May 27, 2024 - Fort Collins, CO to Salina, Kansas

Today we started our journey toward Myrtle Beach, South Carolina driving in our van, not the RV. We have driven the Colorado to Missouri route many times, but we decided to take our time and look for things we have never seen before to check out on our way.

We left home about 10am today and headed toward Burlington, Colorado, home of the Kit Carson County Carousel and Museum. We made a lunch stop at Los 3 Garcia in Byers, Colorado. The food was okay, but they are VERY proud of their soft drinks - $4.50 for a pepsi! We chalked it up to needing a break and that helped pay for our time out of the car. :)

We arrived in Burlington a little after 2pm and made our way to the Carousel and Museum. This little museum which is housed at the county fairgrounds is quite interesting. Admission is only $1.00 per person and today they had free rides on the carousel which we took advantage of.  Rides are normally 25 cents! Inside the museum there is loads of information about the history of carousels and photographs from the early 1900s.

The Kit Carson County Carousel, also known as PTC number 6, was built in 1905 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company for Elitch Gardens in Denver. It was purchased by the Kit Carson County commissioners in 1928 for $1,200! That price included sending it from Denver by train to Burlington, setting it up and an operator to teach them how to run the carousel! During the Depression, the building it is housed in was used for feed storage and the carousel fell into a state of disrepair. With Colorado's centennial celebration in 1976, the decision was made to restore the carousel to its original condition. Renovations were finally completed in 2001!.

The Carousel has 46 hand-carved animals that have been restored to their original paint. The animals have intricate carvings, real antlers on the deer and real horse tails on many of the horses! The music is provided by an 1909 Wurlitzer Monster Military Band Organ that also had to be completely rebuilt because rats had chewed all of the tubing while it was not in use!




We rode on the zebras - because I didn't do that in Africa!
After our ride, we had the opportunity to go "behind the scenes" and go inside to see the inner workings of the carousel! Dave, the operator, showed us the motor and explained how it worked. He was great and we enjoyed the special attention!


Back on the road we made our way to our next stop - Wilson, Kansas. Why Wilson? you may ask. Wilson promotes itself as the "Czech Capital of Kansas" due to the role of Czech immigrant settlers in the early history of the town. So what? you may ask. WELL ... Wilson also happens to be home to the world's largest Czech egg and we had never seen it before. It towers 20 feet into the air and is painted in the fashion of Central-Eastern Europe's famous eggs. The pattern on this egg is a traditional Czech design.


There were painted eggs all over the town - but none even close to as large as the world's largest!

We had a picnic dinner at the water park before getting back on the road to our stop overnight in Salina, Kansas. There are miles and miles of wind turbines and small rolling hills and open plains.

After driving almost 500 miles today, we are ready for a rest! Stayed tuned to see where our adventures take us tomorrow!

2024-4-15 Snyder, Texas to Fort Collins, Colorado

We woke up early this morning and were on the road before 7am which turned out to be a good thing because we were battling strong winds all day long! We had commented that we had seen so many wind turbines, but no power plants. Well ... that changed! We passed several of these along the way through Texas.

We also reminded ourselves to try to practice what the sign said and get to our "happy" place.

When we got to Amarillo, we did make a stop at Cadillac Ranch. What, you may ask, is Cadillac Ranch?

In 1974, an art group, Ant Farm, came up with the idea of creating an interactive art installation that would pay homage to the American automobile culture. Inspired by the aesthetics and symbolism of Route 66, they chose a location just west of Amarillo. Route 66 was known as the Main Street of America and was essential for cross-country travel, connecting the Midwest and the West Coast. It was a symbol of adventure and freedom. Originally placed directly on Route 66 allowed the installation to become an attraction for visitors across the country. In 1997, the installation was quietly moved from the original wheat field to a location two miles to the west in order to place it farther from the growing city limits. Today, visitors can buy spray paint from the Cadillac Ranch "merch" store and add your own artistic flair to any or all of the 10 cars.



No, we did not buy any spray paint, but we saw people who did! Quite honestly, there was so much paint on the cars, it was difficult to know if they were Cadillacs or not!

Our lunch stop was just south of Channing - where we spent our first night before moving on. The wind was still blowing! While it was a tail wind part of the time, it was a side wind every time the road turned to the west, so we were rocking and rolling down the road - especially when big trucks went by in the opposite direction. Not long after lunch we discovered that the refrigerator blew a fuse and wasn't working. Tobey replaced the fuse and it blew almost immediately. Needless to say, we didn't have another fuse, so our decision to head home quickly was made for us. I moved all the ice we had down from the freezer and that helped keep everything cold, but wouldn't last another day.

We continued our northward journey through lots of small towns, stopping in Bennett, Colorado for a quick dinner. All across Colorado the dust and dirt blew and we never really got a view of our Rocky Mountains. We encountered a little rain near Fort Lupton but it was brief, thank goodness!

