Bob's Blah Blog:
WE ARE HOME!! HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGITY JIG!
P.S...we ate real Mexican food tonight. YUM.
Bobo
Friday, November 2, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Bob’s Blah Blog:
Ok, where did I leave off? Oh, yes…New Mexico. We visited Santa Fe, NM. Corinne was there many, many years ago and ‘I have never have.’ We walked around the town square, if you want to call it that. It is bordered on one side by the Palaces of the Governors, shops on the others. Corinne left her “reglar” glasses in the truck, so we didn’t tour the museum. She said she wouldn’t be able to read the display placards. Funny, she and Moe never read those placards when they are in a museum. Know who reads them? Bobo reads them. The girls race through the museums and I take my time, finishing maybe two – three hours later, but so much more “smarter than when I starter.”
We had lunch at a very up-scale restaurant in the “La Henry Fonda.” Ok, it wasn’t La Henry Fonda, just La Fonda, but I call it Henry. Walking into the restaurant, it reminded me of going into Pea Soup Anderssons’ pea soup restaurant in California. Just the setup took me back in years to the famous pea soup place. At Henry, Corinne ordered her enchiladas and I ordered the Pueblozuela Combinationes which included a tamale, chile relleno, and an enchilada, all smothered in green chile sauce. Of course, both plates came with pasole, beans and rice, I mean pasoleo, beanos and riceo. Very good meals. We also had chips and salsa (kind of hot – YES!) and “sofapillows”… those pasteries that are hollow and you put honey into.
The waiter tried to serve me fajitas, but I didn’t order fajitas. He took it back to the kitchen and I had to wait about 7 minutes for my combinationes plate. But it was worth it. We also had flavored ice tea which the waiter deducted one of them to make up for his mistake of charging me for the fajitas. Net savings...$1.50. Now that’s how restaurants should reward customers for making them wait. I recommend LaFonda just for that reason.
Next we visited the Catholic Church across the street. Not because we were “stuffed monkeys” from eating Mexican food and needed a place to sleep, but because it is both a working church and museum. Very pretty church and interesting. Because it is a museum, Corinne hustled through it while I read stuff. At one point, I couldn’t find her, but then she poked her head out from behind a pillar and there she was.
We left the church and arrived back to the city-run parking lot we parked the big rig at. Cost was $1.80 per hour to park and I had paid $3.60 to park for two hours, not knowing how long we were going to be walking around. We got back to the lot 10 minutes past the two hours. I figured another buck-eighty was going to be due, but the lot attendant, (I think her name was Lotta Caros), just waved us through, free of charge. Net savings…$1.80. I recommend this parking lot just for that reason.
We next stopped at a post office to write post cards to home. I had found a card with four monkeys on it. One was riding a tricycle pulling a wagon (“You got three waaggons?”) with three monkeys riding in it. Each monkey was a different variety. I thought my mom would enjoy this card and wrote asking her to send bail-o money-o to Mexico. I signed the card for my brothers Charlie-o, Jamie-o, Danny-o and Pabl-o. Honestly, those monkeys looked just like my brothers and it was being redundant to write their names on it as my mom will recognize them, as any mom recognizes her primates..er, I mean “chillins.” (I will probably get my butt-kicked for this.)
We visited the National Cemetery in Santa Fe. Something peaceful about being in a military cemetery…so solemn.
We drove up to Los Alamos, NM to see the town. We saw the town and not much else. I think we were either in the wrong Los Alamos, NM or just not in the right place. We ended up going to a movie to see Rendition, which was not too bad a movie. Spy-stuff.
The next morning, we broke camp and headed to Arizona. We got as far as Winslow, which is amazing since we really didn’t leave Santa Fe, NM until around 2 pm when all is said and done. We stopped for lunch at an Arby’s because they offered free WIFI and Corinne needed to get onto high speed internet to finish some Lodge business. Two guys in suits came into the Arby’s and had lunch. I made them out to be Popo because they acted like Popo. I don’t know if they were feds or locals, tho.
In Winslow, we camped at Homolovi Ruins State Park outside of Winslow. We were one of about 6 campers. We had a great view of Winslow and the high desert. The worst part of this park is the access road into it. Some moron thought it would be good to install “poor-man” speed bumps every 50 feet or so. Poor-man speed bumps are slots cut across the asphalt. Some of these slots are wide enough to swallow up a small vehicle, in fact, I believe I drove over the top of a VW in one of them. Anyways, these slots really jolt the axles and wheels and cause folks to drive really slow if they don’t want to rattle all the fillings out of their tooths. I will make a phone call or write a letter to the Parks Department to complain about these grand canyon crevices. Totally unnecessary…the slots, not my complaining.
We visited the Winslow cemetery to find some more gravesites. We found almost all we were looking for. Corinne had a lot of family from the area, dating back into the 1920’s. One of her ancestor's headstone was just a 2 inch metal pipe sticking out of the ground with his initials etched on it. Interesting. Maybe I will cast some concrete and scribe his info into it and replace the pipe. His name was John Thomas McComas. Maybe some of you are familiar with the name as the book titled “Massacre on the Lordsburg Road” by Marc Simmons, a true story about Judge McComas and family being murdered by “Chato” the Apache, and his band of renegade cohorts.
Bob-servations:
I found a headstone which read “Guest.” No thank you, I’ll stay at a Best Western, please.
Saw a motorhome with a large swamp cooler affixed to the rear of it. Now that is high class. I am so jealous. Photo taken.
Movin’ on. Leaving Winslow we were headed home. We decided we just hadn’t had enough of being on the road, so we decided to spend one more night camping. Dead Horse Ranch in Cottonwood, AZ came to mind after I spoke with friend Bill Y from the House. Bill, this place is every bit as nice as you said. And, convenient to Cottonwood. We will have to come up here with you and Carol. PS…they have a nice group camping area if anyone is interested in having a round-up weekend sometime. We sat outside for awhile last night and looked at the lights of Jerome. A wonderful sunset with wispy clouds coming over the top of them.
Well. I believe Corinne is now up. I hear the shower running.
This will probably be my last blog for this trip…or not. I may summarize our adventure…or not. Anyway, we passed the 15,000 mile mark just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. It has been a great adventure. I couldn’t have asked for a better travel companion, (Corinne), and I’m 45.18% certain she feels the same about me. The friends we met and made along the way, the scenery we saw, the food we ate, the grog we drank, the humidity, the rain, cold, hot and warm. And of course, my “blogger posse” who kept me writing by letting me know they enjoyed my nonsense. Signed copies are available at a nominal fee…and Christmas is coming up. Makes a great stocking stuffer or gift for that hard-to-buy-for family member. Shyeah!
Corinne will post more photo albums as she has time.
Next week, we go racin’ at PIR, so I guess this adventure really isn’t over at all.
Happy tales…I mean trails.
Bobo, Corinne, and “the Queen”
Ok, where did I leave off? Oh, yes…New Mexico. We visited Santa Fe, NM. Corinne was there many, many years ago and ‘I have never have.’ We walked around the town square, if you want to call it that. It is bordered on one side by the Palaces of the Governors, shops on the others. Corinne left her “reglar” glasses in the truck, so we didn’t tour the museum. She said she wouldn’t be able to read the display placards. Funny, she and Moe never read those placards when they are in a museum. Know who reads them? Bobo reads them. The girls race through the museums and I take my time, finishing maybe two – three hours later, but so much more “smarter than when I starter.”
