Thursday

I'm having trouble keeping my days straight.  Maybe I should just say what day it is, instead of numbering them.  We left last Saturday, so that's day one and yesterday was Thursday making that day six.  So from now I'm just saying what day it is instead of what number.

We had a great day in Rapid City yesterday.  Jan took us to a great dog park:

Okay, we have to go to the store so I'm saving this one but will come back to finish.

Day Six

We drove from Omaha to Rapid City yesterday.

Iowa

Missy

Bailey

It's nice that we can pull into a rest area with no facilities, open the door and let the dogs go.  They can run and run.  But we have to be careful, it's very hot out here and Missy's a black lab so must absorb more heat.

We visited the corn palace, although we had to go in one at a time so the other one of us could stay with the dogs.  Then we went to Wall Drug and again had to go in one at a time.  Bailey snapped at someone walking by and just patted his head.  Arg.  Wall Drug is HUGE!  I think that must be where Mast General store got started?  I don't know that to be true, but I was struck by the similarities of the two stores.

I did drive for a bit yesterday.  I haven't driven a car in 5 weeks and have been itching to.  So we thought driving down the interstate wouldn't be a problem.  But, I couldn't feel the pedals beneath my feet, so it probably wasn't a good idea.  At least I got that out of my system.

Then we drove to Rapid City to Don's sister and her family.  The dogs saw a deer walking through their neighborhood and went crazy!  We're not at home anymore, Toto.

We got out of the car with such relief that we're with familiar people.  The dogs jumped out of the car and were so excited.  There's a backyard for them to play in and a dog park with a stream in it that's just down the road.  We'll be going there in a little while.  

We're going to dinner tonight where Don's niece will be playing in a band.  Mind you, she's only a freshman in high school (rising sophomore).  I'll post a tape of her tomorrow, if I can manage that.  Then you tell me that you believe she's a freshman in high school.  She's very talented.  But, you decide for yourself tomorrow.

Day Five

Day five was a much better day.  We drove from Columbia heading toward Sioux City which was around 7 hours away.  The car top carrier was giving us (Don) some trouble.  It was shaking like crazy and passing motorists have signaled that we should check it.  We did the bungie cords, duct tape (after all duct tape fixes everything, right?  Not this time) and some cords that tighten somehow.  I don't know what they're called, but Don finally got the thing to tighten down so that we can actually go over 70 mph without the thing shaking.  So, traveling 80 mph, we finally made some progress.  The dogs have settled into a rhythm of  sleeping while driving then jumping out when we stop.

We found LC's Barbecue in Kansas City.  We got some to go and took it to a dog park so the dogs could run while we ate.  Of course Missy didn't have any interest in chasing the ball when there was bbq near by, so it kind of back fired on us.  That and the fact that there was a huge hole in the fence that Bailey kept going through.  But it was otherwise a nice park with benches and lots of trees.  And the bbq was really, really good.

We decided to stop early.  We stopped in Omaha around 4:30 and found a great hotel.  It's Hawthorne's and it is a much better place than we've been so far.  No more 2 star places, only 3 stars from here on!  (Rated in the AAA book)

After Don took a short nap, we had dinner at a great restaurant, Spezia that was right around the corner leaving the dogs behind.  It was a little more expensive than I thought I wanted.  The more expensive the bigger chance that I actually have to change clothes and put on make-up.  The later of which I vowed not to do until we get to Rapid City.  But I'm glad we went.  It was good food and a relaxing dinner, something we really needed.

So today we'll drive the rest of the way to Rapid City to see Don's sister and family.  It's quite a ways away and there will probably be nothing to see on the way.  The landscape yesterday was quite flat and I'm sure it'll stay that way until we get closer to Denver and my sister, just dryer.

Omaha looks like a nice city, but again probably too cold to retire to, so I'm going to stop considering any town as a retirement city until we start heading south.

Day 4

Okay, yesterday wasn't a good day.  It started out great, had good coffee, took the dogs to a dog part, went and saw the Grand Old Opry:

Then it was a race for South Dakota.  Don said we spent 11 hours in and out of the car.  Looking for another dog park, stabilizing the car top carrier, etc.  It's not been the slow meandering trip I had expected.  We flew by the Arch:

We didn't even stop for lunch.  Don had leftover chicken wings while driving and I had some fruit.  Arg!

