Good and Bad Phone Calls

We will start with the bad and end on the good note. We rec’d a phone call that my mother was vomiting blood and is now admitted to Christiana Care Hospital. My mother did not want to go the hospital because she did not want me to worry and she did not want me to fly home from this trip. Just like a Mom, she doesn’t want anyone to worry about her, it’s her job to do the worrying. She does have pneumonia and is now feeling better after being on meds. Prayers are appreciated for a speedy recovery.

Now the good phone call. Kevin, Tommy’s son, called to inform us that he is the recipient of the 2nd Marine Division Leadership Award. This award is very prestigious and only one is given per Division per year!! Way to go Gunny!!

What a Difference a Few Hours Can Make

We woke up to snow this morning.                 

                                                                                        And before long it was 72.              

 

 

 

 

 

We are now in Amarillo, TX and drove to Palo Duro Canyon which is the 2nd largest canyon in the US. Before I go any further I have to remind you that I have never been off the East coast. I have been so happy to see the terrain changes, of mountains and then prairies, but when I saw the Palo Duro Canyon, I started to tear up. So magnificent! Pictures cannot capture what the eye can take in. I am so blessed to be able to take this trip and feel it more everyday.

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The formation on the right of these two is called the “Lighthouse”. We hiked 3 miles to get this picture.

 

 

 

Tommy and I walked up into this formation.

 

 

 

 

What a climb but so worth it.

 

 

 

 

I found this neat. It snowed last night, was 72 this afternoon, and when we were walking into the canyon the sun was hitting this thermometer it rose to….

no kidding!

It wasn’t really that hot but with the sun hitting the thermometer, that is what it went to. I cannot imagine what it could be in the summer time.

When we decided to go on this trip we decided to take our old “go to work car”, which is a 91 Toyota Corolla with 109,000 miles on her that we bought from Nick, a 90 year old 29th Division Veteran. We call her “Hooptie”.  Our little “Hooptie mobile” even got to go swimming in Palo Duro.

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After hiking all day, we had to have a steak in Texas, so we went to this restaurant that will give you a free 72 oz steak dinner.

That’s right folks, a free 72 oz steak dinner. That’s 4 1/2 pounds of meat! The catch is you have to eat the whole meal, which consists of a salad, a 72oz steak, a baked  potatoe, 3 fried shrimp, and a roll in one hour. If you do, dinner is on them. If you don’t, it’s $72. 

Fun place, even though it looked a little hokey and it had good food. There was a guy there doing the challenge. Unfortunately, he did not complete the challenge. The restaurant has a board that lists the winners and there was a young man there earlier today that completed it in 44 minutes.  Apparently, he likes meat.

Amarillo and Route 66

Cloudy today and heading to Amarillo, TX. Stopped in Clinton, OK at the Route 66 museum. Neato!

A piece of Americana. Drove on Route 66 for a bit, just for nostalgia sake.

We heard Amarillo will be getting 2 to 4 inches of snow tonight. OH Goodie that’s where we are going! What the heck, we can’t get away from the white stuff. Maybe it’s practice for Alaska.

The wind mills out here go on for miles. Huge… is an understatement. Kind of pretty.

We are seeing vast prairies now, you can see farther than the length of Delaware.

We pulled off exit 112 on Rt 40 W in Groom, TX to see the largest cross in the western hemisphere. Please notice the size of the telephone polls vs. the cross.

Magnificent – massive – yet very simplistic. The stations of the cross at its’ feet and the crucifixion on the hill, next to this is the tomb where Jesus was laid to rest but, the stone sealing , the tomb was moved. As you entered the tomb, Angels where there but no Jesus, for He has risen!

How appropriate to see this at this Easter season.

Oklahoma City and Oil Wells

What a beautiful city OKC is. Clean, compared to most of the cities I have been in. Trolley cars take you all over the city for 25 cents. Beautiful buildings and architecture.

Oil wells are all over the place. They are in fields, in industrial parks, in front of businesses, anywhere they found oil I guess. There are big ones, small ones, even baby size ones.

