Vroooom, vroom, vroooom!!!

Thursday, July 2, 2015

As it stands now, looks like Daddy and I are gonna make a sneak attack on Momma and Scott tonight… or rather Friday morning (2am-ish). Y'all don't tell.  

We just zoomed past Nashville and we blew a kiss to my sweet friend, Angela Marshall Lange.  She's A&R for Eric Church.  Yes…THAT Eric Church!  We grew up in the same neighborhood together before she was in charge of famous folks!

This trip was for me but it was also for ALL of my girlfriends who have lost their Dads. Here's to the men who helped shape our lives.  God Bless each of you and the Spirit of your Dads.  Know that I think of y'all every time I get to hug my Dad.

Thursday morning we left the Quality Inn and headed to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.  Now, if any of y'all are planning a trip to the Gateway Arch this summer please be advised the entire surrounding park area is under renovation.  Streets that existed kinda don't exist right now (Atlanta flashback), detours are abundant and SIRI doesn't really seem to know about all of that.  Your best bet is to visit: www.gatewayarch.com, but good luck with that.  This is what is on the 'directions' page, ahem:

Is it just me?

We finally got there and once we did here's how cool it was:

And then we did this:

That's the Lumiere Casino. It was a lot of fun but not the smartest move we made on this trip.  I think I'll stick to scratch-off Lotto cards.  

Speaking of Lotto cards… Crazy Jerry called while we were at the top of the Arch and wanted me to tell y'all that he hit it big with a scratch-off when he and Max were on the way home.  Seems our Crazy Jerry won $4!  Way to go Jerry!

We heard from Max earlier, too.  He wanted to check up on us and see where we were on the road.  When I told him where we were, he said this: 

You're right about that, Max!  Vroooom!

Max has been investigating fuel pump scenarios for the past two days and even offered to email all the info to Dad. Thank you for that, I know Dad will be thrilled to read all your research cause it has been on his mind the entire trip.

Now, Thursday morning when we got up, it was really overcast and kind of gloomy.  

But my sweet brother, Jason, called with a huge burst of Sunshine.  

When he, and his precious wife Jen, came and rescued us with Dad's truck way back on Day 1, he took Lucille home with him.  He took the gas tank off AND had the fuel pump rebuilt as a surprise for Dad.  Now that is love.  Thank you, Jason.  I was afraid I'd have to do all that myself!

I looked up at one point in this blog writing and saw the name 'Kennesaw'.  Holy cow, Daddy!  You really have driven the wheels off of this truck.  We got home around 1:30am.  That's 789 miles in one day. 

We called and gave Mom and Scott a heads up so we wouldn't scare them half to death.

It took me awhile to wind down.  I'm so happy to be home with Scott and our pups, but I miss Dad, already.  I got to have Dad all to myself for 11 days and I will treasure every single minute.  Every single one.  My Dad rocks!  

Y'all have a safe 4th of July!  I'm gonna go call Dad and see if he misses me yet!

Peace. Love. Road trip!

Moab, Vail & Kansas City!

It's Wednesday, July 1.  Dad and I crashed last night at a Holiday Inn in Vail, CO.  In order to put us on the same floor they had to upgrade my room to a suite.  Ummmmm… okay, if you have to.  I sincerely begged Daddy to take the suite but he said no way.  So… tough life that I have, I trudged on down to the two story, vaulted ceiling, kitchenette, bath and a half, living room and fireplace, best mattress I ever slept on hotel room.  Sigh.  If y'all are ever in Vail and you aren't already booked at Four Season's or The Ritz- I highly recommend this Holiday Inn.

Wow!  I didn't get a picture but just outside of Vail, Dad and I and saw a runaway tractor trailer!  Never seen that before.  Tons of dust but he got stopped.  Phew!

Here's a few shots of Vail Village:

So yesterday (Tuesday) we ventured out to Arches National Park in Moab. (More about that in a few.)  While we were admiring the amazing natural wonders, Fuel Pump Max & Crazy Jerry had taken a detour to Ardmore, TN. That's 1550 miles from us and I still know enough to update y'all!  Here's what you need to know:

1. They asked Jack and Mary if they wanted to accompany them on the detour.  Well, Jack, who is still sore about the first detour on Day 2, promptly said 'no' and off he and Mary went down I-75 south to Atlanta.  They arrived around 4:30 EST.

