We drove from Goodland to Fraser via the Rocky Mountain National Park. The park has a 40-mile long ridge road. We “sped” through the park in 5.5 hours. We spent plenty of time out of the car looking at amazing mountains, several marrots, and even an elk.It was the best day of the trip so far.

In addition to beautiful weather and an amazing area, we were lucky enough to be there during one of the best times of year. The colors were changing. The evergreens were green. Many areas and meadows were brown. Lichens and aspen trees were shades of gold and red. We took a short, half-mile hike on a paved path up a mild hill. It was incredibly hard, because it was at over 12,000 feet.

After we got back, we were quite tired. We had lunch and took a short rest. We were more particular about where we stopped and even took a picture from the car window. When we left the park, we went into the visitor center and watched the movie. By the end of all this, we felt better and went for a 1.5 mile hike. It was an unpaved trail with mild climbing. But we did fine, because we were back down to 8.000 feet, where there’s more oxygen. Our hike took us to a waterfall and an incredible meadow. It was a totally satisfying experience.

We drove from the Kansas border to Greeley, CO. When we stopped at the Colorado welcome center, a talkative and knowledgeable gentleman cleared up our Kansas mysteries.

Very cool looking experimental jet

The flashing lights announcing that I-70 is closed are primary used during severe winter weather. There are huge sections of Kansas that offer the motorist no shelter in an emergency. This warning system is placed shortly before an exit to a town big enough to have hotels. Early motorists can get a hotel room. The town opens a church hall or school gym when the hotels are filled. Like just about everything else in the Midwest, it’s practical and makes a lot of sense.

We didn’t see any amber waves of grain because there weren’t any. Wheat is harvested in June or July. The winter crop won’t turn green until December.

This BD-5 was sold to hobbyists as a kit they could fly. This is one of the few that ever flew.

Or original plan was to drive to Denver and spend the day. But a couple of days ago we decided we would rather detour north of I-70 and visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Hotels near the park are quite expensive. So we stayed in a Candlewood Suites east of the park. The Candlewood turned out to be a great bargain. It’s the same price as a room at the Holiday Inn Express. We sacrifice the swimming pool and the hot breakfast, but get free laundry and a huge room, suitable for a businessman working away from the office.

Bert Rutan’s prototype was the basis for the Adam Aircraft A500 and A700.

As you can tell from the pics, we didn’t entirely skip over Denver. We stopped at the Air and Space museum. It’s the only air museum we will come close to on the trip. I don’t know that we learned a lot we didn’t already know, but we had a lot of fun looking around. It’s a nice size collection for a couple-of-hour visit.

Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser may shuttle people to space.

F4 Phantom II, the most successful jet fighter ever built

Model of Godard’s rocket — the first rocket to ever fly.

We were in Abilene for dinner. We went to Joe Snuffy’s Restaurant. It’s a place where everybody is talking with people at the next table. If you don’t know anybody, the waitress will help you break the ice. By the end of dinner, you’ll be talking away.

The next morning, we visited the Eisenhower museum / library / boyhood home / burial place. Of course we had to visit. Here are some lesser-known Ike facts:

• Ike was a very good card player. Early in his military career, collecting gambling debts from his fellow cadets at West Point was a substantial financial help for him.
• Early in his career, Ike got in trouble for excessively enthusiastic dancing.
• For most of  WW II, Ike had the same female driver. Some people want to make a controversy out of this.
• After Kennedy was elected, the military leaders all but refused to follow his orders. In desperation, Kennedy called Ike. Ike came to DC and attended a meeting with JFK and military leaders. Ike didn’t have to do anything but be there. The military leaders fell into line.

Eisenhower’s Boyhood Home

You won’t learn any of this in the museum. In fact, there is very little about Ike in the museum. Most of the exhibits are about WW II or the 50s. I couldn’t read half  the boards due to poor lighting combined with black text on a dark colored background. And there is absolutely nothing that could be considered the least bit controversial, other than the hint that it was legal for Eisenhower to keep gifts he received from other heads of state. We were disappointed.

