Tuesday August 5, 2014 Cheyenne to Alpine, Wyoming

Started the day in Cheyenne and made it up to Alpine, but it wasn’t easy.  No problem getting on the interstate.  It turns out the exit was at the intersection of I80 and I25.  However, not long after I got on I80 my side narrowed down to one lane due to construction.  In fact, about the first 50 miles was intermittent construction.  I was looking at the time and wondering if I was going to have to add some hours to my estimate.  That did clear up, as well as the clouds.  There were basically two parts to today’s travels.  The first part (about 250 miles) was straight down I80; the second part (about 200 miles total) on a two lane US highway.

I decided to get gas around lunchtime to make sure I had enough gas to make It to Alpine.  This was still on I80 a good 30 minutes or so before the move the two-lane road.  It turned out I didn’t need to worry.  The shift to the US highway occurs at a fairly significant town/city and there were plenty of services there.

After lunch I got back on the road.  Although there had been some hills, the scenery was mainly scrubland with some wonderful clouds stacking up toward the horizon.  There also seemed to be the threat of rain on the horizon.

I did see something rather unique as we headed into the hills.  Along the road at one point there seemed to be a pointless arch across the road.  However, as I got closer I realized that the upper surface of the arch as more grassland.  The arch was intended to allow cows to cross the road without getting hit.  I didn’t get a picture of the first arch, but had my camera ready when a second arch appeared.

As the road headed into the hills, the clouds got closer and closer.  Finally, it started to rain.  However, the first rain started has the road went over a hill, first as a light rain but climaxing with enough water that I had to turn on my lights and make sure I knew how far away the car in front of me really was.  However, the rain stopped immediately after hitting the summit.  The rain got much more intense as I got into the actual mountain pass.   The speed limit went down from 75 to 65 and even lower in some sections.  The rain varied in intensity and stopped at one point just as I crested the summit.  There were also several stretches with no way to pass anyone.  Fortunately, there wasn’t that much traffic.

The scenery by this point was lush pine forest.  A river was flowing right next to the road at several points.  The clouds were so thick that the headlights were necessary.  At one point I wasn’t sure I was going to see any sun at all until I hit Montana tomorrow.
Needless to say I did make it to my hotel without incident.  While it did rain once I got there, it was a very light rain that caused no problems.

Monday August 4, 2014 Amarillo to Cheyenne

Today’s travels would take me through four states.  I started out at Amarillo, Texas with a goal of reaching Denver, Colorado by the end of the day.  After having breakfast I headed out.  Even though I got up earlier, I only made it on the road at about 9:45 AM.  Most of the travel was on US highways and not the Interstates, although I ended up on I25 toward the end.
The scenery was still fairly green, but getting drier as the day progressed.  Although mostly flat, there was a mountain pass going through Trinidad, Colorado (I think).  Although many of the roads were divided highways, there was one state road that was just two lanes with just the yellow dotted line between them.  This being Texas, the speed limit was 75 mph.
Long story short, I did make it to Denver.  I was in good enough shape that I decided to press on to Cheyenne, Wyoming (about and additional 100 miles).  The I25 goes right through Denver and in late afternoon traffic was pretty bad.  Shortly after deciding to continue, traffic slowed to a crawl.  It turns out that a car had stalled in the middle of one of the lanes.  Shortly after that another stalled car was off the side of the road, again causing a slowdown.  It ate up about 30 miles to get clear of the Denver traffic.  The rest of the way was uneventful and I made it to the I25/I80 intersection and pulled off to look for a hotel.  Since I didn’t have any reservations this turned out to be harder than I expected.  The first was only taking reserved guests.  The second that I tried only had suites available.  Even though I tried for something different, I ended up with Motel 6 as usual.  After I was in a room, I heard in the news that bikers were all over the area because of the rally in Sturges, ND which started today.  Hilarious.

