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Road Trip 2017 – Day 5 Alamogordo, White Sands, and Bats!

12 Aug

The day started off bright and sunny as the three of us headed down to the breakfast area for a quick bite before loading up the car and heading to the Monument. Fairfield Inns now offers gluten free options, which turned out to be chocolate muffins from Udi's, I have to admit I was surprised and delighted with this discovery. Needless to say I definitely had one of them.

After breakfast we headed to the monument where we started at the visitor center to do a little shopping and checking out the displays.

Driving out to the scenic drive entrance the change from 'normal' desert scenery with hints of white gypsum doesn't prepare you for that first glimpse of the dunes. With the scattered growth and white hills it looks totally out of place. We pulled off at the first opportunity to go walk in the gypsum and was surprised to find out how compacted the gypsum was. When we got out on the dunes the first thing we did was shoot videos for Bobbi and Helen to post on their Younique Facebook pages. From this I learned how horrible a videographer I was. While Bobbi's was useable, we had to trash Helen's as you could here my breathing which made her video sound more like a stalker video.

Then Bobbi and Helen had this idea to write the grandkids name into the sand to send to the families. Then we climbed back into the car and continued around until we found a dune that only had one family sitting on it enjoying lunch. So I chose this hill to make my charge up in order to take some pictures and also say I did it! So I started up the slope, figuring I would move fast and impress Helen and Bobbi with what great shape I was in. And then 15 seconds later I went, never-puff-puff-pufff-mind and took my time the rest of the way up.


And then I had to come down which started out slow and ended as a short little run.

After this we decided we had had enough and headed out for Carlsbad, NM. And once again we changed our trip, during the drive back t Alamogordo we discovered that we could actually visit another national park and only add about 1 – 1.5 hours to our trip. So off to Guadalupe Mtns NP, one of the least visited parks in the U.S. And no wonder, we find on line that the visitor office closes at 4 and all our watches tell us it's 3:45, we have only 15 minutes to get in, get stamps in the passbooks, and get out, So as we rush to accomplish everything the ranger comes over and explains that no they are not on Central time, but instead on Mountain time and it;'s only 2:45. Disaster averted.

We were invited to see the park video in their theater, as it was only 20 minutes long, we said why not. So we sit down expecting the slick shows we had seen in other parks, but NO it was a video straight out of the 60's and 70's! Bobbi and loved it as it was a throwback to the days of RVing with the family when we were kids. It turns out that there are lots of hiking trails, but few that only take a short amount of time so we passed. We did however visit the old stagecoach building that had been in use for only a year oafter completion before the stagecoach moved it's operations further south. The country is beautiful and worth the time, especially if you are visiting Carlsbad Caverns.

From here we drove to Carlsbad Caverns NP only about a 45 minute drive. We arrived in time to attend the evening Bat Program. This was amazing as you watch thousands of bats leave the cave and fly off to do their nightly hunting. Unfortunately they do not allow video or pictures at the bat program so I made do with the following.

From here it was off to check in at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Carlsbad, Where we checked in just in time.

Tomorrow the Cavern!!

Road Trip 2017 – Day 4 driving to New Mexico

12 Aug

So it's day 4 and we are up by the crack of 8-ish to begin our drive to Alamogordo, NM to see the White Sands National Monument. But first a detour. While talking the previous night both Bobbi and I remembered visiting Tombstone, AZ with our folks, so we thought it would be a blast to share that experience with Helen. It turns out it would only add about an hour to our drive, which didn't deem like a problem.

After driving to Tombstone, we thought we would be smart and take advantage of Bobbi's handicapped placard and get a parking spot right at the start of old town Tombstone. Woo hoo meant we didn't have far to walk in the heat. What a DEAL!! While I was walking through the town, memories of my teenage-hood came back and both Bobbi and I remembered that we had been here twice. The first time our folks refused to pay to go see the O.K. Corral, as money was tight. The second time, we were allowed to go in and realized it was not worth the hype. As they had bad cardboard cutouts that supposedly showed where everyone was standing and a couple of signs explaining what happened. All this in basically a dirt lot. YAWNNNNN. Needless to say we told Helen that is wasn't worth it and we should just see the town,

Now granted it has been a few years (40+) since we had been there and yes things would change. But come on!!! When we were there before there were only 2 gunfights I remember one free in the town and then the reenactment in the corral. Well today it's just a bit different, it felt like you couldn't walk more than 50 feet before some one was offering you a chance to step inside and witness a gunfight. If you want to do one I would suggest that you do the O.K. Corral only because they at least dressed up as the Tombstone Movie version of the Earps and Doc Holliday.

