July 23, 2016
Alaska Trip - Day 1

7:30am (Central) - I was right. Not much sleep, and that alarm going off at 4am was almost painful. I got about 4 hours of sleep, and I'm definitely dragging this morning. Otherwise, I was right on time arriving at Hobby Airport at 6am. Met my party, got the bags checked, ate a little something, and got through security quickly. Now we're just sitting at the gate waiting to board. We'll be on the plane for about 6 hours because we are stopping in Albuquerque on the way. Arrival in Seattle at 12:05pm local time. I usually can't sleep on planes, but as tired as I am, there's a good chance I will. That is, of course, if this flight isn't the Screaming Baby Express. I have my Bose noise-reduction headphones at the ready!

9:15am (Mountain) - Right on time into Albuquerque, and a very smooth flight. And thankfully, no screamers. People off, people on, and soon on our way to Seattle. It's sunny and 71 here. Nice. I'll be enjoying my banana nut muffin in lieu of peanuts during this segment. Yummy!

11:45am (Pacific) - Another very smooth segment, but we had a little screamer as we descended into Seattle. Luckily, he's in the very back, I'm in the very front. Perfect. We landed 20 minutes early, and typical for Seattle, it's very cloudy. Southwest has a great free TV service onboard, so I was able to catch up with the news. The signal was great and only stuttered a couple of times. Ain't technology great?

10:00pm - Finally settling down for the night. We had a lovely day here in Seattle looking around, but we didn't make it to the Pike's Market yet. We'll do that in the morning since it's very close to the cruise ship terminal. I took what was going to be a short nap that ended up being two hours! I was beat. We later had a delicious dinner at a local Italian restaurant, and enjoyed good conversation and making new friends. Gotta get up early, so off I go. We all look forward to getting aboard the ship tomorrow. So much to see, experience, and most importantly, EAT!

Friday, July 22, 2016

I'm feeling anxious. Not because anything is wrong, but because a lifelong goal of mine is coming to fruition starting tomorrow. I'm heading to Alaska, on a cruise, departing out of Seattle.

Since I was very young, I've had this strong draw to go to Alaska. I've never been able to explain why, it's just always been there. I've told family and friends all my life that if I ever make it there, I may not come back. Of course, I will come back since I have a job, home, and the usual adult responsibilities, but one day I may not.

Was I a gold miner in a previous life that struck it rich up there, or maybe a naturalist admiring the breathtaking beauty of that state? Whatever reason...I'm finally going.

Since Lawrence doesn't fly, he won't be joining me on this adventure, but I assured him that after we retire in a few years, we will go to Seattle via car or train and take our own cruise. I will be traveling with a group of friends that go on a bunch of cruises every year, so I will follow their lead on what to do and experience. I've been on cruises before, but always out of Galveston, and always to the Caribbean where it's always hot. Now I'm going north where it's almost always chilly. I've been watching the weather up there and it gets pretty cool during the night, even though we will have about 20 hours of daylight the whole time. That's gonna be weird.

My suite mate is a lady friend of mine that has never been on a cruise, and never been on a train, so I arranged this week and a half adventure to include the cruise, which has a train trip as a shore excursion, then when we arrive back in Seattle we will jump on Amtrak and ride along the Pacific Coast from Seattle down to Portland. We will fly home from there after a night's stay. We are both excited about the trip, but for different reasons, but I guess that's what adventures are all about. Although we will both see and experience the same things, we will react and feel different emotions as they happen.

I'm doing some laundry and getting ready to pack. I'm getting the cameras ready, and the electronics all charged up. I'm giving a lot of attention to the dog as I know she will miss me a lot while I'm gone, and I will miss her more.

My mother knew I always wanted to go to Alaska, and she always wanted me to go to Italy. It was her favorite destination, and I promised her I would someday. Maybe next year? I'll work on those plans when I get back.

I don't know if I will do a daily update or not. I'll have to see if the inspiration hits me, and if I have the time. I may write a daily report, but being that I will be on the ocean, I may not be able to post it every day. I'll also post a picture or two.

I have a feeling I won't get much sleep tonight.

2016 Minnesota Vacation - Day 3

The day started out pretty normal. Woke up early to let the dog out, then went back to bed. It was in the 60's as the sun was rising, which was a nice surprise. We ended up leaving Osceola, Iowa at 10:20am and headed north. Another beautiful day as we went about 45 miles into Des Moines and started looking for fuel and food, but once again we hit some roadwork causing a bit of a backup. It seems we're hitting a lot of that this trip, and then I remember why. In this area of the country they have a limited window of opportunity to do things like road repairs and other outdoor stuff because you can't very well do those repairs with extremely cold weather and large amounts of snow and ice on the roads. In Texas, they do roadwork, and just about everything else, year-round.

