Last year shipwreck, this year smooth sailing through New Mexico

Blue skies, clear sailing

   What a difference a year makes. Last year when we came through New Mexico we ran into a 10-inch snowfall (in some places more) and it took us 8 hours to drive 44 miles along I-44. Today one-year and two days later we breezed into New Mexico with clear skies and dry roads.

Retro key

    We left Roland, Oklahoma this morning and had an easy run through a very long state. In fact today we drove through the longest section of Oklahoma followed by the shortest section (panhandle) of Texas.

Retro "chic"

   In driving through Oklahoma you are basically transiting through a variety of Native American nations. During our transit of the Cherokee Nation the 60s radio station was playing the old son “Mr. Custer” which was a goofy song in the 1960s about the massacre of General Custer’s men at Little Big Horn. The lyrics are “Please Mr. Custer, I don’t want to go….” Probably a song that due to political correctness would not be made today.

Joan and her dinner "companion"

   Each nation seems to have one or more casinos, which may explain the beautiful schools that we saw while driving along the freeway.

   The hotel we stayed in last night was what Joan termed “retro chic.”  I got the retro part, the “chic” part escapes me. But we had an old-fashioned room key and while the décor is dated the room was clean and comfortable and only $50.

My dinner friend

    The XM 60s station was playing the top 600 hits from the 1960s and at one point they played Bobby Vinton’s “Rose are Red.” Both of us agreed that the song reminded us of our brother-in-law Denny who often starts his clever poems with “Roses are Red, violets are blue….”

   Every year we travel through Oklahoma we see more and more windmills, which is very apt because as I have pointed out before it is always blowing a gale there. Today, not so much, but still a pretty healthy breeze.

   Sadly we saw a horrendous accident on the eastbound lanes (we were headed west) of I-40 just inside the Texas border and again, as we witnessed in Ohio a couple months ago, there was a helicopter standing by for an emergency evacuation.

    As has become my custom I stopped to top off my gas tank in Amarillo ($2.11 a gallon) because once you get into New Mexico the gas stations are few and far between and the cost goes way up. We’ll be good until after Albuquerque now.

It was called the Lizard lounge

    Thanks to the time change to Mountain Standard Time we arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico shortly before 4 p.m. which gave us time to watch Navy pull out a victory over Kansas State University before going to dinner at the Pow Wow Restaurant and Lizard Lounge.

   The booths included paintings of people that looked very real and like they were sitting with you. Actually kind of creepy.

    They had a great soup and salad bar. The green chili soup was not “chilly” at all but very, very good. Joan had the salmon and I had a hamburger steak. Being that it was New Year’s Eve we tried in Amarillo at the Wal Mart to find Joan’s pickled herring (her family tradition is that you eat it at midnight for good luck for the next year). No luck in Amarillo and no luck in Tucumcari finding the pickled herring. So I guess it’s bad luck for us.

   We had planned on eating at the same restaurant we dined at two years ago when we stayed here, but alas it has closed. I guess our visiting once every two years was not enough business to keep it open.

    Tomorrow we’ll make the second to the last leg of our trip with our destination Flagstaff where we’ll pick up our trailer Thursday morning and head to Tucson.

   Thanks again for joining us on our journey and I’ll write again when we land in Tucson.

    Thought for the day: Why is it that every time I “borrow” a pen from a hotel room, it doesn’t work?”

Time out in Roland, Oklahoma: 8:06 a.m. (CST)

Mileage out: 33324

Time in Tucumcari, New Mexico: 3:47 p.m. (MST)

Mileage in: 33878

An easy, breezy trip through four states

   After a quick, but memorable visit with the children and grandchildren in Tennessee we are continuing our trek west to Arizona.

Cherokee Casino

   We left Florence, Kentucky Sunday morning and made an uneventful short trip to Murfreesboro, Tennessee where we were greeted by our youngest grandson waiting for us at the corner near the family home. As soon as he spotted “the Beast” (as the children call our Tahoe) he streaked home to announce our arrival. It’s so nice to be wanted.

     Temperatures were an extremely mild 60s all the way to Tennessee and when we arrived it was 67 degrees. So that was nice. We did end up getting some pretty heavy rain that night. After opening Christmas presents, playing games with the children, we all went to dinner at a local steakhouse.

   Back home it was more game playing and then a late night turn in. We were up fairly early on Monday and our oldest grandson, who is only 10, made us scrambled eggs for breakfast. They were really good.

   Sadly we had to say good bye and we were off on the next chapter of our adventure.

    Often when we are preparing to leave Michigan people will say “have a nice vacation.” Which is understandable from their point of view but for us we aren’t on vacation, we are just enjoying our life. Tucson has become as much a part of our life as is Michigan. So we don’t think of it as vacation. A small, but minor point.

    Many folks have texted us worried that we are hitting this current “storm of the century” but we are well south of any bad weather and enjoyed another very easy travel day on Monday. Traffic was light, no accidents and barely a cloud in the sky.

