Monday, December 8, 2008
Happy Holidays!
John and I had the great honor of hosting the Nix Family Thanksgiving this year. Everyone who was able to come came; Daddy, Sandra, Michael, Nancy, Jim, of course John and I, Kelsey and Bert and Alex and Richard, Zebbie, Kelsey Francis and Davis. What a crowd! We had a wonderful meal on Wednesday night with the O'Farrells and with Richard, Zebbie and KF and Favis. John's Jumbalaya! Yummy. What a great visit we had.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
There's No Place Like Home!
We finally made it home Monday, October 6, 2008 at about 3:30. We were so anxious about the yard and my poor birdies and flowers, but were pleasantly surprised to find that our dear neighbor, Gene,had cut part of the grass for us around the driveway and the right of way out by the road, so it didn't look like an empty house and the flowers survived and the climbing roses that I rooted were looking great as was the wisteria, but the trumpet vine failed to root, but that's okay, my Petunias on the porch were a little leggy, but still in bloom and the mums, hey, you really can't kill them and they are in bloom. I had to get a manicure and pedicure because it's been 4 weeks and my nail specialist said to just wait because it's not a good idea to go to an unfamiliar salon and I totally took her advice. She was so glad to see me because I got the "works" and they need the business. I then got my teeth cleaned. Oh, I was so bad on vacation. I ate what I wanted and although I practiced dental hygiene I didn't take the pains that I do at home so they had to dig pretty deep but I now have clean choppers! We finished unloading the car this afternoon and couldn't believe the stuff we had forgotten that we had bought along the way. We have a good many souvenirs; a rock from Sioux Falls,SD, a rock from Death Valley, various and sundrid tee-shirts from Sturgis HD to "We Got a Kick on Route 66". John is planning a long weekend hunting trip on October 30 and I am going to put together a scrapbook of our trip so those of you who are coming for the Nix Family Thanksgiving will have the opportunity to see it and I will bring it to the Garner Family Christmas at Wayne and Jeri's this year. It's your year, right? That's all for now and I am going to take a break from blogging until we get back into our normal routine. (Reading the paper, working the crossword, checking the sale papers, etc.) America is truly beautiful and we are a very strong people and don't let anyone tell you different.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
October 5, 2008
Sunday night and we are in Selma, Alabama. We were not sure what to expect, actually. Since this is such an historic town and has a rich and varied past, we just couldn’t imagine what it would be like. But, as with all the larger towns in this country, there is a Domino’s Pizza, a Holiday Inn Express and high speed internet. All of the history is ensconced in the “historic district. Anywho, we left Shreveport this morning headed east on I-20 barreling down the road determined to get home on Monday afternoon. I miss my birdies and John is convinced we will have to hire a bushhog person to cut the grass. We should have a ton of junk mail to go through as well as bills to pay. We did note the poor roads of Louisiana and Mississippi. I-20 is a rough, bumpy, dippy highway in these two states. But they have a lot of water and everything is lush so I guess there is a tradeoff of sorts. We veered off I-20 in Cuba, Alabama and we are traveling on U.S. 80 now. The cattle ranches and catfisheries are abundant in this area. I guess this is where the catfish we buy at Kroger comes from. We just watched a replay of the 4th quarter of the Auburn/Vanderbilt game and were totally satisfied with the outcome. John predicts if Alabama beats Auburn this year that Nick Saban will certainly get a raise. It’s time you know (forgive me Emily Garner) but Alabama is due to win this year. My observation throughout the past 4 weeks is that this country is amazing and the people are strong and resilient and just need someone who understands the basic needs of the people to take charge of the country. I don’t think a person who has never lived paycheck to paycheck can understand the plight of the majority of the American middle class. John and I are blessed because we have a fixed income that covers our needs but there are millions of Americans who are having to cut back so far to pay rent, mortgage, power bills and sacrifice nutritious meals for the 99 cent fast food menu for their children. We must closely examine the motives of our candidates and choose the right man for the job in November. So, having said that, we are so happy to be back across the Mississippi and will be home tomorrow.
Sunday night and we are in Selma, Alabama. We were not sure what to expect, actually. Since this is such an historic town and has a rich and varied past, we just couldn’t imagine what it would be like. But, as with all the larger towns in this country, there is a Domino’s Pizza, a Holiday Inn Express and high speed internet. All of the history is ensconced in the “historic district. Anywho, we left Shreveport this morning headed east on I-20 barreling down the road determined to get home on Monday afternoon. I miss my birdies and John is convinced we will have to hire a bushhog person to cut the grass. We should have a ton of junk mail to go through as well as bills to pay. We did note the poor roads of Louisiana and Mississippi. I-20 is a rough, bumpy, dippy highway in these two states. But they have a lot of water and everything is lush so I guess there is a tradeoff of sorts. We veered off I-20 in Cuba, Alabama and we are traveling on U.S. 80 now. The cattle ranches and catfisheries are abundant in this area. I guess this is where the catfish we buy at Kroger comes from. We just watched a replay of the 4th quarter of the Auburn/Vanderbilt game and were totally satisfied with the outcome. John predicts if Alabama beats Auburn this year that Nick Saban will certainly get a raise. It’s time you know (forgive me Emily Garner) but Alabama is due to win this year. My observation throughout the past 4 weeks is that this country is amazing and the people are strong and resilient and just need someone who understands the basic needs of the people to take charge of the country. I don’t think a person who has never lived paycheck to paycheck can understand the plight of the majority of the American middle class. John and I are blessed because we have a fixed income that covers our needs but there are millions of Americans who are having to cut back so far to pay rent, mortgage, power bills and sacrifice nutritious meals for the 99 cent fast food menu for their children. We must closely examine the motives of our candidates and choose the right man for the job in November. So, having said that, we are so happy to be back across the Mississippi and will be home tomorrow.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
We put the pedal to the metal this morning to get us to Shreveport in time to watch the 4th quarter of the Alabama/Kentucky game and we just did make it on fumes I might add. We didn’t want to stop until we absolutely had to and we are now comfortably settled in the HI Express with a full tank of gas and the ballgame on. Hey, it doesn’t get better than that, right? We thoroughly enjoyed our ride today since we began to notice the change in scenery as we traveled northeast through Dallas/Fort Worth. We began to see pine trees and oaks and knew that we were getting closer to home. We finally stopped for lunch in Terrell, Texas at Carmona’s Tex-Mex and Cantina. It was authentic Mexican fare. We ordered the especial Asada, grilled steak with onions and peppers and it came with rice, pinto beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and of course salsa and chips. We wolfed it down because it was so good and spiced just right and not too hot for me. We decided that we could make this at home just as well as we had it today when we are in the mood for Mexican. That’s something we eat only occasionally. We got back on the road and the area began to become more populated. We passed a couple of large ranches; one had a herd of CAMELS and the other had a herd of BURROS. We saw a porcupine on the side of the road as well as a fox. No armadillos until we reached the Louisiana border. We are trying to get home by Monday evening, so we will not stop and take any pictures unless we come upon something we just have to snap. Sunday, we are shooting for Meridian, Mississippi, where we will catch U.S. 80 through Selma to Montgomery, hit I-65 to Wire Road and U.S. 80 again to Columbus then Macon, and finally Bolingbroke. What a fantastic trip this has been and one neither of us will ever forget, especially the time we had with family along the way.
We put the pedal to the metal this morning to get us to Shreveport in time to watch the 4th quarter of the Alabama/Kentucky game and we just did make it on fumes I might add. We didn’t want to stop until we absolutely had to and we are now comfortably settled in the HI Express with a full tank of gas and the ballgame on. Hey, it doesn’t get better than that, right? We thoroughly enjoyed our ride today since we began to notice the change in scenery as we traveled northeast through Dallas/Fort Worth. We began to see pine trees and oaks and knew that we were getting closer to home. We finally stopped for lunch in Terrell, Texas at Carmona’s Tex-Mex and Cantina. It was authentic Mexican fare. We ordered the especial Asada, grilled steak with onions and peppers and it came with rice, pinto beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and of course salsa and chips. We wolfed it down because it was so good and spiced just right and not too hot for me. We decided that we could make this at home just as well as we had it today when we are in the mood for Mexican. That’s something we eat only occasionally. We got back on the road and the area began to become more populated. We passed a couple of large ranches; one had a herd of CAMELS and the other had a herd of BURROS. We saw a porcupine on the side of the road as well as a fox. No armadillos until we reached the Louisiana border. We are trying to get home by Monday evening, so we will not stop and take any pictures unless we come upon something we just have to snap. Sunday, we are shooting for Meridian, Mississippi, where we will catch U.S. 80 through Selma to Montgomery, hit I-65 to Wire Road and U.S. 80 again to Columbus then Macon, and finally Bolingbroke. What a fantastic trip this has been and one neither of us will ever forget, especially the time we had with family along the way.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Deep in the Heart of Texas
October 3, 2008
Whew! We made it to the east side of Abilene, which is about half way across the widest portion of Texas and what sights were there to behold! We took a picture of Juarez, Mexico last night and you really can’t see anything but the lights, but that is for sure Mexico! So we went from the Canadian border and the Mexican border in one trip! We thought that was cool. For about 30 miles east of El Paso, the Rio Grande runs alongside I-10 and immediately it takes you out in the middle of nowhere and we could see Mexico for all that way just a couple miles to the south of us. We the happened upon a road block set up by the border patrol and every vehicle was stopped and this very polite border patrolman asked us our country of citizenship and of course John said “U.S” and then the border patrolman asked “Ma’am how about you, country of citizenship?” I told him “U.S.”. WTF?? We never left the U.S. and then we realized what was going on. Since that 30 mile stretch of desert bordering Mexico has no fence or barrier except for the Rio Grande, they have to make sure we weren’t sneaking anybody into the country illegally. However, we could have had a Mexican or two hidden amongst our extensive wardrobe in the back seat……But it was a little exciting for us. We crossed many miles of desert and then climbed up into the mountains of Texas, which are not as steep as the ones in New Mexico, but our ears did pop a couple of times. We then reached Pecos, Texas and were astounded at the number of oil wells pumping steadily and the oil rigs with guys drilling for more. Also noted were the number of “Help Wanted” signs and the vitality of the whole area at this point. Then we began to get into greener pastures and massive farms of cotton, sugar cane and hay. This land is completely flat and I dubbed it “the big empty” because you can see literally for 10 or 15 miles in each direction. We caught sight of some tall white structures way off in the distance and could not imagine what they could possibly be. We guessed, oil refineries??? But upon closer inspection we discovered they are windmills! Remember our trek from Yosemite to Carmel, CA and passing the windmills? Well, these are the same type but there are thousands of them for miles and miles. There is absolutely no resistance since there is not a tree in sight, so they were all turning and churning out the power. This state is doing what we all need to do, find alternative forms of energy. You will see an oil field in the foreground and windmill fields in the background, then crops and cattle and many horses and a whole bunch of big ole honking pickup trucks, brand new, most of them. We traveled over 400 miles today and we have over 7,000 miles on the Xterra. We are ready to be at home, so we are going to finish traveling across Texas tomorrow and spend the night in Shreveport, LA and then we are going to try to make Meridian, MS on Sunday evening. We can jump on U.S. 80 in Meridian which is a straight shot over to Montgomery and then to Macon via I-85/U.S. 80. John thinks we can get home on Monday, but we don’t have to be home until the 8th, which is the 30th day of our trip and the day the Post Office will burn our mail if we don’t pick it up. They gave a stern warning on our stop mail form about only being able to hold it for 30 days. I am really anxious that they will throw it away or burn it or something awful. BTW, if you stay in the Holiday Inn enough, you will get all sorts of complimentary upgrades. You ought to see our suite. It even has a ceiling fan! You gotta love it.
