It is time. The planning stage is over and the exploring and discovering stage has begun. Where did this years dream start? It was sparked last July while hiking 500 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. At Elk Lake while standing in the 25 foot cell phone coverage circle, we learned that we were going to be grandparents. While celebrating the news with fellow hikers, we did not know that it would lead us to this years big adventure. That would come later. We finished our 500 mile journey with 2000 miles of the trail under our feet and returned home.

Fast forward to October and thinking about the babies due date of February 20th, a momentous day for us, as it is our anniversary. Decisions started to form. Should we try and be there for the birth? When would we need to arrive, where would we stay, for how long? Should we fly? What would be best? We decided that it would probably be best to wait a month or so after the birth and then travel east when the new parents had time to acclimate to the major life change. This decision sparked some hidden flame to return to Europe. We would already be on the east coast and the flight and travel time would be reduced from the probable fourteen to fifteen hours to about nine and a half. Now the Dream part of our motto takes hold. Spain and France are still on our list of European countries to visit and the flame is fanned and the traveling fire is fully stoked. The early stages of planning begins in November.
It is now the end of March. We were blessed with a beautiful granddaughter, Natalie Evelyn, who decide to enter the world 5 weeks early on January 18th. After months of planning, doing our house chores, taxes, and finding time to enjoy our local life, we hit the road on March 24th. We are excited to see our granddaughter but we have 2,500 miles of driving ahead of us before we can do so.

We plan to make it over three mountain ranges on our first day. Estimated time of departure will be oh 500 and for movie buffs, what does the oh stand for?, “oh my god it’s early”. The departure is made earlier still when Carol in her alarm setting zest somehow sets it for 3:15 AM. After being unpleasantly woken, I could not get back to sleep and give up at 4:00 and we pack up the last remaining items, batten down the hatches and are on the road at 4:30. Traveling north, we hit rain and as we turn East onto I-70 and climb our first mountains, the rain turns to snow. This slows us down until we descend back into rain and then clearer skies in Richfield, Utah. We stop here for gas and breakfast. The next mountain range is the same, snow as we climb, rain as we descend than clear until Colorado. Colorado is good until Vail Pass where we hit snow again but the roads are dry. Then we maneuver through some early ski area traffic, get through Denver and stop at Limon, Colorado around 4PM for the night. We walk to dinner and after checking out tomorrow’s route, we crash, exhausted from our day.
As we went to bed early, we wake up, have breakfast, and are on the road before 0700.

Ribs and Pulled Pork

We make it to Salina, Kansas for lunch at a favorite barbecue joint, the Hickory Hut. Ribs and pulled pork with two sides, Texas toast and pickles. It is a lot of food and we save the pulled pork to have for dinner tonight. We do manage a dessert break at Braums across the street. We discovered Braums in Oklahoma, when we drove there with Laura. They have great ice cream at low prices. After dessert, we are ready for the rest of the day’s drive, ending in the small town of Sweet Springs, Missouri. We lost an hour to the time zone gods so we settle in, relax, have pulled pork for dinner and get to bed early as we lose another hour tomorrow.
Tuesday morning, we repeat, breakfast and on the road by 0640. We stop for gas near St Louis and cross the muddy Mississippi into the eastern half of the United States. We make it through Indianapolis with no traffic and into Ohio with minimal stops. There is traffic in Columbus as we reach there at rush hour. After Columbus, we stop in Zanesville for dinner at Mexican restaurant. The food is good and fills us up. Twenty minutes later, we are in Norwich, Ohio, home for the night. Absolutely nothing to do here but rest. It has gotten cold and the humidity makes it very damp for us desert dwellers. After checking in with the moms and my brother, we make it another early night. A short day of only seven and a half hours remains for us tomorrow.

Proud Grandmom

We get another early start and make good time through the states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and our final destination in New Jersey. We arrive at 2:30 and meet our granddaughter. Natalie is precious and beautiful with a good temperament and spikey hair. As an added bonus, our son from California, is coming to visit today also. He is visiting his fiancées sister in Washington DC and is spending the night here on his way to visit the rest of our family in New York. Time for us to relax.