Friday, August 8, 2008

Traveling Tidbits

* On our drive across the long state of Kansas, we stopped in Hays for gas. It was about 3 or 4 in the morning. Right next to us was a rental rv which had the door open and two or three guys were taking out what seemed to be like hundreds of beer cans to throw away. The driver noticed our tags and asked what part of Georgia we were from. Paul told him and he laughed. He lives just minutes from where we do! What are the odds of meeting someone from our hometown, in the middle of the night, in the middle of Kansas?? (Turns out these guys were rodeo riders and were on their way to the next rodeo. The driver told us he was the designated driver because he had broke his neck and was still healing. He also told us he only had 3 beers!)

*We traveled through 15 states in our long trek. We passed through the "4 corners" area of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, but it was the middle of the night and the monument was closed.

*Our van traveled 6064 miles in 3 weeks. Wow.

*We spent $1500 on gas alone. That is actually much better than Paul had figured. The highest we paid was $4.19, because we were stuck. There was only 1 gas station and the van was under empty.

*It seems each camping area had it's unique share of critters. In Colorado, the only animal we saw in the campsite was a mule deer. The Grand Canyon had big, black, ugly, loud ravens which flew through the campsite, looking for food. New Mexico had jack rabbits, big and ugly. Balmorhea, Texas, had prairie dogs everywhere. They looked like chipmunks but were much lighter in color. Louisiana had mosquitoes, of course, but it also had alot of swamp bunnies. And many, many frogs, and flying bugs. Florida had (be still my heart) mice. YUCK. I only had one close encounter (and it wasn't even that close) when a mouse came into the campsite.

*At the Grand Canyon someone (who shall remain nameless) threw away most of our dishes. They were only plastic plates, cups and utensils, but they were what we were using so at our next stop at Walmart, we restocked.

*We used my father-in-laws GPS, which we called "Lola". Lola was a tremendous help and we wouldn't like to travel without her again. Seriously, a GPS when you are traveling somewhere you are not familiar with is invaluable. If we wanted to know if a walmart was near where we were going, we asked Lola and she told us. Same thing for a fast food restaurant, gas station, movie theatre, etc.

*Word most uttered in our van: WOW

*Second most word uttered: "I don't want Zack looking at me". (Said by Sam, usually when he was tired or hungry or being just plain ugly.)

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