Whew! We made it to the east side of Abilene, which is about half way across the widest portion of Texas and what sights were there to behold! We took a picture of Juarez, Mexico last night and you really can’t see anything but the lights, but that is for sure Mexico! So we went from the Canadian border and the Mexican border in one trip! We thought that was cool. For about 30 miles east of El Paso, the Rio Grande runs alongside I-10 and immediately it takes you out in the middle of nowhere and we could see Mexico for all that way just a couple miles to the south of us. We the happened upon a road block set up by the border patrol and every vehicle was stopped and this very polite border patrolman asked us our country of citizenship and of course John said “U.S” and then the border patrolman asked “Ma’am how about you, country of citizenship?” I told him “U.S.”. WTF?? We never left the U.S. and then we realized what was going on. Since that 30 mile stretch of desert bordering Mexico has no fence or barrier except for the Rio Grande, they have to make sure we weren’t sneaking anybody into the country illegally. However, we could have had a Mexican or two hidden amongst our extensive wardrobe in the back seat……But it was a little exciting for us. We crossed many miles of desert and then climbed up into the mountains of Texas, which are not as steep as the ones in New Mexico, but our ears did pop a couple of times. We then reached Pecos, Texas and were astounded at the number of oil wells pumping steadily and the oil rigs with guys drilling for more. Also noted were the number of “Help Wanted” signs and the vitality of the whole area at this point. Then we began to get into greener pastures and massive farms of cotton, sugar cane and hay. This land is completely flat and I dubbed it “the big empty” because you can see literally for 10 or 15 miles in each direction. We caught sight of some tall white structures way off in the distance and could not imagine what they could possibly be. We guessed, oil refineries??? But upon closer inspection we discovered they are windmills! Remember our trek from Yosemite to Carmel, CA and passing the windmills? Well, these are the same type but there are thousands of them for miles and miles. There is absolutely no resistance since there is not a tree in sight, so they were all turning and churning out the power. This state is doing what we all need to do, find alternative forms of energy. You will see an oil field in the foreground and windmill fields in the background, then crops and cattle and many horses and a whole bunch of big ole honking pickup trucks, brand new, most of them. We traveled over 400 miles today and we have over 7,000 miles on the Xterra. We are ready to be at home, so we are going to finish traveling across Texas tomorrow and spend the night in Shreveport, LA and then we are going to try to make Meridian, MS on Sunday evening. We can jump on U.S. 80 in Meridian which is a straight shot over to Montgomery and then to Macon via I-85/U.S. 80. John thinks we can get home on Monday, but we don’t have to be home until the 8th, which is the 30th day of our trip and the day the Post Office will burn our mail if we don’t pick it up. They gave a stern warning on our stop mail form about only being able to hold it for 30 days. I am really anxious that they will throw it away or burn it or something awful. BTW, if you stay in the Holiday Inn enough, you will get all sorts of complimentary upgrades. You ought to see our suite. It even has a ceiling fan! You gotta love it.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Land of Enchantment and Big Ole Texas
Thursday, October 3, 2008
We tried to put a lot of pavement under us today as we are officially headed home and are at a HI Express on I-10 east of El Paso. I do want to tell you more about New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment since we have had absolutely no internet service since yesterday outside of Santa Fe. This is probably one of the more diverse states as far as scenery is concerned that we have travelled through. There are mountains of red rock and pinion trees (bushy conifers), the concreted they use is adobe colored because the gravel is ground down from the local rock, therefore, the bridges are adobe colored and the rails are painted turquoise! This is the way it is done throughout the state, at least on Interstate 25, which is how we traveled throughout the state until we got to El Paso, where we hooked up with I-10. There is serious flooding in the deserts so there are “washes” or dry streambeds that carry the flood waters away and to the Rio Grande or the Rio Puerto rivers. There is a lot of gambling on the Indian reservations and horse racing is huge out here. Everybody has a horse or horses and live on ranches of thousands of acres. Another thing we noticed is how pristine everything is. There is no trash to speak of on the rights of way and we passed several teams of inmates cleaning up the side of the road. The air is dry and cool at night. Last night we sat outside until sunset and it was kinda like San Francisco in the summer of 2004; no screens on the windows, no bugs and no humidity and it dropped to the 40’s at sundown. We decided to treat ourselves and go out and have a fancy dinner. We have up until now just grabbed anything or ordered room service because we were so tired. But yesterday we did not go all the way to El Paso and stopped early enough to rest and get a good meal. John ordered Wild Boar! I got the all you can eat Rib-eye Steak dinner and we got some decent wine and had a wonderful time. While we were waiting for our table we sat in the bar and the bartender was so friendly and we talked with her the whole time we were waiting. She wanted to know all about our trip and we just had a lovely and wonderful evening and best of all, we were able to walk there and back from our hotel which was incredible since it was a cool night and the stars were out and brilliant. We got to El Paso today and were going to take a picture of the border but we were astounded at the nastiness of the area and at the number of people WALKING back over the border into Mexico. I was afraid to stop because the people we saw on foot didn’t look like anybody you would want to meet in a dark alley. I mean, rough looking folks. So we skedaddled on out of town and we are back in our comfort zone in a new, clean HI Express with internet service (Yippee). Tomorrow we are planning on making Abilene, TX and then on Saturday, we hope to make Shreveport, LA, Sunday hopefully Meridian, MS, Monday to Birmingham (sweet home Alabama!) and then to Bolingbroke on Tuesday. We will keep you apprised as we go along of course. We are just now ready to get back home as we have done and seen all or almost all we set out to do.
We tried to put a lot of pavement under us today as we are officially headed home and are at a HI Express on I-10 east of El Paso. I do want to tell you more about New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment since we have had absolutely no internet service since yesterday outside of Santa Fe. This is probably one of the more diverse states as far as scenery is concerned that we have travelled through. There are mountains of red rock and pinion trees (bushy conifers), the concreted they use is adobe colored because the gravel is ground down from the local rock, therefore, the bridges are adobe colored and the rails are painted turquoise! This is the way it is done throughout the state, at least on Interstate 25, which is how we traveled throughout the state until we got to El Paso, where we hooked up with I-10. There is serious flooding in the deserts so there are “washes” or dry streambeds that carry the flood waters away and to the Rio Grande or the Rio Puerto rivers. There is a lot of gambling on the Indian reservations and horse racing is huge out here. Everybody has a horse or horses and live on ranches of thousands of acres. Another thing we noticed is how pristine everything is. There is no trash to speak of on the rights of way and we passed several teams of inmates cleaning up the side of the road. The air is dry and cool at night. Last night we sat outside until sunset and it was kinda like San Francisco in the summer of 2004; no screens on the windows, no bugs and no humidity and it dropped to the 40’s at sundown. We decided to treat ourselves and go out and have a fancy dinner. We have up until now just grabbed anything or ordered room service because we were so tired. But yesterday we did not go all the way to El Paso and stopped early enough to rest and get a good meal. John ordered Wild Boar! I got the all you can eat Rib-eye Steak dinner and we got some decent wine and had a wonderful time. While we were waiting for our table we sat in the bar and the bartender was so friendly and we talked with her the whole time we were waiting. She wanted to know all about our trip and we just had a lovely and wonderful evening and best of all, we were able to walk there and back from our hotel which was incredible since it was a cool night and the stars were out and brilliant. We got to El Paso today and were going to take a picture of the border but we were astounded at the nastiness of the area and at the number of people WALKING back over the border into Mexico. I was afraid to stop because the people we saw on foot didn’t look like anybody you would want to meet in a dark alley. I mean, rough looking folks. So we skedaddled on out of town and we are back in our comfort zone in a new, clean HI Express with internet service (Yippee). Tomorrow we are planning on making Abilene, TX and then on Saturday, we hope to make Shreveport, LA, Sunday hopefully Meridian, MS, Monday to Birmingham (sweet home Alabama!) and then to Bolingbroke on Tuesday. We will keep you apprised as we go along of course. We are just now ready to get back home as we have done and seen all or almost all we set out to do.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
October 1, 2008
As we excitedly drove to Santa Fe this morning I was hit with the thought that I might not recognize Darwin as I hadn’t seen him in many years. Well, I should not have worried because he is as handsome as he always has been and is really doing well. He chose the Railyard Restaurant for lunch, which is located in the “artsy” section of town. We got to meet his new girlfriend, Haley Ritchey, who is a dentist and has a 7 year old daughter. Haley is delightful. She is certainly a positive influence for Darwin. The meal was great, but the company was greater and we are planning on flying out next year so that we can explore Santa Fe when we have more time. This month has really flown by and we need to head down to Roswell, then El Paso, take a picture of the Mexican border and then head on home. I wanted to go ahead and get this posted because I wanted everyone to see how good Darwin looks and of course introduce you to Haley.
As we excitedly drove to Santa Fe this morning I was hit with the thought that I might not recognize Darwin as I hadn’t seen him in many years. Well, I should not have worried because he is as handsome as he always has been and is really doing well. He chose the Railyard Restaurant for lunch, which is located in the “artsy” section of town. We got to meet his new girlfriend, Haley Ritchey, who is a dentist and has a 7 year old daughter. Haley is delightful. She is certainly a positive influence for Darwin. The meal was great, but the company was greater and we are planning on flying out next year so that we can explore Santa Fe when we have more time. This month has really flown by and we need to head down to Roswell, then El Paso, take a picture of the Mexican border and then head on home. I wanted to go ahead and get this posted because I wanted everyone to see how good Darwin looks and of course introduce you to Haley.
Grand Canyon and Winslow Arizona
September 29 and 30, 2008
We got an early start Monday morning, so excited about seeing the Grand Canyon! We finally got out of the desert and began to see more and more vegetation and conifers. We decided at the last minute to top off our gas in case we got up there and wanted to make side trips. We rolled into the first station we found and were pleasantly surprised that although the pumps were self service, a service man appeared to wash the windshield and check the oil, water, tires, etc. They were a full service station with mechanics, the whole nine yards. Just like the old days. Well, we were on Route 66 after all and the town of Williams has kept is frontier charm and there are at least 100 bars within a 12 block area. Curious. Anyway, our friendly service man pointed out that our tires were starting to come apart!!! Yikes!!! We have over 62,000 miles on the Xterra and the original tires were on it and we had been traveling at 70 mph in the desert for a couple of days. Thank God we stopped there. He got us back on the road in 45 minutes with new tires and a new sense of just how harsh the conditions are out here. We headed north to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, approximately 50 miles away. We passed by ranch after ranch of sheep and actually saw a herd being shorn. Too cool. We arrived at Tuscayan, AZ, which is just outside the park and found the Red Feather Inn and snagged the last King Suite for Monday night and learned that the wireless internet service is so slow that we decided to wait until we got to a larger venue to post this blog entry and the pictures from Vegas, the Mojave Desert and the pix from the Grand Canyon. We took off again and got to the Canyon about 2:00 or so and let me tell you, the pictures, videos, movies or whatever that you have seen are not anything to compare to the real thing. It is surreal and beautiful, and amazing and astounding, and all other adjectives that describe nature at its best. We ate lunch at the Angel Lodge Restaurant which is right on the rim of the canyon. We toured the history museum and here is the scoop. A certain Fred Harvey came to the canyon in the late 1800s and realized that tourism would be more lucrative than gold or silver mining and built the first Angel Lodge. His family more or less had a monopoly on the tourism trade until the 1930s when others came in to get a piece of the action. Harvey hired Mary Colter, a female architect (almost unheard of in the day) to renovate the lodge and design other structures for the area. She combined the Indian heritage and the forest scenario in her designs and the structures remain as she designed them over 70 years ago! The Lookout Lodge is on the precipice of the rim and the Rangers give lectures on the Condors and their habitat, one of which is the grand canyon. We were just looking out over the grandeur when all of a sudden this spotted squirrel came within inches of my left arm! Scared the bejesus out of me. I was able to get pretty close to the edge where there were retaining walls or fences, but there were some areas where my vertigo basically paralyzed me and I just waited on John to finish his look see over the edge. The people that we encountered on our trek around the rim were from almost every nation in the world. I heard French, German, Russian, Asian of different regions, British English, Spanish and of course English. Everyone was as one in the awe and almost spiritual feel of the area. It was very cool. On our way out of the park we spotted a couple of mule deer. Oh yeah, we saw another dead coyote by the side of the road.
