The Big 1996 Trip Journal

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Today we got up early and drove to our friends house in the Texas Panhandle. We got to J.D. & Michele's about 3:30pm. Michele and the girls, Megan and Sarah, had gone to ballet camp, so they didn't get back home until about 7:15pm! We went out to eat at the Cotton Patch Cafe.

Today, Dad, Mom and I took Michele, the girls, and two of their friends up to ballet camp, which took place at West Texas A & M University. We dropped the four girls off at the school and Michele and Mom and Dad and I went to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. It was really neat! I highly recommend it. At noon, we went in the school and met the girls for lunch. We ate the roast beef sandwiches that Michele had packed for us that morning. After we all finished, Megan and the two friends went back to ballet and Sarah came with Michele and us. We drove across town to Palo Duro Canyon. It was a nice thing to see a canyon breaking the monotony of the pancake-flat panhandle :-) We drove through on the road and admired the beautiful, red canyon walls. We only got out of the car once; it was SO hot, it being August 1st!

At 5:30pm, we picked up Megan and her two friends and drove back to their town. We dropped the two friends off at their house and then went back to Michele's. Megan, Sarah and I went swimming before dinner. Ahhhh, that felt so good! Dinner was steak, corn, fried squash and iced tea.

This morning, we got up early and left for New Mexico! We drove over to Taos and got a motel room. We ate an early dinner at the Kiva Coffee Shop. (My first taste of New Mexican food....quite spicy, but wonderful flavor! It's still my favorite style of food!) We put our luggage in our room, and then drove up to Malcom and Anne's house for the start of the conference. We stayed and visited with the people for awhile and then went back to our hotel.

This morning we got up and drove to Malcom & Anne's again. We all had brunch. I had a cherry and cream cheese roll and some pineapple. We all sat outside and discussed an essay for about 2 hours, then Malcom and a friend baptized Malcom's son, Ransom, in the stream that runs in front of their house. This stream is snowmelt from the nearby mountains, and was not a bit warm! After the baptism was over, Mom, Dad and I drove up to the Taos Ski Lodge. It rained on us a bit. We drove back down to downtown Taos and ate dinner at Ogelvies Restaurant. Dad had nachos and Mom and I had a cold chicken-spaghetti salad. It was all delicious! When we were done, we drove back to Malcom & Anne's place. Malcom and Anne and the kids, and Art and Marilyn were going to go out to eat, so we went with them to Tim's Chili Connection, and watched them eat. Afterwards, we all went back to Malcom's and everyone sat out on the lawn because it was so nice.

As it got dark, a nice big thunderstorm came over from the southwest, and we had to run inside to escape the heavy rain and lightning it produced! We finished our discussion inside.

Today we went to the Baptist church in Taos to wrap up the conference, and after that was done, we drove north to Buena Vista, CO! We went to Ron and Beth's house and ate hamburgers for dinner with them, and then we sat around and talked until 11:30pm! We spent the night at the Vista Inn. I found out the next morning that across the road from the Vista Inn is a BEAUTIFUL range of mountains! I took some pictures and video. Below is the best picture of them, that I took.

Is this not a beautiful sight?? Praise the LORD for giving us these wonderful, beautiful mountains!

This morning we got up early and had some breakfast from the hotel. Let me tell you, if you have the chance to go to this hotel, do it! The rooms were clean, the people were so nice, and they have a free continental breakfast with ALL kinds of breads, muffins, doughnuts, cereals, coffee, juice, etc...it was wonderful! Afterwards, we drove up to Cottonwood Pass (over 12,000 feet in elevation) and checked out the view. The continental divide is on top of this pass as well, so you could stand on either the eastern or western side of the continent! The wind was extremely strong up there...I would estimate it was blowing at around 40mph! The temperature was about 50°, but with the wind, it felt like 30°! We drove back down to Ron's house and had cinnamon rolls and eggs with him and Beth, and then talked until about 11:15am. We planned to drive to Littleton and get there by about 2pm, but on the way we decided to take the "back way" and drive through Leadville. We were making good time until we saw the museum. I can't remember the exact name of it, but I think it was something like "Leadville mining museum." This is a most fascinating place, and I highly recommend it if you ever happen to go through that area! It has all sorts of things to do with mining, plus it has a rock museum! This was the fun part. I can't describe it all, so you have to go and visit to see what we saw! <G>.

