Ben and I have been a team since we were 17 years old. We're proud to say we've been married for more than half of our lives and we're still best friends. Our adventures together have been priceless, as we’ve played the part of nomads and moved with our two children approximately 22 times over the years. Several health issues, including Lupus, try to bring me down, but there is way too much fun to be had. After trying several Lupus medications, which didn't work for me, we decided to pause work life and figure out how to get out of the rat race and do "more." Now that our kids are grown and figuring out the real world, we've been doing "more" for the last few years and its been an incredible journey. We hope you enjoy!
After departing stormy Fayetteville and our powerless campground, we proceeded through Oklahoma to Tulsa where we hung a right (Right Turn Clyde – This was Ben’s contribution) and headed north through Wichita, past the signs for Hutchinson KS, the first stop on our married- around-the-world journey nearly 30 years ago, then we went on to Salina, KS for a night and then Goodland, KS.
The last time we came through Kansas, we hauled a mega day from Denver all the way to Salina, which is nearly 500 miles of STRAIGHT, NEVER ENDING highway. We learned on that adventure that anything over about 350 miles is a pretty long and tiring day when you’re hauling a camper and looking at nothing but windmills. You just have to be so much more alert to the weather, the traffic, the road conditions, the tire pressures, the engine and transmission tempos, fuel levels, and of course, potty requirements. Potty stops are significantly easier since we bring our own bathroom with us on the journey, we just have to find a place to pull over. Fuel is a lot easier as well since Ben added an onboard 60 gallon diesel tank, so we usually have 800+ miles of range. It is still an exhausting day though.
So, on this trip, we tried to break the drives in to smaller pieces. It would ultimately take us longer to go the same distance over the course of the trip, but we felt it was safer, and honestly, we are mostly retired, so what’s a couple days longer? That is how this 7000 mile trip stretched in to 60 days.
So following our guidelines for smaller drives, we arrived from Fayetteville into Salina, Kansas without event. Besides hitting the Salina Sam’s Club for the next few days of meals, we did absolutely nothing else but sleep, knowing we had power again and a fan to cover the noise of life outside the tube. And we desperately needed that sleep after surviving all the crazy weather in Arkansas.
It was unfortunate timing, but our road diet caught up with us a bit during our Salina stop. I won’t share names, in order to protect the innocent (Ben did it)(HEY!), but there was a record breaking potty incident, which tested the mechanical limits of the airstream bathroom AND the person who was involved in the incident. After hearing someone’s rumbling tummy and a great deal of moaning from the unnamed person, the cause of discomfort finally exited like it had two left elbows, bowed knees and was ready to give the campground septic tank a run for its money. Usually it’s Ann with all the GI issues, so she had plenty of empathy for the unnamed person. It took teamwork to fix the issue and in the end we decided just to replace the whole toilet. 🤭 and we vowed to not eat any more McDonald’s breakfasts. Another lesson learned, far too late in life.
Is that a curve in the road up ahead?
Kansas is really beautiful country and it is part of our nation’s heartland and breadbasket to be sure. There is just a LOT of it and it NEVER lets up.
Just when we thought Kansas was getting a bit on the boring side, WHAM! World’s biggest easel and world’s biggest Van Gogh! And only 300 miles ahead in Goodland, KS! Oh baby, it’s ON!
THE #1 attraction in Goodland, KS!
That right there is the world’s biggest easel. With the world’s biggest Van Gogh (I’m concerned that it might possibly be fake or even worse a deep fake). Both TripAdvisor and Goodland, KS did not disappoint.
That easel was listed as the number 1 attraction in Goodland, for good reason. Walmart was number 2, also for good reason.
Here is the back of the easel. We did tour the local Walmart, but did not get a picture. So sorry.
Even more impressive from behind! lol
Honestly, it was a good thing we called ahead and made reservations. Parking was a disaster.
The parking is as horrendous as Disney World, so definitely plan ahead. Turns out you’re supposed to look for the red brick road in Kansas!
We’re officially registered as visitors to the biggest Van Gogh. Hooray!
When we started the planning phase of this trip, we knew we needed to schedule the trip around a few previous commitments. Sprinkle in some board meetings here and there for Ben, make sure we don’t get lost and we actually make it to the 2025 Mather family reunion in July and then lastly, we have Chris returning home from his internship at Parker to start his senior year at Florida Poly in early August. Check, check and check! Punch those conflicts into the calendar and it pretty much left the spring and the fall for travel and the fall is WAY too risky for Ann. The temps might possibly fall below her 70° comfort level. In other words, it’s way too close to winter to leave Florida. So here we are, traveling the country at the end of May.
We banged out the first two nights on the road, first in Madison, Florida and then Hattiesburg, MS. Really boring start as we were in well known territory and nothing really humorous happened other than the lovely interstate through Jackson, MS broke all our dishes in the Airstream (AGAIN) and sloshed what little toilet water was in the bowl all over the bathroom floor. Jackson Mississippi crappy interstate roads, you SUCK 🙄. Beyond that kind of entertainment, we just typically spend the boring trip between Hattiesburg and Hot Springs Village counting the number of Dollar Generals out in the middle of BFE. It’s A LOT.
So on Day 3 of the trip we arrived to the folks house in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. We spent our down time hanging out with the folks and Hannah, who joined us there. We watched the dogs chase all the chipmunks off the property and we worked on a few projects here and there. It was our time to unwind from the grueling weeks of planning and packing, prior to our departure.
Our time here didn’t include any camping, as we were back in a proper bed on night three and had all the creature comforts. It’s the last chance for Ann to shave her legs without doing any fancy leg maneuvers in the world’s tiniest shower and to paint her toenails without stinking up the whole tiny tube. We were slowly breaking ourselves back into the whole camping thing. Meanwhile, the airstream was safely parked and plugged in at the local RV campground about 5 miles away.
At about 10 pm on our second night there, the wind started picking up and weather alerts started going off on phones, tablets, and the little weather radio inside. The news wasn’t good. Strong thunderstorms headed our way with 70 mph gusts and ping pong ball size hail. Our eyes bugged out a bit as we saw that last line of the forecast. We had maybe five minutes to get anything outside closer to inside and to pull the truck a little further in under the carport and then the hail came in as predicted. It only lasted for maybe ten minutes, but it sure did come down.
Big enough to make some noise!Poor Ann already has a winter coat on lol
While a bit short of the ping pong ball size estimate, still pretty nasty.
The damage was done, so there was no point in rushing over to see if the airstream was ok, so we just turned in for the night.
After dreams of golf ball shaped dents and broken windows all over the airstream, we headed over in the morning and were pleased to discover that the storm was not as intense in the campground, so our Airstream, as well as the campers of all of the other surrounding guests, were just fine. Lots of tree debris but mostly just messy. All good!
