RoadTrip 2008

7-17-08

We started our morning in Helena. We went on a nice tour of their capitol building. The building has recently been restored to the way it looked in 1902 when it was built. It was more colorful than most capitols we have visited. There were many paintings depicting Montana history including a HUGE painting of Lewis and Clark meeting the Salish Indians painted by Charles Russell. We ate lunch at a funky place called the Staggering Ox and then headed west. Montana is a beautiful state and we really enjoyed the drive through the mountains. We drove through the skinny part of Idaho. We stopped in Wallace an old Silver mining town, which for some reason touts itself as the center of the universe. They also boast the last stop light on I-90. Then it was off to Spokane. We are staying right downtown on the river. We enjoyed walking through a car show downtown. Erik saw his models like his first and second car and enjoyed looking at the other cars as well. We ate down by the river and then enjoyed a nice walk. We stopped at the giant Radio Flyer wagon which is really a big slide. Erik was going to take my picture but people kept coming to slide on the slide. We sat on a bench and enjoyed watching all sorts of kids and some parents sliding on the slide. We then came back to our hotel and went for a nice swim. Can't believe that we will be home tomorrow. Really looking forward to seeing Roswell, my garden and sleeping in my own bed.

7-16-08

Another great day. We left Cody early in hopes of having a better chance of seeing wildlife in Yellowstone. Not as much luck today. I think that it was just the route we took today had other amazing things to see. We drove along Lake Yellowstone, which had a glassy finish at this time of the morning. We got out and went for a walk at Giant Thumb. I had noticed a large brown rock nearby, I was startled when I realized that large brown rock was actually a very large bison. We got to Old Faithful just in time to see it erupt and then we walked along the trails to see many other geysers. Check out the Old Faithful webcam. This area is really a super volcano with lots of seismic activity. It is surreal to see the bubbling pools all around. As we walked, we enjoyed seeing more bison, pronghorns and elk. After exploring the geysers and getting a bit too much sun, we headed out the west entrance to the park and into Montana. We drove through beautiful and wild Montana and arrived in Helena, the capital of Montana. On our last roadtrip, we got a theme going of visiting state capitals. This will be another to add to our list. We had a nice dinner in the historic part of town and then enjoyed a nice walk through the historic downtown. Really a lot of very unique architecture in the area. We look forward to exploring more tomorrow before heading to Spokane.

7-15-08

Today we stayed in the Wild West Town of Cody. Erik loves Sierra Trading Post. This is mainly a mail order catalog for outdoor gear, but they do have 4 stores. On this trip, Erik has visited 3 of them. One in Boise, one in Cheyenne and now the one in Cody. We spent most of our day visiting the Buffalo Bill Cody Historic Center. This is a series of 5 museums. They call it the Smithsonian of the West. The first museum we visited was the firearms museum. I wasn't too interested in the walls and walls of guns, but it was a little bit interesting to read about who owned the guns and the history behind them. We then visited the museum of American West Art. This had lots of paintings by Charles Russell and Frederick Remington among others. Was especially interesting to read letters that Charles Russell had written which included hand painted stationary. The next museum was the Museum of the Plains Indians. It did a nice job of showing the past and the present of this group of people. The Buffalo Bill Cody Museum might have been the most interesting since it told the story of the man who the town was named after. He was quite the character and was world famous for his Wild West Show. The last museum was the natural history of the Yellowstone area. It was interesting to see and read about the animals and plants at different elevations. We were pretty exhausted after the museums. We went and had some bar be que and then headed downtown to see the gunfight enactment at the Irma Hotel. It was funny, because as we were watching, I was talking to my mom on the phone and she kept hearing gun shots. We then walked through the town looking at the shops and galleries. Tomorrow will be another day in the wild as we head back into Yellowstone for some more exploring.

July 14, 2008

Today we have enjoyed the beauty of the amazing country around Yellowstone and experienced a little bit of the Wild West Culture. We headed out early to make the drive to Yellowstone. It is about a 50 mile drive from Cody to the East entrance of the park. The drive to the park was beautiful and it just got better. As we drove through Sylvan Pass, we saw wildflowers carpeting the ground. We stopped at several spots as we went seeing mountain blue birds, dear, elk and even a BEAR! The bear had just been swimming and was walking towards one of the many steaming fountains in the park. My pictures aren't that good, but the sighting was amazing. As we drove further into the park past Yellowstone Lake, we began to see lots of bison. There were many mother and babies. We even saw some swimming across the river. We went to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and saw 3 mighty waterfalls. Yellowstone is really amazing. It is such a blessing that we still have wild places like this to explore. On the way out of the park, we drove out the Northeast exit and through Cooke City on the Beartooth Highway and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. This was an absolutely amazing drive where switchbacks seemed to climb to the very top of the earth. There were lots of really interesting rock formations and the beauty of the wide valleys, box canyons and snowcapped mountains was absolutely breathtaking. We made it back from Yellowstone in time to have a nice dinner and catch the Nite Rodeo. Each night during the summer, Cody has a rodeo. It had been a long time since either of us had been so we thought we would check it out. What an interesting sport. I spent a lot of time cringing afraid the horse was going to turn too sharply and fall or a bucking horse or bull was going to stomp on a fallen cowboy. I especially had trouble watching the cattle roping. Poor little calves. But all in all, the rodeo was entertaining and very much a part of the Cody scene.

