Wednesday, August 2—Tom had not packed, but I mostly had, still it was 10:00 by the time we left the house. Tom wanted to get the life estate papers sent to Josiah before we left, so we had to go by Joey Hood’s office to pick them up. They were ready, and Cynthia was able to notarize them for us so we went by the post office to mail them. It was around 11:00 by the time we finally left Ackerman. We took a short nap but drove to Forest City, Arkansas, where we camped early—for us at the Dub’l R Rv Park and Campground for $28. It was an interesting place where the owner told us that he had built it about 10 sites at a time. The sites were nice and level, the landscaping was pleasant, but there was no bathroom. The owner told us that he didn’t want a bathroom because then he’d have to find someone to clean it and since this was his retirement “job” in which he only worked two hours a day, he didn’t want to complicate things. The next morning we found that he had been a banker for 25 years and then had a GM dealership for 12 years.
Thursday, August 3—I slept particularly well. I don’t remember getting up even once after going to sleep, and we both slept until 6:30. Tom got up and fixed his breakfast while I dozed until 7:00 and then got up to do my exercises. By the time I finished, Zoe was awake so I took her for a walk. We went by the post office in Forest City to mail a book I had sold on ebay. We first stopped at the old post office, but after realizing our mistake, we easily found the new one by following the directions of our campground host. We were back on I40 by about 9:30.. I drove until about 11:30 when we stopped at a Lowe’s for gas, coffee, and cappuccino. We had thought about stopping there for lunch, but it was too crowded so we continued on about 30 miles to the next rest stop where we had lunch and rested for awhile. Tom drove after lunch, and I rested in the back—some of the time with Zoe. Campgrounds are few and far between out here, but we found a KOA about ten miles past Checotah, Oklahoma. ($34.65). There are animals here (fowls so far) and they are driving Zoe crazy. We stopped in Checotah for a few groceries, and I cooked supper again.
Friday, August 4—Sydney Smith’s and Obama’s birthdays. We were up and moving very early for us. We were on the road slightly after 8:30. I drove first for couple of hours and through Oklahoma City. Tom drove until lunch, which we had at a Lowe’s. We didn’t take naps, but kept driving so that we made it all the way to Tucumcari to stay at the KOA that we have stayed at before several times and to eat supper at Del’s, one of the places in which we learned to enjoy Southwest cuisine. We had met a Canadian from Ontario when we were checking in at the KOA. He was motorcycling through part of the US. When we came back from supper I was letting Zoe enjoy the small dog fenced area when he came by and we started talking. His name is Charles Senor and we exchanged contact information. He is from Jamaica originally. He is hoping to get to Mississippi sometime. He was 50 years old and worked at a school district in communications. Zoe decided she was ready to go to bed and the mosquitoes were becoming bad so we went to the RV.
Saturday, August 5—The night was not one of our best even through we had a delightful meal at Del’s last night. Our refrigerator does not seem to be working well on gas, and the air conditioner froze during the night so Tom turned it off. I turned it back on when I got up in the early morning, but neither of us slept well. Maybe we ate too much! This morning, Charles came by to say goodbye and took a selfie of us. We were on the road by 9:00. We stopped for gas and lunch at Cline’s Corner—a tourist stop that offered the largest bathrooms on I40 and homemade fudge. I barely resisted the fudge. We parked in their enormous parking lot and ate lunch in the RV. We decided to drive on to Bloomfield, Utah rather than stop right past Albuquerque because of our early start we had time. We stopped at Moore’s RV park. It had once been a KOA, but no more. It is very pleasant although not at all crowded, but has the largest dog run other than EZ Daze in Coldwater that we’ve seen. Before hooking up we went to the Farmers’ Market grocery store for a few groceries. It was interesting to see all the necessities for Southwest cooking. After supper we took Zoe to the dog run to play for a few minutes before bed. ($38) It rained a little, and it was cool enough that we slept without the air conditioning.
Sunday, August 6—When I took Zoe out to the dog run there was another dog, a Schnauzer(?) and the woman with him said he would be happy to have company so Zoe joined him. They played a little, but mostly ignored each other after the initial greeting. We took time to dump the tanks and left later—around 10:00. We had decided to go to see Four Corners and arrived there about 12:00. The drive through the northern corner of New Mexico had some breathtaking gullys of rocks. One of the most unusual formations was Ship Rock outside of Ship Rock, the town.
At the Four Corners there is a memorial on the ground showing the four states. 
