Thursday, July 28

I'm  late, I'm late, but...... we have had a very busy day!
We began by taking a trip to Canon City - about 1 1/2 hours over the mountains - where we rode a train to the top of this beau-ti-ful gorge (pic below). Then we took a back way back and wandered through the little town of Cripple Creek, CO, where I took a trip down a mine shaft 1000 feet! A miner gave a wonderful talk-and-walk for about an hour and demonstrated old and newer mining equipment while he showed veins of gold, copper, and sulfa. It was great but a little scary as 7 of us scrunched into a mining elevator and went down 1000 feet- I repeat 1000 feet!- and then rode a mining car in complete darkness for awhile!
After that, we continued the back way to Manitou Springs where we shopped (surprise!) for awhile, rode through Old Town Colorado Springs, and then went to the Flying W (Robert it's like the place we went in Jackson Hole) Ranch and had a "cowboy" supper on tin plates and listened to cowboy songs. The fiddler was a 5 time national fiddle champ and he was great!

Royal Gorge with Arkansas River at bottom

One of many views on back road to Colorado Springs

More tomorrow night!

Wednesday, July 27

I forgot to say that we were in Garden City, Kansas, last night. Not a garden in sight!
Field trip - 4 1/2 hour trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado. As soon- and I mean immediatey- as we hit the Colorado line, the world turned green and at least a little hilly. We stopped in Lamar, CO and the visitors' bureau person there was complaining about too much rain! Said she was tired of mowing her lawn and weeding!
We also found that from Garden City to Pueblo, we were on the northern part of the Santa Fe Trail. I had always thought the trail was for people moving to the west, but it was in existence for about 50 years as a commercial avenue between the US and Mexico.  We stopped at a trading post/fort called Bents. It was beautifully restored with all the trappings of a lived in fort. Well done.
The Rockies are amazing anytime!
Anyway, after a brief stop in Pueblo for a mandatory oil change, we went to Colorado Springs and visited the Garden of the Gods - beautiful! It has a look of Arches National Park, but with vegetation.
Temps are wonderful- 85 degrees with rain and lightning and thunder over the Rockies - great view!   
Tomorrow is  another day in Colorado Springs with many neat things planned - stay tuned!

Fort Bent, CO

Garden of the Gods



Tuesday, July 26

I know Lee Hunt likes the prairie, but I think we are in overload! From Childress, TX,  this morning to the Oklahoma line, the road was curvy and a little hilly and really neat. OK is flat and gassy (not grassy), while the parts of Kansas we have seen so far are just flat! Saw a couple of feed lots and that was interesting and it is really fun to watch the clouds gather on the horizon, though. We went through a really cute town named Shamrock in TX and they have taken great pains to restore buildings from the early 1900's.
 We are going to take a field trip tomorrow and will blog about that tomorrow night. In the meantime, we would have taken pics of supper, but we haven't hit our stride yet on picking great places to eat!
If you don't believe TX is in a severe drought, take a look at the picture of the Red River. I don't think the picture shows the 4-wheeler marks all over the riverbed. The Brazos River  looked the same. The Brontosaurus was made by a former highway worker and is named Aud after his wife.





Sunday-Monday, July 24-25

OK, OK, so I'm a day late! I'll be better as Joann and I continue our trip!
We had such a good time at Lee Hunt and John's! We stayed busy, but still had time to visit with each other. Marie and Bill C were there and LH and J threw a party for framily ( for those of you who are not familiar with that word it means friends and family) Saturday night. It was great to see everyone. Sunday, we went over to Tina and Amy's and saw the nursery- so cute! The top picture in this grouping is from one of 3 panels that was made by Stephanie and birds were painted by other framily. The second pic is of the incredible shower! What food! and the  photo booth was great fun. Pic 3 is of the proud moms-to-be! Pic 4 is a crazy sign seen on a north central TX highway. And pic 5 is of the Goodlett home (genealogy rears its ugly head) in Goodlett, TX.
We are currently in Childress, TX, tired after 11 hours on the road,  and looking forward to being more reasonable about time in the car tomorrow. We are definitely in the prairie and the houses and towns are few and far between, but neat to see. (Childress was 105 degrees at 6:30 tonight - but it was dry heat)
More tomorrow!



Saturday-July 23

These are pictures from Little River Canyon which is close to Ft. Payne, AL, home of the singing group, Alabama. Little River Canyon is the deepest canyon east of the Mississippi, is called "Little Grand Canyon" and is 11 miles long. I stopped there on Wednesday morning and then "rode the rim" to take other pics of the canyon. Fascinated with tthe fact that they had to post a sign telling people not to jump from the falls - DUH!

I picked Joann up in Kingwood yesterday - on her birthday - and we stopped at Chappell Hill, TX and ate at a wonderful Czech restaurant - Kolaches!

We are now in Austin and have had a great evening with Lee Hunt and John, lots of visiting and a wonderful supper at Blue Dahlia. I need to start taking pictures of the food!

Today Lee Hunt and John are hosting a dinner for framily - around 18 people. Bill C will be here before lunch, as will Marie, John's mom. The guys are going to be surrounded by geriatrics! 

1.  

Wednesday-Thursday, July 20 and 21

Can't post pictures until I get to Austin and buy another cord to link the computer to the camera.
Spent Wednesday with Judith and Bill. Had a good visit and Judith treated me to an "ultra" pedicure.!
Today was spent on the road toward Houston and Austin. For those of you wishing for rain, I was in and out of storms almost the entire day and wished y'all were getting the rain instead of me!
I am in Lafayette, LA tonight. Supper was catfish at Fezzor's - a local seafood restaurant.
I'm looking forward to picking up Joann in Houston tomorrow and then getting to Austin to see Lee Hunt, John, Marie, Tina, Amy, and "little pip!"
I'll get the cord so I can put pics up and hope to have pictures by Saturday night!

Tuesday-Day One

No pictures today...hopefully some tomorrow!
First day of traveling. I left MP this morning after a tearful goood-bye in the Huddle House parking lot with Sherry.
Short course was to go to Columbia and then Augusta to Atlanta to Huntsville to see Judith and Bill. However, I've never been a short course person, so I went to Columbia, then up to Spartanburg with flowers to "talk" with Lee and Mom and Dad. Couldn't go through Greenville without one more hug from Robert, and then on to Atlanta 5 o'clock traffic - YUUUUUUCK!
I am in Rome, Georgia, now  in a Hampton Inn ( for those of you who know about my  feud with HI, they sent me a silver card and I willl forgive them when I can't find anywhere else to stay!)
I ate at the Beacon in Spartanburg - a Road Food choice and one I've eaten at before, decent but nothing to leave the road for. However, supper was altogether different! I asked for a favorite local place in Rome and got La Scala, Italian fantasticness. I was  brought a chef's small appetizer of pasta pocket with pear and cheese and covered in prociutto (sp), walnut sauce - Yum! Dinner was gnocchi with tomatoes, sausage, and sauce - Yum! and topped off with creme brule cheesecake  - yet another yum! Expensive, so that won't bee repeated, but definitely worth it!
For those of you wondering, I was a good person and stopped every 80 minutes - except for my 2 hour delay in Atlanta - feet are good!
Swim in the pool and a good book and I'm done!