Adding it all up

Duration:  39 days, 38 nights

Distance:  8,586 miles

Total Cost per mile:  $1.01

States visited: 20, plus Washington, D.C. and the Canadian province of Ontario

Locations where we stayed at least one night:  28

Gallons of fuel: 264.37

Average MPG: 33.06

Average fuel cost per gallon:  $4.13.  (Would have been a good deal lower if we had not spent time in Canada!)

National Parks / Monuments / Memorials visited:  7, plus at least 6 of the memorials on or near the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Major League Baseball games attended:  3.  Go Dodgers!

Major League Ballparks visited (no game played on the date visited):  2

State Capitals visited (meaning, we drove through the city and viewed the building from the outside):  4

State Capitols visited (meaning, we entered the building):  3

Times we crossed the continental divide:  9  (How can that be an odd number?)

Family visited:  2

Friends visited:  20 who we actually knew before, plus dozens, if not hundreds, of new friends along the way.

Times we washed the car:  4

Times we did laundry:  4

Live music concerts attended:  4

Illnesses:  0
Instances of car trouble:  0

Times we turned on the television:  0

Loads of fun!

And, surprisingly enough, we still like each other!

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

Be it ever so humble . . .

There's no place like home!

 And we are home, as of about 2:30 PM today.

We'll post a more complete synopsis in a day or two.  Be sure to tune in for that.

Miles today = 291.  TO = 8586

Homeward Bound

This morning we packed up and bade farewell to our gathered UCR friends.  We spent 3 great days and nights with them.

We stayed in a HUGE and very lovely house which is part of the YMCA complex in Estes Park.

In a sense, we concluded our great adventure with that departure.  We have no more sights to see, no more destinations to visit, no more events to attend, and no more friends with whom we can meet up.

It's a simple matter of setting our sails for home.  Inconveniently, the trip is much too lengthy to do it all in one day.

So, today we began what we call our 'Three Day Dash for Home'.  The dash will be about 1,150 miles long.

Today we headed north for a couple of hours, crossing into Wyoming and connecting with I-80, then west across most of southern Wyoming.  Tonight we rest in Evanston, WY, on the western edge of the state, just 4 or 5 miles from the Utah state line.

If all goes well, we'll be home in less than 48 hours.  Cross your fingers please!

Miles today = 426.  TO = 7860

Take me out to the Ballgame!

On Wednesday afternoon, we took a side trip from our gathering of UCR friends.

We attended a Colorado Rockies afternoon game at Coors field. We love attending MLB games when we can, especially when we have a chance to do so in a stadium that we have not previously seen.  Lynne had been here before, but David had not.

Lovely venue, and a nice day for the most part - a brief but intense rain shower notwithstanding.

And, the Rockies won!  Something that they have not been doing very often lately.  Final score:  Rockies 6, Washington Nationals 4.

We were back in Estes Park in time for dinner with our reunion crowd, and S'Mores around the campfire for dessert.

All in all, a very fun day.

Friends!

We mentioned we were headed to Estes Park after Denver.  Before we left - on Sunday night we dined with friends of Lynne's from The Hartford.  We ate at a restaurant overlooking the Centennial Airport south of Denver.  We saw several private jets take off and land.  Great company and very fun.

Monday morning we toured around Denver seeing the state capitol building (new Capitol for David), downtown and the house where Lynne's mom grew up.

Once we arrived in Estes Park on Monday afternoon we met up with 12 other folks - most of whom we attended U C Riverside with 40 years ago.  We are at the YMCA of the Rockies in a very large house with 9 rooms and a very large common area and kitchen.  You can only imagine all of the conversations!

Today we took a bus tour into Rocky Mountain National Park and thoroughly enjoyed the education and the scenery.  It is truly beautiful.

Tomorrow, we are heading back to Denver for a Rockies baseball game and then back up to Estes for dinner with the gang and a campfire.

Denver bound...

