Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Aug. 25, 2010 - Las Vegas, NV
We stayed at a really good KOA last night in Las Vegas. It has 366 RV spots right at "Circus Circus". They have extra long pull-thrus up to 80ft! Super wide, so awnings work great, and some have lawns and patio furniture. If you don't have an RV, you can still stay here in one of their super shiny Airstream trailers. Staying here and unhooking your car to go further downtown, or walking right into Circus Circus is very convenient.
Rich was excited to take me to my favorite restaurant; Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace. I was looking forward to the Yucatan Chicken Taco that I had the last time we went there. We got there as soon as they opened for lunch, in fact, we were the first ones there!! We had the goat cheese queso fundido for our appetizer. Rich and I made this dish at our Bobby Flay cooking class at Pans on Fire cooking supply store in Pleasanton. It was nice to confirm that ours was every bit as good as the original!!! Bobby would be proud of us :) For our entre', Rich had the Ancho-Black Bean Grilled Salmon (naturally), and I got my Yucatan Chicken Tacos! Fantastic! We both scraped our plates clean! It was the best lunch EVER! We still had a little room for our Lime and Blueberry Tart with crushed Blueberry and marshmallow swirled vanilla ice cream.
Drove back to the RV to hook up and head home, but we had some trouble with the left blinker on the jeep :( Rich had to undo the electrical connection, and tighten all the wires. Not to challenging, except it was over 110 degrees, and made worse by the fact we were on a huge asphalt parking lot with absolutely no shade! It only took about an hour or so, and we were on our way, heading for home, or as close as we could get.
Aug.24, 2010 - Las Vegas, NV
After leaving Grand Junction, we went through the really cute town of Fruita,CO. We came here because there was another photo op. from the coffee table book! This time it was a statue built to honor the "Miracle of the Chicken"! This is the miracle: a farmer chopped the head off of one of his chickens for dinner, but the chicken didn't die! In fact, he lived for 18 months without a head! This is no joke. He survived by being fed with an eye dropper through his open esophagus. He toured the United States and was featured in many news papers and Life magazine! The town of Fruita celebrates this miracle every year with a big fiesta and parade downtown! We took our picture of "Mike" the headless chicken and headed on to Las Vegas.
Aug. 23, drive to Grand Junction, CO
After we left Colorado Springs, our plan was to drive to Moab, UT. It was dinner time when we were approaching Grand Junction, so we looked at a map and decided that staying here made more sense since it was a more direct route, keeping us on 70 towards Las Vegas, our next stop. We wanted to drive around Moab and see some of the Canyons park, but better we do that when we can take a day or two. Another thing for next time :) The KOA in Grand Junction was right next to a really good Mexican restaurant, so we had a good dinner. It was a long day of driving, so it worked out well.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Aug. 23, 2010 - Giant Beetle, Colorado Springs
We headed out today for a long drive across Colorado to Utah. Before we left Colorado Springs, we wanted to visit the huge beetle that was pictured in our coffee table book of things to see while road-tripping across the United States. We didn't realize that this statue was at the entrance to a collection of insects reported to be one of the largest private collections in the world! I LOVE BUGS!!! So we just had to go in :) I must have snapped about 100 pictures! It was amazing! I have never seen such huge moths, beetles, spiders and butterflies in my life! This collection was gathered by John May over a period of more than 70 years, beginning in the late 1800s. Everything was meticulously displayed, labeled and organized. There must have been hundreds of species represented, and easily 5 times as many sub-species! This is a must see for anyone who visits Colorado Springs! We discovered a few more interesting things in the area, but they will have to wait until our next visit.
We left the museum and headed out for our 7 hour drive through the Rockies, and on to the Utah border. We had lunch on the road at 11,000ft! What a gorgeous view! I think I am going to have to have a vacation home in the Rockies :)
Aug. 23, 2010 - Abilene to Colorado Springs
Today we got up early to see the Eisenhower Museum and Library before we headed out of Abilene, KS. This is one of the places we wanted to go on our last road trip, but did'nt have enough time to do so. This is a beautiful museum! We started off in his home where his family moved to when he was 6. He lived here until he was 22 with his parents, grandfather, and 5 brothers. A sixth brother died of diphtheria at 2 yrs old. The last one to live there was Ida, Dwight's mother, until she passed away in 1946. Upon her death, the home was declared a National Monument, and everything inside remains exactly as it was when the family lived there. All furnishings, nick-nacks, and pictures actually belonged to the family.
