Home! (what more can I say)

Greetings fellow house-dwellers!

Well, we made it! Mrs. C' the two dogs and I backed the SilverCliche' into her spot in our driveway in Vero Beach at about 3:45 this afternoon. I took a pic of the trip meter and fuel economy display on the Tundra once we were parked. It looked like this:

Yep... 6,449.1 miles and we got back to the precise spot at which I hit the reset button to put that gauge on 0.0. In between we:

- Visited 17 states (FL, GA, AL, MS, TN, AR, MO, KS, CO, WY, SD, NE, IA, IL, IN, KY and TN). Actually, 18 since the Mrs. and I went to MT, but we left the trailer and dogs in Yellowstone so it doesn't count on her record.

- We burned about 650 gallons of  gas (I am not looking forward to my next Sam's Club Master Card statement... but the 5% rebate they send me in March on gas purchases will look good this year!)

We climbed over 2 miles above our sea level home (max elevation 11,013 in the Rockies between Denver and Dillon, CO on I-70)

We tried every local food option that was offered and enjoyed them all.

We saw bison, elk, black footed ferrets and a host of birds that don't exist in Florida and which I could neither identify nor describe. Eventually we considered bison a nuisance species, but a delicious one.

We crossed the paths of historic American figures including Elvis, John Wayne, the Tuskeegee Airmen, the Pony Express riders, the Oregon Trail pioneers, Lewis and Clark, Jimmy Carter, Herbert Hoover, Rosa Parks, Crazy Horse, and who knows how many others.

We met relatives we didn't know we had and have started documenting those we knew about in detail (thanks and sorry to those of you who we pestered for fun family facts once the genealogy bug bit us!)

We saw amazing places we did not know existed and lots of places that looked exactly like some other place we have been in America (I intended to write about that. Turns out most of the East looks like some other place in the East. I didn't realize that Alabama looks like Pennsylvania or Kentucky looks like Maryland until now or any of the other similarities we noted to each other by saying "Doesn't this place look exactly like _____________)

And now we are home. Here's what the rig looks like tucked safely under the Live Oak trees in the spot where we load and unload her for our adventures:

She's airing out now (I won't elaborate) and will be there for a few days for a cleaning and refit before going in for service then resting at our son's house in her storage space until our next adventure. I'm not sure I'll ever get the dust from Wyoming out of the nooks and crannies... it still comes out every time I put the exhaust fans on.)

So what's it all mean? Well, it may be too early for me to appreciate completely, but I have some initial thoughts...

America is a huge place. We all know that. Just look at the area in which you live on a map of the US then extrapolate to the entire land area. It's big. But when you drive it for days on end it feels really big. Kansas alone is longer than a State of the Union address and arguably more boring (sorry Alf Landon). In the spring we plan to cross Texas. That should put Kansas to shame.

More than that, America is an empty place. I know what you're probably saying "SilverCliche', your're wrong about that. It's so crowded in my area that there isn't room for another family to sneak across the boarder and drop their sad butts in my neighborhood." Well, thank you Mr. Trump, but if you took the people jammed tightly into the places we all live and spread them across the places we just visited there would be room and resources for everyone. You couldn't reach your nearest neighbor with a bull horn. Maybe instead of Obama phones the government should issue anyone who asked 160 acres like they did in Oklahoma in 1889. We have lots of usable 160 acre plots still available. I'm just saying.

Americans are a wonderful, engaging, fun loving people (the Mrs. and I talked about whether to include the low point of humor we experienced on the trip. I'm not sure whether in the end she said "Don't" or "You wouldn't" but I'm about to.) Driving in southern Kentucky we were on a 4 lane state highway. We approached and eventually passed a truck from a local septic service. I can't imagine that either of the two men in the truck said to their spouse over coffee that morning "I can't wait to get to work today and see what new challenges await me, Honey!". However this aging truck which was probably due for it's 100,000 port-a-john service at the dealership reflected a sense of humor that we found in various forms all across America. Carefully painted on the truck along with their phone number and business name was their slogan: "Yesterday's meals on wheels". I feel really cheap and dirty for having shared that with you. But now you, like me, can't "unhear" that. If you are as twisted as me and over 3 Million other Americans you may think of that repeatedly in the coming days and shake your head in shame at yourself as you try your best to suppress a laugh. That's the kind of people we are.

American humans are a heard animal  That's not always a good thing. It's the reason people complain of overcrowded America when so much space is usable and empty. When the heard is small and heads in a sensible direction it's wonderful. We saw many communities that were unpretentious and genuinely nice places. We saw others where the heard took a wrong turn and entered a twilight zone of culture. In most cases it appeared to be consumerism that drove that (Jackson, WY, Chattanooga, TN and even today in Ocala, FL at an I-75 exit where we stopped for gas and couldn't fight our way into a place to eat despite being 13,500 lbs and 8 1/2 feet wide!). I'm all for consumerism... but come on America, show some restraint! I'm not sure what that means. It's just an observation.

Some parts of America need to be patched and painted a bit faster than we seem to be getting to them or they need to be left for reclamation by the earth on which they sit. Memphis comes to mind.  Come on, people... We've built a great country, let's maintain it.

And that from just a short trip. We have a lot more elbows to rub. For now, we're home. We have a plan to hit the road around Labor Day and visit out dear friends in Buffalo, NY. I'm signing off for now, but will resume writing when the SilverCliche' hits the road for her next adventure in America.

Oh... one last pic. When we got home our good friend Grace was there dropping off the dog we left in Vero (one of our 3 does not have the traveler gene). Grace took this pic of Mrs. C' and me in our family room.

Thanks, Grace for the pic and for watching the pooch!


Thanks for reading and sharing our adventure.  Until the road grabs us again....

SC

Vero beach magnetism

Howdy, Campers!

We are now deep in the heart of Georgia... South Georgia to be specific, about 25 miles north of Valdosta.