If you look at the pictures, you should be wondering the same thing as me. How can Tombstone, which is supposed to be back in the Clantons and Earp days, have another part on a side street called Old Tombstone? At least they should have called it Older Tombstone and guess what? They have their own shootout too and that fella sitting under the sign is more than happy to take your money to let you enjoy it.

Now any trip back to the old west wouldn't be complete without stepping into a saloon and having a Sarsaparilla. So we stepped into Big nose Kate's Saloon and found ourselves a spot at the bar and enjoyed.

After we finished our drinks we headed to the car to continue our journey to Alamogordo. As we prepared to climb into the car, I noticed that one of my feet was sticking to the ground, obviously I had stepped in some gum. So I look down and nope it isn't gum. The weather is so hot that the Tar from the road has stuck to my shoo and I have a huge chunk of asphalt attached to my shoe!! So the sole of my left shoe is now encased in asphalt, and no matter how much I scrape it, it doesn't come off. So only thing left to do is to drive and let it harden in hopes that I can pull it off later.

As we are driving we pass numerous sign's for Dwayne's Jerky or Dwayne's Nuts so on a whim we pull off and go hunt up Dwayne's. Obviously this isn't it.

Here it is and it's seems to be a popular stop

Don't know about the jerky, didn't seem to get much for the price, but the nuts are pretty good. So we bought a few and used the facilities before climbing back on the freeway. Also it was kinda cute that the bathrooms at Dwayne's have a sign that tells you to watch for rattlesnakes…
Then an hour later decided it was time to stop for gas and Dairy Queen and a chance for me to remove some of the large rocks my Tar shoe picked up at Dwayne's

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Back on the road we hit the White Sands National Monument about 90 minutes later where we stopped for just a few minutes to stamp our National Parks Passbook and get Bobbi hooked on doing the same (she bought a pass book too). Then to our hotel which had an awesome fish tank in the lobby at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Alamogordo

BTW the jelly fish are fake.

After a quick dinner at Johnny Corino's, which was next to the hotel. We went to our rooms to relax and prepare for the next day's adventures. And with a hearty "Good Night John-Boy" from Bobbi we shut the lights and closed our eyes on the day.

Road Trip 2017 – Day 3 San Diego to Tucson

4 Aug

Today was a driving day, which began with us picking up my sister at the airport to join us as we headed to New Orleans. After picking her up we met Nikki and Jake in Little Italy for lunch at NaPizza. After a little gluten free pizza and salad we were off. The drive was long with just a stop for gas. When we got to Tucson we headed immediately to the El Charro Cafe in downtown Tucson. The oldest Mexican restaurant in Tucson.

I ended up ordering the Carne Seca, a house specialty. It was funny, when I ordered it the waiter, asks me. "Would you like to try a sample before you order it?". I said no and asked him why. His response was " many people who want to order it don't enjoy it after tasting it.." I told him I would be fine.

So dinner finally arrives and the Carne Seca is placed in front of me. I take a bite and it ends up tasting like shredded Spanish style beef jerky. It's dry!! I grab the salsa, which is pretty good, and put it on top of the meet. All I end up with is shredded beef jerky with salsa on top.While good to eat, I am not sure I would order it again, should I be passing thru Tucson again. If you are, it's worth stopping there because Bobbi and Helen both enjoyed their meals thoroughly. From there we headed to our hotel and checked in for a restful evening,

Road Trip 2017 – Day 2

4 Aug

First full day in San Diego it was off to the Carrillo National Monument in Point Loma. For the morning. While I had been here'd before, I hadn't realized that they had a live lecture in the museum where the lecturer was dressed in period armor and let you try out some of the equipment.

From there we walked to the statue honoring Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, the Spanish explorer who first explored the California coast.

Next up was the lighthouse on Point Loma. Where the Lighthouse keeper had the nice living quarters within the lighthouse and his assistant basically lived in the barn next door. I am sure it wasn't quite that bad, but it looked like the keepers assistants building was a single room when we toured through it. Most fun in the lighthouse of course was the circular stairwell, which unfortunately didn't let you go all the way to the top, but ended at the living quarters on the 3rd floor.

Next we toured the rest of the point before heading down to the tide pools. Interesting point is that following the bombing of Pearl Harbor the military ended up building coastal defenses at Point Loma in case the Japanese decided to attack San Diego.

If you look closely at the right hand corner of the above picture you can make out the observers pillbox that was used to watch for approaching enemy ships.

Unfortunately for us when we reached the tide pools it was high tide so we were left pool less. So we at least went for a hike for a short look around.

