Toto - (aka Lucy) we are not in Kansas anymore....

 
An oil rig...

just one of hundreds  that we saw  traveling through Kansas and the

Cathedral of the Plains (below) is in Victoria, KS and can be seen from I-70...the towers stand 141' so we noticed it from a distance, just before we left the interstate for the night in Russell. 

 

 

We hit the road yesterday morning in Russell, KS and even though it was 10am, with the temperature @ 40 & rising, we still needed coats for the wind that was  blowing.  Our heading - Boiling Springs State Park outside Woodward, OK…for rest and relaxation. 

 

We have taken to  driving the back roads, those 2 lane connectors between small towns like Hosington (pop. 2700, Hosington is located in the middle of Kansas at the junction of Kansas Highway 4 and United States Highway 281 and sits directly on the National Wetlands and Wildlife Scenic Byway), Larned (pop. 4600, Fort Larned, one of the best preserved Pony Express era military forts in the country); to Pawnee Rock (pop. 252)…that’s right, 252 – a state park is located there.  We also drove through the thriving city of Great Bend (pop 16,000)…named for the bend in the Arkansas River, which has all the usual fast food joints one finds in large cities.  Did not see a Starbucks, but there was a Mickey D’s, Pizza Hut, Sonic and the assorted other bistros….not to worry I am still on the hunt for the weird and unusual named establishments. And I found one in Phillipsburg, Kansas...The Chubby Pickle - need I say more? They sell, erm, wait for it......

 

hamburgers - was there ever a question.

 

A theme appears to run through Kansas towns…banner flags hanging from lamp poles. Each town proudly sharing either the local high school mascot, the year it was founded, or as in the case of Kinsey - which informs you that they are exactly...

 

half-way between NYC and SF.  The other similar note worth mentioning, although not limited to KS, is the once grand old theatres that are now shuttered or only open on weekends…such a sad commentary of our times. Phillipsburg, KS isn't one of them by the looks of their Majestic.

 I’ve been googling (isn’t technology grand when it’ convenient and useful), these small towns just prior to arriving to get a better sense of the demographics and for background.  An example: yesterday as we drove through northern Kansas we couldn’t ID the crop that seemed to be the major farm crop.

So I googled and discovered it’s sorghum.  Sorghum grass fields dot the landscape of Kansas...and many of the fields have oil rigs. (We were amazed to learn of the many uses for sorghum, besides as the flour I use for baking.) Used as Butyl Alcohol in industrial applications and as a diesel fuel additive.

 Coldwater, KS, (pop. 836), county seat and Lake Coldwater is the only city, county, or state lake in southwest Kansas that permits water-related sports. While we didn't stay long enough to use our kayaks, we did spend about an hour walking around the town.

The building, in the photo above,  was the first one we saw when we pulled into town. We could only guess....a hotel in it's hey-day?, a bank?, now it's a coin laundry and apartments...we decided it was a hotel - given the baloney.

A couple of original buildings...above the local newspaper and I have no idea what the building below was originally, it is now the county museum.

Coldwater was approximately 20 miles from where we are parked in the Boiling Springs State Park...

which will be most likely highlighted in my next installment. In the meantime, let me leave you with a short video of the deer, arrived at dusk, eating apple we tossed out to them...there were about 6. We hope to feed them every night we are here.

Until then~Ciao

Bits and pieces as we race towards the SUN

We are traveling east and will be turning out of Wyoming and going south soon. It is just plain cold, too cold to hang out in beautiful WY or NE...but we have been tempted. WY -, specifically Laramie and Cheyenne, we will return when it's a bit warmer to explore.

For those of you who read last week's post...here is a very short video Mike took of the Perrine Bridge (Twin Falls) Base Jumper....ENJOY!

Traveling into different states is really educational, fun, and thought provoking...I'm starting to pay attention to the differences...it's a cultural shift that rarely happens at home and once we get back into our winter-routine I find it again. One of those for me is discovering all the different fast-food joints that I will never, ever in a million years enter, let alone buy anything to eat from them. (Yes, I am a fast-food snob, but that is a entirely different blog and longer post, with a different audience.)

It's Chester Fried...found at a truck stop in Utah...do they serve it in buckets? I now wish I had gone inside to see if Colonel Sanders was wearing a cowboy hat and was clean-shaven.

