Wisconsin bound

Tomorrow we cross the Mississippi River into Wisconsin! We've had a great trip so far.

We left Phx Tuesday morning (31st) and spent the day driving through the Painted Desert, Four Corners and on into Colorado. Randy went online and found the most beautiful campground in Pagosa Springs. We love Pagosa Springs and we love camping in our van. So it was a win-win. And no, we did not take our Cozy Cottage on Wheels. With gas prices the way they are... and the miles we were planning to cover... just not economical.

Our camp site was a few yards from this raging river. It was so loud that I didn't even need a white noise. Of course that meant we had to open the back vents so we'd hear it even louder. 

Well, long story short, it got down into the mid 30's. In fact, my nasal spray was mere inches from the open window... and was a frozen slushee in the morning. Let me tell you, we were COLD, but stayed pretty warm under the covers. Thank God I threw in an extra blanket at the last minute.

Wednesday morning we experienced Wolf Creek Pass. Oh my gosh. So beautiful. So majestic. And seriously, snow and run-off everywhere! Waterfalls, creeks and rivers were flowing like crazy.

Remember, they recently got snow, so the mountain tops were covered and the run-off made for swollen creeks and rivers. I was snapping away the whole time, hoping to somehow capture the grandeur of the Pass. But I'm thinking you just had to be there.

By afternoon we were blessed with cloud-cover throughout the rest of Colorado. But as we traveled into Nebraska we could see a storm building in the distance. We eventually found a local radio station that was reporting tornado warnings, golf-ball size hail and 60 mph winds. Before Joplin, I would have been so excited, anticipating weather! Phx doesn't get weather. But now I'm good with bland weather.

So once the rain started blinding our visibility and the reports got worse, we knew we needed to ride it out at a McDonalds. Hey, when you're preoccupied with tornado destruction, a little wifi distraction is a welcome relief. 

Once the storm moved north and the warnings were lifted, we made our way towards Omaha. Ok, so the night before we froze and now the temps were much higher, and the humidity unbearable. We were pretty miserable, till it cooled off in the night and then a fierce wind storm rolled in. We were at a rest area and the parked semis provided that much needed white noise to drown out the crazy winds.

Did I tell you that I'm ok with bland weather?