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Time to come out of hibernation!
Road Trip Memories isn’t dead, we’ve just been hibernating! It’s been such a harsh winter, we haven’t really had an opportunity to take any road trips or camping trips (we do like to camp and hike in the winter too)! We hope to get out and about this year. We’ve selected got our annual vacation destination – we’re heading west to South Dakota, which I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. After Dances with Wolves came out, I really wanted to visit the Badlands, and had a trip planned and booked. Unfortunately, the Great Flood of 1993 put the kibosh on that trip. So this year, it’s time to…
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September 1-3, 2012: Lake Michigan Loop Redux
Prelude We haven’t been on a road trip or camped in a while and with our 10th wedding anniversary coming up, decided to take a trip over Labor Day weekend. Only two snafus: we needed to watch our 18-month old grandson until noon Saturday while my daughter was in college classes; and then the remnants of Hurricane Isaac were heading to the Midwest. While tossing out ideas, I wanted to originally camp in northern Indiana and visit the Marshmallow Festival in Ligonier, Indiana and the Blueberry Festival in Plymouth, Indiana. I’d just enjoyed 7 wonderful visits to the Indiana State Fair a couple of weeks ago and was having major…
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November 28, 2008: Route 66 (Day 2)
This morning at the motel, I did searched geocaching.com for geocaches along Route 66, as well as back to Indianapolis. I just got a new GPS, a DeLorme PN-40, and was anxious to try it out. I hadn’t cached for a while, and was ready for some caching! We left the motel and followed 66 through Rolla, where we found our first cache of the day, and our first in Missouri. We decided to stick with just one or two caches per hour so we could make it as far as Oklahoma City on this trip. We also wanted to get to Pop’s – a gas statiohn/ soda ranch /…
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November 27, 2008: Route 66 (Day 1)
We woke up this morning intending to head south to Georgia. After a last check of the weather we noticed the forecast had worsened. The chance for rain increased significantly, and since I had a specific purpose for this trip mostly involving outdoor photography, it was not something I wanted to do in the rain. We struggled between wanting to go and whether or not to trust the forecast. We could go somewhere else with a better forecast or not go at all. Pat hinted at going west on 66 since we hadn’t done that in a while. He’s very indecisive, as readers of his blog know from his recent…
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Some Came Running…for fudge?
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Shirley MacLaine didn’t go running to Madison, Indiana for fudge, but every once in a while, we do. Madison, Indiana is a neat town in southern Indiana with very nice architecture, shops, and dining. It sits right on the Ohio River and was the filming location for the 1958 film “Some Came Running,” starrring the aforementioned celebrities. It was a nice day, we felt like getting out, so we drove down to Madison to pick up some fudge at the Madison Fudge Factory & Guest Suites. They have two guest suites upstairs, and the evening turn-down service includes fudge samples. Don’t quote me, but I…
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August 2008: The Great Outdoors and the Great River Road
Part 2 of “The Great Outdoors” as we return to the Sleeping Fawn Resort in Park Rapids. While we needed to take the Interstate up, for the most part, we returned along the Great River Road through Minnesota. We crossed into Wisconsin, back over to Iowa, and back to Wisconsin, before taking Wisconsin State Road 11. We then needed to take the Evil-I home to Indiana. Slideshow of All Photos For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site. [flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157606775163113″ width=”500″]
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June 2008: The Great Outdoors – Park Rapids, Minnesota
Pat has mentioned many times over the past several years about wanting to visit Minnesota. As a child, it was his family’s vacation destination of choice, and he also visited several times as an adult, the last being 1995. Other than our journey to the Twine Ball in November 2005, I had not been to Minnesota. So, we thought a trip to “The Great Outdoors” would be a fine idea. One of my favorite movies is “The Great Outdoors” starring Dan Aykroyd and the late, great comedian, John Candy. The film epitomizes the family northwoods vacation and our experience reflected that – everything reminded me of something from the movie.…
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The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota
Weird Al inspired this road trip. Really! After hearing the Weird Al song, “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” we decided to make our own journey to the Twine Ball. Slideshow of All Photos For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site. [FAGP id=2946] Here are the lyrics that gave us inspiration…and a video Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota by Weird Al Yankovic Well, I had two weeks of vacation time coming After workin’ all year down at Big Roy’s Heating and Plumbing. So one night, when my family and I were gathered round the…
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April 2001: Route 66 – Romeoville, IL to St. Robert, MO (Day 2)
When we awoke Sunday, our Wayfarer Inn experience wasn’t over. When we discovered there wasn’t any hot (or even lukewarm!) water coming out of the shower, Jennifer decided she’d had enough and called the front desk. When she told Mr. Patel we weren’t getting any hot water, he said it would get hot if we left it on “for 5 or 10 minute”. At this point, Jennifer vowed to never take a chance on an independent motel she hadn’t previously stayed in. So, feeling a bit peeved at Mr. Patel’s remedy for hot water, we just decided to end this nightmare and leave. (I won’t tell you that we left…
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First Route 66 Trip Together Day 2 — January 28, 2001
Chicago to the Western Suburbs For our second day together on Route 66, we started the morning back in Downers Grove. We headed north on I-294 to the O’Hare Oasis, where we stopped for breakfast before continuing our sightseeing around the Chicago area. After breakfast we continued north on I-294 and exited at U.S. 19, which we followed through Skokie and into Evanston. We stopped at a park along Lake Michigan and took a walk by the lake. The neighborhood nearby was beautiful, with stately brick homes and an atmosphere that felt very exclusive. Exploring Chicago and Route 66 From Evanston we drove into the city to visit Hit the…