As you all can probably tell Mike and I love historic places and we both love history. When I was going to college I was majoring in it. Although I never finished a degree most of the class credits I have were in history. I will be trying to get some quilting and sewing done on this trip 
I just haven’t found much time for it. We have not watched any tv since we left home and mainly just been looking at sites, traveling, and then both of us blog! Mike posted maps on his blog of were we have driven and I have cut and pasted them here:
our first part of our journey west
the second days drive
across Nebraska
The last place we stopped yesterday was Fort Laramie Wyoming. The fort was used for about 50 years in the mid to late 1800’s protecting the travelers and the telegraph lines going through this part of the country before treaties were signed and kept with the Indians. I must say that I do not think the Indians were treated right but that is something that took place before our time and I had no say in the matter. If the pioneers had not continued to forge to the west we do not even know what would have taken place in the history of this part of the country.
The fort was crumbling from disuse when the park service took it over in the 1930’s and renovated the buildings. Some of the photos might not look clear this is because they have glass over all entrances to the rooms so that you can see in the rooms but cannot go into to them. It really ruined taking photos for me, but I can understand why they can’t have the rooms open to the public.
an 1800's style barracks
I loved this tree - it was not tall but very wide, I have no idea how old it is - there are not a lot of trees in this area, one of the branches is so low but so long that they have it supported on one end so it won't break off.
a quilt on a bed in one of the officiers house. I do not think this was an actual antique quilt - I couldn't get real close to it but it just didn't look really old - maybe it was but very well taken care of? The fabric showed no signs of age to me other than being a little faded.
I took more photos of the quilts on the beds but because of the glass between me and the quilts they didn’t turn out well. Mike took photo’s with his camera too and his camera is better. When he goes through his I will see which ones to take and past here.
a snake we saw at Scottsbluff - it is up against the wall - not a rattlesnake but do not know what kind it is
a woven coverlet - brought from Ohio by family on their way west
a shiney new doctor kit - wouldn't you love being treated with this equipment!
the flooded North Platte River in this area of eastern Wyoming. We had intended to camp in the parks in this area and found out a couple days ago that the area was still flooded and has been for over a month I think. Instead we are at a KOA for two nights as there are many things in this area we wanted to see but did not want to have to search for a campground in the area that was not flooded. All of those trees in the distance are standing in water.
Today was a very long day – we hit the road at about 9 this morning and didn’t make camp until 7 this evening. Much longer day than normal. But we did not really drive that many miles – 250 miles. We had so many places we wanted to stop at to see on the drive so we had many many breaks.
We traveled a good long way on Highway 26 in Western Nebraska. This follows the Oregon/California/Mormon Trails. If you do not know these 3 trails pretty much followed the same path for a good distance before they break off from each other. One of course heading to Oregon, one to California and one to Salt Lake City area of Utah.
We stopped to read plenty of the road side historic signs along the way today. Here is a photo of one sign we saw today which explains itself:
one of the first of two women to travel by wagon train to Oregon
Chimney Rock - a marker that people were told to look for on the trail to go the right direction
Chimney Rock is a really famous marker out west – it used to be larger – due to erosion it has gotten smaller in the last 150 years since people used it as a marker for the trail. They have a nice visitor center/museum here and we spent about an hour here and had lunch too.
Our next stop was Scottsbluff another place in history where there are still deep impressions in the earth from the thousands of wagons that came through this area. We were here for close to two hours. In most places contrary to what is shown in the old west movies and tv shows the wagon trail was not always one long line of wagons but spread out all over the place so people were not constantly eating the dust of all the wagons in front of them. In Scottsbluff the trail narrows and it was more of traveling in a line. Because of that the wagon ruts were deep in this sandy soil and although due again to erosion you can’t see the actual ruts you can see where the soil is cut deep into almost ravine type of areas now.
this is one of those deep cuts into the soil.
Scottsbluff with a recreation covered wagon - one of three set up here.
one of the replica wagons not packed as full as I am sure they were. The child here is playing the part of the child going west - she didn't appear to be too happy about doing this it was hot out.
from on the top of Scottsbluff you could see this hiking trail from up high. This trail goes to the visitors center. You can ride a shuttle bus to the top and ride back if you want. If walking if you look at the end of the trail you will see a tunnel - that is for foot traffic - I have no idea how long it is - maybe one day we will walk it but not today - we were already realizing we would get to camp late.
