Travels West 2021

 Some days are just not worth writing about.   There was a glorious sunset though. Campground $34.73 Miles driven 247

 Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day.  I was up bright and early with the turkeys.  A big flock was gobbling under the bedroom window.  It was pleasant to sit in the cool, dry air, watching the turkeys and smaller birds and drinking my coffee. The dump site for the Hall County park was beautifully landscaped and overlooked the flood diversion projects, bike paths, and a pioneer village nearby. Our drive through the western plains was relatively boring with alfafa, wheat and corn fields broken up by the rivers and lakes in the area. We stayed at the first Cabela's tonight. There is a charge with full hookups and hundreds of cable tv stations. As there flagship store I expected the Cabela's to be a little more special today but the one near home has this one beat. It is so very hot I didn't want to ask Breland to barbecue.  We went out to eat and that was fun! I will use this evening to catch up with laundry before our drive north. Mileage today 257 mile...

Today we got a late start because I left behind a bag with some essential items and had to make a quick Walmart run to replace them.  Quick meant twenty miles each way.  Once we got rolling the roads were exceptionally good and almost empty and we made pretty good times. I am always surprised at how much open, uninhabited land we have in the United States.  We traveled several hundred miles today and most of those miles were through wheat and corn fields, stretching as far as the eye could see.  Harvesting was going on in the wheat fields and the combines blew beautiful arcs of golden dust into the sky.  The corn is intensely rich and green.   We decided to make a few extra miles today and ended up in Grand Island, Nebraska, famous for the hundreds of thousands of cranes who migrate through each spring.  We stayed at the county park in a beautiful large spot with full hookups.  Fifty amps is essential right now so that we can run both air con...

Today we drove from Texarkana to Tonwaka, OK.  We chose a different route than usual with most of our journey along the Indian Nation Turnpike.  It was a really beautiful route and it was fun to see areas we had never seen before.  The area between Beggs and Tulsa, however, was as bad as some of the roads in the Yukon and there was a toll. There were many old-west towns along the way and beautiful ranchland. We are spending the night tonight at the Tonwaka Casino in a very clean and comfortable rv site with full hookups and 50amps.  I cooked another HomeChef meal that I would never have chosen, Steak Tacos.  It was OK.   After today we plan to drive less and enjoy the journey more. Today's drive was 382 miles. RV site $30 TOLLS!  $20

An almost perfect ride today.  We left Montz around 9am and were settled into our camping spot by 4pm.  Very light traffic through Baton Rouge and almost no traffic on 1-49.  The new section of I-49 above Shreveport is beautifully smooth and well planned.   We had to run the generator for air conditioning for most of the trip because it was so very hot. I wore the thick sunglasses the doctor gave me after surgery to try to screen some of the bright sunlight. We stayed at the Texarkana RV park.  The sites are so close our neighbor had to pull in his awning and move his truck for us to get out. I cooked one of the meals HomeChef sent by accident.  They mixed up our box with someone else's.  When I called to complain (I was really looking forward to the scallops with mushroom risotto) they cheerfully refunded the amount I paid for the three meals delivered.  I would not have chosen the Lemon Shrimp Scampi Flatbread but it wasn't a bad meal. 368 ...

 After a long time of careful planning we are setting off on our trip out West in a couple of days.  It's been three years since we have been west.  In 2019 we had a wonderful summer in the Maritimes and then Covid cancelled travel plans for 2020.  This year I did something I usually don't bother to do and made reservations for almost every day of the next three months.  Since Covid many, many people have purchased RVs and campgrounds in popular areas, including the national parks, are booked out well in advance. This trip we wil be bringing our electric bikes and hope to ride many of the bike trails all over, starting with Jackson Hole.  I read that there are 57 miles of bicycle trails.  There are many more miles of mountain bike trails but we won't be using those.