Yesterday we headed up over Independence Pass south of Aspen to the Denver area.  The pass is high above the tree line at 12095' and extremely pretty.  Quite the ride !  At least we were in a car and not on a two wheeler...  We actually crossed the Continental Divide three times on our way out of Snowmass yesterday.  This was the first.

We again spent some time on Interstate 70 - but on a Sunday afternoon going east it is VERY crowded - it took us 2+ hours to go about 35 miles.  EEEK..

Today we head to back up into the Rocky mountains to  Estes Park for our college reunion..  We will be there until we begin our trek for home on Thursday morning.

 Miles yesterday = 180.  TO = 7141.

What a show!

It is Sunday morning, and we are preparing to leave Snowmass.

We've had a great time here for the last two days.

Friday was a day to get acquainted with the village and do some loafing.  Friday afternoon/evening was the start of a two day music festival, benefiting the Aspen Deaf Camp.

We're here largely because some of our musical friends are performing as part of the festival.  Among them are Mack Bailey and Pete Huttlinger, both of whom have given concerts in our living room.

They performed Friday evening as a trio with Chris Nole, who is a well known keyboardist.

On Saturday, we rode the free bus in to Aspen, and spent quite a bit of time strolling around this very lovely town.  We also booked a ride on the tram to the top of Aspen mountain, elevation something a bit over 11,500 feet.  Incredible views from the top.

Saturday evening was the high point of the festival.  Several good acts performed, ending with the 'John Denver Band'.  This is a group fronted by Mack, who has an incredible tenor voice, and comprised of several of JD's former bandmates, including Chris, Pete, and several others.  They gave an incredible 1 hour plus performance.

How long has it been since you've heard 'Rocky Mountain High' performed live, and, at a locale that really is high in the Rocky Mountains to boot?

Tonight we are in Denver for dinner with two of Lynne's friends from The Hartford.  On Monday, it's off to Estes Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park for a three day reunion with a number of friends from UCR.  Has it really been 40 years?  No way!

Rocky Mountain HIgh again - hotel is at 9100'

Yesterday we left Wyoming and headed south to Colorado.   Most of the day was spent on Interstate Hwys.

We made our first stop at the state capitol building Cheyenne, WY - a spot neither of us had been to before.  We spent some time inside the building viewing the portraits of the governors and the two chambers.  We actually met the WY governor in 1981 on another vacation to WY so we had to look him up.

Eisenhower Tunnel

Then we headed south to Colorado.  We took Interstate 70 west and it is quite a ride - several tunnels, double decker lanes through Glenwood Canyon, past Vail, Copper Mt and Beaver Creek ski areas, and construction, of course.  Very pretty!

Our destination - Snowmass Village north of Aspen.  It is a world class ski area.  We are here for a music festival -



Tonight and tomorrow are both free concerts at the base of the ski lifts in the village on a nice grassy area.  Our friends Pete Huttlinger and Mack Bailey with his wife, Rachel Levy will be playing.  They have done house concerts for us.   We are looking forward to seeing them all !

This is a three night stay for us so we are all unpacked and out of suitcases for the first time.

We will be in the state of Colorado until Thursday, July 24 - stay tuned....

Miles yesterday = 377.  TO = 6911.

No more miles until Sunday....

Three States and Four Presidents

This morning we left Wall, SD pretty early.  Certainly there is not much there to make us want to linger.

After an hour or so continuing west on I-90, we exited in Rapid City and headed south.  After a full day yesterday of seeing the prairie roll by, we were pleased to see the landscape start to change as we entered the Black Hills of South Dakota.  They are mountainous, and heavily treed, not unlike the Sierra Nevada's an hour or so east of home.

Our destination, of course, was Mount Rushmore.

It really is quite an impressive place.  The likenesses of the four Presidents are very well detailed, right down to Teddy Roosevelt's eyeglasses.

We spent a couple of hours there and left feeling like it was definitely worth the visit.

