Nevada

October 16-18, 2016

Nevada

We awoke to WIND and RAIN in the middle of the night – a strong storm blew in, changing from the warm Indian summer to feeling like winter?  Our day’s route had us back on the I-80 west towards Nevada – we drove through the Great Salt Flats. The Safari was zipping along the Bonneville Salt Flats at 80 mph (the legal speed limit!) Who knew our bucket of bolts could fly like that?  Most of the drive was rainy, but the wind from last night had calmed down.

Making our way into Nevada the unbelievable happened. YES another flat tire. The left dolly tire got shredded again! What the Hell? So sitting along the I-80 with traffic zooming around us we seriously were questioning our sanity for these cross-country trips??  After about 2 hours of waiting the tow truck arrived, loaded the busted dolly onto his flat bed and we were off to Elko, NV about 55 miles west.  Alan the tow driver took off with the Safari and Prius following. You know the expression “Bats out of Hell”? Rain is pouring down. Driving with our windshield wipers on HIGH, and hurtling down the I-80 at 75+ MPH – Karen suddenly became RELIGIOUS: OMG, OMG! She can’t see anything, water spraying off the road and the other vehicles. Could this get worse? A construction zone comes up, and Karen falls behind loosing sight of MoHo, and sure that this was not going to end well. Finally when the construction zone ended, with white knuckles on the steering wheel she took off passing big rigs, trailers, cars and other stuff she couldn’t see. Damn where is the MoHo?  Why won’t the rain stop?  And the gas gauge is on empty! This is not good! After what seems to be forever, Karen pulls up behind a big rig and sees the toucans on the back, - the Safari has been found. Karen will not let the it get away again! Finally we get off the freeway and found the Les Schwab. We boon docked (unofficially camped out in their parking lot) overnight. Being early in line for repair 1^st thing in the morning.

Monday morning we were able to get 3 new tires (new dolly tire, new dolly spare, new Prius spare) and get back on the road to Reno. The rest of the day was quite boring, no wind, rain, or tire problems. Spent the afternoon in camp relaxing and catching up on a few chores.

Rested and in better frame of minds the traveling duo struck out to win their fortune?? Any little bit would be appreciated. Our luck surely was about ready to change??  We took a drive into Reno to try to make some $$. Our first stop in town was at the Nevada Museum of Art – unfortunately it wasn’t open today, but we enjoyed the unique sculpture garden. The Grand Sierra Resort was next on our schedule – maybe a little investment in the poker machines would yield us a RETURN?  We enjoyed an hour of entertainment, but with no real gains. We then ventured out for lunch at the Atlantis Resort. We won there with a great meal of oysters on the half shell, Knob Creek Manhattans, and nice view of the city from the Sky Terrace. 

With a few more dollars to blow we tried our luck at the Nugget Casino in Sparks in the evening.  A nice poker bar, a couple of drinks were enjoyed, but no profit to be made. Oh well got the gambling bug out of our systems. We had an improved Nevada adventure the last 2 days; tomorrow we are heading to California.

Wyoming & Utah

October 14-15, 2016 – Days 54-55

Wyoming –Utah

The views were stunning today, scenery was ever evolving from prairies of Colorado to rolling hills with rocky out-cropping’s of Wyoming.  There were miles of snow fences, and long, long, long freight trains, Karen tried counting the cars, loosing count after 82, when the tracks went behind the bluff – had to be at least 200+ cars, 4 engines at the beginning and one in the rear.  I-80 Highway has been quite smooth, but the gusty winds made the driving a challenge for Mike most of the afternoon. 

sandstone scenes from the road

Karen tries to count train cars.