We pulled off and filled up the car. What's very strange and hard to get used to in Iowa is their pricing of gasoline. In Texas we have regular, unleaded plus, and premium. The higher the grade, the more it costs, right? Not here. The cheapest fuel is super unleaded with the same amount of ethanol as we get in Texas (10%). Next highest is the regular unleaded, and the most expensive is just gasoline with no ethanol at all. This is big corn country and ethanol is king. Even the pumps are hard to figure out because they have 5 different grades and 3 hoses. I paid $2.25 for premium. Nice!

We found some lunch next door and again proceeded north. Today we traveled 308 miles and got to Lawrence's brother's house a little after 3:30pm. We unloaded the car, did some visiting, and I decided to take a nap. I drove a total of 1,273 miles over three days, and it can be exhausting. I have a friend Greg who drives an 18 wheeler all over the country, and it's not unusual for him to do somewhere in the area of 600 miles every day. Respect.

I got up from my nap and quickly noticed that it was getting dark outside. A storm was brewing and it was heading right for us! There were all sorts of warnings up for our area, and the radar showed a big blob of red and purple close by, and it was moving fast. 70 mph winds and blinding heavy rain put on a heck of a show. We were supposed to be heading out for dinner, but we decided to wait for the storm to pass. It did pass, but then it curled back around for another swing at us. After it had mostly died down, we eventually headed out. There was lots of debris on the roads, and we saw a patch of trees that were snapped in half. I'm talking tornado-snapped in half! I can believe it after those high winds.

We took two cars because we had a lot of people. On the way, the front car went over debris and started to lose air in one tire. We all got to the restaurant just in time and decided to change the tire after dinner. We went outside and it was still raining (and about 67 degrees) and decided we would leave the car overnight and fix it tomorrow, so we all piled into the CRV and headed back to the house. One of the kids rode in the back hatch area. She's small-framed and had no problems.

At this point, everyone was dozing off and ready for bed. I headed downstairs to the basement (where we sleep) and started to write my daily entry. A big bolt of lightning and BOOM - all the power is off. I'm sitting here in the dark, on the couch, with nothing but the glow of my iPad lighting my corner of the room. I'll use that same glow to make my way to bed in a moment.

No definite plans for tomorrow. We'll probably just do some visiting with various people around town and goof off. To me, that's perfect, and what vacations are for.

I may or may not write additional entries throughout our two week stay. It all depends on what we do, and if it's worth telling. I wouldn't want to bore you with what we eat every day and where we went shopping, which may be all we do. I'll definitely write again on the trip home.

Hey! The lights just came back on! Good night......

2016 Minnesota Vacation - Day 2

We slept-in this morning since we were both worn out from yesterday's drive from Houston. I did get up early to let the dog out, and then I had a bite of the free breakfast the hotel offered, but then I went back to bed for a few hours. I felt a lot better today, even though I do still have my head cold.

We departed Ardmore at 11:20am and headed north on I-35 towards Oklahoma City. We stopped for lunch at Arby's and I had a turkey sandwich, Lawrence had a Beef & Cheddar, and the dog got bites of both, of course. Close to Downtown OKC, we once again hit construction with a heavy backup.

The weather was beautiful all day with clear skies and lots of sun, but boy was it hot! We hit 101 today in northern Oklahoma, and it stayed in the 90's all day until we got close to Iowa when it dropped to the upper 80's. You could definitely tell we were headed north.

In Kansas, I was surprised by two things today. First, their gas was only $1.81 per gallon. Second, I saw a new casino in the state. I know Kansas is a very conservative state like Texas, so I didn't think they allowed casino gambling, just like Texas. Interesting.

Not much to tell about Kansas or Missouri. Traffic wasn't bad and the weather was good. Lots of wheat and corn growing, but that's not unusual. We made a number of potty, food and gas stops along the way, and finally reached Osceola, Iowa just after 9pm. Osceola is about 45 miles south of Des Moines. We found a Quality Inn here, and it's a bit dumpy, but they allow dogs, so we're good with that. A lot of places don't allow dogs, which kinda sucks, and limits your choices. None of the door locks work in the rooms and the front desk clerk had to let everyone into their rooms.

