I'm pretty sure Kiwi had a ball driving 4DATUDE the smart car. She was so excited and made me laugh so hard. Shawn got to drive it too. Kind of like the forklifts and all he found it easy to drive. Our Sunday was so relaxing and the weather was perfect. Thanks Kiwi & Shawn.

Today driving on the back roads through Kentucky it was such a treat to ridge ride for miles and miles. Seen a lot of tobacco fields and hanging sheds plus lots of Horses. Big houses over here or some real shacks over there. quite a contrast just around the corner. Stopped around 10 am for breakfast in a small hometown cafe. Great home cooked breakfast then the waitress gave us directions for a scenic drive which we took and again did a peaceful ridge top drive. You could see down both sides for miles guess those are the hollows . So many comments on the car everywhere we stopped. Staying overnight in Ironton, OH. Home town of James Callahan.

I wouldn't want to be from there either. Interesting place.

Here's tobacco hanging in a shed drying before going to the mill for making tobacco products of all types. You can almost smell the tobacco in the air.

Heading to Oakland, MD then to Lancaster, PA and Philadelphia. Should be heading to Boston on Sunday Sept 6Th.

Looks like 4DATUDE has met her match. About the same size as the engine in Shawn's truck. I know we could get it in the bed of the truck if we had a ramp. Got to get out and see Sherrice, Steve and boys this afternoon for a while. Boris is doing well and went for a good walk this morning to the park up on the hill from here. Plan another one in the morning after "Sunday Morning" show is over. You know my Sunday mornings are set aside for that show to learn so much from.
Plan a quiet day with BBQ tomorrow. Weather has been great and very enjoyable. The River Music last night was so great. Enjoyed dancing too. One big mistake was forgetting the camera. DA :D What can I say. Oh well

WE MADE IT TO SHAWN AND KIWI'S. Nice to see Kalan. She's ready to be 15 even though she has to wait until November. Kiwi took Krystal to College yesterday ... those days where mothers feel old and yet can't believe it's really true and baby is now ready to be on their own. I have no idea what it must be like to be where your creation from love can be someone who is now going for education to help others.
Our morning was hazy with moisture and lots of corn and beans still. We had a wonderful drive over to New Albany. It's good to be here. Maybe a little music on the river this evening. xo

What a day. Leaving Verona around 7am heading to Cedarville to check out Steve's work for the day and covering a few miles along the Illinois river. It was raining and there was fog / dewy skies for most of the morning slowing down our time. Enjoyed the greenness of everything which must be from all the rain they've had. Green green, corn and beans for miles until brighter skies around Peoria, ILL. Stopped for a break where a farm couple came over in their Buick asking about the car. We explained and they were so excited. They wanted to go for a ride, so Joe gracefully obliged until the old man got in the car. He started screaming that he wanted one now..... we thought oh no.. could this be a robber?

Luckily my defense class kicked in and I saved the day by pulling the old man out of the car and stomping on his hand. He drove off into the fog screaming " I want one now"..



We've discovered that Turkey vultures are quite prevalent throughout the country. Big birds but ugly from the neck to the top of their head. For entertainment during the slow drive I found playing my thighs to classical music was interesting expecially when I discovered that if I pulled this area of the thigh, the tone was ................... different in a sort.



Now on the serious side, we enjoyed seeing where Abraham Lincoln lived prior to becoming the president of the US. His furniture was such a treat to see. The rockers were almost overwhelming to look at - in looking at how close our JP Lincoln Rocker looks the same. The back support, the curves of the front of the arms, the back curves and just the how much they are the same. Here's a pic I took. Hope you too see the comparison.



We found a small foodmart for dinner and brought it back to the room for much less then going out. Expect to get out of Springfield before Noon tomorrow and looking forward to being in New Albany and visiting Shawn, Kiwi, Sherrice, Steve & the boys.

Lucky for us our room is right up against the railroad tracks for a change of pace. we can hear the train a coming but lucky for us, there is a door between the seating room and the bedroom. We walked a lot and enjoyed seeing a town so different then we expected.

Wonder what this picture shows? Can you believe it is a dahlia garden with umbrella's set in place to cover the dahlias from the rain and harsh sun. I couldn't resist taking this picture.

Went with my three nieces last night to get tattoos. One got a row of leaves and flowers on her calf, one got a smiley face on her hip/side, one got a Jesus fish on her foot and one got a butterfly on a vine on her shoulder. What a special treat for me and we sure had fun. All tattoos look great! we had lots of laughter while at the shop. Afterwards, we headed to a place across the street for a piece of pizza before heading back home. Today we went to Baraboo, wine tasting and sightseeing. Taking lots of pictures. Took a ferry ride over the Wisconsin river on the way home. the ferry runs along a cable back and forth. It's something I've never seen work like that before, and it's on the National historic site list now.

