The County Fair in the rain

Last weekend we went with my nephews to the fair. Despite the fact that it was raining. My nephew probably had more fun since he could splash in the puddles. He also got to climb into a fire truck and got a junior fire fighter hat. (I was amazed to learn the rather small truck --no ladders-- cost around $600k, must be built by Haliburton).

Another Utah pic

I was going through photos from the trip and thought I'd share this one.

The wired home

My dad and I just struggled for hours to drill two holes for speaker wire one in the living room flooring and a corresponding one 14 inches deeper in the sub flooring from the basement. (and trying not to get lost in between the two.) Everything went wrong, the holes were not close enough, the bit got lodged in the space between and it was tough to get it free by drilling a bigger hole around it -- could have easily been avoided with a 2 foot long drill bit.

Right after we finally prevailed and fished the wire through, I get a call from my only guy friend in town. I tell him this story and he laughs!. "You know I install cable for a living right? I've got a six foot long bit in my car right now. And these magnetic snakes that can fish a wire through like nothing"

But now I've got the rear surround channels going with a minimum of visible wire. Next project installing a flat screen above the fireplace (and hopefully concealing the cables).

UnBoxing Day

The movers got here at about 9am and were done by 11am. That means we spent from 11-7pm unboxing things. I'd say we're more than 2/3s done. It's really starting to look like a home now.

The movers had a stop in North Carolina before us and they used red tags to number both their and our stuff on the same truck. Bad idea. So the woman in NC open a few boxes of women's clothing that she knew weren't hers and she began to wonder if her husband had a mistress. Then she saw the name (my wife's) and asked the movers about it. They're arranging for those boxes to be delivered here.

Ikea Song

The song Ikea by Jonathan Coulton on the disc Smoking Monkey is FUNNY.

"Ikea founded by the Norsemen/ selling furniture to college students and divorced men"

ha!

[If you haven't discovered Pandora.com yet for your internet radio needs, please do. The stations are built rather intelligently around your personal musical preferences.]

We firmly resolved on this move that we'd have no Ikea type furniture. We're aided in that by the absence of an Ikea store for 200 miles. But still we're standing fast to our principles. So when we shopped for a higher caliber of dining room furniture we were more than a little disappointed that it was some assembly required -- by ALAN WRENCH! Grrr. But we got the legs on the dining room chairs despite one of them lacking the pre-drilled holes all the others have (and need). And now they're very nice sturdy non-Ikea chairs.

The County Fair

The fair started today. It's about 4 blocks from our house. I can hear the occassional roar of the crowd. A red, white and blue float was parked in front of my house today.

We'll go sometime this week with my nephews. That will be fun.

The Ballet

We went to see the NYC Ballet saturday night. I mention that so you don't think we're deprived of culture in a one stop light town. (It has four stop lights thank you).

Cable and internet get hooked up tomorrow.

Strike breaker moi?

Oh that cheap(ish) hotel on Chicago's lakefront? Turns out the workers are striking there. Now I'm one of the last guys who'd cross a picket line (let alone a Chicago picket line) but there were no picketters when we arrived. The next morning there they were when we went out.

Maybe they just started that day? And we couldn't be faulted? Nope. This is a THREE YEAR old strike. Ooops. Our apologies to the union workers.

A Life without Stuff

Life in the new house so far is great fun, but it feels like a secluded getaway cabin mostly because it's pretty empty. The movers won't arrive til 7/19 or 22nd. But we went out and bought a bunch of new furniture (not duplicating anything that's coming with the movers of course) and that gets delivered tomorrow. So it'll start to feel more like a home then I imagine.

No net access at the house till around 7/19. So I'm spending a good amount of time at the cafe. Tonight's open mike night. Some impressive college age talent. A banjo is playing now.

The DMV is about 400 feet from our house so today I got a NY state license and started the process of switching over the car to NY registration.

A DMV in a small town is _not_ painfull. Short lines, friendly staff and they answer questions even if they are really in their job specs! They'll look stuff up for you we found zero surliness.
OH NO! Apparently stand up comics are allowed tonight too! Bad bad idea. There's no help from a 2 drink mininum when drinking coffee.

Up next electric mandolin. There's a fair number of hippies in this town. And that's a good thing.