    Gasoline in Tennessee is way cheaper than at home and I filled up in Murfreesboro for $2.01. Later in the day in Arkansas I got it for $2.14, so that was also pleasant.

    As we left on I-840 in Murfreesboro we spotted our first Armadillo road kill. Temperatures on this travel day were a little cooler than the previous day, mostly in the low to mid-50s.  We hit a high of 57 degrees somewhere along the route.  

   A couple of times we spotted large wet fields of white geese, thousands of them.

snow geese (not our photo)

   We were passed twice by a brand-spanking new white Cadillac hearse along I-40. It was empty which is the happier way to see a hearse.

    After my terrible deer crash this summer, I am extra cautious to keep an eye out for the creatures. So when we spotted a lone deer grazing on the shoulder of the road I was fully prepared to take evasive action if it started to move near the road. He/she stayed put. 

   We passed the time by listening on the XM radio to a couple of entertaining college football bowl games.

   Upon checking into our hotel in Roland, Oklahoma we headed to the nearby Cherokee Casino for dinner. By registering for a rewards card we got a 2-for-1 buffet ticket and Joan ended up hitting a small jackpot and we left not just full, but flush with $200 cash to the good. Not a bad ending for the day.

    Tomorrow we head for Tucumcari, New Mexico, a place we have stayed before (and where we got trapped in a terrible snowstorm last year) and we’ll ring in the New Year there.

   Looking ahead at our travel weather shows that we should be clean and green the whole way. If something changes, we’ll adapt. If I don’t get a chance to post tomorrow, may all of you nice people who follow our travels have a safe and happy New Year!

Time out Florence, Kentucky (Sunday, 12/29/19): 8:16 a.m. (EST)

Mileage out Florence, Kentucky: 32472

Time in Murfreesboro, Tennessee: 12:17 (CST)

Mileage in: 32776

Time out Murfreesboro, Tennesse 12/30/19: 8:56 a.m.

Mileage out: 327766

Time in Roland, Oklahoma: 5:17 p.m.

Mileage in: 33324

On the Road Again!

It hardly seems possible that we are making our tenth winter visit to Tucson. We spent two winters touring Florida and one winter in Texas, but we have truly found our winter escape in Arizona.

   When we started our trip in Lapeer it was 32 degrees and the temperature continued to climb until we arrived in Kentucky when it topped out at 62.

   Today’s travel was perfect, light traffic and good weather. Also plenty of college football to listen to on the radio to make the time pass quickly. Because I often drive my bus on Saturday I never get to watch “College Gameday” on ESPN anymore, but I got to listen to it on the XM radio on the trip down here today.

    Unlike previous years, we did not leave in the middle of the night as we decided to make a leisurely departure and travel only to northern Kentucky on this first leg of our journey west.

   Perhaps the only thing we didn’t anticipate was that there was some basketball game here of local interest (Kentucky versus Louisville) which meant every sports bar was packed to the gills with fans from both sides.

   We headed to a sports bar to watch the Oklahoma versus LSU semi-final playoff game, only to find most of the TVs tuned to the basketball game and many rowdy fans. We did find one table near the football game TV so it all worked out. The game was a stinker though as Oklahoma laid a giant egg.

    We’ve had first day travels way worse than this one, including ice, snow and frigid temperatures so 2019-2020 will go down (at least for today) as one of the nicest travel days we have had.

   Tonight we are staying at a Best Western in Florence, Kentucky which, as it unfortunately turned out, is on the direct flight path to the airport that serves Cincinnati, Ohio. The insulation seems to keep most of the flight noise out though.

    The water tower just a stone’s throw from the hotel announces “Florence Y’all.” 

   Tomorrow we will continue our trek with an overnight stay with son John, daughter-in-law Nicole and the three grandchildren living in Tennessee. Then we’ll begin our earnest travel west on Monday. I probably won’t blog again until Monday night.

   Anytime we travel north to south on I-75 in Ohio we are reminded of an observation of our oldest grandson, who opined that “Ohio is a very long state.”  Actually not so long, but because of the boring terrain it does seem long.

Time out: 11 a.m.

Mileage out: 32133

Time in: 4:16 p.m.

Mileage in: 32472

Home sweet home (and a snowstorm)

Me and my sister

   We are home safe and sound after a 111-day winter adventure. The house was in good order and we enjoyed sleeping in our own bed.

    But back to the final couple days of our trip.

    We left Eau Claire, Wisconsin Sunday morning but not before we went to breakfast at our hotel (actually the hotel next door but they are both owned by the Hilton company) where we were surprised that our waiter in the morning was the same waiter we had the night before at the Texas Roadhouse.

   Will was a very nice and obviously hard-working young man who wants to put himself through college.

   Our drive to Illinois was uneventful until we hit Illinois and then all heck broke loose. We entered Illinois as Joan was talking to her sister Diane in Maryland and then the snow started to fall.

   And it kept falling until we were driving in deep slush all the way to my sister’s house. Turns out, according to the news that this was the biggest snowfall in the Chicago area since 1961 and it tied with that year for the largest snowfall after April 13 in all the years records have been kept. For the record the area received 5.4 inches of snow.

