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Go West Young Geezers
  • Geezers in Paradise
syyskuuta 2021

Go West Young Geezers

We may live in paradise, but we are longing to revisit the incredible mountains, deserts and wide open spaces of the American West. Join us! We'd love to share our adventures with you. Lue lisää
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    7. syyskuuta 2021
    Geezers in ParadiseGo West Young GeezersMatkaaja

    The Plan!

    7. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ⛅ 88 °F

    Plans? Plans? We don' need no stinkin' plans! This is our plan: Ready or not, Tuesday evening we hook our beloved 12 foot trailer, alias the geezer-mobile, to the car. Wednesday, as early as possible, we pull out, hit I-10, and head west.

    OK, OK ... we DO have our first 3 campgrounds reserved. We want a trouble-free first few days, driving further than we would normally, to escape the South. Day 4 we rest up in Lawrence, Kansas. Not only is it not in the South, but Google assures us they have many artisan bread bakeries, good grocery stores, and a nice selection of brew pubs. At that point, we will consult the stars, throw a few bones, and decide what's next.

    Scenery? National Parks? Well, all we know is that there's lots of that stuff out West. We shall see what we shall see!    Lue lisää

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    The first hickups of many to come

    8. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    What is an adventure without horrible monsters, terrible drama, and especially heartfelt emotions.

    We thought the worst that could have happen occurred when our A/C died two days before we were suppose to depart. Fortunately a very nice young man was able to come that very day, on Labor Day no less, to repair our A/C. With our house well on its way from being one of Dante’s levels of hell back to our own little piece of Eden, we wished him well, paid him a hearty tip for saving our bacon, and sent him off to ride into the sunset. So we were sure with that one potential disaster out of they way, we would have fair winds at our back for the entirety of our journey.

    But…

    On the drive today, we crossed over a railroad track. I wish I had had the foresight to take a photo of this particular crossing. Heather was driving at the time and with her normal devil may care elan, blithely headed up, up, up the slope, over the crest, and down, down, down the far side. Me… I hung on for dear life, sure that as we approached the heavens on the way up, the angels were going to take us up to see our Maker. But then, at the very top, looking out over the far reaches of everything we could see, there was a terrible noise, as if some monster from the old legends had come back to life, jaws the size of continents, teeth the size of mountains, had taken a bite out of our trailer. Then, once over the top of the railroad crossing, I was sure that we must not have met with His approval, and were being cast into the very depths of Dante’s Hell that we had just escaped two days before. But once again, Heather saved us from certain death with her skillful driving.

    When we got to our campground, we looked for evidence of our near death experience. Sure enough, one of the feet of our trailer was crushed. I am so glad that Heather was driving. Once again, saving our bacon with her steely nerves, and good looks.

    We then proceeded to look at our blog… or look at the hash we had made of it. While trying to figure out what could be done, Heather showed remarkable poise and calm. The attached photo proves that she can be calm at the worst of times.

    Join us tomorrow for another episode of “Go West Young Geezers”    Lue lisää

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    Early morning departure

    9. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    Boring post alert!

    We entered Central Time Zone yesterday, but our bodies are still on East Coast time. We had set our alarms for 6, but woke up at 5. So we leave the Gander RV Campground at 6 am.

    Heather adds: it was practically PITCH BLACK when I took that photo, but you’d never know it! My smarty pants know-it-all new iPhone has this fabulous low light auto-correct, completely eliminating the ONLY drama to be found in this post.

    Also, a note on the boring posts: We do them for ourselves to prevent future disagreements about where or whether we did what and how. Not that we would EVER disagree, but you can’t be too careful!    Lue lisää

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    Welcome to Mississippi!

    9. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    Third state in 3 days. We stopped at the lovely Mississippi Welcome Center and found some strawberry jalapeño jam that was loose and luscious looking. We had to have it! No dice. You can only buy it at the farm.

    So here we are, and almost didn’t see it. But sharp-eyes Sweet found one tucked away on another shelf. HA! They tried to keep it all to themselves, but the geezers triumphed!    Lue lisää

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    Brick and Spoon in Tupelo, MS

    9. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Presley, and people must really celebrate a lot going by the Brick and Spoons declaration they have sold 24,361 Bloody Mary’s since 2018. And they close at 2:00 in the afternoon. Either that, or they are famous for their anti-oxidant rich hair of the dog.