Let me share a few shots of the start of the day back at Harrison Bay State Park, Tennessee. I told you last night that we could more accurately describe our position as "over" Chicamauga Lake than on its shores. Here are some early morning shots from in or next to the trailer to show you what I meant by that:

We are starting to feel the pull of getting back home pretty strongly. At one point over dinner last night Mrs. C' and I asked each other at almost the same time "Should we plan to get home a day or two sooner?". It was a blessing to know we were both at least considering the possibility. Maybe you've been in the situation where one member of the traveling team asks that question and the other responds "aren't you having fun being together with me on this trip of a lifetime?". Well, that's never happened to me, but I can imagine it would be pretty awkward... Not so 4+ weeks into this trip.

We looked into it last night and determined that driving the 10 hours from Chattanooga to Vero Beach in one day was a bit much. Ten driving hours as the Google flys means 13 or more as the Silver Cliche' flys... and when asked to do so, she does fly. I'm not sure about the gas tanks and bladers of those folks at Google, but evidently both are unlimited. Not so us. We then looked into making it a two day trip instad of the planned three. Bingo! Thanks to Reserve America we found and booked a campsite at Reed Bingham State Park. That set us up for 5 hours today, 5 hours tomorrow and a plunge in the pool at home by Saturday dinner time. 

So we hit the road a bit early... 9:00 in Chattanooga and headed south on I-75 toward... "Hotlanta"... The capital of the new south. We moved along and reached the big city at about 11:30. Fortunately, we missed both rush hours and that meant only 15 minutes of traffic delays in the center of the city. Atlanta is the largest metropolitan area we have passed in our travels but surprising to me is that it is the 4th largest city we've traversed. In descending order by population, the three larger are: Denver, Memphis and Louisville. What? I know, me too. Look it up. I suspect the people in Louisville were each armed with a locally made "Slugger" and threatened the guy doing the survey... but I may be a conspiracy theorist. The facts say Atlanta proper is smaller.

We quickly saw why the city is nicknamed "Hotlanta". It was hotter than bachelor party entertainment there. At one point in the early afternoon the thermometer on the Tundra read 99 degrees on I-75. I could only imagine the temp inside the trailer. Remember that scene from "Django Unchained" where Leo Decapria has the slave woman put in the metal box in the southern sun in the summer as punishment? Well, our home is a metal box and this is the south on a summer day. Unlike Leo, I wasn't going to ask anyone -- man or woman -- to face the hot box. So we stopped in Macon, Georgia to get take -out from one of their barbecue joints -- Satterfield's. Georgia is known for its chopped pork barbecue. Not pulled... chopped... into small cubes and doused with red sauce. I'm more of a pulled pork man myself, but I ate a Bierock in Kansas and a Hot Brown in Kentucky and if the Georgians eat chopped pork then so can I. I ordered a serving with fried ocra and cole slaw. Mrs. C' went for the St. Louis style ribs (dry). I carried the bag to the still running and quite cool Tundra and we dug in. Surprise!  Satterfield must be from the Carolinas. The pork was pulled and doused in a mustard barbecue sauce like they serve in Charlotte or Chapel Hill. Good, to be sure, but finding Carolina barbecue in Macon was like... well... ordering sushi in Tokyo and finding it was served "fra diavolo". Nevertheless, we enjoyed the meal and headed back to I-75 south. We were treated to a short rainstorm en route which literally took 20 degrees off the temp... for about 10 minutes.

We arrived at Reed Bingham at about 4:30. The shine from the sun on the airstream fried some ants in the parking lot. Don't worry, they've got plenty more. I have never heard of Reed Bingham and don't plan to research him on Google. I can make an educated guess that he loved beautiful outdoor places and he studied bugs. I should have known we were in trouble when I was standing at the check in desk inside the ranger's station getting my info and passes and I was swatting bugs. Let me repeat: I was indoors at the time in an air conditioned building. We picked a beautiful shady spot under oak trees festooned with Spanish moss. Here... Look at this pic:

I told Mrs. C' that she might be more comfortable staying in the truck with the AC and the dogs while I prepared the trailer for habitation. I hooked up the power and went inside to turn on the AC. The blast that hit me as the entry door opened was like the blast from the oven when you open it to see if the cookies are baked. The thermometer inside read 99. Reflecting on the feeling I had upon entering the trailer I'm now guessing that 99 degrees is the max reading it will display. I think I need to get out the thermostat manual from the 35 pounds of manuals Airstream handed me when we picked up the trailer to check that fact.  Anyway... it was HOT in there. I used an oooold trick we developed in Kansas three weeks ago. Since there was a hose spigot right at our campsite and since I carry hoses, I took a 75' garden hose, put on the sprayer attachment and proceeded to spray the trailer on all sides and top with water. Remember how I told you I suspect Reed Bingham was a bug man? After ten minutes of trying to cool the trailer for my dear wife and two dogs I was covered with mosquito bites and had so many black gnats on me that I looked like I had passed through a tar mister. I went inside. The thermostat now read 98. Progress! It was all worth it (I told myself). Feeling like a hero and ready to claim my praise and laurel wreath I sought out Mrs. C' who was in the trailer by this time. To my surprise she did not appreciate the progress I was making half as much as I thought she would... Ok, not even a tenth as much... Ok, not at all. We decided to close the doors, grab a cold drink and wait for the AC to work its magic. Now after two full hours with the sun off the trailer thanks to the oaks and moss it's down to 81. 

So tomorrow we can complete the circuit... reach Vero Beach and home... back to where it all began. I think I'll write one more post for this trip, an epilogue, if you'll allow me. I've been using windshield time to effect on what we've seen and what it means. I think I'll try to synthesize those thoughts into the essence of what I've learned and noticed on the trip. I'm sure there is something to be said about the parts of America that are genuine (Hays, Kansas; Firehole Canyon, Wyoming; Galesburg, Illinois) the parts of America that  aren't (Jackson, Wyoming; Chattanooga, Tennessee), the sheer size and emptiness of our country and its amazing variety and beauty. I'm not sure I'm the guy to synthesize 6,500 miles on the road into a few grand observations... but I may be the guy who will try.

