Skip to main content

50 for 60

 As some of you know, my Sweet Ever Lovin' hits a milestone birthday this year. And later this week, she will also have visited all 50 states. South Dakota is her last, and if things go as planned, we will roll in there next week Sunday. 50 for 60, you might say. 

This will also be an unusual trip because we are taking our dog Lulu along with us.


You can see how excited she is about the trip above. 

This will be our first trip with The Dog. 

We've struggled with what to call this trip (as you can probably see by my titles) and what theme song we would need. I like 50 for 60, Doreen likes COVID on the ROAD, South Dakota or bust. For the song, we I was torn between America by Simon and Garfunkel: 


But perhaps a more appropriate song would be "Me and you and a dog named Lou"


which is what we're going with.

I am mostly packed, but it is hard to pack for a trip with some disparate weather. Here are the highs and lows starting tomorrow for as long as I can get a forecast:


You'll notice that I am missing Amarillo and Waco. I can't imagine they will be cooler than Dolores, Colorado, so I think we'll be ok.

New Mexico is the only state that has a quarantine in effect. But we are only driving through, not stopping, so I hope we're OK. We may have to take the scenic route avoiding Albuquerque. Probably not a bad idea, anyway.

See you tomorrow in Bartlesville.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wyoming. Where family has to take you in!

 I lived in Kemmerer, Wyoming in 1978, working in a coal mine. Back then, when you entered the state, the sign said "Welcome to BIG Wonderful Wyoming!" It is a big, big state, and much of it is wonderful. I have fond memories of the place. Now, my oldest brother lives there with his wife, (Not in Kemmerer, but in Lander, which seems to be much more civilized) and it was just great to see them. Ah, but the sign. Now it looks like this: Let's zoom in a little: Personally, I liked the old sign better. A lot of Wyoming looks like this: That is a loading silo for the US's second biggest coal mine - Black Thunder, originally owned by ARCO, now by Arch Coal. Different mine, different technique than the one I worked it. But just incredibly huge. You drive through the mine and it just goes on forever. But there is a lot of this, too: We stopped at the Tourist Bureau in Casper to get some state maps (yes, we have been using hardcopy maps, our atlas, as well as The Google Lady o...

Home again, home again.

 It's always good to be home. We have never taken such a road trip before, and certainly never with a dog. That was an experience. She loved the long hikes in the mountains, didn't care for the car rides, especially the long one.  We, too, experienced new things. We listened to a lot of books on tape (well, Audible), trying to match the words to the Landscape. So we started with True Grit by Charles Portis, set mostly in the Oklahoma Territory. One of my favorite books of all times, and it was read by Donna Tart. ( The Goldfinch , etc). Perfect book for the start of the trip, from Houston to Bartlesville. On the next two legs of the trip, to Hutchinson, Kansas and then up to Keystone, South Dakota, we listed to My Antonia by Will Cather. (pronounced, we learned, as an-tone-EEE-ah). A wonderful book for driving through Nebraska. And we were on the Willa Cather highway while doing so. As we drove into Wyoming, we listened to Rising from the Plains , by John McPhee. The story o...

Driving Home New Mexico to Amarillo, Amarillo to Waco.

Leaving Colorado was hard. We had another long drive in front of us, and I was a little worried about driving through New Mexico. I had heard that they were stopping cars at the state line to enforce COVID quarantine.  That was not the case:  That is one beautiful state. This is near the Ghost Ranch, around Abiqui.  The colors are dumbfounding Everywhere you look it is beautiful. New Mexico was the second state that have a "You are leaving" sign. The other was Kansas Home again. We did go to the Big Texan It is a whole "western cowtown" Complete with EMS on site for heart attacks. We stayed in this cute little house in the Wolflin neighborhood in Amarillo. It was quite nice Then we drove the next day to Waco, where we stayed in this very wonderful farmhouse. They had sheep Then we drove home, One more post coming with final thoughts.