    Well, though we have lots to celebrate, we also have over 4 hours driving left to manage. So Gordon settled for the shrimp n cheese grits with gulf shrimp, peppers, garlic cream sauce, poached egg and toast points. Heather tried to keep pace with her corn, crab & sweet pepper crepe.    Lue lisää

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    Hiccup number … uh … are we losing count

    9. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ 🌙 79 °F

    As we were enjoying our wonderfully delicious meal at the Brick and Spoon, Heather remembered that on a previous trip through Tupelo, we had eaten at the Neon Pig and thought maybe it might be near by. Sure enough, it was only 200 feet away. So after finishing our meal, we walked on over to the Neon Pig. They serve food, but also have a wide assortment of jellies, jams, pickles, and meats for sale. We found a jar of Autumn Pear Preserves and a jar of apple butter. We are very particular about our jams, we like them to be loose. So many jams have so much pectin that they are as solid as a cow pie in winter. We much prefer a more springtime consistency. Anyway, we got are our jars and went to the cashier. She had lovely blue hair and regaled us with how she took some pear butter, blended up with fresh pears and peaches, and then spread that over cheese cake. I asked if we could come live with her, and while she was pleased at the attention, the thought of two more mouths to feed convinced her to thank us, but also, it was not meant to be.

    About 30 minutes later we stopped for gas, as you can well imagine is something we do fairly often. I was excited to see that they had ethanol free gas. I got out my wallet, got my credit card …. uhhh …. looked for my credit card…. uhhh…. looked again…. uh, Heather…. uhhh…. my credit card isn’t here, can you check. Well, she took everything out of my wallet, “nope, it isn’t here”. I take every thing out of my wallet, nope, still not there. Hope springing eternal, Heather again removes everything from my wallet, again not finding the errant card. Me, not trusting myself or Heather, checks my wallet contents again.

    I know the last place I used the credit card, the Neon Pig. I try to remember where I put the credit card after paying for the jams, but draw a blank. Note to self in the future, never have a conversation while paying for something. Focus only one the credit card! So I call the Neon Pig to have them cut up the credit card. But the nice lady says “sorry, no credit card here.” Oh poop, it must be some where! I’ve already searched through my pockets, but I search again. I consider having Heather search my pockets, but decide it would either look like the police were frisking me or someone would call the police because they though lewd acts occurring.

     Well, nothing to be done but call the credit card company. A very nice lady named Maria in LA cancelled the credit cards and is Fedexing new cards to us at Lawrence KS KOA on Saturday.

    So another adventure, this one with a happy ending. It will be if the credit cards get to us on Saturday.

    One might think that this trip is cursed, but these misadventures are the spice of our journey.

    Thanks for joining us!    Lue lisää

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    Driving through the Ozarks

    10. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    We started the day by being hit in the face with a blood red orb on the horizon that was as large as I’ve ever seen the sun. But try as we might, it eluded all our photo attempts until it was just a bright yellow and 1/3 the size.

    We were not on the freeway for much of today’s drive, and were really able to experience the huge ups and downs in elevation of rural and wooded North Central Arkansas. Gordon asked, “Are we in the Ozarks?” By golly, I think we were! But again, all attempts to capture the countryside photographically came to nought.

    Finally we were driving through this teensy tiny town of Pindall which seemed frozen in time and quite authentic. Gordon remarked, “Haha … that general store sign says “Cinnamon Rolls and Worms” “Stop!” I hollered (that’s local for screamed). “I need a photo!” But Gordon kept driving. “And look,” I again hollered, “one of those stone buildings we’ve been seeing so many of … and a garden with a GIANT ROOSTER!”

    Gordon kept driving. In a flash, the little town was in our rear view mirror. “Gordon, we need to turn around.” He put on his sad face, and said, “I’m afraid we just might need to let this one go.” (Sad, sad face.)

    But Gordon, it said, “Cinnamon Rolls and WORMS!” (By now we are 5 miles down the road.)

