Hello from Holyoke, CO

Hello from Holyoke, CO

Monday evening,  August 11, 2014   (Second post of this travelogue)

Holyoke? – there has to be a story about our location.  More later.

Yesterday we left Prescott a bit later than we planned (about 2:00PM) and thus decided to take a more leisurely drive home.  If we drive the car, we usually go straight through (10-12 hours with a few potty and meal stops).  In the bus we drive at 68 MPH (safer and best mileage).  At that speed we take two days.  This time we are breaking it up so that we are taking 3 days.  Last night we stopped in York, NE (at the Wal Mart, of course).  Tonight we are in a gravel lot at a huge grain elevator in Holyoke, CO (map). 

Our route from Prescott was a bit different from our norm.  We decided to avoid all the construction on US 34 (and the possibility of more flat tires) and go north on CR N61 then CR H20 to IA 148.  From there we took IA 92 to I 29.  That is a lot of back roads, but it was a pretty easy drive. 

Holyoke is not on our normal route.  I had planned to stop at the rest area in Julesburg, but we were fairly early and I thought there could be an issue with staying too long (many have a 10 hour limit).  So, at Ogallala, we took the exit to try to find a place to park for the night.  Quickly, the town ended and we were on a two lane with nowhere to turn around.  I decided to continue south and then head west when possible.  The route took us down NE 61 and then on NE/CO 23.  The two lanes were good in some areas and pretty darn rough in others. 

Tomorrow we will travel a short distance on US 6 to Sterling where we will dump the tanks at the rest stop and then head home on our normal route.  This detour was really not all that far out of the way.

It is kind of nice to drive shorter distances.  It is also fun to drive on some of the two lanes and see the small towns.

That is all for now.

Hello from Prescott, IA

Hello from Prescott, IA

Sunday morning,  August 10, 2014   (First post of this travelogue)

Sadly, Pat’s aunt Jaris passed away on Monday (8/4) in Corning, IA.  We left Evergreen on Tuesday in the bus and stopped in Kearney, NE for the night. 

Wednesday, as we approached Corning, we encountered road construction on US 34.  It was asphalt grinding – a situation we have encountered many times.  Just before the highway that leads to Corning (Pat’s home town), our tire alarm went off.  We turned towards Corning so that we could stop at her cousin’s tire shop.  By the time we got there, both of the tow dolly tires were sending alarms and both tires were nearly flat.  We unhooked the PT cruiser from the dolly and left the tow dolly at the shop.

Jerry (Pat’s cousin) determined that fairly large slivers of asphalt had punctured both of the tow dolly tires.  Jerry was able to fix them.  I had a mounted spare and an additional un-mounted tire.  I ordered an extra rim and now have two spares (who would guess that both tires would go flat at the same time?).  All the other tires seem to be OK.

On Thursday there were family events related to the funeral.  Friday was the funeral, along with other related activities.  Thursday we had a family dinner at the Hoerman’s (family tradition of beef and noodles) and Friday we had another family dinner at Mona and Terry’s.  Both were great events where lots of family stories got exchanged.

Two of our daughters were able to make the trip.  Lisa flew in with Pat’s cousin Linda and all of Kelly’s family drove back.  Pat’s sister and her friend changed their travel plans for a Minnesota trip and drove to Iowa.  After the funeral they continued on to Minnesota.  Lisa flew back to Denver Saturday and Kelly and her family left Saturday afternoon.  Pat’s friend (since early childhood) Linda came down from Des Moines for the Friday events – it is always great to see her.

After the various activities on Friday we needed some “happy time”.  We went out to a family farm to see some day old piglets - most of the Denver folks got to hold them (see photos).  It does not take much to entertain the city folk {grin}.

Molly

Madison and Kelly

Lisa

 

 

 

Kelly

 

Damon

We were worried about going to Iowa in August because of the heat and humidity.  We are connected to a normal 20 amp outlet for our power and that is not enough to power an air conditioner.  It turns out that the weather has been rainy and fairly cool.  Aside from the humidity (somewhat damp sheets), the sleeping conditions have been great.  The rain was great for the Iowa folks as it has been dry and they need the moisture for the crops.

We will start home today.

That is all for now.