Great Football Weekend in Louisiana

I had a wonderful time in Louisiana with my cousin Marty, his son Garret and friend Tom. It's great when you get to see two winning games in one weekend, especial when on of the games involves the New Orleans Saints!

The Travel Blogger is back!

OK, we fell behind on the blog, ok, we abandoned the blog! We left St Louis on 14 August and made our way up to Zion, Illinois, which is right on the border with Wisconsin, to attend our son's girlfriend's mom's wedding. Very nice ceremony and reception at a historic 18th century coach inn (now a private home) which belongs to the groom's best friend. We then made it back to Virginia safe and sound in late August, but Kim had to turn around and go back to St. Louis to take care of her mom, who fell ill, and her grandma. That made me a geo-bachelor, so what did I do, well I'm in New Orleans, Louisiana, today waiting for my cousin, Marty to arrive so we can go the the LSU football game on Saturday and the Saints game on Sunday...of course there's going to be some consumption of Cajun food along the way!!

Visiting Relatives in the St Louis, Missouri area

During the past week we have been in the St Louis area visiting relatives. We will be heading north to attend a wedding in Illinois and then we will start our last leg of our trip back to Virginia.

Heading to St Louis via Kansas, 05 August 2009

Well, the kid's trip to the west is almost over. Just a couple of more stops in a small town in Kansas to visit their departed relatives at the Nortonville cemetery and then off to Topeka to see their great aunts and uncle. We're all be back in St Louis on Thursday, 06 August, just in time for Brian and Amber to register for school.

Wall Drug & the Badlands NP, 04 August 2009

It was time to start heading "back east" from the Black Hills, South Dakota, on Tuesday, 04 August; but we had time to stop at the famous Wall Drug Store (it's really a mall now) and then we drove east through the Badlands National Park. Once again Brian and Amber showed they were fearless as they walked out on narrow ridges that went down 100s of feet...we figured that if they fell, we would just have to jump in after them (we wouldn't be able to face their parents)! After that it was hard interstate driving east and then south to Iowa.

Black Hills, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, 03 August 2009

We arrived at Mount Rushmore National Monument at 0801 on Monday, 03 Aug, to beat all the 2009 Surgis Motorcycle Rally bikers. We hiked a new park path built since we last visited here in 1998. The hiking path runs just at the foot of Mt. Rushmore...awesome sights. We then sped off to the Crazy Horse Monument to see what progress they have made in the last 11 years; it was hard to see at first, but once we compared pictures from 98 we could see how they had cut off the front of the mountain. We then took a vintage 1880 train ride through the Black Hills from Hill City to Keystone and then back.

Devils Tower, Wyoming & Bikers Rally, 02 AUG 2009

On Sunday, 02 Aug, we had a great hiking day at Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. It also happened to be the first day of the Sturgis Rally Devil's Tower Ride, so many bikes and bikers! Actually really fun. We all loved the hike around Devil's Tower, every few feet we were amazed how the look of Devil's Tower changed. A truly awesome work of nature.

Travel Day & Little Bighorn Battlefield, 01 AUG 2009

Saturday, 01 August, was mostly a travel day via I-90 East to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Along the way we stopped by the Little Bighorn Battlefield, which is right off I-90 near Crow Agency, Montana. It was very educational for Brian and Amber since they have had very little exposure to the history of the West. A National Park Ranger gave us a very engaging talk on "Custer's last stand" before we walked up to the battlefield summit. By the way, I have been meaning to mention that one of the travel phrases that has been burned into our memory is..."I have bars here!" or "I don't have any bars here!" Brian and Amber have kept a close watch on when and where they have cellphone coverage and went they don't...it came as a great shock to them at the whole country does have four bars! We stopped for the night in Buffalo, Wyoming, and Amber insisted that we wash the Ford Flex (it was about half covered in white mud from Yellowstone, Tetons, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, and Texas). So, we went to a self service car wash and now Amber is happy again.

