We’ve spent the night in Laramie, Wyoming and are up getting ready to leave for the final push home. The radar weather map from about a half-hour ago shows pretty clear sailing, except that the storm in northwest Wyoming is kind of dropping south and east. We may get some of that as we make our way towards Rawlings and then Green River.

We’ll stop in Green River for a short visit with my favorite brother and then again in Soda Springs so my mother will know for sure that we’re back in the area. She’s anxious for us to get home safe and sound.

The tracking process works quite well, so long as I have cell phone connections and don’t mess up the settings. Yesterday we had lunch in Lincoln, Nebraska and I accidentally changed a setting and tracking stopped working. Our daughter Dawnmarie later in the afternoon told us that we were stuck in Lincoln and needed to get something fixed. I figured it out and got us back on track.

Earlier yesterday morning she sent me a text message:

If I had nefarious intentions I would be landing at Seward Municipal Aiport and zipping down county rd 280 to accost you.

I got that just as we crossed under County Road 280! Pretty near real-time tracking.

The application, however, requires almost exclusive use of the iPhone and, if the display is on, it uses power faster than the charger can supply it, draining the battery in about six hours when plugged in and in about two hours running on battery alone.

Today we’ll be crossing most of western Wyoming where cell connection is fairly spotty. I’ll have the application on and see how it performs when it can’t make an internet connection.

For those interested, the tracking map is available at http://aprs.fi/?call=k7ojl