We’re packed and ready to head out on our cross-country adventure first thing tomorrow morning. I had thought to snap a photo of the fully loaded truck with dog crates, etc., but I forgot and now it’s dark. So, no pic.

The dogs are not yet sure if this trip includes them or not. They see things happening and are hopeful that it includes them too and that they are not just going to the kennel for a stay. It’s odd because they usually know. Even Alex is left wondering. Will they take us or not? eBay the cat already knows and can be seen skulking around the house looking for a place to hide. Sorry, eBay: everybody goes on this road trip!

We are looking forward to being there and not necessarily the getting there, but the getting there aspect of it is really part of it. We already know where we will stop each day so I’ve made reservations in advance. Only one hotel is new to us because the one we’ve stayed at for the past four years has really gone downhill and not a great place to stay anymore. Otherwise, it’s the same dog-friendly hotels each time. Nothing wrong with what you know!

I hope to blog from the road but it’s not a guarantee. Hopefully our internet will be up and running at the cabin when we arrive but again, it’s not a given. One year we had to work things out and have out service shifted from one satellite to another. Fingers crossed that things go according to plan.

So, I’ll see you not the flip side! My cowboy hat that my mother-in-law bought for my birthday is packed. Cowboy Country here we come!

For those of you who might be new to the blog, I am going to fill you in a little on our cabin in Colorado since for the next two weeks+ I’ll be blogging from there. For everyone else who already is familiar with the cabin, well, ho-hum for you! But why not read on anyway and you might learn something you didn’t know about it, okay?

We first bought the land in 1988 right before we moved to Holland. Seventy acres (or thereabout) of high sage covered prairie, deep gullies with mixed forests of aspen and pine, a beaver pond (which then had a beaver), a little creek that runs in the spring with snow runoff, and an absolutely perfect meadow for a cabin.

Rick standing by one of our property markers high above the cabin. The trees you see in front of him are on our land.

We didn’t get to enjoy it much before we moved, but while living in Europe for five years we always made a point when we were back on home leave to at least picnic on the property.

After our return in the summer of 1993 at first we camped on our land (tent style). A few years later we camped in the RV. We visited at all times of the year to take note of where the snow lay deepest and what parts were accessible in the winter and which were not so we were sure we were putting the cabin in the right spot. Sometimes in the winter we could make it in and sometimes the roads were drifted over and impassable.

We finally built the cabin in 2000. Rick kept a journal of it’s “birth” and if you’re interested you can read about it here. We had originally thought we would harvest the wood from our own lodgepole pines on the land and build it log by log ourselves, but thank goodness we came to our senses and tossed that romantic notion out.

After the cabin was built we spent every available weekend there. It was a two hour drive from our house in Ft. Collins. We also spent a full week in spring and one week again in the fall. Our spring week was always when my mom was visiting. She loved the cabin so! Here we are in 2004 with Sailor and puppy Hailey. (I personally love this pic!)

Our land lies just shy of the border between northern Colorado and southern Wyoming. The closest city (town) is Laramie. From Laramie it’s about a 45 minute drive on dirt roads which are sometimes not in the best of shape, depending upon when they were last graded. There is a cattle guard at the border and from that point on the roads are not plowed by the state of Colorado. Beyond here there be dragons. Travel at your own risk!

We are off the grid, providing our own services. The cabin is mainly powered by batteries that store energy from our solar panels on the roof. We have a propane tank for the furnace and propane fridge and stove. We also have a big wind turbine that has been left dismantled in our absence but when it’s in operation we get most of our electricity from the wind.

The wind blows here. A lot. When it snows the roads drift over. Even when it’s not snowing you can encounter white-out conditions due to the dry top layer of snow being whipped by the wind. We’ve been in one of these and trust me, it was not fun.

The year that stands out in my memory was when we had our neighbor down the road (about two miles) plow a path in the road to our cabin. One morning he called us and asked us how the weather was at our place. Our cabin is so sheltered by trees that we had no idea a white-out was happening. He was coming to get us. We packed up quickly and thought to meet him outside our driveway. The snow was about three feet deep. When we started out we could not tell where it had been plowed at all. We also got stuck up to our bumper. We were sitting ducks until our savior, Larry, could be seen in his big John Deere with the huge snowblower attachment blowing snow like crazy. He blew us a path to follow him out on while behind us the snow filled in almost immediately like some hungry monster gobbling up the space. It took forever to make that trip and it was terrifying to see the sheer brutality of winter up there.

Several people now live up here year round and it causes some problems. One person likes to plow his way out, thereby causing the roads to drift over worse than they would have if left alone because he doesn’t plow them correctly. The secret is to go over the snow instead of through it so most people have an all terrain vehicle with tracks and park their cars over the border at a friend’s house.

