Home Again, Home Again

We had a good trip home from Bristol. The traffic was generally light and, though rain was forecast, all we encountered was a few sprinkles.

I-81 was good until we got around Roanoke where the truck traffic was incredible. Every time we crested a hill, we could see two lanes full of trucks as far as we could see. The speed limit was 65 and most of the trucks were doing around 70. The problem was there was no consistent flow to the traffic. That was probably due to the hills (I-81 runs between the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian Mountains) causing the truck speeds to vary a good deal. It took us about 15 miles to get through the congestion.

The scenery was very nice, though I am sure it is much nicer in early summer or fall when the leaves are on the trees. It was nice to travel through an area we had not seen previously, or had seen it so long ago we couldn't remember.

We arrived home about 3:15 after a stop at the grocery store to pick up milk and orange juice. It took us about half an hour to unpack the car and get everything in the house. It sure is nice to be home again.

This time around, we were gone for 18 days and put over 4300 miles on the car. We traveled through nine states and stayed at nine different lodging places. We haven't counted the T-shirts and shot glasses yet, but we have a few. We also haven't gotten on the scales yet, but I know our time in New Orleans and Natchitoches couldn't have helped any there. We had a great time, saw a lot of interesting people and places and identified locales for future travels. Now to get all those pictures into a slide show.

Pardon Me Boy

Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo? Yes, it was. We got a fairly early start today and decided we had plenty of time to stop in Chattanooga, TN. We drove around a bit and found the Chattanooga Choo Choo. We parked and walked around there. The railroad station is now a Holiday Inn, and several old Pullman cars are being used as hotel rooms. The area around the station is very touristy (as you can imagine) with lots of shops. An old style (as in Civil War era) steam engine is parked on one track and is labeled as the Chattanooga Choo Choo. The downtown area of Chattanooga was really quite quiet for nearly noon on Saturday. We checked out a couple of gift shops and took some pictures around the railroad stuff. There really is a lot of history in the area and a lot to see. We decided that it would be good to come back to Tennessee and spend several days. Maybe in the spring when it starts to warm up a bit.

We had a nice drive along the Great Smoky Mountains and the Appalachians. The drive up the route we took is so much more scenic and less crowded than I-95. We sure did hit a lot of interstate highways in the process: I-20, I-59, I-24, I-75, I-40, and I-81.

Tonight we are in Bristol, TN / VA. Bristol is an interesting town that sits right on the border between the two states. In fact, the main downtown street is named State Street, and the border runs down the middle of the street. There are brass markers embedded in the center of the street every few yards that contain a line marking the border and "TENN" on one side and "VA" on the other. We decided to eat at a bar and grill on State St. It turned out they were watching the LSU, Tennessee game on big screen TV, so it was a little loud at times. There weren't really a lot of people in there, though. We stayed neutral during our stay. The food was great (barbecue pork and sirloin steak) and the Guinness properly constructed, so it was an enjoyable meal. Back in our room we rooted for LSU (quietly).

The forecast for tomorrow is for rain up through Virginia and into Maryland. Who knows we may decide to spend another night on the road somewhere. But, we really are ready to get home.

On Our Way Home

Before heading out from Natchitoches this morning, we drove by the house where my grandmother, aunt and parents had all lived at various times. This is the house I associate with trips to Natchitoches. We then drove out to Sibley Lake where my father and I used to go fishing when I would come down to visit after they moved here. It was just a chance to see the old locales and remember some good times.

From Natchitoches we drove up to Shreveport then headed east on I-80. The weather was really good the whole way across on I-20. When we got to Jackson, MS, we drove into town to "collect" the state capitol. It looks like a smaller and grayer version of the national capitol. It also has a memorial to the women of the confederacy in front of it. We didn't spend a lot of time because we wanted to get to our destination before it got too dark.

Now we are sitting in our hotel in Tuscaloosa, AL relaxing after a Pizza Hut and Amber Bock feast. Tomorrow we are going up through Tennessee and stop in Bristol for the night. That's all for today!

A Day in Natchitoches

We contacted my cousin Opal last night and talked about our plans to go out to the Sardis Cemetery today. We told her we would also like to visit with her sometime. It became apparent that she would like to go out to the cemetery, also. So today, while she went to her weekly hair appointment, we went to Wally World to purchase some artificial flowers and other items. When Opal got home from her appointment, she called and we went and picked her up. We had told her we would take her to lunch before going to Sardis, so she recommended we go to Merci Boucoup in downtown. Mary got her first taste of a Natchitoches meat pie with dirty rice there. She loved it and shared a little with me. I got fried oysters for some reason. I would have preferred the meat pie platter. From there we headed on out to Sardis which is about 30 miles away.

Opal took the opportunity during lunch and the drive out to the cemetery to talk a lot about family. Some of it was what folks are doing now, and other was about those who have gone before us. I told her later that I wished I had a tape recorder to get some of those stories.

The cemetery looked very well maintained. There were lots of flowers around the markers. The Sardis and Brown cemeteries are in the same area there and are managed by an association to which families donate money. Otherwise, their operations are highly informal. They only ask that you let them know prior to burying someone in a family plot. Family plots are typically just marked off with some blocks or bricks to indicate that a claim has been "staked" on a spot. I had not seen my parents' graves since my mother was buried there six years ago, so I was anxious to see that it had been properly maintained and that the marker had been engraved with her date of death. All was good. In fact, flowers that had been placed by Opal's sister Jewel in July still looked very good and we left them in place. We placed our flowers (actually poinsettias) on each side of the monument. We visited the graves of my Durham grandparents and a lot of aunts, uncles and close and distant cousins. I decided to take lots of pictures so I would be able to document some of the later dates when we get home. I have most all the dates up to the 1980s now, but several have passed away since then. Of course, Opal could generally fill us in on various ones of the cousins as well as ancestors.

We stopped at the Brown Cemetery next. That cemetery is about a mile away from Sardis and has much older graves in it. My grandmother Durham's parents are buried in there as well as various other Durhams of that generation. The last time I was there, the cemetery was not too well maintained, but now it is nicely cleaned up and maintained. Again, I took pictures, but some of the older stones need rubbings to read the inscriptions.

When we returned to Natchitoches we stopped at Opal's house for a short visit. I think she was quite taken with Mary. She told me I couldn't have gotten a better wife. I didn't argue! Opal really got around the cemeteries well and could remember so much. She even still drives (but not at night, she says). Not too bad for a 91 year old. We really enjoyed spending time with her and were glad we were able to do it.

After we left Opal, we had to go to Front Street and do some shopping. One of the first places we stopped was an old hardware store (oldest one in Louisiana) that still carries hardware as well as a lot of other general merchandise. We decided we would stop back there on our way back to the car. As we strolled up the street and stopped in every store along the way, we also checked the menus on the restaurants and selected the one for our evening meal. We didn't buy something in every store along the way, but we didn't miss many. Since there were no special activities today associated with the festival of lights, there were not masses of people about, so it was easy to get around. We did stop back at the mercantile store and purchase a couple items for our kitchen. We both agreed that the prices in the store were very reasonable and we probably would have paid twice as much at home.

After hauling our booty back to the hotel and catching our breath, we headed back downtown for dinner. I decided to try the fried catfish (very popular around here) and it was really very good. I have had fried catfish at other places in the area when I was younger, but tend to stay away from fried food now (except for oysters).

By the time we finished dinner, it was fully dark and the festival of lights was in full swing. Well, actually it was mostly just the lights and music tonight. On Friday and Saturday night, they have various events going on and it looks almost like a carnival is set up on the lake front. I have heard people talk about the festival for many years, but had never seen it before. I was never here at this time of year. So, it was kind of special to actually see it. This is the 81st year for the festival. The main show comprises static and animated figures set up along the shore of the lake across from Front Street as well as lights on the downtown bridge across the lake. The lake front park has a lot of carnival style food vendors set up, but most of them were not open tonight. We strolled along through the park and took pictures and videos of the lights and just enjoyed a beautiful evening.

For a little background on Natchitoches:

• It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. It is older than St. Augustine, FL but was not a part of the United States until after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
• It is bisected by Cane River Lake which is most often called Cane River (also the title of an Oprah book several years ago). The Red River used to flow through Natchitoches, but changed course at some point and left the old river bed behind. That was closed at both ends to form a lake. Thus Cane River Lake.
• If you are familiar with the movie "Steel Magnolias", you have seen much of the area along Front street and the river front park. The buildings along Front street have a lot of French style wrought iron work around their balconies.
• It is a beautiful old town with many magnificent old homes and lots of history.
  
• Although I was born in Natchitoches, the powers that be have not yet placed a plaque at my birthplace. The clinic that was there has been replaced by some old auto parts store.

I did not grow up in Natchitoches, but I remember a few trips we took to here when I was young (we did not come often as it was a major trip in those days) and I made several trips here after my parents moved back down from Iowa. It was really nice to be able to stop here on our road trip and spend some time.

Tomorrow we head for home. We are planning on stopping in Tuscaloosa, AL tomorrow night then somewhere around the Virginia, North Carolina border Saturday. Then we are heading up I-81 along the edge of the Blue Ridge into Maryland and on to someplace called Derwood. We are ready.

Bye Bye NO and the Road to Natchitoches

We set out this morning and returned to the Lower 9th Ward of the city. The Lower 9th is between the river and a canal and had water up to and over the roofs of homes after the levee gave way. We drove randomly around several streets of the residential area and every street was the same: Block after block of boarded up, damaged homes with a few undergoing restoration or reconstruction. The empty homes have yards that are completely over grown by 2 years worth of weeds. A few residents were about, but we saw less than 15. Typically, it seemed like about 1 or 2 houses being fixed up in every 2 blocks. We saw a boarded up school and a boarded up church. More than just the people are gone, the neighborhoods are gone.

