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July/August/September
ROAD TRIP
24-07 DAY 1 E-I - I-O-WA and off we go
And so the road trip has begun and we are making our way through Iowa, the Hawkeye state, complementing the fluffiness of the corn and the vastness of the plain. I suspect that there will be a quite a lot of that on this trip. We picked up the 8 seat Chrysler with no hiccups and I got to drive the Buick back to mums place and despite a small detour (mother’s directions rather than my driving), we were all back safe and ready to rock. So we are 7. Hubs, Moo and I, Mum, Dad and two of our great friends Mr & Mrs D. We set off 10 minutes behind (dad's) schedule and had a 'moment' or 2 programming the sat-nav, but we were off and running before too long. Our first gas stop has given birth to our first 'road game'. We are on a quest to find the hottest road stop snack, full details of which will follow. I really don't know what to expect on this trip, other than that by tonight we will be in Kansas, but I know it will be fun! On our lunch stop we found a wooden fort with a kids slide and of course moo was all over it and compelling the 'adults' to join her, which of course we did, I went first and found the really hot bit at the bottom, then hubs decided to follow me down in spectacular style at full stretch and full speed, shot off the end and landed with quite a 'whumph' on the gravel, too much applause. After that grampa and Mr D's efforts seemed quite tame. We travelled on again and at the next gas stop it was my turn to drive. I loved it, long straight highways and cruise control. In all honesty Moo could probably have driven that stretch of road in this vehicle, but it was very cool to be driving across the heartland of America. Cool until we started to approach the toll. Not that I have any problem with toll booths we have quite a lot of them in France. The problem was the sudden animation of the 4 other back seat drivers informing me of the presence of the toll booth and furnishing me with full instructions. I'm not entirely sure the sarcasm got through, but thankfully I managed to negotiate the booth without too much strife.....We found the nights lodging, in Topeka Kansas, with no problems, checked in, freshened up, cracked open the wine and headed out to find 'the outback steakhouse'. mum and dad were causing much hilarity in their attempts to find directions on the sat nav and by the time we set off the 'kids’ in the back were in tears of laughter and when we were on our third trip round the highway intersection the decision was taken to just go to the nearest place to eat, sadly it was too late for Moo and by the time the marvellous food arrived it had to be automatically boxed as she was fast asleep snuggled up next to grandma. It was at this point hubs divulged that his 'stunt slide' of this afternoon, may have been a little too daring and he had been in agony for most of the day and feared he may have cracked his tailbone. Still only another 2500 miles left sitting in the van.....
25-07 DAY 2 From prairie time to Mountain Time
We awoke early and were quite surprised to find it was dark. The enormous boom of thunder quickly gave us the reason. The noise of the sudden rain was deafening and Main Street in front of the hotel was a raging torrent. Hubs had already gone for a proper look and by the time I had showered it was all but passed, but I could watch the storm progressing across the wide Kansas sky. As we started the drive we wondered at the vast emptiness of the plain, and then we wondered some more, and then quite frankly we got bored. Kansas is dull. I’m sure there are lots of very interesting things in Kansas, but interstate 70 is probably not the best place to see them. In fact just about the only thing that kept us going was counting down the miles to the world’s largest prairie dog, which is apparently over 8000lbs. sadly that attraction slipped by. As grandpa and Mr.D caught a few zzz’s Hubs and I got a little stir crazy and started laughing uncontrollably at the slightest hint of a joke, but Hubs stole my thunder as we crossed the state line by declaring the immortal line 'I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore'. I'd been looking forward to saying that for several hundred miles. Gutted. Almost as soon as we crossed into Colorado the scenery changed dramatically, as did the time, gone was an hour and the flat prairies gave way to the rolling hills and lush green pastures, so much landscape after such flat desolation was a wake up for the senses and the first sight of the Rockies too my breath away. Driving through Denver was something else, the glinting skyscrapers rose up before us on the left and the mountains on the right all before the backdrop of the gathering black storm clouds. Awesome. The rain storm broke and we stopped for gas to let it pass. I jumped in and bagged the last driving spot of the day though the mountains to our destination for the evening. What a glorious drive. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road as we passed though the ski resorts of the rich and famous, and saw the lodges perched precariously atop the mountains. We couldn’t believe our luck when we pulled up at our hotel in Avon. Once again Hubs had struck gold with his internet booking. We checked to our lodge hotel and Mrs.D related to us all that the regular room price should have been around $450 per person, (I can thoroughly recommend Colorado out of season!). After a brief consultation of the maps and a little group discussion, we decided that as our original destination of Arizona was another full day's drive away, but the canyon parks started in Utah ,a mere 5hrs away, that we should head there instead and have a bit more time relaxing and a bit less time driving. With the business of the day concluded we headed down to have a bite to eat, although not at the hotel resteraunt which was charging $17.95 for a sandwich, (even if the room rates are out of season, the service prices aren't), and headed to the hot tub. This is the life.
26-07 DAY 3 Rocky mountain High to desert storm
At around 3 am I woke with a start to the sounds of another storm so up I got and sat on the balcony to watch the lightning flash’s silhouetting the craggy mountain tops. At around 5 am I woke again as Moo climbed into bed and performed her infamous starfish manoeuvre, so I took the easiest option and made myself a nest on the floor. After not much sleep and a good workout at the hotel gym, I opted out of today's driving which was a relatively short 5 hr stint. Passing through the Millionaires paradise of Vail lusting after the $20million resort homes, and seeing the vast amounts of wealth in this one small section was in stark contrast to just a few miles down the road where we were greeted with 'closeout' notices and run down trailer parks, the homes of those who service the millionaires in their paradise. The mountain roads were winding and a little scary in places, but beautiful beyond words. Following the great Colorado river as it cut through the mountains, looking at the old abandoned gold mines that littered the mountainside reminded us all of the rich history of the region. Quite how the pioneers on their wagon trains traversed this country without the aid of the I-70 or the union pacific railroad, and with the added bonus of Indian raiding parties waiting on mountain ridges is a true wonder. Once again the country side around us began to change and flatten around us as we headed further west. The pioneers must have found Utah a great relief after Colorado - well until they reached the canyons anyway...... We entered Utah and found coffee and an information point at one of the rest areas. While hubs and I strolled around, mum went in search of information. As we strolled we saw they Moo co-erced Mrs.D into a walk up a nearby hill, followed by a couple of expectant circling buzzards. Mum returned slightly exasperated after her exchange with the information lady, whose stock answer to most questions relating to the area seemed to be “it’s in the book". Perhaps she was on commission from the tourist board of Utah for the number of information books she got rid of, or perhaps she just wasn't too bright. You may think me harsh, but when she asked mum where she hailed from and mum replied Edinburgh Scotland, tourist lady replied in all seriousness "that's not from round hereabouts is it". Thankfully the Buzzards went hungry today and we all reconvened at the van for the final stretch to Moab, our destination for the next 2 nights. We checked in and headed across the car park to a rather convieniently located 'Denny's', for lunch. I am slowly re-learning American portions so ordered a 'half-salad' which was more than enough. The size of Moo's dinner was still a little surprising though, and when it arrived she looked agog and asked if this was for sharing. For a kids meal to arrive with a full plate of fries and 3 burgers, leaves you in no doubt why there are so many weight problems in the US. Thankfully she's a sensible girl and only had 'enough to be not hungry anymore', and the rest was boxed to be thrown away some time later. We headed off