Before the dust storm

We have finally arrived home after more than two months on the road. Our last several days have been marked by major climate changes. When we got up in he morning in La Junta it was 65 degrees, down from the previous day's high of 87. By the end of the day we had driven through a dust storm and a snow storm and by evening the temperature had dropped to 16 in Rawlins, WY.

Utah snow

The next day it was 13 in the morning. The roads had blowing snow and patches of glare ice. We saw a jack-knifed semi and a car on its roof. In the bad patches I would slow to twenty or less and would be  flabbergasted to be passed by cars going more than double that. Some people are so stupid they think they are immortal. Things got better for a while and then worse with more snow in western Utah. Things then warmed up and we finally spent the night Outside of Boise, ID.

The next gave us clear roads and warmer temperatures (high 30's) and then we go to La Grande when the road climbs over the Blue Mountains. The temperature dropped to the twenties and the snow resumed. Signs instructed truckers to chain up. We didn't have chains so it was pretty slow going until we got over the pass. After that the temperature again went up and the snow changed to rain. We drove all the way to Portland.

Windmill vane in transit

The next day we visited briefly with Linda's parents and then headed out on the final leg. We got home around six. John had done a great job taking care of our house and it was great to again sleep in our own bed.



The end.

River in SE Oklahoma

We drove from Louisiana to Texarkana, Arkansas. It seems like half the highways in Louisiana are causeways, they seem to go on forever. From there we drove across Oklahoma to Enid which is north of Oklahoma City. The scenery hasn't been too inspiring, but the parts of Arkansas we went through were pretty with the leaves changing color. 

Alabaster Caverns 

Alabaster Caverns

Today we left Enid and drove to Alabaster Caverns which is in the northwest corner of Oklahoma. The caves were quite interesting, They are not limestone but gypsum. This makes for some beautiful crystal formations but no stalactites. There were also lots of bats in the cave which was pretty interesting. After that we headed north into Kansas, entering the state in the town of Liberal, a great name for a town in the red state of Kansas. From there we went north and west into Colorado crossing our outbound path. We are holed up in La Junta which is jut south of Pueblo. The weather has been great, the temperature today got up to 87 degrees. All good things must end, the weather report says it may snow tomorrow (Saturday).

Liberal, Kansas

We've been putting lots of miles on these last days, I guess we are starting to smell the barn. I hope to get to around Ogden Utah tomorrow, but it will depend on the weather and the calluses on my butt.

Bourbon Street

We have been in Louisiana for several days now.The weather has taken a slight turn for the worse, cloudy and showers with temperatures in the low sixties. Our condo is in Abita Springs on the north side of Lake Pontchatrain, we are out in the tule bushes about an hour from anywhere. The condo is nice, not real new, but spacious. There is even a sauna which I have enjoyed, though Linda who is often too hot, just shakes her head. We have done two excursions, one into New Orleans and the other to  a plantation along the Mississippi River.

To get to New Orleans we traveled across Lake Pontchatrain on the twenty-four mile causeway (the longest in the world). It is strange setting out on a bridge when you cannot even see the far shore. Once in New Orleans we visited the French Quarter. The last time we had been there was in 1969 after i got out of the service. We felt we hadn't spent enough time there the last time. Truth is, the area looks pretty shabby. We walked around for several hours along Bourbon Street. The Saints were playing the Philadelphia Eagles that day, so there were lots of folks walking about in their team jerseys. We stopped for a drink in a pub that was overwhelmingly catering to Eagles fans, a little strange in the heart of New Orleans. Many of the streets were being repaved, perhaps part of Katrina's legacy. The other streets were dirty and ill kept. Overall New Orleans did not live up to our memories and we really had no desire to spend more time there.

Oak Alley

Our other excursion was to some plantations along the Mississippi southwest of New Orleans. The best of them was Oak Alley. As the name implies, there were beautiful oak trees. Three hundred year old Virginia live oaks line the property, they were incredible. unfortunately the light was not very good so my photography is only so-so. We took the tour and got the full history of the place. It was interesting and the grounds are very well maintained. 

