Archive for August 2012

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Day 14 Longmont, CO to Evanston WY

August 15, 2012

Another 425 mile day. We left Longmont at about 0900 heading north on I25 to Cheyenne, WY. Still very smoggy. Visibility improved a little bit but still under 7-10 miles. We made good time across the state. No traffic to speak of.

We stopped at a rest stop at Laramie WY. Nice museum and view. Here are a couple of pics.


More pics later.

Stopped for lunch at a truck stop mid state. Tried to check in from FB. Got location not found. You are nowhere. decent burger.

Wyoming is pretty much very barren. Landscape is all sagebrush and sand. Lots of rock formations. Couldn’t get a good view because of the smog. We think that the smog is partially due to wild fires up in Idaho.

We arrived around 6pm in Evanston. Found signs for Best Western with restaurant with bar. Deal. Then we found room with king size bed, love seat, real glasses and coffee mugs for $100 per nite. Very nice.

Tomorrow we have relatively short drive to West Jordan. Only about 175 miles. We will stay 4 days in Utah to visit with Neil. Leave on Monday for Vegas then CA.

I will say this again later. Some time in your life you should take a trip across this country BY car not by airplane. This has been such a great experience for us. We have met so many nice people and seen great landscapes.

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Location:Evanston, WY

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Day 13 Salina, KS to Longmont, CO

August 14, 2012

Awoke to a steady rain in Salina. Good Lord they need it. I took a look at the weather map. Rain ending at western KS. Cleared up nicely.

We got on the road a little bit later than usual. Just as well I didn’t particularly want to drive in the rain.

We got onto I70 west. Cranked up the Jeep to 70mph and set the cruise control. Speed limit in KS is 75, but I’m not comfortable taking the Jeep to 75. Occasional construction lowered the speed limit to either 60 or 45. But it was 70mph almost all the way.

In New England the speed limit never gets over 65. Out here on the open road 75 mph is pretty common.

We did about 450 miles today, 3450 total. Gas price is still averaging around 3.50 per gallon of unleaded. Cheapest prices were in SC. I better get ready for the shock of gas prices in LA.

I had hoped to be able to see the Rockies from Longmont. No luck, smog has visibility under a mile.

Also, while driving up I25 just before we arrived at the hotel, we saw a truck with MA plates. Not very common.

We had dinner at burrito fast food restaurant called La Qdoba Grille. They make burritos to order. I had hoped that we could find a hotel with restaurant with bar in walking distance. No such luck.

We have 500 miles to get to West Jordan, UT. Our schedule says we should be there by Thursday. So that makes tomorrow an easy day.

TTFN

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Location:Longmont, CO

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Day 12 Columbia to Salina

August 13, 2012

Short day today, only drove about 300 miles today. We stopped in Lawrence KS to meet with Paula’s Aunt and family. We had a nice lunch at a local Chinese restaurant then returned to her house to have a cup of coffee and chat.

We decided to stop after 300 miles. We could have gone on but there aren’t any hotels between Salinas and the KS-CO border. There is a whole lot of prairie out there.

We are staying in a Holiday Inn Express. Nice place but a little bit pricey. Paying about $130 for the night. Includes free wifi, evening wine and snacks and hot breakfast. King size bed. The hostess was real nice. She kept coming back to fill up my glass of Merlot.

Night before we stayed in a Drury Inn. Nice hotel, seems to be local to Missouri, Mississippi and environs. Haven’t seen one in Kansas.

So we have another 250 miles to go to get to the CO border. About 50 miles back we passed FT Riley. Big Army base with lots of choppers.

Rest areas. Generally reset areas are cleaner than the bathrooms at gas stations. When we entered Mississippi the other day, we had free wifi, a free cup of coffee and the cleanest bathroom I’ve ever seen.

When we entered Missouri yesterday, there was a kid taking down the state where people were from. I think we made his day when we told him “Massachusetts”. He said first one today. We told him probably the last.

Generally folks have been real friendly and polite. When we stopped at the river front park in Memphis, we watched a big pink limo pull up and a big black family piled out. They went over to a monument for a picture. The driver told us “Welcome to Memphis”.

We are using an app on my iPad and iPhone called “The Road Ahead”. Tells us what services are available at upcoming exits. Also, we used the “Diners, Dives and Drive-ins” app based on Guy Fiore’s TV show on the Food Network. Handy for finding great places to eat.

Tomorrow we continue on I70 towards Denver. I hope to turn the corner on I25 toward Cheyenne. One of the most amazing sites is to be driving west on I70 when you finally see the Rocky Mountains appear out of the haze.

We do a time change tomorrow. We gain an hour. It feels different when you drive across a time zone boundary rather than fly across. Makes for a longer day.

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Location:Salina, KS

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Day 11 Memphis to Columbia MO

August 12, 2012

Not much to say here. We left Memphis at about 8:30. Had breakfast at a Denny’s in West Memphis then headed up I55. Decided to skip the donut and coffee at the hotel.

Seeing as this was Sunday, there was little traffic around St Louis. Had lunch at a place called “Ryan’s” south of St Louis. This was a nice buffet style restaurant that seems to popular in the South and west. It seems that everyone was taking their grandparents for sunday dinner. At any rate we ate and bought gas and headed north to I70.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Lawrence KS to visit one of Paula’s relatives. Then we continue on and probably will get to Salina by day’s end.

Today we did about 400 miles and 2600 miles total. Our route will take us west to Denver then north on I25 to Cheyenne, then west on I80.

Stop in Evanston planned to buy beer for Neil.