Once we got settled in our room, we quickly found out there were no food places open after 9pm, including pizza delivery. The only thing open with food is the truck stop next to our hotel, so I wandered over there to see what they had to offer. Their offering, other than the usual c-store fare, was freshly made pizza! It was surprisingly not too bad. Back in the room with pizza and lemonade, we had our dinner, and found out the dog likes pizza. The again, she's likes everything, as evidenced by her fluffy rotundness. Is that a word? It is now.

We traveled 371 miles yesterday, another 594 today, and a couple of hundred more tomorrow will get us to our destination. We'll be in Minnesota for two weeks before heading back to Houston, and so far we have no definitive plans while there. Just what the doctor ordered.

2016 Minnesota Vacation - Day 1

Surprisingly, we actually got out of Houston a lot earlier than expected this morning at 11am. I was thinking that's perfect so we would miss afternoon rush hour in Dallas. That realization came to a screeching halt early on as we got stuck behind a huge accident on I-45 just south of Conroe. It involved an overturned 18-wheeler, a haz-mat spill, and the freeway shut down. That's an hour and a half I'll never get back.

Once we got through that mess, we stopped at Buc-ees in Madisonville for a break. Potty breaks for everyone, including the dog, sandwiches, drinks, chips, and of course, beef jerky for me, and we're back on the road. All the way to Dallas, and after Dallas to almost the Texas border, there was road construction everywhere, thereby causing more delays. Right on schedule, we hit Dallas rush hour promptly at 5:00pm. It was also 101 outside. It took a little over 71/2 hours to get out of Texas and into Oklahoma, and I was exhausted. I'm also suffering from a major head cold and not in the best mood. We were planning on staying in Oklahoma City tonight, but we stopped in Ardmore for gas and noticed the La Quinta across the street. Close enough! We're all checked in for the night, I'm finishing this entry, and we'll be on the hunt for dinner soon.

Oh, you'll be proud of us. We actually passed the Winstar Casino when we crossed the border. It was difficult, but we just kept staring forward and keep my foot on the gas! Our gambling budget is very limited this trip, so any gambling will be with Lawrence's parents in Minnesota. If we have any money left on the way home, we may stop in at Winstar.

Tomorrow we traverse Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and into Iowa where we will stay the night in Des Moines. We should arrive in New Ulm, Minnesota sometime mid-afternoon Friday. It will be good to see everyone up there, and we have a lot of catching up to do!

West Texas Vacation – Day 4

February 15, 2016

It only took us four hours to get home from Temple, and that includes a stop at a Mexican restaurant, and a Buc-ees. I was originally going to cut over to Highway 6 and down through Bryan-College Station, but instead took Highway 36 out of Temple and went south through Caldwell, where we ate lunch, on to Brenham, and finally into Houston. The routing down 36 was intentional for a very important reason...It follows the BNSF Railroad all the way, and I saw a lot of trains moving. Anyone that knows me also knows that is important to me!

Our lunch in Caldwell at the Mexican restaurant was good, but the service was awful. Very slow, and just like last night at the steakhouse in Temple, they got the order wrong. How difficult can it be?

Throughout the trip we were looking for good places to stop and take pictures, and hit some stores as well, but there just wasn't anything to stop for. So we drove a total of 1213 miles in four days door-to-door, didn't get to visit the mountains because of lodging problems, a Supreme Court justice died 30 minutes away from us, and it was just a weird trip overall. Lawrence never complained about basically doing nothing for four days but sit in the backseat of the car keeping the dog company and being bored. I apologized a couple of times and he said it wasn't a problem. We'll do something nice soon.

The most important thing is we are all safe at home now. We have some laundry to do, pay a few bills, and relax a bit. I think I'll make spaghetti tonight!

Thanks for reading, and hopefully enjoying, my travel writings. I do it for me and my bad memory, but I hope you get a little something out of it as well.

What's next in the travel department? Well, looks like June and our annual trip to Minnesota, Lawrence's birthplace, and then in July I may be going on an alaskan cruise! We're still working on the details. I was also possibly going to Switzerland in August on a two-week tour of mountain railroads throughout the area, but I can't do both, so it looks like Alaska wins. I've always wanted to go there, and now may be my chance.

West Texas Vacation - Day 3

February 14, 2016

We drove a total of 358 miles today, and here are the details:

We got out of Ft. Stockton about 10:45am and headed east on I-10, soon taking the exit for Highway 385, which headed northeast. Once you get off of I-10 onto a small Texas highway, you quickly end up in the middle of nowhere. There are no houses, cattle, trees or grass...It was just us and dust.

