Tag Archives: American Road Trip

2022 Road Trip

10 Aug

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Prelog 

This year’s driving road trip is really a substitute for the trip to the northwestern U.S. & western Canada trip that I have had planned, but have had to postpone, for two years now because of Covid.  I hope the Canadian tourist restrictions for Americans entering into their country will be lifted by next year so I can visit that part of northwest America and parts of western Canada.  The main motivations for this road trip were to visit friends in Lester, AL and to visit The Arch in St. Louis.  I missed a visit to The Arch last time I was in St. Louis because of Arch construction, and I really wanted to visit that Iconic structure.  The other motivation for this trip was a visit the Museum of Transportation, also in St. Louis, the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, TN and The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, KY.  I have been told by many friends The Ark Encounter is a must-see attraction.  The map below will give you an idea of the approximate route I have laid out for myself during this road trip.

Image Credit: https://mountainhighmaps.com/products/usa-eastern

The idea was to travel mostly on rural roads rather than Interstates to enable me to see more of each state I was passing thru.  I had been in parts of most of the states I would be passing thru on this trip, during previous road trips, but this route would allow me to see new and different parts of the states I wanted to see.   As I was finishing up my packing, our cat, Thea, came in and checked out what I was doing.  Then she jumped into my suitcase and gave me a look that I took to say, “OK, I’m ready to go.  When do we leave?”  I told her she had to stay home and take care of DiVoran while I was gone, so she wouldn’t get lonely.  I guess she was okay with that, as she jumped out of the suitcase and went to search for DiVoran (or a treat that I didn’t have for her).

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

I’m driving my 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan again this year on the trip instead of renting a car, because it served me well on last year’s trip and is so much more comfortable.  Of course, after all these years, I fit the van, and I like sitting up a little higher for better traffic viewing.  I don’t get quite the milage in the van a new rental car would give me, but if the route weather is as cool as predicted I should be able to keep the A/C turned off for better milage than is usual here in Florida.

So, I’m looking forward to starting this road trip tomorrow, when I’ll beSee the source image‘On the Road Again’.5in x 4in Black Double Eighth Note Sticker   I will keep you up-to-date on the many and varied experiences I encounter along the way.

                  Image Credit: on the road again clipart – Bing images

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 64 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 5B

16 Oct

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 5 – Saturday July 27 (Continued)

Continuing today’s activities, I crossed the Menominee River (the border between Michigan and Wisconsin), where I visited the Marinette Logging Museum located in Marinette, WI.  This museum was built in 1962 and offers information related to the history of the early homesteaders to the area. Visitors will find several authentic pieces of sawmill and ice cutting equipment, and displays of early 1900s farm and logging equipment, artifacts, and memorabilia.  This museum also has the restored1897 Evancheck homestead log cabin that is filled with period furnishings.  Another interesting area of the museum is their collection of Menominee Indian cultural items.

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This is where the many Native Indian names of this region (many of which are spelled and sound similar) got me in trouble.  When I was making my motel reservations for this trip, I booked a room, for this night, at a motel in what I thought was Menominee, MI.  Now, I had just come across the Menominee River to visit the Logging Museum in Marinette, and knew it was only a couple of miles back to the motel.  But when I plugged the motel address into Greta (my Garmin), she told me to turn in the opposite direction, and that it was 240 miles to the motel.  What?  Have you lost your mind Greta?  I entered the motel address again, but got the same results.  I remembered passing a Quality Inn earlier, so I drove back across the Menominee River to Menominee to find the motel.

