The long voyage home......................(continued)

      So, I left off with the last hike I did in Chicago. Technically it was at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, IL. (about an hour west of the city) Anywho, that was a good time, and it was also the last time I would spend doing any outdoor activities in the Midwest before I hit the road. I hadn't the slightest clue what was in store for me. Just in preparation, time it took at least a month of solid packing, sorting and throwing stuff out that we weren't hauling with us. We had a lot of crap to throw out! We also had a lot of really good stuff that we donated. It is really funny how you can unintentionally build up a ton of crap so quickly and not even realize it. So anyway, We purchased plane tickets for the wife and lil guy about a month in advance of the trip. On March 6th I loaded them up on the plane, and then I headed to my storage space to fill up the van. That in itself was a huge job that took way longer than I thought it would. Around six hours of packing and rearranging later, I was ready to roll. So, I got a few hours of sleep at my sisters house, said my good-bye's and hit the road. It was tough saying good bye, but exciting to be hitting the road. The night before the first stretch I got about 4 hours of sleep. When I woke up, I had a bite to eat and then drove for roughly 18 hours.I made it all the way from Chicago, to about 15 minutes outside of denver. That was really a long haul for me. Here are some pictures from that stretch of the drive.........

The first picture of the trip wasn't taken till I was aproaching the Mississippi River

Welcome to IOWA!!!!!!

The people of Iowa welcome me..........

Mother nature wasn't making me feel so welcome though.....

Flipped over Semi on the side of the road.......














I was set back about an hour and a half due to this  accident................hope everyone was alright

The next pic is just after crossing the Mississippi River into Iowa.................

This picture ended up a little out of order, just didn't feel like fixing it.

The sign says Welcome to Omaha

I always swore that I would never drive through Nebraska again..............yet here I was...........again. At least I got to drive through it at night.






 


 
So, I finally arrived in Colorado. I continued to drive most of the night. I didn't stop till about 4:30a.m. for a nap. Then I was up at about 6:30a.m. and back on the road again.










more to come soon...............

 I should be able to finish this trip up in one or two more posts..................
Till then    
TIght Lines
Woollybuggin

Another long Chicago winter............. But this one has a little different ending.............

     Wowsers!!!!! It has been a long time since I posted!!!!! It has been a very, very busy five months for me. I do have a lot to write about and a lot of pictures to post!! Unfortunately, I waited and waited for freeze up to come, so I could get some ice fishing in. Well, it never came. It was an unusually warm winter and I never saw more than maybe two inches of ice at my local spots at any given time. I decided that just wasn't enough ice for me to feel safe going out. Also, I heard plenty of reports of people braving it, and whoops.............There wasn't enough ice. So, I had a no fishing winter. I never made it out to the Indiana creeks either. So as any die hard fisherman would guess, I'm suffering from a serious case of HOLY CRAP I NEED TO GO FISHING!!!!!! There are a lot of contributing factors of why I didn't get out to fish at all in the past five or six months though. The main reason being, I relocated my little family to the other side of the country. .......................................

     Since last November I have had a lot of life changes. Big life changes!! I had been talking about moving out of the Midwest for quite sometime. The only real question was, "Where would we go?" There was a lot of discussion over the past couple years about the many different places in the country that we would like to live. "Where would be a better place to raise the little guy?" That is the question that really guided the final decision. I didn't really care where we ended up as long as there was good fishing and mountains. After a couple years of talking about it here and there, we started talking about it serious. It was becoming more of a reality. Well, that day finally came on March 6th. We decided on Portland, OR. She flew out on Tuesday with the Lil guy, and I loaded up our minivan with everything that would fit and set out on my drive across the country the next morning. It was an awesome adventure................but I'm jumping ahead a little. Let's back it up to January.........................

     Just before I left I had decided to try and get out on one last hike in Illinois. So, I had been meaning to see some old friends and I thought it would be cool if we could all go on a hike together. It actually all came together really nicely. We picked the day about three weeks in advance. Now keep in mind, this is the middle of winter in Chicago. It should be really cold. however, it just so happens that on this particular day that we all agreed upon in January............. It was in the 60's! You can't make this stuff up. So we geared up and here are some of the pictures from the hike. For those of you in the Chicagoland area who like to hike, if you haven't done Starved Rock in the winter, I Highly Recommend it!!

 Nothing like frozen waterfalls................
There's just something about it.......

Israel.........

Me......

 Some of the sweet views of the sandstone walls that surrounded us......................Up at the top there is an outlook point. Nice view from up there too............ but there wasn't enough time to hike up there this trip. Maybe next time I'm in Chicago we can work out another trip and take some different trails............













The views in the winter are really outstanding......................

A couple of my favorite shots of the whole trip..............

Setting up the camp stove for chow time.......

                                                                                   
Time for lunch.......................                                                                                                                                              

Nothing like a nice warm lunch on the trails.....

Putting the good ole REI gear to work......

Some lunch time CHUNKY...........

The Clean up........................

 I always take all the garbage out that I bring in,  and most of the time I take out some of the crap left behind by other people..............   this isn't meant to sound like a cheesy PSA, but seriously, take care of what we have,.......... Enjoy it Without Destroying it!! Ok,  moving on.................

Israel on the left and Fabian on the right.......

Another cheesy shot of me enjoying the outsideness of being outside...

Setting up the shot...............................

Good friends always.......................even though I didn't see them a whole lot before I left, They have always been like family.            OK, I'm Going to sign off for now. I will finish the story of the voyage home in a couple days........ I hope you have enjoyed this so far.