march 18th hershey

Little Jimmie Picking at the Opery

Grand ole opery

opery

day before we left home

two 10 year old friends reunited

PA friends in TX

Friends in TN

US near the Alamo

Hi all,
 We are in Hershey, Pa and have the grandkids with us today. We have picked up all the sticks in the park and had a campfire, cooked hot dogs and hamburgs, burned trash and now are relaxing while they watch Avitar.  They actually gave up going to the movies to find wood and have the camp fire.  
We will head home tomorrow morning as early as we can so as to be home before dark. this will be the long day and we are sorry to see our trip come to an end.  I looked thru some of our pictures this morning and it's hard to be leave that we were at the Grand Canyon just two weeks ago. If anyone ever want to see the pictures let me know and I will try and put together a CD for your viewing pleasure. about 7000 miles and just over two months it's hard to believe all the things we have seen. I know that I have a good understanding about mesquites and open land. It was wonderful to be able to see nothing clear to the horizon and see the streight road for just about as far as you could see. Linda kept a log as to the elevations we we at at different places, and to go from thousands of feet to less than 200 was quite the feat.   there were times that we wished that all of you could have been with us to share in the experance. there were places that we said to each other the so n so would love this and so n so would love that.  We both now have a lot better knowledge of just how huge, amazing and grand this USA really is and hope that you all get a chance to see at least so of it, as we will again.  I am just writting and want you to know that we have had a great time but also will be glad to be home with friend and family.  may write again but thought I would fill in some blanks.   Russ the traveller

homeward bound

Hi followers of the "wonderers",
 I just wanted to take a minute and tell everyone a few things about travelling and "stuff". You all know that i love my wife with all my heart, but after two months of 24 hours a day, I still love her and even more now. She has been(and still is) my copilot, navagator,"tinbox" cohabitator, truck Mama, picture taker, and alot more. I do think she is ready for a minute of alone time, as every so often I see her looking a a quilting book and can see that long lost sewing look in her eyes. I do understand as I have had a big workshop withdrawal this whole trip and am also looking forward to getting into a project. We both keep saying that it will be nice to get home and get ready for the garden, camp and summer stuff and have to stop and remember that just because the weather here is nice and fairly warm, Linda will still need to feed the woodstove and I might just have to snowblow or shovel that white stuff , you'all, are used to.  This is beging to sound a little sappy and I guess I am feeling that way and wanted to write while you are still readying our wit.
 I MUST give credit for our tip to a couple of people that have made it all possible and without them we could have never done it. Jeff S. our neighbor and "son" had cleared the driveway, checked and adjusted heat and sensors and who knows what else. Brian S. has taken care of mail, shoveled roofs, watered plants and kept us informed of all the happening at home.  Al C. who shoveled roofs and kept Brian smiling . They all have spouses that gave up their "men" for us  and we do appreciate that.
We have seen alot of places and travelled many miles but our best times have been the time spent with friends and family along the way. These are charished times and memories and will always be in our hearts. we got to see some of our grandchildren, sons, daughters , sister, brother-n-law, nefew and their kids.  We got to remeet my childhood best friend that I hadn't see for many many years and Joey and Brenda, it was just amazing on how we picked right back up as if we never been away. You two are simply great friends. Brenda and Linda can now relax about the "meeting", they were both wondering on how Joey and I would get along after not seeing , or even talking to each other since we were about 10 years old.  Tom and Aggie, thank you so much for the great time in southern TX, it waqs great to spend time with you without "hunting" inturpting our visit. The sharing of neighbors and friends you have there is anything one could ask for.  Rick G.(our wedding photographer and friend) it was great to finely meet your family and get to see you again. I am so glad that you could take the time to spend with us. ( he had a "TMI" a few days before we got there and still came out and visited and showed us around.)  We were looking forward to seeing Bill and Lea T. and did get to spend a few hours with them. We decieded to leave after receiving a call from home and feeling getting home to her dad was the most important. Lea, sorry that  we had to leave while you were at work. I hope we can get to see you soon.   Charlie I'm coming home with no goodies. I do wish I had more room, as I did see lots of neat "toys" that we could have had a ball with. 
I just want everyone to know that this has been a trip of a lifetime and I am so fortunate to share it with  the love of my life and just know that noone else could have stayed cooped up with me for this long.  love to you all, Russ

