I’ve been absent from AR a couple of weeks now. Not by choice, but by circumstance and technology challenges...
We set out on the road for Missouri on the morning of August 11, 2015 with my 1st wife Bev and her husband of 38 years, Keith. We’ve been good friends forever and share a daughter Tawnya and 3 grandkids Tyffanie, Jake, and Tannyr...
That said... :O) ... It was an amazing 5400 mile trip across country and back. We drove a 1998 Dodge 3/4 ton diesel 5 speed manual with a 28 foot trailer. Something I’m not used to doing, but for the most part, it was a blast and I only thought I was going to die 4 or 5 times.
The years went by so fast and the kids are grown and now married and the youngest Tannyr is 13 now, and 6 feet tall! We were in Joplin, Missouri for my grandson Jake’s wedding on August 16th. While we were there we saw a show on the Branson Belle in Branson, Missouri on the 19th. It was great to spend time with the midwest branch of the family.
I coined this trip, The Seniors of Discovery Expedition of 2015 after Lewis & Clark. Their adventure was known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition... I thought it a fun play on a couple of things, and 1. I love history, and 2. I don’t consider myself a senior, yet.
But time say’s at 65 I am one and I got called on it several occasions. Yet, I made a promise to myself several decades ago that I would be the very best of the best I can be at whatever age I am, live in the present, look forward to the future, be creative and not pretend to be anything else or acquiesce to anything less. So... I’m living up to the code and the promise I made to myself all those years ago.
I’ll spin more of this story later, but let me share just a couple of things that stick with me. The journey and the scenery were wonderful all the way there and back. What a beautiful land we live in. The wedding was a blast and I loved the relaxed nature Jake and Hailey created. They totally owned it and I think everyone had a wonderful time.
Some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet are in Nebraska. We had a little truck trouble and everyone from the guy with the towing truck, to the people that had the repair shop, to Farmer’s Daughter Cafe in Grand Island, Nebraska were so friendly, helpful, and good spirited.
I really wanted to share this adventure in a totally different way than I did. I miss calculated how busy I was going to be. I drove half the time and played navigator. We drove about 500 miles a day, so not much time for social media except at rest stops, fuel stations, or campgrounds. All the campsites offered free WiFi, but I could never get it to work.
So with all my blogs and social platforms online I ended up posting almost everything to Facebook. It was the one app on my iPhone that I could connect with consistently. I tried posting to AR from my iPhone, but I lost it before I could post, or got an error message, unable to connect or post. I don’t think it had anything to do with Activerain, I think it was more about being way the heck out there on the prairie with very few cell towers.
And the really big one as it turned out was Google Maps with voice navigation. More often than not we were looking for a campground after sunset. It was dark, unlit, unfamiliar, very little signage, and I had my challenges trying to keep track of direction after several turns off the freeway... Gotta hand it to Google, navigation got us where we needed to go everytime!
We made it safely back home to Kent/Renton, Washington the eve of August 23, 2015. After being gone for almost 2 weeks, reentry was a bit brutal... Oh, and one more thing... “I’ve never ever seen more corn in my entire life put together than I did driving through Nebraska!”
It was a great trip and it’s good to be back, or as Mom used to say, “It’s certainly good to go, but it’s good to be back home.”
I hope you all had a great August...
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