Category: Sabbatical Trip 2018

Day 20 through 21 – 10/04/2018 – 10/05/2018

Riley has now not eaten in 2 days. We are extremely worried and have decided to end our trip and drive directly home. We have canceled all other reservations and made a new reservation at La Quinta in Redding California.

We drove directly to Redding and got there around 11:00pm. We then slept for about 4 hours and left at 5am to finish driving back to Beaverton, Oregon.

When we got home we took Riley to the vet. She gave us some meds and we are waiting to see how things go. We were excited that when we got home she ate her normal dog food meal without the need to dress it up. Hopefully she will return to normal now we are home. Still waiting to see!!!!

Day 19 – 10/03/2018

Today we drove through Arizona down to Lake Havasu. The mountains in the northern part of the state are large, rugged and beautiful. As we entered Lake Havasu, we were fascinated with the palm trees growing everywhere. It’s like a little paradise.

The view from our hotel room was beautiful too.

When we got to Lake Havasu we let Riley sleep in the room where it was cool and we took Drizzt and Guen down to see the London Bridge. While there they begged us to let them test the water so we let them get in and they both just laid down in the water. I guess they were hot.

A friend of Debby’s told her to look for the numbers that they put on the bricks so they could get it back together in the same order.

Then we went back to the room and got a drink  and then headed down to Lake Havasu where we put long leashes on them and let them wade out and play in the water. They had so much fun chasing the ducks.

There were some guys practicing for some rowing event that Debby enjoyed.

As the sun was setting we could see a storm coming so we high tailed it back to the room.

Just after sunset a storm blew in so we hurried back to the room and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Day 18 – 10/02/2018

Today we drove from Santa Rosa, NM to Holbrook, AZ. The drive was quite dramatic. We hit several thunder and lightning storms and even a bit of hail.

While driving through one of the thunder storms, it was raining so hard you could barely see. We came upon a guy riding a motorcycle with no jacket or helmet. He was covering his head with his hand and ducking down to get through the storm.

We stopped by several “Trader” stores to get some gifts for our kids and grandkids. It ended up taking us much longer to get to the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest than we had planned.

We first went to the Painted Desert. It was beautiful. It was overcast with dark storm clouds so we didn’t get to see the bright colors of the desert. But the storm clouds did add some nice drama to the view.

Next we followed the road south through the Petrified Forest. The first stop was Newspaper Rock which is a rock with a bunch of petroglyphs on it. It was absolutely fascinating.

Next stop was Blue Mesa. It was a big canyon with more beautiful rocks and colors.

While at Blue Mesa, Guen decided to take a peek at the landscape too.

Then we continued on to Badlands. This was my favorite spot. The rocks and canyons were just so rugged and interesting.

Next we went to the Agate Bridge which is a complete petrified tree that had fallen down across a river. We lucked out with some really nice rainbow shots here. There was also a nice looking building that was a restroom in the past.

The final stop was Crystal Forest which is just a large forest of petrified rocks. We got here just at sunset so the lighting was beautiful but dim.

It was nearly 6:00 pm so we made a mad dash to the gate to get out of the park before it closed. We got to enjoy the sunset on the way out.

Day 17 – 10/01/2018

This morning we left McKinney and drove to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. This is the location of the famous Blue Hole where many divers earn their diving certifications.

We drove to Blue Hole and got a few pictures. Then we went to Perch Lake, a nice little fishing lake.

While driving through the old part of the town we saw a little crumbling building in an old cemetery.

Next we went and got a picture of the old railroad bridge over the Pecos River that was in the movie “Grapes of Wrath”.

Then I noticed the Route 66 engraving in the sidewalk.

Day 13 through 16 – 09/27/2018 – 09/30/2018

Today we drove on to McKinney Texas where mom, Julie, Rachel and her family all live.

We were originally scheduled to stay at Days Inn the entire time in McKinney. The first night was fine although the whole hotel just seemed pretty tacky. The second night we were up most the night until around 2:30am due to a big party right outside our room near the pool. We called management and they kept making excuses and wouldn’t put a stop to it. Finally Debby called the police. At that point the manager came to our room and knocked to make sure everyone at the party knew exactly who turned them in. It was the worst experience ever and I highly recommend never considering staying there. We have stayed at Days Inn’s in other cities and it was fine but this one was the worst hotel experience I’ve ever had. The next day we canceled the last 2 nights and requested a refund for the previous night since we didn’t get any sleep. We called and made reservations at La Quinta and moved. The difference was night and day. La Quinta was so much nicer. The room was really comfortable and the breakfast was fantastic. I highly recommend this La Quinta.

Didn’t get many pictures while here. We were busy running around with my sister, Julie, and my mom.

