DAYS 6 & 7 - NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR

Wednesday, Thursday Aug 14-15 - We drove into North Little Rock, AR today and were pleasantly surprised to find the Downtown Riverside RV Park, a Passport America for which we had reservations.  This RV park was located right off the highway and on the Arkansas River.  We had full hook-up with 50 Amps for only $11/night.  We, between ourselves, voted this park one of "The Best of Passport America!!"

View of North Little Rock skyline from our RV.

View of Walking Bridge from our RV.  The bridge was closed to have lights installed.

Another view of the Walking Bridge.  Thank Goodness it was closed so we did not have to walk across it!!  HA HA

The Walking Bridge led right into the grounds of the Clinton Presidential Center Museum.

View of our campground across the river from the Clinton Presidential Center.

We drove across the river to tour the Clinton Presidential Center.  This was one thing we had planned for this stop on our cross-country journey.

The presidential limo.

The Oval Office.  A full-scale reconstruction of the Oval Office shows the room and its furnishings as they appeared during the Clinton administration.

The Presidential Seal in the rug in front of the President's desk.

Opposite end of the Oval Office.

Cabinet Room.  A full-scale replica of the White House Cabinet Room.  Ken at the far end!

Timeline.  Key events and highlights of the Clinton administration presented on a timeline.  Tooooo much reading for me!!

Replica of the Presidential dining table set for a formal dinner.

Oscar de la Renta has dressed many First Ladies -- Nancy Reagan, Laura Bush, and Hillary Clinton.  An Exhibit of Oscar de la Renta designs was in a wing of the Clinton Presidential Library.

I found a dress for myself!

Funny story!  I had asked the guide at the Clinton Museum if there was a trolley that would take us for a riding tour downtown.  He told us about the Streetcar stop on the next corner.  It just so happened that a streetcar was just arriving.  We raced over to see if we could board for a ride downtown.

The driver of the first car said he only went to Little Rock, but the next car covered both Little Rock as well as North Little Rock.  We decided to wait for the "better" car.  When we talked with that driver, he told us that he did indeed go to both Little Rock and North Little Rock.  Great!  How much?  75 Cents!!  But, he said, "We don't come back to this stop.  This is our last trip.  We will not be coming back."  "Do you mean you would just leave us downtown!!??  Do you mean the other streetcar would have taken us downtown and left us!!??!!"  So glad he happened to mention that little fact!!

We chose to go HOME!!

DAY 5 - MIDWEST CITY ELKS (OKLAHOMA CITY), OK

Tuesday, Aug 13 - Today we were in Oklahoma City, OK.  We stayed at the Elk's Lodge in Midwest City, OK.  I had wanted to have Happy Hour at Toby Keith's "I Hate This Bar" Bar, but we spent our time replacing our 50 Amp plug.  In other words, No Fun In Oklahoma City!!

DAY 4 - AMARILLO, TX

Monday, Aug 12 - Our next stop was in Amarillo, TX.  Sue and Jack (of the 10-Pak) passed through Amarillo in June and after reading Sue’s Letter From The Road about the Cadillac Ranch, I told Ken WE had to stop at the Cadillac Ranch on our way into Amarillo.

I’ll let Sue tell you all about it in this excerpt from her Letter From The Road:

     Standing along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. Their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh's fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt. They faced west in a line, their tail fins held high for all to see.

     That was in 1974. People would stop along the highway, walk out to view the cars -- then, sadly, deface them or rip off pieces as souvenirs. : ( Decades have passed. The Cadillacs have now been in the ground as art longer than they were on the road as cars. They are stripped to their battered frames, splattered in paint, barely recognizable as automobiles.

     Yet Cadillac Ranch is now more popular than ever. It's become a ritual site for those who travel The Mother Road.  Everyone now brings cans of spray paint to add to the art work!

We parked the RV on the side of the access road just off of I-40 and walked over to take a closer look.  We, of course, did not have any spray paint with us, but a nice young lady had leftover paint in her spray can and asked us if we would like to have it.  Of course we would!

 Ken adding his contribution!

Later we gave our spray can of paint to this couple passing by.

They offered to take our picture with Ken's art work - VCU for his son Mike's college basketball team!

It was a lot of fun spending a moment at The Cadillac Ranch, just off of I-40 in Amarillo, TX!

THE BIG TEXAN

Another place mentioned by Sue in her newsletter was The Big Texan, "Home of the Free 72 Oz. Steak"  in Amarillo!!  That is where we went for dinner!

Ken standing on the porch before we went in.

The Big Texan is quite a BIG place!

Here we are enjoying our meal.

Not a 72 Oz. Steak but this rib eye was plenty big for me!  UUMMMMMM!!

The 72 Oz. Steak is only Free to those who can eat the entire steak with sides within 60 minutes!  Our table was next to the stage where contestants attempt the almost impossible feat!  I was disappointed because no one took the challenge while we were there.

You can't tell it here, but the table and chairs are up on a stage with the 60 minute count-down in red lights in the background.

We had a delicious, delightful time at The Big Texan!  If you are ever in Amarillo, you must give it a try.

DAYS 2 & 3 - ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

Saturday, Sunday, Aug 10-11 - Saturday we drove 240 miles to Tijeras, a little east of Albuquerque, NM.  We stayed at a ROD park on the side of the mountain, perfect.  We decided to stay two nights so Ken could watch the NASCAR race on Sunday afternoon.

We have been to Albuquerque before and had already done the touring thing.  The main thing I wanted to do while in the area this time was to take the Sandia Peak Tramway-Worlds Longest Aerial Tramway 2.7 miles.  We took the Tram on Sunday morning.

View of Albuquerque from the lower terminal.  Beautiful summer flowers.