We stopped by the Denver Mint, arriving at the door at exactly 2:47pm. Oops, they close at 2:45 each day. Precisely 2:45 <G>

We drove up to Boulder and looked for a motel. Couldn't find anything, so we took advantage of my Dad's enjoyment of driving...and driving....and driving, and finally drove into a small town named Nederland, about 30 miles NW of Boulder. It's a nice small town in the mountains, with rock shops, antiques, and a few restaurants. We found a hotel which doubled as an antique shop on the bottom floor, and were given the manager's room to stay the night in! We found a great restaurant called "The Pioneer Inn", and ate dinner (supper) there. Afterwards, we went out and drove up into the mountains awhile, until it got dark.

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We saw this big, beautiful elk!

It rained on us a bit on the way back down from the moutains, while the sun shone!

8/8/96

Today, we drove back down to Boulder and went to the National Bureau of Standards and Time, and saw the atomic clock.

I haven't really figured out exactly how it works, but it's fascinating! We also went to the National Earthquake and Information Center (you have to scroll down the page to find the info). When we first came in, we went over to their information section where they had a real seismograph machine, which had a sensor planted in a nearby mountain. To our surprise, the needle began moving back and forth quickly, which meant there had been an earthquake in that mountain the sensor was in! Of course it wasn't big enough for anyone to feel, just big enough for the sensitive monitor to pick up. I videotaped the earthquake <G>

We stood around in there for a bit, and then someone came out who said they would show us around. The man (unfortunately I can't remember his name!) took back and showed us all their big seismograph machines which monitor many different places around the world. It was facinating! He also showed us the tracings from a couple "famous" earthquakes. One was from a huge earthquake in Alaska, and another one was the "Candlestick Park" earthquake in California, along with several others I can't remember.

The neat thing is, not too long after we got back home, a friend was showing me her science textbooks and as we looked through one of them, I thought I saw a familiar face. We flipped the pages back and sure enough, there was the man who had showed us around the earthquake center!! Small world, huh? <G>

Afterwards, we drove to the mint down in Denver. It's a fascinating place! They count everyone who goes through the door, and you have to go through an x-ray machine. No cameras are allowed inside, but they do sell postcards with pictures. This tour might not be too interesting for little kids, but for older kids (maybe about 6 and up) they would love it!

We went back to Nederland and ate at the Pioneer Inn again. Later that night, after we had gone to bed, I woke up, hearing these scampering sounds on the floor and wall. My first thought was that it was roaches, but then I remembered that there are no roaches that far north. I grabbed a flashlight and, without getting off the bed or putting my feet on the floor, checked the floor. It was MICE!! Evidently they came in to visit since the windows were open. Whew. At least it was something cute and furry! I went back to sleep <G>

Today we left Nederland and drove north to Estes Park. We stopped at the tourist station and chatted with the ranger or whatever he was (sorry, I don't remember! LOL) There was a nice little lake out across the road from the tourist station, so we went over and explored it. There were several ducks swimming in it and standing on the shore. There was even a mother duck with about 6 babies! One of the baby ducks was so cute because he was trying to dive underwater and just couldn't quite do it yet. He ended up spinning in circles upside-down on the surface of the water! We got it on videotape, too. While we were there, we discussed whether or not we really wanted to go on west. Denver was the last place that we knew anyone from, so we'd be all on our own from here on out. We first said, well, we'll go back home, we've been gone for however many days, we're tired, etc....but then we finally decided to go on west. The explorer in us just couldn't resist <G>

After exploring the lake, we went to find a place to eat down in Estes Park. I'm sure there are good places to eat there, we just had no idea which places were good and which weren't! Of course picked one that had the most bland food you can imagine. Yuck!

After driving through RMNP, we went west towards Glenwood Springs, CO. We got there, only to find the town packed with people. There were no cheaper hotels anywhere in the town, so we made a little southward detour to Carbondale, CO. We were able to find a room there, but it was outrageously expensive! We had no choice, it was getting so late, and we didn't want to drive further.

We got in the car, went to get gas, and then headed for Utah! Let me add that the weather was absolutely beautiful in CO. It wasn't too hot at all, despite it being August! We drove alllllll day long through Utah, and passed through some beautiful scenery! It was all desert, but it was beautiful. We arrived in St. George, UT about 5pm or so. We had not stopped once on our drive across the state, so we had no clue of what the temperatures were. When we opened the car doors, we nearly suffocated! The heat was incredible. I guess it must have been about 105° there when we got out. One nice thing about heat in the Southwest US - It's a dry heat. You can actually get cooled off by standing in the shade, even when it's 110 degrees or more! When you sweat, it's also evaporated quickly by the dry wind, so the heat doesn't "collect" on your body like a sleeping bag. Down here where we live, you can sweat, but it won't evaporate. Phew!

