Well after two days of hard riding, we are now nestled at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in Buffalo, Wyoming. We have covered 5 states in two days - Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and on into Wyoming - tomorrow Montana! I have spent my whole adult life trying to get to Montana, so I am very excited to finally arrive. Tomorrow night will be Missoula and the day after that will be Glacier National Peace Park and The Road to the Sun. This might be a very special part of the journey for me, since I actually had a job at the park when I was 19 or so, intending to work there and go to school for forest management. But life intervened with a battle with cancer, and by the time I was healthy again, things had changed and in Illinois I stayed. So now I will finally arrive, not too late, just when I was supposed to.

These past two days have seen a lot. We left Illinois at 7:00 am on Saturday

With a pretty good fog, which luckily burned off fairly quickly. After one minor break down (Keith's bike blew a fuse) and one war wound (I got in a fight with a bungee cord, it won!) we made it to Sioux Falls, SD for the night. Another early start saw us to Buffalo, WY tonight, this day with only one war wound (again I got in a fight with a bungee cord, and Alan has now grounded me from using them, since I lost the battle a second time).

Alan has brought a mascot to keep us safe on the road, and so far he is doing his job rather well. Rastus keeps his eye on us all. I am sure he will be seen elsewhere as we go, so keep your eye out for him.

The weather has been a little rough. Mostly high 90's or more. Today we all were pretty sun kissed, but when we hit Wyoming, things really got rough. It felt like driving into a roaring furnace! Everyone agreed it happened exactly at the border, like going through a door. Even the bikes felt it, as most temp gages were showing 110 at one point! But now we are in "Deer Park" campground, if you can believe it, and I am going to jump in the pool before it closes. Keep your eyes out for some hopefully good pictures coming soon, as we are now heading into the beauty part of the ride, and hopefully a little cooler as well. We'll see you all down the road, and wish you happy days!

Saturday is the day we will be leaving on our long awaited journey to Homer, Alaska. We are taking the bikes, with our friends Alan & Kathy Kunzman. This trip of at least 10,000 miles round trip actually began about a year ago, in the living room of our house in Deer Park, WI with an off the wall comment, let's take the bikes up to Alaska to visit our youngest son Cory Reynolds & Mel Reynolds and the grandbabies! Who knew what that little sentence started. The entire year has been spent saying "I wish it was July already", and now that it is just a few days away we are all saying "Oh man there is not enough time to get everything done".

Since we agreed to undertake this adventure, Keith Reynolds & I have moved into an RV full time, and now we travel around with the song that were singing. Though we live on the road, this Alaska journey is right now more of an adventure than our everyday life. The sights we will see I hope will be awe inspiring, majestic and also the everyday normal. I love traveling on a motorcycle, since the good, the bad and the ugly are all in your face no matter what. I want to know that I am alive, that the world is alive and out there waiting to be explored, and that the journey is still awaiting us everyday.

So stay tuned for notes from the road. I will do my best to keep posting my blog. But as you know the internet is not always available out there in the wild, so bear with me. And keep your fingers crossed we don't meet any bears! I hope your everyday is an adventure for you, and if it isn't do something about it!!!

The night before......

Tonight is the last night we will spend in this house. Tomorrow and for many if not all the rest of our nights, that motorhome out in the driveway will be our home. For the last 2 1/2 months, give or take a day or so, we have been sorting, cleaning, pricing, selling, giving away, packing and storing our life away. Along with finding, buying, cleaning, modifying and moving into a new, much smaller space. When you say let's sell everything and go live in a motorhome, so we can travel and see the world, you have no idea what that really means. Everybody always says I am so jealous when they hear of our plans, but they don't think of the work it takes to get to the fun part. Especially since when all this started I was weak as a kitten, and still have my days when I wonder how did I lose so much strength in my body. Poor Keith has done the brunt of all the work, with never a complaint. All this just so I could have my dream come true, when in fact all my dreams came true the day I met him. Now that we are mostly done, I certainly feel freer than I have felt since I was 18 and starting out on my own, with nothing but my blacklight posters and record albums. Well maybe not that free, since I am still trying to figure out how I am going to find spots for all these things we need, and thinking about how much we actually got rid of. Man we must of had tons of stuff, where did it all come from? George Carlin, I can hear you laughing at me right now. After hundreds of Craigslist & Facebook sales, one estate sale, one garage sale, and one auctioneer buying everything that was left, you would think we would be down to bare bones. But I still feel like we have way too much stuff!

