I'm going to go out of order here. I'm almost ready to post yesterday's blog but I have to interrupt this travelogue to say:
THE GIANTS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!
I'm still having a little trouble soaking this in. This is so cool! Who knew when we were struggling, trying to pass up the dodgers that we actually would not only leave them in the dust but leave EVERYONE in the dust?
I DID!! YESSIR, YESSIR, YESSIR!!
How many life lessons can we learn from this? The best one is: Never, never, never give up! (am i channeling Sir Winnie there?) The reason the GIANTS are so great begins with the Skipper, Mr. Bochy and trickles down. The team has an attitude of teamwork, friendship and just doing it right. We have our stars for sure, but even they don't take all the credit for themselves. In a baseball way they are humble. I mean, seriously, when you're really, really good it must be hard to be humble (when you're perfect in every way...Mac Davis) but they respect each others' talents and find a way to use their own talent to make the team better.
Baseball caps off to the G-Men.
Another really amazing thing is that I watched the playoffs and series all across the US.
ALL NLDS: FRESNO, CALIFORNIA
NCLS WORLD SERIES
GAME 1: FRESNO, CALIFORNIA GAME 1: McMINNVILLE, OREGON
GAME 2: MAUI, HAWAII GAME 2: McMINNVILLE, OREGON
GAME 3: MAUI, HAWAII GAME 3: BILLINGS, MONTANA
GAME 4: MAUI, HAWAII GAME 4: FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA
GAME 5: MAUI, HAWAII GAME 5: FREEDOM, WISCONSIN
GAME 6: EUREKA, ILLINOIS
GAME 7: CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA
This has been so great. The only problem is that I wasn't with Dave to celebrate all the wins! We watched together by texting but that wasn't the same. But I did have Emilie with me. The only problem with that is that she's not such a huge baseball fan as she once was. But she's Emilie, what more do I need?
Gotta stop. We're going to Raleigh, North Carolina today! More later
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Day #5: Fargo, N Dakota to Freedom, Wisconsin
-->
Sunday October 26, 14
Day #5
Leaving Fargo, ND
 |
| Fargo Sunrise |
1,628 miles driven so
far
8:00 am
This morning we had a good breakfast at the hotel. Emilie got a free one because she’s a
Best Western Rewards person.
Whoo-hoo! I’m traveling with a celebrity!! There were a couple incidents
that I must include in this travelogue.
This “just happened” to be Comic Con in Fargo. That meant we saw a different crowd than we usually run
around with. We feared they would be partying all night to keep us up. Fortunately our room was completely
quiet and we didn’t hear a peep.
However, our neighbor did.
This is how we found out they were rowdy until at least 3 am: Emilie was
taking our stuff down to the car and a man apparently thought she was part of
the Comic Cons. He mentioned that they
kept him up until 3 am. Em made it
clear the she wasn't one of the offending parties. Too bad I wasn’t with her at that moment. He would never have thought we were the
offending party then. Ha.
The second incident involved Alice. Em was taking her outside and was
getting something from the car. A
guy walked by when Alice did her ugly dance barking furiously like she wanted a
piece of him. Too bad he didn't
know that Alice is all show and no go.
He started kicking her away…and a car was approaching. Em finally got Alice calmed down but
Emilie was hot under the collar about the guy. She does not like anyone being cross with Alice, but also
knows how vicious Alice can sound.
Anyway, that’s all water under the bridge (May be icy).
The most exciting thing about this morning is that I figured
how to pair my GoPro camera with my iPhone so I can use the phone like a
monitor. Pretty cool. We took a few videos of the sunrise. Not too bad I must say. (Remember Ed
Grimley as done by Martin Short?
He used to say “I must say” in a really squirrely, dorky way. Just sayin’)
9:30 am Pit stop in
Alexandria, Minnesota. We came
into the state of Minnesota very unceremoniously. We had gone about 50 miles when we realized we had crossed
the state line many miles ago.
It’s cold here and windy.
Trees have almost all lost their leaves already.
I should mention how we’re passing the time on all these
long, lonely interstate roads.
