Oh, My Goodness...

It is only the second night and we find ourselves in a motel.  My secret goal was to make it through the trip camping every night.   What wimps we are!  Or maybe we’re just smart. 

Weather in NE was pretty fierce today.  We missed most of it.  The tornados happened in area that we had already passed through.  We did hit a very heavy thunder storm.  Luckily, we were just coming up on a rest area and Jerry was able to pull over before things got really interesting.   Interesting in the fact as we sat in the car hail developed.  I have never before seen golf ball size hail or heard it pounding on the car roof.  Don’t worry Jack, the bikes were protected nicely with your grill cover.  While I was driving the visibility was so bad at times that traffic was going 20 mph.

So early evening we thought we had cleared all the dark skies.  Just as the snow capped mountains were coming in to view in WY so were the dark clouds beginning to gather again.  I managed to find a cheap, national forest campground close to the road.  We drove back.  The grounds were locked tight because of the fact that they had just sprayed for pine beetles.   It was starting to drizzle and the wind was a real factor. 

So here we sit.  Dry, warm and feeling like a wimp.  But that is okay.  Forecast is for scattered thunder storms and temps in the low 30s, winds up to 65 mph.   

Don't woory Jack the bikes are locked in the motel safe.

Let the adventure continue…

Let The Adventure Begin...

Day 1 – Tuesday

KY, OH, IN, IL, IA.  Not bad for the first day.

Pretty uneventful – just a few observations;

Lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, minus the jelly since it did not make it in to the cooler.

IL and IA = windy, windier, and windierest.  Sometimes you need a new word to describe a new experience.

Camped last night at Coralville Lake in IA = stormy, stormier, stormierest.  There was lightning and thunder for a good part of the night.  Maybe we should have suspected something when we checked in and the guy said something about the bathroom being a good strong storm shelter in case we needed it.  Apparently there were tornados throughout the state on Tuesday.  I found it interesting that when the light flashed behind my eyelids I started counting 1,000-1, 1,000-2…..Most of the time I got to 1.000-5.  But not always.  My biggest concern was the bikes on the back of the van.  Jack made it clear that we were to save the bikes first, our lives came later.  Could we untie and unhitch the bikes in time to get them in to the bathroom with us???

Supper last night was to be cold meatloaf sandwiches (keeping it simple) but it appeared that the meatloaf is hanging out with the jelly at home.

The campground was an interesting area; lakes, rivers, fossil beds.  Sites were nice.  We were alone in the tent area. (Who would find the bodies?)   No frills but good.  Warm, free, clean showers in the a.m.  I couldn’t pass that up – and no crowd.  And you’ve got to love that senior pass.  $6. for the night.  My guy really knows how to treat a woman.

This morning when we awoke things were mostly dry.  It would appear that the wind took care of most of the moisture for us except for the rain fly.  Grateful not to be packing up in the rain.

On the road again.  Let the adventure continue…

Mini Road Trip and Beyond

It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to hit the road in the van for a few hours and do some exploring.  The TransAmerican Bike Trail runs through KY, west to east pretty much cutting across the center of the state.  The Trail intersects I-75 in Berea so we drove south to the famous college town and then turned east on the Trail.  Within about 10 minutes we missed a turn but realized our mistake almost immediately so we backtracked and quickly found our way east.   Now at least we won’t do that again when it really counts.

The road – two lane back road, windy, narrow, hilly, very hilly in spots and for every up there of course was a very steep, windy down.  The hills were green, the sky was blue.  I decided to count the coal trucks and the dogs, two of the great concerns of any cyclist.  So…we only passed two coal trucks and we did not see any dogs on the road.  That might be because they were all hiding behind trees waiting for cyclist, never the less…

After being on the back roads for about 1 ½ hours we evaluated just how far we wanted to stray from home.  If we turned north on  Rt. 11 we would hit the Mountain Parkway at Slade and pass Natural Bridge, if we continued on to Hazard then headed north we would add about 2-3 hours to the trip.  Slade here we come!  Most people would have realized they were on     Rt. 11 between Booneville and Beattyville and headed north.  For me it was a turn down Memory Lane.  Back in the Early 70s I lived and worked in Beattyville.  It was a good time in life.  Worked with good people and learned a lot.  Lived with two great women.  (Maybe we were just girls then.)  We were able to locate the house we rented, the care facility that was my first job out of nursing school.  Memories came pouring in and I was able to share things with Jerry that I had nearly forgotten about.  It was a good thing to be able to do.  Recall the good times and to be thankful for everything that got me to this point in life.  It’s all good.

And because nothing is ever to dull at the VH house:

The next morning we woke up about 4:00 to screams.   At first I thought it was a cat. Then I checked both windows thinking someone was getting beat up outside. Then I realized the screams were coming from Christy's room. She had never had night terrors before but I guess there is always a first time. I opened her door to try and bring her out of them when I saw a bat fly by - the reason for the screams. I held her until the sobbing stopped. Jerry went in, armed with a plastic bat and box.   Needless to say we were unable to find the little critter.  Christy moved to another bedroom but assured me that she didn’t sleep at all that night.  I believe her!

We decided to take this opportunity to clean Christy's room. Of course at this point we weren't sure where the bat was hanging out or even if he was still in the room. So we were being careful. Jerry came in and started to clean off the top of the cabinets - okay you can see where this is going.  He cleared off the old empty soft drink bottles, special ones that Christy had saved for years, then he violated one of the first laws of survival and put his hand where he couldn't see. So,,,,what's your guess?..... 
yep, he put his hand on the bat who followed through on what it means to be a bat and in an act of self defense, he bit Jerry.   I was out of the room....Christy screamed again as the bat fell on the floor. Jerry had a towel and caught the bat. I opened the bathroom window so he could throw it out but he said that he wanted to keep it...... (bottom line here is everything is okay) but .... the bat did not break the skin....but Jerry felt the teeth...call to the ER....call to the health department...call to the doctor's office...appointment made....health department said that the bat needed to get to Frankfort...Christy and I were going to drive it down since Jerry had his doctor appointment.....health department called back, someone from the office was going down and they would be willing to take the bat along,,,,whew,,,,Jerry drove the bat to the health department......we were hoping that the lab would start the testing on Friday and the results would be back by Monday...if not we're talking Wednesday....doctor's appointment was non-eventful.....doctor was not impressed and did not think it a big deal....no need to worry about a thing...health department will get back when lab results are in....bottom line we covered all the bases and dad is fine. And...you should see Christy's room!   Health Department called today – results on the little critter were negative.  One more thing to be thankful for.