Send in the clown. Don't bother we're here.

We're here!
It feels great to not be _going anywhere_ anymore. About an hour outisde our new home town the wife said "This is the most beautiful place we been on the whole trip...except for Vail." Which puts it thrid to Interlochen, Switzerland.

We got into out house saturday June 8 at 8pm. There was still some daylight. We discover my parents (or maybe magic elves) had been busy. There were fresh flowers in several rooms, towels and candles in the bathrooms, a shower curtain, some snacks in the kitchen cabinets, a set of sheets for the bed. All the essentials to spend our first night there.

And then we saw it .... over the mantle...staring at us...a pale white, slightly sad, slightly menacing, slightly cracked...ceramic CLOWN! Aaaaaahhhh!

New Albany

Today we’re headed to New Albany outside of Columbus Ohio to see my cousin. We already missed the turn off to take an all Interstate route there so now we’re wending through state and county roads in IN to shorten the route. (But maybe the lower speeds under cut the savings.) The good news is we had decided the Armish Acres in Nappanee was not worth the detour. After missing a route we wanted it is no longer a detour but instead right on our way. So Amish lunch part 2. [From the brochure we can tell already this is also just Amish-themed not 100% authentic. Ah well.]

Wife keeps singing “Green Acres”

I do believe I just saw a movie hous (show Pirates) offering free summer shows. Wah?
Passing a bunch of Menonite churches now.

We decided not to have another Amish lunch since this was a pre fix menu of an Amish dinner and sounded like much more food than we needed.

But as we left we saw a real Amish family in a horse and buggy so that made the experience worthwhile.

State route 33 was a great scenic and not too slow paced way through IN and half of OH.

At my cousin's now. Great to see his beautiful daughter for the first time.

The Wife

I was drivng through Northern Indian and we pulled off to switch driver.
WIFE: What’s the speed limit in Indiana?
ME: [silence]
WIFE: [laughs] You don’t know do you?
ME: The cop will tell you when he pulls you over.

The wife also did something exceptionally er… absentminded. And I said “that’s going in the blog.” She begged that it not. And then got really firm. “I should have to sign a release or something.”

You'll notice I'm not telling what it was.

Footage

I've also been shooting video of some of the best scenery on this trip.

Last year in the rain forrest of Brazil I shot some footage that will be used by Incredible Places in their videos of ...yep Incredible Places. I'll have them take a look at some of my stuff of Utah and Devil's Monument or even the Badlands for possible use too.

Sad note: I did discover that all my stills of the Badlands were at the lowest res 640x480. That's fine forthe blog but lousy for print. Oh well of all the impressive locales the Badlands photographed least well (dull colors). Still a dumb move. Almost as dumb as leaving pillows behind.

MovingScam.com saves the day

I just heard from a friend that she hired movers and found a different company's truck arrive on moving day. The co. they hired had a B rating with BBB and this new co. had an F. Plus the truck was half full with someone else's stuff. They would have to do multiple trips (costing more -- local move). My friend had heard of movingscam.com on this very blog and turned away the scam movers delaying one day to get the legit company's truck and people.

So this blog has accomplished at least that much.

A Taste of Chicago

Many people have told me I'd love Chicago. Is that uniquely _I_ would enjoy it? Or any given person would?

Well they were right. Previously I had spent only half a day in Chicago and liked it. Today we rambled down the 90 east until we hit downtown. I certainly don't know my way around and the wife has never been at all so we decided on a road that would take us to the lakefront near the art museum. Traffic was terrible but maybe that's just typical dowtown traffic. We decided that rather than pay to park we'd just check in to the nearest hotel and use their parking. We fully expected outrageous big city pricing. The first place we found was The Congress Plaza Hotel. The place looked elegant. We were pleasantly suprised at the room rate of $99 a night. But then the room was...well the elegance of this hotel has faded a bit. Nothing wrong with the room aside from the smell of too much cleaning chemicals. The parking fee was $24 and the internet connection was $10 a day so now the low price made more sense.

Then we walked about and just opposite the hotel was The Taste of Chicago. We couldn't have done things better if we'd planned for it. We took a look at the food offerings and pressed on to the Art Institute. Only to discover at 5:10 pm that thursdays are free after 5pm. Yes! We toured the modern wing and the contemporary wing.