    Gordon says “I didn’t know you really meant it.” (More sad face.)

    I put on my best whine: “But we have to get SOME photos of today’s drive!” (SUPER sad face.)

    Gordon: Big sigh.

    We drove about 5 more miles til we could find a turnaround on the small windy road, and I did get some photos. I was a tiny bit disappointed to discover that cinnamon rolls and worms were on two separate signs.    Lue lisää

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    Lunch at the Springfield Ave Cafe

    10. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F

    Heather had a Santa Barbara Burger with all the fixings including bacon, avocado, and secret sauce. Gordon had an avocado BLT. We both had perfectly seasoned crisp fries served in tiny deep-fry baskets. Heather took one bite, and exclaimed in surprise, “it’s really char-broiled!” An unexpected and unassuming find!Lue lisää

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    Having a lazy morning

    11. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    We made it to the Lawrence KOA shortly after 4 yesterday afternoon. They gave us a very nice site, very close to the bathrooms, and shady in the later afternoon.

    We are relaxing this morning, recovering from three hard days drinking. Driving! Driving! Dang autocorrect.

    We got an email this morning saying that our replacement credit cards were being sent to our home and should arrive in 7 to 10 days. Heather saw that email and thought “good, the cards are on their way.” Me, I saw that email and thought something entirely different, something that I can’t print on this blog. I called the bank and they assured me that the cards are being sent here and should be here before noon. After hearing that, I was able to relax and enjoy our morning together.    Lue lisää

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    Lunch at the Black Stag Brewery

    11. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    It is only 11 am, a bit early for a flight of beer to sample, but we are from Florida where it is noon. I may use this excuse for the entire trip. We had 1865 Black Stag dark lager, 7 Mile unfiltered IPA, 1988 Helles Frozen Over German style lager, and the Mad King Oktoberfest Marzen style beer.

    Heather had a Not Your Grannies Turkey Sandwich with apples and candied jalapeños (yikes!) Gordon had a club sandwich. Their smoked turkey looked, tasted and smelled like they had smoked it in their kitchen from a real honest-to-goodness turkey!    Lue lisää

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    The continuing saga of the credit cards

    12. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    I called the credit card company four times yesterday. The first time to verify that the credit card was coming here, not to our home. The second time to verify that it was really scheduled to get here on Saturday. The third time was after the scheduled delivery time of noon. And the fourth time mid afternoon to have them track the package and to get the tracking number. This last time the gentleman said that UPS had until the close of business to deliver the package. That was ok, the office was open until nine that night.

    But when I got on the UPS web site to track the package, the one thing that leapt out was the status. I was hoping that the status was “out for delivery.” But nooooo…… it was “on its way”. The last location was Kansas City at 6:19am. Nothing after that. That is a BIG RED FLAG. I hoped that it would be delivered that day, I kept the hope alive, I did not want to be an Eeyore, I did not want to jinx the delivery. At 9 pm the status changed to “expected delivery Monday by 12pm.” Alas and alack. Gee, I don’t even know where that expression comes from. I suspect the package fell of the conveyer belt onto the floor, there to stay until the clean up crew found it.

    I was wondering what photograph I could use to illustrate this post. A photo of an empty wallet? A photo of our other credit cards? A photo of the UPS logo with lots of bullet holes it it? Or no photo at all, just like there are no credit cards.

    Stay tuned.    Lue lisää

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    Breakfast

    12. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    Let’s just say that the Wheatfield Bakery in Lawrence did not disappoint. We chose the walnut raisin rye from about 10 kinds of artisan loaves … all works of art!

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    Lunch at The Friendship House, Wanego KS

    12. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    A lovely bakery and cafe in an old house. It was crowded to the gills with families and extended families, most of whom seemed to us to be locals. We packed away a delicious breakfast and enjoyed the show.Lue lisää

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    The OZ Museum, Wamego, KS

    12. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F

    A fantastic collection of memorabilia and facts, starting with the books and ending with The Wiz. Inspiration, nostalgia and kitsch in equal measure. Interesting note: the Oz books were originally stories the author, Mr Baum, told his children. He stored his notes in file cabinets labeled A-N and O-Z. Hence the Land of OZ.Lue lisää

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    Oregon Trail Vieux Crossing

    12. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 90 °F

    We think the credit card debacle may be a blessing in disguise. On our way back from the Oz Museum, we came across this intriguing sign.

