Road Trip 2015 Day 8

Bella Vista, AR to Ankeny, IA

Heading north through Missouri and Iowa to visit Mr. B's cousin near Des Moines.  She lives in an Independent Living apartment building with her Bichon Frise.
But on the way we stopped for gas in Lamar, MO and there, right across the street, was a quilt shop!

http://www.quiltingqueenonline.com/

This time I didn't have to scream.  So far I hadn't asked to stop at any quilt shops.  They had a very good selection.  I did think that their fat quarters were a little overpriced at $3 per, so I bought two yards at $8.99 and 9.99 each.  I wonder if this is their strategy.  Anyway, I'm happy with a yard of white on white and one of pale violet.  For souvenirs I try to buy neutrals because that is what my stash lacks.

Mr. B and Ginger

For dinner we went to Fong's Pizza, definitely a different experience!  Look for this idea to head west, unless it's already here and I just don't know about it, given my small-town life.

desmoinesregister.com

We ordered three pizzas:  Hunan Pork, Sesame Chicken, and Loaded Potato.  I wasn't too crazy about the Hunan Pork (too sweet for my taste) but I really liked the other two.  Especially the potato.  Not too much of a surprise given my propensity for anything starchy and white that grows underground.  This really opened my eyes to all kinds of pizza possibilities.

Road Trip 2015 Days 6-7

Bella Vista, AR

Monday morning we drove about two hours north to visit with Mr. B's cousin and his wife.  They also have a dog, Chewy, but we didn't get any photos this time.
This area is the worldwide headquarters of Walmart and on our last visit six years ago all the talk was of the art museum that a Walmart heiress was building.

crystalbridges.org

The architecture and gardens are quite beautiful; parking and admission are free, except for special exhibits.  The day we were there, they had Jamie Wyeth and Andy Warhol exhibits.  So of course we had to see those. We did get a photo of Andy Warhol's stuffed Great Dane. 

"Cecil" was not really Warhol's dog; he bought already stuffed. 

I also took this photo of Jamie Wyeth's dog Kleberg.  I read that Wyeth drew the circle around the dog's eye to make him look like the dog on The Little Rascals.

By the way, on our drive from Alma to Bella Vista we noticed that one of our rear tires was a little low.  So as soon as we arrived, Mr. B and cousin took it to a tire shop where, sure enough, they found a nail in it.  Fortunately they were able to patch it and it only cost us a few dollars.  I had my last car for 15 years and never had a flat; this one is six months old and we have had three punctures and one blow-out.  Sure hope this isn't a pattern.

Road Trip 2015 Days 4 and 5

Alma, AR

330 miles across Oklahoma.  We are definitely east of the Dry Line, everything is so green and lush, rolling hills.

We arrived at my brother's house in the early afternoon.  So good to see him and my sister-in-law for the first time in six years. They have a lovely house in the country, with a pond, a barn, and a large field for the horse and donkey to enjoy.  The fenced-in garden around the house now has a chicken yard with 5 hens.

 They still have three dogs, but Betsy is the only one remaining from our last visit.  Daisy and Sammy are new but treated us like we were old friends.

We only had two days here so we didn't do any sightseeing this time.  We did go out for dinner at the Cracker Barrel on Sunday afternoon.  And there was a pretty good thunder storm on Sunday night.

Road Trip 2015 Day 3

Grants, NM to El Reno, OK

High desert, amazing rock formations in New Mexico.  

We crossed into Texas early afternoon.  Mile after mile of wind turbines to the north of I-40.

loe.org

About half an hour later we were in Vega TX where we spent the night on our last southern road trip.  Too early to stop but not too early for Mr. B to have his first Dairy Queen Blizzard.  In fact, we even had lunch - DQ Dude, which is a chicken fried steak sandwich. Mighty good!