We had lunch at a very up-scale restaurant in the “La Henry Fonda.” Ok, it wasn’t La Henry Fonda, just La Fonda, but I call it Henry. Walking into the restaurant, it reminded me of going into Pea Soup Anderssons’ pea soup restaurant in California. Just the setup took me back in years to the famous pea soup place. At Henry, Corinne ordered her enchiladas and I ordered the Pueblozuela Combinationes which included a tamale, chile relleno, and an enchilada, all smothered in green chile sauce. Of course, both plates came with pasole, beans and rice, I mean pasoleo, beanos and riceo. Very good meals. We also had chips and salsa (kind of hot – YES!) and “sofapillows”… those pasteries that are hollow and you put honey into.
The waiter tried to serve me fajitas, but I didn’t order fajitas. He took it back to the kitchen and I had to wait about 7 minutes for my combinationes plate. But it was worth it. We also had flavored ice tea which the waiter deducted one of them to make up for his mistake of charging me for the fajitas. Net savings...$1.50. Now that’s how restaurants should reward customers for making them wait. I recommend LaFonda just for that reason.
Next we visited the Catholic Church across the street. Not because we were “stuffed monkeys” from eating Mexican food and needed a place to sleep, but because it is both a working church and museum. Very pretty church and interesting. Because it is a museum, Corinne hustled through it while I read stuff. At one point, I couldn’t find her, but then she poked her head out from behind a pillar and there she was.
We left the church and arrived back to the city-run parking lot we parked the big rig at. Cost was $1.80 per hour to park and I had paid $3.60 to park for two hours, not knowing how long we were going to be walking around. We got back to the lot 10 minutes past the two hours. I figured another buck-eighty was going to be due, but the lot attendant, (I think her name was Lotta Caros), just waved us through, free of charge. Net savings…$1.80. I recommend this parking lot just for that reason.
We next stopped at a post office to write post cards to home. I had found a card with four monkeys on it. One was riding a tricycle pulling a wagon (“You got three waaggons?”) with three monkeys riding in it. Each monkey was a different variety. I thought my mom would enjoy this card and wrote asking her to send bail-o money-o to Mexico. I signed the card for my brothers Charlie-o, Jamie-o, Danny-o and Pabl-o. Honestly, those monkeys looked just like my brothers and it was being redundant to write their names on it as my mom will recognize them, as any mom recognizes her primates..er, I mean “chillins.” (I will probably get my butt-kicked for this.)
We visited the National Cemetery in Santa Fe. Something peaceful about being in a military cemetery…so solemn.
We drove up to Los Alamos, NM to see the town. We saw the town and not much else. I think we were either in the wrong Los Alamos, NM or just not in the right place. We ended up going to a movie to see Rendition, which was not too bad a movie. Spy-stuff.
The next morning, we broke camp and headed to Arizona. We got as far as Winslow, which is amazing since we really didn’t leave Santa Fe, NM until around 2 pm when all is said and done. We stopped for lunch at an Arby’s because they offered free WIFI and Corinne needed to get onto high speed internet to finish some Lodge business. Two guys in suits came into the Arby’s and had lunch. I made them out to be Popo because they acted like Popo. I don’t know if they were feds or locals, tho.
In Winslow, we camped at Homolovi Ruins State Park outside of Winslow. We were one of about 6 campers. We had a great view of Winslow and the high desert. The worst part of this park is the access road into it. Some moron thought it would be good to install “poor-man” speed bumps every 50 feet or so. Poor-man speed bumps are slots cut across the asphalt. Some of these slots are wide enough to swallow up a small vehicle, in fact, I believe I drove over the top of a VW in one of them. Anyways, these slots really jolt the axles and wheels and cause folks to drive really slow if they don’t want to rattle all the fillings out of their tooths. I will make a phone call or write a letter to the Parks Department to complain about these grand canyon crevices. Totally unnecessary…the slots, not my complaining.
We visited the Winslow cemetery to find some more gravesites. We found almost all we were looking for. Corinne had a lot of family from the area, dating back into the 1920’s. One of her ancestor's headstone was just a 2 inch metal pipe sticking out of the ground with his initials etched on it. Interesting. Maybe I will cast some concrete and scribe his info into it and replace the pipe. His name was John Thomas McComas. Maybe some of you are familiar with the name as the book titled “Massacre on the Lordsburg Road” by Marc Simmons, a true story about Judge McComas and family being murdered by “Chato” the Apache, and his band of renegade cohorts.
Bob-servations:
I found a headstone which read “Guest.” No thank you, I’ll stay at a Best Western, please.
Saw a motorhome with a large swamp cooler affixed to the rear of it. Now that is high class. I am so jealous. Photo taken.
Movin’ on. Leaving Winslow we were headed home. We decided we just hadn’t had enough of being on the road, so we decided to spend one more night camping. Dead Horse Ranch in Cottonwood, AZ came to mind after I spoke with friend Bill Y from the House. Bill, this place is every bit as nice as you said. And, convenient to Cottonwood. We will have to come up here with you and Carol. PS…they have a nice group camping area if anyone is interested in having a round-up weekend sometime. We sat outside for awhile last night and looked at the lights of Jerome. A wonderful sunset with wispy clouds coming over the top of them.
Well. I believe Corinne is now up. I hear the shower running.
This will probably be my last blog for this trip…or not. I may summarize our adventure…or not. Anyway, we passed the 15,000 mile mark just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. It has been a great adventure. I couldn’t have asked for a better travel companion, (Corinne), and I’m 45.18% certain she feels the same about me. The friends we met and made along the way, the scenery we saw, the food we ate, the grog we drank, the humidity, the rain, cold, hot and warm. And of course, my “blogger posse” who kept me writing by letting me know they enjoyed my nonsense. Signed copies are available at a nominal fee…and Christmas is coming up. Makes a great stocking stuffer or gift for that hard-to-buy-for family member. Shyeah!
Corinne will post more photo albums as she has time.
Next week, we go racin’ at PIR, so I guess this adventure really isn’t over at all.
Happy tales…I mean trails.
Bobo, Corinne, and “the Queen”
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Ok, here we go again. I will try to recall all I wrote about in the mystery log that vanished. Let me warn you ahead of time, it will not be as good as what I lost. Someone (and I mean Corinne)says I should write my blog in Word and then cut anc copy to the blog. Its my own fault if it gets lost. Thanks for the kind words.
Everyone, well not everyone, most people, no, that's not true either, some friends, no, one or two, nah, somebody, nope, ok, Moe keeps asking when we are gonna be home. At this time and place I can definately tell her and anyone else who might be interested, we will be home no later than Friday, this week...or not. Absolutely, positively...maybe.
Bob-servations:
A street in Arcadia, OK is named Odor Street. Wish I lived on a street named Odor. as rockers Lynard Skynard sang: "Oooo, that smell, can't you smell that smell?" Located on Odor street is the post office...'nuff said.