Around the memoria
l is a series of stalls for people to sell things—I assume all Navaho since the memorial is managed by the Navaho. We bought a beautiful vase and a Christmas ornament made by one of the saleswomen and Tom found a mug. 
We had our picture taken by a man at the monument and tried to take a selfie of our feet on it. Our bodies somewhat got in the way. I was impressed that people politely lined up to take pictures with apparently no supervision. We then ate our lunch out in the RV. We started for Moab. There were some very interesting rock formations and canyons along the drive. Since we were a day early for our reservation, we tried to call and see if we could get a place a day early, but the service was terrible and we never were able to get through. We had trouble finding the Archview RV Camp, but finally did find it and had no trouble getting a site. They don’t seem to be at all full.
Monday, August 7—We found that we could pick up our rental car a day early and that we could bring Zoe to Karen’s Canine Kennel early so we left around 9:00 and took Zoe first. I wanted to watch as she entered the play area with the other dogs, but they didn’t want us to because they said she might be confused about wanting to stay with us. Zoe was pawing at the door where the other dogs were although she did surprise me by turning to go with us when we left. We then went for the rental car and found that my “cheapest, smallest” had been upgraded to a BMW convertible. After we had the car we took the RV back to the campground and left it and went back to Moab where we had lunch at the Moab Diner. I had beef with a green pepper sauce and Tom had a BLT. We sat at a big table at which another couple was sitting. They were Al and Anna Scow and lived in Moab. They said they had been running a carpet, tile, etc. store for 23 years and seemed to know everything about Moab. Among other things they said that the Zip line was fun so after lunch we stopped by the Zip line business and I signed up to go at 2:30. Tom didn’t want to go so I drove him back to the RV and left him. I made up the fourth person in the excursion and four was the minimum so they were happy to have me. The other three were a family: Trent, Betsy, and Brady. Our guides were Michael and Scott. The trip up was about 20 minutes in one of these rough territory vehicles they use. It was fun, but very rough. We rode six zip lines and then had the same trip down.
(Click on the image to see more zip line pictures.)
The guides were very professional and helpful. Unfortunately I rediscovered that I’m not good at going uphill or with my balance, but both guides and Trent helped me through it. Riding the zip lines was exhilarating. When it was over, I went back to the RV and took a shower before we left at 7:00 to go up to the Sunset Grill. This was the home of Charlie Steen, who discovered uranium here and made a fortune. The Grill overlooks the town and supposedly has a beautiful sunset. We sat inside, but could see the rocks, and I didn’t see that much of a sunset. However, while we were waiting to be seated, we were told that another couple had said they would be happy for us to join them at their table so we did. They were Jim and Vicki Wilmouth from Florida. It turned out that we had many similarities. Tom and Jim had both been in Korea for a year and both had overcome smoking and drinking. After supper we stopped at a grocery store for milk and soy milk and returned to the RV. It was after 10:00 by the time we returned—late for us.
Tuesday, August 8—There was a little rain during the night. We made extra effort to start early and left for the Arches NP a little after 8:00. When we reached the park we found that we were too early to have to pay and that the Visitors’ Center didn’t open until 9:00 so we followed the advice that Jim gave us last night and drove all the way to the top before stopping to see things. The drive showed red rocks, bluffs, “sand” dunes, and a few arches.
At the top—where Landscape Arch was we parked and walked the 0.8 mile “easy” trail to the arch. Unfortunately, easy is no longer easy for me, but we made it.
(Click on the image to see pictures from the walk.)
When we came back to the campground, we decided to head back to the RV immediately to have time for lunch before our Jet boat excursion at 1:00. We were supposed to be there at 12:45 and were only slightly late because we didn’t see the starting point when we first passed it. The boat held 28 people and was full. Our guide was Andrew, and he did an excellent job showing good knowledge and a nice dry sense of humor. Tom and I both had a sense that we were descending as the boat went down the river.
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(Click on the image to see more jet boat pictures.)
The ride lasted three hours and we were both exhausted at 4:00 when we returned to shore. We returned to the RV and rested slightly before going to do the laundry. After the laundry we ate the last two frozen meals we had and went to bed.
Wednesday, August 9—Another early day! We weren’t as early as wanted, but were on the way to Canyonlands by 8:30. The entrance to the park is less than a mile from our campground. This time the Visitor Center was open so we stopped there and asked about what to see. The Ranger pointed out several viewpoints that were nice. Our favorite stop was a short hike to see Mesa Arch. The trail was somewhat indistinct, but the view was worth the hike.
