouring rain.  We were headed for Uhaul to pick up the trailer for Natasha's car.  We got lost on the way and ended up in an older neighborhood with lovely houses. Tudors, cape cods, salt boxes, colonials, even a Swiss chalet. Made me wonder when we stopped building houses like that. I know in the building boom after WWII ranch houses spring up everywhere and at some point split levels were in every development. But I don't think Steve appreciated the unexpected tour.  We finally found Uhaul and they helped us get hooked up and loaded, in the rain.  We finally headed out about 2 pm.

 

Because of the directions of the roads, we hit I80 and I74 much later than we expected.  They made us feel as if we hadn't made much progress.  Our goal for today was Springfield, IL.  We had reservations at a Drury Inn that allows pets.

 

We took 355 out of Chicago and then I55 toward Springfield.  Unfortunately, construction on a bridge held us up so we didn't get into Springfield until 7 pm.  Just in time to miss the free appetizers!

  

But in spite of the rain, it was an interesting drive.  We drove through a bird refuge/sanctuary and saw lots of Canadian geese flying in formation.  I want to come back this way sometime, as I55 seems to follow the old Route 66 (and if you're young enough that you don't know what that is, google it) and passes by the Route 66 information center.

  

Salami is with us and is terribly confused.  She has been sitting quietly between us in the truck, staring at Steve.  And I mean sitting, not lying down.  At about 5:30 she crawled into my lap for all of 5 minutes.  At six, she finally lay down, but didn't take her eyes off Steve.  Here in the hotel, she makes sure she has at least one of us in her sight.  Steve ran next door to Steak and Shake and brought back dinner so we wouldn't have to leave her alone

  

Now we're settled in for the evening and hope for a reasonably early departure tomorrow.  And that we find another pet friendly hotel for tomorrow night!

 

Deb

 

 



October 14, 2013

We're on the road again!  We left Lafayette on the 7:33 am train to Chicago.  You can imagine what time Steve had to pry me out of bed.  I had to change my planned attire from shorts to jeans, as it was 37 degrees out.  Since we're headed for Dallas, I had to plan for both fall and summer weather, but I wasn't ready for it to be that cold.

We both love train travel and enjoyed the early morning scenery.  Softened by a patchy ground fog and the pale light of dawn, the fields and trees showed off their autumn colors.  Soon the train was speeding north.  We had never seen the windmills north of Lafayette from the train, or this early in the morning.  The only way you could tell which ones were turning was by the shadow of the blade from the rising sun.

We are fairly familiar with the scenery north of Lafayette, as the train follows 43 N for quite awhile.  But you notice other things from the train.  In one small town (Chalmers?), there's a church that we usually see from the road.  But we'd never noticed that the real front of the church faced the railroad.  Maybe the railroad used to run down Main Street.

We saw quite a few houses decorated for Halloween, some quite elaborately.

Soon the train rocked me to sleep and I slept until we hit the Chicago suburbs.  We had some delays as we waited for freight trains to clear the tracks, but mostly the trip went smoothly.  We made it to Union Station, where we were going to catch the Metra to Schaumburg, where Natasha would pick us up.  Since we had just missed the 10:30 train, we took our time getting tickets and some lunch while we waited for the 11:30 train.

The trip to Schaumburg had some drama.  About two thirds of the way there, an announcement was made that we were having mechanical problems, which was why we were moving at a crawl.  A technician was on his way to meet the train and try to fix it, so we could stay on or get off at the next stop and try to find alternate transport.

Since we weren't in a hurry, we opted to stay on for at least one more stop.   Shortly after that, speed picked up and an announcement was made that the engineer had managed to fix the problem.  So we made it to Schaumburg and let Natasha know we were ready to be picked up.  We went to Natasha's house, where she had lunch and then Steve dropped her at her clinic.  Olga, Maria, Steve and I then went shopping, first to the Apple Store, so Steve could show me what he has picked out to replace this computer (which keeps dieing) and then on to Ikea.

We were checking on items for the fifth wheel.  We are now officially owners of a fifth wheel travel trailer which is currently in storage in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  As soon as our truck (Chevy 1 ton diesel with adjustable pedals, blue) comes in, we'll go pick it up.

But in the meantime, we're doing some dreaming.  Desk chairs, tables, lighting and a head board were all looked at.  But so far, we haven't bought anything for the fifth wheel.  (Steve has purchased some shorts and jeans.  He didn't have much of a casual wardrobe.)  It's coming fully furnished and we won't know what we need until we get into it.

The plan is to pick up the Uhaul truck in the morning and load the stuff Natasha and Mike need "immediately" into it.  A lot of that stuff is Maria's.  They have a two bedroom furnished apartment in Dallas at the moment and will wait to move the rest of the stuff until the condo sells or they find a house. 

