Overall, Crys and I did okay in Vegas. I think we gambled nearly $200 between us, and brought back all but about $40. We had fun - the slots experience was basically new for both of us so it was a bit of a learning experience along the way.
This morning the girls got to swim, and Acacia got to ride a number of rides in an indoor amusement park. I think she had fun, but you could tell she was tired and wasn't fully enjoying herself.
We made it out of Vegas around 3:00pm, and other than two very short stops for gas (if there's one thing I've learned about the American Southwest is to never pass up a gas station...) we drove non-stop to our "cabin" at Jacob Lake. The drive was about four hours, and all but the first hour was quite pretty.
North of Las Vegas, we crossed over the Virgin River on Interstate I-15. Right after that, we entered the Virgin River Gorge, which basically put us into the mountains for the rest of the trip. The gorge itself was very pretty (although dry), and the girls enjoyed looking at all of the caves in the side of the mountains.
The sun set along our journey, and the last 20 miles was windy highway, along what I think was the side of the mountain, but it was too dark to see. I told Crys to keep her eyes open for deer. About 5 miles down the road, there was a warning sign to watch for deer. Another 2 miles down, and there was a sign to watch for cattle, which I instructed her to do.
All was good until a few miles from the cabin, when I spotted a large black rock on the right side of the road. Black rocks are fine, until they lift their heads up and look at you. I yelled at Crys then that she should have warned me.
We made it here just fine, and didn't hit any deer, cattle, or rocks for that matter.
The cabin that we're staying at tonight in Jacob Lake is leaving a little to be desired. I think it's beautiful outside - I can't see anything but there's trees all around and they smell like pines. Unfortunately, our "2 room cabin" looked like it was built in 1900, and has had very little upkeep since then. It's kind of a bungalo style conctruction, with a tiny bathroom connecting the two rooms. As I walked in the room for the first time, I flipped on the light and it immediately burned out. I walked through the bathroom (watch your step!) to find the other door being kept closed by the chain, so I wound up searching under the bed for surplus animals.
There's a room heater in each side, and one of them won't run, apparently because the pilot light went out. I think the one heater will keep us going just fine, but it's kind of annoying to spend $100 for a dingy little place with leaky faucets when our very nice and clean room on the Vegas Strip cost less than half that.
Tomorrow we'll drive the hour down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I'm sure I'll have plenty of photos then. Given the sunset time and the temperatures, I'll probably get them uploaded tomorrow night. The Alltel modem card is working quite well here, which is nice because in Phoenix and in Vegas, it was constantly disconnecting on me, and occasionally refusing to connect at all.
BTW, several of you have asked and yes, the two girls are doing great on this trip. The DVD player has definately been a blessing, but they've been very good otherwise. We received two compliments from people in two different restaurants today alone saying how well behaved they are.
Total miles traveled: 1800
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Day 6 - Monday
We left Phoenix this morning to head over to Las Vegas. The drive was fairly dull and about five hours. About an hour outside of Phoenix, we saw what we're assuming where Joshua trees in the Joshua Forest. They were a very unique looking tree, and for a few miles down the highway, they were very dense. I don't recall running across the anywhere else on the trip.
Once we got up to the Hoover Dam, things got a little more interesting. There were several signs indicating that semis, rental trucks, and the like are not permitted over the dam, I assume for terrorist reasons. They stopped every single vehicle a couple of miles from the dam and peered through the windows to look for anything suspicious. It looked as if they had a special spot for detailed inspections of anything that they didn't like.
The dam itself was interesting, but we didn't spend a lot of time there. We took some photos, and visited the gift shop. It was just too hot, and we were so close to our destination to bother too much with it.
Once in Vegas, we got checked into the Circus-Circus, and then walked down the strip a little ways to a mall. We had supper and I finally got to the slots about an hour ago. I put in $21 into the slots and wound up cashing out $63. I came back up stairs with that (I'm sure I'll lose it back tomorrow). Crys went down, and she just came back up $20 broker that when she started...
Tomorrow we'll play some more games, and Acacia is looking forward to the indoor amusement park. Then, we'll head on towards the Grand Canyon.
Once we got up to the Hoover Dam, things got a little more interesting. There were several signs indicating that semis, rental trucks, and the like are not permitted over the dam, I assume for terrorist reasons. They stopped every single vehicle a couple of miles from the dam and peered through the windows to look for anything suspicious. It looked as if they had a special spot for detailed inspections of anything that they didn't like.
The dam itself was interesting, but we didn't spend a lot of time there. We took some photos, and visited the gift shop. It was just too hot, and we were so close to our destination to bother too much with it.
