Saturday, April 25, 2015

Washington DC or Bust!!!

This particular trip had been planned for several years. Dave was to have been my travel partner. Our first trip...to go to Washington DC to see the Cherry Blossoms that I had seen in a painting on my neighbors wall when I was ten.  When he passed away last year it just happened to be Christie's birthday.  I wanted to do something special for her this year, so I went ahead with my plans to go to Washington DC with her.  Her birthday this year fell on Easter Sunday.  What a special day to celebrate a birthday on!

On Wednesday, March 25th I rolled out of the driveway with three dogs in tow and headed North to Kansas City, MO. in Izzy with Libby in tow.  The day was grey and thankfully not too much wind. It cost me a little over $24.00 for the Kansas turnpike. Having to stop about every 100 miles or so slowed my progress, but the dogs were thankful for the stops.  Those of you who have a TOAD that is an automatic, know you have to stop to oil the gears and to charge the battery, otherwise you will arrive with a dead battery. Lesson learned the hard way. 
Truck stop on I-35. Time to walk dogs and put
car through its gears and charge the battery. 


The night before leaving Ben noticed that one of the lugs on my right rear tire was missing. I was assured that my tire would not fall off on the way.  

After a long day of travel I crashed at Christie's place feeling proud of myself that I had made it to KC with no problems.
Awesome place to eat!

Christie and I headed out the next morning to Liberty, MO to a little breakfast/lunch counter called Ginger Sue's.  We had the best service, the food was wonderful and our waitress awesome.  This place rocked!  I forgot to get pictures of what we had but it was really, really good!  Ginger Sue's is located one block west of the town square. 
Two of the girls that made our breakfast special!



I wanted to move the motor home up about 20 feet and dummy me forgot about the tow behind me with the brakes on. Oops! Thankfully no damage was done.  

It's amazing how fast you can get yourself into trouble...yep I did it...went to a place to get a new lug nut put on the coach, started the car and put it in neutral and away I went trusting my trusty new GPS.
I found the location with no hiccups, however when I got out of the coach and walked back towards the building I discovered I had left the car running and being one of these newer cars when moving it locks itself.  I ran back to the coach an hunted all over for the spare key...no luck! I had to call my tow service to have them come unlock the car to turn it off. They came out after about 30 minutes and was into the car in less than 1 minute. I felt like such a fool, however it made me have to think through all of the steps of getting on the road.  The people that I had come to see took pity on me, put the lug nut on and didn't charge me for it.  

Christie and I went and did some shopping for healthy snacks and I found a replacement for Cheetos's at KC's new Sprouts store. Boy are they GOOD! Trying to get them here in the Norman Sprouts store. 
These are so goooood!!!!


Later Christie introduced me to all the wonderful people she works out with at Crossfit Northland. They were having a special workout that was timed.  I liked the fact that it was very family friendly, besides I got to see what she does in her spare time. That girl works hard!

The next day, Friday was launch day and we had a lot to get ready still in order for us to leave for Washington DC. Christie made a wonderful Paleo Chicken salad with Chicken, celery, onion, cilantro and lime juice.  When getting ready to serve you add mashed avocado for for the dressing. It was so good!
She also made dates stuffed with cashews, wrapped in bacon and then baked until the bacon was crisp. Equally as good.  Great travel snack! 

The day came to and end and off to bed we went with a sense of anticipation. Our first mother/daughter trip was about to take place. 

By the way, I found the keys to the car. One set in my purse, even though I looked in there and dumped everything out and the other set in a pair of jeans that I had thrown in the coach.  They both have a certain resting spot now, thanks in part to the brain fart I had. 

Happy trails...