Happy Trails

We have had a wonderful adventure and hope you have enjoyed following along.  We felt bad being on the road when flooding was occurring  in our neighborhood and especially on my sister and brother in laws farm.  They lost a large pond, and had severe damage the crops, fields and  the long driveway leading into the farm.

During our travels we met many amazing people with interesting stories. With all the incredible landscapes we encountered, you still remember the people you met and wonder about them. I guess it's human nature.

I asked a question to lots of folks. "What does this county need to do to put people back to work"? As part of our chat, I told them we were from Washington but  we did not work for the Federal Government. I think it helped them take my question seriously.  Surprisingly I got the same answer many times.  Folks said they had  jobs to fill,  but needed people who were skilled or trained.  They also said that folks did not want to do the work they had.  Lot's of the work was in agriculture. Corn was king on this trip and I wonder about the farm subsidies, and ethanol programs. It's a complicated economy out there.

We burned a fair amount of that corn ethanol in all the gallons of gas we went through.  The trip in total was 4,200 miles.   Bertha was the hero.  We did not break down once. That is amazing for a 1985 VW camper. Almost unheard of.  The fog lights got knocked off  on a gravel road and the radio went wonky for a few hours, but came back on it's own.  Good thing too because music was a huge part of the enjoyment of the long hauls. Ipods, steaming Pandora from a phone, CD's and  local radio stations all were hard at work creating the appropriate soundtrack.. It was Marshal Tucker's  "fire on the Mountain" in the Black Hills and Jerry Garcia and David Grissom in the deep valleys of Pennsylvania.

Lastly, Cammie planned a lot more of this trip than I ever would have on my own.  I like to think we can just jump in the old camper and make an adventure of it.   Without Cam I would drive by Mt Rushmore and never realize what I missed.  Thanks for humoring my whim to wing it.  You made the trip!

 If you are still reading, I want to thank my dear work friends who helped cover the bases for a longer than usual vacation.  I will be back Monday, really.  Hello? Who is that in my cube? 



 Happy Trails