#RoadTrip2014 :: Along the Way with J & J

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Day 26 – The World’s Largest What??

By jayjazz · Comments (0)

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

Heading out today, we decided to make our way across the rest of Missouri and all the way through Illinois. A half hour in we began seeing signs for “Nostalgiaville”, which is a 50s & 60s memorabilia shop, and “Ozarkland”, a shop full of all kinds of goodies. Both looked interesting so we exited and stopped at Ozarkland first. The store was huge and full of every kind of souvenir you can imagine and plenty of local flavor. We spent around an hour walking around the place and picked up several things along the way. At the register, Jasmine heard a customer mention that Nostalgiaville had closed so we just jumped back onto the highway.

We ran into a lot of rain as we cruised along I70 through Missouri and into Illinois. We also had to stop a few times because Lady T was not happy with the heat and the several small hills we encountered. As we puttered on, we saw a sign for Casey, IL which claimed to be home to the largest wind chime, golf tee and rocking chair in the world. Since we hadn’t seen any roadside oddities in a while, we decided to have a look.

We followed sigs to the downtown area but we didn’t see the chime. We did find the golf course but it didn’t look easy to get into so we turned around. Oh, and the rocking chair didn’t exist save for two supports and a sign that read “Coming soon!” By this time, we were thinking Casey had created a nice scam to get you off the highway and into their downtown area.

Stopping at a local grocery store, I looked up the wind chime on my phone and located an address. We plugged that into the GPS and felt pretty stupid when we realized that we had passed the thing twice :/ Jasmine and I were both focused on the supports for the rocking chair on the opposite side of the road that we didn’t notice the gigantic wind chime directly across the street. We pulled over to take a few pictures and ring the chime. The café adjacent to the display had just closed but Jazz convinced the lady to open the door to sell her a couple of postcards ;o)

The rest of the day we just drove towards our home for the night, a Flying J Travel Center in Indianapolis, IN. We are thinking of making a detour from Indianapolis up to Lake Erie to explore for a day before the final leg of our return trip back to reality. DO we have time to go to PA to hang out on the lake or should we just continue our path home?

I guess you will have to continue to subscribe to find out 😉

~J&J

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Categories : #RoadTrip2014

Tags : Illinois, Missouri, Road Trip, RV Travel

Day 25 – Is Anybody out There?

By jayjazz · Comments (0)

Monday, May 26th, 2014

We got a late start leaving Salina, KS this morning but we were able to catch up on some much-needed rest. Our first stop was downtown, Salina. After heading the wrong way initially, we used the GPS to find a random restaurant located in the downtown area. Everything was closed and there was no one in sight. We saw more movement in a couple of the ghost towns we visited on Route 66 so we got back on the highway in search for someplace more active.

Topeka, the capital city of Kansas, was our next stop. After driving through their equally barren downtown area, we began to wonder if all business was closed on Sunday in Kansas or was it due to the Memorial Day holiday. We figured the state capital should be a bit livelier than the average small town but the only place we stopped was at the post office to drop a postcard in the mailbox. Kansas City was our last stop on I-70 and we were certain we’d find some action there.

Just outside of Kansas City, we stopped to visit the Hollywood Casino. The casino is adjacent to the Kansas Speedway and a huge shopping plaza with tons of stores and eateries. We walked around for a bit inside and it’s a very nice place. Jazz picked up a chip for her collection and I indulged in a waffle cone full of “Chocolate Death” ice cream.

We returned to the road in search of downtown Kansas City. We set the GPS to 7^thstreet and we were once again disappointed to find that everything was closed. We couldn’t even find a place to grab a postcard 🙁 And that was the end of our visit to Kansas.

We decided on a Flying J about halfway through the state of Missouri to make our stop for the night. Hopefully, we can find some interesting places to explore on the way home. We are contemplating a side trip down to Louisville, KY and have several good ideas about things to see from my cousin Myra, who lived there for many years. We still have a day or so to decide what we are going to do. At this rate, with nothing cool to explore near the highway, we will be home in no time.

~J&J

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Categories : #RoadTrip2014

Tags : Kansas, Missouri, Road Trip, RV Travel

Day 24 – Follow the Yellow Brick Road

By jayjazz · Comments (0)

Monday, May 26th, 2014

This morning, we got up at our usual time and did some shopping at Walmart for a few essentials. Seth, Erin and the babies stopped by Lady T to say goodbye before we left. Hopefully we will be able to visit again before the kids are in high school!

Once on the road, it took us about two hours to reach the Kansas state line. Kansas is very scenic in its own way and not as flat as Seth told us it would be. I guess compared to Colorado, anything is flat!

