Home sweet home

Left Menominee around 9 AM.  More severe weather was predicted for the area, but the Lord spared us and we were out of the area before it moved in.  We had some periods of rain, but nothing severe.  I had mapped our route out to go around Chicago on the way home.  NOMA likes to take  us on the Dan Ryan, past the Chicago skyline and through about $30.00 worth of tolls.  Although the route she uses is shorter in miles, it is actually longer time wise, due to all the traffic the toll booths cause.  I missed the Indiana tollway turn,  and before we knew it we were in the land of Chicago traffic and tolls.  Of course that is when Button decided he needed to get out of his crate, plus we were both a bit cranky because we hadn't stopped for lunch yet.  It wasn't pretty, but we made it through, and came out of it all in Gary Indiana.  Not far to the MI border from there.  Stopped for a potty break, then drove onto a Burger King for supper.  Got into MI about 7 or 8 PM, made our customary stop at the rest stop that is just across the border, the one with the cool light house at it.  After 10 CD's, found that our last book from Cracker Barrel was scratched so bad that we couldn't listen to the ending, so we were bummed about that. Had some pretty heavy rain between the border and Grand Rapids.  Dropped our book off at the Cracker Barrel near Traceys' house around 10 PM.  It was tempting to stop, but we knew we would see Tracey and the kids the next day, and really wanted to sleep in our own bed for the night, so we kept going. We found a weekly recap of Prime Time America on Northern Christian Radio, and a nice country gospel station, so the 90 miles to our house passed quickly.  We thought it would be best if we parked at the bottom of the driveway so we could scope it out before driving up it with Firefly.  We were glad we did, lots of rain while we were gone, so many gullies in the back driveway, which is the one we use for Firefly.  As I write this, Tony is out repairing the driveway so I can pull pull Firefly up and put her in her usual spot.  

We have driven nearly 6000 miles in the last 31 days.  We've seen beautiful country and had wonderful visits with many of our loved ones.  It worked out great to take Firefly,  we had our own place to stay and it was sure easier for Tony to use the bathroom in Firefly instead of finding his way around another strange bathroom each time we stopped.  Firefly is just the right size for the 2 of us and tows very well.  We had a few cool nights and found that our heat pump works well to warm things up inside.  we were very grateful for our air conditioning.  (especially in WA during the heat wave.)  We are more convinced than ever that we made the right choice in selling our 23 foot motor home and going with something smaller and easier. Gas prices were reasonable, our MPG never fell below 18.5.  God had his hand of provision and protection on us.  He provided for us so we could take this trip.  The experiences were nice,  and it was good to reconnect with those we loved, but there really is no place like home.  (I'll have to remind myself of that later when I am sorting through a months worth of mail!)  Thanks for reading our blog and following us on our grand adventure.  We hope to do some fall camping before putting Firefly in winter storage.  More posts to follow. 

Menominee WI

Left Goodrich ND on Saturday August 8, 2009.  Had a nice visit with family while we were there, had a few days to crank some socks out on my antique cranking sock machine. (CSM) It is from 1937, although cranking sock machines have been around since at least the late 1800's.  Like the old time meat grinders, it has a round cylinder, a handle on the side, and fastens onto a table.    In the center is a round cylinder with slots for latch hook needles.  The cylinder has a hidden hill and valley in it,  as the cylinder goes around , it reaches the hill, the needles are pushed up, grabbing the yarn, then they go into the valley, as they do they close, making a stitch. The sock comes out of the bottom of the cylinder.  So it goes, but not always without stitches getting dropped or not knitting.  When that happens I have a little tool and a latch that I use to correct the mistake.  All this time I am supposed to be counting the rows, ( so both socks are the same size.)  If I lose count one can have a longer leg  or longer foot than the other one.  (just ask my nice Ariann about that, although she still put her socks on with a smile, a new pair will be in the mail as soon as I get a chance to make them.) That is the simplified version, there are many other things that factor into it, like weights, tension, a heel fork etc.  I'm still a beginner and the socks I make are far from perfect, but I have fun making them and giving them away.  I am still taking lessons and have much to learn.  It was fun to take my CSM along on the trip.  Since I am just learning, I didn't want to go a whole month without cranking.  I'm looking for a name for my CSM and I'm open to suggestions.  I'm think I want  a female name.

