Map Mania

The guys left yesterday morning. They made it to their first stop, and they should reach the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca sometime today. While they were out finishing their last minute packing, I took a little stroll around the yard to see how things are doing. It's still raining for most of every day. I thought we'd have better weather this week, but no. 

We're happy to see that the violet green swallows have returned. They've been spending the past week swooping around the birdhouses we provided for them on the front wall of our garage. They never seem to light anywhere, and so my pictures were mainly of the birdhouses with little blurs of birds when I got lucky.

Here, I've cropped the picture a little tighter. Still just a blur.

But here's one I caught last summer. Two years in a row they've nested in the second box from the left.

Last year, they pecked at the opening to the house to make it larger, and so Mike drilled all of them a smidge bigger for this year's tenants. So far, we've seen them going into and out of all four houses, apparently sizing up the kitchen and closet space. Honestly...a bird needs good closet space. Who doesn't? So, with all that activity, we're hoping we'll get more boarders in 2022. We don't charge them any rent, but we do demand they eat flying insects.

Moving on, the tulips I called "dark purple" the other day are actually red. They're blooming now. We haven't had enough warmth, and so all of the flowers are still in tight buds, even if they are wanting to open fully.

I'm happy to report even more new growth on the red clematis. I worried about this one after the snow, but it seems to have done just fine.

To its right, the red azalea is showing its first color.

And look at the Bleeding Heart...blooming away like a champ despite being buried in heavy snow for more than a week.

Around the back side of the house, the blue clematis is doing just fine too. I worried most about this one because of its small size. It's grown big enough to begin climbing its free-standing trellis now, and so it's future looks promising.

There are a few blossoms on the chives, but I'm afraid I won't get enough for chive blossom vinegar this year. Last year's crop was crowded out by the huge sage plant. I whacked back the sage plant significantly last year, and Mae gave me some of her chive plants. Still, they don't have enough size to produce enough blossoms for vinegar yet. Maybe next year.

The Black Tartarian cherry tree is still blooming away, and we've seen some mason bees around. The bees like to take up residence in the cracks of our cedar shingle siding, and we are happy to get them. They are the best at pollinating the fruit trees.

The Bing is doing its best to catch up. We're seeing more flowers on it every day.

Coming around full circle, the yellow tulips are still blooming in the whiskey barrel. 

Sadly, a big pigeon flew into our window several days ago, breaking its neck. The poor thing was flying full tilt, probably seeing the reflection if the sky. Fortunately, this doesn't happen often. This time, he was apparently so covered in pollen that he left this ghostly stain on the glass. When I see it, it makes me feel as if we're being haunted.

Okay, so after the guys left, a couple of young guys showed up to do some work in the basement. They tore out a section of the wallboard and cleaned up the sludgy mess behind the wall. They were here for about 2 hours by the time they left for the day. Next, I'm expecting a plumber. I doubt he'll be here today, but maybe tomorrow? I'd sure like to know that plumbing leak is fixed, especially since Mike isn't here to patch it if it starts up again.

While they were here, I took some time to stitch some more on my quilt binding. I've turned three corners now.

And then, map mania started. I've been planning all along to start working on this summer's trip to the Great Lakes Region and beyond. We'd originally planned to make a trip to Alaska this summer, but COVID restrictions in Canada forced us to change our plans. As it turns out, we probably could have gone. Oh well...we'll plan it for next year. Instead, we decided to start hitting some of the states we missed when we took our USA Perimeter trip five years ago. The states still missing from our list are: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Kansas, and Missouri. We've both been to most of these states, but not together, and not necessarily in the RV. 

Originally, we talked about taking a "Heartland Tour," and hitting all the states together. Instead, we'll do the northern-most states on this "Great Lakes Tour." And, if you're curious about the trips on our wish list, next year will be Alaska. In 2024, there will be another total eclipse of the sun, and so our plan is to head to Texas to see the eclipse, and then see the southern-most states when we make that trip. You know life is hard when your vacations are planned two years in advance.