Smoky Hills Wind Farm

We drove the rest of the way across Kansas. Near Saline, we drove by the Smoky Hills Wind Farm, which has 150 windmills. It’s an impressive sight.The pic doesn’t do it justice. There are windmills every where one looks for mile after mile.

We had two mysteries and one surprise driving across Kansas. We never saw even one field with amber waves of grain, or anything at all that looked like wheat. We also saw several yellow lights by the side of the road, along with a sign that I-70 is closed when the lights are flashing; driving on the road when closed is not permitted. The light installations are permanent. We don’t understand why anybody would plan ahead of time to close an interstate. The surprise was the bugs. There are so many splats that we have to vigorously wash the windshield at every fill-up. Every Kansas gas station seems to have window washers available. A person we met at the gas station this evening warned not to come when the June bugs are out. They sound like popcorn.

In spite of the mysteries, we made it to Goodland in good order. Below you can see the Big Easel painting. It’s a 24 x 32 foot reproduction of one of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting of sunflowers (Kansas is the sunflower state.) We’re 17 miles from the end of Kansas.

Big Easel Painting

Oldest Existing Steam Boat Engine

There are lots of things to do in Kansas City. We chose to visit the Arabia steam boat museum. A bunch of guys got together and decided to dig up a steam boat that had sunk in the Missouri River. They had a lot to choose from. They started out digging up the first boat to sink — the “Missouri”. Above, you see the paddle wheel engine for this boat, which was built in 1818. (This is just the engine, and does not include the boilers and other stuff needed to generate the steam.) The picture looks strange because I had to paste two different pictures together to get the whole thing displayed. The big hunk of black metal on the right is the paddle wheel crank.

Arabia boilers and steam generator

Then they went back and dug up the Arabia. They chose this boat because it was well documented. Two special points of interest that lead to lots of information being available were that 1) Nobody died, and 2) 40 barrels of Kentucky’s best bourbon were aboard. As you can see, this is considerably later (the1850s). I don’t have a picture of the paddle wheel engines (there were two).

The snag that sunk the Arabia

The Arabia sunk when it hit a tree snag. This was the Arabia’s third year. An average steam boat on the Missouri River lasted 5 years. In addition to significant pieces of the boat, they recovered the better part of the 200 tons of cargo. This boat was basically a Walmart supply barge carrying all the goods western settlers would need for the year. It also had passengers — mostly women and chilkdren, coming to join the husband who had prepared a place out west. Much of the cargo is cleaned, preserved, and on display. It’s a fascinating look at life in the west in the 1850s. Danita and I went through the museum rather quickly and still took two hours looking at all the goods.

Sharp Rifles

Above are two Sharp rifles. They were so accurate that they became the origin of the word “sharpshooter”. To make a long story short, these rifles were impounded from an earlier trip on the river. (Rifle serial numbers match the ship’s manifest.) This was just before the civil war. Pro-slavery and abolitionist groups were fighting each outer in this part of the country back then.

After a fascinating time in the Arabia museum, we had a nice, boring drive to Abilene, KS.

Artist rendering of the sunken Arabia

Steak ‘N Shake

We are in Kansas City, but still in Missouri. It was a rainy morning, with rain heavy at times. When we started out, there was an accident so bad that I-70 was closed about 90 miles down the road. By the time we got there, one lane was open. There were still two cars left, pretty badly banged up, plus a bunch of car parts laying around the area. We had a hike planned at the half-way point of our 4-hour drive. It was just a regular hike. It was still spitting. The accident and the rain had added significant delays. We chose to skip the leg stretch and drive through.

Today was laundry day. After that we took an hour of quiet time at our hotel. We decided that since Steak ‘N Shake was started in this area, we should eat there at least once. Steak ‘N Shake started as a drive-in. They invented the tray that hung from car windows around the country. When they first started, they advertised that they could turn their shakes upside down. It was an indication the food was delivered promptly, before the shake started melting. We learned this in the St. Louis history museum. Our waitress this evening didn’t know anything about the upside-down shakes, but she did say she didn’t recommend turning them upside-down. We got two very good hamburger dinners and one very large and tasty shake for less than $15. Tonight we’re watching Star Trek movies in honor of their 50th anniversary.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

We started the day by attending mass at the cathedral, which is just two blocks from the hotel. When you look at this picture, keep in mind that none of the walls or ceilings are painted. They are all mosaics. They started the cathedral in 1907 and took 75 years building it. The amount of money they must have spent boggles my mind. Our mass had fewer than 30 attendees, in a space that must seat at least 2000.