March 14, Monday, and getting closer

Hi-
Its Monday, March 14, and we have been on the road for two months.  Time has gone by so quickly and we have done, and seen so much.  Its amazing to believe that we are on our way home, with only a few more stops to make.  We are looking forward to our stops with friends and family, and we are looking forward to being home. 
We went to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night.  When Russ called to check on rv parks, several offered shuttles to the Opry, so that's the route we went.  This time we were not, definitely not in  parking lot.  That was a nice change.  The Opry was amazing.  Last year the new Opry building was flooded out and had been performing at the old Opry in Nashville.  We were pleased when we found out that the new Opry building was where we were going to.  The building is huge, and the ground are gorgeous.  The Opry complex includes a huge hotel (we only saw from the outside) and a large mall.  We heard from other people, that with the flooding, the mall has gone under.  Oh, darn, I couldn't go shopping!
The Ryman facility had been a tabernacle, thus church pews.  The new Opry has church pews also.  The Opry is a continuously running radio show-I didn't know that.  Of course, I am a newcomer to appreciating country music.  The two hour show is broken up into four segments, with each one having an 'emcee'.  There's commercials every so often, and the announcer is on the stage.  There's alot of movement going on with mikes being switched out and entertainers, and such.  The entertainers sing two, maybe three songs, and chat with the 'emcee' and the announcer.  I don't know what I was expecting, but it was different.  And it was very enjoyable.  We had a great time.  (I'lll have to dig out the program to see who we saw.  George Hamilton IV and V-and Diamond Rio-I thought it was one guy, didn't know it was a group who had been together for 20 years-I am just learning so much.)
Sunday, we to 'downtown' Nashville.  Russ finally got what he was looking for-live music.  We went from one bar/saloon to another and listened to some good music.  One we went into had an older gentleman singing.  His singing was okay, but, boy could he make a good train sound!!  I'm really into trains now.  Just about every park we have stayed in has had a train close by.  My fault this time, I picked the park, and the train found us. 
So today we are in Clarksville, ID, which is just over the Ohio River from Louisville, KY.  Couldn't find a park in Louisville, for some reason.  We moved in early this afternoon, and had places to go.  We wanted barbecue and we wanted to go to the Louisville Slugger museum and factory.  Its where every grandparent of boys and baseball players should go.  There's a 120 foot bat outfront and more smaller ones inside.  Did you know that major league bats are made in 45 seconds.  Minor league bats take 30 seconds.  Up until 1980, the bats were all individually and handmade.  These bats took 30 mintues.  Of course, there weren't as many teams then and there weren't as many ball players.  It was an enjoyable afternoon.
And, Russ has also been looking for good barbecue.  We went looking.  First one was closed (looked permanently); second one was closed on Mondays; third one was opened and it was great.  Looked like a local place (three police officers were sitting at the table next to us), but there are several in the area.  Its called 'Mark's Feed Store'.  They even had fried pickles, but we bypassed those.  Mondays they give you a free dessert of Buttermilk pie.  It was very sweet-sort of like pecan pie without the pecans.  Also, they gave us a free bottle their barbecue sauce since we were Mark's Feed Store newbies.  We loved free stuff!
Tomorrow we are headed to Middletown, OH.  We'll be visiting with friends Lea and Bill Teager.  Its been a few years since we have seen them, so it will be nice to visit.  Then onto Hershey, and family. 
See you all soon.  love-linda

