June 4 - 9, 2018
We arrived at my sister Janie’s “2nd” home in
Wellsburg, Iowa, Monday evening about 6:30. This is the house where our mom lived until she moved to a long-term care facility 4 years
ago. She passed away in December. Janie was spending a month of her summer in
this small burg amid corn and soybean fields.
It was a long day of driving for us, especially since we were
slowed down by a flat tire. Early afternoon, I was driving while Michael was napping. As I
approached the bridge over the Mississippi River near Rock Island, IL, there was a
loud p-f-f-f-f-f-f-t
sound. It was loud enough to wake up Michael. What was it? I pulled off
on the first exit across the bridge.
Michael checked inside for possible causes, then outside. There he found
the back-left wheel cover gone. Also gone was the tire stem on the inside left tire, and with it, the tire’s air.
Time to use that 2nd spare Michael bought before
we left. We saw a sign for Nahant Marsh Natural Area shortly after exiting and
that’s where we found an empty parking area to stop and do a tire change. The
grassy area alongside the parking lot was bordered by a thick stand of trees. Redwing blackbirds scolded as I let Nina
off-leash. We had a good game of fetch-the-ball while Michael cranked off the
tire and replaced it with one of the spares, and 45 minutes or so later we were
on our way again. I'm pretty sure Nina just thought we had stopped to play!
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| Janie, Martha & Nina |
We stayed with Janie in Wellsburg two days, and on Thursday,
drove northwest three hours to Estherville Iowa, where Michael’s mother lives.
We spent two days there, visiting with Leona and Michael’s two brothers, Chet
and Dean and sister-in-law, Linda.
Sunday morning, June 8th, 8:45, we were on the
road, heading west, for Alaska!! It felt good to begin what felt like the REAL part
of out journey. A very strong wind developed by afternoon – 20-21 mph,
according to weather.com. It was from the SE. How unusual to have a tailwind! A
good omen perhaps?
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