WRAP UP

Limestone Highways & green rolling hills


Wyoming...snow and no we don't have shag carpeting, that is to protect the dash from the dogs.


In the Brew House looking up.


Our E-Ticket ride in the "Tub" at the St. Louis Arch!


Arch in St. Louis, MO




Coming home is always either anticlimactic or you are like a horse galloping to the barn. Because we had done so much before the Derby and while we were at the Derby, it wasn't necessary to do much on the way home. In other words, we were burnt out and galloping!

Joe & Sue headed to Nashville on May 2 to find it was under water. Randy & Nancy, Brian and I headed north to go west. We stopped in St. Louis; we stayed 2 nights so could go up the "Arch"(incredible!!!) 683' in this thin structure. You ascend and descend in a "washing machine like tub", 5 seats only and an inside slit for a window so you can occasionally see the stairs that go up to the top should you have a mechanical failure. Oh Joy!!!? glad to see a back up plan in case the "tub" should come to a halt. We were told that in strong winds the Arch can get to swaying and in 45 mile an hour winds they evacuate the arch! Pray for a calm day!!!

While we were tooling around town; seeing seedy parts that Randy's GPS was taking us; we went to the original Anheuser-Busch plant. The tour was fabulous and free! So guess how many beverages they produce???....... I counted 79; that includes beer and beverages! We saw the Clydesdale Stable, Beechwood Lager Cellars (big steel tanks aging with, ...you guessed it beechwood). Fact: looking at the steel tanks, if you drank a beer an hour it would take you 137 years to drink 1 steel tank. Continuing on. We went to the Brew house; 85 degrees and hot; then to the packaging facility, got on a trolley to get our reward! 2 big glasses of Anheuser-Busch produced free beer! In case you were wondering I tried "Shock Top and Beach Bum". The grounds, buildings, Italian tiles, stables, streets and chandeliers were over the top. It looked almost like a movie set, everything was perfect; like your were in a European hamlet.

Here are some street, city and business names that made me chuckle. Just a short list, but take for instance Flaming Lips Alley, Oklahoma City, or a business named STD's car parts, or a chain gas station by the name of Kum N'GO. Bucksnort, Tennessee, Yellville Arkansas (we call Danielle Yellie or Yell). I have lots more but I will stop.

A few things weren't mentioned in our travels and since I have brought you along on this trip, I must confess. I broke a cabinet door, I set off the fire extinguisher inside the coach with my fanny as I sat down in the passenger seat, it sprayed Dusty and everywhere else, (it's next to the entrance door against the bulk head), broke the glass coffee pot (shucks,2 days before getting home) a dog dish, & a wine glass.

We crossed 17 states in our 28 days trip, visited many Wal-Marts, a few Costcos, lots of truck fuel stops (Flying J, Pilot, TA & a few others)and close to 5000 miles. We saw Limestone highways, rolling grassy hills, beautiful ranches and in contrast inner city slums. We had great traveling partners, it was a blast! We MADE IT to the Kentucky Derby, saw the Grand Canyon, Oklahoma City, Memphis and Nashville, St Louis and all that they offered. It was a great time and I have always loved traveling in an RV because you get to greet and meet Americans, foreigner traveling the U.S., all walks of life, exchanging adventures and chatting about life's experiences. That is the best!

Well, that is it I am done blabbing away. Thank you all, for your comments and encouragement. I had a great time writing this, I hope you enjoyed reading. GET OUT ON THE ROAD AND SEE AMERICA, IT IS BEAUTIFUL AND THE PEOPLE ARE WARM AND INVITING!!!

Silver dollar in floor


silver dollars in floor

The Parthenon in Nashville



The AT&T building better know as the Batman Building




In Front of the Grand Ole Opry

Louisville, Kentucky Home of the Kentucky Derby!

Another DRY DAY!!!!!



The Derby


Gay, Sue R. & Nancy Mc

April 24, I had forgotten to mention after dropping Danielle off at the airport in Nashville, we went back to the motorcoach and as it rained & rained some more, a tornado watch marched across Tennessee towards Nashville with a few touch downs, but luckily turned northward about 5 miles from Nashville & 4 miles from where we were staying. Phew another close one!


I realize that we are getting to the end as I start to compose this in Salina, Kansas, thinking back on our week in Louisville, I was glad to have experienced it and happy to say I have been there!

April 25, We arrive at our campground in Lexington Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville. The Host of the "tour" greets us and says he will be down later to give us our itinerary. We squeeze in our slot that we have been assigned with our motorcoach, finally meeting up with our other traveling companions, Joe & Sue from Discovery Bay; Sue was flying in that afternoon. As the day worn on, lots of other trailers and coaches arrived for the "Derby Tour". Our Host dropped off paperwork and an itinerary that would choke a horse! OMG, everyday we leave the campground at 7 A.M. with Daisy our bus driver and we get back around 6:30 P.M. Some days we come back to camp for 2 hours before we go out to see a musical or go to dinner & be back by 9:30 or 10:30 P.M.!

