The age old question of travel, are we there yet?   We’re at one of the “theres” right now, with lots more to go . . . want to see what we’ve seen?  Oh yes, we could write a book!  MUSICA.

This is life on the road.  Not elegant, but functional. Which is saying something.

Our daily in, looks just like our daily out, only pointing in the opposite direction.

The long and winding road.  If you ever feel crowded where you are, just know there’s plenty space left in this beautiful wide-open country . . .

. . . amongst waves of grass and wild Black-eyed Susans, where clouds drain down the sky and graze the tops of mountain ranges, with views so wide, and an infrastructure so encompassing, all your “proud to be an American” buttons get pressed.  Words like, “purple mountains majesty” and “fruited plain” come to mind. . .

Unfortunately, we are efficient bug killers out here.

And did you know that Lake Michigan is so big it has waves and looks just like the ocean?  I think you could surf Lake Michigan!

It’s a lovely place to catch the sunset and the last of the summer evening breezes.

There are a lot of happy people in this world . . . you see it everywhere you go.

We found this at a blues music festival in Iowa City . . . . we walked through it to get to the bookstore (Prairie Lights) there and this was my favorite thing . . .

A public bucket list!  Make a difference! ~ Be Happy! ~ Jam with Kiss! ~ Change the World! ♥

Motorcycles are a big part of road life!  Motorcyclists are a very festive bunch of people!  This is Goshen, Indiana and this huge group has joined together to honor the fallen heroes and first responders now and on Sept. 11.

And history, plenty of colorful American history out there.  Here we are in cowboy country, Dodge City, Kansas at Boot Hill.

Joe finds me working on the car in the parking lot and is wondering what I am doing since the car is HIS department.

But I’m in charge of decorating.

. . . for the Fine Romance Van.

Which fits in everywhere we go . . . especially here in Hog Wild country, we wiggle our butt in between all the other piglets, we make this grouping into a party — then we go inside and buy Kansas-Barbecued everything to eat in the car!

This is the visor on my side of the car.  I know you recognize Girl and Jack, but who is that third kitty?  It belongs to one of our Girlfriends who sent this photo to me just before we left ~ I brought it along.  It fit in so perfectly.

On we go, munching beef brisket, ribs, and powak bah-ba-cue, under a sky wide as forever.

Then, in New Mexico, no doubt about it, we found us some weather.

Even while a corner of the sun was still peeking through the clouds, the rain began and the van was blown sideways, rocked by the wind . . .

It got a little wild with the water flying up; passing a truck was like being on the inside of a car wash . . . clouds churned into blackness and we moved toward it.

But we came out of it as we went in, with blue skies and beautiful wildflower-strewn Arizona waiting on the other side . . .

And suddenly, there’s that sign again, we see it every time we drive across country.  “Meteor Crater” just rings every one of Joe’s bells, he wants to go there so much and we’ve never have time before.  But this time, we hit the breaks and off we go, six miles down the flat road to nowhere . . .

And at the end, a museum on the side of a hill, where we buy tickets to see a crater that was formed by a meteor 50,000 years ago.

And it’s a crater alright.  No doubt about it.  I recognized it immediately.  Flat desert, but all around this hole in the ground is a steep hill.  When the meteor hit, it pushed all the dirt up and around it in a perfect circle, like the well you make with flour to drop the egg in when you are making pasta (if you know what I mean).

It has a platform a ways down you reach by a steep stairway where people go to get extra close to take pictures.

People like Joe.  But not people like me who stay up top, not on a dangling platform, and take pictures of the people who do.

Inside the museum you can stand in front of a photo that makes you look like you are down in the crater, but of course, you aren’t!

And then we’re on the road again, for more wildflower roadside of Arizona . . .

So pretty we have to stop and take pictures, along with other fellow travelers and admirers of beauty.

Smells of pine and sage, in the high desert south of Flagstaff.

Closeup and personal with the flora and fauna . . .

And views that go forever . . .

Wild asters and all the rest of it  . . .

And then, we arrive, at destination ground zero.  Cottonwood Arizona, at home with the Blog Daddy,

. . . and about to have one of our very favorite dinners in the world . . .

And that’s it for today Girlfriends.  Yes, all those new things in the last post that we ran out of already?  More are coming!  More Peter Rabbit Emma cups, more Charms, more Bobeche, and you know, more A FINE ROMANCE books too, it’s all on the way!  Tea too, end of this month, and Tea Tins!  Also, for you California Girls I posted new information for our EVENT on the Central Coast in San Luis Obispo, and added another bookstore, famous old Independent Bookstore, Vroman’s in Pasadena.  Be sure to check those events every so often!  OK, I’ll give the Blog Daddy a big hug from you!  XOXO