Home Again, Home Again!

Home Again, Home Again!

   We are Home!  In case you didn't figure it out, yet. <(;-o)  We made the drive from Paducah, Kentucky without any major mishaps.  Thanks again for the prayers.  God is good all the time!

Back Home and set up for cleaning!

 

   We traveled for 5 glorious weeks and saw so much of this wonderful country.  But, we never saw the kind of traffic we saw once we were about 40 miles northeast of Nashville, TN.  It was like everyone decided to travel that road on the same day at the same time as we were passing through town.  It was wall to wall trucks with wall to wall passenger cars who were all in a hurry to get where they were going!  I really have never seen anything like it.  We have been so blessed while on our trip to have clear skies and clear roads to travel.  We met some wonderful people along the way and will always cherish the memories of this trip to Yellowstone National Park.  Dinah and I discussed it and we both agree that our top three places to visit were the Crazy Horse Memorial, The Battle of the Little Big Horn and Yellowstone National Park.  We had different views as to which we enjoyed the most, but our top three were the same.

   We hope you have enjoyed following along on our adventure.  Several of you asked us to do this and this is really my first attempt at blogging a trip like this.

Anyway, it has come to an end and we are very happy to be back at home among our belongings and our family and friends who we cherish so much.

LUV 2 U ALL!  Thanks so much for traveling along with us.  God is good all the time!  The prayers were felt along the way.

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Paducah, KY - Day 31? - On our way home

Paducah, KY - On our way home

We made it to Paducah, KY!  We left early from Lincoln because of oncoming rain.  So, we arrived shortly after lunch, here.  Not a very pretty campsite, but they have good ratings.  I may post pictures later.  I just wanted to let alert those who are following our travels.  We are resting this afternoon.  Dinah is researching antique shops and looking forward to visiting Hancock's Fabrics, tomorrow.

LUV 2 ALL!  See you soon!

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Day 30? - Columbia, MO - On our way home...

Columbia, MO. - On our way home

We are safe and sound in Columbia, MO.  I was not a happy camper most of the drive over here.  It seems like it was bumper to bumper traffic since about 11:45 am this morning as we were entering the Kansas City, city limits.  We have been so spoiled by the easy travel and light traffic on most of our trip.  I guess from here on out, it's back to reality and the disgusting behavior all these people traveling on our roads and hindering our relazation.  <(;-o)  Just kidding...

We were really blessed to get into a site in this campground, because this weekend is not only parents weekend at Missouri University, but they are playing Purdue at home.  So, we are going to be surrounded by the wrong kind of tigers until we exit on Sunday.  They seemed like nice people.  Our neighbors said hello as we were setting up.  We have been really blessed with the good folks we have had as neighbors in our campsites.

A couple of pics of our campsite and the surrounding neighbors.  Everyone is gone, currently.  We are assuming that they are at parent functions and football parties at the campus.

   This is a really nice campground, but like most the WIFI is NOT good for posting pictures on a blog.  So, it's a good thing I don't have much to post.  That's it for today.

LUV 2 U ALL!  Thanks for the prayers.  We'll see everyone around Wednesday of next week.

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29th Day? - September 14, 2017 - Lincoln, NE - Antiquing...

Antiquing - Lincoln, NE

   29th Day?  Somewhere along the way, I have miss numbered the days of this blog.  I know there are a couple of days where I didn't blog, so I guess I got the count wrong when I restarted.  Anyway, thanks for not mentioning it.  I don't think I am going to spend the time to go back and try to correct it.  Maybe after we get home I'll correct it, but not now.  Anyway, on with the posting!!!

   Today, we took our time again and had breakfast in the camper.  We took care of the dogs and the trailer and got everything straightened away before we left.  Dinah had found two antique stores that she wanted to visit.  The first one was Burlington Antiques Mall downtown.  So, we headed out and found ourselves very close to the college campus, stadium and indoor stadium.  It was a very nice store and had many nice pieces, several of which came home with us as gifts/keepers for Dinah and family.

