Day four: June 11: Emperia, Kansas to Rochester, Minnesota

Today’s drive consisted of zipping along through Kansas, Iowa and finally to Minnesota. We know that the majority of Patti’s close family members will be gathering tonight and tomorrow to celebrate our nephew Matt’s wedding to Sofie.

So mostly, we just watched the miles go by and enjoyed the changes of scenery. When Patti is just too tired, we have a good set up. She can crawl in the back and curl up and actually stretch out for some decent sleeping. Dick does more of the driving, but we have a deal that whenever he is getting too tired, Patti takes over. He prefers to just kick the seat back and sleep for a little bit.

The whole day was racing towards being in Rochester, Minnesota at Mr. Pizza for a 5:30 family gathering. It is amazing how well GPS does with estimating how long it’s going to take to drive so far. Our theory of keeping the speed down around 70 miles per hour has been paying off. Our miles per gallon is just shy of 40 miles per gallon, which is terrific.

As we were driving the 500 miles north from Kansas, both of relished being back in green. We have been in mostly brown in California for nearly 30 years but have a deep connection with the green of our earlier years. In Missouri and Iowa, we drove through a couple of bad stretches where it either was storming and raining hard or quite a storm had gone through earlier. In Iowa, we stopped at a roadside rest where there were huge branches were down and talked with one of the workers there who was starting to clean up. She said a big storm had gone through just an hour earlier. In the local communities, there had been some buildings that had been taken out, with estimated straight line winds of 80 miles an hour. We saw lots of standing water from the deluge of rain. As we drove around Des Moines, we drove slowly for nearly an hour through a very heavy storm. Further north in Iowa Patti took over driving for a while and was relieved for it to be a sunny afternoon.

And at last we were in Minnesota and stopped to unload our car at Patti’s Mom, Joan’s house . We then drove to meet the family at Mr. Pizza. So nice to see the folks who were already in Rochester. We know more people are flying in or driving in on Friday or late Thursday night. It’s such a blessing when family can gather together. There was lots of chatting and catching up of what everyone is doing and tons of fun photos. That really captures the fun. We made it and we’re ready for a fun celebration.

After getting back to Patti’s mom’s, we went on a lovely walk over at the park with the dog. Nice being out in the green green wooded area. We miss Green in California. What a lovely walk.

Both of us went to bed at 9:30. Driving 2000 miles in four days had caught up with us, but we had now arrived. 

Day 3: June 10, 2026 Tumucari New Mexico to Emporia Kansas

We listened for more rumbling storms during the night. It seems that they mostly have gone through the area, but we don’t get that many summer storms in Southern California so it was nice to have some good rain coming down. By morning the sky was a bright blue and sunny

Another 500 mile day and 8 hours of driving. We quickly turned off Interstate 40 and headed northeast primarily on two-lane highways. A couple of hours through northwest New Mexico, then an hour in the northern tip of Texas, briefly passing on to the panhandle of Oklahoma, before entering Kansas. We were struck by both how flat this part of the Great Plains were and how much greener it was once east of the Rockies. Kansas look lush, frequently with standing water from recent rains. Dick always watches the farms. Central Pivot Irrigation has turned much of this land into very productive farm land but depleting the huge aquifer under much of the western plains. The corn, such a high water demand crop, was shorter than he expected. Very little seem to be headed for “knee-high by the Fourth of July“ both of us had learned when we were growing up. The winter wheat was being harvested. A rail line paralleled the road for much of the time in Kansas. Every few miles there was a large grain elevator, holding grain until shipped out by rail. In spite of some people being against green generation of electricity, we saw many windmills appearing to march across the landscape.

During the morning, we were able to enjoy finishing our book about the small Canadian town who opened their hearts and their homes too strangers from around the world after 9/11. That was a really great book. And there is also a play, “Come From Away” which we will see in September. Of course we had to listen to the Original Cast Recording of "Oklahoma" during our relatively short time in the state.

We know we’re driving by some places that would be fun to stop and explore, but this time we are people on a mission. We’ve got to get to Minnesota tomorrow. So we keep moving forward, over 2000 miles in four days.

We arrived, checked into our hotel and then grabbed a quick meal at Wendy’s. We settled in for an evening watching some basketball and surfing the Internet. Tomorrow another long day's drive and then time for Patti’s family to begin gathering in Minnesota for the wedding on Saturday.

One of the interesting things in this hotel was in addition to a Gideon Bible there is also a copy of the Bahamas Gita, an ancient Hindu scripture. Not necessarily what I was thinking I would find in the middle of Kansas.. But,  we do know a lot of the hotels are owned or managed by people of Indian descent. Just a little cultural diversity.

We had seen a couple of warnings about potential tornadoes as we’re driving along. No tornadoes yet, but once we returned from dinner, the creepy sky is the kind that Dick only saw once before a major tornado in Ohio. We just checked and we are in a tornado watch area, which means there is the kind of atmospheric conditions where tornadoes could form.

While we were watching the game the Direct TV suddenly went off the air.  When we looked outside we could see it was raining very hard. Then our phones alerted us to our being in the middle of a Tornado Warning. That meant a tornado was located near us, probably seen on radar. We prepared to shelter in the bathroom but it never became necessary. The storm passed. We were thankful.  Oh, the adventures of travel!!