to downtown Moab to buy a swimsuit for mum, (who had left her's in the drier in Wisconsin), and then as the others headed back to the hotel pool Hubs and I did the unthinkable. We walked (mainly as the thought of getting in the van again was too much for hubs still aching 'tail'). In the land where the car is king people who walk are frowned upon, in fact when I visited mum and dad a few years ago we were actually stopped by a passing patrol car as someone had called in that two people were walking so they 'must' be having car trouble. I kid you not. Anyway I digress. We walked the main street and perused the agreeable souvenir stores which dominated the town, and managed to limit our purchases to a couple of nice little trinkets, whilst being enticed and excited at the photographs and paintings of the canyon views that we were about to see. A pleasant walk back to the hotel to join the others who were now refreshed and full of tales of Moo holding court with a group of French tourists in the outdoor hot tub. At last it was time and I bagged the first proper canyon drive. Despite mum worries I was fine on the 'little' roads, most of which are in fact bigger and in much better condition than the roads at home, although admittedly normally there aren't sheer drops on one side to contend with. After the small winding climb we were suddenly on a great flat plain with colossal rock formations of the most magnificent shape and colour all around us, dwarfing the vehicles and rendering the van almost silent, aside from the gasps of wonder and amazement. I have seen lots of pictures of this place and the landscape has been featured in many films, but until you are amongst them you cannot grasp the sheer scale and eerie beauty of the place. As the driver I was getting a little frustrated at the calls of 'look over there' and 'wow look at that' and resolved that someone else would be driving back! We stopped at many viewpoints and snapped enough pictures to make a flicker book, but as the evening drew to a close, the rain clouds moved in and the view of a lifetime appeared before our eyes. A magnificent rainbow formed right ahead of us spanning the vast canyon. Cars littered the roads, ignoring the official stopping places, in order for the passengers to view and capture nature's wonder. The heavens were really putting on a show for us and as if a full arc wasn't enough, we were treated to a second arc as well. Wow just doesn't cover it. After we had watched the rainbow for a while, until it started to wane, we decided to head back to the hotel for the night, and come back to see some more of the park the day after tomorrow as it was, all of sudden, getting pretty dark, pretty quick. As we drove back we may well have been on a different road entirely as the encroaching darkness threw up a totally different form and colour to the stones. Quite frankly it was a little spooky. After a 'room buffet' Moo was put to bed and the rest of us sat around chatting and drinking beer. Mum and dad retired early but a few more beers (and possibly even a brandy or two), were consumed. Then we noticed the lightning. Hubs and I bid a swift goodnight and headed out to the hotel parking lot for the most amazing hour of yet more natural wonder. We stood in the warm stillness watching one bolt of lightning after another hit ground somewhere in a far away canyon, and suddenly the reason for the single charred tree in a group became strikingly obvious. I don’t think I've ever said wow so many times in one day, and hope I haven’t run out as tomorrow we head for the 'real pretty park'. I can’t wait.
27-07 DAY 4 Canyon lands, crazy yoga lady and the Moab brewery
We awoke relatively early and joined the breakfast buffet brawl. As always with this kind of hotel’ the breakfast room has enough space for around 30-40 people. Now as there are around 200 rooms and 2 working toasters it shouldn’t take too much imagination to envisage the scene. Hubs scored some coffee and I muscled into the toaster queue and commandeered them both, much to the chagrin of the hungry masses. Armed with muffins, bagels and toast piled high I grabbed a fistful of condiments I headed back to the relative sanctuary of the room and attempted to rouse the sleeping princess with the promise of a hearty meal. Then we set off for the 'canyon lands' national park around 40 miles away. We took a rather unspectacular drive to the park wondering if anything really could top what we had seen the night before. Not long after we arrived we found that it could. We wound our way around gasping and gaping in wonder at each turn, it is impossible to describe the richness in colour or the sheer scale of the canyons. I have discovered that my vocabulary is sadly lacking, in particular for the variations in hue of the colours orange, red and brown. We took in the glorious sun baked vistas and then headed to one of the many picnic spots and unpacked the cooler for lunchtime in the shade of a, somehow, flourishing tree. After a hearty bite we decided to head off on one of the trails to the recommended 'upheaval dome'. Now as the crow flies the trail is 3km, the said crow obviously didn’t wind its way round the zigzags that our path took as it felt like much more than 3km. Or maybe that was something to do with the fact that it was around 1pm and we were walking uphill in the blazing sunshine at high altitude. Thankfully we had heeded the advice of taking plenty of water with us, and resting on the way. As we neared the top of the ridge I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was wondering if this view would really be worth it, but oh my goodness it was. As we walked the plateau what we saw before took what little breath we had left clean away, Whilst most of the rocks in the canyon had a smooth and rounded look to them, the upheaval dome was a jagged and violent scar, over a mile wide at points, ripped into the very fabric of the earth millions of year ago by what many believe to be a meteor strike. The colours of this rock so very different to its surroundings, with pale grey and livid green shards emerging from the burnt ambers and dappled reds of the land. There have been fragments, (although given the size of the 'fragments' I would at the very least refer to them as boulders, but then I’m not a geologist so what do I know), of similar rock found over 500 miles away from the site adding further credence to the meteor theory. The other theory is that a mass of salt in the earth forced its way to the surface at a weak point in the crust and the crater is the 'breakthrough point'. However If I had to imagine the site of a meteor crashing, this would be exactly it, so, with my vast geological knowledge, I’m most firmly in the meteor camp. After a slightly less arduous climb down we headed off again to another part of the park and another trail. Mrs D mum and Moo decided that they had had enough climbing for one day and stayed with the van and the water supplies while the rest of us headed 'trail ward'. Dad and Mr D forged ahead while hubs and I lingered over photogenic pieces old deadwood and cacti. When we rounded the corner together, once again my adjectives failed me as we caught our first glimpse of the ‘Mesa arch’ and it was all I could do to give his hand a big squeeze as I whispered a huge 'wow'. A single arch hewn by lord knows what, bordered on one side by a smooth flat welcoming surface and on the other by a sheer drop of almost ½ a mile to the canyon floor. Inspiring, truly. As often at these viewpoints we were by no means alone, but there was always the space to feel solitary, (there is many a picture of me looking solitary and rather wistful at various points during our trip apparently I 'do' wistful looking well!), and it was here we met 'yoga lady'. As you may guess from her nom de plume she was rather into yoga. We first saw her doing a headstand against the backdrop of the arch, an odd but rather wonderful sight, so hubs snapped a picture or two. We told her that she looked amazing and she was thrilled. She told us that she just felt so inspired by the landscape and that her yoga was an ideal expression of that and she just had to try out some moves. She readily agreed to do some more as we photographed her and the results were quite frankly, stunning. After an exchange of e-mail address’ and a promise to send her some pictures our brief encounter was over, but it is one I will never forget. Back at the van it was decided that we should head back to the hotel for a well earned dip in the pool (and hot tub of course), before we headed out to celebrate the anniversary of Mr and Mrs D. On the advice of the hotel front desk we headed to the 'Moab Brewery' for dinner and were not disappointed. In fact if you ever find yourselves in the Moab region of Utah I can highly recommend the grilled almond chicken, And whilst we all agreed to the adage 'what happens in Utah stays in Utah' I can tell you that during our visit to the Moab brewery a member of our party was the recipient of a 'good spanking', sadly I am not at liberty to divulge who it was,( I probably should point out that it was merely an item on the cocktail menu, but where's the fun in that).
