Okay, first things first. My old camera was a 35mm Canon Rebel XSi. Without the ability to really research cameras from the road we just replaced it with the next generation: a 35mm Canon Rebel T2i. If you bundled the camera together with a nicer lens (55 to 250 zoom) you got the nicer lens (normally a $400 lens) for only $150. A sweet deal for a sweet lens. I normally use the 18 to 55 lens and fill in with my big zoom (75-300). This new lens will bridge the gap nicely.

I had to get a camera on the road. I just had to. Not having my camera (and especially up here) is like having only one arm. I would probably prefer to break my arm than be without a camera.

And, I am loving my new keyboard/cover for my iPad. It works great! A little on the expensive side (from Brookstone) but worth every penny. The keyboard is removable so I don’t have to use it with the cover. Very cool.


After settling in yesterday and giving the dogs a short walk we sat down to a glass of wine and dinner. We sat on the front porch even though it was on the chilly side and listened to the hermit thrush singing. It’s one of my favorite birds and we’ve only ever heard one up here. No owls though and no coyote concert.

I’ve put out bird food and peanuts for the stellar jays but as yet have not seen even one. Usually they show up right away and greedily carry off all the peanuts.

Rick put out the hummingbird feeders this morning and within one hour of hanging them we had hummers. I had forgotten how much bigger this species of hummingbird we have up here (broad-winged) is than the tiny ones that visit our house in New Jersey. Plus, they make noise when they fly and ours at home are pretty much silent.  He’s out there on the front porch steps with the slow motion camera we brought along trying to get some footage. We’ll see how many show up. Usually we have to fill the feeders every day due to heavy drinking at the sugar bar!

This morning he made bran muffins for breakfast. They were delicious! Here they are upside down cooling straight from the muffin tin. They have so many good things in them: yogurt, golden raisins, brown sugar, bran cereal, molasses, vanilla.



After breakfast we took a walk to the top of the sage-covered hill opposite our driveway. From up here you can see pretty far, all the way to the Snowy Range.



This section of land is almost like tundra. Little flowers grow here that don’t grow in other places. It truly is an alpine environment.





This tiny cactus is about to bloom soon.



There were several of these moths flying around. This one landed and we weren’t sure if it just didn’t like flying in the wind or it was at the end of its life cycle.



Happy free range dogs!


These evening primroses love disturbed soil along the road.


The furry seed pods of pasque flowers that have finished blooming.


We have tons of larkspur!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Elevation of feet above sea level, that is! That’s quite a climb.

We have arrived at our final destination tonight. You could say we “just blew in” because the wind was ever present again today. But instead of pushing us along toward our goal, it was trying to blow us off course. Ugh. I. hate. wind.

Despite the wind’s efforts, we arrived in Laramie around noon and after minimal grocery shopping, headed out about 1:00 from Laramie to the cabin.

Here is the main road once you leave the pavement:





Free range, dude!






Of course, as predicted, our internet would not connect. sigh. Rick spent a good hour on the cell phone, standing outside to get a signal to figure out the problem. We have a flex program where we can deactivate it without canceling our service: six months on; six months off. Apparently when we turn it off once we leave the cabin and unplug the modem, it loses its brain and when we plug it back it it resets to a default thereby losing all our information and settings. Hopefully now we have it figured out for the next time this happens. Even though we have to pay for six months while only using two to three weeks of that, it’s worth it to us to stay connected.

Here are a few photos off my “new” camera of our journey today.

Finally, my pic of the sun coming up.





Sign at a rest stop almost to the Nebraska/Wyoming border at the edge of the dog walking area. Anyone care to walk any further? (One woman not named Dorothy talking to her dog named Alex instead of Toto: I have a feeling we’re not in New Jersey anymore.)




Road sign between Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming on I-80.



This always cracks me up when we drive by. We heard on the news a few weeks ago that this little town was recently sold. We only hope the new owner is not married or they will have to change the population to 2.










You’ve got to admit that this “town” doesn’t look like much. Good old Buford, Wyoming!

Thank you all so much for all the lovely comments over the past few days. I will get back into my routine of responding to comments and visiting your blogs by tomorrow!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The “I” states are behind us now and so is a small bite out of the state of Nebraska. Good thing we are in for the night because it looks like some nasty weather about to hit us.

Not a totally pleasant drive today. The wind was really blowing all the way through Iowa and the part of Nebraska that we drove through. Nothing new about the wind and Nebraska. It’s always blowing. Funny thing about wind. You don’t notice it that much on the East Coast where there are plenty of trees to break it up. Here there is nothing so you feel the full force of it. And of course it’s always sideways!

New camera battery charging ... haven’t configured the new camera yet ... drinking a glass of wine while waiting for our pizza to be delivered.

Road tired and brain dead!

Next stop: the cabin!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

Doesn’t it just figure? I went to take a photo of the sunrise in my side mirror this morning and my camera was saying “error.” Then it said “Card write protected” or something like that. So, the card was not working. Rick had taken it out last night to download the photo of the truck and something happened I guess. We tried everything and the card works in his camera, so it must be the electronics in mine. Bummer.

So here I sit in the parking lot Best Buy in Coral Ridge, Iowa (Iowa City) waiting with the dogs as Rick goes in to buy me a new camera! It’s too hot (88 degrees in full sun) to leave them in the car by themselves, so since he’s purchased the last two cameras for me I think I pretty much trust him to pick a new one out.

It’s my fault I’m pretty sure. Do you remember that photo of our little outdoor fire pit a few weeks back? Well ... I had forgotten that I took my camera down with me and left it hanging on the back of the chair all night. It also drizzled rain that same night. oops. Not very smart.

I’ve had it in my mind that I was close to needing (or is that wanting) a new camera soon but I did not plan this!

There is a big fire burning near here as well and it smells awful. I think it might be a tire fire since the smoke is really black.

Oh well. What’s a road trip without some drama?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

“Indiana wants me ... Lord, I can’t go back there…”
Remember those lyrics?
I have nothing against coming back to Indiana. In fact, it’s quite a nice state to drive through. Pennsylvania is a bear. It’s big. It’s usually packed full of trucks and lots of hills to go up and back down again.




oops!

Given that it’s Memorial Day Weekend, the traffic was pretty light once we got past the Pocono Mountains.

Sam threw up about 15 minutes in to the trip. Of course. He always gets car sick the first day out. Thank goodness I did not feed either of the cats this morning. I have learned the hard way even though it sounds cruel not to feed them.

We put three states behind us today in 11 hours of driving and 600+ miles: New Jersey (naturally it didn’t take too long), Pennsylvania (about 6 hours) and Ohio. We are about 60-some miles in to Indiana and tomorrow will tackle the Chicago area early on a Sunday morning, so that should be a piece of cake. Then it’s on to Iowa which is not much fun either since it’s very hilly, and finally the huge state of Nebraska. We’ll get 1/2 way through that state in to Grand Island tomorrow night. Once all the “I” state get past us we start to feel like we are truly in the West.

Pizza delivered in our room tonight which was absolutely delicious! The cats are adjusting better on the first night in a motel room than they usually do and the dogs have been fed, pottied and pottied again. Everyone is settled down now. One more out for the dogs and we can all lay our heads down and (hopefully) get a good night’s sleep.
So, as to the photo above: can you figure out just what is going on here? We did survive this scenario ...