Dinah in front of the Antique store in Licoln, NE

   After we finished we checked ourselves and realized that we needed someplace to eat lunch.  We asked the proprietors of the antique store who were very helpful and pointed out a brewery / grill across the street which happened to be the oldest brewery in the state, if I heard her correctly.  We headed outside and put another $1.50 in the parking meter for what gave us an hour and a half on the meter.

   We decided on the Lazlo's which is the restaurant next to the Empyrean Brewing Co.  We were greeted and seated very warmly and Dinah decided on the steak kabobs with rice and a baked potato and I had the batter fried fish and fries along with one of the locally brewed beers called "Chaco Canyon Gold".  This was brewed next door at the Empyrean Brewing Co.  It was wonderful!  So, I bought two six packs to try to bring home to share and to have for myself.  I can't wait to be sitting on the back porch and having one of these with some back yard BBQ.  <(;-o)

Lazlo's Entrance.

A picture of the brewing company next to Lazlo's.

   We also loved the buildings in the downtown area.  Dinah loved the signs on the walls from old times.  The Lincoln Station was an old train station that has been converted into a convention center downtown.  They had their own train and a beautiful raised brick mural that I will show you below.  We both loved the clock in one of the pictures which was chiming as I took the picture of it on the corner.  At first I didn't realize it was that clock, but it eventually dawned on me.  The pictures are below along with a link to all of the pics for the day.

The clock I mentioned above.

You can see more pictures, here.

   After lunch we went to the other antique store in town, which was not really nice compared to the one we shopped in before lunch.  So, we headed back to camp and rested the remainder of the day.

That's it for today!  Tomorrow, we head to Columbia, MO, another football town where the Missouri Tigers will be meeting the Purdue Boiler Makers for their weekly contest.

LUV 2 U ALL!  We'll be home in a few days.  Thanks for the prayers. 

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Day 26 - Camp-A-Way - Lincoln, NE

Travel to Lincoln, NE

Today, we broke camp at 9 am and headed East towards Lincoln, NE and Camp-A-Way, Campground.  There's not much to say about the drive except there were many, many cars and trucks.  We think we are definitely back in civilization.  Almost all of the drive was farm land with cattle and corn crops.  It looked much like below.

Corn, corn and more corn for as far as the eye could see.

We made it into Lincoln about 2:30 pm and set up camp and took the dogs for a walk.  We just had a wonderful dinner of open face roast beef sandwich which Dinah made for us.  She is quite the cook.  I just got back from a wonderful hot shower and thought I'd finish this update for today.

Below is a couple of pictures of the campground.  We are very close to downtown Lincoln and it's a very pretty site.  It's a little cramped, but this is parent's weekend at Nebraska University and a football weekend, also.  We will be getting out of town on Friday morning to avoid the insanity this weekend.

LUV 2 U All! once again.  We will probably be antiquing tomorrow.  Dinah has identified three antique malls and plans to hit them all.  I don't know that I will be going with her.  I may stay at the trailer with the dogs.

Our next stop after this will be Columbia, MO on football weekend, but we have a nice place picked out and we're hoping it won't be too crazy.  We will be arriving there on Friday afternoon.  We will be checking out on Sunday and headed to Paducah, KY.  That will be our last stop before heading for home.

Thanks for all the prayers.  See you soon!

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Day 25, September 11, 2017 - Ogallala, NE

Day 25 - Sunflowers RV Park, Ogallala, NE

   Today, we spent the day resting and regrouping.  Dinah did go out to the store for supplies while I stayed at the trailer with the puppies and worked on the blog.

   She found a store called the "Silver Thimble" and said that she liked it.  She found a cutting tool there that she had not seen before, so she brought it back.  The tool is designed to help her make a double ring quilt pattern.  She really loves to quilt and is excited about the find.

I'll put a couple of pictures of the campsite below.  It is a very  nice place to stay.  The WIFI is great!  Which is much appreciated after our past experiences with other campgrounds along our route.  The showers are nice and clean and warm!  Dinah uses the shower/toilet in the trailer.  The trailer, by the way has been working admirably.  It is a breeze to pull compared to some others we have owned.  We love the amenities that are included in the Lance trailer and have been very satisfied.

Once again, LUV 2 U All!  We will see you in a few days. 

