I just returned the 300 and I just have to give a shout out to Bre and Avis Car Rental (Taylorsville Rd). The car was really great to have and service was great too. Plus they give a great "ULE" discount. 
While we're on the subject of Ellie, the original plan to was to take her everywhere and photograph her everywhere. Well, that didn't work out. First, when I got out of the car, I hardly took my purse, it was all about getting the phone and camera into pockets and then being able to move. Ellie would have slowed that process down. Second, I didn't share that plan with R or he would have helped me make sure it happened. So, she saw everything, from the rear view window, and she reaped all these great rewards!
I am unhappy to report that my Aunt Pete (that is not a made up name, its not her real name, but it is what we called her) passed yesterday while we were on the last leg of our journey. Aunt Pete is my Dad's sister and she actually passed on my Dad's birthday, 5/27 - which he did as well years ago.
It's pretty obvious to say that I loved my Aunt Pete, she was a memorable and lovable individual. I guess in my heart I am happy for her too because I know she's also home safe and sound. Please say a prayer for my family as we move forward with her memory in our hearts.
Drove all day and tried to see Mt. Rushmore's night lighting ceremony. So NOT happening in the pea soup that is the fog of the Black Hills. Ugh!
Calling a do over tomorrow morning...very early.
Ironically, there are very few dark brown people in New Mexico...at least not anywhere that we went. I mean really, you'd think you'd see at least 1...but no...not even in cars on the highway. When we got to Socorro, I saw 3 African people getting in a car together. But that's it.
"Highways" are obviously a foreign concept in New Mexico as well, 2 lane roads...one in each direction...are much more prominent. Paved driveways? Whatever. Dilapidated buildings? Yep, everywhere you look.
To be fair, San Antonio seemed like a nice town when I was there a few years ago, but we didn't go through that part this time.
However, gas was only $3.29 in Lubbock, that's a plus!
Turns out R had done the same thing...so there was self inflicted stress as the Horseman would say.
While we're on the subject of charging...and this time I mean financially...cash or debit card?
Your choice. The only argument for cash is not leaving your debit (or credit) card number in a trail across the country. The downside of cash is that you might run out and then you'll have to either switch to the card or use the get cash option on a credit card which means you'll have to pay fees.
On this trip I've been the cash chick. R is the debit card guy. I'm still looking at a fair amount of cash considering what's ahead, but I'm also using my $200 in gift credit cards from work that I don't care whether they are recorded here there and everywhere because they will be gone very soon. (I need to go online and check their balances before heading out today).
The only exception to our normal rule is the car/gas credit card that we're using. We'll pay that off when we get back and have a total on the whole thing. In the past we've taken turns at the gas pump, but that can come out a little uneven - especially when gas gets up to $5.15 per gallon...YES CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???? - so we're using this plan to see how it works out.
Anyway, on the cash vs. card issue it is a true toss up in my opinion.
On this trip we've been accompanied by the following artists just to name a few: Tears for Fears, Cyndi Lauper, Anthony Hamilton, Bruno Mars, Natalie Merchant, Seal, Ella Fitzgerald, Beyonce', Bananarama, Alanis Morrissette and the various artists of the soundtrack to Oh Brother Where Art Thou...
Our tastes are all over the board. Thankfully they mesh occasionally.
Then we headed off to Glacier Point and we had no idea what we'd find there. There was snow on the ground as we rode up the hill...real snow and it was almost 70 degrees outside. WTH? Along the way we stopped at Washburn Point, it was amazing. From Washburn, you could see a number of the mountain ranges - Clark, Liberty, etc. and a view of the Nevada and Vernal Falls. That was the first place we saw people climbing (or hiking, not sure which) Half Dome. They were tiny specs even with the binoculars, but they were there. It was like, "what's that ant doing on that mountain?"
At Glacier Point, you could see almost the entire valley. It was phenomenal. A true WOW moment! Glacier Point kicked everything's butt so far. There you can also see Half Dome, the lower Yosemite Falls, upper Yosemite Falls, the Yosemite Lodge, the Ahwahnee Hotel, Curry Village, Yosemite village, the other falls from Washburn Point, as well as the Overhang Rock, where people have obviously done really stupid things. We chose not to do stupid things...plus they have Overhang "blocked off" a bit...