Our next day found us westward bound out of Wyoming. WOW!  Looks like a set from a western movie -- the cowboys should be coming over the sandstone bluffs at any moment. Miles and miles of this amazing scenery, how lucky are we?  Utah is next on our itinerary – I-80 went through Salt Lake City, we drove on to Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. From our campsite we had a great view of the lake, the Wasatch Mountains and many bison.  We camped there for the night; our nearest neighbors were some of the Island’s bison. We watched the sunset and enjoyed a campfire. Real camping for a change.

more views from our rolling RV

campsite on Antelope Island on Salt Lake

campfire at our camp

sunset on Antelope Island

Bison near our campground

Colorado

October 11-13, 2016 – Days 52-53

Colorado

Tuesday, October 11, 2016 saw us completing our x-Kansas drive and continuing west into the state of Colorado.  We were fortunate to be in time for a beautiful fall Aspen Show – gorgeous shimmering golden yellow leaves.  The prairie gave way to agricultural spreads of hay and corn. We appreciated the creative and functional living snow fences that were planted along the way – double rows of evergreens planted to block the snow from blowing off the plains and on to the highway. These look so much nicer than the wooden ones still in use.

living snow fence

We took a sentimental visit back to Greeley where Mike graduated from University of Northern Colorado in December of 1970. We had only been back once in the mid-70’s, so we were in for a real surprise -- how things had changed! The campus looked little like we remembered, although the music building still is Frasier Hall, but it had been revamped and a new music library added. We stopped by and walked through the building to try and remember the time we spent there. The school has grown, new buildings and facilities: dorms, library, football stadium, sports fields and classrooms have seemed to double the campus footprint. We had lunch at a little pub across from the campus – we were looking for the old Chef Diner where we ate breakfast for $.49 - for an egg, hash browns, toast and coffee, back in the day. Driving through the city of Greeley was quite an experience, some of the old downtown was really dilapidated, Karen’s old employer Garnsey and Wheeler Ford were completely boarded up, along with many other establishments, her favorite donut shop was gone also. It did appear that there was some new businesses and plans for more improvements a few blocks up. No sign of our old married students housing (quonset huts) down on the railroad tracks, but our 1^st apartment complex still stands across from the campus.

our first apartment in Greeley Colorado

Music building, Frasier Hall at U of No. Coorado

Leaving Greeley we drove through Denver and stopped at Stranahan’s Whiskey Distillery. They make a good single malt whiskey. The evening ended with Mike really learning how to play the dice game Zilch. He beat me 3 games to 1 (each of his games he scored the 6 or a kind - 5000 points).

Stranahan's Whiskey Distillery

Thursday morning we drove up to Estes Park to see the Rocky Mountain National Park. What a beautiful drive, vibrant blue skies decorated with fluffy white clouds, distinctive Rocky Mountains, more vibrant fall colors, and vistas that were indescribable. Following our tour of the park we stopped in the little town of Lyons for lunch enjoying a great pizza at the fun and funky Oskar Blues Club and restaurant.  Leaving town we stopped at the Spirit Hound Distillery where we sampled and purchased some of their gin and whiskey. This was a quick and fun packed Colorado experience.

gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park

Missouri and Kansas

October 7-10, 2016 – Days 48-51

Missouri and Kansas

The Westward Travels continue: Leaving Cincinnati, onto St Louis, MO - crossing the Ohio River we started a multi-state trek of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois. Quite a few miles and even more tense moments!  The afternoon was greeted with more TIRE TRAUMA!  Stopping for a fuel-up Mike discovered that the left fender of the tow-dolly was crunched up – shaving the tire to look like a racing slick. Why the tire had not gone flat is a mystery along with how did the fender take such a beating? We guess it may have happened earlier in the day when we had to ride several miles on a very rough rumble strip in a construction zone. Luckily with the help of a tire guy from Loves Truck Tires Shop, Mike was able to put the trailer spare on after beating the fender away from the tire. Down the road we continued hoping for better tire karma.

Ohio River

Saturday we made our way to Kansas City Missouri – good weather, good roads, good tires! We drove into Independence MO and visited the Harry Truman Library – interesting review of presidential history. We enjoyed a very good mid-western dinner of pork-loin (chicken fried), with mashed potatoes and green beans – accompanied by Harry’s Manhattan.

