“Every major city should have a route around the city,” Nina told me as we were making our way on I-270 around the west side of Columbus, Ohio. It has been raining most of the morning and the temperatures are very cool. The heat in the cab feels good and being outside in a short-sleeved shirt is uncomfortable. There has been a lot of construction on I-70 between the Indiana border and Columbus. We’ve just made the turn north on I-71 towards Cleveland are, once again, in a construction zone. Construction in thse northern states can only really be done in the late spring through early fall, when the traffic volume is also the highest. I’m sure that highway planners would like some other option but so far no one has thought of it.

We have a little less than four hours to go before arriving in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. It will be good to get there and park the motorhome for a week or so. It will be good to not be bouncing around in the vehicle as we maneuver through construction zones!

This is Mother’s Day in the United States. I expect that in thousands of Mormon wards throughout the U.S., the closing song in Sacrament meeting was “There Is Beauty All Around, When There’s Love At Home“. Instead, we listened to a Tabernacle Choir CD this morning. We did Mothers Day a week early last week in Soda Springs, but we also called this morning to wish my mother a Happy Mother’s Day. I’m happy that she’s my mother. We have really enjoyed the past couple of years getting to know both mother and dad once again when we could be much more involved in their lives. Nina and mother talk at least once a day and sometimes more often. When I’m back from Manila in mid-June we’ll start going to the temple once a month with them. I’m looking forward to that time as well. So, Happy Mother’s Day, mother!

There sure is a lot of traffic on the roads today — particularly big truck traffic. With fuel prices as high as they are, most of the trucks are driving about 60 mph to save on fuel. That often makes for long lines of trucks to be passed. We’ve been driving about 65 where the speed limit allows that speed or higher. It does make a difference in the gas mileage. The highest price we’ve paid was the last gas stop where 87 octane was $2.899 a gallon. Previously the highest price was in Limon, Colorado at a price of $2.799 for 85 octane. So, we’re still moving towards New Wilmington. We’ll continue up I-71 to I-76 to Akron and Youngstown, which will merge with I-80 in Pennsylvania. We’ll take Route 60 south to New Wilmington right after we cross into Pennsylvania and the trip will come to an end.

I’ve never before heard of a campground that doesn’t allow after-hours checkins. But I’ve found one. The Good Sam Park in Effingham, Illinois politely declined our reservation and helpfully pointed out some other campgrounds along I-70 that we might try. I decided we’d go a little further east. I called a KOA in Casey, Illinois and not ony were they glad to have us, they said they’d be open until we arrived. That’s nice service. They were open when we got here about 8:30 p.m. CDT. This looks to be (in the dark) a nice campground and is reasonably full for this time of the year. Very friendly people at the front desk, as well. Yesterday was the KOA Free Night of Camping. The lady at the front desk said it was very successful for them. Another very nice thing: this campground has free WiFi. Both Nina and I are sitting at the table in the motorhome connected to the internet, writing in our blogs, and doing email. Life continues to be good!

We went around the south end of Kansas City and took Route 71 south, then Route 7 through Clinton, and finally Route 13 into Springfield. It was a very pleasant drive. There are probably fifty or more antique shops along Route 13. We didn’t stop at any of them, but some looked to be interesting. I want to come back and explore parts of this country some day. There were signs, for instance, touting a restaurant featuring “throwed rolls.” The sign has a drawing of a woman throwing rolls across the room…. I’d kind of like to know what “throwed rolls” means.

We had no trouble finding Jim’s house. It’s a nice home in a quiet neighborhood with a great backyard. We unloaded the buffet, toured the house, and headed eastward. We wanted to get as far east as possible to shorten the drive tomorrow. We’re about 105 miles from Indianapolis and almost out of the State of Illinois. I think we’ve got about ten hours of driving tomorrow so we should definitely get there in time to watch the finale of Survivor. We’ll spend more time there on the way back and hopefully post a few pictures. Ta Ta For Now!

We’ve arrived in Springfield, Missouri and have about 20 minutes until we get to Jim’s house. The directions are clear and the map says it’s not difficult. Driving across country is an interesting experience. I’m always impressed with how large the country is and how much open space there is. I’ve been told that we could take the area from the Canadian border to the Texas border, from the Rocky Mountains east to the Atlantic Ocean and put the entire population of the world in that space and be able to give every family an acre of ground. Someday I’ll need to verify that, but driving across Kansas and Missouri sure seems to validate the theory.

We’ve seen a lot of police on this trip. We’ve been driving around 65 or so and thus below the speed limit, so that has been no worry. However, yesterday afternoon and this morning we had folks fly by us at speeds in excess of 90 mph — and a mile or so down the road, we pass them while they’re getting a ticket. Sweet! This morning’s incident had a sports car flying past us and sqeezing between to cars ahead of us. Had that not worked, we would also have been in the accident as there wouldn’t have been to avoid all the cars flying around. We particularly appreciated seeing him off to the side of the road with two police cars! Ahhhh, joy!

I-70 becomes a tollroad between Topeka and Kansas City and we’re racking up toll miles as we head east out of Topeka. It’s another bright, sunny day — and windy. The motor home lets us know when the when is blowing. The weather is cool which is also nice. We’ll be in Springfield in early afternoon to drop off the buffet.

We’ve finally got a reasonably consistent cell phone signal with Sprint. After we left Rock Springs, Wyoming until Ft. Collins there was not signal. Then we lost signal again just east of Denver until Salina, Kansas, but even then it ws a poor signal at the campground. We picked up signal west of Topeka again and have been in good coverage since. I’m sure it till continue to be spotty. Nina is driving and I’m in the right seat connected to the internet and blogging while we’re driving eastward. She’s searching through radio stations trying to find something that we’d like to listen to. Not much classical music on the radio anymore. We’re about 10 miles west of Kansas City. Time to get the map out and help do some navigating.