This time I had my walking sticks and did much better. Also, it was cool and the walk was only a quarter of a mile. We started to hike up to see the Upheaval Dome, which we discovered was .3 mile, but decided against it. It was a sharp climb on what looked like a rough trail and it was getting hot by then. We did go to the end viewpoint, Grand Viewpoint Overlook and it was nice.
We drove out of Canyonlands and turned in to see the Dead Horse Point State Park, which Andrew on the boat tour had recommended and pointed out to us from the Colorado. The view there was spectacular and included the Colorado River. 
(Click on the image for more pictures of Dead Horse State Park.)
By then it was about 1:30 and we were tired and hungry so we returned to the RV for lunch and a nap before going into Moab to look at a fossil shop we’d seen and a few of the others shops (I did while Tom mostly stayed in the car.). Finally we went to the grocery store and got food for tonight and the next night. This time we bought a cooked turkey breast and some salads from the deli rather than my actually cooking. We came back to the RV, ate, and relaxed before going to bed. We have practically no cell phone reception and the only Internet we have is on wifi. Luckily the campground wifi is pretty good. We’ve enjoyed driving the BMW convertible in the mornings with the top down, but it is hard to get into and has very little room.
Thursday, August 10—Again we tried to get ready relatively quickly and were a little after 9:00 leaving to return the BMW and pick up Zoe. Karen at the dog kennel said that Zoe did very well. There was a pit bull mix who became her best friend, but the pit bull had already left. ($120). Zoe rode in the passenger’s lab almost exclusively after we picked her up. After we picked up Zoe we stopped at the grocery store for a few things we had forgotten yesterday and then started toward Capitol Reef National Park. The driving was really desolate until Hanksville. As Tom said much of what we went through was just “pale”. Around Hanksville (Click here for pictures of the drive.) there were some really pretty scenery and this was about the only civilization we saw.
We arrived a little after 1:00, visited the Visitor Center and were told that there was a large parking area about two miles in on the Scenic Drive. We went there to stop and eat our lunch before taking the Scenic Drive (Click here for more pictures of the Scenic Drive.). 
The red rocks are even more striking here than at the Arches to me and we saw evidence of floods in the gullys.
We drove the entire eight mile length of the Scenic Drive and then returned to see the Gifford House, which was built in the 1800’s and lived in in turn by three families. It was a little disappointing because it was a little history and a lot of selling pies, other food, and souvenirs. The blacksmith shop also wasn’t too interesting since all we saw was a tractor. The barn was somewhat interesting and, I think, was still a working barn. We drove on to the Hickman Bridge path and started up it, but only made about .3 out of .9 mile before I gave out. From the parking lot at Hickman Bridge trail head we could see the Capitol Dome although we had to ask the rangers to tell us where it was. We then drove back about a mile to see the petroglyphs. Click here to see the petroglyph pictures. They are hard to see and may need to be enlarged.) I was able to see several, but Tom couldn’t see them. We then drove on to Torrey and our campground, Thousand Lakes RV, and were very happy to be here. When I started my shower I discovered that there was not much hot water. The hot water heater seems not to be working so I wrote Bob to see if he knew of a repair shop in Buffalo.
Friday, August 11—We didn’t hurry getting up, but knew we were dumping the tanks. Unfortunately, we had a miscommunication about the black water hose and spilled a little bit. We need to get a screwdriver to tighten one of the hose fastenings. We just barely made the 11:00 check out time, but are on the way to Bryce now. We reached Bryce and Rosy’s Campground after 1:00 and had lunch in the RV and then rested. The campground is huge, and our site is almost as far from the office and the street as it could be. They said they were packed, but we still saw vacant sites. Zoe was to be picked up at 5:00 in the campground by Pawzdogz people so we went to the General Store at Bryce City. We were told later by a shuttle driver that Rosy’s Store, Campground, etc. was about as old as the park and is still in the family that founded it. They petitioned to have this area incorporated and succeeded so now it is Bryce Canyon City. At a little after 5:00, Lorena came to pick Zoe up. She sat in the RV and talked with us for awhile and seemed very nice and to be truly interested in her dogs. She drove a bright yellow Honda hatchback with Pawzdogz logo. She is returning Zoe on Sunday morning at 7:00. After Zoe left we had supper from the food from the General Store and went to bed. ($50)
Saturday, August 12—We made an effort to get started early because today was our day to ride the shuttle and see Bryce Canyon Park. I did get in touch with Camping World in Salt Lake City, and they might be able to replace our water heater. We drove to a parking lot at the main shuttle stop and found that there was plenty of rain. The weather was beautiful, but we had seen that rain was expected sometime after noon. Our first shuttle driver was amusing, but we lost him when we got off at the Visitor Center where we saw a video of the park and looked around for mugs.