Grand Tetons & Yellowstone, 31 July 2009

We departed Jackson Hole and the Tetons heading north to Yellowstone NP. Once again traffic volume was light, but road construction within the parks delayed us. However, once we reached Yellowstone the sights were worth the wait! And we finally saw some wildlife up close. Old Faithful was very impressive and we only had to wait 10 minutes for the geyser to blow! The thermal pools, mountain rivers and lakes were also very impressive. We arrived at Big Sky, Montana, around 9:30 pm and were in bed by 10:00 pm, the end of a long and wonderful day; and yes the kids now rate Yellowstone as their favorite national park so far.

Jackson Hole & the Tetons, 30 July 2009

We stayed at the Cowboy Village Resort for two nights in Jackson, WY. Nice little resort with small but functional log cabins. Brian had a sleeper sofa, for which he and Amber were MOST grateful! (No bickering about who has to sleep on the floor!) Today we took a scenic raft trip of the Tetons on the Snake River. The two adults LOVED it: so peaceful, lots of beautiful scenery, AND a really nice guide who did all the work! We were on the water for a good two and a half hours, and the water was generally pretty peaceful, with just a few areas of fast moving water (used a disposable waterproof camera, so no pics now). We had decided NOT to attempt a whitewater trip, which might have been a little TOO unnerving for us all. The kids liked it, but I think they were a little bored after awhile. Not much to do except sit and enjoy the amazing vistas of the Tetons (Amber: but where's the shopping?)!

Craters of the Moon NP, Utah, 29 July 2009

We took a trip to an unworldly location in Utah on the 29th. We all had a really great time at the Craters of the Moon NP. We climbed a volcano cinder cone, hiked two nature trails through the fields of hardened lava and explored two lava caves!

Yosemite National Park, 27 July 2009

For our last night with Aunt Carolyn, we had a great Japanese dinner at Hana Japan in Dublin, CA. The kids loved watching the chef chop and cook their dinner in front of them. We left Kim's aunt's home Monday morning, 27 July, heading for Yosemite NP. Even though we lived in the San Fran Bay area for five years back in the late 80s & early 90s, we never made it to Yosemite.... What were we thinking?!! We could have spent several days there; striking vistas of Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point, lovely falls, and it wasn't even that crowded. The parking lot was half full. In fact, we have not been slowed down by traffic any time during our trip. However, we have seen economic stimulus bill road construction along the way (they post signs about your tax money at work), which sometimes slowed us down a bit. We haven't seen much wildlife yet, but -- as Amber predicted -- we DID see a coyote run in front of our car as we were leaving Yosemite. Amber and Brian were thrilled!

Half Moon Bay, CA, 25 July 09

If you drive all the way to California from Virginia and Missouri...well, you have to put your feet into the Pacific Ocean! And what better place than Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. Well the kids didn't want to get their feet wet, but we egged them on, and...

San Francisco, King Tut and the Golden Gate, 24 July 09

We drove into San Francisco to the De Young Museum to see the King Tut exhibit which I saw back in the 1970s in Washington DC. We then headed off to walk across (halfway) the Golden Gate Bridge, great fun. It was perfect bridge walking; the bridge had just enough fog to give you a feel for its romance and still allow for some decent pictures. We decided to go to one of our old haunts for lunch in Tiburon, Marin County, but they had torn it down! However, we had a fantastic lunch, classic California style, (they even apologized that they put sugar in their homemade lemonade) at Rooney's Cafe and Grill in Tiburon. The kids rated it as the best meal so far on the trip. We also got a kick watching a seagull steal a woman's lunch when she turned away from her restaurant patio table, the look on her face was priceless! We ended the day with the kids taking a swim in Livermore.

Calico Ghost Town, Thursday, 23 July 09

We left early from Las Vegas (the kids loved "Vegas" because of all the "flash") and headed into California for a long drive to Livermore, CA, where we would stay with Kim's aunt for a few days. Along the way, we stopped at a very nicely developed "Ghost Town" along the lines of Colonial Williamsburg in that it has mostly been rebuilt on the foundations and remaining walls of the original buildings. Calico Ghost Town in California is run as a county park, so the tour of the silver mine was just one dollar and the train ride was only four dollars; very reasonably priced on site restaurant, too (kids loved throwing the peanut shells directly onto the floor from a pail of peanuts on our table). It was very hot today (109) as we passed through the California Central Valley on the way to the San Francisco Bay area. However, by the time we got to Livermore it was down to a very nice 84 degrees. It was great to be with family again...Kim's "California relatives" were our extended family back when we were stationed in the Bay area for five years back in the last 80s & early 90s. It was a nice to be in a familiar home and crawl into a non-hotel bed!