Cahokia – Monks Mound

After that we circled back to Illinois to visit Cahokia, the largest city in North America (in pre-Colombian times). The museum for this place is phenomenal. What the archaeologists can figure out from some stained soil and a few scraps of wood or pottery is amazing. In this case, they had some help from the Spanish, who encountered Indian towns in what we call the Mississippi culture and gave eye-witness descriptions.  It was still very hot, but we had no problem spending over 2 hours in the museum. Cahokia had 10,000 to 20,000 people in 1100 AD. They built huge mounds. The one pictured here covered 14 acres. In a desperate attempt to make this sound as impressive as possible, the museum mentioned that Cahokia was the largest city north of Mexico. (That’s true, so far as we know.) They said Cahokia was larger than London. (Also true, but in 1100 London was nothing very impressive. It was a semi-civilized filthy backwater.) They said Cahokia was the largest city for 500 years. (That’s when Philadelphia finally got going. Once Philadelphia had 20,000 people, it grew rapidly. Also, Cahokia was totally abandoned long before Columbus arrived.) Still, it was a fascinating look at an advanced stone-age culture.

Cahokia Woodhenge

Afterwards, we found some shade for our picnic lunch. Then we drove across the street to visit Monks Mound. We looked earnestly at the steps leading to the top and admired the people who had the energy to climb them in the 95+ degree heat. We drove down the road a mile and visited “Woodhenge”. This was the Cahokia equivalent to England’s Stonehenge. They built a circle of poles, 24.7 feet apart and placed another pole in the center of the circle. They marked the three poles that marked the equinox and solstice position of the sun, when viewed from the center pole.

We went back to the room early because we were tired of too much vacationing, and because we wanted to change how we will spend our time in Colorado. Danita has a very interesting place picked out for dinner. After that, I have a feeling we might find ourselves back a Jeni’s Ice Cream. It really is the best we’ve ever had.

The only thing for us in Illinois was kitch. But it was really good kitch. The dragon was supposed to be fire breathing, but it was out of order. We got two tokens so that Bryon and Elizabeth can use it, when they come.out west. The other great Illinois landmark was the world’s largest ketchup bottle. There was also the world’s largest golf tee and the world’s largest wind chime, but we passed these up as being unworthy.

Not Fire Breathing Dragon

Disguised Water Tower

Spirit of St. Louis

Fortunately, there is more in St. Louis than there is in all of Illinois. We’re spending 2 days here. It’s a luxury to stay in the same hotel for two nights in a row. There’s no way to do everything in St. Louis in a day and a half — especially with the high temperature over 95. Today we focused on  Forest Park. It’s larger than Central Park in NYC. It has every kind of outdoor athletic activity and museum imaginable. And basic admission to anything is completely free. Some people say the St. Louis zoo is better than the San Diego zoo. You won’t get an opinion from me, because it was just too hot. We visited the Missouri History Museum, which was a baffling mix of the great and the not-so-great. They have Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis Airplane, which was used in the first trans-Atlantic airplane flight from New York to Paris. with no explanation or supporting material. Notice that Charles had no view forward from the cockpit. The plan was for him to have a periscope, bu the gas tank got in the way. You know this because I knew this. Most people visiting the Missouri History Museum won’t have any idea what that airplane hanging from the ceiling is all about.

Dodge V8 La Femme

The exhibit on Route 66 was much more successful. This was the last day this Dodge V8 La Femme was on exhibit. This beautiful automobile was marketed to women. It came with matching purse, scarf, etc. Tomorrow, the car is being returned to its owner. Personally, I think that mating this car  with the Air Stream trailer in another room (no picture — sorry), would make for a perfect life on the road. The Route 66 exhibit was saturated with enough nostalgia to make anybody want to hit the road.

