August 9: sad day.
KOA’s are not as comfortable as they used to be. But I was tired enough I slept most of the night. At about 3:00am I woke up with my body telling me, “I think you may need to use the restroom.”
I convinced it otherwise. Since I would have to leave my cabin and walk across the road I became determined to not use the facilities.
“Okay,” my body said, “but don’t blame me if the results are disastrous.”
August 8: Time to head back. Unless I can make a living out of being a nomad. No, don’t think so. Have to head back today.
At the start of the week, I unwisely boasted I could visit 6 states in one week. As of this morning, I had only collected 3 “Welcome to [insert state]” signs. In order to meet my goal, I had to cross over into Kansas on the way out.
August 7: My original plan for the day fell through (due to my poor planning). What to do?
I decided on two objectives:
One, get a picture of the Missouri River.
Two, go shopping – specifically for souvenirs.
One task turned out to be unbelievably easy. The other, seemingly impossible.
August 6: It stands to reason, in my opinion anyway, that the Garden of Eden in its present earthly condition would be fertile land. Full of growth. A land to be cultivated and farmed. That’s the conclusion I came up with after hours of driving on back Missouri country roads.
The floating head (my apologies) explains day 3 video
August 5 (aka my birthday, aka the best dang day of the whole year): It had a rather inauspicious start. At 4:00am I was awakened to a big THUD coming directly above me. Apparently, the people in the room right above me wanted to get a very early start. And at least one of them was clumsy. And all of them had the singular gift of knowing which floor boards are the creakiest.
Day 2 video
August 4: Another day of driving.
I woke up to my alarm buzzing. My phone said it was 7:30am. “No,” my body insisted. “It’s lying. It is only 6:30.” Both were right. Right before I got to North Platte, Nebraska yesterday I crossed into the Central Time Zone. I lost an hour.
My Road Trip Begins! video
August 3: My Missouri Road Trip, aka my 11th 29th birthday road trip, aka my 2013 Road Trip is officially underway. I traveled a total of 479 miles today.
One advantage of traveling alone is I picked out a couple of books on CD. I’ve been listening to Wicked. My dreams should be fairly entertaining tonight. If I get to sleep long enough to dream.
Ah, another birthday. Another year older. NOT! So says the 90’s comeback. Thanks to my annual birthday road trip, another birthday could not find me. I am still twenty-nine and holding. Oh yeah, I’m sticking to that theory even if it is without proof.
As you read these very words, I am almost three hundred miles away from home. It’s the first weekend of August which means it’s time for my annual Birthday Road Trip. This tradition started based on my self-made theory that a birthday can’t find you if you’re not at home. So, I’ve been 29 for ten years. On a side note, by the 6th 29th, however, I didn’t feel very twentyish.
Since I went to New York for a weekend in June, my pocket book demanded a low key road trip this year. Yellowstone National Park it is. FYI, Yellowstone is in Wyoming – not Montana. Montana has successfully marketed their sliver of the park as West Yellowstone. Check out a map though. You’ll be surprised how little of the park is in Montana versus Wyoming. Yes, I might have a small issue with the whole West Yellowstone claim to fame. I’ll let it go for now, though.
This year the trip is just going to be Bubba and me. That’s okay. She is on this whole kick of being an adult now and insists on moving to Utah at the end of the month. Something about being closer to a certain boy. Blah, blah, blah. This trip could be our very last road trip together. Why is everyone moving to Utah? And no, I’m not convinced to move back. I’ll just make new friends and miss my old ones.
But for this weekend, we will enjoy Wyoming. First, we will stop at stinky Thermopolis and swim in the hot springs. Then we will make our way to Cody and probably sleep pretty well after our swim stop. Saturday we will spend the whole day in the park. No hurry. No agenda. Just take our sweet time. We’ll come home on Sunday.
map courtesy mapquest.com
Sounds like a pretty good birthday to me.
Last Friday afternoon I was on my way to Salt Lake listening to Reba McEntire’s Number One’s CD – Disc 2. Reba and Lari White are my two essential travel CD’s, they must accompany me every road trip. For this trip, I traded out Lari so that I could listen to Sugarland. My sister bought me a ticket to the group’s concert on Saturday and I had some cramming to do.
ck's days 