One exhibit was a pile of hard candies on the floor. And I had seen people eating the same candies. Then a guy grabbed a handful. I said to the wife "people are eating the candy from that exhibit." She was incredulous. We couldn't believe big city art fans could be such philistines.
Then I read the placard which encouraged us to take a piece of candy and taste the art. So I did. And a young woman nearby told me not to eat the art.

Photography was not discouraged in the museum.

Then back to the Taste to have a taste of: ribs, catfish, beef satays, garlic potatoes, collard green egg roll, Sweet Baby Ray's pulled pork BBQ, fried dough and cheesecake...but you know just a taste of 'em.

Train was playing so we sat down to hear "Drops of Jupiter" and a few others. Then we walked through the theater area and back to our aromatic room on the 11th floor. I look down on the El (metro) like a model train set writ large.


Should be noted that thus far the trip has but nearly traffic jam free despite the holiday ( a bit slow near Fort Collins) until we hit Illinois. We actually sat still on the 90 for a few minutes.

I left my pillows in South Dakota

Sing it now. In the style of Tony Bennett.

You'll recall an earlier entry in which our hero was feeling pretty clever by using the household pillows schlepped from LA instead the too-flat pillows provided by the TravelLodge of Spearfish SD.

Well today I noticed they weren't in the car. It seems I was also clever enough to leave them behind. Grr! They nice relatively new TempurPedic pillows.

The Movies

We need to re-watch the following based on locations we've just visited:
Close Encounters
Deadwood
North by Northwest
Dances with Wolves
Fargo

What am I forgetting? Add them in the comments please.

Madison

A few people have told me Madison WI is just like Albany NY. Turns out they're right. Downtown is centered on the capital building and as we approached we saw there was something big happening on the capital steps. Turns out every wednesday in summer is a concert at the capital.

We grabbed an outdoor dinner at Frida's a mexican place and then joined the masses surrounding the capital just in time to hear a salute to eash branch of the armed forces followed by the 1812 overture (no cannons).

Next we dropped into a very authentic Irish pub called Brocach complete with snugs (the Irish style booth). I had a great Guinness, the wife had a Bailey's coffee.

We got a room at the Best Western directly across from the capital building. Here's the view out our window.

Amish Lunch

Just before Wisconsin in St. Charles, MN we saw a turn off for an Amish Market and restaurant. It was 4:20 and we hadn’t had lunch so we’re not sure if this is late lunch or early dinner. The wife had no prior exposure to anything Amish and was excited for it. Until we went in. It was more Amish themed than Amish owned and operated. In her words “This is Amish like Sbarro is Italian.” The cherry pie was good though.

Minne Driver

The wife started us off on the road east today and no sooner than we had remarked “Wow, we’re making good time, we’re halfway across Minnesota already.” We noticed a police car with lights a flashing right behind us. He informed us he had clocked us at 81 in a 70 MPH zone and had been behind us for two minutes before we pulled over.

He ran our info and let us go with a warning to slow down.

If you’ve wondered what southern Minnesota looks like you’ve probably already seen it:
Or maybe more like this:

WaterPark Fun

We woke late -- 9am. These rooms are suprisingly dark and maybe we're not used to the time difference. I mentioned how late it stayed light out. It seems wrong. Any way we had a few quick trips down the water slide (it would be just to the right of this photo -- I'll try to shoot a new shot) and a soak in the hot tub. I convinced the wife that the Pirate ship was really only for the babies as evidence by the one foot depth of the water.

>>Arrrby's. I like sushi. What Pirate's don't like sushi?

No particular place to go.

Now that the major sites on this trip are behind us and we're on the long (mostly) straight road home the moving away aspect feels more real. The vacation is over and the rest is just putting miles behind us. It could also be that we've reached a halfway point in the trip and it's just as far to return to LA as to press on to NY.

One Arm - Tanned It.

You can tell who spends more time in the driver's seat. I've got a pretty tan left arm now. Today I put sunscreen only on the left arm to give the right a chance to catch up.

McBride

I was never much of a western fan but now that the terrain looks familiar I can get into them more. AMC has a marathon going. I'm watching John Wayne in McBride now. They said they were in Texas but it looks like Utah.

