Tues. July 15, 2014 - end of the road trip - back in CA again.

We had a quiet and cool night in Ferney last night, then took Chatty in for a much needed bath this morning.

We didn't want to bring her home and park in a  campsite for two months with all the road dirt of our trip.

We visited  14 states - Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Utah.  They were not small sates, either, it took us 6300 miles of driving over the 66 days we were gone.  

We visited with family and friends in Albuquerque, Ft. Collins, Kalamazoo, Grand rapids, Ludington, Muskegon, Bay City, Detroit, Milwaukee, Decorah, IA, Winterst IA and Sidney NE.  

We worked in 20 different libraries, 5 different hotel lobbys and several coffee shops.

We stayed in:

 11 different WalMart parking lots, 10 private homes, 2 state park campgrounds,  1 RV park, 2 Thousand trails campgrounds, 3 RPI campgrounds, 2 Harvest Host properties, 2 casinos, and several rest areas.

It was an awesome trip!

Sun and Mon, July 13 and 14 2014 HOT HOT HOT drive across Nevada

It was quite a journey across Nevada.  It took two days because we had the time, and because we did not want to drive all day in the heat.  So we did about 180  miles each day stopping in Elko to have breakfast and work on Sunday at the local Holiday Inn Express lobby - it was a really good work venue - cool with world Cup finals on TV.  Then n to Winnemucca to sleep in a truck stop with a beautiful view of the setting sun over the desert mountains on Sunday evening.  Monday we drove straight to Fernley, NV where we unhooked in the Walmart parking lot and looked for air conditioning.  Found it at lunch and then in Starbucks for the afternoon.  Tonight we went to the local public swimming pool to cool down before our final night on the road.  We learned how to substitute store bought fruit juice bars for homemade ones this week - a great treat on a hot day!  Tonight we had raspberry/banana shaved ice and mini mango popsicles.

I guess the weeks of travel and the heat disstrcted my picture taking ability, nothing to show for the last two days, but they were very enjoyable.  we spent a good amount of time refllecting on the trip.  More on that tomorrow,

Sat. July 12 2014: Salt Lake City

We left early this AM to enjoy the sunshine along the way from Evanston, WY to Salt Lake City

where we knew we would find a farmer's market in the downtown city park.  It was huge!

and delicious!  We chose cajun from the booth run by a family from New Orleans

This afternoon, we took a weekend view of the working situation and sat in the main lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Salt lake City to beat the heat and move in to my new computer.  Actually, it is the new computer Mike bought about a week before I busted my laptop monitor, so we have decided to share the new one and trade off when necessary - working in the cloud makes that possible - and less expensive than buying another new computer.

We left Salt lake City in the late afternoon and drove about 120 miles west across Utah.  It was still very hot, but we stopped to admire the great salt flats

 along with others who were doing the same.

  To bad they don't live at the ocean - much cooler for formal wedding pictures

We completed our 120 mile drive to spend the night in the Nugget Casino parking lot in Wendover, UT.  Hot, but a beautiful view from chairs outside Chatty in the evening breeze.  too bad there is no picture:(

Thurs - Fri. July 10-11, 2014; Drive drive drive Cheyenne to Evanston, WY 357 mile

We took our time getting out of Cheyenne on Thursday AM.  I did the laundry at the AB Campground, while Mike did groceries and crock pot cooking.  Then we took Chatty for an oil change.  The last one was in Pueblo CO , 3,800 mile ago!

We had lunch at a really good lunch out at a BarBQ place in Cheyenne, 

then had another session at the Cheyenne library before hitting the road for a pretty drive west through big sky country.

 We stayed at a rest area just short of Rawlins, WY where we had dinner and a quiet night's sleep.

Friday was another driving day - this time we stopped in Rock Springs, WY for library

and lunch - clear to see where Rock Springs got it's name - plenty of rocks at least!

Then on to our evening resting place in the Walmart parking lot

 in Evanston, WY, about 3 miles from the Utah border.

Wed., July 9, 2014 - Sidney - Cheyenne 100 miles

Short drive today, and we were expecting heat, so left early, and checked in to an RV park in Cheyenne where we could get some air conditioning and a shower before an afternoon work session at the Laramie County Library the rest of the afternoon.

Tonight, we went into historic old town Cheyenne

where we met with Holley and Dan for dinner - they drove up from Fort Collins - just a short hour drive for them and we were too close on Hwy 80 in southern Wyoming to drive by without another sighting.

Here is a picture of us 24 years ago

and another in May of this year.

Happy BIrthday to me July 8, 2014 Grand Island to Sidney NE 265 miles

We drove across the center of Nebraska today.  We crossed the 102nd parallel which is the line between corn fields not needing irrigation in the east and more arid land to the west where farming is still done, but needs irrigation.

We stopped for a rest area lunch today

because we needed to make some tracks today - we had a date to meet with another cousin, Annette and her husband Dave

this evening for dinner in their town, Sidney when Dave works for Cabelas and Annette is a social worker at the hospital.

We had a very enjoyable evening getting to know each other.

 Annette is the oldest daughter of Joanne who we visited with in Decorah last week, and my third cousin.  glad to meet her!