    Heck, it was only 20 minutes out of our way (40 total) to take a gander at the original site of the Vieux Crossing. Really, it wasn’t much to look at, but we were there where countless brave and determined souls had crossed the country against incredible odds for a chance at a better life. The Vieux Crossing wasn’t much even at the time, only a toll bridge over a river, but thousands chose to pay the toll rather than ford the river.

    We were reminded this is HOW we want to travel, not racing from place to place.    Lue lisää

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    Drying fields of corn

    12. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F

    While corn is not mentioned in “America the Beautiful”, we have seen many yellow fields of corn drying in the sun. We thought that the corn had already been harvested and had turned brown, but we were driving along a gravel road with no-one else in sight, so we stopped and looked. Lo and behold, the corn cobs were still on the stocks.

    It turns out that this is not sweet corn, people food. This is grain corn. Grain corn needs to be dried, and there are two ways of drying. The wet kernels can be taken to the silo, heated to dry, and then stored. But this cost money for the natural gas or propane. The other way is to let the corn dry in the field. This doesn’t cost anything but does run some risks, including winds blowing the stocks over, rain getting the crop wet and mold forming, harvesting when the price is lowest because everyone else is harvesting at the same time.

    The dried corn is used for livestock feed, ethanol, plastics, starches, and many other products. Amazing stuff. Well, we were amazed. Kind of.    Lue lisää

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    The saga of the cedit cards ends

    13. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    Well, the saga of the credit cards has come to an end.

    We decided to stay at the Kansa City West KOA through Monday so we could get our credit cards. This morning I checked the status of the package: “Out For Delivery.” Hooray! All is good. We went about or morning routine, lazing, looking at where to go next, and having breakfast.

    Then I checked the status again, looking to see if it had been delivered. The status now read “Return To Sender.” Oh $@#*+%$&***!!! Pardon my french, but golly whiz, what is going on!

    I quickly called the credit card company. Got ahold of Holly in Texas. We finally get her access to the account…. and we get disconnected. I wait 5 minutes in the hope that Holly in Texas calls back. Nope, no call, so I call the card company again. This time I get a nice lady in California. We get access to the account, she looks at the shipment to us and in 5 seconds identifies a problem that not one person that I talked to noticed… there was no street number entered on the shipping address and that is why the credit cards are being returned to sender.

    So… we will leave this debacle behind us, make do with the credit cards we have, and enjoy our adventure. The credit cards has been a good story though, hasn’t it?    Lue lisää

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    Lunch at the bakery

    13. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    We decided to bury our sorrows in food from the aforementioned Wheatfields Bakery. Gordon had a mushroom spinach quiche with an everything salad…and I mean everything but the kitchen sink. I had a turkey cranberry relish sandwich which was every bit as huge as it looks in the photo. I asked for a box to take what I didn’t eat and then had to give it back when I devoured the last crumb. We also picked up a loaf of multi-grain artisan bread, beef and pepper empanadas for dinner, and a bran muffin and croissant for the road tomorrow.

    Credit cards? What credit cards? I’m focusing on trying to walk in a dignified fashion having packed away all that goodness.    Lue lisää

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    Grinter Sunflower Fields

    13. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    At the recommendation of Dee in the KOA office, we headed out to take in the local sunflower fields. Though past their prime, the sunflowers were spectacular in their multitudes.

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    The drive to Omaha

    14. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    This was a day where we would be able to avoid all highways. No interstates, no toll roads, only US, State, and County routes. We just set Google maps to avoid highways, and voila! There is a route that takes only a little bit longer. Yet, it takes less gas because to route is more direct and slower. And roads are usually less travelled, traffic slower, the scenery and and the small towns interesting.

    Along the road we often see something that make one of us, usually Heather, say “go back, we need to get a picture of (fill in the blank with: building, tree, bird, river, field, sky, cloud, flowers, you get the idea).” Well, in this case it was a building. As I was looking for a place to park so we could switch drivers, I saw that this very same building had a large gravel parking lot. So I pulled in and Heather got to take the photos that she thought would end up in Life Magazine, or at least on our blog. Twas a very interesting building. I think it might have started its life as a school.

