Heading back east

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Heading east from Vegas. At this point we are heading home and stopping wherever we get an urge. Our first stop is the petrified forrest which was very interesting, but not really a forrest at all. The area consisted of logs and pieces of trees that had orginally been washed down river by strong currents and left in riverbeds to age and 'petrify'. The logs have been there for so long that they have dried out and the, because of the minerals and other materials left inbeded in them that they petrify and become hardened like rock and the sediment in them turns to quartz like material almost like stone and the colors in them are very bright and beautiful. Apparently this area has been so picked over that before it before it became a nationa protectedl forrest people took tons of this beautiful element away. It is a criminal offense to take even the smallest particle from the land. It was amazing to see. Another natural beauty of our land. It never ends. This area also included the 'painted desert' which is actually just the landscape presented in such beautiful layers of color that is so facinating to the eye.

We then continued eastward. We made reservations online at a Howard Johnsons motel for the next evening. Unfortunately we did not know there were three HJ's in the area and went to the wrong one. Since one of the reasons we stopped was to see the debate, we ended up staying in the lobby of the 'wrong' motel to watch the debate before getting directions to the correct one. Once there, we had to find a place for dinner. We ate at a retro dinner on Route 66. It was a cute diner, but as usual, we were worn our and headed back to our motel for bed.

Our next venture was to Dodge City, Kansas, home of the wild west and many of my favorite western heros. Unfortunately, we got there at 4:30 and the 'old town and boot hill' close at 5:00 and was not open on Sunday. We talked the cashier into letting us in for 30 min. to see as much as we could and she did not charge us. The area consisted of boot hill and an old town street with shops and other western town buildings to explore. We did not get to see as much as we wanted to but enjoyed what we did see. Actually there was a real wedding taking place in the old church and that was fun to watch as the guests arrived and the brided entered the church. At this point there was not much else to do in Dodge, so we found our "cheap" motel (Phil will not let us spend more than $50 per night) and then went to the casino for a few hours. It should have been longer, but as usually we got lost looking for the casino and went 30 miles down the wrong road.

Today is Sunday and we spend most of the day getting some miles behind us in our effort to get home by the end of the year. We did stop at Cabella's and the Russel Stover outlet, to break up the day. We again found a cheap motel and set out for a nice dinner. We travelled many miles only to end up at an Olive Garden just 5 minutes from our cheapy!!

We are about an hour from St. Louis where we plan to visit tomorrow and see the Arch, the budwiser plant and maybe a riverboat. Hopefully we can do this without putting on too many miles driving in circles. I'll let you know.

As the days run together, I am forgetting to mention so many little details, that are fun and interesting, I will try to do an outline of them before I close out the blog.

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Comments

[Shirley]

I think you are just having too good a time and may not be home until next year. Enjoy. Love the blog. shirley