The hail storm was a bit of a wake up call for us both, and we resolved to watch the weather a bit more closely as the trip progressed.
The next day, we hooked up the airstream and headed up scenic highway 7 and slightly less scenic but faster paced 40 and 49 to see Hannah up in Fayetteville. We found a little campground outside of town about 10 minutes from Hannah’s house, so that we could visit and help her out for a few days.
It was great to see Hannah in her first house and to tour her facility in her first job in her profession! We got to help do some projects around the house, stuff that we always did either when we first bought houses or more likely stuff we did immediately before listing that we should have done at the beginning. Hannah benefitted from our experience in the latter and we took care of a lot of things that likely would not have made the priority list for a while but made living in the house more pleasant.
And, we got more experience with spring thunderstorms. SIGH
When we first arrived, a big band of thunderstorms moved through the area just north of us, which created some beautiful skies for us in Fayetteville. Here is a shot a neat shelf cloud rolling through with a really neat band of turquoise sky pinched in between fronts. We don’t know if that is a meteorological correct statement but we also don’t care. But if you’re in Arkansas you at least have to pronounce it “peenched.”
As the storms rolled in…It just kept getting cooler, yet scarier!
It turns out there are worse things to think about in May, other than cooler temperatures and weirdly pinched skies. With both of us growing up in the Midwest, as well as living in several Midwest locales you’d think we’d remember that the month of May can be crazy. In our defense, we’re trained now for the much longer advance warning that we get for Florida hurricanes, which are really just a slower moving form of tornado that occasionally carries a wall of water with it. Very similar in their destruction, but the amount of hustle required before the arrival of each is VERY much different! When you’re old, having minutes to react vs days is brutal.
What we definitely didn’t think about was how freaking scary it is in a metal tube! And out in the middle of a field, which is EVERY campground location.
While we were working late at Hannah’s house on our second night in Fayetteville, the weather alerts started going off again, and this time, it was a tornado in Oklahoma headed directly toward our area. Warnings of 2” hail accompanied the alert.
YIKES! This isn’t a hurricane. We have seconds, not days to prepare!
Shortly after that, the tornado sirens started going off outside.
So we gathered the important people and animals and documents and huddled in Hannah’s interior bathroom for about 15 minutes.
Occupado!
Soon after, the weather indicated that the tornado had passed south of us, so we ventured out of the bathroom to see how things looked outside. All was well, so we wrapped up our work and we headed back to the campground.
As we got closer, flashing emergency vehicle lights and no lights at the local businesses gave us the indication that perhaps the storm was a bit worse down here. As it turns out, the tornado hit Greenland, AR which is also where our campground was located.
We pulled in to the campground, expecting the worst, and once again, we had been spared damage. Some debris on the ground and quote a few campers had pulled out of the large campground, but all appears to be fine. Thank God!
As we went in to the airstream, we noticed that a few neighbors were running on-board generators in their big class A motor homes. Didn’t think much of it. Lights were working for us so we went in and started to get settled in for the night.
As it turns out, power had been knocked out for the whole campground, so we could run lights and the fridge could keep running, but it was all on battery power only. So, no AC and no 110v outlets. Note to self, get an on board inverter and carry a generator for future trips.
Luckily, it was cool enough that we did not need the AC, but one of the things we learned early on was to keep the fan for the AC on in low mode to drown out outside noise in the campgrounds. This helps tremendously with local road noise, neighbors that may be slightly overserved, and noisy campers and trucks idling close by or pulling in late or pulling out early.
With the fan off, every low frequency hum of a generator or diesel engine idling was clearly heard, as were doors opening and closing anywhere nearby. Of most significance though was the fact that the thunderstorms were still rolling through, and Ann does not like loud thunderstorms overhead. Not at all. Not one bit actually. Neither does Ben when that storm is experienced inside of a thin metal tube, unanchored to the ground. Our only course of action was to watch the weather and to keep our hands or other body parts away from the aluminum inside walls of the airstream. A useless precaution perhaps, as once lighting has travelled several miles at light speed to reach our camper, the separation of a few inches of air between the camper and our meaty little bodies sure isn’t very much, but it is what we had.
That night and the next were spent without power, which gave us a decent taste of what it would be to boondock in the camper, and I think we both agreed that perhaps boondocking is not for us, but it works in a pinch (Or in a peeench). We will just bring a 12v fan to block out the noise or better yet, hook up and move out of the storm’s way next time!
Still no power as we pulled out on Wednesday morning. The tornado hit on Monday night, so I guess waiting for the power to be restored post tornado is a lot like waiting for power post hurricane. Surely it’s just coincidence that we keep running into storms right? The weather can’t be bad for ALL 60 days of our trip???
Yes, it’s definitely been a minute. Or two. I truly apologize for depriving everyone of some of our most embarrassing moments from the last couple of years.
Our last big trip, in 2023, ended somewhat abruptly for me, at least in the respect that I got hit with a major Lupus flare and I was too sick to write the ending to our trip. Autoimmune flares are sneaky and can quickly ruin the best of adventures with my favorite person in the world, (that’s Ben, of course). The good news is that I’m stubborn and I don’t give up easily, so we’re back on the road and we’re trying to bring this adventure blog back to life so you can laugh at OR with us, once again.
We made a few changes to how we planned this trip and how we’ll document our adventures from now on. Firstly, hurricane season in Florida has been a bit irritating, brutal, and hugely destructive lately, so when we decided to take another 10,000 mile adventure, we decided maybe late spring/early summer is a better time to travel and not have to worry about everything back home. Secondly, we decided to break the trip in to smaller drives as we used to really push ourselves with too much driving on long days and not enough time between driving days. Finally, due to some health related issues with my vision, Ben and I will be trying to churn the highlights of this and future adventures out by team blogging. Sorta like how old couples resort to team driving once they’re too old to complete all the driving functions solo, such as seeing the road, turning their neck and feeling the gas and brake petal with neuropathy in both feet. Yeah like that. Should be an interesting experiment lol.
So without further ado, we kick off our adventure, which will take us all the way from SW Florida up to Glacier National Park and hopefully back home before any trouble starts brewing in hurricane land.
It turns out that when you exit the Denver metro area, the sweet, rich weed money, that the Denver area uses to keep the roads smooth, RUNS OUT. Holy Moses!
Exactly five miles outside of Denver is when our half gallon of milk made itself into a milkshake! Dumb me made the mistake of having two large coffees, while we were packing up to head out of Central City and my bladder was about to burst. 🫣 Suddenly we were in no man’s land and once again no cell signal to distract me from my pee pee woes. Sigh! I refused to ask Ben to stop before his bladder needed relief because he drinks about a gallon of water an hour and that would be embarrassing if I had to go first. Nope. Not happening.
