That's a wrap

 No, we are not home but we are back in Texas. It has been an epic journey covering 6770 miles so far, plus another 800 to get home. Some 138 days on the road to this point. We checked off a long list of national parks and mouments that I have shared with you.

 Speaking of sharing, or trying to share with you. So many time we found ourselves with no or limited data connectivity. That mad trying to update this blog with interesting items extremely difficult and personally frustrating. I was not able to share all that I wanted to and try and stay current.

 The route driven looks something like this LINK TO MAP. If you start in the valley and follow it clockwise it gives a good representation of our trip. In this case I added PLANNED stops on our way south in Texas. Previous to this it only showed those driven. On the left side list the names of the places we have spent the night.

 Rest assured that for the rest of my life, as I sit with my hands around a glass of scotch or bourbon, I will have plenty to remember and relive. A lot of the past 4 plus months I shared with you, a lot I did not.

 Some beautiful things and places to see in America. We will probably go east next year. But to be honest once past Virginia or maybe Pennsylvania my desire drops off quickly. So next year will probably be shorter, both distance and time wise.

 That brings me to the next issue. I learned how to do a blog to help Rhonda document Dan's fight against cancer. Dan has been gone 2 years, I think it is time for this blog to go as well. It will stay on the web but no future contributions. Maybe in 7-8 months I will feel different, maybe not.

 I hope you found something useful or at least entertaining in these 4 years.If not accept my apologies. I tried, I really did.


Try and enjoy life...


Goodbye

A morning at the beach

 After starting off the morning at 38 degrees we went over to the National Park. Even though it is a valley, said valley sets at 8000ft in elevation. The sand was blown off a dry lake bed and trapped by the mountains. Highest sand dunes you are ever likely to see. The sand is very fine and not coarse at all, like the sugar sand on Emerald coast of Florida, just a darker color.

use the people as a frame of reference for height

 Just another national park we have checked off our list. Of course Maggie got a magnet!


"...gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."

It's all happening at the zoo...

 We decided a trip to the zoo was in order, had not been in decades. The Cheyenne mountain zoo was close by as you might expect. We enjoyed walking around looking at the animals and interacting with the people. It was started by a couple named Penrose. Made his money up in Cripplecreek and became quite wealthy. Their foundation carries on today.

 Your ticket to the zoo also got you access to the Will Rogers shrine to the sun. I had never heard of it before although it was built in the 1930's. Sits high up on the side of the mountain.

 A couple of links to tell you more.

LINK to shrine and zoo

LINK to foundation


 The Penrose's and another couple are buried in the bottom of the shrine.


 Tonight we are at 7456ft in elevation, forecasted low tonight is 38. Brr...


frosty rosebuds...

Gorge and Phantom Canyon revisited

 Sometime back in the 1990's as best we can recall, Mary and I flew up on a long weekend and visited this area. It was on that same weekend we visited the Academy.

 Royal Gorge bridge was built as a tourist attraction years ago. On our visit back in the 90's we walked across the bridge and played tourist. When we arrived today we were a bit surprised to see the pricing, $27 per person! No thank you. Took a couple of free pictures instead.

 We were fortunate in that apparently a vintage Porsche club was there. Several nice cars in the lot.

 Part of our memories of that trip was a journey up phantom canyon road. A narrow, twisty, gravel road between Canon city and Victor. We learned today it was the route of a narrow gauge railroad to haul gold ore. Mary wanted to conquer her demons so we drove it again.

these signs did not exist on our first trip up the canyon

I told you narrow, remember two way traffic

classifies as a blind corner

 The drive took us up to the Victor/Cripple creek area. These are two old mining towns from the 1890's. They have resumed mining gold around Victor but doing it via open pit, not hard rock shafts as before. Back in 1991 Colorado passed legislation to allow limited gambling in Cripple Creek Blackhawk and Central City.( Blackhawk and Central City are up north of I70 west of Denver). At any rate this created a boom for the area that did not last. Cripple Creek was mostly closed up small casinos much like we found in Deadwood. Since our last visit they have build a very nice heritage center.

