Home at last

We have been home for a couple of weeks now and I did want to make one last entry in this blog and perhaps add some pictures. We both had some kind of stomach flu during the last week of the trip so I think we were glad to be home. Once you get involved in catching up from a trip, it is hard to go back to review what has happened. But, I wanted to let you know how beautiful our country is and how satisfying it is to visit all the various parts of it.

On Sunday, October 26 we drove to Crestline to visit our son and his wife. We spent the night with them and got to our home on Monday. We had traveled almost 5500 miles in 26 days and visited thirteen states.

I always enjoy noticing the differences in the states and areas that we visit. From mountains to plains, from desert to farm land, from large cities to small towns, from wealthy areas to poorer ones, there is so much to do and see. I grew up in Minnesota and come from a family of hunters, so it was interesting to see hunting paraphernalia, especially in the south. The funniest was the “big game tree stand” – a metal ladder with a seat on top (I presume so you can sit comfortably in the tree awaiting your best shot!) There were also a lot more gun shops.

The differences in food is also interesting. My favorite candy bar is the “Nut Goodie,” only available in Minnesota. Then you have the “Bun Bar” available in the Mid-West. I also discovered “Cherry Mash” – only for sale in Missouri. We ate in Culver’s in the Mid-West, Waffle House in the south, Runza in Nebraska, Perkins in the north, Bob Evans in the south, Braums in the south, etc. But, we were never far from McDonalds or Applebees! We never quite got into grits or sweet tea. We found catfish along the river states. It is fun to be able to try different things.

So that is it for now. Thanks for joining us.

Almost Home

Well, I was wrong about Phoenix! What I described yesterday was actually Tempe AZ! I am still trying to figure out how and why someone built a city in the middle of all those huge rock hills. It is really strange to drive around them.

Today, Saturday, October 25, I got to do one of my favorite things – go to a craft show. The Pyle Adult Recreation Center in Tempe was having their fall craft sale, so I spent an hour shopping! I love to compare prices and sales items to what my church boutique does and to purchase things for myself and gifts. They had lots of stuff and I picked up a few hints and merchandise.

Then we actually drove into Phoenix and went to the Phoenix Art Museum. We spent a couple of hours looking at their exhibits. The building and layout of the museum was the most interesting part. There are two main buildings connected by a bridge. Each building has two floors and a mezzanine level. They have strategically placed windows so you can look down at the art and also out at the city and sculpture gardens. It is a teaching museum because many of the displays have questions and techniques for looking at the art. 

From Phoenix we got back on I-10 to continue west. We ended up in Indio to try out a Mexican restaurant that our son had recommended – El Mexacali. It was very good. I wanted to buy dates at Shields, but it was closed. They have installed a restaurant in addition to the store, so they seemed pretty busy.

We ended up at Sam’s Family Spa in Desert Hot Springs to spend the night. I love to sit in their hot pools and relax. It is a perfect way to end a trip.

Well, I was wrong about Phoenix! What I described yesterday was actually Tempe AZ! I am still trying to figure out how and why someone built a city in the middle of all those huge rock hills. It is really strange to drive around them.

Today, Saturday, October 25, I got to do one of my favorite things – go to a craft show. The Pyle Adult Recreation Center in Tempe was having their fall craft sale, so I spent an hour shopping! I love to compare prices and sales items to what my church boutique does and to purchase things for myself and gifts. They had lots of stuff and I picked up a few hints and merchandise.

Then we actually drove into Phoenix and went to the Phoenix Art Museum. We spent a couple of hours looking at their exhibits. The building and layout of the museum was the most interesting part. There are two main buildings connected by a bridge. Each building has two floors and a mezzanine level. They have strategically placed windows so you can look down at the art and also out at the city and sculpture gardens. It is a teaching museum because many of the displays have questions and techniques for looking at the art.

From Phoenix we got back on I-10 to continue west. We ended up in Indio to try out a Mexican restaurant that our son had recommended – El Mexacali. It was very good. I wanted to buy dates at Shields, but it was closed. They have installed a restaurant in addition to the store, so they seemed pretty busy.

