trip – The Traveling Maker

Off To Orlando

Day 1 – 10/07/2022

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For the first time since my sabbatical in 2018 we are finally taking a vacation. This one is to Orlando, Florida. We decided to drive so we could see more of the country and enjoy the trip as much as the destination. We decided to go east and then south through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia and finally Florida. When we left it was foggy and quite chilly.

The first day of our drive we crossed all of Kansas and stopped for the night in Columbia, Missouri. Kansas is very long, flat and, to be quite honest, ugly. There are no mountains, trees or water to be seen. I was hoping a bit to at least see a tornado (in the distance) just for something visually interesting but no such luck. Once you get to the very west end of Kansas is starts looking much better. By the time we reached Kansas City there were trees and it was quite beautiful. That’s when we crossed over into Missouri. In Missouri the trees were changing to their fall colors and it was absolutely beautiful. The entire drive from Kansas City to Columbia was a beautiful color wash of trees all along the highway. It was quite impressive and made the drive really enjoyable. It was a long day so we didn’t stop to take pictures. The only pictures we got were from the car moving at 75 mph.

We finally arrived in Columbia around 8pm. We checked into the Staybridge Hotel which was very nice. Unfortunately they had just cleaned the carpet in the room we were in so the floor was a little damp still. But otherwise it was a nice hotel. We went and had dinner at TGI Fridays. It was really tasty. We then just went back to the room and relaxed a bit before hitting the sack.

While driving through Kansas, we encountered a long stretch of road where they were doing construction. It seems when putting down the stripes in the middle of the road that the driver was a bit drunk as the stripes were all really crooked. We found it quite entertaining. We didn’t see this in any other state yet we did encounter a lot of road construction.

Next -> The Middle East

Heading to Idaho

Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations.

Day 2 – 09/16/2018

Today we left Mitchell, Oregon and headed to Twin Falls, Idaho. We decided to take the route through Vale Oregon as I was curious as to what a town looks like in eastern “ugly” Oregon. Vale was actually a nice little town. I still have trouble understanding why anyone would live there on purpose though. As we endured the drive through the remaining land in Oregon, we decided to stop in Ontario, Oregon for one last gas fill-up where someone else does that glorified job for us. See in Oregon it is illegal to pump your own gas. They hire experts to do that for you so you can remain safely in your vehicle.

Eastern Oregon

Shortly after we left Ontario, we decided to listen to music on my phone. We were entering Idaho, where even plants refuse to grow, and really wanted some nice music to go along with the beautiful scenery. Suddenly the stereo decided to go along with the scenery and just shut the volume down to level you could barely hear. We drove a few wonderful miles down the road and decided to do a factory reset on the stereo. This worked like a charm except now our phones were no longer paired with the stereo and it would not allow us to pair them while moving. It refuses to allow either the driver or passenger to be distracted. So a ways down the road we pulled off into a rest stop and paired our phones and allowed the dogs to do their business. Now we were good to go again.

After an eternity of driving across southern Idaho, we finally arrived at our hotel in Twin Falls. It was called Sure Stay (owned by Best Western) and was a pretty nice hotel.

After did my workout for the day, carrying in our bags (the only thing missing was the kitchen sink), we went to see the Perrine Bridge. It is a large bridge that crosses the Snake River Canyon. It’s fascinating.

Perrine Bridge

While looking at, and taking pictures of, the bridge, we saw some base jumpers getting ready to jump from the bridge. I got the camera focused in on them and got some shots of them jumping from the bridge. It was really cool but they are insane.

Base Jumpers

While watching the base jumpers I started talking to a very nice man and he pointed out to me the ramp that Evel Knievel used when he tried to jump the Snake River Canyon. That was really cool.

Evel Knievel Ramp

The twins statue standing watch of the Snake River Canyon was absolutely beautiful.

Twins Statue

Next we decided to go try to see the Perrine Coulee waterfall. We found the top of it but could not figure out how to get to the bottom. We figured it out later but by then it was getting late and we wanted to go see Shoshone Falls. So we scrapped the plans for this one.

We then navigated to the Shoshone Falls to see this mind blowing waterfall that everyone talks to highly about. It appears it has been a very dry year as there was almost no waterfall at all.

Shoshone Falls

But it was quite interesting that there were some base jumpers jumping off the cliffs around it. Those cliffs are really high. Those guys are even more insane than the ones who jump off the bridge. I wasn’t ready for this so didn’t get any pictures of it. So instead I just grabbed a sunset picture of the canyon where they were jumping. Note the small island in the river. That is where they were landing.

The Journey Begins

Thank you for joining us on our journey! I hope I can bring a little fun and enjoyment to your life by sharing this wonderful part of our life.

Day 1 – 09/15/2018

Today is the big day! We are leaving on our 4 week sabbatical trip. We are excited to be visiting 8 states over a 4 week period and sharing it with you. The plan is to see more of Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and then back up the Oregon Coast. We plan to spend almost a week in Colorado seeing family. Then we will be spending several days in McKinney Texas visiting my sister, Julie, and my mom. Then we will start our return trek through New Mexico, Arizona, California and finish it with a 3 day drive up the Oregon coast.

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The day started off great except for the part where we planned to leave by 6am and missed that mark a little over an hour. The plan was to drive to Mitchell Oregon and get there early enough to get some sunset pictures of the Painted Hills. After driving for a while we stopped to fill up with gas and get some snacks. I went to open the back tailgate on the car. Since I rarely drive it any more I didn’t know which button to push. In typical “guy fashion” I just started pushing buttons hoping one would work. Eventually one did and the tailgate opened…..about 12 inches. Apparently I had pushed the memory button and set the tailgate to only open a little. We struggled through that and got back on the road while Debby took up some leisurely reading of the owners manual. After fixing the tailgate, everything seemed to be going well again until our next stop. The dogs were begging us to give them a drink of water so we found a nice little park and stopped to let them all have a drink of water. They thanked us profusely and ran around and did their doggy business. As soon as we got back in the car, Drizzt thanked us again by throwing up all the water he had just downed along with his entire breakfast, all over floor of the back seat and everything we had stuffed into it. We proceeded to clean up Drizzt’s gift and headed down the road again. We finally reached Mitchell and the rest of the day went smoothly. We got some nice pictures of the Painted Hills as hoped and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing in a very nice AirBnB home. Thanks again Larry!!!

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