Chris' lighted tree
My large float
My medium float
My small float
All three floats on their display stand
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Saturday pictures
Chris' lighted tree
My large float
My medium float
My small float
All three floats on their display stand
Saturday
Saturday, April 24
Ahhhh, slept in today and did not get up until 930am! Felt so good to sleep in a comfy bed. Did not want to get up. Nice to be home. Wendys for breakfast today. Sorry McD's.
Went to pick up floats and tree. The box the tree was packed in was too big for my car so I had to leave it and come back later. Went with Chris as his car is bigger and it still didnt fit! Had to take it out of the box and just put it in the trunk. Oh well, its not a long drive.
Gave his car a much needed bath and headed home to do laundry. Rest and relaxation tomorrow before heading back to work on Monday. Wow, already?!?!!?!!?? Thanks for going on vacation with me!
Ahhhh, slept in today and did not get up until 930am! Felt so good to sleep in a comfy bed. Did not want to get up. Nice to be home. Wendys for breakfast today. Sorry McD's.
Went to pick up floats and tree. The box the tree was packed in was too big for my car so I had to leave it and come back later. Went with Chris as his car is bigger and it still didnt fit! Had to take it out of the box and just put it in the trunk. Oh well, its not a long drive.
Gave his car a much needed bath and headed home to do laundry. Rest and relaxation tomorrow before heading back to work on Monday. Wow, already?!?!!?!!?? Thanks for going on vacation with me!
Friday pictures
Turkey vulture
Otter
Monkey
Mexican grey wolf
Crane
Shuttle display
Trinity Site
Real rocket
NM dust storm
A very ominous storm we drove through
Friday
Friday, April 23
Good morning!! Today began at the normal time, 730am. With our staple breakfast at McD's. Maybe I should buy some stock or something. We sure are giving them a lot of our business!! As we were heading to breakfast, we passed our first destination, the Alameda Park Zoo. So, we knew where to come back to and eat before we went in.
We decided to go there first as it was overcast and threatening to rain. The zoo was small, but had some nice exhibits. It was early and I think a lot of the animals were still sleeping! We missed the bears and the mountain lion. A few other animals hiding out still, but bears and kittys are my favorite. Oh, and the lemurs were hiding! We saw two of them, sitting right inside the door to their indoor enclosure. They looked at us but did not come out. Said, nope! lol Too bad. Nice leisurely walk through the park and zoo. They had a mileage marker, but I am sure it was wrong. Because it certainly felt like we walked more than what it said! I think we walked 3/4 of a mile. Pretty short distance compared to OKC Zoo and Henry Doorly Zoo, but a lot for 9am. OK, maybe not.
After we left the zoo, we went to our next destination, the New Mexico Space Museum. It is set up on a mountain behind New Mexico State University. Once we were up on the 4th floor (where the exhibits begin), you could look out over Alamogordo and beyond. Amazing view. And the sun was trying to come out. We perused the Museum and saw some interesting things about rockets and space exploration. The one thing I found most interesting was they had placards on the walls of people from around the world who had been inducted into the Space Hall of Fame (not sure of the exact name). There were a lot of people I have never heard from, but some surprising ones I have! Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton, Hipparchus (ok, I havent heard of him), Carl Sagan (!), Galileo Galilei, and Thomas Stafford - the astronaut the Space Museum in OK was named after.
We were done relatively early since we were in the city where everything we wanted to do was located. We headed to our next destination, Las Cruces. We waved at the White Sands Missile Test Range was we drove by and bid adieu to Trinity Site. The army was not doing testing, so the freeway was not closed. When they do testing, the freeway is actually shut down for up to an hour in both directions to avoid any mishaps.
We had one thing that we wanted to do in Las Cruces and planned on spending the night. However, as we got into Las Cruces, we decided to not do our final thing and head to our next destination. HOME! We drove through some nasty storms, including hail, but we were home by about 630pm, local time. Yes, it was a day early, but believe me, it will be nice to sleep in a comfy bed! And knowing that I only have to lug my luggage out of the car one more time will be excellent. Whew!
Weather. Rain. Hail. Sun. No snow. lol Thankfully it did not rain while we were at the zoo!
Our ending mileage was 52850. Our total mileage, 6050 miles (give or take). A marathon driving vacation of 17 days. I hope you enjoyed taking my vacation with me. I will post pictures tomorrow of the glass floats I picked up in Oregon and had shipped home and the lighted tree Chris picked up in South Dakota and had shipped home. Both will be picked up tomorrow!
Good morning!! Today began at the normal time, 730am. With our staple breakfast at McD's. Maybe I should buy some stock or something. We sure are giving them a lot of our business!! As we were heading to breakfast, we passed our first destination, the Alameda Park Zoo. So, we knew where to come back to and eat before we went in.