As we headed back across town on our way out, we passed St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. There are four cemeteries associated with the St. Louis Cathedral. Since this one was open and tours were going on, we parked and took a quick look around. I'm fairly used to seeing above ground crypts in Louisiana, but I had never seen them stacked so high! Rather than family plots you see in other cemeteries, the families there have crypts. As various members of the family are "in need" of a crypt, they are added on top of their ancestors. The crypts in there had dates going back to the early 19th century and as recent as 2003.

From there we headed out US-90 west to New Iberia. On the way we passed through lots of swamp land where the highway was elevated for miles at a time. We also passed by some very large sugar cane fields. We saw sugar cane at all stages of growth including a lot that was being harvested. At one point where lots of it was being hauled to a mill near by, there were a lot of pieces lying along side the road. So, of course, we had to stop and pick up a couple of chunks. We haven't tried it yet, but I remember when I was a kid and we came to Louisiana we would get sugar cane, peel it and chew the center which was very sweet.

We stopped in New Iberia for lunch (it was nearly 2:00 when we got there). We had in mind to get some Cajun food and stopped at a restaurant named Clementine's. It turned out they did not have much choice and we ended up just ordering salads. Mary got a baby spinach with grilled chicken (what else) and I got a Caesar salad with fried oysters! It turned out that both were excellent.

From there we went on to Lafayette. We just drove through the city and noted the somewhat random pattern of streets, University of Louisiana Lafayette campus and some large old houses. We didn't dally long there, but now we can say we've been to Lafayette (and didn't get lost).

From Layette to Natchitoches is about 120 miles by I-49. We rolled into the Hampton about 5:30. While we knew the annual Christmas Festival of Lights would be in progress when we got here, we did not find out until we booked the room yesterday that this is the kick off weekend for it. As a result the hotel is quite full and we were probably lucky to get a room. But, we did. They were having a manager's reception when we arrived, so we just noshed on fajitas and beer for dinner and retired to our room. We'll check out the lights tomorrow night. Hopefully, they will be lit.

I did manage to get a bunch of pictures from Key West put up on Picassa tonight. I'll try to get more pix up before we get home.

D-Day Museum

Today we went to the D-Day Museum which is about eight blocks from the hotel. The museum was really impressive. The brochures recommend allowing at least two hours to see the museum. We spent over four hours. We had nothing else definite planned for today, so we did not hurry through any part of it.

When we arrived, a couple of school groups were just arriving. One of the volunteers recommended we wait a little bit before starting to go through the main exhibits. While we waited we chatted with a couple of WWII vets who were hanging out in the main entry hall. When you enter the museum, there is a large open area where a Higgins Boat reproduction, aircraft, an M4 Sherman tank, and other weapons used during the Normandy landings are on display. The best part was the two old vets. They were a joy to chat with. I believe they were there to talk to anyone who came through and to the school kids.

The museum also had a couple themed displays. One was about baseball during the war and contained a lot of memorabilia and pictures of baseball players who joined up as well as baseball teams at US military facilities all over the world. The other display was of a number of pictures that were taken inside an American POW camp in Germany. One of the Americans managed to bribe a guard to get a camera. The pictures he took are the only known pictures from inside a camp. These pictures were especially meaningful to Mary as her father was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge and spent the rest of the war as a POW.

By the time we finished those exhibits, the school kids had returned to the main hall, and we headed on in to the main exhibits. The exhibits were arranged so you would walk through sections that dealt with different time periods leading up to and during the war. The first part detailed the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, then the changes that occurred on the home front when the war started, and so on. It is all set up in chronological order, but the two main theaters were presented separately with the European theater first starting with the preparations for the Normandy landing and on through to the German surrender. Then the Pacific theater was described starting with the Japanese expansion in the Pacific, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Pacific campaign through to the Japanese surrender. Besides all the items on display, there are a number of places where you can select to hear a short narrative of remembrances by the people who participated in the particular operations that are described. As you may know, one of the big efforts by the museum is to collect oral histories from the surviving veterans. It was really great to be able to hear them describe their personal experiences.

The bottom line on the museum was that it was well worth the time spent to visit it. It is one of those things that everyone who has a chance should do. We learned a lot of new information about the war, saw exhibits of things we had never seen before and gained an even greater appreciation for the sacrifices made by our parents' generation during that terrible conflict.

As I said, we spent over four hours in the museum, so by the time we left there it was about 2:00 PM. We walked down to the river front and caught the street car there back to the far end of the French Quarter. There were a couple of stores we wanted to revisit and T-Shirts to be bought. We decided to have a late lunch / early dinner down there at a restaurant called River's Edge. We had our last bit of Creole food and last bread pudding desert. Then we decided to walk back to the hotel meandering about in the Quarter. As we left the restaurant, I said I thought we had done our part to aid the economic recovery of New Orleans! I told all the store keepers that I came along to carry the back pack and the credit card. We managed to pack a lot into that back pack today.

On our round about way back to the hotel, we happened upon the Immaculate Conception church which is a Jesuit parish. It was closed up for the day by then, but we did happen to meet the parish priest who encouraged to come back in the morning. We took a number of pictures of the front the church including the massive bronze doors. The church has a very interesting history, and we may revisit it in the morning depending on how our time goes.

Now we are all packed up and ready to hit the road again. We have our reservation for Natchitoches for tomorrow and Thursday night. It is only about a 5 hour drive up there, so we will try to see some parts of Louisiana we have never visited before on the way.

NOLA

If it's Monday it must be New Orleans, LA (NOLA). We hit the street (Bourbon) early this morning while it was still quiet. We walked down Bourbon a ways then headed down to Jackson Square and the Cafe Du Monde for Cafe Au Lait and Beigneis. We tried to remember what year it was when we were last there, but can only approximate that it was around 1974 give or take a year or two. We sat in about the same area as last time, but it was a bit cooler today (low 60s). I'm pretty sure the guy playing the trumpet just outside the seating area was not there in the 70s. Otherwise, the coffee and donuts were the same. Well, we did get decaf this time!

We walked all over the French Quarter stopping in several shops and taking lots of pictures. Of course we had to "collect" the cathedral (St. Louis Cathedral). Since there was no service going on, we went in and looked around. It has really beautiful paintings on the ceilings as well as some very interesting, old commemoratives and crypts.

We had lunch at the Court of Two Sisters. They had a jazz brunch that was kind of so, so as it turned out. It was a bit expensive, though. I think they charged based on their reputation and history.

After a lot of walking, we took a street car back to our hotel. We actually only rode it for about four blocks, but by that time, we were ready to ride. The street cars are very neat. They are old electric powered wooden cars with wooden seats. I don't think the one we road was named Desire, but we liked it anyway.

We then drove out to the Garden District to look at the big old homes there. We saw a variety of architecture including a lot of "shotgun" houses. Some of those were very narrow. I took a picture of one that didn't look to be more than 15 feet wide. We came across an old cemetery (Lafayette No. 1), but it had closed at 2:30 PM, so all we could do was take a couple of pictures from outside the gate.

From there we drove west on US-90 into Jefferson Parish, then back north and east to one of the areas (lower 9th Ward, I believe) devastated by the storm. The good news is that there is a lot of rebuilding and restoration going on. The bad / sad news is that there appears to be a lot left to be done. It was getting pretty dark by the time we got over there, so we may head back tomorrow. We did see one entire development of townhouses or condominium type apartments (it was hard to tell which) that was completely boarded up and abandoned.

After returning to the hotel, we walked back down Bourbon Street then down St. Peters to a restaurant we had spotted earlier named The Gumbo Shop. We ate Creole food there as well including gumbo, crawfish etoufee, red beans and rice, and jambalaya. The food was excellent, and the price (including two glasses of wine) was about the same as we paid for lunch. From there we walked some more, ending up at the Harrah's Casino where we quickly disposed of a couple or three twenties. Then it was time for the street car back down Canal Street to our hotel.

To get an idea of where we are from the French Quarter, our hotel is on Carondelet Street about two blocks from Canal Street. At Canal Street, Carondelet becomes Bourbon Street. From Bourbon to the river is three blocks. From Canal Street to the French Market at the other end of the Quarter is 12 blocks. So, we are just outside the French Quarter and within walking distance of everything.

Tomorrow we plan to tour the D-Day Museum and drive around to see the Katrina damage a little more. I keep wanting to post some pix on Picassa, but by the time I get around to it, I'm too tired.

The Road to New Orleans

We woke up in Pensacola Beach this morning to a heavy overcast with brisk wind. It wasn't all that cold, but not exactly balmy either. We went down to the beach and walked in the Gulf. Finally, we got our feet wet in the Gulf. So we now have done the Atlantic, Pacific, Phillipine Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. Another milestone!

We couldn't decide if we wanted to stay in Pensacola another day or head on to New Orleans. Heavy rain storms were predicted and we expected we would encounter heavy traffic on I-10. Finally, we decided to just go for it and deal with what ever we encountered. As it turned out, we did not run into any rain until much later in the day.

We stopped in Mobile, AL getting there around noon. We walked around the downtown area a bit and "collected" the cathedral there. The city has a strong Spanish heritage and many of the buildings had very ornate wrought iron. I found the downtown area interesting because it was neither "run down" nor modern. In other words, it was pretty much as it has probably always been. A lot of people were all about (church services were starting and ending) including at a restaurant that had a Sunday brunch. The restaurant had both inside and outside seating with the outside seating on both sides of the street between the restaurant and a nice downtown park. Lots of folks were sitting outside although (see above) it was not exactly balmy. Anyway, we took lots of pictures of buildings around the downtown district.