Once in Vegas, we got checked into the Circus-Circus, and then walked down the strip a little ways to a mall. We had supper and I finally got to the slots about an hour ago. I put in $21 into the slots and wound up cashing out $63. I came back up stairs with that (I'm sure I'll lose it back tomorrow). Crys went down, and she just came back up $20 broker that when she started...
Tomorrow we'll play some more games, and Acacia is looking forward to the indoor amusement park. Then, we'll head on towards the Grand Canyon.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Day 5 - Sunday
Today was a little more relaxed. We went to church this morning at Christ's Church of the Valley, and enjoyed ourselves. The church was quite literally a campus, and had separate buildings for the different ages of kids to play. The service was held in a separate building altogether.
We happened to sit right next to the sound booth, and got to see their digital sound board and their video equipment. It was quite impressive.
Later we went swimming at David's mom's house in their pool. David cooked us up a good home-cooked Mexican dinner after we got home. I bought myself a Mint Chocolate-Chip pie from Baskin-Robins here in Phoenix. I used to get these every year at my birthday before they closed up in Hutch. It was as good as I remembered.
Tomorrow we hope to get an early start towards Las Vegas. With a little luck, we'll be there around lunch time.
Speaking of Vegas, my mom gave us some money to gamble for her. It was given to me in a well-decorated envelop.
Apparently Meme has some bad habits...
Most of the gas has been in the $3.30-$3.40 range. In Flagstaff, I filled up at $3.69, but later saw a place further away from the Interstate that was back around $3.47. The worst case was in Gallup, NM where there was almost a $.30 spread between stations close to the Interstate and further away.
Total miles traveled: 1280
We happened to sit right next to the sound booth, and got to see their digital sound board and their video equipment. It was quite impressive.
Later we went swimming at David's mom's house in their pool. David cooked us up a good home-cooked Mexican dinner after we got home. I bought myself a Mint Chocolate-Chip pie from Baskin-Robins here in Phoenix. I used to get these every year at my birthday before they closed up in Hutch. It was as good as I remembered.
Tomorrow we hope to get an early start towards Las Vegas. With a little luck, we'll be there around lunch time.
Speaking of Vegas, my mom gave us some money to gamble for her. It was given to me in a well-decorated envelop.
Apparently Meme has some bad habits...
Most of the gas has been in the $3.30-$3.40 range. In Flagstaff, I filled up at $3.69, but later saw a place further away from the Interstate that was back around $3.47. The worst case was in Gallup, NM where there was almost a $.30 spread between stations close to the Interstate and further away.
Total miles traveled: 1280
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Day 4 - Saturday (continued)
We went shopping this evening, and wound up eating Italian and had cheesecake for dessert.
Afterwards, we went over to David's mom's house who lives on the edge of town. She wasn't there, but had a black-light, where he searched for scorpions. The black-light causes the scorpions to glow in the dark (even if they're dead).
We couldn't find any outside, but after looking around inside, he found several in a bathroom.
The ones we found were all dead, but he scooped the biggest up and we'll be bringing it back to Kansas with us.
Afterwards, we went over to David's mom's house who lives on the edge of town. She wasn't there, but had a black-light, where he searched for scorpions. The black-light causes the scorpions to glow in the dark (even if they're dead).
We couldn't find any outside, but after looking around inside, he found several in a bathroom.
The ones we found were all dead, but he scooped the biggest up and we'll be bringing it back to Kansas with us.
Day 4 - Saturday
We drove up to Wickenburg Saturday morning to look at some land that George owns the mineral rights to. According to the instructions, we drove south from Wickenburg on the Vulture Mine Road, which was a nice paved highway. This was the view from the highway...
We soon saw the windmill on the right side of the road.
We went past the first one to the south entrance to the land.
After turning off the highway, we had to stop several times to check the road conditions. Here the road transitions from a rocky road, into some soft sand.
We drove to the Lat/Lon coordinates, and then continued past a little ways. The road was passible in a mini-van, but you definately had to be careful. There were two spots along the approximately 1 mile drive that we had to take a good running start at, and I almost got stuck in some soft sand, even though the road appeared to be in good condition.
Once we got there, there were lots of cactus, and plenty of sand.
After doing some digging...
We took a family photo in front of a cactus.
We soon saw the windmill on the right side of the road.
We went past the first one to the south entrance to the land.
After turning off the highway, we had to stop several times to check the road conditions. Here the road transitions from a rocky road, into some soft sand.
We drove to the Lat/Lon coordinates, and then continued past a little ways. The road was passible in a mini-van, but you definately had to be careful. There were two spots along the approximately 1 mile drive that we had to take a good running start at, and I almost got stuck in some soft sand, even though the road appeared to be in good condition.
Once we got there, there were lots of cactus, and plenty of sand.
