Virgina

We received some great news today - our thousand trails park on the Chesapeake Bay is reopening later today. They received minimal damage from the storm so we finally get to go to our Virginia destination -woohoo!

Kelcey has already left for Los Angeles - she is attending & presenting at a psychology convention there. We will catch up with Scott, my brother Andy, and Andy's brother Mike over the weekend.

Drove over tho the park - this park is really nice. It is big - we took Henry for a walk and the outer loop is 2 miles! We are camped on a river that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay, but the park also has two lakes for fishing and boating. As we walked the riverbank we saw a group of university rowing teams practicing (racing) - they are fun to watch and man can they go!

Not too many people here - but the few that are here are doing clean-up around their sites. The storm did minimal damage - just a few tree's down and some minor flooding. The water crested the river but has since receded. There are lots of annual sites here. Our membership in these parks also include the ability to lease annual sites at a particular park for a particular price. We have found lots of parks we would like to stay at for a year - but keep going back to the idea of leasing an annual site in Santa Barbara.

Andy flies out in the morning for a meeting so we get everything set-up before he leaves. We take a run into town to the post office - Andria has mailed us our ballots for the election and we need to get them filled out and sent back so our vote counts. Thankfully Oregon is mail-in only - we may have forgotten to get absentee forms before we left as the summer was so hectic with the wedding and all! Thanks Didda :)

Hurricane Update

We are thankful that we were not hit by the storm.

On Monday we woke up to a cold rain - a telltale sign that the weather was changing. While walking Henry we met another couple from Oregon (Burns) who were also waiting out the storm. They too are on a year travel adventure.

There is snow to the south and high wind conditions to the east - so we are staying put for the time being. We watched CNN and The Weather Channel to keep up on the ever changing Hurricane Sandy. The worst looks like it will hit later this evening.

Talked to Kelcey on the phone and Richmond proper wasn't getting much of the hurricane weather. She said they had rain and wind - but nothing excessive. So happy she & Scott have missed the brunt of this one. Sending our prayers to everyone in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and all other impacted areas.

Tuesday:
It was lightly snowing this morning, the temperature topped out at only 39 today. It's another day of nasty weather. Not complaining - it certainly could be worse. Andy is on conference call after conference call - but I'm catching moments of the news between phone calls. Feel so bad for all the people that were in the path of the storm. The snow here melted pretty quickly, but it is bone chilling cold.

The park we were supposed to go to is still closed, so we will need to amend our plans. Talked to my brother Andy who lives in Spotsylvania, VA - we are going to meet up with him on Saturday - yay!  Really looking forward to seeing he & Tina and the girls. It's the first good thing to happen from this storm!

Running from the Storm

We pack up and leave in the dark – as do many of our fellow travelers. Everyone is anxious to get going before the weather changes. We are trying to get as close to Kelcey & Scott in Richmond as we can – but are going to stay out of the high wind area. As I’ve stated before – wind is the mortal enemy of RV travel! We travel south on Hwy 81 from Hershey toward Virginia.

We quickly motor through four states today - Pennsylvania, Maryland (all 10 miles of it north to south) West Virginia and then Virginia. Roanoke looks to be out of the high wind area and as close to Richmond as we dare, so that is our destination today. Traffic is heavy - much more than we anticipated. The heavy northbound traffic consists of hundreds of utility trucks, tree trimming trucks and tractor trailers carrying industrial generators. We presume that they are traveling to staging areas so that they can be prepared to jump in and help with whatever emergencies the storm brings. Everyone seems to be taking this storm seriously - and the traffic reflects it.

Andy loves reminding me of why we bought this coach. We owned an oceanfront house in Galveston, Texas until Hurricane Ike destroyed it in 2008. We were deciding whether to rebuild our vacation house or not when Andy came up with the idea of getting the RV ( I was reluctant – I wanted my house back). His reasoning was that if we ever encountered another hurricane – we could simply drive away from it. As I look over at him behind the wheel  – he has a constant smile on his lips - and he keeps emphasizing that this exact scenario is why the RV was such a good decision. He loves it when his plans all come together! 