Next time from home in Florida....

SC

Greetings from Tin-a-seeee

Hi, y'all Campers!

Greetings from Tennessee, or as we have been asked to pronounce it here Tin-a-seeee. We are trying to blend in, but the Hawaiian shirt on me, the Florida causal attire on the Mrs. and the complete set of baggage and gear makes it hard. The locals have been kind, saying things like "Ah all y'all frim aroun' heah"? I think they are just being hospitable. What they really mean is "I see.,,, we come and clog your town in the winter, so you feel a right to clog ours in the summer! Just buy your trinkets and get back where you came from!". But when they go to move their lips, the strict and venerable rules of southern hospitality make that tought come out as "Ah all y'all frim aroun' heah"? It's very pleasant.

So, we hit the road late today. Road laziness and the fact that we criss-crossed the Eastern/Central time zone so many times yesterday that we couldn't figure out what time it was conspired to give us both motivation and excuses to say "let's just read and drink coffee for a while longer". So we did. Eventually we left the Lake Cumberland State Resort Park on the shores of Lake Cumberland. Very interesting place.

We drove along the north shore of the lake heading generally west and eventually we came to the cause of the lake. It looks like this:

That's the Wolf Creek Dam... the human construction that turned the Cumberland River into Lake Cumberland on the left and the Cumberland River about 80' lower on the right. We crossed it and headed south.

En route to Chattanooga the terrain steadily changed and (in my opinion of terrain) became more beautiful. Eventually we hit hills that were the biggest and steepest we have seen since Wyoming. We climbed from 800' above sea level to over 2,000'... twice.. in just a few miles each time. The truck and trailer said "we've seen worse" (although the downgrade of 8% at one point matched the steepest grade we saw previously which was on the descent from the Big Horn National Forest in Wyoming onto the plains near Buffalo, WY.

We are camped tonight on the shores of  Chicamauga Lake at Harrison Bay State Park. When I say "on the shores" I might better say "over the edge" of Chicamauga Lake. With the rear hatch on this particular Airstream, we prefer campsites that allow us to back to water and enjoy both the view and the privacy that affords. Naturally, I picked just such a site when I booked this reservation. There wasn't a picture, but I could tell it was our type of site. In fact, the site is a raised platform within a retaining wall. We literally backed up so the steps to the Airstream take us on and off the retaining wall and the back of the trailer is over water. I'll take a pic in the morning to show you. We could literally open the hatch, drop a line and catch breakfast. Oh... we could do that if two things changed: 1. Either of us found a miniscule amount of inclination to go fishing and 2. the fires of hell (which must be nearby somewhere or it wouldn't be so damn hot) were quenched enough to allow us to open the hatch instead of running the AC with every opening of the trailer sealed to keep out the heat and humidity. Let's face it. The fires of hell might be quenched, but there is no chance at all that either of us is going to find the desire to fish.

So, we dropped the trailer, got the AC fired up, left water and food for the dogs and headed to town. Chattanooga, Tin-a-seeeeee. I am sure there must be a quiet, old, historic part of Chattanooga where magnolia lined streets and sidewalks shade southern ladies and gentlemen as the stroll from shop to restaurant which admirable gentility. We didn't find that part of Chattanooga. The part where every imaginable national chain store, restaurant, fast food joint and commercial institution has placed its local outlet in a 2 mile section of road that was attempting to handle twice the traffic it was designed for. This place could be relocated to the Disney property in Orlando as "Commercial Tomorrowland from Hell!". The Disney imagineers could create a greater than lifesize animatronic Walt Disney to place at the entrance and proclaim "So... .you people complained that the Magic Kingdom was too much of a fantasy and my efforts to create the happiest place on earth was over the top, eh? Well take this suckas... Chattanooga-land!" and he could cackle like Vincent Price is a 1950s horror movie as each visitor walked in to face retail and gastronomic hell! He's already perfected the long waiting lines at the Magic Kingdom, so I'm sure they can mimic the road conditions we experienced.

Oh... and Chicamauga Lake is... you guessed it... man made. Isn't this a great country? We have so much land, resources and initiative that we can say "Let's take that huge piece of ground over there and drown it along with the towns and buildings on it" and we did. Of course, we can't do that any more. There might be a rare ant or subspecies of poison ivy that could never recover. Heaven forbid.

Anyway, after eating and shopping (I said I didn't enjoy the Chattanooga experience... not that we didn't partake in it's offerings) we headed back to the park and the trailer. Chattanooga came at the right time for us. It made us realize it's time to get home where we have chosen a place that is right for us (and isn't the Chattanooga of Florida) but it also caused us to reflect on some of the wonders of places we've been like Cabool, Missouri and Buffalo, Wyoming. We've see some real contrast to the spreading Chattanooga-ism that is predominant in Eastern cities. Facing the cultural shock treatment of this afternoon made me appreciate that.

So... tomorrow its on to Georgia. One day and one state closer to home. We'll let you know how that goes.

SC

The sun shines bright in My Old Kentucky Home

Hi y'all, Campers!

Kentucky! The Old South. A sure sign we're headed for home.

But we started the day in Indiana. We believe Indiana is the conjunction of two Native American words "Indi" meaning "rain" and "ana" meaning "more rain". From yesterday afternoon until we hit the Kentucky border today that's all we saw. It poured in Bloomington, flooded in McCormick's Creek, and was a torrent across Southern Indiana today. By the time we reached Kentucky it was clearing and it hasn't rained a drop here at Lake Cumberland State Resort Park (sounds fancy...eh?  It's still a campground... and an older, tired one at that.)

