October 6, 2010

Glad to see Siebert, CO, behind us, we make our way to Grand Junction, CO. We start out with more flat land and storm clouds to our right. Now comes the fun part of today; MOUNTAINS and TUNNELS! I just love mountains. I was raised in Utah surrounded by them and when I'm home in Missouri, I really miss them. I took pictures of the mountains, the fall foliage, rivers (even caught a fisherman in one) and some of the tunnels. We went through a total of six tunnels but because I was driving through the last four, we didn't get pictures of them. It's so exciting to see all this beauty around us. In the ski resorts, all the condo's and posh houses makes you wonder how these people make their money. I've never skied before, so I don't know the pull of it, but I want to enjoy the mountains just by living in them, not in a resort where it probably costs an arm and a leg to live and ski. Not to mention occasionally breaking said arm and leg. Now if we were talking yarn and patterns, count me in! Everything is so beautiful around us, it soothes the soul. Again, thoughts go through my head about how it all was created. So many different types of trees, different rock formations and colors, man's ability to make these tunnels, saving mankind time and providing them a way through instead of over, around or not go anywhere. Who thought of tunnels anyway? Something to look up and read about I guess.

We arrive in Grand Junction and go to our motel. Outside is looking good. Drew opens the door and we step inside. After picking our jaws up off the floor we are stunned to see such a wonderful room. We have hit the jackpot! Our trials have been rewarded. There are two rocker/recliners, a KING size bed and a clean bathroom with shower. Oh, heavenly days. Neither one of us has slept on a king size bed before. Drew said he'd have to send an email just to talk with me. lol  He joked about how tired he'd be when he made it to my side of the bed. We were so pleased with our room. I forgot to take pictures of it. We were so tired and just wanted to get something to eat and go to bed and somewhere in there, we had to shower. We pray and thank the Lord for the safety of the day and the nice room to sleep in. I have a Nephew in Grand Junction and we tried to call him, but we could never connect.

October 5, 2010

We are on our way to Siebert, CO, for our next stop. I don't want to offend any Kansas residents, but your state is really flat and boring. After you get out from the farming towns and just have "desert" miles after miles, it makes you wonder about things. We are from pioneer stock and as we drive, it makes me wonder how the pioneers felt as they walked over the fields of sagebrush, seeing nothing but more of it ahead of them. Where did they find water? How long did they travel each day; which is nothing compared to what we can do. Could I have done this? Am I made out of the same cloth as they? We have our own trials we go through and it is nothing like our ancestors went through. We did talk about how we thought they managed and how many of them did not make it. It can be interesting what one finds to talk about when riding for hours. Drew said I shouldn't make singing a career. I can do it to keep him awake, but that's all. lol

As my family knows, I do not like to wear shoes unless absolutely necessary. Just keep that in mind as I finish out this day.

We arrive in Siebert, CO, and it's really not what we expected, but we are tired and it's the only thing around. We ask about an upgrade to a cabin and they have one left, if we want it. Drew looks it over and says we'll take it. From the outside it looks like a shed, which is in need of a serious makeover. The wind is blowing some, not bad, so we're glad to have something. Drew gets the key and we go in. Okay, I am not a great housekeeper, but I do know how to use a broom and dust rag. This is where the shoes part comes in. I would not take my shoes off for anything! I will tell the honest truth and say this place had not been cleaned for months. There were dead bugs all over the floor and in the garbage can. Here's where my pioneer fortitude comes in handy. I keep my shoes on, didn't look at the floor and tried to be positive. It was for one night, right? (shudders) I took pictures of the room to show how luxurious it was. You can see we have all the modern conveniences; fridge, microwave, t.v. and a table. I tried taking pictures of the bugs, but they didn't turn out. It's good in a way; I didn't want you more grossed out than you are. At least they had plastic on the mattress and we had our own bedding. I told Drew we were not using that bedding again until it had been washed. So, from having a tent break the first night and this "lovely" cabin tonight, we decide we are getting a motel room for tomorrow. This is too much roughing it! Drew finds a motel on line and gets us a reservation. We can only hope it's an improvement from this room. Time for bed and a check on the bathrooms. They aren't bad; a one person room with a shower. It could have been cleaner, but it was an improvement over the cabin. I'm all for flush toilets; never did like those out houses. (ugh!) We pray that we will get a good nights' rest and that the bugs won't bite! 