We spent the rest of our day visiting a few other exhibits. The Science Center was two buildings separate by an Interstate highway. Missouri’s solution was to link the two buildings with a pedestrian bridge. The bridge include windows to let visitors see the cars traveling underneath, and radar units to display their speed, and even glass windows in the floor. Only the bravest people would stand on a glass floor and watch cars speed by under foot at 70+ MPH.

Our hotel is a rather long walk (in this very hot weather) from the park. Fortunately, St. Louis offers an air conditioned shuttle bus to take visitors around the park. Still, we were bushed when we got back to the hotel. After a half-hour rest, for dinner, we walked a block to an excellent sandwich shop. With more than 30 other restaurants a short walk away, any restaurant in business has to have something great to offer. We passed up the Edy’s ice cream and walked 3 more blocks to Jeni’s Ice Cream. Jeni’s has what is undoubtedly the best ice cream we have ever eaten. It’s worth the trip to St. Louis just to taste Jeni’s Ice Cream!

Indianapolis Skyline. The Canal Walk is to the right.

We didn’t realize it or even think of it. We’re just not football fans. Our hotel is right across the street from Colts Stadium. You know — Colts, the Baltimore football team that Irsay moved out of town on Mayfower vans one cold December day, literally by the dawn’s early light. Then the NFL wouldn’t let us keep the team name Colts. Baltimore eventually got revenge by stealing the Browns from Cleveland. But the NFL said Cleveland could keep their team’s name. To this day, some Baltimore football fans refuse to call the team the Colts, referring to them as the “Irsays”.

DO NOT look at the flowers!

Other than that, plus more heat and humidity, it was another near-perfect day. Danita wanted to go to an Indian museum, but I didn’t want to spend the day indoors. So we went to the zoo, which also has some aquarium exhibits, and a dolphin show, and a botanical garden, which had some Lego statues, for which this was the last day. So we watched the dolphin show (hurry — it starts in 10 minutes), then saw the Lego statues before lunch. It was funny to see everybody in the gardens focusing almost exclusively on colored plastic. The best thing was, we found some indoor, air conditioned tables where we could have our picnic lunch.

A fountain in the gardens with whimsical water jet figures

After that, we went to the zoo part of the zoo. It was hot, hot, hot. But it is a very nice zoo. We have the feeling it’s smaller than the Baltimore zoo. But it’s fairly new and what they do, they do well. I also got this really cool coffee cup. Of course it says “Indianapolis Zoo” on one side. Of course it has a design of the elephant on the other side. But the way cool thing is that the handle looks exactly like an elephant’s trunk. It’s going in the featured section of my collection for sure.

We had dinner at a restaurant called The Weber Grill. It was good, it wasn’t cheap, and there was plenty of meat. After that we walked part of the canal walk.

Indianapolis Steam Clock (I shoot ’em, I don’t expain ’em)

Turn the crank and push the button to hear some Indiana history

Crane

We had the best gyros we’ve had in years last night. Danita was looking for non-chain restaurants with good reviews. She found a place that was a very easy walk from our hotel. (We didn’t even have to cross a street.) We both ordered gyros and were amply rewarded. They got all the basic elements of a gyro right, plus the lamb was plentiful, tender, and very flavorful. Why can’t we get good gyros in Columbia? I’ll never understand.

Unfolded Crane

It was a short ride to Columbus — 75 miles / 60 minutes. We started out at the botanical gardens. It was a perfect day for walking  around outside and the were beautiful. We eventually went inside, which was just as nice. They had a special origami exhibit that was all full of unfolded cranes and stuff. But I liked my real crane better. There’s more pictures at the bottom of the post. We got an ice cream from the cafe, then headed off to the history museum and village. They were having an old-time baseball exhibit. We ate lunch under the shade of a tree with the sounds of old-time baseball in the background.

