Day 86 - Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City IS Barbeque! The two most famous places are Gates and Authur Bryant's, both black families, that have been cookin' up barbeque in KC for many, many years. Neither is in the best of neighborhoods but that doesn't seem to matter to the people that go out of their way to eat their barbeque. Our favorite is Bryant's (we ate there twice in three days). The original location (pictured) has been visited by President's Truman and Carter, Steven Spielberg, Sally Fields and many other celebrities. Their sauce makes the difference! It's a little hot and gritty (like sand). It's just simply the best! Don't miss it if you're ever in KC.

Day 85 to 88 - Shawnee Mission, Kansas

Shawnee Mission is a Kansas suburb to Kansas City and where I grew up. We spent a few days here visiting family, including ex-wife (shown at back on right side).
Granddaughter Shea (7)!

Granddaughter Hannah (16)! Grandson Nathan (Hannah's twin brother) wasn't around for the photos.
Granddaughter Emily (17)!
Granddaughter Rachel (22) and boyfriend, Larry!

Day 84 & 85 - Kansas

Kansas.....The Sunflower state!
Yep, Kansas is just one long, flat road (actually it's almost 4500' downhill from Denver)! It's 600 miles from Denver to Kansas City. We drove it in 2 days because we didn't want to hurry or stress ourselves.
Just a note to let you all know that Kansas has oil and the pumps were pumping. There are many of them along the highway. I have no idea what they do with the oil they pump but I doubt it would make a dent in the U.S. usage.
Kansas also has windmills. There is no question that they have a lot of wind. If they filled Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas with windmills our electrical problems would be over!

Days 78 to 83 - Denver, Colorado

I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately but there just isn't much to post while in Denver. We've been having a ball seeing friends and family here. This is home and, I guess, it always will be (that doesn't mean we don't love Florida too). We had a great stay here, at the fairgrounds, and will stay here again on our next trip.

Day 77 - Denver, Colorado

This is the #9 hole of my old home course in Denver (The Meadows). We lived on the 17th hole of this course and loved it. I was going to play here during our visit but got rained out and then they punched the greens (that wasn't nice of them). For a public course, I think it's beautiful!

Day 75 - Denver, Colorado

We're staying at the County fairgrounds. The other night we got home and we saw all of these guys walking around in their midevil garb so we went to see what it was all about. These guys actually go to war with each other and beat each other with their sticks. It was wild to watch. They just have fun. It's their hobby!

Day 73 & 74 Denver, Colorado

We made it to Denver! We didn't know where we were going to stay here but were extremely lucky to find camping at a County Fairgrounds right in the city and very close to where we used to live. It's a beautiful spot and extremely inexpensive.

For the next couple of weeks we will be visiting with old friends in the Denver area. This picture is of us, in our RV, with an old employee, Coleen Peppmuller. It was great to see her after all these years and to know that she still cares about us.

Day 72 - Travel to Denver

Glenwood Springs is a beautiful city which is famous for having an extremely large outdoor "natural thermal" heated pool and spa. Just outside of the city is Glenwood Canyon, which is simply gorgeous. You may remember John Denver fighting to stop them from putting a four lane highway through the canyon. He lost and I think they did a great job.

Dillon Reservoir is between Vail and Denver. The surrounding area is beautiful. I may be predjudice but I still think Colorado is the most beautiful place in the world (Well, in the USA anyhow).

Day 71 - Carbondale, Colorado

Today we visited with our good friends, Barb and Bill Grant, who we went to China with. Unlike the other friends we've visited on this trip, they were not in the video business but were friends when we lived in Denver.

Over the last year and a half they have built a beautiful home in this mountain paradise and they love their new location and new life. We had a wonderful visit!

Day 70 - Glenwood Springs, Colorado

We've arrived in Glenwood Springs. If you've never been here or elsewhere in the mountains of Colorado, it's absolutely beutiful and it surrounds you in every direction. Tonight we went to the local Elks club and had a wonderful dinner buffet for $5. What a deal!

Days 68 & 69 - Traveling

We left eastern Oregon and headed to Ogden, Utah. That's 380 miles and one of the longest days we've ever had driving the RV. Remember, we're only driving at 60 mph so that made for a long day. We made it just fine but were very tired. The next day we drove to Green River, Utah, which is in the middle of nowhere. It's just a place to spend the night.