28-07 DAY 5 Arches re-visited chilli burgers and comic book guy.
In the morning, after the now customary breakfast buffet brawl', we packed up, checked out and headed back to the 'arches' park, to finish off our tour. In the morning light we passed all that we had seen before and were amazed to see it all looking entirely different, again, in a different light. It is no wonder that there was, and is, such a strong belief in the spirits of nature. Everyone in the van saw entirely different forms in the rock, one particular stone resembled something different to every one of us, a camel, an eagle, the face of an Indian brave and the silhouette of a penguin, and I’m positive if we drove past it at a different time of day or in different weather conditions it would look like many more things again. It is no stretch of the imagination to believe that these rocks are alive, and even less of a stretch to understand the beliefs and fears that these canyons embodied for the people who first travelled across them. The grand arch was indeed extremely grand, and extremely busy, but even with the volume of people, there was still a certain peace about it. We wandered around and made many additions for the photo flicker book, including the obligatory 'small child pushing enormous boulder' shots, and conversed with a few other visitors from many corners of the earth. Before long it was time to put the canyons behind us and made a push for 'home'. Hubs and I have already decided that at some point we will be back to visit more of the canyons as we have had an amazing taster, but there's a whole lot more hole yet to see. We headed out of Utah at around lunchtime, and decided we had best stop somewhere for gas and lunch as we had no idea how many miles we would have to cover before the next chance. Well at ‘Papa Joes stop and go’ we ordered a few chilli burgers to go, my thinking being that a burger could be eaten whilst driving as it was indeed my turn again. What I didn't count on was the chilli bit of the chilli burger would actually be a full portion of chilli-con-carne, atop the burger, atop the bun, and that there would be enough to feed at least 2 people. Hmm, best just do with some crisps till its someone else’s turn to drive. The rest of the drive was reasonably uneventful other than the once again spectacular views once we entered Colorado, it really is the most beautiful state and I can only imagine the glory of it when it is covered in the winter snow. The Holiday inn at Vail was our next stop where we took full advantage of the guest laundry. Mum, dad and Mr and Mrs D headed out for an explore as we took Moo, on her insistence, to the pool. The outdoor pool was a little on the chilly side this evening and I found that swimming at a higher altitude is extremely hard work, but thankfully the hot-tub was on hand. Hubs and I took turns in the super hot sauna and feeling thoroughly refreshed headed out for a swanky dinner in millionaires paradise. Or rather to the MacDonald’s across the way from the hotel, but it made Moo happy anyway! We also got a free meal courtesy of a local comic book store owner. Hubs had sniffed out the shop and popped in before tea to find out when it closed, got chatting and told the owner we would be back after taking his daughter to McD's, at which point he produced a free meal voucher and gave it to Hubs. People are very kind. We did indeed return and hubs picked up a t-shirt and we had a good long chat with the owner who plied us with freebies of posters comics and badges to take with us, he was especially impressed with Moo's flashing Spiderman flip flops! We returned to the hotel to meet the returning folks, laden with bulging carrier bags and a vow to return to the shops in the morning....
29-07 DAY6 Vail - Hays. Big shopping, big driving.
The morning took us to downtown Vail, a very upmarket ski resort, which was full of quite wonderful (and in the main hideously expensive) boutiques and galleries, side by side with the ski /sports shops. However it did seem that unless you were willing to part with the thick end of a few hundred dollars everything you purchased was emblazoned with a variation on the theme of 'look at me I've been to VAIL COLORADO'. We all of course succumbed and will all now be sporting our various 'VAIL' shirts across the globe. We wandered in and out of a few stores with Hubs assuring me that if I saw anything I liked I could have it for my upcoming birthday, however my taste once more exceeded our budget with only thing I really, really liked the look of came with an attached price tag of $15,000, maybe next birthday....The next 'big push' saw us saying goodbye to Colorado and hello again to boring flat Kansas. The tedium of driving for several hundred miles straight and seeing, well, nothing, really could easily send one quite loopy. Thankfully I had hubs as my 'shotgun' and he was able to keep me relatively sane and awake for my next stint. The weather, which had been most obliging for us so far, took a turn for the worst as we ploughed on though Kansas and as we stopped for a change of driver the storm clouds on the horizon were looming in a most menacing fashion. I'm glad to report that it was my dad who took the next and last slot of the day as we ended up driving through the heaviest rain I have seen in a long time. Once again an eerie silence descended upon the van as day turned to night in a matter of moments. For around an hour we crawled through the pouring rain slowly edging towards or destination of the Hays, Ramada. It was a joy to us all, but especially dad I’m sure, when the sat nav finally told us that in 1 mile we could finally turn left. Another room buffet consumed and another pool to sample. It was by far the biggest and most fun pool on the tour so far boasting a waterslide which Moo took full advantage of, even hubs with his slide sore tailbone had a go, however in my humble opinion, although the hot tub was large the seating was a little on the rough side.
30-07 DAY 7 We’re off to see the wizard.
