Summertime

colo roadWell . . .looking back at my last post a couple of months ago, I promised to share my second road trip adventure when I returned the end of June. Tomorrow it’s August!  Where has the summer gone?  I guess I’ve been busy and enjoying the warm sunshine. Have I mentioned I love summer!!! We can have some cold winters here in Colorado, winters that sometimes last into May, so you have to get outside and enjoy every warm, sunny day.thermometer

So back to my roadtrip in June. It was good. Nothing bad happened. It was just long, really long! And hot, really hot! Both ways across Southern Utah, all of Nevada and Eastern California the temperatures hovered between 110 and 115.  (Did I mention I l love summer? I meant I love Colorado summers.) Every time I attempted to get out of my car, it felt like walking into an oven.  And I had my dog and traveling companion, Laddie, with me, of course. So it was too hot to leave him in the car alone, so no chance to go inside and cool off.

IMG_1817Anyway, I made it to San Diego, had a wonderful week with my oldest daughter and celebrated my brother’s 60th birthday . . . and then drove home.  I was so tired of being in my car when I got back, I swore I would never take another road trip by myself. But now that its been over a month, in hind sight, it doesn’t seem so bad. We’ll see, next time maybe I will look for a copilot. Or fly, flying is looking better all the time 🙂

Ed

Texas Roadtrip, Continued

Well, as promised, I had an excellent adventure driving the 1720 miles back and forth across Colorado, New Mexico and Texas to visits my daughter in Dallas. My first night stop was in Amarillo where my research had shown the amazing roadside attraction of the Cadillac Ranch. “Ranch” is a stretch.  Not seeing it from the Interstate, I stopped at a small souvenir shop with this huge Second Amendment Cowboy out front (only in Texas!)2nd cowboy

I was told to drive about a mile down the frontage road and look for an old gate into a field. I got back in my car and sure enough, there it was, no sign, no parking lot, just a small dirt edge to the road by an old rusty gate, and off in the distance you could a row of old vintage Cadillacs planted nose down in the dirt. My dog and I got out, in a strong wind that blew the dust from the desolate, empty field into our eyes, and we started the trek across the several hundred yards that led to the cars.image Once there, we approached the only other souls who had ventured out in the wind, a young couple with European accents who understood enough English to take out picture.imageThe cars had apparently been purchased by some hippies in San Francisco in the 70’s and moved to Texas when a generous farmer donated the land for their planting. Once there, they have been spray painted over and over by passers by. (Dang, I didn’t have a can of spray paint with me or I could have added my design to the display).

The next day, driving farther east into Texas, I stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break for me and Laddie and encountered in the parking lot of the gas station this giant chicken. No sign, no explanation, just the chicken. I guess everything is bigger in Texas.chickenThen it was on to Dallas where we were fortunate to get to attend the ACMawards50 party for a cause where we got to see many live performances of amazing country artists (that is before everything was interrupted by the severe thunderstorm/tornado warnings). Not to be outdone in the photo op department, there were many opportunities for pictures with life size cardboard cutouts of your favorite country artists. My daughter and I especially liked Blake and Luke!Texas 5All in all, it was a memorable trip with great photo memories. Its good to be back home. Do you have memorable photos from your last trip? Id love to see them.