    It did make me wish I was still in Tucson, but the snow stopped and melted pretty quickly.

   Sunday night we were invited to Mary’s house for her excellent meatballs. We’ve eaten there before and have always enjoyed Mary’s cooking and company.

     Monday we went shopping with my sister and then chilled out in their beautiful North Aurora, Illinois home. My sister, an excellent cook, prepared a wonderful pork tenderloin dinner and then went to a neighbor’s house for “Movie Night” in their basement.

    Ron and Jan were great hosts and Ron built a custom theater in his basement complete with leather reclining chairs with cup holders and a very large screen and a massive choice of movies.

   We watched “Rich, crazy Asians” and had a good laugh. Real popcorn too!

    Up early on Tuesday, we had a quick breakfast and then headed out for home. On Monday I purchased a new transponder to help us get through the toll plazas more quickly so we were up and running for that as well.

    The trip home was unremarkable, except as always we knew exactly when we entered Michigan because the roads turn to crap. Michigan undoubtedly has the worst roads in the country.

    The unpacking went well and we are settled back into our routines with me already having attended a Legion meeting Tuesday night and then Bingo on Wednesday. Joan has resumed her aquacise class at the rec center and we will be attending our regular Bible study Thursday night.

   Thanks to all of you for joining with us on our annual winter trek and we’ll see you when we leave for our next adventure (probably my Navy reunion in June).

Mileage out in Eau Claire: 11838

Mileage in at North Aurora: 12135

Time out at Eau Claire: 8:30 a.m.

Time in at North Aurora: 1:45 p.m. (snowstorm)

Mileage out at North Aurora Tuesday: 12147

Time out at North Aurora: 8:24 a.m. (CDT)

Mileage in at home: 12442  (When we left in December the Tahoe had 1949 miles on it)

Time in at home: 2:30 p.m. (EDT)

A great day on the road from Bismarck to Eau Claire

North Dakota Capitol

  Another great day on the road. A relatively short drive (for us) from Bismarck, North Dakota to Eau Claire, Wisconsin went as well as it can.

   The weather was cold, a little overcast, but traffic was light and there was no precipitation of any kind.

    Snow got thicker as we headed east on I-94 through North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

   Joan spotted a large flock of turkeys, a field full of bison and after awhile we finally saw a number of cows.  It was in Wisconsin that Joan saw a whole field of bison (I call them Buffalo and Joan says I would be wrong to do that) that appeared to be fenced in.

    When we stopped for coffee Joan was pleasantly surprised when the clerk gave her a cup of coffee for free. “That’s the way we do it around here.”  I told her (I was out at the pump) he was probably hitting on her and didn’t know she had a husband waiting outside.

Western North Dakota scenery

   Joan said he was way younger than her and I told her a lot of young guys are looking for a good older woman. She just shook her head at me.

    We passed through a place called Buffalo and then drove over the Buffalo River which made Joan happy because she is from Buffalo, New York.

   Our favorite road sign of the day was an advertisement for a local doctor’s office. “We’ll treat you like family, but in a good way,” it said. We got a chuckle out of that.

   In Minneapolis we ran into a little traffic near Allianz Stadium. The stadium is home to a professional soccer team, but we are doubtful a soccer crowd would create such a traffic jam.   But a check of the schedule shows it was in fact a professional soccer match.

Welcome to Minnesota

    Somewhere in eastern North Dakota we spotted a sign indicating Sand Hill Cranes migrate through and with our interest in the birds I took some time to look it up on the Internet. In fact a small group of Sand Hills does pass through North Dakota on its way to Texas (so not the ones we see in Tucson) and spend a little time in Kidder, North Dakota.

    Our Sirius XM had a two hour special on the Top 40 instrumental hits of the 1960s which kept us happy for that period of time. We listened to the comedy channel for awhile and the Radio Classics channel for a few hours too.

    We checked into our brand spanking new hotel and then went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Making the stay at the hotel even better is that the night was free. I book through Hotels.com and after every ten stays you get a free night (average price of your previous 10 stays).

    Tomorrow we head to my sister and brother-in-law’s house in North Aurora, Illinois where we will spend a couple nights and then head home on Tuesday to Lapeer. I will not likely post again until we get home. Thanks for following us home.

Mileage out in Bismarck: 11310

Time out in Bismarck: 9:08 a.m.

Mileage in to Eau Claire: 11838

Time in to Eau Claire: 4:50 p.m.

Four beautiful states in two wonderful days

A beautiful Washington road

    A trip through Washington, Idaho and part of Montana Thursday just reinforced what Joan and I already knew about our wonderful country. There is beauty almost anywhere (and everywhere)  you look. The mountains of Washington, Idaho and Montana were spectacular today.

    The weather was fair, although we ran into a few little squalls of rain and some harder rain. A little snow, a little sleet and the temperatures varied from a high of 58 at Moses Lake to a low of 35 in the mountains of Washington.