okcity to Conway 3/10

hi, we travelled east on Rt 40 from OK City  headed towards Russellville(just had to stay there) but it was early so we kept going, plus there were no Russellville signs to take pictures of. We headed off the exit for Conway, AK and called ahead to the park but they were full so we found a "Toads Suck Park" corp of army engineer park right on the Arkansas river. There is a lock on one side of the river and dam gates to raise and lower the river. the park is a wide open area with huge old trees along the banks and throughout the park. No cable but had the best antenna reception ever.  
3/11  we drove from Toad Suck park around Little Rock ,AR and around Memphis, TN and arrived here at Jackson RV park in Jackson, TN. It was a nicely advertized place and other then being setup in a tar parking lot and within reach of the trucks on Rt I40 it isn't too bad. Only one nite so we can deal with it just fine. I just called the park for the next 2 nites, just north of Nashville and made the reservation and also reserved tickets for Saturday nite "Grand Ole Opry". I don't have a clue as to who is playing or what the price is but at least we'll make it to the show. They have a shuttle that will take us to and from the park.  That park is actually susposed to have a pool and other many aminities. We'll see.
Diesel fuel prices are all over the chart and we never know what we'll be paying from one place to another. It looks like some place between $3.79 and $4 is the average around here.
Still having fun and do enjoy our talks with family and friends. Looks like we will be able to hook up with Bill and Lea in Ohio and then the Conners in PA. We are really looking forward to seeing them all. Our trip is on the waine but not rushing it. With all the trees starting to bloom and grass turning green it feels like we should be getting home to ready the garden but I wiill NOT shovel snow to plant peas!!
handing off tomy bestest travelling partner in hopes she can clearify this rambling.  love ya all, Russ
(He's just so darn cute!-Linda)  It will be nice to get home, but we are still enjoying the trip and travelling.  We'll see you all soon-I hope.  Love-Linda 

Oklahoma City 3/9/2011

well we made it to OK City and setup and then just relaxed for a few hours. The road outside OKC was soooo rough, just like riding a tricycle across railroad ties.  We waited for commuter traffic to get through and then went to the OKC  National Memorial. The pictures shown here are just a few we took. The trees are starting to bloom and as the sun was setting the veiws of the site were amazing.  It is vey sobering to stand there and just think of the distruction, devistation and the effects this tragedy had on so many people and familys  and also this country. I does make you think!
the park we are staying in is right off RT 40 but no trains!! yeah. The places we have been staying have had alot of train traffic and if you didn't know, the engineers on these trains are all sadistic souls. They sound the whistles just as much as they can. I have no idea what the sounds all mean but I am beginning to think these guys are trying to compose some sort of whistle music as they wake the world up every few minutes. If your a train enthusiast blow your horn during the day and let us sleep at nite.
Linda now....I'm glad we went into OK City.  The Memorial is as impressive as it was the last time I went to it.  That was back in 2002, with Laurie and Erin.  Laurie had to tell me the exact year.  There are chairs for each person who was killed in the blast, set up by floors and with their names on them.  You can walk up to each chair, but it just doesn't seem right.  If you remember, there were children in a day care on the second floor, and 16 of them were killed.  These chairs are smaller.  There is also a museum, which we did not go into.  I wanted to see it in early evening as the lights in the base of the chairs come on.  Also, I think the pictures we were able to take were great-with the sun setting.  Oh, and at one end of the Memorial is the time 9:01-the minute before the bomb set off and at the end is 9:03, the minute after.  I'm glad we took the trip. 
Now onto our next stop.  We are headed t Russellville, AR.  Getting closer to home!

