Change in direction (again), heading to Iowa!

After spending our personally illustrious time in the Tetons and Yellowstone, we whimsically and obtusely thought that we would head south again for some currently undetermined time to let the, what we would consider, late winter weather dissipate. And, this brings us to our decision of having left the RV in Boulder, CO. on Thursday the 29th of May after having arrived there the previous Saturday, May 24th. We arrived in Boulder by plan, just in time (actually the party started without us) for a fantastic memorial day party being thrown by friends Laurie and David. At the party, we met many of their great neighbors and friends and just had a blast recounting our trip for some of them, talking about Boulder with others, eating really good food and tasting some really great local beer. From our perspective, out on the road, we hadn't really known that memorial day was approaching until we called them and asked if we could stay there for a few days while we thought about what we were going to do, where we were going to go and waited for the warmer temps in the north. Memorial day weekend is a real good time to be in Boulder. They have a wonderful annual festival there with many eco centered vendors as well as the regular food and beverage vendors with a boulder twist. They have musci most all day everyday throughout the weekend and we were luckiy enought to catch a U2 cover band on Monday night that were real good and played right up to and slightly crossed over the 10 PM line of quiet.

After hanging there for the night and following day and finding that they could and would be willing to store the RV for us at a municipal airport hanger about two miles from their home, we decided to take advantage of the summer schedule of one of our closets friends/families on the planet and spin east to visit and stay with them for a few days in Eastern Iowa. While we were at the hanger I also took advantage of the dry covered space and changed the oil of both vehicles. did some tire rotation and balancing work on the RV and Now, you may have been able to tell by now that we decided to leave the RV in Boulder and head to Iowa by car to make the visit. This move would save us hundreds of dollars in fuel and the RV was not necessary as we stay with them in their house, intentionally, each and every time we visit them. For years when they lived in CT, we talked about living in community together as family. Just previously on Thursday, May 22 we landed in Salt Lake City having driven down from the Tetons National Park. This was certainly one of our longest drives of the journey to date. It took us from The Tetons, with a basically quick stop in Moose, Wyoming, at the post office, to mail something back east that we had hung on to for way to long for mom Chris. Next we stopped at the final, from where we were coming, most southern visitors station still in the Tetons National Park, Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitors Center (Grand Tetons Park map link) http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/GTNP_map_CTDVC_08.28.07_Sum.pdf

and after that rushed, by me, visit we jumped on the RV bus and continued south and west through the active little tourist town of Jackson, Wyoming (more famously known for the ski area named Jackson Hole) without stopping for more than fuel, yet again. We were now on a beeline and on a mission to attempt to make it to Afton, WY so we could get to a prearranged factory tour at 3 PM at the Aviat Aircraft Inc. company. Here is where they build the small fixed wing planes Husky (single fixed wing)

and Pitts (bi-plane)

and Eagle aircraft from the ground up, on site from start to finish. Great place, great tour.

Check this one out a little later as I will complete the balance of the story in this post in just a bit!