Okay, so I get up Tuesday a.m. and go to breakfast as usual and I encountered some of the people who were at the Canyon; German, Russian, French, Asian, British and Spanish visitors to our nation. It was a totally different feel in the room from what I had experienced on Monday. It was as if I wasn’t in the room at all because they pushed, shoved and broke line and basically showed me a very rude side to their personalities which disheartened me and brought me totally down. I had this warm and fuzzy feeling yesterday as if we were all as one and our diversity vanished. So much for warm and fuzzy. Reality sunk in! We decided not to stay another night there and set our sights on Route 66 and Winslow, Arizona! I wore my Eagles T-Shirt for the occasion as we sped as fast as we could to make it to Albuquerque by day’s end. We did stop in Winslow and again at the Continental Divide where we celebrated with a Nutty Buddy. We haven’t eaten ice cream in decades, but it was just right for that moment. The scenery changed from forest to red mesas and adobe homes of the Pueblo Indians. The store we stopped in for the ice cream was on the Navaho Nation Reservation which also sported a 10-story hotel and casino. The women that we encountered on the reservation were so sweet and polite and were genuinely appreciative when we thanked them for something. I guess some of those “ferriners” had preceded us. We did get to Albuquerque and plan on driving up to Santa Fe on Wednesday to meet Darwin for lunch. I spoke with him on the phone and he sounded just great and actually wanted us to spend the night with he and I think he said Haley, his girlfriend. We aren’t going to stay over there as we want to turn around and try to make El Paso by Wednesday evening, take a picture of the Mexican border and then head home. We need to be back at least by October 8, 2008 as that’s when the post office will stop holding our mail!
We got an early start Monday morning, so excited about seeing the Grand Canyon! We finally got out of the desert and began to see more and more vegetation and conifers. We decided at the last minute to top off our gas in case we got up there and wanted to make side trips. We rolled into the first station we found and were pleasantly surprised that although the pumps were self service, a service man appeared to wash the windshield and check the oil, water, tires, etc. They were a full service station with mechanics, the whole nine yards. Just like the old days. Well, we were on Route 66 after all and the town of Williams has kept is frontier charm and there are at least 100 bars within a 12 block area. Curious. Anyway, our friendly service man pointed out that our tires were starting to come apart!!! Yikes!!! We have over 62,000 miles on the Xterra and the original tires were on it and we had been traveling at 70 mph in the desert for a couple of days. Thank God we stopped there. He got us back on the road in 45 minutes with new tires and a new sense of just how harsh the conditions are out here. We headed north to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, approximately 50 miles away. We passed by ranch after ranch of sheep and actually saw a herd being shorn. Too cool. We arrived at Tuscayan, AZ, which is just outside the park and found the Red Feather Inn and snagged the last King Suite for Monday night and learned that the wireless internet service is so slow that we decided to wait until we got to a larger venue to post this blog entry and the pictures from Vegas, the Mojave Desert and the pix from the Grand Canyon. We took off again and got to the Canyon about 2:00 or so and let me tell you, the pictures, videos, movies or whatever that you have seen are not anything to compare to the real thing. It is surreal and beautiful, and amazing and astounding, and all other adjectives that describe nature at its best. We ate lunch at the Angel Lodge Restaurant which is right on the rim of the canyon. We toured the history museum and here is the scoop. A certain Fred Harvey came to the canyon in the late 1800s and realized that tourism would be more lucrative than gold or silver mining and built the first Angel Lodge. His family more or less had a monopoly on the tourism trade until the 1930s when others came in to get a piece of the action. Harvey hired Mary Colter, a female architect (almost unheard of in the day) to renovate the lodge and design other structures for the area. She combined the Indian heritage and the forest scenario in her designs and the structures remain as she designed them over 70 years ago! The Lookout Lodge is on the precipice of the rim and the Rangers give lectures on the Condors and their habitat, one of which is the grand canyon. We were just looking out over the grandeur when all of a sudden this spotted squirrel came within inches of my left arm! Scared the bejesus out of me. I was able to get pretty close to the edge where there were retaining walls or fences, but there were some areas where my vertigo basically paralyzed me and I just waited on John to finish his look see over the edge. The people that we encountered on our trek around the rim were from almost every nation in the world. I heard French, German, Russian, Asian of different regions, British English, Spanish and of course English. Everyone was as one in the awe and almost spiritual feel of the area. It was very cool. On our way out of the park we spotted a couple of mule deer. Oh yeah, we saw another dead coyote by the side of the road.
Okay, so I get up Tuesday a.m. and go to breakfast as usual and I encountered some of the people who were at the Canyon; German, Russian, French, Asian, British and Spanish visitors to our nation. It was a totally different feel in the room from what I had experienced on Monday. It was as if I wasn’t in the room at all because they pushed, shoved and broke line and basically showed me a very rude side to their personalities which disheartened me and brought me totally down. I had this warm and fuzzy feeling yesterday as if we were all as one and our diversity vanished. So much for warm and fuzzy. Reality sunk in! We decided not to stay another night there and set our sights on Route 66 and Winslow, Arizona! I wore my Eagles T-Shirt for the occasion as we sped as fast as we could to make it to Albuquerque by day’s end. We did stop in Winslow and again at the Continental Divide where we celebrated with a Nutty Buddy. We haven’t eaten ice cream in decades, but it was just right for that moment. The scenery changed from forest to red mesas and adobe homes of the Pueblo Indians. The store we stopped in for the ice cream was on the Navaho Nation Reservation which also sported a 10-story hotel and casino. The women that we encountered on the reservation were so sweet and polite and were genuinely appreciative when we thanked them for something. I guess some of those “ferriners” had preceded us. We did get to Albuquerque and plan on driving up to Santa Fe on Wednesday to meet Darwin for lunch. I spoke with him on the phone and he sounded just great and actually wanted us to spend the night with he and I think he said Haley, his girlfriend. We aren’t going to stay over there as we want to turn around and try to make El Paso by Wednesday evening, take a picture of the Mexican border and then head home. We need to be back at least by October 8, 2008 as that’s when the post office will stop holding our mail!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Vegas, Baby
We rolled into Vegas late Friday night and booked the room for two nights to give us a chance to see all and do all we wanted to do and see. There is one thing we have observed the past several days since leaving Sacramento is that there had to be some rough and tough folks to make it out here. This is some harsh territory. The air is very hot and dry, which is hard on the skin. The locals look like their skin is made of dark brown leather. John and I are quite the “palefaces” compared to everyone else. Also, it is interesting to note that most license plates we have seen are from California! We found out why later on in our adventure. We got a good night’s sleep and got up early (for us) and drove out to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. Damn, what a dam! Everything is larger than life out here and this was no exception. I chickened out when I saw how high and narrow the dam is and John left me off at the visitor’s center where I people watched thank you very much while he drove over the dam and got pictures, then he WALKED back over it to tell me where he would pick me up and then he had to WALK back over it to get the car. Jeese Louise! I imagined that if I set foot on that thing an earthquake would occur and I would tumble to my death and if I rode over it in the car someone would hit us and knock us over. It is a curse to have such an active imagination at times, you know? We stopped in Boulder City on our way back to Vegas and had hot dogs at A&W Rootbeer. They are everywhere out here as are Denny’s. We also learned that Del Taco first opened close by. Junk food country I do say. On our way back to our home away from home, HI Express, Las Vegas West, we stopped at the Red Rock Harley Davidson dealership to get a t-shirt. Hey, you can’t come all the way to Vegas and NOT get a Las Vegas Harley tee, right? So, back we are in the room and since the Alabama/Georgia game started out here at 4:45 p.m. we decided that we would stay in and watch the game and hit the Strip Sunday a.m. when we thought it wouldn’t be so crowded. We were so pumped and excited that Georgia got beat we just could hardly stand it. They have been bragging about their record but hell fire before this weekend they haven’t played anybody in the SEC, just second class schools that they could easily beat. They are such whiners. So we set out Sunday a.m. fully intending on hitting the strip, walking around and doing a little gambling. Yee-haa! So we get there and find out that there are no parking lots! You can only park at a Casino where you are going to gamble!?! What’s up with that? So we just rode down the strip and took pictures at red lights and no, Sunday is not a quiet day here. It is swamped with people and the parking decks at the casinos were slap dab full. As we were leaving Las Vegas (I keep hearing Sheryl Crow singing…”I’m leavin’ Las Vegas”) we missed a turn and it was very serendipitous because we found ourselves in Prim Valley, NV which is on the NV/CA stateline and which is about 25 miles out of our way, but, Mecca! This is a smaller gambling venue and easy parking. We stopped at Whiskey Pete’s since we just couldn’t come all the way out here and not drop a few bucks. I absolutely love blackjack and I was able to find a table with a dealer and no one playing but me. I handed her a $100 bill and asked for some chips and told her I was no gambler and didn’t really know all the rules but I loved to play the game. She was just a perfect sweetheart. She clued me in on what to do when I was about to do something stupid and explained the rules to me that I had never heard of like taking insurance when she turned up an Ace and to stay when she turned up a 4 or 6. Then this weathered battered looking woman joins me and mutters “I just lost $60 and I need to try to win it back before my husband picks me up”. I just sit there but she strikes up a conversation with me and I tell her that I am no good at gambling but I like it and she warmed up to me and took me under her wing so to speak. We were at a $5 table and she was betting the minimum. I wasn’t worrying about it because I had $100 to lose but I got the feeling that she didn’t. She told me that she was originally from Louisiana but now lives in Palm Springs, CA!!! Four hours they drove to gamble and do it every weekend. Her husband was across the street at Buffalo Bills checking them out of the hotel and she was trying to win back some money. Jeese. I am glad that wine is my vice and not gambling. Anyway, she brought me luck and I got a few blackjacks, well more than a few, about 6 or 7. But I would lose a couple hands in between and since I don’t really know how to gamble, I sat there and played until I was down to $10 and I threw in the towel and left the $10 for my dealer, since she made it possible for me to play a lot longer than I would have been able to had she not given me a little help. Fun, fun, fun, but not something I would want to do very often. It is too stressful. John likes the video poker slots and he played as long as I did and was only down $8. So, there you go. In the past when I have played the slots I have always left a winner, but it is not nearly as much fun, to me, as blackjack.
We motored on into Arizona and Mountain Time and settled in Williams, AZ, which is the gateway to the Grand Canyon. We will get up on Monday and make our way up there. We are hoping to find a room up there for Monday night so that we can spend an extra day there and take these God forsaken bicycles off the car. We have come over 4,000 miles with them on the roof!! We have jokenly said that we may just end up carrying them all across the country without getting them off!!! We do plan on staying a couple of days in Santa Fe so if we don’t get them down tomorrow, then maybe later on in the week. Another sidebar…my hair is straight. Yep. Low humidity equals straight hair. It’s silky, smooth and straight like a surfer chick’s. I was so envious of the surfer girls in FL in my youth because they had silky locks of gold while I only had black locks of frizz. So maybe we need to move out here so I can have a good hair day every day….
We motored on into Arizona and Mountain Time and settled in Williams, AZ, which is the gateway to the Grand Canyon. We will get up on Monday and make our way up there. We are hoping to find a room up there for Monday night so that we can spend an extra day there and take these God forsaken bicycles off the car. We have come over 4,000 miles with them on the roof!! We have jokenly said that we may just end up carrying them all across the country without getting them off!!! We do plan on staying a couple of days in Santa Fe so if we don’t get them down tomorrow, then maybe later on in the week. Another sidebar…my hair is straight. Yep. Low humidity equals straight hair. It’s silky, smooth and straight like a surfer chick’s. I was so envious of the surfer girls in FL in my youth because they had silky locks of gold while I only had black locks of frizz. So maybe we need to move out here so I can have a good hair day every day….