We call ahead to find a place to wait out the storm - they are filling up with other travelers trying to get out of Hurricane Sandy's path. The brunt of the storm will hit tomorrow and Tuesday. We finally find one that has a spot available - not ideal - but any port in a storm! We land outside of Lexington, VA. This park has fuel, food and shelter - everything we may need for the next few days. We unpack, take Henry for a walk between raindrops and hunker down for the storm.

Amish Country & Chocolate World

I’m a procrastinator by nature and I am way behind writing this blog – so I’m going to start again writing about today's activities and I will backtrack as soon as I can. I have learned that if I don’t keep this blog updated that I fall too far behind and then can’t remember what we did!

We left Danbury, Connecticut and made an unscheduled stop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania today. While traveling I called ahead to our Thousand Trails Park on the Virginia shore and found out they were evacuating due to Hurricane Sandy. We were told not to arrive. Plan B – make a plan B! 

I had always wanted to see Amish Country - so we drove to the Lancaster area. I just love the idea of a simpler, less complicated lifestyle. As we travel through Lancaster (the oldest inland city in the US) we admire it’s architecture and beauty. It’s a very diverse city – as well as brimming with activity. Andy gets sleepy from today's drive – so we pull over into a park and he takes a quick 10 minute nap. I google the area and come up with an itinerary for our visit. Andy awakes and off we go. I had wanted to visit Central Market – built in 1889, it's the oldest, continuously-run farmers market in the US - but as we arrive they are packing up their wares, we had just missed it. So we head out to discover Amish country. We pass lots of horse & buggies on the side of the road. I’ve had 3 horses in my life – I know how skittish and unpredictable they can be. I’m amazed that the horses pulling these buggies aren’t freaking out in all this traffic – yikes!

We head from town to town – stopping in the quilt and craft shops along the way. This is a very commercial area – and it is a MAJOR tourist attraction! Tour buses are everywhere – it takes a little of the magic away from this so called simple life. We stop in the town of Intercourse, PA and Andy has to stop and get his picture taken in front of the city sign – he loves it! He makes me check-in on facebook from here – funny, funny Andy!

We get tired of fighting the crowds so we head out on a rural road to (here it comes) Blue Ball, PA. Sorry folks.

Now this is the Amish country that I've wanted to see – forget about the towns – the scenery from the rural road is stunning. The enormous dairy barns and quilt-like farm plots are so beautiful. We pass a couple of young boys driving a team of draft horses in a field. We see a farmer moving his herd of cows to the milking barn. Young girls in their bonnets are riding bikes on the side of the road. Charming. The landscape is so appealing – it is like a painting. Can’t say enough about how pretty it is here – and to see all the Amish out working the land by hand – priceless.

We now head to Hershey, PA to take a tour of  Chocolate World. Can't go to Hershey and not see the factory. I'm a fan of the special dark chocolate. Never expected what we walked in to – its like Disneyland for chocolate lovers! There are a couple of different tours – lots of chocolate buying opportunities– and a Disney like adventure park (which we didn’t go to). There is an enormous sports stadium on the property – and a minor league soccer team was having a game. The entire town seems to be funded by the Hershey family – and they have been very, very generous to this area. We drove through a beautiful campus that we thought was the local university but we found out it was a private K-12 boarding school for low income children paid for by the Hershey Foundation. Very generous Hershey is. And delicious!

It was a great day in Lancaster and Hershey. When we got back to our park we found they were having 'haunted woods by hay wagon' tour – but we opted out. I’m not a fan of haunted anything. Lots of people were milling about and it was a beautiful night – didn’t even need a jacket. Several campers had decked out their rigs for Halloween and lots of kids were running around in costumes. There had been a Halloween party for the kids earlier in the day. Sorry to have missed it - I do love Halloween. Walked superdog around the park and called it a night. We'll worry about the storm tomorrow.

Our Week in Cleveland

We belong to a camping club called Thousand Trails. We bought a membership when we got our motorcoach. We get to stay at all affiliated preserves across the country. The properties are well-maintained resort campgrounds and include a clubhouse, swimming pools, golf, tennis, restaurants, fishing ponds, game rooms and various other amenities. The Thousand Trails outside of Cleveland is great - it's one of the largest ones we have been to. They have several lakes in addition to the other amenities listed above. It's a park we will hopefully visit again.

We will be staying here for two weeks. Andy has a travel week – so we will do as much as we can in the first week.

