We made it ~ Sick ~ But we made it

Just a quick catch ya'll up post with a few photos. We got back from the cruise and immediately took delivery of a new shed on our RV lot.  This will take the place of the cargo trailer. The park was charging us $35 a month to have that on our property and we can use the trailer in TN. The inside of the shed is bigger than the trailer because the outside dimensions on the trailer had to take into account the wheels/sidewalls. We're very pleased with the quality and the installation and highly recommend Lark Sheds of Leesburg.

Once that was done on Monday, we spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting ready to head to TN for the cruise-in we mentioned. That never happened. Stu had caught a cold from all the kids on the cruise and it turned into bronchitis. The day before we were due to leave he went to urgent care and got some antibiotics. So we finally headed out on Friday, making it as far as Perry, GA where we Wally-docked.

Remember our inverter issue? The one we thought we resolved with new batteries? Nope, not resolved. Sigh. Something to put on the "summer" to do list. We will stay in campgrounds when we head north the end of the month.

We made it through Atlanta very early on Saturday (if you haven't heard, I-85 had a section collapse due to a fire). We took I-75 to I-285 West and had no issues. We rejoined I-75 north and were good until close to the TN border when there was a backup that cost us at least 30 minutes. But we weren't complaining. It wasn't as bad as the one going south (south of Atlanta) where a travel trailer was wheels up, still attached to it's tow vehicle which was on its side. That backup was at least ten miles and the accident was fairly recent. With it being the first day of spring break, the traffic south was already bumper to bumper. Glad it wasn't us! So, once out of our snarl, we continued until just outside Chattanooga when a "too much traffic for the road" slowed us again for a bit until the I-75, I-24 split. Most of the traffic stayed on I-24 and we sailed onward. We pushed through and made it to the house while it was still light.

Everything was great and the house even smelled nice! We were really happy. We carried in some food for dinner and crashed till Sunday. Stu was feeling better but I was now getting sick. We got all the food moved over and I did all the laundry, then crashed.

The last couple of days have been spent either working like mad or resting like crazy. Stu is enjoying his lawn tractor. He both mowed...

and used it to relocate the motorcycle trailer and camping gear from the storage shed to the garage (prepping to sell).

As you can see, spring is here and everything is popping color! It's been a real treat to enjoy our first cup of coffee out on the back deck in the morning sun. We even had the windows and back door open yesterday.

We're still moving things over from the RV and making a list of the few items that will be moved back and forth. We are trying to limit that even though it means more purchases. For now we will move all food (except some canned), computer, medications, motorcycle gear and a few other sundry items. We're trying to keep it as simple and painless as possible.

That's not to say we haven't bought a few fun things. One of my author friends posted a photo of her new iPad cover and I had to go take a look. I ended up with this one for my iPad Mini and got Stu one of their larger, rotating versions in black for his iPad Air for less than a third of what we paid for his last one.

Oh, yeah. We love our 24 oz Tervis tumblers for iced tea and water but only had two. Rather than add them to the move between list, we opted for two new ones. I LOVE MINE!! So bright and colorful

Stu's hasn't arrived yet, but this is what it will look like.

And, if you ever needed LONG straws for your tall tumblers, this is a HUGE bargain. 250 straws for $10 (we got free shipping with Prime). I picked the multi-color pack. I couldn't get over how many straws were in the package when it arrived. Happy camper here!

We are both on the mend now, doing chores (Stu) and writing (me). If you haven't been following my author blog, you're missing daily (well, except Sundays) posts about our travels since 2005 (solo and together). This is in the April A to Z Blog Challenge and my theme is "Oh, the places we will go!". I hope you will check it out, follow my blog and tell your friends! ;)

Ciao for now!

Rt 66 - the first few days

The heat, it's all been about the heat. We've tried for short days but due to slow speeds, lots of winding through corn fields and minuscule, towns that doesn't always work. We managed to get up and on the road by 8:30 on Tuesday and the temps weren't too bad. Our first stop was in Joliet at the Route 66 Visitor Center and Museum.

[click thumbnail for large image]

We spent about 45 minutes there, picked up a few small souvenirs and headed out on the road. The Route 66 map that Stu purchased for our Garmin has been really great, both for keeping us on track and for notifying us of upcoming roadside attractions. Some we stop at, some we have a hard time identifying and some we pull over to take a quick photo.

It was about lunch time when we were notified about the Polka Dot Diner. Perfect timing with the added bonus of meeting up with a tour group from Norway. They had flown in to Los Angeles and were on the last day of their trip.

It was in the mid-90's by the time we were done with lunch and we opted to use our cooling vests for the first time. Stu had not used one before and he agreed with me that it really does help. We continued on, taking a few roadside photos of old gas stations and some not-so-old but interesting spots.

We stopped in Pontiac, IL for the night and got a good night's sleep (heck, I took a 2 hour nap and then slept 8 hours) before heading out before 9am again. This time it was already in the upper 80's-low 90's. We had thought Tuesday was bad...yikes!

We wound through a variety of large, small and smaller towns, riding on varying road conditions ranging through Interstate, divided highway, two-lane, BRICK, concrete &/or asphalt with grass in the cracks but we opted out of the dirt road that was offered as an option. (The mapping software allows us to chose different routes although we have it set to default to the oldest routing.) At times we were riding parallel to the original road as seen in the first two photos.

As I said, the heat was really bad so we stopped at the Dixie Diner (serving since 1928) for some iced tea and a cool down.

We found the Hot Dog man and got a behind-me-at-a-traffic-light shot of the Lauterbach Tire bearded man as well as a few other interesting shots.

A later stop for lunch was at Ray's 66 Restaurant in Sherman. Good fun, nice folks! Then on through Springfield, the state capital.

Around 5pm we pulled into the Best Western in Alton, IL for the night. Very nice, GREAT price so with another day of temps in the 90's for Thursday, we booked two nights. Ahhhh.....

We spent today doing laundry, catching up on paperwork, reading emails/blogs/Facebook and writing this blog. This evening we'll go see "Riddick" for my birthday and grab some dinner. Tomorrow the temps will have moderated and we'll start the morning out with panels zipped back on to our mesh pants and liners in our jackets.

Where will we end up? Somewhere in Missouri....time will tell. We need to add a note. We've had a lot of folks asking us to let them know when we are in their area. This is tough for us. We are planning on a day by day basis and we are only stopping sporadically: food, gas, bathroom and cool downs as well as an occasional tourist stop. We'd love to see everyone but realistically, it's not going to happen. By the time we pull into the hotel, we are done. We have been eating lunch on the road and dinner in our rooms and not going out unless it's a two night stay. Now that the weather is cooler, we will be starting to camp and going to bed even earlier. Please understand that we aren't purposely blowing anyone off, if it works out then wonderful but we hope you won't get hurt feelings if it doesn't. Thanks!

[full album of photos at SmugMug]