Fake friends made real

No, they really weren’t, or aren’t fakes.
We’d just never had a face to face, despite close proximity.
When I have a little more time and energy there will be an better post (POCIR).

Friday cat

Go here and remember we are three time zones ahead of the time stamp below

Another untitled post

There are days when o e wants to do anything but blog, particularly on balky equipment.
It appears we will carry a laptop with us in the future, for several reasons.
We're visiting family in a Detroit suburb.
PHG is here, too.
It may seem like things have slowed.
Not so.
Just no posts.

Twofer

Monday we were in the country

Todaywe headed to the Detroit area, stopping on Lake Erie at Luna Pier.

There's a definite change taking place.
Until this week, temperatures have been warm or even hot.
Not any longer, it's cooled and now we're experiencing rain.
It's recreshing, as are ho e cooked meals on two of tbe last tbree evenings

Kickin' back in flyover country

The past three and a half days were relatively fast paced.
This morning was an early day (0530) so we could get to MB's nephew's church in time for the late service.

It's farms and more farms

We'll kick back for another day here, then head on to Michigan to see PHG, GS's brothers and families until next Friday.
There are a couple of places we want to visit that we missed because of Snowmageddon.

Last day

Tomorrow we are back on the road early.
Napoleon, OH is only a couple of hours north of here, but we want to get there by ten o’clock.
I can hardly wait until we get to my brother in law’s, where they sleep until noon (9am Pacific).
Today is the last day of the Lions Forum.
We’re finishing off with a banquet for about 2000.

I don’t normally  usually give plugs, but This is an exception because Drury Hotels provide well for their guests.
There’s no way one should go hungry.
There’s a free hot breakfast, with lots of choices, and a 5:30 Kickback that looked a lot like dinner and included adult beverages.
There’s also free WiFi throughout the hotel.

Friday cat

My swell friend, Suldog, posted this picture of his niece and the most patien cat in the universe.

Dinner for 2000

Yep, it’s a big room

We were entertained and made honorary Buckeyes by the Ohio State marching band [the Readers Digest version] and there was a motivational speech from Vince Lombardi.

I would review the meal but it was relatively indescribable.

cats tomorrow 

Hello Columbus

Reached the geographical midpoint and the original reason for this trip.
We are at the Columbus  Convention Center for three days of Lions forum.
We signed up last year in Portland.
We're seeing old friends and learning something new at every turn.

This morning we drove from Nashville, stopping in Louisville to tour the Louisville Slugger factory and museum.

Except for the traffic through Cincinnati, today's been great.
The next few days are scheduled to be pretty full.
So the posts maybe short.

Finally photos

With access to wifi, whilst staying with family, I was finally able to upload a few photos to the infernal tablet.

When we last posted a photo here, it was sfter crossing into Oklahoma from the Texas Panhandle and visiting the Will Rogers Memorial.
This time it’s a tad more rushed because I'm behind.
So we've headec south and crossed back into Texas, the Dallas area.
We did the tourist thing.
Our hosts drove us downtow, to Dealey Plaza, right there at the Texas Schoolbook Depository  (they don't call it that now).

I was more interested in the Old Red Museum across from the Grassy Knoll.

Fro  there we drove over to SMU and the George W. Bush Center, where there are magnificent displays relating to the former president and a entire series of rooms set aside vor6all of the First Ladies.

I was most interested in the quote attributed to our first president's wife.

The next day we headed east, again, crossing into . . .

. . . Which we made short work of*.

Memphis awaited.

Beale Street is loud, with much action.
Next morning was a visit to the zoo.

And we were off again, eastbound and a little south, to visit more friends.
But first a stop at historic Corinth, Mississippi.

Two railroads crossed here, making it a strategic point during the war between the states.
There was also a Waffle House there.

Our next stop was just east of Huntsville, Alabama.
While passing through Huntsville something caught our eye.
We stopped on our way back the next day, before heading north.

Yeah, there's rockets, space shuttles, and Space Camp at the U.S. Rocket & Space Center.

Then we booked on up the road to Nashville, Tennessee, home of the Grand Ol' Opry, Opryland, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and

The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson.
The other photos are in my camera or MB's phone.
The travel buddies need their time to shine.
*I can hear Buck grumbling about the preposition 

Nashville

Still no pics because we're so late.
We stopped over in Huntsville to visit friends anda cept some fine hospitality.
Now we are with MB's niece, at her sister in law's home just outside of Nashville until Wednesday.
With any luck we will meet up with a friend of mine from back home tomorrow.

Memphis

The WiFi won’t connect, and there’s other, minor issues, as well.