Holiday in Sioux Falls

After two bad hotels in a row we resolved to ride through downtown Sioux Falls looking for a nicer place. But at 8pm (still bright dayliight) the very nice looking downtown area had completely rolled up its sidewalks. We saw a number of good looking restaurants and shops and they were all closed. There wasn't a single person in any of the windows we could see.

We resigned ourselves to staying at the more budget type hotels we passed closer to I-90, then the wife saw signs for the airport and headed that way. We found a Ramada (Ramadan!) and what a Ramada it was. It has a large indoor water park with slides and a pirate ship and a Tiki bar.

We asked at the desk about a local fireworks display and got directions to the fairgrounds. It was free. They had a philharmonic playing in front of the grandstands and a small carnival with rides be hind them.

Maybe this was why downtown was a ghost town. Everyone was here.

We grabbed seats on the bleachers and as darkness settled the show began. Wow! Huge show. So many fireworks, so big, so close and so frequent. Neither the wife nor I had even seen such a big fireworks show.

The wife was literally moved to tears. (Not sure if the tears show in this photo.) And she resolved to be more patriotic. Should be easy in our new small town home with a victorian house just perfect to drape bunting over.

WIFE'S EDIT: I AM patriotic. I am simply tired of patriotism being reserved for conservative republicans. I love my country too which is why I am a liberal democrat.

Weather

I should have mentioned one good thing that happened in WY; temps dropped to around 85 degrees F. And they’ve stayed around there since. It’s been very comfortable in SD. We got a bit of rain as we crossed the middle of the state. But since we’ve driven through areas of the country afflicted with wild fires, and soon we’re headed to tornado land, we’ve been very fortunate.

Everything East of Badlands gets worse

Wow! Once you’ve left the Badlands behind South Dakota has almost as little scenery to offer as Wyoming did. It’s just the plains and they are plain. Okay occasionally you see water and the grass is a sign of life so it’s more hospitable than the Badlands but less interesting to look at. We’re tempted to stop at the Corn Palace just to break up the drive. We’re aiming for Sioux Falls tonight for dinner and a hotel.

When the 90 crossed the Missouri River we did turn off at a rest area to switch drivers and I discovered it was a mini-museum to Lewis and Clark.

Music DuJour

We listened to disc 5 of the set of 10. It was better than #4 which was better than #3. I submitted to a reprise playing of Tim McGraw (4 tracks this time).

The wife was a bit quiet. Later she said “You’ll notice I’ve been really quiet. That’s because I don’t want to say anything stupid and have you put it in the blog.”

Next the wife cued up Songs that Won the War (as n WWII) and a Harry Connick CD.

Badlands.

They are bad. Ugly too. Impressive looking but not pretty. We whipped out the national parks pass and took the scenic drive just off I-90. And since we traveled mostly east it wasn’t too much of a detour. IF anyone ever doubts how badly the white man screwed the red man just visit the lands we “gave” them. Deserts and oh here’s a nice spot for you it’s called the Badlands but it’s really nice. The name oh that’s like: “He’s so baaad!” You know? No?

Wall Drugs.

You go here mainly because you’ve seen signs for it for miles and tour books mention it. It is the world’s largest drug store. But it’s more of a mini-theme mall. Imagine if the Maddonna Inn family ran a very large drug store. The wife mentioned that this must be what Knott’s Beery Farm was like in the 1940’s before the first ride went up. It’s not implausible that Wall Drug will add a roller coaster or similar soon. A few years later it could be a them park. We drank some of the famous free ice water, took pictures, ate pizza and ice cream and got back on the road.

Here's their wax scene recreating Wild Bill Hicock's last poker game.

Rushmore Redux

We returned to the Rushmore monument this morning and did it right, that is we parked and walked up to the observation deck. And I stand corrected, when viewed from the proper angle it is much more impressive. It’s not just that some clever photographer made famous the most flattering angle. The basic angle (meaning standing at the base) is very impressive, as hopefully some of these pics will indicate.

I was also wrong about their dimensions. The faces are 60 feet tall. An eye is 9 feet across. The noses are 20 feet long except Washington's which is 21.