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The motel clerk said she didn’t have a reservation for me.  I showed her a copy of my reservation, and she pointed out to me that my reservation for that night was in Menomonie, WI.  Greta had been right.  My reservation was for the wrong town.  I couldn’t believe I had made such a foolish mistake.  Evidently I had hit “WI” instead of “MI” and didn’t notice the slight difference in the spelling of what sounded to me like the same word.  Well, balderdash!  I was going to have to eat the cost of that reservation, as it was “non-refundable.”   I asked the clerk if she had a room for me, she said, “No we are completely full because of the Oshkosh Air Show this week.”  And I discovered all of the motels in the surrounding area were full for the same reason.  So now what was I going to do?  Sleep in the car?  She was kind enough to call around and finally found me a room at the Best Western, there in town, so at least I would have a bed for the night.  

Description: Image result for oshkosh 2019

After I got checked in at the motel, I asked Greta to take me to The Brothers Three Restaurant, there in town, where I waited almost an hour after ordering, to be served the worst Calzone I have ever tried to eat.  There were lots of cars in the parking lot, and the restaurant was full, so maybe some of their other Italian dishes are better, but I sure can’t recommend their Calzone to anyone.

Description: Image result for the three brothers in menominee, mi

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 2

11 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 2 – Wednesday July 24

I was glad things worked out as they did yesterday, since one of the main reasons I picked this area for this road trip was to visit the Air Zoo Museum in Portage, MI.  This is one of the most amazing aviation museums I have visited.  Their 35+ beautifully restored aircraft are strategically positioned and lighted so the visitor can get good photos.  Their restoration building is one of the most organized and clean facilities I have ever seen.  This museum was one of the high-lights of this trip!

After this great museum visit, I headed northeast on SR-43 about 25 miles to visit the Gilmore Car Museum located in Hickory Corners, MI.  This turned out to be another fantastic experience!  The museum consists of some 18 individual buildings, situated on 90 acres, filled with 300+ beautifully restored automobiles, motorcycles, and vintage memorabilia dating from the late 1890s.

The collection actually had on display more vintage Duesenberg motorcars than the Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, IN that I visited in 2016.  There is also a replica 1930s full service Shell Station where gas is always $.18 cents a gallon.

And if you’re hungry, there is the 1941 “Blue Moon Diner” where visitors can stop in for lunch.  I could have spent a whole day at this museum, but I had miles to go and other museums to visit, before this day was going to be over.  

From here I headed southeast on SR-89/37 to visit the Post Cereal Museum located in Battle Creek, MI. Started in 1892 by Charles Post, on this site, the Postum Cereal Company produced cereal drinks and breakfast cereals such as Postum, Grape-Nuts, and Post Toasties before becoming the General Food Corporation in 1929.  Through the years the company grew and was purchased by various conglomerates, until it became a part of Kraft Foods in 1989.  I didn’t have time to wait for the next scheduled tour to begin, so I opted to move on to the next museum.

Now it was east on I-94 to visit Ye Ole Carriage Shop in Spring Arbor, MI.  Because of road construction in the area, this small museum was very hard to find.  I was looking forward to getting a look at a 1902 JAXON steam car in their collection.  The JAXON (which I had never heard of) was built by one of the 24 companies building cars in nearby Jackson, MI during the early 1900s.   When I finally did find the museum, it was closed.

Just a few miles northeast I planned to visit the Cell Block 7 Museum in Jackson, MI.  The museum is located on the grounds of the operational State Prison of Southern Michigan.  What originally began as a log structure in 1839, housing 35 inmates, has grown over the years to become one of the largest walled institutions in the world, housing as many as 5000+ inmates at any one time.  As with the Post Cereal Museum, I didn’t go through this museum as I would have had to wait for the next guided tour.  I have found that these guided tours usually take 1½ to more than 2 hours, and that is more time than I usually like to spend to see a museum.

While I was in Jackson, I tried to find the Hackett Auto Museum, but discovered they were in the process of restoring an old building for their collection and wouldn’t be ready to open until sometime in 2020.  So, I headed east on I-94 again to visit the Waterloo Farm Museum located in Grass Lake, MI. This farm museum is built around the original 1854 farm home of Johannes Siebold and his family.  The museum honors the Michigan pioneer farmers of the 1850s, and has a restored farmhouse,  farm buildings, and farm equipment used during that time period.