Read a marriage document at the historical center. A man by the name of Ben Man To You was being married to a woman named Young Now. After the marriage, she would then be called Mrs. Young Man To You. If she didn't get married and was a old spinster, would she have to change her name to Not Young Now or Old Now? The man's color was listed as brown. The woman's was red. Their chillin's would most likely be reddish-brown, I presume, and be either male or female. Most liekly, they would be born naked as jay birds, which, of course, are an entirely different color and need not be mentioned here.
Does anyone remember Grandys restaurant on Grand Ave. in or near Suprise, AZ? They had country-style cooking and sold great cinnamon rolls. Well, we found one in OK City, OK and just had to stop in. Corinne told me to buy 4 cinnamon rolls, so I went inside and ordered 4 for $5.59 or some price like that. The clerk rang me up and then set off to package me up 4 cinnamon rolls. Standing at the counter with nothing else to do, I decided to read the menu board. It said I could get 6 cinnamon rolls for the same price, so I asked the clerk if 6 rolls cost the same as 4 rolls. She said no, 6 rolls cost $6.05 with tax added, or some price similar to that. I told her, I would rather have the 6 rolls for the same price as 4. She said ok and rang up the order for 6 rolls. Now, why didn't she tell me when I ordered 4 rolls that I could get 2 more for the same price? Isn't that their job...to save me from myself?
Credit Unions: Today I saw a credit union named "People's Credit Union." It was in Amarillo. I also saw one named "Everyone's Credit Union." I figure the second one is for anyone who does not fit neatly into the parameters of the first one.
Enough of this stuff, lets move on...
In Arcadia, or at least nearby, is a place called "Pop's" which sells about 400 different kinds of...well, pop. It is right on Historic Route 66 as it passes thru Oklahoma. It has a modernistic metal design to the building and canopy over the gas pumps, and a tall swirl of a pop bottle complete with straw out the top adorning the front right of way along the highway. Pops is not cheap here, so don't leave home without your American Express. $1.99 per bottle, but it comes with a complementary cardboard 6 pack carrying case worth a good .10 on the open market, .15 on the gray market and .25 in the old USSR. They are pretty proud of they stuff, but people were lining up to buy. They also have a restaurant inside. Corinne said the food looked fabulous. I didn't look 'cus I has "willpow'r".
We had lunch at Toby Keith's I (heart shape) This Bar and Grill in OK City, OK. Food was good and a bit on the high side dollar-wise. Corinne thought the prices were ok, but I'm a dollar for a hag-a-mere kind of guy. I had a prime rib sammich which came with Freedom Fries, not to be confused with those "yellow-bellied we don't believe terrorists are bad people other fries"..ok, I'll say it...french fries. Corinne had the country fried steak sammich with cream corn on the side. It was a mouthfull but fortunately she had me there to finish it up for her. We sat upstairs where we could overlook the floor below and watch the happenings. It is located in Bricktown where almost all the old buildings are made of wood, no silly, bricks. They have a canal that meanders around the buildings and have human powered gondola type boats to ferry folks from far and farther.
Yesterday, we were in Amarillo, TX and decided to do laundry. We had the Queen tell us where to go. We ended up at a "laundry mat" where there were folks of every kind. White, Hispanic, Asian, male, female, young, old, childrens and others we were not sure of. One in particular was this big, big man, well overweight who wore a leather jacket and a knit cap as if it was cold inside and out. It wasn't either. He kept busy on his cell phone and he had shirts that indicated he worked for the Texas Dept. of something or other. He must have been a supervisor as he seemed perturbed by the phone calls he got. I think he was wearing the jacket because he was packing heat, roscoe, blue steel baby, old persuader, Mr. Equalizer or whatever you want to call it. I prefer to just call it a gun. When he left the laundry mat with his clean clothes, I opened the door for him. Didn't want to get on his bad side, whichever side that was.
A sign in the laundry mat read the following warning: Parents control Your Children. No Running, Screaming or Playing with the Buggies. I agree, parents should be doing laundry, not runnung, screming and playing with buggies. they should pay more attention to their kids and not be so occupado (Note to Sandy O. Occupado is Spanish for occupied) having fun doing those prohibitted acts, their kids would be much better behaved. So parents, knock it off!
Tonight, we are staying in a Corp of Engineers campground south of Santa Fe, NM. it is called Chochita Lake, not to be confused with the Town of Chochita Lake which is down the road. We plan to be here two nights so we can go to Santa Fe to sightsee. I think there are only about 6 campers in the park. Got it made!!
We crossed paths with neighbors Les and Sonia as they traveled east to family in TX. It was nice to see someone from back home and we had a nice hour long or so visit outside of Albuquerque. Weirdly, when we spoke this morning on our cell phones, they were at milepost 325 on I-40 in Arizona,and we were at milepost 325 on I-40 in New Mexico. Is that wild or not? I vote yes.
Ok, Corinne is fixin me some din-din, so I better get into the coach and help her. I
married a domestic goddess. I am outside blogging on a pic-a-nic table and it is starting to get dark and cooler.
I have a great view of the mountains, crystal skies and can here a dog barking. That's how crisp and clear the air is here in New Mexico.
As Bullwinkle said to Rocket J. squirrel,, "This time for sure."
Bobo
Ok, here we go again. I will try to recall all I wrote about in the mystery log that vanished. Let me warn you ahead of time, it will not be as good as what I lost. Someone (and I mean Corinne)says I should write my blog in Word and then cut anc copy to the blog. Its my own fault if it gets lost. Thanks for the kind words.
Everyone, well not everyone, most people, no, that's not true either, some friends, no, one or two, nah, somebody, nope, ok, Moe keeps asking when we are gonna be home. At this time and place I can definately tell her and anyone else who might be interested, we will be home no later than Friday, this week...or not. Absolutely, positively...maybe.
Bob-servations:
A street in Arcadia, OK is named Odor Street. Wish I lived on a street named Odor. as rockers Lynard Skynard sang: "Oooo, that smell, can't you smell that smell?" Located on Odor street is the post office...'nuff said.
Read a marriage document at the historical center. A man by the name of Ben Man To You was being married to a woman named Young Now. After the marriage, she would then be called Mrs. Young Man To You. If she didn't get married and was a old spinster, would she have to change her name to Not Young Now or Old Now? The man's color was listed as brown. The woman's was red. Their chillin's would most likely be reddish-brown, I presume, and be either male or female. Most liekly, they would be born naked as jay birds, which, of course, are an entirely different color and need not be mentioned here.
Does anyone remember Grandys restaurant on Grand Ave. in or near Suprise, AZ? They had country-style cooking and sold great cinnamon rolls. Well, we found one in OK City, OK and just had to stop in. Corinne told me to buy 4 cinnamon rolls, so I went inside and ordered 4 for $5.59 or some price like that. The clerk rang me up and then set off to package me up 4 cinnamon rolls. Standing at the counter with nothing else to do, I decided to read the menu board. It said I could get 6 cinnamon rolls for the same price, so I asked the clerk if 6 rolls cost the same as 4 rolls. She said no, 6 rolls cost $6.05 with tax added, or some price similar to that. I told her, I would rather have the 6 rolls for the same price as 4. She said ok and rang up the order for 6 rolls. Now, why didn't she tell me when I ordered 4 rolls that I could get 2 more for the same price? Isn't that their job...to save me from myself?