AMARILLO March 9th

Well  we are finily back to the blog, we get busy and don't always take time to post, but I will do what i can to catch up.
We left Williams,AZ  and drove to Grants,AZ going thru alot of Rt 66 places, Passed thru Flagstaff, Twin Arrows and came to Winslow. We stopped and took pictures of us "standing on the corner in Winslow,Arizona (Eagles song) as it says, It was such a fine site to see. next we went to the Petrified Forest and painted desert and into New mexico and spent the nite in Grants. Left there and went thru Albuquerque(to hard to spell so we didn't stop) and continued to Tucumcari for the nite. Tucumcari was a big attraction on Rt 66 during the hayday, but now is pretty desolate. The Kiva rv park and the owner came out and greeted us as we drove in. He was a hoot but probably the most cordial of all parks. he put us in the "best spot in the park". It was nice but he turned on the little fountain in a cement pond right next to us. We had not trains and whistles like alot of places but we both had to use the facilities more than normal, all the running water, you know. We did tour the town andstopped at the only open place the "lizard Lounge" it was a quite place with all sorts of old rt 66 pictures. Left Tucumcari(love to say the word)and continued EAST!! We stopped and took pictures at Cadillac Ranch, aplace along side the road where a guy buryed a bunch of Cadillac's nose down in the dirt with the back ends up in the air. They are placed at the same angle as the pyrimids. It's a shame that people have painted all sorts of graffite all over them and left their paint cans laying all over the field. There were people there painting as I took pictures. I intentionally made it obvious that I was taking their picture to see if they would stop, but  appearently it's the thing to do now and they almost started posing. Even parents with little kids were having the kids take turns with the paint.
 We ended up stopping on the west side of Amarillo at the AAA place for more maps and tour books and found an rv park on the east side of town figuring the we wouldn't have to deal with the am comuter traffic when we headed out the next day. We drove around town and saw some sites and ate at the "BIG TEXAN"  a place that advertizes a 72 oz steak and if you eat that and a baked potato, salad, 3 fried shrimp, rolls you would get it free. I was going to try it but I don't like shrimp and knew that would ruin it for me.  A guy tried it while we were there and gave up after 30 minutes. The steak looked more like a roast, it was huge!!  it was an interesting place with all sorts of animal and bird mounts hanging everywhere. Good food though!!  We watched the weather and they wre predicting bad storms to the east of us and wen we got up it was so foggy that you couldn't see 200 yards and the weather said that there was hail, 50 MPH winds, thundershowers and possibly worse to the east so we decided to stay another day.  We waited till the fog burned off and toured the town again. stopped at the AQHA (american quarter horse assoc) museum. (pat t. you would love it) went to walmart, again, had lunch at a great mexican place. If your ever out this way you just gotta try the green mexican chile enchaladas, not hot but just great flavor, the tortilla soup is very good too. We then found ourselves back across town where we had been the day before and I bought a pair of cowboy boots.  I've got a hat and now the boots, look out, I may have to get a horse next. no way!  we drove around looking for a couplke of places and found a quilt shop so stopped and found some more neat stuff. we had seen signs for cavenders shop so went arond and around and found it back by a place we had been several times and stoped and Linda is now  cowgirl with her own boots too.  she figured she will never wear then and we both now want you all to know that we want to be buryed with out cowboy boots on! remember that, as it's probably the only time we will wear them, but just had to have them. the camera battery was giving us problems so we stopped at seveal places that we thought should have a replacement but every said we had to go to Battery Joe's,  i was picturing a litte mexican stand selling used or out dated batteies but we found it and it's bigger than radio shacks and sell just batteries. every thing from hearing aid type to tractor and car batteries and anything between. camera seems fine now. found our way back to the rv park and spent the nite. now it's time to say good day for now and get headed EAST. planning on a nite in Oklahoma City area. see you soon.  the "wonderers"

