April 2020 heading home

We left South Padre Island a few days early.  With the Coronavirus Pandemic in full swing we though we should get home as soon as possible.  Our plan is to spend 4 nights on the road with 5 days of travel.

April 9: we left the condo at 7:30 am.  We made a 20 minute stop at the Valley Fund Lot to do a bit of birding before leaving the island. We finally got off of the island at 8:00.  Our first rest area stop, the restrooms were not available!  Well it turns out that they were working on the water, the next stop was fully operational.  We did get the Mississippi Kite at the first stop!

We had received a call on Wednesday to let us know that the Hampton Inn in Austin was consolidating and moved us next door to the Homewood Suites.  Well when we arrived at 3:30 there was not any reservations!  It only took about 8 minutes for the desk clerk to straighten it out.

We went looking for the White Wag Tail that has been in a park near our hotel for over a month.  But...  it was not there! We can try again tomorrow morning before we head to Moore OK

April 10: we left the hotel at 7:00 am, went back to the park to look for the White Wag Tail BUT it was closed.  Texas is known for their celebration of Easter at parks, campgrounds, BBQ's.  So the park was closed down last night until Monday morning.  We have experienced the campground issue while in Texas but because of the virus the Government does not want people to gather at parks and they know that it would happen.  Oh Well...   we stopped at a few other parks and they too were closed.  We finally did find a park that was open and got a good walk in.

We have been very careful and have been very good about wearing our vinyl gloves and pulling our bandana's over our face (mouth and nose) when ever we come within 30 feet of another person.

Needless to say it took us 5 hours to go 110 miles and another 5 hours to go 270 miles to Moore OK.  A long day for us (10 hours) as we really don't like being in the vehicle for more than an hour at a time.  The road was pretty empty, no real slowdowns except at some construction sites.  The landscape is beautiful, green grass, wild flowers and trees in full bloom.

At one rest stop was this crazy note in the restrooms:

April 11: another long day.  We left the hotel at 6:30 am for our 380 mile trip to Liberty Mo (just north east of KC).  We arrived at 5:50  11+ hours.  Our trip was pretty uneventful, not too much traffic and good weather.  We do tend to stop a lot and walk a lot more.  We found some, new to us, good parks to walk around and a few old favorites. The trees began to look more bare once we crossed into Kansas.  A bit more brown grass too.  We might be the only ones at the hotel tonight!  no cars in the parking lot.

April 12 Easter Sunday: We left the hotel in Liberty MO at 6:50.  The temp was about 60 with a light breeze from the south.  We stopped at Wallace SP in Cameron MO for a nice walk, but pretty hilly.  South Texas does not have any hills!  One more stop at a nice trail in southern Iowa, the temp was about 60 with a bit stronger breeze but nice enough for a great walk.  Just as we were about 50 ft from the truck it began to rain. By the time we got into the truck the rain came down in buckets!  Perfect timing.  As it is Easter Sunday and with COVID travel restrictions the roads are pretty empty. The further north we went the lower the temperature.  By the time we got to within 40 miles of our hotel the temp dropped to 31 and the road began to slick over.  A few cars ended up in the ditch.  We slowed down considerably, some people did not.

We arrived without issue to Hampton Inn in Mason City. at 2:50.  A quick trip to Walmart to get a few things we will need to self isolate when we get home.  Eric needed boots as his are somewhere in the back end of the truck!

from our room when we arrived, it was just a bit more in the morning.  We did not get the 3-6 inches they predicted.

April 13: almost home.  this morning the temp is 23!  I am not prepared for temps this low.. Just about 30 miles north we see a little bit more snow than we had in Mason City.

We did see a few trucks and cars in the ditches as we were driving, a couple of slick spots on the roads.  This leg was 270 miles which we made in 5 hours!  pretty good for us!

Its always difficult to get this picture when traveling back into Wisconsin.  from here we are about 100 miles from home!

We made it to our road!  look at the snow! Our neighbor stopped by this morning to turn up the temperature on the thermostat.

We made it!  1800 miles in 5 days, 4 nights.  Don't want to do that again.  It was not too bad except for the last two days of travel with the rain and ice.

Everything in the house was exactly the same as when we left 6 months ago!  Eric worked on getting the water etc going while I cleared out the truck and unpacked.

We did manage to go out for a short walk in the cold wind and snow flurries.  Seen some wood ducks!  We will self isolate for the next 14 days as required by Wisconsin law.  We can still go out walking etc as we rarely see anyone when we go walking. We do have a lot of "stuff" to do too! Always projects to do including a puzzle or two.

Glad to be home but would prefer warmer temps.  tonight it will be 15 deg!