I’m having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that this time next week we’ll be 3/4 of the way through the huge state of Nebraska en route to the cabin. I am so not ready! Somehow it just seems off and way too soon since we’ve been trekking to the cabin in September for the past three years.

There is a pile of stuff on the bed in the spare room just waiting to be loaded but there seems like so much still to do.

The kitty beds have been washed and ready to pop into their crates.

Alex got a bath this weekend (and looks great I might add) and the girls will get theirs at the groomers on Wednesday.

The roof rack and pod were put on the truck this weekend and Rick vacuumed and cleaned it. It also had a check up, new spark plugs, lube & oil change, new front shocks (which we will need on those washboarded dirt roads that lead to the cabin) and a few things I can’t remember now so it should be good to go. Big Red has never failed us but she is getting up there in years and miles.

Our neighbors who look after the cabin for us went over this past weekend and have found no sign of pack rats (and here) this time. Thanks goodness. I don’t want to have to fumigate the cabin again! Pesky vermin!

I have so much to do before we go yet I have trouble getting started. I just need to focus on one thing at a time.

wow! i heard mommy and daddy talking this weekend about how they should get a ‘berner’ phone for the cabin. my own phone! (since i am a bernese mountain dog better known as berners.) i’ve always wanted my own phone so i could call up and bark at my friends. right now i can only bark across the street to finn and molly.

i could even call that stupid dog tucker at the end of the street if i had my own phone. i think tucker has a crush on me.

i know mommy gets tired of my barking so i’m sure that’s why she decided to get me my own berner phone! i think it was supposed to be a surprise but i was listening closely to their conversation. after all, they were talking about the cabin and the cabin is my mostest favorite place on earth. it has long walks to take where i never have to be on a leash, a pond to swim in, cow and elk poo to eat, chipmunks to chase and maybe even a snow bank still left to slide on. gosh, so many things to do. now i can keep in touch with finn and molly super long distance! i am so excited it makes my hair stand on end!

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a little bit later on ...

i guess i was wrong. i am not getting my own phone after all. after mommy read this post she told me that they were talking about a ‘burner’ phone not a berner phone which i guess is one they can just buy a few minutes on and then throw away. she said their normal phones don’t work at the cabin and they need a different one. i am so disappointed! oh well. my paws are too big anyway for all those little numbers.

Looking back several years on my blog in the month of May we have always been traveling. Some of it due to it being the time of year when Rick’s company has training for salespeople in various places/countries and some was just for fun. It’s fun to look back and see what I was doing on a particular day years ago. Do you ever look at the sidebar on the blog under “On This Day …?” Lately our trip to San Miguel, Mexico and Lyon, France have been showing up. Last year this time we were in Panama.

This year however there has been no travel. Rick’s company decided to do the training right here in New Jersey so all the salespeople could see the factory where the cameras are made and since their hotel was just over the river from Manhattan in Weehawken they got to sample the city as well.

It feels strange not to be going somewhere. But, that changes at the end of this month.

We decided that after always taking our Colorado cabin vacation in the fall, this year we would switch it up and go in June instead. So, on the 26th you will find us all packed into our Suburban heading west. Hopefully this way we will get to see some moose and the wildflowers in bloom. Here too! Hopefully we won’t be too early for the flowers but since everything is ahead of schedule there (and here) this year it should work out.

Did I just say we were leaving on the 26th? Ack! Today is the 10th! Must. start. planning. NOW. I just finished up the cabin laundry. I had all the clothes done as soon as we got back last year but I just left all the linens and towels in the spare room. You know how is. You have the best of intentions to do them soon but then you forget. Or at least I do. Out of sight, out of mind.

Last weekend we made this tasty asparagus tart. It was easy: puff pastry, gruyere cheese, asparagus spears. Next time I might try spreading the puff pastry with a little dijon mustard under the cheese like I do with my tomato tart.

We also enjoyed a fire in our little outdoor fire pit after dinner.

And in case you’ve been wondering about Bella’s adorable but quirky little “do” you’ll be glad to know it’s been kept due to popular demand. Somehow it just suits her silly persona. No matter what we do it doesn’t stay down for long!

Looking forward to the weekend we have no set plans as yet. Well, maybe one thing is on our agenda: the Warwick Farmer’s Market has its opening day on Sunday. I’m sure we’ll hop into Mia and take a look at what goods are available. Even if the offerings are sparse at this time of year it’s a lovely drive and always enjoyable.