Saturday, September 27, 2008
High Desert, Nevada
We left Carson City, NV headed southeast with no plans except to reach Las Vegas at the end of the day. We traveled through Nevada’s great basin a/k/a The High Desert and came upon the biggest and most remote Army Depot that we had ever seen. Located in Hawthorne, NV, the Hawthorne Army Depot covered thousands of acres of desert and it appeared that there were at least a thousand barrack buildings. We witnessed three Hum-Vs in desert paint with automatic rifles on top, manned by several soldiers each who had apparently just come back from a training mission. Cool. The only signs of life through the entire morning was one scorpion skittering across the road, one mule who looked totally lost and 3 buffalo enclosed in a small corral. We kept on climbing gradually until we reached the town of Tonopah, NV and learned that it sits at over 6,000 feet above sea level and on its eastern edge lies Nellis Air Test Range. Yikes! This town was about the creepiest we had ever seen. In the early 1900s it was a booming mine town (mining what, we never found out, but it wasn’t gold or silver) but now it is nearly a ghost town. There are more junk cars and trucks out here that we have ever seen. The residents encircle their property with junk vehicles, as if they were circling the wagons! I think the nuclear testing has done something strange out here! Nellis encompasses a good 200 square miles of desert and we understand now why they chose this area. There is not a living thing here but sage brush and the occasional prairie chicken, hawk or crow. We continued on and decided that we would take a 75 mile side trip to Death Valley. Hey, we drove this far, how could we NOT go there? It was awesome. The mountains appeared to be made of sand in many different colors of pink, yellow, grey and black. Remember the sand art that the kids made by putting layers of different colored sand in a glass jar? That’s what it looks like. Beautiful, remote, scary in a way and at the bottom is the Arasmosa River at minus 190 feet below sea level! The river is only a thin stream this time of year, but we saw signs that this area is subject to major flooding if they get a little rain. We stopped at Furnace Creek to view the inn there. Right smack dab in the middle of Death Valley is this beautiful inn. We were so glad that we took this side trip because it was a wonder to behold. The pictures don’t do it justice. (I hate this camera, remember?) We then drove the 80 or so miles into Vegas and went to where the HI Express locater told us to go, but we never found it and ended up calling 411 and getting lodging at the HI Express West Las Vegas instead. So, it was 9:00 pm before we got settled in last night. Saturday, we plan on visiting Lake Mead and Hoover Dam and coming back to the room and get gussied up and hit the Strip and drop a couple of dollars!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Sacramento, Reno and Carson City, NV
We arrived at Joe and Linda’s house right on schedule; 4:00 p.m. or so. Their home is so beautiful and they have made many upgrades. Linda has perfect taste and you ought to see what she has done to the guest bathroom. It has been glazed; that is, the paint and a glaze were mixed and she put it on with an applicator that gives it a sort of antique-y look, but shiny and a wonderful desert red. The new hardwood floors just pull all of her decorator touches together. You may recall how big the house is on the inside, but doesn’t look it on the outside. It actually appeared larger with the new paint and floors. Good Job, Linda and Joe! We were thrilled when Andy, Tycee and Peyton showed up. We told them we had traveled 4,400 miles just to see that beautiful baby! He is a charmer and so smart! He and Colin are so much alike and both share that curiosity and the almost ravenous way that they investigate new things. John and I were both enthralled. Luckily we got to babysit while Andy and Tycee took in a movie. Apparently, they don't get to go on dates very often, and we were glad to accommodate them. Linda provided the two pictures of part of the California Nixes since our visit was just overnight and our camera had died! I hate this new camera. It requires regular batteries and it doesn’t come with a charger like the Sony. We have gone through four packages of batteries so far. Grrr
Joe advised us to drive on over to Nevada and head to Vegas that way because the roads are so much better than in California. He was so right. The ride over here was fantastic. The picture of the beautiful mountain in the Sierra Nevada Range was taken on our way to Reno this morning. We stopped for gas and were greeted by a whole gaggle of bikers. I spoke with a young woman there and she informed us that this is the weekend of “Street Vibrations”, a 4-day long bike rally in Reno! Yikes! We decided to pass Reno by and go on to Carson City, NV for the night. We got here early enough to check in, settle in and then go exploring. We quickly found out that even though the main rally is in Reno, the Carson City HD dealership was holding its own event so we drove up the mountain (over a mile up) to Silver City and then Virginia City, which had its share of bikers as well. The whole area has become inundated with bikers. We did have a great adventure there and bought our first souvenir! We were greatly disappointed to learn that the Ponderosa Ranch is now closed. A developer from California bought the property and operated it as a tourist attraction until there were few visitors and closed it down. John and I had tried to visit it when we were at Lake Tahoe a few Thanksgivings back and it was still operating at that time, but was closed for the winter. Boo hoo. We really had our hearts set on visiting the home of the Cartwrights. So, moving right along, we visited the Delta Saloon, there resides the "Suicide Table" which is a Faro Table and which there were 3 separate miners who, after striking it rich in the gold mines, proceeded to lose everything they had at this card game and as a result,shot themselves dead right there (as Bert's father would say). In Silver City which is just a mile or so down the mountain, silver was discovered, and there are many mines still in evidence in the area but are dangerous and only viewed on guided tours UNDERGROUND. Yikes. John and I don't do underground or caves. So we passed on that, but snapped a picture of the outside of one on our way back to Carson City. I tried to take more pictures today, per a request from Kelsey and when we get to Vegas tomorrow, you bet your booty that we will have even more! John said we are staying in Vegas until we are either millionaire or lose all our money! Yippee.
Joe advised us to drive on over to Nevada and head to Vegas that way because the roads are so much better than in California. He was so right. The ride over here was fantastic. The picture of the beautiful mountain in the Sierra Nevada Range was taken on our way to Reno this morning. We stopped for gas and were greeted by a whole gaggle of bikers. I spoke with a young woman there and she informed us that this is the weekend of “Street Vibrations”, a 4-day long bike rally in Reno! Yikes! We decided to pass Reno by and go on to Carson City, NV for the night. We got here early enough to check in, settle in and then go exploring. We quickly found out that even though the main rally is in Reno, the Carson City HD dealership was holding its own event so we drove up the mountain (over a mile up) to Silver City and then Virginia City, which had its share of bikers as well. The whole area has become inundated with bikers. We did have a great adventure there and bought our first souvenir! We were greatly disappointed to learn that the Ponderosa Ranch is now closed. A developer from California bought the property and operated it as a tourist attraction until there were few visitors and closed it down. John and I had tried to visit it when we were at Lake Tahoe a few Thanksgivings back and it was still operating at that time, but was closed for the winter. Boo hoo. We really had our hearts set on visiting the home of the Cartwrights. So, moving right along, we visited the Delta Saloon, there resides the "Suicide Table" which is a Faro Table and which there were 3 separate miners who, after striking it rich in the gold mines, proceeded to lose everything they had at this card game and as a result,shot themselves dead right there (as Bert's father would say). In Silver City which is just a mile or so down the mountain, silver was discovered, and there are many mines still in evidence in the area but are dangerous and only viewed on guided tours UNDERGROUND. Yikes. John and I don't do underground or caves. So we passed on that, but snapped a picture of the outside of one on our way back to Carson City. I tried to take more pictures today, per a request from Kelsey and when we get to Vegas tomorrow, you bet your booty that we will have even more! John said we are staying in Vegas until we are either millionaire or lose all our money! Yippee.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Big Trees
September 23, 2008
Morning greeted us with sunshine again with cool temps and a breeze off the Pacific. We decided to stop in the Redwood Forest and take a little time there so we pretty much humped it to get through there to Redding, CA where we stopped for the night. There is so much out here that it is really had to describe. The forests give way to crashing waves of the Pacific and you go from the Tsunami Warning areas next to the beaches to heights of 3,000 feet with breathtaking views of the mountains and the Pacific. We stopped at a museum in the Redwood Forest and I couldn’t resist taking this picture of Paul Bunyan and Babe. The trees were much taller than Paul and as you can see John standing by his boot, he’s no little pipsqueak. It took us a while to cross the mountains to Redding and we have some errands to run in the a.m. so we will take the leisurely drive down to Sacramento tomorrow. We are so excited that we are going to see at least some of the California Nixes!
One more sidenote. Everything out here is so pristine and aside for the occasional tiny town, the mountains are all as wild as they were when first discovered.
Morning greeted us with sunshine again with cool temps and a breeze off the Pacific. We decided to stop in the Redwood Forest and take a little time there so we pretty much humped it to get through there to Redding, CA where we stopped for the night. There is so much out here that it is really had to describe. The forests give way to crashing waves of the Pacific and you go from the Tsunami Warning areas next to the beaches to heights of 3,000 feet with breathtaking views of the mountains and the Pacific. We stopped at a museum in the Redwood Forest and I couldn’t resist taking this picture of Paul Bunyan and Babe. The trees were much taller than Paul and as you can see John standing by his boot, he’s no little pipsqueak. It took us a while to cross the mountains to Redding and we have some errands to run in the a.m. so we will take the leisurely drive down to Sacramento tomorrow. We are so excited that we are going to see at least some of the California Nixes!
One more sidenote. Everything out here is so pristine and aside for the occasional tiny town, the mountains are all as wild as they were when first discovered.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Pacific Coast Byway
September 20 through 22, 2008
We left Tacoma on Saturday, the 20th in a drizzle of rain and quite cool. Traffic in that area is horrendous and we were glad to get south of their to Portland, OR and tour Powell’s Bookstore. Well we got to Portland alright and it really reminds me of Gotham City. There are many, many bridges in Oregon and the first one we saw was the Fremont Bridge in Portland. It’s very gothic, green in color and concrete monuments framing each end. The directions I had to Powell’s were totally off base and we were out of town before we found the turnoff. Since we wanted to make the coast that day, we decided to just go on and not stop until we got to the Pacific Coast Byway (Highway 101). The trees in Oregon are just awesome and are everywhere, even in the cities. I can’t wait to get home and try to re-capture their grandeur in pastels. We got to the coast and discovered that everybody in Oregon decided to go to the coast this weekend, and we had trouble finding a room. We wanted to be on the beach and finally found the last room in town apparently, in Newport, OR at the Hallmark Resort. The last room was actually a King Suite with a full kitchen and Jacuzzi with a private balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean! Just what the doctor ordered. We decided to stay the weekend there because it is such a beautiful area. The sunset was amazing and I am including all shots from Saturday night and Sunday night because I couldn’t just pick one! We relaxed in the Jacuzzi Saturday night and ordered room service. Ah, I love room service! Sunday we slept in and then went to tour the area and take pictures. The lighthouse was just beautiful. We could see if from our balcony, but wanted to take a closer look. Then we went down to the bay and downtown. Everything is so quaint along the scenic byway and we thoroughly enjoyed the day. Since we had a full kitchen in the suite, completely furnished with pots, pans, dishes, etc. we went to the local Fred Meyer, which is Oregon’s answer to Wal-Mart and snagged some shrimp, Brussels sprouts and corn and cooked our supper. It was so good to be able to cook. We have missed that these past two weeks. So Monday a.m. we arose to sunshine and a beautiful day, but also we discovered the battery had died in the Xterra! We called the 1-800 number for Nissan and learned that there is a Nissan dealership in Newport, OR! We took the car in and luckily Newport is large enough to have a dealership but small enough that they got us in, diagnosed the problem, found it was indeed just the battery and even washed it for us after they replaced it. The people in Oregon are so cheerful and friendly and appear to be really happy. I guess the surroundings make a body feel good! We continued our journey and were determined to get to the Redwood Forest on Monday. The Pacific Coast Byway takes you through forests, mountains and then at once you go around a curve and you are on a precipice overlooking the Pacific. Of course it is on MY side of the car and I was doing a lot of “OMG, OMG” as John careened around the curves. At every turn there was danger, if not rocks, slides, elk crossings or high wind gusts, it was a 300 foot drop to the ocean! I was just short of being fearful, so it was very exciting, but not too scary. We made it to Crescent City, CA this evening and have a lovely room at the Hampton on the beach. We are going to get an early start tomorrow and drive through the Redwoods and make our way to Sacramento. We are really having a wonderful time and keep telling each other how glad we are that we decided to do this.