Ben FINALLY claimed full bladder, just as I was about to burst in his leather seats. We found a strange gas station about an hour out of Denver. It was a Yeti themed gas station out in the middle of nowhere, which was strange in itself. The good news about this stop was that everyone, including Peppy got to empty their bladders. We also put everything back in cabinets and drawers in the Airstream, because our crap had flown out of every compartment, on that bumpy stretch. Crazy, but at that moment we were trying to leave, a spontaneous cement truck parade just came out of nowhere. I have no clue what would require that many cement trucks because it apparently wasn’t road repair. We got trapped, for what seemed like HOURS, trying to leave this gas station. I’ve never seen so many cement trucks at one time! The most unexciting parade I’ve ever been forced to watch. 🥱
No matter how bad the roads were outside of Denver, a day driving through Kansas is almost worse. BORING! I thought I was tired of seeing rocks, and I’m pretty confident that I’m still sick of rocks for a while, but now I’m just as sick and tired of windmills. There are a bazillion windmills across that state and now I’m dizzy. 😩 Cows are at least kinda fun to watch. Where are all the cows???
Hours of no cell signal and reading my e-book was out of the question, unless I wanted to have a seizure on these awful roads. I already felt guilty because Ben has had to do all the driving of this monster rig, so I promised myself I wouldn’t sleep. So instead, I attempted a thumb war with Pepper and lost because she thought she was going to get one of Ben’s beef sticks for winning. She got her prize and boy is she strong when she wants food! BAD decision to lose that thumb war. Pepper got double revenge with beef stick toots. 🤢
My options for entertainment were running low and I didn’t need any more dog farts stinking up the truck with my little games. So, I just spent my time torturing Pepper. She thought I was gonna be sweet and invite her into my lap, but instead I tortured her with selfies while she made strange gurgles and whiny noises. LOL She soooo badly wanted to be up front in my lap, but I can only do so much Pepper lap time when my bladder, even though it was just emptied, is being bounced around and my bowels are still rumbling. Combine that with the HOURS in between finding civilized potties and this is what my blog looks like today…
Ok. Pepper won 🙄
Excuse my language but there isn’t shit in Kansas to report on. Sadly, I wish there was something, anything exciting to say because this is the birth state of our daughter. Sorry Hannah. Your birth state is BORING! But I got you a keepsake pic!
Happy birth place Hannah!
We arrived at our campground in Salina, KS and still boring! We had a mountain man with a beard down to his knees in the spot next to us. He was kinda entertaining as he shuffled around the campground, but I wasn’t sneaky enough to get a pic without a potential murder/death/kill. He looked sinister. 😳
And the only other speck of anything interesting was this beauty.
Pristine! Does the Mather Clan need a new Coconut Express????
Oh and the best part of my evening was baking cookies and making Ben’s face do this because they were pumpkin spice cookies. He kinda looks like a puckery pumpkin spice by this point of the trip with that beard. LOL
😝
Off to Fayetteville, Arkansas next! We get to see Hannah and Ty in their new house!
Holy Moly! I need to turn around or make Ben drive faster!
Well hello Colorado! If ya’ll know me, you know I DON’T DO SNOW! The first thing we see on the way to our luxury campground in Central City, CO is SNOWY peaks! UGH 😩
We had some wicked cold 60° nights in Moab and that was bad enough. My body totally stops working when it gets below 70° and by “stops working,” I mean just that. My brain cells freeze, my teeth chatter so badly that I can’t verbalize anything, I lose all feeling in my central nervous system, therefore I also lose feeling in all important extremities and my joints don’t move anymore. I turn into a really, really broken down version of the Tin-man. I can’t even function enough to ask for the oil can. 🙈
When we arrived at our campground, the scenery was stunning and I was pleasantly surprised that it was still almost 80°, but I was VERY wary. There was a strong, cool breeze blowing through those mountains, at almost 11,000 ft of altitude. The leaves on the trees were starting to change and I could SEE the snow from where I stood. All bad signs that pointed towards me being cold soon. 👀 By the time we finished setting up our campsite, that sun wasn’t far from setting.
The whole time I was prepping for dinner, my paranoia kept me wondering if we were gonna get a surprise mother of a snowstorm and get trapped on top of this mountain for the rest of our lives. Everyone around the campground, me being the exception, was still running around in shorts and a t-shirt. I truly believe they’re all in on tricking me into staying or they’re crazy. Or both!
Just in case I die from freezing, here’s a last pic of us happy and warm-ish.
Hello Colorado!
The town folk even went so far as to lure me here with casino billboard after casino billboard. I know how much Ben loves the mountains, especially the Rockies and I think he picked this campground due to its proximity to gambling. His backup plan is to haul me off to the casino if the snow starts flying and he needs to distract me. I’m gonna stay strong and not fall for it, but $1,000 in free play for new members!!!! Who can pass that up? 🤦🏼♀️
Nope. Not falling for it! Ben definitely knows we’re in danger because three bundles of firewood magically appeared and one of our Airstream propane tanks was refilled and delivered to the campsite. The heater runs on propane! ALL RED FLAGS! 😳 Who plans a fire when it’s 80° unless they KNOW there’s gonna be a serious drop in temperature???? Suspicious!
I have to give myself credit though. I acted so totally cool with Ben’s plan to open the camper windows and air it out for a bit. It was still pleasant and there were several weeks worth of toots and a little bit of skunk trapped in that metal tube. 🤢 What Ben didn’t know is while he was opening windows, I was back in the bedroom putting on 4 more layers of clothes and fiddling with the thermostat so I knew how to turn on the heat, when that cold, dreadful winter storm slammed down upon us. The poor Airstream hadn’t been turned to heat mode yet, so I truly hoped it worked.
While I was planning for snowpocolypse, Ben and his brother Dave were devising a plan to get he and our nephew, Peter, up to the campground for a tent sleepover the next night. There just happened to be a spot open right behind our spot. Now we’re planning to torture a small child with freezing temps and a night in a tent? Ugh poor Peter!
When Ben informed me of the plan, I forgot about the impending cold weather for a second and went straight into “Aunt” mode. Aunt mode includes planning for lots of high sugar snacks and the messier, the better. Definitely s’mores ingredients are on the grocery list, as well as chocolate milk and cookies because I know Peter LOVES chocolate milk, with a side of double sugar.
With my grocery list in hand, the windows all securely shut again, old toots forgotten and dinner all cleaned up, Ben seemed really excited about that campfire. Hmmmm. He knows I’m about to freeze to death. I’m certain! Being the brave human that I am, I decided to tough it out, but I brought a blanket and my fuzzy slippers, as extra insurance on top of my four layers of clothing. It wasn’t five darn minutes after Ben lit the fire that he said he was cold in his shorts and flannel long-sleeved shirt. 🙄 I had to remind him that his Florida rule to never wear long pants unless he’s cutting down trees is DUMB in the mountains and to go get some pants on. Nope. Stubborn men!
