Colorado Vacation, excerpt 3

Excerpts from my Colorado vacation – Day 3

20 July 2008

6:47 am CDT, Memphis, TN

La Quinta

Dad woke up and turned on the lights at 5:52 am. That’s 8 minutes early. At 5:55 am, I gave up and got up.

I’ve showered and other ablutions and repacked my bags. I’m not used to living out of a suitcase.

8 am and we are leaving the hotel. I have left Planet of Whispers at the hotel for Bookcrossing. There’s a couple Little League Teams in the hotel & I feel that DeSade’s Valet is not a book for 13-14 year olds to find. Not a book that I wanted to read, myself. It came for free in a bag of books.

Leaving town, we passed St. Jude Hospital Complex. That includes the Memphis Grizzlies House (housing for families of St Jude patients, funded by professional basketball team). Visually striking is the Pyramid, the glass & steel pyramid arena.

8:20 am Arkansas border

Skipped the Arkansas welcome center.

12:30 pm Oklahoma border

Ozarks look like the Blue Ridge Mountains, but spread out.

On 3^rd round, got a knot in the thread & can’t close the ring.

1:26 pm arrive at Sallisaw, OK and have lunch at a Taco Bell/KFC.

In town, I saw a carwash converted to a barbershop. Small town, with some historical sites.

~2 pm stopped for gas at a Phillips 66

2:30 pm McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System – transportation & flood control

[I’ve had to start keeping memo notes to look things up and then write in my journal later]

~2:40 pm We hit road construction, about 10 miles of it, ending at McIntosh County line.

3 pm Passed Lake Eufaula

3:30 sun behind clouds and the temperature dropped by 4F, from 101F to 97F

Soon after saw first oil well, then two more soon afterward.

~3:50 pm I took a picture of clouds, once with sunglass lens over camera and then once without.

4:54 pm Howard Johnson in Oklahoma City, next to the Cowboy Museum. Formerly the hotel was a Gardens Inns & Suites

6 pm off to supper at County Line, next to hotel. Took pictures.

Formerly it was the Kentucky Club and it’s been around about a hundred years. It was a dance and gambling club, run by the Mob. It still has some of the old fixtures and lots of old posters & ads.

It’s also haunted. “Russell” haunts the fireplace; he was killed there. A medium said that a female presence was in the women’s bathroom. The medium would not go into the basement; ‘not happy’. Our waitress doesn’t like to go down there either.

The food and service were great. Our table was in one of the old gambling niches. From the windows in the bar you could see the Capital dome.

So far, the trip looks a lot like NC, but without the kudzu.

After supper:

I downloaded videos from Dad’s camera and we watched them. I wasn’t able to erase the disk, though.

I did the first tat demo for Kathy. I just showed her the knot. We were both too tired after futzing with the videos to do any more.

Never got a good internet/wifi signal, despite the hotel clerk’s attempts. She reset the router twice.

Oklahoma highway speed limits have one speed for cars & another one for trucks.

Excerpts from my Colorado vacation – Day 2

19 July 2008
~7:20 am
Hickory, NC Cracker Barrel

I set my internal alarm clock for 4:30 am but my bladder was set for 3:30 am. Good thing, because we left at 4:37 am.

I napped some and read some before the sun rose. Car was a little cool so I wrapped up in the quilt from Kathy’s first husband’s family.

We smelled skunk, in passing, as we headed for the highway. Dad almost managed to miss the dead one on the road. That is an incredibly rancid smell. The van still has a whiff aobut. I suggested driving through tomato sauce. No one took me seriously.

We stopped at about 6:17 am to have breakfast. Our waitress’s name was Annette. I ordered hot tea and drank from my own supply.

9:43 am

Welcome to Tennessee. We stopped to get historic pamphlets for friends of Dad & Kathy. Hoowally homeschools his boys and they’re educational materials.

~11 am local time Crossville, TN
Lunch at McDonald’s – nuggets, diet coke, apples slices & 2 apple pies.