So, what'd we see and do today? Well, given the cold rain this morning we stayed hunkered down in the Airstream and had some extra coffee. Even the dogs wanted to stay in. We hit the road and thought about stopping at mid day when we would be near :Louisville but as that time approached we said "Nah" so we ate leftovers in the trailer while parked to do a bit of shopping. It was that kind of day.

We crossed the Ohio River at Louisville, KY around 1:00. We saw something we have not see this whole trip (except when caused by bison in Yellowstone) and that was a traffic jam. I-65 in Louisville was a construction-induced mess of traffic. We didn't like it.

The trip south and east from Louisville was pure Kentucky. There was the "Bourbon Trail" which included huge signs on the interstate for the likes of Jim Beam and Makers Mark distilleries which were probably placed with funds from the Kentucky Department of  Travel and Tourism and the State Historical Society. Then came a celebration of Stephen Foster and "My old Kentucky Home". That two timer... we thought we left him for good on the banks of the Suwannee River on the second day of the trip. After that came the hoopla about Abe Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home. I bet the gift shop sells Abe Lincoln autograph model axes for rail splitting and sticks with burnt ends to use for writing one's A, B, C's  on birch bark. Then came the natural wonders including Lake Cumberland where we are now encamped.

Lake Cumberland is the third largest lake in the state. It is man made thanks to the US Army Corps of Engineers construction of a dam on the Cumberland River in 1950. It has seen a considerable number of issues with leakage around the dam over the years. This year marks its return to full capacity after being lowered in 2012 as repairs were made to address limestone erosion near the dam. (Remember the sink hole in Bowling Green, KY that sucked several cars from the floor of the Corvette museum a year or two ago? Sinkholes result from limestone erosion. Wouldn't be a good thing to happen under the dam that holds back the third largest lake in any state. Yipes!)

This park includes the campground, stables, boat launches, a marina, a hotel and... oh yes... a restaurant. We had to try that since we are both tired of Cafe' Airstream. It turns out Kentucky has a state food! No... not the Colonel's chicken... that's a commercial branding exercise drawing on Kentucky heritage. The state food of Kentucky is.... the "hot brown"! I know. I hadn't ever heard of it either. And I've been to Kentucky before. So, you may ask: What is a "hot brown"? Well, it'similar to foods you've had before. It is toast points with sliced turkey and sliced ham on it (sounds like an open faced ham and turkey sandwich... right?) but then comes the magic... its covered with cheddar cheese sauce and baked until bubbling hot. Here they garnish it with bacon and tomato. That makes it like a red neck "huevos ranchero", or a Welch rarebit with ham and turkey, or for you Army vets its like SOS/HT (that's chipped beef on toast with Ham and Turkey). Anyway, I had to have it. Here are the three statege of a hot brown with Lake Cumberland in the background take from our table at the Lure Lodge dining room:

So, people who eat this bubbling concoction are known to grab a slice of pizza straight from the microwave to cool the roof of their mouths and minimize additional blistering. I also believed that to this point in the trip I had lost a few pounds (we don't have a scale to confirm that). I now believe that is not the case. After finishing the entire "brown", I asked the waitress why its called a hot brown. I could only understand the "hot" part. She told me to come back tomorrow if I didn't understand the term by morning. I'm not sure what she meant by that.

Anyway, you can see the lake in the background of those hot brown pics above. The lodge and our campsite sit about 100-200' above the lake level, The park sits on a high peninsula. That makes the lake views dramatic and broad. Here are two pics of the lake taken from around the lodge:

Nice. I'm glad to finally have something to photograph after days crossing the "great flats" of the US. If you feel you missed something by my lack of pics of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana try this: Pull the crisper drawer from your fridge; dump its contents on your kitchen table (include the fresh items, the older shriveled stuff, any liquid and onion skins). Get your eyes down low, close to the table height and look across what you've built. That's what we looked at for the past 4 days and 15 or 16 hours of driving. Now don't you feel ready to take a deeper look at Lake Cumberland? We did.

So, tomorrow it's on to Tennessee!

Later...

SC

The Hoosier transformation

Howdy, Campers!

Well, we've been in the Hoosier state two days now. Currently holed up at the oldest park in the Indiana state park system -- McCormick's Creek State Park near Bloomington. This park was opened 99 years ago on the occasion of the Indiana centennial. They choose a beautiful piece of land which is about 2,000 acres based around ... you guessed it... McCormick's Creek. Here's a pic of the waterfall that is a short distance from the campsite where I am writing tonight:

I'd like to tell you I climbed down there and took that photo today, but actually I got that from Google. Why? Because it was raining like a Hoosier here today and there was no way I was climbing down there even for a pic. Maybe tomorrow morning...

So, what did we do to further our Hoosier initiation today? Well, we saw a bit more of the state. We drove the hour from Terre Haute where we stayed last night to McCormick's Creek State Park. This was by far the shortstop driving day of the trip. We even drove more on our days off the road in Yellowstone. After getting the trailer unhitched and the dogs settled, we headed to the Hoosier Mecca... Bloomington... home of Indiana University. It's a nice, Midwestern college town. Funky shops and restaurants. Upscale stores where visiting alumni can return money to the local economy. You know... A college town.

The terrain is starting to change a bit. The entire drive yesterday from Illinois into Indiana had about 100' variance in elevation. Now we are getting into more forests and hills. Tomorrow it's on to Kentucky where we expect to escape the flatness of the Midwest that has plagued us since dropping out of the hills of South Dakota and start seeing the highlands of Appalachia.

Later!

SC

What the heck is a Hoosier?

Calling all Hoosier Campers!

Well, we made it... Indiana... the Hoosier State (what the heck is a "Hoosier" anyway? I'll have to look that up).

The day started out cool-ish and damp. Mid 60's in DeWitt, Illinois. We had a short day on the road planned... 2 hours to Terre Haute, Indiana then one more to McCormick's Creek State Park... The oldest park in the Hoosier State system. So, sensing we had time to waste, we immediately got lazy in the ole Airstream.

