Tonight we are in Cheyenne WY. We traveled through some magnificent country starting east on I-84 and continuing on I-80 up and over the Rocky Mountains.  Some of you may have heard about a wildfire near Salt Lake City yesterday.  We actually saw the smoke from it when we were on the south side of the city.  This morning's paper said that at least 900 people had been evacuated and the fire was not yet contained.  We received a little bit of rain just before we arrived in Cheyenne, but it was barely enough to went the top layer of ground.  This wildfire stuff is really serious, they need rain in a bad way.  On a similiar note we heard that Nashville had a high of 108 degrees today.  Sometimes we wonder why we are headed back since it is in the low 80's with low humidity here.  We have used blankets every night out here!
Since we ARE in Cheyenne, we had to have steaks tonight.  We highly recommend T-Joe's.  It's possibly the closest we'll get to a roadhouse, without going with Mark Klassen, and the steaks were delicious.  Andy said they were even better than the Big Texan (that's some praise)! This may be our last night camping.  We are going to try to make it to Kansas City tomorrow night and home the next day.

Today - Boise to Salt Lake City
Sorry no misadventures today!  Idaho as you know is famous for growing potatoes.  Now we know why....it's too much of a desert for anything else to grow!  It is beautiful landscape but other than interesting landforms there isn't much else there.  Same for northern Utah.  We didn't go to Promontory Point, (you remember, it's where they hammered in the golden spike) because, you guessed it, it's in the middle of a desert in the middle of nowhere!
We set up camp in Ogden, just north of SLC, and made our way to Rio Tinto Park, home of Real Salt Lake.  We had just missed the practice for the US Womens Soccer Team and will miss their game tomorrow against Canada! We were able to visit the team store where Andy picked up another jersey. Then it was on to Temple Square where we learned a bit of Mormon history and once agan came almost face-toface with Moroni.  The area has been updated quite a bit since we visited 20 years ago, they even added a mall! And you thought the Vatican was a tourist attraction!  Tomorrow - Cheyenne in the state where the men are men.....

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights near McMinnville Oregon. After setting up the pop-up we went into McMinnville to meet Beth, Willem and Ann for dinner.  On Wednesday Beth and Ann went to 2 different wineries while Cel, Andy, Willem and I went to Portland.  Cel, Andy and I agree that we could live in Portland.  Vibrant city with a wonderful climate and great food.  We visited the Nike store, Nordstroms, and the Beaver Store (OSU) and had a wonderful lunch at Pastini Pasteria (unfortunately the closest location to Nashville is Bend OR! On Thursday morning we broke camp and began our trek east by traveling across the vast state of Oregon to Boise Idaho.  The trip along I-84 is breathtaking particularly where the road follows the Columbia River gorge.  We arrived at the West Boise KOA and after setting up made our way to downtown Boise.  Again seems to be a nice place.  Special note to Jose', did you know that Boise has a Basque section?  Who knew? ... photos to follow.  BTW, my eye has healed nicely but Cel still won't let me drive.  Maybe something about only having 1 contact. So far we have driven over 5000 miles!

I spent the evening at the Clarion with my eyes tightly closed and frozen peas and later ice on my right eye. Cel would put drops in my eyes every two hours (Ms. Locke aways said that I married up!).  By morning my vision had returned to close to normal and most of the pain was gone.  I was still very sensitive to light so I wore sunglasses and a hat to breakfast at the hotel. When we left and hit the road for Oregon I put on another pair of sunglasses.  Cel thinks that I scared the gas station attendant in Grant's Pass OR with my two pairs of sunglasses.  BTW did you know that you cannot pump your own gasoline in Oregon (or New Jersey for that matter)? It's a strange throwback to not get out of the car at a gas station!  Oh yeah, my eye's are doing fine now but no more soft contacts for me!  Next post, our time in Oregon with Ann, Beth and Willem.

