Mt. Rushmore and The Badlands

Yahoo!

All corn!! From Corn Palace.

Kathy in Minnesota....you betcha!

Where are we????

Tight fit!

Truck stop!

The Corn Palace , Mitchell, SD
Niagara Falls from the sky wheel at night.

Pink Puppies and Waldo!

Getting a bit of spirit on the road in Minnisota.

Mount Rushmore, S. Dakota.

Snow in Wyoming and Montana!

Spending the night in Bozeman, Montana. Very cool town. Ted Turner has a huge Bison Ranch here. We had some tough driving this morning after snow last night. It is supposed to snow again tonight. We will leave late in the morning and wait for the sun.
The Rocky Mountains are beautiful! We also saw Custer's Little Big Horn and many really fantastic things along the way.
It has been a long drive and overload of things to see. My car is VERY dirty!! I will try again to stick some pictures here....if not, you will get
them next week from WA.
Oh, we can't get into Yellowstone because of rock slides and snow. I'll have to come back another time!
We went thru Sundance, Yellowknife, Rapid City, Deadwood.......have seen so much history.... Good night.

SNOW!!!.

The weather isn't looking great for Saturday. We are saying a prayer that we are able to drive...if not...we'll be checking out the local haunts. Snow is in the cards for South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. We will Trust and Rely! :) Yellowstone is out because of the weather conditions and road closings.
We saw Mount Rushmore, The Badlands and the Corn Palace today. Busy day! I do have some great pictures but for some reason I can't get them to load on the blog. I'll deal with it when I get my Mac set up in WA.
See you all later!

Sky Wheel!

Kathy and Heidi at Niagara Falls!

"On the road again..."

Hi All!! Sorry I haven't written before now. Kathy and I have been putting the pedal to the metal and as of this evening have covered 10 states and a foreign country (Canada)...1,777 miles. Yahoo! We left Somersworth at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday 4/26 and it is now 9:30 p.m. Thursday 4/28. Phewww!
I am trying to get some pics loaded on here from the road, however I have found my patience and tolerance level is quite LOW after 10-12 hours of driving. Yes, I have done all the driving so far....I get car sick. :) But tomorrow there are some things I want to take pics of from the car. I will let Kathy drive for a bit.
What we have seen so far... Niagara Falls, beautiful, wet, loud. We went up in a huge sky ride that is like a ferris wheel, but closed in with glass. Very cool! We could see everything from there and got some great shots of the falls. Saw Amish folks in Wisconsin and ate some good cheese. Took a side trip in Minnesota and took pics of hundreds of windmills. Very surreal!
We are going to the "Corn Palace" tomorrow morning on our way out of here...Mitchell, South Dakota. Wall, SD is our next stop.
The pink Puppies and Waldo are getting a little road weary. They have to buck up! I think Kathy may be getting a little "Heidi" Weary! :)
We're having fun and really learning a lot of little things about our country. I'll write again soon. Love ya all!

Moving Day!

Hi all! I am a woman without a home, for a little while. The truck arrived around 9:00 a.m. and Natalie and I watched all our things get loaded up for the trip to WA. I handed over my keys to the landlord around 2:15 and am now sitting in Kaleo Coffee House in Dover, checking email and waiting to meet Heidi Young for a goodbye supper. Kathy and I are very excited to start our journey tomorrow morning. I believe I will be able to fit her, her bag and maybe a bottle of water in the car. It is packed tight! I have to use my side mirrors.
First stop tomorrow night is Niagara Falls! Waldo and the Pink Puppies are looking forward to their adventure too! Later!!

My traveling Buddy, Kathy.

Meet Kathy....she and I will be doing the cross country driving adventure together. Kathy has family in CA and will fly down to Frisco after driving out to WA with me. We expect to have some great fun and laugh until we cry!

Did someone mention BOXES!!!!

I'm pretty much down to the end of my packing. A few more things to throw into a couple more boxes and I am ready for the big truck to arrive Monday morning. The truck will load and I will clean up, return cable equipment, spend the night at Kathy's and then Kathy and I will head out Tuesday morning. First stop, Niagara Falls, Canada. Waldo and the puppies can't wait!