Early morning shadows on the bathroom wall and door from the wood blinds. Weird, huh?

As I sit here this morning in front of my computer I have no idea what I am going to say. I just feel like I should be here writing. Something. Anything.

I am working on a blog post about the cabin and the land around it but it’s more complicated than I thought it would be. It’s hard to describe what it’s like to anyone who has never been there. I’ll keep at it.

When I told a friend yesterday that I was having trouble navigating my own house because I kept thinking I was at the cabin and would go to the drawer here at home thinking it was the silverware drawer, only to find that it wasn’t. She scolded me with a “but Lynne you were only gone two weeks!” It’s hard to describe to someone the amount of immersion we experience. It’s not like going on vacation to a motel or resort. It’s our second home. Literally. Sometimes I feel like I am two different people: my New Jersey self and the Wyoming/Colorado cabin self.

I snapped these photos from the truck on the long drive home. Here is the sunrise in Iowa on our second day.

And the sunrise in Ohio on the third day.

This was taken a little later in the day in Ohio. I thought it was an interesting sky. I think it looks more like ripples of water on a lake than clouds in the sky.

It has turned to fall weather here. Our nights are dipping low into the 40’s and last night we had high 30’s. The last couple of days have been sunny and pleasantly warm with a cool nip in the air. Perfect! I find it ironic that it basically rained here the whole time we were in Colorado, and there we had sun every day. Now that we are home the rain seems to have disappeared just when I was craving a rainy day after two weeks of sun.

Another friend wrote to me the other day and asked how could I complain about the sun shining? Trust me, you would be bored to tears with day after day of brilliant sunshine. Weather of any kind that is the same—whether it’s constant rain or constant sun—gets monotonous. I like the sun; just not all the time! We were really hoping for rainy/snowy/cozy weather at the cabin but it doesn’t happen much when we are there. I know you all think I am crazy, and maybe I am!

After reading this blog post over I guess I really didn’t have much to say, but I like the pics so I am posting this anyway.

We arrived home in the very same kind of weather we left in. Rain. It rained nearly all the way through the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, again. We haven’t seen rain since the very first day we arrived in Laramie to do our shopping on the way in to the cabin. Two weeks without rain! The temperature upon arrival was a chilly and damp 50 degrees F which feels so much colder than the dry-almost-non-existent humidity of Colorado.

The dogs somehow knew we were home the minute we pulled in to the driveway and all three erupted into a frenzied joyful barking. We let them out of the truck and they ran around, barking of course, in the front yard. I’m sure the neighbors at the opposite end of the street knew we were home after that racket. The kitties once let out of their crates in the house roamed the rooms with tails straight up and eyes round. The house was chilly, so on went the heat for the first time this year. It smelled good; comforting. We unpacked the truck in the light drizzle, put some things away and then finally sat down to a well deserved glass of wine. We heated up the leftover chicken pot pie we had brought home with us from the cabin because we couldn’t bear to throw it out and had that for our dinner while we watched the TiVo’d premiere of Terra Nova.

Our neighbors called and told us to be on the look out as a big bear was getting into the trash down the street and we had just put our trash out for pickup in the morning. They said they’d had a bear in their garage three times over the past week. Welcome back to the wilds of New Jersey! Rick turned on our outside lights at the street thinking that might deter him.

Too tired to do anything else, we went to bed. As I lay in bed listening to the soft patter of rain outside I thought not for the first time how good it was to be home. We both love the cabin but now it’s somewhere we go on vacation and not home. At least “not home” in the sense of where we live. When we are at the cabin, we are home. Hmmm ... does that make sense? It’s hard to explain. I know I’ve said it again and again on my blog, but when we are there we are home and when we are here we are home. I think you get the idea. I am starting to come around to the idea of a trial year at the cabin, winter and all, once we retire. What a blog that would make!

This morning as I type it’s raining. The sky is gray and dark. So different from the brilliant blue that we had for the past two weeks. When I look out the window I see a wall of trees crowding the yard instead of an open meadow and golden aspens glowing in the morning light. Our trees here are just starting to change but I don’t think they will be very pretty this year. They look soggy and defeated. But they are oh so beautiful with their many colors when they do change. We shall see if all the rain has made a difference in our normally gorgeous fall.

I have much to do today as you can imagine. Grocery shopping is #1 on my list, then laundry. My new machine will certainly be getting a workout over the next few days!

I’ll leave you with a photo I took last week.