You remember me telling you about losing a contact on our first day in Hawaii?  I got a replacement lens and 2 minutes of instructions on using soft contact lenses (I have always had hard lenses). On a couple of occasions I had placed the lens in backwards which can't be done with hard lenses. Apparently I did that again on Monday.  Only this time the irritation didn't go away when I put the lenses in the right way. We were traveling CA Highway 299 (here's some of the road - I suggest muting the heavy metal soundtrack unless you're in to that sort of thing) at the time and my vision in my right eye kept getting worse and worse. Cel took over the driving as I began to have pain in my right eye.  When we finally arrived at highway 101 we went south to find an urgent care clinic in Eureka CA the largest place around.  It turns out that Walgreens while they do sell liquor in California does NOT have Minute Clinics.  However they did direct us to the urgent care clinic at St. Joseph hospital. I was examined and told that I had corneal abrasions, which are probably the result of a dirty contact.  The doctor was hilarious (he gave me a rundown of what is wrong with healthcare delivery in California), and prescribed antibiotic and antihistamine eye drops. I took the prescriptions to Walgreens, to be filled before the anesthetic the doctor had given me began to wear off, and Cel and Andy went to Safeway to get dinner (and some frzen peas for my eyes).  As I finished at Walgreens and walked next door to Safeway the anesthetic began to wear off so I walked around Safeway, to the truck, and into our room at the Clarion with a bag of frozen peas on my eyes.

After picking up the camper it was off to Monkee Sports (aka Goalie Monkee).  This stop of course was for Andy.  He was blown away by the large selection and of course purchased a goalie stick (so now we are carrying a tire, wheel, battery AND a hockey stick).  Then it was off to see the Honda Center home of the Anaheim Ducks.  Unfortunately the team store was closed and the Dodgers were playing the Angels at nearby Angels Stadium. This made for creative driving to get back on I-5.  Then it was on to downtown LA to the Staples Center.  Maneuvering around downtown LA with a camper in tow is a chalenge even on a Sunday but it was made even worse when we discovered streets being blocked off in preparation for the ESPN X-Games!  I suddenly remembered why I don't go anywhere near downtown Nashville during CMA week!  This also makes me want to give a shout-out to Janice Carey's fiance, Michael, who drives a semi for a living. YOU THE MAN!!!!  If I never have to drive the freeways around LA again it will be OK by me! Then it was off to Sacremento! We stayed in a KOA.  Just a word about KOAs.  They are a lot like Holiday Inns, some are better than others but they always meet a reliable standard (usually 1980s/1990s state of the art). The next day we were headed to the coast and that's where it got interesting!

Alright guys, sorry about not posting since Friday or Saturday but it has been evetful over the last few days.  We did make it back from Honolulu arriiving in San Diego at approximately 11:20 PM PDT.  The rest of the gang was flying back to Nashville at 9 the next morning, so after a few hours sleep we took Megan to the airport @ 6:45AM PDT.  After droping her of wih the Enters, Tuppers, and Mooneys, the Frankins returned to the Homewood Suites for that much needed cup of coffee and the FREE breakfast!  After that it was off to Public Storage to pick up the trailer.

Last day in Hawai'i

The Luau was great!  The host actually had a soft rock hit back in the 80's and was a very good singer.  The food was delicious and we learned several thing about Polynesian culture.  They had a 12 year old world champion fire twirler that was amazing.  Brought back memories of Sue Wirsing twirling fire during pep rallies at Meigs!  We spent yesterday going to the North Shore and had an awesome lunch at Romy's Prawns and Shrimp (no that's not our family in the video).  Everyone agreed it was the best meal we've had on the island!  The North Shore was even more picturesque than Waikiki!  After breakfast together at the Wailana Coffee House across the street, we are headed for the airport for our 3:20 flight back to San Diego (Alaska Airlines flt. 892).  We arrive in San Diego at almost midnight and after retrieving the truck  will hopefully get a few hours of sleep before taking Megan to the airport to meet with the rest of the crew for their flight back to Nashville and points beyond.  Then we will pick up our camper and make a trail toward Sacramento.  Total leisure time is over.  Aloha!

Yesterday was a day to see the sights.  We started the day by visiting the flea market at the Aloha Stadium. Then we visited the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Punchbowl, and the Pali overlook. We also had a wonderful dinnr at Benihana. Today the gentlemen have gone to play golf and the ladies are lounging on the beach.  Since I don't golf or lounge on beaches I am relaxing while enjoying the fact that I've actually made it 1 week without buying any auto parts!!! Tonight is the luau.

