A WINTER'S DRIVE

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.My little horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse nearBetween the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year.He gives his harness bells a shakeTo ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound's the sweepOf easy wind and downy flake.The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost



Iowa: Home of rolling hills, many cattle, John Wayne’s birthplace at Winterset (http://www.johnwaynebirthplace.org/). We also went through Madison County ,but alas, Meryl Streep was nowhere to be found, and we didn’t see any covered bridges. These are a few things we saw cruising down I-80 with the temperature between 1 and 6 degrees at 12:48 CST.

Tuesday afternoon we left home and made it to Coralville, Iowa, during which time the temperature plummeted from 50 degrees at home to 0 at bedtime. Through the night the wind chill index was minus 35. We had a cozy little room at a Hampton Inn. By the time we hit the bed, I was totally exhausted – because before we left, we cleaned the whole house. Packing with a headache – migraine is no fun.

Family; Sorry we didn’t get to see everyone before we left. During the last several days we were really in a time crunch. We will be blogging with pictures and calling to keep in touch. As Willie Nelson says, we’re “on the road again”. What makes me drive further and further away from my family which I adore? As Tim McGraw and Faith Hill sing “It’s your love” that keeps me on the road with your dad.
That’s about it for now. So far, it’s been a very eventful trip as we came through 60 mile/hour winds, rain, sleet, and snow. And yes Greg, we’re trying to "Keep it between the navigational beacons." - love that song!!

On Wednesday, because we missed an exit, we ended up driving over 560 miles (a lot for us). That put us ahead of our goal. We went across Iowa and into Nebraska.. Nebraska… a more boring version of Iowa. We ended up in North Platte. A couple of interesting things in Nebraska. We’re driving along and all of a sudden near Grand Island, there’s this big archway across the interstate. It is a memorial. The Great North Platte River Road Archway (http://www.archway.org/) Then although it was getting dark (at 6:15 on the western side of the central time zone) we saw that we passed an original pony express post at Gothenburg, Nebraska. Speaking of Gothenburg, that is where my mom Beatrice taught in a one room schoolhouse. So we drug into another Hampton Inn to crash after driving further than we had planned. There is a whole world out here that God created and it is such a blessing to be able to see it!!! God is good!!!!!!!