Well, if we are being technical, it is really Amarillo by late afternoon. That's how far we got today. It was a 6 hour drive and we made it into Texas. Good enough.
Not much to report along the way today. Each day that we drive, we start our journey listening to Zak Brown's greatest hits. It's a nice way to begin. We then played the game of going thru each of the satellite stations. We tried our best to listen to the hip hop count down, but it was too ridiculous to keep on. The 50s and 60s stations are consistently the best. There are also a few comedy channels that help pass the time.
We were sent thru the farm lands due to construction on the highway, so we decided just to stop. We got a free hotel with the gift certificate from Rapid City. Free is as cheap as it gets! Tomorrow will be our last leg home, so stay tuned.
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Day # 28- Rocky Mountain High
Today was our explore Colorado Springs day. That started with a surprise pop in to see a friend who had moved there a few years ago. It was just a quick hug at her work, but I am happy we made the stop.
We made our way to Pike's Peak and paid the million dollars to drive ourselves up. My stupid moment came when I asked the 12 year old "park ranger" when I was supposed to put my car in Mountain mode. He said he had never heard of that. I said well, there is a mode that says M. He told me that meant manual. I felt like a fool
But then again, how could I just switch an automatic car to manual? There is nothing to shift. I stand by it meaning mountain.
Round and round we went up the mountain while watching the temp drop from the 90s to the 50s. All of a sudden, some worker is waving us over into a parking lot. Are we at the top? No. Still a ways to go. We get out, put on jackets, and try to find out what is going on. Apparently, this is a parking area and we now wait for a shuttle to take up to the peak. We paid to drive ourselves, so why this shuttle? We were told it was sleeting at the peak, yet our safety was not the concern. Actually, construction was being done up there and the equipment took up too much parking, so now, 80 year old women are driving people up in an oversized van. No thanks!! We chose to drive ourselves, we paid to drive ourselves, and we are not getting into an oversized van to drive thru the sleet to the top. We, mostly Loren, but we were MAD. No one told us this when we paid per person, even though we were in one vehicle, to drive to the top. Not to a parking lot 3/4 the way up.
We turned around and headed back down as it started raining. We did not want to be dangling off the side of the mountain in the rain. It was just a very disappointing experience.
Our next stop was Garden of the God's. This area is actually free. You read that correctly. Something was free. Because of this, it was also very crowded. We climbed on the rocks for awhile until the rain from the mountains caught up to us.
Deciding it was too late to continue on our journey, we found a Hotwire room and moved into our new home for the nite. A&W was close by, so we had a yummy dinner that we couldn't get at home.
The end of our travels is near. Tomorrow we start on the way home, so stay tuned.
We made our way to Pike's Peak and paid the million dollars to drive ourselves up. My stupid moment came when I asked the 12 year old "park ranger" when I was supposed to put my car in Mountain mode. He said he had never heard of that. I said well, there is a mode that says M. He told me that meant manual. I felt like a fool
But then again, how could I just switch an automatic car to manual? There is nothing to shift. I stand by it meaning mountain.
Round and round we went up the mountain while watching the temp drop from the 90s to the 50s. All of a sudden, some worker is waving us over into a parking lot. Are we at the top? No. Still a ways to go. We get out, put on jackets, and try to find out what is going on. Apparently, this is a parking area and we now wait for a shuttle to take up to the peak. We paid to drive ourselves, so why this shuttle? We were told it was sleeting at the peak, yet our safety was not the concern. Actually, construction was being done up there and the equipment took up too much parking, so now, 80 year old women are driving people up in an oversized van. No thanks!! We chose to drive ourselves, we paid to drive ourselves, and we are not getting into an oversized van to drive thru the sleet to the top. We, mostly Loren, but we were MAD. No one told us this when we paid per person, even though we were in one vehicle, to drive to the top. Not to a parking lot 3/4 the way up.
We turned around and headed back down as it started raining. We did not want to be dangling off the side of the mountain in the rain. It was just a very disappointing experience.
Our next stop was Garden of the God's. This area is actually free. You read that correctly. Something was free. Because of this, it was also very crowded. We climbed on the rocks for awhile until the rain from the mountains caught up to us.
Deciding it was too late to continue on our journey, we found a Hotwire room and moved into our new home for the nite. A&W was close by, so we had a yummy dinner that we couldn't get at home.
The end of our travels is near. Tomorrow we start on the way home, so stay tuned.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Day #27- That's Amore
Today is our 2 yr wedding anniversary. It seems a whole lot longer than that. We have now known one another for almost 8 years. It's funny that it seems we have been married for a long time yet I can't believe it has already been 8 years being friends.