Anyway, after checking in the hotel, we went in search of a place to eat. Up ahead in town was a big Chili's sign. Aha! A familiar face all the way out in the desert ;-) (can you tell we eat out too much?) We had a great dinner there and then went to Wal-Mart (another familiar face! <G>) to buy film.

Today we got up and drove to Zion National Park in southern UT. It was incredibly beautiful! Some of the rocks were 3,000 feet high. It was also terribly hot. We had a good time, and came back to St. George to spend the night. We ate at Chili's again.

Today we went to Bryce Canyon National Park. It's a huge canyon that is mostly full of strange spire-like rock formations! It was very beautiful, as well! After spending the day at BCNP, we drove to Kanab, UT to spend the night. Did you ever watch "Gunsmoke" and wonder where it was filmed? It wasn't filmed in Dodge City, KS, that's for sure! It was filmed here in Kanab, UT! Kanab is a very small town, and has only two motels, and only two restaurants that I knew of. The hotel we stayed in also happened to be the one that the cast from "Gunsmoke" stayed at when they filmed the shows! There were signs above each room that a cast member had stayed in, telling who had stayed in the rooms. We ended up with the room that James Arness stayed in! Pretty neat, eh? It was also fun to see all the scenery around the area.

This is a big day - the first day we get to see the Grand Canyon! We drove to the north rim and admired the views. We used about 4 rolls of film. We took 54 panoramic pictures! No, don't worry, I won't put them all up here ;-) We were about the only people there who spoke English, along with the Navajo Indians. Everyone else spoke German and French!

We drove north again, through the Painted Desert, and crossed the Grand Canyon on a small bridge (well, small compared to Glen Canyon Dam!) that was several miles south of GCD. We then went south down to Flagstaff, AZ to spend the night. It was quite late when we got there. Mom and Dad ate something at McDonald's, but I didn't eat anything since it was so late.

Another big day! We drove up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon! Everyone here spoke German and French except for us and the Navajo Indians <G> It was very interesting to listen, since it's not often you get to hear pure French and German that isn't supplemented by English! The view was just wonderful, too. We took another 4 or 5 rolls of film. We ate lunch at Bright Angel Lodge - it was very good food, considering it was a hotel restaurant! I got a t-shirt with a picture of the Grand Canyon on it, too. :-)

The temperature was incredibly high today, here! It was about 110° to 115°. Hiking down into the canyon was forbidden at the time we were there, due to the temperature being 15-20 degrees higher down in the canyon! That meant it could have been 130° down there! I think that would prove to be overwhelming, dry heat or no! There were signs on every trailhead we passed that said "No Hiking - Trespassers will be Prosecuted" or something like that. I thought the sign should have said "Survivors will be prosecuted."

We are now homeward bound! We drove west to near Winslow, AZ, to the giant meteor crater there. Being an astronomy and space-nut type of person <G> I really enjoyed it! We explored the gift shop and I got some videos about Apollo 13 and some giant postcards. Over in the museum part, there was a lot of astronaut memorabilia, because moon astronauts came here to practice collecting rocks, climbing, etc, because the inside of the crater closely resembles the surface of the moon. I tried to videotape it all! They even had Charlie Duke's "moon suit" there! They also had two meteorites in the lobby. One was about the size of a basketball, and it weighed 850lbs! Drop that on your foot and say goodbye to a normal-sized foot! OUCH.

There was another meteorite there which was about 3 feet in length and about 2 feet in diameter, and it weighed.......1,500lbs!

We went outside and looked at the crater,after we finished with the building. The crater really does not look very big when you're standing right on the edge, but when you look at an aerial picture of it, you see that it is huge! It's about a 3-mile hike if you want to walk around it. No one is allowed down into the crater now.

Today we went to Alamogordo, NM to the New Mexico Museum of Space History! They had Buzz Aldrin's helmet (the one he wore on the moon!) and one of Neil Armstrong's moon gloves. I wish I'd videotaped those! At the time, I didn't want to drag the camera out to videotape a lot of the stuff. I know better than to think that now! Videotape EVERYTHING that is interesting to you the FIRST time you see it! We watched an IMAX movie they had there, too. I don't really enjoy those too much, since they make me dizzy! The one we watched was kind of weird....it showed a drop of pond water and they zoomed into it and went all the way down to showing the atoms in the water, or something like that, then they zoomed out really fast, all the way out to a galaxy in the universe! It wouldn't have been too bad if it had been a normal-sized TV screen, but it was awful on a 4-story-high screen! I spent most of the time with my eyes closed <G>

After the movie was over and we went out the exit door, we noticed the bathrooms were right across from the door. Maybe they are in that specific area for a reason? I wonder how many people get "seasick" from watching those movies!

