Part 2: Those that say you can't take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip. ~ Author Unknown

Let me see...where did I leave off? Oh, Kansas. Still. I was beginning to think there would not be an end to Kansas. Happily, I was wrong.

And driving is not my thing. It used to be that I didn't mind driving all that much. Not any more. The older I get, the harder it is on me physically to drive long distances. Coupled with the fact that we are almost always in a hurry to reach our destination and hardly ever stop for anything pleasurable like sightseeing, driving has become a chore. About ten years ago, I figured I could drive about 8 to 10 hours before we stopped for the night without being completely exhausted. Now 8 hours is my threshold and I'm exhausted at the end of the day, but even after a good night's sleep I'm not ready for another 8 hour drive.

After another hour or so in Kansas, we entered Colorado...



Finally exiting Kansas and entering Colorado was rather uneventful, except for the cheers in our car. The landscape slowly began to change from plains to rolling hills and farmland disappeared behind us in favor of cattle ranches. And began to get a little cooler. The 98 degrees temperature dipped to a more tolerable 85 degrees.

As we made our way through the outskirts of Denver, we both decided we could not continue to drive much longer and did not want to try to make it to Rawlins, Wyoming. We were both sick of driving, even though we'd been taking turns in the driver's seat. I was so relieved and very glad to at least be somewhere far away from home, but I was also very tired, had the jitters from driving so much and I was on verge of tears. I just wanted to stop.

We drove a little while longer and, finally after our second 8 hour driving day, we stopped in Ft. Collins for the night.

I have a confession to make. I stopped writing this two days ago. Simply put, this post is boring, at least to me. I started writing on Sunday and half way through I got bored and started wandering around the internet and by the time I got back to writing about our two nights in Ft. Collins, I decided to quit altogether.

So...boring is how I would pretty much characterize our trip. Here's how it went.

We were so tired of driving by the time we were halfway through Colorado, we decided to spend two nights in Ft. Collins. What did we do during the day in between those two nights? We drove. We'd seen some huge RV lots between Denver and Ft. Collins and we drove out to look at some small travel trailers. Then we drove back to the hotel. Then we thought we'd drive around Ft. Collins to see what it was like.

Apparently the residents of Ft. Collins are doing quite well because it appears that there's lots of disposable income changing hands. The town nothing but malls and restaurants and the fanciest and most upscale WalMart I've ever seen. The buildings are arranged and designed to fit as unobtrusively as possible into the landscape, but they are malls and restaurants just the same. The streets and roads are very walker, jogger and biker friendly.

We didn't actually drive the whole day. We got up that morning and Tom went with me while I did my walk/no run. At just over 5,000 feet elevation, a quick walk was all I could muster. Then we hit a Starbucks that was just a couple of blocks from our hotel.

That afternoon, Tom called our nephew, Matt, who works for a resort in Grand Teton National Park and Matt reserved a camp site for us. When we arrived at the campsite Thursday afternoon, Matt was waiting for us at site and helped us set up the tent. The site was really beautiful. We were just steps from Jackson Lake...


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This was one of the first photos I took after we set up the tent.

The evening was nice and cool and we definitely needed one of these...



And both mornings we had visitors just steps away from our tent...


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We never saw a moose, but we heard one Thursday morning. And we saw lots of antelope and some elk.

But, there were issues. Maybe I should say, we had issues.

The threat of bears made us very nervous. There are signs everywhere that say "Be Bear Aware!!" This sign is fastened to every table in the campground...


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You cannot set up camp unless you set up camp inside a travel trailer or motor home. If you are tent camping, you are basically camping out of your vehicle. If you cook breakfast, you must put your camp stove, cooler and dry goods back in your vehicle BEFORE you take your dishes up to the service sink to wash them. If you leave the campsite for any reason, you must put everything away, even if you are just going to the bathroom. You can't even have a bottle of water in your tent. And the park rangers monitor the rules closely with no tolerance. One of Matt's friends received a ticket for having bottled water in the bed of his truck when it was parked in a parking lot while he was at work.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think we should be allowed to do what we want. I actually agree with the rules. We were invading the bears' (and other animals) habitat and the rules were needed for their safety as well as ours. But, as a camper, the entire experience is very challenging, particularly with two old people who NEED to visit the bathroom at least once in the middle of the night. Grabbing a flashlight and getting up and out of the tent to walk up the road to the bathroom at 1:00am in the morning in the dark is a little more than scary. Every noise is perceived as a threat.