🎶 On the Road Again 🎵

After a full day’s respite, where someone else did all of the driving, we are heading east to Memphis.
I will attempt to catch up with photos in a day or two.
We went to dowtown Dallas to see Dealey Plaza, then to SMU to visit W’s library.
Afterward we had barbecue.
I had brisket, sausagee, beans, and mac ‘n cheese.
Then we went for ice cream.
We also have further increased the size of our magnet collection.

There’s another song to sing this morning:

  ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫• ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫♪♪ ♫•♫ ♪♪♫♪ HaPpY bIrThDaY tO yOu ♫♪♪♫ hApPy BiRtHdAy To YoU ♪♫♫♪♫♪♪ ♪♫HaPpY bIrThDaY♫♪♪♫ ♫♪♪♫ dEaR mB ♪♫♫♪♫♪♪ ?♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫♪♪ ♫•♫ ♪♪♫♪HaPpY bIrThDaY tO yOu ♫♪♪♫ ♪♫♫♪♫♪

 ♫♪♪♫• and many more!• ♪♫♫♪♫♪

Rain!!!

We will probably see more over the nexy few days as we travel east and, even, north.

Where am I

Resting in Dallas (suburb) whilst visiting friends of MB.

I thought the drivers in OK were aggressive . . .   then we crossed the Red River, “OMGWTFBBQ*”
I bet it’s even worse during rush hour?

Today is also laundry day.

Move along.
There’s nothing to see here.

Sometimes when you're traveling . . .

Time gets away from us.
We've been on the road for a week and have  covered more than 2000 miles.
I will let MB tell you about yesterday:

🎶Left Amarillo this morning. . . 🎵 Today was the first day of clouds. There was blue sky when we left the motel but we could see them across the horizon in the distance. They were on the ground - fog. Then we could see a huge cross in the distance. It is at a rest stop in Groom, Texas, and it 19 stokes high. The picture of it with the semi gives you an idea of it’s size. Groom is also the home of the leaning water tower. As I was reading about the Texas towns along the highway, I learned that the flat plains give way to rolling hills and crevices and then go back to flat again. Yup. It did. We passed Texola and watched and watched for the “Welcome to Oklahoma” sign and found none. We passed mile 1, then 2, then 3, and were at mile 5 before we saw a rest stop with a visitor center and drove in with the hope of finding our sign. We found it but thought it was really odd that the state doesn’t have one on the highway. But there was no leaving Texas sign either. In Yukon, Oklahoma, we saw Garth Brooks Blvd and the water tank that boasts, “Home of Garth Brooks...” In Oklahoma City we found our first rain of the trip and a very unusual freeway overpass structure. We then got on the turnpike headed toward Tulsa. The countryside is lush with trees and grass on rolling hills. It really is beautiful. We got off the freeway and continued on the old Route 66 through Catoosa and on to Claremore. We visited the Will Rogers Museum, had dinner at a local place called Hammett House, then drove through old town on Will Rogers Blvd which parallels Patti Page Blvd. Both are from Claremore. I also discovered that Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood have a home here in Claremore if anyone is interested. In old town we saw Will Rogers again, reading his newspaper outside the office of The Daily Progress, so we stopped to visit. Finally, we headed back to the hotel where Daffy and Tearalong are ready to call it a night. They also visited the museum but their pictures are on the camera instead of the cell phone. Anyway, that was today. Changing time zones everyday is a bit of a challenge and I need to get more sleep tonight than I did last night. Tomorrow we head south, back to Texas, to visit one of my oldest, dearest friends. 

Here's my contribution.

Our traveling buddies at the Will Rogers Memorial

Downtown Claremore, OK

Also downtown 

Our contribution to downtown 

Where are we . . . What day

There's a lot of time on the road.
But we're breaking it up with some nice visuals.
Tuesday we detoured to Santa Fe before heading into Texas.
We enjoyed Monday evening dinner so much that we stopped at another location for the same restaurant and had another great meal.

Most of  All but three of the photos I took are i  the camera, sorry.

The Loretto Chapel, about two blocks from San Miguel Church

A little later we found ourselves in front of the St. Francis Cathedral Basilica.
We did  manage to walk arou d a bit.
Parking was a challenge.

The Texas Panhandle sure is flat.
Changing time zones twice in two days isn't fun.

Still not much to say

Pictures do it better 

Meteor Crater, Arizona

"Take It Easy..."

Painted Desert

Petrified Forest

Dessert after dinner

No words

With our traveling buddies, Daffy and Tearalong c

Now we are rolling

Yesterday we covered some ground.
Not like Wednesday, enough that the scenery changed.