Dairy Queen in Vega TX

Back on the road towards Oklahoma City.  However we were now in the Central Time Zone and it had been a long day, so we decided to stop for the night in El Reno, just west of OK City.  Makes more sense to tackle big city traffic early on a Saturday morning rather than evening commute on a Friday, especially when we are already tired.

Road Trip 2015 Day 2

Needles, CA to Grants, NM
The day started off well.  The tires were replaced and we were on the road by 10am, heading through the desert towards Arizona.

However, about two hours down the road we had a phone call from Jeff the Tire Guy.  When he picked us up at the motel that morning, we put our luggage in the back of his pickup.  But when we off-loaded the luggage to our car, somehow Mr. B's briefcase got left behind. There was much discussion about what to do but, since it didn't contain anything especially valuable or necessary for the trip, we decided to alter our return trip plans and pick it up on the way home.  Please don't ask why he even took it along in the first place.
We didn't stop until we reached Williams AZ where we found a Safeway and took a comfort break.  What a difference when we stepped out of the car!  No more desert heat, just cool and fresh.

Our next stop was Winslow AZ.  Do you remember the Eagles song?

www.thetravelempire.com

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the eastern edge of town.  The less said about that the better.

On to New Mexico where we crossed the Continental Divide, changed to Mountain time, and found a room at the Holiday Inn Express in Grants. We weren't very hungry after the meal in Winslow and there weren't any restaurants within walking distance, so we ate a snack bar and called it a night.

Road Trip 2015 Day 1

 Home to Needles, CA

 Mr. B's high school is a small one and, since 2000, they have had an all-school reunion over the Labor Day weekend.  We flew back in 2009 but other things got in the way the next few years, one of which was my Oldsmobile losing its driver's side AC and the GM dealer wanting $1000 just to look at it.  Not gonna happen with a twelve year old car.

 http://www.putnamcountyr1.net/

 We flew back in 2014, first time we had flown since just after 9/11.  Not a good experience.  Anyway, Mr. B finally bought me a new car in January so we decided it was high time we took a road trip.

I had my final post-cataract surgery appointment on Aug 24 so we decided to start our trip the next day, Tuesday Aug 25.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans...
Sunday evening my eye started to hurt, and got worse as the night wore on.  At this point I was thinking we might have to delay the trip.
The next morning it was diagnosed as inflamed, probably due to stopping the steroid drops too soon.  The doctor gave me an anti-inflammatory eye drop prescription and told me to start the steroids again.  The good news is that the pain went away very quickly, the bad news is that he wanted to look at it again the next afternoon.  Well, we could still rearrange our schedule to start a day later.  But when I saw the doctor Tuesday afternoon he said he needed to look at again Wednesday morning.

We took a chance that he would release me then and we would just get a later start, so we took Smokey Joe to the boarding facility in Salinas and told them that if things didn't go well with the eye doctor, we might have to pick him up after one night.  Smokey needs thyroid meds twice a day so didn't want to trust him to a pet sitter. 

Big Red has an automatic food dispenser and a water jug, so we figured he would be okay with our daughter checking on him twice a week.  Plus he has been known to do his own shopping.

Wednesday morning the eye doctor released me and we were on the road by 10am.  We stopped a few times to stretch our legs and added fuel in Newberry Springs on I-40.
 About 20 miles west of Needles, CA we ran into some road debris.  Missed the large piece of tire but couldn't avoid a smaller piece and blew a tire. 

While I was on the phone with AAA I noticed that another tire had a nail in it, so they sent out a flatbed truck to haul us in to Needles.  Of course the tire shop didn't have the right size tires, so they ordered them and drove us to a motel for the night.
Not a great start to the trip but at least we are on our way.

Still Alive

I'm not going to try to catch up on the last 14 months all at once but I am going to try to keep up from now on.

We picked this basket full of absolutely beautiful green peppers.  Several went to our daughter and I am planning to roast the rest tomorrow.  They keep really well in the freezer.

The tomatoes keep on coming.  Cherry tomatoes as well as the larger ones.  We had our first Gazpacho of the summer last week.