7-13-08

We headed North out of Colorado this morning. One of the first sights we saw after we crossed the border into Wyoming was a real live cattle round up. Not sure why this was going on. We know that Frontier Days are coming up soon in Cheyenne, I am guessing that it had something to do with that. I am guessing in the old days, they didn't need the police to direct traffic when they were going on a cattle drive. Erik said that when he came through on the way down, he saw cowboys herding cattle with motorcycles. One of our first stops of the morning was in Douglass, Wyoming. They claim to be the origin of the Jackalope. This part jackrabbit, part antelope is legend all over the west. We had fun taking pictures next to the town's 8 foot statue of a jackalope. We saw lots of other animals on the beautiful drive today as well. Pronghorn antelope camouflage into almost every hillside. We read that 75% of the world's pronghorn antelope live around Casper, Wyoming. We also saw herds of buffalo and lots of rabbits. Before arriving in Casper, we stopped at a neat natural stone bridge called Ayer's Natural Bridge. In Casper, we came across a really interesting restaurant called Sanford's Grub and Pub. There was a giant Bugs Bunny and Sylvester, old cars made into planters, dinosaurs and sharks. We chose to eat at Hardee's though because we didn't want to wait for 40 minutes. Wyoming is wide open spaces, beautiful rolling hills, snow capped mountains in the distances and amazing gorges and rock formations. We stopped at a place called Hell's Half Acre where there was a huge gorge with painted desert type rocks and Bryce Canyon like hoodoos. The sign said that there is evidence that the Indians used to drive herds of buffalo off the cliff in order to kill them. We then stopped in Thermopolis which is touted as having the world's largest mineral hot springs. (New Zealand begs to differ.) We drove to see the springs and a resident herd of buffalo. We made it into the old West town of Cody about 5pm. Cody is named after Buffalo Bill Cody and definitely has a wild west feeling. They have shoot outs in the street and a rodeo everyday during the summer. Cody is known as the rodeo capital of the world. We ate a dinner of bbq and settled in for the evening.

7-12-08

Today we drove North through Taos, and into Colorado. We arrived at Taos early and walked around the square and looked at the shops that were open. We marveled at the Rio Grande Gorge and made plans to go whitewater rafting there one day. We stopped at a little shop on the way out of town which had lots of Mexican imports. It actually had more Talavera pottery than we saw in Mexico. We had lunch in Pueblo at one of Erik's favorite places, Texas Road House. In Colorado Springs we walked through the Garden of the Gods which is an amazing park that shows the upheaval of two tectonic plates. Red rocks dart out of the earth to form a spine like line for miles. We enjoyed a nice walk and of course I took lots of pictures. I wanted Erik to see the chapel at the Air Force Academy so we made a side trip there too. As we went through the guard gate, they checked the car and the trunk and asked for a can of diet Dr. Pepper to let us go in. She assured us that she was just kidding and wouldn't take the Dr. Pepper when we said sure. The sky cooperated giving me the opportunity to get some nice shots of the chapel shooting into the sky. One funny thing that is hard to see in the pictures is that there was a family carrying a canoe up the steps and into the chapel. We guessed that it was part of an object lesson for a sermon in the morning. We then headed north to Fort Collins, our home for the night.

7-11-08

Spent the day exploring Santa Fe, mainly visiting old haunts. Always fun to look at the galleries. Ate some more good New Mexican food both at lunch and at dinner. This evening there was a major thunderstorm. Lots of lightning and thunder and then the bottom dropped out. We decided to go see a movie. We went to see Wall-E. We enjoyed the movie, but weren't as impressed as the reviews. This has been a nice, laid back day. Tomorrow we head to Colorado.