Portable TV

The history museum was much more interesting than I expected. I enjoyed the exhibit on Lustron pre-fab houses, both for the house and for the 1950-era furnishings (including cowboy curtains and PJs with a pattern I found vaguely familiar from an early point in my life). Before Lustron went belly-up, they managed to make quite a few houses. About 2,000 still exist, which makes Lustron much more successful than Buckmaster Fuller’s Dymaxion house, which is displayed at the Henry Ford museum. There was also a 1950-something Chevrolet Bel Air pulling an Airstream trailer. Another highlight was an early portable TV from Philco.

Playground

The village was equally interesting and much more photogenic. They had a recreation of 1898 life, with the usual assortment of stores and such; as well as typical houses for lower class, middle class, and upper class families. The playground had toys that are out of style such as teeter-totters. Re-enactors stayed strictly in character. We heard a barbershop quartet and rode a 1903 Ford Model A. One of my favorites was the bicycle shop.

A Real Thank You

We are staying at lowly Holiday Inn Express Hotels. So far, they have been perfectly adequate. But today our hotel offered a service I have never received before. The manager came to our room. He offered us a letter thanking us for our business and offering personal details such as how many loyalty points we have earned so far. Then he gave us a chocolate bar with our name printed on it. We’ve stayed in much ritzier hotels from time to time, but we’ve never received anything like this before.

Crane

Unfolded Pegasus

Origami Frog

Barbershop Quartet

1903 Model A Ford

In 1972, I had a year of work under my belt, plus a second year of Co-Op work experience. This being a Federal Government job (at the Navy lab in Dahlgren, VA), I had earned 6 weeks of vacation. I took them and did an epic cross-country journey in my Datsun 2000. When I returned to work, there was an attractive young lady working in my section as a Co-Op. I was giving hints to one of my co-workers, but he was being dense. Finally, I asked him outright to introduce us.

Now that same young lady is traveling with me on my second, and her first, epic journey. This time, instead of driving to CA and back in 6 weeks, we are driving to Pipe Spring in two (plus a couple of days). So far, this journey has been even more fun than my first.

Barbara Fritchie Restaurant

Barbara Fritchie was born in Lancaster. She famously said “Shoot if you must, this old grey head, but spare your country’s flag.” — or so said John Greenleaf Whittier. Whether the incident is true or not, the poem is popular. Ammon E. Cramer liked it so much that when he opened his candy shop in Frederick in 1910, he called it “Barbara Fritchie Candies”. This business morphed and relocated and eventually became the Barbara Fritchie Restaurant. It is in my story because this is where we had the only restaurant breakfast we will have on this journey. The rest of our breakfasts will be included with our hotel room. This restaurant has everything. Besides the broken sign, it has lots of guys in pickup trucks hanging out and talking, plastic-topped tables, pies and cakes in the display case, a candy display near the register (complete with Necco Wafers – they’re just like I remember them), and of course very good diner breakfast options.

Sideling Hill

We decided to take a short detour from I-70 to avoid the better part of PA, with their eternal infernal road construction and took I-68. This Maryland Interstate is in very good condition. It features ear-popping mountains, the most famous of which is Sideling Hill. There used to be a small museum discussing how it is that the mountain goes up and the strata go down. The museum had placards filled with geological this and billion year old that. The museum was closed during the MD budget cuts. Recently it was re-opened. Unfortunately, the museum material had been donated to the Hancock Museum. The only thing at the stop was brochures, bathrooms, and bottled Coke. But it’s still a very cool place to stop and walk around. The parking court has a nice view of an amazing vista, making it the real Vista View Court (as opposed  to the street we used to live on).

By lunch time, we were at the Salt Fork Park in Ohio. Ohio’s largest state park is a lake with surrounding land. Budget cuts are evident in the grass growing through the asphalt roads, and not many people were at the nature center where we stopped for lunch. But the park is free, the picnic table was in the shade of a tree, the weather was beautiful, and the lake view was very nice. After lunch, we played 18 holes of mini-golf. By 3:30, we were in our hotel in Cambridge, Ohio. This was our longest drive. Hopefully, those roads we ended up taking through PA will be the worst roads we encounter.