Oct 16: pretty cold this morning, 24 degrees when I got up! oh boy... but it looks to be a good travel day. Our first night is in Austin Mn. about 200 miles to the Double Tree.
Looks like we have more room...
We stopped a few times including Chesterwood Park in Rochester MN. Nice park, great trails, quiet and just what we needed.
We arrived at the SPAM Museum at 2:30. How fun that was... too much to look at but very interesting.
I am about 21 cans of SPAN tall! Eric was 23 cans tall
We arrived at our hotel at 3:30. we unpacked then went to Jay Hormel Nature Center for a wonderful walk. Dinner at the hotel restaurant.
Oct 17: not as cold this am. 40 deg but will be windy. Our drive today to West Des Moines is about 190 miles. We stopped a few times but it was pretty windy, the sun was out and as the day went on the temp went higher. A bit too windy for the birds but we managed to get a few.
Hunter Moon rising
we arrived at the Hampton Inn in West Des Moines at 2:00. our room was ready.. after a quick nap and rest we went to the Barn Town Brewery for a delicious dinner and a few brews. I had the Tenderloin, Eric had the Pastrami sandwich. both were repeatable.
Friday Oct 18: Today is our longest leg of the journey. West Des Moines IA to Topeka KS is 245 miles, but of course our hotels are on the farthest point in each city! making our journey closer to 270 miles!! my plan was to keep our milage under 250. oops! a sunny day, a bit windy (from the south) but mostly highway miles. its all good...
Our journey was pretty uneventful except for 2 roadway issues. the one on I35 was stopped traffic as a vehicle had mechanical issues and the highway was down to one lane... added an extra 20 minutes to the trip. the second issue was an accident at a stop light that just happened, thus adding another 10 minutes onto our day. but we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Topeka at 2:30.
Dinner at the Blue Whale. Oh so good and great service.
Saturday Oct 19: our free day! 2 nights here in Topeka. We headed back to Lawrence KS for a bit of birding, got our Le Contes Sparrow! #410 for the year!! After lunch we took a little nap, then went for a walk by the Governor's mansion.
Checked out the Happy Basset Brewery before going back to the room for leftovers for dinner..
fun day in KS. not too hot, not too cold, not too windy. its all good.
Sunday Oct 20: Off to Ponca City OK for one night. Under 200 miles trip for today. We stopped a few times at some favorite places, but mostly we were on the tollway. Sunny, warm and light traffic made for a good trip.
We checked into the Hampton Inn in Ponca City at 2:30. Dinner at El Patio Mexican Restaurant. We had never eaten here before. We were able to sit out on the Patio. My Carnita dinner was one of the best I have had in a very long time. Service was perfect, beer was cold and the food was top notch. If we come back this way again its definitely a repeat
Monday Oct 21: off to Elk City OK, 215 miles. We found a few new places to walk on our way to Elk City. Gas prices are coming down. $2.52 a gallon in OK City. Of course there are a lot of roads with construction but we did not get bogged down today. It's good to see the roads being repaired etc. and to see so many people working. I think the Governor in Wis is fixing every road! seems like they are so many detours but they really needed to be repaired.
we arrived at our hotel Hampton Inn at 3:00. Pizza for dinner at Boomtown Grill. not bad, not good. but a great $4 house salad.
We are wondering if we need to change our plans as Roswell NM had torrential rains over the weekend and was flooded. I called the hotel for info on the flooding. The clerk said no problem with the city. hmm.. we will wait another day to make the decision to change our route.
Tuesday Oct 22: we stay here in Elk City for one more night. temps today is suppose to be 88, sunny with little wind. great day to go walking, it was a bit cool in the am but by 9 am it was warm and got to 90 by the late afternoon.
Dinner was leftovers Carnitas in our room. a quick trip to the casino, about 30 minutes to lose $20. not bad, not good..
Wednesday Oct 23: today is our shortest drive. 145 miles to Amarillo TX. We were able to sleep in and enjoy a late breakfast. A few stops for walking etc
we did find an American Avocet which is rare for this area
at the rest stop in Texas. kind of a cool grill
arrived at the Home 2 Suites at 2:00. 90 deg today! Dinner at Pecan Grill and Brewery. Our food was good but the ice cream was still in our bellies so we went with soup and salad. Eric had the Green Chili stew, I had the French Onion soup. our small salads were really good with candied pecans.
Monday Oct 28: another day in Las Cruces. another hot day 92 is forecasted. we went to the state park for a really nice walk, it started out a bit cool, 42 deg but once the sun was up it sure did get warm. Lunch at Rudy's BBQ. we went to the Ice Box Brewery for nachos later in the afternoon. Home 2 Suites has a nice outdoor sitting area where we were able to enjoy the late afternoon sun.
Tuesday Oct 29: 2 more legs on this journey! we are off to Rusty's RV Resort in Rodeo NM to stay in a "little" house for the next 3 nights. It's going to be very very windy today... our journey was not too bad as most of it was on I 10 but the wind was coming from the south, we could see lots of dustnados forming and went through a small one. We took our time, stopped a few times arriving at Rusty's at 2:30. It was so windy we could not stay outside. the wind died down about 6 pm. We finally got to see the comet! we have been looking since Oct 1 for the C/2023 A (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) comet which only makes it close enough to earth every 80,000 years!
Good night to stay in and watch Kamala Harris at the Ellipse.
Wednesday Oct 30: a bit cold today, 38-65 but not too much wind. we went to some of our favorite places in Portal, AZ. dinner at home while enjoying one of our final fires.. we don't think we will have wood fires in Green Valley this year.
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