    We passed a vacant gas station with a giant sign “Kickapoo Truck Stop.” I am sorry that we did not get a photo. This is one of those cases where we said “Oh, look! Quick get a picture.” Yet no one scrabbled to get the camera because the visual was so fascinating we just continue staring. It all looked very new, yet very vacant, as if the tenants recently had left, hat in hand, with nothing left in their possession but their name. We think that it was a perhaps attached to the nearby casino run by the Kickapoo tribe.

    Another reason we love taking the back roads is that it gives us an opportunity to see the historical markers. We stopped at a historical marker titled “The Battle of the Spurs.” The event occurred near the marker in 1859. John Brown, 11 freed slaves and 20 some supporters were confronted by a US Marshal and 40 some deputies. John Brown, being fearless, led his group straight at the posse. The posse turned tail and spurred their horse away from the confrontation as fast as they could go. Hence the name: Battle of the Spurs. I personally think that perhaps having a newspaper editor there helped to frame the story. Here is a link to the historical marker (https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=127434).    Lue lisää

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    National Homestead Historic Park

    14. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    We went out of our way to visit this park today and I am glad we did. The park is dedicated to the Homestead Act of 1862, signed by Abraham Lincoln. This act gave 160 acres to anyone who could build a house on and farm the land for 5 years.

    The park is at the location of the first homestead land grant. They have restored the land at the park to the tall grass prairie that existed when the settlers first arrived. Daniel Freeman was the gentleman who came and chose this 160 acres to homestead. There was water and a trading road ran through the property. There was much to recommend this location to homestead. Yet life was hard.

    We also visited the Learning Center, which housed a moving display of artwork with text tying the art to the trials, tribulations and joys of homesteading.

    We are probably all related at some level to one or more of these brave and enterprising homesteaders.    Lue lisää

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    A visit to our friendly local hospital

    15. syyskuuta 2021, Yhdysvallat ⋅ 🌙 59 °F

    We have a fine tradition on our travels, a visit to a local emergency room or urgent care. In this case we decided we would like an opportunity to visit the Family Hospital at Millard. To make the visit more cozy, allowing us to have time to meet and talk with the staff, we decided that a visit at midnight would be just the thing.

    Dang kidney stones!

    I suddenly started getting a pain in by back on the left side about 10pm. It was bad at first, and I was pretty sure it was a kidney stone. I had a kidney stone back in 2016 while visit Laurie and John at Christmas, so I had some idea what a kidney stone felt like. We were already tucked in bed for the night, and I thought I could tough it out until morning. But by 11:30 I began to feel nauseous and wondered if we had a bucket in the trailer. Since the pain had gotten that bad, I figured it was time to see where the closest ER was. This woke Heather up, and after a very short discussion:

    “Gordon, are you ok?”

    “No, I think I have a kidney stone.”

    “Alright, lets go the Emergency Room.”

    I wanted to drive, but Heather decided that her driving with cataracts was safer than my driving in pain. Probably a wise decision. Of course it was because Heather is very wise. No comments about old wives and the such, please.

    So off to the hospital.

    We got me signed in, or at least started on the paperwork. Then the nice lady tried to tell us that Heather was suppose to wait in the car, but maybe it would be ok if she waited in the waiting room. After Heather explained the need for someone who was not in pain to be there to answer questions and to remember instructions, the nurse stuck her head out and said it would be fine for Heather to come on back with me. One of the advantages of coming at midnight when we were the only patients in the ER.

    The nice nurse stuck an IV in me and gave a big dose of an anti-inflammatory. In 15 minutes the pain was very tolerable.

    Then off for a CAT Scan. It was a new machine that took 64 slices at one time. It only took three scans of 6 seconds each and I was done. The tech showed me the scan right there, three or four stones in the kidney and one stuck in the tubes trying to get to the bladder.

    The nice doctor suggested that the best course of action was to let the stone pass and just manage the pain until then.

    I feel better this morning, and am taking comfort from the truism that, “This, too, shall pass.”    Lue lisää

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