Oak Alley roots

We have decided it is time get serious about getting home. So, even though or condo i paid through Saturday, we will be heading out on Wednesday and making tracks for the Northwest.

Happy birthday Verland!

View from our room

We've spent the last couple of days in Destin, FL. Destin is in the panhandle of Florida, not too far from Pensacola. The beaches here are amazing with sugary sand that looks like snow. The wealther has been great, but cooler than what we have gotten used to in Key West. Temperatures are in the mid to low 70's, drooping to 50's at night. We have a nice condo on the beach, we have been able to catch up on our laundry and grab a little more sun as well as touring the down town area which is by a bridge to the next island. They have a beautiful harbor with a new boardwalk along the shore.

Destin Harbor

Tomorrow we head to New Orleans. We won't be in the city, but will be across Lake Pontchartrain about thirty miles out. By taking the bridge across the lake we should be able to get into the city easily.

Destin Harbor

Alligator

Fantasy Fest has ended and we have left key West. We are now in Fort Myers on the west coast of Florida. We drove up from the keys and then headed across the state on Highway 41. We took some back roads getting there and go lost a little. Highway 41 goes trough the Big Cypress Reserve which is an extension of the Everglades. We saw some alligators along the way.

Toga Party attire

The last days of Fantasy Fest were pretty interesting. We had lots of fun at the Toga party at Sloppy Joes. Friday night features a parade through town in costume. Marreros guests adopted the theme of gangsters, and we all dressed the part as best we could. Along the march various inns along the way supplied libations for the parade participants. Saturday is the day of the big parade, lots of fancy costumes and music. Tons of beads are passed out to parade spectators. Marreros is ideally situated for parade viewing, as the parade loops around starting on Whitehead street and finishing by going down Duvall, and Marreros is in between. We got lots of beads which we will share with the grand kids.

Saturday Parade scene

On Sunday the party is over. We rented a scooter to do some exploring around the area. It was fun but hard on the backside. We are now on our way to Destin Florida on the Florida panhandle. The beaches are supposed to be beautiful. It's good to be on the way back. 

Tu-tu Tuesday

Fantasy Fest continues! The revelry here is pretty much non-stop. There are events and parties every night, most involve costumes and lots of drinking. The costumes can be fun, but we are only moderate drinkers, and we are not quite as young as we used to be. none the less we do our best to get in the swing of things. Some of the events in the last several days have been: Tu-tu Tuesday, Plaid Night, Red Night, Hippie Night, Fetish night, Rubber night and many more. We made no attempt to attend them all. Some of the events are so big they spill in to the streets to the extent that the police barricade off entire blocks. The crowds can be so thick that you literally cannot get through. Lots of folks in either elaborate or scanty costumes constantly are posing for viewers or photographers. We were a little prepared with some costumes and improvised what we could to suit the occasion. We were even asked to pose for the occasional tourist even though on the Key West outrageousness scale, we could have passed for Amish.

Steve and his gals, Tu-tu Tuesday

On Tuesday, our innkeeper at Marreros supplied everyone with tutu's so we could properly represent the house and participate in the Tu-tu Parade which wended through town stopping along the way for periodic refreshment. Marreros sponsors a happy hour on their porch every day at five and everyone was out in their tu-tu best, harassing innocent passers by. 

Body paint on the streets

Another tradition at fantasy fest is body painting. Lots of shops along Duvall, the main street, offer body painting. Shops that normally sell t-shirts, jewelry stores, restaurants, and convenience stores all set up booths along the street with resident artists to do body painting. The law says all the body painting is to be done out of public view. The law is almost universally ignored and in some cases blatantly so. If you want your face done it will be fifty dollars or so. A whole body job can go into the hundreds. You see lots of painted people on the streets at night. In some cases that is all they are wearing.