Ah Hawai'i! Yes that's the way they spell it. For me at least it's the perfect place to do nothing (of course I am pretty good at doing that anywhere).  So far Andy and Megan have been snorkling,  paddleboarding, and laying on the beach. I have visited my new friends, Aloha Vision Consultants, for new contacts. After having my Nashville opthamologist fax my prescription, we went to Aloha Vision Consultants where they fitted me with a soft contact lens to replace my gas permeable lens.  Due to my  keratoconus requiring a special gas permeable lens, it would take a week here to replace, they gave me a soft lens. It must be something about the islands because at home I can have a replacement in 2 or 3 days.  Anyway I could get used to these Acuvue lenses! And they gave me the 2 lenses free! They said that this happens a lot, tourists losing lenses, so I'm sure these were samples and it was easier to give them away than to deal with the paperwork. Anyway I can now see out of both eyes!
Three of our group now have colds, Tracey, Megan, and Cora but seem to be managing well. Of course with Cora being congested, that means her parents, Amanda and Jordan, are probably not getting much sleep either! Otherwise life is good on the island! Tomorrow - Pearl Harbor.

Aloha!  We made it to Honolulu after spending 2 nights in San Diego.  We are staying at Wakiki at the Ilikai hotel which was made famous in the opening of Hawaii Five-O with Jack Lord standing one of the balconies. Hawaii is beautful but unfortunately I lost a contact this morning so it's a little fuzzy to me.  Today has been designated as a hang-out day so seveal of the group are making a run for provisions at Walmart.

Thursday - We traveled from Las Vegas to San Diego today.  We met up with the rest of our crew.  Actually we only saw Priscilla when we picked up Megan at the Naval Base (they wouldn't let the Franklins on base, probably some sort of security risk).  Everyone had a good flight and tomorrow Andy and Megan will go to the zoo with Tracey and Jack. Cel and I are just hoping for a day without a visit to any type of car repair facility! Oh yeah, so far we've traveled about 2800 miles!

Tuesday - We leave Jacob Lake behind and head toward Las Vegas. The drive was great and it was all downhill. We stopped in St. George Utah and had a great meal at Red Robin.  Then it was back on the road, until another driver pulled up beside us and motioned to the trailer.Turned out one of the tires on the side of our camper that was involved in the accident was flat and chewed to pieces.  We stopped at a Shell station on the next exit and called AAA.  Turns out that no matter what they told Cel when she signed up, they do NOT do service calls for campers!  Lucky for us a gentleman happened by and helped us put on the spare.  We took the camper to the Big O Tires just down the street and fortunately they had both a tire and wheel.  Since this may be a reult of the accident, the insurance agency said that I should keep the damaged wheel and tire. For those of you keeping track, this now means that I am carrying around an battery, wheel, and tire.  We pulled in to Las Vegas without any more problems and made our way to Sam's Town where we spent the night (and wre upgraded to a suite). We drove down the strip and Andy nearly hung out the window gawking at all of the hotels and casinos.

Late Monday afternoon we arrived at Jacob Lake which consists of an Inn, restaurant, gas station, and 2 campgrounds.  This was probably our most rustic campground!  It did have water and electricity but no dump station and only chemical toilets. However it was beautiful! The drive up US 89 and 89A was challenging and amazing at the same time.  The next day we trekked to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (45 miles). Comparing the number of people at the south rim to the number of people at the north rim is like comparing the number of people at DisneyWorld on a July afternoon to the number of people at Rivergate Mall on a Monday afternoon. It felt like we had the place all to ourselves. We took the "easy" half mile hike, had lunch at the lodge (the elk meatballs were delicious) and drove to Cape Royal for the view. A great day in the park and another night at Jacob Lake

Sorry I haven't blogged since Sunday but we did NOT have any internet either Monday or Tuesday night and when we did on Wednesday I was too tired to write anything! After leaving the campground, we visited Meteor Crater.  While it's just a big hole in the ground (and we seem to be seeing quite a few of those), it was amazing to see what remains after a meteor hit the earth 50,000 years ago. We did make it to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon after stopping in Flagstaff for supplies.  We had been having electrical problems since leaving home.  We could raise the pop-up but the next day we would not be able to "crank" it down because our battery was dead.  Soooo, we would have to jump off the battery from the truck in order to lower the camper. After 3 days that was getting old and having to go less than 600 miles that day we stopped at NAPA got it checked and bought a new battery.  The bad battery, which was a replacement in April for a new one I bought last November will be traveling with us back to Nashville since Advance Auto Parts has no locations west of Texas. We also had to get quarters for the showers at the next campground and stock up on food for the back country (Jacob Lake and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon).  BTW the Meteor Crater Campground was great and I highly recommend it to anyone passing this way!