I was actually enjoying the campfire, in all my layers and blanket, so I asked him to hold my blanket and keep it warm while I secretly went to get HIM a blanket. And darn if he didn’t happily accept my gift, except he kept the blanket that was already pre-warmed! 😂 He’s definitely more of a Florida creature now.
I was pleasantly surprised that we survived the night, with heat on, of course, and still in 3 layers of my extra clothes. One layer, unfortunately, had to be shed to rid myself of campfire smell. Love the smell, but don’t like sleeping with it.
After a quick breakfast and Ben heroically walking Pepper, until she pooped (yes, it was steamy!), it was time to find a grocery store! We were finally back in a land where I recognized grocery store names, so I picked one on Google that I thought would be safe. Kroger it is and it’s only 12 miles away through the winding mountains.
When we pulled up, I could tell this particular Kroger was a little “off” from what I was used to in a Kroger. You know something’s off when you pull up and see in tiny letter’s “Bart and Agnes’” before the real Kroger logo. 🙈 I grabbed a cart with confidence, because how hard can it be to find campfire food essentials, even in a mom and pop mart?
Help me Lord! Everything about this store was WRONG and THE BART knew nothing. Apparently Agnes was the “brains” of the organization and she wasn’t around. I had no choice but to hunt and gather under dire circumstances.
The burgers all expired in two days. Every last package lol. No gluten free graham crackers or gluten free anything, which I kinda expected, once we pulled into the parking lot. Ugh I knew I should have stayed in the truck with Pepper and let Ben and Bart figure this mess out.
The killer though, no full sized Hershey bars. 😳 This is definitely where I had to challenge Bart. What self-respecting grocery store doesn’t have full sized Hershey bars in stock, especially in the fall? It’s the quintessential must have for s’mores! Half a candy bar fits perfectly on a regular, full-of-gluten, tasty graham cracker! It’s not even October yet and the Christmas candy was on the shelf but no regular sized Hershey bars???? BART!!! Bart was about to see a woman from Florida have a melt down.
Poor Bart. I ran him ragged, searching backrooms, pallets of food that hadn’t been stocked yet, secret hiding places where Agnes might hide her personal stash. Nothing. Empty handed. It was then that Bart suggested either a Halloween treat sized bag or a Santa pack of treat sized Hershey bars. This was all wrong. Wrong! I could tell Bart was becoming a little afraid of me, so I snatched the Halloween treat sized bars from his left hand and paid my store ransom of $168 for 6 tiny bags of food (plus $.10 for each plastic bag). Crazy land!
I’d finally calmed down by the time we made the short 45 minute drive into Denver, to meet up with David and Peter. Unfortunately, Katie was working and we were gonna miss her altogether. Sorry Katie! ❤️ Ben thought it was wise to warm me up in the Denver sun for a few hours before we began the “Peter night of camping” in freezing, higher altitude temperatures.
I finally broke down when we had cell signal, in Denver and I checked the weather. AH HA! Now I know it’s getting down to 42° tonight! YIKES! I shouldn’t have checked, because now I’ve just alerted my body to proactively shut down. Goodbye toes and fingers. 👋🏻
Peter was so ready to go camping though! He even had ME excited about camping in the frozen tundra and I had ZERO plans to be in that tent. This kiddo must have a super, built-in heater because he’s in shorts, a t-shirt and sandals and what was the thing he wanted first, before camping? ICE CREAM 😱🥶
Pepper didn’t disagree with the ice cream idea! She got some of that drippy love.
And what better way to burn off the extra energy from ice cream?
Hopscotch!
I’m learning to appreciate small children again, now that ours are grown. Other people’s children are fun to sugar up and release into the wild. 🤣
David and Peter all bundled up. That’s spring temperatures apparel, in my opinion!Messy s’more with a treat sized Hershey somewhere in there! ☹️Brrrrr!
I’m happy to report that all survived the 42° night and the tent campers didn’t even end up in the Airstream for warmth. Peter did finally break down and put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Colorado people are tough!
Next stop Salina, Kansas! Why you ask? No idea, but there’s a KOA there in the middle of nowhere and it has to be warmer there!
I’m happy to report that we are skunk-free, to start the day! The vinegar soaked rags worked and my clean sheets stayed fresh and our breakfast was mostly stink free (Ben overcooked the bacon a little lol). 🙌 Mr. And Mrs. Wisconsin are packing up so FAST that I’m curious if maybe they got the full brunt of last night’s skunk attack. But I also don’t have oodles and oodles of free time to go ask that little question. Just as a side note… Is it just me or do Wisconsin people seem to get ten to twelve added hours in their day, with the only stipulation being that they’re only allowed to use the extra hours for chit chat sessions? 🤭 I’m terrible, I know. Our Wisconsin friends are sweet, bless their hearts, but very chatty.
I’m extra chipper this morning because I had another shower victory. Today makes a total of two shower victories in the last fourteen days. A shower victory means no new bruises, no blood and no bandages, of any kind are required post-shower. Maybe, just maybe, I’m finally learning how to shower and shampoo my hair in a tiny shower stall, with minimal injuries. I’ve only attempted shaving ONCE in the Airstream shower. My first attempt was so horrendous that I nearly died of blood loss. The end result of that shaving attempt was the shame of walking around for two days, with little pieces of one ply, cheap ass RV toilet paper stuck to about forty-nine spots on my legs and armpits. Never again! I wanted it to be physically possible, but it’s just not. 😤
We do have a tiny bit of bad early morning news… we had another toiletry fatality and yet another campground memorial service. This time it was an item of mine and a pretty important one. I don’t know how many times I’ve sweetly tried to train Ben to close the Airstream potty lid, especially before opening the cabinet above. 🙈 The training obviously hasn’t taken root!
Ugh Ben!
So with my armpits, generously, coated in Ben’s manly deodorant, I’ve packed up the backpack, in anticipation of a another full day of rock exploring. Yay for rocks (secretly 😩😩😩).
Once again, we leave poor Peppy behind today. Breaks my heart, every time. Not because she’s so old that we don’t think she can handle a day of rock exploring (we all know she’d label it poop exploring). The national parks don’t allow dogs anymore. That was the main reason why we left Charlie and Bailey with Noni and Pop-pop, to run around on their property to destroy, hunt and kill. Better there than destroy the Airstream while we’re gone six to seven hours a day. 🙈 It’s just not fair to lock three dogs in a camper all day. However, Peppy likes to sleep almost as much as she likes to eat, so Pepper has big plans for the day. A FAT NAP! I’m kinda in her camp today, but we only have one last day in Moab. No rest for the weary!