    Moses Lake had a special meaning for me although not an always pleasant one. Here's the rest of the story about why I should have been in Moses Lake many years before.

A snowy rest area in Montana

   In the late 1980s I covered a story for the Oakland Press about a young couple who robbed a Waterford Township gas station and killed the store clerk. It was a horrendous crime and the couple vanished after it.

    My story attracted the attention of a then popular true crime program in the 1980s called “Unsolved Mysteries” which ran the story about six months after the crime in Waterford Township.

   The night the show was to air I prepared for a quick trip to wherever in the country the couple might turn up after the broadcast. The show aired on a Friday and Saturday I learned that the couple had been located in Moses Lake, Washington after a viewer spotted and recognized the couple.

   I was livid. When I called the editor who made the call to send another reporter he said he thought I didn’t want to go on the trip. How he came up with that I will never know, but I know he was playing favorites with a reporter that he had once worked with at another newspaper.

  So imagine my surprise when I got a call from that reporter asked for help from me because he knew very little about the story and was way out in Washington with no one to get more information. The reporter, who I was friends with, told me he was told that I directly told the editor I did not want to fly to Washington. So it was a big fat lie.

More beautiful Idaho scenery

    Not to belabor this part of the story, the editor and I had words and also an audience with the big editor who admitted I had been screwed out of a very good story.  I guess to my credit I did help the reporter put together his story and we stayed friends. It wasn’t his fault he was told a lie.

    Anyway, I finally made it to Moses Lake, Washington just about 33 years too late.

   At least on this leg of the trip I finally got to use my sunglasses for the first time since we left Tucson.
 

More beautiful scenery

    During our travels on this day we saw deer, ducks and for the first time in awhile windmills both those working and large pieces on the way to a destination.

   The varying scenery of pine trees and snow-capped mountains made every turn in the road a chance to gasp in awe at another post card vista.

    I was also pleased that Idaho has a 75 mph speed limit and Montana lets you go even faster in 80 mph sections of I-90.

Helena dinner stop

    My trip planning failed a little as I booked us into a hotel room in Helena, Montana which I thought was on I-90, but in fact is about 30 miles off that freeway, which meant a lengthy side trip.

    During one section of our trip in Washington, the farmers were kind enough to put signs on the fences so we would know what kinds of crops they were growing. Potatoes, sweet corn, canola seeds, beans and something called “Timothy.”

    Idaho has a very difficult construction detour procedure that puts traffic going in both directions at high speed on the same side of the freeway for short sections. No jersey barriers, just flimsy little yellow lane markers separate the opposing traffic.

Montana Capitol

   They have jersey barriers, but they don’t use them to divide the opposing traffic.

    Once we got to Helena, Montana we drove by the Capitol building and then had dinner in downtown Helena at a very nice sports bar.

Mileage out of Seattle: 10041

Time out of Seattle: 7:30 a.m. (PDT)

Mileage in to Helena:  10645

Time in to Helena (MDT): 7:08 p.m.

    The trip from Helena, Montana to Bismarck, North Dakota had just a short period of foul weather, but for the most part was a long, but uneventful trek through the northern plains.

Montana travel scenery

    On this day we spotted pronghorn antelope and the girl from Buffalo, NY spotted a buffalo in the wild (technically a bison but who’s that picky.)


    Joan also completed her 50-state goal. Before this trip Joan had been in 47 states, but with our stops in Oregon, Washington and North Dakota she finished her 50-state goal. We had previously been in both Montana and Montana when we went to Yellowstone. So both of us have now traveled to all 50 states.

    We crossed the beautiful and wide Yellowstone River several times while traveling on I-94 and the scenery in both Montana and North Dakota was breath taking at times. Thank goodness for Theodore Roosevelt who is responsible for saving so many of our natural treasures from greedy developers.

Joan and her 50th State!

    In North Dakota we tried to visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Forest, but it was closed for the season.

   Montana places small white crosses at the locations of fatal accidents and some of the roads, especially the curves, are littered with those crosses. They do make you think.

   One of the more unusual sightings of the day was a motorhome trailing an unusual vehicle. We are used to seeing motorhomes trailing small vehicles (or even large ones) but today we saw one pulling a trailer carrying a full sized back hoe. We guess the guy does contract work and lives in his motorhome while traveling to his jobs.

    The gas stations on the plains are few and far between and today I almost stretched our range a little too far. I’ve learned to trust the electronics in the Tahoe, but today even I was sweating bullets as we headed to Mills City the only place we could get gas after Billings, Montana.

Friday's crappy weather - Joan took photo

    For a moment I thought about stopping short and filling up in Billings, but the quick math I did in my head convinced me I had at least enough gas to get to Mills City. I watched the gauge drop to “E” and then the warning light went off when we were still 20 miles from our gas stop.

    We made it, but the Tahoe has a 26-gallon tank and I pumped 24.9 gallons into it at the station. That’s just a little too close for comfort.