We spent Saturday at Lake Eerie in the town of Geneva-by-the-Lake. Had a blast skimming stones and beach hiking. We got caught in a hearty thunder & lightning storm. Don’t get those in Oregon – so we thoroughly enjoyed it. Henry got freaked out by the thunder - so we rushed back to the jeep before we were thoroughly soaked. Since our beach day came to such an abrupt end we headed into town and found a Thai restaurant and got some tom yum to go.

Sunday we headed into the city center to tour the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The museum shares a parking structure with the stadium for the Cleveland Browns – our bad luck – home game for the Browns. No parking close-in, so we coughed up $25 bucks for parking in an annex lot. Bummer! The museum was great – we spent several hours enjoying the roots of rock and roll. Lots of memorabilia and there was a video wall constantly playing music by the Beatles, Elvis and The Rolling Stones. Had a nice section on the blues – which is Andy’s favorite music. It was fun seeing the handwritten lyrics, outfits and instruments from the early days. The museum was featuring an exhibit on The Grateful Dead. We had a good time – learned a lot – saw a lot - If your ever in Cleveland I say it’s a must do!

                                                                                          

Andy flew out on Monday for a meeting - so the next few days were pretty low key. Lots of walks and talking to the neighbors in our park. Everyone here is really friendly. Met a couple from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We used to take our kids to Dollywood/Gatlinburg every October when we lived in Kentucky. It was enjoyable reminiscing about those days. Made a note to possibly add that as a stop in the spring. Went into town to a farmers market and chatted it up with a few of the locals. People from Ohio are extremely friendly. The Midwest is definitely underrated. 

It rained ALL DAY on Wednesday – so that day was a bust. Picked Andy up at the airport that evening then went to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant we heard about from a fellow camper - it was delicious - we never get tired of Asian food.  Got back to the park and stated packing up the rig to leave on Thursday.

Almost forgot - we visited the nearby village of Austinburg. They claim to have THE WORLD'S LARGEST ROCKING CHAIR! I may have to ask Dr. Kelcey why her mom has such a fascination with large world oddities - hmmm.

Ohio

Sunday morning bluegrass - and away we go. Heading to Cleveland today - Andy has to travel this week so we need to be near the airport. It's a slight delay on our 'Quest for fun'.

As we pass the town of Monroe, MI - I can't help but think of my Mom. She attended St. Mary's Academy here her junior and senior years of high school. She had great memories of her time there. She & I took a road trip to visit St. Mary's several years ago. We got permission from the principal to walk the halls of the school one last time. I'm so happy we took that trip - she loved it.

Our first bucket list item is to see the fall foliage in Maine. As I stated in my profile - this past year was a bad one. Reason #1 for this trip. Reason #2 -our itinerary was formed when my nephew Matt called and told us he was getting married in Maine at the end of September. That phone call put our plan into motion for the first leg of our adventure. Matt's plans have been delayed - but we decided to continue with the trip.

I won't post as much while parked. Looking forward to staying in one place for a week and discovering the Cleveland area!

MICHIGAN!

While Andy was on a conference call I ran into town in an attempt to get my nails done. The owner of the shop I popped into in Huntington had these words of advice for me … ‘early bird get worm – we have no appointment for you.’  Jackass - your shop only opened 10 minutes ago!

We decided to make an unplanned detour into Michigan to see our son Reid and his girlfriend Gabby. It’s just a few hours out of the way and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to see them. Can’t wait to see our family!!!

I always get a thrill being in my home state – it feels great when we see the Welcome to Michigan sign. It  does feels a bit strange being here and knowing we won’t be able to see Andy’s parents and sister Sheri and my sisters Marise & Denise, brothers Ned & Marc, Aunt Mary Jane and lots & lots of nieces/cousins. We'll be back next summer for a nice long visit with everyone!

Reid & Gabby came over and we had a great visit. The next morning we met our neice Kristina over at Reid & Gabby's and headed out to lunch.

There was a home game for University of Michigan - what craziness! The streets are packed with people - driving is impossible. All Reid's neighbors have fans parked in their yards and charge them for parking a mile away! There were planes filling the sky with advertising banners - also skywriting fans!

We had a fantastic visit with the kids and heard all about Kristina's experiences in dental school at U of M. Reid & Gabby are taking a month long trip to Japan- they leave in two weeks - and we heard all about their plans. It's going to be the trip of their dreams!

