From Red Rock to Wyoming

Okay, so I've been slacking on the blog, and we even had two stops where we stayed on for an extra day. Just so busy, and I would write in the car, but the carsickness aspect is an issue. About the most I can handle is a few transcripts and uploading photos.

So I believe I left off when we arrived at Red Rock Canyon. It had become apparent that we were going to need an extra day or two here and there, as the constant driving was getting to all of us. Red Rock seemed an ideal place to stay an extra day, and was close to Hobart, Jacob's Grannie's hometown, so we signed up for one more night.
It's strange to see such a deep canyon in such flat terrain. One minute you are driving through nothing but open field and sky, and then you get to Hinton, this little town, turn into the park, and go down, and down, and down....it was beautiful. I am a sucker for Red Rocks, so I loved being surrounded by them. Also, with the weather doing it's crazy Oklahoma thing, I felt safe in the canyon. I couldn't picture any tornadoes making their way down there.

We did laundry with our laundry machines. Cloth diapers didn't work out for the driving part. When we get to Alaska we can use them, but I only have time and resources to do laundry every few days, and even that seems to pile up faster than I can wash it. Doing laundry every day seemed like a good idea in theory, but turned out to be a bit unrealistic for now.

We went into Hobart, where Cloe played in Hunter park, a park that was named after her Great, Great Grandfather. She loved the bridge and the playground, and Ruby and Wyatt even had some fun on the swings! We located Grannie's old house that she lived in when she was young, and perused the not so thriving Main Street. Everyone there was very friendly, and were all smiles and waves when we passed by.

We got showers at the campground, although they were coin showers, and Cloe and I wound up stuck wet and soapy in one when the coin accepter got jammed up. So we had to sneak over to the next one. Luckily, no one was around, and it was only a minor inconvenience.

The day we left, we booked it pretty well through Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle, and made it to Clayton, New Mexico. We had been watching storms in the sky all day. Out here you can see for miles and miles. A storm the next town over shows up in the sky perfecty, and it is both beautiful and terrifying. That night, a storm did hit us, and we woke to the sound of hail on the roof. I think it may have been the most scared I have ever been. Thank God it was just a small part of the big storm, most of which was North of us. It passed us by quickly.
After that, it was on to Colorado. As soon as the Rockies came into view, I became very excited. I think I took a million pictures from the car, until my battery ran out. We had decided to stay in Manitou Springs, a smaller town close to Colorado Springs, and right by Garden of the Gods.

 It became evident pretty quickly that we were going to want to stay another day there too. We did a preliminary visit to the Garden of the Gods park, sans our camera, whose battery was on the charger. When it started to sprinkle, we left, knowing we had another day to look around. On our way back to the RV park we spotted a Safeway Grocery store. For all the bad mouthing I do about large grocery chains, I was pretty excited to see it. We had been out of Plain whole milk yogurt for days, with nowhere to find it. Seems like a small problem to have, but my little Wyatt needs it to keep his digestive system in check.

He used to wake every night with terrible gas, until I started giving him the plain whole milk yogurt with rice cereal 2-3x a day. It literally made him start sleeping through the night, because the probiotics in it would soothe his system. Sweetened yogurt, with fruit and sugar, would add more gas to the equation because of the way the sugar interferes with the protein in the yogurt.  The day I ran out of it he started waking again, writhing in pain and squalling loud enough to stir the whole campground. The small markets of Oklahoma didn't have it. The closest I got was Dannon plain, but it was lowfat, and not organic. Gave it to him anyway, but it wasn't the same. The day we found the Safeway and stocked up, he went back to sleeping through the night.
We ate well that night. We had purchased scallops and foccacia, along with some fresh oyster mushrooms. Jacob grilled it all up and it was GOOD.
The next day, after getting some extra sleep,we hit up a pizza joint for lunch, where we gave our leftover half a pie to a couple of hippie wanderers. They asked us if they could come with us to AK, but we had to decline. We joked about what would have happened if we had taken them. Maybe they would have driven us so crazy that we would have sent them to the store with some money, and taken off, awning out and all. We had a good laugh thinking about the awning flapping around on the highway, but they really did seem like nice kids.