From there we got back on I-10 to Biloxy, MS where we drove down to the beach road (US-90). Mostly we just wanted to see what things look like 27 months after Katrina. What we found were a number of new casinos seeming to do a good business while the surrounding residential areas were still completely devastated. Originally, casinos in Mississippi had to be floating. However, after Katrina tossed the floating casinos all over the bay front area, the laws were changed to allow the casinos to be built on land. It looked like there were six to ten brand new high rise buildings with casinos and several more under construction. As we drove west on US-90 we saw mile after mile of devastation. It was a little strange because in some areas, you might not even notice anything amiss except that there were no buildings at all for about a block from the bay. There were streets but with no houses on them. Often, the only way you could tell that there had been a house on a lot was a random set of concrete or brick steps that at one time led to a front door or a fireplace or swimming pool in the middle of open ground. There were also For Sale signs (mostly "by owner") all over. Some houses were being built or rebuilt and some that were still present were just boarded up. One interesting affect of the storm was how it affected multi-story commercial buildings. Many of those building now look like they are raised up on pilings. However, what happened is that the ground floor was completely washed away leaving the second floor on up standing on the steel girders that form the skeleton of the building. The upper floors were generally still present but were wind damaged. We saw lots of places where there was a large parking lot, but no buildings around it indicating that a small shopping center or large store was completely wiped away. Other places, the only indication that a church had once stood on a chunk of land, was a sign indicating what the church was and that they planned to rebuild. At one point we passed an auto "junk yard" that did not have any indication that it was an established business. However, there were literally hundreds of vehicles stacked up in a large lot. They all seemed to be late model cars but all with heavy body damage. We saw many FEMA trailers parked in vacant lots or in front of boarded up or gutted houses or sometimes in what appeared to be communities set up on large parking lots. When we drove through Pass Christian we went through an intersection where traffic lights were torn from their supports leaving just the wires sticking out. However, there was no need to replace the signal lights as there was no traffic at that intersection since all the buildings that had been in the area were gone.

As we got closer to New Orleans, the skies darkened and the rain got heavier. It was pretty dark by the time we got into New Orleans itself, but we could still see that the results of the storm. We saw one place where there had apparently been a fire station, but now the fire trucks, etc. are just parked out in the open. Since it was dark when we got into the heaviest damaged areas of the city, the most noticeable thing about the neighborhoods was the lack of any lights in or around the houses. The houses were mostly boarded up and there was no sign of life in the area. Even the street lights on the side streets were out. It's all very sad.

Our hotel is in the downtown area of New Orleans just a couple blocks from the French Quarter. Since it was raining so hard when we got here, we just ran down to a corner deli / grocery store here and got some fried chicken, a meat pie and red beans and rice to bring back to our room. Our first New Orleans meal was a big success! It was all good stuff. We spent the rest of the evening reviewing tour guides to get an idea of what we want to do tomorrow and how we want to get around. The weather is forecast to clear up tomorrow so we are looking forward to a day of walking, looking and eating.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in the Deltona / DeLand area in Florida. We arrived in the area late Tuesday and spent most of the day on Wednesday with Vikky's family. Lorraine and Wyatt have really grown! It has been quite a while since I have seen them. Mary came down in January right after she retired to help celebrate Wyatt's fifth birthday. We all went out to dinner to celebrate Mary's birthday.

Thursday we went to Erik's folk's house for Thanksgiving. There were about 2 dozen people there including folks from California, Maine and Massachusetts. There was enough food for about 4 dozen people and it was all good (I can attest to that). The weather was a bit threatening and it rained briefly, but the day turned out to be very nice and warm.

Friday we all went to Erik's brother's house for barbecue. It was a sunny day, but a bit cool (upper 60s). Of course it was only in the mid 40s at home in Derwood, but we were spoiled by the Key West experience. Again there were something on the order of 24 people and lots of food. By then we had gotten to know a lot of new friends and really enjoyed another chance to chat with them.

Today we got an early start and headed to Pensacola. We drove US 17 and SR 40 across the peninsula to I 75 and took that up to I 10. We enjoyed the drive since it was all new territory for us and the weather turned out to be quite nice. We managed to get past Gainesville (site of the Florida / Florida State football game) without delay. We crossed the Suwanee River while trying to remember the words to the song. We headed into Tallahassee (trying to remember the words to that song) and "collected" the state capitol. Florida has a new high rise capitol building, but it is directly behind the old, more traditional building.

Just east of Pensacola, we headed south to drive along the Gulf Shore. As usual, we saw a lot of new construction and some unique architecture. With the time change, we managed to arrive in Pensacola Beach around 4:00 CST. That gave us the opportunity to take a walk on the beach before we even checked in. Although it was overcast and windy, it was not really cold. It was not the first time we had seen the Gulf (see previous post about Key West) however it was the first time we had a chance to walk on an uncrowded beach. We have yet to dip our toes in the Gulf waters, though. After checking in at the hotel we headed out to dinner at a place called Peg Leg Pete's Oyster Bar. With a name like that you know what I had!

Tomorrow is a short drive to New Orleans. We hope to meander our way over there seeing sights along the way. Unfortunately, rain is in the forecast, so it may not be such a great trip. I'll try to update tomorrow night.

On the Road Again

OK. So I was going to post each day as we go along our new adventure, but it didn't happen, so here is a catch up on where we have been, where we are and where we are going.

This is to be our South East tour of '08. We left home on Thursday, November 15 and headed south on I-95 for the Florida Keys. We stayed at Richmond Hills, GA (just South of Savannah) that night. RH is a standard stop for us when south bound to Florida. We stay at the same Hampton Inn each time and know the neighborhood pretty well. We always look for new dining adventures, though. This time we found an Scottish "Pub" near by that was really great. It has a nice homey feel with good food, friendly people and Guinness (yeah, I know that's not Scottish). They also have a darts area and the wall behind the bar is lined with single malt (mostly) Scotches. They had a complete list of them like a wine list. We passed on the Scotch and stuck with Guinness.

The next morning we got ready to set off and noticed the "wheel falling off" light (or is that the low tire pressure???) was lit. We couldn't tell which was the offending tire and none of them seemed to be leaking. We decided to give the local Lexus dealer a call and headed over there. It turned out it was the spare was just a bit low (how does that happen?), but it took us a couple hours between going back up to Savannah and waiting for the car. Fortunately, our second leg was not too long.

Next stop was Hallandale Beach just south of Ft. Lauderdale and about 10 miles north of Miami. We did end up having to go through Lauderdale during rush hour, but we made it. We ran over to a very nice Cuban restaurant and grabbed a couple of Cubano sandwiches and Dos Equis (XX) to go.

Next morning, we headed down the A1A (Coast) highway through Miami Beach and South Miami Beach. That was really a fun drive. We saw lots of interesting buildings and the renowned art deco architecture in South Beach. From there we picked up US 1 and headed south and west. It is about 123 miles from the Florida mainland to Key West (our destination) and that took us the better part of 3 hours. It was a very nice drive. The highway is called the Overseas Highway, and it lives up to its name. It just goes from island to island with frequent long causeways and bridges connecting them. One of those bridges is Seven Mile Bridge that was featured in the movie True Lies. Of course we stopped in Key Largo and took pictures of the inn where the great old Humphrey Bogart movie was shot.

We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Key West. It was very nice and our room had a veranda off of it that overlooked the street. Unfortunately, that street was US 1. Actually, it wasn't that bad as traffic dwindled to nothing by the time we would sit out there in the evening.

We spent Saturday evening through Tuesday morning in Key West. We walked everywhere. One of the main evening activities amongst the 20 and 30 somethings (and several folks who never out grew that) is to stroll Duval Ave with drink in hand stopping in at the nearest bar when said drink was gone for a refill. We did the stroll Saturday night, but without the drinks. Sunday we walked over to the Southernmost Point in the US and wandered back down town. Then we took a tour (the Conch Train) to see all the sights and get filled in on the architecture of the old town area. Sunday night we went on a sunset dinner cruise on a schooner that was fantastic. We actually saw a better sunset on Saturday night, but the cruise experience was awesome.

Monday we visited the Hemingway House and met several 6-toed cats that were descended from Earnest Hemingway's Snowball. It was very interesting to see his house and here some of the stories that went with it. Our tour guide was a character.

We also visited the Mel Fisher Museum*. It was very interesting to see all those artifacts from a couple of wrecks he found. One was the Nuestro Senora de Atoches which sank in the 1600s and was carrying a large amount of gold and silver. Some of the stuff in the collection was phenomenal.

From there we went on and did more wandering about. Grabbed a lunch of salad at an open air restaurant (among the chickens), got a couple of tats and headed back to our room at the B&B to rest before dinner. Before dinner, we walked over to the Old Town cemetery and wandered around a bit in there. The cemetery is about 2 square blocks and almost all the internments are above ground. It was quite an interesting place with many old graves from the mid 1800s. It was also interesting to see the mix of cultures and the different ways the inscriptions were done. For dinner, we went to a small restaurant in the Cuban section that was recommended by the woman at the B&B. It was a fairly small place in the middle of the neighborhood and didn't really look like much. The food was great! We got there a little early, but by the time we left the place was packed with tourists and locals. We had so much food we had to take at least half of it (except for the key lime pie) with us.

Tuesday, we reluctantly packed up and headed out. Our time in Key West was great. The weather was beautiful the whole time (we did have some sprinkles briefly on Sunday) with highs around 80 and lows around 70. We headed back up US 1 to the Florida Turnpike to Orlando and on over to DeBary to our usual Hampton where we stay when visiting Vikky and her family. That is where we are now.

We visited with Lorraine and Wyatt all day (I played a couple of console video games with Wyatt). Then we went out to dinner to celebrate Mary's birthday. Tomorrow, we head over to Erik's folks for a big Thanksgiving dinner.

Friday we are planning on going to Silver Springs. Saturday we will head west along the Gulf Coast getting to New Orleans on Sunday. After two or three days there we will head up to Natchitoches for a day or two, then... Who knows???

* Yes, I know there is some controversy about what he does, etc.

A Week of Recovery

OK. We've been home for a week now and it seems like it is time to quit sleeping for 9 to 10 hours a night. Most nights on the road we were getting 7 to 8 hours which should be fine for old folks like us. But, we were usually very busy during the day and quite tired by bedtime. Now, it seems like we can't get enough sleep. We are trying to pick up on our physical activity as an antidote. We are back up to a two mile walk each morning, but it has been too hot to do much else outside. We are really looking forward to cooler weather when we can get back on the bikes and go for rides any time we want (not just on weekends).