(Ed. Note: We're over 5,000 miles on this trip now and when added to past trips that's over 8,000 in the 9 months we've had her. Indiana makes 22 states we've visited with the Silver Cliche' combo. We will add one more -- Kentucky -- to that total before reaching home. If we book the two trips we are considering for next year (Grand Canyon/Utah in the spring and New England in the summer with a grand lad) we could possibly reach 40 or more states in the first two years of Airstreaming. It gets harder after that with California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan not on our planning list yet. Alaska is a drive-and-a-half and I hear from other Airstreamers that the drive to Hawaii is a beast. Anyway... she's earned the respect of being called "the ole Airstream" even at a young age.)

This marks day 4 in corn country. The corn keeps getting taller and healthier. Here in Indiana it's higher than an elephants eye... maybe closer to a teenaged giraffe's eye... There are visible ears. At points today the corn was shoulder-to-shoulder to the road. For you WW II buffs, it reminded me of stories of the hedgerow country in Normandy where the allied forces traveled low roads with towering fields on either side that made leaving the road impossible and created ambush spots and firing positions for the prepared Germans. If the farmers of Illinois had a plan to stop our progress toward Terre Haute we would have been goners. Fortunately their intel was poor or their initiative low and we faced no opposition. Then, we crossed the Wabash. The Wabash River of song. Specifically, "Back Home Again in Indiana", the state song. Remember... "When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash / 

Then I long for my Indiana home."?

So... why Terre Haute? It's not my home... never was... But it was Mrs. C's birthplace and more importantly, Terre Haute is where her parents were raised, met and married. With the help of Ancestry.com we found census records, home addresses, high school yearbooks, etc. I'm hooked. I've started documenting both her family and mine. Any of you who are family members on either side and want to access that family tree, let me know... I'll send you a link. Even wilder than that, in researching ancestors, I found a well constructed family tree that included Mrs. C's father and grandmother. I contacted the author through Ancestry and discovered that she still lives in Terre Haute. Evidently, Indiana high school civics doesn't highlight that Hoosiers are free to leave. Her name is Becky and she is my wife's first cousin once removed. Until this week I don't believe either knew the other existed. So... plans changed (that's the benefit of having your home on wheels right behind you). It was a hot day in western Indiana. We found a nice little city campground with shade and electricity near downtown Terre Haute. We called from the road to confirm they had space (they had plenty), we hit town, dropped the trailer in a shady spot, tucked the dogs in where they would be safe and cool and headed to town for lunch and a meeting with Becky. Oh, the family facts and stories flew! After that we took a driving tour of the streets where her parents lived (her dad's childhood home is still there... Mom's street is now modern town homes).

We hit a Kroger's for provisions and went back to our home in the woods. The mosquitoes and flies tried to carry off the little dog during the evening walk so we sealed the trailer and stayed in for dinner and microwave s'mores.

 

That's it... Corn, genealogy, lunch on the Wabash... On to the planned agenda and McCormick creek state park tomorrow then Kentucky the next day.

Later! 

SC

Back east again!

Evenin' Campers!

So, what's new today you ask? Well... Trains, rivers, cities, humidity and even more corn.

The day started cool, but not as cool as the recent mornings. About 60 in Palo, Iowa as the sun rose. Compared to the spectacular sunrise photo opportunities from Colorado through Nebraska, our locale at Pleasant Creek State Park was not inspiring enough to get me out of bed with the chickens. In fact, I have not taken a single pic all day. It'll be all text tonight.

We headed for the big city... Cedar Rapids!  Remember the movie "Cedar Rapids" with Ed Helms? Well, I think they exaggerated the excitement one might find there. However, it was the biggest city we had seen in a while. A noticeable difference from the western end of the trip. It was not the last of the day.

We continued on and crossed the Mississippi at the quad cities. What quad cities, you ask? Of course Davenport Iowa, Moline Illinois and I don't know the other two. Quite the industrial hub it is. The Rock Island Arsenal sits on an island in between Davenport to the north and west and Moline to the south and east. Moline is also home to John Deere... It's all green and yellow!

We paralleled the Rock River for a while (impressive in its own right) and later crossed the Illinois River which is also a biggie. I'm thinking it rains in this part of the country. Hence the rivers. Nt so much where we've been the past weeks.

We lunched, showed and let the dogs stretch their legs in Galesburg, Illinois which is proud to declare itself the birthplace of Carl Sandburg. I'm guessing that fact was more impressive and relevant in the days when America was younger and her citizens more literate... but Galesburg has not forgotten. It also hasn't forgotten its railroading heritage and boasts a railroad museum which includes a 1930 steam locomotive weighing over 200 tons. 

We pressed on to Dewitt, Illinois where we are camped for the night at Clinton Lake State Park. En route we went through Peoria, Illinois, home of Caterpillar. If you ever come here, don't trust your GPS. It'll take you to a public boat launch on the other side of the lake and you'll lose 15 minutes each way getting there and back. Trust me. I know that to be true.

Tomorrow it's on to Terre Haute, Indiana where Mrs. C's parents grew up, met and married. Through ancestry.com we have met a distant relative (or perhaps an insurance saleswoman with a really clever way to find new prospects) who is interested in swapping family stories. Read tomorrow night to see if that happens and what the outcome is.

Ok... That's it for tonight. I still have camera ready, but after the inspiring western scenes I'm looking around here and saying "meh".

SC

From Palo, Iowa

Hi there, Campers!

After a few days of a revised itinerary then long driving, socializing and a day off the road, today we got back to the original schedule. It was great to have the spontaneous sidetrip, park in friends' driveway and use the trailer to give us the flexibility that is tough to get with other modes of travel (try asking Delta Airlines to take you to Clarkson, NE when your ticket says Pierre, SD... I'll tell you what will happen... nothing, that's what... you're going to Pierre).

