The Great Adventure 2011 – Heading Home 8/25/11 -8/29/11

For more pictures, click HERE

8/26/11: We are winding our way back east. We left Cortez, CO this morning and headed east by way of the scenic byway. We went up to Ouray and came down the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton and Durango. The mountains were absolutely beautiful! There was even snow up on the mountains. I was surprised that temperatures went from 94 to 54 when we got above 12,000 feet elevation. Eventually we ended up in Alamosa, CO for the night.

8/27/11: Today seemed to go on forever! The road we planned on taking (Hwy 10) was closed and we had to go down to Trinidad, CO to cut across to Hwy 50. It was all flat and boring. We stopped a couple of times but didn’t find any treasures. Finally we got to Hutchinson Hampton Inn. We went to Fazolis for dinner which is like fast food Italian dinners.

8/28/11: We had a really nice drive today until we got near St. Louis and the traffic got thick. We finally stopped in Mt. Vernon, IL for the night at a Hampton Inn. At least we are on the far side of St. Louis so we won’t have to fight the traffic tomorrow morning.

8/29/11: Planned on stopping in Knoxville for the night but we were so close to home (about 4 hrs.) that Don pushed it and we got home about 9pm. By the time we unpacked most of the stuff, it was midnight. And then we were so keyed up and overtired, we didn’t go to bed until 2am! It was a nice drive home but it seemed like it took forever!

What I Learned Today:
· There are major temperatures changes when you get higher in elevation.
· It is best to go through big cities on the weekend!
· There is no place like home! (and my own bed!)
Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).
Original Image: Pat Hensley

The Great Adventure 2011 (Kansas)– 6/30/11

For more pictures, click HERE. This morning we woke up very early and decided to hit the road before they even started serving breakfast. Of course that means we hit the Kansas City rush hour and construction on I-70. I had even forgotten that it becomes a toll road for a little while and cost us $2.50. Along the road we saw signs about a Cavalry Museum and decided to check it out. It was free and located on the Fort Riley army base. It was pretty interesting and had lots of interesting artifacts. The day got hotter and hotter the longer we drove west through Kansas. Eventually we stopped for the night in Colby Kansas and stayed at a Hampton Inn. While driving around to see the town, we saw a sign that said it was 111F. After dinner at the City Limits steakhouse, the sign said it was 115F!

What I Learned Today:

· Don’t be afraid to stop and check out museums along the way (especially if they are free).

· Don’t leave my pocketbook behind at McDonalds! (nothing was stolen, thank goodness)

· You need to drink more water when it is extremely hot outside.

· Gasbuddy.com is my friend when we are traveling! We saved a lot of money by checking this first.

crossposted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original Photo Temperature by Pat Hensley

Homeopathy and Adventure Day 6 (Kansas)

Blog prompt: Ayurveda is the conventional Hindu system of medicine, founded chiefly on naturopathy and homeopathy. Have you ever tried an unconventional method of healing? What are your thoughts on it?

We believe that Echinacea really helps when we feel a cold coming on. It seems like the cold is gone by the next day. My father has this Chinese medicine (I couldn’t tell you the name or what it has in it) that is supposed to help on aches and bruises. I know when I was young, I badly sprained my ankle from horseback riding (that is another strange story that I won’t go into) and my ankle swelled up three times its size. My father rubbed this heated brown medicine on it and the next day, my ankle was normal. I also got a little frostbite on my feet from shoveling snow when I was a teenager and my dad rubbed this on my feet. The next day I was all better. I think there are some medicines out there that the medical community doesn’t want you to know about because it will cost them money. I also think part of what works is whether you believe it will work or not. I truly believe that mental attitude plays a big part in healing.

Travel Notes:

We went to Dutch Kitchen Restaurant for breakfast and then arrived at the Salt Museum as soon as it opened at 9am. Our tour began at 9:20 and there were 6 of us. We went 650 feet underground to see the salt mine. They also store lots of important government items as well as movie items here for safekeeping. It was a really cool tour and would recommend this to anyone in the area. We left there about 11:15 to meet Plurk friends for lunch.

We ate lunch at Roy’s Barbecue with Howie, Joel, Tom, and Jerry. The food was really tasty.

After lunch we went to the Cosmosphere and saw an IMAX movie about Dinosaurs which was really good. After that we went to the Planetarium to learn about the constellations. I really enjoyed that program and learned a lot about the stars. I hope I will be able to identify more constellations after this. Then we went to Dr. Goddard’s Lab where Howie gave a great presentation about rocketry. There was a very small crowd and I know it is hard to present to a small crowd but he was really awesome! Then we went down to the museum and saw all of the exhibits. It was amazing to see all the artifacts in this museum. A lot of the things were the real stuff and not replicas. I think the teachers in this area are so lucky to have this resource so close to them.

Then at 6:30 we met other Plurker friends at Anchor Inn. Ande (Lulubell), Shelly (HuskerFan), Kevin (KevinH) and Michelle (honeymic) had dinner with us and we had a wonderful time. It was as if we had all known each other forever because I felt so comfortable with this group. You would never have known that most of us met each other for the first time tonight.

Well, it was a full and exciting day! We will definitely have to come back for another visit because there is so much to see and do here.

More pictures on Flickr HERE

Beasts and Adventure Day 5 (Kansas)

Blog Prompt: What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts happens to man. All things are connected..." ~ Chief Seattle ~ Expand on this.

I think a lot about this when I’m hiking in the wild. I love to look around and see what kind of animals I can find. I will take time to stop to look at spiders, snails, insects, and even snakes. If we are very quiet, we might come across a deer and the gracefulness of the deer always makes me feel good inside. When we travel around the country, we like to stop at zoos and see what animals are different there than at our local zoo. When we hike in other states, we are aware of what local animals may be encountered on the trail. I like to think about their purpose is in the cycle of life. It never ceases to amaze me that everything has a purpose, no matter what size it may be.

Travel notes:

Topeka: went to the Topeka Zoo and the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site. It was pretty interesting but lots of reading and videos.

Abilene – went to the Eisenhower Library (Museum was $8 per person but the Library and grounds were free) then The Hitching Post for lunch.

Heading towards Hutchinson, the winds were so strong that Don struggled to keep our little car on the road. We watched about 6 transfer trucks topple over on the interstate and other trucks fight to stay on the road. It was a pretty scary ride.

When we arrived in Hutchinson, I thought my car door would be ripped off when I got out of the car. We stopped by the Cosmosphere to pick up some combo tickets for the tour/activities tomorrow and got to meet Howie G. We will get to spend some time with him tomorrow. Then we went to the Polo Lounge for steaks and were thrilled when Lulubell (Ande) came there to meet us. We had a nice time visiting with her too. Luckily she followed us down the road and was able to let us know that we had a burned out tail light so we will need to find some place to get that repaired.