It turns out that Cheyenne, WY is minutes from Colorado. We could have driven one more exit and we would have been in another state. We drove first to Denver. There is an outdoor mall in the middle of down town, so we did some shopping. This area was on a list for places that could not be missed while in Denver. We really liked the city and this block (or more) of shops and restaurants.
We decided to treat ourselves to a more expensive hotel for our anniversary. We ended up with a suite. We could honestly move in here and have plenty of room. Last year the only "nice" place for dinner in Long Beach Cali where we were visiting was Outback. We continued that tradition. I ordered a Victoria's filet. They were out. How is it possible for a steak place to be outta filet?!? Craziness!
We had a relaxed and fun day for our anniversary. Tomorrow we will pick an activity for Colorado Springs so stay tuned!
It turns out that Cheyenne, WY is minutes from Colorado. We could have driven one more exit and we would have been in another state. We drove first to Denver. There is an outdoor mall in the middle of down town, so we did some shopping. This area was on a list for places that could not be missed while in Denver. We really liked the city and this block (or more) of shops and restaurants.
We decided to treat ourselves to a more expensive hotel for our anniversary. We ended up with a suite. We could honestly move in here and have plenty of room. Last year the only "nice" place for dinner in Long Beach Cali where we were visiting was Outback. We continued that tradition. I ordered a Victoria's filet. They were out. How is it possible for a steak place to be outta filet?!? Craziness!
We had a relaxed and fun day for our anniversary. Tomorrow we will pick an activity for Colorado Springs so stay tuned!
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Day # 26- Ride West Young Man...
... haven't you been told, Deadwood is full of whisky, women, and gold! I took the liberty of changing California to Deadwood for this song because it fits perfectly.
Our day started at 5:30am. We were awakened to a pounding on our door. Loren yells out, "We are still sleeping!". The pounding continues as I tell him it is a little early for house keeping. He gets up and looks thru the peep hole. As the pounding continued, Loren opens the door to several police officers. He is standing there in his underwear talking to cops. They ask him if his name is so and so. He tells them no and gives his name. Another officer looks into the room where I am sitting there shocked and asks if my name was Sharon. I said no. They again asked Loren his name. They said oops wrong room and left. They never asked for our IDs. They just believed us and left. We have no idea what or who the police were there for, but it sure was a startling way to start our day!
We checked out of our hotel where we had spent the last 3 nights and headed for our last stop in South Dakota. It had stormed badly all night and temperatures had cooled off to the 60s. It was the perfect day to go to Mt. Moriah cemetery where Wild Bill Hickcock, Calamity Jane, and Seth Bullock are all buried. The walk to Seth's grave was 1/4 mile, straight uphill. Thank goodness it was cooler today! We were not able to enjoy the experience as much as we would have liked because tour busses were dropping people off in huge groups. I find it disrespectful for people to talk loudly and run around in a cemetery. We were able to see what we wanted and escaped the obnoxious people.
We set the GPS and started towards Denver. We only made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming, but will continue on to Colorado tomorrow. We will have been married 2 years tomorrow, so I hope to find something special for us to do. Stay tuned!
Day # 25- Because Today's the Day the Teddy Bears Have Their Picnic
Most everyone has something they slept with as a kid- a blanket, a doll, a teddy bear... I had Honey (a doll) and Blankie. If Loren would allow it, I would probably still sleep with them. I have had them both my entire life and they are still a comfort.
Today we saw a much different sort of teddy bear. Those of the real variety! Much like the day that we went to the Mystery Spot, Loren was reluctant to go to what he thought was just another cheesy and costly tourist trap. The place is called Bear Town USA. It is a drive thru wild life park. I have been to this sort of attraction before and have always had a great time. When you arrive, you get a bag of treats for the animals. As you slowly drive thru with the windows down, you watch the animals roam around. The fun part is when an animal decides to come over to the car. Zebras and ostriches stick their heads in the window and eat the treats from your hands. Most of the time, the greedy little buggers steal the whole bag of snacks. I have always loved these up close experiences with the animals so I talked Loren into letting us do this wildlife drive.
At the gate of Bear Country, the rules were explained and they were VERY different from what I have experienced in the past. It was forbidden to feed the animals or drive with the windows open. We were given a map and we understood the reason for this. Instead of the zebras and ostriches of the other places, here we would encounter wolves, coyotes, bison, big horned sheep, and bears! We did see all of the animals, but the weather was unusually hot and most were asleep. An employee was stationed up in a tower over looking the park and could be heard using a speaker to tell people to roll up their windows. Soon, a truck came thru and put food out for the bears. They all came to life and suddenly the cars were surrounded by bears. I was so excited that I was literally hopping around on my seat. Bears of all sizes and shapes walked around our car and stood in the road causing us to wait until they moved.