After leaving Palo Duro this morning we made our way to The Big Texan in Amarillo for breakfast.  Believe me it's a must see if you're ever near Amarillo!  We spent the entire day on I-40, traveling about 600 miles today for a three day total of over 1800 miles (is this a GREAT country or what?)!  Tonight we are camped at Meteor Crater Arizona.  The campground is about 5 miles north of the crater.  It's a beautiful campground and it is cool enough that we have the windows open and the AC off. We couldn't do that in Texas or Louisiana!
All of y'all that are flying over all this to San Diego this week (Fred, Priscilla, Amanda, Jordan, Cora, Tracey, Paul, Jack and Megan) are really missing out on some beautiful country.  We've watched the scenery change each day going from sub-tropical to prarie to desert to mountains and back to desert again.
Tomorrow we go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We will be campng about 40 miles away in Jacob Lake Arizona.  The people at the campground say it's beautiful.  The only downside is we may be incommunicado until we reach Las Vegas on Wednesday.

We did 582 miles on Saturday with no accidents!  I am unable to post this on Saturday night because we are in Palo Duro Canyon state park in Texas where Andy says, “we have no contact with the outside world!   No cell phone, no text, no internet, no Facebook,  no Tumblr, no Words with Friends, no NHL Game Center, no nothing!”

We started the day in Shreveport after a lovely evening at Tall Pines Campground. We headed west on  I-20 into Dallas where we visited the 6^th Floor Museum and learned all about the Kennedy assassination. We also visited the American Airlines Center, where the Dallas Stars play, and almost attended a race at the Texas Motor Speedway when I got stuck in the wrong lane of traffic.  Leaving Dallas behind, we learned the real meaning of the phrase “Miles and miles of Texas” when we traveled to Amarillo and then on to the canyon.  All I can say is it’s a good thing Texas has a speed limit of 70 to 75 on its non-urban roads.

Just wanted to let everyone know that we ARE able to camp in our pop-up despite our encounter just outside Dickson on Friday.  Almost everything is working especially the AC.  On Sunday we travel across the entire state of New Mexico to spend the night near Winslow Arizona. We’ll see if anyone is standing on a corner by the time we get there!

Well, we're on the road!  Actually we traveled about 600 miles today and are spending the night in Shreveport Louisiana.
Now before I launch into the nitty gritty of today's journey let me assure you that no one, and I mean NO ONE, was injured!  I'm sure you've heard that statistic that most accidents happen with 50 miles of home.  It's true in our case. We left home shortly before 7  this morning.  After a stop at Dailey's (which I've learned is now known as Twice Daileys) for food and air in the camper tires we were on our way down Briley Parkway toward I-40.  All was going well until we passed exit 172 on I-40.  All of a sudden we heard a bang and the truck and camper started swerving.  It took me about a quarter mile to bring it under control and to a stop on the shoulder.  I thought we might have blown a tire but we got out and found that the side of our camper was smashed in.  At that point Cel said that she had seen a car spinning behind us.  We called 911 and soon had our first encounter with a state trooper.  In the meantime a gentleman pulled up and came back to tell us that he had been behind the other driver and witnessed the whole thing.  According to him a woman entered the interstate and pulled into traffic, and the side of our camper, without even looking.  We asked if everyone was OK. He said yes but her car was totaled.  We must have amazed looks on our faces when he told us that our camper rolled over the hood of her car (that's what happens when you run into the side of a vehicle going 65 mph)!  Bottom line - no one was hurt, our camper is still functional and can be repaired, and it could have been a lot worse!!! We finally returned back on the beaten path and found ourselves passing Jackson Tn, Memphis, Little Rock, Texarkana, and finally Shreveport. We arrived at our RV park around 6, set up, and headed out to eat at 7. We wanted to experience some real Cajun food so we head over to a recommended restaurant,  Shanes. Gumbo, Jambalaya, and some good southern shrimp. The meal was excellent, and everyone was very nice. Last but not least was Andy's whole reason for coming down this far, and that was to see where the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs play and to check off his 45th state.

The planning continues!  We are forgoing camping in LasVegas and staying at a casino hotel. We did not have to disclose that we only play the nickel slots!

The countdown continues!  Lots of decisions to be made...whether to camp in 100+ degree heat in Las Vegas or stay in a hotel (the hotel room is actually cheaper), whether to travel I-5 (faster) or US 395 (slower but more scenic) in California, The Big Texan for breakfast or dinner? I'm sure we'll be changing our itinerary quite a bit!