At the end of the day we made it back to the house and headed out to the "local falls" to "view" the eclipse. Of course it wasn't a full eclipse, so you couldn't really look at it.
The road - and I use the term lightly - that we took to get to the spot where R thought it would be good to see the eclipse was ...hmmm, how do I put it...treacherous! It was worse than the dirt road that we were on for the Skywalk...probably because the only things that have been on this road are 4x4s...so its not very wide and it is very rocky. So not the place for a 2012 Chrysler 300 but she rocked it out. The "road" does go right by a lovely waterfall and there's a 6 ton capacity bridge over the creek there, thankfully! I have no idea where that "road" goes, but it seemed to just keep dropping into the abyss.
We didn't stay for the whole eclipse because...well, we had to get back up that road! We took folding chairs from the house with us and when we got back and got them out of the trunk and shut the trunk...dust flew everywhere...this was NOT a road!
Last week, I heard from Edward Lover about changes on the work front. Of course there are changes, I'd been gone for more than 48 hours. That's how it is? ShinyLegs and I experience it a lot... "2 days!! REALLY?"
R just happens to work for the same company in a different city and we've decided that by the time we get back after 2 weeks, they might just have renamed, restructured and repurposed the entire company! R decided on a name...United Logistics Enterprises...I think it could work. You know, everything we do is for the enterprise and of course you know how we feel about logistics!
We shall see..
Well, since I was sick yesterday and R made it back safely from his hike, today we are going to do Glacier Falls and try to get really good pictures of Half Dome. That thing is massive even in the distance so no telling what it will look like when we get up close.
Thanks to good friends back home... Chewy and Edward Lover ...we heard about the eclipse that will be visible on the West Coast tonight. Seriously, there has been no news watching by me at least - so there's no way I would have heard about it! We're trying to determine the best place to see it - hopefully - this evening and we think we have a plan for that...yeah! So exciting!
For now its a relaxy day, with little to no plans, but I'm feeling much better and thinking adding Hetch Hetchy to the plan isn't a bad idea. Will find out how R feels about that addition when he returns from his hike. Thank goodness for text messaging and working cell phones in the valley, I know he's doing OK.
I am sitting outside enjoying the wonderful moderate climate by the creek right now, but the insects are challenging my calm. Just reminding myself that everything serves a purpose and I would not want the bad karma of killing an insect or anything else in the Yosemite Valley!
Today was the latest I've slept in...6:30 am...imagine that. For those of you who know me, you're probably laughing your head off! I am not a morning person, what is California doing to me?
The first part of the plan for today was to do the "park"; there are tons of pull offs with great views of all of the things you'd ever want to photograph and about 150 other things you didn't even know existed that you must also get. The plan worked pretty well, but there are a few items - Half Dome, Glacier Point and some local waterfalls, local to Foresta where we're staying that is - that haven't been captured. Those are for tomorrow.
The second part of the plan was to do the tram ride in the Mariposa Grove, the forest of the big Sequoias. Success! by the way the tram ride is $26.50 per person! They don't tell you that before hand. Every time its mentioned there's just a $ in place of the cost...and only one! They should be like the cruiselines and use $, $$ or $$$ depending on how expensive the activity is...this would have been a $$.
We ate dinner at the famous Wawona Hotel. I think it's famous? It was very good...crab cakes for me, meatloaf for R...I should say half a cow, that meatloaf was huge! and yes, I probably am fattening my friend up a bit because for dessert the waiter - Dave - recommended bread pudding. Bread pudding then! We figured if anyone was going to do a bread pudding right, it would be this old victorian hotel. It did not disappoint. I only had a tiny bit, but there was none left on the plate when we walked out.
Last evening, about 6ish we headed out for "gas and food"... HA! Gas we found in about 6 miles - although someone told us it would be 15...we were thankful for the 6. Food was nowhere to be found - the gas pumps are open 24/7 at Cranes Flat, but the store closes promptly at 5PM. FYI...gas is $4.99 per gallon inside the park at Cranes Flat and at Wawona, the only 2 places we've seen. YES $4.99 and we were even lower on gas last night than the night before. The additional complication is because there are about 100 miles of park to deal with, you can't get out and to something cheaper in a reasonable amount of time especially when you're almost on E.