Ready for the Plaid Party

Tonight, Thursday, is Toga Night at Sloppy Joe's. We are somewhat prepared, though the local costume shops have outfits that cost into the thousands of dollars. There are parades Friday and Saturday and then things wind down and we will again hit the road. I will do one more Fantasy Fest blog before we leave Key West.

Relaxing by the pool

We've been in key West for a while now and it's been some time since I have posted a new blog. Our first week here was pretty uneventful. Lots of relaxing by the pool and seeing the sights. The time was only marred by the fact that several of the guests here at Marreros were chain smokers and Linda is pretty sensitive to tobacco smoke so we would often be driven out of the pool area in search of clear air.

Now Fantasy Fest has begun. It is a ten day festival that is held each year in Key West around Halloween. The first couple of days are relatively tame. There is what is called Goombay, an African themed street fair with lots of eats and booths. There is also a Goombay parade which we unfortunately missed.

Goombay food

After Goombay Fantasy Fest starts to get in gear. Every night most bars have special costume events. So far we have done Little Black Dress night and Pirate night. We managed to put together some passable costumes to get into the spirit of the thing. Ours were pretty tame. Others went from pretty elaborate ($1000 +) to literally nonexistent. So far I haven't been packing my camera around so I don't have much in the way of pictures. Google "Fantasy Fest" images if you want to get a taste of what it's like. I will probably add some later, though I have been trying to keep this blog PG 13 and much of what goes on in the street is R and beyond.

Pirate Night

The biggest happenings are in the last days when there is a major parade and of course lots more parties, some of which might be more out of control than we are up for.

We have been if Fort Lauderdale for a week now. It as been a pleasant respite from our constant movement from place to place, very relaxing. Also, since the condo is prepaid, we are not putting miles on the car, and we can eat in our room, we are nor hemorrhaging money as quickly as we had been before. The condo here in Sunny Isles is very nice, as is the beach and facilities. We are about half way between Miami and Fort Lauderdale so it is quite convenient.

Last night we had dinner in South Beach which has to be the best spot in the world for people watching. Today, daughter Cara visited. By a great coincidence she had to make a business trip here while we were visiting. It was great to see her. We had drinks and dinner at pub and french restaurant on Las Olas Blvd. downtown Fort Lauderdale. It was excellent.

Golden Strand Resort

Tomorrow, (Monday) we head further south to Key West. Before we go we plan to have breakfast with Cara in Fort Lauderdale. We need to get to Key West before around five PM when innkeeper Steve will be locking the door. We will have about two weeks in Key West and then we turn around and start the long journey home. While in Key West the Fantasy Fest celebration will be going on. It promises to be a raucous time. Lets hope us old folks are up to it. I should be posting more frequently again once we get there.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

We took the trolley tour of St. Augustine. They run a shuttle bus out to the beach where our hotel is located, which made it convenient getting in to town where parking can be scarce.The tour itself was so, so. Some good history was communicated, but so was hype for every tourist trap in the area. As you may know, St. Augustine is the oldest city in the USA, dating to the 1500's. Ponce de Leone is supposed to have landed there. The city has been under Spanish, English and American rule. Because of depredations by English pirates (Drake and others) the city was walled and fortified. there are cannon and fortifications on almost every corner.

Oldest wooden schoolhouse in the US

The next day we headed south again after getting a late start. Along the way we stopped at the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. The last time we had been in this area we had stayed in Titusville ( over 15 years ago) and had been lucky enough to have been there when there was a night time space shuttle launch from the Space Center. We waited three nights on the sea wall since the launch was cancelled the first two nights. Across the street was a Krystals where we got some of the hamburgers (minis) that they sell. It was the first time we ever had them, they're tasty. We were surprised to find that the Crystals was still there, so we had dinner there. This time there were no launches, but we did get to explore the seashore and dip our feet, and other parts of our anatomy, in the Atlantic. The water is very warm this time of year. 

Daytona Beach

We finally stopped at Cocoa Beach for the night. Tomorrow we will be in North Miami at a condo for about eight days. I will blog again in three or four days. 

