Some more Idaho 6/18/15-6/23/15

Just wanted to post some more things about our current visit in Idaho with Jamie's family. First I'll break down the family for you, you know, who is who. It's a bit overwhelming for me as I am an only child and basically grew up in a completely silent house...my mom and stepfather used to watch TV with the sound off LOL. I'm used to a lot of alone time, but being overwhelmed is worth it to be accepted by Jamie's wonderful family!!

So here they are (don't have pictures of each person, sorry.)

Michelle (Jamie's sister) and her husband Cliff.

the kids (they aren't really kids anymore lol)

Chris and his girlfriend Alex and his three girls: Brittany, Morgan and Chloe

Will and Allie with there son Nixon

Stephanie (that I only briefly met and haven't had chance to really get to talk to)

Taylor

Here's two videos of the girls doing the song from Pitch Perfect

Sorry about the video starting out "crooked." I promise I turn the camera LOL. Hey, I'm a scrapbooker, not a videographer!!

and here's a video of sweet little Nixon getting to ride in the wagon while his daddy (Will) pulls it around the yard with the lawn tractor

This was during our cookout for Father's day on the 20th.

Speaking of the Father's Day cookout...wow...tons of food and such a good time. Water balloon fights, fireworks, a small grass fire (put out with the hose that was at the ready near by.) 

I wish I had gotten more pictures, but I was busy having fun and yes, eating. There were hamburgers, salmon burgers, brats (yes, I made those lol) chicken; pasta salad, potato salad, 

chips and I think like 3 different types of dip. There was a HUGE chocolate cake and I made the "Better than Anything Cake" which disappeared as soon as I brought it out. I think I gained five pounds that day  alone!! 

It was an awesome day out and everyone had fun. It was nice to be part of a group/family like that again. Growing up in GA it was just my mom, stepdad and me. All my family was always in WI (and whoever wasn't in WI is spread out all over the country.) Anyway, it was awesome!!

Jamie started a patio for Michelle the last time he was here...he, Cliff and Will worked on it a bit before the cook out and yesterday they started working on it again.

He likes playing with his bucket and shovel!!! LOL!! Just kidding. I'll try to remember to get a picture of it finished so I can post it in another blog post.

Well, I'm off to find some more fun!! Won't be too difficult to do here!! (The house isn't as full today as some were only here for the weekend.)

Happy travels and enjoy your journey!
LeighAnn & Jamie

Hanging out in Idaho 6/18-6/22/15

So we got back to Nampa Idaho on Thursday, June 18th. It was late, maybe midnight-ish. We were worn out from all the driving (the 5 days to Washington and the 7 hour drive back from Washington to Idaho) and immediately crashed in bed when we got in. Father's Day weekend had big plans so Michelle and Cliff had a full house. We didn't even hear Chris and Alex come in at 1:30am we were sleeping so hard already LOL!!

So far we've had a FANTASTIC time!! 

Just like always...this shows Jamie being such a nice guy!! We had run into Target and when we were coming out we see a woman and a Target employee trying to wrestle a chair into the lady's car. The lady kept saying "I know it will fit." Well, after we got into the truck and were kind of just watching them, Jamie got out and actually cut a piece of rope off of our rope and took it over to them...

 Then he put the chair in the trunk and tied the truck lid down so that everything would be safe and sound for transport. What a sweetheart!! I'm so lucky!! 

Here is my niece Taylor...all Sophomores pose this way!! She is such a sweetheart and so has it together for her age!! I love her to pieces!! I won't even post about her voice right this second....You'll hear about that later!!

Jamie made sure everything was right with Jeep #1 that's been stored here since October. There is an issue with the upper and lower radiator hoses are dried out and we had to flush the radiator...but  we've already got the replacement hoses and will get everything installed within in the next few days.

We did drive it around a bit. The pressure plate needs to be replaced and the transmission still needs to be rebuilt, but it's road worthy enough to take it off the trailer if we would need to. Once we get it back to Augusta starts the real work on it!!

So Idaho has been amazing so far.

We'll keep you posted and I have more to share with you about our time here in Idaho, but I'll make you wait for it ;)

Happy travels and enjoy your journey. Be well!!

LeighAnn & Jamie

Congratulations Bodhi! 6/15/15

Well, the day arrived! The day the inspired the vacation/honeymoon and has us driving across the country like explorers from another country. I am SO proud of this "kid." I say "kid" because he is clearly not a kid anymore. He is in that tough place we all experienced when we graduated from high school. We were legally adults (except for the silly law about drinking alcohol until you're 21!) but we weren't even close to being real world adults. 