That is a house and a church next to this big boy.

We went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. It was very moving. Nicely done. So sad that happened.

This is the tree of life at the Memorial. Amazing how that was not leveled.

Each one of these bronze chairs on top of the glass base represents one person who was killed.

Our prayers go out to the families of the senseless killing.

Get Us Out of Here.

Wow what a difference a day makes. It’s sunny and nice here in the swamp hole. I was able to round up some outdoor mats to shove under the wheels after Tommy dug some mounded dirt out from under the tires.

Worked like a charm! We are out!! Yeah, no tow trucks. This most likely could be a beautiful place to visit, after all, they had the barber shop around the corner where Elvis got a haircut. That’s right, where he got A haircut. It’s now a museum. But, we are unstuck and we are out of here. Going to Oklahoma City. See ya Swamp Hole.

The scenery is finally changing. Things are spreading out more, trees don’t look the same as they do on the east coast. You see cows roaming, looks more like a prairie with hills in the distance.

We are in Oklahoma City, OK at Tinker AFB. Nice place. Much nicer than Swamp Hole.

Tomorrow….touring OK City.

Pouring Rain, Snow, and We’re Stuck

Pouring rain – we have a leak in the skylight in the kitchen. Oh I can see fun on the roof in Tommy’s future. We crossed into Arkansas and saw the sign for the lovely Toad Suck Park. Can they not come up with better names. I mean Toad Suck Park?

The rain was relentless and snow hit AK and OK . I thought we were leaving the white stuff behind, but we are going right to it. 80 inches of snow wasn’t enough for us this winter, we wanted a little bit more.

We stayed in Fort Chaffee RV Park and Swamp Hole outside of Fort Smith, AK. Since it snowed so much it was a mud/swamp hole where we got the RV stuck. Yes friends, we got stuck. Let me just tell you that it is a terrific feeling to get 22,000 lbs stuck. Kind of a warm fuzzy feeling that makes you say “what in the hell have we gotten ourselves into now”. Well, it is dark out now and we’ll deal with it in the am. At least they had free laundry here, so watched a movie and dropped. Drove 326 miles.

Side note: Was not such a great nights sleep in the swamp hole since we were not able to level the rig out or open the slide and we kept sliding out of bed and into our closet.

On a happier note: Congrats to Ella for playing in a soccer tournament and getting a medal. Keep up the good work.

A Day With the King

Another beautiful day here in Memphis.  So off to Graceland we went.

 

I have always heard his house was, well, tacky. Yup, it was over the top. But, he was the King.

 

This actually was quite beautiful. A partition that separated the piano room and the living room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pool room covered in bright weird fabric. It was hard on the eyes. No flash was allowed in Graceland so you can’t quite see how loud it is.

 

 

And, of course, the famed Jungle room.

 

 

 

 

He loved his clothes and had lots of them.

 

 

 

Elvis had so many gold and platinum records and albums, more than I ever imagined.  He has a whole building with singles and albums lining the walls. This is just a few.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed myself. I would tell people who go to Memphis, you have to go to Graceland.

We went back to Beale Street and to the Peabody Hotel to see the duck walk. So cute. They get a couple of children from the audience to help.

This is a long standing tradition starting back in 1939 when 2 guys were drunk and threw their decoys in the fountain. Please check out how many people were there to see this. You can only see a fraction of how many were there. They lined the balcony on all four sides of the lobby and you could not fit any more people in that spectacular lobby. Afterwards we went back to Beale Street. The acrobats were hard at it again. Were they ever good. Amazing how they can flip over and over, 10 or 12 flips, sometimes not putting their hands on the ground.

This guy took spray paint and what appeared to be random sprays with the can turned out to be really cool paintings. So much talent here. Not only music.

 

Travel day tomorrow. We were on our way towards Oklahoma, but they were hit with a freak snow storm and got pounded. So we will drive westward, not sure where to at this point. Check back to see where we end up.