The fun was not over when the drive was complete. There was then an outside area to walk around and see more animals. The greatest part was the area of sweet little real life teddy bears. We watched them play fight, swim, run, climb trees, and just act like naughty toddlers. We learned that the babies are weaned from their mothers after a period of time and brought to their own area. Apparently the adult male bears can be a serious danger to the little ones. Those little bears looked like they couldn't have asked for a better life. It was hard to leave the cuties, but we had to get to Deadwood for a tour. I will get to that shortly.
Our day did not start visiting bears. It started at Mt. Rushmore. We were surprised that it was only $10 to get in. Hard to believe that we had now gotten into 2 separate national parks for the same price as one Chicago parking garage. Doesn't make sense. The pay binoculars were still there, probably from 50 years ago, but we paid the 50 cents and had a close up view. The detail of these sculptures was amazing. We could clearly see that even pupils were carved into the eyes. As there is little to do other than look at the monument, we didn't stay long. We drove the few miles over to the Crazy Horse monument.
This experience went a little different than planned. For those of you who don't know about Crazy Horse, it is a sculpture in the mountain side similar to Mt. Rushmore. I drove up to the entrance gates and the man told me it would be $24. Loren had not been paying attention, but as I was handing over the money, he asked how much it was. When the man repeated that it would be $24, Loren refused to pay it. We had to turn around and go to a parking lot near the road to snap a picture. I was so very embarrassed at the time, but we started talking to other travelers who refused to pay when it could be seen from the road.
Our last stop in our very long day was for a ghost tour at the Bullock Hotel in Deadwood. We had watched shows about the place and had read a great deal about the history. There are several books in the lobby filled with comments from guests about their paranormal experiences. Once again, the tour was too crowded. The guide was also a snore. We basically just walked around the hotel and saw/learned nothing. We finally just snuck away from the group and left. It was a total waste of time, but I truly blame the guide.
Tomorrow we will go to the Mt
Moriah cemetery to visit Wild Bill Hickcock, Calamity Jane, and Seth Bullock. We plan to then head on to Colorado, so stay tuned!
Today we saw a much different sort of teddy bear. Those of the real variety! Much like the day that we went to the Mystery Spot, Loren was reluctant to go to what he thought was just another cheesy and costly tourist trap. The place is called Bear Town USA. It is a drive thru wild life park. I have been to this sort of attraction before and have always had a great time. When you arrive, you get a bag of treats for the animals. As you slowly drive thru with the windows down, you watch the animals roam around. The fun part is when an animal decides to come over to the car. Zebras and ostriches stick their heads in the window and eat the treats from your hands. Most of the time, the greedy little buggers steal the whole bag of snacks. I have always loved these up close experiences with the animals so I talked Loren into letting us do this wildlife drive.
At the gate of Bear Country, the rules were explained and they were VERY different from what I have experienced in the past. It was forbidden to feed the animals or drive with the windows open. We were given a map and we understood the reason for this. Instead of the zebras and ostriches of the other places, here we would encounter wolves, coyotes, bison, big horned sheep, and bears! We did see all of the animals, but the weather was unusually hot and most were asleep. An employee was stationed up in a tower over looking the park and could be heard using a speaker to tell people to roll up their windows. Soon, a truck came thru and put food out for the bears. They all came to life and suddenly the cars were surrounded by bears. I was so excited that I was literally hopping around on my seat. Bears of all sizes and shapes walked around our car and stood in the road causing us to wait until they moved.
The fun was not over when the drive was complete. There was then an outside area to walk around and see more animals. The greatest part was the area of sweet little real life teddy bears. We watched them play fight, swim, run, climb trees, and just act like naughty toddlers. We learned that the babies are weaned from their mothers after a period of time and brought to their own area. Apparently the adult male bears can be a serious danger to the little ones. Those little bears looked like they couldn't have asked for a better life. It was hard to leave the cuties, but we had to get to Deadwood for a tour. I will get to that shortly.
Our day did not start visiting bears. It started at Mt. Rushmore. We were surprised that it was only $10 to get in. Hard to believe that we had now gotten into 2 separate national parks for the same price as one Chicago parking garage. Doesn't make sense. The pay binoculars were still there, probably from 50 years ago, but we paid the 50 cents and had a close up view. The detail of these sculptures was amazing. We could clearly see that even pupils were carved into the eyes. As there is little to do other than look at the monument, we didn't stay long. We drove the few miles over to the Crazy Horse monument.