(Click on the image for more pictures of Bryce Canyon)
The shuttle then went all the way to the end of its run at Bryce Point and then started back. We got off at Inspiration Point and then at Sunset Point. From Sunset Point we walked a .5 mile trail to Sunrise Point. I’m using my walking sticks to be careful about falling since my balance seems bad. This trail had very little climbing so I did well on it. As we reached the end of the trail the rain started falling a little. By the time we had caught the shuttle it was pouring and before long it started hailing and we had a large hailstorm with hail accumulating on the ground. 
When we reached the shuttle stop were we had first boarded the shuttle the ground was mostly white and very slippery. We waited at the stop until the hail stopped and most of the rain had quit before going to the RV and returning to the RV park for lunch and a nap.
A little after 4:00 we started on the Scenic Drive—an 18 mile drive almost to the end of the park were there was a Bristle Cone Trail. I very much wanted to see some Bristle Cone Pines so we took the trail. It was a one mile loop with supposedly about 200 feet of elevation, and was not too hard. We walked through pines and junipers and the weather was delightful. It was probably between 60-70 degrees. At the end of the trail we were up high on a canyon rim and saw the Bristle Cones. There was one that was supposed to be 1600 years old, but it looked dead. There were several smaller ones.
(Click on the image for more pictures of the Bristle Cone walk.)
They mostly looked almost dead, but apparently they weren’t. On the way back from the end of the Scenic Drive, we made one stop at the Natural Bridge—which turned out to
be an arch rather than a bridge.
We then went to the General Store where I bought shower shoes and some glue, and we picked up some chocolate covered vanilla ice cream patties. As we left its started raining again, but we returned to the campground, Tom I hooked up, and I started supper. About halfway cooking some chicken breasts in the microwave, the electricity went out. It turned out that we had let the gasoline fall below a quarter of a tank, so we couldn't use the generator so I had to finish the chicken on the stove—which meant a pan to wash. However, supper turned out well, and about 9:00 the electricity came back on. I decided on a sponge bath rather than going to the bathhouse. I miss our hot water heater!
Sunday, August 13—At 7:00 Audrey brought Zoe back from Pawzdogz. ($35) Zoe seemed very happy to be back, but she also seems exhausted. She has slept soundly since she’s been back. Tom came back from his shower saying that when he left the shower he saw a young man who appeared to be praying as the Muslims do. He said the young man was dressed in blue jeans, but had removed his shoes. We took our time getting ready to go. One of the men with the youth group came by as we were leaving to ask what voltage our battery was. It seems he needed someone with a 24 volt battery to give their bus a jump start. We got directions at the campground office and decided to head north and take I15 partway rather than go south and go through the tunnel in which we would have to wait for a one way trip. The tunnel was built in the 1920’s and is too old and small for modern RV’s so they stop traffic and lead RV’s through in a one way line. Before we left Bryce City, we stopped to fill the RV with gas and then stopped at the Rock Shop we had noticed earlier. They had beautiful displays of petrified wood that had been polished and had outstanding colors. I bought a bear fetish made of granite and another piece of nice rock. We drove through Red Canyon in which their were two short tunnels so we did get to go through tunnels! 
(Click on picture to see more of the Drive.)
Then we drove through Penguitch, which was rather picturesque and had houses made with red brick. Almost all the other houses we’ve been seeing looked as if they were made of brown stone—maybe it’s concrete. We were a little rushed getting Zoe to her next boarding place, Doggie Dude Ranch, in Rockville. I called and talked with Julie and she said to come on even if we were a little late. We made it right about 4:00 so we weren’t really that late. Zoe seemed quite happy to go with Julie when we left her, but she had slept soundly until then with only a short potty break or two. We stopped at Sol Foods in Zion to buy groceries. We then drove on to Springdale and the Zion RV Campground.
I cooked supper. I tried to take a shower right after supper, but there was only one shower working and about five people waiting, so I left and came back about 8:00 and was able to get a shower. We went to bed.
Monday, August 14—After getting up, we took the Springdale shuttle to Zion—only a few miles—and then went to the Visitor Center in Zion.
We took the Zion shuttle into the park from there. There was a line and about a 30 minute wait for that shuttle, but no waits in line for the shuttles inside the park. We got off at the Museum stop—the first stop—and looked at the video and the exhibits. I discovered some unique necklaces made from pieces of copper that had been treated with fire to change the color, and Tom bought me one. Tom found a couple of mugs he liked, but we decided to buy them on the way back. We got back on the shuttle and rode to stop 5, Zion Lodge, and were happy to find that they had food.