We left Tacoma on Saturday, the 20th in a drizzle of rain and quite cool. Traffic in that area is horrendous and we were glad to get south of their to Portland, OR and tour Powell’s Bookstore. Well we got to Portland alright and it really reminds me of Gotham City. There are many, many bridges in Oregon and the first one we saw was the Fremont Bridge in Portland. It’s very gothic, green in color and concrete monuments framing each end. The directions I had to Powell’s were totally off base and we were out of town before we found the turnoff. Since we wanted to make the coast that day, we decided to just go on and not stop until we got to the Pacific Coast Byway (Highway 101). The trees in Oregon are just awesome and are everywhere, even in the cities. I can’t wait to get home and try to re-capture their grandeur in pastels. We got to the coast and discovered that everybody in Oregon decided to go to the coast this weekend, and we had trouble finding a room. We wanted to be on the beach and finally found the last room in town apparently, in Newport, OR at the Hallmark Resort. The last room was actually a King Suite with a full kitchen and Jacuzzi with a private balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean! Just what the doctor ordered. We decided to stay the weekend there because it is such a beautiful area. The sunset was amazing and I am including all shots from Saturday night and Sunday night because I couldn’t just pick one! We relaxed in the Jacuzzi Saturday night and ordered room service. Ah, I love room service! Sunday we slept in and then went to tour the area and take pictures. The lighthouse was just beautiful. We could see if from our balcony, but wanted to take a closer look. Then we went down to the bay and downtown. Everything is so quaint along the scenic byway and we thoroughly enjoyed the day. Since we had a full kitchen in the suite, completely furnished with pots, pans, dishes, etc. we went to the local Fred Meyer, which is Oregon’s answer to Wal-Mart and snagged some shrimp, Brussels sprouts and corn and cooked our supper. It was so good to be able to cook. We have missed that these past two weeks. So Monday a.m. we arose to sunshine and a beautiful day, but also we discovered the battery had died in the Xterra! We called the 1-800 number for Nissan and learned that there is a Nissan dealership in Newport, OR! We took the car in and luckily Newport is large enough to have a dealership but small enough that they got us in, diagnosed the problem, found it was indeed just the battery and even washed it for us after they replaced it. The people in Oregon are so cheerful and friendly and appear to be really happy. I guess the surroundings make a body feel good! We continued our journey and were determined to get to the Redwood Forest on Monday. The Pacific Coast Byway takes you through forests, mountains and then at once you go around a curve and you are on a precipice overlooking the Pacific. Of course it is on MY side of the car and I was doing a lot of “OMG, OMG” as John careened around the curves. At every turn there was danger, if not rocks, slides, elk crossings or high wind gusts, it was a 300 foot drop to the ocean! I was just short of being fearful, so it was very exciting, but not too scary. We made it to Crescent City, CA this evening and have a lovely room at the Hampton on the beach. We are going to get an early start tomorrow and drive through the Redwoods and make our way to Sacramento. We are really having a wonderful time and keep telling each other how glad we are that we decided to do this.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Hapless Friday
September 19, 2008
We had every intention of driving to Vancouver, BC today and were 10 miles south of the border when we decided to stop for lunch and gas up. We didn’t want to spend many dollars outside the good ole US of A and boy were we glad we did! We had a typical Denny’s lunch and were looking forward to our adventure across the border, when the couple next to us got up to leave and the woman cried “oh my back” and she looked over at me and told us they had just sat at the border trying to get back in the US for 2 hours! She told us that they heard if you don’t get back before 11:00 a.m. you will be sitting there for a while since the security is much more stringent coming into the US than it is going into Canada. So we decided to just go to the border, take a couple of pictures and come on back to Tacoma and get ready for our trek into Oregon tomorrow. Well, one thing we have to say about Seattle traffic. It sucks. Atlanta traffic seems like going through Bolingbroke compared to this crazy town. The people drive like maniacs for one thing. We saw a dude in a Beamer try to cut in front of an F250 (the big ole honking pickup) and the truck just pulled up and the guy in the Beamer ran into his side! Hello, F250 vs. Beamer??? How stupid can you get? I think these folks need a little sunshine. It has drizzled and has been overcast the whole time we’ve been in the area, but actually it feels pretty good (70 degrees!) but I don’t think I would like it all the time. It is like this for 10 months out of the year and they have an average of 60 plus inches of rain per year. Yikes! But everything is beautiful and green and lots of flowers. Please let me give another sidebar about a cool doughnut shop here. There were two guys who wanted to open a doughnut shop in downtown Seattle because they had this great recipe for hand made doughnuts. They went to a salvage yard and found a neon sign from a defunct business whose name was “Top Spot”. As they made their way back to downtown Seattle with their prize, the “S” fell off the sign and disintegrated on the interstate. These guys were undaunted by this event and proudly named their doughnut shop the “Top Pot” and their doughnuts are to die for. We weren’t able to go to the Top Pot in person, but as most of you know Starbucks was founded here and they carry Top Pot doughnuts to go with their excellent coffees and teas. We stopped at a Starbucks on our way back from the Canadian border and yes, they had Top Pot doughnuts, but only the glazed chocolate ones and I had read that the plain, no glaze ones are the best. We are going to stop at Starbucks on our way out of Tacoma in the a.m. and hopefully I can snag a plain, no glaze one. Our plan for tomorrow is to get to Portland for lunch and a side trip to Powell’s Bookstore, the county’s largest and where I order books that are out of print that I can’t get at Barnes & Noble. After that we plan on going to the Oregon coast and settling in at Lincoln City. On Sunday we plan on visiting the “Big Trees” in NE California and hopefully make Sacramento on Monday.
We had every intention of driving to Vancouver, BC today and were 10 miles south of the border when we decided to stop for lunch and gas up. We didn’t want to spend many dollars outside the good ole US of A and boy were we glad we did! We had a typical Denny’s lunch and were looking forward to our adventure across the border, when the couple next to us got up to leave and the woman cried “oh my back” and she looked over at me and told us they had just sat at the border trying to get back in the US for 2 hours! She told us that they heard if you don’t get back before 11:00 a.m. you will be sitting there for a while since the security is much more stringent coming into the US than it is going into Canada. So we decided to just go to the border, take a couple of pictures and come on back to Tacoma and get ready for our trek into Oregon tomorrow. Well, one thing we have to say about Seattle traffic. It sucks. Atlanta traffic seems like going through Bolingbroke compared to this crazy town. The people drive like maniacs for one thing. We saw a dude in a Beamer try to cut in front of an F250 (the big ole honking pickup) and the truck just pulled up and the guy in the Beamer ran into his side! Hello, F250 vs. Beamer??? How stupid can you get? I think these folks need a little sunshine. It has drizzled and has been overcast the whole time we’ve been in the area, but actually it feels pretty good (70 degrees!) but I don’t think I would like it all the time. It is like this for 10 months out of the year and they have an average of 60 plus inches of rain per year. Yikes! But everything is beautiful and green and lots of flowers. Please let me give another sidebar about a cool doughnut shop here. There were two guys who wanted to open a doughnut shop in downtown Seattle because they had this great recipe for hand made doughnuts. They went to a salvage yard and found a neon sign from a defunct business whose name was “Top Spot”. As they made their way back to downtown Seattle with their prize, the “S” fell off the sign and disintegrated on the interstate. These guys were undaunted by this event and proudly named their doughnut shop the “Top Pot” and their doughnuts are to die for. We weren’t able to go to the Top Pot in person, but as most of you know Starbucks was founded here and they carry Top Pot doughnuts to go with their excellent coffees and teas. We stopped at a Starbucks on our way back from the Canadian border and yes, they had Top Pot doughnuts, but only the glazed chocolate ones and I had read that the plain, no glaze ones are the best. We are going to stop at Starbucks on our way out of Tacoma in the a.m. and hopefully I can snag a plain, no glaze one. Our plan for tomorrow is to get to Portland for lunch and a side trip to Powell’s Bookstore, the county’s largest and where I order books that are out of print that I can’t get at Barnes & Noble. After that we plan on going to the Oregon coast and settling in at Lincoln City. On Sunday we plan on visiting the “Big Trees” in NE California and hopefully make Sacramento on Monday.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Sleepless in Seattle
September 18, 2008
Today we decided to go back to Seattle and take the Monorail from the Space Needle down to the Public Market on the coast of Puget Sound and tour the city in one of the “Ducks”, amphibian vehicles from WWII that take you through the city and into the Sound. The Space Needle is ground zero for tourists. It is located in the Seattle Center, a 30 odd acre park that has, along with the Space Needle, the Sci-Fi Museum, The Rock Museum that is supposedly in the shape of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. He was from Seattle and bought his first guitar there. We traveled to the Westpark area, which is so much like the shopping district of San Francisco with Nordstrom, originated here in the early 1900s, Macys, and many tony clothing and shoe shops that we just knew were too pricey for our budget. The people we encountered in this area were (pardon the expression) high dollar grunge. The average age here is 34 and the number one profession is attorney-at-law. So we were passing these professional people during their lunch break who sported denim and leather but with a grunge look. We are both people watchers and we certainly got our fix for a couple weeks! So then we make our way from 5th Avenue down to the Public Market at the wharf. They have the best produce from local growers there on 3 levels! Also meats and the famous Pike Place Fish Market where the “Fish” series of motivational materials was filmed and presented at Alston & Bird a few years ago. We saw Brussels sprouts the size of baseballs and white corn on the cob the size of rolling pins. I mean everything was beautiful and bigger than what we are accustomed to. We had a head’s up from Linda and Dana to check out Ivar’s clam chowder, but we had walked 10 blocks and settled for Pike Place Chowder which was very tasty and served with sourdough bread. There were several street performers included one dude with a piano on wheels! Our entertainer was a drunken Hispanic Rastafarian who sang Aie Yai Yai Ya….with a slur in his voice. Too funny. We then made our way back to the Monorail and to the Duck staging area. This was so cool. The guide was very knowledgeable about Seattle and pointed out many things we would have missed had we gone out on our own. For example, at the Safeco Stadium, Bill Gates was addressing over 40,000 employees of Microsoft on a state of the corporation convention. His home is about 4 miles outside of downtown Seattle and is built to resemble a Ski Chalet and has over 20,000 square feet of space. Sheese. We were taken down the Alaskan Way, which is the road hugging the coastline and also where we discovered Ivar’s!!! We never would have found it on foot and were glad we just went ahead and had lunch at the Market. We then went to the boat launch and yes, you guessed it, we plunged into Puget Sound and started motoring over the water just like that! Our guide told us that the inventor of Windows is the boyfriend of Martha Stewart and I am sorry that I cannot remember his name. However, our guide said that he encountered Martha and her boyfriend on one of his trips out just this past Tuesday and he recognized the boat as Martha’s and motored over close to it and Martha acknowledged everyone on the Duck. We weren’t that lucky. We only had the pleasure of experiencing Seattle from a distance and weren’t disappointed. We then came upon the house boats that the guide explained had been there since the gold rush. He told us that when the miners came through on their way back from the gold fields that they put over a billion dollars into the economy and the locals couldn’t afford the land anymore, so they built their homes on the sound on floated on timbers! They didn’t have electricity, water, gas or property taxes because they were on the water. Nowadays, these little 400 square foot structures go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Next we came upon the houseboat that was home to Tom Hanks in “Sleepless in Seattle”. The current owner bought it for $500,000 in 1996 and has it up for sale for $2.5 million! Yikes! The cost of living here is higher than Atlanta and I don’t know how anybody can make it here. We finished our tour on land through the Bohemian section of town where there are a lot of art galleries and statuary. We made our way back to Tacoma and our wonderful HI Express room which we decided to keep another night. We decided not to take the ferry to Victoria, instead we will drive to Vancouver, BC tomorrow and then on Saturday we plan to take the Oregon coast highway until we get ready to stop. No HI Express down that way, but we didn’t expect to find one. Hopefully, we will find lodging on the coast and have a fabulous sunset in store.
