I'm Backkkkkkk

Red dots indicate stops in my travels. 

Even though I have been absent from my travel blog for 3 years doesn't mean I have been absent from traveling.  I admit that I've been relying on Facebook again and being very lazy about writing.  Looks like my last blog  post was at the end of my camp host job at Cloudland Canyon State Park on top of Lookout Mountain.  Technically I was in Georgia but a ten minute job south southwest put me in Alabama and northeast from there in about ten minutes was Tennessee.   Lots of history there and some beautiful sights as well.  It was my first snowy winter since that first winter in the Bosque.   And of course there was the opportunity for geocaching in 3 states all winter long.  And since I had my caching buddies there with me it was a definite no brainer.

So I'm a sucker for Mary's ideas and after following her out into the snowy Georgia woods for a geocache that literally took my breath away (and me with no inhaler in my pocket) you would think I knew better.  But she has a way of making things sound so great.  So after a brief visit to Hohenwald I pointed my compass northwest and drove up to St. Louis to meet up with the girls and travel west.  Since my calendar allowed me to arrive a few days ahead it was a great chance to take a day trip to Springfield, IL and the land of Lincoln (the family crypt that is).

Very cool place to check out.  But soon I was following my friends out west.  It took 3 days to get across Missouri, a little corner of Kansas, Nebraska, and finally into Wyoming.  Yes folks, we were spending the summer in Cody, Wyoming.  This was a real departure for me.  Mary had secured jobs for us at a 5 star hotel about 50 miles outside of the east gate to Yellowstone National Park.  And what job did I have?  Believe it or not my job was assistant to the cook on the morning breakfast buffet.

After a wonderful summer in and out and around Yellowstone we moved on west from Wyoming toward northern California where Mary and Fay had secured a job near Yosemite National Park.  Our route took us on an eventful path across Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and northern California.  There's another post for later.  But I will tell you that crossing Donner Pass in mid October is more excitement than I ever want to experience again.

At Yosemite we parted ways as the girls went to work and I headed south rambling through Bakersfield, Barstow, up into Death Valley, then down to San Diego for a visit from home.  I set up in a resort near the airport where Darlene flew in to meet up with me.  That was a great week.  After her departure I moved a little east to Yuma to stay warm all winter.  By March I was itching to move on, of course, and ended up in Pahrump, Nevada for a short meet up with Mary and Fay before spending a month in North Vegas, and Rachael, Nevada.

Obviously I had a bad case of itchy feet that spring which led me from Nevada to Utah to Oregon, Washington.  Then a few stops as I crossed Idaho (oops, got a broken windshield in the RV there ), Montana, more Wyoming, South Dakota (got my new windshield installed in Rapid City), North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana, and home to Kentucky.  Yeah, I know, home again never lasts long with me.

By the end of summer I was headed west again.  Met up with the girls again at a volunteer gig in Monroe, Louisiana.  Loved everything about the place except the dampness.  Actually my lungs didn't like it there.  After less than three months breathing was a problem so my jacks went up and I headed west where the air is drier and my lungs are happier.  It's starting to look like I'm a dry desert heat kind of girl (or at least my lungs are).  Not that I'm ready to stop my rambling around, but this does make it a little more of a challenge.