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Our travels

[Today’s run: 3.4 miles on Watson Road]

We arrived back at home last night around 9 pm from our travels.

We left on Thursday the 17th.  After dropping the pets off at the boarders and doing some other stuff we were finally able to get on the road.  We took US-82 straight west across Mississippi and into Arkansas.  We stopped in Pine Bluff for the night.

On Friday the 18th we drove from Pine Bluff to Oklahoma City, arriving in the early afternoon.  I had an auction purchase to pick up at an FAA facility at their airport.  I hope to post more on that some time later.   After the pickup, we continued on to the north.  We stopped for the night in Perry, OK.

On Saturday the 19th we drove all the rest of the way in to Loveland, CO.  It was mostly uneventful except for a flat tire on the old Toyota pickup truck which I was able to change without any real trouble.  We stayed at the Travelodge in Loveland.  They had us set up with a nice room on the 3rd floor toward the back.  It was quiet and we had a good stay there.

On Sunday we slept in for quite a while.  I visited the church service at Derby Hill Baptist where Dr. Trimble gave a very interesting pre-Christmas sermon on love.  In the evening we went to see the new Star Wars movie.

On Monday I went in to the office at Platte River Power Authority for about 2/3rd of a day’s work.

On Tuesday my wife had a medical procedure early in the morning.  She came out of that feeling fine so we drove up the Big Thompson canyon to Estes Park.  We made a short visit at the Rocky Mountain National Park visitor’s center and had a nice lunch at the Scratch Deli.  Then we drove back down the canyon and up through Masonville, around the end of Horsetooth Reservoir and ended up at the New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Collins for a quick refresher.

On Wednesday, I think I spent most of the day watching television and goofing around while wife and daughter went shopping.  It was a nice relaxing day. I dropped the flat tire off for repair.

Thursday was also fairly relaxed.  I had a bit of my own shopping to do, and I got together with future-son-in-law to work on car projects.  The flat tire was repaired at Big-O tire, at no cost.  We finished the day at a  party with the in-law family where we enjoyed fondue and good company.

Friday was Christmas and we packed up our stuff and checked out of the motel before heading over to the daughter’s apartment for presents, pizza and some dominos with her and the fiance.  I think it was around 1 pm when we reluctantly started out eastward in our first leg toward home.  Highway 14 to Sterling was partially snow covered and somewhat challenging.  Interstate 76 took us north to I-80 and then east to North Platte where we stopped for the night.  We ate dinner at Penny’s Diner, which was just about the only place in town that was open.

Saturday we drove from North Platte to Des Moines under low and heavy skies.  The temperature was warm enough that we did not have any real problem with the road surface.  But things looked a bit threatening.  Saturday evening we attended the famous “Brown Drawing” party in Waukee, Iowa.  It has probably been 20 years since we attended.  We enjoyed the party!

On Sunday we were up early and got a good start on the road toward home.  We traveled highway 163 SW from Des Moines to Mt. Pleasant than took “avenue of the Saints” to St. Louis.  Wife wanted to meet a runner friend, so we stopped for a nice visit at a coffee shop in downtown St. Louis where they drank coffee and I had chocolate milk.  After that we continued south on I-55 to Sikeston, MO where we stopped in at the Lamberts Cafe (home of the throwed rolls) for dinner.  I wouldn’t say the food there is amazing, but the quantity is definitely so, and the atmosphere of the place is unique.  After that we crossed over into Tennessee at Dyersburg and travelled south to Jackson, TN; Selmer, TN; Corinth, MS; Tupelo; West Point and home.

On the way out we were driving two vehicles, our 2010 Honda Accord and the 1996 Toyota Tacoma.  We used some little walkie-talkies to keep in touch.  We left the Toyota with the daughter in Loveland to replace the old 1985 Ford F-150 which seems to be just about dead.  And we finished the trip with both us and all our auction stuff, Christmas gifts and luggage in the Accord.  Except for that flat tire in eastern Colorado everything went just fine.

Today the wife went and bailed the pets out at the pet-boarder place and I’ve been trying to do a bit of work for the office.

One reply on “Our travels”

It was so good to see you both – even for just a couple of hours! Glad you made it home without incident.

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