We decided to go there first as it was overcast and threatening to rain. The zoo was small, but had some nice exhibits. It was early and I think a lot of the animals were still sleeping! We missed the bears and the mountain lion. A few other animals hiding out still, but bears and kittys are my favorite. Oh, and the lemurs were hiding! We saw two of them, sitting right inside the door to their indoor enclosure. They looked at us but did not come out. Said, nope! lol Too bad. Nice leisurely walk through the park and zoo. They had a mileage marker, but I am sure it was wrong. Because it certainly felt like we walked more than what it said! I think we walked 3/4 of a mile. Pretty short distance compared to OKC Zoo and Henry Doorly Zoo, but a lot for 9am. OK, maybe not.
After we left the zoo, we went to our next destination, the New Mexico Space Museum. It is set up on a mountain behind New Mexico State University. Once we were up on the 4th floor (where the exhibits begin), you could look out over Alamogordo and beyond. Amazing view. And the sun was trying to come out. We perused the Museum and saw some interesting things about rockets and space exploration. The one thing I found most interesting was they had placards on the walls of people from around the world who had been inducted into the Space Hall of Fame (not sure of the exact name). There were a lot of people I have never heard from, but some surprising ones I have! Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton, Hipparchus (ok, I havent heard of him), Carl Sagan (!), Galileo Galilei, and Thomas Stafford - the astronaut the Space Museum in OK was named after.
We were done relatively early since we were in the city where everything we wanted to do was located. We headed to our next destination, Las Cruces. We waved at the White Sands Missile Test Range was we drove by and bid adieu to Trinity Site. The army was not doing testing, so the freeway was not closed. When they do testing, the freeway is actually shut down for up to an hour in both directions to avoid any mishaps.
We had one thing that we wanted to do in Las Cruces and planned on spending the night. However, as we got into Las Cruces, we decided to not do our final thing and head to our next destination. HOME! We drove through some nasty storms, including hail, but we were home by about 630pm, local time. Yes, it was a day early, but believe me, it will be nice to sleep in a comfy bed! And knowing that I only have to lug my luggage out of the car one more time will be excellent. Whew!
Weather. Rain. Hail. Sun. No snow. lol Thankfully it did not rain while we were at the zoo!
Our ending mileage was 52850. Our total mileage, 6050 miles (give or take). A marathon driving vacation of 17 days. I hope you enjoyed taking my vacation with me. I will post pictures tomorrow of the glass floats I picked up in Oregon and had shipped home and the lighted tree Chris picked up in South Dakota and had shipped home. Both will be picked up tomorrow!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday pictures
New Mexico windfarm
Red fox
White peacock
Ummm, ?
Bear
Street lights in Roswell
Alien autopsy
Alien mural
Snow in New Mexico
Clouds hanging over the mountains
Snow! (disregard the windshield wipers)
Thursday
Thursday, April 22
Today dawned at our normal 730am. However, instead of getting McD's this morning, we got Burger King! Change of pace. Got a croissanwich. Pretty good! We get on the road and head to Roswell. The alien capital! Or something like that. lol
We made it to our first destination, a free zoo. It was small, but they had a few animals. Yesterday I saw my first white peacock and today, I saw one with his tail open! Wow. So pretty and amazing. They had some pretty nice birds as well. Some exhibits were closed due to new enclosures being made. It was a nice walk around the zoo. In the "childrens zoo", they had llamas and one came right up to me to be pet! Reminded me of my Uncles llamas. I miss them.
On to our next destination, the International UFO museum. It was smaller than I expected and not really what I expected. It had a bunch of reproduction articles and pictures of "The Roswell Incident" of 1947. There were some other articles and pictures about suspected UFOs as well, but I was disappointed.
We originally planned to stay in Roswell, but we were done with what we wanted to do so early, that we headed out to be closer to what we wanted to do tomorrow, Alomagordo, NM. We thought about visiting the site where they detonated the first atomic bomb, but they are only open 2 days a year to the public, the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October. Oh well. White Sands Monument, another place I wanted to visit, is probably out of the question also because its really the wrong way towards home. Still, there is a Space Museum and a Zoo to do! Yay!
Got to the hotel really early but since things we want to do are in town, we called it a day. Got some dinner and watched TV. Nice lazy night.
Weather. Well, what can I say about today. We had rain, sleet, .... and snow! Snow? Yes! Snow! Out of all the places we have visited, New Mexico was the last place I exptected to have snow. The snow in Canada doesnt count because it was overnight and didnt really hit us in Calgary, as it was much further south. Rain is expected for the last two days until home. We shall see! While I was doing this blog, it rained and *hailed* outside! Eeeeeeps.
