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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Home

Just wanted to let everyone know we arrived home safely last night. I will be posting a synopsis of The Trip probably tomorrow so stay tuned.
Lucy and I also want to thank everyone for their comments and support during the past few weeks, so THANKS!
LuDi (name used on the way to Retreat)
DiLu (name used on the way back home)

Lucy and Diane

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Misc photos

Oklahoma City Murrah building memorial







Gettin' down at the Singing' Pig




Vegas, Baby!

Another busy day on the trail. We started with breakfast at a little diner then went to the Grand Canyon. I have always been fascinted with how the Grand Canyon just sort of sneaks up on you. It's a 54 mile drive from Williams to GC and there is nothing in the scenery that even hints that such a spectacular sight is just around the corner. We went to the Mather outcrop, took a few photos, saw the short movie at the visitor center and did some shopping at the bookstore. We didn't stay long since we needed to get on the road.
It was a rather dull drive from Williams to Kingman. Best thing I can say for that section of road is Lucy found a Sonic.
Everything was going well until we were almost to the Hoover Dam area. Then the traffic came to a dead stop. You guessed it - road work! LOL In spite of the delays we made it to the hotel at around 5:30. After checking in, Lucy spent a few hours with her family and I took my great-niece out to dinner.
Tomorrow we will have breakfast with Lucy's son, DIL, and grandson then it's back on the highway. It will be our last day on the road - we will be in Benicia by tomorrow night.
DiLu

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Williams, AZ

This is going to be a short update since I'm not able to get online with my laptop for some unknown reason.
We had an easy drive from Santa Fe and arrived here about 5:00ish local time. After an excellent BBQ dinner at The Singing Pig, we hung out at the restaurant listening to some music. I even got to sing a bit which was great. Now we at back at the B&B where it will soon be lights out. Tomorrow - Grand Canyon.
DiLu

Friday, October 21, 2011

A Day in Santa Fe

Lucy's mom was our gracious Santa Fe tour guide. We went to the cathedral, shopped, had lunch at La Cantina, shopped some more, walked around the plaza, went to a museum, went on a search for churros (found them!), went back to the house for a few hours then out again for dinner at The Shed. Oh, and I shopped a little more.... :) The weather was glorious - a perfect day in Santa Fe.
Tomorrow's destination is Williams, AZ. We plan on making a quick visit to the Grand Canyon on Sunday morning then drive to Las Vegas so I can see my great-niece and Lucy can see The World's Cutest Two-Year-Old, aka Herbie.
Our journey is almost over. Just a few more days on the road then we will be back home in California. It's been a fabulous trip but we're ready to go home.
DiLu

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe

OK, the title of this post is a little lame but I'm tired so it's the best I can come up with.... :)

Before leaving Oklahoma City we went to the Murrah Building Memorial. It's very beautiful and very awful at the same time. Seeing all those empty chairs broke my heart......
I took a few photos and will try to post them tomorrow.

The drive from OK to the New Mexico border was pretty boring. Not at all as interesting as the trip through Missouri. Those folks in OK and the Texas pan handle really need to step up their game when it comes to quality roadside attractions......LOL Best thing I saw was a fake buffalo. Lucky Lucy slept most of the way across Texas. It's not her kind of place....bwahahahaha....

While the stretch of New Mexico along I40 didn't offer any roadside amusements, the scenery made up for the lack of quirky signs. I can't come up with a good adjective. Beautiful isn't quite the right word, perhaps striking is better. The landscape is so different - it's a type of desert I'm not used to seeing - large bushes, scrub trees, rolling hills, range lands, isolated ranches, dry stream beds.

We made to Lucy's mom's house in time to have a great supper and watch the sun set. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Santa Fe tomorrow.

DiLu

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Oklahoma City

List of the roadside attractions Lucy wouldn't let me see:
Jesse James Wax Museum
World's Largest Rocking Chair
Vacuum Cleaner Museum and Factory Store
Midwest Largest Coca Cola Retailer
Meramac Caves
Infant Jesus of Prague National Shrine
Precious Moments Chapel (inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel)

I'm feeling just a wee bit cheated..... :)

Other "interesting" things seen from the highway:
Fireworks store claiming they had black market fireworks (on a big freeway billboard!)
A bar called Du Kum Inn
An antique mall and/or adult bookstore about every 50 miles
The Kum & Go market

Missouri was weirder than we expected and Oklahoma was prettier than we expected. And other than the obligatory road work, the trip was easy peasy.

On a sad note, we had our very last Culvers meal in Springfield. No more Butter Burgers or turtle sundaes until we come back to Wisconsin next year. We were so inconsolable the great folks at the Springfield Culvers actually gave us a 50% discount. It was a nice way to end our Culvers spree.

Tomorrow - west to Santa Fe, New Mexico!

DiLu