5-29 (Sat)
Lake Powell/Glen Dam

Once again I did not sleep well. We had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel and then drove over to Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell. We took pictures and then went to Walmart before heading over to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Unusual rock formations

We ate lunch first and then walked Bright Angel Point and Bridle Path. Coming back on Bridle Path we saw 2 deer who took time to pose for us. Grand Canyon
We made it a point to leave as close to 4:00 as we could because we had about a two hour drive ahead of us. We drove to Mt Carmel, Utah where we had a room reserved for us by AAA! The room was actually very nice but the people at the front desk were so rude. The town didn’t have a stop light, just a stop sign. Do you get the picture? PLUS gas was $3.15.

5-28 (Fri)
We left Durango at 8:00. After a shopping trip to Walmart we departed for Mesa Verde (Connee thanks for telling us about this) about 30 miles up the road. We were able to use our National Parks pass to get in free. The earliest tour ($3) we could get was 11:30 but we decided to do it even though we thought we had an 8 hour drive ahead of us. While we were waiting in line I interviewed one of the Rangers about how to drive up and down the mountains.

Mesa Verde

The tour was supposed to last an hour but you know how that goes. We stopped in the park for lunch because we were afraid we wouldn’t find anything along the way. It was probably 2:00 by the time we left the park. Nancy got on the phone with AAA trying to find us a place to stay for the evening. There was NOTHING up around Arches National Park. The girl found one room in Page, AZ. It was more than we usually pay but we were grateful to get it especially with this being Memorial Day weekend. We also had AAA book us a room near the North Rim of the grand Canyon for tomorrow night.
Good news, bad news . . . The good news is we have been keeping the car nice and clean - washing the windows at each gas stop etc. The bad news is between Cortez and Page we went through a MAJOR dust storm. The wind must have been blowing at least 70 mph. I kept saying, “Oh no, my car is getting dusty.” It about drove Nancy nuts. She drove through the worst part of it and she had to fight to keep the car on the road. There were times when we couldn’t see a car’s length ahead. Everyone was driving with their lights on. It was like a thick fog or heavy rainstorm back home. Similar to our rain in that we drove in and out of pockets of it. There would be no dust/sand but the wind still blowing and up the road we could see where we could enter the dust again. It probably took us an hour and a half to get through it. When we stopped to change drivers we could hardly open our doors.

We took a short cut to Page and saw many unusual rock formations along the way.

I went inside to check in. A guy was ahead of me making a reservation for $119. AAA had told us we were getting the last room. While I was hanging around the lobby they were selling rooms right and left. When I got up to the counter I asked if there was a $119 room left. There was so I told the girl I wanted to change our $143 room for a $119 room. She said she couldn’t do it because AAA had made the reservation. Before we went to dinner we stopped by the front desk and talked to her again. She agreed to drop the price to $119.

We had dinner in a FABULOUS Mexican restaurant. .

7-27 (Thurs)

It was very cold this morning. Since we were taking the train to Silverton and riding in an open car we decided to wer long pants, thermal tops, and I put on the fleece I bought yesterday at the Thrift Store over my sweatshirt.

After everyone was loaded we went whistling and tooting our way through town. We were in the last 2 seats on the open air car and we had a great view.

It took about 2 1/2 hours to reach Silverton. We ate lunch at the Pickle Barrel then walked around town until it was time to get the bus back to Durango. We got great advice from our friends to take the train up and bus back. I slept most of the way back because I hardly slept at all last night.

When we got back I took off for the laundry mat and washed our clothes.

The top picture is on the train today. The second pic is me driving across country wearing my garden gloves.

5-26 (Wed)

Spending the night in Durango. An uneventful day . . . I remembered how to turn on the car and we didn't run out of gas! Toured the Azetc ruins in Aztec, NM. Had lunch at the historic Strater Hotel in Durango.

We're now at our suite sitting out on the porch having a glass of wine!

7-25 (Tues)

Good news, bad news . . .

The good news is that Nancy had AAA. The bad news is that we ran out of gas! I was tooling down the road and forgot to look at the gas gauge. We were about an hour into our departure when I heard a sound. I asked Nancy if she heard it and she said, "yes." She checked both cell phones and didn't see anything unusual there. I told her it sounded like a doorbell. We forgot about it. Maybe 30-45 minutes later I noticed the gas gauge was on empty and the gas icon was lit up. I had Nancy get out the car instruction book, she read, "your vehicle has a programmable electronic feature that will sound a chime when the Low Fuel Warning Light come on." I think it must sound like a doorbell!