Sunday August 3, 2014 Dallas to Amarillo, Texas

I started my trip toward Montana at about 10 AM.  The goal for the day was Amarillo Texas, right on the panhandle.  I suspect the quickest route would be up the 35N to 40W, but I didn’t do that.  Instead I took a route headed generally to the northwest using state roads.  Generally, the route remained a divided highway with two lanes in each direction.  The difference was that these highways weren’t as limited access as the interstates.  Plus some of the route (part of the old Route 66) went straight through town, so you had to slow down to about 30 MPH from time to time.
The towns seemed typical with one or a few streets intersecting the road I was on.  Some towns looked rundown, others had new buildings.  I noted one town (I forget which) that had a visible mix of rundown buildings, renovated buildings and new buildings.
Along the way I saw a sign for a Muslim Cemetery.  Nothing really extraordinary about that, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a sign before and I certainly didn’t expect it in rural northern Texas.  I’d be interested to know if there was a group of families that emigrated from the Middle East (or elsewhere) at some time in the past and formed a community near where I saw the sign.
The other thing I saw were several flatbed trucks carrying long tapered and twisted tubes which I thing were blades from wind turbines.  I saw two groups of three flatbeds coming in from the other direction.  About a half hour after I saw the first group of flatbeds I then saw an actual wind farm (pretty much in the middle of one or more farms).  I have no idea whether the blades were new blades going to another site or bad blades going back for repair.  It seemed a little odd that they would be traveling on Sunday, but I’m sure there are deadlines that have to be met.
I saw several trains along the route as well.  Most were modern box transfer trains, some stacked two high.  One train appeared not to be moving, but when I saw some trees behind the train I realized that it was moving backward in reference to the direction the locomotive was facing.  Since we were traveling in the same direction and I was traveling relatively faster, it seemed to be standing still until I got up close.
The state highway fed right into the interstate (which caused some initial confusion) so I actually arrived at Amarillo about thirty to forty minutes sooner than I expected.  After getting a hotel (on the I40) I drove into the city to have a look around.  Unfortunately, I left my guide book in the hotel room and just navigating from a map I had printed found me nothing interesting.  The city center seemed nice and shiny but it quickly petered out to used car lots and depressed-looking buildings.
I had dinner at the Big Texas Steak Ranch which was a very kitschy place (all of the employees wore straw cowboy hats for instance).  The review guide made note that it operated like Walls Drugs in the Dakotas by having signs many miles (hundreds?) ahead of the actual place so that people were interested in it well before they got near the place.  The wait was a bit of a problem.  They gave you plenty to look at while you were waiting with a gift shop a bar and some games.  They also have a hotel painted in very bright colors and sort of looking like an 1800’s town (at least the Hollywood concept of one) and a horse hotel (i.e. horse stalls).  There was a giant cow on a trailer (not real obviously, but not surprising given that it was a steakhouse.  There was also a giant dinosaur (I think) with a cowboy hat and scarf climbing some poles for some reason.  Oh yes, and there was a limo service with horns on the front of the car.  It was all very cute.  The food was fine, but the people watching was more interesting.

Thursday July 14, 2011 Florida

This was my last day in Florida. Since the flight was in the evening and I only had about 150 miles to drive to the airport, I planned to visit a few places along the way. In the town near where I was staying there was a museum/aquarium called the South Florida Museum. They had exhibits explaining the history of the area from the beginning of earth until now. There were exhibits on ancient life in the area, where florida was in all of the continental drifting and also the various pre-european cultures that were in the area.

There was also an aquarium pool that was used to host several manatees. The oldest was a permanent resident (in his 60s) and there were two younger ones that were recovering from injuries and would be released in the wild again. While I was there one of the attendents had a feeding and explained about the goals of the aquarium and their recovery program.

Around lunch I had to head toward Orlando. Along the way, after about an hour, I exited the freeway to find a small college with the largest number of Frank Loyd Wright buildings in one area. There were lots of signs and a pamphlet to guide you to all of the buildings. There were also lots of covered walkways to admire. Unfortunately they were a bit short and made me a bit nervous. There was a pool with a nice fountain arrangement, called the Water Dome, that I was able to wait to see in action (it was on break when I arrived). All of this was in a quiet bucolic setting.

Finally, it was time to leave. I got back on the freeway and made it to Orlando with plenty of time. Things were rather hectic when I got there. After checking the bags I had dinner (or was it lunch) and then went through security. The flight home was uneventful (other than arriving early). The only major downside of the trip was I lost a bag on the flight home, which had my laptop among other things - hence the delayed posts. Fortunately, my photos and videos were all fine, but I lost my original notes. Kinda sucks.

Wednesday July 13, 2011 Florida

This was purely a travel day. I had to get from Key West to near Tampa by the end of the day. This was around 450 miles as I recall. With the Crown Vic that meant at least one fill-up along the way. I had no problems and the hotel was pretty easy to find. The area that I was in was basically gas stations, hotels and places to eat, I didn't have any problem with food.