Today dawned at our normal 730am. However, instead of getting McD's this morning, we got Burger King! Change of pace. Got a croissanwich. Pretty good! We get on the road and head to Roswell. The alien capital! Or something like that. lol
We made it to our first destination, a free zoo. It was small, but they had a few animals. Yesterday I saw my first white peacock and today, I saw one with his tail open! Wow. So pretty and amazing. They had some pretty nice birds as well. Some exhibits were closed due to new enclosures being made. It was a nice walk around the zoo. In the "childrens zoo", they had llamas and one came right up to me to be pet! Reminded me of my Uncles llamas. I miss them.
On to our next destination, the International UFO museum. It was smaller than I expected and not really what I expected. It had a bunch of reproduction articles and pictures of "The Roswell Incident" of 1947. There were some other articles and pictures about suspected UFOs as well, but I was disappointed.
We originally planned to stay in Roswell, but we were done with what we wanted to do so early, that we headed out to be closer to what we wanted to do tomorrow, Alomagordo, NM. We thought about visiting the site where they detonated the first atomic bomb, but they are only open 2 days a year to the public, the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October. Oh well. White Sands Monument, another place I wanted to visit, is probably out of the question also because its really the wrong way towards home. Still, there is a Space Museum and a Zoo to do! Yay!
Got to the hotel really early but since things we want to do are in town, we called it a day. Got some dinner and watched TV. Nice lazy night.
Weather. Well, what can I say about today. We had rain, sleet, .... and snow! Snow? Yes! Snow! Out of all the places we have visited, New Mexico was the last place I exptected to have snow. The snow in Canada doesnt count because it was overnight and didnt really hit us in Calgary, as it was much further south. Rain is expected for the last two days until home. We shall see! While I was doing this blog, it rained and *hailed* outside! Eeeeeeps.
Wednesday pictures
Meerkats
Lizard
Some of the gorgeous birds in this zoo
Smallest wild cat, its the size of a house cat
Cougar
That's a lot of bats!
This grizzly is right on the other size of the glass!
Bald eagle
Capsule
Clouds over Texas
Wednesday
Wednesday, April 21
I forgot to mention two things yesterday. When we entered into Oklahoma, there was a speed limit sign that said max 70 mph. Right under it, was another sign that said the speed limit is strictly enforced. After getting a warning in South Dakota, Chris takes it seriously and does the speed limit the entire way. At some point, after we entered Oklahoma, I saw a sign (but did not get a picture) that said we were at the exact crossroads, the very center, north/south/east/west, of the United States! Was it? Possibly. I dont know. Just thought it was interesting!
Today dawned at the normal time of 730am. We got up and got our staple breakfast of McD's. Bagel sandwiches! Yum. Ahhh, Im going to miss those when I get back home. We arrive at the Oklahoma City Zoo shortly after it opened. We walked around most of it, but it is huge! We were there for almost 3 hours and saw almost everything. They have a nice butterfly display. We saw the aquarium, cats, and bears. The elephants were at the Tulsa Zoo because they are trying to breed them and they are building them a larger enclosure. I saw some very pretty birds that I have not seen before, got a couple pictures! So after 3 hours, we have to get going so we head out.
We visited our only other destination for the day, Stafford Air & Space Museum. It was nice, saw lots of things about our space program. Gnrl Stafford was on two Apollo missions. There was some great information about his history; he is from Weatherford, Oklahoma. On our way out of town, we decided to stop and get shakes from McD's. We have been pretty good regarding lots of extra sweets this time, so it was a nice treat!
We headed out to where we planned to stay for the night, Amarillo, TX. Tuesday there were tornados in the area, so we expected some kind of weather. Instead it was nice and sunny. We got to Amarillo very early, so we decided to drive a little further, to get closer to our destination for tomorrow, Roswell, NM. As we were driving, we went through Hereford, TX. They are the "Beef Capital of the world". Yea, we know why. lol After we left town, we rounded a corner and there was a ranch that had thousands and thousands of cattle in pens right up close to the freeway. There were easily over 20 thousand. The pens area was about a mile long and maybe half mile deep. Just cows everywhere. Right across the freeway, a large ranch were cattle roamed free. Hmm.
We ended our night in Clovis, NM. The first sign once we entered NM was for livestock transporters that NM is a tuberculosis quarantine area and proper paperwork is required. OK. We headed for a hotel, the La Quinta. It was sold out. Our first sold out hotel on the trip. So we went across the street to the Holiday Inn Express. Got our room and ate dinner. Chris watched TV and I called it an early night. Chris laughed at me. But I was tired!
No rain!
I forgot to mention two things yesterday. When we entered into Oklahoma, there was a speed limit sign that said max 70 mph. Right under it, was another sign that said the speed limit is strictly enforced. After getting a warning in South Dakota, Chris takes it seriously and does the speed limit the entire way. At some point, after we entered Oklahoma, I saw a sign (but did not get a picture) that said we were at the exact crossroads, the very center, north/south/east/west, of the United States! Was it? Possibly. I dont know. Just thought it was interesting!