The bulk of our driving today was in the post-Rushmore interval.  We deliberately chose a path that was a bit longer than the quickest route in order that we would have a chance to see some of Nebraska, a state that is new to both of us, and that we would not have otherwise entered.

We were in Nebraska for 3 to 4 hours.  It welcomed us with a brief, but VERY intense rain shower.  On a road with a speed limit of 65 MPH, we had to slow down to about 30 MPH.

Lynne snapped a picture of an interesting pair of fellow travelers out along the roadway.

Tonight we are in Torrington, Wyoming, a town just barely over the line from Nebraska.  We were at the hotel less than 15 minutes after entering this lovely state.

Miles today = 305.  TO = 6530.

Tomorrow we return to Colorado, a state that we passed through and thoroughly enjoyed on our eastbound leg.

♪ ♬ On the Road Again ♪ ♬

Our respite in the Twin Cities area ended early this morning.  At a few minutes after 7:00 AM CDT, we were on the road.

And, it ended in a big way.  Today was our single longest drive of the entire trip - our one and only day of booking over 500 miles.

We spent the morning going south and west in Minnesota, and, somewhere around mid-day, we crossed into South Dakota, a new state for both of us.

A VERY frequently repeating sight along Interstate 90, both in Minnesota and South Dakota, are the billboards for 'Wall Drug'.

The word 'Wall' refers to the town of Wall, SD, which is where we are staying tonight.  We have no idea why the second word is 'Drug', because we visited the store before dinner, and it's really a fair-sized, and very well marketed, mall catering to tourists.  It's a nice enough place, but we never saw any evidence of anything resembling a drug store.

A short distance outside of this town we visited Badlands National Park.  This was not part of our plan, but we made such good time on our long drive, that we decided to drive the short distance out of the way to visit this site.  As it turns out, that was a very good decision.

The sights are very good in the Badlands.  Lovely rock formations with many layers clearly visible.

Definitely worth the time and extra distance in you are taking I-90 in either direction.

Miles today = 523

And, we crossed into the Mountain Time Zone.  That's the last time that we will have to change our clocks until we are almost home.


Tomorrow - Mt. Rushmore!

A very welcome break from life on the road.

Tonight will bring an end to a break from the road, 4 nights and 3 days in duration.  We are enjoying life in a private home, home cooked meals, sleeping in the same bed more than once, and the presence of family.  The hotels and restaurants, while very nice, were getting a bit wearisome.

We have spent the last couple of days playing tourist in the Twin Cities and loafing!

Before dinner Friday night we went to a local park in Eden Prairie for a musical gig in a very nice outdoor amphitheater.  Quite fun!

Saturday we loafed while it thundered and rained HARD outside.  'Twas a good day for grocery shopping and laundry.

 
On Sunday, we took the Twin Cities metro transit lines around town.  The Blue line is only 10 years old and takes you from the Mall of America in Bloomington to the Minneapolis Twins stadium downtown - "Target Center".  If you are not following baseball - it is where the All Star game will be played Tuesday night.  So - we found quite a bit of activity and a very beautiful stadium.  There is an outdoor amphitheater there with a very large screen - we think so you can watch the games for free!

Then we hopped back on Metro to catch the Green line - only a month old - to the capital city of Minnesota - St. Paul.  The train passes the University of Minnesota (the "U"), the capitol building and ends at the newly redone Union Station - which lies next to the Mississippi River.

To get back to our vehicle at the end of the Blue Line we had to switch trains several stops back and had a chance to see where the new NFL Vikings stadium is being built.  It will open in 2016 and host the Super Bowl 2018.

Also today, Lynne took Paula (sister-in-law) with her to get a pedicure - sweet !

Who is tanner?

And we get to stress out Nona the kitty who is not very fond of strangers in her house!

No new trip miles - just around town.....

Tomorrow morning, very early, life on the road resumes.