We set off early as we didn't feel that Hays had that much to offer the casual tourist, and anyway we had another destination a couple of hours up the I-70 that a certain little lady was almost bursting with excitement to see. The Small town of Wamego Kansas would not normally have caught our attention had it not been for the multitude of billboards up and down the interstate proclaiming exit 338 to be the home of the wizard of Oz museum. Now any regular readers will now just how much excitement that would cause in the mind of Moo. It has been her favourite film for a long time, and when I mentioned that we would be passing through Kansas she immediately asked if we knew the way to the yellow brick road, and all of us in the van had been on 'munchkin watch' through the entire state and back, well at least it made passing through the state a little more interesting. As we took exit 338 Moo yelled from the back 'Mummy are we really on the yellow brick road now?’ The Museum was small, but perfectly formed, but as we walked in Moo fell silent and gripped on to me as hard as she could. She could barely look at the exhibits and said almost immediately that she wanted to leave. Brilliant. But we found a little room with a TV which was showing the movie where we had a sit, and she explained to me that it was a 'just a bit too much' and we had a little chat about the meaning of the word overwhelming. After that we started again at the beginning of the museum and it was the joy to her that we hoped it would be. The collection of original artefacts on display is quite stunning, as well as items donated by the family of L.Frank Baum, (the author), and MGM studios there are items made by fans such as a stunning full size Oz quilt. As we tiptoed through the haunted Forest past the flying monkeys, Moo let out a tiny scream as she saw the wicked witch above us on her broomstick, but thankfully we were creeping so quietly we didn’t disturb her, phew. After the very reasonably priced gift shop we headed across the road for some proper home-style cooking in a fab little diner. Moo, with the aid of her good fairy Glinda magic wand, magic-ed us up a great dinner and just as we were about to leave Wamego we were lured into a work-wear shop where dad had spotted some nice looking cowboy boots. Well what an Aladdin’s cave that turned out to be. A vast barn of a place paced full of cut price boots and clothes. Molly fell in love the instant she spotted the gold tipped pink leather cowgirl boots, big sighs of relief all round when we found that not only did they have them in her size, but they were also in the sale, better than ruby slippers any day of the week! Once again however my good taste foiled Hubs attempt to get me a birthday present as the pair I fell in love with were on sale for a cool $299. Completely unmindful of the already restricted space in the van, T-shirts, hats and boots were purchased all round and squeezed in around the passengers. As we left, Moo had her one big cry of the trip. But even that only lasted about half an hour and given the excitement of the morning, it was not really that surprising. So at last we were leaving Kansas and heading for.... Kansas City, which isn't actually in Kansas, but in Missouri, and before you ask, I have no idea. As we criss-crossed the quite frankly terrifying city highways I thanked my stars it wasn't my turn to drive. For a country that has so much space they do seem to pack in all the interchanges startlingly close together, and at one point dad had to exit left, cross 4 lanes of traffic to exit left again, get to the middle lane and then take the next exit right, just to get towards the city centre. Scary stuff during the tea-time rush hour. As we pulled up to our final hotel of the trip, the van saluted Hubs’ hotel booking prowess one last time. The ‘Sheraton suites’ was both luxurious and extremely well located for access to the 'old town'. Which isn’t really that old at all, just built to look that way. Moo dragged my parents for the obligatory swim while Hubs and I headed to peruse the stores and hubs tried to entice me into choosing a birthday present. He even took me into my favourite shiny things shop, but even the lure of the iconic eggshell blue of Tiffany's didn't work (although I did see one thing I really liked, but you guessed it, about $2000 over budget). I was quite satisfied to wander about the town and admire the many street performers artistically scattered around the Spanish style architecture, in the glow of the setting sun. We headed back to the hotel to find Moo waiting, still in her swim suit ready for round 2 at the pool, as Mum and dad headed off to find a meal. We obliged and enjoyed a wonderful outdoor to indoor sunset swim in a gloriously empty pool and then rounded off with the now obligatory hot tub session. Back to the room and time for a bit of a splash out as room service was ordered, delivered and consumed whilst watching a movie on one of the 2 LCD screen TV's in the room. The folks arrived in from their (a lot more expensive than room service), meal, and we sat up and chatted for a while and then headed towards the most comfortable looking bed I have ever seen in my life.
And so the road trip has begun and we are making our way through Iowa, the Hawkeye state, complementing the fluffiness of the corn and the vastness of the plain. I suspect that there will be a quite a lot of that on this trip. We picked up the 8 seat Chrysler with no hiccups and I got to drive the Buick back to mums place and despite a small detour (mother’s directions rather than my driving), we were all back safe and ready to rock. So we are 7. Hubs, Moo and I, Mum, Dad and two of our great friends Mr & Mrs D. We set off 10 minutes behind (dad's) schedule and had a 'moment' or 2 programming the sat-nav, but we were off and running before too long. Our first gas stop has given birth to our first 'road game'. We are on a quest to find the hottest road stop snack, full details of which will follow. I really don't know what to expect on this trip, other than that by tonight we will be in Kansas, but I know it will be fun! On our lunch stop we found a wooden fort with a kids slide and of course moo was all over it and compelling the 'adults' to join her, which of course we did, I went first and found the really hot bit at the bottom, then hubs decided to follow me down in spectacular style at full stretch and full speed, shot off the end and landed with quite a 'whumph' on the gravel, too much applause. After that grampa and Mr D's efforts seemed quite tame. We travelled on again and at the next gas stop it was my turn to drive. I loved it, long straight highways and cruise control. In all honesty Moo could probably have driven that stretch of road in this vehicle, but it was very cool to be driving across the heartland of America. Cool until we started to approach the toll. Not that I have any problem with toll booths we have quite a lot of them in France. The problem was the sudden animation of the 4 other back seat drivers informing me of the presence of the toll booth and furnishing me with full instructions. I'm not entirely sure the sarcasm got through, but thankfully I managed to negotiate the booth without too much strife.....We found the nights lodging, in Topeka Kansas, with no problems, checked in, freshened up, cracked open the wine and headed out to find 'the outback steakhouse'. mum and dad were causing much hilarity in their attempts to find directions on the sat nav and by the time we set off the 'kids’ in the back were in tears of laughter and when we were on our third trip round the highway intersection the decision was taken to just go to the nearest place to eat, sadly it was too late for Moo and by the time the marvellous food arrived it had to be automatically boxed as she was fast asleep snuggled up next to grandma. It was at this point hubs divulged that his 'stunt slide' of this afternoon, may have been a little too daring and he had been in agony for most of the day and feared he may have cracked his tailbone. Still only another 2500 miles left sitting in the van.....
25-07 DAY 2 From prairie time to Mountain Time
We awoke early and were quite surprised to find it was dark. The enormous boom of thunder quickly gave us the reason. The noise of the sudden rain was deafening and Main Street in front of the hotel was a raging torrent. Hubs had already gone for a proper look and by the time I had showered it was all but passed, but I could watch the storm progressing across the wide Kansas sky. As we started the drive we wondered at the vast emptiness of the plain, and then we wondered some more, and then quite frankly we got bored. Kansas is dull. I’m sure there are lots of very interesting things in Kansas, but interstate 70 is probably not the best place to see them. In fact just about the only thing that kept us going was counting down the miles to the world’s largest prairie dog, which is apparently over 8000lbs. sadly that attraction slipped by. As grandpa and Mr.D caught a few zzz’s Hubs and I got a little stir crazy and started laughing uncontrollably at the slightest hint of a joke, but Hubs stole my thunder as we crossed the state line by declaring the immortal line 'I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore'. I'd been looking forward to saying that for several hundred miles. Gutted. Almost as soon as we crossed into Colorado the scenery changed dramatically, as did the time, gone was an hour and the flat prairies gave way to the rolling hills and lush green pastures, so much landscape after such flat desolation was a wake up for the senses and the first sight of the Rockies too my breath away. Driving through Denver was something else, the glinting skyscrapers rose up before us on the left and the mountains on the right all before the backdrop of the gathering black storm clouds. Awesome. The rain storm broke and we stopped for gas to let it pass. I jumped in and bagged the last driving spot of the day though the mountains to our destination for the evening. What a glorious drive. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road as we passed though the ski resorts of the rich and famous, and saw the lodges perched precariously atop the mountains. We couldn’t believe our luck when we pulled up at our hotel in Avon. Once again Hubs had struck gold with his internet booking. We checked to our lodge hotel and Mrs.D related to us all that the regular room price should have been around $450 per person, (I can thoroughly recommend Colorado out of season!). After a brief consultation of the maps and a little group discussion, we decided that as our original destination of Arizona was another full day's drive away, but the canyon parks started in Utah ,a mere 5hrs away, that we should head there instead and have a bit more time relaxing and a bit less time driving. With the business of the day concluded we headed down to have a bite to eat, although not at the hotel resteraunt which was charging $17.95 for a sandwich, (even if the room rates are out of season, the service prices aren't), and headed to the hot tub. This is the life.