Now I headed east to visit the Argus Museum located in Ann Arbor, MI.  One of my first cameras was a 35mm Argus C4 that my Aunt Jessie gave me for high school graduation.  I used that camera to take tons of pictures in the many foreign seaports I visited while I was in the U. S. Navy (1956-1962).  According to their website, my camera was built in this building sometime between1951-1957).  The museum consists of camera displays, artifacts and memorabilia related to the company’s history from 1936-1969.

Since the Saline Depot Museum in Saline, MI was only open on Saturdays, and would take me 20 miles out of my way, I opted to bypass that museum and head east on I-94 to visit  the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum located in Ypsilanti, MI.   This museum is housed in the building that housed the longest operating Hudson dealership in Michigan (1927-1955).  The museum has 30+ beautifully restored cars, including a 1952 Hudson Hornet and a 1948 Tucker  movie prop. The museum name was changed around 1995,but the name on the building is still Hudson Auto Museum. 

By now I was getting hungry, and I asked Greta to take me down the road a few miles, to the motel in Romulus, MI.  The desk clerk recommended Leonardo’s Italian Grill there in town, where I had their delicious Baked Lasagna dinner with fresh baked rolls, and Tiramisu for dessert. Yummm!

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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Road Trip~Celestial Seasonings

25 May

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

Days 16 September 23, 2017

 

If you read the beginning of our road trip story on September 7, 2018, you will remember that we started out as Hurricane Irma was bearing down on Florida and I had mixed emotions about driving further away from our daughter living in Florida. It took us a week to arrive in Denver for our meet up with our friend, Pam and our daughter, Rebekah. The week we spent with them in Pagosa Springs, Colorado flew past and this morning we were up early to drive them to the airport.  Fortunately, they both had their electricity restored and now it was a matter of putting away their hurricane prep. We were sad for them to go, they were fun travel companions.

One place Rebekah had really wanted to visit was the Celestial Seasonings headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunately, a visit there couldn’t be worked into our schedule. I guess a kinder mom would have chosen to not visit the tea headquarters without her, but I really wanted to visit it too. Rebekah enjoys flying, I hate flying, so she can fly in for a weekend. So after dropping the “girls” off, husband and I headed north to Boulder.

Except for getting some basic information, I didn’t know anything about the facility and what to expect, except that we would learn how tea is processed.  As we followed the map on my phone, I began to worry when it directed us to turn into a residential area. Surely the phone app had led us astray…again.  We decided to continue following the map app as we had no idea where we were and knew if we were in the wrong place, we could program it to bring us back to a main road.

To our surprise right there in the residential area, we saw the a street sign reading SleepyTime Drive. We were in the right place! Not far down the road, we came to the entrance.

 

 

By this time I couldn’t wait to get inside, and I was hoping we would not have long to wait for a tour.

 

As we approached the headquarters entrance, I had no idea what to expect. The front window was covered in their signature picture.

 

 

Once inside we discovered tea heaven! I can not believe I didn’t take pictures. The first thing we did was sign up for a tour that would be starting in about 20 minutes.  The room had a long counter set with a variety of teas.

 

Photo credit Yelp by Jeff Boyardee T

 

After signing up, we were invited to sample not only those prepared but any tea in their inventory!

 

I was in my element…..free samples!! Take that winerys! We sampled both cold and hot teas until it was time to go into the theatre and begin our tour.

 

 

There is a slight downside. We were touring on Saturday and the processing lines were not running. That didn’t stop us from enjoying the tour as our guide explained what activities we would be seeing if the machines were running.  They process their teas except peppermint from air drying to packaging.  I looked at each variety of tea from all over the globe, while my imagination roamed wild, imagining the places where the tea was grown as well as the people who spend their days hand picking the best leaves.