As if being one of The United State's most decorated Generals, and President of the United States were't enough accomplishments, he was also President of Columbia University and most trusted and knowledgeable advisor to every President since his own administration! He retired from the Army when he became President, but then was reinstated after he left office to his rank of 5 Star General. After his Presidency, he preferred to be addressed as General, not Mr. President. When he died, he was buried in a simple Army regulation casket.
There are so many things to see and read here! I really learned a lot about WWII, how all the different countries were involved, how much impact our leaders had on the outcome, and the overwhelming gratitude and respect General Eisenhower received from leaders across the globe! His gifts included countless crests of freedom from dozens of countries, silver tea service, gem encrusted swords, ivory, china, rooms and rooms full of really ornate things! After gaining a great deal of respect and understanding, we visited his grave site.
Then it was off to as far west as we could get today. We wanted to be able to stop by and say Hi to Amy, Kurtis and the kids at some point, but didn't think that we would make it there this soon. We decided since we were so close, we would keep driving and see if we could make Colorado Springs by dinner time. Everything looked possible, so we called to see if they wanted to meet for dinner. We were about half an hour from Colorado Springs so we planned to meet at CPK for dinner. We said we were coming from the north, so Amy gave us directions. Sounded easy! Oops, my fault - I didn't tell her what highway we were coming north on! Yes, we were a half an hour out of town, but on the complete opposite side! They waited very patiently until we finally arrived about an hour late. It was really fun to see everyone! We had a really nice visit, and caught up on everything and what everyone was up to. Tyler said "why do the lights keep blinking?" Ha ha ha! I guess we closed the restaurant! We said goodbye in the parking lot and headed to our KOA in Fountain, CO.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Aug. 21, 2010 - Topeka, KS
Today we drove to Kansas City to see the Harley Davidson factory. Who would have thought that they would close at 1pm!! Very sad, we were looking forward to this. Oh well, something else to do next time. We decided to keep on going west to Abilene, and catch the Eisenhower Library and museum.
Well, we just couldn't keep to the plan - again! As we were driving, I was looking up things to see in the area and I found the Brown vs. The Board of Education museum. We couldn't miss this! So on to Topeka we went! The bonus was, this is also the state capital, so a picture was in order! We are trying to take a picture of all 50 state capitals :)
The museum is housed in Monroe Elementary School. This was a former black only grammar school, and where the Brown vs Board of Education law suit began. The school is beautifully maintained, and the exhibits are in the actual classrooms. This is a great museum with a very powerful message. The struggle for equality among all races has been going on for hundreds of years, and all the history is here in films, photos and writings. But the real impact for me, is seeing that so much that went on with the segregation laws and their impact on all Americans, happened while I was in school myself! As I read the captions and articles, and looked at the time lines, I remembered the actual events. I learned about the injustices in our early history in school and thought that it was just that - history. When you put it all in perspective, the rights provided to all in the Constitution are, in very recent history, being upheld and guaranteed by law. To think that the injustices depicted here at the Brown vs Board museum and the Little Rock Nine museum happened in my lifetime - inexcusable! We have not come as far as you might think, or hope.
Our next stop was the Kansas State Capital. Again, a very beautiful building. Too bad that most of the state capitals that we have seen, have not been in the best parts of town. Around many of the capitals, most of the streets are lifeless, and there are a lot of empty buildings. I will say, that each one that we have seen on this trip has moderate to major renovation going on. That is a good thing because I think the Capital and surrounding area should be a jewel that the State takes pride in.
Because of our side trip to Topeka, we didn't have time for the Eisenhower Library, so we will catch that first thing in the morning. We will then continue west on Highway 70.
Aug. 20, 2010
Today our plan was to see two places from the coffee table book and drive to Kansas City to see the Harley Davidson factory. It was a long drive, but we were just going to snap a few pictures and keep heading down the road. Well, we just couldn't pass up he opportunity to drive into Springfield,IL. It would be a shame to pass up all of that history! So we pulled off the highway and decided to take a quick look around. Wow! This was definitely a whole day stop! They have the whole street where Abraham Lincoln lived blocked off, and you can walk all around! What really cute houses! The had tours of the interiors of most of the homes, but we had to settle for just seeing the outside because of the time crunch to get to Kansas City. We also took pictures of the State Capital building - beautiful! While I was standing in front, setting up the perfect shot, a professional photographer sets up his lighting umbrellas right in front of me :( I asked if he would be long, and he said just about 5 minutes because they were bringing out the Stanley Cup to photograph in front of the Capital! What luck to be there right at that moment! So, I got a great picture of the Capital, AND the Stanley Cup in front!
