Greetings from Cheyenne, WY

Yes, this is coming from Cheyenne, Wyoming.  I know we said the next post was coming from Rawlins but we've had a big change of plans since the last post.  We have sold our house in Fort Wayne and the closing is July 31.  As a result, we have decided to head home after visiting our friends in Smoot.  We left Brent and Judy this morning (in tears) and made it passed Rawlins to Cheyenne.  Essentially, we are skipping Rocky Mountain National Park and Colorado Springs.  With the fires around Colorado Springs, we may have had to skip that part anyway but we are both disappointed about the Park.  During the drive to Cheyenne today we spent some time planning future trips but more about that later.

From Brigham City to Smoot on Sunday we passed the beautiful Bear Lake recreation area and Wildlife Refuge.  The photo below is of Bear Lake.  Bear Lake is huge so it was not possible to get it all in one shot.

 

On Monday, we all went back to the Bear Lake Wildlife Refuge and had a wonderful day of Bird Watching.  Well, three of us did.  Jim read a book and looked up occasionally when he heard the excitement in our voices and offered appropriate exclamations.  I know bird watching is not everyone's bag so the photo below is of the wildlife seen from our friend's breakfast area.  The visitor's came by daily.  

 

On Tuesday we played golf at the beautiful Smoot Golf Course.  Despite being in the mountains, the course in Star Valley and is extremely flat.  No trees, no water hazards, no hills.  Consequently, we all did very poorly.  But it was a beautiful day and we had great friends with us so it was a good day overall.

 

On Wednesday, we drove up to Jackson Hole to take in the beautiful museum.  The shot below is of Jim and me in front of one of the bronze wildlife statues outside the museum.  The art inside was also amazing.  

 

From the museum we went to lunch followed by a brief walk around town.  Arches of elk antlers (below) are very popular accents in several Wyoming towns.  Ironically, citizens are not allowed to collect antlers if found.  Only the Wildlife Commission is allowed to indulge.  Apparently, they collect the antlers and donate them to the local communities.  They structures are impressive and you can get a sense of their size with Jim standing inside one.  There are a lot of antlers in this arch!!!

 

The visit with our friends ended very quickly and this morning we were on the road again.  We drove most of the day on I-80 in Wyoming.  It is amazing how much nothing is out there.  I don't mean that in a bad way.  It's just that the landscape, soil, and climate are not conducive to much.  Along the way we saw many unusual rock formations sticking randomly out of the ground (see below).  

 

One unexpected surprise along I-80 was passing the highest point on the highway, known in the area as the Lincoln Highway.  The original roadway was the first transcontinental highway from New York to San Francisco.  The statue below marks the highest point on the highway at over 6600 feet.

 

After this stop, we saw many more unusual rock formations but we chose to use the Lincoln Rock as the official final photo of the expedition.

Tomorrow will be a long day of driving and we will get to the Iowa - Illinois border.  Saturday we expect to arrive home around 1 pm.

So, as mentioned above, Jim and I have discussed how we will take future trips.  The days of multiple, short stop expeditions are likely over.  Instead, we will take destination vacations where we spend several days in one spot (with a stop or two  stops along the way coming and going).  This will allow us to really explore an area.  Rocky Mountain National Park (Estes Park) will be one of these destinations along with Williamsburg, VA.  Some of these trips may be more golf oriented. 

But before that, we have a house to empty out and a trip to make to FL before the July 31st closing date so things will be busy.  We hope you have enjoyed the trip with us and we look forward to seeing you all soon.

Mattie and Jim

Hot Air Balloon Ride, Canyonlands, and Moab to Brigham City

Hello Again!


This post is coming from Brigham City, Utah.  Yesterday was a fun filled day starting with my Hot Air Balloon Ride (a gift from Jim) in Moab, UT just outside of Arches NP.  I'd been looking forward to this event since I made the reservation back in January!  The day started at 5:30 AM with a ride out to the launch site where our group of 12 passengers watched the balloon inflate.  I have many pictures of the process but only the last one is of interest to an observer.

 

Before we took off, the team who got us in the air took photos of us on our cameras for posterity.

 

I took lots of photos from the air but it was a bit hazy so the shots did not come out as well as I hoped as you can see.  At one point we were about 2700 feet up and the view was amazing.  When the burner was not on (to keep the hot air hot) the ride was so peaceful.  And it was always smooth.

 

Anyone familiar with hot air ballooning will tell you that once you are airborne, the balloon follows the wind.  In our case, we flew over Arches National Park.  One of the real landmarks in Arches is Delicate Arch.  Jim and I did not get to see it in 2007 because the road was closed.  This time, I got to see it from the air.

