Go West, Young Dogs, Go West

Westward Ho!  That's my motto for this summer.
Remember me?  I'm the one and only, beautiful Phaedra! 

Zoe and I began our Summer 2012 Road Trip this past Monday.



North Carolina is really beautiful, you know.  The trip through Asheville and on to Knoxville was fantastic.  We loved seeing the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville even though we flew by leaving that for another visit.  The Mississippi River is so wide!  The St. Louis Gateway Arch is welcomed us to the Show Me State, too.  I think we passed over the Missouri River several times as it wound around and through various cities.


We are heading cross-country and plan to visit national parks, wildlife refuges, coffee shops (can't forget those with Mama around, can we?), and the coast of Oregon with its sea lions, seals, and birds.  Then on to Northern California and the Redwoods. 


Of course, all of this is possible ONLY if we make it out of Kansas!  It has only taken us two nights so far.  Today we arrived here in Kansas. We passed the Oz Winery and remembered Dorothy.  The wind turbines we passed made us think that we weren't in Kansas anymore, but when we stopped for the night, we knew we still were in the "Sunflower State".

      Those of you who "follow" us on our travels may remember that in May of 2010 we were camping in mid-Nebraska overnight on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The reason this is important is because we were located smack dab in between two tornadic cells.  Well, this afternoon before we stopped Mama started noticing the black clouds forming on the horizon.  The sun was still shining on us when we pulled in to the campground, but she asked Papa to find out where the tornado shelter was when he registered.  We learned that there is no shelter.  In case of a tornado, everyone in the campground would evacuate to the bathrooms.  Mind you, the structures are not brick or cinder-block.  Oh, no!  When Mama checked them out (you knew she'd do that, right?) she discovered that they were plain old wood structures.  She didn't think too much of that, you might imagine.  She convinced Papa to unhook the camper from the truck in case we all had to high tail it out of here.  To go where, I have no idea since there are only two places here in WaKeeney which have basements but both of them were closed.  Papa is so nice to humor Mama the way he does.  I guess that's why they will celebrate their 43rd anniversary this summer somewhere on the west coast.

Anyway, as the storms came closer and closer, we had the weather radio blaring, both phones with weather apps displaying radar, and the laptop turned to NOAA.  We could see the storm converging on this little cow-town on TV, laptop, phone, and in the sky!  There were golf ball to tennis ball size hail coming out of this storm we heard on the radio.


All of our slides were pulled in so that we would be more stable and could cope with the 60 plus mile an hour winds that were predicted.  The storm was moving so fast that it seemed like it was on the way out within 15 minutes of arriving.  We didn't get the hail, and we didn't need to evacuate even though all our bags with meds, computers, and cameras were packed and right by the door.  Almost as soon as we felt the brunt of the wind, the sun appeared in the west.  All of us were relieved when the warning was canceled for us.  The storms are still going on now two hours later in Wichita, and it is black, black, black out of our east facing windows.

You could tell that Papa and Mama were relieved when they went to the campground ice cream social before they ate dinner!  Of course, we didn't get to go.  No surprise there!

Tomorrow we leave for Loveland or Longmont, CO.  Then on to Estes Park.  We just heard that there are many, many elk in the town still.  Zoe and I can't wait!  You'll never guess why we can't wait, either!

We'll be in touch!  Wags and yips.

Phaedra (and my sister, Zoe)