Many Sights to See

Today was a relatively short day of driving.   We took our time getting packed up and out.  Nick ran some errands in town.  He needed a couple of accessories for his GoPro Camera.  Once we were out of the motel room, we stopped at a Walgreens to get some bandages for Coda.  The sores on his back ankles were starting to look a little pink and inflamed.  I sprayed an antiseptic on each sore and wrapped them up to keep them clean.  Hopefully that will help.  We must have looked kind of silly.  Nick and I were both leaning in the back of Layla. Nick held Coda still while I sprayed, wiped, bandaged and wrapped both of Coda's back legs up.  After the patient was settled down in the back of the car, we got back on the road.

10:00 AM - Left Walgreens in Lincoln, NE.

12:10 PM - Pit-stop at Jimmy John's in Kearney, NE.  They really are good subs!  On our way into Kearney we noticed thousands (literally thousands, I'm not exaggerating!) of waterfowl landing in a small reservoir next to the I80 exit.  We think it's part of the Sandhill Crane migration.  For the next 50 miles we would see unbelievable numbers of these birds landing in every waterfowl we passed.  It was amazing.  I also saw my first Balk Eagle in the wild.  It was beautiful!

As long and boring as Nebraska feels when you are driving through it, we saw a lot of interesting things.  In addition to the cranes and the eagle we saw tumble weeds (wa wa waaaa), antelope, prairie dogs (and a group of three people perched on a knoll shooting the little guys), long horn cattle and a Llama.  Traveling 80 mph down a highway makes it hard to snap pictures of all of these things.  But Nick has a great movie he took.  We'll post that later.

We also passed a caravan of trailers towing windmill pieces.  They are quite impressive.

3:24 PM - WYOMING!!  We passed into Mountain Time about a half hour before we crossed the state line.

4:06 PM - Made it to Dean and Michelle's!  The live on a beautiful 20 acre ranch with two horses and three dogs.  We spent some time introducing the pups to each other.  Everyone is getting along OK.  Poor Sam, the Great Dane, is spending a lot of his time in a crate.  Hopefully everyone will get alone soon.

Dean and Michelle are great hosts.  We had a delicious roast chicken dinner and  a lot of fun catching up.  Hopefully we can stay here another day.  It will be tight though.  We still have 18 hours to drive before we get to San Francisco.

A Full Day of Driving

Friday was a full day of driving across the mid-west.

10:45 AM - Left the Holiday City, OH Ramada Inn.  We ate venison jerky (yummy thank you Daddy) for breakfast while we drove.  I took the first driving shift.

11:00 AM - INDIANA!

1:15 PM - ILLINOIS!

12: 40 PM - Pit-stop for gas and pizza in Mokena, IL.  No, we didn't travel back in time, we just crossed into the Central time zone.

1:40 PM - Finally made it to Joliet, IL.  This is where we were supposed to stay the previous  night.

3:50 PM - IOWA!

6:15 PM - Pit-stop at a Pilot in What Cheer, Iowa.  Nick takes over driving.

8:25 PM - Driving through Omaha, NE.  The crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter look amazing tonight.  They're so bright.  And as the moon sets it gets bigger and redder.  I wish we were better at low light photography!

9:16 PM - Made it the Lincoln, NE Motel 6.  It's been a long day of driving.  I settle into the room with the pups while Nick heads out to find us some dinner.  Everyone is asleep by 10:30pm.

On the Road!

Our road trip began in earnest on Thursday afternoon.  We packed up the car, said bye to my dad and drove out of town.

12:45pm - Departed from Mom & Dad's.

1:15pm - Pit-stop at the DMV to get paperwork for selling my car.

2:40pm - Pit-stop in Henrietta, NY.  Nick got a garbage plate and we visited with Johns.  I can't believe we didn't take pictures!

3:45pm - Stopped for gas before leaving Henrietta.  Poor Coda has sores on his back legs.  His bed is polka-dotted with red and brown blood spots.  Poor guy, this is going to be a long trip for him.

5:43pm - OHIO!

5:44pm - Oh, wait, this is Pennsylvania, not Ohio.  PENNSYLVANIA!

6:24pm - OHIO!  For real this time!

8:40pm - Creepy semi-truck is tailgating us-- flashing his high beams and honking.  Super scary.  He finally passed us in the lane on the left.  It's very foggy and rainy out.  The truckers are all doing 75 and flying past us.  We seem to be in their way as we safely put-put along at 65 mph.  About 300 miles to go to Joliet.  That's about the same distance as traveling from our old place in Boston to my folks house in Syracuse.   About 5 hours left.

10:00pm - Dani's turn to drive!

10:20pm - I am done driving.  It's near whiteout conditions and I'm not used to driving Layla in inclement weather.

10:25pm - There's a semi off the road.  It looks like he was traveling in the East bound lane and just drifted off down a 10 foot embankment.  That had to have been a rough ride.

11:10pm - Pulled into a rest stop.  Looks like we're not going to make it to Joliet tonight.  Better find a hotel.

11:32pm - Checked into the Holiday City, Ohio Ramada.  It's a little rundown looking, but clean and very comfy.  The hotel soaps seem very fitting.

True was excited to go to bed.  Nick and I were super excited to have a king size bed!

An Empty Pantry

Wednesday was moving day.  After a lot of handwork, mostly by Nick and his mom Sue, our belongings were packed up, moved out and the apartment was clean.  So the adventure began!

Of course moving out wasn't that simple.  We had more stuff than the moving company gave us a quote for. There was serious concern that all of our belongings would not fit on the truck.  But they did! Well, except for the Shop-Vac and bin of random belongings.

The saddest part about leaving the apartment is the empty pantry.  I loved that pantry.  It made me so happy to walk in and see the shelves full of grains, canned goods and baking supplies.  Nick says, one day when we have our own house,  he will build me a bright happy pantry with beautiful wooden shelves and cabinetry.  I can't wait.

I left the apartment around 11am so I could get home and spend some time with my family before we left the East Coast.  I got home around 4pm and spent some good quality time with my folks and Kristy.  Nick had a lot left to do in Boston, so he didn't make it out until 1:30 AM.  He had a very long, tiring day.  

We both slept in Thursday morning.  My dad made us delicious french toast when we got up.  Oh man it is the best french toast in the world.  I mean, look at this, aren't you drooling?

Who needs a pantry in Boston when you have a Dad who make you a breakfast like this?  I think we will need to fly back to Syracuse, frequently.