Today we decided to go back to Seattle and take the Monorail from the Space Needle down to the Public Market on the coast of Puget Sound and tour the city in one of the “Ducks”, amphibian vehicles from WWII that take you through the city and into the Sound. The Space Needle is ground zero for tourists. It is located in the Seattle Center, a 30 odd acre park that has, along with the Space Needle, the Sci-Fi Museum, The Rock Museum that is supposedly in the shape of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. He was from Seattle and bought his first guitar there. We traveled to the Westpark area, which is so much like the shopping district of San Francisco with Nordstrom, originated here in the early 1900s, Macys, and many tony clothing and shoe shops that we just knew were too pricey for our budget. The people we encountered in this area were (pardon the expression) high dollar grunge. The average age here is 34 and the number one profession is attorney-at-law. So we were passing these professional people during their lunch break who sported denim and leather but with a grunge look. We are both people watchers and we certainly got our fix for a couple weeks! So then we make our way from 5th Avenue down to the Public Market at the wharf. They have the best produce from local growers there on 3 levels! Also meats and the famous Pike Place Fish Market where the “Fish” series of motivational materials was filmed and presented at Alston & Bird a few years ago. We saw Brussels sprouts the size of baseballs and white corn on the cob the size of rolling pins. I mean everything was beautiful and bigger than what we are accustomed to. We had a head’s up from Linda and Dana to check out Ivar’s clam chowder, but we had walked 10 blocks and settled for Pike Place Chowder which was very tasty and served with sourdough bread. There were several street performers included one dude with a piano on wheels! Our entertainer was a drunken Hispanic Rastafarian who sang Aie Yai Yai Ya….with a slur in his voice. Too funny. We then made our way back to the Monorail and to the Duck staging area. This was so cool. The guide was very knowledgeable about Seattle and pointed out many things we would have missed had we gone out on our own. For example, at the Safeco Stadium, Bill Gates was addressing over 40,000 employees of Microsoft on a state of the corporation convention. His home is about 4 miles outside of downtown Seattle and is built to resemble a Ski Chalet and has over 20,000 square feet of space. Sheese. We were taken down the Alaskan Way, which is the road hugging the coastline and also where we discovered Ivar’s!!! We never would have found it on foot and were glad we just went ahead and had lunch at the Market. We then went to the boat launch and yes, you guessed it, we plunged into Puget Sound and started motoring over the water just like that! Our guide told us that the inventor of Windows is the boyfriend of Martha Stewart and I am sorry that I cannot remember his name. However, our guide said that he encountered Martha and her boyfriend on one of his trips out just this past Tuesday and he recognized the boat as Martha’s and motored over close to it and Martha acknowledged everyone on the Duck. We weren’t that lucky. We only had the pleasure of experiencing Seattle from a distance and weren’t disappointed. We then came upon the house boats that the guide explained had been there since the gold rush. He told us that when the miners came through on their way back from the gold fields that they put over a billion dollars into the economy and the locals couldn’t afford the land anymore, so they built their homes on the sound on floated on timbers! They didn’t have electricity, water, gas or property taxes because they were on the water. Nowadays, these little 400 square foot structures go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Next we came upon the houseboat that was home to Tom Hanks in “Sleepless in Seattle”. The current owner bought it for $500,000 in 1996 and has it up for sale for $2.5 million! Yikes! The cost of living here is higher than Atlanta and I don’t know how anybody can make it here. We finished our tour on land through the Bohemian section of town where there are a lot of art galleries and statuary. We made our way back to Tacoma and our wonderful HI Express room which we decided to keep another night. We decided not to take the ferry to Victoria, instead we will drive to Vancouver, BC tomorrow and then on Saturday we plan to take the Oregon coast highway until we get ready to stop. No HI Express down that way, but we didn’t expect to find one. Hopefully, we will find lodging on the coast and have a fabulous sunset in store.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
September 15, 2008 - September 17, 2008
We didn’t have internet access at the HI Express Monday night or last night, so you will get three days worth of adventure from us today, which is Wednesday. Another glorious day greeted us Monday morning in Billings, MT as we set out to cross this massive state. We were pleasantly surprised to see more prosperous looking ranches, with sheep, horses (lots of horses) cattle, antelope and another dead coyote beside the road. John reminded me that we were traveling in the Indian Reservation for most of Sunday and that once we got off those poor people’s land, we naturally would see lots of activity. Also, it was Sunday and I mean, they rest on Sunday out here. I kept forgetting the name of the restaurant/bar/casino in Broadus where we ate and John reminded me that it was “The Powder River Cattlemen’s Club” and yes, they worry more about their kids smoking than they do about them drinking and gambling. Sounds reasonable to me. Also, apparently there is a horrible meth problem out here. We heard several commercials on the local radio stations with commentary from teens who got hooked and did awful things to get this killer drug. Also, there are many disturbing billboards, the main one that shocked me was one with a small boy pointing a rifle with the caption “If he doesn’t care about God, why do you think he cares about you?” Yikes. Scary stuff. Also, they have t-shorts with captions like:”Homeland Security” with a picture of cowboys with big ole guns. I guess this hardscrabble life takes tough folks. We haven’t seen but 2 highway patrolmen since we crossed the Mississippi last Monday. It’s such a huge land that I guess everyone sort of polices themselves. We began to get into the mountains and I learned pretty quickly that when you see a sign that says “Chain Up” that means you will start climbing at a steep angle and then down a steep slope to the next valley. U.S. Highway 90 winds through the passes and valleys of the Rockies and such beautiful vistas are around every curve. If we had stopped to take all the pictures we wanted to, we would still be back in Deer Lodge somewhere. I think we passed one of Ted Turner’s ranches because the fences were like new, there were buffalo roaming and nice equipment cutting hay and a nice stone entryway into the ranch. There was a public service announcement on the radio reminding hunters to treat their horses with something to prevent them from bringing noxious weeds back into the ranchland. John and I were imagining the pioneers traveling this same route, which BTW is the Lewis & Clark Trail and the easiest way to wind through the mountains. There are trains running all day out here and there are lots of sawmills, quarries, mines, oil refineries and everybody drives a big ole’ diesel pickup truck. We passed by the Dreamcatcher Stables just east if Missoula, MT and there were hundreds of horses there. Red, black, white and brown; all shiny, healthy and a wonder to behold. We stayed in Missoula, MT Monday night, which is almost to the westernmost border of Montana and is also the home of the University of Montana. Wayne and Jerri Garner have been out here to a dude ranch just south of town in Darby, MT so they know how beautiful it is out here. The picture of the Bitterroot River does not do it justice. The water is deep shiny blue and the flowers growing on the banks are bright yellow set against a backdrop of stalwart rocky mountains. There are a lot of Sinclair gas stations out here and we were determined to fill up at one, which we did in Clinton, MT 10 miles east of our stop in Missoula. There is oil here, and timber and rock and many, many people have bee boxes. I have been putting the local honey on my breakfast biscuit each morning and while John is sneezing, I am allergy free. We did run through an area where there was some dust that got us both rubbing our eyes though. Our first week has been so wondrous and we have our routine for stopping each night down pat. Holiday Inn Express is our home away from home. They are all almost the same, but the differences are minor and we are pleased that the beds are the same at every one of them! We are sleeping like logs.
Tuesday morning we decided we were going to make it through the rest of Montana, Idaho and halfway cross Washington State. We really humped it and have realized that the angle of the sun out here makes it impossible for us to get any pictures. It is so bright and there are few trees, except in the National Forests, and the people are either farming the land or grazing livestock for miles and miles. As we crossed the Ceour d’Alene Mountains, we were met with a breathtaking view of Lake Ceour d’Alene, Idaho, which is a huge glacial lake that attracts the rich and famous. We had lunch lakeside at the Bonsai Bistro, which has excellent Thai/Pan Asian cuisine. We took pictures of the lake, actually we have taken several picture of the countryside, but they are all “whited out” due to the angle of the sun. I hope that it is better when we get to Seattle tomorrow. We crossed the Columbia River, Washington, which is another breathtaking vista. We stayed in Ellensburg, Washington on Tuesday night right after we passed through George, Washington. Yes, I said George, Washington. We got gas before we got to Ellensburg in a place called Ritzville, Washington and that is where John took the picture of the stagecoach and teams made entirely of horseshoes and chains. These people have been out in the sun too long. John and I exchanged glances many a time going through this part of the country and shaking our heads, “No way – No way”. These folks would have to get supplies for a whole month because it’s 50 or so miles between towns! Yikes, no jumping in the car and going to Kroger for a gallon of milk…..
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
We made good time this morning and arrived in Seattle around lunchtime. We went to the Space Needle and sort of got our bearings since this is a huge city. We had lunch there and decided to come on to the hotel and gather our wits and formulate a plan for tomorrow. We are going to go ahead and go to Vancouver, BC tomorrow and then go back into Seattle to take the “Duck Ride” and ride the Monorail. More later.
We didn’t have internet access at the HI Express Monday night or last night, so you will get three days worth of adventure from us today, which is Wednesday. Another glorious day greeted us Monday morning in Billings, MT as we set out to cross this massive state. We were pleasantly surprised to see more prosperous looking ranches, with sheep, horses (lots of horses) cattle, antelope and another dead coyote beside the road. John reminded me that we were traveling in the Indian Reservation for most of Sunday and that once we got off those poor people’s land, we naturally would see lots of activity. Also, it was Sunday and I mean, they rest on Sunday out here. I kept forgetting the name of the restaurant/bar/casino in Broadus where we ate and John reminded me that it was “The Powder River Cattlemen’s Club” and yes, they worry more about their kids smoking than they do about them drinking and gambling. Sounds reasonable to me. Also, apparently there is a horrible meth problem out here. We heard several commercials on the local radio stations with commentary from teens who got hooked and did awful things to get this killer drug. Also, there are many disturbing billboards, the main one that shocked me was one with a small boy pointing a rifle with the caption “If he doesn’t care about God, why do you think he cares about you?” Yikes. Scary stuff. Also, they have t-shorts with captions like:”Homeland Security” with a picture of cowboys with big ole guns. I guess this hardscrabble life takes tough folks. We haven’t seen but 2 highway patrolmen since we crossed the Mississippi last Monday. It’s such a huge land that I guess everyone sort of polices themselves. We began to get into the mountains and I learned pretty quickly that when you see a sign that says “Chain Up” that means you will start climbing at a steep angle and then down a steep slope to the next valley. U.S. Highway 90 winds through the passes and valleys of the Rockies and such beautiful vistas are around every curve. If we had stopped to take all the pictures we wanted to, we would still be back in Deer Lodge somewhere. I think we passed one of Ted Turner’s ranches because the fences were like new, there were buffalo roaming and nice equipment cutting hay and a nice stone entryway into the ranch. There was a public service announcement on the radio reminding hunters to treat their horses with something to prevent them from bringing noxious weeds back into the ranchland. John and I were imagining the pioneers traveling this same route, which BTW is the Lewis & Clark Trail and the easiest way to wind through the mountains. There are trains running all day out here and there are lots of sawmills, quarries, mines, oil refineries and everybody drives a big ole’ diesel pickup truck. We passed by the Dreamcatcher Stables just east if Missoula, MT and there were hundreds of horses there. Red, black, white and brown; all shiny, healthy and a wonder to behold. We stayed in Missoula, MT Monday night, which is almost to the westernmost border of Montana and is also the home of the University of Montana. Wayne and Jerri Garner have been out here to a dude ranch just south of town in Darby, MT so they know how beautiful it is out here. The picture of the Bitterroot River does not do it justice. The water is deep shiny blue and the flowers growing on the banks are bright yellow set against a backdrop of stalwart rocky mountains. There are a lot of Sinclair gas stations out here and we were determined to fill up at one, which we did in Clinton, MT 10 miles east of our stop in Missoula. There is oil here, and timber and rock and many, many people have bee boxes. I have been putting the local honey on my breakfast biscuit each morning and while John is sneezing, I am allergy free. We did run through an area where there was some dust that got us both rubbing our eyes though. Our first week has been so wondrous and we have our routine for stopping each night down pat. Holiday Inn Express is our home away from home. They are all almost the same, but the differences are minor and we are pleased that the beds are the same at every one of them! We are sleeping like logs.
Tuesday morning we decided we were going to make it through the rest of Montana, Idaho and halfway cross Washington State. We really humped it and have realized that the angle of the sun out here makes it impossible for us to get any pictures. It is so bright and there are few trees, except in the National Forests, and the people are either farming the land or grazing livestock for miles and miles. As we crossed the Ceour d’Alene Mountains, we were met with a breathtaking view of Lake Ceour d’Alene, Idaho, which is a huge glacial lake that attracts the rich and famous. We had lunch lakeside at the Bonsai Bistro, which has excellent Thai/Pan Asian cuisine. We took pictures of the lake, actually we have taken several picture of the countryside, but they are all “whited out” due to the angle of the sun. I hope that it is better when we get to Seattle tomorrow. We crossed the Columbia River, Washington, which is another breathtaking vista. We stayed in Ellensburg, Washington on Tuesday night right after we passed through George, Washington. Yes, I said George, Washington. We got gas before we got to Ellensburg in a place called Ritzville, Washington and that is where John took the picture of the stagecoach and teams made entirely of horseshoes and chains. These people have been out in the sun too long. John and I exchanged glances many a time going through this part of the country and shaking our heads, “No way – No way”. These folks would have to get supplies for a whole month because it’s 50 or so miles between towns! Yikes, no jumping in the car and going to Kroger for a gallon of milk…..