7-10-08

We woke to blue skies in Santa Fe. We decided to head off to Bandelier National Monument for a hike. The drive there was absolutely beautiful. Beautiful canyons and mesas, lots of color. We got to the park early. It was a perfect day for hiking. It was about 70 degrees and sunny. We slathered on the sunscreen and headed out on the trail. There were several archaeological sites along the trail. The most interesting were the ones high up on the sides of the cliff walls. At some of the sites, there were kiva ladders you could climb to get up to the dwellings. We had fun climbing and exploring. We enjoyed a climb up a trail that offered some great views and we were able to watch lizards and chipmunks scurry. Oh, I almost forgot that we saw a fox near the visitor center. Was strange to see such a wild animal so near civilization. We decided to take one last trail, the Alcove Trail. After winding through a beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest, we came to a sign that warned those with health problems or fear of heights not to go any further. There was a series of ladders that climbed 140 feet to a cave dwelling and kiva. I climbed the first ladder with little problem. I felt a little wobbly, but was able to go on. The next ladder was about twice as high and just about did me in. With my arms and legs feeling like jello, I decided I shouldn't continue. I really wanted to, but my arms and legs just wouldn't let me. I sat down and waited as Erik continued up the last ladder to explore further. I ate peanuts and drank water thinking I just needed more energy. Everyone coming down, said that it was much harder to go down. This was not good news for me. I finally got up the courage to go down. It was harder. My legs were just shaking, making it really hard to make my way down the ladder. I don't know what the problem was, I am usually, not afraid of heights at all. I finally did make it down. The last ladder was no problem at all. It took me most of the afternoon, for my legs and arms not to feel like jello. We drove into the town of Los Alamos after passing "Do Not Enter, Explosives" signs along the way. Los Alamos is built on the top of several mesas with canyons separating parts of town. It was really weird to see such a modern city out in the middle of nowhere. We had to go through a check point to get into the city. The National Lab has projects and buildings all over town. I had a really messy green chili burrito for lunch. We then headed back into Santa Fe. I wasn't feeling very well, so we took a break at the hotel before heading out again. (I think that I might have had a bit of altitude sickness.) We then headed out of town to one of my favorite New Mexican restaurants. It is a hole in the wall hamburger and steak place out on the way to Las Vegas. Bobcat Bite is out in the middle of nowhere but is always standing room only. We sat at the counter in front of a window and watched the hummingbirds while eating green chile laced goodies. I had a yummy grilled cheese sandwich and Erik had a green chili cheese burger. Bobcat Bite is on the Bobcat Ranch and got its name because the bobcats used to come out of the hills to be fed on the porch of the ranch. I once actually saw a bobcat near this restaurant. On our way back into town, we went on a drive and watched a beautiful sunset as we looked at adobe houses gracing the hillside. Santa Fe, continues to be one of my favorite places to visit.

Rainy Wednesday July 9, 2008

The theme for today was RAIN. We drove through flash floods in El Paso. We headed North into New Mexico in the rain. We had lunch in Alamogordo in the rain. We drove up to Cloudcroft and Ruidoso, in the rain. We drove North through the desert in the rain. Finaly, just outside of Santa Fe, we finally saw those famous, blue, Santa Fe skies. Don't really want to complain, because rain is really needed here and rain is really amazing in the desert. You can watch the storm clouds gathering for miles and miles. The smell of rain in the desert is so intoxicating. Driving in a downpour or trying to stroll down the shopping district of Ruidoso in the rain is not so fun. Oh well, we made it safely to our beloved Santa Fe and saw lots of new country on the new route that we took. We even scoped out a few ghost towns with great old buildings that would be fun to renovate. It is a bit cool and breezy in Santa Fe, but there is a beautiful sunset and the air smells so fresh. We are really looking forward to our time in this magical place. We were happy to see that our hotel was only a short walk to one of our favorite restaurants in Santa Fe. We enjoyed green chili tamales, chili rellenos and sopapillos at the Blue Corn Cafe. Now we are enjoying a beautiful sunset as we chill in our hotel room.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

This morning we awoke to rain and were a little worried that we would not be able to go to Mexico as planned. But, it cleared up a bit so we headed out. We parked near the border and then took a taxi across the Rio Grande. Acuna is just over the border from Del Rio. Hidalgo Street is where it is all happening. Lots of little shops selling Mexican pottery, glass and more. About every other storefront was a dentist. Going over the border to go to the dentist is a very popular thing to do here. We enjoyed a nice meal at Crosby's. It is a famous old restaurant immortalized in songs by George Strait and ZZ Top. Erik had a $12 T-Bone steak. I had a taco platter. The rain really helped to cool things off which was welcome as we traveled today. After making our way back over to the US, we headed West again. The Big Bend region of Texas is really beautiful. Colorful mountains and canyons and the most amazing sky. We enjoyed strolling through the art colony of Marathon. What a neat little town in the middle of nowhere. We visited the Paisano hotel in Marfa. This hotel has hosted presidents and actors. It was the home to James Dean, and Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of Giant. Marfa was the site of two Oscar winning movies this year, "No Country for Old Men" and "There will be Blood." We had hoped to camp in Marfa and go out to see the mysterious Marfa Lights. But, it was pretty cloudy so we kept heading West. Near Valentine, we came upon an interesting piece of art. It was a storefront building that looked like a Prada Shoe Store. This was really in the middle of nowhere. The whole site was like a big cache, where people left their business cards anchored by a rock. As we headed down the road, we saw amazing sky, a drug blimp, a road runner and a tarantula! We made it to Van Horn and decided to call it a night. We went to eat at a colorful restaurant called Chuy's that boasted of being in the John Madden Hall of Fame. (Not sure what that meant, but the food was good and they even had wireless. ) Besides the many sports related pennants hanging from the walls, there was a mural on the wall of Chuy's being blessed by Jesus. So, I guess that Chuy's was not only blessed by John Madden, but also by Jesus Christ. After we finished eating, we found a hotel for the evening. I've been trying to catch up on my writing since I was wiped out last night.