Seth told us that we had to stop when we saw signs for the “largest prairie dog”, which we did, at a place called “Prairie Dog Town” in Oakley, KS. We figured it was a statue but we never found out, as the place looked like a rundown zoo and Jazz won’t pay money to see locked up animals. We also attempted to visit Castle Rock near Quinter, KS but had to turn around because the pavement ended after a mile or so.

Nothing else seemed to catch our eye for today so we kept driving until we hit Salina, KS where we will stay the night at a Flying J. Tomorrow we will explore downtown Salina and maybe stop in Topeka and then Kansas City, KS.

Keep following us on FB and subscribe to the Blog…

~J&J

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Categories : #RoadTrip2014

Tags : Kansas, Road Trip, RV Travel

Day 23 – Sightseeing in the Rockies

By jayjazz · Comments (0)

Sunday, May 25th, 2014

While driving to the laundromat this morning, we saw something that is almost as elusive in these parts as the great western Jackalope: a Dunkin’ Donuts!!! We haven’t seen a Dunks since Missouri so we couldn’t get to the drive thru fast enough.

The other day, I noticed a minor leak coming from the hot water heater and after some tinkering, we determined that we needed to replace the worn out drain plug. I located an RV store about 20 miles from where Lady T was parked so we made the trip while waiting for our laundry. Luckily, they had one package of the plugs left!

We picked up the laundry, replaced the plug, cleaned the house and cleaned ourselves By, this time, Seth was home from work. I picked him up and we made our way to Red Rocks Amphitheatre & Park in Morrison, CO. Red Rocks is a must when visiting the Denver area and it one of the coolest places in the world to see a live concert. When we arrived, the main entrance was blocked due to a graduation ceremony so we decided to grab some food and return later. Seth suggested a Mexican place called Morrison’s. We enjoyed our food & cool weather on the patio.

We drove back to Red Rocks and walked around the park for a while. The natural rock formations were stunning and the view of the area below was spectacular! Seth then drove us up to Lookout Mountain which one of the larger foothills that overlooks Golden, CO. This is a popular recreational area and we saw lots of cyclists attempting to tackle the mountain. With an elevation of 7, 374 feet, you would have to be very determined The Colorado Rockies are beautiful and we’re glad we got to see some of them.

We coasted through the many twists and turns down the mountain to make our way towards Downtown Denver, where we met up with Seth’s wife Erin and their babies Keelyn and Eli. We had fun exploring an art festival and the 16^th Street Mall and had dinner at Chili’s. We followed Erin back to the Walmart in Aurora, where we have been parked for two days now. This is the longest we have been in one place since we left home 23 days ago.

It’s always great to see family. Jasmine and I are already talking about flying out here in the future and renting an SUV so we can explore the many outdoor landscapes and national parks in Wyoming and Colorado. We didn’t realize that there was so much to see in just these two states and we wish we had more time.

Tomorrow we will hit the road again and begin our drive across Kansas on our trek back home.

~J&J

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Categories : #RoadTrip2014

Tags : Colorado, Road Trip, RV Travel

Day 22 – A Visit with Family

By jayjazz · Comments (2)

Sunday, May 25th, 2014

We took our time getting ready today before heading over to visit my cousin Myra in Cheyenne, WY. Myra works from home and was very busy but we spent about an hour chatting and she gave us a tour of her cute little house. She also wrote down a few spots for us to check out in the city.

After our visit, we stopped at the Frontier Days Museum & Gift Shop and took some pictures of the cool statues on the property. We then drove downtown, which wasn’t very busy when we arrived. We found parking on the street and made our way towards the Cheyenne Visitor’s Center located in the train depot building. There was a very nice gift shop in here also and Jazz bought a wooden postcard for her collection.

The biggest store in downtown Cheyenne is “The Wrangler” which, according to their sign, is famous for ranch wear since 1943. The store had everything cowboys & girls need: Stetson hats, button-up shirts, cowboy boots and of course, a wide array of Wranglers. There were even a couple of real cowboys hanging around.

We stopped in a few other shops and then made our way towards Colorado to see another cousin. We met Seth in Aurora and went to dinner at a vegan restaurant in Denver that Myra suggested called WaterCourse Foods. It was a nice place and the food was very good…even I liked it! Seth suggested we see some live music after dinner so after a very filling dessert, we drove to a joint called Quixote’s True Blue Café. The café is a Dead Head establishment with tons of awesome tour posters on the walls. All of the bands were good and it was only $5 to get in.

After a few hours, we called it a night. Seth had us drop him off at his place, which is right across the road from the Walmart we are staying at. He has a work truck and is letting us borrow his 4 Runner to do a couple of errands. First order of business tomorrow is LAUNDRY!