May 23, 2013

Tom Duffy and Elizabeth Heintz began their 2013 Western Odyssey some time ago leaving New Castle, Indiana on May 6.  Elizabeth had planned to write a daily blog with photographs taken along the way, but travel and adventures have been all-consuming so now that we have a little “down time” in Bryce Canyon, UT, it’s time to play catch up. By the way, “I” applies to Elizabeth writing in the first person. Our home away from home is a Montana Mountaineer Fifth Wheel RV pulled by our Dodge 2500 Hemi truck, both properly checked out and ready to hit the road. 

Directional Note: I have been fired as chief navigator. Thomas has taken up with “Ethyl” a Garmin navigational device – not sure how to react to this development!

I’ll start with some travel reflections and then move on to our experiences in chronological order.  I plan limit the number of photographs to 2-3 of the best that really depict the place or event. Most of the photos are taken using my new Canon T51 camera and a Tamron 18-270 zoom lens; pictures on the road are taken with my i phone 5 out the truck window. (Thomas has threatened to put me in the back of the truck with a tripod!). All photos are “as taken” as I did not download Photoshop for editing. Those who know me well are aware that I don’t allow for much “white space” in my life so I’ll also try to be a bit more concise in my writings – Hah; we’ll see how both these concepts work!

Thanks are in order: I must issue a “Many Thanks” here to my sons Shane and Travis who are looking after the place, including my plants, the cats and pond plus Junior the horse, so we can enjoy our trip. Much gratitude also to my dear parents, Joan and Ed Young, and Aunt Lois Young whose frugal living and generous inheritance to me make all this possible. I know they are looking down, smiling at our exploits and enjoying the ride with us, although my Mother wishes I were a bit more frugal! This trip would also not happen without the great driving skills of Thomas, the designated driver; my driving makes him nervous without pulling anything so there’s no way he’ll let me drive: thank goodness! 

Travel Recollections: May 6 – May 10

Before any great Odyssey begins, the planning must occur. For the past several months, I researched and scheduled various time lines, events and lodging (i.e. campgrounds) for our RV. You don’t pull a 33 ft appendage just anywhere! I also took into account daily driving mileage  with an ideal of 300 miles per day (about 6 hours pulling the beast) as I didn’t want Thomas to be totally exhausted before we even got anywhere. Taking into account our various interests especially fishing, railroad trips, national parks and photography for Elizabeth, the trip morphed from @ 3 weeks to 59 days as we thought we might as well visit Thomas’ son Sean in San Francisco “along the way’! Recommended destinations from friends also added to the tally of some 7,000+ projected miles. Anyway, several revisions later, here we are, ready to go.

Day 1 Monday May 6: New Castle IN – Mulberry Grove IL

Well, we thought we had almost everything packed, but I sort of forgot to take into consideration that I was walking the Indy Mini Marathon on Saturday May 4 with my dear UGA, Alpha Xi Delta college sorority sisters Elaine from Lenoir City, Tennessee and Susie (aka Tus) from Cartersville, Georgia. They arrived on Thursday May 2.  We had a great time Friday picking up our packets and visiting Easley Winery (now a tradition) and finished the race in fine fashion despite a lack of proper training and being generally unprepared: Total time @ 3 hours, 30 minutes taking into account 2 potty breaks, the second for Elizabeth who was “properly hydrated”, drinking the requisite amount of water along the way!



Elaine, Elizabeth, Tus 

Looking good and feeling fine, we just crossed the finish line!! 

13.1 has come and gone; The Mini Babes got it done! Winners All!!



At any rate, instead of getting off at 10AM Monday, it was more like 2:30 PM that we pulled out of the driveway after we finished loading our necessities and finishing up farm chores. Why is it you think of all these “things” that simply must be done before you can leave home? Am I the only one who does this? Exhausted before we even left, we arrived at destination 1, Mulberry Grove IL without incident and before dark.

I must admit, Indiana looked her springtime best along our route with trees leafing out in that wonderful springtime green accented by the fluorescent purple-pink of the redbuds. We were also pleased to see a number of farmers out in their fields, once we got through the suburban traffic hassle north of Indianapolis. We paid tribute by singing “Back Home Again” when we crossed the Wabash. You all be sure to listen to Jim Nabors rendition before the Indy 500.    Illinois was a different story with many flooded fields and more rain predicted.