The first day we went to a lake and walked partially around it with the dogs. We were going to go to the dog park but it was closed due to recent flooding. Then we went to dinner that evening to a dog friendly Mexican place named Fuzzy’s Tacos. I took a macro picture of this flower LOL

The next day we met Rachel and Josh and their kids at the Octoborfest in old town McKinney. It was fun although Guen drove me nuts constantly trying to attack every dog in sight. There was a Lemur there that was pretty cool.

The last day we met Rachel, Josh and their kids all at a park in McKinney. Drizzt, Guen and Dakota drove themselves crazy trying to get to all the squirrels.

The only other picture I got was of this flower bud at Julie’s apartment.

We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed seeing everyone in McKinney.

Day 12 – 09/26/2018

We left Colorado bright and early today after a long night of being awake while Riley was coughing. We drove straight through to Texas with just a few stops to allow the dogs to do their business. Along the way we saw quite a few antelope but they were very skittish when we tried to stop to take pictures. One in this group must have been really comfortable because it just laid there and looked at us when all the rest took off.

As we got near Amarillo, we stopped by the Cadillac Ranch. It was pretty cool but we were saddened by all the trash all around it.

And of course the obligatory selfie taken by someone who was walking by.

Then we went and checked in to the hotel, Comfort Inn & Suites, in Amarillo. It is very nice. After getting our stuff into the room we went to Palo Duro Canyon. It was beautiful. We drove down to the bottom and saw a flock of wild turkeys.

and then back up to the top.

Day 6 through 11 – 09/20/2018 – 09/25/2018

This is primarily just a description of what we did while in Colorado as I took almost no pictures. Sheesh, some photographer I am huh?

I ran to Walmart and bought cheap black pants, cheap long sleeve shirt, cheap tennis shoes, 2 new Broncos T-shirts (one for Debby and one for me) and an oscillating fan (Debby likes a fan running at night). The cheap clothes were for painting.

The first day was chore day. There were several things we wanted to get done and to help Ed out with. Here are the chores we did that first day.

• Painted eve of Ed’s house
• Washed the Thule and car
• Debby and Ed went to the commissary
• Ed took Debby to Urgent Care for her elbow – it turns out she has tennis elbow

Google suspended my blog saying it violated their policy. I have no idea what they meant or why so I moved the entire blog over to WordPress and bought 2 years of the site with my domain so I can continue blogging even after the trip.

Daniel came over after work and had dinner and spent the evening with us.

We helped Ed get his printer setup and working and printed off the confirmation email for the train ride on Saturday.

Day 7 – 09/21/2018

Today we didn’t do much. Karen came over at noon and we went to lunch with her at the Golden Corral. Then we came home and Ed and I mowed the grass. Since we had a large lunch and weren’t that hungry, Debby and I walked over to Baskin Robbins and got us all an ice cream for dinner. That is pretty much it for the day today.

Day 8 – 09/22/2018

Today we went to Canyon City and rode the train up through the Royal Gorge. Karen, Savannah, Jim and Aunt Mary also went. It was so much fun.

Day 9 – 09/23/2018

We all met at Karen’s castle for a BBQ lunch. Their house in Larkspur is the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen. It was really nice having a nice lunch with all the family. We also got to see Wendy and Amanda and their kids.

Day 10 – 09/24/2018

Today we went and spent a couple hours with Joann for lunch. We had a wonderful visit. She is sooooo sweet and we were both so happy to get to see her.

Then we drive to Castle Rock and had a nice dinner with my sister, Sheri, and her boyfriend George. It was wonderful getting to spend a couple hours chatting with them over dinner.

And like an idiot I completely forgot to get any pictures.

Day 5 – 09/19/2018

This morning we got up and had breakfast in the hotel and then headed to Cripple Creek. When we got there we had lunch at sandwich shop. It was quite tasty. We were a bit disappointed with Cripple Creek. We remembered it much different.

We still wanted to see a small mining town with some character so we went on a little further to Victor. There was a gold mine on the way to Victor that is still active (using modern machinery) . It’s a little sad what it is doing to the mountain but was still kind of interesting.

It was really cool getting to see some of the old mines in Victor.

There was also entire mountains of beautiful aspens in their fall colors.

There were some old abandoned mines that you can walk right up to and see things up close and personal. They are really cool. The one with the fence around it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

While driving from Cripple Creek to Colorado Springs we came upon some mountains of aspens in their fall colors that was absolutely beautiful.

Day 4 – 09/18/2018

Once again we got the obligatory selfie.

After sunset we fed the dogs in the back of the car and headed on to Grand Junction, CO.

Somehow either the GPS or the navigator got mixed up when going to the hotel and took us to some small neighborhood in the middle of Fruita. We had to circle around and drive back down the same highway again to finally find the hotel.

We finally arrived at our hotel around 10:30 at night. The hotel was La Quinta Inn and was quite nice. They are very pet friendly. Highly recommended for people wanting to travel with their dogs.