In addition, everywhere we needed or wanted to go required more driving. Grocery shopping was in Jackson Hole, about 35 - 45 minutes away. As a result, we didn't cook one meal there. We ate breakfast/brunch and dinner at the resort restaurant. Pay showers and laundry facilities were in Colter Bay, 15 minutes away. Yellowstone National Park was an hour away just to get to the entrance. Driving around the park from one point of interest to another is over 150 miles, much of it at slow speeds.

It rained our first night of camping and the next day everything was wet and the ground was a little muddy. We were lucky that the rain wasn't too heavy, but another bout of heavy rain and thunderstorms was expected on Saturday and Sunday and all the rooms at the resorts were taken by that time. Neither of us wanted to deal with being cooped up in a small tent for two days with wet bed linens, and the car was so packed full of camp stuff that there was no place to lay out our pad to sleep in there, so we decided to leave Saturday morning. Perhaps our decision was a bit hasty, but by the time we heard about the next predicted instance of rain, we were both exhausted and feeling sick and it just pushed us over the edge.

We did think about maybe just driving to the west coast, but we were so tired of driving and just so simply tired, the thought of adding two more driving days to our drive home was just inconceivable. We were ready to go home for some real R&R.

We left Saturday morning about 8:00am as the rain clouds were beginning to form. We stayed someplace in Kansas the first night. I don't even remember where, but the room was clean and the bed was comfortable and we slept better than we had for several nights and, when we woke up Sunday morning, we were ready to make the trip all the way home, which turned out to be about 13-1/2 hours.

We've been home since then, trying to stay cool in this unseasonably HOT weather. Several days during our first week home, the thermometer hit 100. One day it was 102. It's been just a bit cooler beginning this week. In the mornings, we work for a couple of hours at the most in the gardens, weeding, cleaning and layering compost. In the afternoons, we've been reading, shopping or going to the movies. We went to see My Sister's Keeper at a local movie theater. I took 6 kleenex tissues with me. We used them all. We haven't gone out to dinner once. We have cooked at home, making two trips to Little Rock to buy "the good stuff" at Fresh Market. Check out my food blog, Terri's Table later this week for a run down of the food we've prepared. And, we've even slept in...until 8:00am two mornings in a row! That is just unheard of in this house!

Friday we leave for Memphis for the weekend to see the last musical for this season, Wicked, the Untold Story of the Witches of Oz. Friday night we'll spend on Beale Street, probably at B.B.King's, where they have the best food and best entertainment. Saturday during the day maybe we'll visit the zoo. Saturday night we'll start with dinner at our favorite restaurant, McEwans on Monroe, then head off to the Orpheum Theatre just a few blocks down the street. Monday, it's back to the daily grind.

These last three weeks have been a great experience. We've learned more about what we can tolerate and what we can't; how we want to approach other vacations or time spent away from home. And, Tom and I have spent some really precious time together; talking, arguing, walking, working, reading, cooking, shopping, crying, laughing, hugging and holding hands. We needed it.

Part 1: The rainy days a man saves for usually seem to arrive during his vacation. ~ Author Unknown

We're back. We arrived home last Sunday night about 9:00pm, gone basically 7 days of the intended 3 weeks, most of them spent in the car driving.

But, let me start at the beginning.

We started our vacation last Monday, June 15th, backing out of the driveway at approximately 8:30am. We looked forward to this vacation with great anticipation. We have never been on a trip like this. We knew our final destination would be somewhere around Yellowstone National Park, but we didn't have any time frame or schedule. Our plans were to just get in the car and drive; stop when and where we wanted; and arrive at our destination sometime.

We wanted to be vacationers...tourists...taking photos of goofy and unusual points of interest. Did you ever see the movie "Michael" in which John Travolta portrayed an Archangel named Michael and two tabloid reporters convince him to travel to their magazine headquarters in Chicago. Along the way, Michael insists on stopping to see the World's Biggest Ball of Twine and The Biggest Teflon Frying Pan. We weren't going to get that goofy, but we were hoping to just have fun.

