June 4

7:15AM and we were on the road to home. We got home around 1:00PM. I washed 4 loads of clothes and Bobby washed and vacuumed the car. We had a nice trip even with all the little glitches that happened while we were gone. I have gotten a new computer and everything else has taken care of itself.....

June 3

On the road at 7:15AM to somewhere east. We saw lots of desert and smoke and burnt areas. There were high winds in Texas and Oklahoma. When we got to Oklahoma we began to see a change in scenery. We saw green grass and trees again, which was a welcome sight. The remote for the car worked okay after we had driven a little and stopped and locked the car. We saw the afternath of the tornado that went through west of El Reno, OK. We spent the night at Shawnee, OK.

June 2

We woke up to a bright sunny day and hit the road going east(I-40). We saw lots of desert land and smoke. The was a big fire in south Arizona. We stopped about 30 miles from Albuquerque and spent the night at the Route 66 Hotel and Casino. We got ready to lock the car when we stopped and the remote would not lock the car, we had to lock it with a key. Couldn't find out what the problem was with the car, so we went to bed and got a good nights rest.

June 1

We rode around in Laughlin and went over to Bullhead City, AZ across the Colorado River. We found gas for $3.51 which was the cheapest we had seen. Had a nice lunch and went back to Laughlin.

May 31

We had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, that we had visited before. Then we went back down on the strip before leaving town and went to the Coca-cola and M and M store. I like the M&M store. They have lots and lots of bins of M&M's on the wall, so many colors I never notice when I am eating them...We left Vegas and went out toward California and got the the stateline and took a road south, Joshua Tree Road, and went to Laughlin, NV. It was windy in Laughlin and warm.

May 30

Visited Hoover Dam and walked out on the new bridge that has been in the making for 10 years. It was so nice to see the bridge completed after visiting there and seeing it built over the years. We drove down to the dam after this. When we left the dam the traffic was stacked up for miles through Boulder City and out the highway going to Vegas. Gas was $3.57. It was nice to see a lower price..

May 29

We located the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop. People were lined up outside waiting to get inside. We did not go in, we didn't want to stand in line. The building looked the same but smaller than it does on TV..It was a windy cool day. The high for the day was 64 degrees. We went out to Primm, NV on the NV/CA stateline to an outlet mall and did some shopping and came back to town I turned on my laptop and it didn't work. Called Kirk and he said the hard drive was gone. That is all I needed to hear. It had just gone out of warranty.......

may 28

We arrived in Las Vegas around noon and checked in to our hotel. Of course, this being Memorial Day weekend it was very busy place. A drunk man grabbed me by the arm and started walking off with me and then realized what had happened and turned around and apologized and said he had been drinking and had too much.. A lot of young people were present. Bobby said he had never seen so much skin and tattoo's as he saw when we were walking the streets of Vegas. There were lots of mini dresses and skirts and some young ones wearing bikini's on the street. Of course, anything goes in Vegas. We walked a couple of blocks and went back to our room.

May 27

Visited Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. The temperature began to warm up, but we had blue skies. Visited Grand Staircase Escalate Monument. We drove down a dirt road to a former movie set for Three Sargents, that had gotten flooded and washed away, but it was interesting to visit. After leaving here we went to Zion National Park in Utah and drove through a long, long, long dark, dark tunnel that had windows cut in the rocks about every 1/4 mile. We ended this dayin Mesquite, NV.

May 26

Left Pagosa Spgs., CO and rode over to Durango and went up to Dove Creek CO to Adobe Milling and picked up 20 pounds of pinto beans and some more beans and popcorn. After we left there we went to Four Corners Monument..Had Indian fry bread for lunch with pinto beans at a picnic table with the wind blowing, as I say, 100 MPH, but honestly it was blowing hard. We drove through a dust storm near Kayenta, AZ and saw sheep and goats grazing on the side of the road. No big events on this day.

Day 6(May 25)

Well, here goes my story for today. We left Cripple Creek this morning and headed south in Colorado toward Royal Gorge. We stopped at Royal Gorge, walked around a little and drove across the bridge and checked out the animals and the Arkansas River. We had been there a long time ago when we were young, but haven't come up with a date yet..HA!!HA!! That is the age thing catching up with us...Upon leaving Royal Gorge, we traveled on to the Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa. We walked in the sand and found it to be a really interesting place. Then we drove on through the country side to Pagosa Springs and have stopped for the night. The weather had been much nicer today, blue sky and no rain or snow.. WE are both tired and I can't think straight tonight, so I may edit this post tomorrow night. Check back later...

