Saturday, April 2, 2016

Life and Detours -- Apr 2, 2016

Where to start?  How about Payson, AZ?  Nikko and I left there this past Sunday.  We have taken a 1,723 mile detour from our original plan for the summer travel season.  We have landed back in my midwest home town.  

Life brings change and we have to adapt to that...usually fairly quickly.  Our life detour was brought about by a family situation and a personal situation.  The details are not for advertisement in this blog post, but either one or both could have me taking a hiatus from posting for awhile.  So if you don't hear from us, please understand we are tending to, frankly, more important issues than blog posts. I'm sure each and every one of you understand priorities that take us from what we might rather be doing to things that are, well, not so enjoyable.  But, we deal with them!  So that's our plan....to take one day at a time and focus on what's important to our lives.  

I will need to score a car while I am here so I'm hoping to soon get out to do some photographing around the area.  Spring is popping out all over the place around here!  I will share those photos with you as they come about. This post isn't without photographs, however!  

So, without further adieu.....some photos from our quick cross country travel this past week. Virtually every photo was taken while I was driving.  I was on freeways/highways most of the time until the last few miles so we're not talking award-winning photos here!  But, a fun highlight of the trip, anyway!  We hit seven states, I think!



Our first night we stayed at the Dancing Eagle Casino in the $10/night RV parking lot just west of Albuquerque, in Casa Blanca, NM
Full hookups!  



Trains are a very prominent means of cargo transport throughout the southwest....
always so colorful against the barren landscape.


From New Mexico...into Texas....



We stayed at a LaQuinta Inn in Amarillo....no free parking allowed around there....
like Walmarts


All LaQuintas are pet-friendly!
It was pretty rundown on the outside but the rooms were decent.
The exterior entrances were the draw....for Nikko.  Easy in/out.
While Nikko liked the big bed, the lesson learned here:  

Don't take a guard dog to a hotel! 
Every little sound = bark, bark, bark!
At 2:00 am we ended up sleeping the rest of the night in the RV! LOL!
But I got a long, hot shower out of it!

Moving on....
I really like the monolithic stature of turbines!  

This interesting display was on a gas exit ramp....

Leaving rather early in the morning seems to work best for me when a long driving day is ahead...


Starting to see large grain farm areas now....


There were a few of these giant crosses along the way....

Flat, flat, flat land out there in Texas!
These old structures were interesting...would like to explore them for photos!


Everything is BIG in Texas....including tires!  

From Texas into Oklahoma!  Believe it or not, this was the entrance to a rest stop....

Just north of Tulsa, we stayed in a little casino FREE RV parking area for eight rigs...
           with electric and water hookups!
This was the Quapaw Casino in Miami, OK.  Really nice employees there!


I took the end space next to the big open field...

At Oklahoma City, I turned over 50,000 miles on the RV.  
Not bad for a 26 year old vehicle....that's like driving only 2,000 miles/year!
But I've put about 14,000 of those miles on it myself since June 23, 2014.

If you are a fan.....this exit may be for you!

Entering the Show Me State of Missouri....

Pretty spring blooms all along the highway....

Nikko has much better travel accommodations than this bovine!

This was a very cool and creative rest stop! 
Fashioned after the infamous Route 66...





Finally......St. Louis!
Lots of traffic and we had just gone through a major rain storm....not fun driving a 30' RV!

Getting closer!  Illinois state line!

We were on 70E straight across Illinois.....rain, rain, rain...not conducive to picture taking!

Across we went into Indiana!

Right across the line into Indiana, we stopped for the night in Terra Haute at....


The parking lot was huge, so we pulled into a corner surrounded by trees.
Really quiet for a good  night's sleep...
and
I treated myself to a pot roast dinner!  

Three hours now from our destination...farm land....



Landed!!  That's the end of this journey!  We traveled 1,723 miles...left Sunday morning, arrived Thursday morning and spent $60 on accommodations.  Not bad!  Gas prices averaged $1.93/gal and my gas mileage hit almost 8 mpg due to driving highway miles with cruise control most of the time.  All in all, a good trip, albeit very focused with no "touring around".  

So......time to focus on "life" now.  Hopefully everything will work out and we can get back on the road without too much time passing!  I'll stay in touch as I can.  

Of course, as usual, any purchases through my Amazon link will be greatly appreciated!  I will be having some extra expenses coming up now....every little bit will help!  Remember -- your prices are never affected. Thank you!

At first I didn't get what these were....watch the video.
Cool idea, especially for busy households!

Enjoy your spring wherever you are!