Westward Ho! (And that's not Jim talking to ME)

The temperatures have been dipping pretty low at night - in the low 40's last night. And that can only mean one thing....it's time to pull up stakes. Tomorrow, October 1st, we start heading West.

Although we only plan on driving around 300 miles a day, it's somewhat of a grueling trip because:

a) the truck isn't THAT comfortable (the back of my seat doesn't recline at all);

b) only going 55 mph makes for about a 6 hour drive at least, not counting potty breaks or eating;

c) if we unhook the truck, it's a lot of setting up and taking down day after day. We like it better when we stay at any one place for two or more days. You can imagine how spoiled we are when we stay for 3-5 MONTHS in one location!

Here's our tentative plans:

Thursday night - Montgomery, Missouri
Friday night - Lyndon, Kansas
Saturday night - Liberal, Kansas
Sunday night - Santa Rosa, New Mexico
Monday night - Albuquerque, New Mexico

Our main purpose of going to Albuquerque is the hot air balloon fiesta, which runs from October 3rd through October 11th. We will arrive on October 5th and depart on the 11th. We have been to the town of Albuquerque a few times, but never for the festival. I am excited to see all the balloons (up to 600 are launching this year), and hope to get some fantastic pictures. I also hope to meet up with fellow blogger Stephen Baird at Nikon Sniper who just happens to be going to the balloon fiesta on some of the same days as me. What a co-ink-y-dink! I'm hoping he'll give me some great photo tips since he is a fantastic photographer.

Here are photos from the 2008 launch. These were taken from the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta website.


Photo courtesy of Ray Watt

Photo courtesy of Cindy Petrehn


Tonight we are going to my daughter's house, for one last fill of our granddaughter, Lily. What a sweetie pie. I know I will cry when I leave her. I will miss her terribly. She has such a great smile and she laughs at anything. She is so easy to please.






I still have a few things to blog about that we saw/did while in central IL that I'll have to throw in somewhere along the way here. I hope to be posting while on the road. Internet can be sporadic - I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Take care and stay tuned for Jim and Pat's Great Adventure!