After we finished our tour, I asked if we could return to the tasting area. I wanted to try out more blends to decide which I wanted to buy. They laughed and said, “you can taste until we close!”  The people at Celestial Seasonings are friendly and seem to love their jobs.  We tasted several more blends, then headed to the Tea shop. As we entered the shop I was delighted with the huge assortment.

I told my husband to buckle up, I would be doing some serious damage to our charge card!

Celestial Seasonings teas are bulk packaged in signature designed boxes. My husband prefers individual pack and we were pleased to note they had a selection of boxed individual tea bags and scooped up several in flavors we can’t get locally. (Reminder to self….order some more of these online.) It was fun browsing the different blends and deciding which ones had to come home with us. It turns out quite a few hopped into our bag!

 

 

The facility also has a cafe and I was hoping to have lunch there, but it was closed. As I am writing this story, I am beginning to think I might need to join Rebekah and Pam when they fly out to visit Celestial Seasonings. Surely the two of them can keep me from embarrassing myself on the plane.

It has taken me way too long to tell the story of our road trip and this is the final episode. My interstate hating husband decided we should abandon back roads for the return trip and drive the interstates. I still don’t know why, but if I understand everything he did, what fun would that be?  Thank you for reading the posts. I have enjoyed remembering the journey. We are undecided about where we will visit on our Fall vacation this year. I do know that a short beach adventure and a tour of a historical city is in the works.

 

Oh the irony. As I am finishing this series, a sub-tropical storm is advancing on Florida.

 

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Road Trip~ Treasure Falls and Lobo Overlook

26 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

Day 14, September 20, 2017

 

Tomorrow we would be packing up and heading to the Denver airport, ending the fun week we spent with Rebekah and Pam. Since this was our last day in Pagosa Springs, we decided to stay close to our home base and explore the mountains nearby.

After browsing our accumulated tourist brochures, we decided to visit Treasure Falls, then drive up to Lobo Overlook and have a picnic. There were two trail options to reach the falls. Rebekah and Pam chose one route and husband and I chose the other. Even though it was a very nice trail, it wasn’t a good walking day for my husband. We found a bench where we could rest and enjoy being in nature.

 

 

Rebekah and Pam made it to the trail end and shot some pictures of the falls. I read a hiker blog post about viewing the falls in winter. He said it was 70 percent ice and 30 percent flow. I would like to see that!

 

 

Next stop, Lobo Overlook.  HikingMike.com describes the overlook:

Lobo Overlook with a 3 mile dirt/gravel road leading up – Forest Road #402 is an easy, slow drive (4wd not required) that winds about 1.5 miles to the very top of the 11,760 ft unnamed peak north of Wolf Creek Pass. In winter, snowmobilers take this same route to the top. If you want to go on foot, you can hike the road up, or hike the Continental Divide Trail which starts just west of the road and tracks just west of the overlook. By the way, heading south on the Continental Divide Trail lets you head up the ridge to the summit of Alberta Peak, the top of Wolf Creek Ski Area.

Once you get a chance to look around, you’ll find great views of the San Juans all around. There aren’t many places where you can drive to the top of a high elevation mountain on the Continental Divide!

 

Living in the Western North Carolina mountains, we are accustomed to winding gravel roads.  Although I do have to confess that they still creep me out a bit. As we climbed, Pam wondered if the road might be the one that her son-in-law traveled on horse back with an elk hunting party just weeks earlier. After returning home, she spoke with him and it was indeed the same place. Another similarity is that we didn’t see any elk and they didn’t take down any elk.

The view from  Lobo Overlook gives a spectacular view of the surrounding peaks of the San Juan Mountains and lands that lie within the San Juan National Forest (including Weminuche Wilderness) and Rio Grande National Forest. Near the parking area was a convenient vault toilet. It turned out to be an amusing experience due to the location of the toilet and the swirling winds.