Day 67- Side Note

Just wanted to take a break and thank those of you who have visited here often. We're really amazed by how many 'hits' we're getting per day, considering the number of people that are telling us we forgot to invite them at the start of the summer (our apologies). We're hoping that we've included everyone by now.

Thanks,

John & Janie

PS

Don't forget that you can click on any picture we post to enlarge it for a larger view.

Day 67 - Moving East

It's time to move east! We left Sunriver/Bend and headed east on Hwy 20 to Ontario, Oregon. The terrain immediately turned to a very desert type of terrain from the mountain terrain of the western part of Oregon. After this picture we went through a number of canyons that were, as I commented to Janie, really neat in an ugly sort of way. This was based on the desert follage. We'll be in Idaho tomorrow. If you don't see a post for a couple of days, it's because we're just in transit east without much to report.

Day 66 - Sunriver, Oregon

This morning we went to the Lava Lands National Monument just outside Sunriver. While the picture looks like they just had a forest fire, actually this was all caused by a volcano over 6,000 years ago. There are many volcanic mountains in this area.
This afternoon we drove into the National forest and then rode our bicycles down a trail to a waterfall. The ride and the waterfall were both wonderful. The mosquitoes could have been less but we lived.

Day 65 - Sunriver, Oregon

Sunriver is a resort communtity that has over 20 miles of paved bicycle trails. Today we did our share of the trails along the Deschutes river and a beautiful golf course. This is one of the best locations we've seen because there is something to do for everyone and it's all great. Highly recommended if you're ever close!

Day 64 - Sunriver, Oregon

After a relaxing morning, we decided to go on a kayaking trip down the Little Deschutes river in the afternoon. The trip was about 8 miles and was great fun. Thankfully, the whole trip was down stream!

Day 63 - Sunriver, Oregon

We've settled into this beautiful campground full of trees for a four night stay to simply relax and pretty much do nothing. We will have campfires, read our books and anything else that might be relaxing before we head out of Oregon toward Colorado.

Day 62 - Petersen Rock Gardens - Redmond, Oregon

Karin says she takes all of her guests to visit these rock gardens and we would be no different. To say the least, the gardens are wierd and very strange.

It seems that an old farmer from Denmark started building the gardens in 1935 and continued to build until his death in 1952.

There is just about every kind of rock you can imagine in the gardens and they all came from within an 85 mile radius of the gardens.

Some of them are kind of pretty, in a very strange sort of way. It was an enjoyable walk in any case.

Day 61 - Bend, Oregon

It seems that some people have never heard of Bend, Oregon. It is a beautiful area of central Oregon set on a beautiful river. They even have their own mountain they have named "The Three Sisters", just like up in Canada.

We came here to spend a couple of days with another old video friend, Karin Cody. We've known Karin for many years but hadn't seen her for about 15 years. She looks great!

Karin lives on a couple of acres outside of Bend and has two horses, a dog, a couple of cats and eight chickens. She is living in a double-wide house while she is slowly building a new home on the property.

The first night we were here Karin through a party and had all of her friends over for a bar-be-que. It was a great evening and it was wonderful to meet all of her friends.

Day 60 - Mt. Hood, Oregon

When we got into Hood River we had planned on spending the night at Wal-Mart because we knew we were moving on this morning but they don't allow overnight stays (most welcome us). We got a phone book and found an American Legion and were welcomed. We spent the night for free and had a great dinner there.

The trip from Hood River to Mt. Hood is filled with orchards of all types. We stopped and got some cherries, peach's, cantaloupe and corn. These places are not always the cheapest but the stuff is fress and it's a fun way to shop!

Mount Hood is not the tallest mountain we've seen but it is beautiful. It's only a little over 11,000 feet tall (Colorado is full of 14,000 foot mountains) but can easily be seen from Portland on a clear day (they actually have a few of those).

This is the Timberline Lodge located on Mount Hood at a little over 6,ooo feet in elevation. It's reported that the outside was used in the movie "The Shining". The lodge is really pretty and serves as a ski lodge in the winter.