Day 2: June 9, 2026 Flagstaff Arizona to Albuquerque New Mexico and then to Tucumcari New Mexico

We both woke up very early today and decided rather than waiting until 7:00 for breakfast we, could get ready and eat at 6:15, hitting the road at 7:15.

Patti insisted that we stopped at a restaurant a block away from our hotel for the first of the photos of this trip of Patti with very large objects. This time a large red Adirondack chair. These are so much fun and Dick is such a good sport in terms of stopping and taking the photos. For some unknown reason, he doesn’t like getting his picture taken with these giant objects. Who can understand that?

The morning up in the mountains was crisp in the upper 50’s. We were about to leave the Ponderosa Pine forest. Soon after leaving Flagstaff, we headed down off the high plateau, and the temperature started getting hotter again. We had a lovely morning, soaking in the changes in the environment and landscape. Some of it looked very volcanic and lunar, some had trees, some was just flat grasslands. We made a brief stop at Petrified Forest National Park. We had been there several times before so we just stopped for a photo. We needed to get through eastern Arizona and crossing the border into New Mexico.

The plan was to arrive in Albuquerque for a 1 PM lunch with dear friends, Tomi and Hank. Patti and Tomi were roommates in seminary in 1982-83. Having dear friends for so many years is so precious. Both Tomi and Hank have had series health challenges, so it is especially great to have some time together. We ate at a Cracker Barrel restaurant and had the chance to catch up and just be together.

All too soon, we had to drive down the road needing to get another 3 hours down the road tonight. Immediately to the East we climbed through the southern end of the Rocky Mountains.  Here they are lower and it took only about 30 minutes to reach the other side.  In front of us was the Great Plains with another couple of days to cross it. This year it is not a leisurely drive across the country, because we have to get to Minnesota for the family wedding and gatherings.

We chased some dark clouds and large raindrops across the Eastern part of the state.  It never rained very hard, but it really freshened up the air. later in the evening, we enjoyed listening to the thunder outside. And enjoyed a lovely rainbow in the sky. 

One of the things that we sometimes do when we’re on this long trips is listen to an audiobook. Today we listen to one that was really well done. "The day the world came to town: 911 in Gander, Newfoundland.” this is a fascinating story of a very small town in Newfoundland that ended up being the place where 38 large jet planes and over 6600 people had to make immediate landings when all of the US airspace was closed following the 911 attacks. It is very well told story of how this small town took in thousands of strangers and treated them with such care. Will finish it tomorrow. Sometimes it is excellent to have a long time that you can really get into a book that is well written and well read.

We made a picnic dinner on the bed while we watched some Women’s Basketball tonight. We have lots of food in the car and it was just fine to have a nice indoor picnic.

So we’re moving our way across the country. Two more days until Minnesota.

Day 1: June 8, 2026 Oceanside, CA (home) to Flagstaff, AZ

 Well, getting ready to leave town for a six week trip takes some serious doing. Between work and volunteer activities, getting the house in order, paying bills, stopping the mail, arranging for somebody to take care of the house… It’s a lot.

Packing up and then loading the car for for a variety of activities is also a challenge. We need to be ready for: a road trip across the country and back, a family wedding, a trip to South African cities and also going on Safari, and camping for two nights in the Grand Tetons. This requires a huge array of clothes and equipment. Did we mention that in South Africa it will be winter and actually quite cold often in the mornings and evenings? Only because Dick is a master packer, we got everything in our RAV4 hybrid.

We always know the most expensive tank of gas we will buy for a road trip as at home. We filled up at $5.49, that was the “cheap gas” at Costco. All we needed to do it cross the border into Arizona and the price dropped over a full dollar, to $4.29. It is a great time to have a hybrid, which runs on gas but also charges its battery when you drive. Dick is enamored with the opportunity to watch a screen which shows when the motor is powering the wheels and producing powersd for the battery, and when the battery is powering the car or supplementing the motor.. We’ve also decided to keep the  cruise control at 70 miles an hour, even when the speed limits is higher. So far have been averaging 39.5 miles to the gallon. Much better than our larger gas only Sienna min-van.

Today we started at home, just above sea level and went up over 7000 feet in Flagstaff. We also went from desert scrub now up into the Ponderosa pine Forest with cool temperatures in the mountains of Flagstaff. Mt. Humphreys, just a few miles to the north, is well over 12,000 feet.

And, we were pleased to start the trip playing our license plate game where we look for the licenses of different states as we drive. Big trucks do not count. We are off to a good start with seeing over 20 states in the first day. Driving from Southern California into Arizona is a big travel area for lots of people, and lots of folks from around the country are on the move.

Patti put on her “you had me at road trip “ T-shirt and we both put on our shorts getting ready to head off into desert temperatures of over 104°. This first day took us about eight hours down the road through changing landscapes of mountains and hills and desert. We arrived at Flagstaff, Arizona time to grab some dinner at the Olive Garden restaurant and then catch the second half of the NBA finals game.

It’s good to have everything behind us and just look forward to six weeks of time together enjoying wonderful experiences.