Speaking of scenery, somebody in the Phoenix area got a really, really, really great deal on beige paint.
It seems like every house, business, and government building is painted the same color and has a tiled roof.

But I digress.
We were south of Phoenix and wanted to get up near the Grand Canyon [yeah, again], this time it’s the, busier, South Rim.
So we drove north through Mesa, Scottsdale, Black Canyon City, and stopped to have lunch with some friends I knew from Anderson, who moved from Cottonwood, CA to Cottonwood, AZ.

In the distance to the left is Cottonwood and beyond that is Sedona.
After lunch we drove to Sedona and then up through Oak Creek Canyon.

The view in downtown Sedona

More downtown Sedona

Still more

And more yet

Starting up Oak Creek Canyon

Looking back down the canyon 

You can see some of the bends in the road.
We were the second car behind a tour bus as we came up the road.
We stopped in Flagstaff to pick up some water before heading west to Williams, where we spent the night.
We had dinner at a steakhouse that's been on Route 66 since 1946.
This morning we'll drive to the Grand Canyon.

Oh, yeah, it was 106℉ wben we left and 81℉ when we arrived at Flagstaff.
The stopover at Cottonwood was in the high 90s.

This is why we came to Phoenix first.

MB and SH had to meet the newest member of their family, Cracker Baby.tr

Trolls are about

There were 374 page views here yesterday.
I mean real page views.
A number of old posts had as many as nine views.
I'm really curious as to what is driving traffic to this blog.

can't be the content 

I heard a rumor

Then I saw on fb NFL football has begun.
I guess that means the colleges and high schools started, too?
I hope they don’t mind if I miss games again this year.

MB, She Hulk, and I are in the Phoenix area.
MB and I are leaving to go north tomorrow.
SH will stay here until Wednesday, visiting her grandchildren and great grandkids until Wednesday, when she flies home.

MB and I are stopping on the way to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim to visit some friends who moved from the North Valley about ten years ago.

should be fun catching up

Then it got light

We traveled south through the San Joaquin Valley part of the Central Valley of California, a huge area.
It was full of smoke because there are so many fires.
It cleared a little as we reached the Tejon Pass on the Grapevine, but we found smog on the LA end.
Finally, we found clear blue skies and real clouds in the Coachella Valley on the way to Arizona.
It was dark again when we arrived.
Winter is coming.

Sure is dark

I guess that’s why they all it Oh Dark Thirty?
Anyway . . .   We are on the road.

What's goin' on

The next few days . . .   or weeks may not find many posts.
That is unless I can connect to wifi.
Even then there might not be much to read other than the names of towns and rest stops.

The theme music for tomorrow is By the Time I get to Phoenix.

we'll see

New name

Or at least a different name for the MOB.
You may remember that's short for Mother of the Bride, or MB's mom, my mother in law.

We are constantly having conversations with the grand kids, Bug, Shark Bait, Ducky, and Eyore, about various super hero characters, which may, or may not, really exist.
There is some doubt.
Anyway, I found out today, that in some circles, the old dear is known as She Hulk.

Anticipation pt.II

Here's the original in case you don't remember.

Whilst all of the other normal routine sundry activities take place in our home, MB and I are preparing for another trip.
But, before I forget, last Thursday a friend   . . . a good friend hooked up a trailer to his pickup and we all drove to Anderson and retrieved the rest of the items that were left there (well, everything but the big W70d Wharefdale speakers).
Now all of the space we created in the garage and living room has again been diminished.

So, another trip, huh?
Why yes, we're leaving on Wednesday with the MOB in tow as far as Phoenix to visit her new grandson [MB's new nephew].
Actually he's four months.
That's almost new when you haven't met him yet.
Most of the wrinkles have been removed.

Then MB and I are gonna visit multiple places on our way to a Lions Forum in Columbus, Ohio.
We are driving.
We kind of have an itinerary because we're visiting friends and family on the trip.
The MOB is flying back home from Phoenix.

The fun part is figuring out just what we can pack in the limited space we have available.
If it was just us and what we have to have it wouldn't be a challenge.
However, we are taking items to others that we can no longer store for them or they were unable to take for themselves [airlines don't consider Kitchenaid mixers a carry-on item . . .   go figure].

GS and I did a similar trip in 2010 in the Mustang, but we only had to take our own stuff.

Don't ask how long we'll be gone.
We only have a faint clue.

before Halloween

Last week

It was the first day of the school year . . .   and the first day of Kindergarten.
The two are very good at pretending to be miffed.

In another instance, someone was challenged because the person next to her was dominating the conversation.

GOML!