Summary

I thought it would be somewhat interesting to gather together some facts and statistics about our journey. So without further delay (please scroll down):

Days on the road:	28
Miles driven:	8193.2
Different interstate highways driven on:	12
States visited (outside MD):	12
Provinces visited:	2
New states added to our life list:	3 (4 for Mary)
National Parks, Memorials, Monuments and Battlefields visited:	8
Different Lodging Places:	16
Lodging places stayed in twice:	1 (Spokane, WA)
Hotel key cards accidentally brought home:	4
Hotel room keys accidentally brought home:	1 (Glacier Lodge)
Black Bears Sighted:	1
Grizzly Bears Sighted:	4
Elk Sighted:	Lots
Buffalo Sighted:	Hundreds
Pronghorn Antelope Sighted:	Dozens including Wyoming ranges and ranches
Big Horn Sheep Sighted:	Whole Bunch (by Mary's count)
Wolves Sighted:	1
Coyotes Sighted:	2
Mule Deer Sighted:	About 6
Moose Sighted:	2
Bald Eagles Sighted:	3
Capitol Buildings "collected":	3
Pictures and videos taken:	2212
Pictures and videos deleted:	Less than 10 (so far)
Forest fires sighted (smoke clouds):	4
Great concrete dams visited:	1
Large lakes visited:	7
Water falls sighted:	Too many to count
Highest elevation driven to:	14,110 feet (Pike's Peak)
Highest elevation hiked to:	10,243 feet (Mt. Washburn)
Souvenir shot glasses purchased:	14
Souvenir Christmas ornaments purchased:	12
Souvenir T-Shirts purchased:	22 (8 for grandkids)
Gallons of gasoline purchased:	Yeah, right!
Highest price per gallon:	$3.799 (North of Denver)
Lowest price per gallon:	$2.799 (Quad Cities, Iowa)
Pounds gained:	Not gonna tell
Family reunions attended:	1
Windshields broken:	1
Wonderful memories:	Enumerable

Day 28, August 6: The Final Leg

We left Wheeling, WV this morning and took the scenic route through the city and down US-215 to get onto I-68 at Morgantown, WV. The weather was a bit cloudy and foggy / hazy, but the scenery was still pretty good. It allowed us to compare driving through the Appalachians with our drives through the Rockies and the Cascades. It was certainly greener here than it was back west, but the mountains are nowhere near as rugged. Of course the elevations and switch backs couldn't hold a candle to what we encountered in the west. Of course, after Pike's Peak, everything is pretty tame. Most of this drive was through the panhandle (sometimes referred to as the "finger" of West Virginia. That area seems to be mostly farming, although, we did see one mine (probably coal).

Once we got to I-68, the going was pretty quick and the traffic fairly light. At the interchange with I-70, we went into Hancock, MD for lunch at one of our favorite family restaurants named Weaver's. We have eaten there before on bike outings. They are famous for good food and homemade pies. The pie of choice today was fresh blueberry a-la-mode. That will be our last meal out for awhile. The dieting and exercise starts now.

By around 3:30, we were pulling into our driveway after 28 days on the road. One of the first things each of us did after we unloaded the car was lie on our bed. It felt so good. No matter how good the beds are at many of the hotels we stayed at, there is nothing like laying down on your own bed after being gone for a long time.

So ends our epic journey. As many have said, it was a once in a lifetime experience. We would do again in a heartbeat. We enjoyed every bit of it. We were pretty tired the last three days or so, but we think that was mostly because of the dreary weather we were driving through and the fact that we were just driving. We weren't exploring new areas of the country.

I will try to do a summary tomorrow. I think we have some interesting statistics to relate.

Day 27, August 5: Indianapolis to Wheeling, WV

Another travel day. Again we left the distance short so we could make side trips. However, we caught up with a weather front that is moving East with a fair amount of rain. In addition, I've decided that I must have had a little something going on that was making be very tired the last couple of days. I had a low grade fever yesterday (and probably the day before) and have been very tired even with 8 hours or more of sleep. Fortunately, by mid-day today, I was beginning to feel much better.

We did take the side trip we had planned to the Longaberger Basket factory outlet. Keep in mind that, until a couple days ago, I had never heard of Longaberger. We went by their corporate headquarters in Newton, OH. Another piece of Americana. It was raining pretty good and we could not find a good place to pull off, but you can visualize it if you imagine a 5 story building sitting all by itself that looks like a basket with windows. Now imagine the handle of the basket soaring above the building. You can actually see the thing if you go to their web site. I think the "handle" was the most impressive thing to me.

We went on to their factory store and did some shopping there. They do have some nice baskets, but, so do the sweet grass weavers in Charleston, SC. I'm not real sure what makes the Longaberger basket so special unless it is the advertising.

From there we went on to Wheeling, WV. We have been through Wheeling several times in the past, but never went into the town. We are in an older Hampton on the National Road (US-40) just off I-70. We ate dinner across the street then walked up a few blocks to get a look at some of the old buildings in the area. There are lots of old (early 1900s?) houses and row houses that have been maintained very nicely. I'd like to take a bit of a drive about tomorrow to see more.

As tired as I was the last few nights, I am feeling much better now. We are, however, ready to get home. Another short 300 mile drive tomorrow and we will be home.

Day 26, August 4: Muscatine to Indianapolis

Today was another moving day. It's not far from Muscatine to Indianapolis, but we wanted to allow time for a late start and a visit with my sister Kathy in Davenport.

We got somewhat of a late start (it seems to be getting harder to get up in the morning) ate breakfast at the hotel (Muscatine Holiday Inn -- we do not recommend it) and hit the road. We arrived at Kathy's before 11:00 and had a nice visit with her and John.

From Davenport we go on I-74 and headed to Indianapolis. It was an uneventful trip, so there is not much to say. We crossed the Mississippi River for the first time since July 11. We entered the Eastern time zone and arrived at our hotel (actually in Brownsburg) about 5:30 EDT. We ate at a little bar and grill nearby and had fun with the bartender / waiter. We stopped for a fill up paying the least amount for a gallon of premium ($2.899) that we have paid on the entire trip. We had heard that the price of gas has fallen in the last couple of weeks, but it was hard to tell out in Montana, Wyoming, etc.

So now we are just taking it easy and celebrating our 39th anniversary. I must admit that the 4 1/2 hour drive was about all I felt like doing today. It is kind of like those marathons I ran: The closer I got to the end the run intervals became shorter and the walk intervals became longer. We are definitely ready to get home.

Tomorrow night we will be in Wheeling, WV which is about half way between here and home.

Day 25, August 3: Des Moines to Muscatine

We got up this morning at my sister Martha's house in Des Moines. Of course, she had another "simple" meal planned for breakfast. Besides the great food, we were able to sit out on the patio to eat. The weather was great. Cool, low humidity and clear skies. They have several bird feeders near the patio, so we were also able to enjoy watching the birds come to the feeders.

After breakfast, we loaded up the car and hit the road again for Sheila's last leg on the trip. We took a quick tour through Wilton (my childhood home) on the way down IA-38. Shortly, we were back in Muscatine for the first time in over 3 weeks and took Sheila to her home. We unloaded her stuff and headed out to do some errands and get a bit of lunch. One of the things we needed to do was go see Mary's Aunt Maureen and pick up the luggage we had sent back with her from Seattle. Now the car is nearly full again.

After getting settled in at the hotel and freshening up, we went to Mary's sister Judy's for dinner with Judy's family and Sheila. We had home made pizza -- something Mary and I haven't had in a long time.

After a great meal during which many anecdotes of our trip were retold, we said our final goodbyes to Sheila and to Judy's family and returned to our hotel. Now Mary and I are ready to continue our final legs.

After a visit with my sister Kathy in Davenport, we are going to return by I-74 / I-70 stopping just west of Indianapolis and again in Zanesville, Ohio. We plan to stop and see a couple of things along the way and just take our time. We expect to arrive home on Monday, August 6 completing a full 4 weeks on the road. Get that lawn mowed, Rob!

By the way, we passed 6000 miles for the trip on the stretch from Des Moines to Muscatine.

Day 24, August 2: Omaha to Des Moines

Today was a short drive to get to Des Moines and visit with my sister and her family. We were kind of looking forward to crossing back over the Missouri River since it had marked a milestone when we first crossed it going west and we had not seen it since we passed the headwaters in Montana. It turned out to be a non-event. There was a barely noticeable bridge and we were in Iowa. Not so much as a welcome sign when we entered Iowa. We would not have known for sure we were in Iowa except for the mile markers resetting back to Mile 1. Oh well. The only other remarkable part of the trip was the fact that we apparently could no longer get 91 octane fuel for the car at many gas stations (they had 87, 89 and E-85) and this bit of Americana we passed a few miles into Iowa.

We arrived at my sister Martha's just in time for lunch. As always she had prepared a simple little lunch. In this case it was comprised of: strawberry puree soup, seafood salad, croissants, mint tea and fresh fruit. Excellent! We enjoyed seeing their house that they had moved into last year. When we last saw it in November, they were still remodeling and didn't even have a full compliment of furniture. We spent the afternoon catching up, then on to the simple dinner Martha had planned: grilled kabobs with steak, potatoes, zucchini and mushrooms, corn on the cob and fresh fruit. Martha and Jim's son (my nephew) David and his wife Vicky and 4 children joined us for dinner. After dinner we retired to the patio for pie and ice cream and more conversation. It was a great time and the weather was cool and dry. We had a great time. We need to visit more often. Martha always does way too much, but the meals are wonderful.

We all went to bed a bit tired. I think the travel is starting to catch up with us. Even though today was a short trip and not physically active, it felt like another full day of activity. I believe we are all about ready to get home and get some rest.