Here's a shot of the cable as we arrived on the other shore before docking and driving off. I was impressed!

Tomorrow is lunch at the Oxnem's dairy farm before leaving Wisconsin on Thursday morning. sending best wishes to all! Hope you're enjoying keeping up with us. We'll be investigating our country and passing on what we discover as we go.

A Sunday gathering of the Palmer Clan. 21 of us in one place but Brian got away (had to work) before this photo was taken. We checked out the Buddus temple in Oregon WI where the Dalli lama visits when he comes to the states. Quite a structure. Headed to Fitchburg for their Art Fair and ran into Joe's cousin Bruce and his wife Betty while looking at all the crafts and artist. Our weather has been wonderful not to hot and not to cold. Got to enjoy the midget races last night in Sun Prairie. Wow they really go fast around this short track. CRAZY. Today will be the girls day. Plan to go to Madison and get a tattoo with three of our nieces at 5 tonight. An event to remember I'm sure.

WOW

Not sure where the time has gone but here it is Friday. We had a bit of fun while doing a Woodstock trip here in Verona. Hard to believe it's been 40 years since Woodstock. Our road trip should take us close enough to actually check out the town of Woodstock in New York later next month. Had a great lunch yesterday with our nephew Bob Palmer. Did a wonderful walk down State street in Madison and found an lovely little restaurant to have lunch in. Bob seemed to have fun and never stopped talking. Not sure how he was able to eat anything while talking, but he did have some food and a couple of root beers. He said he was happy to not have to work and go to lunch with us instead, so I think we made his day.

Our plan is to head south next Thursday the 27th to Springfield ILL then to Shawn & Kiwi's on the 28th for the weekend. Heading east on the 31st along the Ohio River Scenic drive.

Today will be our turn to cook so, looking for fresh Halibut but not sure I'll find that here. Some garlic potatoes and veggies to go with the fish. I'll let you know how it turns out and how everyone enjoyed or not.

Just a note today - busy mowing the lawn, picking up sweet corn for dinner tonight and of course taking a long and enjoyable walk. Tomorrow will go out to Marge & Roger's dairy farm for lunch. Roger was told by the doctor to sell the cows, but he still has them. I'm calling Wisconsin Dept. of Ag to see if they have suggestions on how to help with the transition of giving up the dairy herd. Farming is all that Roger has ever known. The farm is on Oxnem Road, which is Roger's last name. He's been there for 67 plus years. Time to give up the dairy herd and just concentrate on the field work and take it a bit easier. He has a new granddaughter and another on the way, so he needs to allow Marge and himself time to enjoy them while the kids are young. Maybe there is a way to get help we'll see.

It's Monday - one week ago and we headed east from Washington and here we are in Wisconsin. Did a nice 3 mile walk this morning stopping by Joe's uncle Mikes place for a chat. Got the headlight fixed on the smart car and purchased groceries for dinner tonight. Clam linguine and salad for the Palmer clan. Enjoyed the lightning bugs last night and during an afternoon walk yesterday, came across an infestation of bugs on some trees than today seen the same bug on a different type of vegetation, but was doing the same damage. Looked somewhat like a June bug, so I will have to investigate to see what this little bug is and where it came from.

Joe gave in to April and showed her how to start the Smart car. As you can see she was all smiles. They took off together and were gone a while then she came and did a big U e right in front of the house.

That little car will never be the same...

Having cooler weather but still humid. Should get better as the week goes buy and the humidity reduces some. I hate sweating especially right after taking a shower. When you get out of the shower, you should be cool and relaxed, comfortable and not sweating.

Tomorrow is another day. Later : D

Here it is Sunday August 16th enjoying the cool morning at Steve and Lynn's house. Went for a good 3 mile walk this morning and had lots of fresh air to breath. Last night we played a game call testical toss (aka ladder golf). It's kind of like horse shoe but is played with the blue and red balls on strings - I have the blue balls around my neck and Joe took the pic. Good huh?? Anyway, the Palmers won over the Palmers, so that was good for first time players. Three bars are what you aim for. Top bar is one point, middle is two points and bottom bar is three points. The other team can cancel our points by getting on the same bar. Fun and enjoyable because it's easy to play. Guess it was a great hit at the Graduation Party April had here at the house.
Plan a day trip to Blackearth today to visit the "Shoe Box". A well known place to get great buys on all brands of shoes.
Cait contacted me yesterday to update me on our mail. She has been right on top of it and gave me good info in order to decide what to keep and what to toss or shread. Our home phone is still not forwarded to our cellphone as expected. Calling the phone company tomorrow to get this fixed. We plan to be in Wisconsin until around the 27th when we will head south to Shawn and Kiwi's for a few days and to see Sherrice and family too.
April graduated from High School this year and is getting ready to go the UofWisconsin Eau Claire in two weeks. She's not too excited (not) she is!! Joe & I were so surprised to see how tall she had gotten over the past year. I know she had to have grown 3 inches because she is as tall as were are now. Great kid~!~ Brian is working lots, milking and doing equipment repairs as part of his schooling. He is on break until October, so now it's just working on farms doing field work, milking or whatever brings in the bucks. Well, until tomorrow.... xxoo

