COLORADO Day Three, 8/25/14

Hello from Grand Junction, CO.  Another long day of driving, but we finally made it despite rain and road construction delays.

We started out from Colby with partly cloudy skies and a temperature of only 60 degrees, quite a change from the 100 we had yesterday.  We made it through the Denver metro area and well into the mountains before noon.  We stopped in Georgetown for lunch, and arrived in Grand Junction at 4:00.

Here are our photo highlights from today:
1.  A field of sunflowers in eastern Colorado.  Notice the lack of trees on the horizon.

2.  Vail valley.

3.  the Western Slope. 

4.  Rafters on the Colorado River.

5.  Chrome on the Range, downtown Grand Junction.

COLORADO, Day Two 8/24/2014

Hello from Colby, Kansas!

It was another hot and sunny day on the Plains today.  We started out from Columbia at 8:00 this morning, drove through Kansas City, and almost all the way across Kansas.   Colby is only 53 miles from the Colorado border.  Colby calls itself Oasis on the Plains.  The largest barn in all of Kansas is here.  Colby is a small town, but has a lovely count courthouse.

The terrain in Kansas follows an interesting progression from east to west.  Eastern Kansas reminded us of Wisconsin...it was green and wooded.  The trees gradually gave way to corn, soybean, and grain fields as far as the horizon.  Eventually, the prairie landscape took over, with very few trees at all. 

We stopped for lunch in Manhattan, Kansas which is the home of Kansas State University.   The air temperature was 100 degrees at noon, so most of the sightseeing today was from the car windows, but we did make one stop just off the freeway...in a tiny town called Victoria.  Their claim to fame is St. Fidelis Catholic Church, also known as the Cathderal on the Plains. 

Tomorrow we cross Colorado and arrive at our final destination: Grand Junction.  We will post again tomorrow night from there.  Will there be snow on the Rockies, do you think?  Tomorrow we will see, then you will know.

Here are some pictures from today's ride:
1.  The wide Missouri.
2.  Eastern Kansas (looks like Wisconsin).
3.  The three of us at a scenic overlook just outside Manhattan.
4.  Western Kansas. ..a whole lot of sky and not much else.
5.  The Cathedral on the Plains.
6.  County Courthouse in Colby.
7.  Grain elevator.   There are big ones like tbis in every town.

COLORADO Day One 8/23/14

Hello from Columbia, MO. 

After 594 miles and a 12 hour day, we arrived in Columbia with the last rays of sunlight at 8:00 pm.  We left this morning at 6:00 looking at a gray, misty fog morning.  We hit some light rain around Normal, IL and by the time we arrived in Hannibal, MO, it was 95 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  We stopped for lunch in Lincoln, IL and found an unexpected surprise...Historic Route 66 through town.

We spent a couple of hours looking around Hannibal and even found a quilt shop for Susan and Fran and a model train layout for Denis.  Hannibal is a lovely river town that takes full advantage of it's Mark Twain connection.

Tomorrow we push on to Colby, KS, billed as "The Oasis on the Plains".

Here are some pictures from today:
1. The model train layout in Hannibal.
2.  I-72 bridge over the Mississippi River at Hannibal.
3.  Mark Twain boyhood home.
4.  On Route 66 in Lincoln,  IL.
5.  The travelers at 6:00 am.

COLORADO 2014 Preview

Hello Friends and Family!

Help us finish our license plate.  What should it say??

Once again we are about to head west to Colorado!  And, once again, Fran (my Mom) is traveling with us. 

We will be seeing a little different country this trip, as we are taking an alternate route out (how many times have we seen Nebraska from both directions???).  We will pick up I-39 in Stevens Point, head south to Springfield IL, then west on I-72 to Hannibal, MO.  There, we will visit the river town that is home to both Mark Twain and Molly Brown (of unsinkable Titanic fame).  We will then push on to Columbia, MO for the night.  Columbia is about halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City.  From there, we will head west on I-70 to Colby, Kansas on the western edge of the state.  We plan to stop along the way to see what the small towns of Kansas have to offer.  We'll spend our second night out in Colby, aptly named "Oasis on the Plains". 

Our third day out will take us west across Colorado, through Denver, across the Rockies, and to our final destination, Grand Junction.  We will spend our third night out in GJT, then we will part ways with Mom for the week.  She will stay in GJT and visit with friends, and we will explore the Rockies up close and personal on our way to and from Colorado Springs. 