Day 23 August 1: Denver to Omaha

Well folks, there is not much to tell today. This was another transit day. We left our hotel and drove by the place where we lived in 1968. It looks about 39 years older (it was fairly new back then), but was immediately recognizable as were other landmarks from the neighborhood.

We then set our course to Omaha. This was just over 500 miles and the trip went well. We switched off frequently on driving duties. We drove toward an afternoon prairie storm, but did not catch up with it until just as we arrived at our hotel (of course). The hotel is brand new -- just opened the first of June.

Nebraska is (in)famous for being flat and boring to drive through. I would contend that it does not come anywhere close to the long stretches of nothingness that we drove through in Wyoming. At least in Nebraska, there are changing fields, cattle ranches, feed lots, trees and farmsteads.

Here we are in a new month and two days into our fourth week on the road. We are planning to travel from Muscatine, IA to home via I-74 and I-70 with a couple of stops to explore places we have not been able to spend time at in the past. It has also been a number of years since we followed this somewhat longer route between Iowa and home. For tomorrow it's on to Des Moines.

No pictures today!

Day 22, July 31: Denver and Colorado Springs

We decided to check out the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception here in Denver. We are collecting animal sightings, capitol buildings and cathedrals on this trip. We found a parking place across the street where we could get some exterior pictures then checked out the interior. The cathedral is another Gothic style with lots of stained glass and interior support columns. Mary and Sheila both lit candles. I assume that was for the strength to finish the trip without giving in to the urge to inflict physical harm upon me. Or maybe for a safe journey.

After the cathedral stop, we tried to find the little apartment building Mary and I lived in when we were here in 1968. We had two problems here: After 39 years, our memories are a little fuzzy, and we could not remember the street or address. After driving around in circles for about half an hour we about gave up when Mary said she thought the street name was Clarkson. We had just driven on that street so we gave it one more pass. No luck. We decided the place had probably been torn down and replaced by a parking lot (sounds like an old song). We headed out of town at which point I came up with the number 1090 as the address. Tonight we confirmed that was the place using Google Maps, and according to the satellite picture, the building is still there. We'll check it out tomorrow.

From there we drove south to the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. We weren't sure what the procedure would be for getting on the grounds and seeing anything. It turned out that all we had to do was show my driver's license and let the guard see into the car ("roll down that tinted back window, please"). Sheila wants me to note that when she showed him her driver's license from the back seat, he said "I don't need to see your license, ma'am. You're from Iowa. I know I can trust you." We drove into the visitor's center and checked out the history and other information about the academy and shopped. Mary and I found it interesting that the first Air Force Academy Class started their training at Lowry Air Force Base. That is where I was stationed when we were here in 1968. We also stopped at a very nice overlook there where we were able to take pictures of the campus including the distinctive chapel. As we headed south from the academy on I-25, we went past the air field that is on the grounds and stopped at an overlook to watch parachutists who were coming down to the landing zone there. The cadets undergo parachute training during the summer months.

From there we went to a park named "Garden of the Gods". Mary and I had gone there in 1968 and remembered it being quite remarkable. Now there is a visitor's center and a whole park system built up around it. The Garden of the Gods is mostly red sandstone rocks formations that have been left behind as the area around them was eroded away. The formations are really beautiful. We were able to drive around the whole area and jump out at various overlooks for picture taking.

Next on the agenda was Pike's Peak. Sheila suggested this one, and Mary and I had never gone up there. We thought we would check it out and see if it was something we wanted to do. Pike's Peak is 14,110 feet above sea level, and the road to the summit is very steep and winding in places. The road is a toll road costing $10 per person. Sheila treated. As we were paying the toll, I noticed the sign that recommended a half tank of gas before heading up. A quick check told me we (more specifically, me) were in trouble. We had less than a quarter tank. At Sheila's urging we have not let the level get below a quarter tank since many of the area we have driven in have been a bit thin on gas stations. Anyway, we had to turn around and head back to the nearest town (about 5 miles away) to refuel. Then it was back to the mountain for the drive up.

The drive up Pike's Peak is about 19 miles and goes from about 6000 feet to the aforementioned 14,110 feet. The first part of the drive is fairly unremarkable. It is a bit of a climb with some switch backs, but the road is wide and paved. That changed in the top 1/3 of the climb. There the road was unpaved (though still fairly wide), extremely steep and had hairpin switch backs. I just stayed in 2nd gear and often shifted to 1st (Low) gear. I must say the car never flinched. The temperature gauge stayed right on it's normal mark. We did run without the AC on (as suggested) which mattered very little. The temperature at the bottom was in the mid 80s. When we got to the summit, it was 45. Needless to say, as we went higher on the mountain, the views were just incredible. Some of the views were, shall we say, disconcerting to the driver. I do not deny that I have a bit of a problem with my peripheral vision telling my brain that we are all going to die in situations like that. As I mentioned, the road was not paved and was fairly wide which was nice because I could drive in the middle without appearing to be straddling the yellow line (there was no yellow line). We made it to the top and my fingers did not have to be pried off the steering wheel.

Mary and I both noted the low oxygen level (40% of normal) at the summit. Sheila just went skipping around like nothing was different. Mary developed a headache, and I got winded easily and just a bit light headed. We checked out the gift shop and took pictures. While we were there, the cog drive train arrived from Manitou, so were able to see that and take pictures of it. I thought it would be an old fashioned steam driven deal, but it is comprised of three or four fully enclosed cars that were diesel driven.

We headed back down the mountain and before long came to a place where a herd of Big Horn Sheep were gamboling about. We stopped and watched them a bit. They actually came closer to the people stopped there before heading over a ridge and out of sight. We got some good close views and pictures of them. There were even a couple of young males in the group that were occasionally practicing their combat skills by butting heads.

It took us about an hour to drive up the mountain and about 40 minutes to come back down. Although I thought we had actually gone faster on average going up. I kept the speed pretty low coming down and mostly had the transmission in Low during the steepest part so I would not have to ride the brakes. There is even a brake check station at one point where you must stop so a park ranger can check how hot your brakes are using one of those thermal imaging devices. We passed OK.

The Pike's Peak experience was a very good one. I'm really glad we did it. I think that since we have driven it once, I would not need to ever do that again. However, if I got the chance, I would probably like to ride the railway up. I could spend more times looking at the scenery and less time trying to avoid death that way.

On the way back to Denver we stopped at an outlet center in Castle Rock. We promised Sheila we would stop there on the way back after we saw it going down to Colorado Springs. We actually all had a good time there, and Sheila bought another purse. We also bought more snacks for driving that we didn't need, but I'm sure we will enjoy them.

Back in Denver, we went down to the local Cheesecake Factory for a "light" dinner. We sat outside, and the evening air was wonderful. Denver has changed a lot in appearance, but it's personality is very much the same as I remember it. The city is a pleasant, clean place and the weather is very nice. It has its "characters" here and there as does any city. In 1968, most of those characters were "hippies". Now, I don't know what they are called, but they really are not that much different. We had a great time here, and I am glad we came.

Another full day is in the books. We have now started our fourth week on the road and the end is near. Tomorrow night we will be in Omaha, Nebraska, then Des Moines and Muscatine on Friday. I think we are all just a little ready to return to our homes and sleep for a day or two before setting out on another adventure. 8^)

Pictures have been posted.

Day 21, July 30: On to Denver

This will likely be a short post. We left Rock Rapids this morning and headed East on I-80. We made excellent time since the speed limit was 75 (as it is in most of the states out here) and the topography was surprisingly flat. The only really notable feature in the middle of Wyoming was out empty it was. When we started out in the West part of the state, there were ranches with cattle on them. When we got to the middle of the state, there were miles and miles of nothing but vast ranges of sage brush. Not a head of cattle, house or any other feature to break it up. It was a lot like the wheat fields we saw in Washington, but in this case, there were no crops. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) apparently manages a bunch of the land. There are also wild horse herds out there, but we did not (as far as we know) see any. We did see lots of Prong Horn Antelope along the way browsing in the sage brush. As we got closer to Laramie and Cheyenne, we started seeing large herds of cattle and even crop fields.

We drove into Cheyenne and stopped at the state capitol building. The building was open and we went in to look around. I was interested in the fact that the legislator was only in session for 40 days one year and 20 days the next year. The 20 day session is to deal with budget issues only. I told the information person our legislator was in session for 90 days every year which just means they can cause more trouble. The senate has 20 members and the house appears to have about twice that many.

Mary asked the state trooper in the capitol building where was a good place to eat. He recommended a place named Sanford's but couldn't remember exactly what street it was on. I think it one of those "I know how to get there, I just don't know where it is" situations. We drove around and found the place in the general area he directed us to. We parked (angle parking only, no meters) and went in. The place was something else. It was full of, well, I guess you would call it stuff. There were lots of pictures on the walls of sports people but there was also all sorts of stuff just scattered about hanging on the walls and from the ceiling. The tables were stainless steel, and each one had a roll of paper towels next to it. The menu was mostly sandwiches and burgers with an apparent emphasis on quantity. We all enjoyed the meal as much for the "decor" as the food (which was good).

From Cheyenne we headed south on I-25 toward Denver. Sheila wanted to stop in Longmont where some members of the Byrne family (Mary and Sheila's grandmother was a Byrne) were buried in the Mountain View Cemetery. We found the cemetery (actually the navigation system did) and arrived at 4:20 pm. Unfortunately, the administrative office closed at 4:00 pm. So, we were faced with searching an area about 2 blocks by 2 blocks with hundreds of graves for the ones the Byrnes were buried in. We began slowly driving around what appeared to be the older sections (the father died in 1933) looking for the Byrne name. We had covered just about the whole place and were on about the last lane when Sheila had me stop and back up. Sure enough, there it was! We all jumped out and took lots of pictures of the various markers and Sheila took down some information on one of them that might help her fill in some gaps in the genealogy she is working on. We were all amazed that we had actually found the graves as we really didn't have much hope for success when we started looking.