 It was a very nice drive in the high country. Tomorrow is our last full day here and we plan to visit the Olympic training facilities. The neighborhood back home is flooded due to heavy rains. More forecasted and possible tropical storm coming. Not worried about the house but all of these things may affect our timeline.


carpe diem

Well damn

 As you should know we are headed home. Current plans have us home by the 21st. Might be a change in plans upcoming.

 The area where our winter home is has already had heavy rain and is flooded

 Our home is safe for the time being but neighbors affected. Now let's add the forecast to the mix.

 Well that starts to paint a difficult situation. Like I said before our area is already flooded. It flooded in June this year as well. Hmm...

 Now to add to the potential misery let us take a look farther south...

 Well damn...

 September 18 and 19 we will be in Kerrville in the hill country. Might just hold up there depending on how things look.


 I told you we were near NORAD base. What I did not tell you was downhill from us is Fort Carson, an active Army base. Every morning at 6:30am they play Reville on the loud speaker, every night Taps is played at 10pm. We can hear it very clearly. We're in the Army now, we're not behind a plow...


seize the day my friends

USAFA

 Before we explain USAFA a little more information on Cheyenne Mountain. You probably think I am pulling your leg...

LINK to Cheyenne Mountain

 Told you so!

 We have visited the Academy before but will be back again I am sure. Nothing I like more than the Chapel set against the foothills. If you have never visited, you should.

 We also toured Garden of the Gods. It shows off red rock formations that i am willing to bet are the same strata as those in Sedona or Las Vegas.


Off to Royal Gorge and other sites tomorrow.



carpe diem

Cheyenne and Cheyenne

 I believe we left you walking westward on the Oregon trail. A noble thing to do but not really going where we needed to go.

 It was a short, easy drive down 71 to 80 then west to Cheyenne Wyoming. Yep back to Wyoming for a couple of days. Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming, you knew that right? i did not but I digress. Cheyenne is home to Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, the "daddy of them all". Frontier days had come and gone but we did tour the museum. Mainly all things rodeo but that was fine for us. The little nightly rodeo in Cody had wet our whistle. Where the nightly rodeo was mainly young people, Cheyenne Frontier days is the major leagues. May try to return during Frontier days, might be fun.

 The "other" Cheyenne. Think of the movies "War Games" or "Stargate". Confused? How about NORAD? Cheyenne mountain is the location referred to in both those movies and and was the headquarters of NORAD. We are camped on the side of the mountain outside Colorado Springs. Just a short distance from where we are is the entrance to the mountain, after you go thru 25 ton nuclear bomb blast proof doors. Inside is a lot of stuff, including 3 story tall buildings. If it is anything like the missile silo we toured everything is supported on massive springs. That makes them impervious to earthquakes or ground tremors from blast.

 We will be here 4 days touring the Air Force academy among other places. We toured the Academy 20 plus years ago. I love the cadet's chapel, a beautiful place set against back drop of the foot hills.


LINK to travel map

 Fairly clear we are south bound. In looking forward I came across one of those oddities for Texas. I believe it was Rapid City I was using as starting point. It was closer Rapid City SD to Amarillo TX than Amarillo Tx to Edinburg TX. That can be discouraging.

 Should have pictures to share tomorrow


sitting at 6419 ft with a beautiful view across the plains to the east.


in Colorado, like Oregon and Washington, have to be careful what type "buds" i collect. You can get high in the high country...

I warned you

 I did warn you what might happen and it did. We got a wild hair. We had seen and done what we wanted to in the Black Hills area. That fact, coupled with our dislike of the rv park we were in, led us to leave two days early.

 To better utilize those two days we drove south into Nebraska, destination Scotts Bluff. We are actually in Gering in a very nice city run park. First stop was a very nice museum of all things great plains related. A lot larger and more detailed than anticipated. Worth a visit if passing thru the area, allow a couple of hours.