I know that a lot of people saw me as being "really put together" when I graduated from high school. In reality, I wasn't "really put together," I was "really told what to do." What appeared to some, to be my planning for my future and even knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up, was really being told that I was going to college for so long that I didn't know I had other options. And I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, I just picked the subject I liked the best. 

I'm telling you, while Bodhi doesn't have his future any more figured out than I did, this kid really does have his head on straight. He's not following the "sheep" to college, or trade school, or anywhere. He's thinking for himself about what he wants his future to hold. His vision of his future may not be conventional or traditional, or even probable, but it's HIS vision of HIS future and I'm so proud of him for being strong enough to be himself...especially right now...where he is in his life. 

Enough with all that deep crap!! On to the pictures and happy memories!

Here is Bodhi's senior class all sitting down right before they start handing out diplomas. 

Here is Bodhi receiving his diploma from the principle of his school. 

Check it out!! This Pitboss shirt he is wearing under his graduation gown is from my friend's band...I got the shirt from Tommy and when Bodhi moved to Washington in like 2011, he took it with him. And there it is again!! Love it!!

Here is Bodhi with Papa and Nana!! They flew in from Wisconsin just to see him graduate. It wasn't nearly a long enough visit...but at least they were here. Hopefully before too long, Bodhi and Papa and Nana can meet up for a bit longer :)

Bodhi hamming it up with Jamie!

Here's Bodhi and Jamie again :)  I know that Marty is Bodhi's dad and Jamie has never tried to take that role away from Marty. But these two have such a great bond. They have had some rough times...but I think they've worked through them. Now they are more like peers than like parent/child...and they sure have fun together. I swear, Bodhi was happier to see Jamie than me LOL!! It's okay, I know this boy loves his momma!! I have no worries there :)  But I love seeing these two cutting up and laughing with each other...sometimes even at my expense LOL. 

Just like ANY visit with family, it always seems too short. 

Catching up and what the HECK is going on!!!

Hey everyone....I know I'm WAY behind on this blogging thing. It was all easy to stay caught up until we got to WA and I'm telling you...time went CRAZY fast!! Not only did time go CRAZY fast...my memory ran FAR away!! What I mean is, my days started to run together and even while looking at some of the pictures I am totally confused on where we were and what we were doing. SOOOOO...on some of those days, Jamie is going to help me put all the pieces together.

This does mean the blog is going to get kind of disjointed from the chronological standpoint. So...I'm going to put the date that the blog is about in the title going forward. That way, you can always go back and read them in date order (regardless of the date it was posted) to kind of get the actual timeline we traveled.

Now to just do a super superficial overview of what's been going on...

We got to Washington on Thursday June 11th. Picked up Papa & Nana from the airport on Friday June 12th. Bodhi graduated on Monday June 15th and we stayed until Thursday June 18th. We saw Bodhi every single day we were there...it was AWESOME!!  Thursday June 18th we drove back to Nampa Idaho where Jamie's sister lives. We are still here in Nampa and will be here until probably Sunday June 28th...and then the adventure begins again!!! So don't quit reading!! I'll get you caught up and there is still so much to come!!

Happy travels and be well!
LeighAnn & Jamie

Bulls, Bill and Solar Power (6/9/15)

 Hello everyone! I know, I'm even farther behind now than I was before, but whew, we've been TIRED. I haven't stayed up this late, tossed and turned in bed this much, or have gotten up this early since college exam days! Truly, don't know if we'll get anymore sleep until we get home...but everything is so much fun and there is so much to see...I'll suck up the tired...I can sleep when I'm dead!!

 As we are driving down the highway in WY, we pass this bull and many many many other herds of cattle. Together Jamie and I said "I think we're d

A Day Late...

Sorry ya'll didn't hear from me last night and I JUST realized that I didn't publish the night before's blog post either!! It was written, just  didn't manage to hit the "published" button LOL. By the time we've stopped, we've been exhausted so that's my excuse!! Last night we were pushing through and we just got tired. We actually slept in the truck at a truck stop...it was kind of fun. That truck is so big that I can stretch almost completely out in the back seat and almost sleep stretched out on my stomach LOL. Anyway, no motel room meant no WiFi or electricity for the laptop, so no post....so TODAY I'm writing stuff about yesterday's (6/09/2015) adventures and I just went back through all the pictures and there will be A LOT of them...I hope you enjoy them. Hopefully later tonight I'll write about today!!

