3 years, part 3 2-18-07

I think about this last year and I am amazed by all we have seen and the territory we covered. I am thankful that Larry and I have been able to fulfill a dream we have had since we were teenagers. We always talked about taking off across our country and seeing what it had to offer. Our own country is so diversified and beautiful and I feel sad for the people who don’t or won’t get to see it. It is so different than seeing it in pictures or on T.V. The problem is going through it as fast as we did; we really didn’t get as much time as we would have liked to absorb all that we saw. The thousands of pictures I have will help!

We left Yuma mid March and headed east across Arizona into New Mexico. We spent until the end of May in New Mexico. We zigged and zagged back and forth checking out all the different things to see. We spent a month in Lakewood, New Mexico and while there we had snow, rain and big dust storms. We had bunnies for entertainment and did a lot of exploring. We were amazed by the Carlsbad Caverns; after seeing them we feel like we never need to bother with another cave, these were so awesome! We checked out Roswell…all hype, the museum was like a high school science fair gone wrong. We explored cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, deserts, mountains, rivers, lakes and “rock cities”. We had close encounters with horned lizards and rattlesnakes. We enjoyed the art and architecture, but not the crush of humanity in some of the urban areas. We were surprised at the congestion in Taos.

From New Mexico at the end of May we headed north into Colorado. We parked our trailer in the parking lot of the Denver airport and hopped a plane to Portland. Andrea and Ian were at Michelle’s for Seth’s second birthday. We had a great time, but as we started heading farther east the more we realized that there was no way we were going to be able to spend 2 years exploring the east coast like we had thought we would. We would miss too much of the best, cutest years of our Grandson’s lives. So we decided to press on with our plans to head towards my sister’s in Ohio and then we would see.

From Denver we headed north across the panhandle of Nebraska into South Dakota. We spent from end of June into mid July outside of Sturgis, South Dakota. It was a beautiful time to be there. The hills were green and colored with beautiful wildflowers. We saw Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse and explored all the little mining towns. We took a trip into Wyoming to see Devil’s Tower and scoped out Rapid City. Larry was born in Rapid City and we went to the air base that his Dad was stationed at.

From the Black Hills we headed east across South Dakota and went through the Badlands and across the prairie. We went to Terry Redlands wonderful museum and found Laura Ingall’s Little House on the Prairie.

We went on north into North Dakota to check out Valley City where my father was born and my Grandfather practiced medicine. We made a few exciting discoveries there. Upon leaving South Dakota we kept on easterly. We went through and spent a few days in different places across Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and were amazed by the Great Lakes, then across the bridge south into the mitten of Michigan and down into Ohio.

We got to Lori’s on August third. We stayed until September 5th. We had a great, relaxing stay. She’s a great cook and baker so we put on a few pounds even WITH the use of her treadmill. We enjoyed getting to know her husband Mike better and seeing Lindsay and Jaclyn all grown up and beautiful young women. Oscar the Labrador was a furry bonus.

We decided that we would cover the areas we most wanted to see on the east coast and then start heading back west. So when we left Lori’s we went through Kentucky into Tennessee and saw the Great Smoky Mountains. Then into North Carolina where we toured the Biltmore Estate (Hearst Castle was better) and drove the Blue Ridge Parkway into Virginia. We wandered across the bottom of Virginia a teeny bit back into North Carolina where we hit the Atlantic Ocean. We had our worst experience there with mosquitoes. We stayed on the Outer Banks and traveled down the coast into South Carolina where we stayed a week or so and toured a few Plantations. Then it was into Georgia where we experienced armadillos, lovebugs and enjoyed fried catfish and hushpuppies.

During the month of October we went through Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arizona, Utah and into Nevada. We saw historical sites, beautiful countryside, stunning lakes, the great Cosmosphere Museum in Kansas, a Petrified Forest, we revisited the Grand Canyon, enjoyed Zion National Park and ended up in Mesquite, Nevada where we spent a week with Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Gene. Then we headed north through Fallon, spent a few days seeing friends in Plumas County California and then on into Oregon.

Most of November and into December we spent near Michelle’s. We did our Christmas shopping and Larry started the arduous task of scanning our old photos into the computer. Michelle had a bunch of our albums and Andrea the rest. We had a great Thanksgiving at Michelle’s; Andrea and Ian were there too. We were back in California at Andrea’s for Christmas and Ian’s 4th birthday. Michelle, Darel and Seth were there for that so we had a great holiday season! We loaded up with the rest of our photos that had been stored at Andrea’s.

Then on January 4th we left Ukiah and instead of heading to Chimacum, Washington for the winter as we had planned we decided to head to Texas to give my Aunt Gretchen whatever moral support we could while Darcy was recovering from a catastrophic automobile accident.

And here we are in Livingston, Texas freezing our hiney’s off (supposed to start warming up tomorrow). Whew! I started this blog in June, so those of you who haven’t been following since then can go back through the archives and see the details and photos of all these places and the routes we took.

Who knows what’s in store for us this next year? We have very few plans so far, which is a first for us since we have been on the road. I have to be in Ukiah the end of May for jury duty…Ick. Seth’s birthday is in June, so we’ll probably be in Oregon for that and for the annual family reunion in Roseburg, Oregon in July. Both of our Nieces are graduating from college this June, but I don’t think we are going to be trekking back east so soon, but we never say never. We never had plans to explore Texas and here we are! Next stop….?????