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Day 23 - September 9, 2017 - Ft. Caspar, Casper, WY

Fort Caspar, Casper, WY 

   Our first day in Casper, we wanted to see Fort Caspar, not "Casper" as it was supposed to be a restored Fort on the site of the original.  It was not far from the campground (Sunflowers RV Campground) where we are staying.

Link to more pictures of the visit to Fort Caspar, here.




This was a nice museum, the fort was reconstructed in 1937 and documents one of the original forts set up to protect travelers and the surrounding territory.  The Fort was here to protect not only the travelers, but the Pone Express trails and the Trans-continental Telegraph.  A link to a more detailed history is here.  I am not going to regurgitate the history on these pages.   Brigham Young also established the first ferry in the territory while trying to cross the flooded Platte River and occupied and operated the ferry for years afterward even as they traveled on to Salt Lake territory.

This was a recreation of a telegraph station.  I thought the four shot derringer was a nice touch.

It always amazes me how much difficulty these frontiersmen endured in their lives
and they probably thought they had it good.

   We didn't do much else while we were in Casper.  But, this was a nice way to spend a few hours and learn a little about our history.

LUV 2 U ALL!  We hope you are enjoying the posts.  We will have more as we go, but nothing like some of the sites we have seen so far.  Thanks for all the prayers.  See you soon!

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Day 21 - September 7, 2017 - Fishing Bridge - Yellowstone

Fishing Bridge - Thursday - September 7, 2017

   Today, we decided to rest.  We have both admitted that we are tired.  So, we are taking it easy today and getting ready to head back East tomorrow.  So far, we have slept a little later today and had a small breakfast, walked the dogs several times and reserved our next campsite in Casper, WY.  I think the dogs are glad we are not leaving them alone again today.
   I have been wanting to go down to the bridge that gives this site it's name.  The actual Fishing Bridge which spans the Yellowstone River.  So, I got organized and went a little less than a mile to the bridge to snap some photos of the landscape around our site.  I got some pretty good shots that were OK.  The most exciting thing that happened caused to consider how fortunate I was today.  While I was snapping pictures from the center of the bridge on the pedestrian walk, a man in one of the cars shouts out that there is buffalo coming across the bridge!  My immediate thought was I need to get out of here.  But, as I turned toward the truck, I saw the buffalo and he looked like he was going to come down the pedestrian walk towards me on my side of the road.  He decided to stay on the actual roadway and proceeded to lead the traffic across the bridge.  See photos below.

Fishing Bridge - Yellowstone - Actual fishing is banned from the bridge.

My first sight of the buffalo.  I thought he was coming down the walkway, but he didn't.

Not far away.  Coming my way and I was getting a little nervous at this point.
Look at the car behind him.  I  guess that's a camera he is holding while he drives behind the buffalo.

This was about as close as he got.  He was in the right hand lane and leading traffic across the bridge.

More shots for perspective.

I left at this point.

We took this picture of Snickers snuggled up under the quilt on Dinah's stomach.  The Dogs got a little cold, like the rest of us.

    I looked behind me and decided that if I go ahead of the guy, I was just being pushed across the bridge further from the vehicle.  I made a decision that if I  stayed on the pedestrian walk and stayed still and quiet, I would be alright.  Now you can see from some of the pictures that there are some very significant pillons separating the walkway from the road, but they weren't as high as I would have liked.  Anyway, by this time, he wasn't far away and he seemed very quiet and calm, so I decided to stick my ground.  He walks past me and didn't even give me any notice that I was aware of.  Which I was happy about.  I snapped a few pictures and watched him walk in front of the traffic all the way across the bridge.  I took a few more pictures and walked back to the truck with my story to share with Dinah and you.
   That's the day for me and Dinah.  Tomorrow, we head out towards Casper, WY and start making our way home.  LUV 2 U  all!  We feel your prayers, please continue.  God is good all the time!

Day 24 - Drive to Ogallala, NE - September 10, 2017

Drive to Ogallala, NE

Today, we pointed our truck and camper East, again.  This time our destination was Ogallala, NE.  We were again excited to be moving East and back towards home.  I was really looking forward to finding some really good WIFI so I could get up to date on this Blog.  I am so far behind, it's pitiful.  But, we found some beautiful countryside to occupy us and help us create more memories.