I had a cheeseburger and Tom had a black bean burger. Since we had forgotten to bring any food with us, were were really relieved to find some. We needed the energy! As we were eating I noticed a woman who looked as if she needed a place to sit so I motioned that she should join us. Tom had gone in to get us some ice cream. They did join us, Steve and Debbie, she was a physical therapist and had been on the faculty of one of the Universities in Minnesota. He had made braces, especially pediatric ones. It was lucky they had joined me because Debbie mentioned that there was a very long food line , but a short ice cream line. Tom had been gone quite awhile so I went in and showed him where the ice cream was. He had not noticed the separate line. We then hiked up to the lower Emerald Pool. (Click here to see Emerald Pool hike pictures.) which was a 0.6 mile hike—largely up it seemed. On the way down from the pond we started talking with Tom Leahy and his wife. It turned out that her grandfather, Thom, had been a homesteader in a Buffalo and her family still had the property which they use for family gatherings. I’ve been using my walking poles a lot and they are very helpful. I’ve also found that people are quite nice about giving me a seat on the shuttle when they see the sticks and how wobbly I am. We then decided that we would ride the shuttle all the way to the end and hike the Riverwalk Trail. This is a 2.2 mile round trip and was supposed to be easy. It was in that it was paved all the way and had no major hills, but unfortunately I’m discovering that I simply don’t have much stamina. We made it all the way to the end and could see sort of where the narrows were, but we did not have shoes we could wade in so we weren't able to get in the Virgin River and walk down the Narrows.
(Click on the image for more pictures of the Riverwalk.)
The canyon starts out wide and then becomes very narrow—thus called the Narrows. One of the best hikes is to walk down the river some distance as the canyon continues to narrow. The way back to the shuttle stop was slightly easier since it was more down than up, but I was really tired by the time we made it. We rode the shuttle to the Visitors’ Center, where Tom bought his mugs and I bought some postcards. I had forgotten to send the grandchildren cards until now. We then rode the Springdale shuttle to the stop for the grocery store. Tom walked to the grocery store for milk while I waited at the shuttle stop for him. We returned to the campground on the shuttle. We had left the air conditioning off, so the RV was hot, but it cooled quickly. I packed up my shower things and put on my bathing suit thinking I’d swim for awhile and then shower, but the water was too cold for me, so I just took a shower and returned to the RV where we ate a very light supper and soon went to bed. ($50)
Tuesday, August 15—Today is Zoe’s birthday, I think, and we forgot to tell her Happy Birthday! She is four years old. We took our time leaving the Zion Campground because we couldn’t pick Zoe up at the Doggy Dude Ranch until 9:00. ($72) It was actually about 10:00 when we got there. During the morning we called the Casper Events Center and arranged to have a viewing site for the eclipse. We were a little surprised to find that they were reserving places. Bob had said that he heard that they were expecting 1,000,000 people in Casper, but the Casper newspaper said 35,000, which sounds more reasonable. We ate lunch in a rest area and rested for awhile and then drove on to Salt Lake City. We managed to hit Salt Lake City during rush hour and the traffic was horrendous, but we made it to the Salt Lake City KOA by 6:00. I asked for a site near the rest room and we are right next to it. I saw later that it is a wheel chair accessible site so they had to wait until we got here to assign it to us. The showers are really nice with a bench to put things on, three hooks, and a shelf. My only problem was keeping the water temperature regulated. ($55)
Wednesday, August 16—We started relatively early, about 9:00, after deciding to wait one more day to dump. We discovered that Zoe had diarrhea so I gave here an Imodium type pill. Our objective today was to go to Promontory Point, the Golden Spike National Monument, which is where the last spike was driven May 10, 1869, in the rail line connecting the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads so that there was rail traffic across the continent for the first time. The hills we passed going north out of Salt Lake City appeared misty. We couldn’t figure out why, but thought later maybe because of dust in the air. Growing things still seem to have to be irrigated. We saw the video at the Memorial and looked at the exhibits after which we bought Tom’s mug, a book about building the rail lines, a rabbit for my collection, a puzzle, and CD of railroad songs. After leaving the Visitor Center we drove to the barn where two steam locomotives are kept.
(Click on the image for more pictures of the Memorial.)
(Click on the image for more pictures of the locomotive barn.)
