It's Good To Have Options

I know I keep photographing the corn field across the highway and posting it here ... but it's just amazing how tall that corn is ten days into July.

An old friend of mine that was raised in flat northern Indiana was amazed when she saw the photo and how green everything is ... as she begs me for water via email and texts from Sacramento California.

So that farmer had options whether to work or take a day off (they never do). He decided not only to put fertilizer on his field before planting this year, he got it all in about an hour before it started raining.

Where a different farmer that bales the hay field behind my house, has not had the chance to cut and bale anything ... it's more than hay ... I'd say its mostly weeds now. Still, when the weather was nice and dry, it was not tall enough to cut. Once it was tall enough to cut, it doesn't stop raining long enough to dry the ground out where he can get his tractor and baler in the field. So his options are few.





Sometime after my blog post on Saturday I went full speed ahead on planning our next trip by looking at maps, roads, weather, camping spots, campgrounds and found about 100 different ways to get to my destination.

It's been mentioned here before by some readers, maybe the "planning" is the high I get instead of arriving. Or the driving, since I love to drive long miles without stopping. Of course with the warning of the local tv weatherman on Saturday night, that summer temps will finally arrive any hour in "the tropics", my thought was to get north as fast as possible, to cooler weather.

It didn't really matter.

When I plugged a town name, that was 988 miles north of me, into Wunderground weather for a current and 10 day forecast, I found out it is hot everywhere. Now for those that have a RV in any class and those with trailers that have generators, 30/50 amp systems, or solar panels ... hot weather may not be that much of a factor since you can run the AC at your leisure.

When you don't have an RV or a trailer ... a Toyota FJ and a tent, it makes hot weather a little different factor. Add in the built in "drooling" of a basset or bloodhound breed, especially in hot weather as they pant to cool off ... at times those strings of drool get longer and more dangerous.

So ... the hot weather is a factor in my trip planning. Not only for me but for the hounds as well. High temps definitely affect my hounds ... otherwise in the currently hot and muggy weather here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana (@10:28pm it "feels" like 98°) ... they would stay outside longer than just to use the bathroom. They sprint for the house and don't stay a second longer than needed to dump their tanks.

"that has to be a mole"

"is that a mole"

It does bring up an interesting question. At what temperature would it be too hot to travel with hounds in the car?

Sure the AC would be on when driving ... but while buying gas, making a run to the restroom, or going inside for a cup of needed coffee would leave them in the FJ with the windows down just enough where they couldn't jump out or couldn't get stolen and still get some kind of fresh air.

The more I looked at different routes and different towns on Wunderground, it was amazing just how hot it is all over the country. I have a few of these towns always loaded into my iPhone weather app that comes with the phone and it's easy to see at one glance what is taking place, temperature wise.

Some other factors I have while planning ... as we all know boondocking on BLM land is few and far between in the Midwest. So it's campgrounds or a Walmart parking lot unless I find a motel without bedbugs that allows drooling hounds .. for sleeping.

No ... I'm not miserable ... I just look that way

When I thought of sleeping in my FJ with the windows down in hot and muggy Midwest, I remembered our trip to pick up the Lil Snoozy trailer in Arkansas in September 2013 ... it was in the 90's that day. I had an H3 Hummer then and sometime around 2am, with two hounds panting and hanging drool from their jowls because it was too hot to sleep in the H3 ... we had no choice but to turn the H3 on and flip the AC switch to "on".

The third hound, Heidi, was sound asleep because that is what she does well ... she sleeps ... anywhere ... anytime.

I remembered what I thought of that hot and muggy night after midnight when I was trying to sleep without any success. I remembered feeling miserable. So basically it could be either a campground in a tent or a motel room with no bedbugs ... or drive straight through to the destination to bypass the heat.

Remember I said in my last post that I would not be driving straight through anywhere, so sleeping, setting up camp is going to be taking place a lot more than my last trip. I found a lot of good highways, with towns few and far between ... so the sleep question came up ... where?

I found plenty of camping and campground symbols on my McNally ... then I'd cross that information with a DeLorme map of that state. Throw in some Mapquest analysis and the options were tenfold ... hundreds to choose from.

But that one word ... HOT ... was still a factor.

After spending a lot of hours going over possible routes ... stuff that I love to do, I decided to research stuff after I would get to my destination. My friend that is a blogger and traveler with dogs, offered an itinerary ... I took my friend up on that offer and soon after I received a one page email of where to go. It was detailed enough to tell me where to camp, where to park, what to see and how many days to stay in each spot.

It was great information.

Along with that came even more options ... a lot of them. Now when it comes to options, I like them, at times I like a lot of them. Even though I have downsized a lot over the past few years .. I still like having three different browsers to choose from to move around the internet, two different cars to drive, different t-shirts to wear ... even three different hounds to talk to and pet.

So options are good for me.

I was so enthused about all of this research I couldn't stop. Why? Well one reason it's pretty obvious I get a thrill or a "rush" from analyzing ... always have. I like planning a route and possible places to stay but I don't put a day and time to it. It happens when it happens. The last trip I wanted to get to Moab before it rained, I did, but that meant I had gone against my normal planning and basically drove straight to Rifle Colorado before getting a night of sleep.