2.  What's in Ardmore?  Well, Crazy Jerry has hired someone to build him a truck that he says is, 'almost too beautiful to drive!'  Here's my best interpretation of what Jerry described to me with apologies in advance if I get the terminology wrong:

It's a '71 Dodge Pick-up, short wheel based side step, brand new 340 engine, with a Crown Vic front end, Mopar rear end, 8 3/4 with a 325 gear and its painted Turquoise and Ivory.  Sounds like quite a gal!  Now, Crazy Jerry claims that Max was salivating.  I would be too.  Can't wait to see it but meanwhile here's some other '71 Dodge Pickup.

I've decided that these guys need mobster names:

Now back out West we checked out of the Moab Valley Inn and probably not a minute too soon because there were 8 of these in the hallway:

Seems maybe the rooms might suddenly need A/C across the hall.  Tripped breaker?

We entered Arches National Park and made our way through a wonderland of natural beauty.  A different kind of beauty for me.  I'm a flower girl.  Never found myself awestruck by rock formations but that all changed Tuesday when I saw all of this:

There were also some really cute puppies:

Took about 4 hours to see the park.  We headed back to Moab for lunch at the Moab Diner.  We hit the road and headed towards Denver.  128 was the route we took to I-70.  It parallels the Colorado River and made for a stunning drive.

If you're ever out this way then definitely take the scenic 128.  When we hit 70 the plains were to our right and mountains to our left and that can cause some meteorological challenges and man did we ever see a storm brewing:

I think I'd like to be a storm chaser. Who's in?

We stopped in Denver long enough for me to hop out of the car, grab a triple tall coconut milk latte (my first of the entire trip) and fuel up.

Once we got to Seibert, CO (134 miles away), we hung out at a tiny truck stop and guess what?  I won $100 on a scratch off!  Yippee!

Kansas was next.  Hmmmm. Beautiful but that is one long, flat ride.  Wow.  Makes for a gorgeous sunset, though:

Here's how long we were in Topeka.  About as long as it took for me to type the name Topeka.  Vroooom, vroooom.

Sly Dog Johnnie over here decided we could make it all the way to Kansas City, MO.  Even better we made it to Independance, MO. That's 711 miles in one day.  We crashed at a Quality Inn where this was posted in the bathroom:

That's all I have to say about that.

I started updating you guys yesterday (Wed) morning and here it is already Thursday morning.  Sorry about that.  We're on our way to St. Louis.  That's the home of jazz drummer, Mike Zimmerman.  He's lived in Decatur, GA for at least 25 years now.  Matter of fact- it's Thursday so he's either playing at Bojhanic or Colbeh.  Go on out there and support local music.  While we're going to St. Louis we're gonna visit the Gateway Arch.

For the record, crazy Jerry and Fuel Pump Max made it home safe and sound and without incident on Tuesday night around 7:30.  Here they are with their gals:

I've known Jerry's wife, Marsha, for years but haven't had the pleasure of meeting Anne.  Girls, Max said the sweetest thing about her, 'she's just as lovely as she is pretty.'  Precious.

That's all for now.  If you made it this far thank you for reading and joining us on this journey!

Peace, Love & Arches!

Kayla

Trains, Cliff Dwellings & Arches, oh my!

I got this great picture above in a text from my dear friend, Bill Jamison. Back home in Atlanta, Bill is a rockstar realtor Keller Williams (just in case you need one). Here's the picture he sent me and how appropriate is this? 

Wake up call was at 6am Monday morning. We HAD to be on the train in Durango no later than 7:30am for our departure at 8am. When the folks running the Durango-Silverton Railroad say they are leaving at 8am - believe 'em because they mean it. Not one minute late.This is a real working railroad and has been since 1925. They have daily passengers that transport to and fro as well as all of us curious tourist. They still maintain the original narrow gage trains and even make new wheels when they have to.

