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Lorraine McNamara
Retired police officer and social worker. Off on our first road tripMcvan
Travel Blog Posts
June 19th 2010
Spent the day in Chicago - Navy Pier, Soldiers Field, Sears Tower - this is the first time I have been here except for a layover at O'Hare's for a few hours. Chicago is one beautiful and very big city. It is the third most populous in the U.S. The waterfront area is clean, picturesque and there is lots to do. Bill was fascinated by the size of Soldier's Field and of course, wondered where everyone parked! The skyline is worth photographing with Sears Tower "towering"above all other buildings. Needless to say, I could not convince Bill to visit the Skydeck! Well, this was our last stopover on a trip that began four weeks ago and included touring the following states: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisianna, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Kansas, ... read more
Kansas to "Sweet Home Chicago"
Published: June 19th 2010North America » United States » Missouri » Kansas CityJune 16th 2010
Well, we made it safely to Kansas City, Missouri. I am ashamed to admit I thought we were going to Kansas City Kansas! If you look at a map of the area, you can drive around the Missouri river and be in Kansas one minute and Missouri the next. Kansas City, Kansas is actually a smaller city than Kansas City, Missouri and it is actually a suburb of Kansas City in Missouri (or Missoura, if you were born there). As one of the pit bosses was telling me, Kansas City is sistered with Seville Spain and their mall is designed after the one in Seville. We spent two nights there and left the morning of the 17th. People we taled to convinced us to drive straight through to Chicago. Our sightseeing that day consisted of visiting ... read more
June 14th 2010
Well I lost the coin flip and ended up driving through the Rockies! When I got down to about 7,000 feet, I went into a road side restaurant and had a drink! The people there were laughing at me and when they said we had reached a valley, Bill offered to drive. Yesterday was a rainy, cold day in Colorado - mid 50's. We stopped at a couple of sites in the mountains, one in particular was stunning- Treasure Falls. Spent last night in Limon, Colorado after driving many hours on route 71 which has to be the longest, most boring drive we have had. Also, I think I was suffering from altitude sickness (its real!) or just pure fright from the driving. Today we decided to change our route and instead of heading north east, ... read more
June 11th 2010
Hi Left Vegas and drove straight north to Utah. The mountains are absolutely breathtaking. Driving through them can be a little intimidating. I am still wondering why Bill said, (before we hit the mountains) if you want to drive, I could use a break. And so silly me, got behind the wheel and drove through 11 miles of the highest mountains I have ever seen, on the most narrow and curved road. Boy, was I nervous. Really annoyed me watching Bill snapping all the pictures (which Tonya asked for) while I was gripping the steering wheel, with sweat pouring down me. As we are heading into Arizona, the Rockies shoud be a piece of cake! We travelled across Utah into Arizona again, pretty much hugging the border between New Mexico and Arizona. In about 3 hours ... read more
June 10th 2010
Hi All The excitement of Vegas is behind us as we left on Thursday. Vegas has changed a lot in the past few years. There is a monorail that takes you up and down the strip which is so different than years ago when people got on the bus or walked with their bucket of money in one hand and a drink in the other. On our last night we drove the bus to the downtown area which I recalled as a bunch of "less than luxurious casinos and hotels" Now, the area is like a street party all under cover. Every hour they do a light show which is fun to see. Picture this - 100's of people on the street, when suddenly, over very loud speakers the song "American Pie" is played and everyone ... read more
Standing on a Corner in Winslow Arizona
Published: June 8th 2010North America » United States » Arizona » Winslow
June 4th 2010
Taking it easy, taking it easy....... Yes, we are in Winslow Arizona, which nobody really knows about except for the song. This is mostly a ghost town and we are staying in the Winslow Inn, a one star hotel, in the smallest room. Bill and I walked to the store and I asked a lady what is the population in Winslow and she replied " well, if you count the prison population, it could reach up to 10,000! Most of the residents must live in the prison because we did not see too many people. We hightailed it out of Winslow early the next morning heading toward the National Petrified Forest. What a gorgeous and unusual place to see. It is one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, multi-hued badlands of ... read more
Route 66 Texas and New Mexico
Published: June 4th 2010North America » United States » Texas » AbileneJune 4th 2010
Hello Everyone The last two days have been very busy. Left New Orleans on Monday morning and here it is Thursday, and I am sitting in a hotel room in Albuquergue New Mexico! We drove through Texas in 3 days, stopping in San Antonio and Abilene. Visited the Alamo - I was fascinated by places such as "The Crockett Hotel" and "Crockett St." given that this was my mom's name. The actual site of the Alamo is very large and made up of several buildings that housed a mission which was attacked by the Mexicans. And I am proud to say that it was, most likely, one of our ancestors, who emerged as the "hero"! There are many artifacts from the era and the attack, including letters and other documents written by Davy Crockett. It is ... read more
On the Road Again - Somewhere in Texas!
Published: June 1st 2010North America » United States » Texas » SealyJune 1st 2010
Hi All It was sad to have to leave New Orleans - could have stayed a month to get to see everything I wanted to. A good reason for another visit. Marcel, we did the trolley, a couple of clubs, not the ice cream. Walked the French Quarter for hours. I really wanted to go to the beaches but did not get a chance. When you are in the city, you would never know about the oil spill, but certainly, it is all over the news and people are very angry about it. And so, we had to leave this wonderful city and we were on the road early this morning. Bill had a hard time, causeway after causeway, followed by high bridges. He lit up a cigarette every time we came to one and so ... read more
New Orleans What a Great City
Published: May 30th 2010North America » United States » Louisiana » New OrleansMay 29th 2010
Well, second day in New Orleans - There is so much to do here and so much to see, I wish we had planned to stay longer. We took a wonderful tour of the city today and saw so much, the French Quarter (which we had already walked through), 9th ward which was the area hit so hard by Katrina, went to all the levees that broke, the Garden District, a couple of old cemetaries, Sandra Bullock's house and all the houses Brad Pitt and Mike Holmes have built. Went to a couple of areas where the crocodiles hang out, but did not see one which was okay by me. The people in New Orleans are friendly, and despite all the problems, laugh a lot. The city is still vastly impacted by Katrina although you do ... read more
May 27th 2010
Hi all arrived here early this morning. The trip from Jackson was interesting. Did you know you can smoke in restaurants here??? Strange... We took a longer route and came across the causeway. Probably a mistake, because, Bill is not a fan of driving across any bridge with water underneath and I honestly thought he would have a heart attack. He started to sweat, gripping the wheel, and smoking. The causeway is 45 km. long - he did not think he would make it. At the end, when he finally saw "land" he said, that was worth it, right. LOL The hotel is beautiful (thanks Cecelia) old, great architecture. It is actually 7 buildings put together as a hotel and it was built in the 1860's. The walls are all the original brick with beams in ... read more
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