The road trip that went east before it went south...

It had been planned out a few months in advance. The fall would bring Jen of J. L. Gould Photography, from Maryland to Minnesota, where she would snag me and we would venture forth to the Badlands, Grant Tetons, Yellowstone and southern Colorado. It just so happened that the government decided to shut down and Jen's back went out roughly upon the same time as her arrival to Minnesota.

Halt the plans! Now put them in reverse! Jen was doctored and loaded up with a loopy pill regimen, sent on her merry way and told to go easy on her back. The best bed for her back was located in the eastern state of Maryland. So we packed up my things, loaded up and I took the wheel of the Element.

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Our evening stop was in DeForest, WI. Quaint little town with a cute but hard to find KOA behind a cheese chalet and a subway. Jen limped to freshen up and I manhandled the tent. By the way, please don't ask me to set up a tent. It took me a solid 20 mins to figure out how to get it to work like I had seen it done numerous times before.

Tent up. I babbled with the loopy Jen before we called it a night. Morning was cold, almost frosty. I meandered a bit, wishing I had grabbed my camera from the Element prior. Jen woke, the sun started to come up and a lovely thick fog rolled into the wild field just behind our campsite. Snagged a couple pictures, tore down the tent, then ventured towards the cheese chalet with a giant holstein cow and a mouse climbing the sign.

Down the road was a gas station with a large, nearly life-sized... PINK elephant with hipster glasses!!!

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We continued down the highway, watching the scenery as it passed. Suddenly Jen asked me how long we  had been on E for gas... I hadn't even noticed! And of course now that we needed gas, the towns became smaller and spread further apart. A tiny town of PawPaw, IL was our saving grace. All gassed up, and me more conscious of the gas indicator, a pause in the road to watch a spike buck in a soybean field and then we were back on the highway.

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Roads, weather, construction and random detours greeted us and passed us down the way to Buck Creek State Park in Ohio. We snagged a campsite and raced towards the water we had seen in hopes that the clouds would catch the sunset and make for a pretty setting. Alas the sunset fizzled out, but the clouds were still interesting.

Keep an eye out for part 2 featuring a rundown old town, and some exotic animals!