Here's a shot I'm calling "one last farm panorama":

Today was a bit longer than originally planned -- 5 hours of driving -- but we are in the middle of things now... Palo, Iowa! Oh, you don't think that's the middle of things? Take a look at a map. We are four hours south of Minneapolis, four hours west of Chicago, four hours northeast of St. Louis. If that's not the middle of things, I don't know what is. Plus, we are smack dab next to Cedar Rapids!

Here is a shot of the lake (since we're at "Pleasant Creek" this may not be a lake at all... but rather a part of "Peasant Creek"... who cares, it's water and it seemed worth photographing to give you a sense of what it looks like here) which I can see through the open hatch of the Airstream as I write this:

 

Not much to report about today. The trip was long, but went smoothly (no broken parts on truck or Airstream as far as we know!). Iowa corn looks almost exactly the same as Nebraska corn. In both states it is healthy, plentiful and broken only by fields of soybeans. Here's a picture of Iowa corn:

Really? You believed that was Iowa corn? You see, I made my point... that's a pic of Nebraska corn. I didn't have any Iowa corn to share with you and I couldn't tell the difference, so I figured you couldn't either. Corn is corn and here in Io-braska, corn is everywhere!

Today we crossed the Missouri River. Tomorrow the Mississippi, officially putting us back in the Eastern US. The terrain is starting to change. Iowa has hills that are about the same height as Nebraska, but more closely packed (higher frequency or shorter wavelength for you scientists) and there are many more trees now. Tomorrow night we'll be in Illinois, near DeWitt.

More news then!

SC

Catching up in Clarkson, NE

Mornin' Campers!

It's a cool July 4 morning in Clarkson, Nebraska. Upper fifties, on a farm, surrounded by corn.

We drove across the plains like fury on Thursday from Custer State Park, South Dakota to here in Clarkson. It's been a while since I updated you with a map. We are nearly 1,000 miles from Yellowstone now. We've stopped at Medicine Lodge State Archaeological area and over-nighted in the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming, stayed at Custer State Park in South Dakota and now spent two nights here on the farm in Clarkson, Nebraska. Here's the route map thanks to Google: Yellowstone to Clarkson

I've posted some of the pics along the way. Here's what we learned and can share:

1. If you ever want to see amazing scenery and animals and don't want to go all the way to Yellowstone, try Custer State Park They have amazing geology, impressive terrain and spectacular wildlife (not nightlife... critters)
2. If you want to spend three lost hours of your life that you can never get back, enter I-90 at Rapid City, SD and head east. to... oh.... about.... Reliance, SD. That ought to do it.
3. Inspect your Airstream at every gas stop. We discovered at the second fill up between Custer State Park and Clarkson that a rock had punctured a hole in one of the plexiglass wraparound shields on the Airstream. The good news is that's what it's there for and the glass underneath was totally undamaged. The bad news is its a couple hundred to replace it which we will do upon return to Florida and before hitting the road for our next adventure.
4. Did I tell you they grow corn here in Nebraska? Let me show you:

5. Our hosts Jim and Kim have a classic American farm here in Clarkson. If I had as many outbuilding as they have I'd certainly fill them with the collection of cars, travel trailers, tools and whatnot that they have. Here's a pic:

That's just what I could get in one frame... there's more to wander through beyond what you see there.
6. Jim gave me a tour of the area in his '53 Ford yesterday. At one point he observed that there isn't much happening here. Not to be argumentative or hokey, I disagreed. There isn't much obvious activity here compared to... say... New York, or Miami... but places like Clarkson are where everything happens in America. Especially on this July 4 it's meaningful for me to see the basic building block of America's past and present strength... middle America... agriculture... the heartland... impressive.
7. We went through a portion of the Badlands in South Dakota. All I can say is "I've seen worse". I think the Badlands had a good PR agent who promoted their badness beyond what it deserves... kind of like a geographical Justin Bieber.
8. The trip across I-90 in South Dakota and state roads from there into Nebraska gave me a chance to reflect on the easterner's notion that "flyover country" is an undifferentiated, featureless landscape. That's unfair. At its best it is varied and vibrant. At it's worst (e.g.: the three hours of life that slipped through my fingers in central South Dakota) it is a landscape comprised of three alternating forms: 1. Green, treeless, rolling hills 2. Green treeless, slight valleys and 3. Tree lined streams with an occasional farm. Put together these forms repeat for tens of miles in random alternation forming waves on the prairie ocean.
9. Farm architecture has a beauty of form and texture that I had known but forgotten. Let me show you:

That's it for now. Happy 4th of July. For us it's time to press on east... into Iowa.

SC

Greetings, Campers!

I hope to provide a longer update later, but here's the quick version. Check Flickr for the latest pics if you are looking for that. Our page is: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131457232@N02/

So, we had originally planned to be near Pierre, South Dakota hast night and Western Iowa tonight. I'm sure I would have sent you pics from some park or lake or something. Instead, Mrs, C' and an old colleague of her's from Maryland were chatting and realized the the old friend had moved to Eastern Nebraska when she married a year ago. "Is Nebraska on our way?" she asked. "Everywhere is on our way if we make it," I replied. We bagged Pierre and Iowa and headed to Nebraska driving over 400 miles and nearly 8 hours yesterday to give us a full day here today.

We are on Jim and Kim's farm in Clarkson, NE population something under 700. Did you know they grow corn here? I'll take and post a pic at sunset tonight or sunrise tomorrow depending on weather, light and just how social we are. This is the first time we've simply pulled up and parked in someone's driveway. It's been great for us since we have the comfort and convenience of our own home (on wheels) for us and the dogs and Jim and Kim have the ease of guests who bring their own guest house.

Kim and the Mrs. went shopping and catching up after 2 years of not seeing each other. Jim made a breakfast that couldn't be beat and spent the morning helping me wash the truck and Airstream. In exchange I made him and me a hotdog lunch on the Airstream's outdoor grill and he gave me a tour of Clarkson and surrounding towns (did I tell you they grow corn here? I mean they grow CORN here).

