Hi Questies!
We are back for another thrilling installment of 'Where the Hell Are We Now?' It has been another stretch of busy, fun things, and not much time to think let alone compose a relaxed blog post. However we feel that we have earned a little R&R after driving over 2000 miles in 5 days, finally arriving safe and sound back in St. Louis on Thursday afternoon. We are very pleased to report that Vroomy stood up to the prolonged beating like a true shield-maiden, no further pieces fell off Leaky, and that both of us appear unscathed by the rapacious bacteria that was no doubt beginning to colonize our persons after so long without a shower.
The road trip was uneventful but tough. Washington, Idaho, and Montana were beautiful and we would have loved to have explored for weeks more. Once in Wyoming we did break up the drive with a visit to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and an amazing scenic drive down highway 191 through the Wind River Reservation. It is a truly spectacular part of the world. We saw a small herd of bison, which created a massive traffic jam of people slowing down to take photos, and we joined hundreds of other people to watch Old Faithful do it's thing, which was cool but man is that place over-visited. The parking lot was freaking enormous! Unfortunately those roads were so slow with other traffic and steep curves that we had a lot of ground to cover afterwards. The rest of Wyoming, all of Nebraska, a small corner of Iowa, and the full width of Missouri were just head down, flat out interstate grind. Our record was 700 miles in one day when crossing Nebraska.
Anyway, here we are, back at home base. It is so nice to have access to some mod-cons again! Road life is wonderful and it is obviously a fantastic lifestyle, visiting far flung places and seeing long lost friends, but having a house to laze around in for a while is like being on vacation. It's funny how things get flipped around. Mind you St. Louis is living up to it's reputation for heat and humidity, we are missing the coastal breezes!
So I am happy to report that we got to the appointment with USCIS on time, and that it all went very smoothly. I've got a really good feeling about the STL office, it seems to be very well run compared to the others that I've had to sit in, so I'm quietly hoping that the processing time will be considerably less than the worst case scenario. I've also got my handbook for studying for the citizenship test! Did you know that the US is a representative democracy? We celebrated by taking a quick trip to the newly minted Gateway Arch National Park and getting another stamp in our NP passport book. It's been renovated and revamped really nicely, the museum is fascinating. We would have stayed all day but I think we are both road-lagged (is that a thing?).
We have got a whole raft of things to do whilst we are back. Replacing the still broken fridge cooling unit, jacking up the rear suspension with air bags, cleaning ALL THE THINGS, extra sealing on the roof and around the windows in preparation for the fall and winter, and getting some work done. Zora has a pretty important application to work on as well. But we are going to try and break up all of those things with some hanging out with friends and appreciating the city in the summer.
Once again I'd like to say a massive thank you to our west coast ohana. It is ridiculous how hospitable and fun you guys were. You made it an incredible visit!