Kids and the big tank

Whale shark

We found the aquarium, no sweat, its on the former olympics grounds. The Coca Cola tour is next door (we passed that up). It's billed as the biggest aquarium in the world. I don't know how they measure it, Sea World in San Diego is bigger, but the indoor tanks are incredible. In various sections and tanks, you can see beluga whales, sea otters, whale sharks, dolphin shows, tropical reefs. The place is especially kid friendly with all kinds of places where tykes can crawl into exhibits to get better views. The size of many of the fish is amazing including manta rays and five whale sharks. The dolphin show is indoors in a setting like a theater stage with glitzy lighting and a corny story line around which the show was shaped. Wasn't my favorite part of the place, though very impressive.

Lion fish (I think)

The next day we headed off to Savannah. Savannah is an old city with lots of history. There are many  beautiful parks, a river walk, and old beautiful southern mansions. in particular, the streets and parks are lined with incredible old oak trees. After touristing about for a bit we headed out for St. Augustine and finally got a look at the Atlantic. The was rainy again but the water was warm. Coast to coast we have put 5800 miles on the car. The price of not taking the direct route.

Live oak

We will spend two nights in St. Augustine. We have a nice place on the beach at the Hampton Inn. There is a great restaurant across the street.

Savannah mansion

On our last day in the Great Smokies we wanted to tour the park a bit and visit the Lost Sea Cavern. The plan was to drive through the park and then on to the cave. It was Sunday afternoon and everyone in the world was out for a Sunday drive or a Sunday picnic. There is a loop in the park called Cades Cove that is about eleven miles long we thought we could leave the loop about halfway through and make our way to the cave. The speed limit through the loop is twenty miles an hour. We averaged about five or six bumper to bumper the whole way. It is narrow and one way. There were many signs instructing drivers to be considerate and use the frequent pullouts. Nobody did. We didn't find the exit from the loop and went the whole distance in about two hours. Even though it was now getting late it was on to search for the cave which turned out to be further than I thought. After about another hour and a half we were in the vicinity of where the cave was supposed to be. But no cave was to be found. Later we found that the name of the cave had been changed. In any event, we headed back to our condo and two hours later we were there.

Today we checked out of the condo and headed for Atlanta. Our route would take across Great Smoky National Park, a drive that is considered one of the most beautiful in the country. Unfortunately it rained most of the way. We did make a few stops and managed to get a few pictures between the rain drops. The fall colors were better at higher altitudes and we could see how spectacular this area would look in a couple of weeks.

We are now holed up at a La Quinta a little outside Atlanta. The rain has been torrential and the TV says there is a tornado potential. We have come to Atlanta primarily to see the Georgia Aquarium which is supposed to be the largest in the world. We plan to check it out tomorrow morning before heading to Savannah. Hopefully we will be able to find it.

Gatlinburg is in the Smoky Mountains. Before we got here I had visions of a sleepy bucolic setting, close to mother nature. It's not like that -- imagine Leavenwoth meets Vegas meets Orlando. There are two towns here at the edge of the Smokies, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Both are covered with hotels, show venues, and assorted tourist traps. It's very entertaining, but close to nature it ain't. We got to do a moonshine tasting, which was kind of interesting. Fortunately our condo is a bit out of the busy area, set back in the trees so it is quiet. It's been rainy so it was good to relax in our unit for a while. We can also prepare our own meals which is nice for a change. After the rain stopped today we went down town for a bit tried a wine tasting (swill) and then took a loop into the the nearby hills. The hardwood forests are beautiful, but not quite changing into their fall colors yet.

Tomorrow we will take a drive to another cave where there is supposed to be an underground lake.