Monday we drove through Arkansas, then Oklahoma (by way of the Muskogee Turnpike - nothing interesting there), then we started through Kansas. We hoped to make it to Colby, Kansas the first night. Didn't happen. Storm. Big one. Severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings all through the area we were driving through. We stopped for the night in Salina, Kansas. The storm blasted the entire area all night long, but by morning we had clear skies and we were ready to move. But, first we had to find a Starbucks. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be for almost 100 miles (and people think Arkansas is the middle of nowhere!).

Next state...Colorado. Not so fast. Or even if you are going fast, you are going nowhere fast. We endured hours and hours and hours of Kansas, most of which looked pretty much like this...


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Not a point of interest in sight anywhere, unless you consider the wind farms that periodically dot the landscape points of interest..


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I don't. By mid-day the second day, I'm already sick of driving and I'm very discouraged. Not one stupid, corny, goofy or interesting point of interest. But, after hours of driving through Kansas, heading west on Highway 70 toward Colby, Kansas and I see a sign that says, "Largest Prairie Dog in the World." And, I'm thinkin', "Oh, Boy, maybe I'm gonna get my 'Michael' moment after all. Talk about the quintessential vacation photo.

About a mile further is another sign..."Live 5-Legged Steer!" Now this place is starting to sound like a major oddity circus to me and I'm not one to be attracted to the exploitation of the oddities of nature, be they human or animal. And, being the skeptic that I am, I thought there was probably a very reasonable explanation for the steer's 5th leg and I had it all figured out before we even traveled another couple of miles. My guess was that "extra leg" was not a leg at all, but the steer's abnormally long genitals that had been dragging on the ground so long (he's probably an old bull) that the constant rubbing against the earth's surface created a flat, callous that resembled a hoof...hence the 5th "leg." However, since we were in what Tom called "The Buckle of Bible Belt," signs along the highway advertising a "Well Hung Steer!" is not particularly family friendly and would most likely be frowned upon, although it may have generated a lot more interest than "5 Legged Steer!" But I digress.

The next sign touted the prairie dog's weight: 8,500 lb. Prairie Dog! Okay, now I know for sure it's not a dead, professionally stuffed and preserved prairie dog (darn!), but a concrete replica of a prairie dog, but I still thought, What the hell. We're on an adventure, right? I'm still going to get a photo of that sucker!

Speaking of suckers, I would definitely be one of those. At exit 70, I followed the signs to Finch Museum, a quaint, old mobile home type dwelling, wheels removed and set on the ground. One would think an 8,500 lb. prairie dog would have to be outside somewhere and I was hoping, if nothing else, to at least get a photo of that. Nope. The prairie dog was either inside (this would have to be one VERY short, VERY fat prairie dog), where I had to pay a fee to get in (shocking, isn't it?), or the prairie dog had been stolen, as if anyone would want an 8,500 lb. concrete replica of a prairie dog in their yard...

So, (sigh), we settled on a goofy photo of the next truck stop...Fake palm trees at the "Oasis Travel Center" (really) in the middle of the Kansas plains...


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...with fake birds in the fake palm trees...


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And we hadn't even left Kansas yet. Lucky us.

To be continued....

Today is Flag Day, You Know What That Means...

It's my birthday! Yes, really. Today I am 63 years old (old, old, old, old). Most days I don't feel it - my age, that is. I feel just like I did in my 40's, except I don't have teenagers to feed, clothe and yell at to turn the music down!

Well, back to packing. Tomorrow morning we leave for Yellowstone. Check out my Twittering on my side bar because I won't be taking my computer, but I will Twitter updates. And I will take pictures!

I hope you all have a calm, enjoyable, trouble-free two weeks!

There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women. ~ Madeleine K. Albright

First, an update to Tuesday's post. I'm just about done with my tantrum now, but I'm still going to Yellowstone. Tom has decided to adjust his work schedule and go with me. To do so, he's working through the weekend and we'll probably leave on Monday instead of Saturday. I'm glad he's going. I would have missed sharing this experience with him.

The topic of this post is not the update I just gave you. I am furious. I am sick. And I am sad. In the spirit of full disclosure:

• I am a full-blown, bleeding heart Democrat, far more to the left of even our President. I will not take this opportunity to discuss the dark side of my party.


