Our Journey East - Days 7 and 8 .. into Pennsylvania

History has shown that reliance on google 'hours' of travel will spell a late arrival.

Judging from the 1000 km planned for day 7 and the previous accomplishments, 2 days would be a more fitting ride !  So it was to be ...

Heading east to St. Louis from O'Fallon we are met with grey skies and intermittent falling rain.  Nice to be cooler, for sure, and no need for high volume A/C.


We pass the St. Louis Cardinal stadium and the Famous Arch on our way through town.

          

Hoping to arrive at a destination in reasonable time, we pick a spot just across the Missouri border into Ohio - home of a former rock quarry and nice little RV campground - Natural Springs Resort, in New Paris, Ohio, just east of Richmond, Missouri.   Our neighbour at the camp had a Great Dane, to match up with our Great Pyrenees.  The younger Marmaduke was rather rambunctious, so did not meet nose to nose with ours, at his owners behest.   The camp had a good number of permanent weekend owners, with golf carts and trailers.  We almost missed the check in, arriving just before 7 pm.

Astrid whipped up a specialty pasta dish of hers, always delightful, and we retired for an early get-a-way the next day - on the road by 0830 hrs.

Passing through Indianapolis, we see the Lucas Oil Stadium - a state of the art, retractable roof stadium - home of Super Bowl XLVI, 2015 NCAA Final Four,  and the NFL Colts.  

Road Construction remains as a mainstay in our day, with some of the roads particularly rough and bouncy ... first time Astrid says Steve swore at the road !  Traffic out of Akron at 4:14 pm was typically heavy for major cities.   The concrete highways are noisy compared to asphalt !  .. and bumpy ... twathump, thwathump, thwathump, over the seams.

Our first hint of east coast was a sign for the Interstate 80 highway ... to New York City.  Must be more than half way !

Just before 6 pm, we pull in to Clarks Mills, Pennsylvania at Al & Kathy's ... an impressive estate in the country where lawn mowers are obviously king !

See our journey on Google Maps !

Stay tuned...

Cheers
Astrid 'n Steve

Our Journey East - Day 4 ... Running Wyoming

On the road at 0845 hrs or so.  Running through Southern Wyoming is mile after mile of dry desert-like ranch land.  5-6 hours worth before we get to some interesting changes in the landscape and some larger towns - Laramie and Cheyenne.

Wyoming ... barren .. for hours n hours 

Astrid takes a run at driving the moho for an hour coming in to Laramie but is safety minded and passes it back before hitting Cheyenne - anticipations of traffic in the big rig.

When we hit Cheyenne, stopped in at the visitors centre - opened last October and an impressive building.  Astrid marvelled at the dog park - best by far we had seen.  Most were dry gulch strips of land added as an afterthought as a "pet walk area"  ... some even had the gall to say "pets only in far grassy area".  There was no grass at all, just tumbleweed, so we heeded the sign as the design begged.  NOT.

Connor & Ceilidh do appreciate green .... and Connor likes all the critters that follow to know he was there... a dribble here, a dribble there, everywhere a dribble, squirt.

The Welcome Centre was new in October, 2012 ... very nice spot with wifi and lotsa good help.

We head east to find the Nebraska border in about an hour and tire so find a spot, home to Cabela's outdoor gear - www.cabelas.com/... World Headquarters in Sydney, Nebraska !

Cabela's Outdoor Gear supplier ... World Headquarters in Nebraska

Park in at Cabela's RV camp ... very nice and all the services... except the wifi wasn't strong ...  too slow to do anything... hmmm.  Wassup with that ?

BTW ... posted Day 2-5 sitting outside a hotel on a Boingo Wifi feed .. Sunday a.m. .. it's now 1:25 pm.. slow start today .. Ceilidh, one of our Pyrs, is epileptic and had a seizure at 4:00 am last night.  Long night calming her down .... all is well now.

On the road again.  Check us out here ... Google Maps.

Cheers
Astrid 'n Steve

Our Journey East - Day 1 ... Finally on the Road ... late, but moving through Washington State

Hectic day, getting all loose ends wrapped up.  Finally got going just after 4 pm and still forgot some things ... oh well.  Leave our good friend Pablo to sweep up after we leave ... thank goodness for good friends with a flexible schedule who can house-sit.

Corn Fields south of Sumas - Border Crossing

The border is only about 30 minutes away ... expected the worst with a motorhome and our first foray in it.  So stopped at Duty Free to get some items we have a weakness for and proceeded back in line.

Guns were drawn, our faces flat on the pavement ... er .... no ...  we were through and across in 60 seconds.  Amazing.



Stopped in at the Linden, Wash. Saveway to pick up supplies - two roasted chickens .. mostly for the dogs.  Just over an hour later, back on the road at 7:30pm.  Wanted to make it past Seattle before morning rush hour, so pressed on until midnight.  Had to catch up we thought.  Generator running non-stop -- mighty hot day out there and A/C essential for the pyrs.

Navigator ... stunned we are actually moving.

Parked at a roadside rest in southern Washington, listening all night to the lovely tones of battling diesel engines from the long haul trucks we had as neighbours.

Noticed a lot of red lights high in the air running for kilometres near to us.  Must be an airport nearby.
Day 1 noted on Google Maps.

Generally uneventful day one ... slow to start .. but we're off.

Cheers,

Astrid 'n Steve