I-70 becomes a tollroad between Topeka and Kansas City and we’re racking up toll miles as we head east out of Topeka. It’s another bright, sunny day — and windy. The motor home lets us know when the when is blowing. The weather is cool which is also nice. We’ll be in Springfield in early afternoon to drop off the buffet.

We’ve finally got a reasonably consistent cell phone signal with Sprint. After we left Rock Springs, Wyoming until Ft. Collins there was not signal. Then we lost signal again just east of Denver until Salina, Kansas, but even then it ws a poor signal at the campground. We picked up signal west of Topeka again and have been in good coverage since. I’m sure it till continue to be spotty. Nina is driving and I’m in the right seat connected to the internet and blogging while we’re driving eastward. She’s searching through radio stations trying to find something that we’d like to listen to. Not much classical music on the radio anymore. We’re about 10 miles west of Kansas City. Time to get the map out and help do some navigating.

Nina and I will head east to Pennsylvania this coming Thursday afternoon, meaning we will be gone for Mothers Day. So, today we went over to Soda Springs for the afternoon and took a basket of goodies over for an early Mothers Day present. Mother is so fun when she’s opening presents. She just has a great time and enjoys everything — even a jar of green olives!! The menu was delicious — mashed potatoes, corn, and steaks grilled outside on the BBQ. Nina has come up with a new dessert made with tapioca and strawberries. What a nice way to end a fast on Fast Sunday!

I am so looking forward to the trip out east. There is a bit of a dilemma, however. Jim would like to have the old dining room buffet. It’s in the basement storage room. It is a reasonable piece of furniture, but heavy! The question is, how do we get it out to him? I’ll do some measuring tomorrow, but Nina thinks we can put it on it’s back up top in the overhang. Maneuvering it up stairs, out through the garage and into the motor home and up on the bed in the cab-over will be a real trick. I think I’ll need to get some help with this. It is much to heavy for Nina and me to do by ourselves. Jim has always liked this buffet. He was with Nina when they bought it at a used furniture place near Chardon, Ohio when we lived in that part of the world. When they brought it home, they discovered that it has a hidden compartment! So, Jim, with any luck it’ll be on its way out to you — as long as it’ll fit through the door into the motor home. All we’ll then have to do is figure out how to get it out of the motor home and into your house when we arrive there on Saturday.

Our route of travel will be across Wyoming to Laramie in I-80, south through Ft. Collins to Denver on I-25, then east to Missouri in I-70 and a side trip to Springfield, Missouri to drop off the buffet. Then we’ll continue into Ohio on I-70, north on I-77 towards Cleveland, then east on I-76 / I-80 into Pennsylvania arriving sometime late Sunday afternoon. That’s the plan — we’ll see what the reality brings. This will be a busy week getting everything ready to go and doing a week’s worth of work in 3 1/2 days at the office. We had some good friends from Colorado Springs call this afternoon. We went with them on the Mediterranean cruise last fall. They’re looking at a couple of cruises and the bug has hit. Maybe we can also do both of those cruises with them?? That would definitely be fun. It’s time to retire — I don’t have time to be working anymore! I’m right ready for a vacation….

I like “cutsie” headlines, particularly those that say one thing and mean something different. I’m sometimes amused by what our local newspaper uses for headlines, such as “Police Car Wreck Was An Accident” that appeared earlier in the week. Anyway, occasionally the volunteers at the Pocatello Womens Correctional Center are allowed to bring their spouses along for special events. Last Wednesday the Idaho State University Institute of Religion was putting on a program at the prison and I had the opportunity to attend. Nina just loves her work at the facility and it is very evident when I visit. She makes sure to greet every inmate as they come in and as they leave. She jokes and talks with them and in every way treats them like normal, real people. I’m sure that much of what happens at the prison is not pleasant and the women really enjoy being with the volunteers who don’t judge them or put them down.

Of course, security getting into the prison is fairly tight. Empty pockets are the rule and everyone gets wanded before going into the facility. The Institute program was being put on by more than 40 young people, so their process of getting into the facility was somewhat lengthy. One young lady had a huge key ring with lots of stuff on hanging on it that hung from a band around her neck. She sat the keys down on the counter to get scanned and then picked up the keyset to go past the security guard into the pass-through area. The guard stopped her and asked to see the keys — he was going to tell her to put them in her pocket — when he saw that on the key ring was a small canister of Mace! That was definitely something he didn’t want in the prison or more particularly, for any inmate to get hold of. The key ring went into the guards office to wait until the young lady came back out….

I’ve put a few pictures from this week up in the Pictures! area.

It’s now time to put these creatures out of my misery. The picture on the left shows the little trails they eaten in to the yard underneath the snow over the winter. They snip off the grass at the roots and line these trails with the grass. After raking the dead grass out of the trails, the picture on the right is how much dead grass comes up. So, the plan of attack is (and I’m pretty sure the voles can’t read this, but who really knows?) : we’ve raked out the dead stuff and mowed the grass quite short, as recommended. Next is to put special poison down in to their holes. In the picture on the left up near the concrete is one of the big holes going down to their lair. Then we’ll be putting out about fifty traps — also the recommended quantity. We’ll have to keep the grass short to encourage the remaining critters to leave and go somewhere else. I’ll have to keep up the attack through most of the summer. Then, this fall I’ll be putting down a special spray that keeps them from coming into the yard. These are prolific little beasties — they have a litter of 7-8 every 36 days. I’d bet there are hundreds of them in my yard — but not for long!