Our Road Trips

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

10/18/2016 10/12-17/2016

We got our ballots from Becky at a BBQ place in Tulsa, a very popular place by the size of the lunch crowd on a Wed. She had been in Florida to do a few things & go on a cruise with our daughter and lives an hour north of Tulsa, so she brought us our ballots, how convenient. She used our truck while in Florida too, so it was a great trade off. Then we went back to the camper via the grocery store and waited out a rain storm. We have been so lucky this summer, not much rain to spoil our fun.

The next morning was moving day, a 4.5 hour drive to Kansas Speedway. En-route, we passed through Bartlesville & Dewey Oklahoma and then Chanute, Kansas. My father's family lived in those towns when I was a young man and I spent a good deal of time there, mostly in Chanute. There are a ton of memories there. We will be in Kansas City until Monday morning, watch a few races, see one of our favorite bands do a pre-race show in the infield, and see if the people running the place are interested in having us back. We arrived about 430, got ourselves parked and went looking for where we needed to be to get some inter-track transportation arranged. The haulers were getting ready to go inside and were all lined up near where we were parked, so that was fun, got pictures of a bunch of them. Then, it became apparent that nobody of any authority was available and the rest of the 'workers' were not allowed to answer any questions, it was crazy...hear no evil, speak no evil. We went back to the camper having accomplished nothing.

The next morning, we tried again, same result, but we did get our tickets. Barb finally got a phone number to call and a name of a gal to talk to. She was extremely rude to Barb but finally gave her some information. So we arranged for a ride to the gate (we were camped about a mile from our seats) and we went to watch the race on Friday night. I would guess there were less than 1,000 people there, including all of the ushers. But we enjoyed the race and even had a car we were pulling for until it crashed...the heavy favorite ended up winning, go figure. But we had a fun time. The ride back to the camper happened with a minor delay, so all in all, it was a pleasant, but very chilly, evening. The wind was blowing in our faces all night, and it was somewhere in the mid 50's, pretty cool for two Florida kids.

Sat, the race wasn't until 130 in the afternoon, so we spent the morning relaxing at the camper. It was really foggy in the morning and then cloudy all day. We put a roast, potatoes & carrots in the crock pot for dinner and went to the race. We got a ride from the camper to the gate, so that helped. The race got pretty boring, unless you were for Kyle Bush. He led a vast majority of the race & won by a lot. But he gets no points, and the Xfinity regulars only got points. We went back and had a good dinner, then sat outside and listened to all of the generators running...lol.

Sunday, we headed to the track early, we had paid to be in the infield for the pre-race stuff. We got there about 1015 after a very long walk. But we had front row for the Blackberry Smoke concert. They came on at 1130 and played for 45 mins....good show, fun to hear the boys play. We have been on about 11 cruises with them, plus several other concerts, but it had been a while, so we enjoyed the show. After the music was over, they moved all of the stage stuff to introduce the drivers, good grief, people are rude. I got run over with people being in a hurry to be close to their hero drivers, it was crazy. So we left, headed to our seats, got there just in time to hear all the prayers, etc. The race had some boring parts, one guy led every lap of the 1st half. Then it got a little more interesting. Kevin Harvick led the last 30 or so laps & won the race, which was OK with us. Then the fun started, trying to get back to our camper. It took over an hour & a half to walk, then finally get a ride to get back. We met the most uninformed, rude, & unhelpful people...we both have been treated very rudely and we have decided we will never be back. We enjoyed the concert & the races & the rest of the whole experience was awful. They have been putting on races since 2001 and have learned nothing about how to take care of people, it is pitiful. When we finally got back, we sat and watched folks leave.

Monday morning, we packed up and moved on too. We ran into 3 closed gates, we couldn't get out...lol. We finally escaped at the 4th try and made our way across KC to Independence, MO. We found a parking place at the Harry S Truman Museum & Library and spent the next 3 hours touring the museum. We both found it very interesting. He was President before both of us were born, so his legacy was sort of forgotten in our schooling. So it was a good lesson for us both to learn what they wanted us to know. We have been to enough of these things to figure out that all there is to know is not necessarily presented, just the parts that help build the lasting legacy. It is not always fair either, a lot is missing from every one. But we both learned some things, and some of those things still affect policy to this day and terms used then are still used today...do nothing Congress anyone? The we loaded up and were headed east again. We decided to take US 24, which took us through lots of little towns, including the town my sister & brother in law lived in for several years in the early 70s and where they started their family. The wind was blowing about 30-40 mph from the south, which meant a cross wind that made driving a challenge. But we made it to Arrow Rock about 500 and got set up, with the only site in the park that would have satellite TV...again, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. We are here for a few days and will do a little relaxing and a little sightseeing. Then we are on to St Louis and a mini-reunion with a group of the folks we went to Alaska with.