We ended up at Sam’s Family Spa in Desert Hot Springs to spend the night. I love to sit in their hot pools and relax. It is a perfect way to end a trip.

Into the Heat

Oh, I forgot to mention that I went through Texas yesterday singing “Home, Home on the Range!” But Texas is behind us and we will spend the next two days, October 23 & 24, crossing New Mexico. For quite a while it was just like Texas, flat! However, we passed scads of oil drillers. Don decided that they must be frakking. This part of New Mexico is known for a vast underground aquifer which I am sure contributes to the appeal of this kind of oil drilling.

On Thursday, we wanted to visit White Sands National Monument. We followed Highway 82 through the oil fields and up into the Sacramento Mountains. It was another beautiful drive to 8000 feet, with a steep descent into Alamagordo NM. We could see the white sands off in the distance as we descended the mountain.

We enjoyed our visit to the park. We went to the visitor center for my passport stamp and to watch the orientation movie. The dunes are made of fine grains of gypsum blown down from the mountains we had just crossed. They act very differently from other sand dunes and are being thoroughly studied to see just how they are formed. We drove into the recreational area and enjoyed a brief walk in the cool sand. Mickey, of course, ran himself silly!

We continued on Highway 70 to I-40 and spent the night in Deming NM.

The next day we forged on to Phoenix. Both of us are not feeling too well - some kind of stomach flu - so I can't say I was the most observant traveler today. We did make it to Phoenix in the early afternoon (the time changes are also driving me crazy!). Phoenix is now the sixth largest city in the US (according to my OLD tour book), and spreads out for miles. They have enough land to make everything look pretty with landscaping and low rise buildings. We decided to tour the Desert Botanical Gardens in Tempe. They were very interesting - lots of succulents and huge Saguaro Cactus, among lots of others. We even saw a display of Day of the Dead altars, called Ofrendas (offerings). We found out it was 95 degrees today!

We spent the night in Tempe AZ.

Mostly West

It turns out that we had been in Guthrie in 2001 – how quickly one forgets! That’s why I keep a journal, but one does have to remember to check it!

Anyway, today, Tuesday, October 22, we decided to do a scenic drive as we headed west. The one we chose followed Highway 281 from Menlo to Anadarko OK. We had an interesting time navigating from Guthrie to Menlo. Don has become quite enthusiastic about his Nexus and as long as he remembers to download the maps we find it a real boon to navigation.

A lot of land in Oklahoma seems to belong to American Indian tribes. They are called Nations because they are self governing and we kept seeing signs that we were leaving one Nation and entering another. We saw lots of oil wells, cattle, cotton, and tree covered hills.

From Highway 281 we worked our way over to Medicine Park, just north of Lawton, and took scenic Highway 49 through the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. This was a real find – a beautiful drive, wild animal sightings, and early American history all in one place. The Wildlife Refuge was designated by Teddy Roosevelt in 1905 to preserve the bison which were almost extinct. Later they brought in elk and in 1927 they introduced the Texas Longhorn Steer. We saw all of these plus a prairie dog colony.

By the time we were through all of this driving we decided to call it a day, and stopped in Altus OK.

On Wednesday, October 23, we spent most of the day driving. We crossed into the Texas Panhandle first thing and immediately noticed the great roads – wide shoulders, passing lanes, smooth riding… We drove to Lubbock TX and made a brief search for the Buddy Holly monument, but our tour book is out of date and we couldn’t find it. We forged on across the panhandle on I-40 to Hobbs NM where we spent the night.

What to do on Monday when all the museums are closed!

It is Monday, October 20, and we are getting down to our last days of travel. I went through all my tour books and wrote down places to see. I found the Oklahoma City National Memorial for my National Parks passport stamp, and the town of Guthrie OK to tour, so we were off on I-40 to visit those sites.

As soon as we entered Oklahoma the roads turned to ruts and all the way through the state we had lousy road conditions. However, I did find myself singing “Oklahoma” as we crossed the plains and saw all the cows in their pastures.