26-07 DAY 3 Rocky mountain High to desert storm
At around 3 am I woke with a start to the sounds of another storm so up I got and sat on the balcony to watch the lightning flash’s silhouetting the craggy mountain tops. At around 5 am I woke again as Moo climbed into bed and performed her infamous starfish manoeuvre, so I took the easiest option and made myself a nest on the floor. After not much sleep and a good workout at the hotel gym, I opted out of today's driving which was a relatively short 5 hr stint. Passing through the Millionaires paradise of Vail lusting after the $20million resort homes, and seeing the vast amounts of wealth in this one small section was in stark contrast to just a few miles down the road where we were greeted with 'closeout' notices and run down trailer parks, the homes of those who service the millionaires in their paradise. The mountain roads were winding and a little scary in places, but beautiful beyond words. Following the great Colorado river as it cut through the mountains, looking at the old abandoned gold mines that littered the mountainside reminded us all of the rich history of the region. Quite how the pioneers on their wagon trains traversed this country without the aid of the I-70 or the union pacific railroad, and with the added bonus of Indian raiding parties waiting on mountain ridges is a true wonder. Once again the country side around us began to change and flatten around us as we headed further west. The pioneers must have found Utah a great relief after Colorado - well until they reached the canyons anyway...... We entered Utah and found coffee and an information point at one of the rest areas. While hubs and I strolled around, mum went in search of information. As we strolled we saw they Moo co-erced Mrs.D into a walk up a nearby hill, followed by a couple of expectant circling buzzards. Mum returned slightly exasperated after her exchange with the information lady, whose stock answer to most questions relating to the area seemed to be “it’s in the book". Perhaps she was on commission from the tourist board of Utah for the number of information books she got rid of, or perhaps she just wasn't too bright. You may think me harsh, but when she asked mum where she hailed from and mum replied Edinburgh Scotland, tourist lady replied in all seriousness "that's not from round hereabouts is it". Thankfully the Buzzards went hungry today and we all reconvened at the van for the final stretch to Moab, our destination for the next 2 nights. We checked in and headed across the car park to a rather convieniently located 'Denny's', for lunch. I am slowly re-learning American portions so ordered a 'half-salad' which was more than enough. The size of Moo's dinner was still a little surprising though, and when it arrived she looked agog and asked if this was for sharing. For a kids meal to arrive with a full plate of fries and 3 burgers, leaves you in no doubt why there are so many weight problems in the US. Thankfully she's a sensible girl and only had 'enough to be not hungry anymore', and the rest was boxed to be thrown away some time later. We headed off to downtown Moab to buy a swimsuit for mum, (who had left her's in the drier in Wisconsin), and then as the others headed back to the hotel pool Hubs and I did the unthinkable. We walked (mainly as the thought of getting in the van again was too much for hubs still aching 'tail'). In the land where the car is king people who walk are frowned upon, in fact when I visited mum and dad a few years ago we were actually stopped by a passing patrol car as someone had called in that two people were walking so they 'must' be having car trouble. I kid you not. Anyway I digress. We walked the main street and perused the agreeable souvenir stores which dominated the town, and managed to limit our purchases to a couple of nice little trinkets, whilst being enticed and excited at the photographs and paintings of the canyon views that we were about to see. A pleasant walk back to the hotel to join the others who were now refreshed and full of tales of Moo holding court with a group of French tourists in the outdoor hot tub. At last it was time and I bagged the first proper canyon drive. Despite mum worries I was fine on the 'little' roads, most of which are in fact bigger and in much better condition than the roads at home, although admittedly normally there aren't sheer drops on one side to contend with. After the small winding climb we were suddenly on a great flat plain with colossal rock formations of the most magnificent shape and colour all around us, dwarfing the vehicles and rendering the van almost silent, aside from the gasps of wonder and amazement. I have seen lots of pictures of this place and the landscape has been featured in many films, but until you are amongst them you cannot grasp the sheer scale and eerie beauty of the place. As the driver I was getting a little frustrated at the calls of 'look over there' and 'wow look at that' and resolved that someone else would be driving back! We stopped at many viewpoints and snapped enough pictures to make a flicker book, but as the evening drew to a close, the rain clouds moved in and the view of a lifetime appeared before our eyes. A magnificent rainbow formed right ahead of us spanning the vast canyon. Cars littered the roads, ignoring the official stopping places, in order for the passengers to view and capture nature's wonder. The heavens were really putting on a show for us and as if a full arc wasn't enough, we were treated to a second arc as well. Wow just doesn't cover it. After we had watched the rainbow for a while, until it started to wane, we decided to head back to the hotel for the night, and come back to see some more of the park the day after tomorrow as it was, all of sudden, getting pretty dark, pretty quick. As we drove back we may well have been on a different road entirely as the encroaching darkness threw up a totally different form and colour to the stones. Quite frankly it was a little spooky. After a 'room buffet' Moo was put to bed and the rest of us sat around chatting and drinking beer. Mum and dad retired early but a few more beers (and possibly even a brandy or two), were consumed. Then we noticed the lightning. Hubs and I bid a swift goodnight and headed out to the hotel parking lot for the most amazing hour of yet more natural wonder. We stood in the warm stillness watching one bolt of lightning after another hit ground somewhere in a far away canyon, and suddenly the reason for the single charred tree in a group became strikingly obvious. I don’t think I've ever said wow so many times in one day, and hope I haven’t run out as tomorrow we head for the 'real pretty park'. I can’t wait.
