The Timezone Run

From Wisconsin we took off for The West, crossing the entire Central timezone in one (long) day. We managed to lose 2 hours in the process, so in the end we finished only 10 hours after leaving Wisconsin instead of the 12 our bodies noticed.

On the way crossed the Mississippi, which looks like a nice, peaceful braided river up here. We crossed over it via a couple of bridges and a sizeable island in the middle.

Despite having nothing much to see driving across western Wisconsin, southern Minnesota and South Dakota, it was at least a beautiful sunny day.


At the far side of the drive, we crossed The Big Muddy -- the Missouri river. For a river with such a fearsome reputation in American history, it was actually a rather pretty thing. Lots of old, long bridges and what looked like peaceable water. The two longest rivers in America now safely crossed, we must finally be in The West, right? We spent the night in the Badlands/Black Hills area in western South Dakota. Pictures and such from that rest day in the next post...

The American Midwest

So we made a bit of a marathon run across the whitebread amazing American midwest.

Christina's masterful repacking in Greensburg left us with plenty of space, and a puffy, deluxe nest for Baxter in the back seats. Everything we need for camping is in those snazzy white bins; everything we need in the car is in reach under or next to Baxter's nest. I'm impressed, anyway.





From Greensburg we headed out around Chicago and through the corn western Indiana and Illinois. We went north from there and spent the night at a place called Mirror Lake, near the Wisconsin Dells. The Dells, as it turns out, are quite the little tourist attraction. The Waterpark density is about one park for every mile. We were most impressed with a place called Kalahari, which had lots of pouring water and fun rides for the kiddies. I'm not quite sure the owners are familiar with the concept of a "desert."

In any event, we found an open spot in a campground at Mirror Lake and spent our first tent night. Our neighbors turned out to be a couple of drunk soldiers who were "taking their queer friends out on their first camping trip." After pointing out carefully that they were in separate tents, they told us they expected to be pretty loud. We moved across to the other side of the campground and appreciated the Fair Warning. They were indeed rather loud. As for unbridled gayness, none was noted by us.


Baxter wasn't totally thrilled with the camping arrangement, but he appreciated a little outside time. He did demonstrate a knack for getting himself hopelessly tangled around anything at all while wearing his leash. We'll need to work on a better system.

Underway!

We're now in Indiana at the Werner family home. We took today off to re-pack the truck, to get things better organized, and to give Baxter some time to relax after a long day on the road.

Things were a bit hectic with last-minute packing and all, but we got the truck loaded to the gills with all of our assorted junk. Angela helped load the kayak and we were on our way.

A bit of a late start in the morning (of course), but we made it the 600 miles to Greensburg, IN by midnight or so. After spending Tuesday getting the Werner girls off to the airport to fly back to their various homes, we got started with the unloading, reloading and cleaning that needed to be done.

Thanks to a friendly police officer in rural Indiana, we discovered a burned-out headlight that also needed to get fixed. We spend today helping Merita with heavy around-the-house-and-yard stuff. Christina masterfully repacked the truck and we now have plenty of space for everything. We even got in a few things we didn't think we'd get to take along!

Baxter has done really well along the way. He fusses a bit about going so fast (much beyond standard kitty speeds), but he soon settles down and just naps. He does seem to have an inordinate interest in tractor trailers, though, and runs to the window to see them go by when he can.

Kitty's pretty much settled in here in Greensburg. Not sure he's really looking forward to taking to the road again tomorrow. Here he is camped out on Merita's couch.

But it's back onto the road for us all tomorrow. We're trying to get past Chicago before the Memorial Day weekend traffic really gets going. Then off to the Dakotas and into the West!

More news and some snazzier pictures, we hope, in the coming days...

Why I've deciced to never move again!

Packing and moving is such a pain...but we survived it somehow. How did we end up with so much stuff in our small apartment? It was like the miracle of the never ending closet. Every time we thought we we almost done we'd turn around to find another closet full of stuff!


Finally all our worldly goods were boxed up. Hi-Line Moving sent us a very friendly driver and his helper to haul our our stuff out and in to the Alaska themed truck.













Roberto must have an advanced degree in geometry...it was amazing the way he could figure out exactly how to pack every inch of space in the truck.


Baxter did his part by carefully supervising the loading and paperwork.

Getting started

Hello every(any) one,

Chris and I are just getting this blog started up now. We'll soon be off on our zillion-mile drive, just the two of us and Baxter in our fine ride. It'll be an adventure!

I'll get some packing/prepping/loading pictures and such up soon. As soon as I can find time to procrastinate among all the packing. I bet I can manage.

Kris