Harry Truman, Independence, MO

The next morning we took a very interesting and informative 90-minute tour of Kansas City that started and ended at KC’s Iconic Union Station (2^nd in size only to NYC).  The city is much bigger than we realized, filled with a variety of different architecture, museums, music/art areas, World War 1 Memorial, parks/fountains and green ways, shopping districts, variety of sports venues and lots of good looking eating establishments. We completed the day with an amazing BBQ meal at a famous Jack Stacks Restaurant. One always hears that Kansas City has good barbeque and this was some of the best!! Ate until we thought we might explode, enjoying every finger licking moment. Good manhattans also!

Union Station, Kansas City, MO

Royals Stadium

Crossed the Mighty Mo – Missouri River, the last time on this trip and heading into Kansas. Our 1^st stop for the day was in Overland Park – we made a quick stop at the Union Horse Distillery to purchase some of the Kansas Distilled Bourbon – mmmmm! The office staff was quite amused that we would come from Oregon for their booze – 5 of the workers brought us our bottles.  Next on the itinerary was a stop in Abilene, KS, where we got some more presidential history visiting the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library. Made a lot of sense seeing Truman and Ike in close order and re-learning about the politics and life of the time. Kansas has received the Wraight Award for the best highways on this North American Safari. Smooth 98% of the I-70, with very few construction zones. Way to go Kansas!  The scenery was quite prairie like – with some wind turbines and oil wells mixed in for good measure. Mike did have to battle some brisk winds – the last few hours of the day’s drive.

good Rye

Eisenhower Memorial, Abilene, Kansas

so true today! and from both parties!!

Cincinnati

October 5-6, 2016 – Days 47-48

Looking for Longaberger? Karen has had a long love of Longaberger Baskets and wanted to visit their offices in Newark, Ohio. So taking a detour to provide Wifey with her wishes, Mike drove to the Longaberger Basket Building only to find it abandoned. To a very disappointed spouse he was very kind and didn’t make an issue of the extra miles driven to see???? The good news there was nowhere fro Karen to buy any baskets, no $$$ spent. We drove on to Newtown Ohio and camped at the Family Motor Coach Campground.

Thursday morning we went into Cincinnati to see what we could in the next 8 hours. Our first stop was the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. A beautiful establishment – 2^nd oldest zoo in the nation (Philadelphia is the oldest). With over 500 animals, and 3000+ plants species it was a wonderful place to wonder through. We enjoyed the gorillas, polar bears, big cats, hippos, manatees, giraffes, komodo dragons and our favorite were the gibbons – so boisterous and noisy as they swung, climbed and played on their rain-forest jungle gym. You could hear them howling across the zoo, funny and entertaining characters. After the zoo we enjoyed lunch at the Brew River Gastro Pub (K had a Manhattan after about a 2 week hiatus), from there we enjoyed a visit to The Red’s Baseball Stadium – The Great American Ball Park. What a lot of history was on display at their hall of fame. They really love their Pete Rose! The final Cincinnati experience was the Roebling Suspension Bridge across the Ohio River. A beautiful singing bridge built by John Roebling, who later designed the Brooklyn Bridge. Gosh Cincinnati has a lot to see, unfortunately tomorrow is a another day to move on, so “Cincy” will have to go back on our to visit again list.

Great American Ballpark

Into Ohio

October 2-4, 2016 – Days #44-46

Heading west, 1^st time this trip. We had such a nice visit in CT – will miss the girls. The MoHo traveled through CT, NY, and into PA today – amazing how  close together many of the East Coast states are.  Had a pretty drive with many areas showing their fall colors along the roadside. Spent the night in Dalton PA – sort of a funky RV Park with a very green swimming pool.