27-07 DAY 4 Canyon lands, crazy yoga lady and the Moab brewery
We awoke relatively early and joined the breakfast buffet brawl. As always with this kind of hotel’ the breakfast room has enough space for around 30-40 people. Now as there are around 200 rooms and 2 working toasters it shouldn’t take too much imagination to envisage the scene. Hubs scored some coffee and I muscled into the toaster queue and commandeered them both, much to the chagrin of the hungry masses. Armed with muffins, bagels and toast piled high I grabbed a fistful of condiments I headed back to the relative sanctuary of the room and attempted to rouse the sleeping princess with the promise of a hearty meal. Then we set off for the 'canyon lands' national park around 40 miles away. We took a rather unspectacular drive to the park wondering if anything really could top what we had seen the night before. Not long after we arrived we found that it could. We wound our way around gasping and gaping in wonder at each turn, it is impossible to describe the richness in colour or the sheer scale of the canyons. I have discovered that my vocabulary is sadly lacking, in particular for the variations in hue of the colours orange, red and brown. We took in the glorious sun baked vistas and then headed to one of the many picnic spots and unpacked the cooler for lunchtime in the shade of a, somehow, flourishing tree. After a hearty bite we decided to head off on one of the trails to the recommended 'upheaval dome'. Now as the crow flies the trail is 3km, the said crow obviously didn’t wind its way round the zigzags that our path took as it felt like much more than 3km. Or maybe that was something to do with the fact that it was around 1pm and we were walking uphill in the blazing sunshine at high altitude. Thankfully we had heeded the advice of taking plenty of water with us, and resting on the way. As we neared the top of the ridge I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was wondering if this view would really be worth it, but oh my goodness it was. As we walked the plateau what we saw before took what little breath we had left clean away, Whilst most of the rocks in the canyon had a smooth and rounded look to them, the upheaval dome was a jagged and violent scar, over a mile wide at points, ripped into the very fabric of the earth millions of year ago by what many believe to be a meteor strike. The colours of this rock so very different to its surroundings, with pale grey and livid green shards emerging from the burnt ambers and dappled reds of the land. There have been fragments, (although given the size of the 'fragments' I would at the very least refer to them as boulders, but then I’m not a geologist so what do I know), of similar rock found over 500 miles away from the site adding further credence to the meteor theory. The other theory is that a mass of salt in the earth forced its way to the surface at a weak point in the crust and the crater is the 'breakthrough point'. However If I had to imagine the site of a meteor crashing, this would be exactly it, so, with my vast geological knowledge, I’m most firmly in the meteor camp. After a slightly less arduous climb down we headed off again to another part of the park and another trail. Mrs D mum and Moo decided that they had had enough climbing for one day and stayed with the van and the water supplies while the rest of us headed 'trail ward'. Dad and Mr D forged ahead while hubs and I lingered over photogenic pieces old deadwood and cacti. When we rounded the corner together, once again my adjectives failed me as we caught our first glimpse of the ‘Mesa arch’ and it was all I could do to give his hand a big squeeze as I whispered a huge 'wow'. A single arch hewn by lord knows what, bordered on one side by a smooth flat welcoming surface and on the other by a sheer drop of almost ½ a mile to the canyon floor. Inspiring, truly. As often at these viewpoints we were by no means alone, but there was always the space to feel solitary, (there is many a picture of me looking solitary and rather wistful at various points during our trip apparently I 'do' wistful looking well!), and it was here we met 'yoga lady'. As you may guess from her nom de plume she was rather into yoga. We first saw her doing a headstand against the backdrop of the arch, an odd but rather wonderful sight, so hubs snapped a picture or two. We told her that she looked amazing and she was thrilled. She told us that she just felt so inspired by the landscape and that her yoga was an ideal expression of that and she just had to try out some moves. She readily agreed to do some more as we photographed her and the results were quite frankly, stunning. After an exchange of e-mail address’ and a promise to send her some pictures our brief encounter was over, but it is one I will never forget. Back at the van it was decided that we should head back to the hotel for a well earned dip in the pool (and hot tub of course), before we headed out to celebrate the anniversary of Mr and Mrs D. On the advice of the hotel front desk we headed to the 'Moab Brewery' for dinner and were not disappointed. In fact if you ever find yourselves in the Moab region of Utah I can highly recommend the grilled almond chicken, And whilst we all agreed to the adage 'what happens in Utah stays in Utah' I can tell you that during our visit to the Moab brewery a member of our party was the recipient of a 'good spanking', sadly I am not at liberty to divulge who it was,( I probably should point out that it was merely an item on the cocktail menu, but where's the fun in that).
28-07 DAY 5 Arches re-visited chilli burgers and comic book guy.
In the morning, after the now customary breakfast buffet brawl', we packed up, checked out and headed back to the 'arches' park, to finish off our tour. In the morning light we passed all that we had seen before and were amazed to see it all looking entirely different, again, in a different light. It is no wonder that there was, and is, such a strong belief in the spirits of nature. Everyone in the van saw entirely different forms in the rock, one particular stone resembled something different to every one of us, a camel, an eagle, the face of an Indian brave and the silhouette of a penguin, and I’m positive if we drove past it at a different time of day or in different weather conditions it would look like many more things again. It is no stretch of the imagination to believe that these rocks are alive, and even less of a stretch to understand the beliefs and fears that these canyons embodied for the people who first travelled across them. The grand arch was indeed extremely grand, and extremely busy, but even with the volume of people, there was still a certain peace about it. We wandered around and made many additions for the photo flicker book, including the obligatory 'small child pushing enormous boulder' shots, and conversed with a few other visitors from many corners of the earth. Before long it was time to put the canyons behind us and made a push for 'home'. Hubs and I have already decided that at some point we will be back to visit more of the canyons as we have had an amazing taster, but there's a whole lot more hole yet to see. We headed out of Utah at around lunchtime, and decided we had best stop somewhere for gas and lunch as we had no idea how many miles we would have to cover before the next chance. Well at ‘Papa Joes stop and go’ we ordered a few chilli burgers to go, my thinking being that a burger could be eaten whilst driving as it was indeed my turn again. What I didn't count on was the chilli bit of the chilli burger would actually be a full portion of chilli-con-carne, atop the burger, atop the bun, and that there would be enough to feed at least 2 people. Hmm, best just do with some crisps till its someone else’s turn to drive. The rest of the drive was reasonably uneventful other than the once again spectacular views once we entered Colorado, it really is the most beautiful state and I can only imagine the glory of it when it is covered in the winter snow. The Holiday inn at Vail was our next stop where we took full advantage of the guest laundry. Mum, dad and Mr and Mrs D headed out for an explore as we took Moo, on her insistence, to the pool. The outdoor pool was a little on the chilly side this evening and I found that swimming at a higher altitude is extremely hard work, but thankfully the hot-tub was on hand. Hubs and I took turns in the super hot sauna and feeling thoroughly refreshed headed out for a swanky dinner in millionaires paradise. Or rather to the MacDonald’s across the way from the hotel, but it made Moo happy anyway! We also got a free meal courtesy of a local comic book store owner. Hubs had sniffed out the shop and popped in before tea to find out when it closed, got chatting and told the owner we would be back after taking his daughter to McD's, at which point he produced a free meal voucher and gave it to Hubs. People are very kind. We did indeed return and hubs picked up a t-shirt and we had a good long chat with the owner who plied us with freebies of posters comics and badges to take with us, he was especially impressed with Moo's flashing Spiderman flip flops! We returned to the hotel to meet the returning folks, laden with bulging carrier bags and a vow to return to the shops in the morning....
29-07 DAY6 Vail - Hays. Big shopping, big driving.
The morning took us to downtown Vail, a very upmarket ski resort, which was full of quite wonderful (and in the main hideously expensive) boutiques and galleries, side by side with the ski /sports shops. However it did seem that unless you were willing to part with the thick end of a few hundred dollars everything you purchased was emblazoned with a variation on the theme of 'look at me I've been to VAIL COLORADO'. We all of course succumbed and will all now be sporting our various 'VAIL' shirts across the globe. We wandered in and out of a few stores with Hubs assuring me that if I saw anything I liked I could have it for my upcoming birthday, however my taste once more exceeded our budget with only thing I really, really liked the look of came with an attached price tag of $15,000, maybe next birthday....The next 'big push' saw us saying goodbye to Colorado and hello again to boring flat Kansas. The tedium of driving for several hundred miles straight and seeing, well, nothing, really could easily send one quite loopy. Thankfully I had hubs as my 'shotgun' and he was able to keep me relatively sane and awake for my next stint. The weather, which had been most obliging for us so far, took a turn for the worst as we ploughed on though Kansas and as we stopped for a change of driver the storm clouds on the horizon were looming in a most menacing fashion. I'm glad to report that it was my dad who took the next and last slot of the day as we ended up driving through the heaviest rain I have seen in a long time. Once again an eerie silence descended upon the van as day turned to night in a matter of moments. For around an hour we crawled through the pouring rain slowly edging towards or destination of the Hays, Ramada. It was a joy to us all, but especially dad I’m sure, when the sat nav finally told us that in 1 mile we could finally turn left. Another room buffet consumed and another pool to sample. It was by far the biggest and most fun pool on the tour so far boasting a waterslide which Moo took full advantage of, even hubs with his slide sore tailbone had a go, however in my humble opinion, although the hot tub was large the seating was a little on the rough side.
