New Year, New Post

Well, yet another year has come and gone. It seems the busier I get the faster they go! What happened to time that dragged on when I was little? I must've had a faster metabolism back then or something, because time sure flies by now! Anyway, I'm going to try posting to the blog again, at least once a week, hopefully more often. Keep my writing skills sharp and hopefully stay in touch with everyone a bit better.
Class starts tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to be honest. A drawing class--my first one ever!--lots of interpretation and a Native American Studies class. Should be a fun, although busy semester. Oh well, if I wasn't busy during the semester it wouldn't be college now would it!
Have a great week and hopefully I'll be posting again pretty darn soon. :)

Kentucky: Bowling Green

It was such a relief to get into the Bowling Green KOA and set up house on Thursday! Put everything back to normal, take a real shower, run the AC. It was sweet! We arrived before most of the rest of the family, but Paul, Alisha and her bridesmaids were there to welcome us into town. We had a great evening out and Joe and I discovered that white, chicken pizzas are delicious! The rest of the family arrived at various times on Friday so we met them all at the hotel for some catching up before the rehearsal dinner.

(Jay and Alisha at the rehearsal dinner)

Joe and I were a little late to the rehearsal dinner, but we made it in time for dinner, which was very good! I met Tasha-Scott's oldest daughter-and her son Ryan and had a great time with everyone. The location of the rehearsal dinner was pretty cool because it was in a building that has been in use since 1818 and the restaurant-Mariah's-has been around for 25 years. It was a pretty sweet dinner!
After dinner the Orosz side of the family reconvened at the hotel where PJ-Paul's son-met us and we all sat around chatting late into the evening. I also met Tina, Alisha and PJ's mom.
Saturday was a busy day. We had Joe's Dad (named Joe also) and Ann over for a crab quiche breakfast-yum! Joe went with them to Wal-Mart and I went to the hotel to grab Maria and Tasha to get our nails done. It is always such a treat to do that, but they never last. I think I use my hands too much or something... By the time we got that done it was time to grab lunch and get dressed for the wedding. The wedding was in an old, historic train station and was beautiful! I loved the flowers and the dress was phenomenal! It was very well done and lovely. The reception was just as nice at the country club with a delicious barbecue dinner and lovely cake. Everyone got to see me and Joe do a little dancing before the bride and groom took off. We all blew bubbles for them and at each other! It was a ton of fun!
After the wedding everyone met back up at the hotel where we chatted some more and relaxed before everyone would have to leave on Sunday.
On Sunday we went to the hotel to see Joe and Ann off and have breakfast with the family. After they were all packed everyone came over to our house for a while which was fun because they finally got to see it! It was actually able to hold everyone-10 people-not too uncomfortably! We had a lot of fun taking pictures and goofing around before we had to say goodbye to Scott, Paul, Tasha and Ryan. Maria, Norman, Caroline and Dylan got to hang out a while longer which was awesome. Norman, Caroline, Dylan and I got to play some miniature golf and I even scored a hole in one! Joe and Maria grilled lunch for all of us. After lunch we had to say goodbye to them too and we had the place to ourselves again. We went for a walk in Fountain's Square and had some ice cream and then came home and crashed. We were exhausted after such a busy and fun weekend! We can't wait to do it again, but next time it needs to be longer than just three days!
On Monday, we packed everything back up and went to Camping World to have the trailer brakes inspected. Good thing too because the right front brake wasn't working, but happily it was an easy and inexpensive fix and we were on the road headed for Nolin Lake State Park around lunch time. What a fun weekend and what a great town!

More pics when we have a faster internet connection!

Getting to Kentucky

After our beautiful evening in western Nebraska we were ready to head out and at least get into Missouri the next evening. Our trip across Nebraska on I-80 was nice and uneventful, until we got into eastern Nebraska and we narrowly missed some pretty major pop up storms. We weren't too worried about it though, thinking we had left them behind us and that they would go north instead of following us east. And then about 30 NOAA and various university Storm Chasers got on the highway with us for about 20 miles! Talk about nerve racking!

We were thinking "come on guys, the storm is behind us. Go west!!" So it was a great relief when they finally exited the freeway. Even then we thought we were going to be ok and miss the storms. But then we got off I-80 and eventually onto 29 (via 77 and 2) and the sidewind became a headwind and there was no hope. We were about 20 minutes into Missouri when we decided to stop at the Rockport KOA. The headwind was killer, the very scary storm was riding our bumper, and we were beat. We had just gotten set up and Joe had just put chicken on the grill when it hit. We saw the cloud of dust before the wind actually hit us and we saw the rain before it hit too. Which was kind of cool, but a little scary too! We were under a severe thunderstorm watch, a flash flood watch, and a tornado warning from about 4:00 pm until 2:00 am. It was AWFUL!! You think those storms are scary in a house, it is nothing compared to sitting through it in a fifth-wheel! The wind just shook the trailer because it was going under it and buffeting it from the sides and the rain was super loud on our sky lights. Everyone was pretty scared--except maybe Joe who held it together the best (I was a reduced to a bundle of nerves that was barely able to eat dinner). And then the hail hit and I thought for sure it was going to come through the slides or break the windshield on the truck or something it was that loud. It was awful! Both dogs were clingy, shivery, and very scared, but that was good because comforting them gave me something to do rather than think about what kind of damage a tornado would do. Needless to say, we survived the night with no damage and were on the road bright and early the next morning, eager to be away from that terrifying experience. It was kind of funny actually that such a severe storm would hit just as we got into Missouri. I had been thinking "wow it is so beautiful here, I could see moving back" and then we were up most of the night with that storm and I wasn't so sure about moving back anymore! Leave it to Missouri to welcome you back with a full fanfare...