After doing some digging...
We took a family photo in front of a cactus.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Day 3 - Friday
We made it out of the hotel in good order this morning, and were at the Petrified Forest around 10:30 this morning.
Basically, the park consists of a 30 mile loop that starts at the Painted Desert. Every mile or so is a turn-out to take photos and look at the rocks. The last 10 miles or so are the petrified trees.
The first few stops were at the Painted Desert side. Here you can see our group photo at a lookout.
About this time, Acacia latched on to our small Canon PowerShot camera and started taking photos. Here's one of her self portraits in the Painted Desert.
We drove around to the south side of the park, and after a short lunch break consisting of some delicious Minnesota Summer Sausage, we wound up at the Petrified forest.
These logs are quite amazing. They feel like solid rock, and have some very deep and rich colors.
Next we drove down I-40 to the Meteor Crater. That was an interesting place to visit, even after paying the $30 for the two adults to get in. The crater was absolutely huge, and there was a pretty good climb just to get to the top of the rim. They no longer allow people to actually go inside the crater, but that was fine with me - it must have been several hundred feet deep.
There was a "documentary" being shot there, and it was immediately clear who the star of the show was. You could hear some clanking has he walked up, and when you looked up there was a man literally dressed in a suit made of mirrors. None of the workers really knew what the subject matter that he was documenting, but he sure attracted a lot of attention.
They were doing some amateur style video, and some higher-end still photography using the old light box style cameras (the ones you have to put a sheet over your head to see through).
We made it into Phoenix around 6:30 tonight. The kids were restless and hungry, but lucky for us, David has a Chucky-Cheeses about 2 blocks from his house, so we went there for dinner. It worked out well, and I think we'll all sleep good tonight.
And tomorrow, we plan on getting up reasonably early and heading out to Wickenburg to look for gold.
Basically, the park consists of a 30 mile loop that starts at the Painted Desert. Every mile or so is a turn-out to take photos and look at the rocks. The last 10 miles or so are the petrified trees.
The first few stops were at the Painted Desert side. Here you can see our group photo at a lookout.
About this time, Acacia latched on to our small Canon PowerShot camera and started taking photos. Here's one of her self portraits in the Painted Desert.
We drove around to the south side of the park, and after a short lunch break consisting of some delicious Minnesota Summer Sausage, we wound up at the Petrified forest.
These logs are quite amazing. They feel like solid rock, and have some very deep and rich colors.
Next we drove down I-40 to the Meteor Crater. That was an interesting place to visit, even after paying the $30 for the two adults to get in. The crater was absolutely huge, and there was a pretty good climb just to get to the top of the rim. They no longer allow people to actually go inside the crater, but that was fine with me - it must have been several hundred feet deep.
There was a "documentary" being shot there, and it was immediately clear who the star of the show was. You could hear some clanking has he walked up, and when you looked up there was a man literally dressed in a suit made of mirrors. None of the workers really knew what the subject matter that he was documenting, but he sure attracted a lot of attention.
They were doing some amateur style video, and some higher-end still photography using the old light box style cameras (the ones you have to put a sheet over your head to see through).
We made it into Phoenix around 6:30 tonight. The kids were restless and hungry, but lucky for us, David has a Chucky-Cheeses about 2 blocks from his house, so we went there for dinner. It worked out well, and I think we'll all sleep good tonight.
And tomorrow, we plan on getting up reasonably early and heading out to Wickenburg to look for gold.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Day 2 - Thursday (continued)
We rolled into Gallup, NM tonight around 5:30pm local time. I was able to find an iPod Touch in Albuquerque, so I've been watching Survivor and playing with the new toy all evening.
All of the technology seems to be working quite well.
I've got a small issue with my brights and windshield-washing-fluid switches in the van. Until the brights switch is cycled about 10-20 times each morning, the van will randomly alternate betwen turning the brights on/off, or spraying the windsheild with fluid. I'm pretty sure it's not a matter of me pulling wrong or fat-fingering it. At this point, it's just an annoyance, and I'll probably wait until I get home to tear into it.
The APRS positioning has been tracking all through New Mexico, and into Kansas. I don't think it's transmitting quite a frequently as I thought I'd configured it, but it's adequate and is getting iGated on a regular basis.
The Alltel wireless Internet card was working fair in the van traveling down the Interstate I-40. It disconnected 2 or 3 times while trying to write the first part of Day 2 blog entry, but it got the job done.
And the iPod is pretty cool. I'm still in the process of getting all my music and photos sync'ed up with the laptop, but it's attaching to the hotel's Internet just fine. It's user interface is very intuitive, and I feel like I'm already 90% up the curve on using it. It looks like it's going to hook up just fine to my work's VPN connection out of the box, without any extra add-ins!