Credit Unions: Today I saw a credit union named "People's Credit Union." It was in Amarillo. I also saw one named "Everyone's Credit Union." I figure the second one is for anyone who does not fit neatly into the parameters of the first one.
Enough of this stuff, lets move on...
In Arcadia, or at least nearby, is a place called "Pop's" which sells about 400 different kinds of...well, pop. It is right on Historic Route 66 as it passes thru Oklahoma. It has a modernistic metal design to the building and canopy over the gas pumps, and a tall swirl of a pop bottle complete with straw out the top adorning the front right of way along the highway. Pops is not cheap here, so don't leave home without your American Express. $1.99 per bottle, but it comes with a complementary cardboard 6 pack carrying case worth a good .10 on the open market, .15 on the gray market and .25 in the old USSR. They are pretty proud of they stuff, but people were lining up to buy. They also have a restaurant inside. Corinne said the food looked fabulous. I didn't look 'cus I has "willpow'r".
We had lunch at Toby Keith's I (heart shape) This Bar and Grill in OK City, OK. Food was good and a bit on the high side dollar-wise. Corinne thought the prices were ok, but I'm a dollar for a hag-a-mere kind of guy. I had a prime rib sammich which came with Freedom Fries, not to be confused with those "yellow-bellied we don't believe terrorists are bad people other fries"..ok, I'll say it...french fries. Corinne had the country fried steak sammich with cream corn on the side. It was a mouthfull but fortunately she had me there to finish it up for her. We sat upstairs where we could overlook the floor below and watch the happenings. It is located in Bricktown where almost all the old buildings are made of wood, no silly, bricks. They have a canal that meanders around the buildings and have human powered gondola type boats to ferry folks from far and farther.
Yesterday, we were in Amarillo, TX and decided to do laundry. We had the Queen tell us where to go. We ended up at a "laundry mat" where there were folks of every kind. White, Hispanic, Asian, male, female, young, old, childrens and others we were not sure of. One in particular was this big, big man, well overweight who wore a leather jacket and a knit cap as if it was cold inside and out. It wasn't either. He kept busy on his cell phone and he had shirts that indicated he worked for the Texas Dept. of something or other. He must have been a supervisor as he seemed perturbed by the phone calls he got. I think he was wearing the jacket because he was packing heat, roscoe, blue steel baby, old persuader, Mr. Equalizer or whatever you want to call it. I prefer to just call it a gun. When he left the laundry mat with his clean clothes, I opened the door for him. Didn't want to get on his bad side, whichever side that was.
A sign in the laundry mat read the following warning: Parents control Your Children. No Running, Screaming or Playing with the Buggies. I agree, parents should be doing laundry, not runnung, screming and playing with buggies. they should pay more attention to their kids and not be so occupado (Note to Sandy O. Occupado is Spanish for occupied) having fun doing those prohibitted acts, their kids would be much better behaved. So parents, knock it off!
Tonight, we are staying in a Corp of Engineers campground south of Santa Fe, NM. it is called Chochita Lake, not to be confused with the Town of Chochita Lake which is down the road. We plan to be here two nights so we can go to Santa Fe to sightsee. I think there are only about 6 campers in the park. Got it made!!
We crossed paths with neighbors Les and Sonia as they traveled east to family in TX. It was nice to see someone from back home and we had a nice hour long or so visit outside of Albuquerque. Weirdly, when we spoke this morning on our cell phones, they were at milepost 325 on I-40 in Arizona,and we were at milepost 325 on I-40 in New Mexico. Is that wild or not? I vote yes.
Ok, Corinne is fixin me some din-din, so I better get into the coach and help her. I
married a domestic goddess. I am outside blogging on a pic-a-nic table and it is starting to get dark and cooler.
I have a great view of the mountains, crystal skies and can here a dog barking. That's how crisp and clear the air is here in New Mexico.
As Bullwinkle said to Rocket J. squirrel,, "This time for sure."
Bobo
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Monday, October 29, 07
Bob's Blah Blog:
Well, I had a really great blog going. Probably the best one I have written to date. I started it on Saturday and was finishing it last night when it just disappeared. It was really, really good, too. I tried everything, including standing on my head to retreive it, but alas, no avail.
It is Monday. We are in Amarillo, going to Santa Fe, NM.
Sorry...
Bobo
Well, I had a really great blog going. Probably the best one I have written to date. I started it on Saturday and was finishing it last night when it just disappeared. It was really, really good, too. I tried everything, including standing on my head to retreive it, but alas, no avail.
It is Monday. We are in Amarillo, going to Santa Fe, NM.
Sorry...
Bobo
Friday, October 26, 2007
Friday, October 26, 007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Dorothy: "Bobo, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Wicked Witch: "That's right my little dearie."
Yes, we are not in Kansas. We have moved onto: "Oklahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain." How could two states be so musically inclined? Beats me (eight to the measure, that is.)
Ok, lots has happened since we last visited, and "lots of nothing" has happened, too...as my friend Bill Y. says. So lets get started.
Bob-servations:
I think I wrote about this in Dover or York, PA, but here it is again in Kansas. First you have the People's State Bank, then comes the Community State Bank, and as the accounts get larger, along comes the City State Bank. What next? County State Bank, State State Bank and National State Bank or is it State National Bank. Where would it all end? Universe State Bank?
Restaurants I have known: "Just Us Restaurant" and, just down the road is "My Place Restuarant."
Funeral Home slogans: Potts Funeral Home...Not only do we "Plant" your loved ones, we can also "Potts" them. Or, "You shots 'em, we Potts them." I know, its lame.
Ok, enough of that jibberish.
I forgot to mention the hand dryer in the restrooms at Poopy's Tattoos, Pub and Grub (or whatever it was called.) First, I must compliment Poopy's on the cleanliness of their restrooms. After doing your business and washing your hands, what you want to do is dry them. At Poopy's they have the usual air-type dryers, but these are super-duper dryers that blow air about 100 miles and hour. You get your hands dry almost sooner than you got them wet. Now thats a dryer. Zoom-Zoom.
We saw a Mugs Up rootbeer joint somewhere in Kansas that I can't recall. For those who might recall, and for those who don't know what I am talking about, Mugs Up used to have a drive-in on Glendale Avenue, just east of the I-17 freeway. When I was young, much younger than today, I coached both a co-ed and an all-girls softball team for St. Francis Xavier youth group. I would take my teams to Mugs Up after a game and treat 'em to rootbeer. Ice cold, fresh and dee-lis-us. It closed down many years ago, but I think the original building was standing for a long time. Anyways, I wish I had stopped and got me a big frosty mug of rootbeer when I saw it, but didn't. Don't know why I didn't, but I didn't.
We camped near a town in Kansas named Cherryvale. The park was nearly empty and located on a big lake. Nice. Saw lots of deer. We stayed there so we could be in close proximity to Coffeyville and Independence, Kansas. Coffeyville is where my maternal grandma was born and the Dalton Gang tried to pull off a double bank robbery, which failed and cost them their lives. Driving into Coffeyville, we passed Amazon.com building. Must be their headquarters or something. Huge building.
