Beautiful Kansas Sky

We left Kansas City, Missouri this morning early – before 7 a.m. Drove through Kansas – not much to see. However, I did get this beautiful photo of the sky and clouds.

the beautiful Kansas sky

We drove through the Panhandle of Oklahoma and Texas – through Guymon and Dalhart. Funny that we just watched a Ken Burns documentary about the Dust Bowl of the 1930s with Joel’s mom just the day before we left and it mentioned these areas.

Now we’re settled into our hotel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. After filling our tummies, we’re catching up on email and stuff. Tomorrow we drive to Phoenix, Arizona and see our great friends – Terry & Virgie!

It’s About Time for Something New Here!

Since moving to Rice Lake, Wisconsin in April 2012, we haven’t done a whole lot of traveling that we’ve written about. I’m going to try to make sure and write about our travels this month though in May 2013.

This month’s trip will take us out of the snow we just had on May 2 to a nice hot 100 in Arizona.

Goodbye snow!

Snow Rice Lake May 2, 2013
Snow Rice Lake May 2, 2013

We’re taking the month to eventually get the rest of our stuff out of storage in California. That will be near the end of the month. Here’s our basic itinerary:

  • May 6 – Leave Rice Lake, WI and drive to Kansas City, MO; stay overnight at a hotel we’ve already booked.
  • May 7 – Drive from Kansas City to probably Delhart, TX where we’ll stay at a hotel we stayed in last time we were through that part of Texas.
  • May 8 – From Delhart drive to Phoenix, Arizona and be warmly welcomed by our very good friend Terry Wilson and his lovely wife Virgie. Go swimming in their pool in 100 degree weather! :)
  • May 9 – Visit with Terry & Virgie and that night Joel will get to play music with Terry and his band.
  • May 10-12 – Stay with our friend Dan and his family in another section of Phoenix.
  • May 13-18 – Back to Terry & Virgie’s to visit more, play music, swim, swim, swim.
  • May 19 – Visit with Sue’s Uncle Phil & family in Glendale, Arizona. Sue hasn’t seen her Uncle in about 30 years.
  • May 20 – Drive from Phoenix to San Diego, California. Stay at a hotel in Chula Vista that has a pool.
  • May 21 – Visit with Joel’s brother and family
  • May 22 – Visit with Sue’s mom; possibly go to Balboa Park.
  • May 23 – Visit with Joel’s sister and family (read about their recent road trip); stay overnight with friends Ken & Kelly in San Diego
  • May 24 – Drive up to Northern California and visit with Tom Bentley.
  • May 25 – Drive to San Francisco and visit with David Reffkin.
  • May 26-28 Stay with good friends Pam & Phil in Roseville, California. Pick up stuff still in storage. Fiona spends two days with her sister Rachelle.
  • May 29 – Leave California for Idaho
  • May 30 – Drive through Montana
  • May 31 – Drive through Wyoming, North Dakota
  • June 1 – Arrive back in Rice Lake, Wisconsin

Of course it’s all subject to change. I plan to take pictures and keep a written journal and hopefully post often here. Fiona may post at her website as well.

We plan on having a blast!

Wind on the Kansas Plains, Ice in the Colorado Mountains

How does anyone know when there’s a cyclone in Kansas? The wind blew 70 MPH the whole time we were there. Also, there was snow in Kansas, and snow and ice in Colorado. For some reason I can’t get it through my head that if Denver is over 5,000 feet up, the mountains around it must be over 7,000 feet. There might, in fact, be snow and ice in late November, especially at night.

We almost turned back an hour from Denver, 10 hours into an 11-hour day. When I decided that one more climb to a higher elevation just wasn’t worth the risk, we started down the other side.

Through Iowa and Missouri to Kansas

We left Wisconsin Saturday morning. Instead of heading to South Dakota as originally planned, we headed south to Kansas. The weather promised to be unfriendly in South Dakota when we had planned to leave there; so a quick change of plans was in order.

We traveled through Iowa and Missouri and into Kansas. Iowa had a very cool Welcome Center with free internet access! In Kansas we stayed with a fellow member of Triiibes. Fiona made a new friend at our Sunday Bible meeting with Olivia, another six-year old. The funny thing is that Olivia’s mom is the sister of a friend of my older daughter’s. Olivia’s family will be moving back to Sacramento California in March. So we traded contact information and Fiona will probably see Olivia again in California.

Monday was a very long drive from Kansas to Denver. However, we did miss the worst of the weather. Enjoy our pics!