We made it into Kansas City during the lunch hour and were able to eat with Michelle. It was so much fun to see her and show her the fifth wheel and just catch up a little bit! It made us the much more excited to get back and spend some time with her and Cory. By the way, Panera Bread Co. is awesome! Redding needs one... We even got to stop at a Bass Pro Shops on the way out of town, yeah! Cabela's and Bass Pro, gotta love 'em! We drove by the Kansas Speedway (Joe mentioned camping in the center of the track--hmmph, we'll see) and also by the Chiefs and Royals stadiums which I guess was pretty exciting.

I would love to be able to say that the rest of our drive through Missouri was peaceful and uneventful, but unfortunately, it wasn't. Joe and I switched off a couple of hours east of Columbia on I-70 after filling up. We were about 10 miles down the road and Joe looks at me and says "We have to go back! I forgot to pay!" Great. So we head back. The particular exit this truck stop is at is not very nice. Lots of traffic, and relatively short, downhill ramps. Not so good when your trailer is about three times the size of your truck! It makes braking tricky and little vehicles just do not seem to realize that. But we made it back to the truck stop with only slightly overheated brakes, which was good. And then Joe comes back out and tells me "We didn't actually need to come back because I gave the cashier my credit card info and she just assumed we didn't want the reciept when we drove off." Ok. Well that is good. But by golly, I am not particularly eager to see that 10 mile stretch again anytime soon since I've already seen it FOUR times!

I wish that was the last eventful episode, but it gets better. We were just coming into Columbia on one of those long downhill stretches. Everyone is doing 70 mph, including me, and a semi pulls off the shoulder into my lane down at the bottom of the hill. I'm about halfway down the hill and there is no way I can brake to avoid rear ending him because of the trailer weight/speed. I can't take the shoulder because it is too narrow between him and the guardrail. I started to move over, but there was a car trying to pass me so I couldn't. I started braking pretty hard trying to slow down, but I guess I scared the driver of the car when I jerked partially over and he took the shoulder and slowed way down to let me over so I was able to get by the semi. Who pulled back over onto the shoulder about the time I passed him! And all of this happened in about a 2 second time span, maybe. Scary! I felt so bad about nearly taking out the older couple in the car (they got off on the next exit probably to recover) but I was stuck between a rock and a hard spot and I think they realized that. Happily, that is the closest we have come to having an accident on the road. We were very happy to get out of Columbia--we saw the exits for MU and Stephens by the way--and I was very happy to switch off with Joe. No way was I going to drive through St. Louis after that harrowing experience!

St. Louis was actually really easy to get through. We stopped for dinner just outside of the city and had barbecue before getting back on the road at around 7:30. We completely missed rush hour so it was a breeze to get through. Joe was excited to see the Cardinals stadium and we both enjoyed driving by the arch. Very beautiful. And then for only the second time in my life, I was in Illinois.

We were about five miles down the road, just barely out of the city and we were pulled over. We couldn't believe it! We were doing the speed limit, all our lights were working, we just could not figure out why this cop would pull the biggest vehicle on the road at this point over. It took us about a half mile to actually stop and all he wanted was to tell us that in California it is the law that a truck has to have a license plate on the front of the vehicle as well as in the back. He asked us if we realized we didn't have a front plate. We, of course, knew but having driven it for a year plus in California with no problems and having bought the vehicle with only one plate we didn't think it was a problem and told him so. I think mostly he was just curious because he asked questions like where are you going, what are you doing there, how long are you going to be there, what are you doing after that, when are you going back to California, etc. He asked for Joe's license as an after thought and didn't even ask for registration or insurance. It was odd but we didn't get a ticket or warning so I guess it was all good. Welcome to Illinois! We drove on and spent the night--Wednesday--at a rest area.

The rest of Illinois was fine. Good roads, pretty country, no traffic. But Indiana was not as nice. Their roads were a lot rougher, which was frustrating since it was my HOUSE they were bouncing to pieces but we made it through. Truckers became very frustrating in Indiana. Whereas elsewhere all the big vehicles kind of watched out for each other, in Indiana they seemed to be racing everybody else. I would pass them and then they would pass me, pull in front of me and drop their speed back to what it was when I passed them! They would also cut me off at red lights which was very annoying because of the joys of braking. Happily, we only went through a corner of Indiana and were into Kentucky and on good highways again pretty quickly.

Kentucky was nice to drive through after Indiana and it was so relieving to pull into our campsite in Bowling Green and actually set up house. We pushed all the slides out for the first time in four days (the time it took us to drive from Redding, CA to Bowling Green, KY), vacuumed, did the dishes and just turned it back into home. It was nice. 10 states later we were finally able to unhook the truck from the fifth-wheel and relax!

