End of the Road..............for now

Got up extra early and on the road by 7:00 a.m.  We want to beat the snow they say is going to fall in Colorado.  Drove into Denver, some storm clouds making the report of snow coming very believable.

Driving to Denver

 

Amazing clouds

 

Got to Denver early so decided that I better go see the capitol building before the bad weather arrived.  I spent about 45 minutes checking out the capitol which was in a state of renovation, so the dome was not even visible as a pretty structure.  Capital was nice, but not earth shakingly beautiful.  The pink marble everywhere was impressive.  Legislature was in session so the place was busy.  I just wandered about a bit and by the time I got out to meet the guys at 11:45 p.m. it was snowing.  So glad we got an early start.

 

Some neat architecture in downtown

Lots of huge sculptures all over the city

 

Renovations on capitol

Granite statute "The Closing of an Era"

in front of capitol.  Completed 1893

for the Chicago World's Fair

 

This stone is every where inside and so beautiful.  It is Colorado

rose onyx  (known as Beulah Red Marble).

 

As you walk up the stairs on the west side of the building, once you get to

the 13th stairs you are “One Mile Above Sea Level.” or at

 5,280’ elevation.  I did go up the stairs to the second floor.

 

John and Robert picked me up and we headed toward our hotel before more snow built up.  Actually we were too early so had to kill some time before checking in.  So we had a nice lunch and then went to the grocery store to get food to cook in room for our dinner.  I texted Tracie about the snow and she said Steve is in Colorado Springs, about 45 minutes down the road working on his exit from military.  Texted him hi, but we never could get together with him busy and the weather.  Amazing to be so close.  We all went swimming and in the hot tub, watched some TV and to bed.  We are not setting the alarm clock for a change.

 

Nice heated pool

 

Look at the snow outside

 

Tuesday, up and had breakfast.  Still snowing and quite a bit has accumulated.  Traffic jams and some cars are having trouble getting up hills according to the news reports.  We were going to go downtown, but there is an accident on the interstate, so we decided to just go eat lunch and come back and go in pool and hot tub.

 

I've been checking roads and weather reports all day.  Not sure how we are going to go until tomorrow.  I don't want to buy chains to go over Interstate 70, so if that is required we will head down to Albuquerque, NM.  I will check in the morning.  So water, TV and bed and see what tomorrow brings.  I'd love to drive right across I-70 W.

 

Yum Yak

We just had to have a picture of this

We didn't eat here, but it cracked us up

 

Wednesday, dry road reports mostly so we took off.  I drove Denver to Vail with maybe one icy spot, way up over 10,000 feet.  Robert drove from Vail to Grand Junction.  Checked in to hotel, had lunch and then headed downtown to their historic district.  What a fun area, about 20 blocks long, little stores, out door dining, and lots of sculptures lining Main Street.  Would be fun to spend some time there. 

 

Snow on mountains in 10,000+ passes

 

John Otto

Person responsible for Colorado National

Monument becoming a monument

 

One of the fun sculptures

 

This one sure caught our eye

 

We came back to room, will rest, and go to bed and get up and do it all again tomorrow  We talked to Rudy who lives outside Salt Lake City, and we are heading to his house for two days.  We hope he can be home a little of the time we are there, but he may have to be out driving his truck.  We only have 4 hrs. and 11 minutes to get to his house tomorrow, so maybe we will check out the Colorado National Monument.  Just looked this up and so weird we have already seen this.  When we went to the Pow Wow back in September we drove over from the other side.

 

Thursday in Grand Junction, we stopped for a few hours to see the Allen Unique Autos Museum. What a beautiful place with a woman's touch, Tammy Allen. I spent more time looking at the cars and displays than the guys did. A place not to be missed if you are a car person – well worth the $8 admission. Beautiful, clean, great staff and the cars are the best.

I just thought this was a cute pink mini until

I walked around the side.........

 

2009 hot pink stretch Mini Cooper limousine

 (with a hot tub in the rear)

 

1962 Austin Beach Mini

 

This is so cute

 

Beautiful old touring car

 

Fit for a King

 

Sonny & Cher Mustangs

 

Very unusual - a Cadillac Woodie

 

Shelby Cobra

 

Quite an extensive collection of

beautiful old pedal cars

 

Cool low rider Mercury

"Wasabe"

 

The museum has that femine touch

 

 On our entire trip no rock chips until today, one day from the last day of driving across country. Black Suburban passed me and just kicked a rock.  Damn.  Besides that, good drive into Alpine, Utah where we spent the night at our friend Rudy's house. He was out driving his semi in Washington, so we didn't get to see him.

