The Wander West - 2022

 We were on the road by 9 this morning and continued our trip on Highway 24.  We ran into a large detour because of construction and had to meander our way through farmland for a while.  Eventually, we made it back to 24 and it was then a 4-lane highway.  At Fort Wayne, Indiana we got on Interstate 69 and which goes all the way to Port Huron and the border.  We crossed the border at 4 p.m.  Pete had checked his phone for restrictions at the border and we found out that we didn't have to do ArriveCan anymore.  What a relief! It was smooth sailing at the border.  We didn't have to wait at all and hardly any questions.  It is so nice to be back in Canada!  We did some shopping in Sarnia at the Lambton Mall for Henry and Emmas' birthdays, had supper at the food court and carried on driving all the way home.  We arrived around 9 p.m.  It was not our intention at all to do it in one day, but like horses, to the barn, we heard our bed...

 We left our park this morning around 9.  We crossed the Mississippi River this morning.  It was filled with traffic and lots of barges.  We are still following this great highway # 36 which is not an interstate but is 4 lanes.  We left Missouri and entered Illinois.  Just before lunch, we crossed the Illinois River.  It is also a very big one.  We had lunch in a little town called Havana.  We crossed to Eastern Standard Time at the Ilinois/Indiana Border.  Now it feels like we're almost home!  Our site for today were mostly of farmers harvesting soybeans and corn.  It is beautiful farmland here and the farms look prosperous.  We stopped for the night at Caboose Lake Campground.  It is really nice, but tons of rules and we're thankful we only have to stay for 1 night.

 Today is Henry Matthew's 7th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Henry.  Opa and I hope you have a wonderful day! We left Oklahoma around 9 a.m.  We followed our route along the northern edge of the state for about an hour and then turned north into Kansas.  We decided to jump on the Interstate, # 39 which travels diagonally across the state.  We dropped for lunch at a rest stop.  We stayed on the interstate until just after Topeka.  On the board between Kansas and Missouri, we crossed the Missouri River.  We stopped for the night near Brookfield, Missouri in the Pershing State Park.  It was really nice.  Paved sites with hydro.  We went for a nice walk before supper on a boardwalk that was 1.5 miles long.  The weather in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri has been low 80s every day and cooling to mid 50s or lower every night.  The landscape here is very much farming, but no more irrigation on the crops.  

 Today we went to church at the Boise City Christian Church.  We enjoyed a very warm welcome there and spoke to several families after church.  We were on the road by 11:15 a.m.  They currently don't have a minister so the services go pretty fast and we even had communion.  The road ran straight and true and we saw lots of farm and ranch land.  Not much to say.  We traveled as far as the  Great Salt Plains State Park for the night.  It was another reservoir that is quite low in water.  It is a salt lake and there were even Pelicans there.  The water currently does not flow over the dam to the river, so there are lots of dead fish there that have been trapped in stagnant water.  

  Today we started driving at 9:30.  It was a day of mountain driving.  We had to go through the San Juan mountains and the Rockies.  The San Juans were so beautiful.  Very treed and green with bright yellow Aspens.  There are also lots of meadows where cows graze.  We saw lots of trucks with cattle trailers gathering at the top of the mountains.  They lease the land to graze their cattle from the government and then have to have them off the land at a certain date each year.   We also went through high desert between the 2 mountain ranges where there was an area where they sell small lots and live off grid in mostly trailers and other rudimentary buildings.  It was very messy looking.  Then we passed by the area where they built earth homes in New Mexico.  That was near the Rio Grande where we also crossed the Rio Grande Gorge.  It has a bridge that is 600 feet over the river.  Suicides are a big problem on the ...