A few more travel rules...
7) GAS UP! - Don't let the tank go below 1/4 - you'll just feel better knowing you have some gas! (hehe)
8) READY FOR YOUR CLOSE UP! - Take all the cameras, smart phones and chargers for everything when you leave the house to take pictures. You never know what's going to run out of battery life and there's little worse than NOT being able to take a picture in the park.
First - 3 blogs in one day...woohoo!
Second... R took a shower first today and proceeded to tell me that each spray of the shower head works independently of the other, so you have to move around a lot. So I go take a shower and I am laughing sooooo hard because he is absolutely right! There are even 3 settings and it was still a challenge.
Just goes to show how spoiled I am at home!
At least this one gets the soap off...others we have experienced you feel like a walking dial soap advertisement!
We only came to Victorville because I was hoping to stay with, or at least see, my cousin who lives here, but she's out of town or was planning to be out of town, at this point I'm not sure which one is true. So we could have stayed in Barstow last night. They have a HIX (by the way, that's Holiday Inn Express) on Route 66...I love Route 66, reminds me of the movie CARS.
Which reminds me that R says that I relate everything to Disney movies, I had to correct him though because it is actually Pixar or Disney movies and if he thinks I'm bad, he should meet ShinyLegs!
Anyway...Barstow...darn! and now we have to go another 30 miles to get back on the road we would have already been on...ARRRRGGGHHH!!! (insert ticked off smiley here)
We'd used up all the $4.77/GAL gas we got in Williams, AZ, which by the way - thanks to Williams - is the HIGHEST we have paid anywhere! Talk about a tourist trap! We had barely gotten there on fumes and had no choice about putting something in the tank because we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. As hybrid owners, neither of us have ever paid that much for a tank of gas ... even if you put our cars together. It was traumatizing.
The hotel we're in now...HIX Hesperia, CA...didn't pull up in the GPS when I first put it in my phone, then it did and I picked a location...turns out that was NOT the location of the hotel, but a street that at some point stops being paved! What the... That part was my fault because I'd meant to go back and check the address again before we got to this part of the trip, but it just didn't happen. To R's credit, he did mention that its not like I didn't have 15,000 other things I was trying to remember, plan, fix, set up, etc. in the process.
Bathroom after a 3 hour car ride...so obvious.
Hunger after a 3 hour car ride...yep, you said it...obvious.
Tiny hissy fit...to be expected.
We persevered however and found gas for $3.39 a gallon, then ate at a restaurant called "Bakers: Close to Home" which was right in front of the hotel. We were only able to eat in relative calm because the hotel was so close...like they might as well have shared a parking lot.
I'm glad we made it and now...can't wait to get on the way to Yosemite! I want to see the Sequoias!!! We think they will be on the drive in, but we really aren't sure. We have a lot of time to get this 6.5 hours done and we'll probably leave early if yesterday is any indication, so this begins the liesurely - at least somewhat leisurely - part of the trip. Yeah! We have survived...
What day is it? PHEW!
The ride from Williams, AZ to the Skywalk took about 3 hours and the second to the last part of the trip was a 9 mile ride on dirt roads through the mountains. It was a real special treat and I'm glad we had a rental car! The rocks and dust being thrown by the big tour buses and cars that wanted to go faster than the speed limit was crazy. We kept hearing this clinking sound on the undercarriage...scary!
I bought our actual Skywalk tickets online but we also had to get tickets for admission to the reservation. The SW is not part of the National Parks System, so those passes - if you have them - don't apply. Once you are as far as you can go, they shuttle you to the actual location on buses. That shuttle ride is free by the way and if you don't want to drive your car on the gravel road - although, its really not that bad, kind of an adventure in itself - you can take a shuttle further away in the town of Meadowview for that part, but you'll still have to take the second shuttle.