• I believe in the rights and responsibilities given to us by the Constitution. By "Us" I mean EVERYONE...EQUALLY!


• I think rules of discriminatory conduct should apply equally across the board and we should be outraged when those boundaries are crossed, regardless of whether we agree with victims beliefs or values.


• I don't think I've ever watched one whole David Letterman program.


• I don't agree with just about anything Sarah Palin says.

Are you guessing where I'm going with this?

I did not see the program in question, but read that David Letterman said Sarah Palin "bought makeup from Bloomingdale's to update her 'slutty flight attendant' look," and later decided to demean Palin's daughter by commenting, "One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

Where are the women, the feminists? Letterman's comments weren't just in bad taste. They were sexist and misogynistic! But I do not hear voices of outrage! Is there ever a time when sexism isn't sexism? Why were these "jokes" about Palin and her daughter okay?

As I listened to Contessa Brewer on MSNBC yesterday, I was stunned. She was interviewing some radio host (I don't remember who) and he asked Brewer is she had been the butt of a sexist joke like that and her response was, "I have and I'm fine."

I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. Those words just resonate in my head and it makes me sad. We, as women, have not come as far as we think we have if we accept this discrimination as part of our existence and end the day with "I'm fine."

I want to be more than "fine." I don't want to victimized by those who feel superior. I want to be equal. I want EVERY woman to be equal.

And to those of you who actually thought Letterman's jokes were funny. What if he had made the same jokes about Michelle Obama and one of her daughters. Or Laura Bush and one of her daughters. Or Hillary Clinton and one of her daughters....oh wait, David Schuster already did something similar to that, but at the end of the day she's probably just "fine."

Spiteful words can hurt your feelings but silence breaks your heart. ~ Author Unknown

I have been sitting here for nearly an hour, fiddling with things on the desk, stacking and filing papers, looking at the empty posting template on my computer screen in front of me. I don't know what to say.

I'm tired. Very, very tired. I'm lonely. Depressed, too, I think. All my close friends have come and gone, moved on to other parts of the country. It's hard to keep in touch long distance, so we don't very often.

Tom is in one of his silent modes. Weeks and weeks of silence, caused by the stresses of his work. It's like he can't do or think about more than one thing at a time, so he just thinks about work, talks about work and simply does work.

Sometimes it makes me wonder whether or not we have anything left to talk about about 40 years. Did we already talk about everything there is to talk about? I hope not.

And, my birthday is this weekend. I hate it. I don't like holidays of any kind...my birthday, our anniversary, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas...it doesn't matter. I don't look forward to them because I feel like my efforts are pretty much taken for granted. I cannot count the number of parties or events I've planned and given. Birthday parties, Christmas parties, vacations, Mother's Day and Father's Day Barbecues, 25th and 40th anniversary parties and two weddings. But, I've done it all wrong because I did it all and I did it all the time. I tried NOT planning anything a time or two and no one else took up the slack, not even Tom, so I started doing them again, but now I only do them occasionally and with a lot less enthusiasm, mostly because after all the years of planning, cooking, arranging and cleaning up afterward, the whole process has wrung all the fun and joy out of any event for me. And, still, the other times when I don't do it, there's nothing much planned at all.

I celebrated my 25th anniversary in my kitchen fixing dinner for my mother. If you knew about my very complicated love/hate relationship with my mother, you'd know that I didn't really have a good time.

I celebrated my 40th anniversary also in my kitchen, Tom and I fixing each other dinner.

Birthdays aren't any different.

That's not even considering the two deaths in the family in less than a year and sharing my home with my sister for the past six months.

So what does this have to do with anything? What does this have to do with loneliness, depression and fatigue?

I need a vacation. I need to get away, almost like just running away from home. I need to do something just for me, without taking anyone else into consideration; without making adjustments to my time schedule; without packing someone elses stuff; without worrying about what anyone else thinks or doesn't think. Selfish, I know. Completely inconsiderate and I don't do that nearly enough. Correction, I just flat out don't do that.

