On the Road Again . . . and again and again!

Day two of the our driving marathon and just so you know there will be no cross continent records set.  Pulling a camper trailer, even the size of ours, changes the whole trip dynamic.  There are two things that standout . . . the speed you travel (we can hit 62 but only if it’s flat, honestly 55 our new favorite number on cruise control) . . .  and the gas mileage.  We are trying to remind ourselves it’s okay since our carbon footprint over the years has been relatively small . . . so there must be reserves in the “enviroment bank” to draw upon  . . . right?

Here is a brief update of the cross-country odyssey:

Day One:  Dillon, MT –  Gillette, WY  As a passenger Alice was so teenager like with all of her electronic toys:  the Garmin, the cell phone  (texting and talking with friends), and plugging  her iPod into the stereo with her music.   (Pete lost all of his CDs so there was no John Denver! )  Even worse was the Sirius Satellite Radio wasn’t working so Pete was stuck with Alice’s tunes!!!!!  You do know there is a generation gap between these two when it comes to music and the electronic thing. 

Day Two:  Gillette, WY – Sioux Falls, SD  We pretty much were in the right hand lane the whole day which tells you that everything and I do mean everything passed us. Stopped at Wall Drug for soup and pie.  It is a much different place in December.   We drove 8:00 am to 7:30 pm.  Thank goodness for books on tape.  A plus to getting terrible gas mileage, you can stretch your legs more often.

Abby, the dog, has been a great traveler.  This is a first!!!!  She has just made a nest in the back seat and rides there like a pro.

Heading to Northwood, IA tomorrow.  Not sure if we can make it to Shannon’s by day four or not. 

   

The Takeoff

Well, tomorrow is it. We’ve loaded the trailer (which didn’t take long), cleaned the house (which took considerably longer) and said our goodbyes. We’re going to leave at 6 and go as far as we can on I-90. The weather looks reasonable, and I think we’ll be able to avoid snow. We’re staying with Bob and Terri Weselmann in Iowa and Shannon in Indiana. Hopefully we’ll be at Alices folks about Day 5. We’re pretty excited and anxious to get going – looking forward to lots of adventures and new things to photograph. We’ll post something every couple of days so keep checking in.

The Grand Adventure 2010

Well, the Great Adventure is fast approaching, at least this years installment of it.  In about eight weeks we’ll be loading up our spacious 16′ Eco travel trailer and head east for a six-month road trip that will take us from West Virginia, to Florida, Texas, Newfoundland, and then back to Montana.  The idea is to hit the coast on the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and follow it all the way around to Texas.  From there, head west to Big Bend, then north through Arkansas and back to West Virginia for a couple weeks.  The second part of our oddessy will take us to Canada, upstate New York, New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and back home.  People have asked what our schedule will be, but that’s kind of hard to say.  We’ll  leave West Virginia right after Christmas, probably get down to where its warm fairly quickly, and spend most of January in Florida.  In February, we’ll try and get across the Gulf Coast to New Orleans, and then in March head across Texas to Big Bend.  In April we’ll be heading back north, and then spend May and June in Canada.  We’ll probably get back here about the end of June.

My main objective is to photograph coastal America, especially birds, with the idea of putting together a book some time in the future. (Next year, the west coast.)  Alices main objective is to play golf and have an adventure.  With that in mind, we expect to hit a lot of the National Wildlife Refuges, do the canoe trip through Ten Thousand Islands on the west side of the Everglades,  do a week with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans, float the Rio Grande and backpack in Big Bend, float the Buffalo River in Arkansas, hit the migration at Point Pele on Lake Ontario, the seabird colonies in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and Acadia National Park in Maine.   So if any of you want to see any of those places, you now have a rough itinerary and schedule.  And the spare bedroom is still unspoken for.  Of course, that would be the back of the car.

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