The wind never did let up! Look at those flags!

We finally pulled onto I-25 near Longmont and were soon watching ominous storm clouds.
Fortunately, we made it home with just another brief rain shower and pulled in about 8:45 pm.
700 miles in 14 hours of travel time (one hour time change, too) is TOO long to spend in the RV fighting wind and semi trucks all day. We were able to unload part of our stuff and will finish it on Tuesday. The poor old RV is anxious for a rest!

2024-4-14 Gonzales, Texas to Round Rock to Snyder, Texas

It was an easy morning today traveling from Gonzales heading to my cousin Doug's house in Round Rock about 90 miles away. We arrived about 11:30 and spent some time visiting before we all went out for lunch at the Salt Lick Restaurant. We hadn't had barbeque since arriving in Texas so that was the choice of the day. We had the brisket and pulled pork and they were both tasty. We hadn't seen each other in almot 25 years so it was fun catching up and all too soon it was time for us to get back on the road.

We continued on from Round Rock to Sweetwater, Texas where we stopped for sandwiches at Schlotzsky's. We both like them and the one in Fort Collins closed down last year, so I have to get my sandwiches when I can!

This area of Texas has mile after mile of wind farms. It was crazy!
We thought it was pretty funny to see the turbines along with oil drilling.

We decided to go a little further and are stopped for the night in Snyder, Texas. We had a beautiful sunset and we hope that it will cool off for sleeping tonight since it is still 82F at 9pm!

2024-4-13 Port Aransas to Gonzales, Texas

Last night turned into an interesting situation! It was well past 10pm when we had new neighbors come and park RIGHT NEXT TO THE RV! There were two trucks, an RV, two tents and probably 10 children. They were SO loud hooting and carrying on - and starting their grill to fix dinner! We got out and walked down the beach just past our other RV neighbor and there was plenty of room, so we moved! I had to go outside and watch while Tobey backed up so he didn't hit their grill. I am sure they liked our RV for a windblock, but that came to an end. After 11pm, they shot off some fireworks and I was sure we were in for an even longer night, but they must have only had two because it did stop. This morning we talked with the other neighbor and she told us they were packing up to leave a day early, also, because of the noise.

We took one last walk on the beach and saw some small sand castles that campers had made. Some folks are talented!
After getting everything secured, we headed to the county RV park to dump and add fresh water before hitting the highway. Once again we had a ferry back to the mainland. It's pretty cool how they operate - four of them going back and forth all day! We started to leave our docking station and the captain backed up because a ship was crossing in front of us.


From Port Aransas we headed toward Gonzales with a stop for shrimp and fish for lunch. Tomorrow we head on to Round Rock to see one of my cousins before our trek back to Colorado.

2024-4-12 Port Aransas, Texas

Today was another beautiful day in Port Aransas! We took a long walk before breakfast – about two miles and I collected more shells. Tobey asked which craft project this were for because he was sure I had used all the shells I’ve collected over the years that are stored at home! Silly man. Shells are like fabric, you can never have too much.

Later, we unloaded the motorcycle and headed into town to visit the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center at the Port Aransas Nature Preserve. (That is a mouthful!) What a beautiful place to see! They have a birder’s checklist with over 250 birds that you might see in the area – although it includes migratory birds. Needless to say, we didn’t see that many!

Black necked still

Roseate Spoonbill

American Avocet

Great Blue Heron

American White Pelicans (and cormorants)

It was interesting but I felt a bit intimidated by all the birders with these giant cameras that had lenses over a foot long and I had my little point and shoot camera. Oh well, I can’t identify all the birds either, so I just enjoyed it.

We headed off to Grumbles, a seafood restaurant recommended by Mark and Kim for lunch. We shared a shrimp dinner and had plenty! There was a nice view of the ships going by from the outside dining area.
Our next stop was the Mustang Island jetty and beach. The jetty was busy with lots of folks fishing – and dolphin watching.

We were lucky enough to spot several dolphins, however, it is very difficult to get their pictures. They just didn’t want to pose the way the ones at Sea World do! You just have to have a “Kodak moment in your mind!”

We followed the sand beach road back to the RV … it was a bit dicey in areas and I was sure I was going to find myself under the motorcycle if it went down because the sand got pretty soft in areas! We made it, but then headed back into town to pick up some groceries before reloading the cycle on the RV.

We changed into swimsuits and headed out for another walk. North of us the beach is a hotbed of actifity. It’s packed with cars, families, and groups hanging out.


It’s been busy all around us tonight – I guess that’s what you get on the weekends at the beach!

It’s been a good stop and we have enjoyed being here. Tomorrow we begin our journey northward with a couple more stops along the way.