Steve & Barb Larson

Our spot in Arrow Rock

Keystone Dam in Oklahoma

Burn BBQ in Tulsa

Out ballots by mail

Kyle Bush's hauler

Kevin Harvick's hauler

Our spot at Kansas Speedway

Sparse crowd for the ARCA Race

Moon rise

Xfinity Race

Big party next door

From the infield

The craziness where everyone wants to write their name at the start/finish line

A serious pile of money

Kevin Harvick's pit

Looking down pit road

Charlie Starr

Paul & Brandon

Richard Turner

Britt Turner

Getting ready to race

They're off

Kevin is the winner

Nice burnout

Downtown KC

Where the Royals play

Every library has a mock up of the Oval Office

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

10/11/2016 9/30-10/10/2016

Santa Fe, NM was our next stop. We rode into town from our campground and spent the afternoon on a trolley tour, followed by a couple hours in the highest spot in town, the rooftop bar at La Fonda Hotel on the plaza downtown. Soon after sunset, we were on our way back to the camper with a stop for some groceries on the way. The Arts District in Santa Fe is huge, lots of sculptures outside as you ride through. The city reminded me of St Augustine, FL, same types of architecture and ambiance.

The next morning, we drove about 10 miles to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and looked at all the strange rock formations, like cones with a ball on the top. Then we went looking for internet so I could post the blog. Then we went into town, stopped & did a little shopping, and went to dinner at Red Lobster. It had been a couple of years, so it was fun to try it again with the new owners. We had a nice quiet dinner at a very full restaurant.

On Sunday, we spent the day at the camper, getting ready for our next adventure in Albuquerque. So in the am, we packed up and left shortly before 11. The drive into ABQ was an hour, so nothing too exciting. We arrived at the entrance gate and were led to our spot for the next 3 days. The guy who took us to our site was a retired Houston Firefighter, so we had some chatting to do, nice to find a brother at a place like this. The wind was howling when we arrived, and the events for the day had already been cancelled. So we went & found an Outback and had a nice dinner.

At 6 am, we were out watching balloons launch & sail away. Not only had the wind calmed down, but it had changed direction by 180 degrees, so the balloons were flying overhead of where we were sitting. By about 10 am, all the balloons had taken off and I had run the battery dead on my phone taking 100s of pictures. With all of the balloons there flying that morning, it was a spectacular day. We took a nap and then went looking for some friends, which was basically unsuccessful.

The next morning was more balloons, this time with a weird wind situation. The balloons would launch, head west for a 1/4 mile and then head back east, get over the launch field and turn north. So we saw lots of every balloon, sometimes 3 times. After all of the balloons had launched, we went back to the camper for some lunch and then we went to the Balloon Hall of Fame, within a couple of blocks of where we were parked. They had a goofy movie that had nothing to do with ballooning and then a lot of displays that were ballooning related but nothing to explain how they were related, so we were thankful we only spent $4 to get in, good way to kill time is about how it is best described.

On Thursday morning, it was more balloons launching, plus competition day, where about 100 balloons went off site and launched from where they thought the wind would carry them back to the launch field. They had pylons set up, and the object was to fly close enough to the pylon to place a ring over the pylon or throw a beanbag close to the base of the pylon, closest to it win the prizes put up by sponsors. The wind was so light, it was almost impossible to compete. They also inflated 114 special shape balloons, but did not launch them. With the wind so light, it was not exciting to watch, balloons in slow motion. We decided to pack up & head out, begin our drive to Amarillo, TX. 4.5 hours later, we arrived at Palo Duro State Park. about 30 miles south of Amarillo. The campground is at the bottom of the canyon and about 10 miles from the entrance. By the time we got to our site & set up, it was beginning to get dark. We took a short walk to see the place and it was getting dark. So we settled in for the evening and watched the Thursday Night NFL game, it had been a long day.

We had also decided to leave the next day, as Barb had discovered that it was over 7 hours to our next place, and with hurricane Matthew going by at home, we thought being without any cell service was not cool, so we had decided to split it into 2 days. So we did some sight seeing of the canyon and checked out about noon, with Elk City, OK as our destination. We arrived there about 3 pm and Barb decided to get the laundry caught up. I did some projects I had been putting off, caught up on emails, etc. When Barb was finished, we went to town and had a nice dinner at a restaurant the guy at the RV park had recommended. The next morning we went to the National Route 66 Museum on a section of the famous highway on the west end of town. We spent a couple of hours walking down memory lane, lots of stuff in 17 buildings that also included a Wild West Museum in the group of buildings. Then we went back and got all hooked up and left for Keystone Lake, about 30 miles west of Tulsa. We got there about 430 and got settled in, beautiful spot on the water, a reservoir on the Arkansas River, which will be our home for 5 nights. The next day, we spent the day watching football on TV.

On Monday, we headed to Oklahoma City, with our chosen route being Route 66 again. Driving that highway, takes you though lots of little towns with storefronts dating back to the 30's and reminding us both of our childhoods. We made several stops at different attractions, round barn, Pops (200+ flavors of soda), and other less important ones. When we got to I-35, we headed south into OKC and stopped at the State Capitol and made a short tour. Then we went to the NW corner of town and stopped to see my cousin Gary and his wife Joan, who is recovering from knee surgery. We spent the next 4+ hours chatting & going to lunch across the street from the oncology clinic where Gary is Chief of Staff. We had a nice visit, nice to see the parts of our family who are a long ways away. We headed back as to try to avoid driving after dark if possible, as the drive back is about 2 hours. We made it back shortly after dark and spent the rest of the evening watching Tampa Bay & Carolina.

We are headed to Kansas City to watch NASCAR but first things first, getting our ballots from our friend Becky who just got back from Florida yesterday. Voting is very important this year, a right we would never miss performing. So we are off to Tulsa in the morning so we can do that. Stay tuned.

Steve & Barb Larson