    In Montana we spotted an exit road that I would be reluctant to take. “Bad Route Road” was the name of the exit. By the way Montana is a very long state.

    As I mentioned previously, we encountered slick roads for about 20 miles about 2 hours into our drive today over the mountains near Bozeman, Montana. Temperatures dropped to 27, the snow was lightly falling and the trucks and cars were throwing up a lot of salty spray, but we made it safely through that section and the roads dried up and the weather greatly improved for the rest of the trip.

    We arrived in Bismarck (we lost another hour to geography) but arrived in time to get a nice dinner in downtown Bismarck at the “Blarney Stone” which was recommended by the hotel clerk. We both had steak stroganoff and it was very good.

    I have a couple more photos to add to this post, but they haven't come through yet and may not until tomorrow. A technical glitch of sorts.

    Back at the hotel we did a load of laundry to get us through the rest of our trip and enjoyed a quiet night in our room. Tomorrow: Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Mileage out at Helena: 10645

Time out at Helena (MDT): 7:06 a.m.

Mileage in at Bismarck, ND: 11304

Time in at Bismarck (CDT): 5:25 p.m.

Adventures in high places, watery places, food places and parking places

Joan on our harbor cruise with Seattle in background

   Thank goodness for a new day. 

   After yesterday’s harrowing drive it was great to wake up to no rain on Tuesday in Portland. It may be a brief respite as rain is set to return on Wednesday in the northwest, but it was nice to drive from Portland to Seattle without rain.

    We had a nice breakfast at the hotel in Troutdale, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, before heading out for Washington.

Joan and the Moon jelly fish

    Instead of taking the freeway for the first part of the trip I found an alternate route that traveled along the Columbia River for a little extra scenery before we hopped on I-5 to finish the short drive to Seattle.

   One of the neat things we saw were full sized homes built on floats in a housing “marina” on the river. They looked like regular houses you would see in any middle-class neighborhood but instead of a yard they were tied up or anchored to the shore of the river. I wondered if they still had to pay property taxes.

   Instead of heading to our hotel (it was too early to check in) we headed downtown Seattle to do a little sight-seeing.  After leaving the freeway the first thing I noticed were San Francisco type hills to drive on. I remembered my days at Pacific Lithograph in San Francisco and driving a delivery truck up and down those steep hills.

Joan touching in the touch pool

    With the help of OnStar we made our way to the waterfront. With the weather cooperating on Tuesday we decided that this would be the day to make the harbor tour and we made the right choice. I was wearing my Atherton Police hat which immediately got us a 20 percent discount on the tour tickets.

Pike Place Market

    Before we got to the boat tour we had to find a place to park. This was not an easy thing to do, especially since it is spring break here and every family in Washington was in Seattle today, thanks to the good weather.

   The first lot I pulled into was a $4 an hour surface lot but the spaces were so tight the only spots I could find were unusable. If you got into the space, you couldn’t open the door to get out. I let Joan out before I backed into the space, but still it didn’t work as either I couldn’t get out of my car or the car parked next to me could never get into his.

    So we drove around the block and found a parking garage that had room. It cost us $24 to park there all day, but it was better than having my car banged up from trying to get in our out of it.

Dinner view first night

   After parking we went and purchased our water tour tickets and had just enough time to eat the picnic lunch we brought. We couldn’t take food or drink on the boat because they sell food and drinks on the boat and obviously didn’t want the competition.

    After the tour, which was really beautiful and informative we headed to the nearby Seattle Aquarium where we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the fish, otters, seals and other critters they have on display there. Not quite as good as the Monterey Aquarium, but darned near.

    Then we headed to the Pike Place Market (near where we parked) and we walked up 156 steps to the main market where we watched some men throwing fish back and forth to each other and then found a nice restaurant for dinner – The Athenian, which has been in business since 1909.

Joan on top of the world

   We both had fish for dinner and then headed to our hotel to check in. It was a wonderful day, with wonderful weather.

   OK, so the wonderful weather wasn’t going to hold for a second day, but Wednesday brought overcast skies, a few sprinkles, but more fun in Seattle.

   We played major league tourist on Wednesday. We left our hotel around 9 a.m. and headed to downtown Seattle hoping that most of the commute traffic was over. We still hit a little traffic but with OnStar’s help we got to the Space Needle in time to make the first trip up to the top.

My feet 520-feet up

   First a word about Seattle parking. It’s expensive and it’s awful. I know I drive a big car, but come on you can’t expect everyone to drive and park a Mini Cooper. The parking spaces in the garages have been painted so close together than people deliberately park over the lines so no one can park too close to them.

    Seems like a self-defeating system if people end up going all rogue and park where they want because you haven’t left them enough room for a car or truck.

    After squeezing my truck into a small space (including folding my side mirrors in so I could get an extra 4-inches closer to the pole) we headed to the Space Needle which was right across the street. (By the way parking is $4 an hour, but they max it out at $24 to $25 for the whole day – still a ridiculous sum for such a small space.)

