Dang this country's wide

But I think we've hit the half way mark!

Let’s Review!

On Day 1 we drove through Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania

Day 2 we continued through Pennsylvania, crossed the top sliver of West Virginia, into Ohio, and into Indiana, stopping at Terre Haute. We stayed the night in Terre Haute, home of Indiana State University and the square donut. We walked around the campus for our exercise and ate the donuts for fun. On to Manhattan, Kansas

Day 3 we finished up one minute in Indiana (Terre Haute is on the border), crossed into Illinois, and then Kansas, where we stopped last night in Manhattan. Manhattan, Kansas that is. We will be exploring Manhattan later this morning and I will report back.

We have stayed in some good places - starting with the famous Ohiopyle Suites, on to Home 2 Suites, and I’m writing from the Bluemont, across the street from the University of Kansas. That’s lucky because in past trips we stayed in some doozies. Two dogs limit your choices.

We’ve had amazing weather. It was hot yesterday as we drove through Illinois - in the 50s most of the day, sunny. Friends have asked whether we’ve noticed the weather on California’s Central Coast, where we are heading? home to recent evacuation notices. Even the woman who owns the cottage we stay in has been in touch, I think to reassure us that the cottage was on high ground, since we have never heard from her before.

Yesterday early evening when we rolled into Manhattan, under a wide blazing orange sky, we went first to a dog park to let the guys run. A dog owner there told us that it had been -5 degrees two weeks ago, probably the same cold front we had in Ashfield, but last night we stood comfortably around in 50 degree weather.

Later today when we hit Denver, we will be facing our first weather challenge and we will have to bide our time in Denver to cross the Rockies. You can not get caught on I-70 in bad weather without chains - that’s up to a $1,000 fine. You can’t even get caught with tire tread below 3/16th of an inch. I mean, besides the potential fines, the threat of loss of life is also daunting! There’s a great website GoI70.com that gives great weather reports for crossing through the Rockies, and here’s what we are looking to avoid:

"Snow continues on Tuesday morning ahead of a break on Tuesday afternoon. Heavy snow returns by early Wednesday morning and continues through Wednesday night. Dry Thursday through Saturday ahead of off-and-on snowfall during the week of January 16."

So we are waiting for the “dry Thursday through Saturday” break, — we’ll be crossing January 12th. We are fortunate that we had enough of a taste of crossing in bad conditions when we crossed in 2021, during the height of the pandemic. So better to just get all the way through to Utah in one driving stint.

And by the way, puppy has been doing great. He’s very Jack-like in that he sticks to his routine no matter where we are, he sleeps tons in the car, and he’s pretty cheerful. BUT he is still a puppy and needs lots of exercise and sometimes just gets into fits of naughtiness in part due to the restriction of being in the car for hours at a time. He’s a keeper.

Finally, something has been bothering me — how can it be light so much later in Kansas then it is in Ashfield? Last night when we arrived here there was still a fair amount of light in the sky at 7:30 p.m. How do you explain that?Read more