One side of Coffeyville, across the railroad tracks was devastated by a flood earlier this year. When we drove through the area, we noticed all the vacant buildings, houses, business, disheveled grounds, etc. Most of the vacant buildings had search and rescue markers painted on them indicating they had been searched for live and dead persons. We didn't know what had happened until we asked at the library. I think they have photos on the internet, so if you are interested, google Coffeyville and it will probably pop up. In some places, the waterline on the buildings is about 5 feet. In other places (low lands) the line is a good 10 feet deep. Just to make things worse, the water had oil on it from the refinery north of town. Other than the damaged buildings, they have things pretty well cleaned up.
We ate lunch at El Charro, a so called mexican food restaurant. Food was ok. Corinne's fajitas were good. Rice was no-go. Beans ok. The best part was the ice cold frosty 22 ounce beers. Its great being retired and being able to have an ice cold one at lunch any day of the week. But I got a headache from the beer, so its not all that great. I thought the salsa was tasteless. I asked for some hot sauce and it was neither hot nor tasty. I mixed it with the other tasteless sauce, salt, and pepper, but it didn't help. I called it Salsa-lite. They had actual spanish speaking waiters. I spoke to them in spanish, saying things like "esta bueno," ""si," "y" (and in spanish), and "no gracias" when he asked if we wanted dessert. Corinne was certain I was over my head and would get caught not knowing what I was saying and told the waiter so. He said I was "very good spanish speaking man" and even thought I might have been a Spaniard. So there.
We found old phone directories at the Coffeyville library and were able to find where my grandma and great grandpa/ma lived in Coffeyville. I hope the house looked better in 1909 than it does today. The grocery store they worked at is no longer standing, but was there during the 60's or 70 according to the lady at the library. She warned us she wouldn't go near that neighborhood even in the daylight. It was a pretty skanky part of town. Not really much of a town. Poverty must be the biggest employer. We got some photos of the house and vacant lot where the grocery once stood.
We visited Independence to gather genealogy info on my grandma and family, but because the town was celebrating Neewolloh (holloween spelled backwards...and an accurate indicator of their small town mentality) the Historical Museum was closed. We ended up at the County Court House and could not find any records of births. They let me, unaccompanied, go through the files to do the searching myself. The clerks then directed us to the city library. Now this is where the backwards small town mentality comes into place. They would not allow me to go to the "Kansas Room" where the records were stored because they didn't have any "volunteers" working and we would have to have a volunteer with us to view the records.
Now, we were just at the County Court House where they allowed us to peruse important government documents unaccosted, but we can't review library docs without supervision?? I was not happy and believe it or not, I may have got a bit testy with those people, whom I believe may have been from Arkansas. (Sorry if any one reading this is from Arkansas, but that's the way it is.) I asked to appeal to a supervisor or manager, but she didn't have any backbone to change things. I came about two numbers from calling the town mayor and getting him/her involved, but I didn't. Its not worth the effort when dealing with mor-ackus and a mor-oon mentalities. So, I will just have to write to the Kansas Governor to get the info I want.
We thought we might take in a movie since the rest of the day was shot. We drove to Parsons, KS, since it was probably the biggest town close to camp. We found one theatre, it was 5 pm, and several movies were playing. When we walked into the building, there was only one person working, a teenage girl. I introduced ourselves as being from the "Movie Board and we were here to do an inspection." We probably would have gotten away with it, but someone (and I mean Corinne) started to laugh. With that blown, we had to look at the movie times and pick a movie. As luck would have it, all the movies had already started and we would have to wait until 7 pm for them to restart. Not wanting to wait, I asked the girl if she could stop a movie and restart it from the beginning for us. She said "no." I informed her, "if we had actually been from the Movie Board, we would have had to shut the place down for that." Again, someone (Corinne, again)laughed and ruined our chances. We went back to camp and cooked dinner and watched TV.
Friday morning, we dumped our holding tanks really good and flushed them again to get them sparkling clean...if anyone wants to look and see. We finally broke camp at about 11 am and headed to OK City, OK. We took it slow and easy and actually drove on part of old Route 66. Along the way, on I-44, the Turnpike, I saw no less than 7 Oklahoma State Troopers working traffic. All but one of them had someone stopped when we passed them. This was all within about a 30 mile or less stretch of highway. Someone (and I mean Corinne) can't verify this because she was sawing logs, if you know what I mean.
We reached camp at Arcadia Lake, between Arcadia and Edmonds, along Route 66, OK. Nice campground. We set up then, becasue it was early, decided to go to OK City, OK to see some sights. First we went to the Capitol. This is one big building, and lots and lots of parking around the building for the House and Senate, Supreme Court and and of course, the Governor and all the staff for these folks. The governor had about 20 parking spaces reserved just for the office. They have an oil well on the grounds of the capitol.
We then went to the Oklahoma National Memorial which is the Murrah Federal Building. This is one nice memorial. They saved the back wall of the Murrah building, added a reflection pool where McStupid parked his truck. There are metal and glass chairs arranged in 9 rows for the 9 stories of the building. One for each person who died in the blast. Surrounding buildings were fixed but only to the point of making them safe. They still have missing bricks, damaged fire escapes, etc. They blocked in and painted windows black so to look as if they were still broken out. Pretty sobering atmosphere. McStupid got off easy, if you ask me.
Bob-servation:
The post office across the street from the memorial was still open and doing business at 6:30 pm on a Friday night. Why cannot they all do that?
It's now 1045 pm, Corinne is long ago asleep, and I need to do the same.
As the Scarecrow sang:
I would not be just a nuffin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
(dee doo dee doodle-lee doo)
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain!
Yes, if I only had a brain...
Bobo
Dorothy: "Bobo, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Wicked Witch: "That's right my little dearie."
Yes, we are not in Kansas. We have moved onto: "Oklahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain." How could two states be so musically inclined? Beats me (eight to the measure, that is.)
Ok, lots has happened since we last visited, and "lots of nothing" has happened, too...as my friend Bill Y. says. So lets get started.
Bob-servations:
I think I wrote about this in Dover or York, PA, but here it is again in Kansas. First you have the People's State Bank, then comes the Community State Bank, and as the accounts get larger, along comes the City State Bank. What next? County State Bank, State State Bank and National State Bank or is it State National Bank. Where would it all end? Universe State Bank?
Restaurants I have known: "Just Us Restaurant" and, just down the road is "My Place Restuarant."
Funeral Home slogans: Potts Funeral Home...Not only do we "Plant" your loved ones, we can also "Potts" them. Or, "You shots 'em, we Potts them." I know, its lame.
Ok, enough of that jibberish.
I forgot to mention the hand dryer in the restrooms at Poopy's Tattoos, Pub and Grub (or whatever it was called.) First, I must compliment Poopy's on the cleanliness of their restrooms. After doing your business and washing your hands, what you want to do is dry them. At Poopy's they have the usual air-type dryers, but these are super-duper dryers that blow air about 100 miles and hour. You get your hands dry almost sooner than you got them wet. Now thats a dryer. Zoom-Zoom.
