From Iowa to Michigan in a day...

Since we knew we still had about 750 miles to go, we checked in with our new boss and found out we could slow down a bit.  That's all we needed to hear, so we fit in a little sight seeing.  I was reminded from a friend that American Pickers store, Antique Archaeology, was in LeClaire, IA so we had to stop in of course.  Mike, Frank, nor Danielle were not there, but we had a fun time exploring their shops. 

Barge on the Ole Miss

Should say home of the pickers!

Signage, as Mike would say...

Who's older?

Loads of fun stuff...

We then crossed over the Mississippi into Illinois for a bit.  The road took us through the south side of Chicago, so we missed most of the city traffic, except for all the road repairs.  We hit the tip of Indiana before heading north into Michigan.  Finally, we are in our destination state.  We stayed at a private campground along the Saint Joseph river.  It was another beautiful spot.  Although the miles weren't too long, we found ourselves exhausted.  We both napped and slept in the next morning!  A first in all these days on the road.  

Would love to have a river home...well maybe not :/

Not the best shot through the window, just trying to capture the enormity of the Mississippi

Made it over the bridge

Beautiful farm

Just for a minute we hit Indiana....

See, finally made it to Michigan...

Iowa's Best Burger Cafe...

The next day we left Gottenburg NE quite early for another 400 mile day.  The motivation today was a burger.  That's right, I found a RV park that boasted its cafe has the "Best Burger in Iowa".  We had to see for ourselves.  Now, since we didn't get to eat at any other burger joint in all of Iowa, we too voted it the best burger in Iowa!  It was very good!

Long day ahead...

We would love to explore some of these old barns

Happy Memorial Day to all our veterans and special honor to those who gave their lives for our freedoms we enjoy, including this trip.

Fun waving to the CanAm gang

Farm life

Waiting on our burgers

These guys know how to get the food out fast and very delish!

Ron's a happy camper!

Beautiful sunset, good night Kellogg.

Nebraska..."the good life"

Travels through part of Nebraska we had not been to before were beautiful.  The campground we found in Gottenburg was a wonderful city park with a meandering river running all through it.  The quaint town was patriotic with flags flying everywhere for the Memorial Day weekend.  We really loved the stay here.

You know I always get my state sign 

Home on the range

See the quilt block on the barn?  I have one for the front of the RV when we get to Mackinaw

World Headquarters was a HUGE complex

Lafayette City Park in Gottenburg NE was beautiful! 

View from our campsite

This meandered through the whole park

Wyoming travels...

The next few days proved to be a pleasant blur of farms, farms and farms, with the occasional small town in between.  Don't get us wrong, we enjoy every minute of this beautiful country, but damn there are a lot of farms! Our stay for the night was at Red Desert Rose RV park in Rawlins.  Very friendly, clean and accommodating.  We marked down as one we'd stay at again.

Made it!

Just around each bend is another long stretch

On to Utah for a short bit...

So sorry for the delays in posting, between crappy wi-fi and poor (as in 3G) phone service, I couldn't update our blog...

So anyway, we left Reno very early and planned another 400 mile day.  That would become our norm for the next several days.  As you may know, this is NOT how we like to role but this trip is just to get there.  Large highways and freeways are not us, but we are forced to go against our nature.  Here are some pics of our journey through Utah...

Just getting our first view of the salt flats, Bonneville Speedway up ahead.

Barren Salt Flats

Pretty reflection of the mountains

Triple trucks are allowed here, they roar by forever

This peak of the Great Salt Lake was all we got

Cowboys at work on the open range

Great railroad art, yep this sums it up

Finally on the Road...

With an early start we are off.  First heading north through Sacramento then east on the 80 to Reno.  We ended up just outside of Reno in a smaller RV park/casino named Bordertown.  The drive was pretty smooth, we could have gone on farther if we hadn't made reservations.  Next few days will take us across Nevada, Utah and into Wyoming...and much longer days ahead.

Hookin up baby!! 

Our neighbors got a kick out of putting on this one, almost worked until they got busted.

Beautiful scenery over the Donner Pass...

Packing up...

Well, now that the graduation is behind us, on to packing for the road trip ahead...

Cleaned and polished, she's ready to hit the highway...

Ron can hardly wait...

The Big Graduation Party!

The graduation was an emotional, happy, crazy day filled with family and friends!  We are just so proud of Diana and what the future holds for her...here are a few pics of the day.

Proud of this girl!

Her crew all showed up...

Julio and his family even came.

Marty and Laura (seated) with Monica and David made the trip.

Her DaddyO

Me and Ashlee

Sisters...

Taco Boys was a real hit...delish!

Margie, Ashlee and Monica catching up!

Uncle Joe being silly!

Happy parents.

My little family

Ready for the world! 

Look out Fresno, the girls are ready for some partying...

The crew