We didn't have breakfast when we left thinking we would grab something up the road a bit. Turns out there was almost nothing up the road as we passed through a number of very small towns with a population of 13, and nothing was open. There were no diners, and no people or cars moving around. It almost seemed like each bungalow was a ghost town. It wasn't until we hit the small town of Big Lake and found an open Dairy Queen. I'm usually not a big fan of DQ food (desserts are another story), but by the time we got there, I was famished and that burger and fries were great!

I would like to note here that up to this point, we were traversing what is known as the Permian Basin of Texas, and it's very flat with no scenery, unless you consider a large amount of oil and natural gas wells scenery. They were everywhere, along with various oil and gas plants, trucking companies, holding tanks, pipe yards, and everything else it takes to run oil and gas fields. Another interesting fact is the amount of huge wind-turbine electricity generating towers. They are all over the high ridges, and lots and lots of large-capacity power lines running everywhere. If you need oil, natural gas or electricity, you'll find it here, but not much else.

Soon after we left Big Lake, the scenery started to change. I started noticing small cedar trees with no foliage on them, then bigger cedar trees with foliage, and then grass. After about an hour, we started to see land being tilled for planting of crops soon, and they were everywhere, especially as we approached San Angelo. Pulling into San Angelo brought us back to the reality that there are actually other human beings out there, and we hit traffic, saw open businesses, and the usual medium sized town tumult. Driving for a couple of hundred miles through the desert can cause you lo lose perspective.

Continuing eastbound out of San Angelo, we pulled into San Saba, where once again we stopped at the DQ, this time for a Blizzard. In the center of town we found an open mercantile shop and stopped in to look around. In the window of the business was a poster promoting a Downton Abbey tea party for their group to watch the show together. I made it a point to bring up to the very nice ladies inside the shop that I participate in the taping of the program after Downton Abbey called Manor of Speaking, of which they were also very familiar with. I teased them a little about what will happen in tonight's episode, but was careful not to give any major plot points away. The only thing I told them was that Mr. Carson gets what he deserves.

There weren't any other real stops after San Saba as we continued towards Lampasas, through Killeen, and eventually stopping in Temple at the La Quinta where we are all tucked in for the night. Across I-35 is a Texas Roadhouse, and the front desk clerk gave me a 10% off coupon for dinner. We're heading that way soon.

Tomorrow we will head east a little bit until we join Highway 36 southbound through College Station and on into Houston on Highway 290. We won't be in any hurry as it's only about 3 hours from here.

So, until tomorrow.....

West Texas Vacation - Day 2

February 13, 2016

Another day of travel ends weirdly. Of course.

Starting off this morning in Del Rio, we were awakened with chirping birds, cool temperatures, and a bright sunny day. We got all cleaned up, loaded the car and went next door to the pancake house for a late breakfast. Our waitress was from Thailand and felt it necessary to crack political jokes when we sat down. That was weird...but breakfast was good.

We headed west on Highway 90 and our first stop was at Seminole Canyon State Park. There wasn't much to see during our short hike with the dog. The indian petroglyphs along the canyon walls were too far away, so we turned around and headed back to the car, and promptly departed.

Our next stop was the awesome and beautiful Pecos River Bridge. We got a lot of great pictures and again proceeded west. We passed through Marathon, but not before stopping and taking pictures of the famous Gage Hotel. Beautiful place, and a wonderful restaurant.

Our next stop was Alpine, which was supposed to be our overnight spot, but as usual, that all changed. We wanted to stay there two nights and spend the next two days touring Big Bend National Park, seeing the Marfa lights, visit Ft. Davis, and go up to the McDonald Observatory, but all of the hotels in Alpine were either sold out or didn't allow dogs. We also checked other towns around the area, and they were all sold out as well. I'm guessing the night before Valentine's Day can be expected to fill up all the rooms. Also, while in Alpine, we learned that Justice Scalia died in Marfa, less then 30 minutes from where we were standing. It was really weird.

We ended up having to backtrack a bit and head north to Ft. Stockton and the La Quinta there. So much for hiking, photographing and enjoying my West Texas mountains. We'll get them next time.

Although we're somewhat disillusioned about not doing what we planned, I think being forced to take a different route may be to our advantage. We'll head out tomorrow towards San Angelo, over to Brady, Killeen, and on to Temple, where we might stay tomorrow night. A new route will hopefully force upon us new opportunities for photographs, antique shopping, and whatever else we can discover.

