The Big Dash East has begun. We hung out in the west as long as we could but it’s time to head home for a while. We’ve got an appointment in Jackson Center, OH (Airstream headquarters) on Friday and that’s 1,656 miles from Creede, CO where we left this morning. So there’s some serious driving to be done this week.

We said goodbye to Rich C this morning, with a big “group hug”, and also bade farewell to a few other good friends in the vintage club. I checked all the tire pressures and lug nuts carefully, and by 10 a.m. we were driving beautiful Rt 149 southeast. What a sweet section of road that is — decorated with green hills, red cliffs, the fast-moving water of the Rio Grande, and old mining towns. It was a nice drive.

We made good time today, thanks to speed limits of 65-75 MPH most of the way. The best news is that absolutely nothing bad happened. Eleanor and I listened to music on the iPod, Emma watched some Scooby Doo, we had stuffed animal fashion shows in the car (I was the judge), and generally the time passed uneventfully.

Tonight we are in Goodland KS at the Wal-Mart. It’s sunny, sultry, and breezy here. We’ll take a walk, do some shopping, make a pizza and watch a movie. The road trip is off to a good start.