We traveled to Silverton through some of the most beautiful land I've ever seen:

Now y'all, I'm a happily married woman but I gotta tell ya . . . our Conductor was a seriously adorable cutie pie. I'm old enough to be his mother but I'm not blind! That sweet boy smiled at me every time he came through our car! Even Daddy said, "Well, Sis, I think that boy likes you." LMAO. Here's a few pictures of Conductor Martinez. The picture on the left is him explaining to us that we should not hang babies or dogs out of the train window. He has to say this now because its happened. (smh) The one on the right is his facebook profile picture. NO! I am by no means a stalker! Absolutely not. I did want to make sure that it just wasn't the conductor suit that made him seem so cute. Its not.

When we got to Silverton, we had just about 20 minutes to de-train and hop on the bus back to Durango. Daddy went to the bus to get us the front seat and I ran fast as I could three blocks down to the post office to mail postcards! Our bus driver was Tom and he has been working on ranches in Durango since he was about 12 years old. I'm guessing Tom is in his mid to late 50s by now. Real sweet man but Lordy be could that man talk and talk and talk and talk. The whole hour and half ride that man just talked. Interesting stuff and I guess technically he is a tour guide but it wore me and Daddy out listening to him.

Now during our ride on the bus with chatty Cathy . . . who should call me but Crazy Jerry. They were just outside of St. Louis, roughly 1200 miles away. Seems they didn't believe that Max's GPS was telling them the truth. They were right outside of St. Louis, MO and just needed me to verify for them with SIRI that they were being taken on the correct path. I verified YES. Jerry asked where we were headed and I told him to Moab, Utah. Crazy Jerry proceeded to tell me that Salt Lake City, UT has the highest rate of suicide in the nation. He says its because they are down in a bowl/valley and the pollution is so strong that it makes folks go crazy. He swears this is true because a Pilot on a Delta flight told him it was. Good thing we're not going to Salt Lake City. (Actually, Jerry, I googled it. Turns out Las Vegas, NV is the #1 – sorry about that buddy.)

Fuel Pump Max got on the phone to let me know that his wood shield was working great and that if Dad wanted him to fix his car he'd better hurry up because he was going to patent that contraption soon as he gets home. Go get 'em Max! Looking for investors?

Max & Jerry & Jack & Mary all stayed in some place called Lawrence, KS at a Comfort Inn. Originally, they were looking for a steakhouse but sounds like they gave up and settled for Mitzi's Pizza, instead. You can bet it must have been Jerry's birthday once again. Happy Birthday Jerry!

Now back on the other side of the country, Daddy and I left Durango after a delicious lunch at Balcony Bar & Grill (delicious jalapeño cilantro dressing on my salad!). We were headed out to Moab, UT to see the arches. We detoured slightly and made a visit to Mese Verde National Park to see the Cliff Dwellings. WOW! I gotta tell ya – I do NOT know how the Pueblo Indians possibly did all that but braaaaa-vooooo!

We made our way back down the mountain ranges of Mesa Verde and headed back out to Moab.

With out any sort of warning, we crossed the UTAH state line! HOORAY!  Out in the middle of nowhere at mile marker 86 we saw this:

Daddy looks at me and says, “They've got some real weird things out here in Utah, Sis.” Yes sir, Daddy. You are correct! Real weird!

(There's pictures of more weird things in Utah and our train ride at the end of this blog.)

We arrived in Moab around 9pm Utah time, 11pm Atlanta time and 10pm on Crazy Jerry and Fuel Pump Max's time. They're all staying the night in Clarksville, TN and when I talked to them both earlier they were all going over to Logan's Roadhouse and guess who's birthday it is tonight? NOPE! Its Mary's. I'm waiting on the birthday photos and soon as I get them I'll pass them along. Tomorrow I'm going to tell y'all about the crazy hi-jinx Crazy Jerry was up to at almost every food establishment we visited. It involves something that looks like this:

Dad and I are crashed at a nice hotel called The Moab Valley Inn. We split an order of wings at a joint next door called “Blu Pig” where everything is lit up with blue neon. Weird. But it did what it needed to do and we are back at our rooms and ready to strike out on Tuesday morning to Arches National Park and see the arches! After that we're headed back towards Atlanta. We'll be following in the footsteps of our other cohorts and going back through Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee & Georgia. We might actually kiss the state of Illinois briefly between Missouri & Kentucky. Remains to be seen.

Peace. Love. Road Trips!

Kayla

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