Chihuly Glass structure

    As I mentioned we were at the Space Needle early and jumped on the first elevator headed up. In just 45 seconds we were at the top and enjoying some fantastic views from about 60 stories up.

   One of the amazing new features of the Space Needle is a glass observation floor. I’ve become better at conquering my fear of heights – partly because of all the high altitude hiking I do – but I’ll admit it took me a few seconds to get the courage to step out onto the glass floor.

    After a while I forgot about the glass floor, but every so often I would look down and it would give you a funny feeling. Joan joined me on the floor and her solution was to walk on the metal cross beams as if that would keep her from plunging 520-feet should the glass suddenly break.

    We spent about an hour at the top and then headed back to earth for our next adventure.

More beautiful glass sculptures

    That next adventure was a good one too. The Chihuly Glass Museum and Exhibition (and Garden) is right next to the Space Needle and it was one of the most incredibly beautiful things I have ever seen.

   The artist, Dale Chihuly is a native of Tacoma and creates some of the most unusual blown glass I have ever seen. Many of the pieces have hundreds of different parts but work together to make large and impressive art pieces. One of his Macchia bowls retails for $8,500 so that is not in our budget. But if we were ever to hit the lottery I would own one for sure.

Glass blowing exhibition

    I have to admit I did imagine for a moment one of our grandsons, who is known for his deadly aim with a ball, creating some major havoc in that museum if given the chance. Or a crazy person with a baseball bat, but I didn’t dwell on that long.

   Two women put on an amazing glass blowing exhibition that helped answer many of our questions about how these beautiful works were created.  They made a beautiful glass vase right in front of us and in just about 20 minutes.

Pop Culture Museum guitar tower

   After the glass museum we headed back to the truck and ate our lunch in the parking garage in our truck.

    We decided to use our last City Pass ticket on a trip to the Pop Culture Museum in the same area as the Space Needle and Chihuly Museum.

    It was an interesting museum with exhibits on horror movies, science fiction movies (including many props used in the Star Wars movies), musical groups like Pearl Jam, Prince, Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix.

   The horror movie section was a little troubling and we wondered why people were bringing really young children through there.

Monorail to downtown

    One of my favorite parts of the museum was a tower of more than 700 instruments stacked together to make a tower of guitars, etc. that reached up two floors.

    When we were done there we caught the monorail downtown and then walked back to the Waterfront where we had dinner at Ivan’s “Acres of Clams” Restaurant. We had a leisurely dinner watching downtown workers commuting home on a succession of ferry boats.

    After dinner we crossed the street and caught one of the free Waterfront shuttle buses that took us back to our parking garage near the Space Needle.

    It’s always good to have Joan with me but even more so when we can use the HOV lane (high occupancy vehicle) to whiz by all the traffic.

   With commute traffic thinning out we jumped on the freeway and returned home our hotel near the Sea-Tac Airport to rest. Tomorrow really does start our trip home and we are watching the weather closely to make sure we don’t get caught in some of the storms sweeping across the country. 

Dinner view night 2

Destination on Thursday is Helena, Montana.

  

Mileage out at Portland: 9817

Time out from Portland: 9:15 a.m.

Mileage in at Seattle: 10012

Time in at Seattle: 7 p.m.

Rain, rain go away!

   If the trip keeps going as it is, I’m going to trade the Tahoe in on an Ark. 

A very wet departure from the Benbow Inn

   Our drive Monday was one of the most difficult we have done since we have been traveling. Bottom line is that we got from Garberville, California to Portland, Oregon safely, but in between it was a white knuckle trip filled with sometimes torrential rains and partially flooded roads.

   To say this was a nasty day is to say the Titanic was a bad cruise.

    We started out in the rain and it just never stopped. Not only didn’t it stop it continued to get worse as we headed north. The Pacific Northwest is known for rainy weather and today was a really prime example.

    Joan is insisting the sun came out when we arrived in Portland but if it did it was only for a brief moment.

    Creeks became rivers and rivers became rushing torrents of water that in some cases were overtopping banks and flooding farmland and property throughout northern California and Oregon.

    The local news was full of really terrible news for folks about the effects of all this rain.

   Mix that pouring rain with a windy mountain road lined with massive trees made this one really bad travel day. I will admit to using cruise control during much of our travels, but today with the wet roads and the extreme possibility of hydroplaning I was unable to use the cruise control which mean my knees are aching as I write this.

    In addition to everything else, Joan’s iPhone went on the fritz. Overnight it did not charge and was dead as a possum on a freeway when we left The Benbow Inn this morning. We didn’t know if the phone had gone bad, the cord had gone bad or the battery was no good, but her phone simply wouldn’t work.

Avenue A Cafe in Miranda

   We had OnStar take us to the nearest cellphone repair shop which turned out to be in Grants Pass, Oregon and the man there diagnosed the issue as a bad charger cord. We plunked down $12 and soon Joan’s phone was right as rain – although I’m not sure I think rain is right anymore.

    In addition to the weather, my trip planning did not take into account that we would be coming into Portland during the evening rush hour, which probably delayed us another 45 minutes in getting to our hotel.