I will give more photos tomorrow of the last stop we made today which was the old Fort Laramie in Wyoming. I almost lost my camera today! We took the shuttle bus to the top of the bluff and walked on a few of the short trails to see the overlooks and then took the shuttle bus back to the museum/visitors center. When I got in to the museum I realized I did not have the camera. I had left it on the seat. The driver had mentioned to us that after he dropped us off he had to drive to town to get gas! We had to wait an extra half an hour before he got back so I could retrieve my camera. One of the rangers called the driver on his cell phone to check and see if I had left it there and sure enough he said yes.
Back in 1991 was the last time we had been to Scottsbluff and we being the only passengers on the shuttle had gotten to talking to him and told him of our trip back then — the kids to this day still refer to the trip as the “trip from hell” – need I say more. Picture Chevy Chases “Vacation” movie LOL anything that could happen did happen. The part that had to do with Scottsbluff was that we locked the keys in the minivan with the engine running!! We had left home pulling a 13 foot trailer with the pickup truck and got 20 miles from home and the engine blew – took the mini van instead, had to replace the radiator on the trip – had two cracks in the windshield from flying rock, flat tires, and then on the way back home about 100 miles from home someone ran into the back of our camper and pushed in the back about 2 feet – then claimed bankruptcy and had no insurance after they told us they did!! We saw 13 states and 2 Canadian Provenience’s that trip. No wonder the kids call that 3 week vacation the vacation from hell! LOL
When I got my camera back from the driver of the shuttle he was laughing and said “I hope this is the worse thing that happens this trip” I do too!!
I know I have a lot of sewing things packed to work on the next two months but the Star Crazy BOM instructions for the July assignment came out today and I thought I would cut and get things ready to work on. If I get around to them on the road I will hand piece. If I don’t get around to them they will be already to work on when I get home. I have them in a ziplock bag complete with instructions – they take up such a tiny bit of room
see doesn't take up much room at all - I will lay them flat under my jeans
the 5th triangle - started last night and finished this morning on one of the many breaks I have taken. Amazing how much stuff I can fit in that small refrigerator! Also getting the last of the laundry done.
From the comments on trash that you all left I can see all agree that people need to be neater about litter. I wonder how much trash along the road I will see this year – if I see some interesting stuff I might just post again about it!! Where is the cleanest state I wonder?
I will be blogging as I can along the road and reading as many blogs as I normally do if I have good connections. Time to time more days than normal will go between blog posts but I will post as I can and put photos of where we are and what we see along with my quilting projects so you all can see if I am getting anything done
I can not believe at times what litter people throw out in the countryside!! About once a month I walk along our property line that borders the highway to pick up trash out of our ditch. Sometimes is worse than others – today was one of the worst I had seen in sometime. The area I am talking about is less than a tenth of a mile long and I just about filled up a 13 gallon trash bag. I wish I had taken a photo of my collection!! I picked up a ripped pair of shorts! 3 socks, a hat, beer bottles, plastic coke bottles, a empty beer case cardboard box, empty trash bags – plastic.
Shorts and socks though! I do believe that I have never picked those up before. Beer bottles yes – every week there are beer bottles in our ditch – why – we live in a dry county (no alcohol is sold) people drive to the next county over to get alcohol and can not wait to drink before they get home and are drinking and throwing out their empties along the way. We live in what is referred to as the Bible Belt and dry counties in the south are common — although a lot of people do drink — they vote in dry and say it is bad for the youth, drunk driving ect and let the next county get all the tax dollars from the sales – doesn’t make sense to me but there you go I am a transplanted Yankee and we all know Yankees do not have dry counties!! None that I have heard of that is.
We have gotten the yard work done this evening and got the grass cut while it is cool outside – the heat wave finally broke and it was nice today and tonight will be in the upper 60’s (make that lower 60’s I just checked) I believe and the next night too!! It feels so good. One more day to go – tomorrow all the food stuff and bathroom stuff needs to be put in the camper. I turned the refrigerator on this morning in the camper to get it good and cold before I start packing the food in it.
I did not work on any Jane triangles today although this evening I will cut one out and prep it and maybe start work on it tomorrow. I won’t be busy all day!
Do you all make check lists when you are going to travel? I find that my list’s grow every day – I think I have 4 of them now! LOL I can’t possibly forget anything can I? you bet! I’m sure something will be left behind. Today we drove to our daughter Melanie’s house in North Little Rock to drop off the 2 houseplants and the 2 outside porch ferns and for a last visit for two months. She will give them tender loving care until we are home again. She was going to bring them home with her last weekend but then didn’t think about until she got here that there would be no room for plants with the big dog in the car! We knew it would be too hot this afternoon to do anything anyhow so told her it was no problem to drive in this afternoon on her day off and take care of it. We had wanted to stop at Camping World anyhow to see if there was anything they had we wanted to pick up for the trip. Found a nice sturdy step for outside the camper. Occasionally depending on the unevenness of the ground the bottom step coming up into the camper can be a little high. This extra little step will come in really handy.