Here are some pics of Custer State Park in SD that I couldn't post earlier (I use a laptop to store and process pics. It's charger failed and it was only after Mrs. C' found one in her shopping today that I had enough juice to post these...

Custer State Park was a genuinely beautiful place. We had a great meal there, saw both bison and elk on the exit from the park yesterday morning. If you want to see Yellowstone but can't make the drive to Wyoming, but can get to Western South Dakota you can see some equally beautiful aspects of nature (ok... no geysers or hot mud...but hey, the drive is 8 or 9 hours shorter from the east) in Custer.

More later I hope... or tomorrow from Eastern Iowa...

SC

(Note: The following was written Wednesday night from Custer State Park, SD. Zero internet. We changed plans for Thursday and drove twice our normal day to reach Clarkson, NE and set down for the day Friday. This is being uploaded Friday morning. More news and pics from SD will appear later today.)


Hey, Campers!

A new day and a new state... South Dakota. The first time I've been in any Dakota.

The day started cool at 8,800 feet in the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming. Bighorn is over 1.1 million acres... half the size of Yellowstone. That means still huge. We hadn't planned to stay there last night but did because of the altitude and our quest for cooler weather. We found it. Both Mrs. C' and I (whose home is 6 feet above sea level. If I float in the pool then stand up on the pool deck I literally doubled my altitude there.) noticed the thin air at Bighorn.

The campsite was simple and crawling with Amish or Mennonites or Shakers or something from Iowa. Folks of all ages in bonnets, suspenders long grey dresses, beards (on the men only). I guess they couldn't have been Shakers because they are both extinct and celebate. Nor Amish because these folks drove pickup trucks and 4-bys and used chain saws which they decided needed testing at 7:30 AM in the campground. By process of elimination I think these were Mennonites. 

There was no reason for us to stay so we pulled up the tent stakes and headed east! The trip across US 16 was quite something. We climbed up to 9,667 feet according to my altimeter before starting a descent that exceeded any we have faced. We lost 5,000 feet over the next hour or so and faced grades as steep as 8%. At one point there was a mandatory stop and brake check for all trucks and vehicles with trailers (that's us!). The sign in the pull off described the runaway vehicle precautions on the road below and showed a pic on an unfortunate truck that need but didn't use them. It should have been captioned "splat!". We were briefed and prepared but more importantly the Tundra and Airstream were up to it.

After a bit of a drive we arrived in Buffalo, WY. That's the second city named Buffalo I've been to on I-90. It's a small city that probably is described as the eastern gateway to the Bighorns (although we saw no evidence of that claim). Unlike Jackson, WY, the titles bestowed upon Buffalo, Way have not gone to its head. Mrs. C' found some worthwhile shopping, we had a good lunch at the Occidental Saloon (established in 1870-something) and for the first time in days we had reliable internet at least for a few hours. 

We pressed on... ever farther eastward... . Eastern Wyoming was boooorrrriiiinnnnggg! I dozed off for a few miles on I-90 and it didn't even matter... Same straight road, same scenery, for about two hours. We hit the South Dakota line at about 4:00 and the terrain changed almost immediately. Hillier, exposed rock, greener. After 20 or 30 minutes we reached Custer, SD. This town is probably billed as a "the gateway to Mt. Rushmore" and that would be apt. We didn't stop but the drive through impressed me that the town took a few arrows with the general for which it is probably named and never bounced back. It had more "rock shops" per mile than any town in the US. It had that same charming western realism we saw in Jackson but with 30 years of wear and tear. We headed on to Custer State Park, our campsite (which is butt up against other campers) and dinner at the Sylvan Lake Resort. The resort hotel is old in the most positive and charming way. Perhaps "venerable" or "storied" is more fitting than "old". The meal was very good. We decided to take an after dinner drive (having left the trailer and the two smelly dogs at the campsite). 

All I can say about the drive is WOW! The lighting was horrible for landscape photography but that didn't stop us from taking a hundred shots or more in 45 minutes. Most scenic was the 8'4" wide tunnel carved in living rock that we passed through just a mile or two from our campsite and 1,000 feet or more above it. Take a look....

Tomorrow we may do some sunrise shots at Sylvan Lake just 1/4 mile or so from here. We push farther east tomorrow to Pierre, SD.

Good night!

SC

Wagons East!

(Written Tuesday evening from Sitting Bull Cmpground in the Bighorn national Forest, WY. Not a trace of internet there at 8,800'. Posted Wed from Buffalo, WY)

Evenin' Campers!

Another eventful day, this time back on the road.

We had one more day reserved at Grant Village but we had not planned to use it. Our plans were to leave this morning. The forecast for a hot day ahead made us consider using the extra day in the relative cool of Yellowstone then somehow making up the lost time in the coming days. In the end, wanderlust got the best of us (which history tells us any form of lust will eventually do and of the various forms we did alright by contracting the wander- type). By 9:45am we were hitched and off to the gas station, dump station and any other station we thought we might need after being parked for four days.

Eastward ho! We too the east exit from The Park (the Silver Cliche' style book says that only Yellowstone receives the double capitalization among parks) toward Cody, WY. Cody bills itself as the gateway to Yellowstone. We drove two hours to get there. This is kind of like Philadelphia billing itself as the gateway to Manhattan... but never mind that.

The drive to Cody was spectacular! We were treated to every variety of western landscape, every color of rock known to man and all types of terrain from flat to 7% up and downgrades lasting miles. (That's the type of slope with runaway truck ramps and where the Burma shave signs are biblical verse in case that's the last thing a person reads on earth... it's steep... very steep). We descended over 4,000 feet from the top of our exit from Yellowstone to Cody. For the first time in about 10 days we were below 4,000 elevation. The air down there was like pea soup. So thick we could hardly breathe it after being so close to the heavens. The high oxygen concentration gave us a sort of euphoria. Our 18 year old Wheaten Terrier asked to get out and run beside the truck for a while (ok... that last part is a fabrication... but we were back below 4,000'). As we approached Cody the road settled into a valley and although mountains still looked around us, there were lakes and the pavement was relatively flat.


