Join us as we travel the highways and byways of America. We don't know what's around the next corner but get on the bus and let's find out ! Our Current Adventure
In Search Of The Mother Road
We are on a quest to rediscover Americana. Route 66, The Mother Road, connected Chicago (Joliet) Illinois with the West Coast of the U.S., Santa Monica, California. As super highways gained popularity, Route 66 has been slowly disappearing. Our plan is 
to spend the Summer of 2015, about 7 months, to travel as much of Route 66 as we can still find. With plentiful sidetrips we plan to go White Water Rafting, visit the Bonneville Salt Flats, Reno for “Hot August Nights”, the Grand Canyon, Explore Las Vegas, sidetrip up into Colorado and hopefully have some wonderful adventures.
As we chronicle our adventures, simply check this page and the latest blog posts will be added below. Feel free to post comments but please keep it clean, our grandkids read this. Thank You!
Miracle On Red Mountain Pass
As we set out to tour through the Red Mountain Pass route and over to Telluride, we were overcome with a sense of wonder at the beauty of this mountainous terrain. The day was perfect, sunny – crisp and clear. Red Mountain Pass was approximately 80 miles and Google told us to plan on a couple hours. I anticipated an exciting trip considering Red Mountain Pass is 11,017 feet in elevation and the relatively narrow two lane road, with a multitude of switchbacks, did not have any guardrails. The pass is traversed by US 550 and is...
read moreSky Ute Casino Resort Basecamp
With our exciting new re-route plan settling in, we made our way north into Colorado. We found a very nice place to set up basecamp for a short time in Ignacio, Colorado at the RV Park at Sky Ute Casino Resort. From here we can set out to explore in our car and see some of the cool towns and mountain vistas that would be more difficult in the motorhome. A nice bonus to staying in Casino Resorts is that they usually have some great restaurants and who knows, I might just find a felt top table calling my name. The Sky Ute Casino Resort RV...
read moreIt’s Just Dried Mud
This morning we met our neighbors at Enchanted Trails RV Park. What a cool couple, they both work in the oil industry and she is half Sioux Indian and half Navajo Indian. In Indian speak that means “too tough to mess with”. We talked for quite awhile about Indian culture and her upbringing on the reservation. As a child she lived completely off-grid and wore animal skins sewn by the women of the tribe and lived in a teepee. She was in and out of their 5th Wheel while cooking and brought out some Indian Fry Bread for us all to...
read moreBut it’s a “dry heat”!
Continuing west along Route 66 we’re noticing the changing landscape as we put the Texas Panhandle behind us and cruise into New Mexico. The terrain is getting more mountainous and seemingly barren of vegetation. The rich greens of pasture and forest are muting into varying shades of browns and tan. They call this the “High Desert” climate and this is new to us. The humidity is going way down and we are experiencing that “dry heat” that you hear the locals talk about. What a weird sensation to be in 95...
read moreAmerica The Outrageous
As we crossed the Texas State Line, I thought about all of those great country songs with the names of Texas towns. Route 66 traverses the panhandle of Texas and it looked like we were going to make “Amarillo by Morning”. Conspicuously standing in a field along Route 66, west of Amarillo, Texas, is the Cadillac Ranch. This Route 66 icon was created by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh III. He wanted a piece of...
read moreOklahoma, not the musical!
With Kansas in the rearview mirror and excitement about seeing our friends, we found ourselves on a highway where Route 66 was basically paved over as part of the Oklahoma highway system. Oklahoma…hmm, everything I know about Oklahoma comes from the musical. So this will be educational. I really never thought much about Oklahoma and certainly never felt a need to visit. But I imagine it must meet the Zappa rule: “You can’t have a real country unless you have beer and an airline – It helps if you have some type of...
read moreWe ARE in Kansas, Toto!
With new dancing shoes on the girl (new tires on the motorhome) we continued to ply the winding asphalt ribbon known as “66”. Having just put Missouri under our belts, it’s now time to taste a bit of Kansas. Route 66 takes in just eleven miles of the southeast corner of Kansas, but we were surprised at what a history rich eleven miles it was. Baxter Springs was our first encounter with a notable piece of Route 66 nostalgia, being the Rainbow Bridge. Not only is the Rainbow Bridge the last of the 3 cement arch bridges on...
read moreSpringfield, Mo.
As we pulled out of Branson, my head was scattered with thoughts ranging from our Branson experience to finding the tire store in Springfield to reviewing in my mind if everything was ready to travel with no drama. It seemed to be going smoothly and the GPS was keeping me on course. We found the tire store without any problems and they were slow on this Saturday morning and had us pull right in to the shop. We chose to go with a relatively new model of tire that Goodyear came out with for “buses”. I checked all of the...
read moreBranson In The Rain
We rolled into Branson for a needed rest and change of pace from Route 66. We found a delightful RV Park right off the main stretch of downtown Branson called Musicland Kampground. Check-in was like a breath of fresh air to find the staff professional, efficient and very helpful. The RV park is built into the side of a mountain and it’s nicely terraced. Musicland Kampground is a Passport America member park and the rate was awesome at $19.98 per night for a site with 50 amp electrical service. The plan was to...
read moreStalagtites, Stalagmites And Colored Lights, OH MY!
After our “almost catastrophic” experience with missing Route 66 signs we pulled it together and proceeded down the road with a heightened state of attention. While cruising we repeatedly saw signs for Meramec Caverns and decided to check them out. We found adequate parking for the rig and bought our tickets for the tour. They offered a veterans discount and our tickets cost $21 each. It was quite hot outdoors and the first thing we noticed was that the caverns we’re very cool. As our tour progressed the...
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