HOME!

After stopping in Pensacola to visit friends and another stop in Lake City to see Alan's sister, Linda, we are back from our long summer vacation! 

It was really GREAT fun.  When I look back at all the things we saw and the things we got to do, I realize just how fortunate we are!

We have been cool and dry for so long that it's going to take some getting used to the heat and humidity back here in Florida! 

And to empty the motorhome!  :) 

I had better get busy!  Back to reality!  :)


Before you go, check out the post from when we stopped in Amarillo, TX.  We didn't have internet for a few days, so I'm just now finishing up.

Thanks for everyone's comments.  I hope you enjoyed viewing the blog as much as I did writing it. 

Sandra

Amarillo, TX

Howdy!  We overnighted in Amarillo the other night and just a few paces down the road was this funky restaurant called "The Big Texan".  It's famous for the 72 ounce steak and fixin's you get free if you can eat it all in a certain amount of time.   If you have ever traveled on I-40 through Amarillo, you have probably seen the signs along the highway and of course the building with the big cow out front. 

When we checked in the RV park, they told us if we wanted a good steak, the restaurant had a limo service that would pick us up right at our RV.  Well, sign us up!

I was expecting bigger horns!  :)

This place is hard to miss!

 

 

 

 

The fleet of limos are ready for service.  They go to local hotels, RV parks, etc. to pick up patrons.  One of the newly acquired limos in the picture below doesn't have it's horns yet. :)

 

 

 

 

 

This is the western style hotel next door that is owned by the same company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that's a Texas size cow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, another photo op!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Everything in the case below is what you have to eat (in one hour or less) in order to get your dinner for free.  That 4.5 pound steak was as big as a large roast!

The timers are located near the back of the restaurant and are set for 6 contestants at a time.  None were participating while we were there.

It was starting to get busy.   By the time we left the place was really filling up. 

While we were wandering around the gift shop, we spotted this case with a real rattlesnake inside!   I guess that's kind of like the alligators displayed in some of the roadside stores in Florida. 

This was a fun looking shooting gallery inside the restaurant.  We were going to shoot, but it was "out of order".    Maybe next time.

 

It was all very "touristy".   However, it was a fun evening and the steaks were good.  Not great.....good.  :)

Albuquerque, NM

It worked out that we would be overnighting in Albuquerque as we were heading home.  Since we didn't get to go to "Old Town" when we were here a few years ago, we decided to stay an extra day. 

Old Town follows the traditional Spanish pattern of a central plaza and church surrounded by homes and businesses.  Many of the historic homes are still standing and some have been renovated into today's shops, galleries and restaurants.

We spent most of the day perusing the shops and galleries.  It is a very colorful and exciting place. 

 

 

 

We had a great lunch at the Church St. Café.

 

 

 

 

 

The food was great, but I would have loved this place just because of the atmosphere.

 

 

 

 

This is the church the street is named after.  Just beautiful!

 

 

Some of the local artisans make and sell their items along this area.  Very pretty jewelry items.

 

Another interesting store.........

This was a really neat gallery.  We enjoyed seeing all the artwork and jewelry in all of the galleries.

As we were headed into town, we saw all this filming equipment.  We asked around and found out they were filming a movie that is a spin off of the movie "Breaking Bad". 

We had a great day in Old Town, Albuquerque.

Meteor Crater

We stayed at the Meteor Crater RV Park between Flagstaff and Winslow to check out the big hole in the ground!  It is said to be the best preserved meteorite impact site on earth.  This crater was created 50,000 years ago.  It struck the earth with an explosive force greater than twenty million tons of TNT.
The meteor's impact left a giant bowl-shaped crater nearly a mile across and more than 500 feet deep.
The Visitor/Interactive Discovery Center is located at the crater rim and has inside as well as outside viewing areas. Inside there are many displays and exhibits about Meteor Crater.



This is the largest discovered fragment of the 150 foot meteor that created Meteor Crater.

 

A closer look.....

This is one of the outside viewing areas.  You can see another platform far below where Alan is standing.  Some of the viewing areas were up high and some were down low.  In other words..... a lot of walking up and down!

 

This platform actually hung out over the crater. 

This is one side of the crater.......

This is the other side of the crater.   You can see how far down the viewing area is.

 

This is the center of the crater.  It's hard to tell that it is 500' deep.  There are a few things on the bottom that you can only see if you use one of the telescopes on the viewing area.

Alan took this picture with our camera through one of their telescope lens.   It is a rock located on the far side of the crater that is the size of a house. 

This is a picture of an aerial

 view of the crater. 

These petrified tree trunks were scattered around the grounds.  They had turned to stone.  The Petrified Forest was not too far away. 

After we left and got down the road a few miles, we looked back and because the land is so flat, you can see the rim of the crater.

Winslow, AZ:

Well......since we were only a few miles from Winslow, AZ  we had to go see the "corner"......

When the song "Take it Easy" by the Eagles became a hit, people came to the town looking for the "corner in Winslow, Arizona" as in the song.  The town decided to dedicate a corner and it has become a really big tourist attraction.  They also had an artist paint the reflection of a girl in a flatbed ford.

We just had to do it!

You can really see all the details in this picture.  All the reflections in the windows are painted in.  Notice the couple in the upper window.

The store on the other side of the corner had this sign above the door.  They sold "Route 66" and "Take it Easy"  souvenirs.

In fact, the other corners were also cashing in on this now famous "corner in Winslow, Arizona". 

 

 

 

 

 

There were people before, during and after us taking pictures.  

 

 

When Leaving California

We traveled through Ventura and Santa Barbara, CA. on our way East to Arizona.  These are two coastal towns that I have heard mentioned in songs or read about and it was really neat to see them in person.   I didn't get any really good pictures of either town.....it's hard to take a good picture at 60 mph in a motorhome! :)

 

 

 

 

 

The view was much different from the Redwoods in northern California, but the mountains are still present.

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, the mountains are on one side of the road and the beach on the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short distance down the road we saw RV's lined up along a secondary road at the waters edge.   Found out later this was part of Hwy. 1 along the coast.  It looks like you can just pull up (parallel park) and stay.

 

 

 

 

It had to have been a couple of miles of RV's.

 

 

 

 

As we headed northeast away from the coast we saw a lot of farmland.  We recognized the strawberry fields and the orange groves, and finally figured out the other grove was lemons.

 

 

 

 

 

We saw lemon trees for miles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a picture of Pomegranate trees that I took when we were in Paso Robles, CA.  It was such an oddity for me to see these trees.....thought I would share.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We noticed that Southern California was starting to grow a lot of grapes.

 

 

 

 

Old Route 66 runs either as I-40 or in some cases beside the interstate or right down town as Main Street.  We were traveling I-40 when we stopped for the night in Barstow, CA.   When we were in town we saw this motel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were leaving California in our rear view mirrors!