There are 2 stops on the east side of the terminal - for lack of a better word, I should really say "tourist trap" because there are all kinds of things to buy in there - the first stop is Eagle Point and the Skywalk, the second is Guapo point. If you look closely at the image of Eagle Point, you can see the wings spread in either direction and the body of the eagle in the center.
We spent a lot of time at that first stop taking pictures at Eagle Point and then going through the line to get to the SW. They give you a complimentary locker to put ALL of your personal belongings in, you see everyone walking around with an orange key fob on their wrists. You also have to put on little blue booties to protect the glass, but its still getting scratched up from what our tour guide showed us. They take pictures for you while you're on the SW and then of course you can buy them later, which I obviously did...once in a lifetime, remember?
There is a third bus stop, but you have to go back to the terminal for it and take a different bus. It is on the west side of the terminal and is the reservation itself. There are food stops at all three, but the reservation is the only location with the sit down, air conditioned restaurant. Everything else is walk up to the window, find a picnic table with an umbrella (good luck!) and have at it.
It took a really long time to get a bus to the second stop and we were already late on our schedule by then, so we skipped it and went back to the terminal. R was looking for a magnet for his sister, so we got that then headed back out the dirt road. We ended up within 3 miles of Hoover Dam on our way to Victorville/Hesperia, CA, so we stopped because R had never seen it. I've been there before, but he got some great pictures that I'll share eventually. Maybe while I'm in one place for 4 days....
OK, so we've been in the car for 4 or 5 or 6 days off and on now, so I have some travel rules to share with you...
1) DRIVER RULES! - The driver always controls the music or in R's case, the talk radio (I sleep during that).
2) WE'RE STOPPING, YOU'RE PEEING! Multi use stops are preferred - gas, food, restroom - that's the way to go.
3) CAREFUL! - Never drink without a straw while travelling a winding road - this can result in lemonade in your shelf!
4) SAVE THOSE VACATION CARDS! - Vacation cards are imaginery cards to be used in place of words that you have forgotten because your brain is in vacation mode. When you forget - present your vacation card for assistance or just to pass altogether on the comment you were attempting to make. NOTE: Negotiation proceedings are occuring to determine the true allotment of vacation cards per day. I mean really, just five? We've both already blown through those and we're not even half way through the trip!
You can see the Colorado river behind us in the second one. Small brown spot, bottom left.
It comes with up to 3 toppings... powdered sugar, cinnamon and honey... we got cinnamon and honey. The vendor told me she doesn't charge extra for more than one topping, but while R was waiting for our food, the next set of folks that came up got all 3 toppings and she charged them fifty cents more. I told him we got the BG discount...now whether that's the "big girl" or "brown girl" discount, I'm not sure!
After we left there, we headed to Williams, AZ and the Grand Canyon Train Hotel. The drive wasn't bad while it was daylight and you could see all the amazing rock formations around you. The minute it got dark, I got sleepy and tired. Needless to say, I'm glad to be here and settled.
R is playing a game called "parallel kingdom" on his phone. Its where you can inhabit areas, claim them for your own and its based on actual maps, not fictional ones. So guess what happens every time we stop somewhere for longer than 5 minutes? He's chopping down trees and planting flags. He forgot to try to claim Four Corners though...he was bummed.
By the way...today we saw snow in the hills of northern New Mexico...honestly, probably more snow than I've seen this year in KY.
We're holding down the west coast...please take care of the East!
The plan was to get up and be out by 9am today (Sunday)...yeah, whatever. We had breakfast downstairs [Travel Tip --> Holiday Inn = you pay for breakfast separate from your room, Holiday Inn Express = breakfast is included! It's a bit more than continental, there's sausage, pancakes, biscuits, bagels, mini-muffins, cereal, milk, coffee, yogurt, fresh fruit...pretty good fixin's if you ask me.] After breakfast we sluggishly made our way back upstairs to get ready to head out. I think the drive was catching up to us. It was more like 10:15...ish by the time we got in the car.