When I glanced at the clock on my monitor in the upper right corner, it was way after midnight by this time, and I was still wide awake from adrenaline and basically I had to force myself to turn off the computer, put the maps away, the highlighter, the red pens and try to get some sleep.

Only after one more thing. ... that one page email had a ton of places to see and I was curious enough to stay up a little longer. I had an idea that I had to try out just for my own curiosity otherwise I would not be able to sleep.

How long was it going to take in days, how many hours of driving time and how many miles .... all minimum numbers

So it was a matter of plugging in all the routes, even the short ones that got me from Point A to Point B, into Mapquest for time and distance. I listed all of those on my spiral 5x8 notebook. After that I read through the one page email from my friend, adding the days that were suggested to stay, and added the day(s) based on driving time.

So if I were to arrive at a campground and stay two nights .. that equated to three days.

When I finished, it's going to be a 27 day trip, give or take a few days ... 79 hours and 35 minutes of driving time, covering 4,550 miles. With the knowledge that a change in weather could be a factor in moving from one place to another sooner than listed .. such as smoke from forest fires.

After 5-6 hours of analysis ... a list of destinations ... and almost a month of travel ... there was still one word that was a factor ...

HOT

A New Trip Is Being Planned

As the title says, something is being planned and before long the hounds and I will be heading west again with plans to stay longer than we did in June. Cutting that trip short turned out to be a good thing. I was able to make some adjustments to my storage area so Winston and Sadie will have more "leg room" on the next trip. Heidi has recovered from her indigestion.

The biggest thing that was accomplished so it will not be lingering in the back of my mind on this next trip ... I finished all but one thing on my house "to do" list. That list bugged the heck out of me during our 3,000 mile trip. As I kept marking off more and more things on the "to do" list as being completed these past few weeks since being back, I was coming up to a point of making a decision.

The urge to travel was taking over again, as I planned when I returned. Also the thought of packing up and moving west did occur to me enough for me to make a list of things to do in case I did decide to leave the area for good. As my adviser has suggested over the years, I need to get more "road miles" under me and the hounds before deciding whether to make a life altering change, such has selling my house and moving. I agree with that ... even though at times I have problems being patient when my brain locks onto some idea, such as having the urge to sell everything and move west.

So plans for the next trip are being made or kinda being made. Since retirement I've never had a schedule, nothing planned like from point A to point B ... so I find it hard to plan out a trip with scheduled stops. I was in such of a hurry on my June trip to see Colorado again, where I had lived in 1993-1994 and Utah ... that we drove straight through from Indiana to get to those two states as soon as possible. In previous years I had always sped through Utah when driving from Washington to Indiana, so it would be a first for me to see some of Utah up close.

That won't happen again.

This next trip I have an idea where I want to go but I'm not sure I want to take the shortest route. In fact I am not sure I want to start heading out in the direction toward that destination, but I am pretty sure what highway (no freeway/interstate) I want to begin with. I'll get into those plans in a later post.

Currently I am writing this in the middle of the day because I am waiting for the grass to dry enough to where I can mow the lawn before the next rain this afternoon. As you can see in the photo at the top ... from the green and taller than normal corn for this time of year, the rain in the "tropics" of southern Indiana has made everything green. My lawn has never looked better near the second week of July. Yet, that means a weekly mow in and around the rain.

The field behind my house is still not mowed and baled simply because there has not been enough time between rains to dry it out enough to have heavy farm equipment mowing the field ... so Sadie has decided it is a place she can hide from me. She thinks she is hiding not knowing or wishing I can't see her. She will stand still at different parts of the field and act like she cannot hear me call her name .. while looking right at me.

This morning Winston is relaxing on "his patio", enjoying the cool temps and preparing for his afternoon nap as I mow the lawn. Heidi is MIA for the photo op ... of course ... because she is inside sleeping in her big leather chair. She gets outside but never stays long ... she is not curious about the yard or field.

Daily dog walks through the field have been put on hold due to the problem with ticks. Walks through the field will commence once the field is cut, if we are here for that. I am guessing our departure time will be fairly soon for another trip west.

As far as blogging on the trip ... internet wifi connections will determine if and when I blog. I don't see the need to pay for internet service while traveling if my trip is going to be only for a couple of weeks to a month. So photos and blogs may be few and far between during our travel time. I found last trip I had little urge to blog. By the time camp was set up, the hounds were fed, walked and I could just sit in a chair enjoying the scenery ... computers were the last thing on my mind.

To give Winston and Sadie more "leg room" in the back of the FJ, most everything packed in the back last trip will be moved to the roof. I'll be picking up my roof storage tomorrow at REI and having it installed.

This 

And This (Except Water Jug)

Will Move to This

Yakima Website Photo

So as the July temps finally arrive in "the tropics" of Indiana ... we hope to miss them as the hounds and I start our next journey west.

I've never thought of taking photos of every barn in my rural area ... but Al over at the Bayfield Bunch has put up a new Flicker album of photos he has taken in his neighborhood ... you can see a great collection of barn photos clicking here.

Time for me to go out and check the grass again to see if it is dry.