Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Day one: The saga begins

On Friday, July 27, I emailed my cousin in Iowa.  She and her husband have invited us many times to stop by their house and spend a night if we are passing nearby.  I figured I'd get packed and ready to leave Saturday and half the day Sunday, then we'd leave around noon and stop at their house.  When I didn't get a return email, I figured they were on vacation, since they always vacation this time of year.  I left most of the "getting ready" for Sunday and planned on leaving Monday morning.  
Our son, his wife, and granddaughter Lyndsay, who had been here for a week, left for home Sunday morning July 29, and I set about to straighten the house, mop, pack, and get ready to leave.  Around 10 A.M., we got a call from my cousin in Iowa telling us that yes, we were welcome to visit them,  Pauline has been busy canning and making pickles and had not checked her email until that morning.  So I washed dishes and started packing frantically.  Cliff's sister, the one who lives in our house next door, had volunteered to babysit Iris, and we were low on dog food.  That required a trip to the nearest Walmart.  We left our very messy house around 1:30 P.M.  I had not vacuumed for a week, and the bed wasn't made.  Oh well.  
We arrived at my cousin Pauline's house around 6 P.M. and got a walking tour of their lovely farm, as well as a tasty supper and a nutritious breakfast the next morning.  We were north of Des Moines, Iowa.  Our adventure had begun.  
Now, I know that everybody thinks we should have made reservations before we left, but we... and especially Cliff... don't like to be tied to a schedule that requires us to be at a certain place at a certain time.  I will tell you that I checked the Glacier National Park website and saw a cautionary statement saying one should make reservations six months to a year in advance.  
"Surely," Cliff said, "there will be someplace to stay."  
I wasn't so sure, so we threw the tent and other camping supplies in the trunk.  There's ALWAYS room for people who tent-camp.  That's because tent camping is a messy, uncomfortable, dirty business.  

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6 comments:

  1. Hyperblogal5:44 PM

    I think I can already see where this is going.... similar to when you camped in the rail yard.... :)

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  2. Margaret7:00 PM

    The same thing happened to our older daughter and her boyfriend, but they were only 2 hours away from us, so came home to sleep. :)

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  3. Carlene Noggle7:10 PM

    CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ENTRY...HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRY UP...!!! :-)

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  4. I'm mostly known as 'MA'7:55 PM

    I love the picture of you by that lake with the mountains in the background. What a beautiful place. At least your first night you had some good sleep and food too.

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  5. TARYTERRE8:39 PM

    You have piqued my interest.

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  6. MGW10:36 PM

    Oh, yeah -- we are so into the not making reservation thing. Only one time were we totally caught -- Columbus Day in New England. Who from the midwest knew this was a major holiday in Massachusetts? Not being campers, we drove through Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island looking for any bed we could find to crash in. We finally made it to Connecticut at 5 a.m., a couple had just checked out, so they cleaned the room for us and let us have it until 4 p.m. -- when it was reserved again. We slept through the day, and drove at night. Fun times. Probably couldn't handle it so well now - but then it was an adventure. MGW

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