Gateway Arch

We have covered quite a few states in the last several days. We crossed Missouri, passing the Lake of the Ozarks and skipping Branson, and ending up in St. Louis. The main reason I wanted to go to St. Louis was to see the Gateway Arch. So we did. I took a bunch of pictures and we took the tram to the top of the arch. It is quite an interesting ride. You have to sit in a tiny cabin with five seats in it. The door in is very small, and once in, there was not enough headroom for me to sit upright. At the top, the view is magnificent. You look down over the city on one side and the Mississippi river on the other. You can feel the arch sway in the wind. It is a VERY impressive structure, the entire Space Needle would fit under it. After going back down, we explored the exhibits that are located underground at the base. The whole thing is run by the National Parks Service. We crossed the Mississippi and spent the night in Illinois and were treated to a great thunderstorm all night long.

Gateway Arch

The next day it was on to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We to there a bit late, but in time for one of the last tours of the day. We had to hustle to make the tour, unfortunately I didn't have time to get my camera out of the car. The tour covered only a very small corner of the cave so we considered overnighting in the area so we could see more of the cave the next day. Linda also wanted to see Cumberland Caverns in Tennessee, so we decided to continue on our way. We spent the night in Cave City, KY.

Cumberland Cavern

Today we drove down to McMinnville, TN and the Cumberland Caverns. The Caverns are privately run, but are the largest cave system in the state of Tennessee. The tour we took was a lot of fun and the caverns are very impressive. the tour was a bit loner than our tour in Mammoth. The only negative was the religious presentation that occurred about halfway through the tour. It is, after all, Tennessee. Before we started the trip I treated myself to a new flash attachment for my camera and was pleased to be able to try it out. It worked vey well and I got some pretty good pictures.

Cumberland Cavern

Tomorrow we will head for Gatlinburg where we will be staying at a condo for three nights. It's right on the edge of the Great Smokey Mountains and there is another cave that Linda is anxious to see.

Windmill blade

My prediction of boring for Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas wasn't far off the mark. Pretty dry country with not much to look at. We did see quite a few windmill blades going down the road on very large trucks. In Lamar Colorado they had one of the blades on display. It measured 112 feet long. The new ones are even longer. Outside of Dodge City they had literally hundreds of them churning away in the wind. They cost about two million each so there was a lot of money out on the prairie. We spent the night in Dodge. We didn't see Matt, Chester, or Miss Kitty. If you don't know what I'm talking about you're not old enough. If you do, you must be older than dirt.

Kansas prairie

Today we finished Kansas. It gradually got a little wetter, but not too much of interest other than wheat, corn, and sorghum. Also lots of oil and gas wells. Last night half our motel was filled with fracking crews from Louisiana. Tonight we have crossed into Misssouri and are holed up in Nevada, MO. We had hoped to get a little further. Tomorrow we will go through the Ozarks and hopefully through St Louis.

Black Canyon

After spending the night at Montrose we headed off to Black Canyon National Park. We didn't know much about this place, but it is very impressive. It is not so deep as Grand Canyon nor so wide, but it is much steeper and the rock is much harder so the poor river has to work even harder to make a canyon. There is also a road to the bottom of the Canyon. Around the turn of the century a tunnel fifteen miles long was hand dug through the solid rock of the canyon wall to bring water to the arid valley beyond. The road takes you to that area and it is the steepest i have ever driven. It was a 16% grade. I always thought 8 or 9% was pretty steep.

Gunnison River Black Canyon

Aspen fall color

After touring the park, we spent the night in Gunnison. From there we again headed south and east, passing through Lake City  and Creede. The trip took us over mountain passes as high as 11,500 ft. The aspens were in full color. They cascaded down the mountain sides in flows of molten yellows and golds. We paralleled the Rio Grande River for a while and eventually made our way to the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado National Park. It's a lot like the sand dunes on the Oregon coast but without the water. In all fairness they are a lot bigger too. After looking and taking a few pictures there was not much more to do unless you wanted to walk several miles through the sand to the to of the dunes. Tonight we are at Walsenburg. Tomorrow we continue east through eastern Colorado and into Kansas. Should be pretty boring.

Great Sand Dunes

Linda at the Dunes