THE PUSH NORTH

In the past it was our custom when leaving on a trip to leave early, like “oh dark thirty” early.  Our thought was to get through the desert, which you must past through to get just about anywhere from Southern California, before the heat.  So up and out the door at 4 was our mantra.  As we got older the departure time began to be later and since we’re retired, what’s the rush anyway.  So instead of trying to get 500 miles under our belts on the first day, we usually settled for a respectable 350.

But this trip is different.  We are headed to Winnipeg, Canada to visit my Camino Brother Len and his wife Janet.  It’s 2000 miles from home to Winnipeg and we want to get there and then back south before winter sets in.  Now, Len tells me the weather is fine and it won’t be winter for some time.  But in the next sentence he’s telling me about how they winterized their cabin at the lake on the 1st of September.  Why is this Len?  Then I find out he has winterized his RV.  I’m thinking it’s not called Winterpeg for no reason, so we’re gonna get there, stay about a week and get outta there before it’s time to go ice fishing.  This past winter Len sent me a message one day saying the it was colder in Winnipeg than at the North Pole!  I’m not taking any chances.

So, we’re out the door at 4 am heading north on I-15.  With a stop for breakfast in Victorville and fuel in Barstow we pretty much drove straight through to Beaver, Ut.  After an overnight there, we continued on to Laramie, WY for a quick visit to our grandson McKyle who is a student at the University of Wyoming. (Go Pokes).  He has only been there for two weeks, but Cathie was all ready missing him so we had to stop.  We got a tour of the campus, took a look at McKyle’s cramped living conditions in the dorm.  We shared a couple of meals, giving him a break from a collage student’s menu of Top Ramen, before continuing north.

As is our custom we try to stay of secondary roads on our travels which we did after leaving Laramie.  Years ago I read a book called Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon.  He wrote about his journey in a van around the US, traveling on highways the on road maps were in blue as opposed to the major routes that were depicted in red.  It is a better way to see America and it our preferred way of exploring our country.

So we continued north traveling through vast cattle ranches in Wyoming.  We overnighted in Spearfish, South Dakota then onward as the landscape leveled out in the Dakotas and the ranches gave way to vast fields of hay, corn and soybeans.  This is the American Heartland.  More recently called “fly over country”, to me this is the best of our country.  Friendly people who wave as they pass going the other directions.  The woman who was working in her garden who stands and waves to us as we pass.  Small towns where the gas station attendant still pumps the gas and washes your windows.  Where many communities offer campsites free or a small fee for an overnight stay.  My kind of travel.

A MUST STOP

FREE CAMPING

Our last day before arriving Len and Janets was spent dodging thunderstorms.  The weather report said it was a possibility later in the day, but a few arrived early.  So by watching the radar on the iPad we were able to pull over and seek shelter beside a building as the storm approached.  So, we waited out several storms in local coffee shops and what was to be a 4 hour drive turned into 8.  But eventually we arrived a Len and Janet’s and we are now safely ensconced in their driveway enjoying some fine Canadian hospitality.