After an exciting 45 minute drive through lots of rocks, we arrived at Canyonlands National Park to look at more rocks. We found the parking lot, which connected to the trail for our first planned exploration. The only problem was that there wasn’t a parking space available. Especially for Ben’s huge truck! Boy, people sure do love their rocks!
After circling 23 times, we finally got lucky and happened to be at the right place at the right time, as someone departed. So up the trail we went to find our first special rock of the day. And no, it wasn’t phallic shaped. Well, I guess if you turn the picture this way or that way, use a little imagination about the rock’s potential and kick in a Viagra, it could definitely be phallic shaped.
The reason for our hike!
Of course, once again, I was too scared to venture out where that person is, to get the winning scrapbook pic, so we’ll just say this was Bob, our friend from Wisconsin and move on. “Hey Bob! Pssst! You’re sitting under a limp rock penis!” 🤣
So as we made our way back to the truck we discussed what to do next. We honestly hadn’t planned a ton of strenuous hikes for the day, due to my crazy and unpredictable pancreas and my out of control Lupus flare. I kept checking the park map and kept seeing these crazy long hikes and honestly, it was only to see more rocks. Fine. I’ll admit it. I’M ROCKED OUT!
As I was checking the map, I did see something that caught my eye and it just happened to be on the way back down the mountain, headed towards the campground. A road, which technically wasn’t part of Canyonlands, nor was it technically part of Dead Horse Canyon State Park, which was just outside the national park. It was just a DIRT road, called Pucker Pass. Intriguing! I know that my husband is always up for an adventure and who could resist an adventure with Pucker Pass in the name?
Now granted, I have no clue what I’m getting myself into, but I have two choices and I’m getting desperate to avoid touristy rocks. One, I can wear myself out looking at more famous rocks or go for a possibly insane bumpy ride out into nowhere. I’ve definitely decided that I’m DONE with rocks, so I convinced Ben that we definitely needed to check this Pucker Pass out. Didn’t take much convincing, especially since we weren’t dragging an Airstream behind us, this time. 🤦🏼♀️
This is one of those adventures where the road isn’t physically marked, but it popped up on the truck navigation, so we knew we were in the right spot. When we arrived at the dirt road, I started to understand the pucker part. It was a dirt road mixed with small boulders to drive over and through. And as far as I could see down the road, it looked like it dropped off into a free fall to the canyon below. Pucker up buttercup because Ben was all in. 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Not at all sure what I’ve gotten myself into, but Ben is smiling in the reflection. Oh boy!
We followed the road until it got to the point where it looked like it was about to drop straight off into nowhere and I made him stop! LOL The rocks that we had to drive over, to continue on, just kept getting bigger and bigger and I know it crushed Ben to stop because he was finally having fun with his 4×4 truck.
The next part of the road definitely put the pucker in Pucker Pass!
We got out briefly and walked on some rocks until we got scared of a potential rattle snake encounters and decided our mission for the day had been accomplished. The one thing I really noticed about this particular spot was how QUIET it was. I asked Ben to just stand there with me, out towards the edge of the canyon, BUT NOT TOO FAR, and just listen with me. Dead silence. You couldn’t even hear the wind. Until Ben broke wind and the echo was booming! 💨 😩 It’s not fair how free Ben is with his farts. I swear he needs to check HIS pants when he does that!!! That’s gonna catch up to him, as he ages!
Time to go back to the campground. I’ve had my explorations for the day and I finally feel like I’ll puke if I see another rock.
We got back to the campground and everyone had deserted us, which was just fine by me. I could sit outside and pretend I wasn’t surrounded by rocks, at least for a little while. UGH and BIG SIGH! As you can see from the pic below, I can’t even do that. We’re surrounded!
Sooo lonely! Do we STINK or something?
Tomorrow we start the long journey towards our home in Florida. Our first stop on the return is Central City, Colorado. We’re there for two nights so we can visit with Ben’s brother, David and his family. We better sleep well and skunk-free tonight, because our little nephew, Peter, is so stinking cute, but a huge bundle of energy!
Things for today are about to take shape! Just wait!
I don’t often get to admit that I was correct, but I was definitely correct this time. Remember when I said our Moab campground smelled a little skunky, upon our arrival and check-in? Well, I woke up an hour before my alarm to a very different kind of alarm. SKUNKS! The smell was so overpowering! It was definitely fresh and I’m not a huge fan of fresh skunk spray. I know I’m weird, but I prefer and actually kinda like the smell of two day dead, road-killed skunk smell. Definitely don’t care for the fresh skunk perfume!
Ben’s nose and my nose usually interpret the smell of dead skunk very differently, but this was lively and STRONG with an intense, burning tang to it. I think we’ll both be on the same page about the “quality of smell” this morning!
I could almost swear that the skunks were actually romping about IN the Airstream. After popping up into a sitting position, carefully and without banging my head for the thousandth time, I quickly confirmed that no skunks were present inside. Shew! That would have been a weird scene to wake up to and I have no clue how we would have handled that one (mental note… form a plan in case skunk invasion actually does happen).
Now that I knew the interior coast of the Airstream was clear, I moved right on to the uncontrollably giggling stage. I couldn’t help it. It was sooooo FOUL! Then, as I started belly laughing, my concern was whether everything in the Airstream would forever smell like skunk and our nostrils would be so singed and forever scarred that we couldn’t smell our skunky selves, but everyone else would. 🤢
I felt kinda bad for waking Ben up because until the belly laughing started, he was still purring lightly beside me. But seriously! How the man could sleep through that kind of stench is mind boggling.
When Ben finally stirred, I could tell when he was done breathing out of his mouth and actually took a nice deep breath through his nose. At that moment, there was an amusing show of gagging and sputtering from the other side of the bed.
It was a bit earlier than we wanted to wake up, but the show was on! The show wasn’t quite what I expected though. The first question out of his mouth was “is that YOU?” 😳 Now Ben and I have been together since we were 17 years old and I don’t think I’ve ever made a smell that compared to this stench, so that had me a little bit concerned. Did Ben actually think my body could churn out a smell that disgusting? That might be a private conversation for later. LOL
Ben being Ben went straight to Google to determine how to keep skunks away for the next two nights. It was obvious to me that they were permanent residents here at the campground, so now the focus became how to send them over to the nice people from Wisconsin’s camper, without any evidence. Ben the Google pro always finds the answer! Rags soaked in vinegar under the Airstream. Easy peasy!
We sent Pepper out to do the exterior sweep and to poo for extra insurance against skunks!