After the truck is loaded, Steve, I and Salami (Natasha's dog) will head out, pulling Natasha's car.  We hope to get in several hours of driving before landing in a pet friendly hotel.

Natasha, Maria, Olga and Sonia (Olga's dog) will fly to Dallas on Thursday.   Hopefully, we'll arrive in Dallas on Thursday, too!

No pictures today.  Hopefully we'll have some tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I've had a request to contiue my blog, so here goes!

We really enjoyed our time on the road and weren't prepared to get back to reality.

We got home on a Saturday night and surveyed the construction progress.  The roof on our house wasn't done right when it was remodeled 25 years ago, so we had part of it torn off and rebuilt.  Of course it rained while the roof was open, damaging the ceiling in the familyroom.  So we will be pulling that down and redesigning the lighting in that room.

Rebuilding the roof also meant replacing skylights with light tubes and repairing the ceilings in the guest room and master baths.  And building a walk in closet over an unused balcony.  So there is lots of construction all over the house.

Sunday morning, August 18, I woke up and couldn't move.  Stiff as a board.  I manage to get out of bed, finally, as Steve comes in and announces that the refrigerator isn't working.

Can we go back on the road?

By Monday, I've decided we needed a new mattress, but don't want to mess with one until we get some of the construction out of the way, so I buy a mattress topper, which helps.

Tuesday, the refrigerator repairman comes and fixes the frig.  We empty the four ice chests back into the refrigerator.

Diana and Leigh (who are both staying with us through all this) help us decide where lights should go in the family room.  Steve and I pick out recessed lights and indirect lighting for the family room and flourescents for my new closet.  The new closet is in the hallway to the bedroom, so Steve says it's MINE!  (He wants more space in the master closet.)

Through all this we have construction workers traipsing through.  The dogs are confused.  They can't use their doggy door as construction litter is all over the back yard.  Our lovely neighbor has offered to let them run around her backyard.  It's a stitch.  I take them over there and they sniff around a bit and then lie down.  Don't want to misbehave at someone else's house!

Meanwhile, I'm watching the ads for rvs.  We really like the HitchHiker RVs we've seen.  They are very well built.  After looking at a couple, I check their web site.  They have a wonderful archive of past models and it looks like their 29.5 model will fit us best.  Of course we've never seen one.  So I'm looking for one close enough to go see.

About the time they actually finish the roof (but nothing else) I find an ad for a 29.5 HitchHiker in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  In between picking out cabinets for the family room (an old broken built in grill is being removed) and managing the dogs, I remember to tell Steve about it.  The ad is on Craig's list and I found a way to search more than just locally, so I go search again to show Steve.  Two ads now pop up.  They are Hitchhiker 29.5 triple glides, 2006 models.  Both in Grand Rapids.  Both look good in the pictures.  Time for a road trip!

We call and make appointments for September 4 and 5.

In the meantime, the aunts are planning a bridal shower for the last unmarried niece.  Just the two nephews are left and neither of them has a steady at the moment.  So meetings and projects for that take up time, along with Steve's activities.

We drive to Grand Rapids Wednesday, September 4.   On the way, we find a riverboat  restaurant in South Haven Michigan.  Good food, great casual atmosphere.

We stop at a Camping World on the south side of Grand Rapids and confirm that they can do an inspection for us.  Then it's on to see the first Hitchhiker.

 

We are impressed.  It's very clean and I can only find one small piece of damaged trim. This is the kitchen:

 

 

This is the living area:

 

Dining area and entertainment center:

 

 

 

It's tough to get a good shot of either the bedroom or the bath, but this is half the closet (with a light):

 

Here's the dresser (two drawers each):

 

Steve thoroughly examined everything underneath and on top.  Everything looks good, so we thank the owners and head for the hotel.  We agreed that this unit is well cared for and priced right.  The one we see on Thursday will have to be perfect to top it.

 

So the next morning, we're off to see the second trailer.  It too is in very good shape and we spend a lot of time looking at this one.  In the end, it comes down to small things.  The upholstery in the second unit is not as neutral:

 

 

 

And there was no fan in the bedroom.  The first trailer also had a compartment and wiring for a generator.  This one didn't.

 

But they were both in good shape and had been well cared for.

 

 

So we went back and talked to the first owners and set up an appointment at Camping World for an inspection of all the systems and mechanicals.  That won't happen until September 16, so we had a while to wait.

 

But while we were waiting, Steve went to work on finding a truck.  After lots of research and back and forth, he ordered a truck last week.  Of course, it won't be in until the end of October.