See you in Olympia!

Natalie, Bruce, Cheryl and Me....Waterville Valley, NH

Mimi LOVES YOU!!!

Meg and Molly at Molly's big show!

Jamie and James during break.

Last Game Night with our friends in Maine!

Visit with the Wood family.

Saying "see ya later" to a few of my friends.

Moe and Amanda

Nevaeh & Jackson

and the boxes are packed

So soon! I go pick up the UHaul tomorrow at 1pm and load my 17 boxes and bedroom set into the truck to meet mom's truck. Exciting time! Watching the celtics game (lets hope we win!) and headed out with some friends.
No pictures, but just wanted to say I'm excited! I'll definitely miss sleeping on a real bed for the next few months, but hopefully the air mattress will do.

Last Maine visit for a while.

Nubble Light House, York, Me.

The Wedding Cake House, Kennebunk, Me.

Saying a few good-byes.

Waldo meets Easter Bunny...and Puppies!

Where's Waldo?

I was asked by a group of friends to take Waldo on a road trip. So, I will be sending pics of various places along my journey and people can guess where Waldo is. I have started here on the east coast and will end in WA. My grandkids, James and Molly have also given me 2 favorite stuffed puppies to take along. The puppies and Waldo will help share my adventure. There will also be a human in my car with me, Kathy. Kathy will be in a photo from time to time as well. She will be flying back home when her part of the adventure ends with a visit to her brother and his family in SanFrancisco. EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!

An addition...

This is turning into a Mother-Daughter Blog! My mom is leaving for Olympia on the 26th and is going to post her pictures of her journey here for us to see. Many of the pictures might include Waldo, and I'll let her explain that story.

I'll keep posting my own pictures and stories, as will she. Lets see what this turns into :)

The Magnolia's Are In Full Bloom

Such a beautiful day here in Boston. I decided to take a walk around the Arnold Arboretum here in Jamaica Plain after work. Though I thought I'd go for a long walk, I ended up taking over 100 pictures of the flowers in bloom. Sigh. I cannot wait to get out to WA and really focus on photography.

I played around a bit with aperture and focusing, and am happy with the way some of my pictures came out. Here's a few...

 Magnolia-- F 3.5 ISO 80 

 Magnolia -- F 3.5 ISO 80

Magnolia -- F 6.3 ISO 250 

Daffodil -- F 2.8 ISO 80 

Forsythia -- F 8.0 ISO 400

Forsythia -- F 4.5 ISO 125 

 Rhododendron -- F 5.0 ISO 100

Rhododendron -- F 2.8 ISO 100

 Magnolia -- F 5.6 ISO 400

Magnolia --  F 5.7 ISO 400

Magnolia -- F5.7 ISO 400

Goodbye JP Oil...

I was running empty on gas the other day and remembered that I drove past JP Oil the day before and noticed, well yelled out loud to myself in excitement, that the gas was listed at $3.39. It is 30cents cheaper than anywhere on that street, let alone in the entire city. So, I decided to go back. Except I noticed a huuuge orange poster in the door window, and realized the "Open"sign wasn't lit.

Though not the best picture ever, how sad is the huge "SEIZED" sign?! It said the business was seized by the Feds due to lack of payment of taxes. 

Though it's not a huge surprise given the economy, it's sad. JP Oil is one of those family business gas stations in town. Gas is always fairly pricey, but the owner was uber nice. Always took care of my car (well, twice) and was just sweet. 

So, farewell JP Oil. Maybe you'll be unseized by the time I head out west and I'll be able to come fill up one last time. 

Post 1

Hmm. I guess I'm a blogger now? I've never done this, never been uber excited to do one, but here I am. A friend suggested that I keep a photo blog for when I head out west, and thought it was a good idea.

After going on a benefit walk around the Charles River and taking a bunch of great pictures, and procrastinating, I figured why not start now. Gotta start somewhere.

For now, here's a few pictures I took today while out in Boston. I'll definitely miss this city.