And so tomorrow our adventure begins, whether I am ready or not. We are leaving a few days ahead of schedule, to escape what they are predicting to be the leap day snowstorm up here. This winter has been so mild, with no real snow to speak of really, for west central Wisconsin. I think mother nature gave us a break this season, but it looks like she will be showing her teeth here very soon. So off to the land of enchantment we will head, where the weather is sunny 355 days a year. This time next week we should be out on the bike, seeing our new horizons, and soaking up the sun and warmth. To be honest I think I earned this new life the hard way, and will continue to earn it, since my stomach condition will never heal and will only continue to worsen. So for now I'll enjoy what I've got, and worry about later, later!

My studio is set up nicely in the motorhome, where the kitchen table used to be. I am looking forward to spending some time working in my new atmosphere, and getting things nestled into where they should live. When I lay down at night there are no sugar plums dancing in my head. Instead there are beaded bracelets and rosettes, as well as all kinds of silver chains, bracelets, necklaces, charms and pendants. Alright maybe once in a while a little silver sugar plum might go by, but mostly other fun creations. I can't wait to get to work.

So good night all my readers, we'll be off the internet mostly for the next few days. Keep us in your thoughts, and while your at it, wish for low, low gas prices as well. Next time you hear from me, we'll be in the desert, hoping a scorpion didn't slip into our shoes while we were sleeping! Miss you all ♡

Getting Started

Well here I am starting a blog, not really having any idea how this is done, so bear with me. It's odd how I got to this point in my life, so here's a little history. Since I was a child I have always wanted to travel and see the country, but never could figure out just how to make it possible. I hatched many schemes and plans for accomplishing this over my life, but all these dream bubbles popped without ever bearing fruit. The past year and half for me me has not been a very happy time. My health has been up and down, with quite a few major surgeries and illnesses. This all seemed to come to a head this past December when after a minor procedure to try to fix a chronic stomach problem I have, I suffered from a complication which caused me to become sepsis, with the end result of lung and organ failure and being placed on life support. When I awoke towards the end of December my husband Keith did a wonderful thing. After welcoming me back, he said let's do it, we'll sell everything and hit the road.

It is quite odd waking up from that suspended world. Everything is so fogged, you don't know what is a dream, and what is in fact real. Wanting to wake up is not enough, you need something tangible to grasp onto. He gave me a great goal to work towards, which is exactly what I needed. I have never been so weak in my life, who knew that being on life support for ten days would suck up all the muscle and strength, and mental strength you have spent your entire life building? Trying to recreate all that went on why you were sleeping helps some, but there is still this odd feeling of just drifting. I am not sure I will ever be able to put those days out of my mind, but I did survive them, and everyday that passes helps me conquer the feeling of utter helplessness that was there when I awoke. Which of course leads to where we are now.

Now it is the beginning of February, and our goal is to be done selling everything off by March 1st, and heading southwest for the remainder of the winter, and then whatever lies beyond. We bought our new road buggy (well new to us at least), which is a 1993 Holiday Rambler. It is everything I wanted. Keith removed the kitchen dining area, and installed my workbench, and is working on modifying the rest of the area so I can work, and we can also live happily in the space provided. Seeing my workbench in there has really brought all this home to me, it is actually going to happen, I can't wait!

And so I wonder who will read this. Many of my friends have asked me to blog so they can keep up with our adventures. I hope it is interesting enough that people don't fall asleep while reading this, if they do in fact read it! I'll try to stay up to date with our journeys, and make it interesting for you.