The "Hosts" started our "marathon week" with a Welcome dinner for us with Hot Browns and yummy Mint Julep punch. There was live entertainment for us and I have to tell you the California contingent did most of the dancing and entertaining! We danced from 6 to 8 P.M. and got a chance to meet our other Tourmates and Hosts.

Anyway, highlights were Louisville Slugger factory tour, Heaven's Hill Bourbon tasting (ick, bourbon tastes awful), Kentucky Horse Park, lunch on a riverboat going up the Ohio river, a city tour of Louisville, a dinner on the shores of the Ohio river looking at Louisville, a tour of Bardstown, a musical "Hairspray", a trip to Lexington and seeing a working training center for race horses, breakfast in Millionaire's row and of course the Derby. I am sure I am forgetting something but we were whipped by Derby Day.

Day 2 it rained with lighting and thunder, day 3 it rained, day 4 it stormed with lighting and thunder, day 5 it was sunny ! ! ! and day 6 Derby Day......it rained.

The Derby is HUGE for Loo-ah-vul (Louisville); pronounce it like you are Elvis and swallow all the vowels.

They start partying HARD 2 weeks before the Derby, holding mock horse races, balloon races and steamboat races, anything they can race, they race. The town gets pretty whipped up and the fans on race day are crazy. The betting is fast and furious, you could stand in line 20 deep to get your bet in or get paid out and they have A LOT of wagering windows. There are Mint Juleps, Lillies, Champagne and beer, pulled pork, bourbon sausage (ate one and yum!) & strawberries on a stick. There are 3 tiers of Millionaire's Row; huge indoor rooms that hold lots of people with lavish buffets; a Jockey Club, Turf Club all for the wealthy, notables and "members". The Twin Spires Club and another couple of buildings all interconnected forming Churchill Downs.

I spoke of Daisy our bus driver, she has driven for Miller busing company for 30+ years and she drove down the streets of Loo-ah-vul snaking her way around narrow streets that were made for horse carriages in the 1800's. She was given a brand new
H3-45 Prevost 6 weeks ago; she takes her bus home every night since she is a long standing employee; and parks it at her home. She took us every day from Day 2 to Day 6 to all these venues, arriving at 6:30 A.M. with a smile on her face and recipes from the South & dropped us off with the same wonder smile at the end of a very long day. I can't say the group was as chipper as she was at day's end.

Once again the weather sucked, the 42 people in the group were nice, the 2 sets of Hosts were great and I am glad to have signed up for the tour as we wouldn't have gotten to see a tenth of what we saw and did in those 5 days.

So Brian and I bet on some "ponies" and we didn't win squat. "Super Saver" came in first and that is the winner for the 136th Kentucky Derby!

Chatting with our Tourmates and having taken a consenses, all parties agreed, everyone was whipped, exhausted, wiped out. We had so many activities over the 6 days everyone was dragging; except our Hosts, Jim and Gisela. They were leaving Monday and driving back to Virgina to see a new Grandbaby. Drive back in June to the West Coast to host a tour, after that they were hosting the Calgary Stampede in July and September they are flying to Africa to host another tour for 30 some odd days. Sheeez, where do these people get their stamina???????

Sunday, May 2nd we packed up and said good bye to our Hosts, our new friends and old friends and headed home westward bound. We were excited to get back home and start exercising rather than sitting for hours. Although we know we will be traveling 300-500 miles a day to our next location, just to get up the next morning, pull in slides and make sure all things are secured and do it all over again to get home. Ah the joys of driving across the Mid-West!

NASHVILLE, TN

Capital of Nashville in the background.

WHOOOO WEEEE this is a bit long so sorry in advance!

****This is a must see city and you need to put it on your list***

Oh My Gosh, Nashville is a bustling city. But this is the last stop before we go to Louisville, KY. Nashville is truly the heart of Country Music, with theatres, museums, and honky tonks (That's a bar with music), lots of recording companies, a large hospital campus and 17 universities! The first night we got there it was raining! We got up the next morning, jumped down to get on City tour and see what we could see.

With our friends, Randy and Nancy, Danielle, Brian and I signed up for a city bus tour. We saw "old town", learned that Nashville is the "Belt Buckle" of the Bible Belt, Nashville used to be the center for printing & publishing houses dating back to1865. The music companies are numerous like, RCA, Sony, Capitol, Red Pajamas Records and a gazillion others. There is the replica of the Parthenon in Bicentennial Park, of course the State Capital is Nashville and there is SO much more that I am not going to bore you with the details.