 

 

Nearby there were some picnic tables, and a rough fence surrounded the overlook area. The temperature and strong winds made the air dramatically colder prompting us to pull on jackets over our short-sleeved shirts.  I was in my element, high above the valley, embracing the strong winds and chill.

 

 

Me
Pam
Rebekah

Fun!

 

 

Unfortunately, the altitude of 11,760 feet taxed my husband’s breathing and we made a hasty retreat to the car, foregoing our picnic. On the way down, we saw this interesting bird. Can you tell me what kind of bird it is?

 

 

We came across these cuties at one of the pull outs.

 

 

 

Two random pictures taken from road pull outs.

 

 

 

It was a long, but good day. I was thankful my husband’s breathing settled down and he was able to drive us down the winding gravel road. We were sad to be leaving the condo at Pagosa Springs, beautiful area and beautiful memories.

 

 

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Road Trip~ Mesa Verde National Park

12 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

 

Day 13, September 19, 2017

Another beautiful morning at the condo in Pagossa Springs. After a day of feeling wonky, I felt better and ready for another day of exploring. Today our plan was to visit Mesa Verde National Park. A nice check off on my husband’s bucket list. But first, I need my coffee and quiet time.

 

Coffee at Mesa Verde

 

The drive to Mesa Verde took around an hour, maybe a little more. We weren’t in a hurry and I enjoyed the drive through Durango. I let my imagination roam to cowboys and the wild west. But the people of Mesa Verde pre-date the cowboys by multiple centuries.

From the National Park Service website:

Ancestral Pueblo People of Mesa Verde

About 1,400 years ago, long before Europeans explored North America, a group of people living in the Four Corners region chose Mesa Verde for their home. For more than 700 years they and their descendants lived and flourished here, eventually building elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. Then, in the late A.D. 1200s, in the span of a generation or two, they left their homes and moved away. Mesa Verde National Park preserves a spectacular reminder of this ancient culture.

Once we arrived at the entrance to the park, it was another 2o miles to the museum which is a must stop. There you can pick up literature describing the drives and if you have an inclination to take a ranger guided tour, you can pay for your tickets there.

 

Before we made it to the museum, we made a comfort stop. The husband is an experienced outdoors facility judge, so we take a picture of the ones he rates. LOL.

 

Pam and I stayed in the truck!

 

Rebekah and her ever-present camera.

 

Along with picking up brochures and maps at the museum, we stopped in the cafeteria to pick up a necessary adventure supply, I had forgotten to pack.

 

I’ll leave it to you to imagine which one represents me!

 

The park contains over 5000 archeological sites across 40+ miles of roads. After leaving the museum, we chose one of the easy drives through the park. We were there in off peak season so places to pull over were readily available.  There were a lot of Pit houses preserved under shelters.

 

 

Eventually they moved from the Pit houses to tree houses, built into the overhang of cliffs. It must have been exhausting climbing up and down and dangerous as well. I couldn’t imagine a mother trying to keep her children safe. Then for unknown reasons around 1200 A.D. the people let, just disappeared.

Rebekah and her dad. They share a love of photography.

 

 

On a previous trip west we had planned to visit Mesa Verde but the park was hit with a serious forest fire.

 

 

It was a nice walk out to the fire observation tower.

As we were driving slowly along the Navajo Overlook, we felt as if we were being followed. Pam’s sharp eyes found our stalker.

 

 

 

Tree Houses

 

 

 

 

Pam and I taking a break while Mike and Rebekah snapped photos

 

Spruce Tree House

 

Spruce Tree House is a favorite ruin to explore as there is an easy walking trail for closer viewing. Unfortunately, the trail was under repair so we had to view it from this building, which in my opinion was more pleasant than walking!

 

 

We didn’t see all of the sites as we drove through the park. Dusk was approaching and we didn’t want to be driving on unfamiliar roads after dark. We enjoyed a quick meal back at the museum before driving down the mountain. Sunset would be a magical time to drive down, but we were a bit too early.