We arrived in Denver and found our hotel (downtown Hampton) around 6:00. It is such an understatement to say that the city has changed. We lived here in 1968 and came back in 1975 on a camping trip to the mountains. It had changed quite a bit in the 7 years between those visits, but now it has been 32 years since our last visit. The baseball stadium (Coors Field) is downtown (Denver didn't have a baseball team when we here before) and there are many more tall buildings. In a way it is kind of disorienting. The only things we found that were unchanged were the capitol building and the Catholic Cathedral. They have converted several blocks of 16th Street to a shopping mall. It is, in many ways, like any other shopping mall except that it is all along the street. There is not traffic on the street except shuttle buses that run continuously and stop at each corner. The buses are free and you just get on and off as you wish. Our objective was to find interesting shopping places for Sheila and a good brew pub for me. Since the place is like any suburban mall, Sheila pretty much struck out. However, we did find a brew pub that served up fairly good food and a reasonable menu of beers.

We rode the shuttle back to the area where our hotel is located, then walked over to the capitol. We got a few night pictures of the building (it has a gold dome) and walked up the stairs to where the markers show the altitude of one mile above sea level. We then walked back to our hotel to call it a day. Tomorrow we will explore some our (Mary and me) old haunts, look for some shopping places and maybe head down to Colorado Springs.

Day 20 Grand Tetons National Park

Today we checked out of our hotel in West Yellowstone and headed to the Grand Tetons National Park. We drove back into Yellowstone, around the Southern loop and out the South Entrance. Grand Tetons is directly South of Yellowstone. On the way, we saw and photographed one more water fall (Lewis Falls) in Yellowstone. As usual we were sorry to leave the park. We all agreed that you could easily spend a week in Yellowstone and full days every day.

As we headed south, we began to see the Grand Tetons range ever more clearly. What a sight it is. The peaks are very rugged. We stopped at the visitor's center to purchase some items and for Mary to get her stamp in her National Parks Passport book. We also went to the general store for the usual assortment of souvenir stuff and to stock up on snacks and water.

When we left there, Mary spotted a chapel (the Chapel of the Sacred Heart) marked on the guide map, so we stopped there. She and Sheila went and I took more pictures. The chapel was completely of log construction and was donated by New York and Wyoming families as a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

As we continued South we stopped at several turn outs to get more pictures and read more about the mountains. There are about a dozen glaciers on the Grand Tetons, and we saw about 6 of them. I think we all agreed that the most spectacular view was from the turn out where we saw the Cathedral Group. This group of peaks really does soar to the sky. We spent quite a bit of time there taking pictures and looking at the peaks and glaciers through the binoculars and spotting scope.

We had always planned to drive through the GTNP, but had not had any real plans for where we would go next. The Grand Tetons NP is fairly small (especially compared to Yellowstone) and did not take long to drive through. We discussed the next destination a couple days ago and decided on Denver, CO. It won out over Salt Lake City primarily due to time constraints. Sheila has never been to Denver, and Mary and I were last there in 1975 (we were stationed there in 1968 for 5 months). So, after leaving GTNP, we headed down to Rock Springs, WY. We arrived here about 4:30 and immediately made use of the laundry room. We were all down to our last items of clean clothes. We had a quick dinner and now we are going to get a (hopefully) long nights sleep. We plan to spend two days in Denver then get on I-80 and head East.

We have had a lot of very full days. Each day finds us pretty well exhausted at the end. But no one yet has said that it has been too much. After a night's sleep, we are ready to go to the next adventure. We may be tired at the end of each day, but we are not tired of the adventure.

I forgot to mention that we completed our animal viewing list during our visit to GTNP. The only large mammal we did not see by the time we left Yellowstone was a moose. There are not many in Yellowstone and there was no mention of them in Glacier. However, Grand Tetons is known for their moose and it did not disappoint us. At one of the turnouts, a number of people had stopped and walked out into a meadow. Of course we stopped to investigate. Off to the side from where people were standing was a female moose down in the brush. At this time of the year, where an adult female of any of these large animals is located, there is likely a youngster near by. We walked on around the area where she was browsing, and sure enough, there was her calf almost completely hidden by the brush. After a bit, they both started moving a bit and then we could see them really well. In case you are interested or concerned, the regulations require you to stay at 25 yards away from moose, buffalo, and deer. All the people at that location were complying with that requirement easily. In fact, we were all probably about 50 yards from them. Anyway, we now have completed our "want to see" list of large mammals. We also have several small animals on the list of "we saw that": Marmot, pika (sort of like a large chipmunk), various types of ground squirrels (Uinta at Yellowstone), gopher, prairie dogs, eagles, ospreys, magpies, ravens and others that I'm sure I've forgotten to list.

Day 19, July 28: Yellowstone NP

Today we drove the North loop of the Grand Loop Road. But first, we decided to hike up Mt. Washburn. According to the information we had, Mt. Washburn was one of the best places to see Big Horn Sheep. So, when we came to the trail, we decided to give it a go. The trail is 3 miles long, starts at 8900 feet and climbs about 1400 feet and we are fairly old. Just wanted to let you know what we were up against. We took two bottles of water, our cameras and binoculars and started the climb. The trail started quite steep then became easier after about a half mile. Then it got difficult again and remained so. At some point, we came to the conclusion that "we've come this far, we might as well go all the way". It was a tough climb. The only good thing was that the views out over the park got better as we got higher. We stopped many times to admire the view (yeah, that's the reason). Just before we got to the top, we saw a Big Horn ewe and two lambs. Another extended stop was called for. After about 2 1/2 hours, Sheila and I made it to the top. Mary was having some problems with her asthma and decided to wait where we had seen the sheep. At the top of the mountain is a fire lookout station, and the fire lookout person / ranger was watching over a young female Big Horn that was wandering around amongst the people there. Shortly after we reached the top, my phone rang. What a surprise. I didn't expect to have cell service there. It was Mary. She had seen about a dozen Big Horns just below where she was standing. I told her the rest of the climb to the top was really not too bad (I only lied a little), and she should come on up and join us. Which she did. We spent about a half hour up there admiring the views, going potty, and replenishing our water. We also took pictures to ensure we had photographic evidence that we had climbed to the top.

When we headed down, we could see a bit of a rain storm coming and hear some thunder. We didn't want to be on top of the mountain if we were going to get a thunderstorm, so we really picked up the pace. If you have ever done that kind of a hike, you know that going down has its problems. The trail was wide but fairly rocky, and it got to be difficult to maintain the pace while picking our way through the rocks. We made it to the bottom in about an hour just as the rain started. We scurried to the car and managed to avoid getting too wet. We had spent about 4 hours on that adventure and added another animal to our "we saw those" list.

From there we drove on around the loop and turned off toward the North East Entrance via an area called Lamar Valley. This area is referred to as the Serengeti of North America due to the abundance of wild life there. So what did we see? Lots of wild life. First there was the coyote that just kind of popped out of the brush on one side of the road, crossed right in front of us, continued down the road a way and went into the woods on the other side. Another addition to our list.

We continued on to a meadow where there was a small herd of Prong Horn Antelope grazing. When we looked closer, we saw there was also a member of the canine family amongst them. I was sure it was another coyote, Sheila was sure it was a wolf and Mary noted that it was wearing a tracking collar. The interesting thing was that the dude was just ambling along, but the Prong Horns were staying right with it. There was one male in the herd, and at one point he did charge and chase it off a bit. For the most part, they were just going along with it. Later after much discussion and review of the video evidence, we all agreed that it was a wolf (I did end up with some knots on my head from the beating). I think the key is the fact that it was wearing a tracking collar. I doubt they are tracking coyotes. I also believe the antelope were just keeping an eye on the wolf. As long as they were able to see it, it presented no threat to them. I also believe the wolf was a loner (an outcast?) and was not eating real well. He was pretty sorry looking. So, two more animals were checked off our list.

We drove a bit further and ran into a bear jam. That is what they call what happens when a bear is sighted and the cars start to pile up as folks slow or stop to look. The rangers respond pretty quickly and (as long as there is no danger) will tell people where the bear is located and where they can or cannot stop. In this case, it was a grizzly in amongst the sage brush. We found a parking and broke out all our equipment (cameras, binoculars and spotting scope). Mary set up the spotting scope and started looking in the area where others were indicating. Eventually, she said she saw the bear pop up his head for a moment then disappear in the brush again. A ranger there said the bear was on a buffalo carcass. That would explain why it was hidden in the brush and was not moving about. Sheila and I could not see the bear and had to take Mary's word for the sighting. And we did take here word for it. Of course we had seen grizzlies in Glacier, so they were already checked off our list.

A bit further along in the Lamar Valley is the Buffalo Ranch where the park service took steps to bring the buffalo back from the point of extinction. The number of buffalo in the park got down to about 28 head early in the 20th century. Keep in mind that there were once an estimated 60 million head on the plains before the government tried to eradicate them to keep the First Nations people from having access to them. Anyway in the ranch area of Lamar Valley, we saw more large herds roaming freely.

Eventually, we turned around and returned to the Grand Loop and headed up to the North Entrance. At the park entrance there an arch was constructed to honor President Theodore Roosevelt. We drove out of the park, then turned around and parked and took several pictures. The arch is featured in a lot of early pictures of the park.

From there we went to an area called Mammoth Hot Springs. This is a really, well, mammoth geothermal feature. It is comprised of several springs and geysers that output water with tremendous amounts of minerals in it. As a result, the surrounding deposits are being built up at very high rates (as much as an inch a year compared to Old Faithful's inch a century or so). The deposits have built up in the form of terraces. After seeing so many geothermal features in the park, we might have been a bit jaded. However, this area still had a lot of wow factor.

By the time we finished with Mammoth Hot Springs, it was starting to get pretty dark. We just headed back to West Yellowstone and the end of another day.

So here is a tally of our animal sightings in Yellowstone:

• Elk


• Buffalo


• Big Horn Sheep


• Coyote


• Prong Horn Antelope


• Wolf


• Grizzly Bear (also seen in GNP)

That leaves only a moose on our to see list. Maybe tomorrow.

