Heading East

Our visit to Brigham was far too short. We typically visit friends and relatives throughout the state when we hit town, but with fewer than 36 hours in town we just didn’t have time.

We split this morning at 6 a.m., and the girls did their sleeping routine while I finished listening to the last of my The Moth podcasts and caught up on my This American Life Podcasts. (Great! Now what will I listen to during grown-up iPod time this trip?)

It was another day of getting miles under our belt. Our goal this trip is the East Coast, so we opted not to dilly dally through our Western travels. The plan seems to be working. We picnic breakfasted in Rock Springs, Wyoming, then had a picnic lunch in Optimist Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Our Librivox entertainment of the day was “Understood Betsy,” which we all greatly enjoyed.


We were headed for Buffalo Bill Historic Park near North Platte, NE for the night, but the exit at Kimball, NE called me. I pulled off to give some friends nearby a call – maybe they could meet us in Sidney for dinner, I thought. But there was no onramp to get back on the interstate there anyway, so it became readily apparent that we were just meant to drop in on this rural family. It’s not often people just SWING BY their house, particularly out-of-towners. Their place is quite far off the beaten path, but the girls agreed they’d rather stop short today to visit, and then pay the price tomorrow with a longer drive then.

We were rewarded with nice company and a fantastic lightning storm; among the most spectacular I’ve ever seen. E learned what it was like to have an intense wind come up while she was attempting to escape into the house. The screen door ripped out of her hands twice while she was trying to get back inside. “Now I know what they mean when I read in books that the door wouldn’t close!”

A Well-Earned Day of Rest - Brigham City, UT

After a day of hard driving, it was time to just enjoy the family and the scenery. I love Utah, in no small part because of the family I have there. They’re welcoming and relaxed and their doors are always open to us, even when we plan to stay for such a short while en route to such a monster trip.

After some errand running (books mailed – thanks for the orders; groceries for the week ahead; sheets for the trailer), we kicked back at the house and visited and I worked a bit more on my sewing project. (Colonial dress, scarf and hat for E. Pilgrim dress, apron and hat for V.)

Some of my cousins recently returned from their cabin on an island in Alaska. They brought back with them crab and fish and other seafood fare which they shared tonight for a family seafood feast. It was a beautiful late-summer Utah evening, comfortably warm, for a backyard barbecue.

Road Trip 2011 - Heading Out

WHEW! Finding a WiFi connection on the go hasn't been as easy as I've expected. Sorry for the delay in posting. BUT...here we are! :) All posts will have pix on the actual blog site, so if you want the pix, click through this e-mail to the actual site.

Aug. 30
We pulled out of the driveway this morning at 4:30 a.m. The girls headed from bed to the backseat with a pile of pillows and blankets to make their morning jaunt comfy. E, who always swears she can’t sleep in a moving vehicle, fell back asleep as quickly as V, and the pair slept clear to Arvin, just over two hours east of our house.

For the record, we did NOT find another kitty in Arvin. (See Arvin McDonald for reference.)

It wasn’t a super exciting day. We covered territory we’ve covered time and again and we did it with few stops and no sight seeing. We made it to Vegas in time for a relatively quick lunch stop, then hit the road again.

The most remarkable thing about today was how well the girls did. They brought plenty of reading material and crafts. Books on tape are also going to be a saving grace on this long trip. Today we enjoyed hours of listening to “Dog of Flanders,” courtesy Librivox which provides free recordings of a vast array of titles that are in the public domain (ie. classics). Toward evening when the view out the window was obscured by darkness, I pulled out the laptop and a video. Yes! A video – “The Long Long Trailer.” A perfect road trip movie.