We arrived listening to NPR’s concert of patriotic music and the 1812 Overture was playing as the monument came into sight. I never knew the 1812 Overture has nothing to do with the war of 1812 but rather commemorates Russia’s defeat of the French.

Leaving rushmore we caught the NPR program Human Kind about Checks and Balances. It was a disturbing reminder of how little checking and balancing our current government does. Helen Thomas was featured. Thank God for her, the last of a breed.

The Readers

The wife was never a big fan of this blog. From the beginning she’d roll her eyes. “Who’s gonna want to read that. I’m going on the trip and I don’t want to read it.” When I mentioned the first couple posts got comments she was incredulous, “Who even knows about it to read it.” When the best friend mentioned it was a short easy read she softened a bit.

Last night she read it start to finish. “Hey is this whole blog just gonna be all the dumb things I said?” No. Not the WHOLE blog.

Tips?

If anyone knows of sights of interest not far from i-90 in MN or WS please leave a comment on this entry.

Rapid City

Our hotel is in Rapid City. It has wi-fi -- you may have noticed. We set out for downtown which is charming and found a place for a nicer than fast food or sports bars dinner. We found the restaurant at the Alec Johnson Hotel. A historic building. The downtown area has statues of all the US president on each street corner. That seemed like a good idea. Dinner was decent. I had Walleye.

The city was founded by failed gold miners who thought they could build the next Denver. But it was very slow to grow unlike Deadwood which exploded in just 20 years. They marked the city limits by compass and bound it by the streets named North, South, East and West. But they didn't correct for compass readings and the city remains alligned to magnetic north rather than true north. My dad will enjoy that fact.

After the Badlands today we don't have anything we intend to see until Chicago. So I'm checking www.roadsideamerica.com for options. I don't think the world's smallest church or the world's largest cheeto are worth an hour detour though.

The Eye of the Needle

To drive the scenic Needle Highway you have to buy a $10 ticket. We did and there were some impressive granite rock formations. The best two shown here. After that there's just a lot of trees and typical mountain scenery. A bit further down the road you have a chance to journey down the "wild life loop" (if you've bought a ticket). We did that too.

We didn't see any wild life for a while. It rained a bit --which made us feel better about deciding not to stay at the Rushmore Monument. Suddenly the wife saw a bird! I missed it because I was busy reading the brochure describing all the animals we might see.

To be fair it also told us the best chances of seeing animals were morning and evening, not I gather 12:45pm.

We saw a few antelope, one donkey and way off in the distance a score of bison.

Rushmore or less

First let me say Mount Rushmore was the lynch pin in planning this whole trip. It was the only fixed location and date. It was the only spot I reserved a hotel in advance. The date was selected because Mount Rushmore does it's fireworks on the 3rd. I had been warn but the tourist literature that people arrive in the early morning to stake out a spot to view the fireworks at night.

So after Deadwood it's not much of a drive to get to Rushmore. We got there about noon. And it's worth noting that most other destinations we barely reached before the light was lost. We got to Grand Canyon, Arches and Devil's Tower around 4pm. (Which is gorgeous light while it lasts.)

Once you're within a few miles you see a garish tourist trap boardwalk style main street offering all the usual things only a vacationer would buy.

The road bends a bit and then you see it. And it's too small. Okay the heads are 40 feet high but compared to a mountain that's not much really. And the most famous view makes the heads look more isolated than they are. We all know politicains like a low camera angle so they can appear larger and more powerful well so do these four dead presidents.

A more common view from the road shows all the rock around them including the rock above the tops of their heads. They look like toys.

As we reached the parking we were told it was full. People parked nearly a mile down the mountain and hiked back up with their gear. Already underwhelmed by the sight of the monument we couldn't bring ourselves to camp out at its base for 8 hours. So we decide we could miss the fireworks and drove on to the Needles Highway.

Deadwood Baby!

Deadwood is fun. A mix of a wild west ghost town, a tourist trap and a casino town. We saw where Wild Bill Hicock was shot. We grabbed a pretty bad breakfast buffet [it was less all you can eat and more all you can stand] at the Gold Dust Casino and lost a couple dollars to the one armed bandits.