We were all pretty exhausted (remember the bit about the climb up Mt. Washburn) and ready to get some sleep. Tomorrow we do the Grand Tetons.

Day 18, July 27: Yellowstone NP

Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has a road named Grand Loop that loops around the park in a figure 8. We decided that we would drive the whole thing the first day and then figure out what we wanted to do the second day here. We started out on the southern loop which is around 100 miles. Of course, as we started out, we had to stop at every meadow where we saw elk, a geothermal feature, a vista or a water fall. We stopped a lot! At one of the geyser locations, we were leaving the parking area to get back out on the road when we saw a lone buffalo grazing near the road. We all got very excited (especially Sheila) and got some pictures of it. It was our first buffalo in the wild. I was sure we would see more.

Most of our time was taken up with exploring the geothermal features. Lots of geysers, steam vents, springs, pools, and mud pools. Sheila bought a guide book when we first went in to the Old Faithful Inn (see Day 17). It turned out to be a very informative book. So with me driving, Mary navigating and Sheila narrating (reading from the book), we had a great tour. By around 11:30 we were back at the Old Faithful geyser which was due to erupt about 15 - 20 minutes after we arrived. There must have been over a thousand people gathered around. We each got into positions for the big event and about 5 minutes after it's predicted time (well within the + or - 10 minutes the rangers claim), Old Faithful put on its show. I got a bunch of still shots, Sheila and Mary got videos from different angles, and Mary got "rained" on from the water. It was one of those things that you want to see at least once and we all enjoyed it.

After a quick lunch there, we continued on our journey around the southern loop. The scenery continued, but we decided not to stop at every steam vent we came to. There are hundreds of them. We drove around Yellowstone Lake which is large and beautiful and turned off the Grand Loop Road to head out toward the East entrance. We were hoping to see lots of wild life, but came up empty, so we turned around to head back toward the Grand Loop. A little way on we passed a grove of trees near the rode and Sheila saw a buffalo walking along parallel to the road going the same way we were. We pulled into a turn out just past the grove of trees and waited. Sure enough here came the buffalo. That was when I spotted the trail (buffalo trail) leading out of the woods directly toward where we parked. I decided to move. Good thing. The guy ambled out of the woods, down that trail and across the parking area directly in front of us. He just continued on like he knew where he was going and when he needed to get around a small lake, he just walked out in the road and continued on down the right hand lane. No hurry, just going over to the next meadow. It was quite the sight.

Continuing around the southern loop, we got to an area called Hayden Valley where we encountered a large herd of buffalo grazing. We estimated somewhere between 100 and 200 animals in there including several calves with their mothers. This was quite a sight. We all agreed that this is the way it should be: Large herds of buffalo free ranging.

From there, we went to an area called Canyon Village where we could go out on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. What an impressive sight! The Yellowstone River has cut the canyon along with the help of fractures and fissures in the lava from the volcano. The canyon is about 24 miles long and runs about 1400 feet deep. Not quite up to the scale of the Grand Canyon, but still very impressive. The colors and geological formations were amazing.

By the time we finished at the canyon, we were all quite tired. We had decided much earlier in the day that we could not possibly complete the entire Grand Loop in one day, and that we would do the Northern loop the second day. We headed back to West Yellowstone and stopped at a restaurant called Bullwinkle's for dinner. The gals went shopping, and I returned to the hotel to download pictures and post blogs from Glacier, etc.

We really learned a lot about the park today. We learned that it is the world's largest volcano and that most of the park is actually the volcano's caldera. We learned that most of the colors we see in the geothermal features are from heat loving bacteria that can not survive at the low temperatures we are used to. We learned that the park is constantly changing due to the build up of deposits from the various geysers and thermal pools. We learned that there is way too much to see to do it in one day (or two, or...).

We (mostly Sheila) had a list of animals we wanted to see in the park that we had not seen at Glacier: Elk, Moose, Big Horn Sheep, Prong Horn Sheep, Buffalo and most of all wolves. Today we ticked off only two of those (elk and buffalo), but we have high hopes for tomorrow.

So now it is late on the second day and I am one day behind on blogging. I also need to upload some pictures to Picassa. Tomorrow (day 20) we are going down through Grand Teton National Park. Hopefully, I will be able to catch up tomorrow night.

Day 17 July 26: Glacier to Yellowstone

As much as we hated to leave Glacier, we were anxious to get to Yellowstone. We set out on US-2 with some backward glances. We hadn't gone far when we saw some Blackfeet cowboys on their horses working a herd of cattle. They appeared to be separating the calves from the rest of the herd. It was such a classic scene with the mountains in the background, that we turned around so we could get some pictures.

We drove through a portion of the Blackfeet Reservation including Browning which is the Blackfeet capital. It was interesting to see the mix of some of the old traditions as evidenced by sweat cloths hanging in trees with the more modern. Browning was not a large town, and was obviously not real prosperous, but it didn't appear desolate or poverty stricken either.

We made our way over to I-15 and headed south toward Yellowstone. When we realized we would go right by Helena, we all agreed we should take a drive around the city. We quickly found the Capitol building and took a walk around the front of it. We opted to not go in due to the time constraints. Then we visited St. Patrick's Cathedral which was built in the Gothic style in 1908. It is a beautiful building with lots of stained glass (from Germany) and marble (from Italy) in the interior. After a quick stop at McDonald's (not for food) we headed back on to I-15 south.

While the trip over to I-15 from Glacier had been through mostly rolling hills and plains, the landscape became more mountainous again as we went south. Soon we were in some pretty tight curves and steep hills where the normal posted speed of 75 mph was a bit too fast. Some of the curves were posted at 45 mph (remember this is Montana interstate) and they were exciting. Along the way we passed a truck while doing about 70 and got a rock to the windshield. It hit on the edge of the windshield about half way up on the passenger side. It took a divot out of the glass and a crack quickly formed and began growing toward the driver's side. By the end of the day the crack was about 10 inches long. We are hoping it will not grow too much more and we will be able to get home before we have to take care of it.

We arrived in West Yellowstone about 6:15 pm and checked into our hotel (Comfort Inn). We immediately headed out to the park to drive around and check into tours. We stopped at a point along the Madison River where we saw an elk herd grazing. Our first large mammals in Yellowstone! We continued on to the Old Faithful Inn where we wanted to inquire about Yellow Bus Tours (like the Red Bus in Glacier). We also wanted to see the place since we had heard so much about it, and it is number one on the list of "Great Lodges of the National Parks". The place is awesome. It does not have the large diameter, soaring logs supporting it like Glacier Park Lodge, but is essentially all log construction. Two levels of mezzanines overlook the lobby which has a huge, four sided fire place in the very middle. By the way, the lodge sits at about 7000 feet elevation, and the temperatures were cool (low 60s). We decided to see if we could get into the restaurant for a light (yeah, right) dinner. The restaurants in these lodges are fantastic, and so is the food. After checking on the bus tours we had decided to do it ourselves, so after dinner and some shopping, we headed back to the hotel (about 40 miles) to end the day.

Pictures coming soon.

Day 16, July 25: Going to the Sun Road, GNP

Today we took another Red Bus tour that made a complete loop in and around the park. But first, a bit about the Red Buses. They were built around 1936 to 1938 and served to provide motor tours of the park. They were, of course, manual transmission vehicles and the drivers had to jam them into each gear as they went up and down the mountains. As a result the drivers were (and still are) called "Jammers". One of the main characteristics of the buses (other than their color) is that they are convertibles. They have a heavy tarpaulin cover that can be pulled back opening up the top. With the top open, you have a fantastic view of the mountains. The buses were owned by a concessioner in the park. By the 1960s they were starting to become a problem to maintain and eventually the department of transportation took them out of service. The buses were a favorite of park visitors and the superintendent of the park worked a deal where the park would take possession of them and the Ford Motor Company would refurbish them. Basically, Ford put the body on a truck chassis with V-8 engines that will run on either propane or gasoline. And that's the story of the Red Buses. Now, they run several tours in and around the park, and it is a great way to see the park and while getting a narrative about the various points of interest.

The tour we were on today went from East Glacier (where we are staying) to West Glacier by way of US-2 (the way we came to get here). Us-2 crosses the continental divide at just around 5000 feet (the lowest crossing in the park). Just past the Continental Divide is a place called Goat Lick where the mountain goats come to (you guessed it) lick the rocks that contain a mineral they need. We saw a mother goat and her kid climbing the rocks. I took lots of pictures.

At West Glacier, we entered the park and drove up to Going to the Sun Road. That road crosses back from West to East along the Garden Wall mountains (more about that in a moment) crossing the Continental Divide at Logan's Pass at about 6500 feet elevation (well above the tree line). The Garden Wall is actually a large uplift that was carved on two sides by glaciers during the last ice age. As a result, the remaining mountains look a lot like a rock wall: High and long but not very wide. The Going to the Sun road starts at the bottom of the West side of the wall and climbs up going North to a switch back where it then goes along what is essentially the face of the wall until it is about three quarters of the way to the top. That is where the pass is located and it is the highest point on the road. The views were fantastic. Today was another cool (mid to upper 70s) and clear day so you could see forever. As you might expect, since the road is just cut into the very steep face of the mountain, it is an adventure for those sitting on the right side of the bus. The driver assured us all would be OK because all he had to do was follow the yellow line in the middle of the road. Some of our fellow passengers were not really into looking down the drop off, and when we stopped for viewing opportunities, some would not get out of the bus to partake.

The Going to the Sun road goes to St. Mary on the East side (where we were yesterday) and from there the tour returned to the lodge. So that part of the trip was a repeat of some of what we did yesterday. But we still enjoyed it.

After dinner tonight we hung out in the lobby and listened to Curly Bear Wagner (yup, that's his name) tell some stories to illustrate the Blackfeet way of life. He was very good and it was very interesting. He didn't shy away from the fact that the Blackfeet didn't get along well with any of the other nations.

