Road trip: Day 45

We're home!


We are so thankful for the blessings of our Heavenly Father.  It is only through Him that we had the resources and the travel mercies to make this trip possible.  So many amazing experiences and memories.

Here's a summary of the trip by the numbers.

2 countries
18 states
24 places we slept
45 days (28 days were in Mexico)
70 friends and family visited
9699 miles driven
   9699 miles driven by Brett
         0 miles driven by Karen!!

Special THANK YOU to our dear friends, Glenda and Eddie Kerr, for taking care of everything while we were away.  We love you and appreciate you!!




Road trip: Day 44

To our surprise, both Paul and Carmen took the day off work so we could spend more time together.  That made for a nice leisurely morning.  We said our goodbyes to the kids as they left for school and then headed into town for breakfast. To stay on schedule, we needed to drive at least 7 hours today, so we had to end our visit shortly after noon.






Our next destination was Kansas.   It's not exactly on the route home, but I want to see all 50 states and I haven't been to Kansas before.  Since we're this close, we figured we should go that way as we don't foresee a reason to make Kansas a destination point on a future vacation.



We try to find something of interest in each state.  It wasn't easy in Kansas, so this friends, is the World's Largest Ball of Twine!!



We also drove through Smith County, Kansas, which is the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states.  Is that any more exciting?  Even better....When I asked Brett what the most interesting thing about Nebraska was, his reply, "The Welcome to Kansas sign!"  Haha

Since we get home tomorrow, we caught our second wind tonight and kept driving.  We finally stopped for the night, or rather morning, about an hour east of Kansas City.  Hard to believe this is our last night and we get our own bed tomorrow!

Road trip: Day 43

First things first.  We had to do our shopping this morning.  I thought we could get in and out of there in 1/2 hour no problem.  What was I thinking?  Apparently it's not easy to spend money when you have to spend money.  Who knew?  We had all this money to spend on our gift card and yet we didn't actually need anything.  I know, what's need got to do with it?  Seriously though, it took us a while to find things that we didn't need but would definitely use. Brett got a sweatshirt and we got some household items such as a pretty casserole dish and a beverage dispenser.  It's a good thing we're only a few days from home as we seemed to buy large breakable items that needed to be wrapped and boxed.  It's getting to be a challenge to keep a clear path to see out the back window.


 This is the wonderful lady that opened the store for us!



Once we finished shopping, we got on he road to head to South Dakota, where we're visiting friends.

These pictures are of the  Badlands of North Dakota.  The landscape is so interesting.




Once outside the Badlands, the landscape seemed awfully flat.  It was fairly windy and you can see the snow blowing across the highway.



We got to Paul and Carmen's tonight around 7pm.  Brett and Paul have been friends since middle school.  A lot has changed since we last visited.  They have had another child, Tanner, and their eldest, Heather, is now married and has two little ones of her own.  It's great when you've known folks so long that it just feels like home when you get there.  Carmen was so thoughtful and made a wonderful gluten free dinner.  We enjoyed meeting all the new additions and had so much fun playing Heads Up and then visiting and listening to Paul and Brett reminisce about the past.
   

Road trip: Day 42

We left Yellowstone this morning and brrr...it was cold!  


Poor Brett, the heater that we were using to keep his feet warm started blowing the fuses yesterday so we had to stop using it.  Luckily, I was able to find him some feet warmers that he could put in his shoes.  To keep the upper part of him warm, he kept turning up the heat on my side of the car.  His side was still cool and I was dropping layers of clothes like crazy. He claimed I'm now going through "the change".  Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that he had my thermostat set at 90!  It felt good to open the window every now and then!

Driving  this part of Montana was monotonous.  These pictures were over a hundred miles apart.  And yet it still looks the same.  




Tonight we're staying in Medora, ND, home of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  


We've only been here a few hours, but we've had another blessing!  We planned on coming through this way last summer and booked some activities, but ended up having to cancel.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get a refund, but were issued a gift card that's good at several hotels, restaurants and shops.  When we changed our route on this trip and realized we'd be coming through Medora, we had a friend go to our house and mail us the gift card, figuring we could finally use it.  When we called to make reservations, we learned that only one hotel is open and none of the shops or restaurants are open this time of year.  We were bummed as we have about $350 and the room is less than $100.  Here's where the blessing comes in.  Tonight as we drove into town, we saw the lights on at the Rough Rider Gift Shop.  I knocked on the window and the lady was there doing inventory and when I told her the story about the gift card, she said she will be back at 8am and if we can come in then, we can shop! Woo Hoo!  What a sweetheart!  

We went to the local grill for burgers and now it's time to settle into to our toasty warm room and watch  Downton Abbey on Amazon.com.  



Life is good! 


Road trip: Day 41

Wow.  What a day!  Yellowstone is spectacular.  We saw all kinds of animals......big horn sheep, bison, wolves, pronghorn, mule deer, elk, coyote.  And let's not forget the Mammoth Hot Springs.

Pictures are truly worth a thousand words, so here's a summary of our very memorable day.





















Road trip: Day 40

When we got up this morning in Coeur d'Alene, ID, it was 16 degrees.  And that ended up being the high for our travels today!

This was the ice on the window of the car.  It looks magical.




We crossed into Montana midday and it just kept getting colder and colder as we went.  The lowest it got was -11.  We had to stop and get gas and Brett said we should play rock, paper, scissors to see who should pump.  Yeah, right!  Today is one of those days when I'm happy to be a girl.  And to be married to a gentleman!



We do have a little issue of no heat on the driver's side.  Ok, maybe it's not a little issue.  At least not if you're the one driving.  We actually noticed it the first couple of days out on the trip, but we've been in warm weather the whole time so completely forgot about it.  Brett got a small heater while we were still in CA so that my feet would be warm when we got up here.  It's a good thing he did, as we put it under his seat and aimed it at his feet!  Now if only we had a second one to put on the dash for his hands.  We'll have to pick one up when we get to the next truck stop.  It wasn't too bad while the sun was up, but when the sun started going down tonight, his side of the car got downright chilly.

Apparently, there aren't too many crazy people visiting Yellowstone this time of the year.  We're the only ones staying at the hotel.  The owner was fantastic and had our room warmed up for us when we got here.  And now we're toasty in our long johns and drinking hot cocoa.  The only bummer was that we were hoping they had PBS so we could watch the season premiere of Downton Abbey.  They have DirecTV but the subscription package doesn't include PBS.  And to make matters worse, the owner gave us his cell number in case we need anything as he and his wife are going to a friend's house to watch Downton Abbey!




Some views of the drive through Montana.  Looking forward to going into Yellowstone tomorrow.