We got to Oklahoma City about noon and found the Memorial. They have done an excellent job in creating the site. There is a reflecting pool on Fifth Street where the bomb was placed in front of the Federal Building. They have preserved some of the walls and an elm tree that survived. There are two giant black gates at either end of the reflecting pool. Possibly the most moving sight was the 168 bronze chairs set in rows representing each person who had died. There were 19 smaller chairs representing the children who were killed. Someone had placed teddy bears on the smaller chairs, and there were stones and pine cones on some of the larger chairs.

Then we drove on to Guthrie OK which is just north of Oklahoma City and the site of the territorial capitol. It is another well preserved and interesting town with lots of historic buildings, museums, and stores. However, Monday is their off day so hardly anything was open. The only stores open were a fabric shop and a yarn store. Poor me! I did manage to find something to buy. And we did enjoy walking around admiring the building’s facades. We spent the night in Guthrie.

How to Celebrate a Birthday

Sunday, October 19, we awoke to the sounds of “Happy Birthday to You” – Don, his brother, Fred, and my sister, Dee, all celebrate a birthday of one type or another today!

To celebrate, Don made us a delicious omelet for breakfast. He even bought his own present, a black t-shirt, in Wal-Mart!

We got a late start heading west on I-40. We wanted to visit Ft. Smith National Historic Site in Ft. Smith AR. It was a very interesting spot and we learned so much about our nation’s history during the days of the frontier. The sad story starts with the US forcing Native American tribes to move west. This caused conflict among the tribes who already lived there and did not want foreigners to occupy their lands. A small wood fort was built at the confluence of the Arkansas and Poteau rivers at Belle-Point to try to establish peace among the tribes (not too successfully).  

Later another fort was built just to the east. It was larger and surrounded by a thick stone wall. The idea was to protect the settlers from the Indians (whose land officially was on the other side of the river). It was also a staging point for the military and explorers going west. It was a time of much lawlessness and Judge Isaac C. Parker was appointed to set up court and send out US Marshals (remember those old movies?) to round up the criminals and bring them back for trial. The gallows was there (public hangings were a time of festivity), and a “Hell-on-the-border” jail. I could go on, but you get the idea – all of our frontier history condensed into one location.

The coupe de gras for Don was our visit to the Ft. Smith Art Museum. The first floor showcased lovely paintings done by mostly local artists. The upper floor contained etchings by Whistler and other artists of his period. They were all wonderful and beautifully hung. We would highly recommend a visit if you are in the area.

We spent the night in Ft. Smith AR

Further south

On Friday, October 17, we decided to bypass St. Louis and head for Ste. Genevieve MO. I realized that I was having trouble pronouncing the names of the towns and rivers we passed by because they were all in French! It seems that most of this part of the country was settled by French immigrants. Ste. Genevieve was founded in 1750 and has some of the oldest existing homes and buildings in Missouri and is one of the most historic and architecturally significant sites in America. The original settlement was flooded out by the Mississippi and the present buildings were built on higher ground. We spent a couple hours walking around, looking in shops and admiring the old buildings. The Germans took over the community in the 1800’s, so there were some German style buildings to look at, also. We spent the night in Dexter MO.

The next day, Saturday, we decided to take the scenic route to Little Rock AR so I could collect one of the few capitals that I have not visited! We decided to take the scenic route along the Crawley’s Ridge Parkway, which goes from the Missouri border into eastern Arkansas . It was a slow, leisurely drive on two lane roads with no shoulders again. The ridge was formed when the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers flowed side by side 15,000 years ago and pushed up the land between them to form a wide ridge of land. The scenery was green and beautiful as usual (not much color this far south).

We left the Byway at Jonesboro and ended up on Highway 67 into Little Rock. The Capitol closes at 5 and we got there at 4, so it was just enough time to take some pictures, get my Capitol stamp, and tour the 4 floors of the magnificent building. It has been refurbished just recently and everything was spanking new and clean! This seems to be the place for the local young people to come and have their picture taken dressed in their finery on the steps of the Capitol. 

We spent the night Morrilton AR.