Here are some pics from the day:

 
We reached Cody by 12:30 and set about exploring the town. Remember, by this time we had seen several towns that were labeled "the gateway to Yellowstone" or similar titles including Dillon, CO (fast food center of the ski-Rockies), Steamboat Springs (western resorty feel and oh so organic), Jackson WY (tourist trap!!! Did I mention everything there is fake?), West Yellowstone, MT (genuine looking dusty western mountain town that is the underachiever in the "gateway family") and now Cody. Cody comes across as a nice blend of the others. It clearly rolls out the welcome mat for visitors, but looks like it tried to remain true to itself in the process. It was clean but not in a Disney sort of way, it looks lived in by real folk. I liked it. We did a bit of shopping, had lunch at a Mexican place, topped off the tank on the Tundra and headed east again.

Next stop: Medicine Lodge State Archaeological site. Frequent readers know that we avoid commercial Kampgrounds (friends don't let friends stay at KOA!). What you don't yet know is that we use a variety of tools including ReserveAmerica (the consolidate information and reservation system for most of the state operated campgrounds in the country), recreation.gov (the Feds offshoot of Reserve America and the two systems are linked), Google maps (to see if a site described as "shady" in fact has trees and if "waterfront" is genuinely near a body of water) and my favorite AllStays which is map-based, fast and comprehensive listing of everything from campgrounds to where propane is sold to low bridges and steep mountains. Need a place to park your rig for the night in north central Wyoming? AllStays will show you all of them and with a click tell you more about them. That how I found Medicine Lodge. It is a remote place in north central Wyoming where petroglyphs (drawings and scratchings on rock) were discovered some years ago. These date from somewhere between 2,500 and 10,000 years old (although the graffiti that is on the rock in places dates to the 1970s or later). The Native American tribe that inhabited this area before the advance of settlers were the Shoshone but their culture does not recognize these petroglyphs as their own. It has not yet been determined by whom or precisely when these were made. Cool. Really cool to stand there and contemplate the human history of the site. The park itself was very, very well kept and had everything including public corrals for those who brought their horses.  Take a look:

We had a spot reserved for the night and it was very nice. Only two problems. 1. It was close to 90 degrees with hours of sunshine left when we got there. The trailer was hot. 2. The campsites are relatively shady but have no electric, so the only way to run the AC was to fire up the generators, which we are prepared and able to do but it is a chore. What to do... What to do?

We had a plan for just such an occasion. 1 hour 20 minutes down the road (that road being US 16) is the Bighorn National Forest. We were either driving there tomorrow morning en route to the Black Hills in SD or... tonight. Why? Because 1 mile off route 16 at 8,800 feet sit a number of campgrounds operated by the U.S. Forest Service. Medicine Lodge was at about 5,000 feet and near 90 degrees. We know that the earths atmosphere cools at 4 degrees F per 1,000 elevation gained. 90 - (4x4) = 74 degrees at Sitting Bull Campground. That's where we now are.

Oh... one detail. The drive from Medicine Lodge to Sitting Bull was orchestrated for us by Google maps navigation feature. A fantastic tool for the traveler. It picked the shortest route and its save profile asked me if I was ok with highways, tolls, ferry crossings, tunnels and God only knows what else. What it didn't ask about was dust. For almost 20 miles we were on a beautiful, desolate, scenic, well cared for dirt road. We were bombing along at 45 MPH and didn't see another car or truck in either direction. We had Wyoming to ourselves. There was wildlife including (I think and can't verify since we have zero Internet up here) black footed ferrets, snowshoe hares and mule deer (or maybe weasels, bunnies and Great Danes... I'm not sure... But wildlife just the same). You've seen those western movies where the hero heads off leaving a cloud of dust... Right? That was us! I even stopped to take a panorama it was so beautiful out there. Only one problem. When the hero drives off in his pickup truck he usually doesn't have his house behind it. In our case, the windows were completely shut but (given the heat) the two top hatches were open and the exhaust fans were running. Now, if the engineers who designed and built our airstream in Jackson Center, Ohio had wanted to test the trailer for air infiltration they might have closed and latched all the doors and windows, placed an exhaust fan in the trailer to create negative pressure and surrounded the shell with a colored indicator power then watched what happened. We essentially created that experiment for them since me dust on our road was a salmon color. What they would have learned, and what we learned upon opening the trailer door at Sitting Bull was that dust goes EVERYWHERE! There was dust on the floor,, the walls, the counters, the couches. There were dust streamers coming from under cabinetry, there was dust on the ceiling and around any leaking gasket or seal. It will take ages to get the dust out of every crack and crevice it now sits in. We'll look back on this episode one day and llaauugghh! So, to the engineers at Airstream: you designed a fantastic product that is durable, attractive, efficient, rust proof, water proof, etc.  but we proved today that it is not dust proof and it is certainly not idiot proof.

We had a nice dinner, and closed up the trailer because it's darn cold up here! I made a dessert from what we had around (the chocolate bars and graham crackers are long gone). I called the new recipe "aw rites". You may have noticed a natural similarity between the diameter of a marshmallow (the big type for roasting over a campfire... not the wimpy hot chocolate type) and a banana... right? Me too. I think nature intended that. If one takes a marshmallow and cuts it in half to make two stubby cylinders, then makes banana slices and smears each slice with peanut butter and stacks it into finger sandwiches that are a "peanut butter and banana sandwich on marshmallow bread" you have a camping dessert. It won't displace the 'smore anytime soon. But I think it earned the name "aw rite".

Here's our panorama of the day. The dusty road -- half of which is now in the trailer.

That it boys and girls. Tomorrow on to South Dakota.

SC