Monday 7-7-08

Today we sadly said our "see you laters" to my parents in Nac and headed West. We followed the historic Old San Antonio Road from Nac all the way to San Antonio with a few detours along the way. The drive was very pretty as we made our way through the piney woods and the hill country. We stopped in Dime Box, to see a dime in a box? We continued on and went to Salt Lick Bar Be Que which is a great old restaurant out in Driftwood, Tx. Their motto is "You can smell our pitts from miles around." This was a return trip for us. We really enjoyed our bbq and the peach cobbler for dessert. We decided to go into San Antonio to get a glimpse of the World's Largest Cowboy boots. About that time, the bottom dropped out and it started pouring. We found the giant boots in front of the Sax 5th Ave at the North Star Mall. We pulled into the parking garage and took a little nap while waiting out the storm. After we got our shot, we headed West again. Again, the bottom dropped out and it poured. You could hardly see the road. Eventually, it cleared up a bit and we were able to see the beautiful country as we headed for Del Rio. Castroville and Bracketville both looked really interesting. After arriving in Del Rio, we set off to find some authentic Del Rio food. We came across Memos, an old restaurant that looks out over the lazy blue spring fed river that winds its way through town. We enjoyed a nice dinner and then took a walk along the river and through a neighborhood with some beautiful old homes. We decided to take a different way back and were glad that we had our GPS receiver with us because the roads didn't quite match up. Tired after a pleasant but long day of travel, we settled into our hotel for the evening.

4th of July Weekend in Nac

4th of July Weekend in the Oldest Town in Texas

This weekend we have just taken it easy. We left Austin on Thursday and took a scenic drive to Nacogdoches, stopping along the way at interesting sights like the world's largest Longhorn and the world's largest birdhouse. We arrived in Nac, just a little before my sister and her family arrived from Houston. The rest of the long weekend has been spent just enjoying family. On Friday, we had a lot of fun going geocaching. This is a family hobby that I introduced about 4 years ago. It has really taken off with Juli and her family. We not only found caches, but we also checked on caches we had hidden. We watched a wimpy fireworks display from the mall parking lot. On Saturday, we went on a nice tour of my alumni Stephen F. Austin State University. My nephew Chase is thinking about going to school here next year. We would love for him to be the 3rd generation of our family to go to this great university. One fun thing that happened was that I showed my nephew how to text Google to find information. Luckily he has an unlimited texting plan because he starting texting questions to Google in great numbers. If you have a text plan on your phone, you can call the numbers that represent GOOGLE and then ask a question like define: metamaniacal or weather:98274. Chase immediately saw great uses for this as a learning tool. On Sunday, we enjoyed a nice church service and lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant and then just had a lazy afternoon. This was great since, I have come down with a really nasty cold. No fun! Hopefully, I will be getting better soon.

Bats!

After leaving NECC, my husband and I headed out on our 3 week road trip back home. Our first stop was a beautiful spot on the Guadelupe River in Historic Gruene. We had a great Texas meal in beautiful old gristmill. We then headed for the great city of Austin. (Many call it the Seattle of the South.) We are staying right by the Congress Street Bridge. The cool thing about this is that the world's largest urban bat colony lives under this bridge. People gather at dusk each night to watch the Mexican Tailless bats leave their roost in swarms to go feast on insects. Erik and I got a great view of the bats from the bridge as they took off from the bridge. Very cool to see the swarms of bats against the sky in the distances as they made their way to their feeding grounds. If you ever get to Austin, make sure to check out the bats. Interesting Bat Facts

• The bats provide a valuable service to the Austin community by consuming between 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects nightly!
• Bats can live to be 30 years old.
• Mother bats give birth to a single pup each year. The pups birth weight is nearly 1/3 that of its mother.
• Bats are mammals and nurse the pups from mammary glands. Each female recognizes her pups voice and smell and will nurse only her pup.
• During migrations to Mexico and back, bats may reach an altitude of 10,000 feet and velocities of 60 miles per hour.

Shania and Friends in San Antonio