Monday proved to be a frustrating day for us. Started by having trouble loading the Prius onto the dolly. What we didn’t realize was the spare had gone flat too, so it was causing the car not line up properly. Long story short we drove about 25 miles wondering what was going on with the towed – was really not lining up at all well. When we finally got off the highway we realized the problem. After waiting over an hour for a tow truck to bring us some air to pump up the spare, Mike went and bought some tire gunk that filled the tire enough to get us to a local tire shop. We got the regular tire repaired and back on the Prius. That was the solution, we reloaded her onto the dolly and all was back to normal; just frustrating to waste about 3 hours trying to fix it. Back on the road we drove on to Shippensburg, PA. The MoHo joined several RVs in a Wal-Mart parking lot for a nice quiet night. Interesting element to this Wal-Mart was their horse and buggy-parking shed that they have for the Amish Wal-Mart shoppers.  

Tuesday’s travels were again a wonderful show of color and natural beauty. We drove across the Cumberland Gap, enjoying a show of color and advancing and retreating fog banks.  On the itinerary was a visit to Shanksville PA to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial. Mike and I both were very moved by the tribute to brave men and women who perished fighting the terrorists that hi-jacked their plane.  Driving a long day of 300 miles we crossed the Allegany Mountains, onto St. Clairsville, Ohio.

"rock" is the actual crash site

flight path

New London

September 20 – October 1, 2016 – Days 32- 43

The New London Family Visit!

Nice to be settled in one place for a few days. 12 Days in one camp sight is a record for us. Great to be only about 15 minutes away from Kris, Laura & Eliza’s house. We can run over there and spend time and get back to the BOYS for their breaks too.  We actually almost figured out the roads from here to there and a few other places we frequent (Home Depot, down town Mystic….) Don’t quite know what is so mind bending about the roads in this area, but if there is a wrong turn we probably have found it. Thanks goodness for the GPS – although Mike really hates depending on it!

9/20-21/16

 We spent the next couple of days getting the rig cleaned inside and out. We found a very good exterior detailer who cam out and washed and waxed the rig for us. It looks so nice shiny again. Karen was able to get most of the dog fur up from the inside, then a trip to the Laundromat sort of finished up the process. We took dinner over to the Girls – Mike and Kris removed the old glass from the front door and windows. We then held our breaths as we unwrapped the precious stained glass that had ridden east in the bay of the MoHo. They had been swaddled in bubble wrap, but there was some concern with the many miles of bumpy roads that we might have sustained some damage. PHEW! They all arrived unscathed. We took them out one by one and held them up to their respective new locations. The good news was that they had plenty of room in each of their openings. The question was HOW – to fill some of the space up? Kris and Laura have a carpenter friend; Jessie that agreed to come over and help Mike brainstorm the work and even volunteered to cut the trim pieces.

9/22-24/16

We enjoyed meeting up with Cristina and Amby Burfoot for a great seafood dinner at a very nice restaurant Red 36 in Mystic. The location was right on the water, food was delicious and company fun to be with. Mike and I got started installing some of the windows – the two sidelights went in with a bit of wood, foam insulation, caulking and swearing! Waiting until Kris has some free time to help with the upper window installation.

A great treat for us was going to see Eliza swim in her high school’s swim meet. She swam in 2 events – 200-meter relay and the 50-meter free style. For a person who never has had any formal swimming lessons she has made amazing progress in about 6 weeks time on the team. Besides learning the specific swim strokes, she has learned how to do her kick turns and dives. She was so excited that she had improved her time by 10 seconds. The family celebrated after the meet with dinner and cheers around.

Saturday morning saw us back at 137 Ocean Ave. Mike and Kris worked on getting the top window in. The three windows look so beautiful, letting in a very colorful glow. Just some trim will finish those 3 off nicely. Karen worked on a journal for family and friends to sign for Eliza’s Family Celebration tomorrow. In the evening we were treated to a wonderful surprise. The Girls took us out on the Mystic Whaler 2 masted schooner for a lobster and sunset cruise.  What a wonderful time we had with the girls. The sunset was spectacular (captain said it was one of the best of the season, and this was their last cruise on the Thames River for this year); the dinner (chowder, slaw, lobster, and cheesecake) was marvelous, the champagne and our favorite Sheriff Red from the Buena Vista Winery in CA accompanied the meal well. We shared so many laughs; this was such a wonderful treat for the 4 of us!