 

Friday, beautiful day, sun out. Drove into Salt Lake City for lunch at my favorite bakery, La Gourmandise, where we started our trip from. Wonderful lunch and bought many pastries to take back to Boise to share. Got to Tracie's house around 6:30 pm. She had dinner ready and we at gyros that were very good. Visited quite awhile and caught up. Got to bed around 10:30 p.m. and I guess that is the end of this part of our trip and this blog.

 

One each, please

 

Our lovely lunch at my favorite bakery



 

Below is the map of our trip. From Colorado we came home the same way we went. That was not our plan as we were going to AZ, CA, OR and WA, but we want to get John checked out at Boise VA and see what's going on and what we can/should do. We drove a total of 19,371 miles. That is putting on some serious miles. We had the best time and wouldn't have missed it for the world.

 

Our route

 

So we'll see what the future holds as far as our travels, maybe some mini trips. We are glad to be “home” and appreciate our friends, The Helstowski family, welcoming us to stay with them until we see what is going on and what we are going to do.

We thank God for our safe trip with no accidents.  We were in some places where people had no concept of what "speed limit" means, and many tailgaters.  Thank you Lord for our blessed trip and getting John home safely to his Boise.  I'd say we have all good memories and don't regret one moment of the trip.

I may take some time to reflect on all that took place on our trip and write a summation.  I'm not sure I had any profound thoughts or earth shattering revelations, but maybe I just need some time to assimilate it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Emerald Coast and 8 states

Monday, and headed out to the gulf coast, which I learned is called the Emerald Coast -- how pretty.  We drove along the coast as soon as we could and stopped at South Walton Beach.  Walked on the white, squeaky sand.  We saw probably six little dolphins swimming and jumping up in the waves.  They were so cute and fun to watch.  I tried to take pictures, took about 25, got two where you can just see fins.  I loved watching them and it was thrilling.  Drove along the coast which is interesting.  I'd like to spend lots more time in this area.  Got to our room, laid down and really never left again.

South Walton Beach

Emerald Coast

 

Robert and John

 



Tuesday, drove I up to Gulf Breeze, about 25 miles from our place in Fort Walton Beach to meet our friends Henry and Margarita.  John isn't driving now, he gets some dizzy spells, so that is out.  Robert doesn't like driving in Florida, so that leaves it to me.  Hopefully Robert will like driving in other states.  We met our friends at Starbuck's, so had drinks and sat outside waiting and talking.  Once they arrived, I followed them over the bridge to Pensacola and had a wonderful lunch on the beach at Paradise Bar & Grill and good visiting.  I had a wonderful Shrimp Po'Boy.  Little pier at restaurant so walked out on that.  Super seeing our Cancun friends here to say good bye.  Hope we can catch up with them next year.  Pensacola Beach looks like a great place and I hope we can come back some day and spend more time.

Enjoying our visit

Margarita and Henry

 

Paradise Bar and Grill

Pensacola Beach, FL

 

Me and my guys

 

Back to the room and planning our route.  Looks like Slidell, LA tomorrow night, and then to Jackson (capitol of Mississippi) for a look, and spend the night in Memphis, TN.  I went online and made our hotel reservations.  Finally heading West and North, so our direction home will be established tomorrow.

Wednesday up for breakfast at hotel and then I drove us through 4 states -- how weird.  Start in Florida, next was Alabama (with a stop at Bass Pro Shop for John and Robert), Mississippi and then headed into Louisiana.  Along the way we drove down to the Mississippi Gulf to the Silver Slipper casino where John and I each gambled away one dollar each, joined their member's club and had buffet lunch for a total of $23.00 for the three of us.  It was "gals and pals" day, so we got a bargain.  Walked out onto the beach, picked up some oyster shells and then headed back to Slidell, Louisiana for the night.

Alabama would not be complete

without a stop here

 

Stopped at this casino for buffet lunch

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

 

Cold and windy

Gulf of Mexico

 

Many homes are on stilts in

this area

 

Roadside thistle

 

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Cemetery, above ground

 

 

Tonight I reviewed the map again to check our route and make another night's reservation.  I'm going to change our route from southerly moving up to Kansas, Colorado.  Looks more direct and getting from the south in NM up to SLC looks more difficult.  It is 3:00 a.m., I woke at 12:30 a.m. and tried for 2 hours to go back to sleep and said to heck with it and came on the computer.  Hope I can now get back to bed/sleep.  I will try because I have a long drive tomorrow.