30-07 DAY 7 We’re off to see the wizard.
We set off early as we didn't feel that Hays had that much to offer the casual tourist, and anyway we had another destination a couple of hours up the I-70 that a certain little lady was almost bursting with excitement to see. The Small town of Wamego Kansas would not normally have caught our attention had it not been for the multitude of billboards up and down the interstate proclaiming exit 338 to be the home of the wizard of Oz museum. Now any regular readers will now just how much excitement that would cause in the mind of Moo. It has been her favourite film for a long time, and when I mentioned that we would be passing through Kansas she immediately asked if we knew the way to the yellow brick road, and all of us in the van had been on 'munchkin watch' through the entire state and back, well at least it made passing through the state a little more interesting. As we took exit 338 Moo yelled from the back 'Mummy are we really on the yellow brick road now?’ The Museum was small, but perfectly formed, but as we walked in Moo fell silent and gripped on to me as hard as she could. She could barely look at the exhibits and said almost immediately that she wanted to leave. Brilliant. But we found a little room with a TV which was showing the movie where we had a sit, and she explained to me that it was a 'just a bit too much' and we had a little chat about the meaning of the word overwhelming. After that we started again at the beginning of the museum and it was the joy to her that we hoped it would be. The collection of original artefacts on display is quite stunning, as well as items donated by the family of L.Frank Baum, (the author), and MGM studios there are items made by fans such as a stunning full size Oz quilt. As we tiptoed through the haunted Forest past the flying monkeys, Moo let out a tiny scream as she saw the wicked witch above us on her broomstick, but thankfully we were creeping so quietly we didn’t disturb her, phew. After the very reasonably priced gift shop we headed across the road for some proper home-style cooking in a fab little diner. Moo, with the aid of her good fairy Glinda magic wand, magic-ed us up a great dinner and just as we were about to leave Wamego we were lured into a work-wear shop where dad had spotted some nice looking cowboy boots. Well what an Aladdin’s cave that turned out to be. A vast barn of a place paced full of cut price boots and clothes. Molly fell in love the instant she spotted the gold tipped pink leather cowgirl boots, big sighs of relief all round when we found that not only did they have them in her size, but they were also in the sale, better than ruby slippers any day of the week! Once again however my good taste foiled Hubs attempt to get me a birthday present as the pair I fell in love with were on sale for a cool $299. Completely unmindful of the already restricted space in the van, T-shirts, hats and boots were purchased all round and squeezed in around the passengers. As we left, Moo had her one big cry of the trip. But even that only lasted about half an hour and given the excitement of the morning, it was not really that surprising. So at last we were leaving Kansas and heading for.... Kansas City, which isn't actually in Kansas, but in Missouri, and before you ask, I have no idea. As we criss-crossed the quite frankly terrifying city highways I thanked my stars it wasn't my turn to drive. For a country that has so much space they do seem to pack in all the interchanges startlingly close together, and at one point dad had to exit left, cross 4 lanes of traffic to exit left again, get to the middle lane and then take the next exit right, just to get towards the city centre. Scary stuff during the tea-time rush hour. As we pulled up to our final hotel of the trip, the van saluted Hubs’ hotel booking prowess one last time. The ‘Sheraton suites’ was both luxurious and extremely well located for access to the 'old town'. Which isn’t really that old at all, just built to look that way. Moo dragged my parents for the obligatory swim while Hubs and I headed to peruse the stores and hubs tried to entice me into choosing a birthday present. He even took me into my favourite shiny things shop, but even the lure of the iconic eggshell blue of Tiffany's didn't work (although I did see one thing I really liked, but you guessed it, about $2000 over budget). I was quite satisfied to wander about the town and admire the many street performers artistically scattered around the Spanish style architecture, in the glow of the setting sun. We headed back to the hotel to find Moo waiting, still in her swim suit ready for round 2 at the pool, as Mum and dad headed off to find a meal. We obliged and enjoyed a wonderful outdoor to indoor sunset swim in a gloriously empty pool and then rounded off with the now obligatory hot tub session. Back to the room and time for a bit of a splash out as room service was ordered, delivered and consumed whilst watching a movie on one of the 2 LCD screen TV's in the room. The folks arrived in from their (a lot more expensive than room service), meal, and we sat up and chatted for a while and then headed towards the most comfortable looking bed I have ever seen in my life.
31-07 DAY 8 Birthday shopping at last and the long ride home.
Whatever beds they have in the Sheraton suites I want one, it was even more comfortable than it looked. All my best intentions of visiting the hotel gym were gone the instant the alarm clock rang and I rolled over. Nestled in duvet and pillows there was never going to be any other outcome than at least another hours slumber. I eventually managed to drag myself up and into the shower to find my folks had not found the sofa bed quite so alluring and had managed a swim. For the last time we packed and dragged a reluctant Moo from her own personal LCD TV, and headed off towards the 'hallmark crown plaza', for what turned out to be an extraordinary brunch. Inside the mall we were steered towards a restaurant with a large model steam train outside. Once inside we were seated in railway style buffet cars and watched model trains whizzing about all around us. The waitress arrived at our table, dressed in an old-style engineer’s outfit, and with a heartily called “toot-toot” our drinks order was taken. Now I have to take a moment here to salute her. Granted it was still early in her shift, but the obviously obligatory 'company toot-toot' table greeting was delivered with enthusiasm and a smile. Perhaps by the end of ,what looked to be fast becoming, a very busy lunch rush, it would come from behind gritted teeth and far-away eyes while she sought out her inner happy place, but I’m pleased to report that we got an excellent toot-toot and all, especially Moo, were quite satisfied. Our food was ordered over a table telephone, and double checked by the scrupulous Mrs.D (who for those fleeting moments bore an uncanny vocal resemblance to Rosemary the telephone operator from the cartoon Hong Kong Phooey), and then by the wonder of American diner magic it was delivered to our table by a train that ran on overhead rails and dropped the freshly prepared food onto trays that then glided smoothly from roof to table level. Brilliant. It caused a few moments hilarity in imagining the chaos below when there was a missed tray or an early drop, as there inevitably must have been every now and then, Sadly, the quality of the food did not match up to the presentation and I found the memory of brunch repeating on me for most of the rest of the day. We split up for an hour or so of speed shopping, with Moo and Dad heading off to the fountains in the outdoor plaza, both, I'm fairly certain, glad of a legitimate excuse to avoid yet more shops. Well speed shopping was the idea, but the first shop hubs and I found ourselves in was a wonderful tiny jewellery store called Bacara Designs. As we pored over the lovely pieces and conversed with the superbly chilled out owner, hubs was finally able to buy me a birthday present as I at last found the perfect pair of ear-rings to match my rather unusual wedding ring, (and rather fortuitously I also happened upon a perfectly matching bracelet too). After a quick trip to the 'crayola megastore' to furnish Moo with a new colouring book and pens for the long drive home, we were done, and re-joined the