After this off we went to meet Nikki to do a little shopping and then Dinner with her and Jake at Puesto, their favorite restaurant. The highlight of this was the stop in La Jolla for an acai bowl from the Juice Kaboose, one of the best Acai bowls I have ever had. What won me over was the fact that they had gluten free granola which was tasty.

Following dinner it was back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for the real start of our road trip as we drove to Tucson AZ.

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Road Trip 2017 – Day 1 – San Diego bound

29 Jul

So the journey begins. We loaded the car with the last few items and were out of the house by 6:06 am. Pretty Darn Good for us. We were back at the house at 6:07 am. I forgot to close the garage door and even though we live in a very safe city and a really quiet neighborhood, leaving the garage door open for 7 weeks was probably not a good idea.

So at 6:07:30 we left the house again and headed off. First stop was Huntington Beach for Helen's hair appointment. Even though it's only a 3.5 hour drive we planned for 5the hours and used 4. The drive through San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties was smooth as one would expect leaving that early. But as we approached Los Angeles county, the traffic became worse and Helen began the white knuckle portion of the journey.

We arrived by 10:15 so we had a little time to wonder through Target before dropping her off for the next 2 hours. Me, I went off to Supercuts to see how big the bald spot was now. My plan was simple, Haircut at Supercuts and then off to Barnes and Noble for an hour to peruse the books.  This plan held together until I reached Supercuts where the single hair stylist looks at me and lets me know that even though there is only one person in building I would have to wait an hour for a haircut. She also strongly hinted that I should leave and come back later. To help with that she tells me that she has scheduled me for a 12:00 pm appointment and she would see me then.

So with nothing to do, I climb in the car, drive to Barnes and Noble, spend only 40 minutes looking through the books (mostly Sci Fi, and why in the heck to they need to mix the fantasy stuff in with it!!)  before leaving to return to Supercuts. After she cuts my hair I am out and back to Helen waiting for to be finished.

Helen comes out of the salon and I ready for our drive to the mortuary to pick out a marker for her parents. No sooner does she climb in the car when she gets a call from the mortuary that they have to reschedule, the person she is meeting is out sick. So instead we are off to SD!

Turns out this worked to sour advantage as we were able to drive down in what passes for minimal traffic and arrive in SD around 3. We checkin at the Marriott Gaslamp District and go to our room. Getting off the elevator we notice that the wallpaper the entire way down the hallway has been peeled back about a foot and was just hanging there. Turns out we missed the water pipe breaking and flooding the hallway about 2 weeks earlier.

So after loading our bags into the room we are off for a walk around San Diego.. We walked to the USS Midway, checked out the Bob Hope Tribute and the statue of the iconic kiss in Time Square at the end of WWII.

The Bob Hope tribute is my favorite as they actually pay snippets from his USO tours over a loudspeaker. Pretty cool. From there we walked pass Nikki's workplace where we texted her and played a game of find the Nikki in the window (we lost) before heading back to the hotel.

We met Nikki and Jake at the Lionfish for dinner. While having dinner, Nikki notices that at the table behind us is one of the Housewives of Orange County. Turns out that she went to high school with Jake but neither said hi to the other they just gave each other "I think I know you looks". After dinner it was back to the hotel and we called it a night.

Road Trip 2017 – The Great Solar Eclipse – Prelude

27 Jul

On August 21st the US will witness an Eclipse which will be visible from most of the continental United States and this was an event that I knew I wanted to take part in and be there to see the total eclipse of the sun for my first time. My issue was I live in San Luis Obispo and would come up 34% short if I stayed home. This meant I needed to be someplace else at that critical time. In studying a map of the eclipse path, I noticed that Jackson Lake Lodge in Wyoming was in the path of totality. We had loved the lodge when we stayed there in 2015 so it was an easy decision to stay there to witness the big event. So on Sept 1, almost a year early, we woke at 7 am and started dialing. As expected the lines were busy. So Helen and I used our cell phones and house phone to try and get through and finally 40 minutes later I connected with the reservation folks. So now all we needed to do was book the room, which wasn’t as easy as we hoped. WE asked for one of their cabins and the lady on the other end says ” us great, we are good to go, just need your credit card … hey wait someone just took the room from me! So I am sorry but that was our last cabin. But I can still get you into the main lodge.” So naturally I took it.

As fortune would have it, my wife had a convention in New Orleans at the beginning of August. And since we enjoyed traveling cross country in my Mustang Convertible on our first road trip, it was an easy sell to convince her we needed to drive to New Orleans and then go to Jackson Lake Lodge. All I needed to do was plan the road trip and find things to do between August 6th (last day in New Orleans) and August 18th (our first day at Jackson Lake Lodge)

I think I planned a fun trip as shown in the following map.

Road Trip 2017

So on to the packing and let the fun begin