On Our Way Home

Hi all, I am sorry I have not blogged in so long, but we have been visiting family and friends. I did not want to take time from our visit since we do not get the opportunity to see them very often. However, now we are on our way home (Heather and Family, we are on our way--can't wait to see you!) and we are staying in hotels, so we have time to blog. After this blog I will blog one more time, after we get home. It will contain a link to a Kodak Photo Album which I will name, Our Changing Landscape. I hope you will enjoy the link.

We last left off on our travels to Texas. We were going to visit our friends, Patti and Mike. We had a wonderful visit. We had not seen each other for about 30 years, but we picked up where we left off--there were no awkward moments or anything! It was great! Along with a wonderful visit, we found a hidden treasure in the town of Round Top. The town has a population of 90, up from 77 during the last census. While there, we went to a great patriotic concert, which was great, but the concert hall was not to be believed! It was too beautiful for words. If you want to see it, check out http://www.festivalhill.org/. Under campus and facilities check out the concert hall. Along with the concert, we also got to watch a very interesting Independence Day parade--including horses and long horn bulls! The best part of the parade, of course, was the little yellow MG Midget driven by none other than Dennis (Mike rode along and threw candy at, er, I mean to the children). Driving in a parade is always a lot of fun but you ain't had fun til you have idled through 2 miles of south Texas fourth of July heat, 104 degrees with the temp gauge pegged. If MGs had aluminum engine blocks or heads, there would be a big puddle of aluminum in Round Top. The old cast iron MG just shrugged it off and just kept on ticking. The three days we were in Round Top flew by, and we hated to leave. However, we know what the heat is like in Texas, so we left at 6:00 a.m. to get to the Dallas area to visit our niece and her family before the hottest part of the day.

The visit to Highland Village (just outside Dallas) was great. I got to see my brother and sister-in-law again--they were visiting their daughter. I also got to see Jodie, her husband, Abe, their two children, Anna and Ian, and my nephew and his wife, Robbie and Christa. It was a regular family reunion, and I loved it.

When we left Dallas we headed to Oklahoma City to visit the 45th Infantry Division Museum. Dennis' dad was a part of this division during WWII. He was a POW--captured at Anzio. We spent about an hour there, took a photo op, and headed up the road to Wichita, Kansas. The day was very hot, and since our car is not air conditioned, Dennis employed his own form of air conditioning. He wrapped a wet cloth around his neck--he said it was a very successful method of cooling down.

We finally arrived in Wichita around 3:00. This was another visit to dear friends (Nancy and Dick). It was also like a family reunion because their children who live out of town (and her one daughter who lives in town) were also there. We had a great visit and were sorry to see it end.

Saturday morning we headed to Willow Springs, MO. The day was very hot, and the scenery was beautiful and devastating. We went through Joplin, MO and were horrified at the destruction caused by the tornado. It went on for blocks, and we didn't even drive through the worst part! We finally arrived in Willow Springs and found that it is a very small town--it was difficult to find anywhere to have dinner (of course we could have skipped the meal, but we've decided this is actually an eating vacation with a little driving thrown in for good measure). We left there early this morning and we are now in Bowling Green, KY. As we drove into KY we saw some of the left-over flooding--so much water and just a few hundred miles back there was a level 5 drought!

Dennis here. The driving has been a little less exciting than it was on the way out but there has been a couple of unexpected pleasures. First was the Texas Hill Country from Brady down through Llano to the outskirts of Austin on TX71. If these Texans weren't so modest, (riiiiight!) they would be calling this area the West Texas mountains. Granted they are not as vertical as the Rockies or the Appalachians but they have plenty of ups and downs with a whole bunch of nice turns most taken at 55-60mph, and the views are great. Next was the drive out of Wichita to Willow Springs MO on US400. We thought we had experienced the Flint Hills on the way west along US50 and 56 in north central Kansas, but the Flint Hills extend south into southeastern Kansas and are even nicer than the northern areas. Great vistas and smooth roadway that winds up and around through cattle and oil country could lead you to believe you are in Texas, but you aren't, and if you ever get a chance, check out US400 in eastern Kansas. The main drawback to all of this driving is the heat, which has continued to get more humid as we work our way east.

I should have some more good driving roads to report on after crossing Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and NC. I'll fill you all in once we are home, ah home, after almost six weeks and 7500 miles I'm really looking forward to my own bed and an air conditioned car.

Driving LA to San Angelo Texas

Not much to write about the drive from LA to Phoenix (where we had lunch with our nephew, Rob, and his wife, Christa). Seemed the road only turned a few times in the whole 7 hour drive and most of those turns were in the first two hours before we got to Palm Springs. It was however HOT after PS and even hotter going through Phoenix, the Midget didn't seem to mind, temps and OP stayed in the normal range but the short guy driving got very close to the temperature red line. You can only drink so much water trying to keep cool before other internal pressures create problems.

Phoenix to Tucson was a little better even though it started hot and stayed that way. We drove state highways instead of the Interstates, so the roads weren't quite as hot and the traffic was very light. We also gained a little over 2000 feet in elevation which helped with the precieved temp and the terrain got more interresting the closer we got to Oro Valley.

After a great visit with Ned and Ann we headed for Alamogordo on Monday morning at 0400. It was amazing how cool it was in the desert, Pat wore a jacket for the first 3 hours, then it started to warm up. The drive out of Oro Valley through Tucson and the mountains of eastern AZ was beautiful, particularly the area around the Texas Valley on I10. Entering NM the highway gets a little flatter and straighter on to Las Cruses and then its over the Organ Mountains a 3000 foot climb at 100 degrees, temps nudged up but the oil pressure stayed strong right to the summit, then it was down hill to our destination.

After a fun time with Tom and Chris, Pat's brother and sister-in-law, we left Alamogordo today at 0400. Again the desert was cool, jacket weather, and it got even cooler as we drove through Tularosa and up to Ruidoso Downs and across the 7500 foot summitt. The ride down from there got prettier as the sun started up, but we started to notice the smoke from the forest fires around Tinnie and Picacho. Soon we could see the fires glowing against the predawn sky. The glow turned into peaks and hillsides in flames, and although we were never in any danger the sight of those uncontrolled fires working over the mountains was a bit disconcerting. The drive straightened out again and the scenery became more flat but the tempertures remained very comfortable until about an hour out of San Angelo and even then nowhere near the discomfort levels of the desert.

We are headed off to Round Top, TX to visit our friends Patti and Mike tomorrow morning, again at 0400. Gotta take advantage of those cool morning temps. Then on the 5th up to Dallas to visit our niece Jodie and her family and continuing to Wichita on the 6th. We will catch up with you once in Kansas, until then stay cool, I know we'll be trying to.