Home Sweet Home Again

We traveled 4,481 miles across Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and back down through east Texas. Along the way we also touched Arizona, Colorado, and stayed 3 nights in Montana. We played on the plaza in Santa Fe, camped by mountains in Moab, Utah and saw Bear Lake from a mountain top. We saw almost everything along the Grand Route through Yellowstone and even dropped down to get a better look at the Grand Tetons. We drove along the Wind River Canyon in Wyoming and spent the night in Caspar. We camped on the mountain by Mt. Rushmore and drove through part of the Badlands. We saw miles and miles of cornfields in Nebraska and spent the night in Ogallala. We saw more corn in Kansas and even got close to a thunderstorm that had us clicking our heels and saying there is no place like home. We went through Injun country, that is now called Oklahoma, and saw all the fine casinos that seem to be the only productive thing in the state. We had a wonderful evening in Mt. Pleasant where we just glad to be back in Texas. All I can say is that the pictures can't do justice to the sights we saw and if you have never been to any of these places, then you should find a way because we didn't see anything or place we regretted going to.

Back in Texas

We have made it to Mt. Pleasant without needing to buy any new tires. Tammy did a fine job of guiding us here until at the last minute she tried to get us to go down a side road to a private residence. I don't know if she does that on purpose as some sort of a sick AI joke or if she truly gets the swimmy-head after being on the road for 8 hours. We will be home this afternoon and Tammy will not get the opportunity to steer us wrong because I'm sure the truck knows the way to Granny's. That is unless they close the deal on the new motorhome.

Kansas

We took no pictures in Kansas because we couldn't see the difference between it and Nebraska. Lots of cornfields for as far as the eye can see. Just outside North Platte, Nebraska, we had another blowout on the trailer, but at least it was on a different wheel. We managed to get Tammy, our GPS navigator, to find a tire store in Cozad, Nebraska. Cozad, we learned, was founded because a man saw that this location was on the 100th meridian. I guess it was a pretty handy place for a tire store. Anyway, we replaced the last tire on the trailer that started this journey just for good measure. We walked across the street to the Dairy Queen for lunch and the tires were ready before our food was. After almost 12 hours on the road, we arrived in Wellington, Kansas and we are now only 637 miles from home. Total mileage so far is 3850.

We will be in Texas today, because I don't want to stay a night in Oklahoma.

Journey Home

Tonight we are staying in Ogallala, Nebraska at a family farm converted into an RV park. It is not quite as nice as the other parks we have visited, but it will do fine for an overnight stay.

There has been some concern voiced over recent news about Granny & Pawpaw's plans for a new RV lifestyle. All I can say is that you have to be here to witness the excitement first hand to truly understand. The full hook-ups at Bear's need to include cable tv and wifi. We have that much in this corn field in Ogallala.

Mt. Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore was very impressive, but I thought it was going to be this big huge mountain that you could drive by and see without having to go to the top.

Granny and Pawpaw have really enjoyed this trip and all they can talk about is how big their next RV will be. They have been looking over all the big fancy RV's in all the parks trying to decide what features the new one must have. They are torn between getting a bigger new truck with a fifth wheel trailer or just go for one of the big bus type units. I think they are leaning toward the bus type because they are talking about how they could just spend all of their summers just cruising around the country. This would mean selling the house and they could just park the bus at Bear's house in the winter since she has that fine new pull-through. She just needs to get Rut to put in hook-ups. Granny says she would even get her driver's license to help Pawpaw with the driving. I tell you its just getting crazy out here on the road and we are still 1300 miles from home.

Yellowstone Last Day

We took the south loop of the Grand Tour to Lake Yellowstone on our way out. The pass on the way out the East Entrance had snow on the side of the mountain just a few feet above the truck. I promised Granny that this would be the last high mountain road we would take on this trip. As a result we had to drive south to Casper and tomorrow we drive back north to Mt. Rushmore.

Yellowstone Update

We did find a bell for Pawpaw, but we haven't had time to put it on him. The most exciting challenges navigating around Yellowstone have been trying to avoid the city folks that stop in the middle of the road if they see an animal near the road. We did see one fool try to get up close to a bull elk. The elk charged him, but unfortunately the guy was able to run back to the road. We were hoping for some elk goring footage for youtube. We have seen buffalo, elk, and a bear. We will pass through Yellowstone one more time on our way to Casper and then to Mt. Rushmore.