Cross Country Trip to Spokane, Part 2

O.K. Here we go - back on 90 W. bright and early at 7:00 am. on Monday, July 20. Now Central Time, so feels like 8:00 am. to us. Travelled into Wisconsin, through Madison, crossed the Wisconsin River and then crossed what is called the Wisconsin Dells. These are a series of lakes and looks to be a big vacation spot. There are waterparks and boat tours all over. It's a very pretty area. Also seems to be a big snow ski area in the winter. We then drove by LaCrosse, Wisconsin, which is right on the Mississippi River. To be honest, I thought it would be prettier than it was.

We got to Stewartville, Minnesota, about 12:30, so picked up a sandwich at Subway and then saw a Dairy Queen. I just had to have one. We got sundaes at Dairy Queen and of course had to eat these first. It's hot. We're on vacation, right? I wanted this to be a fun, easy, enjoyable trip, so eat dessert first. Vacations somehow give you permission to act like kids and let your hair down and do things you wouldn't normally do. We're such the risk takers!

Minnesota was a little boring at this point. All farm country. We then came across rows and rows of windmills. It was quite an amazing sight. This was about 13 miles east of a town called Austin, Minnesota. Then crossed into South Dakota and through a small town of Brandon. My sons' names are Austin and Brandon. This just seemed like a good omen for a good trip. I was getting tired about 4:00 and tried to arrange a small little bed for myself with my blanket and pillow on My Bob's leg. It was pretty comfortable, but I ended up spilling my sippy cup of coffee all over the floor. UCK! I cleaned up as best I could, but now the truck smells like coffee.

Forget the nap, it just wasn't working. A heavy rain and wind storm interrupted the beautiful summer weather and my nap.

Shortly after we crossed the Missouri River we saw the signs at Cactus Flat for Badlands Park. Brandon told us that this was a really interesting sight when he drove this trip, and since dusk is upon us we decided to start travelling into the Badlands to see if we could find a place to stay for the night.

This was one of the most amazing places to see. The rain had ended and the sky was a beautiful blue/orange/pink. We drove into Badlands Park and in the middle of the park was a tiny, little town called Interior.
I don't know if I can even describe the Badlands well enough to do it justice, but it is a series of sharp, steep, mountains. It's just one mountain (or big hill, I don't know what would define the difference) after another and they are not dirt. They are layers of clay and the layers are different shades of browns and oranges. This against the colorful sky, was just an amazing thing to see, although it could be quite dangerous. These large hills are steep and drop off quickly. Bob was making me very nervous while seeing how far out he could walk. And that's not to mention the snakes, coyotes, antelope, etc. We didn't see any of these animals, thank goodness.

The Badlands got it's name from the early settlers going west coming across this part of the country and trying to continue through with their horses and covered wagons. It was an area known by all who went there as very "Bad land" to get across.
Now it's getting dark and we notice there is a small campground in Interior that also has a Budget Host Motel. It was quite rustic, but the area and the experience was such a good memory.

Cross Country Trip to Spokane, Part 1

We've been home for two weeks now, and it just seems like it's taken me this long to get all re-organized again.

Our son, Brandon, is in the Air Force and is stationed in Spokane. His wife, Dee, and 2 month old baby daughter, Riley, moved out with him finally on July 26.

My Bob and I volunteered to drive the loaded U-Haul cross country from Pennsylvania to Spokane. We had never seen that part of the country from the road and we wanted to see where Brandon and Dee would be living. We had a wonderful trip and loved every minute of it and we're so glad we drove it, but once was enough and from now on we'll fly.

Bob, David and Lori (Dee's mother, supervising)

Arrangements had been made for the dogs, the cat, the plants and flowers. On Saturday, July 18, Bob and Dee's dad, David, loaded the U-Haul and Sunday morning my Bob and I crawled into the cab of that 17 foot truck. I had my thermos of food and water, my pillow and afghan, my knitting bag, and my journal and camera. We were all set. I had my new summer sweat capri's from Wal-Mart and tank tops and T-shirts. That's the only way I can travel. I just can't sit that long in jeans or anything tight at the waist. Danskin capri's from Wal-Mart are the best.

Closing the door - no more room

We're off ---and the trip up to Chicago was very boring. Maybe partly because we had seen all that before, but mostly because it's just very boring. We stopped at several truck stops along the way. Now there's some entertainment if you just sit in the parking lot and look around. Some wild sights to be seen. We saw one trucker picking up a hooker (or so it looked like) and then they just made out next to the truck. I felt naughty for watching. I said to Bob, "maybe people are watching us and think I'm a hooker that you're picking up". We kind of had fun with that, making up different scenarios in our head. And I could have possibly made up that whole trucker/hooker thing I witnessed, but that's sure what it looked like. I'm just a very sheltered small town girl.

We had to stop quite often, actually, because the truck only got about 10 miles per gallon. But that was OK. I really did enjoy the truck stops and rest areas. Good people watching. I would make up all kinds of stories in my mind about people I saw. We continued on, I-80 W. through Indiana, past Notre Dame, I-90 W. into Illinois, then around Chicago. We hate Chicago (no offense to those that live there). It's just way too much traffic, congestion, toll booths, and too many people. Not our way of life. We were tired, but wanted to get to the other side of Chicago to spend the night or we knew we would have too much traffic to deal with on Monday morning. We made it to Rockford, IL, found a Super 8, day 1 done. So far, so good, except for Chicago.