~12:30 pm CDT near River Bend?

Finished second round of snood. Kathy’s driving and Dad is listening to a Neil Diamond cd.
I finished Death in Holy Orders by PD James earlier. After lunch, but before I picked up my tatting. I hope to leave the book at our next stop [Bookcrossing.org].

1:47 pm CDT
Narrowly averted accident?

Saw a guy in big pickup pulling a large trailer; we smelled smoke. Then it’s obvious that the rear-most right tire is shredding. Kathy waited until a straightaway, hit her flashers, flashed her headlights and as we came even with the driver, she honked her horn as Dad gestured. Soon after, we saw the guy flip on his hazards and he slowed down. We were out of sight before he pulled off the road but we’re fairly certain that he did, soon afterwards.

[poem in pencil]

Summer sun, so much light
Reflects off chrome so bright.
Waves of heat from the road.
Rivers of asphalt that have flowed

From pens and pavers of DOT’s
Like streams to both seas.
Carrying travelers of business and pleasure
Vehicles of commerce and leisure.

Travelling west on vacation
No longer station to station
On the ribbons of steel.
Instead, motel and fast food meal.

The less direct route,
See what’s about
Road digressions along the way
Museums and parks and shopping, yay.

Time to talk.
Stop to walk.
History and stories of family and nation.
Take time for relaxation.

Take a look at scenery.
Admire the greenery.
Not just the goal, enjoy the journey.
It’s true, not just corny.

Truckers thread the states
Entire country, all the dates.
Like quilters who stitch
With lane, lines, median and ditch.

Patching the towns and days
Build community, a nation to raise.
From Manteo to Modesto, Key West to Point Hope,
The roads like threads, string, twine and rope.

4:23 pm CDT Memphis TN
La Quinta on Macon Cove, off Sycamore View Rd.
670 miles

~6 pm Corky’s on Poplar
BBQ ribs & so forth

***** Small dining room, great food, BBQ slightly sweet
Had BBQ (pulled pork of course) sandwich and banana pudding. Huge sandwich and rich dessert.

9:45 pm Almost in bed
Check two of my email accounts. Caught up on eTatters; released a book on bookcrossing; IM’d with Bill F; and briefly checked Facebook.

Dad and Kathy hit the pool. They came back as I was about to brush my teeth.

I am very tired. And I forgot my card reader. Unless I find another way, I will not be downloading my camera until I get home.

Tropical Storm Cristobal is hitting Eastern NC with rain. If it stays that way and followed the predicted path, it will be a good thing.

3rd full day of vacation: and the 3rd city, not including the original departure. I made it to Dad's & Kathy's Friday night, only about 2 hours or so late. Dad spent time packing the van & I got to bed later than comfortable for me. Which wouldn't have been so bad but we were up at 3:30 to leave Pleasant Garden by 4:30 am.

Day 1: to Memphis. It was a long day of driving, I spent most of it sleeping. I got a little reading done, a little tatting done. We had supper at Corky's. Absolutely delicious barbecue.

Day 2: to Oklahoma City. Our hotel was next door to the Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum but we got to town after it had closed. We went to supper almost next door, on the other side of the hotel. We went to County Line, a great local restaurant. It has a lot of history; shame that the overlook just 'overlooks' the hightway. You can see the dome of the capital building though.

Day 3: the next day we went to the museum. Wow, it's a great place. 3 plus hours was not enough. The Prix de West was there and we sampled that, until we ran out of time & I was suffering from over stimulation. We had lunch in their restaurant. The food was really good, I had the shepherd's pie and fruit salad (cut up fruit). I overate, just a little. I couldn't even manage to dessert, luckily the fruit was enough.

Then we left for Amarillo. Dad has an upset stomach but we managed the drive anyway. I napped a little but kept getting woken up. I did more tatting, despite some hinderances *grumble* The scenery has definitely changed.

Dad wasn't up to eating supper, so Kathy & I went alone to The Big Texan. It was a really good steak.