 

I took about 900 shots on the trip but those are more for my memories than to bore you.  In the afternoon, Jim and I went to Canyonlands NP - essentially across the street from Arches.  The shots below are typical of what you will see at this park.

 

 

Despite the awesome parks, Moab was a bit miserable.  It was over 100 degrees and the day we arrived we experienced very high winds that created miserable dust clouds all afternoon.  The day of the balloon ride and the park visit was better since the wind had died down but the temperature was still high.  Also, Colorado is not the only state experiencing drought.  Moab is extremely dry so everything is a dull brown - partly because everything is covered in dust.  If you visit this area, I suggest late April or May.

 

We left Moab this morning headed for Brigham City.  This drive is mostly just a way to get to Smoot, Wyoming to visit our friends Brent and Judy.  We did take the scenic Ogden City Scenic Drive where the photos below were taken.  After all the dull brown in southern Utah, it was great to finally see some green, healthy vegetation along with the mountains.

 

 

Also, just outside of Provo, we saw the lovely Bridal Veil falls, seen here.

 

                                       

 

So as stated earlier, we are headed to Smoot tomorrow AM after attending Mass in Logan, Utah.  We will stay with our friends until Thursday morning when we will take off for Rawlins, WY.  Our next post will come from Rawlins and will update you on all the thrilling activities we engaged in with our friends in fabulous Smoot! 

 

Later!   Mattie and Jim

Alamosa to Montrose, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and Colorado National Monument

Hello from Moab, Utah!

First, for the record, all of Colorado has not been burned to cinders by wild fires.  Only part of the State has.  We stopped at a Colorado Visitor's Center specifically to verify this since we were in CO and had not seen any fires.  We were told, however, that Colorado Springs is having some fire issues so that may affect the end of the expedition since that is one of our intended stops.

We drove from Alamosa to Montrose on Monday and made a quick stop at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  Barb, if you are reading this, you do NOT want to come here.  The photo below should be reason enough!

 

This photo was taken looking straight down into the canyon from behind the visitor's center at the park.  It's about 2700 feet to the bottom!  We did not spend too much time at the park Monday afternoon since we wanted to check in at the KOA. 

Montrose is a pretty town with lots of things to do besides go to the National Park.  In was surprised to see that the McDonalds in town has a sign with only one Arch.  Has anyone seen on like this anywhere else? 

 

 

After gawking at the McDonalds sign we planned our itinerary for Tuesday.  Jim and I took a two mile hike called the Oak Flat Hike.  Not sure how it got the a name with the word Flat in it because it was decidedly NOT flat.  We gaped at even more deep gorges along the way but also saw some interesting flowers.  I especially liked the flowering cactus.

 

 

After our joint hike, Jim took another 2 mile hike and I drove the scenic drive along the rim of the canyon.  The photo below is typical.

 

 

Wednesday we played golf at The Bridges with some folks we know from Florida.  It's a beautiful course with some amazing views as seen in the following two shots.

 

 

After my excitement over seeing my first Yellow Headed Blackbird in Alamosa, it was amusing to see that the golf course seems to have hundreds of them.  We saw at least one on almost every hole.

 

Our golf companions also took us on a scenic drive of one area most tourists will not see without a guide.  The photos below were taken on Owl Creek Pass.  Note the snow under the trees in the first one.  The second is a photo of the aforementioned Owl Creek.




 

Our guides also pointed out the field where a famous gun fight scene in the movie True Grit was filmed.  Jim really liked that movie so he was quite impressed. 

 

Wednesday (today) we drove from Montrose to Moab via the Colorado National Monument.  This is an amazing drive to make.  It's 22 miles long and the scenery is incredible as seen below.

 

It's difficult to select only a couple of pictures to represent the whole drive so I've added one more.

 

This still does not do it justice but it will have to suffice for now. 

 

So, tomorrow we are going to see Canyonlands National Park after my Hot Air Balloon ride in the morning.  I have to be there at 5:30 AM since dawn is best for photos.  One thing I will say about Moab - it is very hot here.  Supposedly it was 101 degrees for a high today.  Tomorrow should be a more reasonable 97.  Thankfully, there is no humidity.

 

So, until later, have a great day!

 

Mattie and Jim

 



McPherson to Dodge to Alamosa

Greetings from Colorado:

I have learned that the internet connections at KOA's are very slooooooowwwww so I am using alternate internet access to make this post.  I am hopeful this will go smoother than the last one.