Then we got to Columbia.  Columbia seems like a nice enough town.  Since we left home I've been calling ahead looking for a pet friendly hotel to stay that night.  So far, we've been pretty lucky.  Then...

Good news?  Plenty of parking lot to throw the ball to Missy, and it's only $59/night.  I wasn't surprised.

Okay, I'll stop complaining.  We'll stop in South Dakota for 3 or 4 days to see Don's sister.  Hopefully that'll be a little break from the car.  Maybe after we leave South Dakota we can go a little slower.  I'm not sure where we'll stop tonight.  But it's sure to be a 7 hour car trip.

Oh, I thought I might like to retire here, it's a nice college town.  We went to dinner last night and were able to park across the street.  But it might be a little too small for me, I mean we went to dinner last night and we were able to park across the street.  And I hear it gets cold here in the winter, I'm not sure I'm up to living somewhere that gets too cold.  I'll keep looking.

Day Three

Well, we didn't make it to Paducah or Clarksville; we stopped in Nashville.  I really wanted to have some good barbecue before we left this area.  Which isn't to say Paducah or Clarksville don't have good barbecue, but the chances of finding it here I thought would be better.  The Neely's have a new restaurant here but it got bad reviews on Yelp so we stopped at South Street Restaurant which did get good reviews.  Don got the ribs were good (though he said not better than D's, a restaurant at home) and I got the pulled pork was also good.  We had a corn and kielbasa soup which was probably the highlight of the meal.  The wine was just okay, but what do you expect at a barbecue place.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, went straight to the food, of course.

We left Ashville yesterday (which I've decided not to retire to, too many one way streets) and stopped at a great dog park.  It was the Azaela dog park which I found on my dog app.  Bailey jumped out of the car and ran and ran.  He was very happy to be free.  Missy was also very happy chasing after the tennis ball.  There was a pond there, which Missy eventually jumped in.  She was a little damp when getting back into the car, but she was happy.

Then an uneventful day driving, or riding in the car since I can't drive yet.  The most eventful thing was stopping in the rest area and letting the dogs walk around.  Then deciding to stop in Nashville, which is a very nice city.  I can't retire here, though, 'cause it's Tennessee.  I'm sure Tennessee is a wonderful state, but we're in the SEC I and can't bring myself to move to an orange state.  That leaves Florida out as well.  But it's too hot in Florida so they've been out of the running.

On to St Louis today.  After we finally find some good coffee.  Okay, I'm a coffee snob.  But I like my coffee and there are so few high points riding in the car.  Other than the scenery, which Missy liked as well:

She almost went to sleep sitting up staring out of the window.

More later.

Day two

We made it to Ashville yesterday given our 3 1/2 hour delayed start.  We stayed at a Days Inn, and were lucky to get that.  The dogs are a little confused, but Bailey is very happy to have his crate, it's a little familiar to him.

Had dinner at an Irish pub.  The food was so-so, and the band was a country/blue grass band.  Makes, sense, huh??  Ashville was very busy, a lot of pedestrians.  A lot of them older like us.  Maybe we could retire here?  It's a little too busy for my tastes.  The views here are wonderful though.  The Appalachian mountains are in the background and are very pretty.  I drove through here a year or so ago with my daughter and have forgotten how pretty it is.


We just came from breakfast (not real healthy but hopefully it'll last a while, but what do you expect?) and are soon headed to a dog park I found on my dog park app, doggone.  It finds dog parks anywhere you specify.  It shows pictures of the park, gives reviews and other pertinent info.  I found one a couple miles from here that got fairly good reviews.  I'm still a little nervous about the dogs.  Individually they're great, but put them together and they feed off each other and bark at anything.  I hope that after more socialization, they'll get better.


Don wants to drive to Paducah Ky today.  I think that's a little ambitious, it's 7 hours away.  What happened to going slowly and taking our time?  I vote for Clarksville.  We'll see what the dogs have to say about this.

Leaving

The cars packed up the dogs are packed up and we're heading out, 3 hours late. Heading toward Knoxville.