 

And now the inspection is done.  By the end of this week, we'll be the owners of  a fifth wheel, which will remain in storage in Grand Rapids until the truck comes in.

 

Construction meanwhile, continues.  Rumor has it that the drywallers finished today, so everything is covered in dust.  It's lucky that we have a lot of bathrooms.  Only one can be used without cleaning it first.  And the pool bath is out of commission entirely, as it's getting a makeover.

 

So now we only have trim and painting to do.  Plus the cabinets and counters in the family room and most of the work in the pool bath.  Maybe in another month?

 

But next week we get to go play grandparents for a few days!  Yeah!

 

 



Friday, August 16, 2013 Bloomingdale, IL

Thursday was a  very long day.  11 hours of driving to Bloomingdale.  We got in late and I crashed (after playing with Maria a bit)

Thursday we got up and had breakfast at the hotel.  This was the first night we stayed in a chain motel the whole trip.  When we got out to the car, a plane appeared to be buzzing the parking lot.

Turns out he was crop dusting the field across the road.  We were definitely back in the Midwest.

The scenery was corn fields, rolling hills and wind turbines.  Made me think we were in Benton county, but we had a long way to go.

We stopped for lunch in the same town as the Spam museum, so we did a drive by shot.

I was amazed at how much the traffic picked up the farther east we got.  Even Minnesota was fairly sparse, but Wisconsin was crowded and it just got worse as the day progressed.  We had gotten used to empty highways in Wyoming and South Dakota.

Lots of RVs on the road the whole trip.  I was surprised at the number of older (1980's and 1990's and earlier) motor homes I saw.  You could tell because of the graphics, colors and shapes, but it was close to 50-50.  We also saw a lot of fifth wheels and trailers, some truck campers and a fair number of pop up campers.  And lots of motor cycles.  We still think our choice is a fifth wheel.

We also ran into a lot of foreigners.  There was a German family on our float trip.  This was their second trip over to see national parks.  I know I heard some Scandinavian sounding language and Slavic and one of the last restaurants had a French group.   If there were people around, pretty soon you heard a different language.  I think it's great that they want to see our country.

So far, Leigh's car has survived the trip.  Only one more leg to go.

Friday -

We visit with Natasha, Olga and Maria.  Here's pics.

Tomorrow night I blog from home.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

We got up early and checked out of the Rocket Motel.  Here's a pic of the motel.  It was a pleasant place to stay.

Every August there is a HUGE motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, early in August.  I think this is the week after Sturgis.  Most of the rest of the hotel was filled with motorcyclists.

We're headed for the Badlands.  I don't  know what to expect, but hear its worth seeing.  So off we go.  We head for I-90 and take the Wall exit but head south.  We skipped Wall Drugs this trip.  We have at least a 7 hour drive today.

The landscape is slightly rolling and dry.  Any farming is done with irrigation.  This is prairie.  We drive through the park gates and notice people pulled off on a side road.  Since the key to animal spotting is to look for the crowd, we head that way.  No animals, but our first glimpse of the Badlands.  The prairie just drops off.

The guide book said that if you drive across the state just north of the Badlands, you might never see them, as you just see the prairie.  If you drive on the south, you see a wall.

The topography changes from steep pinnacles to prairie at the bottom.  Some of the valleys seem to have rounded mounds. 

 

Steve and I thought it would make a good landscape for a star wars scene.  It seemed like a stage set, a bit unreal.

 

We were lucky enough to finally see some big horn sheep.  I think this one is a ewe.

 

There were two and they were both peering down looking at all the funny tourists taking their picture.  We passed another prairie dog town.  I'd take more pictures, but they are too hard to catch with the camera.

 

We stop at the park lodge for lunch, but a bus has just stopped and they are swamped.  No problem.  We head for I-90 and start trucking across the state.  Turns out lunch places are few and far between.  We decided we'd stop at an 1880's village tourist trap that had a restaurant.  But just outside the old village is a 1950's diner train.  Right up Steve's alley.

 

We have lunch there and then we're back on the road.  We're now seeing cornfields without irrigation.  Seems like the Midwest.  Steve's goal is to spend the night in Minnesota.  I want to swing by and see the corn palace.  We decide to do both.

They are not finished with this years design.  Not all the crops are in.

 

We eat dinner just east of Sioux Falls, still in South Dakota, so Steve finds a hotel 15 miles away in Minnesota.  Goals for the day are met!

 

Steve thinks we're getting into Chicago tomorrow.  That means driving all the way through Minnesota and most of Wisconsin and heading south.  I may scour the AAA guide for something interesting to take a break at.

 

That's all for today!