csjolander

On our last morning, we had one more stop planned. We headed over to the Titan Missile Museum right in Green Valley. This is the last missile silo still in existance (minus the warhead of course) and when it was decommissioned, it was turned into a museum. It was interesting to learn that the glass lid over the missile was more the let the Soviets verify that it was still in place than to protect it from visitors. We went on the guided tour down into the control room and into the actual silo. Samantha got to play the part of the captain, turning the key in a simulated launch. The old technology was fascinating and the checklist of things the crew had to do every shift to ensure that nothing was off was enormous. It ... read more

We got up early today because we had reservations for the 9:00 a.m. Left Hand Tunnel tour of Carlsbad Caverns. Our tour guide took us down into a less frequently used area with lanterns and answered a bunch of questions for us. Sam and Rece were more interested in this than most of the things on the trip. Sam asked lots of questions about the caves and what it was like to be a ranger. We spent a lot of time over in the Big Hall, too. It was fascinating. Gabe took lots of pictures but my camera won't capture anything in low light so I didn't try. We wandered about 1/2 way through and took the short cut out. All in all, we spent almost 4 hours underground - it was really fascinating. Once we ... read more

Gabe got up early and headed over to do the client work while Rece, Samantha and I got the car packed up. We'd picked up frozen breakfast sandwiches which we microwaved into barely edible form. We giggled a lot when the directions were completely unhelpful. I'd never seen an analog microwave either - it had dials for the time. Those, plus some soy milk, and we were on our way. As I'd claimed "brownie points" for being so understanding about stopping for a work-related event in Austin, the original meaning of "brownie points" was questioned: According to wikipedia, Brownie points are a hypothetical social currency, which can be accrued by doing good deeds or earning favour in the eyes of another. The origin of the term is uncertain. We only had a short drive, about 175 ... read more

We got up early and loaded up the van in order to get back on the road. We had a long drive ahead - 600 miles or so - to Hot Springs, Arkansas. As we'd already done a lot of the drive, we made great progress. We arrived in Hot Springs about 6:00 p.m. We checked into the famous Park Hotel and decided to take a walk around the town. Hot Springs National Park is the only national park that is completely within city limits. We had a nice walk through the promenade and then walked by all of the old bath houses. We headed back to the hotel restaurant and had a great Italian dinner. We sent the kids up to the room and Gabe and I had a beer at the bar. We were ... read more

We woke up to pretty heavy rain. We Californian's were pretty pleased to see it for once. We spent a short time wandering around the grounds - the kids fed the catfish and played with the dogs - before the yummy pancake breakfast Alynne made for us all. After breakfast, we all piled back into the car and headed to North Carolina to Gabe's sister, Joanne (and Tom's) house in Asheville. Once we got there, Gabe and Rece had a chance to catch up with family. Mary, Danny's partner, brought their young kids (Ely and Lilly) over and they kept everyone entertained. Joanne and Gabe had some time to talk. Charlotte made Gabe a birthday cake from scratch and Sam got to compare notes with Savannah, Joanne and Tom's older daughter. Savannah made a great chicken ... read more