GPS to Carlsbad Caverns unequivocally sucks. No exceptions...VZ Navigator, Sprint Navigation and MapQuest...all lame. They take you to the Carlsbad National Park Visitors Center, which is not in the park at all, but about 28 miles north of it. If you leave there, heading to where the caverns signs send you...GPS tells you to make a u-turn and go back because you're wrong...although you are very right. Needless to say...we followed the signs. It was an easy ride from where we're staying - all on one road. At least it wasn't bad once we started ignoring the technology.
Park entrance fee is $6 per adult that you pay once you're in the visitor center. We decided to do the "natural entrance" to the park (instead of the elevator entrance - ticket covers either). The natural entrance is about 2 miles of winding pathways at about a 30 degree angle most of the time. It was a true challenge on your ankles for sure but totally worth the scenery. It took us about 2 hours to do the entrance. I was pooped and a bit over the caverns at that point. So when we got to a crossroads where the elevators and rest rooms are, I decided to take a break. Ratac (to be further known as "R" so I don't have to type so much) said, "I'll go on and get some more pictures and meet you back here." Dummy that I am, I say "OK" and off he goes. About 10 minutes later, I looked at the directions board again and was thinking I should have just gone with him. Ten minutes after that I was thinking, "I have to p..." so I went to the restroom. The whole time I was concerned that I was going to be lost in the caverns forever and he wasn't going to find me. I didn't have my cell phone, he had the car key. It was an awful feeling. Turns out he was having the same thoughts about coming back to get me. It won't happen again...no separating while underground at all. I promise.
We rode the elevator back up from the Big Room and the operator told me its about 750 feet up to the top. He had us look down between the elevator and the floor to see the little spec of light that represented where we had been.
Amazing. I used the word "WOW" a lot today. The caverns are insane. R asked if I'd been to Mammoth Cave. The answer...yes, when I was a child but I did NOT go inside the cave. I took that bus trip all the way there and then freaked out. I can see why I did, but good news is I didn't this time.
We did some gift shopping and eating in the cavern restaurant, then decided to head to Roswell, NM so we could see what didn't happen and where it didn't happen. It was interesting. They don't ham it up half as much as we thought they would, but still some interesting places. There we shopped at Roswell Landing - nice place for t-shirts and they are open late, even on Sunday. The guy there looked alien-esque if you ask me, but he was a very helpful man and obviously a local. He knew some great restaurants in the area and we took his suggestion of tia Juana's - food was great.
Its been an eventful weather day here. We had rain as we were walking into the park, then huge clouds and rain on the way to Roswell, then HAIL on the way back from Roswell. When we first saw the hail it was on the roadway and looked like there had been trucks salting the road, but then we noticed it was on the shoulder. Why would they salt a shoulder? Then R says "I think its hail..." Cue me with the "are you nuts?" look. So, then all I could think was that I wanted to pull over and see...so we did. It was hail.
One more thing, of course we've been rained on today, more than once, plus it was cold, moist and somehow sometimes warm in the caverns, so my hair is NOT at its best. (I wonder if I'll still have a friend named Michael by the time I get home...arrrrghhhh! I want BRAIDS!) Anyway, we're leaving the caverns, in the car on the way to Roswell and R says... "Have you loooooked in a mirror?" Cue me with the "oh my goodness, is it that bad?" face! I said yes, and he said "oh ok, I didn't want you to be shocked when you saw your curls were...well...gone." I breathed a sigh of relief, yes, I knew, they were gone and I'm going to be OK with that. LOL
While I was in school getting my master's degree for two and a half years (Webster 2002), I felt very grounded and not in the good way. There was always a paper or presentation due in the next few days or weeks, so there wasn't much time to travel. It wasn't like I'd traveled much before that, but for some reason graduation spurred the travel bug for me. I had to get out and be on the move. So I have quite a few key chains from the states (19) and countries (4) I've visited. The trick here is that I have to have visited the state to be able to add the key chain to the collection.
After talking with Leigh yesterday, I realized I need to go through my list before we leave so I can be sure to get all the ones I need...I'm also going to pick up some for her, she doesn't have crazy requirements for her collection...lucky her! Here are the ones I think I'll be able to get on the trip...in order
Hey parents, I highly recommend key chains as a collection for your kids...they take up a lot less room than stuffed animals...no offense Ellie!
