Blogs from North America - page 26

This trip started when Jim and Nanci picked up Terry and me and headed toward the Pittsburgh Airport. It was a fun ride with much laughter. Since Jim doesn’t really like to drive in Pittsburgh, I arranged for a driver to meet us at Cabela’s and drive us the remainder of the way to the airport. Louis was such a delight! He was a great driver but an even better conversationalist. He enjoyed the trip up so much that he’s going to request to pick us on the way home from Europe. There was literally no one in the airport! I was shocked!! The only problem we had was with getting the wheelchair we’d requested for Nanci. It took forever. We could have walked to the gate and back several times while waiting. Finally someone showed ... read more

I believe it is time to thank some of the people who have made our trip better for having met them: Emma at JRs Brick House Diner in Ellis, Kansas/Deven at the Packard Tavern in Pendleton, Oregon (he spent a good 20 minutes looking for ESPN+ so we could watch an Arsenal match, then I think he talked his manager into subscribing to the streaming service)/Theresa and the staff at GMC of Burley, Colorado for looking at our van, at no charge, and making a much appreciated pot of coffee/Ray, our tow truck driver who picked us up in Independence, Kansas and drove us back to Wichita providing an almost non-stop biography (brilliant)/Hunter and staff at Mercedes, Wichita for fixing the high pitched squeak coming from the right rear tire and welcoming us back to Wichita ... read more

Today we had a massive drive 312 miles. From Alford Desert to Silver Lake Christmas Valley. We left Alford Desert headed to Fields station established in1881. Famous for its cows, beef and milk. You have a burger or a milkshake we had a milkshake and a pancake the size of a 12 inch pizza. I had a 3 Cs milkshake, chocolate, coffee and caramel. They were so thick they gave you a spoon to eat it. We headed off up the west flank of the Steen Mountains we had intended to travel up to them but there had been a rock fall due to rain. We travelled on through the Diamond Loop, diamond swamp and Diamond crater outstanding natural area full of volcanic features. Peter French round barn built in 1880s and still standing. Back to ... read more

We had a mammoth journey from Wallowa to South Oregon in terms of distance and environment. We travelled our most miles today 208 retracing our route through Baker City John Day heading south to Burns where we camped one night in a really crappy RV park. The next morning we left after Keith flooding the laundry room 😳. He plugged an top loader washer that was unplugged to return 30 minutes later to find it had leaked all over the room. He unplugged it again, mopped the floor and left. The next morning we had a run in with the woman camp host. We had no refuse drain on our pitch. She told Keith it was in the ground, which we knew it would be but it wasn't. She came over booted ever rock on the ... read more

Niobrara State Park is a public recreation area located at the confluence of the Missouri and Niobrara rivers in the northeast corner of Nebraska. The state park occupies river bluffs to the west of the Niobrara River. The Park offers 120 acres of free-range horseback riding as opposed to designated trails. Twenty cabins sit high on the bluffs overlooking the beautiful Missouri River Valley. Although there were over 100 campsites, we were the solitary campers during most of the week. We enjoyed hiking the trails at the park, some good cardio as it was hilly. Many overlooks with views of the Niobrara & Missouri Rivers. One day we even took a bike ride. Glad we had electric bikes to help us up the hills! We enjoyed a picnic lunch at one of the overlook areas. Would ... read more