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Gretna, Nebraska to Panora, 124 miles

Safe and Sound back in Panora, almost 12,000 miles later. (9,298 in the motorhome and 2,536 in the Jeep) It’s good to be back but it sure is a lot of work unloading and cleaning. We have stacks of mail to go through but most of the important stuff Brad forwarded to us along the way. The flowerbeds are a mess! They look more like weed patches than flowerbeds. We know now why we run into so many full timers. Oh well, that’s the price you pay and it’s good to be home and see everyone.

Sidney to Gretna, 372 miles

It’s a long ways across Nebraska! Today seemed like a lot more than 372 miles, especially since we were driving in a semi truck NASCAR (NASTRUCK?) race. We stopped just west of Omaha and the most exciting thing about today is the thunderstorm we are having this evening. Mother Nature is demonstrating her power and putting on quite a lightning show.

Rawlins, WY to Sydney, NE---

We got off the Interstate again and went south to Saratoga and had breakfast at the Warm Springs Café. The football team was having breakfast also and we visited with one of the players. They are hoping for a winning season but haven’t had one in over 30 years! That’s a long time to go without a winning season. We planned to go to the Hot Springs in Saratoga but for some reason changed our minds. Also didn’t stop at the Ryan Ranch since we spent almost a week there last summer. I didn’t even call my cousin Greg, (shame on me) but we needed to get on down the road. Greg is the 4th generation of his family to live on the ranch that his Great Grandfather B. T. Ryan homesteaded in the 1870’s. Pop Teale, my grandfather, used to spend every summer at the ranch when I was a kid and we visited there often. It’s a special place for all of us Teale’s. From Saratoga we went over the Snowy Range in the Medicine Bow National Forest and stopped at fantastic Mirror Lake, my photo with this post. We pushed on to Sidney, Nebraska, just a short drive for us today of 275 miles. We stopped early and right now, at 4:oo p.m. it is 95 degrees. The humidity is almost as high. We are in the Cabela’s RV Park so shopping tonight will be a welcome change from Wal-Mart.

August 20, Jerome, ID, to Rawlins, WY, 458 miles

Our plan today was to stop in Rock Springs, Wyoming, about 110 miles west of here but the wind was blowing soooo hard we decided to go on to Rawlins. We were on a 2 lane road and once today the wind blew me into the on-coming lane. Fortunately no one was coming at the time. It is still windy in Rawlins but not as bad as what we had earlier today. Yesterday I mentioned that we have seen some beautiful country on this trip and we have enjoyed it all. It seems that all parts of the country have beauty but in different ways. Iowa doesn’t have breath-taking beauty like majestic mountains or fabulous beaches but it is still beautiful. Wyoming has some beautiful spots, like Yellowstone, but the 450 miles we drove today is the ugliest countryside that I think I have ever seen. I don’t know how anyone could think it “pretty” but some probably do. Tomorrow we will drive through some more beautiful Wyoming country and I’ll have a picture of Mirror Lake for you. Stopped for the night at another RV Park with free WIFI that doesn’t work!

August 19, Redmond to Jerome, Idaho, 451 miles

Cindy fixed coffee for us this morning before we took off so we got to spend some time with them. It was a long day today, too long, but not a lot of places to stop. We have seen some beautiful country on the trip and today was no exception but it was a lot different. A good part of the road we traveled was the original Oregon Trail. There were lots of Historical Markers all along the route but we didn’t stop to read them all. We followed Lewis and Clark part of the way west and now we are following the Oregon Trail and the Overland Trail part of the way back to Iowa. Spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot and of course, did some shopping.

August 18, Coos Bay to Redmond,

We drove up the Umpqua River Valley to Eugene, Oregon this morning and then over the McKenzie pass in the Cascade Mountains to Redmond. Naturally the drive was beautiful and much different than what we were seeing on the coast, especially on the east side of the mountains. We drove through the town of Sisters and will drive through the town of Brothers tomorrow. We parked the RV in Craig and Cindy’s driveway then drove the Jeep up to Marty and Marlys’ home for a short visit. We met them in Mexico 2 years ago also. Their house overlooks a beautiful canyon with a large lake. We had to cross a one-lane bridge to get to the house so we were glad we only took the Jeep.