Fantastic Summer

Oh, my, where do I start?! This past summer of 2023 was just amazing. Matt and I traveled across the country to meet our new grandson and on the way we visited 9 national parks and Monument Valley. I was too busy driving the rig and hiking and exploring to write about it and now it feels overwhelming to even try to capture it all. But I know if I don’t I’ll regret it. So I’ll give it a shot!

It started out with an amazing opportunity to speak and teach rug hooking in New York.

The Rug Hookers of the Finger Lakes really know how to put on a first class event and I loved being a part of it. We had a great time meeting everyone. And had fun meeting up with friends in the campground.

Then we headed to Ohio and I had a great time teaching a class to folks there.

It time more adventures! Our first one was not one I want to repeat. We had a broken spring on the camper as I drove on the highway. Thankfully, someone beeped at us to alert us, because the truck never felt a thing. If we had gone further, it could have been a bad accident, but the Lord was looking out for us…again.

The broken spring thing sort of rattled me. But God reassured me with the slogan painted on all the vehicles of the company that fixed our camper for us. “Trust God. Fear Nothing.” Easier said than done. But so necessary to keep moving forward in life. So on we went. We drove to Illinois and stopped along the Mississippi and had Cottonwood trees filling the air with white stuff. Then to the Iowa/Nebraska border. We saw Matt’s sister, but I forgot to take a photo. Bummer. But I found a troll under the Bob Kerry Pedestrian bridge. And got to go to Blick art supply store, always a treat!

In Wyoming, we stayed at Curt Gowdy State Park. It was beautiful! We enjoyed several hikes and I couldn’t resist smelling the trees. Lol. If you even get the chance to smell a Ponderosa pine, you’ve just got to do it. Butterscotch!

The Flaming Gorge area in Wyoming is spectacular. I’m sort of amazed it isn’t a national park.

In Nevada, we first stopped, again, at the Bonneville Salt Flats. It amazed me the first time and still did this time. All that salt just laying on the surface!

Then we did something I’ve wanted to do ever since I heard about it. Did you know about the giant concrete arrows that are across the USA? In the early days of air mail, the pilots in small airplanes would fly across the country and look for arrows on the ground to tell them where to go. GPS sure has made things easier! Anyway, some of these arrows still exist and I wanted to see one. At a stop in Nevada, there was one close by. Of course, getting there was an adventure, rutted dirt roads. And the weather was threatening a storm as we climbed a very steep hill. But we made it! I saw my arrow! And I thought it was extra fun that this arrow was a turn in the path.

Next we had to drive from Nevada to California. I was excited and horrified to learn that interstate 80 would take us over Donner Summit. The story of the Donner party getting stuck in those mountains and the tragedy they suffered played through my mind. But soon all I could do was concentrate on staying on the road! At first I thought there was something wrong with the camper again. It was pulling in strange ways. It actually felt like I was driving in snow. But there was no snow. I finally realized that there were deep ruts in the road from trucks driving with snow chains. It was challenging, but if I kept our tires in the ruts, it was a smoother ride. Boy, did that have me stressed out. I guess it is still a hard mountain to get over.

We made it to California! And it was only the beginning of the summer. We had already had many adventures, both good and bad. And we had met many wonderful people. But oh, I so much more to write about. See you soon!