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!