I have been crossing things off of my list’s and then remember more things to add to them. If I don’t write them down I will forget for sure.
I will be so glad to get out of this hot weather and move on to places that have at least cooler mornings and evenings. It will be so nice to look out the big window in the back of the motorhome and possible see wildlife or the snow capped mountains when I open my eyes in the morning (after I put my glasses on that is! – every thing very far away is blurry until then) We stopped at Barnes and Nobles also and found a book on traveling through Wyoming. Even though we have been through the state numerous times we have not spent as much time there as we will be this time and it will be a good read for finding out of the way places that we might not have thought of or seen before. We already know of some places that we want to see again that we have seen in the past. We do intend to see a lot of the Oregon Trail sites. We have visited some of the places when the girls were young but have not been back to many of them in years.
We intend to visit Fort Laramie and Independence Rock to name two places. Many more and I will fill you all in on as many places as I can while we travel. I hope we will have internet access much easier than in the past with this new smart phone that we have. I guess we will soon find out how well it works – if not then we will be visiting libraries and coffee shops as well
I have another Dear Jane triangle cut out and ready to start piecing if I get around to it tomorrow.
This heat just makes me so tired. We spent the day in Springfield Missouri today. We had a recall on a small electronic part for our motorhome that we needed to get taken care of before we left on our trip and that was where we needed to take it to get it fixed. It is about a 3 hour drive from us so we spent the day. The courtesy van took us to the Bass Pro Shop and we ate lunch there and wandered around a bit and timed it just right for calling for our ride back to the shop – when the van dropped us off at the time we were told the camper was ready it was! How nice was that.
I have had several e mails from some of you ladies wanting to know what kind of camper we have and how small is it that I don’t bring a sewing machine and more stuff along with us. We have a 2008 Navion IQ from Winnebago. The floor plan we have is no longer being made for some reason – I don’t know why we thought it looked much more comfortable than the one they are staying with now.
Here is a link to the floor plan we have is the 24CL plan. Yes the other floor plan has a rear slide with a bed. The bed though is not a regular bed either though as if folds to a couch in the daytime. The bench seats in the front were not comfortable and very narrow for sitting and do not recline. The wardrobe was smaller than the one in ours and it had very few over head cabinets. All in all we are very satisfied with ours for the amount of time that we travel. Now if you lived in it for half a year or so it would be way too small.
We do spend a lot of time outside and mainly use it 1- for sleeping (we made the bed more comfortable by using memory foam – I cut it in 3 pieces to fit the bed, roll them up like sleeping bags when not in use and strap them tight – store under the table when traveling – the leg of the table keeps them under it. If we do not have the bed made up until night then we store the memory foam behind the drivers seat and passenger seat as there is a bit of room there to store things when not driving. 2- the bathroom! yes the bathroom is small but we extended the size of the shower by taking out the shower door and installing a curved shower rod instead also if the campground has clean showers we use theirs instead as they are usually roomier – we use shower shoes because the floors don’t always look the greatest but if the water is faster and more room to move – why not! and 3-for cooking.
The price in the link above is well over what we paid – end of the year models were going out and next years were coming in. There is a video on that link above also that shows what the inside of it looks like and also a virtual tour. In the tour you see all of the overhead cabinets that are above the dinette (which is a small queen, by that I mean it is in between queen and double) also more cabinet space above the third chair. The tv swivels out when it is used, when it isn’t it goes right up against the wall.
Have fun looking at it. Now you see why I say I don’t bring a sewing machine and I am careful about what we pack
During the day today I got started on the 4th block of row 13 and finished it this evening at quilt group. We had a lot of fun visiting. So nice to see my friend Regina (no blog) there – I talk to her a lot but don’t see her as often as I used to. She is working on her Dear Jane also. CJ from “From my Studio-Created by CJ” was there too, a more recent friend. I saw quite a few people that I don’t see often. Stayed longer than I have sometimes and had a blast talking to all and seeing their projects.
Row 13, Block 4
The same block with a dime sitting on one of the cream color squares so you can see the size of it. CJ said I needed to do that to show you the actual size. She has been watching the progress but had not seen it in person and hadn't realized the pieces were quite so small. I hadn't thought of that as of course pictures of quilts and blocks always seem a little larger than what they actually are.