After our bus tour we did a city walk that took us into an existing printing house. They do not use machines everything is cut out by hand using linoleum pads. We walked to the Ryman, that was the opry before the Grand Ole Opry. The Hard Rock Cafe has their t-shirt building that is separate from the hotel, it was the oldest saloon in Nashville circa 1896 called the Silver Dollar Salon. They put silver dollars in the floor and when a patron would try to dig out a silver dollar with a knife, the saloon keeper would shoot at the person. Honest to Gosh there were chips in the floor from bullet holes!

AND of course we went to The Grand Ole Opry. We started out having dinner at the Gaylord Opry Hotel. This is a must see hotel! All glass ceilings & a river running through it; we ate at the Cascade restaurant & it was delicious. Arriving at the Grand Ole Opry was exciting, people were bustling, it is still a live radio show; the call sign WSM ("We Shield Millions"); with scripted commercials and the big headliner was Charlie Daniels! ....AND oh YES he fiddled "Devil went down to Georgia"!!

Our last day there we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame (it's windows are done as though they are white and black keys of a piano; so's to say the architecture is fabulous). We went to Tootsie's (a famous honky tonk), there is a stage where performers get a chance to sing and many a performer has been discovered there & famous people have sang at Tootsies. But I must go back a bit, when we came out of the Hall of Fame, torrential down pours with lightening and thunder, streets already were beginning to flood and we were jumping through puddles that were many inches deep! We had to buy ponchos but Danielle being the brave sole she is, stayed with just her jacket! We ate at Jack's; another recommendation from Danielle and it was very good BBQ ribs. Yep, we were soaked running back to our car that was 4 long blocks away.

This ended Danielle's trip of Branson, Memphis & Nashville, we dropped her off at the airport and came back to the campground we were staying.

Sunday, April 25 is "moving" day so we pulled in the slides, hitched up the car and we made our way to Louisville, KY for The Kentucky Derby. I wonder what is in store for us when we get there???????

Branson, Missouri & Memphis, Tennessee

***************** Fun Fun Fun*****************

Branson is a family oriented, goofy town. I say that because of the numerous food courts & buffets, 5 or 10 miniature golf course plus miniature race car tracks, 3 Wal-Marts in the area, the Titanic and Godzilla. 12 shows a day 7 days a week, at this one Mall of amateur singers & magicians with tip jars on the tables. Picked Danielle up at the Branson Airport and you have to drive through Branson Creek a development of 3 golf courses; a high-end country club residential area, still being developed; 1 course is called Murder Rock, designed by........John Daly. Located with great views of the hills of Branson and downtown.

4-19-2010 Our friends caught up with us Monday in Branson , we went to see Shoji Tabuchi - a violinist, that does Broadway tunes, rock n'roll, classical, a japanese segment with drums that is hair raising & a Christmas segment. Shoji wears rhinestone studded jackets and changes them after each musical break. Crazy part, their bathrooms are world renowned. The Men's bathroom has a billiard's table and the Women's has fresh flower arrangements all over. Everything is painted purple. Our boys, Brian and Randy got access to go into the women's bathroom to view it!!!!

4-20-2010 Drove to Memphis, Tennessee, land of Elvis. I was curious about Graceland, was it going to be cheezy? On the contrary, it was SO WELL done, informative and the house was preserved the way it was when he lived there. There are 2 buildings that house his many gold & platinum records. Make this a bucket-list-need-to-go-to. Do not pass up the opportunity, it is WAY worth going and seeing. I always enjoyed his music and movies, I have a better appreciation of Elvis!

While in Memphis, we went to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was murdered. Another worth while place to see. You are only the thickness of a piece of glass separated from where he fell and died. Again, very informative museum, with FBI evidence gathered from James Earl Ray.

Then to lighten our day we zipped down to Beale Street to Sun Records, where Elvis recorded his first record as well as a long list of other people. Then on to Beale Street to soak in the ambiance of the south with blues singers, horse drawn carriages and southern drinks.

Tomorrow we go to Nashville. Could it get any better?????

Pictures

Our coach in Albuquerque.




Dusty now riding on the dash! But notice the tail, I think she is unsure of what she has gotten herself into! ha ha

A Few Days on the Road

Hello from Branson, Mo. Today is April 18th, it is Megan Wold's birthday and we are currently waiting for Danielle to fly into Branson to spend some time with us. Our itinerary is Branson, Memphis and Nashville with her.

We have been on the road for a few days, so let me go back and recap what has gone on and a few observations.

Amarillo, TX is much larger than I had expected; a Civic Center with old ornate buildings, AND NO GRAFFITI! We drove around for a while, very horsey area (as you can imagine) and came back to hunker down for the evening as (you guessed it) it was raining!

On to Oklahoma City, OK. Home of Garth Brooks. Lots of red dirt from Texas to OKC, saw a few storm shelters, 2 pedestrians walking along side the highway with their backpacks and dogs(on leashes, thank goodness, & they weren't even hitch-hiking. Every so often as we went through small and big towns, there would be a sign that announce the famous person(s) that was from that town, and rain.