 

Our overnight in Honeyville, at the Crystal Hot Springs, had a herd of sheep out our back window and....



a duck couple, laying eggs and being fed Jelly beans by the 2 small girls, next door to us. That's an egg just above the duck on the left....the next morning there were two eggs. The couple were resting comfortably when we left...both ignoring said eggs.

We left Utah for Wyoming...big, big mistake on our part we soon discovered. Wyoming is at a higher altitude, well not at the start, but by the time we reached Rock Springs, elevation 6388' we hadn't drank nearly enough water and having only just leaving sea level...we both were suffering from headaches and that tiredness that altitude brings on.
The mistake? Higher elevation = colder temperatures and did you know the wind blows at really high rates of speed here?

We found parking at the Sweetwater Fairgrounds (Sweetwater Fairgrounds)
via All Wyoming Campgrounds... the fairgrounds has 1200 parking sites! We 'guessed' closer to 500....this place is massive. Since it was just us and another trailer it was very quiet, even for a Friday night. Don't let the Sun fool you...it got really "crispy" come dark...so crispy that Mike unhooked us from the water line...."crisp" as in frigid/freezing. We were both really happy to be here for just one night. (I just wished that had been the end of the 'crisp air' story.)

Next on the trip menu... giddy-up Cheyenne WY. Little did we know that high winds AND more altitude was in our future. And according to the weather reports, some snow had dropped in on Cheyenne earlier in the week, but "not to worry, it was forecast to rain by Sunday". Yep, erm, right...not happening during our 2 day visit.

The highest point on I-80 is located at 8640" just outside Laramie, WY, and yes the wind was blowing where these photos were taken last Friday. The wind blew so hard and was so loud, we both donned ear plugs just to hear the radio.

Above...the remains of the snowfall days earlier.

Eight days out, 1550 miles through OR/ID/UT/WY and we are only half-way to our "we-can-start-to-relax" state of Louisiana. I know, we probably ought get to the 'start-to-relax' part now....it's just been too d**n cold up here in the northern hemisphere of the US.

While in Cheyenne we drove down to Ft Collins to meet up with friends we met while visiting Lake Louise 2 years ago, who drove up from Denver for lunch...so if you are visiting Ft Collins, treat yourself and dine at  Austin's American Grill  - the food was delicious, the company was marvelous. Thanks H & M!

If you are cruising I-25 to Ft. Collins, look for the bison up in the hills, you can see it for miles.

OK, I'll admit it....I am a West Coast woman...I have never seen signs announcing road closures at on-ramps - followed by gates that actually close the ramp...

this just boggles my mind....

 

Just as we are about to leave WY...Pine Bluffs rest area, right at the very edge of the state. High-Plains-Archaeology-Museum and a visitors center is conveniently located, more-like disguised, on the grounds of the rest area. The volunteer was kind enough to tell us a bit about the museum, open June - Aug... built on ground where Native American artifacts had been discovered.

and if you are a Cabelas fan, the photo below is their distribution center and store in Sidney, NE...left to right all Cabelas...it's gigantic.

and we witnessed another circle of life....like us, birds heading south.

We head towards Oklahoma over the next few days.
~Ciao

Departure is torture....are we having fun yet?

Escaping  our home in the PNW is pretty daunting. Five (5) pages of lists of things to pack, tasks to complete – both for the house/yard and for our house on wheels. Food to buy, pack and store; activity accessories (helmets, paddles, bikes, etc.) and clothes. Did we forget anything? You bet we did...well, I did. By DAY 3 of decisions, packing, storing, (never mind the things we have to keep within reach until the very last minute, ie hair dryer, toothpaste, "those" shoes...it's endless.), "do I really have enough socks/jeans/shoes?, my Barre 3 equipment/DVD's, how much freezer space is there? ,- I can not get out of the house fast enough. Well, it does feel that crazy...that  'up-track trek' on  the roller-coaster that never gets to the top kind of crazy.

This year THE cat, Lucy, decided she wasn’t participating and took to hiding. Not so different from previous years, however, we spent a good 30 minutes looking for her in her favorite hidey-hole places – behind the sofa and under the bed…only to be discovered crouched behind Mike’s computer desk…smart girl.  At least I didn't need the broom (which never worked anyway-she just let me poke her with it) and she finally came out to wait the inevitable...and just like the spoilt cat she is - mewed all the way into the house-on-wheels.  Get in line after me.