The thing that surprised us was how desolated and empty southeastern Wyoming and Southwestern Nebraska.  Rest stops were few and far between and all the little towns we traveled through were boarded up tight because it was Sunday.  We got some pretty nice pictures.  I haven't had much time to edit these, but some have been cropped a little.  We hope you enjoy the sights we captured along the way.

Also, below is a picture of our latest campsite, the Sunflowers RV Campground.  It's a very nice place.  The owners are very welcoming and supply many amenities to help us get a rest along the way.  Best of all, they have some killer WIFI access that is much appreciated.

Here are a few of the pictures we took along the way.

You can see more pictures of the drive, here.

Tommorrow, Dinah plans to go find the local quilt shop and I plan to work on the blog until I get caught up.  I have been writing the text and saving it and then adding pictures and editing after I find good WIFI.  That is now!  Anyway, I think we are up to date, now. 

LUV 2 U ALL!  We only have a few more stops and we'll be home.  Thanks for reading the blog.  If you have any comments, remember, I would love to hear your comments.

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Day 22 - Drive to Casper, WY - September 8, 2017

Drive to Casper, WY

The drive to Casper was joyous in that we were both happy to be heading back east again.  I don't think either of us regrets taking this trip, but we are glad to be back in modern civilization.  We have realized how much we enjoy our WIFI experience.  Also, the territory after leaving Yellowstone seemed bland at first, but later it became more interesting as we entered the Wind River Canyon area and the Wind River Indian Reservation.  We both immediately realized why this was an Indian reservation....because the land was just about useless for anything, but viewing.  At least that was our prospective.

Entrance to Wind River Gorge 

Big Horn River flows out of Boysen Damn and Boysen State Park

Train Tunnel for tracks which followed the river through the canyon.

What a beautiful place.

Boysen Damn in Boysen State Park.  Eastern Edge of Wind River Indian Reservation.
Wind River Reservation is the 7th largest in the nation.

More of the reservoir created by the Boysen Damn for Boysen State Park.

    All along our travels, especially in the states North and East of Illinois, we have seen these signs and traffic barriers across the major highways.  We keep trying to get a good picture and never could.  Dinah was finally able to snap this from the truck as we drove by.  After a little editing, it is easier to read.  Neither one of us had ever seen this.  So, if the road is closed you just have to go back where you came from?  We were surprised by this, and facinated because they generated much conversation.

The warning signs for closed highways.

    We also saw many fences along the highways that appear to be for directing wildlife to passages underneath the highway to reduce accidents.  We never saw any wildlife using these, but we normally weren't on the highway during their peak movement times, either. 

   We did see more pronghorn antelope in Southern Wyoming and Nebraska that we have seen anywhere else.  We saw a few in Northern Wyoming, but we saw several small herds in Southern Wyoming along highway 26 as we moved east.

We have also been seeing fencing out in the prarie that looks like the picture above.  We are assuming they are wildlife barriers to herd them towards  passes under the highway instead of them trying to cross on the highway.

    Well, we will be spending a couple of days here resting and then we move on to Ogallala, Nebraska.

Link to all the pictures we took on our drive to Casper, WY., here.

LUV 2 U ALL!  We will be in touch.

By the way, I have updated some of the previous posts with links to other albums of pictures for those postings.  If you want to go back to those days beginning with Sept 4th, you will see the links at the bottom of the posts, usually.

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Day 20 - Mammoth Hot Springs - September 6, 2017

Mammoth Hot Springs / Fort Yellowstone
   We got up early this morning to find clear blue skies and crisp 28 degrees at 7:30 AM.  We had breakfast and showers and gathered our belongings and headed down the road to see what we could see.
   Our first stop of the Mud Volcanoes which we were excited to see.  The steam was rising and sulphur smell was strong.  We had seen some buffalo in the valley, but they were on the opposite side of the road.  A couple of pictures, below.