They had all sorts of neat space memorabilia, including patches, videos, books, t-shirts, postcards, etc....I loved it!

We went to Lester's Family Restaurant for lunch, and then drove west through Cloudcroft, NM. It was such a pretty place, especially since we were now back into the southern end of the Rocky Mountains!

On the highway between Cloudcroft and Mountain Park, an 18-wheeler truck tried to pass us on the 2-lane, winding road. All this happened in, literally, the blink of an eye. I was sitting in the back seat on the driver's side, and never saw anything until this truck was right beside us! My Dad slowed down to allow him to pass, and all of a sudden, his back left tires went off the road and pulled the truck a little ways over to the side. The driver must have panicked and over-corrected to the right, because the cargo part of the truck suddenly swung back onto the road and swung directly into our path. If my Dad had not slowed down when he did, the truck would have broadsided the side of the car that my Dad and I were in! God was truly protecting us! The truck continued to weave back and forth on the road in front of us, and I could tell what was going to happen next. Sure enough, the entire truck tipped completely onto its side and SKIDDED down the road for many feet!!! There were a few houses a ways off the road, but they heard the accident the moment it happened. A man zoomed down the hill on his 4-wheeler and said his wife called the ambulance as soon she heard it. He said it sounded like dynamite going off down there! The truck was completely blocking the road, so a couple of us took some sheets to use as flags and went down the road to the other side of the truck and stood, so people coming around the curve would stop in time. The ambulance got there very quickly...I don't think it was more than 10 minutes at the most! The driver climbed out right before they got there - he was not hurt except for a big cut on his arm, but he said his passenger was pinned in the cab and couldn't get out. Someone climbed up on the truck and called down through the cabin to the other man. He'd obviously gotten a concussion because he would answer them, but give nonsense answers. They got him out after working for awhile. One of his legs was broken, too! Poor guy. It turns out neither of them were wearing seatbelts, which is why they were tossed around in the cab. I don't care how much you hate seatbelts, WEAR THEM! :-)

After this rather exciting experience, we drove to Carlsbad, NM. We checked into a motel and then went to eat. We drove to the entrance of Carlsbad Cavern to watch the bats emerge. It was quite a sight! I enjoyed it.

We went back to the hotel and got settled down. We tried to decide whether to make a break for it and drive all the way home tomorrow or if we should stop in San Angelo or something. I convinced my parents to drive all 550 miles home in one day <G> I was so desperate to be home! We pulled back the bed covers and found a startling sight - BEETLES in the blankets! We also found a couple on the floor. These turned out to be tiger beetles. They had sharp jaws, and did they ever look nasty! The ones we found indoors were moving slowly and seemed rather sluggish. We guessed that they had eaten some poison or something. We picked them out of the blankets and then got into bed. Right when I had relaxed enough to fall asleep, my Mom started whispering something to my Dad! I wouldn't have listened, except I heard her saying something about bugs. All of a sudden, she turned the light on and said "there's a beetle in your pillow!!" Sure enough, my Dad looked in his pillow and there was one of those beetles scratching around. YUCK! We didn't have anymore trouble the rest of the night, thankfully.

The next morning, we packed up and started loading the car. I noticed the same kind of bettles that had been in the room were also running around on the parking lot! These were not slow and sluggish like the others, though. They zoomed around much too fast to be caught. We complained to the desk about their bug problem, and they gave us a certificate for a free room at any of their chains in the US! I would have preferred we get our money back, but oh well....

We then went back to Carlsbad Caverns and took a tour! We did the one where you don't have a guide. We rode the elevator down to 700-something feet underground! It was so nice and cool down there, and the humidity was 100%! The cavern was beautiful, and we took lots of pictures and video.

We headed home! We drove down through extreme west TX, and saw 14 dust devils in the process! One big one crossed the road right as we were in the same spot. It pushed the car to the side of the road, but not off it. We passed through Fort Stockton, Pecos, etc...

We finally stopped for dinner in Junction, TX. On the way back home, we passed through the towns of Teacup and London.

We finally got home late in the evening. Oh, how good that felt!!! On this trip, we took about 100 panoramic pictures and about 300 regular pictures. It was a great trip, and I'd love to do it again sometime!