 

My shadow stalking me!

 

I found Mesa Verde a fascinating place. Echoes of ancient times seemed to whisper in the air. Why did they move into the cliffs and why did they abandon them in a mere hundred years? Where did they go?  The park website has some incredible photos and videos. I encourage you to visit it at NPS.gov

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Road Trip~Chimney Rock Monument

29 Mar

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

Day 12, September 18, 2017

This morning my body decided to rebel  and sent me to rest for the day. Not wanting to ground everyone else, I suggested they visit the nearby Chimney Rock National Monument.

Since I was not on the trip, I am relying on excerpts from the website:

This undiscovered gem is an intimate, off-the-beaten-path archaeological site located at the southern edge of the San Juan Mountains  in Southwestern Colorado. You’ll walk in the footsteps of the fascinating and enigmatic Ancestral Puebloans of the Chaco Canyon, following primitive pathways that haven’t changed for 1,000 years. Archaeological ruins and artifacts, abundant wildlife, and its setting in the breathtaking San Juan National Forest make Chimney Rock a must-see. 

 

Rebekah and Pam

Also from the monument website:

Chimney Rock is the highest in elevation of all the Chacoan sites, at about 7,000 feet above sea level. From the base, the hike to the top is just a half mile and it’s rewarded with dramatic 360-degree views of Colorado and New Mexico.

 

 

If you enjoy photography, Mountain Photography has a collection of breathtaking photos.

 

They returned from their adventure with stories to tell and I enjoyed hearing them and felt confident I would be feeling better for our trip to Mesa Verde the following day.

Here is my favorite picture of the day.

 

Rebekah and her dad

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Road Trip~ Denver, Colorado to Pagosa Springs, Colorado

11 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

Day 9, September 15, 2017

We enjoyed our road trip to Denver, but this morning we were excited to begin the next segment of our journey, a week’s stay at a condo in Pagosa Springs! This trip began back in the spring during a conversation with our friend, Pam.She has a timeshare and occasionally she has points and no plan on where she would like to travel and it just so happened that we had a slight windfall of cash and wanted to take a road trip. I told her that if she had timeshare points to use, we had funds! After looking at several locations, Pagosa Springs was a good fit for both of us. She and our daughter could fly to Denver and hubby and I, not a fan of flying would drive our truck.

Hurricane Irma update: Before we left the hotel, our daughter checked to see if the power was back on in her home. It wasn’t, but there was hope that maybe by the end of the day.

We decided to avoid the interstate and once we were clear of Denver, began our journey south on US 285.  The ride was pleasant and as the scenery was new to us, the time flew. Pam’s daughter who mountain climbs with her husband had advised us to look for an outfitter store to purchase Acli-Mate for our daughter’s altitude sickness. Since she was still feeling queasy, we were on the look out for one.  I really wish I could remember the name of the small town where we stopped. It had a tiny outfitter’s store but it was filled with supplies. I think the name of the shop had the words Eagle Claw in them so if anyone is familiar with the area, I would love to know the name. We were in luck! The store had individual packets of Acli-Mate  upfront at the register. While Rebekah paid for them, I decided a bathroom break was a good idea. I was a little hesitant, though, wondering how clean the bathroom might be. To my surprise it was not only very clean but had the best reading material! One whole wall was shelved and held a magazine for any type of outdoor sport one could think of, all neatly laid out. I wish I had taken a picture, but it just seemed wrong.

Once we were back on the road, we began looking for a place to have our picnic lunch.  We found a park with picnic tables, but were irritated to read a sign requiring a daily use fee.  After grumbling, we decided to ignore the fee as we weren’t going to be using any other portion of the park. It was windy with a chill in the air so we chose a table in the sun.

 

 

Landscape

 

Our drive south took us through the Pike and San Isobel Forest, then the Rio Grande National Forest and they were beautiful.