Hated to say goodbye - but we need to get back on the road - we have a schedule to keep!

                                                                   

Illinois to Indiana

Today would've been my Mom's 86th birthday. She has only been gone a year - but it sometimes feels like forever. I miss her every single day. Andy was working this morning so I took Henry for a nice long walk - and had a nice conversation with my Mom. Happy Birthday Mama!

We packed up and hit the road around 1:00. We decided to drive to Huntington, Indiana.

We had a nice scenic drive through Illinois cornfields.We did have a laugh while traveling through the town of Hoopston - the Sweetcorn Capital of the World. There was a big sign promoting the high school football team – the Cornjerkers. That just cracked us up - what an unfortunate name for a sports team! Can't even tell you how many times we've worked that into a sentence.

Travelled through Fowler, Indiana with its hundreds of wind turbines.

Got to Huntington - the RV park is on a several manmade lakes. Really well kept with lots of hiking trails, swimming, fishing hole and a boating lake. We pull out our camp chairs and sit on the fishing dock overlooking the pond. We met a nice couple and shared travel stories. She (Paula) is from Salem, Oregon and went to help in Louisiana after hurricane Katrina. She fell in love with that area and stayed. She met her husband while volunteering down there – he is from Alabama. She had an adorable accent – not quite southern, just soft and sweet. She thought she still sounded like an Oregonian! I just love all the different people we meet while traveling. They are here vacationing and visiting relatives while trying to escape the heat of Louisiana. The mosquito's started to bite so we had to go inside. I always forget about the mosquito's – we don’t have them in Oregon. We sure don’t miss them!

Hannibal to Rantoul, Illinois

On the road again, now heading to Illinois. We’ve been traveling on two lane highways instead of the interstates. It’s such an enjoyable way to see the country. You really get the presence of an area when you travel through it. Small town after small town show us what they're made of when we pass on by. Farm stands pop up every few miles – but the RV is too big to pull over for a stop. Definitely one of the negatives of a big rig. Bales of hay with gourds and scarecrows tell us fall is coming. We still get a kick out of seeing large farm equipment coming at us on the road. It seems like all the cars, trucks & tractors we pass give Andy a wave. Each waver has his own flair. Andy is so amused by this (road weary?) that he starts waving back – but not your typical wave. He has made a compilation of each type of wave he has received so his wave is him making a gun out of his hand and shoots at everyone we pass. Funny, funny Andy.

After a nice, easy day we pull into Rantoul, Illinois. We are just outside of Champagne/Urbana. This particular park is on a donated piece of land given to the city from the now closed Chanute Air Force Base. It's a beautiful piece of land - lots & lots of room for SuperDog to chase squirrels. It was a nice, easy stay.

                                                                           

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We're Not in Kansas Anymore

We leave Marysville on the Pony Express Hwy and head into Missouri. We stop in St. Joseph, MO to feed Andy’s girlfriend. While filling up at a Conoco station a man in a truck pulls up and asks us what part of Oregon we are from. Turns out he is from Forest Grove – same area as we are. He moved his family here 2 years ago. It's a small world after all. (Disney reference for our dinner club!)

Back on the road – Andy is interrupted by so many phone calls from work that he needs to pull over and take care of some business. He works for a Design Build/Engineering firm based in Lexington, KY. He's been with them for a long time and now gets to work from home ... or ... RV. The downside is he has to travel ... alot. All he needs is a desk to read plans, phone, internet and easy access to an international airport. We know and appreciate what a unique situation we have.

On the road again for awhile and then BAM! We hit a wild turkey - or a wild turkey hits us. Andy sees this bird out of the corner of his eye – it's headed right at us. There is nothing he can do but yell at the turkey to 'pull up pull up!' -  but then BOOM -  it was so LOUD! That turkey hit us smack in the side of the RV.  We pull over to inspect the girlfriend. I feel so bad for the bird - it didn't make it. Andy wants me to write RV 1 , turkey 0. Poor turkey.