Joe's brother Steve had read the blog yesterday so he knew we were coming to stay last night. No surprise there except they weren't ready for us and had to rush to make our bed.
Did the MDA walk this morning and got to see lots of cousins. It was great seeing everyone. We did less then 15 minute miles, so thought that wasn't to bad. Of course, we were not the first across the finish line. Sweat was everywhere with the humidity being high this morning. It was a good turnout and I think they did pretty well with the fund raising for MDA. Joe's cousin owns a stain glass shop south of Chicago and donated a wonderful stain glass piece. Lots of things were raffles and Dan another cousin won the stain glass. Not bad keeping it in the family. The stain glass is of a cedar waxwing on a branch over a stream and if you look at the stain glass with lots of light behind it, it looks like the water is running. Awesome to say the least. I should take lessons from Mike for doing stain glass since he has been doing this now for five years or so.
I did forget to take the camera, so sorry no pics. DA~!.
We plan to just rest today enjoy company and take it easy. Will write tomorrow. xoox

Made good time today. Headed out from Lincoln, NE this morning at 7 am and arrived at Joe's sisters dairy farm at 2 pm. Lots of corn in Iowa also ~!~ and rolling hills. Today brought some funny looks from others as usual, but I told Joe I plan to try and photo a few of those drivers during our travels. Seen wind generating farms in Nebraska and Iowa. Here's a photo of one.

Upon arrival at Marge's our Uncles and Aunts (Joe's Dad's siblings) were here - they had drove out after lunch just for the ride. Les is the youngest and he's 82 and was driving. Minnie is the oldest and she's 96 or 97. It was great to catch them here when we arrived. Now we are having a birthday BBQ for Marge (yesterday's birthday girl) then off to Steve's to hit the rack before joining the Jerry's Race for the cure Muscular Dystrophy in Verona Saturday AM at 8. We'll do the 5K run/walk and see lots of Joe's cousins who will be there. MD was the cause of death for two of Joe's cousins, so this is a special walk for us. The walk was started about 4 years ago by one of the Palmer cousins and it has grown to be quite big. Will take photos for the blog. Later, :D

Laramie Wyoming is really beautiful in it's own way. The elevation alone is amazing. Had the complementary warm breakfast before getting on the road. Good omelet made by Dan who did not smile no matter what I said. I thanked him more than once in my own words as you can imagine - - almost got the corners of his mouth to move upwards or at least I was hoping so as we walked out to get in the car. Headed east and came to a sign that said 8,640 feet elevation. It's all down hill from here.

More trucker today. They seem to be amazed to see the Smart car. We get some different looks and jesters - from the thumbs up to --- well you know those fellows who hate to see a little fart of a car passing them I guess that doesn't make them to happy and they show their feelings by waving ! Got the shot entering Nebraska and remembered what Mary Ellen said about all the corn - so true, we seen corn for as far as the eye could see on one side of the interstate and non farmed land on the other side. Joe & I both have family connections with Nebraska so we stopped in North Platte where my Mother's family comes from and where my grandfather Christ Legas is buried. Wanted to get the post office photo shot with 4DATUDE but upon arriving at the post office it said "United States Federal Government Post Office" nothing about North Platte, so we found the library and took the best photo we could. I didn't realize Buffalo Bill was from North Platte. We were both surprised how big North Platte was.

We have listened to some interesting radio stations. Had some wonderful classical music to listen to driving through Nebraska. Floating along on new highway like the tassels on the corn. Side winds weren't to bad -- lucky for us. Finding out that different brands of fuel make a big difference in the number of miles we get per gallon. We'll see what our average is when we get to Wisconsin.

SMART CAR WILL TRAVEL.
We made good time today going from Burley ID towards Pocatello ID then took I-15 to Hwy 30 and down through Montpelier, ID. Some beautiful country. Natural gas plants and wells everywhere. Figure south of Yellowstone, who knows what's down under?

