On our way to Utah (updated 06/10/16)

We are taking route 40 across the country beginning in Winston-Salem and making our next turn in Flagstaff AZ. That’s one long road. On the way our first major stop was Memphis. Here, I finally felt retired. On a Tuesday afternoon on Beale St. with a drink in my hand listening to a great blues band after eating barbecued ribs at rendezous (awesome).

Blues on Beale Street

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Our next little event was to see the marching of the ducks at the Peabody Hotel. This is an 80 year tradition in which about 5 ducks ride the elevator from their penthouse apartment down to the lobby in the morning to spend the day in the lobby hotel fountain. At 5:00PM the ducks are ushered out of the fountain with great fanfare back into the elevator and up to their penthouse apartment for the night. Quite a show given that the whole event revolves around a few ducks walking across the hotel lobby.

Duck Master                                                                                 Peabody Ducks (soooo cute)

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We next did the pilgrimage to Graceland. We walked around the grounds, visited his grave and moved on.

Elvis Memorial Garden                                                                          Graceland
                                     

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Seeing the grave of Elvis is nothing when compared to seeing the grave and museum of Danny Thomas at the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. A very humbling experience guaranteed to make you feel as if your life has been pointless. When compared to the amazing works of this man, we all should feel a bit smaller.

Danny Thomas Grave Site at St Judes                           Danny thomas museum
                                           

One man can (and DID) make a difference
                                           

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Finally we went to the Bass Pro Shop pyramid. 25 stories tall with the worlds tallest free standing elevator, a bowling alley, alligators and boats actually docked in the indoor pond.

Glass elevator – 25 floors up                                           indoor river and lodge
                                    

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Next comes Arkansas, we thought this was a barren state until we got to Oklahoma. Our thoughts as we were passing through this state were, “Why would you live here?” There’s NOTHING for miles! Even most of the hotels have closed, apparently because of no business. It seems that the best thing to do in Oklahoma is to pass right on through. This is such a country farming area that they have a casino named The Kickapoo Casino.

Finally found a still operating hotel after almost running out of gas as even gas stations are few and far between.

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UPDATE – 5/28/16

As we sat in the hotel room we realized there was a tornado warning.  It was very interesting to watch the weatherman and how they follow the fronts.  As we headed out the next morning the warning was starting to lift.  (very weird for someone from New England).

Last view of what was once a tornado warning

So we started off toward Amarillo Texas.  Once there we visited Amarillo Botanical Gardens and where else, Joe’s taco restaurant.

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Before leaving Texas the next morning, we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch.  Well not so much a ranch as a bunch of old cadillac’s someone decided… bury 1/2 of the car in the dirt and they will come.  And so we did.  You are allowed to spray paint the cars.  There was so much paint on them that they have stalagtites hanging off.  They are in the middle of a big field with nothing around.

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After looking at this national monument (LOL) we said goodbye to Texas and headed for New Mexico.   umm… All we can say is, we now TRUELY have a new appreciation for a hill.  For 4 hours between Amarillo Texas and Albuquerque New Mexico there is NOTHING.  No hills, no farms, no turns, just flat prairie.

flat, flat, flat (one lonely bush)

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We were soooo glad to get to Albuquerque.  We will be here for several days.  Today we went to see Old Town Albuquerque. Old Town was the first neighborhood in 1706, settled by a group of Spanish families.  The town is a traditional Spanish colonial design with a central plaza anchored by a church.  Now it is mostly restaurants and small shops.

In the afternoon, we decided to do a “local” activity.  We went to a wine festival located at Balloon Fiesta Park (home of the famous Balloon festival).  It was a lot of fun, with many local wineries, food, and music.  It was sponsored by Mazda, so we got VIP parking, just for driving a Mazda LOL (David’s kind of place).

(mazda sign is made out of medal and wine corks)

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In the next few days we are planning to go to Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway,  ABQ BioPark (environmental museum including Aquarium, Rio Grande Botanic Garden, Rio Grande Zoo and Tingley Beach (fishing lakes) ), Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument (national park), and a tour of the “Breaking Bad” filming location (happy father’s day Mike).

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Updated 06/03/16

On Sunday (May 29th) we decided to go hiking in Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.  It was beautiful.  It looked like a moon landscape from Doctor Seuss.  We went early in the morning and managed to avoid to many other hikers.  The rock formations are amazing and in some places there is only room for one person to pass through at a time.

They also had a small memorial overlook to honor veterans.

We tried to go to Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway, but it was closed due to high winds.

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On Memorial day we went down to Old Town Albuquerque.  There was an car show going on .  We enjoyed ice cream a wonderful little shop and of course show a Mexican Chiahuahua (in a little pink vest) running around town greeting people.

Then it was time for our “Breaking Bad” tour.  It was awesome (and somewhat quirky), but a lot of fun.  You ride around in a 1986 RV (same color and year) as the one used in the series.  The driver and co-driver were a DEA detective and extra in the series.  The inside of the RV was looked just like the one in the series.  If you answered trivia questions correctly they gave you a baggie of “blue sky” (meth).  Now of course this is really crystalized cotton candy and is made right here in Albuquerque (this is the fun but quirky part).  I have, or will be,put more pictures of the shot locations on the blog under Breaking Bad Gallery.  See if you can quess what part of the series they came from.

As you can tell Mike and I really enjoyed this.  (We loved the series).

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Tuesday (May 31st) We drove all day from Albuquerque NM to Kanab, Utah (our final destination).  Scenery went from prairie as far as you could see to lunar landscape.  It was a long drive but we arrived in early afternoon (we gained an hour because of time zone change).

We started working immediately.  Joanne (owner of the Cowboy Bunkhouse) was buried in quest checking in, quest with problems, plumbing issue so we jumped right in. (the memorial day rush had taken its toll LOL).

We spend all day Wednesday, and Thursday leaning our volunteer responsibilities and just generally helping out.  We are getting to all the staff (basically Joanne’s husband and one son and daughter) and quests.  Everyone is very nice and at the end of the day willing to share there experiences, whether is be hiking, tours, picture opportunities, etc.  One quest has been helping me enhance my photos (thanks David).

Wednesday we ended up having a cookout for around 20 people.  It was a good way to get our feet wet.

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We are now planning out our “time off” adventures.  We work from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. one day (dinner and check-ins), 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. the next day (breakfast bar and check-outs and room cleaning) and 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. the next day (common area cleaning).  The fourth day is our day off.  It is nice because you are off at 5:30 p.m. and don’t have another shift till 5:30 p.m. 2 days later.

So I will be taking some pictures of the bunk house, etc.  (wait till you see the back yard), and posting them in the next few days.

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Soooo.   We have been sooo busy hiking, exploring, working (yes working at the bunkhouse) that I have not had time to get my pictures and such organized.  I have finally done that and PROMISE to update by tomorrow evening with all that we have done in the past 10 days.

I have learnt my lesson and will be updating much more often.  Hang in this, this is a learning curve for me.  LOL