Thursday up, breakfast and a longer day of driving since we're heading up to Memphis.  The guys dropped me off at the Mississippi State Capitol building and went to eat lunch and bring me a sandwich.  I took the 1:00 p.m. tour -- all by myself with the guide -- and I got to see one of the most beautiful capitols I've seen.  This was the second capitol built and it was finished in 1903.  Ever square inch of this building was ornate and mind boggling.  I took so many pictures that of course don't do it justice.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time seeing this architectural wonder.

Mississippi State Capitol

 

Main dome

 

Grand staircase

 

Mississippi stained glass

version of miss justice

 

Replica of Liberty Bell

Given to all states and territories by Federal

Reserve in 1950 to thank states for war bond efforts

 

Another lady justice with state flower

Magnolias behind her ears

 

Robert drove the rest of the way to Memphis.  We thought about going out for night life, but it started raining (pouring) so we went straight to hotel.  We all went in the hot tub (pool too for Robert and me) and we had a few drinks (except John who is being really good).  We then drove over two buildings to the Souths "famous" or at least on every corner Waffle House.  Had our dinner, a little TV and to bed for a good night's sleep.

Up usual time Friday, breakfast and out to pack car and it was so cold.  Temp was 42 degrees and I'm in my shorts and flip flops........yikes.  We were going to go down to Beale Street and look around, but with this temp it is hit the road.  Driving along interstate and saw a sign for the Louisiana Purchase State Park and thought that sounded interesting.  We drove 27 miles to get there, way out in the country.  Had to stop and ask for directions and met a great old man who we talked to for about 15 minutes.  His name is William Henderson and he is a farmer.  He has lived within one mile of where we met him for his entire 83 years.  He had a great Arkansas accent.  Finally got to park and it was a swamp with a boardwalk.  We walked out a little way and looked at the swamp which was interesting.  I looked around and saw the coolest owl in the tree.  I was so happy to see it.

William Henderson, 83

Farmer on Hwy 49, Arkansas

grows rice, soy beans

 

 

Swamp, dust on still water

looks like fog, very unusual

 

Beyond lucky to see this beauty

I was amazed

 



Rest of the day just drove.  Lots of road work on the way with one stretch that took over an hour to get through.  Finally arrived at Van Buren and checked into our hotel.  I did our wash since we were running out of our clothes (we each packed a backpack for 5 days so we didn't have to load, unload our suitcases each night).  Then we were going out for a nice dinner, a steak house, but they had a 45 minute wait for food, so we just went to the grocery store and got some food to cook in the room.  Have to be so careful with John's sodium and that makes it hard to eat out, pick meals.  Back to room, ate, a little TV -- with the good news they got the Boston bombers, and to bed.  I drove all day today, about 7 hours, so tomorrow Robert can drive all day.  I'm pooped.

Saturday we drove to the historic district in Van Buren.  Really old town, narrow street, brick buildings, very charming.  Went down by the Arkansas River to the city park.  Saw the old school house that was built in 1820.  We then drove over to Fort Smith to see the National Historic Site.  Several buildings were left and there was a nice visitor's center.  Went down to the Arkansas River and read about and saw the Trail of Tears that was so sad and a black mark on our history of screwing the Native American Tribes.

1820 one room schoolhouse

 

Fort Smith National Historic Site

 

So many broken treaties

 

Arkansas River

 

Trail of Tears Monument

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

 

Disappearing lands

 

Back in the car and headed for Wichita, Kansas.  No fun stops, just destination oriented.  We did have a wonderful dinner out (finally) at the Town & Country with great steaks/prime rib cooked over mesquite wood.  Entire meal was so good.  I wish we had a restaurant that good in Boise.  Watched Suzi Orman, who we have been missing, and then to sleep.

 

Sunday, another day of just traveling.  Wichita, KS to Goodland, KS.  Watching the weather.  High winds expected tomorrow, so we will get going early.  We are inching our way to Boise.  Probably one more blog to write after this one ........... yeah.  Probably yeah for readers who are probably tired of this trip.  I will gladly retire my writing even though it may seem a bit weird.