We went back to Garden of the Gods. This time armed with our camera. The universe had granted us a perfect bluebird day, and we had so much fun wandering around, and climbing on some of the lower, untreacherous parts. It's hard to put into words, so I'll have to leave it to the pictures to describe.

Now we are camped by the interstate in Daniel, Wyoming. We drove a hell of  a way today. The kids were doing well, and we felt like keeping on, so we did. Now we are only 3 and a half hours away from Yellowstone! I'm going to go to sleep now, so I have lots of energy to enjoy our first day there tomorrow. I'm sure the pictures and stories will be fun to write and post. Love and miss everyone at home! Thinking especially tonight of our friends Seth and Christine, who had to close their coffee shop they started in Spring Hill. It was by far my favorite place to play music, and Jacob and I so loved their fresh roasted beans. Don't know what we're gonna do without it, but luckily, we get to keep Seth and Christine, and that's what counts the most. Love you guys SO much, and we are so proud of you for what you have accomplished. Now it's time for your next adventure!

The first 3 days

We took off Friday morning, from Jacob's mom's house. We had spent our last night there, after going to a memorial for a dear family friend who had passed the previous weekend.
I could feel the anticipation in my chest, building and building. Leaving our house the day before had been harder than I thought it would be. But I knew it would be in good hands with Mark, Jacob's brother, who stayed on for us at the Dog Creek Road house.
Our first stop, Brinkley, Arkansas, was one that we found in the book. The town was extremely depressed, and I was very unsettled by it. But we had our small miracles. It was very, very hot when we pulled into the unshaded spot behind the dilapidated Days Inn. We were both regretting ditching the trailer's AC unit to save gas mileage. We unhooked, raised it up, and got back into the truck to go find a cooler spot to wait out the heat. I saw thunderclouds on the horizon, and I said a little prayer. Right then I knew it would cool down, but we wouldn't get blown away by the storm. Sure enough, when we returned to our site an hour later, the storms had grazed just south of us, but had brought a cool front, making our trailer the perfect temperature.

When we left the next morning I was not sad to see the town behind us. We got on those rough Arkansas roads, and took em to the mountains. The eastern half of the state was basically a monoculture of corn and cotton. Crop dusters flew overhead, and we closed off our vents. The towns seemed hopeless and deserted, with grain elevators hovering over the abandoned storefronts. The roads bounced our trailer so much that it broke the rack in our fridge and sent groceries flying to the floor.
As soon as we passed Little Rock, things changed for the better. The roads remained rough, but life came into the towns. As we left the Big Farmland behind, and the hills started appearing, I began to like Arkansas.
We decided that we should stop in the Ouachita (pronounced Wacheeta)Mountains for a night. We found a state park on the map, Queen Wilhemina State Park. We were bereft of cell reception or internet, but there was so much more. Like a wildlife rescue center where the folks were so friendly that they took us around and let us meet all of their rescues, most of who are going to be released after they have been rehabilitated.

There are a few lifers, like a female mountain lion, who had been born prematurely in captivity, and was going to be put down, but Tommy, the vet, talked the people who had her into letting him take her home and try to save her. Now she lives at the center and is a beautiful, loving animal. She came up to the edge of the cage, purring loudly, and let me scratch her ears. I was beside myself. There were 2 young deer who met us at the campground and followed us down to the center. One even put her nose in my hand!

There were tiny coyote pups, falcons, owls, and a baby raccoon! All the animals looked healthy and loved. The volunteers there were gracious and kind, and Cloe was hugging the girls, but was a bit cautious of the animals. She loved the big barrel of fish though, or as Scott called it, otter food
The tour was free, and we dropped a twenty into their donation box on our way out. One of the handlers came up to our RV after dinner time, just to visit for a bit.
We also met 2 very nice older couples at the campground, Rhonda and Dick, and Jim and Margarite. They were in the area for a Western dancing event, and were full of joy and enthusiasm. Rhonda was kind enough too call the fam in Franklin for us when we realized we had no signal there.

Today we arrived at Red Rock Canyon, Oklahoma. I'll write about it after we have some stories. Looks like we may be staying 2 days here. We already met a very nice couple from TN, and I love being nestled in this canyon. Tomorrow we are going into Hobart for the day, Jacob's Grannie's hometown, to pay homage and have dinner. We'll be sure to tell you all about it!