Well, Emilie is doing most of the driving. I offer but she says, “I’m
OK, Mom.” I have a “fun box” on
the floor by my feet. Sometimes
it’s below my feet. Our tats are
still healing and it seems like I’m always bumping something with that part of
my leg. It’s been over a week
since we were tatted up. Anyway,
back to the fun box. I have all the GoPro stuff and both cameras in there. Also
the book I’m reading and one I finished and 2 that I have yet to read. So, I read. Em’s laptop also goes in there. All of our notes, schedules,
reservations, our atlas, etc are in various folders. I’m never able to sleep in
the car so I periodically lean my head back and pretend to sleep. For our listening pleasure we have many
options. On Em’s audible.com
account we have “The Book Thief”; all 13 hours, 56 minutes of it. We’re about half done. When we get bored with that, there’s a
“Twilight” CD that seems to always be in Henry’s CD player. Right now we’re listening to the
soundtrack from “Frozen” which Emilie loves, a few songs in particular. Something about “letting it go”—it
represents her new phase of her life.
I’m glad she is taking this chance by breaking out of her mold but the
closer we get to NC the closer I get to having to leave her there and I don’t
like that. So I guess I have some
“letting go” to do on my own. It’s
good we’re driving instead of flying; it gives us both time to process.
On top of all this, I’m also researching each state we drive
through. I think I’ll make a blog
just for those. We’ve learned a
lot about this part of the US. We
also have the average amount of precipitation annually for each state ranked
from 1 to 50. I’ll put that up
soon, too. We are just a fountain
of knowledge. Stay tuned…
12:30 Wisconsin Stopped
for lunch at Noodles & Co. Did
I mention Alice today? Thought I
better add that at every pit stop we offer her water and take her on a walk. Today it’s sunny and 59 degrees Hudson,
Wisconsin, don’t ya know?
2:10 Stopped for
gas, pit stop and Alice.
3:16 2,000 MILES
DRIVEN!!
Arrived Freedom, Wisconsin at 5:42 pm. Miles
traveled so far: 2,155.
Stayed at the home of Andy, Kayla and Emma Brisson. It was great to have a hot, home cooked
meal! And the huge pieces of apple
pie didn’t hurt, either! Slept
well and got started the next morning at 10 am.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
DAY #4 Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota
-->
Got into Fargo last night at 9:00 pm. Had eaten PBJ’s on the road so we could
go right to bed. Emilie did. I did not. There was a Giants game on. And we won 11-4. It was a 4 hour game. So I got to bed around 11:30 pm. We both set alarms for 6:30 am. So, back to the Giants game. I had almost given up when we were
behind 2-4 but in the 5th we broke loose and kept scoring runs
through the rest of the game. Too
good not to watch.
October 25, 2014
Saturday
9:00 am
Leaving Billings
Started
the day by going to Albertson’s for breakfast—yogurt parfaits, banana, and
waters.
We
set the GPS for Fargo, ND and it took us to I 94E. Then it informed us: “Stay
on this road for 567 miles.” The
interstate is good—4 lanes almost all the way and not congested but it cuts a
line across the middle of Montana and ND.
In Montana the scenery is beautiful to Billings then gets flatter, more
prairie like.
12:00 noon
We
stopped once in Miles City, Montana.
Had to drive a couple miles away from the interstate. Cute little town with farm machinery
dealers on every corner. A nice
city park and a cute downtown. We
got gas and had a pit stop. Then
back on I-94 E. Eastern Montana has lots of beautiful mesas.
And prairies….lots and lots of prairies.
Beach, ND
~1:00
Hello
North Dakota and welcome to the Beach.
No sand or snorkels but a lot of truck drivers at the Flyin’ J. We sat on the curb in the parking lot
and ate the wonderful leftovers from last night’s supper—prime rib, baked
potato, and broccoli. Bread, lettuce salad, and cheese quesadillas.
Delish. Took Alice for a short
walk and she suddenly started sneezing with her whole body. Serial sneezes that shook her whole
self. It was cute for me,
but Emilie was concerned. Alice
finally stopped and Em gave her ½ Benadryl. Hopefully we won’t run into that weed again! But if we do I hope I have my movie
camera ready!
At
the truck stop we also got a wide angle mirror to attach to the driver’s side
mirror. I mentioned previously
about Henry being stuffed to the gills.
He is. We can’t see out the
back window so we bought this little round mirror and it works
beautifully. Now we can see our
blind spot. Wish it was that easy
to get rid of all our blind spots in our lives…
3:16 pm
Central Time Zone so it’s
really 4:16 pm.