I think we'll watch the HBO show now. I tried watching a couple episdoes before but never got into it. Last night we happened upon an episode of Little House on the Praire in which the Ingels and the Edwards leave home to go gold prospecting and stake claims. That was a pretty great set up for our visit to Deadwood.
Oh and this shot should give you an idea why they call it Deadwood.

Day Trips

It just occurred to me, we’ve been averaging a state a day. June 29- NV, June 30 Utah, July 1 – CO, July 2 – WY. And we planned a 10 day journey so a look at the map and yep, most due east or due west cross country routes are about nine states. So factor in our SW to NE, corner to corner, hypotenues route and yeah we need to cover a state a day.

SpearFish

An earlier post tells how we found no room at the (Days) Inn, or at the HoJo. But after settling in to the TravelLodge we walked through the downtown strip – it’s called Main Street to a sports bar and grill. All the cute young girls working there wear referee style uniforms. Food was okay but mostly it felt great to get off the road for a while. Back in the room the biggest complaint was the very thin pillows and only two of them. Fortunately we happen to be traveling with our own. As I went out to the car to get them I saw another guest coming back from his car with his pillows. We commiserated.

Tomorrow we’ll go to Deadwood then Mount Rushmore, and back to Rushmore at night for fireworks.

Here's an image from Vail just for EspressoBuzz

Devil’s Tower

Wow! I almost skipped this? I kind of thought how much better than the pictures can it be up close? Well much much better. This heap of magma alone answers my question of why oh why we need Wyoming. It’s magnificent. From any angle it impresses. And the road to the National Park visitor center wraps right around it a few times before you reach the base. I suddenly wished I was an expert climber. It must be a rare privilege to stand atop that and look at the country around you.

Signs all around invited us to join the fireworks spectacular for the 4th. I hoped that maybe fireworks were to be had several nights over the weekend and we might see some tonight (Sunday) if we stayed around. But I was told the big show happens only on the 4th proper. Ah well. It was still a close encounter to remember forever.

After that we passed through Sundance WY. Namesake of the Sundance Kid. But pass through is about all you’d want to do there.

In general the northeastern corner of WY was very pretty terrain. So many apologies to the state of WY. I spoke too soon.

Happy 65th

It's my grandparents 65th wedding anniversary party today and I was able to be there are even call because I'm in Wyoming. Apparently cell phone service is um....sparse.

NY 2 CA

At Devil's Mount (gorgeous, incredible...more when i can post pix) we saw a car with NY tags and a sign in the window "Cali or bust". I hoped we might run into them and trade stories, but we didn't.

Why Oh Why Wyoming

I wish I could say something nice about the drive [25N to state route 59N] through Wyoming. But it is dull, dull, dull. Ocassionally the monotony is broken up by some road kill. We drove through the national grasslands. You know why they call it grasslands? Cause there is nothing but grass for miles. Dried out yellowish green grass. I began to wish I had some paint so we could watch it dry.

Luckily we stopped in Douglas WY for lunch -- home of the Jackalope -- or we might have missed the turn off for 59N. Apparently in inclimate weather the route is often closed and you have no choice to to turn back to Douglas. Bill, WY is one of the few "towns" on the map in these parts and I think I saw the two buildings in it. One was the post office.
The wife remarked "you don't have to be much at all to get a dot on the map do you?"

The wife kept busting out in song "Where the deer and the antelope pray." That's not a typo . She thought the lyric was about prayerful animals. She's so sweet.
We'll make the Black Hills and Devil's Tower tonight or early evening. Then maybe on to DeadWood.
I hope it's worth it. I'm beginning to wonder why WY exists. I suppose it was too difficult to give Canada Montana and Wyoming. We would have had to seriously divert I-90. Which we just got on headed east. Hard to believe we can just stay on this one road all the way to our new home.

Gambo-Land

The weather cleared before we reached Denver but the outbound traffic didn't. We worried that once we hit Denver and turned north on 25 we would join the holiday escapees in a grid lock jam. And for a few miles we did. Then just when the road signs flashed a warning of heavy holiday traffic ahead, it cleared. A call to Gambo's LA cell phone got us directions to his new Ft. Collins home. It's a beauty. The total surburban American dream come true. 3 car garage, 5 bedrooms, vaulted entry way.