It looks like we'll get home a day early on Monday, and that's OK.

On a positive note, the La Quinta we're in tonight has dry carpet!

West Texas Vacation - Day 1
February 12, 2016

We weren't in any big hurry to leave, and I had a couple of errands to run like filling the car, going to the ATM, etc., but we did finally depart around 1PM and headed west on I-10. It was a beautiful, sunny, clear-sky day and about 80 degrees. Ah, winter in Texas.

I was driving, Lawrence was in the backseat with Desiree to keep her company, but she prefers to stay in her kennel the whole time. There's a story behind her staying in that kennel, and I'll talk about that later.

We got out of Houston before afternoon rush hour, but ended up hitting San Antonio right at 5pm and its version of rush hour. Although slow, it's not nearly as bad as Houston!

On the way we made our first stop at the rest area just west of Columbus and the Highway 71 exit that takes you to Austin. People and puppy potty breaks were in order, so we got out of the car, did the rest area waltz, and took care of business. In and out in 5 minutes.

As we approached Luling, everyone knows about the giant Buc-ees there, and it's almost an arrest-able offense to pass one, but surprisingly, we did. No beef jerky or Beaver Nuggets this time! We had lunch in Houston before we left, and we already stopped for potty breaks, so on to San Antonio we continued.

After working our way through rush hour, we diverted onto Highway 90 towards Hondo, Uvalde, and eventually Del Rio where we will stay the night. At this point we're in the 6pm hour and the sun is setting fast. It sounds cliche, but we were actually driving into the sunset, and it was beautiful. The further west you go, the more spectacular the sunsets become.

I started to get excited because not far past San Antonio you start seeing small rises on the horizon, and I don't mean just hills. They are what I affectionately call "The Foothills" of the West Texas mountains we will encounter tomorrow. They're not very tall, but they are taller than just the normal Hill Country hills, and everyone knows I love mountains, so to me they may well have been the Alps.

We stopped in Uvalde and Lawrence got a hot fudge sundae at Dairy Queen. Although difficult, I resisted. I also called ahead to the La Quinta in Del Rio and booked a room. It was surprisingly inexpensive, and of course, I was pleased to no end. I will come to regret and understand why it was so inexpensive later.

The speed limit on Highway 90 is 70, but in the dark I was doing 60, tops. I used to love driving at night, but age and wisdom have taught me to be fearful of two things whilst driving at night: Drunks and big critters. I'm not in such a big hurry to get my car screwed up by either.

We finally arrive in Del Rio about 7:30pm and locate the La Quinta. The front desk clerk was very nice and accommodating, give us our keys, and we proceeded to unload the car of all the suitcases, camera gear, dog stuff, etc. This is where the regret and understanding begins. I walk to the bathroom and immediately slip on the slick tile floor and almost busted my ass. The bottom of my shoes were soaked because all the carpet around the bathroom area, as well as along the back wall of our room, is absolutely soaked. It's water, but from where? It was also wet around the commode. I went to the front desk and they offered to put us in another room, but we had crap all over the room and didn't feel like packing it all up again, so we went back and put towels all over the place and will have to watch where we step for the rest of our stay. The clerk stated she would give me points towards my frequent stay account and apologized profusely. La Quinta is one of my favorite places to stay, but not this one. What a dump. I assure you I will be notifying their HQ about this place.

At this point, we head out looking for dinner, and Rudy's BBQ sounded great, and it was close by. They gave us a sample of their different meats, and the brisket and turkey were both amazing. I went with the turkey, and Lawrence had a pulled pork sandwich. The food was very good, and their prices are reasonable. I saved some turkey for the dog...It's her favorite. I try not to spoil her, but it's too late.

Oh, remember me talking about why she stays in her kennel? She used to love to stick her head out the window and sniff the air. A few months ago we were driving around and I accidentally rolled the rear window up and trapped her head in the window. She was traumatized, no doubt, and has refused to get anywhere near one of the windows since. Poor baby. We now call the car the "Puppy Eating Honda". She doesn't think it's funny.

Today we drove 357 miles, and it only took a little over 3/4 of a tank to get to Del Rio from Houston. That's about $16 in gas expense. I love my Honda.

As for tomorrow, we have no certain destination or schedule. I also have no idea where we will stay tomorrow night. Big Bend National Park? Marathon? Alpine? Marfa? We're on vacation, so wherever the road leads us, that will be our destination. It'll be a surprise.