4-16 We went to the AP Murrah building, the site of the Oklahoma Bombing. Didn't know quite what to expect. If you ever get to Oklahoma City, you have to go see the Memorial for the 168 people & children that were killed. The museum is very well done; by chapters; a timeline effect. You hear the explosion, you see the chaos, you see the rubble, hear the news releases, you see particles of the rental truck that was packed with 2000 pounds of explosives and you see the evidence against McVeigh. Outside, the chairs that represents each person who lost their life. It is a sobering memorial and it makes you emotional and ....rain.

4-17 Left the KOA in the morning heading to Branson, it should take us 5+ hours. Going to be in 3 states today; OK, AR, MO. Brian and I looked at the map and decided to take the 412 to Branson. Beautiful rolling hills, lots of Tyson turkey farms, pinto and buckskins horses and cattle. What we didn't know is that the 412 took us through Alpena, AR. ???? you ask. The Davis side of the family had relatives that was the Postmaster of Alpena pop. 3900 and the church organist. Stopped and took a picture, wondered if they still lived there, partial rain and we are leaving that behind us.

Today we will go see the sights in Branson. I will fill you in more when we have seen more. Danielle is due in less than an hour.

Later....

Flagstaff/Albuquerque/Amarillo

4/13 WELL you can't image what happened in Flagstaff. Earlier in the evening Highway 40 was closed due to high wind advisory; and was closed for about 6 hours. That was to be our route to Albuquerque and we hoped it would be passable by Tuesday morning.

While I was writing the blog it was raining, while I was sleeping the wind howled, the rain turned to hail and snow. Yep, it was bloody cold when Dusty wanted to go out at 6:30. She didn't last long outside, prancing around looking nastily at me asking me what the h*## happened, as she kept shifting her feet trying to stay warm.

I announced to Brian; who was buried under the covers; that it snowed. He didn't believe me, until he got up. All 4 of our slide awnings were covered in ice. 2 hours later we de-iced using water to melt it. Our lovely washed coach now a dripping hunk of metal.

We drove to Albuquerque taking Highway 40/Route 66. A nice scenic route, less traffic that on interstates. It was an easy trip, kinda ho-hum, up a grade and down a grade. So to change it up, we changed drivers on the fly around Gallup, so I drove for about 124 miles into Albuquerque.

4/14 Found in the morning a few needed repairs so did a run to Home Depot to get some screws and we left Albuquerque around 11:45 mountain time. As we were heading to Amarillo, TX, we again changed drivers on the fly (it is very open & little traffic, I don't recommend this if children are reading this), but it saves time not having to stop.

Arriving in Amarillo AND again we are getting rained on, but we are at a much lower elevation so I doubt we will get snow. Just have to watch out for tornadoes. Gulp!

Tomorrow we are going to Oklahoma City and understand there are days of rain anticipated there. What's up with all this stupid rain?

Grand Canyon

Amber on the dash while traveling.

WOW...I hate to use such a simple word for nature's artwork, but it is soooo much better to see in person; of course. It is truly mind boggling, to have water, wind and the elements carving out this canyon, seeing all the different colored rock, a time line of earth. We walked the Rim Walk, meandering our way around the South Rim, looking at the various red & beige colored striations of 1 billion years in the making. It was cold and windy, but perfect for the walk and not many people were there. A perfect day! The only animal sightings were a squirrel and mule deer. :(

And now it is raining at 8:15 p.m. On to Alburquerque tomorrow, Amarillo the following day and then Oklahoma City.

Flagstaff, AZ

It was an easy day of driving, leaving Indio at 8:00 a.m. logging 379 miles and arriving in Flagstaff at 3:00 p.m.. We are at the Flagstaff KOA; elevation 7000' in the shadow of Mt Elden. Wind blowing and patches of snow still on the ground, the temp should dip to 32 degrees this evening; winter still hasn't given in to spring. Tomorrow we go to the Grand Canyon South Rim and I am very excited. I hope I see some lizards!

Until tomorrow.........

Getting Ready!

The time has arrived, we are finally going to the Kentucky Derby and we leave Sunday,
April 11, 2010. We have waited almost 2 years for this opportunity and we are excited.

For the last month we have been getting the coach ready for the trip. Friday we got 2 steering tires put on and all the fluids changed. Then Saturday was to be light cleaning, tennis, coach washed.....yea right! Saturday morning Brian noticed the passenger side tag-axle tire was missing a chunk of rubber and a split. Not Good! Almost all the commercial tire companies are closed Saturday and Sunday and we are to leave Sunday! Phones calls, pleading, an appointment and tire replaced by Saturday afternoon.

Sunday we leave for Flagstaff, AZ and go see the Grand Canyon.