What people don’t realize is that this land is untamable. Wild. It’s always been that way. It lets you know, albeit subtly, that it is in charge; not you. You need to live with the land up here and not against it’s natural flow.

Some people are trying to tame it and make it more like a subdivision in town. We’re hoping the land takes charge and it never happens.

There’s a very good book that’s been written about the land surrounding our cabin. It’s called “The Meadow” and is written by a man whose family homesteaded here. It was a rough life and a good read. It’s still available at Amazon.

One of the old homesteads along the road (but not the one featured in the book!).

There is just something about the whole area that gets in your blood. I can’t explain it. It’s just there.

On and off we’ve toyed with the idea of selling it since we are so far away and unable to get there more than once a year, but we just can’t quite bring ourselves to do it. It is still Rick’s dream to live there for one entire year, winter and all, and I have agreed to see how it goes. Until then I can’t see us giving up our 70 acres of paradise.

I’m having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that this time next week we’ll be 3/4 of the way through the huge state of Nebraska en route to the cabin. I am so not ready! Somehow it just seems off and way too soon since we’ve been trekking to the cabin in September for the past three years.

There is a pile of stuff on the bed in the spare room just waiting to be loaded but there seems like so much still to do.

The kitty beds have been washed and ready to pop into their crates.

Alex got a bath this weekend (and looks great I might add) and the girls will get theirs at the groomers on Wednesday.

The roof rack and pod were put on the truck this weekend and Rick vacuumed and cleaned it. It also had a check up, new spark plugs, lube & oil change, new front shocks (which we will need on those washboarded dirt roads that lead to the cabin) and a few things I can’t remember now so it should be good to go. Big Red has never failed us but she is getting up there in years and miles.

Our neighbors who look after the cabin for us went over this past weekend and have found no sign of pack rats (and here) this time. Thanks goodness. I don’t want to have to fumigate the cabin again! Pesky vermin!

I have so much to do before we go yet I have trouble getting started. I just need to focus on one thing at a time.

wow! i heard mommy and daddy talking this weekend about how they should get a ‘berner’ phone for the cabin. my own phone! (since i am a bernese mountain dog better known as berners.) i’ve always wanted my own phone so i could call up and bark at my friends. right now i can only bark across the street to finn and molly.

i could even call that stupid dog tucker at the end of the street if i had my own phone. i think tucker has a crush on me.

i know mommy gets tired of my barking so i’m sure that’s why she decided to get me my own berner phone! i think it was supposed to be a surprise but i was listening closely to their conversation. after all, they were talking about the cabin and the cabin is my mostest favorite place on earth. it has long walks to take where i never have to be on a leash, a pond to swim in, cow and elk poo to eat, chipmunks to chase and maybe even a snow bank still left to slide on. gosh, so many things to do. now i can keep in touch with finn and molly super long distance! i am so excited it makes my hair stand on end!

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a little bit later on ...

i guess i was wrong. i am not getting my own phone after all. after mommy read this post she told me that they were talking about a ‘burner’ phone not a berner phone which i guess is one they can just buy a few minutes on and then throw away. she said their normal phones don’t work at the cabin and they need a different one. i am so disappointed! oh well. my paws are too big anyway for all those little numbers.

It would be hard to beat Saturday for gloriousity, it really would. Sunday tried its hardest.

We started the day by walking the dogs to Green Turtle Pond. They love being off leash. The trees are fully leafed out and lush. Instead of walking from our house we drove to the access road and parked. Two reason for this: it’s a long walk and it was pretty warm; we usually take the wooded path through the woods to get to the access road rather than walking the dogs along the busy roadside but right now the ticks are really bad.

Bella the water dog! There’s nothing she loves better than wading. We can’t get her to swim though.

We had company on the pond in the form of two Canadian geese who were not bothered by us at all. In fact, they glided up pretty close to inspect us.

Alex was wondering if he could somehow get closer to them.

Everyone finally just decided it was okay to share the pond. Standing at the edge and looking at that serene water made me want to go home and get the canoe. When we return from our cabin trip we will for sure be putting the canoe on the water again … soon.

After showering and making sure we had not picked up any ticks ourselves, we took Mia to Warwick for the opening day of the farmer’s market.

They still don’t have much at this time of year but we bought some beef jerky from a new vendor, some maple sugar (for sprinkling on popcorn), and some kale for making kale chips (which didn’t come out quite right).

Wild asparagus.

Exotic mushrooms.

Tomatoes. Really? This early?

Another new vendor was selling this:

They were also selling huge ostrich bones for dogs. I’m not sure how this will go over in Warwick, NY!