We pull into our destination for the night – Hannibal, Missouri - the birthplace of Mark Twain. The Mark Twain RV Park is a beautiful park with lots of big trees and plenty of space. We unpack and take Henry for a walk. It's slightly humid here - a nice change from the scorched and dry State of Kansas. There are quite a few travellers here & lots of activity. The park is a bit of a tourist trap -  a rock shop , a winery (no local wine?) a candle shop (I watched a girl dip and carve a beautiful handmade candle) - and yes - I bought it.

We unhook and make a trip into town. This is an old, old town - and it looks it. Very run down.There is a Mark Twain paddle boat docked in the mighty Mississippi River. We visit the boyhood home of Twain - see the whitewashed fence in Huck Finn - and the home of Becky Thatcher. The whole town is themed in Twain - but in a very sorry state of disrepair. Makes us kind of sad. 

     

We googled the Hannibal park maps and head up to Lover's Leap. There is a 9/11 memorial here and we pay our respects. It's a beautiful park on a rock outcropping overlooking the Mississippi River. What a view! The legend of the park is that an Indian Princess and a young warrior from an opposing tribe fell in love and were chased to the top of this rock by the girl's tribe. Her father offered an otter skin to anyone who would kill the warrior. Realizing their fate - the lovers held hands and jumped to their death.



                                                                                                 

                                                         

We head back to the park and I throw together a quick  curry for dinner.

It's nice outside - warm and a little muggy - so we decide to eat outside. Our neighbors across the way begin playing one of my favorite Christmas songs, 'Mary did you know". They had a mandolin, guitar, autoharp, bass, harmonica and fiddle. Can't begin to express how enjoyable they were to listen to. They played us a mini concert of traditional country, bluegrass and gospel music and had quite a crowd gathered around them by the time they finished. They are the Jacob Austin Band and are based in College Station, Texas. It's Jacob & his Mom & Dad and they travel in an RV and play churches and festivals across the US. So happy to have met them - they made our stay in Hannibal so memorable!

                                                                       

Marysville, Kansas

Continuing onward from Cawker City - we travel another 3 hours and decide to look for a place for the night. We choose Marysville, KS as it has 3 parks for us to choose from. Its always a little risky traveling without a solid travel plan - but most of the fun happens in the unplanned! I'm in  charge of calling ahead and making reservations while Andy is driving. The first 2 parks I try are closed for one reason or another - so our 3rd choice wins by default. 

As we arrive into town we are thrilled with our choice of towns - Marysville is a gem. It has cobblestone streets and looks like a place out of a different era. Our host at our intended RV park meets us at the road and waves us into his driveway. It's not really an RV park after all- it's a field behind this guys (Dave) house! Andy & I do a doubletake - but we don't really have a choice so we pull in. He leads us to a spot and we park. There are 2 other travelers here - and he has hook-ups for 5 more. It all seems a little strange - but we go ahead and pay and unpack. Dave could not be a nicer guy. Turns out he is a local celebrity - head of the fire department - and he penned the national slogan "check your smoke detector battery once a month". He gave us the lowdown about the town ... which was the first pony express stop in Kansas. We are anxious to check out the town so we unhook the jeep and head out before night falls.

The town is so nostalgic - with it's brick streets and ancient storefronts. This downtown seems to be thriving - we saw lots of people out and about. People greet us as we pass on the street - gotta love that. We located the Pony Express Museum, beautiful County Seat Building, and famed Pony Express statue and mural. We popped into a local restaurant for dinner and saw that they were having a book signing for a local author. This community has great energy - I may have to consider it for my list!

We go on back the the RV and are greeted again by Dave. He hands us a basket full of fresh tomatoes out of his garden. (When we were talking earlier he asked us what we missed from home and we told him our garden had been bursting with tomatoes and we had eaten all that we had brought with us.) I try and pay him but he won't take it. He tells us to just pay it forward and we assure him we will. I believe that Dave is one of the reasons this town has such a good feel to it. We learn that he's lived in Marysville his whole life, married his high school sweetheart and has raised 3 girls.

Then he tells me the most disappointing news ... we are going to miss the Kansas Statewide Garage Sale! The entire state of Kansas participates in a border to border garage sale and it this weekend! I look at Andy and he says absolutely not - we are not staying! I can't believe I am only 4 days from seeing such an event - I love the whole community effort aspect of it - not to mention it sounds like fun! Andy insist it would be a travel nightmare - and unless I want to see him using a 38,000 pound vehicle in a road rage incident then we better get going. My heart sinks a little knowing I'm going to miss it. Dave wishes us a goodnight - he will be unavailable the following day as he will be participating in a Sept. 11 tribute. I almost forgot the date - time slips away on the road. We'll have to make time tomorrow for some sort of remembrance ourselves.