Earlier today we had a visitor on the deck – a little bit of a climb for this little critter and he stayed for some time.
This little box turtle has been making himself (her?) to home lately. When I am sitting outside for the past week or two I would be hearing a rustle noise in the plants and finally got up one day to investigate what it was - with a long stick in hand in case it was a snake but it was a turtle - today he came up to the deck - by way of the plants I'm sure as the lowest part of the deck facing the driveway is at least 6 to 8 inches off ground.
a close up
I took some pictures of quilts tonight but forgot to ask if it was ok to post the photo’s here – I will check and see if they say ok and post them later. CJ brought a quilt to show and it is on her blog from Wednesday – click on the link at the top and it will take you to it.
It was such a hot day today. I did my grocery shopping at about 8:30 this morning to beat the heat! I normally do not get out moving that early but I woke up early anyhow – I’ve been doing that a lot lately.
Seeing as it was so warm outside I was in the house most of the afternoon and I didn’t feel like reading so I got two more dear Jane blocks done and cut out and prepped a third. Here are two completed blocks:
Row 13 Block 1
Row 13 Block 2
I hope to finish one or two more blocks tomorrow but we will see how it goes. I might do one and end up working on something else for part of the day. It is going to be hot all week and through the weekend so I have a feeling I will be spending afternoons in the house sewing.
I had the most wonderful chocolate cheesecake this evening – it must have been 4 to 5 inches high!! That is a side benefit of attending a financial investment meeting I guess. Have to know what is going on with your retirement money so they better feed you right!
I can sure tell that I will miss my first Dear Jane. Earlier today when working on a block I wanted to compare it to the same block on the first Dear Jane to see how I had done it and went into the bedroom to look at the block and then remembered it was no longer there 
how sad! I had to get out a photo to look instead LOL
Moving right along, one more block done this morning and working on another one this evening, here is block 11 from row 12:
Row 12 block 11
I have not gotten done with a lot today other than getting the grass cut this evening. In the heat of the day work I did some quilting on the Christmas quilt !! It will get done one day
I was looking through projects trying to figure out what was coming up to finish or work on some more and realized it is actually almost the end of the month so the Star Crazy patterns will come out in a couple days and then I can get the June assignment done. I’m trying to decide what to bring along to work on when we travel this summer. I am getting the Baltimore Bliss quilt ready to quilt and will bring the hoop and the quilt along to quilt on the road. I have more of the design to draw on the top, then baste and it will be ready to travel. But knowing me I need one other project to work on for when my fingers get sore of quilting and for variety- we do have some down time for sight seeing and hiking after all. I do not want to bring the Dear Jane triangles to work on – I know I need a break if I get done with all of the blocks before we go. I think I might prep a block or two for the Red and Green Traditional Applique as I only have one block for that quilt completed. If I prep a block or two all I will need to bring with me to work on that is thread and needle – I will of course already have needles and thimble packed so really will take up very little space. I think I will do that.
Well that was easy to decide LOL. I will get busy prepping some blocks in between working on other things this month. The Bow Tie Medallion is coming along nicely although no rush so although it is coming along nicely it is coming along slowly I just counted up blocks and I have 21 of the large ties (need 140 for queen size) and I have 12 of the smaller ties and I need 56 of those. So many more to go!
I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.
No news today. I spent part of the day working outside and part of the day reading. I still have part of my book to finish – maybe a quarter of it? I’ve been good though and not spending hours on end just reading
I need to get another Dear Jane block prepped and ready to work on. One thing I had been working on the last couple of days was putting a label and a wall hanging sleeve on the first Dear Jane “Insanity”. I had finished it you know back in November but never got around to putting the sleeve and label on it. I plan on delivering it to Melanie and Ric soon so really needed to get that done. They plan on hanging it on a wall as they have a dog who believes she is mistress of the house and sleeps on the bed and the couch so they do not want to put it where Patty could sleep on it and possibly damage it without really meaning to – I got the sleeve and label on so now that is finished. I am caught up on labels. I used to do that immediately after finishing a quilt but this past year I have been lazy
I have been reading a lot of blogs lately and my reader has so many on it it is pitiful. I need to go through it and start culling out the ones that rarely blog and cut it back somewhat. I have never gotten more than 120 on my reader but that is way too many blogs to keep up with!! Especially when we travel and I’m not on the computer so much. Then I tend to run through it and look for the ones I am in the most touch with the authors and the rest I just delete. When we travel I need to try to get that reader down under 50! (hmm I wonder if I can do that – probably not).
Time to get off of here and get a DJ block prepped to work on while Criminal Minds is on tonight!