I feel like I need to go somewhere quiet, even though my life right now is unbearably quiet. I know that doesn't make any sense, but it feels like the right thing to do. I want to go someplace bigger than me, bigger than my house, bigger than my city. I want to go someplace cool. I want to hike and walk. I want to sit in the cool shade and read. I want it to be cool enough in the evening to have a campfire and just sit, watch it flicker and listen to it crackle. I want to go someplace beautiful and majestic so I can fill my heart, mind and soul with so much beauty that there isn't any room to think about what isn't beautiful about me or my life.

So, I'm thinking about driving up to Yellowstone National Park. That's about as beautiful and majestic as you can get. And, I've never been.

Will Tom go? I don't know. He has work now and I want to leave before my birthday. I know I'm being selfish. I know it.

I'm going to take a tent, sleeping bag, pillow and collapsible chair and head out Friday or Saturday. This will be my last post for awhile...maybe two weeks or so. I will post updates to my Twitter on my sidebar, so you know I am alive and well.

Just remember, if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off. ~ Author Unknown

Have you ever had anything for sale...an old couch or chair or tv or car...and put an ad in the paper or listed it on eBay and then had potential buyers ask some of the dumbest questions on the planet?

Well, apparently this poor woman did, too. Thanks to a commenter on Mountain Sage for the following:

From Craigslist:

MENOPAUSAL WOMAN WITH NASTY TEMPER HAS 1985 GRAND PRIX FOR SALE

——————————————————————————–
Date: 2008-04-28, 8:55AM EDT

Let’s answer some questions before I describe the car. Humor me… please…

1. NO, it is not a “condo-car” that’s been garaged all its natural life. It’s a $600 car.

2. YES, the odometer reads 24k miles, but I am VERY certain it has rolled over and it’s actually 124k miles. It’s a $600 car.

3. YES, it is restorable. Anything is restorable if you have the time and money! But, in its current condition, it’s a $600 car.

4. YES, the interior is very clean. NOTICE I DID NOT SAY IT WAS MINT! It is clean… one tiny tear on the drivers seat back, broken arm-rest on drivers side, TWENTY THREE YEARS OLD!!! Again, it’s a $600 car.

5. YES, it does start and run very well. My son drove it to and from work for several months while his daily-driver was being repaired. Not bad for a $600 car!

6. NO, my boyfriend and his tool box do NOT come with the car. In other words, you’re buying a TWENTY-THREE YEAR OLD, SIX HUNDRED DOLLAR CAR, people! I cannot guarantee that it will “last at least a year” or that “it will make it all the way to Oregon in September”. Sheesh… I mean, c’mon! My crystal ball broke a lonnnnnng time ago. What’s more, it’s a $600 car.

7. YES, it is quiet. But will it disturb your neighbors? HOW THE HELL DO I KNOW? I don’t even KNOW your neighbors! I know you can squeal tires pretty loudly, even in this old $600 car.

8. NO, I will NOT pay for your gas if you drive here from East Jesus and decide not to buy the car for any reason. Why would you drive 3 hours to buy a $600 car anyway?

9. NO, I am NOT interested in donating the car to your worthy cause. My son needs the money. He’s a kid, for crying out loud! Do you really think he’d be advertising this $600 car for SALE if he wanted to “help you out because you’re down on your luck because your boyfriend left you and took your car and you have no way to get back and forth from….”. You get the picture.

10. Did I mention it’s a $600 car? That does NOT mean it’s a $400 car, or a $500 car, or even a $550 car! THE PRICE IS $600, get it?

11. NO, I do not own a firearm. Yet.

If you’ve read this far, then you must be somewhat interested in the car, right? Be advised, I am in no mood to be trifled with after the 250 stupid phone calls I received over the weekend. That’s right… 250, mostly assinine people, asking questions relating to the above 11 answers. Ever dealt with a woman whose hot-flashes run about 500 degrees? Seriously. Do NOT poke the bear, or if you do, do so at your own risk.

I am not going to post my phone number, as my Xanax prescription is empty and I cannot afford to have it refilled until this Friday. That being said, I do have twenty photos of the car from every angle, aspect, perspective and view which I would be happy to send to you via email. Just click on the pretty blue link at the top of the post, and I promise I’ll email you back lots of full-color photos that were taken just this morning.

****Only after I have determined that you are not going to be yet another idiot such as those mentioned above will I give you my phone number and/or address so that you may come and see the car****

(Picture of car missing)

This item has been posted by-owner.
Location: Naples
it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests