We got the new baby a dog bed

 

 

Henry loves it.

 

We decided we’d better get Henry his own bed in the motorhome too, so he doesn’t think the new puppy is in his bed.

He loves it.

 

 

Everyone was outside their campers having such a fine time yesterday.  So many friendly people.  It is a lot quieter today though.

 

 

Still 490 miles to Pleasant Valley.  P minus 5.

 

Indiana

 

 

 

 

And into Ohio.

 

Dayton.  Columbus.  And almost to West Virginia.  Yes, West Virginia.  We’re headed through Pennsylvania, but there is this tiny sliver of Northern West Virginia for us to drive through.  It will last about as long as it takes to say it.  Wheeling, West Virgi…  Done.

 

 

Alone in a forest?

 

Well, not quite the state park wilderness experience we were hoping for. We’ll see what it’s like tomorrow; if it clears out Sunday morning.

 

Even with the weekend crowd though, there are nice quiet trails here without another soul on them.

 

 

Seattle to New York part of the trip map

 

490 miles to Pleasant Valley.  P minus 6.

 

Illinois

 

 

We’re seeing a crop we’re not used to seeing.  Soybeans!

 

And other stuff.

 

 

And a great sky.

 

And lots of seed corn.

 

Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign.  We crossed into Indiana.  Now we’re in the Eastern Time Zone.  Indianapolis, the largest city we’ve been through since Seattle.  We got past it before rush hour on a Friday afternoon.

 

Seattle to New York part of the trip map

 

Now we’re camping in forests.

 

760 miles to Pleasant Valley.  P minus 7.

 

Amazon needs to step up their game!

 

Any time we want something, we just log-on to Amazon, find it, and buy it.  In two days, it shows up at our doorstep.  That’s what we’re used to.  That’s what we expect now.  It’s Amazon’s fault we’re like this.  They built the expectation.

 

That’s all well and good, but what about while we’re driving; when we’re not at home; what about us now?  We want to buy something.  We stop at a store, but what we want is not in stock.  We call around, and nobody has it.  Amazon has it.

 

Okay Amazon.  You built this expectation.  Let’s see you deliver to a moving target!

 

 

Eastern Iowa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We crossed the Mississippi.  Now we’re in Illinois.

 

Seattle to New York part of the trip map

 

 

 

 

1,002 miles to Pleasant Valley.  It would be P minus 9, but the puppy pickup got moved up a day to Friday.  P minus 8!

 

Driving through Alaska

 

We saw a lot of what could be viewed as poverty, but much of it looks like it could be on purpose.  Living in remote areas, or living off the grid, by choice, doesn’t look like it generates much income.  There appear to be a lot of people living just off the road, just doing whatever they need to do to get by in the bush, live in Alaska, and not live in town.  That makes me wonder, if by choice someone living off the grid’s income is below the poverty level, do they show up that way in the national and regional statistics?  Is there a statistic for poverty-level-by-choice?

 

 

We’re still just west of Des Moines.  There was severe weather last night and all the occupants of the RV park were evacuated to the tornado shelter for a time.  It’s still raining today, but no sign of severe weather for this evening.  I think that diagonal band of severe weather on the radar moves a little east every day.  Maybe spending two nights here will let it get far enough away we don’t catch-up to it tomorrow.

 

We’ll see…

 

Seattle to New York part of the trip map

 

Still 1,174 miles to Pleasant Valley.  P minus 10.