b -

 

 I had forgotten so many things that happen as we travel along the road - like how each town smells differently - some literally smell like a sewer and others have a fresh smell about them, others are literally fruity.  The worst smell is that of 'flat skunk' - boy does that make you clutch your nose frantically so your eyes don't bug out in disgust!  Then there is the radio - it has a mind of it's own and just will not go on at times.  Yesterday evening Frank pulled it out of the dash and flicked at it, and bingo - sing sing!    Today it decided  to be quiet for a while after behaving perfectly all day long.  It's not a big deal because with the roads up here, the noise is sometimes enough on our ears.  But......... ah well.  At least it works most of the time.  On one of our other trips, it would be in one of its off times for hours and then suddenly boom to life as we went over a bump or around a corner - nearly gave us heart attacks many times!

This year we have a gps that sits perched on the dashboard - she is now known as "Blondie"  aka TomTom.  We named her Blondie because when we get lost, she gets flustered and has to reset herself, sometimes first giving us all the wrong directions...  Why is she a 'she'?  Because she gets us there, of course!  :)  On top of Blondie sits my friend Kay - right in the front-most perch to get the best view of everything.  I know most of you don't understand what I just said, but Kay does - Hi Kay!

Blondie has made our lives much easier - yesterday I told her where we want to go, told her the route we wanted to drive and the cities we want to bypass and bingo - now she tells us!  I used to have to get my laptop out and figure all this out - no more.  Now I just love anticipating her directions, and when they are wrong - well, blame Blondie! :)  "In two miles, keep right, take the offramp".............. "In half a mile, keep right"......... "Take the offramp now".... "keep right"- "keep. right!"  Yes, Blondie! Thanks.

So with Frank at the steering wheel and Blondie in control, we stair-stepped our way up through Illinois, Iowa and arrived in Minnesota this evening. We noticed that the flags at the Illinois rest stops were at half mast, but could not find out why - no internet there either!  It rained gently for most of the day which kept it mostly cool and easy to drive westwards, no sun to get in our eyes.  We found a really lovely Rv Park in Davenport, Iowa where we were surrounded by the Big Boys!  We have a 29 foot class C motorhome and are pulling an S10 truck (otherwise known as "the bakkie") and are shadowed by these big beautiful Class A bus style motorhomes with paint jobs that alone must cost more than we paid for our little house on wheels.  I think we were the smallest rv in that park last night.

Another thing that I forgot about this traveling deal is that there is no such thing as sleeping in - at all.  When Frank gets up, and thats always early, thats it.  The doglets are awake before him and then the day starts.  Not because of noise or anything, its just that even when a 4 pound doglet moves, so does the motorhome and the small bells we have around their necks, tinkles as if Santa is arriving in town.  And they want outside, then inside and outside again....... So I am going to have to learn to get to sleep earlier......  Sophie still does not give a hoot if we are driving or walking, Allie still hates every mile that the wheel turns, although I have the sneaking suspicion that she quickly sticks her tongue out and pants as soon as she hears me coming to check on her!  Today she jumped out from under the table and hurt her leg a bit - so she has a bit of a limp and at every opportunity, shows us that her leg is sore by holding it up like a pointer dog!  But she walks fine when we go for a walk............ hmmm

These past two days we have been driving through either farmlands or city centers....... half broken down barns in cornfields or trucks screaming by 3 inches away at 90 miles per hour.  Interesting.  I love the farmlands.  We stop about every two hours to walk the doglets and also to take ourselves a break and are finding this a much better way than how we have done previous trips - this is really making us slow it down and take it easy.  Most of the farm houses are surrounded by huge trees and they look like  a lovely slice of peace and quiet and manicured lawns inside the tree walls...... there are almost always multiple barns and tractors and things in there too.

Today we started seeing those humongous wind turbine generators too - I think they are rather elegant and have this swish-swish sound to them which is quite eerie when its misty and raining.  We saw a truck that was trying to transport one 'wing' of a wind turbine but the curve to get onto the interstate was just not long enough and the truck went off the road, shifting the load and the whole kit and kaboodle  was off the road on either side and tilting off the trailer - oh boy what a job to get that sorted out!  

We drive past places that tell us that they are the Worlds Largest Truck Stop, or that this is the Home to the World's Largest Frying Pan - and we keep going........  There are many places that advertise their businesses by having a car stuck up on a pole, high in the sky........ I could get some good money for those things on Ebay, guys!  Twice we  turned off to find a campground and followed the signs to places that were just not.............well, we did not stay there, much to Blondie's disgust and confusion.  She gets rather insistent when we don't follow her route and repeats her 'request' to 'turn around' until I turn her sound off until we have found our way out of there again.    Interesting.     

Now we are in a park, nestled under pine trees with the crickets and cicadas doing what they do best - making a lovely, campfire type noise.  There is a huge lake just below us and when the sun set, the clouds turned pink and were all beautifully reflected in the water.  It was lovely to walk the dogs down there and just watch the boats and people enjoying the water. Allie and Frank are asleep while Sophie has found her second wind and is tearing into the tiny dalmation toy dog that has an ear-splitting squeaker inside it.  The windows are all open and gentle sounds of people around their campfires are filtering in - I wonder what they think about the squeaking sounds coming from this rv?  The smells of their food makes my stomach grumble and my mouth water, but its bed time now.

I will be posting some photographs on photobucket.com as we go, if you want to see - here is the link to get there: http://photobucket.com/annieb.  Look on the left hand side where you will see albums listed.  I am going to try to keep them in the order that I take them......  Mom, ask Katie to show you when you are there.

This trip is wonderful so far - it's simply lovely to be free and riding again.  We are both so relaxed and looking forward to the mountains, the northern lights, the sights along the way......... but even just the driving around - we just love it and know we are so incredibly fortunate......

Till next time

love and light

Annie

http://livingwithcml.blogspot.com