                                                         

A Visit to Cawker City, Kansas

I am beyond excited this morning! Last night I googled Kansas tourist attractions after seeing the giant Van Gogh painting. Hold on to your hats everyone ... I am going to see THE WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE!!! I know – I can feel your enthusiasm. This is so awesome – I can hardly contain myself. It is located on our current travel route – but it wouldn’t matter – I would ask (nag) Andy to take me to it wherever it was.  It is my idea of the ultimate tourist attraction – and I can't wait to see it! As I mentioned before ... it's all about the small stuff  :)

We leave Goodland around 9:30am – and we hit central time zone soon after. It’s about a 3 hour drive to THE WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE!!!

Andy is afraid that I will be disappointed - but I assure him that is not remotely possible. After all – I do know what a ball of twine is. We used plenty of it making Andria’s table decoration for the wedding! My excitement does not diminish.

I try hard to keep my thoughts off THE WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE!!!

We pass several small towns with tons of character – but I will not choose these towns for my list. It is so dry here – my skin feels like it is falling off. I don’t know if it’s because we live in beautiful, rainy Oregon or what – but it’s even hard to swallow it’s so dry. If we lived here I would buy stock in some sort of juice or drinking water company - we are going through lots of liquid to help quench our thirst.

We pass through the town of Hoxie - and hear the noon fire whistle. Now that isn't a sound you hear everyday. Growing up in St. Ignace they blew the whistle at noon - as well as the church bells at 6:00. Sometimes I sure do miss living in a small town. 

The landscape is getting prettier. We enter more of a rolling hill topography. Coincidently – it begins at a town called Hill City. Here is an interesting factoid about Kansas from our buddy Bill. All the small towns on these rural routes are between 7 – 10 miles apart. That is the distance a horse & buggy could comfortably travel in a day. He told us that most of these towns have less than 50 people living in them today. I wish I could stop and listen to some of the oldtimers stories. I’m sure they have many interesting tales to tell.

We near our destination of Cawker City, Kansas. As we drive into town we see it - Ta Da! It is magnificent! There is an information plaque out front and a roof covering the ball protecting it from inclement weather. I rush out the door before Andy can get his flip flops on.

There it sits – in all its glory. THE WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE!!! 

 I can’t believe there aren't crowds & crowds of people here to see it –  but it’s just us. We read the plaque – here are the facts:

The Twine Ball story began in 1953, when farmer Frank Stoeber, like thousands of his rural brethren, found it tidy and efficient to roll spare bits of sisal twine into a small ball in his barn. But over the years, instead of re-using or disposing of the twine, Frank kept rolling. By 1957, his twine ball weighed 2 1/2 tons and stood 8-ft. tall. By 1961, when he turned it over to the town, Stoeber had over 1,600,000 feet of twine rolled into a sphere 11 feet in diameter. Stoeber died in 1974.

Afraid of another town (Darwin,MN) surpassing the record - the town of Cawker organized an annual Twine-A-Thon, where anyone can step up and wrap more scrap twine onto the ball.

Today, the ominous sphere squats at the center of a whirl of twine ball-related boosterism and activity. Current caretakers Linda and Jack Clover break out the twine spools and wrapping apparatus at a moment's notice, and police for improper wrapping (string and yarn are not allowed). After 2006's Twine-A-Thon, total twine length was recorded as 7,801,766 feet. It weighed in at just under 18,000 lbs.

Andy takes my photo – several photos – and then I walk around the ball a couple of times to revel in it's greatness. We take a walk down Main Street and notice that most of the nearby businesses are closed – maybe it’s a 'closed on Monday' sort of thing. Hope it's not a "nobody cares about THE WORLD'S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE' sort of thing. No souvenirs for us so it's back into the RV to contiue on our way. 

Before we take off Andy turns and asks me if it’s everything I thought it would be. I answer - "Of course, it's THE WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE!!!"

Enough said.