From McPherson we made our way to Dodge City, Kansas.  Jim is a pretty big Gunsmoke fan so this stop was a given.  Before arriving in Dodge, however, we made a stop at the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.  The NWF's are feeling the brunt of the funding cuts to the National Park System so many of the Visitor Centers are closed or opened sporadically.  My excitement to see Quivira was fueled in part by sightings of Whooping Cranes in the Refuge.  Unfortunately, we were way too early for the spectacle as seen below. 
 

 

The other disappointment at the Refuge was the very high wind.  No birds were flying although I did see a few on the ground.  We saw a deer in the woods but it ran as we approached.  We ended up leaving quickly before we blown away.

 

From there we headed to Dodge City, arriving around 11:30 AM.  We had to go to the Boot Hill Museum which includes a replica of Main Street Dodge (below), the Boot Hill Cemetery (2nd photo below), and a re-enactment of a real Dodge gun fight.   



 

Before the gunfight I was able to catch an ironic shot of Jim in front of the Long Branch Saloon.  

 

After the gun fight, we went into the Saloon and had our photo taken in front of the famous bar, courtesy of Miss Kitty.

 

Saturday afternoon, we attended Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dodge.  If you look at the shot of old Main Street above, you will see that the skies were not at all threatening.  By 5 PM things had changed.  Jim dropped me off as close to a door as he could get since it was raining quite hard.  By the time he parked the car, it had started to hail.  They were not large hail stones but they came down hard for at least 15 minutes.  Jim said it sounded awful in the car.  By the time mass ended, so had the rain.

 

We had the wonderful experience of speaking to the priest after Mass.  He is from Nigeria and will be celebrating 22 years as a priest on June 22nd.  We told him we were passing through the area and he gave us a special blessing for safe travels.  I don't think we can have too many prayers for safe travels.  In turn we told him we would pray for him on the 22nd.

 

We got out of Dodge on Sunday morning and drove to Alamosa, Colorado stopping briefly at Great Sand Dunes National Park.  It's hard to imagine how huge these sand dunes are but if you enlarge the photo below, look at the tiny dots near the bottom of the dunes, and consider that the dots are people, that will help.  The sand was deposited over thousands of years by run off from the near by mountains. 

 
Near our KOA in Alamosa, there is a beautiful NWR that I visited twice.  Again, the Visitor's center was closed.  For me it was thrilling because I saw five Life Birds (first time I've seen them in my life) there - American Bittern, Cliff Swallow, Wilson's Phalarope, White Faced Ibis, and (my personal favorite) Yellow Headed Blackbird below. 

 

Jim was not as thrilled as I was but he gets an assist on the Blackbird since he spotted several and pointed them out to me since I was looking in the other directions.



 

Well, I think this is enough for one post.  After Alamosa we headed to Montrose and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and some more golf.  The next post will be after that.

 

Mattie and Jim

 

More from the trip

Hello All:


I tried to make this post last night but had a lot of difficulty so I will try a shorter one this morning. 

We left the KOA east of Kansas City Friday AM and immediately had to make a detour because a tanker truck had exploded on I-70 and the highway was shut down in both directions all day.  We did some maneuvering and were finally able to get back on track.  (The driver of the truck had only minor injuries.)

From KC, we started down what used to be known as the Santa Fe Trail, the principal route for new settlers heading to, guess where, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Unfortunately, the settlers were routinely massacred by the Indians in the area so US government met with the Indians in August of 1825 and signed a treaty to allow the white settlers safe passage.  This was after the government had sent out word to hunters to come to Kansas and kill as many buffalo as possible so the Indians would leave. (True story.)  Anyway, the mass massacre of the buffalo didn't work so the government promised to leave the animals alone if the Osage Indians stopped killing the settlers.  The treaty was signed in what would be later called Council Grove where the Council between the two parties was held in a Grove of trees.  The actual tree under which the treaty was signed survived until 1958.  The remaining stump, below, is a national landmark.

 

From Council Grove we went to Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  This used to be a huge ranch called Spring Hill.  It was owned over the years by several families with most of the acreage kept as original Kansas tall grass.  The National Preserve was founded in 1997.  Unfortunately, in June the tall grass is not that tall so we were too early to get the effect.  The ranger told us that in September, the grass in the high elevations will get to your waist but the grass in the lower elevations, which get more moisture, will be over an adult's head!  I would have liked to see that.  The main original home of the ranch has been preserved, below, as well as several of the out buildings.  All are made of limestone - including the outhouse. 

 

We stopped for the night in McPherson, Kansas - a pretty little town with a serious dedication to veterans.  The main square by the limestone Courthouse, below, built in 1894, has several monuments dedicated to World War I, World War II, and Korean War veterans, plus Viet Nam and MIA and KOA vets.  

