well it's been a month so far and i have traveled and dry camped from AZ to CO. In KS now at a full hookup campground right in the middle of a giant cornfield. Big trees for shade, a nice breeze all day, songbirds, a sweet old lady who manages the place, laundry and great wifi. Will stay a week here to research my family roots and visit my childhood haunts.
Got a new phone that does better for traveling, getting the hang of using free wifi at Starbucks, Mc D;s etc. but haven;t had a lot of success (keep getting booted off), got the poop in a bag system down pat ( including surreptiously dropping off the bags at gas stations, Walmarts, and waysides trash containers -- I STILL FEEL WEIRD). :s
Said goodbye to my loved ones this morning. They are leaving for Germany for 4 years, but we have had the most wonderful two weeks together and Reg was able to repair my electric pigtail connection which I so ably partially disabled my first week of adventuring. :huh: I will miss them terribly, but I now have the hang of texting (I KNOW, I'm very old school
) and my new phone goes international so planning on meeting in France in two years time to celebrate their 20th anniversary (Paris of course)and take my grandson on 18th century French history tour, a bent of mine since childhood. Looking forward!
Camping at Flagstaff from the 17th-23 (where did everyone go? :huh: ) proved a good training ground for me (finding and conserving water, trash collection and dumping, bathing, etc. but I was shocked to find everyone gone when I went to the RTR camp. Thank goodness Mike from Minnesota showed up and was a good person to talk to and hang with on my first outing. IT was a bit intimidating at first. But I got the most wonderful spring water on the way to Sedona and I found Flagstaff a really nice town, with nice and very helpful people at the healthfood store and forest service who helped point me in some right directions. Did a couple of short hikes with Kingsley (my dog) to various springs in the area. Will go back to spend more time there, see the GC etc when the kiddies have gone back to school. Too crowded for me. Did go see some interesting off the beaten path stuff though, rock dwellings, dinosaur prints, beautiful canyons. Super enjoyed the Painted Desert, it still amazes me how every color of the rainbow is in these deserts! :heart:
Traveled then up toward CO. Stayed at Madden Peak for 3-4 days, got invited to dinner and a place to camp (and enjoyed a shower too) by a local "family" of people when they stopped to help me get out of a jam with turning the trailer around (darn dyslexia!! LOL ). Crazy women, a very interesting and weird experience overall, but sure gave me a title and story idea to a potential S King type spooky thriller, "The Mad Women of Madden Peak Road". And you can interpret that 'mad' in both definitions!
After skedaddling out of there next day,and wanting to put the Continental Divide between me and them, I came over the Wolf Creek Pass. WHEW! was that a looong, steep, mountain for the poor truck to climb! Thankfully, we stayed at Pass Creek Campground just down the other side where the first evening a sweet doe walked right through camp, sniffed my truck and trailer and then daintily walked down to the little creek that was near there. It was a magical place full of wildflowers and wildlife and I was loath to leave that place (free 14 day limit), but needed to be at Rampart Range Rd by the 26th. Had two solid weeks of fun with my son, dil and grandson, but it is great to have the little trailer to come home to too.
I am enjoying myself tremendously.
I love the red rocks, mountains, and prairies. The skies are a dark blue in the Pike Nat'l Forest. They are a light blue across the praires and ever changing across the deserts. The US is one BIG, beautiful, awesome place and I am so glad, grateful, humbled to be able to travel, see, meet and experience all that I have so far and more to come. I have no idea why people don't like prairies. They aren
't flat at all. They are rolling and wide open space which feels so good after being surrounded by green jungles closing in for the last 20 years. The greens and golds and wildflowers everywhere, the sweet smells, the great big blue skies, the fields of wheat and corn, barley, rye and milo, well sometimes these places make me cry, I;m so happy. I've missed them so. And I love my little trailer. We, two cats, a dog and me are always at home, but always going places and seeing new things. This is the best world. I'm so glad to be alive.
Happy one month anniversary, me.
