Geo: 44.5264, -109.056DAY 5 continued.I found our hotel -- The Cody -- on Trip Advisor and it was a beaut. A luxury hotel, at least for this cowboy town. Lovely lobby. Lovely rooms. Friendly staff. Good beds. Warm complementary breakfast. And located across the road from Cody's nightly rodeo. What more could you want? Maybe a lower price. Why did I think these small towns would be a bargain, when they are the gateway to some of the best national parks?The staff "steered" us to Wyoming Rib & Chop House on Sheridan Road. We had a half-hour wait so we wandered along the street, doing some window shopping. Cute shops and lots of restaurants. A small college town without a college. But plenty of tourists and plenty of cowboys. We checked out the Irma Hotel, where ... read more

Geo: 39.9864, -104.818Day 3We decided to play Denver tourists and visit the Denver Mint. Tours are free but they require a reservation online and a print-out ticket for admission. Some limited number of spaces are available for walk-ins. Tour is just a half-hour and is quite interesting. No purses, no cameras. More secure than airport check-in. They were producing pennies, but had Harrison gold dollars and Yellowstone silver quarters available for purchase. Old building is gorgeous; new one is pretty hi-tech. Only government agency to actually make money – literally and figuratively. Because of collectors, coins sell for much more than face value.We then toured the Denver Art Museum. There are two buildings in the Denver cultural center. On the 7th floor of the taller building is the western art. Remington, Russell and more. Very impressive ... read more

Geo: 38.8403, -97.6114"The shortest distance between two point isn't the point."Day 1Departed mid-afternoon from St. Louis and headed west on I-70 through Kansas City on our way to Denver for a wedding, then on to see Mount Rushmore and check South Dakota off our list of states we have visitedWe stayed at Courtyard Marriott in Salina, KS, which was fine in terms of service but somewhat pricey and 5 miles off the interstate. We had dinner at Wendy's, breakfast from McDonald's and a Starbucks for the road. Unfortunately, this set the trend for food consumption for the trip.... read more

Geo: -1.27975, 36.8126DAY FIFTEEN (Friday, September 18, 2009)Leavin' on a jet planeNo alarm clock this morning … got a full 8 hours of sleep. We packed, had breakfast and relaxed, waiting for our 10 am departure.It was a long travel day:- Transfer to local airport where we shopped the "duty-free shop" set up in a hut.· Air Kenya flight (one hour or so) to Nairobi and transfer to our downtown hotel through some horrific traffic; I gather it's always awful, to the point you have to allow LOTS of extra time to make sure you make your plane· We had rooms at the Nairobi Serena Hotel, one of the top hotels in Nairobi, where security guards checked our car for bombs before we could be dropped off. A bit unsettling.· Tauck had arranged day rooms for ... read more

Geo: -1.48848, 35.0464DAY THIRTEEN (Wednesday, September 16, 2009)The best of in-TENT-ions!Moving day again. We are flying to the Maasai Mara for our last game drives. As bad as the roads we have experienced, Tauck has spared us many of them. Our tour includes four domestic flights to get us to our properties quicker and less painfully. Mostly we flew on small planes with regular names (Air Kenya) but completely booked with our group. They bus our luggage to the big cities and we take small duffle bags with two days of clothing and supplies to the safari lodges. I was dreading that aspect of the trip (me, living out of an athletic bag for 3 days/2 nights) but it hasn't been as difficult as I had anticipated. Sure, you find something you wanted was in the ... read more