The good news and bad news: Crys is very impressed with the iPod and is thinking of putting one on her Christmas list. And the bad, I've been monitoring the ham radio 146.52 simplex calling frequency for almost 12 hours through four states, and haven't heard a single voice.
All of the technology seems to be working quite well.
I've got a small issue with my brights and windshield-washing-fluid switches in the van. Until the brights switch is cycled about 10-20 times each morning, the van will randomly alternate betwen turning the brights on/off, or spraying the windsheild with fluid. I'm pretty sure it's not a matter of me pulling wrong or fat-fingering it. At this point, it's just an annoyance, and I'll probably wait until I get home to tear into it.
The APRS positioning has been tracking all through New Mexico, and into Kansas. I don't think it's transmitting quite a frequently as I thought I'd configured it, but it's adequate and is getting iGated on a regular basis.
The Alltel wireless Internet card was working fair in the van traveling down the Interstate I-40. It disconnected 2 or 3 times while trying to write the first part of Day 2 blog entry, but it got the job done.
And the iPod is pretty cool. I'm still in the process of getting all my music and photos sync'ed up with the laptop, but it's attaching to the hotel's Internet just fine. It's user interface is very intuitive, and I feel like I'm already 90% up the curve on using it. It looks like it's going to hook up just fine to my work's VPN connection out of the box, without any extra add-ins!
The good news and bad news: Crys is very impressed with the iPod and is thinking of putting one on her Christmas list. And the bad, I've been monitoring the ham radio 146.52 simplex calling frequency for almost 12 hours through four states, and haven't heard a single voice.
Day 2 - Thursday
Things are still going well. We made it out of Garden City about 5 minutes early, and didn't have to stop until our early lunch at 10:30am. The DVD player that we borrowed from the Frey's is working it's miracles. We've watched about 4 movies and have had no fighting.
It looks like the APRS tracking is getting gated onto the Internet pretty well. I'm running about 25W out of a 5/8 wave vertical on top of the van. It's sitting about 2 inches away from the Garmin GPS-35 unit that we used to use on balloons. I would up running a ground strap to the radio, and to the shell of the APRS controller box. I also put a couple of ferrite beads on the coax and RS-232 cables.
We stopped for lunch in Tucumcari. While getting gas and ice, we bought three lottery tickets. Acacia's was a winner, and earned her $2 of spending cash! Lunch was at an A&W / Long John Silvers joint. There was a centipede trying to crawl into the men's restroom.
We just got on the Interstate I-40 heading west towards Flagstaff, but have been in contruction zones for the last 20 miles. Hopefully they're over now. The next planned stop will be at a Best Buy in Albuquerque to buy an iPod Touch.
It looks like the APRS tracking is getting gated onto the Internet pretty well. I'm running about 25W out of a 5/8 wave vertical on top of the van. It's sitting about 2 inches away from the Garmin GPS-35 unit that we used to use on balloons. I would up running a ground strap to the radio, and to the shell of the APRS controller box. I also put a couple of ferrite beads on the coax and RS-232 cables.
We stopped for lunch in Tucumcari. While getting gas and ice, we bought three lottery tickets. Acacia's was a winner, and earned her $2 of spending cash! Lunch was at an A&W / Long John Silvers joint. There was a centipede trying to crawl into the men's restroom.
We just got on the Interstate I-40 heading west towards Flagstaff, but have been in contruction zones for the last 20 miles. Hopefully they're over now. The next planned stop will be at a Best Buy in Albuquerque to buy an iPod Touch.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Day 1 - Wednesday
Our trip started Wednesday in Hutchinson. We're staying the weekend with my friend David, and if you know David, you know that you have to bring Taco Hut if you visit him. So, our first stop was to pick up some tacos.
We made it to Garden City in good time, with no stops! We hit a piece of tumbleweed rolling down the highway, but otherwise nothing much to report yet.
We took this photo of the wind farm near Dodge City. This thing is huge. They're kind of pretty when they're all out there slowly turning. On the other hand, I think they could quickly become an eye sore if they were allowed to deteriorate over time.
The APRS tracking system seems to be working thus far. Our progress can be found on findu.com.
Total miles traveled: 190
We made it to Garden City in good time, with no stops! We hit a piece of tumbleweed rolling down the highway, but otherwise nothing much to report yet.
We took this photo of the wind farm near Dodge City. This thing is huge. They're kind of pretty when they're all out there slowly turning. On the other hand, I think they could quickly become an eye sore if they were allowed to deteriorate over time.
The APRS tracking system seems to be working thus far. Our progress can be found on findu.com.
Total miles traveled: 190
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