   We exited the truck and walked to the first walkways to view the mud volcanoes and we looked to our left and there was another buffalo just strolling out of the parking lot in the midst of the volcanoes.  It was still cold enough that steam was puffing out of his nose as he climbed the hill to our left.  Of course, their was one animal paparazzi who was getting way too close.  Thankfully, he didn't get charged.  Several pictures are below of the mud volcanoes.

  We left there and continued North along the road towards the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  We saw more buffalo grazing in the valley along a small river and so I stopped at a small pull off and took some pictures of the herd.  I didn't get leave the side of the road, but the pictures turned out pretty good.  They are below.

   We continued up the highway until we reached the lower falls of the Grand Canyon (Yellowstone).  There was a very nice parking area.  These falls have paths/walkways/stairs that lead to the bottom of the falls, but we decided that was too much for us.  More details about this later.  But, their are several hundred steps down and hundreds of feet back up and we weren't up to it.  Some pictures are below.

   We eventually arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs, after two hours of driving, stopping, taking pictures, driving, more pictures, well you get the idea.  It is really over whelming after a while.  Around every corner their are jaw dropping scenes.  Dinah said they looked like paintings.  God's paintings, I said.  Really, this happened over and over.  Neither one of us had ever seen anything like this.  The closest I could remember were the scenes I saw driving the Canada to Alaska (AlCan) Highway back in the 70's on my way to Anchorage, Alaska.  Canada has some very beautiful territory up in the Yukon Territories, but they didn't beat what we saw during this trip.

   Once arriving at Mammoth Hot Springs, we wanted to tour the fort, but it turns out the buildings were mainly being used for administrative, living quarters, and office space.  The buildings were in remarkably good shape.  They have been mentioned for their architecture of stone work which was used to construct most of the buildings from the original fort.  The only building we were able to enter was the main visitors center and museum.  They had very nice displays and dioramas along with a park store and park rangers to answer questions.

   By this time, it was lunch time.  Actually, past lunch time, so we headed over to the hotel restaurant and sampled their cheese burgers.  We didn't get pictures, sorry guys!  I did get one picture looking out the windows from our table.  It is below.

The burgers were OK.  They burnt my bun, but I was so hungry by then, I didn't really care.  After that we walked next door and got ourselves some ice cream and began a slow walk up the hill to the springs.  Dinah's knee was getting tired by this time and frankly, so was I.  She was a real trooper, though.  She walked all the way up to the main springs and we took pictures which are below for you to view.

   After that we headed back down hill to the visitors center because someone told us the road to Norris had been closed.  Well, it wasn't closed, but it closes at night from 10PM til 7AM and would be closed after this Sunday for the season.  She warned us that there was construction, but we could get to Norris that way.  We wanted to go that way, because we hadn't seen that part of the park and it was a few miles shorter back to the camp.
   Norris Geyser basin is home to the hottest geysers in the world and the tallest geyser, Steamboat geyser.  Although Steamboat hasn't erupted in over two years, eight months approximately.  But, they said when it does... <(;-o)   By the time we got to Norris, we were worn out.  We did not stop coming back, because our legs and energy were gone.  We got back to the camp around 5 PM.  The dogs were glad to see us and we were glad to  be home.  The dogs have been great travelers.  They have not messed up once in the camper and we have left them for up to 8 hours.  They have been good companions.
   I don't know the odds, but we met a couple while we were on our way North to Mammoth Springs that is camping right next to us at Fishing Bridge.  They recognized our truck and license and hailed us.  They are from Massachusetts and were a very nice couple to talk with.  We sat and talked on one of the pull offs for one of the cascades before we got to the canyon.  It turns out they were going back the way we came and would be seeing some of the sites that we had seen on our way to Yellowstone.  We shared stories for over 30 minutes, I know.  His name was Ron and her name was Nancy.  We got their picture, below.  Very nice people.  It was a real pleasure talking to them.

   Tomorrow, we are going to wimp out and rest all day.  We have seen about all we care to see of the landscape and the roads and the traffic.  Although, I will have to say, that the traffic has been very light compared to what I was thinking it would be like.

Link to more pictures from the day trip to Mammoth Hot Springs here.

LUV 2 U ALL!  We appreciate the prayers for our safe travels.  We look forward to seeing our family and friends when we return.  God is good all the time!

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