ROLLING ON WEST TO ARIZONA

Saturday Sep 13

Had a LONG day today—400 miles in 8 hrs—that’s a lot for us.  We descended from 7,000 feet in Santa Fe leaving the lovely adobe architecture, turning west on I-40 at Albuquerque.  Passed thru flat scrubby desert where you could see forever into a little more vegetation & watched real cowboys herding cattle.  We’ve already stood on the corner in Winslow, AZ—ditto for Meteor Crater—stopped for a break at one of the hundreds of trading posts and saw an original RV—the skeleton of a covered wagon—drove thru vast lava flows—saw lots of the Mother Road (Route 66)—which included falling down & fallen down buildings & rusted vehicles.  Sad sight!  I-40 has meant the demise of so many small towns & businesses—turned them into true ghost towns.  With all that said, this is still an awesome, beautiful country we live in!  Gradually ascended to 7,000 ft coming into Flagstaff, AZ where mountains & trees suddenly popped up from the desert floor and it’s much cooler.  We’ll be here for two full days.  More on that later!

tnt

OUR LAST DAY IN THE CITY DIFFERENT(SANTA FE)

Fri Sep 11

Our last day in Santa Fe was interesting.  We started out at the Tesuque Flea Market which was recommended as a “must do” although the lady at the Visitors Center described it as “snotty upscale”.  It was full of junk—not upscale junque—just plain old junk!  Then we found the pueblo which dates back to 1200 AD and all it amounted to was land with houses on it (a Pueblo is like a land grant) so we headed back to Old Town.

There was a Fiesta going on at the plaza and it was packed with people.  We found a cute little cafe on a side street and dined al fresco while watching a parade pass by.

We walked miles poking through shops and side stepping street people and beggars.  For such an artsy high priced town—the City Different (as it is referred to) is loaded with the homeless.  So—been there—done that—and didn’t even buy a T-shirt!  Now I’m going to go and soak my aching feet!

Later,

tnt

Couch Ranch & Santa Fe

Had another lovely visit with Chuck & Karla at Couch Ranch.  Karla serves the most beautiful, tastiest meals and seems to do it so effortlessly.  They’re both so sweet and thoughtful—I wish you all could meet them!

Chuck offered but Tom didn’t go flying this time because his wrist is getting worse and he didn’t want to risk hurting it more and not being able to do all he has to do with the RV.  He did, however, manage to get the GPS for the airplane reprogrammed.

Kansas has been so dry but Monday night we had 3 inches of rain dumped on us with a doozy of a thunderstorm.  We woke up about 3 am thinking we were under a rocket attack!  We waited until about 2 pm Tues to leave because we were afraid we might not make it up one of the hills.

Got into Santa Fe Wed pm just in time to get hooked up before we got drowned again!  Went to a really good Mexican cafe for dinner and went to Old Town today for lunch and browsing the plaza.

Tomorrow a driving-looking—perhaps shopping day.  Then off again on Sat bound for Flagstaff, AZ.

Tee

Saturday, September 5, 2009

We had another memorable filet at Cattlemen’s Cafe in Stockyard City (Oklahoma City).  It’s as if you’re chewing juicy, beefy, buttery meat that crosses your tongue like velvet!  We’ve never had steak like it anywhere in the world.  Okay—maybe the Kobe beef Tom had in Japan was a close second!

Since we had an appointment to have 4 new house batteries (ouch!) installed at Camping World we went to Classen’s Cafe for breakfast.  It was written up in “Road Food” but, in our opinion, was a bummer.  Then we followed a part of old Route 66 and rode & looked—not much left.

Made our way north into Kansas to the Couch Ranch today.  Chuck & Karla are at a football game 4 hours away but we were greeted by Garbo, the dog, who was pleased to see us.  She spent the afternoon in the motorhome with us.  I saw her following a critter across the yard—it was a mole—in the middle of the afternoon!  Anyway it’s now lying in repose shrouded in a WalMart bag in the garbage can after Tom whacked it with a shovel!

We’ll be

here a couple days then roll on west.  By the way—we’d love to hear from y’all!

Tee

Wednesday September 2, 2009

We've been in 4 states today--MS, TN, AR, and are now in Sallisaw, OK for the night. The first three were in our first 30 min of travel! Everytime we cross the Big Muddy I look for Tom & Huck but those boys know how to elude me!

We always know that we're in for a rough ride on OK I-40 but parts of AR jiggled our gizzards today! We stopped for lunch and when I opened the fridge stuff came tumbling out--same with the pantry.

If you took all the trucks off this road it would be like a country lane--there are gazillions of them going east & west--all TOO fast! We encountered an interesting sight today--250 Corvettes--plus or minus--headed east. Great clumps of them and some stragglers--all headed for fun somewhere.

Later,

Tee & Tom

August 30, 2009

Hey y'all!

Left Raleigh yesterday & drove to Asheville. Had dinner in Hendersonville with Al & Lee Huey and Gordon & Mickie Booth--dear old friends from our USMC days. It's a wonder we didn't get asked to leave the restaurant because of our boisterous behavior and laughter. Left this a.m. and wound our way-literally-thru the Great Smokey Mountains. There was so much fog that it did, indeed, look smokey--very pretty. We're now on Central time and will be for awhile.

We'll spend the night here in Lebanon, TN--25 miles east of Nashville--and contend with rush hour traffic tomorrow morning thru Nashville on our way to Memphis.

So far it has been quite pleasant and uneventful--by that I mean nothing has broken, jiggled loose or gone kapoot on the motorhome.

Later,

Tee

PS--Sorry no pix yet because Tom seems to have forgotten that he has a camera!

Northwest & Southwest 2009

August 28,2009

Departed Little River on the 26th and are in Raleigh at Erika's. Leave tomorrow morning for Asheville for one night and dinner with Al & Lee Huey and Gordon & Mickie Booth. Then it's "Westward Ho". Until next time---------

Tom & Tee