TTFN

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Location:Columbia, MO

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Day 10 Memphis

August 11, 2012

After we finished our pitiful breakfast at the “Americas Best Value Inn” we were off for the day.

First stop was the ATM at a local BofA. Then we headed off for Graceland on Elvis Presley Blvd. Things are hopping at Graceland this week. This is the 35th anniversary of Elvis’ death.

Graceland is one amazing money making operation. We did the tour through the mansion, then the cars (especially liked the pink 55 Caddy), then the airplanes. We bought a few postcards and other Elvis memorabilia. This week is Elvis week in honor of the 35th anniversary of his death. Here are a few pictures.


Then we had lunch at Marlowe’s Ribs. We found this joint using the “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” app. Paula had ribs and I had cajun chicken with a bottle of Guinness. Not the same as Ireland, but was okay. Here’s the picture.


Then we looking for the apartment complex where I lived in 1973 working for Raytheon. Found it. Back then it was nice, now it’s a dump.

After an afternoon rest, we headed up to Beale Street for an evening stroll. First we made a brief stop at riverside park for a picture of the mighty Mississippi.


Things were hopping on Beale Street on Saturday night. We had a drink at a bar then had dinner at the Blues City Cafe. Great steak.


Tomorrow we head for St. Louis.

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Location:Memphis, TN

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Day 9 Houma to Memphis

August 11, 2012

Started off the morning on US90 from Houma to New Orleans. We ran into a nasty thunder storm. Luckily it didn’t last long. We didn’t want to be driving all the way to Memphis is this rain.

When we crossed the Mississippi state line, we stopped at a rest area that was one of the cleanest and nicest so far on the trip. Nice lady even offered free cup of coffee. Also Free WiFi.


We stopped for lunch someplace south of Jackson MS. We ate at a Sonic Burger. The burgers were good but the service was a challenge. Sonic Burger serves everyone in their cars. We decided that we needed to get out and walk a bit. We sat at a table outside and tried to order from the kiosk. It felt like that we were speaking a different language. We were speaking English, the lady on the sqawk box was speaking southern. Almost unintelligible.

We finally arrived in Memphis. We had called a hotel from a rest stop in MS. Turns out the hotel is one of the worst we have experienced so far. Supposed to have free breakfast. The free breakfast was donuts and coffee. Sign said “limit of 2 donuts per person”. Next time we will check out the place before we make reservation.

Finally we went searching for dinner. We ended up eating at an “Olive Garden”. We used a $25 gift card from our friends at Billerica Chapter. Then we found a CVS to refill one of Paula’s Rx’s. Then back to the hotel to bed.

Next post will be on Graceland.

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Location:Memphis, TN

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Day 8

August 9, 2012

Not much planned for today (that I know of). I just need to find the local CVS to pick up Rx and then buy gas.

Tomorrow we head for Memphis, TN. It’s a bit over 400 miles. This is the longest leg of the trip. Our next destination is Salt Lake City, UT to visit Neil and the family. This will probably take 4 or 5 days.

It turns out you can’t take the diagonal northwest to Utah. One either must go west to Dallas and then north through Oklahoma and Kansas, then west to Denver.

So we will head north to Memphis on I55 then on to St Louis. The we turn west on I70. Short visit in Lawrence KS to see one of Paula’s relatives.

So I70 to Denver, then I25 to Cheyenne, WY, then I80 through Wyoming to Utah.

Without further ado here is a youtube clip of Paul Simon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KL8qf2qG6c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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Location:Houma, LA

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Day 6

August 8, 2012

Running a little bit behind. Yesterday, we travelled from Opelika, AL to Houma, LA.

Mileage yesterday was 475 miles and trip to date of 1675 miles. We pretty much cruised at 65mph the whole distance except for some areas under construction.

After 400 miles we stopped in Metaire LA to visit with Paula’s cousing Jan. Then had dinner with Jan and her husband Tom. We ate in local seafood restaurant called “Charlie’s Seafood”. Had boiled shrimp and other seafood dishes.


Finally finished dinner and returned to Jan’s house. Then we made the final trek to houma that took about an hour. Finally pulled into Houma around 2100.

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Location:Houma, LA

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Day 5

August 6, 2012

Don’t have the exact numbers for today’s travel. It’s about 450 miles today and about 1250 miles since start of the trip.

We are about 50 miles east of Montgomery, AL, the home of Maxwell AFB. We visited Maxwell about 8 years ago for Mike’s commissioning in the USAF.

We have about 350 miles to go tomorrow to get to Houma, LA.

Our trip was uneventful. We hit some heavy traffic going through Atlanta.

So here’s some food for thought. We are all bombarded with political ads and commentary from pundits exhorting us to buy American. Right?

So how can you tell whether something that you bought was made in America? You can look at the label inside a piece of clothing. But how about cars? On the way down here on I85 we passed three car production plants. Two in Spartanburg, SC. And one just up the road in AL. The two in SC are BMW and VW. The one in AL is KIA. These plants are huge and they employ a LOT of Americans.

So the next time you are thinking about buying an “American” car think about where it might have been built.

And oh by the way, my iPad was “Made in China”

Good night y’all.

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Location:Opelika, AL

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Day 4

August 5, 2012

Short drive from Cary to Mebane today to visit with the Wedges.

We had lunch at a fast food joint called Moe’s. Tacos and burritos, not bad eatin.

Then we went to downtown Greensboro. We went to visit the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. See http://www.sitinmovement.org/

The museum is at the original sit-in at FW Woolworths lunch counter.

Tomorrow we head for New Orleans. Probably we’ll stop at Montgomery, AL. or thereabouts.

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Location:Mebane, NC

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