Today dawned at the normal time of 730am. We got up and got our staple breakfast of McD's. Bagel sandwiches! Yum. Ahhh, Im going to miss those when I get back home. We arrive at the Oklahoma City Zoo shortly after it opened. We walked around most of it, but it is huge! We were there for almost 3 hours and saw almost everything. They have a nice butterfly display. We saw the aquarium, cats, and bears. The elephants were at the Tulsa Zoo because they are trying to breed them and they are building them a larger enclosure. I saw some very pretty birds that I have not seen before, got a couple pictures! So after 3 hours, we have to get going so we head out.
We visited our only other destination for the day, Stafford Air & Space Museum. It was nice, saw lots of things about our space program. Gnrl Stafford was on two Apollo missions. There was some great information about his history; he is from Weatherford, Oklahoma. On our way out of town, we decided to stop and get shakes from McD's. We have been pretty good regarding lots of extra sweets this time, so it was a nice treat!
We headed out to where we planned to stay for the night, Amarillo, TX. Tuesday there were tornados in the area, so we expected some kind of weather. Instead it was nice and sunny. We got to Amarillo very early, so we decided to drive a little further, to get closer to our destination for tomorrow, Roswell, NM. As we were driving, we went through Hereford, TX. They are the "Beef Capital of the world". Yea, we know why. lol After we left town, we rounded a corner and there was a ranch that had thousands and thousands of cattle in pens right up close to the freeway. There were easily over 20 thousand. The pens area was about a mile long and maybe half mile deep. Just cows everywhere. Right across the freeway, a large ranch were cattle roamed free. Hmm.
We ended our night in Clovis, NM. The first sign once we entered NM was for livestock transporters that NM is a tuberculosis quarantine area and proper paperwork is required. OK. We headed for a hotel, the La Quinta. It was sold out. Our first sold out hotel on the trip. So we went across the street to the Holiday Inn Express. Got our room and ate dinner. Chris watched TV and I called it an early night. Chris laughed at me. But I was tired!
No rain!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tuesday
Tuesday, April 20
Today dawned a little later than normal, 830am. We got up and got ready, headed out to get some breakfast. We headed over to the train depot, planning on taking the first excursion at 10a. We ate breakfast and I went over to the office to find out about tickets. Unfortunately, the train was only running at 2p. We could not stay that long, so we headed out as we planned to go to the Oklahoma City Zoo. It was going to be a quiet day, not much planned.
On the way, we saw an advertisement for another train. We got off at the exit where it said to. But once we exited, there were no more signs and wandered around the area. We finally found it, after an hour. Only to find out they run the train on Fridays and Saturdays only. An hour wasted. Back on the road. Now it was too late to get to the Oklahoma City Zoo in time to spend the proper time exploring.
So we planned on staying just outside Oklahoma City and going to the zoo in the morning. Because it was still early, we wanted to go to a movie. We attempted to find a theatre, but after at least an hour, we found one but had lost our interest in seeing a movie so we grabbed some dinner and headed back to the hotel. We just watched TV and vegged. It will probably be an early night tonight because we really want to be at the zoo when they open at 9am.
No rain, but as the day wore on, it grew overcast. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow!
Today dawned a little later than normal, 830am. We got up and got ready, headed out to get some breakfast. We headed over to the train depot, planning on taking the first excursion at 10a. We ate breakfast and I went over to the office to find out about tickets. Unfortunately, the train was only running at 2p. We could not stay that long, so we headed out as we planned to go to the Oklahoma City Zoo. It was going to be a quiet day, not much planned.
On the way, we saw an advertisement for another train. We got off at the exit where it said to. But once we exited, there were no more signs and wandered around the area. We finally found it, after an hour. Only to find out they run the train on Fridays and Saturdays only. An hour wasted. Back on the road. Now it was too late to get to the Oklahoma City Zoo in time to spend the proper time exploring.
So we planned on staying just outside Oklahoma City and going to the zoo in the morning. Because it was still early, we wanted to go to a movie. We attempted to find a theatre, but after at least an hour, we found one but had lost our interest in seeing a movie so we grabbed some dinner and headed back to the hotel. We just watched TV and vegged. It will probably be an early night tonight because we really want to be at the zoo when they open at 9am.
No rain, but as the day wore on, it grew overcast. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow!
Monday pictures
I'm a huge porcupine!
Bison
Beautiful zebra
Ostriches eating the feed we tossed to them
Form of deer
White tiger
I'm a huge bear!
I have tufty ears
My carrot is yummy too!
Outside our hotel
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