Okay, so backing up to yesterday, I needed to get organized. I had some destinations to file away in my 50-state manila envelope bucket list, and that took some time. Then I had to round up reference materials, and then I moved the laptop and the whole kit and kaboodle to the dining room table where I could spread out.

Once there, I started going through folders for things I'd printed off or torn out, looking for places of interest. Also, I focused on our State Park Campground book. Some time ago, I highlighted the best state parks in the country (according to some article I'd read), and added those to the itinerary whenever possible. We love the state parks as much as we love the national parks. They are generally cheaper than private RV parks, in addition to being more scenic and more interesting.

Okay, and so the hours passed, and I kept telling myself I was going to stop, until darkness fell, and I was up past my bedtime. I sketched out a trip...not a final draft, by any means. I'm sure I've put in way too much, and it will probably take way too long. We're planning 6-8 weeks on the road, but things change, and so our plans can change, even as we're traveling. We pay attention to the weather, obviously. This late into the summer, however, wildfires will also play a sad role in whether we can follow through with the route I've mapped out. So, keeping in mind this is only the first draft, here's the route I'm planning. By way of explanation, I can only put ten stops into Google maps, and so each map picks up with the last stop on the previous map. (I hope that makes sense.)

We've seen most of the places on this first map, but we'll head back to Stanley, Idaho, and Redfish Lake...a place we both love...and then head up the Salmon River Scenic Byway before crossing into Montana.

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park in North Dakota sounded interesting. The Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex is something that will interest Mike. It isn't open for tours, but there is a virtual tour online. That will be just a drive by, hop out, and hop back in thing as we make our way to other venues. 

We'd always planned to see Isle Royale National Park on this trip, but we've changed our plans. It's very expensive and difficult to get out to the island. Ferries are involved, and it necessitated an overnight stay. There were lots of reasons I finally gave up on trying to make it work. It was causing me to stress over the trip, and when we decided to cross it off the list, I felt ten times better. Clearly, it wasn't worth the angst. Instead, we'll make a second visit to Voyageurs National Park.

We'll make a tour around portions of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. We'd like to take a tour of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin. When we traveled here last time around, we didn't want to take time to see the Apostles, and we've always regretted it. Also, we'd like to make a second trip to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan. We took a tour on our last trip, but the skies were overcast. We'd like to see it on a sunny day.

And then on to the top item on my bucket list. It's the "Point of Beginning" in East Liverpool, Ohio, which is right on the Ohio-Pennsylvania Border. Yes, it's a weird place to have at the top of one's bucket list, but we're talking about me. It shouldn't surprise you that it's weird. I once wrote a blog post about the significance of this place. You can read it right here.

Okay, and as long as we're practically already in Pennsylvania, it made sense to travel over to Lancaster County to see their fabulous quilt shops. And then, as long as we've gone that far, we might as well dip into West Virginia. There, we can see the newest national park at New River Gorge.

After that, we'll turn around and head west again, stopping to see some places of interest along the way.

I've included quilt museums in Iowa and Nebraska, as well as Homestead National Historical Park where we can take in the Quilt Discovery Experience.

From there, we'll head north into South Dakota. There are a few things I want to see there, including Badlands National Park. We've been there before, but we didn't spend enough time, and so I'd like to go back. From there, a trip to Lander, Wyoming. Lander was on the intinerary of a previous trip, but we ended up re-routing when we had to have a leaking tire and a plumbing problem repaired. That will be the last stop of note, and then we'll head for home. I've included Heyburn, Idaho, there as a final stop. From there, we could head home in several different directions, and so I'll leave that final section unplanned until the time comes.

As I mentioned, there's probably way more here than we can possibly do in the time we have allotted. My next task will be to read up on some of these places, and make changes as necessary. As it stands, it's an ambitious trip of about 10,000 miles. 

Okay, so that was yesterday. This morning I'm having breakfast with Matthew, and then dropping off a birthday present with Mae for her May 1st birthday. After that, I'll come home and work a little more on my quilt binding. Maybe I'll do some sewing, but I'm kind of in trip-planning mode right now. Maybe I'll do some more of that. Maybe I'll stay up past my bedtime two days in a row!