 

From McPherson we left for Dodge City.  That was a lot of fun so I will make another post on Dodge and other sights later.

 

There are two things of note I would like to point out about Kansas.  First, while the state has the reputation for being flat, that is not true for the entire state.  Eastern Kansas is quite hilly - not Vermont hilly but hilly nonetheless.  Western Kansas is where we saw the flat land. 

 

Second, there is a lot of oil and natural gas under Kansas (in addition to limestone)!  We saw many planted fields with rigs pumping away.  We also saw one very large wind farm which makes sense because Kansas is also very windy. 

 

Anyway, I will try to make this post now and make another on Wednesday. 

 

Until then!

 

Mattie and Jim



First Post from Trip

Hello All!

After months of planning, prepping and waiting, we finally began our trip on June 4.  By the way, June 4 is Mattie's parents wedding anniversary (#67 this year) AND Dad's birthday (#90 this year).  Kudos to you both!!!!

Back to the trip.  Our first stop was at the Hawthorns Golf and CC in Fishers, IN.  Jim played golf and I played awful.  But it was a beautiful day and a lovely course as seen below. 

 

From Fishers we headed on to Terre Haute to spend the night at a KOA there.  We did have time to stop at the Chateau Thomas Winery just after Indianapolis where I did a quick wine tasting and Jim stretched his legs.  On Wednesday morning we headed to Kansas City via I-70 which took us through St. Louis.  The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers converge here and it was obvious the water was high and still flooding some areas.  We had planned to stop at the Lewis and Clark Center on the Missouri River but we ended up taking a detour around some construction and when we emerged from the detour we had passed the exit.  It may not have even been open since it is right on the river and the water was quite high.  We did get a good look at the Arch in St. Louis before we were diverted as seen below.

 

If you look close at the bottom of the photo you can see how high the water is in the river.  I've been to the top of the Arch and the museum at the base is a wonderful source of information about the construction of the Arch and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  In fact, it is from their expedition that this blog gets its name - the Mattie and Jim Expedition (abbreviated to mjexpedition to save space).  Since we missed the Lewis and Clark center we stopped at another Winery to make up for it.  (Me tasting, Jim walking)

 

After St. Louis we headed to Kansas City, MO to stay at a KOA there just off of I-70.  At one time I was a platinum reward member for two airlines and two hotels.  Now I am a VIP Member of KOA.  My, how things change.  We like the KOA's for two reasons.  First, they are widely represented around the US and particularly near National Parks and Monuments (which we frequent).  Second, almost all of them have Kamping Kabins which offer a step up from a tent.  We especially appreciated that Wednesday night since it was raining when we arrived. 

 

Thursday was also set aside for golf (clearly, I am a glutton for punishment).  This time we played a Greg Norman course called Stone Canyon in Oak Grove, MO.  The course was quite wet from the all the rain the day before which made for soggy conditions but the weather had cleared and the temperature was in the mid 70's which was quite pleasant.  It was (at least for me) a difficult course but it was also quite pretty.  The shot below is of Jim on a par 4 hole.



 

I continued with my awful play until Marlin (a fellow from Tennessee who, with his friend Darryl, was paired up with us) gave me a quick lesson.  Suddenly, I was actually hitting the ball straight and for some distance (more often than not, at least).  To be fair, Jim had tried to tell me the same thing but in a slightly different manner so it didn't quite register.  No, he didn't yell at me!  Just said it differently.  Anyway, the last 7 holes were "better" and my mood greatly improved. 

 

We will stay at the KOA tonight and tomorrow head for McPherson, KS via the Santa Fe Trail.  The next day we head to Dodge City, also on the Santa Fe Trail.  We are looking forward to visiting the Longbranch Saloon and ordering sassparilla.  The next post will come after that.  Until then!

 

Mattie and Jim



Change to Trip Schedule

Hello All:

Well, we have not even started the trip yet and already there is a change.  Instead of returning on June 30 we will be back home on June 27.  Jim is playing in the Member-Guest tournament at Autumn Ridge June 28-29 so we will be back for that.  We are just a week away for blast off and we are both getting excited.  The first stop will be at the Hawthorn Golf and Country Club in Fishers, IN (yes, the fun begins before we even leave the state) and then on to Terre Haute to spend the night.  My golf game is, uhm, interesting but has yielded a birdie on a Par 3 at Autumn Ridge on May 26th.  From Terre Haute we head to Kansas City.  We look forward to sharing this adventure with you and hope you will post comments if you have also visited any of the places we share with you.

Mattie and Jim