From Now to January......: Crossing America

So what do you do when you are trying to travel 1500 miles in two days? Listen to XM radio, first a little country, then music from the 70's, then the 80's, the soccer match between Germany and USA, and an audio book. Having Billy Crystal talk about aging and his life and trying not to laugh so hard you run off the road is rather entertaining. Thursday, time to wake up and start our epic road trip. 1500 plus miles in 2 days and we arrive at Lisa and Darren's place in Cheyenne Wyoming. Many more miles to go to reach Oregon and then eventually northern Alberta, back to Wyoming and later in the summer we will travel across the plains once again to visit friends in Clayton, New York.

As always, while traveling across Kentucky I am reminded of my childhood and growing up in southern Ohio. I see the road signs with the name of Carter Caves or Natural Bridge and it takes me back to camping with my family. We were big campers, going every year to either a state park in Kentucky or Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Occasionally we would go to a place like Virginia Beach or even the deep south. We always had a car full of people, a tent with cots and army blankets and a mom who loved to cook over an open fire. We would stop at rest stops to eat our meals, never going out to eat at a restaurant. Mom could make the best camp toast and bake anything in the dutch oven. After my dad died, we continued to camp, venturing out west for the first time. I think that early exposure to the great big blue sky of the Rocky Mountains is what hooked me to loving the west.

Rick and I started camping while we were dating, went to the back country of Yellowstone for our honeymoon and even tried to camp in Texas (a disaster). We would camp any chance we could when we got back to Wyoming and started camping with Nick when he was about 4 years old. We finally started camping in earnest when we moved to Colorado in 1990, buying a little pop up camper and pulling it all over the west and Canada. But it has been 10 years since we camped, so it like going out for the first time all over again. We still have the little pop up, Darren and Lisa have been using it and were nice enough to let us take possession of it once again. So after spending a couple of days getting it set up and ready to go, we head out tomorrow morning (after a stop at the Vital Records office to obtain our marriage certificate to prove we are married for our Australian visa) to Oregon. Planning on camping 3 nights before arriving Eugene. Kona is with us and we are looking forward to spending a day in Bend, Oregon one of the top dog friendly towns in the country.

It is a beautiful country and traveling over the roads (even the ones falling apart) to take it all in is a wonderful experience. Hopefully, I can get Rick to slow down and if I want to stop and see the world largest ball of string he will humor me.

Kona, ""are we there yet? 1st hour into the trip.