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
We made good time this morning and arrived in Seattle around lunchtime. We went to the Space Needle and sort of got our bearings since this is a huge city. We had lunch there and decided to come on to the hotel and gather our wits and formulate a plan for tomorrow. We are going to go ahead and go to Vancouver, BC tomorrow and then go back into Seattle to take the “Duck Ride” and ride the Monorail. More later.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sunday in Broadus, MT
A post script to Sunday’s entry: I totally forgot to mention that as we were traveling west along U.S. Highway 212 in southeastern Montana, the road turned to dirt. I kid you not. We were on a dirt road for about 10 miles! Before we hit that surprising spot, we had stopped in Broadus, MT for lunch. There is nothing out here except miles and miles of ranch land with cattle, antelope, sheep and one dead coyote by the side of the road. The waitress was a small woman with weathered skin and curly white hair. She had pinned two silk orchids in her hair that complimented her Wranglers and cowboy boots. Half of the restaurant was dedicated to the saloon and casino and had a warning sign on the door “Smoking Establishment. No one under 18 admitted”. As we placed our order several other people came in and were truly cowboys and cowgirls. I wanted to take a picture of two of the guys because they looked like they walked off the set of “Lonesome Dove”. They all knew one another and were talking about their crops, cattle and other livestock. Since these ranches are miles and miles apart, I guessed that they only come in to town on Sunday and eat out. We had what they described as Salisbury Steak, but it was ground steak with bell peppers chopped up in it. It was really good. Have you noticed that I describe every meal????
Sunday, September 14, 2008
September 14, 2008
Again, we awoke to crystal clear blue skies and cool temperatures in Sturgis, SD. We made our way to the Harley Hall of Fame and Museum, which was one of the highlights of our trip. We had met a couple from Vermont over breakfast and they turned up at the museum. They were touring the Harley dealerships from Vermont to Sturgis and then back home again! Their son works in a Harley plant, just as so many sons of other couples’ that we met work. Cool. We hunkered down for the long drive to Billings, MT and it was beautiful and hilly, rock formations abound and we saw hundreds of prong horn antelope and mule deer and a few more prairie dogs, but not much more. As we entered the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation we were just saddened by the conditions these people live in. Very substandard housing and each house or trailer had at least one junk car in the yard and most had 3 or 4. We saw a group of young Cheyenne men hanging out in the front yard of one of the houses and they were having a few brewskis or more as evidenced by the empties on the ground.
Then we stopped at the Little Bighorn battleground and museum and were again so depressed. The white man not understanding their culture tried to force our culture on them and no wonder they went to war!! It is unfortunate that the white man could not just try to understand their culture and let them be. I know that is a naïve view, but there should have been another way.
Not much to write about today because it was a catch up day since we didn’t drive much yesterday. Hoping to get to Washington State by Tuesday.
Again, we awoke to crystal clear blue skies and cool temperatures in Sturgis, SD. We made our way to the Harley Hall of Fame and Museum, which was one of the highlights of our trip. We had met a couple from Vermont over breakfast and they turned up at the museum. They were touring the Harley dealerships from Vermont to Sturgis and then back home again! Their son works in a Harley plant, just as so many sons of other couples’ that we met work. Cool. We hunkered down for the long drive to Billings, MT and it was beautiful and hilly, rock formations abound and we saw hundreds of prong horn antelope and mule deer and a few more prairie dogs, but not much more. As we entered the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation we were just saddened by the conditions these people live in. Very substandard housing and each house or trailer had at least one junk car in the yard and most had 3 or 4. We saw a group of young Cheyenne men hanging out in the front yard of one of the houses and they were having a few brewskis or more as evidenced by the empties on the ground.
Then we stopped at the Little Bighorn battleground and museum and were again so depressed. The white man not understanding their culture tried to force our culture on them and no wonder they went to war!! It is unfortunate that the white man could not just try to understand their culture and let them be. I know that is a naïve view, but there should have been another way.
Not much to write about today because it was a catch up day since we didn’t drive much yesterday. Hoping to get to Washington State by Tuesday.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Sturgis
September 13, 2008
Our journey continued this morning on a crisp clear fall day in Rapid City, SD. We were so excited because we were finally going to see Mt. Rushmore! We traveled through the Black Hills National Forest, which is just breathtaking and arrived at our destination a little before lunch. We were awestruck. You see this on television and in movies, but in person, it is quite a bit different. There is a reverence and incredible respect for the men who rendered this marvelous memorial to our great presidents. I was able to take pictures of couples and families while John ventured up to get a closer shot with the camera and everyone I spoke to had the same feeling. One of the most impressive things that happened while I was there was that most of the people there were our age and I was amazed at the people in jeans and Harley shirts who were old. Then I went in the restroom and looked in the mirror and realized that none of them were any older than me and if they were, not by much. I surmised that our generation doesn’t know that we are aging because we are so young at heart. Everyone I talked to was excited as any child would be. Very, very cool.
Next we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which has a very intriguing history. The sculptor of this massive statue was Korczak Kiolkowski, whose statue of Paderewski: Study of an Immortal won first prize at the 1939 World’s Fair. Chief Standing Bear of the Lakota Indian tribe in the Black Hills heard of this and commission Korczak to memorialize one of their heroes as the Americans had immortalized their presidents on Mt. Rushmore. The picture we snapped is blurred, but the face is complete and work continues on the rest of the statue. Korczak made this his life’s work and left a wife and 10 children, 7 of whom are continuing the work. It is amazing. Korczak refused any government assistance because he believed in free enterprise and wanted the statue to be paid for with the people’s money, not the government’s. John and I were just floored when we watched the movie about this family. They are relentless in their task and the finished product will be over 500 feet tall and 600 feet long. Thankfully there is a model of the finished product on display and we did get a good picture of that for you all to see. John also got a good picture of the twin stallion bronze statue that graces the grounds of the museum. We ate lunch at the Laughing Waters Café and had Buffalo Stew and some sort of fried bread, supposedly eaten by the Indians. Crazy Horse it pointing out over the Black Hills and when asked where his people were by a white man, he replied, “My lands are where my dead lie buried”. Too chill bumpy.
We then drove through Boulder Canyon to Deadwood, SD and spotted a HUGE Elk in the woods. His rack was at least 5 feet tall and he was just massive. We couldn’t stop (a 2 lane road) but I wish you all could have seen him.
We arrived in Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok is buried and it started a drizzling rain and it became quite windy so we didn’t stop and continued on to Sturgis, SD and landed, once again, in the wonderful, comfortable, HI Express where we are going to visit the Harley Davis Hall of Fame and Museum in the morning before we leave for Montana.
You can probably tell we are having a ball but we are tuckered out and are glad to have a short day.
Our journey continued this morning on a crisp clear fall day in Rapid City, SD. We were so excited because we were finally going to see Mt. Rushmore! We traveled through the Black Hills National Forest, which is just breathtaking and arrived at our destination a little before lunch. We were awestruck. You see this on television and in movies, but in person, it is quite a bit different. There is a reverence and incredible respect for the men who rendered this marvelous memorial to our great presidents. I was able to take pictures of couples and families while John ventured up to get a closer shot with the camera and everyone I spoke to had the same feeling. One of the most impressive things that happened while I was there was that most of the people there were our age and I was amazed at the people in jeans and Harley shirts who were old. Then I went in the restroom and looked in the mirror and realized that none of them were any older than me and if they were, not by much. I surmised that our generation doesn’t know that we are aging because we are so young at heart. Everyone I talked to was excited as any child would be. Very, very cool.
Next we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which has a very intriguing history. The sculptor of this massive statue was Korczak Kiolkowski, whose statue of Paderewski: Study of an Immortal won first prize at the 1939 World’s Fair. Chief Standing Bear of the Lakota Indian tribe in the Black Hills heard of this and commission Korczak to memorialize one of their heroes as the Americans had immortalized their presidents on Mt. Rushmore. The picture we snapped is blurred, but the face is complete and work continues on the rest of the statue. Korczak made this his life’s work and left a wife and 10 children, 7 of whom are continuing the work. It is amazing. Korczak refused any government assistance because he believed in free enterprise and wanted the statue to be paid for with the people’s money, not the government’s. John and I were just floored when we watched the movie about this family. They are relentless in their task and the finished product will be over 500 feet tall and 600 feet long. Thankfully there is a model of the finished product on display and we did get a good picture of that for you all to see. John also got a good picture of the twin stallion bronze statue that graces the grounds of the museum. We ate lunch at the Laughing Waters Café and had Buffalo Stew and some sort of fried bread, supposedly eaten by the Indians. Crazy Horse it pointing out over the Black Hills and when asked where his people were by a white man, he replied, “My lands are where my dead lie buried”. Too chill bumpy.
We then drove through Boulder Canyon to Deadwood, SD and spotted a HUGE Elk in the woods. His rack was at least 5 feet tall and he was just massive. We couldn’t stop (a 2 lane road) but I wish you all could have seen him.
We arrived in Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok is buried and it started a drizzling rain and it became quite windy so we didn’t stop and continued on to Sturgis, SD and landed, once again, in the wonderful, comfortable, HI Express where we are going to visit the Harley Davis Hall of Fame and Museum in the morning before we leave for Montana.
You can probably tell we are having a ball but we are tuckered out and are glad to have a short day.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Where the Prairie Dogs and Big Horn Sheep Play
September 12, 2008
We got an early start this beautiful sunny, cool morning and headed west through the great plains of South Dakota. Our first stop was Mitchell, SD and the Corn Palace!!! YAY, a building decorated with corn cobs! Awesome! Almost as good as the world’s largest cattle head sculpture (we panned that one). Next we crossed the Missouri River once and finally where they have dammed it up to form Lake Francis Case at Chamberlain, SD. What a vista! We then stopped at the old 1880 town and took that tour. It was all it was advertised to be. Through the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands to the Badlands. You can literally see for miles in any direction because it is so flat. Grasslands indeed. Then to the Badlands. This is really indescribably beautiful and we spend a little more time there. We passed a family of prairie dogs and boy they are not camera shy at all. Before I snapped this picture, the little critter stood up on his back legs and posed for me, but I missed it!! Too cute. Then we came up on the Big Horn Sheep and we couldn’t really get close enough, but we snapped the picture anyway.
Last but not least, we stopped to see the Wall Drug Store, famous nationwide and it was all it was cracked up to be. You can get anything you want there, literally! It was opened in 1931 during the Great Depression and hardly anyone stopped by there since it was a mile or so off the beaten path. The owner had the bright idea of offering free ice water to travelers since the roads were dusty and had not yet been paved. People began stopping by and as they asked for something and Wall Drug Store didn’t have it, they would get it. So today it takes up 4 city blocks to accommodate all of the inventory!
We came into the Mountain time zone so by the time we got to Rapid City our bodies thought it was 7 instead of 5 and we snagged a room at the HI Express (they are everywhere out here) and plan on seeing Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse National Monument, the Wax Museum of the Presidents (yippee), Sturgis, Deadwood and then we’ll make our way into Wyoming.
We are having the time of our lives. We are both so glad that we just did it instead of talking about doing it.
We got an early start this beautiful sunny, cool morning and headed west through the great plains of South Dakota. Our first stop was Mitchell, SD and the Corn Palace!!! YAY, a building decorated with corn cobs! Awesome! Almost as good as the world’s largest cattle head sculpture (we panned that one). Next we crossed the Missouri River once and finally where they have dammed it up to form Lake Francis Case at Chamberlain, SD. What a vista! We then stopped at the old 1880 town and took that tour. It was all it was advertised to be. Through the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands to the Badlands. You can literally see for miles in any direction because it is so flat. Grasslands indeed. Then to the Badlands. This is really indescribably beautiful and we spend a little more time there. We passed a family of prairie dogs and boy they are not camera shy at all. Before I snapped this picture, the little critter stood up on his back legs and posed for me, but I missed it!! Too cute. Then we came up on the Big Horn Sheep and we couldn’t really get close enough, but we snapped the picture anyway.
Last but not least, we stopped to see the Wall Drug Store, famous nationwide and it was all it was cracked up to be. You can get anything you want there, literally! It was opened in 1931 during the Great Depression and hardly anyone stopped by there since it was a mile or so off the beaten path. The owner had the bright idea of offering free ice water to travelers since the roads were dusty and had not yet been paved. People began stopping by and as they asked for something and Wall Drug Store didn’t have it, they would get it. So today it takes up 4 city blocks to accommodate all of the inventory!