The view on the Tram ride going up.  Two point seven miles!!

Ken took this picture of a second Tram car as it came toward us.  I love this picture.  Note the picture captured by the camera of the lady standing in front of Ken (lower right corner of the picture)!

Approaching the top tower where we will disembark.

View of Albuquerque from the top terminal on Sandia Peak, more than 10,000 feet elevation.

Ski cable car arriving from the opposite side of the mountain.

The cables waiting to take us on our return trip down the mountain.

View of Albuquerque on our way down to the lower terminal.

DAY 1 - PAINTED DESERT AND PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARKS

Ken has not been feeling very spunky for the past several months--since February.  In mid-April he had defibrillator surgery in Palm Desert, CA which was supposed to make his heart beat stronger.  However, after three months, he has not noticed much improvement in his overall health.  He was concerned, and decided it would be smart to go back to the east coast while he was still able to drive the long distance.  So we started to make plans as to which route we would take, etc.  We decided to go the most direct route.  I-40 - a straight shoot from Flagstaff to North Carolina and then to Virginia.

On July 19, Ken had an appointment with his Primary Care Doctor at the Veterans' Administration in Cottonwood, AZ.  It occurred to him that Ken's problem might have to do with difficulty breathing.  He ordered Chest X-Ray and Pulmonary tests.  As a result of these tests it was determined that Ken suffered from emphysema and asthma.  The doctor ordered two inhalers for Ken to use daily.  He started one of the inhalers immediately, however, since the other inhaler was mailed to Richmond, we had to wait until we got back home to for him to begin the second inhaler.

Friday, Aug 9 - We began our trip back to Virginia.  The first day of our trip back East, we only drove 160 miles and stayed at a Passport America campground in Holbrook, AZ.  There was a good reason for making it such a short drive.  We wanted to visit The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks again.  It was heavily overcast our first time there, many years ago, so we decided to pay another visit.

The Petrified Forest NP is located within the boundaries of The Painted Desert, so you get two for the price of one.  Of course, with Ken's Golden Pass, we did not have to pay anyway.

The view was spectacular!!  Even though this picture is brilliant, it does not begin to show the breath-taking beauty!

Ken caught me by surprise!

This is The Painted Desert Inn, an Historic Landmark.  I was disappointed to learn, however, that the entire building had been renovated in the Adobe style whereas the original had been built of Petrified Wood!  We saw a small sample in the building of the fireplace.

A view from the window of the most expensive room.  This view is the reason the room cost $4 a night!

Before I-40 was built, Old Route 66 crossed through The Painted Desert.  They mounted this chrome grill on a big rock at the juncture where the road on which we were driving actually crossed the original Route 66.  This old Model-T, parked out in the desert, also helped mark the memorable spot.

This area had the most unusual coloring!  The hill were striped!!  Red at the bottom and almost white at the top, with red bands running through it.

We felt we had left The Painted Desert as we reached The Petrified Forest; however, the entire area is within The Painted Desert.  Notice the beautiful colors in this petrified wood tree trunk!

More pieces of petrified logs.

Saying Good Bye to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.

FAREWELL TO FRIENDS WAYNE AND NANCY

 Thursday Aug 08 - Wayne and Nancy had sent us an Email letting us know they were already at their place at Happy Trails in Surprise, AZ, and they were thinking about driving up to TT Verde Valley to see us. We contacted them to let them know we would be driving to Phoenix on Thursday anyway for a final follow-up with my Cornea Specialist and we would be much closer to them.  Why didn't we plan to get together then?  That would save them an 90 mile trip up to Verde.

So, that is what we did.  After my doctor's appointment, we met our friends Wayne and Nancy at -

We really like In and Out because their burgers are so fresh and juicy!

Wayne and Nancy are the Pickleball players whom we met at TT Rancho Oso when we first began playing Pickleball in 2002!  They took us under their wings and taught us so much about the game and introduced us to so many other neat players.  In fact, they invited us to come and hook up at their home in Montana whenever we were in the area.  And we surprised them by taking them up on that kind invitation more than once!!

Here we are enjoying our In and Out Burgers!!  As we kept saying, it was "Just like old times!"

We are so glad we had a chance to say "Farewell" to Wayne and Nancy because we will be leaving tomorrow (Friday) morning to being our journey back East!

Sidebar:  My Cornea Specialist was very pleased with how my eye is healing following my cornea transplant on the 3rd of July.  He said I am good to travel across the country!!

FINALLY BACK ON THE PICKLEBALL COURT!!!

Jul 28 - We have not been on the Pickleball courts for a loooong time!!  Ken has had a couple of recovery time since his Defibrillator surgery in April.  So, yesterday (Saturday) morning I suggested that we drive down to the TT Verde Valley Pickleball courts to see if anyone was playing.  Much to our surprise, there was a couple playing!!  We walked down to meet them.  We all chatted for a while and decided to meet on Sunday morning for a few games.

Here we are Sunday with our new Pickleball friends, Judy and Jeff from Flagstaff!

We played a couple of fun games.  Judy and Jeff have leased a site at TT Verde Valley so hopefully we can get together for more games.  We certainly do need the exercise!!

Thanks for the games, Judy and Jeff.  That was fun!!

BACK TO TT VERDE VALLEY AND CONCHOS MEXICAN RESTAURANT

Fri. Jul 19 -  We arrived in Cottonwood, AZ in late June to have our annual medical check-ups with the Veterans Administration and local doctors.  That task has kept us pretty busy.

Today is our first chance to go to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants -- Conchos.

Today we ordered Enchilada combo plates with Tostado and Fried Beans and Rice - and, of course, the Mexican Beer of the Month!!  As usual, everything was delicious!!

UUUMMMMMM!!!