During our drive, I decided to share the road with you today. We've had pretty good roads and knew the construction was along this area of the interstate. Had lots of people tell us to watch for the suicidal antelopes along the roads. Did see a few but not on the road. Seen a fox and porcupine dead though. Crossed the continental divide twice - once at 6940 and once at 7000. Just amazing what the land looks like. The hills of different color from red to grey and all in between. Kind of funny to see these gophers standing on the side of the pavement at the dirt line just standing on their hines looking at the traffic. Only seen about half dozen but what a sight. Joe counted train cars today up to 98 on one and the other one we seen late this afternoon was longer but we didn't have the chance to count. Our Nextel cellphone doesn't have coverage here in Laramie. Go figure. Went for pizza tonight and our waiter was covering 10 tables who all arrived at 6pm opening. He (Brian) was great. He said he would love to leave Laramie and I wondered why. He was talking about how there's nothing to do. There's 32 bars, one bowling alley and one movie theater. Nothing to do unless you like to hike. Hum?

We discussed the possibility of moving out west and exchanged emails. Nice kid. You never know what to expect as you learn about the US and those who make up the Americans we are.

Our second day started with a bang @! our first stop was to get gas. Not remembering that Oregon has no self service - Joe was about to pull the pump hose when a burly guy walked up. Joe reneged the hose with a smile and apology but Ooh that wasn't good enough. Our service fellow must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. He proceeded to scold Joe to no end. For myself, I went in to got the most needed coffee for the road. Joe was happy to see me return and we hit the road. We had gotten 53 mpg which I felt was pretty good. Then when we needed to get the next fill up we only got 43mpg. Might have something to do with the hills, 65+ mph and the AC on the whole time. Road conditions are good just have to watch for those pot holes, I don't want to go to China.

Arrived at Burley, ID about 2:30 pm and checked in to Budget Motel. Went for a great walk to the Snake river and had a wonderful dinner at Morey's on the river.

Our stop in Durkee, OR is the photo shot for the day. Love the name. It is on the Oregon trail - actually a lot of this area is on the Oregon Lewis and Clark Trail.

Here we are awake and ready to hid the road for the second day of our adventure. As we left the park yesterday, we stopped to take a pic with a note saying thanks for the memories and low and behold, some MORA employees were working on the entrance overpass you can see in the right background. We'll update at the end of today.

The day started out with the Retirement breakfast for Joe. It was a very special time for both of us. We really appreciate all the well wishes received. It's nice to know the time you spent working was well worth it and others recognize that too. It's the convictions of the heart. Like Joe said, he has always loved Mount Rainier and he was always trying to make it better. If he worked in an area where visitors would notice, he worked very hard to hide the work by covering stump ends with dirt.
We hit the road out Steven's canyon heading east at 9:30 am only to return to Longmire because in the rush and excitement of it all, when Joe through his uniform in the dumpster, he forgot ---------- he had put his wallet in his pants pocket (something he never did at work because it was in his backpack). We stopped at the Grove of the Patriarchs to pee and as Joe got out of the car he realized he didn't have his wallet. Forget going pee, we had to head back immediately to Longmire. Surely the trash truck wouldn't be taking the dumpster trash THIS MORNING !!
I called Pam and she went to see as we drove back. Upon arrival, Joe said, should we just go and check the dumpster, I advised him that he was to see Pam. Thanks Pam for giving him the fly swatter swat ! and retrieving the pants by dumpster diving.

The truck picture is without all of the stuff stuffed into the back of the Smart Car. Thank heavens for side view mirrors. It's pretty tight in the back of 4DATUDE.
Made good time driving to Pendleton, OR. Early to bed tonight after such a weekend. Later !~!

Joe's Birthday celebration

The day is here that we so often spoke of as being so far in the future it must be only spoken of as being a long long ways away. A little celebration yesterday with friends and family was a grand success thanks to all those who cooked and brought such wonderful food. And of course I can't forget to mention about all the love that was shared.
The car is basically packed and ready to go. The Retirement breakfast in the morning at the National Park Inn in Mount Rainier National Park starts at 7:30 am - after that, we hit the highway and byways of this great country we live in heading over to Nache and down towards Walla Walla, WA. I'll be adding more later :D

what a day

Getting ready to leave work for 4 months is really a trip - I'm working on getting my things together to pack into the suitcase- wonder if the large shampoo is really the right way to go (we both have short hair). Space is valuable in the Smart "4DATUDE" car. We have room for two carry on suit cases and a small cooler. Our plans are to use the cooler for lunches and drinks. Non-alcohol of course. Joe is packed and ready - He graduates on Monday from working and we are so excited. I know with his associates degree he will be working on building rocking chairs and discovering clues to many different pizzles life has to offer.