This experience went a little different than planned. For those of you who don't know about Crazy Horse, it is a sculpture in the mountain side similar to Mt. Rushmore. I drove up to the entrance gates and the man told me it would be $24. Loren had not been paying attention, but as I was handing over the money, he asked how much it was. When the man repeated that it would be $24, Loren refused to pay it. We had to turn around and go to a parking lot near the road to snap a picture. I was so very embarrassed at the time, but we started talking to other travelers who refused to pay when it could be seen from the road.
Our last stop in our very long day was for a ghost tour at the Bullock Hotel in Deadwood. We had watched shows about the place and had read a great deal about the history. There are several books in the lobby filled with comments from guests about their paranormal experiences. Once again, the tour was too crowded. The guide was also a snore. We basically just walked around the hotel and saw/learned nothing. We finally just snuck away from the group and left. It was a total waste of time, but I truly blame the guide.
Tomorrow we will go to the Mt
Moriah cemetery to visit Wild Bill Hickcock, Calamity Jane, and Seth Bullock. We plan to then head on to Colorado, so stay tuned!
Friday, July 13, 2018
Day # 24- Killed in a Bar When He Was Only Three
Only my Madre will understand today's song lyric title. If she remembers, that is. When I was very little, I had a record player. I played one record over and over-Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier. One line of the song says, "Killed in a bar, when he was only three". Everytime I played the song, I was confused. First, why was a 3 year old in a bar? Second, how could he have done all of these brave things if he was killed at 3? Well, it turns out, those were not the words. The song actually says, "Killed him a bear when he was only three". Makes much better sense. My lingering question is how did I even know what a bar was when I was young enough to be concerned with Davy Crockett being killed in one?
Now that I have rambled, I will connect that memory with today. The main destination for this entire trip was Deadwood, SD. We finally made it there today.
There was only a 15 min time difference between driving through the Black Hills and taking the highway, so of course we wanted the scenic drive. We stopped at a trail and did some hiking. The trails were marked by level of difficulty. As we had not planned to hike today, we thought it best to stay on the beginner trail. We saw signs to watch out for rattlesnakes and poison ivy. Surprisingly, we encountered neither. This is shocking since we tend to do everything the hard way.
The drive through the hills to Deadwood was beautiful. We saw signs telling us to lookout for big horn sheep. We didn't see any.
We love the TV show of Deadwood and could talk for hours about the history of the town. With Tombstone as our only reference for what an old Western town should look like, we were pretty disappointed to see mostly modern buildings. The entirety of the town burned to the ground on two occasions, but I would have thought the buildings would have still been built to look like it did in the late 1800's.
That said, the visit was not a total fail
We were able to go to the Saloon #10 where Wild Bill Hickcock was shot. We sat at the bar and had a beer only served in that bar from an 1800s recipe. It tasted what I imagine moonshine tasted like. Below the current bar was the original bar. We took a tour from a very knowledgeable guide and were able to sit in the very spot where Wild Bill was shot from behind. The"dead man's hand" of cards lay on the table. The tour also showed a tiny room where one of the 'ladies of the night' would have worked and stayed. The guide told us to notice signs as we walked through town. If a shop name had a color in it, then it used to be a brothel. Apparently they were known by their colored doors. We saw a shop called The Purple Place (or something like that) and knew it was once a brothel. We also learned that brothels still existed in Deadwood until the 1980s!!
We bought our first souvenir today for someone other than baby Abigail. We got something for her, of course, but we also got something for Mom. She asked for a dream catcher. She wanted an authentic one, not a made in China catcher. We scoured the shops and finally found one.
There was just so much to see and so much walking that we were pooped. Tomorrow we plan to go to Mt. Rushmore and then back to Deadwood to the cemetery and a paranormal tour at the Bullock hotel. So, as usual, stay tuned!
Now that I have rambled, I will connect that memory with today. The main destination for this entire trip was Deadwood, SD. We finally made it there today.
There was only a 15 min time difference between driving through the Black Hills and taking the highway, so of course we wanted the scenic drive. We stopped at a trail and did some hiking. The trails were marked by level of difficulty. As we had not planned to hike today, we thought it best to stay on the beginner trail. We saw signs to watch out for rattlesnakes and poison ivy. Surprisingly, we encountered neither. This is shocking since we tend to do everything the hard way.
The drive through the hills to Deadwood was beautiful. We saw signs telling us to lookout for big horn sheep. We didn't see any.