 

By robert thigpen from diboll, texas (Stony Pass roadUploaded by PDTillman) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Finally, we made it to our home for the week! Wyndham, Pagosa Springs.

 

Our Unit

 

Once we had unloaded the truck, the ladies headed out to Wal-Mart to pick up some grocery items for breakfast. By the time we returned it was dark and an unexpected visitor had surprised my husband as he glanced out the sliding glass door. I’m glad he was able to capture this picture.

 

Just checking out the new neighbors!

 

We made it an early night as we had big plans for the next day, here is a hint.

 

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Minute Meditations~7

31 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                                

POSSESSIONS…

What is your most prized possession?

Your car?

1

Your house?

2

An instrument you’ve scrimped and saved for, for so long you wondered whether or not you would ever be able to afford it?

5

That big-screen TV?

3

That stereo system? That computer? That ipad or iphone?

What about a pet? Is that considered a “possession” to you?

How did you feel after you acquired that prized possession? Did the possessing of it complete your life, like you thought it would? Or were you “let down” now that you had it in hand?

My brother, Bill, wrote about a woman who desired something – something she considered more than life itself:

4In acquiring those prized possessions, if we consider how that possession can be used to God’s glory, then we can use it – “give it back to God” – and know that we have fulfilled God’s desire for us in that instance. We can give God the opportunity to bless us with our use of the possession.

The “essence” of this thought is that, what God gives still belongs to Him – to be used for His glory.

I had never thought about my possessions in that light. God really DOES want to give us the best, and to bless us with it.

WOW!

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My Colonial States Trip~Part 21

8 Apr

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Small Red Plane

After that educational tour, I headed for the rental car office to turn in my car and get a ride to the Providence Train Station for my trip to the T.F. Green Airport. All went well until I arrived at the train station and my train #807 showed no gate assignment. There were four tracks, and I didn’t want to miss my train (12:27) because the next train after that (2:54) to the airport would cause me to miss my flight to Orlando. As I bought my ticket, I asked the clerk which track train #807 would leave from and she said, “That information will be posted on the schedule board about 15 minutes before the train arrives.” So, I broke out my CD player and settled in to wait. At 12:15 the schedule board had not changed and I asked the clerk about the gate number again. This time she rolled her eyes and said, “Sometimes they don’t post that information until 5 minutes before the train arrives.” I thanked her and sat back down to watch the schedule board. By now (12:23) I was about to panic, and go holler at someone, when the schedule board changed showing “Train #807 Arriving On Track 4” and I breathed a sigh of relief.

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I got to the T.F. Green Airport Station at 12:43 and figured I now had a little over 2 hours to wait for my flight leaving at 3:30. But, when I went to check my bag for the flight, I was told that the plane had had mechanical problems and they would have to bring another plane to Providence, and the new departure time for my flight was 4:50. What a bummer! All that anxiety over missing the train was for nothing. So, what else could I do, but call DiVoran to tell her my flight was delayed, and that would make it too late arriving for us to go to dinner there in Orlando, as we had planned. She said, “No problem, I’ll just whip us up an omelet when we get home.” Well, that was fine with me, so, I broke out my CD player again and settled in for a little longer wait this time. As it turned out, it was almost 9:00 before we got home and that ham/cheese/mushroom omelet was just what the doctor ordered.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love going on these trips, to see different parts of our wonderful country, visit interesting places and museums and meet my American neighbors no matter where they live. But, it is always good to get home to the company of my lovely wife DiVoran and sleep in my own bed. I hope you have enjoyed reading about this trip as much as I have enjoyed re-living it in these blogs. I’m sure I have left out some important details of the trip, but if I remember them I’ll just have to include them as some kind of a “Post Script” or “Addendum” to My Colonial States Trip at some later date. In the meantime, keep smiling because GOD loves YOU and has a wonderful plan for your life.      

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           —–The End—–

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