9/25-27/16

Sunday was Eliza’s Official Welcome to the Wurfoot Family and Friends Celebration – There 30+ family and friends who showed up to witness the girls’ extraordinary demonstration of commitment to our One and Only Eliza Brown. It was a very emotional tribute by the new Moms, family and friends that we all acknowledged our support, love and pride for Eliza, Kris and Laura. The ceremony ended with Mike playing Can You Feel the love Tonight on his horn. The party continued with a great potluck!

Monday Mike and I played tourists; we went to the Mystic Aquarium for the day. Perfect day the weather was sunny and attendance was low. We strolled around the grounds enjoying their interesting FROG display, watching a California Sea Lion Show, seeing some HUGE Stellar Sea Lions (over 2,000 lbs. and 15+ feet long), Penguins and our favorite was the Beluga Whale tank. 2 beautiful white whales swam around and right up to the window to check us out. It was great – so often we go to see animals and they are hiding in their dens, or around the corner from where we are standing. We finished our visit by feeding the cow nosed sting-rays (barbs removed from their tales J). You hold the sardine like fish in your hand like an ice cream cone – hold it down in the water and the rays swim over it and sort of suck it up. A fun, wet and great experience.

Tuesday was our grandparent day – we went and picked Eliza up at Ledyard High School, taking her and friend Erin to their swim meet. Felt great to be helping her and the Girls out. We enjoyed watching the swimming and seeing more of Eliza. We returned to New London and had a great dinner and some visiting time with the family.

 9/28-10/1/16

Wednesday saw us driving the MoHo northwest of New London to Glastonbury where we were to get the driver’s side windshield replaced. We had seen it crack about 18 inches early in the trip. It was a relatively easy drive, found the glass shop with the help of the GPS. The glass workers were able to pop the old window out sending the crack all the way a crossed the windshield. No worries we were getting it replaced. They prepped the opening and unpacked the new glass. The next few moments were NOT Good. As they held up the windshield it became apparent the wrong one had been sent. Mike had measured it at least 3 times, but the company in Indiana, that sent it – blew it. What to do? After a couple of hours of discussion with the glass guys and our insurance guy it was decided to put the cracked windshield in, it would be perfectly safe even if we needed to wait until we got back home to try and replace it. With a bit of trepidation we returned to the camp waiting to hear if they would be able to get a replacement in by Friday (we are scheduled to start west on Sunday 10216)

Thursday morning we were on stained glass installation duty again. The door window was the last to go in. Mike was still a bit unsure how to make it work, but with some brainstorming and dumb luck we got it in and secured! Some trim around the other 3 windows is left to be done, hopefully we can finish that up – and then the girls can clean and paint when they have time.

We enjoyed a great dinner with Kris, Laura and Kris’ retired boss Ann and her husband Bill. Ann has been wonderful with the girls, she loves Kris like a daughter, and so nice to know she would be there in a second if Kris or Laura needed her. I don’t know what the Girls have done, but they have a tremendous group of friends who are very supportive and close to them.

Friday – windshield installation #2, Mel our insurance guy called to say that the new window should be at the glass shop on Friday. We are keeping our fingers crossed. Great News the new windshield arrived by midday and we were able to get installed. Mike has a nice clean windshield to look through the rest of the trip west. We got back to camp in time to get to Eliza’s swim meet – she swam well again. Ortega’s was our after swim dinner – the margaritas hit the spot!

Saturday – Mike and Kris were able to get most of the trim completed on the windows and door. Kris will follow up with Jessie to get some more wood to finish the door, and then the painting can take place.  Karen Laura and Suz did a bit of re-potting of Laura’s plants – getting them ready for their indoor season. It is certainly started feeling a bit more like fall this week. Frost could be coming anytime soon.