Tuesday July 12, 2011

Well this day I had a plan, but I mainly improvised. I started out seeing Hemingway's house. He only really had the house when he was married to his first wife, but wrote many of his famous stories there. The house was kept up but very little of the furniture was the same as when he was there. There were a lot of cats, descended from one of the cats he owned. The house had a lot of pictures based on the story "The Old Man and the Sea". It turns out the fisherman was based on someone that Hemingway knew. The gardens were pretty nice too, including a very nice pool and an odd water fountain.

Next, I found the Audubon house. The house has only a rather indirect relation to the artist. He only lived in the Florida area for a short time. When he was in Key West he stayed at the house next to the one now called the Audubon House. He did ask the owner to cut some leaves and draw them as background for some of his pieces. In all somewhere between 19 and 23 birds from the keys were illustrated by Audubon. The house has many of these prints in the house. Other rooms of the house show the arrangement for the owner (a wealthy sea captain). Again the gardens were nice as well, especially given the limited size of the property.

Next I went to Mel's Shipwreck Museum (or something like that). This was established by someone who discovered one of the largest wrecks in the Keys. It took about a decade to find and another decade to get clear title. The museum partly told the story of the ship that was found and also how it was discovered. There were other displays about ships of the era (1600s) and even some things about pirates (there really was a pirate code, although not much observed).

One odd thing I noticed was there was investment office at the back of the gift shop for future expeditions. Most of the gift shop was also taken up by space to sell coins from various shipwrecks - not your usual museum gift shop.

After lunch I decided to go to the Aquarium. Here again were a series of pools with different fish in them. No dolphins this time, but lots of rays, turtles and nurse sharks. There were smaller tanks along the side with various smaller fish of the area. One of the large pools had a mixture of fish, including a huge grouper, and sharks. Gulls kept dropping in trying to grab the food that was being tossed to the fish.

I tried to find the square where it was recommended to view the sunset (for later) but I wasn't able to find it. I did find an odd commemorative square for the wreckers who had given Key West its start.

I headed back to the hotel to change and rest. I also took a walk with Mike's Pants to take a few photos. It was turning out that the material was a bit too flexible to really work well for long periods of time. The tape starts to come off almost immediately. Heat doesn't help. Although I had some good pictures, I need to rework the model a bit.

After some rest I went out for dinner. I went to a place recommended by my guide book. It was also very good. I headed for the square again and found it. I took some sunset pictures although I was a bit late. It was dark by the time I got to the hotel.

Monday July 11, Florida Keys

Today I was driving down to Key West. I hoped to stop at some attractions along the way. Before I left my hotel in Miami, I took a few pictures of Mike's Pants. I'm not sure if I'll use them.

Miami turned into the Keys rather gradually. I think I spent a half hour still on the mainland before I crossed over to Key Largo. Even Key Largo was still pretty densly populated. Eventually the towns got smaller and the road got narrower. I found the first place, Theater of the Sea, without any trouble. They had a very defined schedule of shows, with the dolphin show being the highlight. I saw part of the Seal show then went on the open bottom boat which had dolphins jumping up on the sides and in the middle of the boat. The walking tour ended up at several pools of various animals from the area. I remember turtles, some rays and nurse sharks. There were also various birds (they had a show) and alligator and crocodile. There was actually a demonstration feeding in the pools. I had lunch (skipping the bird show) and then waited for the afternoon dolphin show.

Next I stopped at the Dolphin Research Center which was another half hour away. Although this had similar shows, they had several programs to allow people to come in and actually interact with the dolphins. The shows were much less formal than at the previous place which was kind of nice. I took video of one of the shows.

I was too late to go to the science museum along highway 1. I did see it, but would have had about 15 minutes before it closed. In retrospect maybe I should have missed one of the dolphin places to see something a little different.

Toward the end of the trek the bridges got very impressive. I wasn't able to stop to take pictures.

I found the hotel in Key West and unpacked. It was early so I walked down Duval Street to see what the place was like. This was effectively Old Town for Key West. Most of the historic houses were in the area and many fancy eating places. I did notice a few chain eateries (like Wendy's) but mostly it was custom to Key West. I walked up almost to the end (I also tried to see how to get to for the fort on the island, but it was too far to walk) then walked back. I chose a place that seemed interesting for dinner. They didn't seem to mind that I was rather sweaty from being outside for the last hour. I had the best fish I can remember tasting. I was very impressed. After the dinner I went back to the hotel for the night.