Unfortunately because of a cracked rail, they were not running the locomotives, but we did get to look at them and had one of the engineers tell us about all the workings. A very nice woman—probably a volunteer, but maybe a ranger—offered to hold Zoe while I looked. We left the Memorial and headed out to Buffalo. We should have plenty of time to make it by the 18th. We are to stop in Casper and pick up our ticket for the eclipse. We didn’t call ahead for an RV site today, but just drove to Evanston, Wyoming, and asked for one at Phillips RV. We were lucky that they had one. I took a shower in the bath house again, but it makes me determined to get our hot water heater fixed. ($35)
(Click on the image for more pictures of the drive.)
Thursday, August 17—I slept late. I looked at the clock and thought it said 6:40 when it was actually 7:40. We were somewhat late getting started, but we did dump—although with problems. We were a couple of minutes past the 11:00 check out time leaving, but no one flagged us down to say we were late. We started toward Casper and Buffalo. When we saw the town Green River, we thought of all the fossils that come from that area and decided to stop and see what was there. They had a really nice Tourist Information Center and were pushing a festival that they had the next two days. There was a statue in the yard of two giant men, and when we took Zoe for a walk and passed that statue she started barking and never did quit barking as longas she was any where near the statue. We ate lunch in their parking lot and then drove to the city museum, which was well done and interesting although there wasn’t much about fossils. We then drove on to Rawlins and stayed at the Western Hills Campground. I called ahead because it is getting so close to the eclipse that we thought they might be full. They weren’t full, but they almost were. They had nice, clean, and well-equipped showers, but the Internet was awful and the AT&T is also bad so we feel cut off from the world. ($31)
Friday, August 18—We only have about 200 miles to go to Buffalo, but we are picking up our parking pass for the eclipse in Casper when we go through the city. We had a little trouble finding our way from Rawlins because we didn't trust Gary. We forgot that we didn't continue on I80. The drive has lots of open land with some hills. We've crossed the Continental Divide at least twice today, and Tom said he thought we had crossed it at least twice yesterday also. We stopped at a Martin’s Cove interpretive center that included a ranch house built by the Sun family, Catholics, who sold land to the Mormons, but who rancher there for over 100 years. the ranch house now houses an interesting display of the Mormon treks.
Picking up our ticket at the Events Center was very easy. There was no crowd, and we had good directions of where to go for the ticket. We stayed parked long enough to eat lunch before driving on to Buffalo. We were delighted to find that Claire was still with Bob and Helaine with her RV. She had sent the children home by air with the nanny so that they could start school and had stayed to see us. She has really personalized her RV! Helaine had fixed a stew for us that was very good. She, Bob, and Claire ate their usual cheese and crackers. Claire had her dog, Henry, with her so Zoe had Bess to play wth and Henry not to play with. He apparently doesn’t enjoy playing with others. He is an older dog—I think 14. We had met him ten years ago when we visited Claire in LA. We all went to be early.
Saturday, August 19—Claire was using the guest house, so Tom, Zoe, and I slept in the log cabin. It is very comfortable with two bunk beds. I did put a towel over Zoe’s kennel to make it darker for her and to keep the air conditioning from blowing directly on her. Zoe was eager to get our so I opened the door and let her our. It appeared that she was heading for the house, but when I did reach the house later, I found that she had taken off over the next hill. Claire saw something running down the path and over the hill which she first thought was a deer, but then realized that it was a dog with flopping ears.
I did nothing much all day, but after a delicious lunch fixed by Helaine, Tom walked into town. He found Lickedy Split for some ice cream and he also got lost. He was tired when he returned. After a light evening snack, we went to be early again.
Sunday, August 20—Tom and I tried to go to the Episcopal Church. We borrowed a car from Helaine, dressed, went down town to the church, and found it locked so we went grocery shopping instead. We had another delicious meal by Helaine about two o'clock—their usual time—and took a nap. Later our evening snack was peach ice cream that Helaine had made. Claire had originally planned to start home on Sunday, but she changed her mind and decided to see the eclipse with her parents before starting home. We all took some time getting our RV’s ready for the trip home and then had another early night. Zoe has had a wonderful time running around free and playing with Bess. Henry has gotten used to her and doesn’t growl at her every time she comes close.
Monday, August 21—Tom and I got up early for me especially. We had decided to leave at 6:00 AM, and actually left at 6:15 so that was good. Bob was already up so we were able to tell him goodbye. I gave him my extra pair of eclipse glasses so that they could watch the eclipse. I was a little bit worried that Zoe would want to stay rather than come with us, but she jumped right into the RV when we opened the door. We had practically no traffic on the way to the Event Center and no trouble at all being directed to our parking lot. The lot never was even half full although it looked as if the other lots—those for cars and the one for overnighters in RV’s were full.