    Joan did manage to spot an elk herd near Orick, California and OnStar waved us off from traveling up the coast of Oregon and took us up the center of Oregon on I-5, which was probably a better bet considering all the rain coming in off the ocean on Monday.

    Oregon and northern California seem to be taking full advantage of relaxed marijuana laws with shops and stores in nearly every town. Hemptation and Redwood Cannabis were just two of the great store names we came across.

   Also, in case you were wondering, the “Center for World Peace and Understanding” is located in a small town called Miranda, California in the heart of the Redwoods.  Someone shoot a note to President Trump and Kim Jung Un and let them know where it is soon.

   We did start the day out with a good breakfast at The Avenue Café in Miranda, California and ended it with dinner at Ristorante Di Pompello in Troutdale, Oregon near the Comfort Inn where we stayed. Both meals were good. We spent part of the day listening to Cousin Brucie doing a rock reunion in Florida and then listened to some of the NCAA basketball championship.

The sign says it all (click on photo to enlarge)

   One more thing I learned in Oregon. They have a law that requires someone at the gas station to pump your gas. No self serve in Oregon. I found that out when a young women came bolting out of the store in the gas station to inform me to take my hands off the gas nozzle.

   Not sure if this is a make work project in Oregon, but in addition to not pumping your own gas, don’t you dare ask for a straw, at least not a plastic one.

Mileage out at Benbow Inn:  9307

Time out at Benbow Inn: 8:30 a.m.

Mileage in to Portland, Oregon: 9817

Time in to Portland, Oregon: 6:39 p.m.

Big impressive trees overcome a wet Sunday on the road

William post-haircut

  The long (wet) slog home continues. As promised I’m returning to the blog after a fun and eventful week in the San Francisco Bay Area.

   After departing lovely Bakersfield Sunday morning we made a leisurely drive north and arrived at my cousin Cynthia’s home in Danville, California in time to catch nearly all of the Michigan State versus Duke elite 8 basketball game.

   In an exciting and nail biting finish the Spartans pulled out a huge win against the favored Dukies to advance to the Final Four. That made Sunday a truly great, great day. Cynthia made us a wonderful dinner and we caught up that evening.

   Cynthia seems to get us every year about this same time as we head home to Michigan via California which makes no sense geographically, but makes great sense when you have wonderful family and friends that make the detour very much worth it.

A well-weeded backyard

   On Monday I left Joan and Cynthia to their own devices and I headed to Santa Cruz to spend a couple days with my son, William. He and I headed to the little seaside town of Capitola for lunch and then we stopped at a hair styling place to get William a nice haircut and a shave. He looked great following the clipping.

   Joan had Cynthia drop her at a salon where she had a manicure and a pedicure. She and Cynthia went out to lunch and did some shopping. William and I watched some movies after we got home from our Capitola and hair cut adventure.

   On Tuesday, April 2, I got up early and did some weeding on William’s backyard which has grown considerably due to the unusual amount of rain California has experienced this winter. While I was working my fingers to the bone, Joan and Cynthia were enjoying the lap of luxury in Cynthia’s fine estate and they later took in a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Some new duds for William

   Tuesday night after dinner with William I returned over the hill (Highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz) to Cynthia’s house. I found a car wash and cleaned some of the bugs off the car that I had gathered driving up the Central Valley of California on my way to Cynthia’s.

Our Tahoe (and this was before our travel luggage)

    On Wednesday, Joan and I returned over the hill to visit with William again and have dinner with his mother (my first wife) and her husband Bill at Hindquarter’s Restaurant in Santa Cruz. During the day Joan and I cleaned William’s house a bit and then took him shopping at a Kmart in Watsonville before joining Chris and Bill for dinner.

    After dinner we said our good byes to William and headed again over the hill and back to Cynthia’s.

Joan at Richardson's Grove

    On Thursday, I did a few chores for Cynthia and then we went out to dinner in Danville. We had a lovely visit with Cynthia, including seeing the movie “The Best of Enemies” in Walnut Creek Friday afternoon. Again Cynthia cooked us a fine dinner Friday night.

    We left out early Saturday to head to our friend Jan’s house in Hidden Valley Lake, California. On the way we ate at the Canyon Café in Napa. The place has seen better days, but the food was good and it was packed with locals so we knew it must be OK.

    At one point I saw a sign for “Psychic John.”  I told Joan I was going to stop, bang on his door early Saturday and when he answered and said “What do you want?” I was going to answer back, “You tell me, you’re the psychic.”  Joan thought that was a bad idea. Besides, if he really is a psychic he should have known I was coming, right?

Joan at Founders Tree

   So we arrived at Jan’s at noon and she took us to a nice lunch at the golf clubhouse near her beautiful home.

   Later we headed to the Twin Pines Casino where we all played a little slots until it was dinner time and we all enjoyed a wonderful Prime Rib meal.  We returned to Jan’s house in time to see the Spartans lay an egg against Texas Tech in the NCAA basketball semi-finals. Well, it was a good season, but it ended on a sour note as the Spartans couldn’t buy a basket.