Next on the docket was coffee and breakfast, which all had the extra tang of skunk flavor. I don’t recommend anyone thinking they should bottle that smell up as a flavor enhancer. Bluck! Even with the extra tang in my breakfast, thankfully my digestive tract seemed to be behaving. If all the belly laughing hadn’t triggered anything, I was hoping I’d be ok to freely explore Arches National Park for the day. 🤞
We had a huge day of arch and rock sightseeing planned, with a little extra curricular clothes washing to following our day in the park. I really felt like we needed to get the skunk stench out of everything.
We were ready to head out but did one last quick search on Arches National Park website just to refresh our memories about the particular sights and hikes we had planned for the day. I had my bowel emergency kit packed and in the truck, just in case things decided to get exciting again.
Among our online research, we learned that we had to make a reservation for the park, which we did not know. UGH and SIGH! Ben quickly solved the problem by getting us one of a few reservations left at noon, which was perfect for me. Gave me some extra time to evaluate my GI tract and soak our rags with vinegar for our sneaky “deter and send the skunks to Wisconsin people’s camper” plan.
We hit the park at exactly 11:58 am and we’re released to explore rocks and more rocks! I don’t know if I was feeling a little frisky or what but suddenly every rock formation we saw looked like one thing!
Hmm 🧐 🤔
And I saved the best for last…
😳😳😳
Ben and I were quite proud of ourselves on the last one. It’s not on the official park map but by golly we found it! The crown(ed) jewel of Arches National Park.
As a bonus on the way out of the park we caught a bonus angle with bush!🤣
Couldn’t help myself 😆
But wait, you say! Did we actually see any ARCHES? Why yes, but they weren’t nearly as exciting or giggle inducing as the other rock formations. Hehe!
An actual arch in Arches!
We actually had to work for the above arch, like in an actual hike across rough terrain with no potties, so I’m particularly fond of that arch.
And we saw a few more…
See, not nearly as exciting.
I guess I would have found the park more intriguing had they called it Penises National Park but maybe the attendance wouldn’t have been as high. Who knows though. Most of my friends have a similar sense of humor. 🤷🏼♀️
Then because I think we were scared to go back to the Airstream and find that our entire rig smelled like skunk, Ben stalled and had me do weird poses and I was clueless about what I was participating in. I SWEAR!
No clue why I was doing this 🙄Or this, but Ben is dirty LOL
Gosh I love my husband. He makes life so much fun, even when half the time I have no clue what he’s up to.
We arrived back to camp and I was either nose deaf or the smell from the morning had completely dissipated. I still felt the need to wash anything that was exposed to the great skunk fiasco of 2023. So I grabbed my quarters and all the laundry and proceeded to fill every washer, since no one was around. Just as I had started the last load in the third washer, Mrs. Wisconsin walks in with Mr. Wisconsin’s tidy whities among other things in a ridiculously small laundry bag. I felt kinda bad about that, especially knowing that we were sending the skunks their way tonight. I set my timer for the 27 mins that were left on the first washer and promised to come let Mrs. Wisconsin know the minute I had a washer open for her husband’s undies. 🙈
In the meantime, we caught a glimpse of possibly the world’s tiniest house, just on the other side of the campground. Thought it was kinda cool. Very rustic.
Next on the schedule was the coolest idea that Ben had, by far! We headed back to Arches National Park for sunset and some star gazing. No picture he took could possibly show how awesome the stars were over a pitch black park but this was the best we could provide.
Just awesome!
That’s a wrap for Arches National Park. Tomorrow is another day full of amazing rock sightseeing in Canyonlands National Park. I just hope I can start unseeing phallic symbols. LOL
Well my pancreas decided to completely riot and shut down on me, following our hike day in Zion. I blame the awful, evil, two horned shuttle driver, who caused me an extra 3/4 mile hike in AND out of the Emerald Pools. All kidding aside, I spent most of the evening doing unspeakable things in 2 sq ft of camper bathroom space and slept not a wink. Of course that meant that Ben didn’t sleep either, considering the bed is only 1.5 feet from the bathroom. I’m also claustrophobic, which means the bathroom door is never closed during any act. 🙈 Romantic and intimate. Yes!
So, because I’m a trooper, I put on my old girl panties (aka an adult diaper) and told my outrageous gurgling innards to simmer down, in anticipation of a LONG 8 hour day in the truck. We had planned a couple of “stretch our legs” short hikes at two national parks, on the way to Moab. Not really what my digestive tract was up for, but I really wanted to see these Dr. Seuss type rocks that I’ve heard rumors about. Even with careful planning, to ensure that I didn’t have any massive eruptions along the way, I could still tell that this would be a challenging day. 🤢
So we said goodbye to the lovely Zion campground. We had made some lovely friends there. By lovely, I mean we sometimes learned their first names and where they were from. If they had a dog, then we for sure remembered the dogs name, but not the owner’s name. The joys of making campground friends is that you can chat away about anything, knowing you’ll never see them again. It’s fabulous for someone like me, who never remembers names or pretty much any other information someone gives me. At least not the first time we meet. Usually by meeting 20 or 30, I get some of the info correct.
So we were off, on our way to Moab, with my new best friends (the baby wipes, a paper towel roll, puke bucket, emergency poop bucket and Febreze), carefully stashed in the backseat of Ben’s shiny new truck. The Airstream potty was a mere 10 feet behind my passenger truck seat, but I was uncertain if I could make it that far. Heck, I was uncertain if I could crawl into the back seat, even in emergency mode.
The plans were to stop through Bryce National Park and Capitol Reef National Park, but neither of those stops went as planned. Bryce National Park didn’t want us to stay. Not one single parking spot that a truck and Airstream could fit into, in their “overflow” parking. UGH It provided a somewhat scenic, yet stinky potty stop though. We illegally parked the Airstream in front of a row of dumpsters labeled “no parking,” just so we could do our business before traveling on. 😝 Take that, Bryce NO PARKING National Park! Out of spite, Pepper left a poo memory behind, as well. She may or may not have sampled someone else’s poo memory too. I tried not to test my tummy, so I purposely didn’t pay attention to what she was sniffing or taste testing.
Unfortunately, by the time we got to Capitol Reef National Park, I was a total mess and we had to skip it completely. Just not my day. I was just praying I’d make it to Moab and Ben wouldn’t ditch my sorry ass on the side of the highway somewhere. My gurgling colon was making us both cranky and he was already crabby pants about traveling with two emergency buckets in the backseat of the truck and the possibility that I might completely ruin that “new truck smell” he’s been enjoying.
So let’s talk about some of the roads and highways, out in the western states. I’ve always wondered why you can’t tell your GPS that you’re dragging a monster camper behind you so that it doesn’t take you down the shittiest roads known to mankind. 🙄 There has to be a navigation app that has a “truck and trailer friendly roads” filter. If not, then someone needs to get on that. Pronto!