We were up until 3 AM the day we left Goodrich.  We were all having so much fun that we didn't want it to stop, but we knew we had a long day ahead of us so eventually we had to get some sleep.  We were on the road by 8AM.  At lunchtime we stopped at a rest area to eat and I took about an hour nap.  Sure was nice to be able to go in the Firefly and take a snooze on the bed rather than trying to rest in the car.  We got back on the road ,  had a few rain showers, and knew we had rain and storms from ND on our tail.  The radio kept telling us that severe weather was expected in Minnesota that night, so we wanted to make it to Wisconsin.  We pulled into  Motel 6 parking lot in Menominee at about 7:30 pM.  It was hot and humid, hard to get to sleep even though we were tired.  A little after midnight we were awakened by tornado sirens blowing.  They sounded like they were right next to the trailer.  We quickly got dressed, found a radio station, got out our map to see what county we were in so we could make sense of the weather updates.    We were quite a distance from the motel entrance and unsure what to do. Should we make a run for it, stay in the trailer, or go to the car?    There was no point in driving out of the area, as storms were in Eau Claire too. (about 30 miles ahead of us.) We prayed, asking God to keep us safe and decided to keep an eye on things.  Th radio cancelled the warning about 15 minutes later, but said severe thunderstorms that could spawn tornadoes could be expected through out the night.  At least things had cooled down, so we opened a few windows and went back to sleep.  Lesson learned, when parking in a motel parking lot for the night,  when bad weather is in the area,  park closer to the door if possible. We were glad the Lord kept us safe. 

Arrived in Goodrich

Arrived in Goodrich early evening.  It was about 250 miles from Medora to here.  We stopped in Bismark to replenish  our tiny fridge and get some things we know that we can't get in this area. (like rice milk and veggie bacon.)  Also found a place to get much needed haircuts.  Mine is a bit too short to suit me now, but it will grow.  It looks better than it did.  

This is the first time on the whole trip that we didn't hook up the trailer the night before we were going to leave.  So of course it was raining while we were breaking camp.  Not a pouring rain, just enough to get us and everything we were trying to stow away, wet.   We soon drove out of it.  It was in about the mid 60's today.  The first day we've worn jeans since we started our vacation.  It was nice to have a break from the warm weather.  It will be nice to stay in one place for a few days now and to have a good visit with everyone.  It's been nearly 2 and a half years since we last saw our family here.  We are grateful for Gods' provision for this trip.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Another windy day here, the wind probably blows here more often than not, makes me wonder how the cowboys keep their hats on.  In my years of living in the plains states I've seen a few blow off, but not very often.  They must jam them on pretty good. We explored the park today.  Tony has the golden access pass, so we get in for free, and camp in national parks for half price, being blind has a few perks.  We asked at the gate where the best place to see Bison was.  The ranger told us the bison had been in the campground all morning, so we headed there.  Saw some across the river, then drove on. A bit further, there was a  road that went to the riding stables, it looked like it went towards the river as well.  In hopes that we would see some bison, we headed there, in just a little while I saw bison chips, ( don't know why they call them chips, they are bigger than a dinner plate. Big animals equal big droppings.)  figured we were in an area where they frequent.  We came around a curve and there one was, walking along the side of the road.  Stopped and took a few pictures from the car, then drove ahead a bit so I could get a pic from the front.  I was surprised at how quickly the Bison was actually walking.  When we first saw him he looked like he was plodding along, but he was moving along pretty good.  By the time I got the car pulled over and got out, he was within 20 feet of us.  I only got to take one picture because he started snorting.  I got the hint and got back into the car. He could do some serious damage to a car, (even a Volvo) if he put his mind to it.  

Drove past beautiful rock formations and nice scenic views from a ridge.  Saw some wild horses right by the road and got a picture of them.  Stopped and ate our lunch on a bench overlooking a  prairie dog town.  They sure are cute, popping in and out of their burrows like little squeaking jack in the boxes.  The closest one to us gave the alarm for the others.  We sat quietly, and finally more came out.  We saw 2 of them grooming each other and some gathered in groups of 3 or 4.  One stretched out to soak up a little sun, the one closest to us had stopped his squeaky barking, but he still kept his eye on us.  It was a delightful way to have our lunch.  Although Tony couldn't see them, he enjoyed listening to them.