Day 2 Tuesday May 7: Mulberry Grove IL – Carthage MO

As Thomas says, Interstate 44 across south central Missouri has got to be one of the prettiest interstates in the country. The rolling hills of the northern Ozark Mountains with dense forests and lovely creeks and rivers made this drive a real pleasure. Also saw some interesting places for future trips. Who can resist the “Jesse James hideout cave” and the St. James winery!

We stopped at Rolla MO for lunch at Maid Rite so Thomas could experience the Midwest classic Maid Rite burger. For those of you who are uninitiated, it’s not really a burger, but loose ground meat cooked just so with onions (some magic formula) served on a bun with pickles and mustard. Add a handmade shake of your choice, it is definitely a treat – also our first step off our closely regimented diet we’ve been on for the past 4 months!

We passed Ft. Leonard Wood named after a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who was also a surgeon and Army Chief of Staff: look him up on Wikipedia; most interesting.

Another day without incident, we arrived at the Big Red Barn RV Park where we were greeted with wonderful hospitality and homemade cookies. As we were relaxing at the picnic table, I heard a lovely birdsong and saw a flash of red: a cardinal, I thought, but that wasn’t quite right. As he flew off I saw the black markings of a scarlet tanager – what a treat!

Photo: symbolicmessengers.com

There were lovely irises blooming here: the old-fashioned light lilac color that smells like grape juice and some big white ones – lovely with the morning dew drops. I especially enjoyed them as I’ll miss my Iris back home.

 



I also have a rather embarrassing confession to make. We stopped at Wal-Wart in Carthage, Missouri; yes, Wal-Mart. So far we have stopped in Wal-Mart in at least 3 of the 6 places we’ve stayed among the way: what did we do before THE Wal-Wart?

Day 3 Wednesday May 8:  Carthage MO – Shamrock TX

Oklahoma started what I call the Big Sky look of the west and southwest. Eastern Oklahoma was more hilly with more trees than I remembered from my childhood. We lived in Oklahoma City from @ 1954-1962 and then in Ardmore 1962-1964. A major childhood illusion was shattered this day when I looked up my old address in OK City on Yahoo maps and found the Lake Hefner Expressway now cuts right through our subdivision! Black dirt, windmills, and oil wells were remembered, but now the wind turbines also dot the landscape. Further west, a young cowboy with a huge black cowboy hat made us smile; there were also a number of abandoned homesteads that looked like relics from the Dust Bowl.

The farther west we drove, the more the clouds built up. I have attached some photos as they were really spectacular:

Spectacular that is until we got caught in a major hailstorm in downtown Shamrock Texas  @ 5:30 PM, now CDT. Thomas pulled over and we sat in the truck as golf ball size hail  pummeled the truck and RV for at least 10 minutes; not much to do except wait in out and be thankful we weren’t even more exposed and possibly injured.

This is Route 66 country: “Get your kicks on Route 66”; Remember?

I-40 now replaces much of that legendary highway with the places along the way all but forgotten. Shamrock is one of those; a cute little town with an outstanding restored art deco garage that was featured in the cartoon movie Cars; wish we could have enjoyed the town more.

Weather too bad for photos: downloaded this from desertphotorestoration.com

Texas humor: The directions to the West 40 RV Park were sketchy at best. Upon finally arriving, I told the elderly proprietor that we were so glad to have found him. In his Texas drawl he replied that he was glad too since he had been missing for years! I also had a funny moment prior to this when I was calling the park number for directions, misdialed and got some poor man in the Dominican Repbulic who did not speak English!

The kindness of strangers: Upon setting up the RV in the campground, we discovered damage to the roof, especially to the skylights over the vent fans: plastic debris all over the bed with a hole where the cover used to be. Our neighboring campers were a couple from North Dakota who winter along the Texas coast. Dick noticed more of our damage when he was inspecting his own roof. He was kind enough to climb up on our roof, assess our damage and tape up what he could to get us through the night; we sent him “home” with strawberry shortcake for dinner – the least we could do as he wouldn’t take any money.

There were 2 horses in the vast ranch field behind the park. I enjoyed visiting with them, especially the bald face bay with blue eyes who enjoyed my carrots. I also saw wild rabbit tobacco, a native Artemisia. Did any of you ever smoke rabbit tobacco back behind the barn? Being Miss Goodie-Goodie I, of course, never did, but it was a popular “rite of passage” in rural Georgia and other parts of the south. Bird of the Day: Scissortail Flycatchers



Photo: lonestarphotos.com