March 3, The Grand Canyon

Hi all-
The Grand Canyon, and boy is it GRAND.  We went to a 'gun fight' prior to getting onto the train that was taking us to the Canyon at 9:30.  We decided that we would take the train up in 'Coach class' and come home in First class.  There was a difference, but the coach class, was not bad at all.  We had a 'conductor' who was very entertaining and very informative about the area and the Canyon so that was fun.  The conductor, Caleb, is one of 8 children.  Where he lives, they have their water trucked in.  Can you imagine?  He said that when everyone is at home they use less water than the average family of four.  I would imagine that they don't have indoor plumbing.  Throughout Arizona, we have seen signs reminding us to conserve water.  We are definitely spoiled.  No wonder everything here is zero scaped, and we see very little green. 
Back to the Canyon.  We had decided to take the bus tour around part of the rim and have lunch.  The bus tour was fine until we got to the rim.  Caleb had told us to sit on the right side of the bus so we could see everything, and I sat on the window seat.  I had my head in Russ's lap and couldn't get off the bus.  Russ took the camera and I'm sure took great pictures.  I haven't looked at them yet.  I did finally get out of the bus but would not go anywhere near the walkways.  We made several more stops, and I got braver, but never very close.  It was still beautiful.  We were able to see people hiking down the side of the Canyon.  The Canyon was beautiful, amazing, and pictures will never do it justice.  We are so glad that we made the trip.  It was so worth it.  We'll never have to go there again-as I know that it will not change in our life times!  (Although Caleb says it changes everytime he sees it, and he sees it everyday).
March 4
Our final day in Williams, AZ.  We took off this morning and followed Route 66 to Seligman, AZ.  Seligman is on the old Route 66 and I first heard of it as I worked with an individual who moved there and then from the movie CARS which I watched very many times with Gavin Bean, my favorite PA grandson.  I just looked on Wikipedia and in the 2000 census, Seligman had less that 300 people living there.  I don't think there's many there now, but they are all working in gift shops on route 66.  The first one we went into had an A&W in it.  Bonus, we both had A&W Rootbeer floats.  Boy were they good.
I'm not sure if I was amazed at the town, or just couldn't that the town was just what I imagined it would be.  Its a town that time has forgotten and I just wonder how anyone makes a living there.  I'm glad we visited.  On the way to Seligman on Route 66 (we took Interstate 40 back to Williams), there were areas to the side of the road that you could see the old pavement of 66, overgrown with weeds.  Also, they had 'Burma Shave' signs.  Remember those......THE ONE WHO DRIVES WHEN.....HE'S BEEN DRINKING....DEPENDS ON YOU....TO DO HIS THINKING.....BURMA SHAVE.
It was a good trip along Route 66. 
And something else....We bought gas before we left for Seligman.  The price in Williams was $4.09 (receipt timed at 9:41).  Since we are leaving tomorrow, we topped it off (at 12:50).  This time, same gas station, the price was $4.19.  I wonder if a new truck had made a delivery!!!
Tomorrow we start heading back east.  We have travelled 5920 miles on our western trip.  I don't think our eastern trip will be as long, but it certainly won't be direct.  We aren't quite ready for 'reality' yet.
We'll keep in touch on the way back, as I know we will be travelling a different route.
See you soon-love linda

Williams, AZ March 2

Hi everyone,
 We made it to Williams, AZ (west of Flagstaff). We stayed in the Pheonix long enough to get to know the roads and saw some of them many times, so we knew it was time to move on. We  got to Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Glendale, Pheonix, an snuck thru Peoria so we covered that area. We had been told that there was a huge liquor store in Mesa that we just had to see so we made a galant effort but never found it. We did find a big one(Bevmo) but not anything HUGE.  This morning we picked a few oranges and packed up and headed north.  As I said before it was a nice high ride.  We got here and setup and walked to the railroad depot and got our tickets for tomorrow then walked to town. About two blocks and took in alot of gift shops and neat Rt 66 stuff. RT 66 runs right thru town and it's fun to think of all the stuff that has happened here over the years.
My turn-Russ was being very nice to me.  We travelled some very high roads.  Arizona must be very proud of their elevation as every time we went up another thousand feet, there had to be another sign. 
We passed signs at 3000, 4000, 5000, and then a chain up sign.  I've seen enough of  'Ice Road Truckers' to know what 'chain up' means.  I wasn't looking forward to heading down those hills.  Then it was 6000 and finally in Flagstaff, we were at 7000.  We started seeing snow along the side of the road, and finally saw nothing but snow.  It was kind of nice to be reminded of what we have been missing.  Jeff Smith had told us that Flagstaff reminded him of NE and it really does.  The houses are no longer adobe, but look like the chalets up in North Conway.  We finally reached our highest point at the Arizona Divide which was 7335.  Not sure what it will be tomorrow, but we are both really looking forward to seeing the Grand Canyon.  After that, another two nights here in Williams, travelling Route 66 and then we start heading east!  East, we haven't done much of that.  Hope it will be a slow trip.  There's more to see before we get home. 
See you all then-love-linda