Had a ranger talk and tour of Teddy Roosevelts' cabin from his first ranch, the Maltese Cross.  It was moved from it's original location to just behind the visitors center at the park.  We were surprised at how small it was.  Found out that the Medora Campground we are staying at was once a small town called Little Missouri.  It is where Teddy Roosevelt got off the train when he came to ND for the first time.  He got off the train about 2 or 3 am, ad a hard time finding a guide to take him buffalo hunting because of how he dressed.  He had on custom made cowboy clothes, which most likely didn't look much like what the cowboys of ND wore.   It was a vey interesting talk and tour.  

Trains come through here often, some times only 10 to 30 minutes apart.  The railroad track runs right next to the road, our campground is about a half mile from the road.  We are on the edge of Medora and can walk to the town from here.  The bridge over the little Missouri river has a nice pedestrian  walk way on it.  Flooding can be quite severe here in the spring.  Spring of 2009 was pretty bad, the water was nearly over the bridge, part of the campground we are in was under water.  We saw sandbags down by the river when we went for our walk this morning.  Today is our 39th wedding anniversary, it was nice to spend it here and with each other.  Don't know how 39 years went by so quickly, but we are sure blessed to have each other and such a nice family.  God is good.

Tomorrow we head to Goodrich ND to spend time with family there.  Goodrich is about 4 or 5 hours from here, a small prairie town of about 90 people, typical of many of the small towns throughout ND.  I can't help but wonder what will become of such towns, there is nothing there to hold the young people there, jobs are usually an hour or more away.  Kind of sad to see this rural way of life dying .  Not sure if I'll be able to get a cell phone signal to connect to the net, so this may be my last blog for awhile.

in beautiful Medora

Had a very long driving day yesterday, took highway 200 across Montana, and it is was all day drive of desolation, lots of hills, bluffs, sage, grass and scrubland.  A few mailboxes,  in clumps of 2 or 3 , so there must be houses  and people somewhere. There were times (most of the time) when we couldn't get a radio station.  (didn't bother to try the cell phone.)   We were trusting the Lord to keep us safe and to keep everything on the car running, there was seldom a shoulder to pull over on.  Not much traffic on the road.  There was one rest stop all day.  It wouldn't be a good place to have a flat tire.  Not a campground to be had, so we had no choice but to keep driving.  The area we were in is the area many dinosaur remains were found, most tyransaurus   (SP?) remains that are on display around the world were found in the area we were driving through.   There was a dinosaur and fossil museum in Glendive, but it is closed on S We saw one place to get gas, and made sure we filled up.  Noma, our GPS showed the nearest gas stations after that to be 65 miles to our right or left.  The nearest one east of us was over 100 miles away. I couldn't help but wonder if they close that highway completely in the winter.  It is even more desolate and less populated than eastern WA.   We drove for 13 hours yesterday and were really glad when we came to Glendive MT, which is where we connected with I 94.  We camped in a motel parking lot for the night.  were about 60 miles from Medora.

Before heading out this morning, we found a car/truck wash and washed the car and Firefly.  They were full of grasshopper parts and other bug splat.  Found a grocery store for supplies, waited for a very long train and finally headed for Medora.   The closer we got, the prettier the country got.  Beautiful buttes of all different colors and rolling grassy hills.  We are staying at Medora Campground, right by the entrance to Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  Once we got settled at our campsite, we spent our afternoon walking around Medora, did a bit of shopping.  After 2 solid days of driving,  it felt good to be walking around instead of riding in the car.  Button was glad for a break as well.  Lost count of the number of comments we had on Firefly since we've been here.  Several people poked there head for a look see.  Button doesn't even bother to bark at people who stop by to talk to us, guess he figures it's a waste of his energy.  He was happy to get out for a walk.  

Caught up on our laundry tonight.  Tomorrow we will go and explore the park.  Haven't decided if we will stay and additional night after that or not.  It's really nice to have some down time.  

Camping in Hogan Montana

We are camping in Hogan (pronounced "Hawgun") MT tonight, at a free campground behind a small Casino.  As far as we can tell, the town of Hogan consists of the casino, a restaurant, bar, and gift shop.  There is a gas station that has a small wooden building behind it,  on it and  a sign that says, "US post office, Hogan MT."   Some sites have electricity, and for those traveling with horses, there is a free horse corral with water.  Even with HWY 90 close by, it seems quiet and peaceful.  This is camping Montana style.

Very hot driving today.  Stopped at a rest stop on the Columbian plateau in Eastern WA, the temperature was 100 degrees.  Found a shady spot, ate our lunch, walked the dog, and were relieved to get back into our air conditioned car. 

Hard to say our goodbyes this morning.  

Sad goodbyes