And Old Town Ft. Collins is really charming. It has everything you could want and none of it national-chain-storified. Picture a genuine old town that Old Town Pasadena might have been modeled on and you've got it. There's a college in town so it's a bit hip but totally family centered and the older generation gathers in the the town center courtyard for concerts etc. too. We took the Gambo family out to dinner at a brew-pub facing the concert area. I had a Highlander's Pie. A tasty mix of Lamb Pot Pie and Shepherd's Pie. We're really glad we got to be Gambo and Gurl's first visitors.

The Music

Listened to Disc 3 of 10 today. It's our favortite so far. The wife wished she had packed her John Denver CD for the car, but didn't. She did however own, have and play Tim McGraw's "Set this Circus Down." I had to admit it fit the terrain. I made it through three tracks. I'll admit I enjoyed the lyric "The sky is blue and the sun is shinin', I feel like a bum with a pocketful of diamonds."

The wife also selected Operatica for the journey through the peaks of the rockies. That seemed appropriated. Next we listened to my mix CD from our wedding.

Rain on the Rockies

It's all down hill after Vail. Literally. As we hit the downhill drive toward Denver the rain hit us. Not too heavy. And the Fourth of July weekend traffic headed west was stalled to a standstill so we were glad to be going the unpopular direction.

Co-pilot's Entry #1.

The wife would like the record to reflect I ate a rather large (she says HUGE) chocolate covered S'Mores from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It consists of 4 marshmallows in a 2x2 grid stacked atop a chocolate covered graham cracker. Another chocolate covered graham cracker is used as a roof and then the whole thing is re-dipped in chocolate.

So stipulated. (But I only ate half...the first day)

Lunch in Vail

Most of the scheduled stops on this journey have been my idea. The unscheduled stops have been the wife's idea. She mentioned she had never been to Vail and we should have lunch there. I have only driven through Vail and not spent any time there so this was a good plan. It turned out to be a great plan. The wife declared "Vail is the most beautiful spot in the world except Interlochen, Switzerland."

We had a delicious lunch at Saphire. Mine was grilled trout over a warm spinach salad with a mustard seed dressing. The bread rivaled even Columbus Bakery in Syracuse. The music played over the restaurant's PA seemed highly inappropriate but I enjoyed it: The Who, Boston and Rush. But the location was the key. Few things please me more than sitting on a restaurant deck overlooking a creek (Gore Creek in this case) having a drink or a good meal.

Up into the Rockies.

What a gorgeous drive along 70 with railroad tracks and the river weaving to one side of the highway and then the other. The wife thought it was more impressive than Utah's landscape. I'm not sure. Utah's scenery is explosive, impossible, violent and fascinating. It is not reassuring. You are very aware you're in harsh (alien) terrain. In Colorado you feel more like you're in nature. It must be the trees. The wife is fond of trees and not so fond of desert. And the river. Having the river so close to the road is reassuring as if to say if your car (or horse and buggy) died on you here you could homestead just fine. Not us, we know nothing of homesteading but a given person could I suspect.

Here's a bonus Utah pic:

Blog July 1
We didn't go to the dinosaur museum. So note to the Dinosaur Experience when you check your trackbacks and find the link here, know that if you had a better website, you could well have bilked us of $14 admission. You're going to have to live with that knowledge now.
We did proceed into Old Town Fruita which couldn't be more charming. We saw the statue of the headless chicken. They apparently have a headless chicken festival there each year. I learned about the statue from www.roadsideamerica.com. That is a great resource.

Wireless-less

The only hotel I reserved in advance for this whole trip was outside Mount Rushmore since I expected places would book up dor 4th of July. But as it happens we're pretty close to Rushmore tonight, the 2nd, with no reservation. And every place is booked. Except the travelLodge in Spearfish, SD. Home of the Blackrock Hills Passion Play and the annual Harley Rally (about 700k bikers).

So this place has internet access of a sort. You get on 1 of 2 computers in their lounge. So these posts wikk be mostly without pix and rife with typos as the keyboard I'm on has the letters worn clean off. This proves I'm no touch typer. As before I have a backlog of blogs to post. I should be able to copy and paste from a thumbdrive but some weird characters may result.