I felt like I had burning boulders bouncing around in my stomach and our GPS takes us down a diabolical road named, “John’s Valley Road.” Now I didn’t meet John, nor did I see him off in the distance but I did meet many of John’s pets. John’s Valley may be a perfectly great road for a farmer/rancher on a tractor or four wheeler, but geez was it BUMPY and it was chock-full of wandering cows. Cows everywhere! These cows have so much land to freely roam, I don’t even think they realize they might be tomorrow’s dinner. And they didn’t give a cud whether a giant vehicle was driving at them or not. It made our journey just a little more interesting.
We definitely didn’t feel welcome in John’s Valley 🐮
So, bad road, badass free range cows and the road went on for HOURS, DAYS, maybe even YEARS. Okay, it was hours but endless hours with zero cell signal. None. Instead of zero cell bars it said SOS “shit outta service!”
Somewhere thousands of miles down John’s Valley Road, out in the middle of nowhere, we suddenly came across a herd of bicyclists. Like they had been parachuted in for some bizarre road race and with no one supervising them, especially if they needed help. I’d love to know where this spandex biker gang came from. They were mooooving so fast I couldn’t even get a pic of these crazy people. On road bikes, in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal or potties and free range cows that mentally thought THEY owned the road. NO THANKS! They should get their money back for that arranged bike tour.
I’m thinking John, of the famous John’s Valley Road, has a few side hustles going and probably gets a few good laughs out of it. I imagine he has hidden cameras in the bumpiest parts and the most cow populated parts of the road. John also probably has his own Instagram where he posts funny videos of his victims who bravely, but naively go bumping down his road, only to encounter grumpy cows. For all I know, he could be one of the world’s richest social media influencers and we’re now famous, in a bad way. 🤣
One more thing to add… if you ever find yourself on John’s Valley Road, watch out for falling rocks! That’s all I’ll say because it’s SCARY how some of the biggest boulders are hanging on for dear life, just above the road.
After what seemed like days, we finally made it to civilization and the highway to Moab. Home to 5,000 full-time residents and the place felt like a metropolis! There was no sneaking into town though, at least not with our rig. The “normal” mode of transportation in Moab was either a Jeep or a 4-wheeler and we were a little larger than both. Luckily the one police cruiser in town didn’t actually catch us barreling into town because it was parked on the side of the road, with a giant stuffed dog, residing in the driver’s seat. I guess that’s how their officer gets a night off! LOL
I walked into the local Moab supermarket with confidence and only a few slight adult diaper waddle noises. The people working there couldn’t have been nicer, but looked like they were straight off the ranch. Considering I looked like a crazy haired city woman, who was on her last leg, or at the very least, maybe partied too hard the night before (I WISH!), I can’t or shouldn’t comment much on their style. They were completely gracious about helping me fill my cart with the necessities at 10x the price I’m used to paying.
I just don’t know if I could live in a town without a big box grocery store, or at the very least a somewhat bigger franchise type grocery store. The Ore-Ida frozen potato selection was awful! It had me in tears! Steak fries and plain hash browns were my choices. Not a dang tater tot in sight. When I asked the lovely man in the freezer section, who by the way, turned out to be a lovely well-muscled farmer type woman, 😳 if they carried any form of tater tot, whether it be crown, extra crispy etc., I must have sprouted alien antennae and turned green. I’ve now met the first person in this world that didn’t know what a tater tot was and I didn’t even have the energy to explain it. Ugh 😣
Either way, they were happy to answer all my dumb questions about products they didn’t carry and even allowed me to push their cart to the street to load the groceries into the truck. Again, the parking lots were designed for Jeeps and 4 wheelers. Our rig would have taken up the whole parking lot, so instead Ben illegally parked on the street. Luckily, I spent all of Ben’s savings on one cart of groceries, so we weren’t there long enough for stuffed sheriff dog to ticket us.
With fresh, expensive groceries in hand, it was time to head for the campground. We pulled in and most of the campers/trailers there looked like it was their final resting place. I also detected a light whiff of skunk, which frankly I don’t mind but I’m weird like that. Skunks and coffee grounds smell the same to me 🤷🏼♀️ However, it’s a bad combination of signs when the campground smells a little skunky and the office is locked at 4 pm. Did the skunks run all the humans off?
It was a good thing the handler of such matters had taped a sheet of scratch paper to the door with her phone number scrawled on it. Within seconds of Ben dialing the number, she appeared out of nowhere. Shew and thank goodness! I needed our potty hooked up and hooked up now!
For me, getting parked and all set up was a relief, in more than one way. We had one small issue getting the poop connection cap off, but luckily our new neighbor, whatever his name was from Wisconsin, had the perfect tool to help. You can always count on Wisconsin folk to be helpful and talk funny. 😆 Three nights of stability meant I might be able to recover and enjoy our days in Moab. Even though the campground didn’t have all the usual perks, like shade trees or a pool, it was clean and quiet.
My understanding is we have a lot of rocks to see in Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, over the next few days. Who doesn’t love ROCKS?!!! Hopefully my pancreas, colon and stomach make the decision to let me see all those cool rocks!
We literally bumped our way across New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, but we finally made it to the cool stuff! Holy moly, my bottom is sore, my stomach is a mess and we had a gruesome gnome casualty along the way. Poor Mr. Totters! He didn’t make it.
RIP Mr. Totters 03/07/19 – 09/09/23
If you’re ever on the journey to Goosenecks State Park, I’d recommend avoiding Highway 64. It’s a pee your pants, lose your cookies, gnome killing kind of road, that seems to go on for DAYS. And Lord help you if you’re in the questionable territory of needing to do a number 2! One because it’s dang bumpy and two because there’s NOTHING out there. Nothing! Well ok, there’s something somewhere out there, but I didn’t see it unless it was a giant rock. 🫣 But, on the other hand, if you do find yourself on Highway 64 by mistake and need to do any of the above, just pull on over and do what you need to do. No worries because you can see another vehicle coming from 10 miles away and the scenery is interesting. In our case, we were dragging a potty along behind us so we were good.
It was on my way to the Airstream potty, while parked on the side of what NO ONE should call a “road,” I came across the gruesome Mr. Totters crime scene. One quick look and I had to pronounce him dead. There was no reviving him from that assault. Poor Mr. Totters was the greatest traveling gnome, but he met his match somewhere on Highway 64 and obviously his seatbelt failed him. Now we just have a broken “Weekend at Bernie’s” version of a traveling gnome.