North
Dakota is much flatter than Montana or Idaho. Lots and lots of prairie land. There’s only a few towns by the interstate. The people we meet are all very nice,
though.
It’s
now 7:06 pm. We have gone 495
miles today! I have no idea about
the time we’ve been in the car because of all these crazy time zones. We made a stop in Bismark about an hour
ago. I wanted to get a thumb drive
for my iPhone pics because it wouldn’t let me take any more. So we stopped at Target—where else? We easily fell into our familiar
shopping routine but also knew we needed to get going. Our big target experience will be in
Raleigh to get Em things she needs and didn’t bring. That’s always fun.
We got a Starbuck’s Latte and some string cheese and apple slices. Ready to go again. Our ETA for Fargo is 9:07 pm. It’s 7:09
right now. We have a backwards and
forwards time schedule. We will
have a sandwich when we get to our hotel and go to bed. We’re going to try to get up early
tomorrow. Oh, and we didn’t see any icy warnings over bridges. We saw one partially dry river bed but
must not have crossed any
Bridges. Are there none in
NoDak?
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Emilie and Deb's Next Great Adventure Begins Day #1
October
22, 2014 5:59 PM. Wednesday. Day #1
Leaving
Susan Lane
McMinnville, Oregon at last!
McMinnville, Oregon at last!
 | |
| Emilie's friends cleaned the upstairs bedrooms and bath |
 |
| Emilie's NOT a happy mover |
 |
| The Door Shut Tight and Locked |
After
several days of intense packing the POD finally got full. The adventures we had with that POD
were forgettable but let me explain.
Originally the POD was to be delivered on Thursday. Em thought we’d pack it up and leave
that evening—because of a glitch in the ordering the POD was delivered before
we even got home from Hawai’i.
That was a good thing because we needed several days to finish packing,
clean the house and start driving.
Dave was still with us (he flew home on Tuesday night) so he helped a
lot. Em’s friends came on Tuesday
night and cleaned the upstairs.
That was much appreciated.
The next day Emilie and I finished packing/loading/cleaning and got in
the car at 5:59 pm.
6:00
pm
Leaving
Susan Lane...again
Went
back to Susan Lane. Thought we
left a bill on the counter. False
alarm. The bill was in Em’s purse. Here we go (again). With McMinnville in the rear view
mirror (which we can’t use because Henry is loaded to the gills—Explanation:
Henry is Em’s Black 2006 Ford Escape.—we were a bit concerned about the POD because
it was pouring rain all day and it was starting to leak. Plus every time we opened it, more rain
got in. I’m talking cats and dogs
here people.
I
asked Emilie to share some thoughts as we leave town.
I’m
so ready
No
regrets
No
sadness
I
didn’t pack too well at the end but all is well—we’re on our way! Here's the year in review:
Good Things Not So Good Things
Constantly
challenged
Unnecessarily stressful job
Met
girls in Bible Study Never
found a church home
Had
a nice home Never
connected with community
9:00 pm
Rest Stop
Potty
break at a little gas station. Felt
a little creepy because it was late and not very many people around. Guy working there was nice. We bought Rum and Cherry flavored
lifesavers and lemon bars and Nilla Wafers.
9:20 pm
Back
on the road we see red, white and blue lights. Should we go towards the light or flee? What state are the lights in? We decided to go towards the
lights. We think we’re in
Washington State. We know we’re
missing out on a lot of gorgeous scenery because we’re driving through the area
in the dark and it’s raining. We
just try to visualize what it must be like outside. that's why there are no pictures to accompany this section.
Uh-oh. We’re still in Oregon. 100 miles to Pendleton, Oregon. So we finally figured out we’re going
east right along the Washington/Oregon border. If you’re wondering how we managed to get this far without
knowing where we were, Sam, the GPS Guy is telling us where to go—in a good
way.
10:33 pm
Washington State
Birthplace
of George Washington? No but they
have pictures of him all over the place. But this is the Evergreen State.
11:00 pm Anywhereville, USA
Gas,
Pit stop and Coffee. Safeway gas. Saved 20cents/gallon with our Vons
card. Whoopee! We are near Walla Walla,
Washington. Jessica says it’s the
last of civilization.
No pictures of this drive because it was raining and dark outside.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)