others who were by now gazing longingly at the bathing-suit clad children revelling in fountains as their parents enjoyed leisurely picnics in the mid-day sun. The van somehow seemed hotter and a little more cramped for a while after that (the cramped conditions were of course nothing to do with the vast array of freshly stuffed goodie laden carrier bags that we had acquired in the last day or so....). So we began counting down the many miles that made up the journey back to Wisconsin, willing the 'arrival time' on the sat nav to somehow magically lose an hour or two. We all took turns behind the wheel and tried not to make too many stops on the way back, and rather surprisingly I couldn’t entice hubs back to the same service area where the slide/tailbone incident occurred. Can’t think why. My turn at driving, glad to say, was rather uneventful. Other than realising that someone had at some point re-set the van clock to the correct time without me noticing and all the while I had been recalculating the arrival time to compensate that extra hour. When the penny finally dropped that there were still 2 hours to go and not the one I had thought, there was nothing else to do but find a rest stop, get the biggest coffee on offer and take my place once more in the back seat. We actually made good time, though it didn’t feel like it, and were dropping Mr & Mrs D off at the farm at around 8.30 pm. We sorted out the luggage said our goodbye's and were back at mum and dad’s by 9 o’clock, tucking into a light supper, before we all fell asleep on our feet. It was an amazing journey with so many miles and so many highlights. It is certainly something I will never forget, and it has given us a love of the great American road trip, and the next ones are already in early stages of planning. Well, they will be once hubs finally gets his driving license anyway. Moo was, of course, the star of the show, and did the entire journey without much complaint and only one real cry (although as it was when she left behind her friends in the truly magical land of OZ and, according to Mrs D, sitting next to Mr. D is enough to make anyone cry, I'm certain it will be forgiven by all). She has developed a taste for the hotel high life though and, of course, she gets to have the last word. As I was tucking her up for the night she was telling me how much she had enjoyed the trip, but had the look of girl who had lost a dollar and found a dime. I softly asked her what was wrong. “Mummy I’m so sad” she said with a big sigh “but why sweetie” I enquired “Because Grandma hasn't got a hot tub”....
A bientot.
Whatever beds they have in the Sheraton suites I want one, it was even more comfortable than it looked. All my best intentions of visiting the hotel gym were gone the instant the alarm clock rang and I rolled over. Nestled in duvet and pillows there was never going to be any other outcome than at least another hours slumber. I eventually managed to drag myself up and into the shower to find my folks had not found the sofa bed quite so alluring and had managed a swim. For the last time we packed and dragged a reluctant Moo from her own personal LCD TV, and headed off towards the 'hallmark crown plaza', for what turned out to be an extraordinary brunch. Inside the mall we were steered towards a restaurant with a large model steam train outside. Once inside we were seated in railway style buffet cars and watched model trains whizzing about all around us. The waitress arrived at our table, dressed in an old-style engineer’s outfit, and with a heartily called “toot-toot” our drinks order was taken. Now I have to take a moment here to salute her. Granted it was still early in her shift, but the obviously obligatory 'company toot-toot' table greeting was delivered with enthusiasm and a smile. Perhaps by the end of ,what looked to be fast becoming, a very busy lunch rush, it would come from behind gritted teeth and far-away eyes while she sought out her inner happy place, but I’m pleased to report that we got an excellent toot-toot and all, especially Moo, were quite satisfied. Our food was ordered over a table telephone, and double checked by the scrupulous Mrs.D (who for those fleeting moments bore an uncanny vocal resemblance to Rosemary the telephone operator from the cartoon Hong Kong Phooey), and then by the wonder of American diner magic it was delivered to our table by a train that ran on overhead rails and dropped the freshly prepared food onto trays that then glided smoothly from roof to table level. Brilliant. It caused a few moments hilarity in imagining the chaos below when there was a missed tray or an early drop, as there inevitably must have been every now and then, Sadly, the quality of the food did not match up to the presentation and I found the memory of brunch repeating on me for most of the rest of the day. We split up for an hour or so of speed shopping, with Moo and Dad heading off to the fountains in the outdoor plaza, both, I'm fairly certain, glad of a legitimate excuse to avoid yet more shops. Well speed shopping was the idea, but the first shop hubs and I found ourselves in was a wonderful tiny jewellery store called Bacara Designs. As we pored over the lovely pieces and conversed with the superbly chilled out owner, hubs was finally able to buy me a birthday present as I at last found the perfect pair of ear-rings to match my rather unusual wedding ring, (and rather fortuitously I also happened upon a perfectly matching bracelet too). After a quick trip to the 'crayola megastore' to furnish Moo with a new colouring book and pens for the long drive home, we were done, and re-joined the others who were by now gazing longingly at the bathing-suit clad children revelling in fountains as their parents enjoyed leisurely picnics in the mid-day sun. The van somehow seemed hotter and a little more cramped for a while after that (the cramped conditions were of course nothing to do with the vast array of freshly stuffed goodie laden carrier bags that we had acquired in the last day or so....). So we began counting down the many miles that made up the journey back to Wisconsin, willing the 'arrival time' on the sat nav to somehow magically lose an hour or two. We all took turns behind the wheel and tried not to make too many stops on the way back, and rather surprisingly I couldn’t entice hubs back to the same service area where the slide/tailbone incident occurred. Can’t think why. My turn at driving, glad to say, was rather uneventful. Other than realising that someone had at some point re-set the van clock to the correct time without me noticing and all the while I had been recalculating the arrival time to compensate that extra hour. When the penny finally dropped that there were still 2 hours to go and not the one I had thought, there was nothing else to do but find a rest stop, get the biggest coffee on offer and take my place once more in the back seat. We actually made good time, though it didn’t feel like it, and were dropping Mr & Mrs D off at the farm at around 8.30 pm. We sorted out the luggage said our goodbye's and were back at mum and dad’s by 9 o’clock, tucking into a light supper, before we all fell asleep on our feet. It was an amazing journey with so many miles and so many highlights. It is certainly something I will never forget, and it has given us a love of the great American road trip, and the next ones are already in early stages of planning. Well, they will be once hubs finally gets his driving license anyway. Moo was, of course, the star of the show, and did the entire journey without much complaint and only one real cry (although as it was when she left behind her friends in the truly magical land of OZ and, according to Mrs D, sitting next to Mr. D is enough to make anyone cry, I'm certain it will be forgiven by all). She has developed a taste for the hotel high life though and, of course, she gets to have the last word. As I was tucking her up for the night she was telling me how much she had enjoyed the trip, but had the look of girl who had lost a dollar and found a dime. I softly asked her what was wrong. “Mummy I’m so sad” she said with a big sigh “but why sweetie” I enquired “Because Grandma hasn't got a hot tub”....
A bientot.
Misadventures in Mayenne
If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me at hillywillyworld@gmail.com