Grand Canyon West, 22 July 09

We took a bus tour from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon West departing at 6:45 am and arriving back in Vegas at 7:30 pm. It was sooo nice to let someone else do the driving for the day! Especially the last 14 miles to the Grand Canyon West which is still a rough dirt road (it will be paved in about 7 months). Wow, what a view from the SkyBridge! Much more enjoyable than my past trips to the Grand Canyon NP. There were no guard rails and it was shear cliffs straight down! Our niece and nephew are fearless...they would stand right at the cliff's edge...oops should I being telling this to their parents?? We also had a very enjoyable conversation on the bus with a young Australian girl named Hope. She was touring America alone because her job in California at a youth camp was ended after only two weeks...the economy you know. She decided to tour American until the "feds caught her" or she ran out of money...whichever one came first! We also got caught in a desert monsoon on the dirt road coming back from the Grand Canyon; the desert lightening was very impressive.

Slot Canyons Inn, Zion NP, and Vegas

We had a very enjoyable hike into a small back canyon behind the Slot Canyons Inn. We explored the rock ledges and found many native American petroglyph on the rock faces. We then got rained on again...all morning with the temperature in the 60s...the desert was green! We were told this is very unusual weather for this time of year. Zion NP was celebrating its centennial, the weather was great and was getting warmer, and by the time we reached Nevada it was 105. In Las Vegas the kids took a roller-coaster ride in the New York, New York Hotel and we watched a water show at the Bellagio, and then an erupting volcano at the Mirage.

Bryce Canyon, Utah, 20 July 09

We were lucky that we didn't visit Bryce Canyon National Park last week...it was closed then because of a wildfire that swept through much of the park. We could still smell and see the smoke. More very striking vistas. We also continue to get rained on here in the desert! That didn't stop us from hiking along the Rim Trail. Took LOTS of pictures at every turn! We're now staying at a fantastic B&B, the Slots Canyon Inn, in Escalante which is located on Utah 12 about an hour from Bryce Canyon. The scenery is up close and personal; tomorrow morning we're hiking up to an archaeological dig going on just behind the B&B.

Mesa Verde, 4 Corners & Monument Valley, Sunday, 19 July 09

We visited the Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House ruins Sunday morning at Mesa Verde. We drove west to Four Corners (AZ, NM, UT, & CO), it was touristy, but fun. It was 104 and very windy. Then on the way to Monument Valley we had a close encounter with a tumbleweed and a sand storm...this wasn't in the travel guide!

TAOS, NM 18 July 09

On Saturday we enjoyed a nice trolley tour of the northern New Mexico art colony of TAOS. A very "hippie" place, which fits in for a retirement holiday! It was very easy to see why Taos is an art colony, the scenery is very "western." The people here are very proud of their Spanish roots.

A big surprise was the drive through the Carson National Forest on the way to Mesa Verde...it was 63 degrees up there in the middle of the afternoon.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We departed Fort Worth, Texas, this morning and drove west to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Brian and Amber got their first taste of the western wide open spaces. We had dinner at a very nice local watering hole, the Blue Corn Cafe and Brewery. Ernie was the only one to partake in the local brew...but, the food was outstanding.

Fort Worth Texas

We picked up Amber & Brian in St Louis, Missouri, and drove down to Cushing, Oklahoma, to visit Kim's dad's childhood home and dropped by the local cemetery to visit the resting place of Kim's grandfather and great grandparents. Kim's grandfather was killed in an oilfield accident in 1940.

We then headed down to see Kim's sister in Fort Worth, Texas. Today we all went down to the Fort Worth Stockyard to see the Texas longhorn steers and cowboys mozy down the street (temp 102 degrees). Amber and Brain had a blast riding the mechanical steer!