First of, before I write anything else, or post a single picture, let me tell you that no picture I took can ever do what I saw true justice. I have never since land formations or landscapes that literally took my breath away. Our entire drive yesterday was nothing short of amazing and I have to say, if you are always flying everywhere...YOU ARE MISSING OUT. It was so incredible to just ride through these states and what the landscape change right before your eyes! Anyway, back on topic:

We left Ft Collins CO yesterday morning, kind of late. To be honest we did go to a local marijuana dispensary. One side of the building was dedicated to the medical side of marijuana and the other side was for purchasing it for recreational uses. It was kind of cool to see all the ways they "packaged" it...sprays, buds, lip buzz, and on and on. There were limits to how much you could buy and interestingly enough...the prices were similar to what were heard illegal weed goes on the street.

Our trip was full of time talking and cracking jokes and I KNOW many inside jokes were started yesterday for sure. The batteries died in one of my point and shoot cameras and until we got to the next gas station I was basically without a camera (both our cell phones were dying fast too) so we ended up just laughing and cutting up with each other. I'm not sure if it was all the miles or that we were just having so much fun, but we ended up being silly and laughing and laughing and laughing. Those of you that know me well know that while I can be a lot of fun, I have a very serious side. It was sooooo nice to just relax and belly laugh with Jamie!! This trip has really become like a honeymoon for us. I won't get into all the details but we've struggled with our relationship over the years and went through some really tough stuff. We also have never had a honeymoon from when we got married back in September 2003...so we decided that this is it!! We are have a BLAST!! So here are some of our laughs from 6/9/15

We pulled out my Ipod to listen to it for a bit (not many radio stations to choose from.) I was using an external speaker and guess we had it cranked up a bit too loud, to make up for all the wind noise from having the windows mostly down) and we ended up blowing up that poor little speaker...maybe on our journey home, we'll buy another one, or maybe we'll just keep talking LOL

After the speaker blew up we looked to see if we had any CDs in the truck and there was a Kid Rock CD...we put it in and that's when Jamie tells me it's actually Jane's (his younger sister) CD as their mom wouldn't let her have the explicit version...so Jamie gave her his copy (that had the explicit lyrics) and he took her copy LOL....so we listen to Kid Rock all bleeped out! LOL

Jamie has decided that one of the things on his bucket list is going to Bonnieville, the salt flats.

Then Burt Reynolds '79 TA needs to go...then he wants to do a remake of Smokey and the Bandit (I say Smokey and the Bandit Revived!) It was a hilarious conversations for sure!

I CANNOT get over the way things look, everything is larger than life.

Colorado is an incredibly beautiful state!

That is full of oil.

Then were are in WYOMING! 

Then we passed these!!

Jamie said it was Warren Air Force Base in WY.

There is so much to see...I'll try to run through some cool things for you...

It's called a "road gate" and it works like a train barricade does except it's closing the highway...usually do to weather conditions. 

I lived in WI and thought I knew what snow fences looked like...I was wrong!

Yep that's a WY snow fence!

We took a minute to grab something to eat in Chugwater WY

We really wanted to try a buffalo burger and we finally got the opportunity to do just that in Chugwater WY. At this place

 We got our buffalo burger, served no differently than a regular hamburger...

and tasted pretty good. Our only complaint was that because buffalo is so lean the burger was dry, even though it was pink in the middle. But the experience was fantastic!

This was right on the front door...ya, carrying a gas can with a couple gallons of gas in it, is probably a really good idea. I saw how far it was between exits and sometimes the exits said  right on the sign "no services" so they were letting you know there was nothing at that exit. As a city girl all I could do was say "CRAZY!!" I am truly in amazement about everything out here.

I do have to tell you our trip to Chugwater did bring it's own joke..."maybe more people would move to Chugwater if they changed the name to Chugbeer!" I didn't tell you it was a good joke!

Before I post some more scenery, Hey WI peeps...did you know there was a Taco John's in WY?!

Since I have to catch this up, I'm going to end this post here...for one, I'm terribly sleepy and we have to drive like 7 hours again tomorrow. Another is that I don't want to make post so long people get sick of reading it. So with that being said, good night and I'll do my best to get things caught up tomorrow!

Happy journeys and new adventures!

Jamie and LeighAnn

Windmills, Livestock, Mountains and weed

Oh my goodness!! It was an EXCITING day today and to be honest I'm exhausted! BUT I can't go to sleep without writing about today's adventures to share them (and the pictures I did NOT delete today!) Besides, the thought of writing TWO posts in one day, with as much as we are seeing....NO WAY!!

A quick little aside...I found the pictures I thought I lost yesterday. At some point I'll post them on here, but for right now, I think I only have the energy to share TODAY'S excitement!!

Okay...here we go!
We left Junction City KS today and ended up in Fort Collins CO. That's 530 miles we covered!! Whooo hooo!! The first exciting thing was this...

