Retired and Trippin

We were on the highway at 8:00 AM.  It was windy, mostly sunny and 45 degrees.  Our route today was 61 north to Hutchinson, 50 east to Emporia, I-35 north to Ottawa, 59 north to Lawrence and K-10 east to the Kansas City area. Soon after we left Pratt, as we traveled north on 61, the clouds quickly obscured the sun. I tried to take a photo at each town or city as we drove through. Carl stopped for gas in Florence, where we took a little break.  By the time we left Florence the sun was shining again.  We stopped for lunch at Luigi's in Ottawa. Our trip ended at 2:05 PM as we pulled into our garage.  We covered 271 miles today and a little over 2,600 for the entire trip.  The highest temperature we saw today was 66 and it was windy all day.  We enjoyed our time with Carl, Marge, Gary and Denah - it was a GREAT trip. To see all the photos taken today click on this link -  Day 9 Photos

It was 43 degrees when we departed our hotel in Tucumcari, NM at 8:00 AM.  It looked to be another beautiful day.  Our route today was simple - Highway 54 east all the way to our destination in Pratt, KS. As we drove across Texas the wind started picking up and we were assaulted and battered by tumbleweeds.  At times there were groups of them blowing across the highway and I just couldn't miss all of them.  Chris took this photo of a small tumbleweed blowing across the road in front of us in Stratford, TX. In Meade, KS we enjoyed lunch at the Chuckwagon Restaurant before visiting the Dalton Gang Hideout.  Eva Dalton was a sister of the men comprising the Dalton gang. She and her husband owned a small house in Meade.  Eva's criminal brothers were known to visit her at this house. Eva and her husband also owned a barn (now used as the museum) just down the hill from the house. It was discovered later, after Eva and her hubby moved out of town, that there was ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wife, girlfriend and best friend!  We won't mention her age 😎 Our day started at 8:00 this morning under clear skies with a temperature of 34.  We traveled south on I-25 a short distance to exit 139, where we went east on 380 to the Valley of Fires Recreation Area (just west of Carrizozo, NM).  The Valley of Fires is a lava flow created 2,000 to 5,000 years ago, making it one of the youngest lava flows in the U.S.A.  The lava did not come from a volcano but from extrusions in the earth's crust.  This lava flow is 160 feet deep.  A nature trail through the lava flow was very interesting and enjoyable.  In the photo below Carl and Chris are checking out a crevice in the flow. From Carrizozo we turned north on eastbound Hwy 54, which took us to Vaughn, where we took 60 eastbound.  Just east of Vaughn we spotted antelope.  Denah was able to capture this shot from their moving vehicle. Further east on 60 at Fort Sumner, NM we...

Sun rising over Silver City, NM - We left our hotel in Silver City, NM at 8:20 (clear blue skies and a chilly 39 degrees), gassed up nearby, and took off northbound on route 15.  We were headed to the Gila Cliff Dwellings about 45 miles away. A short distance north of Silver City I slowed for two deer in the roadway and then realized more were coming out of the woods to the left.  I was too slow reacting to get a photo but Denah, in a car behind us, captured this photo out the driver's window. This route up to Gila Cliff Dwellings was challenging with hills and turns galore.  Eighteen miles had no center line and the roadway was extremely narrow.  The Tail of the Dragon has nothing on Hwy 15. It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to reach Gila Cliff Dwellings.  After some COVID related instruction from a park ranger we started our 1 mile roundtrip hike to see the sights. We pulled out of the Gila Cliff Dwellings parking lot at about 11:45 AM (Chris and I w...

At 8:00 AM we departed our hotel in Alamogordo, NM under sunny skies.  It was a chilly 34 degrees.  It's a good thing Carl and Marge have heated gear.  We traveled south on route 70 to the White Sands National Monument.  The road through White Sands is paved for awhile and then turns to sand.  The last time Chris and I visited the road was well packed.  I told Carl that I thought he'd have no problem on the sand road.  I was wrong (first time this year).  In places there was some pretty deep soft sand, probably due to the high winds yesterday.  Fortunately Carl has skills and he made it unscathed. We continued south on 70 and I-25 to Las Cruces, where we had burgers at Orange Cow Burgers.  They were as good as any burger I've ever had the pleasure to eat. After burgers we traveled west on Hwy 9, which parallels the New Mexico border with Mexico.  A good portion of this route was close enough that we could see the border wall.  ...