Saturday night was an early birthday celebration for Kris (10/22) – we had salmon (us carnivores J), baby potatoes, and salad and birthday cake. What a wonderful end to our 2-week stay in southeastern Connecticut. On our way back to camp we stopped by the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London – where Eliza’s picture is displayed out front. She is part of Joe Standart’s photographic exhibit, Portrait of a City, the New London Project.  The display features 25 images of individuals/families from (from every culture and race whose lives are intertwined with the city) New London that were taken in 2006 and again last year. Eliza was a three year old in her father’s arms the first time and in the current exhibit she is featured as a beautiful 14-year-old young woman. The 20ft tall portrait hanging by the entrance of the museum is pretty amazing.  

That evening we took a salmon (yes Kris and Laura enjoyed it) dinner back to 137 Ocean Ave. a last little celebration with the family before we headed WEST. As we were leaving the RV park we had a flat tire on the Prius – jeeze do we know how to have fun! Mike was able to get the tire changed into the donut spare and we made it to New London and back.

Philadelphia

September 15-18, 2016 Days 27-30

Philadelphia Phun – Our Alaskan MoHo trip friends Jim and Sherrie live in New Jersey and met up with us for a nice day visiting their part of the world. We had an escorted tour through eastern New Jersey – a beautiful, green and rather rural part of the state. We enjoyed a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant then continued our exploration of the area. We spent some time walking and driving through the White’s Cranberry Bog in Brown’s Mill N.J. This was one of the first places in our country to grow cranberries and to successfully cultivate blue berries.  This is part of the region referred to as the Pine Barren Area – it is 60 or so miles from the coast, but the soil is sand and it looks like there should be ocean just beyond the tree line (there was several thousands of years ago).

Friday Mike and I ventured into the city and spent the day as tourists: Saw the liberty bell, toured Independence Hall, rode the “hop-on hop-off bus, saw the beautiful skyline of Philly from the 57^th floor of the Observation Center One and enjoyed a good Manhattan at the Red Owl Tavern on Independence Square

Saturday we drove into the city of Philadelphia and met up with our kids and their families: Marq, Steph and Peyton flew in from the Bay Area of California and Kris, Laura and Eliza trained down from Connecticut. We enjoyed catching up with everyone and seeing the sights of the city of Philly. We walked around seeing Love Park, the Redding Market (huge farmers’ and crafters’ market in the old railroad building), and enjoyed the varying cityscape of old and new buildings. We finished the day with a great dinner at La Viola, an Italian Restaurant that Steph had eaten at when she was in Law School in Philadelphia – YUM!

Race Day – Sunday September 18, 2016, warm and HUMID. Our day started early (4:30am) we needed to get the Boyz up fed, exercised and ready to spend the day in the rig while we went in to see the kids run their 10 k (13.2 mile) race. We got into the city and parked at our car park by the visitor’s center and then took a taxi to race start. 18,000 runners – Wow who knew there are that many people into this kind of FUN?  This was Marq’s 6^th Rock and Roll Race this year; Kris 1^st R & R race. We were lucky enough to get to see the kids start the race and then see them again as the looped back around at the 3 mile point then at the finish line which was in front of the Art Museum. The kids both ran great races, they were a little disappointed with their times, but the humidity really takes a toll on the body. This race is one of a series that occur both in the US and internationally every year, amazing organization, nice looking race medals and many support staff around to help the runners, should they need it. After resting a bit in afternoon we reconnected for a nice dinner and enjoyed a few more hours together. Watching our grand daughters Peyton and Eliza play was a real treat; those two girls are really special. Grandma and Grandpa really appreciated seeing them.

"Rocky"

Monday morning marked the end to our family weekend, Marq, Steph and Peyton flew out and we picked up the girls and Motor homed them back to Connecticut with us. It was a rainy drizzly day – we were so lucky to have had nice weather while in the city. The 270-mile drive back was long and bit slow, but uneventful. All of us were glad to get home and unwind that evening. The Girls would have work and school the next day so they needed to get back home and re-boot for their busy week’s schedules.

rainy drive to New London, CT