We love the TV show of Deadwood and could talk for hours about the history of the town. With Tombstone as our only reference for what an old Western town should look like, we were pretty disappointed to see mostly modern buildings. The entirety of the town burned to the ground on two occasions, but I would have thought the buildings would have still been built to look like it did in the late 1800's.
That said, the visit was not a total fail
We were able to go to the Saloon #10 where Wild Bill Hickcock was shot. We sat at the bar and had a beer only served in that bar from an 1800s recipe. It tasted what I imagine moonshine tasted like. Below the current bar was the original bar. We took a tour from a very knowledgeable guide and were able to sit in the very spot where Wild Bill was shot from behind. The"dead man's hand" of cards lay on the table. The tour also showed a tiny room where one of the 'ladies of the night' would have worked and stayed. The guide told us to notice signs as we walked through town. If a shop name had a color in it, then it used to be a brothel. Apparently they were known by their colored doors. We saw a shop called The Purple Place (or something like that) and knew it was once a brothel. We also learned that brothels still existed in Deadwood until the 1980s!!
We bought our first souvenir today for someone other than baby Abigail. We got something for her, of course, but we also got something for Mom. She asked for a dream catcher. She wanted an authentic one, not a made in China catcher. We scoured the shops and finally found one.
There was just so much to see and so much walking that we were pooped. Tomorrow we plan to go to Mt. Rushmore and then back to Deadwood to the cemetery and a paranormal tour at the Bullock hotel. So, as usual, stay tuned!
Day # 23- Oh Give Me a Home...
...where the buffalo roam! We are here in South Dakota. We started the day at Sioux Falls. I, unfortunately, do not have any knowledge of the story behind these falls, but we took our breakfast and ate with a great view.
From the beginning of this adventure, I have been saying that the Badlands are one of the places I wanted to stop. Well...that almost didn't happen. It was Loren's turn to drive while I took a nap. I woke up when he pulled into a gas station for a fill up. I walked in and this gas station also happened to be the Badlands gift shop. My friendly readers, you are glad you were not there. I was hopping mad that we had missed one of the main places I had wanted to go. I was mad at myself for sleeping, I was mad at Loren for not stopping, I was mad at my phone for dying and not alerting us to where we were. I was just plain mad. Mom used to say that if I woke up crabby, she would send me back to bed until I woke up happy. I don't think that would have helped me this time.
Fortunately, it turned out that we had stopped at the exact place where the Badlands National Park starts. I think it was divine intervention because I was ready to strangle my copilot. We ate a bison dog- yes, I actually tried a bison dog instead of an all beef hotdog and then we set off the 3 miles down the road to the park.
We had to pay a $20 entrance fee, but unlike the $30 to park in Chicago, this money went to the parks. If you have not seen the Badlands, they are hard to describe. They are cliffs made of layers of sandstone and stretch out among the prairies. We fully expected to see someone fall to their doom as we watched stupid kids and adults climbing out on ledges.
The road through the park is a loop that takes you back to the highway. We did not see any buffalo, but we did stop with several other cars to watch some big horn sheep eating and butting horns.
It turned out to be a perfect time. We decided to have Rapid City be our Basecamp for the next few days as we see the sights of the Black Hills. So, stay tuned!
From the beginning of this adventure, I have been saying that the Badlands are one of the places I wanted to stop. Well...that almost didn't happen. It was Loren's turn to drive while I took a nap. I woke up when he pulled into a gas station for a fill up. I walked in and this gas station also happened to be the Badlands gift shop. My friendly readers, you are glad you were not there. I was hopping mad that we had missed one of the main places I had wanted to go. I was mad at myself for sleeping, I was mad at Loren for not stopping, I was mad at my phone for dying and not alerting us to where we were. I was just plain mad. Mom used to say that if I woke up crabby, she would send me back to bed until I woke up happy. I don't think that would have helped me this time.
Fortunately, it turned out that we had stopped at the exact place where the Badlands National Park starts. I think it was divine intervention because I was ready to strangle my copilot. We ate a bison dog- yes, I actually tried a bison dog instead of an all beef hotdog and then we set off the 3 miles down the road to the park.
We had to pay a $20 entrance fee, but unlike the $30 to park in Chicago, this money went to the parks. If you have not seen the Badlands, they are hard to describe. They are cliffs made of layers of sandstone and stretch out among the prairies. We fully expected to see someone fall to their doom as we watched stupid kids and adults climbing out on ledges.
The road through the park is a loop that takes you back to the highway. We did not see any buffalo, but we did stop with several other cars to watch some big horn sheep eating and butting horns.
It turned out to be a perfect time. We decided to have Rapid City be our Basecamp for the next few days as we see the sights of the Black Hills. So, stay tuned!
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