We were 8 miles from a little town called Grooms, in Texas when we saw an exit and it showed a gas sign. This was more like a service road and there was NO gas. This service road shot right back up onto I-40 but we didn't make it that far which turned into a blessing.

Nancy called AAA. The 800# connected her to Tennessee and they couldn't find Grooms. We finally got connected with the right group and they said they'd send someone from Amarillo in 30-45 minutes. We just sat and waited. About 45 minutes later a guy showed up and poured a couple gallons in the car. He said he would follow me to the gas station. I put the car in gear and mashed on the gas but it wouldn't go. I put it in park and then back in drive but it wouldn't budge. I jumped out, ran back to the guy in the truck and told him the car wouldn't move. he got in my car, turned the key and that was it. How dumb was that? I didn't even know the car wasn't turned on!

We are in Farmington, NM for the night.

5-24 (Mon)
We were up by 6 a.m. getting ready to depart, packing and having breakfast. We had to wait until after 730 so wee could see Murphy (the dog) off to school. We finally pulled out at 8:00.

It didn’t take us long to get into our stash of food.

We stopped for lunch and gas in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. We went through Oklahoma City around 5 p.m. rush hour. Nancy was doing the driving and she did great. We wanted to get on through so we wouldn’t have to contend with the morning traffic.


We spent the night in Weatherford, OK.

5-23 (Sun)

We were tired last night so we went to bed about 10:00. There was something that kept ticking all night, I thought maybe it was the A/C when it would shut off but in the morning Nancy put her ear to all of the appliances and discovered it was the refrigerator!

We had planned to sleep in but both of us were awake by 5 a.m. . We had breakfast (included) at the hotel. After we threw everything in the car we went to Walmart! We bought two more window shades and a water bottle. We departed Jasper at 9:30 headed for Memphis.

We arrived in Memphis around 12:30. We went into the Piccadilly to eat. The black ladies in there had just come from church and they were decked out in beautiful clothes and fancy hats. We decided it was going to be too expensive to eat there so we went to Chilies and split a salad.

We arrived at Bill and Mary Ann’s at 2 p.m. Bill helped us organize the back seat of the car. It was so much better than the mess we had.

In the evening we went over to see Brenda’s new, beautiful house, in Harbor Town on Mud Island. She is still in the process of getting settled. We all went out for dinner. Later Bill, Mary Ann, Nancy and I went down by the Mississippi River and took pictures.

When we go0t back Bill helped Nancy with the editing of her pictures.

5-22 (Sat)
Good news, bad news . . . The good news is that we found our way out of Orlando, the bad news is that we got lost before leaving Florida.

We got up at 5:30 very excited to be on our way to Yellowstone with stops in between at Memphis, Durango, Zion and Salt Lake City to name a few. We had planned to leave by 7:00 and only missed it by 15 minutes. I started the car then turned to Nancy and said, “Which way do we go?”

We decided that we’d each drive 2 hours and then change. At 9:30 we thankfully found a rest area. We were both hungry so we ate a boiled egg that I made yesterday. We got back on the road and began stuffing our mouths with cookies and nuts.

We had planned to stop at the Alabama Welcome Center. The next thing we knew we looked at each other and read “Welcome to Georgia!” Needless to say Georgia wasn’t on our list of states to go through. We had gotten lost before we ever left Florida. Instead of turning back we continued on to Valdosta and Tifton. At Tifton we hung a left towards Montgomery passing through Albany and the lovely little town of Cuthbert. It had the most beautiful old houses. We drove slowly and kept pointing to each one we passed.

At 2:30 we stopped for gas and then some lunch. The ride to Montgomery was on country roads but it was beautiful. We were kinda glad we got lost.
We drove 600 miles to Jasper, Alabama where we stayed at the Jameson Inn for $80.

My friend, Nancy D, and I are leaving today for our great adventure in Yellowstone. Yes, I'm going back for another summer of work in reservations! Can you believe it after all the worry and stress I went through last year? We are both so excited. We plan to depart Orlando by 7 a.m. Tonight's goal is Birmingham.