In the beginning.......

In March 1973, we were married and on our way to our first military assignment. We had no computer, probably didn't really even know what one was. Now 37 years later, we are traveling, have a nice state of the art laptop and still don't have a computer. Signals for computers are really hard to find; thus my tomorrow has been very long in coming. We are going to check into one of those hot spot thingies so we can always have access to the Internet when we travel. I must really be addicted to my computer as I go into withdrawals when I don't have a signal. It just ruins my day. Okay, now on with the beginning.

On Oct. 4, 2010 we left the state of Missouri, heading to Utah to pick up a trailer we were buying from my niece. Since we don't have the trailer, we are tenting it. We have all the equipment; air mattress, tent, bedding and reservations for the three nights we'd be traveling. We are members of Coast to Coast camping resorts, so that will save us money at the camps we stay at.

Our first stop is in Russell, KS. We had to go on a toll road and we tried to confuse the toll person by giving her two Susan B. Anthony dollars with some quarters. It didn't work. She was talking to someone in the booth with her and she kept on talking and put the money in the till. Darn. We thought it would work. We find our spot and as we get out of the car, the wind hits us full force. Not good. We get everything out and attempt to set up the tent. The wind wasn't helping us at all. At this point, I should say that this is the first time Drew and I have tried to put the tent up by ourselves. The kids have always been with us and helped. I had to play Statue of Liberty, trying to hold up the poles inside the tent. Drew had to re-stake some of the pegs several times. You could hear the poles snapping in the wind, not a good sign. We finally ended up tying the tent to some playground equipment that was behind us. We left the top cover off as it was not helping with keeping the tent upright. We went out to dinner and when we came back, we were surprised the tent was still there. It was starting to get dark and cold, so we put the top cover on; because the top of the tent was tied to the playground equipment, the rope would not let the cover, completely cover the tent, thus leaving a gap in the back. We get the air mattress made up; flannel sheets, blankets and bedspread. At this point it is really cold with the wind blowing so we decide to sleep with our clothes on. We make a bathroom run; the bathrooms were very nice. It was an individual bath that included a shower with sliding glass doors. I was quite impressed. I consider the bathroom at the top of my list on how good a campground is.  On to bed, saying a prayer that the winds would calm down so we would not get hurt. We still froze that night, even with our clothes on. We were really glad to get up the next morning so we could go. We took the tent down, finding one rod on each pole shattered. Really not good.  No using the tent again. We would see if we could upgrade to a cabin at our next stop.  



Time doesn't always change.

Do you know how hard it is to try and update your blog when you are staying with your Mom in the town you were born in and it hasn't changed in the 36 years you've been away?  In those 36 years, the only thing to change is the population. There still is not a movie theater, swimming pool, bowling alley, mall or any type of entertainment. You need to drive nine miles to the next town, or 36 miles to a much larger city. Just last year the town got it's first stop light. I was so hurt; it was changing the hick town I grew up in. They have added a couple of small strip malls, a Family Dollar store (hooo) and another gas station.  The town was very proud to have been chosen to have a Walmart distribution center at the end of town. That was big business for us. The Internet is something to be desired. My Mother, who is 81, doesn't have a computer and we couldn't find a signal so we could check email, or write on a blog. So I wanted to say I'm sorry for making you wait for our adventures. As it is, I'm having to use Drew's computer as mine won't accept the signal here at the camping resort (Fillmore, Utah) and it has my pictures on it. I'll have to figure out a way to use both computers to accomplish what I want to do. We've been having a wonderful time and yesterday truly started our honeymoon, as we are now pulling the trailer and trying to figure out how everything works. We were able to drive between 60-70 mph and we got a whopping 10.5 miles to the gallon. We figured as much, so it wasn't such a big shock. If I can figure out how, I will put pictures of our trailer with this post. Tomorrow we are traveling to Hurricane, Utah and staying three days. We don't want to be traveling on Sunday. We are taking our time and not trying to drive too much during the day. You need to remember we're old people and we tire easy. I'm kind of starting in the middle of the story, so tomorrow I will have to start at the beginning. I don't want to leave out anything exciting, scary, sad, laughing till your back hurts or even embarrassing. So stay tuned!