(Click on the image for more eclipse pictures.)
We walked around the Arena Center first. Zoe walked with us and did well with the leash, but was very tired. We then decided to put our chairs on the knoll closest to our RV as shown above. We watched the first of the ellipse and then took a short break to rest and cool off in the RV before going back out. There were children riding bicycles and motorized scooters while doing some tricks in the parking lot and amusing people. Zoe sat or laid down right by us. When it began to get cold, Zoe wanted in my lap. 
I think she was cold. The totality lasted slightly over two minutes—which seemed very short. The lights in town did come on, but it never was completely dark. I tried to take pictures through the eclipse glases without much luck and then took a couple of the total eclipse withough glasses. Someone was shooting fireworks, but neither Tom nor I saw them. We ate lunch before leaving, but we didn’t really watch the moon shadow move away from the sun. Our exit from the Arena Center was easy—once we found the proper exit—and there was little traffic getting out of Casper, but shortly afterwards the traffic increased to epic proportions and we were creeping and stopping for about three hours. We had the air conditioning on, and Tom wasn't really watching the temperature. In fact he said that he was watching the wrong gauge. An alarm went off and he could see that the temperature was too hot although there was no overflow of fluid so he pulled off on the side of the highway. We were there for awhile when a couple of sheriff’s deputies, Pete and Ira, came to check on us. They were very nice and helpful. While we were talking with them, a highway patrolman came up. All together they tried to get us to a place where we could turn around and head back to Douglas where there were mechanics. It didn’t work. They could not get us through the traffic so they took us to a turnoff and said we could wait there until we cooled off. I asked them if we could stay overnight and they said we weren’t supposed to, but that they would not ticket us—I thought, but Tom wasn't sure of it. They did tell us that they estimated about 270,000 extra cars on the road for the eclipse. When we first parked, a woman came up and told us that she thought she was going to run out of gas, but that the highway patrolmen told her there was a gas station only three miles up the road so she was going to try to make it. Another man, I think his name was Greg Furman (sp) came up and offered to look at the engine. He said he saw no real problems—no belts broken and plenty of fluid. His wife, Leslie, also came over. They werefrom Fort Collins. After about three hours we decided to try to keep going. The engine had cooled completely. The traffic was no better, but we kept the air conditioning off and Tom watch the gauge and had no problems except that the traffic was still awful. The only redeeming feature that we saw was that everyone seemed to be driving responsibly, but the troopers had told us that there had been several crashes up ahead. We had no more trouble with the engine, but it was after 8:00 before we were able to leave I25 and take highway 26. Since many of the people on I25 were going to Cheyenne and Denver, the traffic dropped to almost nothing, but the only town of any size was Torrington. I had tried earlier to get an RV site with no luck, so when we reached Torrington, we tried to find the police station to ask where we might park. We didn’t find it and were exhausted, so when we saw a large parking lot with a Welcome to Torrington sign, we parked and spent the night. No one bothered us so we had a peaceful night although with our hot water tank broken, we were unable to take showers.
Tuesday, August 22—We were up by about 6:30 and decided to eat breakfast where we were. Even with breakfast and walking Zoe, we started by a little after 8:00. I wanted to go to the post office to get stamps for grandchildren postcards and mail them so we did stop at the post office and had to wait until 8:30 when it opened. After that I started driving on highway 26. Zoe had fun with a blanket.
I drove for about an hour and a half and then Tom drove. We had lunch in a rest area where the trucks had only parallel parking. We were lucky there was a space at the end, but it was harder for trucks and RV’s after the line filled up. We were about 40 miles from North Platte. We then drove on to North Platte and visited the Golden Spike Tower from which we could overlook the Bailey Yard, named for Ed Bailey, which is the largest railroad yard in the U.S. and maybe in the world. We watch engines drop cars off on the two “humps” as they sorted the cars for where they would be going. We watched a little of the orphans of the trains on video and then left after buying a mug and a book about the orphans. Tom suggested that we find an RV campground in North Platte rather than pushing on, and it happened that there was a good one right at the interstate exit where we were. We stayed at the Holiday RV Park. ($29). Thepeople at the desk were nice, the bathrooms clean, and the park attractive. We particularly liked having trees again! At the turn to the park, there was an Applebee’s and Tom suggested that we go there for supper. It’s only our fourth meal out so we are doing pretty well. The meal was actually better than I had expected, and it was nice to eat out. We returned to the campground, hooked up, and walked Zoe. I then went to the bath house to take a shower. It was clean, but I did have some trouble adjusting the hot/cold water
(Click on the image above for more pictures of Bailey Yard.)