And we are out of here! (yes, we closed the slides first)

[Government shutdown, we aren't changing our plans - so please get yourselves together and get our campgrounds open...Corps of Engineers, National Forests and National Parks - we plan on using them along the way.]

In years past we have been, what we lovingly call, type A, goal directed in our departures. Where are we going and how fast can we get from here to there...thankfully, sanity was restored,  (Call it aging if you MUST) and it was determined that slower, gentler and easy was going to be our journey from Oregon to Louisiana.  Given our previous departure road was approximately the same this year I haven't taken nearly the photos as in years past...I-84 still looks the same, the leaves are changing colors right on schedule and so I picked up a magazine that I got back in July and began reading. I stopped when we reached Boardman...the Boardman Marina and Park is lovely. 1) on arrival; 2) parked; 3) out our back window at sunset. The Columbia River never looked better than it did on our first night out. (Oregon is pretty in the Fall.)

gorgeous day on the Columbia River

and it's sunset out our back window

Day 2 we are in search of a 'regulator'...for the propane tank. Apparently we have a leak in the 2nd tank.  Found one in Pendleton that replaced this bad boy. We continued to drive East and decided we needed a "rest" break starting Day 3, so only drove to Huntington, OR....so far, we are passing the slow/easy/gentle test on this adventure East. Out two days and still 30 miles from the Idaho border...<cough>"exhausted"<cough>.

  There isn't much in Huntington, OR...a couple of taverns and a "general store"...no gas station so Mike had to drive into Ontario (almost Idaho) to get gas. However, the Farewell Bend State Park, where we planned to stay for the night is lovely. It closed on the 15th...for the season. And was only $17/night, FHU too. Less than a dozen RV's...it was nice. It was quiet.

The Snake River is off in the distance in the shot below.  

 

This is a huge state park...so I'm guessing very busy during the  summer...Oregon Trail et al.

Next stop: Our "rest-days" in Glenn's Ferry ID, again Three Island Crossing State Park. The lower section is closed for the winter and the upper section closes at the end of this month. Another beautiful state park, which we visited last year. Has a museum next door and just down the street is the  Carmela Vineyard/Restaurant/RV Park...which we haven't visited and the RV park was virtually empty, but that may have more to do with it being October and past the grape picking/wine-making season, but it is beautiful and looks down on the Snake River. The restaurant must have fabulous views.

Today we drove the 50 mile into Twin Falls; primarily to visit the Shoshone Falls Park and were rewarded by noticing a group of base jumpers on the Perrine Bridge that spans the Snake as we drove across. Not ones to miss a photo op, we pulled into the Visitors Center (closed for the season) to take photos...

 Perrine Bridge from the Visitor Center (above)

Statue of Perrine himself...(and yes I have a photo holding hands with him) he was the banker who built the canals downstream.

 And there he goes....

 

 

 



One of a dozen base jumpers...(according to the sign the fall is only about 490') we witnessed jumping...so they pull their 'shutes  as they lean-in-to the fall. We are standing on a viewpoint that is about 50' under the bridge under-belly.

 

And no - the place was closed or I would have considered taking the class. Can't beat the 'rush' from a good fall out of the sky!

 

The circle is the landing target, which we only saw one jumper 'stick'!(below)

 

It's quite a ways down, and you can climb back up, hike back up or take a boat up river to a parking lot where your "people" can meet you and drive you back up, to do this all over again. No permit required, and the accents I heard were definitely not just Americans enjoying this sport.

 

Then we were off to Shoshone Falls, a mere 5 miles from town. The road down to the parking is narrow and winding...while we did meet a truck pulling a small trailer it was not truly wide enough and we had to pull WAY over to allow him to pass.

 

 Power plants and the dam....

The Snake River in all it's splendor...

 

The Sun was out most the day, but it was cold...what we in the PNW like to call "crisp". The thermometer hovered in the low 50's most of the day...but the views made it doable. 

The "fun" has definitely begun.

~Ciao

 

Author's note: As this goes to "press", it is with profound relief that I can report that the US Congress has agreed to put the US government back to work. As an American traveling this country I want to apologize to our international visitors who may have been inconvenienced by the temporary insanity that overtook our <cough>"leadership"<cough>. I do hope you will be able to visit our National Parks, for they are spectacular.