We saw a Mugs Up rootbeer joint somewhere in Kansas that I can't recall. For those who might recall, and for those who don't know what I am talking about, Mugs Up used to have a drive-in on Glendale Avenue, just east of the I-17 freeway. When I was young, much younger than today, I coached both a co-ed and an all-girls softball team for St. Francis Xavier youth group. I would take my teams to Mugs Up after a game and treat 'em to rootbeer. Ice cold, fresh and dee-lis-us. It closed down many years ago, but I think the original building was standing for a long time. Anyways, I wish I had stopped and got me a big frosty mug of rootbeer when I saw it, but didn't. Don't know why I didn't, but I didn't.
We camped near a town in Kansas named Cherryvale. The park was nearly empty and located on a big lake. Nice. Saw lots of deer. We stayed there so we could be in close proximity to Coffeyville and Independence, Kansas. Coffeyville is where my maternal grandma was born and the Dalton Gang tried to pull off a double bank robbery, which failed and cost them their lives. Driving into Coffeyville, we passed Amazon.com building. Must be their headquarters or something. Huge building.
One side of Coffeyville, across the railroad tracks was devastated by a flood earlier this year. When we drove through the area, we noticed all the vacant buildings, houses, business, disheveled grounds, etc. Most of the vacant buildings had search and rescue markers painted on them indicating they had been searched for live and dead persons. We didn't know what had happened until we asked at the library. I think they have photos on the internet, so if you are interested, google Coffeyville and it will probably pop up. In some places, the waterline on the buildings is about 5 feet. In other places (low lands) the line is a good 10 feet deep. Just to make things worse, the water had oil on it from the refinery north of town. Other than the damaged buildings, they have things pretty well cleaned up.
We ate lunch at El Charro, a so called mexican food restaurant. Food was ok. Corinne's fajitas were good. Rice was no-go. Beans ok. The best part was the ice cold frosty 22 ounce beers. Its great being retired and being able to have an ice cold one at lunch any day of the week. But I got a headache from the beer, so its not all that great. I thought the salsa was tasteless. I asked for some hot sauce and it was neither hot nor tasty. I mixed it with the other tasteless sauce, salt, and pepper, but it didn't help. I called it Salsa-lite. They had actual spanish speaking waiters. I spoke to them in spanish, saying things like "esta bueno," ""si," "y" (and in spanish), and "no gracias" when he asked if we wanted dessert. Corinne was certain I was over my head and would get caught not knowing what I was saying and told the waiter so. He said I was "very good spanish speaking man" and even thought I might have been a Spaniard. So there.
We found old phone directories at the Coffeyville library and were able to find where my grandma and great grandpa/ma lived in Coffeyville. I hope the house looked better in 1909 than it does today. The grocery store they worked at is no longer standing, but was there during the 60's or 70 according to the lady at the library. She warned us she wouldn't go near that neighborhood even in the daylight. It was a pretty skanky part of town. Not really much of a town. Poverty must be the biggest employer. We got some photos of the house and vacant lot where the grocery once stood.
We visited Independence to gather genealogy info on my grandma and family, but because the town was celebrating Neewolloh (holloween spelled backwards...and an accurate indicator of their small town mentality) the Historical Museum was closed. We ended up at the County Court House and could not find any records of births. They let me, unaccompanied, go through the files to do the searching myself. The clerks then directed us to the city library. Now this is where the backwards small town mentality comes into place. They would not allow me to go to the "Kansas Room" where the records were stored because they didn't have any "volunteers" working and we would have to have a volunteer with us to view the records.
Now, we were just at the County Court House where they allowed us to peruse important government documents unaccosted, but we can't review library docs without supervision?? I was not happy and believe it or not, I may have got a bit testy with those people, whom I believe may have been from Arkansas. (Sorry if any one reading this is from Arkansas, but that's the way it is.) I asked to appeal to a supervisor or manager, but she didn't have any backbone to change things. I came about two numbers from calling the town mayor and getting him/her involved, but I didn't. Its not worth the effort when dealing with mor-ackus and a mor-oon mentalities. So, I will just have to write to the Kansas Governor to get the info I want.
We thought we might take in a movie since the rest of the day was shot. We drove to Parsons, KS, since it was probably the biggest town close to camp. We found one theatre, it was 5 pm, and several movies were playing. When we walked into the building, there was only one person working, a teenage girl. I introduced ourselves as being from the "Movie Board and we were here to do an inspection." We probably would have gotten away with it, but someone (and I mean Corinne) started to laugh. With that blown, we had to look at the movie times and pick a movie. As luck would have it, all the movies had already started and we would have to wait until 7 pm for them to restart. Not wanting to wait, I asked the girl if she could stop a movie and restart it from the beginning for us. She said "no." I informed her, "if we had actually been from the Movie Board, we would have had to shut the place down for that." Again, someone (Corinne, again)laughed and ruined our chances. We went back to camp and cooked dinner and watched TV.
Friday morning, we dumped our holding tanks really good and flushed them again to get them sparkling clean...if anyone wants to look and see. We finally broke camp at about 11 am and headed to OK City, OK. We took it slow and easy and actually drove on part of old Route 66. Along the way, on I-44, the Turnpike, I saw no less than 7 Oklahoma State Troopers working traffic. All but one of them had someone stopped when we passed them. This was all within about a 30 mile or less stretch of highway. Someone (and I mean Corinne) can't verify this because she was sawing logs, if you know what I mean.
We reached camp at Arcadia Lake, between Arcadia and Edmonds, along Route 66, OK. Nice campground. We set up then, becasue it was early, decided to go to OK City, OK to see some sights. First we went to the Capitol. This is one big building, and lots and lots of parking around the building for the House and Senate, Supreme Court and and of course, the Governor and all the staff for these folks. The governor had about 20 parking spaces reserved just for the office. They have an oil well on the grounds of the capitol.
We then went to the Oklahoma National Memorial which is the Murrah Federal Building. This is one nice memorial. They saved the back wall of the Murrah building, added a reflection pool where McStupid parked his truck. There are metal and glass chairs arranged in 9 rows for the 9 stories of the building. One for each person who died in the blast. Surrounding buildings were fixed but only to the point of making them safe. They still have missing bricks, damaged fire escapes, etc. They blocked in and painted windows black so to look as if they were still broken out. Pretty sobering atmosphere. McStupid got off easy, if you ask me.
Bob-servation:
The post office across the street from the memorial was still open and doing business at 6:30 pm on a Friday night. Why cannot they all do that?
It's now 1045 pm, Corinne is long ago asleep, and I need to do the same.
As the Scarecrow sang:
I would not be just a nuffin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
(dee doo dee doodle-lee doo)
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain!
Yes, if I only had a brain...
Bobo
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Kansas City, Kansas City here I come.
I say I'm going to Kansas City,
Kansas City here I come
They got some pretty redhead ladies there
but I already gots me one.
Hello from KC, MO, not to be confused with KC, KS, or KCK as they say on TV. Got here yesterday afternoon. Beautiful park built by the Army Corp of Engineers. Ms. Lynda, if you haven’t discovered these gems, let me know and I’ll tell you how to find them.
Wind blew here pretty strong last night. Coach rocked a few times. Before retiring to slumber last night, I went outside to see what the area looked like in the dark. The moon was shining bright and the sky was clear. Don’t know where the wind came from, but it arrived with force. The nightly weather forecast didn’t mention any wind possibilities. Maybe got some rain, too. Not sure.