So besides riding a lot of bumps, we did get to see some pretty cool, rugged terrain. I guess I should mention I’m scared of heights. Terrified actually, so this was the beginning of some major, personally inflicted “vacation stress.” However, for the sake of the 2.500 miles my butt has invested in this trip, so far, I put on my big girl panties and parachute and sat on the edge of Goosenecks, a mere 900 ft above potential death. For comfort, I inflicted the same or more terror that I was feeling on my comfort companion and smiled pretty for the camera.
Acting cool but terrified!
Then we quickly got back in the truck and I soothed my height anxiety issues by giggling at every phallic-like rock formation we came across. They truly do come in all shapes and sizes. Haha!
😆Don’t know what the Navajo call it, but I have suggestions!
Ok. Enough with my dirty mind. I do wish I would have been around when they named these formations, many many moons ago. I have some pretty decent suggestions if anyone is looking for a fresh new name. Isn’t it cool to rename things that have been around for centuries ++++ now?
Not only did we get to see exciting rocks, we also pulled over down on Forest Gump hill (Monument Valley). Even though Forrest wasn’t there running at the moment, I felt like loudly cheering him on, just to see what all the other tourists would do. Forrest wouldn’t have survived that run and he was right to puss out. That road is way longer and hotter than it looks and that hill is sneaky and deceptive. He was 100% in his right mind to say he was tired and going home!
Go Forrest Go!
I honestly can’t believe this it’s possible in the modern USA, but we drove for almost six hours without cell service. At one point our GPS stopped working too! 😳 There’s something to be said for having a dorky atlas with you! Reminds me that I need to teach Hannah and Chris how to use one. Those “old fashioned” ways still come in handy!
In addition, I also took note that if Ben and I need to disappear and I mean REALLY disappear , we’ll just head back to Utah in Navajo territory. There seems to be plenty of scary places to hide. My Apple Watch seemed extremely concerned as every 30 seconds it was letting me know I could report my location by satellite because I had no freaking cell service. LOL They really want to keep track of us!
So in summary, after 8+ hours in a bumpy rig on bumpy roads, we finally made it to Page, Arizona to the Page-Lake Powell Campground, last evening. Pepper found a way to chill out pretty fast. I know it looks like she’s pulling a Mr. Totters but she’s just asleep. I swear!
Suns out, buns out!
I promise to tell ya’ll tomorrow, about the adventures we had today, in Page. There’s quite a bit to tell, but I’m out of gas. I tried to leave my Lupus and other autoimmune issues back in FL, but my Lupus definitely hitched a ride with us (sigh). We’ve been planning this trip for way to long to let that little nuisance stop the fun.
Here’s a sneak peak/teaser of one of our stops today. It’s a Pepper photo shoot on the very highest rock at the very edge of Horseshoe Bend… that’s her punishment for barking the entire 1.5 miles path, to the canyon ledge. LOL
I’m pretty sure because we crossed the Oklahoma line, yesterday, that we’re officially in the Wild West. Yee-haw! I can’t imagine traveling this terrain with horses and a covered wagon, but I get a vague idea just by dragging a covered wagon, called an Airstream, across the hilly, bumpy roads. We lack any horse manure, but each time we stop and I check the inside of the Airstream, it looks like a group of rowdy teens broke into the camper and had a wild party. Cushions, pillows and dishes all akimbo and a roll of toilet paper streamed down the aisle (I forgot to put it away in the cupboard 🤦🏼♀️).
All kidding aside, we’re traveling along the iconic Route 66, which is a pretty cool throw-back in time. The landscape definitely feels a lot less tropical and more plainsy, rolly hilly, than Florida. And it’s gosh darn HOT. I thought Florida was hot but nothing like Oklahoma. We pulled into our KOA campground late afternoon Thursday, to set up in 107° temps. 🥵 No wonder it took the Airstream, as well as the fridge and freezer 6+ hours to cool down.
Pepper survived her first day without Charlie and Bailey and if I’m not mistaken, I kinda think she enjoys being the center of our universe. She’s managed to expand and stretch her little body to take up all the space Charlie and Bailey previously occupied, before we left them behind to vacation at the lake with Noni and Pop-pop.
Charlie saying goodbye! Breaking my heart 😢
Pepper hasn’t voiced her opinion yet about ditching the two troublemakers, but as far as I can see the only thing Pepper really misses are the extra potential meals. However, I have faith that she’ll survive on the extra scraps careless people have dropped and thrown on the grassy knolls at the Pilot and Flying J truck stops we’ve been hitting. So far she’s found a chicken bone, a half-eaten chicken nugget and two ant-covered pickle slices. She’s on cloud nine with all the little rotting treasures she finds. She has a cast iron stomach, so absolutely no concerns that she’ll be burping up any of her treasures.
I’m sad to report that we’ve now had our second memorial service at a campground. The tater tot memorial was a tough one for me, back in Chattahoochee, but those limp things just weren’t going to make to the next oven warming. Now Ben has experienced his own great loss. I guess I’m partly to blame. I was really trying to have less clutter in the 50 sq ft that we share, so I invested in a couple of highly rated, silicone toothbrush holders, off Amazon. Stick those suckers to the wall, where you want ‘em and DONE. Easy peasy. The holder works perfectly for my plain Jane toothbrush. Fair warning to all you fancy toothbrush owners though! If your toothbrush has the weight of a tiny battery in it, HUGE failure!
Where did Ben’s toothbrush go???
I just happened to be standing in the tiny hallway, as Ben was scratching his head and pondering something. His toothbrush was no longer in the fancy silicone holder. So, there are only a few places a toothbrush can go in a dinky bathroom. Sink (your best hope). Nope. The corner of the counter? Nope. There HAD to be a magnet at the base of the toilet that just called out to Ben’s toothbrush, because that’s where it found a new home. Almost like Ben’s toothbrush felt the base of the toilet needed a good scrubbing. 🤢 Hence, the second memorial service of our journey and a newly acquired, non-fancy toothbrush.
Our Oklahoma sunset!
We’re now in northern Texas, on our way to Albuquerque, NM, with four hours left to roll in this horse-less wagon. I stopped counting windmills when I got to 587. There are literally MILLIONS between Oklahoma and New Mexico! Kept me entertained until my coffee finally kicked in. Now that I’m done writing for a bit, it’s time to find an interesting topic of conversation to have with Ben. I’m desperately trying to avoid receiving more about the ins and outs of windmill production/operation or oil rig bits and pieces, which he used to manage producing. 🥴 Note to self… don’t ask technical questions about a thingy majig on a windmill or oil rig. The answers he gives are ENDLESS, especially after he’s had four cups of coffee! 😆
Its all an adventure! Hoping to stop in and surprise a few of our Mather relatives in Santa Fe, once we get the Airstream plugged in and started cooling!
TaterTotTales 