Computer Frustration

Well, Sunday was going to be a great day to catch up on my blogging, downloading pictures, and finish setting up my Etsy site. And it was nothing but frustration now for two days. Due to storms, possibly an old laptop that probably needs a good cleaning out, and the humidity, my computer shuts down about every time I write something and right before I down load it. Don't you hate when that happens? I could just scream. In fact, I think I did scream a few times. So this morning, I thought, OK, I'll start all over this afternoon when I get a chance to sit down. I got a whole paragraph done and the computer completely turned itself off and I thought for a few minutes that I lost everything. Eventually it all came back and so I just shut the computer down myself until it cooled down. It's very humid today and now it's storming again, so we'll see how far I get again. Of course, this isn't what I was going to write about, but I'm so frustrated I can't think straight.

I was going to talk about my grandson's (Logan) 5th birthday party on Saturday. His birthday was actually yesterday, but we had the party on Saturday. Melissa's (DIL) whole family came for the weekend for the event. It was nice, but very hectic, since everyone's dogs came along on the weekend visit. The party was held outside at Austin and Melissa's house and as is normal for PA, it rained just as we started to eat. Thank goodness their patio has a roof, so it wasn't too bad. Logan was very excited, but way too many Transformer toys if you ask me, and from my experience, they break after about two days.

But he had fun, and I guess that's most important. His PaPa from New York had a birthday two weeks ago, so Melissa got him a Sponge Bob cake. Fun was had by all!

I was also going to talk about my Etsy site briefly. I finally got it all set up and running. I'll have more details on my other site. It took me a while because I'm not very computer savvy, and then all the computer glitches.

I finally did get all my pictures downloaded. So I think I'm finally on a roll.

So there. It's only taken me two whole days now to get this all done and written. I feel like I've wasted so much time.

Uh Oh, It's storming and thundering. I better Save and Publish.

Getting Back to Some Kind of Normal

I'm so sorry! I feel like I've abandoned everyone. Ever since we returrned from Spokane I've been re-nesting in a way. I've been cleaning and organizing and then at night I've been feeding my need to create. Take a look at my other blog to see what I've been doing, http://mycharmingcreations.blogspot.com/

I got the upstairs guest room and bath all cleaned out. Dee lived in these rooms for six months and after we moved all of her things out it needed a good deep clean. So I have the guest room all fixed up as a play room for the grandsons that visit quite often. They love the new big play space, but I am going to eventually be putting a bed in there. We haven't decided whether we want to move our queen bed in there and get a new king for us, or just get a new queen or maybe just a day bed. I also think I may want to strip off all the wallpaper that is rather dated and paint. So at least until I come to some decorating decisions, it's clean and the boys love it.

I've also had to catch up on real work for my husband's business. I don't mind, except it just leaves less time to do my fun stuff. Saturday we had another wedding to go to in Pittsburgh. It was beautiful. A very nice young man that wrestled for Penn State that we've known for 20 years and My Bob helped him train. I just did not feel like travelling any more or going anywhere, but I couldn't miss it.

Then Tuesday and Wednesday we kept the grandsons. We hadn't seen them since we left for Spokane and we missed them. After two days and a night, that itch has been scratched. Boy are they busy little guys. Wears me out. We had fun, though. We took them to our County Fair on Tuesday afternoon and we had such a good time. We were all so tired Tuesday night. Then they were up again about 6:30 Wednesday morning. Logan and I spent the day together and shopped for his birthday which is on Sunday. Five years old. Hard to believe. He's into Transformers right now. So we got a transformer toy, and transformer sheets, blanket and curtains. I would love to fix up the boys' bedroom in their new decor, but I guess Mommy and Daddy are going to do that.

I think as of today I'm starting to feel settled in to my nest again. And I still need to catch up on my blogging. I want to tell you all about our trip out west complete with pictures. Hopefully this weekend will give me some time.

There's No Place Like Home

We're home! It was a wonderful trip and Brandon, Dee and Riley are all moved into their apartment in Spokane. My Bob and I loved it there in the Pacific Northwest. I'll fill in the details as soon as I get settled back in. Re-entry into real life is difficult for me. Catching up on work, mail, e-mail, chores, etc. is a job. And I like things to be cleaned and organized before I feel I can get back into my hobbies. But I have pictures of the sites we saw along the way. We concluded that this is a beautiful country, except for Chicago. (No offense to those that live in Chicago). We just didn't care for all the traffic, congestion and people. Too busy for us. Not my kind of place to want to visit or live. The U-Haul ride was noisey and bumpy. It took us four days. Fixed up their apartment and did some sightseeing around Spokane and Couer D'Alene, Idaho. Absolutely beautiful! Brandon kept telling us on the phone that we would want to move there, and he's right. We flew home on Monday, which is a long trip in itself. We lose three hours in time change and then once we get into Pittsburgh we still have a 2-1/2 hour drive home. We're tired.
I hated to leave Spokane and Brandon, Dee and Riley. Of course I cried. The little bit of upside is that the house is totally ours again, which I like. Although, I have to say, having Dee and Riley living with us was a joy. I like having a schedule and a routine, which was almost impossible for several months. That's the upside I'm clinging to and working with because I really miss them and would cry all the time otherwise. I will learn to love my empty nest again eventually.