December--ANOTHER 12,000 miles!

Here is the map of our December travels. We left Tacoma on December 1st and returned to Kettle Falls late on December 23rd, logging ANOTHER 12,000 miles. Considering that it was December we had pretty good traveling weather. The blue line from upstate NY to New Jersey was the only time we were in serious snow conditions. When we headed west to LA we took the yellow-southerly-route to avoid storms in the upper midwest.

R-n-R time for us

Here is Kurt in Huntington Beach California on our day off. We rented a car and drove to the coast. The weather was a very lovely 75 degrees- no complaints :)

Of course we couldn't resist the urge to call someone and find out what the weather was like up north-- 25 degrees and snow falling in Kettle Falls. again- no complaints from us :)

Then we got sent back to Phoenix and ended up with a day off visiting with the Hellmans and Matters in Quartzsite. We had a blast riding their quads out in the desert.

Four new states for me

We have covered a lot of new-to-me territory in the last few days.

Now there are only 8 states in the lower 48 that we haven't traveled in since June (KS, TN, WV, ME, MI, FL, AR, and KY)

We started out in New Hampshire on Saturday Dec. 9th. We drove west on I-90 until we turned south at Cleveland Ohio. After cutting across the middle of Indiana and Illinois. and staying overnight at Effingham IL overnight and entered Missouri at St Louis in the morning rush hour. Despite the time of day, we took the mid town route rather than the beltway so that I could see the Gateway Arch.

Since then we have traveled Oklahoma, the panhandle of Texas and New Mexico.
We entered OK just at dusk- and drove most of the way after dark. Interstate 40 follows the route of Historic Route 66 (all the way to California) and true to that old road there are tourist traps or casinos about every 20 miles. Here is one at Big Cabin- i t features a giant Indian statue in its parking lot.

We entered Texas in the morning- it is also pretty flat- but is was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, so we were happy

New Mexico was also full of tourist traps-- and they caught us. We decided we needed a plant for our truck. Here it is

We arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and delivered our yogurt on Thursday morning. Hope to be back in the Puget Sound by Tuesday and shortly thereafter in Kettle Falls

Headed west again

After fooling around in the snow and cold on the East coast we are headed west again. Last Thursday we hit our first snow storm- a full white-out-in NE Pennslyvania. Just when we were starting to look for someplace to exit a plow truck with salt (the truckers call them "salt shakers") pulled on just ahead of us clearing our way. That was quite a relief after an hour of white knuckle driving. We spent that night in New Jersey and the next day drove to New Hampshire. On Saturday afternoon we loaded a fresh batch of yogurt and now we are headed to Los Angeles. Looks like we will have good weather all the way across. YAY

December Travels

Updated Wed. Dec 6th: Well we are East again. We left Tacoma on Dec 1st- and today we are in Rochester NY after delivering our load of Washington apples. Here is a map of our route- each black arrow on the red line was an overnight stop for us. On Thursday we will be picing up a load near Lake Seneca in Geneva NY and take it to NJ. Still no snow to hamper our travels-- yay

So far the only snowy roads we have encountered have been on the mountain passes. Here is a picture of a snowy road in Oregon--and that is a Christmas tree that adorns our windshield

Otherwise it has been beautifully clear- but very cold. [down to zero at night and teens and twenties during the day. .
Here is a picture of the approaching sunset in S Idaho Saturday afternoon

It is hard to show "cold" in photos-- but here are two attempts. Snow from the fields drifting across the highway in Nebraska...

And ice floating on the Missouri river between Nebraska and Iowa