 Then it was on to another National Monument, Scotts Bluff. From your American history class you are very familiar with the Oregon trail. These bluffs were a major stopping place and landmark along that trail. We walked in historical foot steps once again.

LINK to travel map

 In case you are curious, it is named after an early mountain man that died here.


 Tomorrow we move on to get back on track and schedule as planned.


rosebuds in the great plains...

Sturgis, Deadwood, Windcave and Billy

 Never heard of Sturgis you say? Must not be a biker, or Harley Davidson fan. Not too much to the town so did not take pictures. Just know that every August 10's of thousands of bikers descend on this town for a rally.

LINK to rally website

 Cannot imagine the noise with that many bikes here at one time. Been bad enough with those running around here now.

 Sure you know Deadwood from the TV series a few years back. In reality it was your typical rough and rowdy western mining town. Perhaps it's lasting reputation comes from the fact that Wild Bill Hickock was shot and killed here. Had a hand of Aces and eights in poker, forever known as a deadmans hand. A lot of bars and small casinos make up historic main street.

 Wild Bill is buried in the local cemetery here and along side of him is Calamity Jane. Useless trivia for you

 You know we only visit the biggest, best, and most well known parks. Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Wind Cave etc... What? You have never heard of Wind Cave? Must be because it did not become a National Park till 1903. Interesting story about the cave and how it became a national park

 If you have read this silly blog at all you know I always recognize the efforts of the CCC's

Billy

 Boy was he pissed, out of breath but pissed when he caught up with us. I told you before he nearly got on board but missed the boat, so to speak All is well that ends well as he has joined the boys.

 Meet Billy and his buddies.

Left to right:
Billy the bison
Alvin the chipmunk
Rosie the Roosevelt Elk
Rocky the big horn sheep


we are out of the adoption business


carpe diem

Mount Rushmore

 You guessed correctly didn't you? If not shame om you.

 First impression upon seeing it while still driving, not as big as I thought. It is big once you pay to park and approach it. Hard for me to imagine those figures hiding in that mountain. Interesting facts we learned in visitor centers were some of the details. You know probably about the dynamite and jack hammers, I did. What I did not know about was the scale model he had built, and constantly adjusted during the carving. They used a system called "pointing". Used a level and plumb bob on the model to measure a given distance then told the "chief pointer" on the mountain the measurement. He would multiply that number by 12. This would provide the information to know where features where, and depth needed.

 Enjoy

standard view

 Very crowded on a holiday weekend, the last of the summer. Maybe people will go home/back to work...


more Black Hills rosebuds to come

Badlands and Wall Drug

 You are driving along in a pretty nice short grass prairie and boom, it all goes to hell. That is a pretty good description of Bad lands National Park. Really it boils down to the northern most plateau eroding down to the lower. Far more complicated than that, but just for simplicity let's run with it.

 We drove a southern route out 44 to reach the park. As is our custom we stop in the visitor center, go thru the exhibits and watch a short film about the park and how it got the way it is now. In Yellowstone we repeated those steps 5 times as each visitor center had different information

 After driving the scenic loop tru the park we were headed north toward, wait for it....you guessed it, Wall South Dakota. Small little town in middle of nowhere. It's claim to fame is the fact that it happens to be the home of Wall Drugstore. The story of this store is taught in college, at least a business class at UTA that Mary took. The Housteads opened the store in 1931 and really struggled. One day the wife suggested giving away ice water to thirsty travelers. Perhaps they would buy something while they enjoyed free water. First it was just ice cream but then it took off. The rest they say is history. All these years later you can still get free ice water and coffee for 5 cents. Huge tourist draw to Wall, store covers several blocks.

  Inside that huge store(s) they have a little of everything. They even have a chapel for travelers.

 The badlands and Wall drug were both interesting places. Very different but interesting none the less.


  Tomorrow the plan is to go look at dead presidents. I will let you guess what that means.


 Really like the scenery of the Black Hills.


carpe diem