OK, so we were getting a little behind schedule, but Springfield was really fun. We no sooner got back on the road and the lightning began. The sky was getting nasty, and we knew we were in for it. We were only about an hour and a half from Griggsville IL., so we weren't too worried. We started to get some heavy rain, but only in brief spurts. The little, sleepy town of Griggsville is really into the conservation of the "Purple Martin" birds. Every where you look there are bird houses! They are on every light pole, mailbox, front yard and the best is a huge tower of birdhouses on a pole, several stories high, right in the middle of town! Wow, a whole town of bird watchers - amazing.
It's on to Kansas City! With darkness falling and the weather getting worse, we plugged our destination into the GPS. Oops, a slight miscalculation on our part - 300 miles?!?! So we pulled over and tried to find RV parks. Not easy way out here in the never ending corn fields (honest, they have been out my window for the past 4 hours!) We were not anywhere near the main highways now, so our journey would be on farm roads. We found a spot to stay in Boonville, MO, about 150 miles away, much more doable than all the way to Kansas City.
Rain, lightning, rain, lightning but we were making progress. Finally on a major highway, and about 30 miles from Boonville, we decided to stop for some dinner, because it looked like we were actually going to get in before 9pm! After a quick bite, we left the restaurant to go back to the RV and head out. The wind was really blowing - I mean really hard, we could hardly walk. I asked Rich how we would know if there was a tornado coming! We got back on the road asap and then it hit - rain and lightning like I have never seen before! The lightning was SO bright that it was like flashbulbs going off in our face! The pounding rain made seeing between flashes impossible. Everyone turned on their flashers and crawled along - everyone except the truckers that is. THEY ARE CRAZY PEOPLE!!! The traffic slowed even more, then finally, it stopped. They closed the Highway! After crawling, inch by inch, for almost 2 hours, we were able to get off the highway, and park at a gas station until things got better. The rain stopped and so did the wind, but the lightning continued. We got back on the road and BAM! It poured!
Finally, we arrived a little after 11pm at our little (really little) RV Express :) Tomorrow we will get to Kansas City and beyond.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Aug. 19, 2010 on the way to St. Louis, MO
This morning was the ultimate in early morning departures! We had Erin and Bryan pack up their stuff last night so we could just wake up and go. This helped, but our alarms still needed to be set for 5:15am. That’s right! They had to be at the Louisville airport by 6:30. They both flew together as far as Phoenix, then they went their separate ways; Erin to Oakland, and Bryan to Ontario. Shoot! I forgot to take their picture at the airport L It is really hard to say goodbye to all the kids, we have had so much fun together. I hope that we will have a chance to do this more often!!
Rich and I came back from the airport and caught a couple more hours of sleep, then packed up to head out. Our levelers have ALWAYS been problematic, but now it seems that we have a serious issue. We can’t get one of them to retract, and we can’t drive with it down. Finally got it working and hit the road about 2pm.
Our first stop was Dinosaur World in the Mammoth Caves area of Kentucky. We didn’t stay long because we had a long drive to St. Louis MO., our destination for the night. We snapped a few pictures for the coffee table book and headed on to Metropolis, IL. to see the Superman Statue! Well, so much for moving right along. Going through Bowling Green, KY, we spotted signs for the National Corvette Museum! Wow! They had every Corvette model ever made, and several “one of a kind”! Rich was in seventh heaven! I’m glad that we stopped, this was truly something that you could not see anywhere else. After walking through the entire museum and reading almost every sign, we had just stepped into the gift shop and they announced that the museum was now closed. Talk about lucky!! Rich bought a pin for his hat, I bought a magnet, and off we went. OK, well I guess I should have done my homework on this area. We came upon another find as we passed through Paducah, IL. – The National Quilting Museum! By the time we passed by, they were long closed for the evening L Oh well, it’s good to leave something for the next time. Finally, we made it to Metropolis!!! I was pretty sure that they couldn’t close a statue, but I did hope that it would be illuminated! There it was, right in front of Metropolis City Hall and lit up with two spotlights! We got our quick pictures and headed on to Granite City just outside of St. Louis. We arrived at camp a little after 1am.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