Its just a bit after 6 am and I haven’t seen 6 am in several months. I just heard Corinne yawning so that means she must be awake. For the past few days, she has been waking up at 4:30 or 5 (in the morning) so, at least she was able to sleep in today. Yep, she's up, I see her. Good morning "my little ray of sunshine."
Some catching up...going through Davenport IA, we had to take a bypass because their bridge underpasses are like 11' 8'' high. Just as we were approaching one, the warning lights began to flash and a message board told us to move to the right lane, which we did. Howvever, as we continued to approach the bridge, there was construction and it became confusius for us to know where to go. Fortunately, a couple in a truck ahead understood the problem and waved us to follow them. Good thing, too. After getting through the detour, they stopped and asked where we were headed and said we shouldn't have any more low bridges on the route we chose. They must be RV'ers, too. Then, at a stop light, a man driving a cherry 53 Caddie pulled up along side and warned us about the low bridges, saying he drove his high profile vehicle into one and he lives there. We appreciated the heads up...er, I mean, keep your head down...advisories.
Today, we are going to visit the Hallmark Visitor Center and see real Hallmark employees actually making Hallmark stuff. I guess thats why I woke up so early. Anticipation is killing me. Corinne's mom owned two, count 'em, two Hallmarks in Kingman. She used to let me work there. I was Robert and she was Roberta. We will probably be given the VIP tour because we buy Hallmark ornaments and cards, and are special.
After a little touring, we will head for Coffeyville, KS where my mom's mom was born. Its also the location where the Dalton Gang made their ill-fated simultaneous two bank robberies in the 1890's and they got wiped out by the town folks. I think Grandma said she saw the blood stains on the boardwalks when she was young. Hope they are still visible.
Wanna know what we had for dinner last nihgt? Corinne made chicken fried chicken, smashed taters and gravy, green peas and, for 'zert, tapioca pudding. She's a good cook and makes the best gravy. As my dad would say after eating dinner, "Bow Wow Wow." Don't know why he used those specific words, but it meant it was a good meal. Wish I would have remembered to say that last night. A cook can't be better complimented than a hearty "Bow Wow Wow."
Make sure you have the hose tightly attached to the drain connection when you dump your holding tanks. Enough said about that.
We are headed home by way of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Speaking of New Mexico, did you know there is a Mexico, Missouri? Corinne's nephews used to live there at one time. People living here probably shorten the name and just say they live in "Mexi-mo."
Adio-mo.
Bobo-mo
Kansas City, Kansas City here I come.
I say I'm going to Kansas City,
Kansas City here I come
They got some pretty redhead ladies there
but I already gots me one.
Hello from KC, MO, not to be confused with KC, KS, or KCK as they say on TV. Got here yesterday afternoon. Beautiful park built by the Army Corp of Engineers. Ms. Lynda, if you haven’t discovered these gems, let me know and I’ll tell you how to find them.
Wind blew here pretty strong last night. Coach rocked a few times. Before retiring to slumber last night, I went outside to see what the area looked like in the dark. The moon was shining bright and the sky was clear. Don’t know where the wind came from, but it arrived with force. The nightly weather forecast didn’t mention any wind possibilities. Maybe got some rain, too. Not sure.
Its just a bit after 6 am and I haven’t seen 6 am in several months. I just heard Corinne yawning so that means she must be awake. For the past few days, she has been waking up at 4:30 or 5 (in the morning) so, at least she was able to sleep in today. Yep, she's up, I see her. Good morning "my little ray of sunshine."
Some catching up...going through Davenport IA, we had to take a bypass because their bridge underpasses are like 11' 8'' high. Just as we were approaching one, the warning lights began to flash and a message board told us to move to the right lane, which we did. Howvever, as we continued to approach the bridge, there was construction and it became confusius for us to know where to go. Fortunately, a couple in a truck ahead understood the problem and waved us to follow them. Good thing, too. After getting through the detour, they stopped and asked where we were headed and said we shouldn't have any more low bridges on the route we chose. They must be RV'ers, too. Then, at a stop light, a man driving a cherry 53 Caddie pulled up along side and warned us about the low bridges, saying he drove his high profile vehicle into one and he lives there. We appreciated the heads up...er, I mean, keep your head down...advisories.
Today, we are going to visit the Hallmark Visitor Center and see real Hallmark employees actually making Hallmark stuff. I guess thats why I woke up so early. Anticipation is killing me. Corinne's mom owned two, count 'em, two Hallmarks in Kingman. She used to let me work there. I was Robert and she was Roberta. We will probably be given the VIP tour because we buy Hallmark ornaments and cards, and are special.
After a little touring, we will head for Coffeyville, KS where my mom's mom was born. Its also the location where the Dalton Gang made their ill-fated simultaneous two bank robberies in the 1890's and they got wiped out by the town folks. I think Grandma said she saw the blood stains on the boardwalks when she was young. Hope they are still visible.
Wanna know what we had for dinner last nihgt? Corinne made chicken fried chicken, smashed taters and gravy, green peas and, for 'zert, tapioca pudding. She's a good cook and makes the best gravy. As my dad would say after eating dinner, "Bow Wow Wow." Don't know why he used those specific words, but it meant it was a good meal. Wish I would have remembered to say that last night. A cook can't be better complimented than a hearty "Bow Wow Wow."
Make sure you have the hose tightly attached to the drain connection when you dump your holding tanks. Enough said about that.
We are headed home by way of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Speaking of New Mexico, did you know there is a Mexico, Missouri? Corinne's nephews used to live there at one time. People living here probably shorten the name and just say they live in "Mexi-mo."
Adio-mo.
Bobo-mo
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday, Oktober 22, 2007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Hold on tight to your dreams....
Here we are, just west of St. Louie, MO. Got here yesterday after a long day of travel. Staying at a beautiful MO state park named Dr. Edward Babler Memorial Park. Who is Dr. Babler? Heck if we know, but we sure like his hospitality. We are in a town or area called Wildwood, southwest of US 61 and US 40 intersection. Really purty and surrounded by trees with all colors of fall leaves. Lots of high dollar homes around here. One has its own lake, with a view of everything to the north. Gated as to keep me out. Now that's class.
We decided we spent enough time in Moccalocca, IA and probably wouldn't find anymore information of value to us. Besides, it was getting hot again...like 84 degrees. We pulled up stakes and got back on the road again. Get itchy for adventure if in one place for more than a couple of days. We did laundry on Saturday night at a 24 hours laundromat. Nothing of consequence to report other than I put money into someone else's dryer and started to dry their clothes, again. I had to open the dryer, move all their clothes to the next dryer only after emptying the other dryer of my clothes. The two ladies had 4 dryers together, but they were gone for all the time we were there, except for the last few minutes before we left. I don't think they ever caught on to my touching their unmentionables (pink and lacey).
I mistakenly called the Macarena, IA campground we were at as Horseshoe. The full name is Horseshoe Lake Park. It is operated by the Mochalatta, IA town.