Nebraska

We were so relieved to get into Nebraska after Wyoming that we decided to cut the day short to enjoy the greenery and humidity. Western Nebraska really isn't that humid, but after the severe dryness of Wyoming--our sandwich bread dried up within two minutes before we could eat it for lunch--Nebraska felt humid and so nice! We pulled off at a place called Lake Ogallala, which is right below Lake McConaughy. It is beautiful! If anyone is passing through Nebraska on I-80 I really encourage you to stop here for a break. It is about 15 minutes off the highway, but well worth the trip. For that matter, stop at any of the beautiful state parks that are on the Platte River and right off of the interstate. They make for nice breaks. Anyway, Lake Ogallala is beautiful. We pulled into a dry camping site--without water, electricity or a dump site--right on the lake without any neighbors or lights.It was so beautiful and peaceful. We grilled hamburgers and corn on the cob in observance of Memorial Day, took the dogs for a nice bike ride, sketched and went kayaking on the lake. Midwestern lakes are definitely not as clean and clear as those back in California, but there are TONS of fish in them! Joe and I really wished we had fishing poles and a license that evening there was so much activity out on the water. Since we didn't have electricity and didn't feel like running the generator all night, we went to bed with the birds. But we woke up for the sunrise! I've actually seen alot of those on this trip...unusual for me, but very enjoyable. :)After enjoying the sunrise, we packed up and hit the road, hoping to reach Missouri by the end of the day.

Day Two: Elko, NV to Laramie, WY

Whew, yesterday was a long day! We started driving at about 5 am from Elko, NV and arrived in Laramie, WY at about 7:30 pm last night. That was a long day! But we put 650 miles behind us and were over the halfway point to Kentucky. Which means we can take it a little easier, since we don't need to be in KY until Thursday. I have to say, Nevada is a nice state to drive through. Beautiful mountains and some variety. And Utah is nice too because of the variety and the smallness of the state compared to NV and WY. But I don't care for the Great Salt Lake. We stopped for a break and ran the dogs out to the water's edge. Yuck! Mud and dead birds the whole way out there. It made for a nice break but it is gross. Salt Lake City looks nice from I-80 though and the climb out of the city is beautiful. It was so funny because we stopped to fuel up about 20 miles outside of the city and as we were pulling out a European flagged us down for a picture. He was so mind-boggled by the size of our rig, he had never seen anything like it and compared it to a dormitory!
And then we drove on into Wyoming. I thought of certain old cowboys when we crossed the border and the first twenty miles or so were pretty decent. But then we got into central WY and I was suddenly able to understand why it is the least populated state. Rolling, sage brush covered hills. No mountains, no trees, no livestock. Only the occasional antelope, prairie dog, or an itty-bitty trailer town to break up the monotany until we got about 80 miles outside of Laramie. Then we went above 7,000 feet and were in mountains again. Not many trees, but no more sage brush either! It felt good to stop for the night at a campground with full hookups so that we could shower and run the heaters.
Today, we left Laramie mid-morningish to head into Nebraska. The climb out of Laramie is beautiful for about 30 miles. The mountains are over 8,000 feet and there are trees and everything! A very nice change from the rest of Wyoming. We hit the plains about 45 minutes ago. Nice and green but Joe had a difficult time reconciling himself to the lack of trees. Oh well, the Platte River can't be that far away...:)

On the Road Again!

Well, summer is officially here for Joe and I! I had my last final Friday morning and am very excited to have a couple of months to relax! In fact, we are on the road again! Except this time instead of making our way through California we are heading to Kentucky and back! We left Redding at 10:00 this morning and made it to Elko, Nevada at 8:30 this evening. I never thought I would say it, but Nevada is a beautiful state when you are driving down the highway at 70 mph! I'm usually not one for big, open, never changing vistas, but I have enjoyed going through Nevada. Of course we've also seen things like white pelicans and I think pronghorn antelope, although I'm not sure if there are actually pronghorns out here. Also, I am very proud that I drove our 40 ft fifth-wheel today for an hour and half or so at high speeds without having any problems. I even pulled into a truck stop! The mountains are beautiful here with quite a bit of snow on them still. Joe and I thought it was cool that we went through the Humboldt Range and drove along the Humboldt River for several hours since we will be going to Humboldt State in the fall...I forgot what it is like to share the road with big rigs that can go faster than 55 mph. The first one that passed us practically gave me a heart attack! We've seen quite a few rigs with three trailers, something we don't see in Redding too often. The dogs are traveling well, although it took Max most of the day to settle down. I don't think he has ever been on a long trip before, but he actually slept for the last couple hours of the day. I think I will follow his lead! G'night!

A Visitor

Today we had a lovely visitor! Again. You see, they actually visit us everyday, several times a day. The hummingbirds love us! Between our feeder and our flowers, especially the orange tree, they are always stopping by, from first thing in the morning to last thing at night. It is always really cool to wake up to the buzz of a hummingbird's wings or their high pitched chirps!