We bunked down in the Walmart parking lot across the street from Buffalo Point where we ate dinner.  Speaking of buffalo... Mike had a buffalo burger tonight because a couple days ago I cooked the buffalo stew meat we bought in Port Huron farmers market in the crock pot and it was very good.  We are hoping to get some more buffalo while passing through.

July 7, 2014 - Lincoln to Grand Island 95 miles

We left the campground mid morning and drove on local county roads the 95 miles to our next town, Grand Island, NE.  They don't call it the CORNHUSKER state for nothing......

Cornfields

Corn Cribs

 

 

Grain Elevators

 

and heavy equipment

We arrived in Grand Island in the afternoon and went to the library until it closed at 7:30. 

The beautiful day we had disappeared while we were in the library.  We just missed a really big storm cloud -

just got a bit or rain, thunder and lightening after we got back to Chatty

 in the Walmart parking lot where we slept for the night.

Sun., July 6, 2014 - Lincoln NE

We explored Lincoln this morning

 ( here is the stadium on campus where the Nebraska Cornhuskers play football)

looking for a suitable place to spend the day on what was turning out to be very HUMID, so we bailed and drove about 25 miles out of town to Pawnee Lake State Recreation Area campground where we turned on Chatty's air conditioning and sat quietly in the shade to listen to the ball game - should have got a picture, it was a nice place. It cooled down in the evening so we could have open windows, and we made rhubarb pie with gluten free pie crust ( my first attempt turned out OK, but not perfect) and rhubarb we got from Farmers market on Saturday.

Fri and Sat. July 4 and 5, 2014 - Omaha - Lincoln NE 60 miles

There was a very nice bike trial and pedestrian bridge

over the Missouri river

 right near Harrah's so we enjoyed all day Friday and until noon on Sat in that area on bikes.

We explored Omaha

 historic downtown area celebrating the nations westward movement

and found a really good Farmer's Market on Sat. AM.

 The fireworks went home for a very long time on July 4 after dark - mixture of public and private displays judging by the casing debris we saw on Saturday morning..

We left Harrah's about noon and found a really nice county park along the Missouri river just upstream from Omaha

where we  got water for Chatty's tank and spent the afternoon

enjoying the heavy river bank debris floating down the river after the heavy rainstorm last night.

Then we made the 60 mile trip from Omaha to Lincoln and parked for the night in a Walmart parking lot.

Thurs. July 3, 2014 - Winterset - Council Bluffs 120 miles

This morning we were treated to Dave's family breakfast tradition of pancakes, hamburger gravy and fried egg stack.  Delicious!

 Then we got to see the sport and skill of horse cutting with cattle in action.   First step, Mike and I get to meet the horses

and get a comfortable lawn chair to watch, but stay out of the arena!

Next step, Dave and grandson Casey herd in the 40 head of cattle to practice / train with

Next step, Grandson Casey gets some last minute instruction from Dave, a well renowned horse trainer. 

Next step, horse and rider cut a cow out of the pack and keep it away just to prove they can.  

The goal in a 2/5 minute competition is to keep the cow away from the pack until it gives up trying - 

a skill useful to cowboys when herding cattle.

Finally, put the saddles away and feed the horses

Then give them a shower since it is a hot day

After all the fun and work were done, I got a chance to pretend I'm a farm girl climbing a ladder in the barn

Then we headed off the farm to get lunch at the local Peru Bar and Grill and said good-bye for now.

Until we meet again......... it has been a fun spontaneous reunion with the Borness family in Iowa. We spent more time in Iowa than we expected, but visited with a group of people who were genuinly happy to see us and share the common bond of family with us.  It was good.

But leave we must - it is July. Ee need to be in Truckee by July 15, and we still have 1,600 miles to go!

So we drove our first the 100 miles of the trip on I-80 from Winterset to Council Bluffs, IA past an impressive windmill farm, and learned at another rest area about the wind power generated here

Council Bluffs is on the Missouri river crossing into Omaha Nebraska.  We found a very comfortable parking spot in the Harrah's Casino parking lot,

and were treated to fireworks over the river after dark.

Wed. June 2, 2014 - Winterset, IA

This morning we completed our journey to DesMoines where we worked in the morning.  First stop was a library close to the highway which we didn't know was closed on Wednesday - boo hoo.

So we did another Google Maps search and landed in a very nice library on Franklin

 in Des Moines where we worked until about 2:00 when we checked out for the weekend.

Next stop was Winterset, IA, birthplace home of John Wayne

in Madison county where they filmed "The Bridges of Madison County" with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood

where we hooked up with 2nd cousin #3 Dave Borness and his wife Diane

 

 for a night at their house.  Dave is the younger brother of Jan and Joanne and only son of Jenny and Einer.  We met them in town and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant with Dave's son Keith and his family ( wife Amy, daughter Anna and newborn son - bad me for not getting a picture, but the baby was not ready for a meal out, so they did not stay long).

We left Chatty parked in town on the business property of Dave and Diane's friends Chuck and Betty, and rode with them out into the country to their property where they built a home, cutting arena and horse stables on 80 acres. Tonight we talked some more family history and watched a DVD about a horse cutting show to help Dave explain his passion and livelihood - horse cutting.