    We turned in and then were up early on Sunday for a really nice breakfast that Jan cooked for us and we headed out for our next great adventure.

Joan at hollow tree

   On the way out of the Napa area we marveled at the increasing number of vineyards and wineries that have spread throughout the area. The one sign that troubled me though is the “Report Drunk Drivers” sign. Well, you did invite them to come up and test your product afterall.

     For many, many years I have wanted to take Joan to the Redwood forests in northern California. She has visited the redwoods in the Central coast area and they are beautiful, but the giant redwoods in and around Garberville in Humboldt County must be seen to be appreciated.

    Early in our time in Tucson I resolved to make this happen this year so it was with great anticipation that I left Jan’s this morning knowing that this was the day that Joan would finally get to see the impressive redwoods of Humboldt County, California.

Joan next to Dyerville Giant

    As a boy in the late 1950s and early 1960s my stepfather and mother took my brother and I to Richardson’s Grove State Park and even as a young boy I was impressed with the size and magnificence of these special trees.

    My father and stepmother also brought my brother and I to these same redwoods on another occasion and we stayed at the Benbow Inn. The Benbow Inn of the late 1950s and early 1960s was a tired old, but grand hotel, that had seen better days. It was a stopping point for many celebrities in its day, but when we stayed here my single biggest recollection was of a large daddy long legs spider that was in our bathroom.

    Don’t get me wrong we had fun at the Benbow Inn and I was with my family so I was very happy being there, but I never imagined then that when I returned 60 years later I would be staying in a 5-star hotel with a 5-star restaurant. But stay we did thanks to my sister who found a “group-on” coupon for the hotel that brought the nightly rate down to a level that fit our budget.

   Without a coupon for the restaurant we did not eat in the restaurant because along with its 5-star rating it has 5-star prices for dinner. It also has a dress code that we could not possibly meet considering we are traveling in something other than the “casual elegant” dress that is required for dinner.

A small redwood root ball

    But I digress, the weather was wet nearly all day Sunday, but that did not hamper our visit to either Richardson’s Grove or to Humboldt State Park where we took a couple of short nature hikes to visit the historic and impressive trees.

    At Richardson’s Grove (so named after the governor who agreed to protect the Redwoods only after it was agreed to name the place after him) we were given a private tour of the visitor center, which is being completely restored. I remembered some of it from my visits there as a youth, but I was glad to see they are keeping much of former building intact as they remodel.

     Joan seemed impressed by the trees and after leaving Richardson’s Grove we headed north on 101 and started the 31-mile “Avenue of the Giants” portion of our tour just north of Garberville.

Back of the Benbow Inn

    We enjoyed the wonderful, leisurely drive as we weaved among these stately trees that measure their existence not in centuries but millenniums.

    It can only cause awe to stand next to a tree that may have been a young sapling at the time Jesus was walking around the Middle East. Or touch a tree that was 700 years old when Columbus arrived in America.

   I could only feel small when I realized that a tree I was standing next to on Sunday, had not only been there when I was a boy, but had only added a couple inches to its girth since the last time I visited. Thank goodness someone had the good sense to stop the excessive logging of these great trees so many years ago.

Joan by the Eel River

    Just past Humboldt State Park visitor’s center is a place called “Founder’s Grove.” We stopped and took a half mile interpretive nature walk that included a close up look at the Dyerville Giant, a 375-foot monster redwood that crashed down in 1991 after a long, steady rainstorm that also included high winds. The 1,600-year old tree crashed to earth causing a seismograph 10 miles away to register it as a small earthquake.

   A resident 10-miles away reported that when he heard the noise he thought a train had wrecked. We stood next to the tree that once stood taller than a football field is long and felt nothing but awe.

      It will be rotting away on the forest floor many centuries after I am long gone from this earth.

   After finishing the 31-mile Avenue of the Giants trip we returned to the Benbow Inn and checked in. I couldn’t help but walk around the building to the back and look at the place where our room had been as a boy. They are all updated and beautiful now, but I remember the magic of staying in a hotel where you walked out the door and down to the Eel River. 

A forest trillium blossom

   The Eel River is a large impressive body of water that has overflowed its banks many times leaving death and destruction along its travels. We saw photos and accounts of past floods at the Humboldt State Park Visitor’s Center.

   I also have recollections of a large daddy long legs spider in our bathroom on my boyhood visit. No spiders on this trip. 

    After my trip down nostalgia lane, we drove back to Garberville and had dinner at Calico’s Café. It advertised Italian food, but when we arrived we were told they don’t serve that food on Saturday or Sunday, but they have a Mexican menu on the weekend so we had Fajitas.

   The rustic old Benbow Inn does not have TVs in the room so that’s why I used that time to write this post instead of watching some stupid television show.

Time out at Jan’s: 8:40 a.m.

Mileage out at Jan’s: 9068

Time in at Benbow Inn: 4:15 p.m.

Mileage in at Benbow Inn: 9307