Today, we went into St. Looey and toured the Jefferson Memorial Gateway Arch. Did you know it is 630 feet to the top and you can go to the top via a 5 person per car tram ride? The tram is based on a carnival ride, something like a ferris wheel and the cars pivot front to back as it goes up and down inside the arch. At a preordained degree, a catch releases and the car goes back to level. We were able to get our tram car rocking and almost got it to go clear around its pivot axis. It was pretty cool. The elderly passengers in the car with us didn't think it too much fun, but, hey, its St. Looney.
We also had a St. Screwy fireman in our car, but he didn't know Paul, my brother. Some brotherhood. Actually, there were about a dozen firefighters on the tram and at the top. When they rotate firehouses they come to the arch to get familiarized with the building and how to get in and out of it in case of a disaster or other emergency. I imagine its just another way for them to get something for free, right Pablo??
At the top, I was really surprised and excited that someone (and I mean Corinne) wasn't fearful of the height and would look out the windows. She is not fond of heights and I think she was trying to look brave, but hoping to faint and have all
those hunky fireman fussing over her. I noticed she tried to be near the cutest, most hunky one most of the time there. There was a really geeky one in the group. He looked really nerdy, wore black horn-rimmed glasses and was skinny and dorky. Why Corinne didn't sidle-up to this one I don't know, because he reminded my of myself when I was young and not as buff and hard-bodied.
It rained for most of the day today, beginning around 10 am, about the time we were getting to the Arch. What a fabulous view of St. Loose, the Mississip, and Illignore we had from the top. River boats, tugs, barges, trains, firetrucks, cars all could be seen from up there. If you ever get a chance to come here, do it and do the arch. Money well spent, and not much of it, at that.
After the tram ride, we watched a 35 minute film on the early 1960's construction of the arch and the men who built it. Nobody lost their life on the job, and they had estimated 13 men would die while it was being built. I noticed in the movie the workers did not wear safety harnesses and some did not have hard hats on. I guess OSHA wasn't around then. After the movie, we went to the museum and saw real artifacts of the old west, actual photographs of pioneers and "Indins" as my Native American friend, Pete (Nando, Pierre) Padilla calls them. It was interesting, had quotes from pioneers, their wives and soldiers. One wife was quouted as saying about the old homestead: "Sell it, give it away, leave it...I don't care. I don't even want to ride the railroad. That schooner ship looks good enough for me, right now." Hmmmm, doesn't sound like Little House on the Prarie was as much fun as it looked on TV.
Went to see a movie this evening since it was raining and St. Charles wasn't as much fun to be in as was Galena, IL. We saw "What we lost in the fire" with Halle Berry and some Benito Bean Burrito sounding name guy. It was good. I liked it. Had some unexpected twists and turns and kept me entertained.
Tomorrow we get our little wagon train hitched up, again, and will head for Kansas City. Don't know if its Kansas or Missouri side of the river we want to be on. Will know when the wagon gets there and the wagonmaster (and I mean Corinne) says, "Whoa there, pardner, that's fer nuf fer today."
Head 'em...move 'em out!
Bobo
Hold on tight to your dreams....
Here we are, just west of St. Louie, MO. Got here yesterday after a long day of travel. Staying at a beautiful MO state park named Dr. Edward Babler Memorial Park. Who is Dr. Babler? Heck if we know, but we sure like his hospitality. We are in a town or area called Wildwood, southwest of US 61 and US 40 intersection. Really purty and surrounded by trees with all colors of fall leaves. Lots of high dollar homes around here. One has its own lake, with a view of everything to the north. Gated as to keep me out. Now that's class.
We decided we spent enough time in Moccalocca, IA and probably wouldn't find anymore information of value to us. Besides, it was getting hot again...like 84 degrees. We pulled up stakes and got back on the road again. Get itchy for adventure if in one place for more than a couple of days. We did laundry on Saturday night at a 24 hours laundromat. Nothing of consequence to report other than I put money into someone else's dryer and started to dry their clothes, again. I had to open the dryer, move all their clothes to the next dryer only after emptying the other dryer of my clothes. The two ladies had 4 dryers together, but they were gone for all the time we were there, except for the last few minutes before we left. I don't think they ever caught on to my touching their unmentionables (pink and lacey).
I mistakenly called the Macarena, IA campground we were at as Horseshoe. The full name is Horseshoe Lake Park. It is operated by the Mochalatta, IA town.
Today, we went into St. Looey and toured the Jefferson Memorial Gateway Arch. Did you know it is 630 feet to the top and you can go to the top via a 5 person per car tram ride? The tram is based on a carnival ride, something like a ferris wheel and the cars pivot front to back as it goes up and down inside the arch. At a preordained degree, a catch releases and the car goes back to level. We were able to get our tram car rocking and almost got it to go clear around its pivot axis. It was pretty cool. The elderly passengers in the car with us didn't think it too much fun, but, hey, its St. Looney.
We also had a St. Screwy fireman in our car, but he didn't know Paul, my brother. Some brotherhood. Actually, there were about a dozen firefighters on the tram and at the top. When they rotate firehouses they come to the arch to get familiarized with the building and how to get in and out of it in case of a disaster or other emergency. I imagine its just another way for them to get something for free, right Pablo??
At the top, I was really surprised and excited that someone (and I mean Corinne) wasn't fearful of the height and would look out the windows. She is not fond of heights and I think she was trying to look brave, but hoping to faint and have all
those hunky fireman fussing over her. I noticed she tried to be near the cutest, most hunky one most of the time there. There was a really geeky one in the group. He looked really nerdy, wore black horn-rimmed glasses and was skinny and dorky. Why Corinne didn't sidle-up to this one I don't know, because he reminded my of myself when I was young and not as buff and hard-bodied.
It rained for most of the day today, beginning around 10 am, about the time we were getting to the Arch. What a fabulous view of St. Loose, the Mississip, and Illignore we had from the top. River boats, tugs, barges, trains, firetrucks, cars all could be seen from up there. If you ever get a chance to come here, do it and do the arch. Money well spent, and not much of it, at that.
After the tram ride, we watched a 35 minute film on the early 1960's construction of the arch and the men who built it. Nobody lost their life on the job, and they had estimated 13 men would die while it was being built. I noticed in the movie the workers did not wear safety harnesses and some did not have hard hats on. I guess OSHA wasn't around then. After the movie, we went to the museum and saw real artifacts of the old west, actual photographs of pioneers and "Indins" as my Native American friend, Pete (Nando, Pierre) Padilla calls them. It was interesting, had quotes from pioneers, their wives and soldiers. One wife was quouted as saying about the old homestead: "Sell it, give it away, leave it...I don't care. I don't even want to ride the railroad. That schooner ship looks good enough for me, right now." Hmmmm, doesn't sound like Little House on the Prarie was as much fun as it looked on TV.
Went to see a movie this evening since it was raining and St. Charles wasn't as much fun to be in as was Galena, IL. We saw "What we lost in the fire" with Halle Berry and some Benito Bean Burrito sounding name guy. It was good. I liked it. Had some unexpected twists and turns and kept me entertained.
Tomorrow we get our little wagon train hitched up, again, and will head for Kansas City. Don't know if its Kansas or Missouri side of the river we want to be on. Will know when the wagon gets there and the wagonmaster (and I mean Corinne) says, "Whoa there, pardner, that's fer nuf fer today."
Head 'em...move 'em out!
Bobo
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