Ft. Collins, Colorado to Goodland, Kansas

Andy & I have this game we play - when we visit a place we like we tell each other if we could live there or not. Andy likes warm (hot) weather - he wants to live in Palm Springs or the Florida Keys. He is seriously trying to talk me into moving back to Santa Barbara, Ca - where we lived from 1980 - 1986.

I like small towns that have lots of character. On my list is Las Cruces, NM - Ludington, MI - New Hope, PA and Driggs, ID.

Ft. Collins appears to be a town for my list. Home to Colorado State University - it is surrounded by beautiful landscapes. The downtown area is as quaint of a place as I've seen. Art galleries, cafe's and mom & pop shops line the streets of College Ave. It's a place I wish we could spend more time. As we are just beginning our travel day - I persuade Andy to stop for a coffee. We grab a coffee and walk Henry down the tree lined streets. There are lots of people having breakfast/brunch alfresco. We get a few greetings from diners as we pass on by - mostly aimed at Henry. This is a dog friendly group!

Yes, I would really like to get to know Ft. Collins. It gets too cold here for Andy to put it on his list - even though he was ecstatic when he bought fuel for his 'girlfriend' and only paid $3.93 a gallon!

As we move on down the road - we commence with our Sunday ritual - Bluegrass Sunday. We fell in love with bluegrass music when we lived in Kentucky (1986-1995). This morning we are being treated to the Del McCoury band playing a tribute to Bill Monroe - yeehaw!

We head east on 34 through Greeley and beyond. The view flattens out in eastern Colorado. There isn't much to look at. We do pass an enormous beef feedlot near Kersey, CO - the largest we've ever seen. So many cows - so little space. The smell is overwhelming. We can't get THAT SMELL out of our nostrils for nearly 10 miles. I feel sympathy for a cyclist that passes us heading toward the feedlot. He's going to smell THAT SMELL for a very long time. Poor guy. Poor cows.

Eastern Colorado turns into western Kansas - not much of a difference in the view. Flat farm fields forever.  This part of Kansas looks to be greatly affected by the drought. Miles and miles of half grown corn & sunflowers dead in their fields. Kansas is the sunflower state - and their sunflowers look to be in bad shape. This is not the prettiest state we've ever visited. We call it a day after 6 hours on the road and land in the town of Goodland, KS. Their KOA has a 3 acre dog run - a nice bonus for SuperDog.

It's hot here - 95 at 4 in the afternoon. Goodland will not be one of my choices for towns to live in - too hot & dry. My throat feels like it is clogged with dust. Andy strikes up a conversation  with a fellow traveler (Bill) parked next to us. He tells Andy that if we stay in this town for more than 24 hours then you've wasted time. He's been here 4 days - visiting his sister. He has been full timing for 3 years. A full timer is someone who sells their home and takes to life on the road. We meet  lots & lots of full timers. Andy would like to be a full timer - he has wanderlust in his soul. I love my family & friends & home. It is a constant conversation!

So our new neighbor Bill informs us that Goodland has a famous tourist attraction - and we are parked just down the road from it. This gets me very excited - as I am a fudgie at heart.

For those of you not raised in St.Ignace, I will explain. I grew up in the best small town in America -  St.Ignace, Michigan. It is  a Mayberry kind of town and I am proud to be from there. It's spectacular - surrounded by water and sits at the north end of the glorious Mackinac Bridge in Michigan's upper peninsula. A popular thing for tourist to do in my hometown is to purchase homemade fudge - hence the nickname 'fudgie" substituted for tourist.. I am the ultimate fudgie when I travel!

So Bill tells us about the World's Largest Easel in Goodland, KS. It's 80 ft tall and has a replica of Van Gogh's "3 Sunflowers in a Vase" painting upon it. It faces the highway in the hopes that tourist will stop to visit. As far as Bill knows it hasn't worked - he claims the town is dead. I can't wait to see it - so Andy & I & Henry  have dinner and then head out on a quest to find the painting. It is only a few blocks away - I think you must be able to see that easel from anywhere in this small town as long as you are aware to look up - its enormous! And awesome! I'm so happy we stumbled upon it - can't imagine being here and not seeing it. See for yourself:

                                       


 We end our adventure  by walking over to the Dairy Queen for blizzards - after all - it is Sunday. Goodland was a good stopover. Thanks Bill for the heads up about the Easel!