We will spend several days on the Front Range in the Colorado Springs area, seeing the sights, one of which will be a trip to the summit of Pikes Peak...14, 110 ft.  We will wind our way back to GJT on the weekend, heading over Independence Pass and driving through Aspen.  We will stay in GJT for several nights, and will spend our last full day in Utah viewing the red rock splendor of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Utah's Dead Horse Point State Park.  Memorial Day we will reluctantly head eastward toward home.  We will stay our last night out in Grand Island, Nebraska.

We will be posting to this blog every night with highlights and pictures of our day's travel. 

Come back often and check on our progress.  Our first post will be from Columbia, Missouri.  See you then!!

Summer 2014, Hamburgerfest!

Yes, blog friends...Hamburgerfest.  On Saturday, August 9, we traveled to the little town of Seymour, WI just a few miles northeast of Appleton.  Legend has it that the hamburger was invented by none other than "Hamburger Charlie" at the county fair in 1885.  Charlie was selling meatballs at his booth at the fair, but they weren't going over very well.  So, he flattened them, put them on bread, and the hamburger was born! 

Seymour has totally embraced this ideal and has built an entire festival around it.  There is the world's largest Hamburger parade, a giant 190 lb grilled hamburger, a car show, marching bands, rock and roll bands, the ketchup slide and a hot air balloon rally.

Here is my brother, Dave, playing bass guitar in the band NO SCHTICK.

The giant 190 lb. hamburger.

Hamburger Charlie.

Women's champion in the Ketchup Slide Event.

Hot Air Balloon Ascension.

 

 

The weather was great!  The beer was cold!  The music was awesome!  We had a fun day!

Summer 2014, Quilt Shop Hopping

Wisconsin Quilt Shops participated in two shop hops this summer:  The Wisconsin Quilt Shop Hop and the Row by Row Experience Shop Hop.   We visited some of the shops participating in these two hops on several different occasions.  We found some interesting sights in our travels (more than just fabric and quilts). 

In June, we traveled to Thiensville, Sheboygan and Mishicot for the Wisconsin Shop Hop.  In Mishicot we found a cute little town with a covered bridge over the river in downtown. 

In July, we traveled to the southern part of the state for the Row by Row Experience Hop.  Just outside of Delavan, we happened across this antique (junk??) shop and just had to stop.  One expects to see rusty farm equipment at an antique shop in the country.  But an airplane?  Now, how often do you see that?

Summer 2014, Quilt Shops and Hodags

Hi Blog Friends,

Mom joined us for a day trip excursion to the north, to Wausau, then Rhinelander.  Our main purpose was to scope out quilt shops...Sew Smart in Wausau, and its sister store in Rhinelander, also named Sew Smart.  We visited the Wausau store first, and admired the toy and vintage sewing machine collection they had on display. 

We had lunch in Wausau, then headed north to Rhinelander.  The shop was very nice, and had a nice selection of north woods fabrics.  Mom found some loon fabric for a wall hanging she wants to make, and I found some flannels and chenille that I intend to make into a lap quilt.

We found something else unexpected in Rhinelander...the hodag.  What, you ask, is a hodag?  Well....in 1893, an enterprising citizen of Rhinelander broke the news that he captured a mythical creature he called the hodag.  Soon after, however, it was discovered that his story was just a hoax, created to bring attention and tourists to visit the town.  The town, tho, was not willing to give up it's claim to fame, and the mythical hodag lives on today...it's image in on the city's water tower, many businesses are named for it, a city park is named for it, the city holds a Hodag Festival in the fall, the local High School team's name is...you guessed it...the Hodags.  Add to that, we found statues of hodags all around town, painted in various different schemes.  So what, you ask, does a hodag look like?? 

Behold, the Hodag:

I loved this one, painted up like a school bus.

Rhinelander is the county seat.  They have quite the impressive county courthouse, complete with dome!  It was lovely.

Like I said, hodags on the water tower.

We stopped here for an ice cream treat (this is downtown).  They served the best soft-serve ice cream I've ever had.  It must be because it is 96% fat free.  Great tasting ice cream and no guilt!!  A win-win combination.

 

We had just a great time this day, and I learned something new...all about the hodag.  By the way, the hodag is indigenous only to the area around Rhinelander.