 Those of you who know me know that I typically like to haul ass on the freeway (blame my WI dad for that LOL) so the posted speed limit being 75mph is awesome. Of course it would have been more awesome if I could have been driving my Firebird *big sigh* but she's gone to the car heaven in the sky...at least my Jeep slows me down a little and keeps me from going to jail! Speaking of my Jeep(s) right around this speed limit sign there was an exit sign for...JEEP RD!! I told Jamie that was it, we were moving!! LOL

In KS they have windmills just like we did in IN...except MORE of them

This doesn't even begin to show you how many there were!

I do have to say, while in KS this is not something I expected to
see....

 I never expected to see rolling hills and this kind of landscape at all. I did hear that they have gotten a bunch of rain and have had some problems with flooding in some areas.











Of course seeing livestock...

 was no surprise. We kept looking for a Buffalo Burger, but we still haven't found one...maybe tomorrow in WY.

I also had no idea that they drilled for oil in KS...see, you learn all kinds of things when you drive across the country!

I would really like to get up close to one of these...I think the whole process is pretty cool and that it's under our feet is even cooler!

We did have a little scare right before Hays KS...it looked like we had bearings going bad on our trailer. We pulled over, Jamie packed them with some more grease and went up to the next city and looked around to see what we could do to get some bearings so that if they did indeed go bad while we were actually on the road, he would have everything he needed to fix it right then and there. While we were doing that we stopped at Xibit Customs and how amazing that place is!! Reminded me somewhat of Max Merritt where Jamie worked in Franklin IN. Anyway, they had two '69 Camaros in the shop that they were doing frame up restorations on . If you want specific details, you'll have to talk to Jamie...I was just drooling and I think my eyes glazed over LOL.

Something else that we noticed in KS was that the State Patrol was SUPER nice. When we pulled over on the side of the freeway to check the bearings (before we pulled off at an exit) a State Trooper was there right away and asking what he could do to help. He offered to follow us so we could drive slow until we got to the exit. Jamie said thanks, but it isn't necessary, but how nice was that?! Then, when we got back on the freeway, there was a State Trooper changing a lady's tire while she watched holding a toddler in her arms!!

I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of this, but there were lots of billboards in KS for quilt and yarn shops. More than I've seen anywhere else so far!

Did you know that Oakley KS is the birthplace of the legend Annie Oakley!

And for all you Waukesha WI peeps...there is a Taco Johns in Colby KS!

The clouds were really cool too...

They looked like you could just reach out and touch them and the "bottoms" were so flat, almost like they were sitting on something (immediately though about the show "Under the Dome.")

When we first crossed into CO it looked just like KS, but slowly but surely the landscape changed and at one point we were looking at a mountain top that was about 150 miles away that was 11,000 feet high! Now that was impressive! I couldn't get a decent picture because it was so far away and so faint, nothing really showed up in a picture. But it was almost breath taking!

CO has windmills too...

this picture doesn't really do justice to what I was trying to show...literally there were windmills as far as the eye could see. They looked like they went on forever! We even saw semis moving the blades for them...One semi could only haul one of the three blades at a time!! These things are monsters!!


We also so a heard of antelope! By the time I saw them we were going right past them and there was no way to get a decent picture. But it was cool to see them, as I've never seen one except at the zoo.  The other thing I saw that was a whole new thing for me were "road gates" to force people to get off the freeway due to weather conditions. Jamie said that once we get a little further in to CO I'll see some huge snow fences...nothing like we have in WI, but HUGE. Hopefully I can pictures of those!

Lastly, I have sunset pics, with the sun setting over the Rockies...so very beautiful!

And once again I was surprised by

drilling for oil in CO! Finally got a good shot of one of these too :)

It was a fantastic drive and while some people think KS is a boring state to drive through I thought it was fascinating to see the landscape go from rolling hills, to completely flat plains (no trees looked so weird to me) and then back to rolling hills once we were in CO.

I have to say thank you to Jamie because I don't think I would have ever taken this trip if it weren't for him. I would have flown out to Seattle and had to have had Bodhi run me around while I was there visiting. But this driving across the country is awesome!!

And if you're wondering the meaning of the title to this post...I believe the first three words are self explanatory, and the "weed" is because in CO marijuana is legal for recreational use. I will admit, we're thinking of walking across the street from our motel tomorrow morning and checking out the "dispensary"...I'm curious what it's like and to be honest, am wondering what they edibles are like! LOL!!

That's all for tonight. I'm exhausted and ready for some hard core sleep!! Keep following us along our journey and PLEASE leave comments to let me know what you think. I'm trying to take pictures of anything I find interesting and tell you the stories of the travels! Hope you're enjoying it!!

Keep rolling and enjoy the journey!
LeighAnn & Jamie