Day 5(May 24)

Well, we woke up to snow and sleet this morning in Cripple Creek. We had breakfast and while eating started talking to a young woman who was from San Antonio, TX and she was here with her mother and grandmother. The grandmother has Alztheimers. The conversation between the daughter and mother were not one I would want to have to deal with daily and the daughter is taking care of her mother. I am so thankful that I didn't have to go through that with mother. After breakfast we stayed in a little while until we got bored and then went for a ride down to Victor, CO, an old mining town. It was still snowing and sleeting. later it stopped , but now has started up again. I told Bobby that I am ready to leave here, which we are doing tomorrow and go a little further south and see if the weather is not a little warmer than 35 degrees. Kristi told me that it was 86 degrees in Benton when I talked to her and Kirk said it was going to be warm in Arkansas today and he had rather be here, so I guess I need to enjoy wearing a sweater and not complain. I am posting this early and if anything major happens I will edit it later.

Day 4(May 23)

We left Central City, CO this morning and road out through Eisenhower tunnel and then started south down through Colorado. We saw lots of snow on the mountains and took a ton of pictures. It was really a nice drive. We saw several signs stating that Independence Pass was closed, but we weren't planning on going there anyway. In case anyone who is reading this doesn't know, that is where I fell last year when we were out here and I wasn't about to go back. We drove through Leadville, which is an old mining town. We saw the beginning of the Arkansas River, which was really neat. We then drove on down to Cripple Creek, CO and are spending a couple of nights here. It has been a mixture of clouds and sun today and the temperature is bearable....That is about it for today..I am making it short and sweet because the internet connection here is not good.

Day 3 (May 22)

Well today has been uneventful as far as anything going wrong, thank goodness. this morning we stayed around in the Central City and Blackhawk area. After lunch, we drove down to Englewood, CO to visit with Jim and Donna(Pat's parents). We really had a nice visit. On the way we went by the first apartment that Kristi and Pat lived in after they married and she moved off to Englewood. It looks different, but it is still there. while there they told us about the Central City Parkway that lead directly back to Central City where we are staying. We enjoyed the drive back, even though it was cloudy, but we saw the mountains with quite a bit of snow still left on them. That is it for today. It is supposed to be 30 degrees outside and snowing, but it must be light snow and I am not going outside to check. Tomorrow we will leave here and head for Cripple Creek for a few days.

Day 2

Well, we slept well last night after our adventurous day 1..We had breakfast at the hotel and went back to the room and I discovered that I had not brought the plug-in part of my charger for my I-phone, so as we were leaving the hotel Walmart was next to us and I went in and bought me a plug-in for the phone..After leaving Hays, KS we went on toward Denver, CO on I-70. We saw lots of wheat fields and cattle. Also, saw lots of old home places that had been left by the roadside for decoration, I guess. They did look kinda neat, nothing like the old house standing on Hwy. 5 in Benton. As we traveled on, Bobby had a bag of Tropical Fruit Mix in the cup holder and I picked it up and spilt it in the car. Bobby said I did it only so I could pick out what I wanted to eat and leave the rest including the raisins for him. By the way, he is having me keep notes of all these stupid things I am doing..Once, we got into Denver, we went to the Hammond Candy Factory, we had seen it on Food Network. We were going to take a tour but there were so many people and KIDS there that we just looked around and I bought a few pieces, since it was very expensive($22.95 for a pound of chocolate and $15.00 for hard candy), and we left and came on out to Central City and Blackhawk. We are staying at the Fortune Valley Casino in Central City. We have played the slots some and rode up and down the streets. The weather is cold and wet. We have seen some snow, had some rain, so we have had a mixed bag of weather. Tomorrow we are going back into Denver and visit with Pat's parents. So as you can see, today was not quite as eventful, thank goodness, as yesterday. I hope we don't wake up to much of the white stuff in the AM, but if we do it should melt fast.....

Vacation May 2011

May 20th---We left on vacation this morning at 5:00AM. Had breakfast in Russellville at Hardee's and headed on toward Oklahoma. We stopped at Shawnee , OK at the Firelake Casino and took a break from driving in the rain. It started raining hard about Henryetta, Ok and was continuing when we stopped. After a couple of hours the rain was over and we had a nice break and lunch. At OKC, OK we headed north on I-35 toward Wichita KS. After a while I started driving, the GPS told us to get off the freeway because it was turning into a toll road. So I obeyed. After we got on the two lane road Bobby decided that he didn't want to go that way, he wanted to go on the toll road. I made a U-turn in the middle of the highway, in completing the turn I got off the pavement and it was very muddy and we got stuck. A nice farmer stopped and he and Bobby pushed and pushed until we finally got out. Bobby was full of mud from head to toe. We went back to a gas station and he changed clothes, cleaned up the front seat of the car and cleaned the windshield. We were then on the road again and finally found a car wash and washed the mud off the car. We stopped in Hays, KS for the nite at Holiday INN Express..Bobby was washing the mud off his shoes in the shower and stopped up the drain. We finally got it unstopped and we have had a shower and are going to bed and start over tomorrow...Good night all...