Off to Oregon

We woke up to sunshine and a perfect summer morning.  We had a few things left to load - all the cold food and my laptop.  It actually doesn't take very long anymore to load up now that we have already decided where things should go.

We packed extra blankets and pillows this time for our visitors who will be camping with us for a few days.  I love it when friends and family join us for a bit to break up the long trip away from them all.  Thank goodness for email and cell phones.

I think of the pioneers traveling to Oregon leaving their friends behind.  I have been reading material about the Oregon trail on an educational website (http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Jumpingoff.html).  Although we are not leaving from St. Louis like so many of the early pioneers, we will be trying to capture their spirit of adventure and exploration.  We have our Conestoga wagon loaded (although probably have more than the 1000 pounds carried by the pioneers).

We were off by 9:15 - not bad for a late riser like Rick.  Since it is Sunday the roads were quiet and it was an easy drive out of town.  This is always good as we settle into our driving routing - getting the GPS programmed and making sure that the mirrors are set just right.

After we left the city we could see that the corn is looking good, the rest of the crops are very green, and there is a lot of water in all the little lakes and creeks.  Lots of wildflowers along the road - this is a good time of year to be driving through North Dakota.

Our only problem today was just 40 miles from our campground when Rick noticed the trailer brakes were acting funny.  We stopped at a rest stop and found that one brake wire was broken.  Only one day on the road and already he is crouched underneath the trailer.  Good to have a mechanic along.  Hopefully he will get the wire fixed at the campground in the nice shady spot and we can be on our way tomorrow without worries.  A  folding ladder stowed in the storage also needed some work so there was no rest for the weary until dinner time.  Now it is getting cooler and we will be having our first dinner on the road.