We came into the Mountain time zone so by the time we got to Rapid City our bodies thought it was 7 instead of 5 and we snagged a room at the HI Express (they are everywhere out here) and plan on seeing Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse National Monument, the Wax Museum of the Presidents (yippee), Sturgis, Deadwood and then we’ll make our way into Wyoming.
We are having the time of our lives. We are both so glad that we just did it instead of talking about doing it.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
God Bless the USA
Sioux Falls is an enigma to us. We took our welcome center lady’s advice and toured the Falls at Sioux Falls. On the way there we had to go downtown and passed I kid you not a casino on every corner! These are little hole in the wall places like the old bars and juke joints of the 60s and 70s. Then we find ourselves blocks from the University of Sioux Falls and then the Federal Courthouse. Then we passed through an area that reminded us both of downtown Louisville and Fairhope sort of. Lots of bistros and cool shops and restaurants. The buildings are all late 19th century and are built out of this pink stone that we discovered is what the falls flow over. It appears to be pink granite, but we don’t know for sure. We noticed that the interstate was pinkish and the sidewalks in town are of the same stone. Very interesting. We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves and continue to learn about this great land of ours. It is comforting to know that no matter where we end up at the end of the day, there is Law and Order on TV and there is a Wal-Mart, Walgreens and mall at every turn. God bless the USA.
Amber Waves of Grain
Dawn broke in Omaha and we found ourselves in the middle of a gullywasher. We piddled around and decided to memorialize 9/11 and take a side trip to the Strategic Air Command and Space Museum which is a little South of Omaha. On the way there we crossed the Platte River! I have read so much about it and seen movies with shots of it throughout and we were not disappointed. We got to the museum and took the tour. It was really cool and as a matter of fact, there was a military recruitment fair being held there today. I have been trying to get a picture of the beautiful brown-eyed Susan-like flowers that grow alongside the highways all through Missouri, Iowa and South Dakota and was able to snap one while we were parked at the museum. Also, I wanted to capture one of the unusual barns that they have out here as well as statuary honoring the great buffalo, which we snapped out there as well.
We then motored on up the road and were determined to get to South Dakota for lunch and then to Sioux Falls for the night. The drive was spectacular as we followed the Missouri River much like we did in Arkansas as we followed the Mississippi. However, the scenery was quite different. Towns spring up out of the corn fields which stretch for miles and miles on both sides of the road. There are no billboards, and no speed limits in the open spaces we traveled today, except for in the towns and construction areas. Also, there are no helmet laws out here and there are many, many motorcycles. I think they are foolish, but we are in cowboy country you know. We ate at a wonderful spot in Owona, South Dakota and the food was really tasty. John got a Mediterranean pasta dish with feta cheese which he wolfed down and I got a chicken stir over brown steamed rice with these eggroll-like delicacies which were to die for. We stopped at the South Dakota Welcome Station so that we could get info on Sturgis, Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands, Custer National Park and Crazy Horse National Park. Well, another nice, friendly Midwestern elderly lady gave us mappage, marked sites of interest on said mappage. She was thrilled to have an audience and we talked with her for about half an hour.
Onward to Sioux Falls where we are snuggled in the HI Express and are glad we made a short day of it today, since we have a long haul across the state westward to the Badlands……
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
We Are Not in Kansas City Anymore
The day dawned in Bolivar, Missouri cloudy and a little chilly. We planned our day and took care of some personal finances and went into town to the post office and on our way passed Simon Bolivar Park and sure enough, there was a statute of the adventurous dude himself! We laughed because the locals pronounce their town’s name like “Oliver” so we did not make the connection to dear Simon Bolivar. We decided to at least try to get out of Missouri today. As it turned out it did take all day to get to Nebraska via Iowa! I must digress and apologize for my ignorance regarding the Quakers. We passed through another small community and were informed that these are Amish. A picture says a thousand words…..
The further we progressed north, the higher the terrain became. The vistas were astounding and we truly felt that we were in the “big” country. When you fly over the area you can see squares of green, brown and tan for hundreds of miles but when you are on the ground the perspective is so completely different that you come to understand just how vast these corn and soybean farms are. Each farm grew their crops right up to the house or outbuilding. It is amazing that every inch of available ground is planted.
We finally got to Kansas City where we visited the Harley Davidson Final Assembly Plant. We were asked to get a picture or two of Goober and Me. So we complied at the gift shop. It was awesome and John has already found a new bike! Another kind lady directed us to the best Bar-B-Que place in the world. We had learned earlier that the stockyards in Kansas City had closed in 1991 and that instead of steak houses, Bar-B-Que has taken its place as “the best of”. We were disappointed that we were not able to go to the stockyards, but enjoyed our meal. The bar-b-que is quite different from the Southern variety. There is no pulled pork. They serve Burnt Ends Brisket bits and Smoked Sausage, all with bar-b-que sauce. It was tasty, but I wasn’t able to eat the burnt parts. Ugh. The beans were tasty and made up for the blackened beef ends.
Another weird thing about Missouri is that they must have run out of numbers for their county roads because they turned to letters. So it was Exit T or Exit DD or Road A. Mindblowing.
This is truly the heartland of America and we should really stop with this blue state/red state and come together as America again and try to work through all these seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We saw plenty of Yankee ingenuity in the windmills and solar panels in the vast farmland of the Missouri Valley.
We finally arrived in Council Bluffs, Iowa and traveled across the Missouri River into Nebraska, Omaha, to be exact. We stopped for gas and asked the pertinent questions; where do you buy beer and wine and where is the nearest Holiday Inn Express? The young men in the store were so helpful and educated us about Nebraska. There are no blue laws and you can buy liquor, beer, wine and pharmaceuticals in any Wal-mart or Walgreens but had to actually go to the Walgreen’s to get directions to the nearest hotel, which ended up being the Hilton Garden Inn, which we love because it has a restaurant and we don’t have to go off campus to eat.
That is what has become so obvious to us on this trip. We don’t mind driving 7 – 8 hours with breaks of course, but when we get to the end, we don’t want to go out.
The further we progressed north, the higher the terrain became. The vistas were astounding and we truly felt that we were in the “big” country. When you fly over the area you can see squares of green, brown and tan for hundreds of miles but when you are on the ground the perspective is so completely different that you come to understand just how vast these corn and soybean farms are. Each farm grew their crops right up to the house or outbuilding. It is amazing that every inch of available ground is planted.
We finally got to Kansas City where we visited the Harley Davidson Final Assembly Plant. We were asked to get a picture or two of Goober and Me. So we complied at the gift shop. It was awesome and John has already found a new bike! Another kind lady directed us to the best Bar-B-Que place in the world. We had learned earlier that the stockyards in Kansas City had closed in 1991 and that instead of steak houses, Bar-B-Que has taken its place as “the best of”. We were disappointed that we were not able to go to the stockyards, but enjoyed our meal. The bar-b-que is quite different from the Southern variety. There is no pulled pork. They serve Burnt Ends Brisket bits and Smoked Sausage, all with bar-b-que sauce. It was tasty, but I wasn’t able to eat the burnt parts. Ugh. The beans were tasty and made up for the blackened beef ends.
Another weird thing about Missouri is that they must have run out of numbers for their county roads because they turned to letters. So it was Exit T or Exit DD or Road A. Mindblowing.
This is truly the heartland of America and we should really stop with this blue state/red state and come together as America again and try to work through all these seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We saw plenty of Yankee ingenuity in the windmills and solar panels in the vast farmland of the Missouri Valley.
We finally arrived in Council Bluffs, Iowa and traveled across the Missouri River into Nebraska, Omaha, to be exact. We stopped for gas and asked the pertinent questions; where do you buy beer and wine and where is the nearest Holiday Inn Express? The young men in the store were so helpful and educated us about Nebraska. There are no blue laws and you can buy liquor, beer, wine and pharmaceuticals in any Wal-mart or Walgreens but had to actually go to the Walgreen’s to get directions to the nearest hotel, which ended up being the Hilton Garden Inn, which we love because it has a restaurant and we don’t have to go off campus to eat.
That is what has become so obvious to us on this trip. We don’t mind driving 7 – 8 hours with breaks of course, but when we get to the end, we don’t want to go out.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Just Say No to Arkansas
September 8 and 9, 2008
Ok, so we got a leisurely start on our westward trek on Monday, September 8th and were moving along at a brisk clip, as traffic was light. We skirted around Atlanta and dodged Birmingham and blew into the “Gret Stet of Missipi’” and upon our arrival were met with a giant billboard proclaiming, “Our children can’t read!” and underneath was the word “Mississippi” with the esses all backwards! Enuf said. However, to be fair, we stopped at a tourist information center and were greeted by two fine elderly Southern belles who served free refreshments and an offer to book a room at any hotel in Mississippi at a discount! We reluctantly turned down their offer as we wanted to make it to Memphis our first day. They both looked so injured that John said as we were leaving “I thought they were going to ask for their drinks back!”
We continued on until we got to the bleak south side of Memphis and hurriedly drove through and decided we would cross the Mississippi River and stay in West Memphis, Arkansas the first night. Well, we got on Interstate 55 North and realized that after two exits to West Memphis that we were in the middle of nowhere. Interstate 55 travels parallel to the River and we were driving through the farms that everyone blames for polluting said river. We found ourselves in the Twilight Zone because even though there were exits off the interstate, but no entrances going back to West Memphis!!! We had to travel through this valley for 70 miles until we got to Blytheville, Arkansas, which to me is aptly named. We checked into the Holiday Inn and I turned on the television in our room just as “The Closer” was coming on. The desk clerk told us they had room service until 10 pm! Oh my God! We were starving and thirsty and I felt as though we had discovered an oasis in this vastness of eastern Arkansas. The bed was marvelous, the people were extra friendly and we got one of the best night’s sleep we’ve had in a while.
This morning I got up and went down to the restaurant and had the best buttermilk pancakes with apricot honey in the world. I will recommend the Holiday Inn in Blytheville, Arkansas to anyone going out to Branson because it is worth it to stop there on your way. BTW, we skipped Branson because we wanted to get close to Kansas City today. After checking out, we drove another many miles through the valley and into Missouri and eventually started to ascend into the Ozarks. The scenery changed drastically and reminded us of driving through California from Yosemite to Carmel. We found a radio station that was playing really old country and western and music reminiscent of that played in “Oh Brother, where art thou?” We both thoroughly enjoyed that ride this morning. We decided that we wanted to stop in one of the little towns on the way to Springfield, Missouri to eat lunch in a local joint instead of a chain. Well, we had lots to choose from. There are no McDonald’s in this neck of the woods. We stopped in Winona, Missouri and ate lunch at Flossie’s Apple Barn Restaurant and had their special; Beef Fritters (?) with mashed potatoes, cole slaw, corn and SCHOOL rolls!!! Turns out the beef fritter is a cubed steak dipped in heavy batter and fried. Yummy. It was funny because there were about a dozen locals eating there and when we walked in…silence! They did not say a word until after we had ordered, and since we got the special, they gave us an unsaid “okay”. There was a message on the chalkboard that read “September = Hard Times” which I thought was poignant. The heartland of America is hurting. They are hard working blue collar or farm workers and are getting the shaft.
We had to stop at the Wal-Mart to get a lock for the bicycles and I swear the clientele are the same nationwide. With one exception. In this area of Missouri, there are no non-Caucasians. The Missouri DOT is working on the roads every where we’ve been today and every single worker was Caucasian. No Hispanic nor African-American workers. Nada. It is very strange here. I guess they do look oddly at strangers.
We then continued on to the Laura Ingalls Wilder home in Mansfield, Missouri and another sweet little hillbilly lady gave us a guided tour. Very interesting. We then began our final leg of our day through Quaker country believe it or not! We were just riding along and passed a couple in a horse drawn carriage! They travel in the emergency lane of U.S. Highway 60!!!! Totally cool. Their farms are immaculate and the outbuildings, though not new, are shiny and clean. We finally stopped in Bolivar, Missouri at the Comfort Inn because it has become late and we are tired. I have included pictures of the Mississippi valley of Arkansas, Flossie’s and the Laura Ingells Wilder home. More tomorrow.
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