 The plan today was to visit Carlsbad Cavern National Park.  The website said it opened at 8:00 and the first 1,000 people who showed up got tickets.  Everyone after that got the big green weenie.  We left the hotel in Carlsbad, NM at 7:15 AM under clear skies with a temperature of 48 degrees.  We arrived at the cavern parking lot at 7:45 AM and were shocked to see all the cars already there.  The line to get in was backed up to the far reaches of the parking lot.  One lady ahead of us claimed she was about 450th in line. With good intentions we got in line.  Thirty minutes later we'd moved about 30 feet.  It appeared our wait would be a good two hours, maybe more.  The website also said to expect a wait of up to an hour for the elevator bringing cavern visitors back to the surface.  None of us wanted to spend the entire day waiting in lines so we hit the road. Route 62 took us back to Carlsbad, NM and route 285 took us north to Art...

 It was a beautiful, but cold, morning.  Skies were blue-clear and the temperature was 36 when we departed Plainview, TX at 9:00 AM.  Interstate 27 took us south to FM-54 westbound to Littlefield, TX.  The water tower proudly proclaimed this to be the hometown of Waylon Jennings.  I did not stop to take a photo.  From Littlefield our route was 385 south to Levelland, TX; 114 west to Whiteface, TX; 125 west into New Mexico, where 125 turned south to 380, which took us into Tatum, NM. The website, roadsideamerica.com, proclaims Tatum to be the "Metal Art Town" ( https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/15688 ). The street signs along the main drags were metal art. We stopped at Poor Boys Metal Art and checked out all their outside displays.  We were disappointed that their shop was closed as a couple folks in our group were itching to do some shopping. Our group took off southbound on 206 headed to Hobbs, NM for lunch.  Just north of Lovington I came to ...

Today started out better than the day before. We could see signs of the sun and it was not raining - partly sunny and 54 degrees when we departed our hotel in Alva, OK at 8:35 AM.  The photo below was taken from the hotel parking lot before we left. Our route today: 281 south from Alva, OK; 412 west to Woodward, OK; 15 west to Shattuck, OK; 283 south; 60 west into Texas, where we stopped to walk on the Canadian River Wagon Bridge near Canadian, TX.  The bridge, originally built in 1916, is over 3,200 feet long.  This is Denah and Chris before we started across the bridge. We continued west on 60 to Pampa, TX, where stopped for lunch at Chubby's Burritos.  From Pampa, Hwy 70 took us south to Turkey, TX (home of the legendary Bob Wills); 86 west to Quitaque, TX; FM 1065 north to Caprock Canyons State Park, which we intended to visit.  A ranger at the entrance to the park, however, turned us away since we did not have reservations.  The park was at capacity!?!...

 We're off on our annual spring break trip.  Carl and Marge on their Honda Goldwing motorcycle, Gary and Denah in their GMC Yukon, and Chris and I in our Mustang convertible.  We departed Shawnee at 9:55 AM in light rain and it was 46 degrees. Due to road closures and detours our route was not what we planned. We traveled south out of Shawnee, KS on Hwy 7 to Olathe, where we caught Hwy 169 southbound.  South of Garnett a road closure forced us onto 59 south to Moran, KS, where we turned west on Hwy 54 to El Dorado, where we stopped at the Beijing Bistro for lunch.  Then we went south on Hwy 77 to Arkansas City, 166 west to Caldwell and 81 south into Oklahoma, 11 west to 64 west to Alva, OK.  We stopped for the day in Alva at 5:45 PM having traveled 358 miles. The high temperature today was 67 (briefly). It was cloudy all day with light rain and mist for a good part of it. Between Eureka, KS and El Dorado, KS we ran through some thick fog. We did not make an...