Wednesday, August 23—This started out as a very leisurely day. Tom took Zoe out to walk at about 7:00 as I was getting up. It was so dark that I had trouble believing that it was really that late. I did all my exercises while Tom and Zoe stayed in the front of the RV and Tom fixed Zoe breakfast which she ate enthusiastically. Tom wanted to look at land records so we stopped in Lexington for him to search the records at the courthouse.
I walked in with him and then left to walk Zoe and wait in the RV. The downtown has beautiful brick streets.
Tom came back to the RV about 2:00 and he ate lunch—I had already had mine, but joined him with V8 juice. We then left on our trip home and decided to stop at the Double Nickel RV Campground in Waco, Nebraska. It was right off the highway. It was bought about three years ago by a young couple who have been remodeling and seem to be doing an excellent job. The sites are large and mostly level with many trees. There are a nice swimming pool, a miniature golf area, horseshoes, a net for something, and lots of swings. Also, best of all, there is a nice fenced pet area. We were able to play frisbee with Zoe before supper and after supper. I took my shower after supper while Tom sat on one of the swings and watched the sunset. The campground is on top of a hill with a nice view in all directions. ($39.77)
Thursday, August 24—We were up about as usual and drove toward home. We ate lunch at a rest area. When we drove through Kansas City the traffic was very slow apparently at least in part due to an accident.
We left the Interstate just at the point of the accident because we thought it would be faster to travel another road. Since we had just passed the accident, that may have been a mistake, but the traffic did move faster on the other road—highway 71. We drove on to Clinton for the night and stopped at the Cozy Corner RV Park. ($27 in cash). There we had a horrible accident when the entire drain for the black water tank fell off. The black water tank drained on the ground. We washed it off the concrete as best we could and picked up what we could, but the smell was bad. We’re hoping that the smell will be gone by morning. In the meantime, we had to go to the bathhouse during the night to use the toilet. Luckily we had been placed right next to the bathhouse, but the code to the restrooms was relatively difficult to make work.
Friday, August 25—We each had to get up twice during the night to walk out to the bathroom outside. The area where the tank spilled and we tried to wash up no longer smelled, so we didn’t say anything about it. We decided that if we couldn’t get the tank fixed, we would get a hotel room for tonight. At 8:00 sharp, I called the RV repair shop I’d seen advertised, Wilder RV. They told me to come in and they would look at it to see if they could fix it. At first they had thought that we wanted them to come to the campground to fix it, but that would have cost an extra $100 and I though meant that they wouldn’t have time to fix it. We drove about seven miles back to their business in Clinton. They took it into their shop shortly after we arrived and by about 1o0:30 they had it fixed. They did not put a bracket on it, but I don’t know whether they should or not. I think I’ll call Vince at Lazy Daze to find out. We immediately headed home. We got as far as a Walmart parking lot in Springfield where we had lunch and took real naps. I think we were both tired from not sleeping too we'll because we knew we had to go outside for the bathroom during the night. After lunch we started home again. This time we made it as far as the nearest Starbucks! Zoe went with us to sit outside while we started our drinks and then start for home again. There were some nice looking bridges on the way out of Springfield.
I had seen an RV campground advertised on the Internet in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas right over the border from Missouri, but although we followed the directions for getting there, we couldn't find it. When I called, they said they were closed until April so it wouldn’t have helped if we had found it. We saw two women looking horrified at us as we drove into the town and now we somewhat understood! We drove on to Hardy, a few miles down the road, and stopped at a city park that advertised RV camping. I had quite a few people parked and an attendant, Rod, who came out to see about helping us and letting us pay. We are backed toward the Spring River and a paved walkway for pedestrians. There is a perfectly good bath house, but rather than take a shower, I took a sponge bath and look forward to being home tomorrow.
Saturday, August 26—During the night we heard several trains since we are right next to the railroad tracks, but we slept well. We had only 302 miles to go until home, so we weren’t in a hurry. We decided since we hadn’t eaten out much and never at a Cracker Barrel to stop in Southhaven for a Cracker Barrel lunch. We made it home by 4:00 and unloaded the RV. Zoe knew exactly where we were it seemed. I had a nice hot bath, Tom fixed himself some soup, I had a glass of milk, and we both went to sleep relatively early.(