I took a gazillion pictures today, and as soon as I can get back on the internet I will try to find time to get a sampling uploaded. For now we have pretty much packed up and loaded some stuff in the car. Tomorrow is another moving day: We are going to Yellowstone National Park. As much as we hate to leave Glacier, we are looking forward to Yellowstone.

Pictures have been uploaded. Check them out here.

Day 15, July 24: Glacier & Waterton

Today was fantastic. Where as the previous days were hot and hazy (including yesterday), today was breezy, comfortable if not cool, and the air was very clear. We took a Red Bus tour to the Prince of Wales lodge in the Waterton portion of the International Peace Park (Glacier / Waterton). Although the lodge was fantastic, the destination was not the real objective: the trip was. What can I say. The views were spectacular, the mountains very rugged, and we saw Grizzlies! We saw lots of Grizzlies. The bus tour started here at Glacier Park Lodge where the three of us were the only passengers. On the way to Waterton, we stopped at St. Mary then Many Glacier Hotel for additional passengers. At Many Glacier we saw a grizzly sow and her cub a couple hundred yards up the hill on the way in. Then on the way out, we saw what was likely a male about as far away at another location. We stopped at both lodges for potty breaks and to check out their gift shops.

We got to Prince of Wales Lodge around 1:30 pm. The Canadians charge CAN$5.20 for entry into their parks. Today the US and Canadian dollars were on par with each other. Seems like a pretty good deal. Most US National Parks charge at least double that. Of course my National Parks old person pass did not work there. We had lunch there and spent time enjoying the fantastic views there. After leaving the lodge, our driver went down into Waterton (the town). He stopped at a little store that sold ice cream, chocolates, home made pies, fudge, etc. I can't believe we all had ice cream and chocolates after the lunches we ate.

On the way back to the United States, we saw the smoke from a small forest fire. The guy at the border said they had just discovered it about an hour and a half before we came through. It has really been hot and dry all through this area and fires are a big problem right now. Today's wind certainly didn't help matters. One of the areas we drove through was the scene of the Red Eagle fire last year. It was a huge are of devastation.

So we got back to Many Glacier Hotel and saw another grizzly just ambling through the woods headed toward the lodge. That was the closest we got to one. Then on the way out, we saw what we think was the same sow and cub from this morning, but much closer to the road (about 100 yards away). Mary spotted this one for us. We got lots of good pictures of her.

We finally got back to our lodge at about 7:45 tonight. We had a quick meal of appetizers and desert in the restaurant and now it's off to bed. We need to rest up for another bus tour tomorrow over Going to the Sun Road. Again, it is the trip that is the objective. Details to follow.

Day 14, July 23: Spokane to Glacier

I am writing this while at Glacier Park Lodge, but will not be able to post it for a few days. Details follow.

We left Spokane on US Highway 2 headed for Glacier National Park today. As I said, the area around Spokane is relatively flat. As we headed north and east we got more into the foot hills of the Rockies and the terrain became much hillier. The road was pretty good though mostly 2 lane with occasional passing lanes on climbs. It followed rivers that flowed out of the mountains and remained relatively straight with just a slight upgrade for the most part. We did hit one part where it appears they are widening the road to 4 lanes. We had to sit about 15 or 20 minutes waiting to get through the construction area. Once we got going, it was stop and go as we had to yield to construction equipment at various points. The roadway was mostly packed dirt and the construction zone went on for about 2 miles. Fortunately, Sheila was driving, so I just relaxed and "enjoyed" the ride.

As we got closer to the park, the mountains got more rugged and the vistas were fantastic. As can be expected there were areas where we drove along the edge of a mountain and could look down into a valley very far below us. Other places we went along mountain lakes that were mirror smooth. I took some pictures out the windows of the car and we stopped at a couple of places.

When we got to the area along the southern boundary of the park, we saw a huge cloud of smoke ahead of us. It was obviously a forest fire. The area south of the park is a national forest, and the fire was somewhere in there. We got close enough that we could smell the smoke. We all agreed that was as close as we wanted to be.

We arrived at Glacier Park Lodge around 4:30 pm MDT. The lodge is exactly as we expected. We had seen the lodge on a PBS program about the great lodges of the national parks. The lodge was built on the Blackfeet Reservation in 1914 by the Great Northern Railway. Large trees were used as the main supports in the lobby colonnade. There are 60 Douglas firs and cedars, 36 to 42 inches in diameter and 40 feet long that provide support in the lobby and for the verandahs. They estimate the trees were 500 to 800 years old when they were cut. The lodge now has an annex and has 161 rooms for about 500 people. There is no TV, no air conditioning, no internet access, limited cell phone service and one ice machine for the whole place. It's great! It is a bit hot but the humidity is low. I think the day time highs are in the mid 80s. It suppossed to get down to low to mid 60s at night, so we'll see how it goes.

After we ate dinner in the restaurant in the lodge (I had bison stew), we went for a bit of a drive on the road that runs up the east side of the park (Looking Glass Hill Road). It went up to about 6000 feet and was a classic mountain road. We pulled over a several times to take pictures and got some great shots of the sunset behind the mountains. We only drove about 8 miles (mostly at about 25 - 30 mph) then turned around and headed back. On the way back we saw a black bear. Mary saw it first. It was just ambling along the road, then suddenly took off at full speed up the hill side. Everyone was quite excited. We drove around a bit more as it started to get darker, but did not see anymore wildlife other than chipmunks and one rabbit.

Tomorrow we go on a bus tour up to Prince of Wales Lodge in the Canadian portion of the park. Hopefully we will see more wildlife during the day. That's it for today.

Day 13, July 22: Heading East

We are heading east for the first time in nearly two weeks. It's been nearly two weeks since we started on this venture! But first the daily details.

I've heard it said that, when you are planning for a trip, lay out all the clothes you think you need, then only pack half of them. We didn't do that, but I thought we had done a pretty good job of limiting what we brought. We ended up with two weekender bags for clothes and one gym bag for other stuff needed by old people (drugs, vitamins, etc.). We had a system where we just took the gym bag into a hotel with a change of clothes one night, then the whole mess the next night. It soon became apparent, that we just didn't need all the clothes we brought. The same went for Sheila who also brought a weekender and a smaller bag for her clothes. Since Aunt Maureen and her daughter Sharon drove to Seattle and were going directly back to Iowa and had plenty of space in their car and agreed to take some stuff back for us, we decided to cut back a bit. Sheila sent a bunch of her clothes and Mary and I pared down from two weekender suitcases to one. This is so much nicer. We can pack and unpack the car in half the time, and we really don't even need a cart at the hotels to get our stuff to the room. And Sheila says there is now more room for stuff she buys!

Anyway, we got up this morning and went to church. The Blaesing branch's newest addition was baptized during mass. It was a very nice service and gave Mary and Sheila one last opportunity to say good bye to folks.

Today was to be another transit day: Just get from Seattle to Spokane. However, Sheila enjoyed the drive to Leavenworth, WA so much yesterday, that she suggested we take that route. It turned out to be a great idea. Leavenworth sits in the lee of a range called the Icicle Mountains. Back in the 60s, the towns people decided to remodel the town to an Alpine / Bavarian motif. It has turned out to be a big success for them, and they now have something like 17 festivals a year there. The drive over there from Seattle is beautiful. We followed along the Snokomish River to Stevens Pass (4000+ feet) through the Cascades. We stopped at some very picturesque falls along the way. After we went over the pass, we followed the Watachee River down for a ways. This whole route (US 2) seems to follow the original Great Northern Railway route through the Cascades. That rail route is noteworthy because it opened up access to the North West that had been hampered by the Cascade Mountains. We really enjoyed the stop in Leavenworth (particularly the Ice Cream lunch).

Our plan was to stay on highway 2 all the way to Spokane, but the lady in the navigation system had other ideas. We ended up veering a bit south toward I-90 at Watachee before we realized what had happened. That area of the state (the middle region) is fairly flat and has lots of apple orchards. We saw some really large orchards along the way. Eventually we decided to head back toward highway 2 and go to the Grand Coulee dam. As we got further to the north, the landscape changed again to be much more rugged. The land was obviously shaped by glaciers and worn by water. The vistas were incredible. I took a few pictures, but I don't think they can do justice to what we saw. As Mary says it was "high on the wow factor". Sheila said it looked like what you see in all those old westerns where the outlaws are hiding out up on the rock outcroppings. We stopped at a couple of overlooks and at Steamboat Rock park to take pictures. Steamboat Rock is like many of the rock formations we saw, but is just out there all by itself.

The approach to the Grand Coulee dam was from the Roosevelt Lake side. That is the huge lake that was formed by the dam. The dam was not particularly impressive when we first saw it. It just kind of sticks up out of the water a bit. Once we moved on down to the downstream side of the dam, it was a different story. That thing is huge! The statistics on it are available on line so I won't detail them all here. Just suffice to say it is the largest such structure in the United States.

From there we headed on toward Spokane. Once again, the landscape changed and became this high (2000 ft. elev.) prairie that was mostly rolling hills with the mountains off in the distance. The most striking thing was the wheat fields. They just stretched literally as far as you could see (and we could see right far with the clear air). There would be mile after mile of wheat with no significant break -- not even a farm house. I noted one small road that went off from the highway that had 4 or five mail boxes at the end of the road, but you could not see anything down the road. No houses, no barns, just wheat. There were a few little towns along the way that probably existed just to support the wheat farmers. Each town had a large grain storage facility and not much else. There was one town named Davenport that had a bit more, but it was still a fairly small town -- nothing like Davenport, IA.

So here we are at our hotel now. This is the same hotel and the same room we stayed in last Sunday when we were in Spokane. We liked the room so much then that we decided to book it right away for the return stop. I am not going to post pictures tonight (too tired), but will try to get them up with appropriate links in this blog entry tomorrow. We are really looking forward to going to Glacier.