Richard skipped out on the closing session of his meeting, and we hit the road about 10:00 AM. We were back in Kennesaw around 3:00 PM.

We have mixed feelings about ending this Journey in our Journey. It’s nice to be home, and see the family. Wouldn’t mind a couple of days to do laundry, and clean service the Jeep and the Journey. Then hit the road again.

We learned about a lot of places on this trip. There are many places we’d like to go back and spend more time at. So our future Journey’s will probably involve some specific destinations with extended stays included.

ECCHHHH!!! Reality is starting to set in again.

Not a bad site, The roads are paved, and the site is nice and wide. But there are NO amenities, not even a laundry. Would have expected better for a major metropolitan area. After we got set up, we drove around, and checked out a KOA, just across the border in SC. Looked like it was primarily a long term campground.

Oh well, it’s fairly convenient to the hotel where richard has his business meetings, and we’ll be heading home on Saturday any way.

Toured Mamoth Cave this morning. Only did the short (1.25 hr) tour, but got some interesting photo’s. Will add the Cave City and Mamoth Cave Photos Shortly.

album13/IMG_2464.jpg Click on the image to enter the Mamoth Cave Gallery

Drove over to Charlotte, NC for Richard’s Business Meetings. Got the worst campsite we’ve had on the entire trip. Besides it’s hot and muggy here.

Hard to believe we’re into our last week of the trip already. We’re at a Jellystone Park, Resort in Cave City about 10 miles from Mamoth Cave National Park. This is certainly the most expensive but not necessarily the nicest place we’ve parked on this journey.

We have tickets for a Cave Tour tomorrow morning at 8:30 CDT. Then we’ll head east. Reserved a site at Sevierville, TN for tomorrow night (about half way to Charlotte), Then on to Charlotte for our Business Meetings.

By the way, did you notice the change of plans? Charleston West Virginia fell off the radar, and we’re on a more southeasterly heading.

Happy Fathers Day! Happy Anniversary! Karen and I met on Father’s day weekend 29 years ago today.

Beautiful in Metropolitan Louisville, KY. Slept in, had a liesurely breakfast. Went to the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill downs. Watched the movie, Got to see the 2nd race from right by the rail next to the winner’s circle. Got a nice pic of the winner.

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Drove by the Steam Boat Museum, and stopped for a little while at the Ohio River Falls State Park. Good place for palentologists, to go to see Fossils from several epochs.

Talked to the kids and grand kids, and cooked a great Veal Marsala for diner. Weather has been beautiful. Low 80’s.

Tomorrow is the 29th aniversary of our first meeting June 19, 1976, and today is the 14th anniversary of our marriage in the church.

Today was special. It’s just like home. Spent the morning and part of the afternoon doing laundry, and cleaning house. Finally got out of here a little after 2:00 PM EDT. Drove around a bit. Had an early diner at Outback, and hit the neighborhood Wal*Mart Super Center to do our week’s grocery shopping.

Got “home” a little after 5:00 PM. We’re exausted. Will probably just stay in watch movies, and eat Ice Cream this evening.

Left Golden, CO early Wednesday. Drove through Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana and finally reached Louisville, KY about 6:00 PM EDT today. Richard used to think driving through Nebraska and Iowa on Interstate 80 was the most boring drive in the country. Well guess what? Corn and Soy Beans are infinitely more interesting than Grass, and FLAT and we mean FLAT plains.

There were some high points though. For excitement we spent Wednesday Night in Russell, KS (Kansas), at the hight of the summer thunder storms and Tornados that blew through there that night. Fortunately we were north and east of the Tornado warnings, but the wind was strong enough to really shake our 12 ton motor home.

Thursday the weather was much better. Actually slept with the windows open, and the AC and heater turned off at Boonville, MO.

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Nice Photo’s from the Eisenhower Museum

Stopped in Abeline, KS on the way to visit the Eisenhower, home, library, and museum. In our lifetime, Ike was the first president that we were really aware of. He was quite a guy. His wife Mamie was also a very interesting person, and very well respected. It was an interesting couple of hours.

There are photos from the grounds and the Museum, that will be joining the Gallery shortly.

Friday, was a long driving day. Mostly driving, across the plains of Illinois and Indiana. Louisville is right on the border between Kentucky and Indiana. They’re only separated by the Ohio River. Now you’ve had your geography lesson for today. 415 miles with the traffic around St. Louis made for a rather tiring day.

We plan to spend the weekend here, and then move on east through Lexington, and on into West Virginia, before we head south to Charlotte, NC on Wednesday.

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!

Drove from Grand Junction (Fruita) to Golden Colorado through some of the most fantastic mountain scenery we’ve ever seen. The weather has finally turned beautiful. It’s 246 miles from Grand Junction to Denver almost 100 miles is along the Colorado River. Every Mountain pass is more spectacular than the one before it until just before you get to Denver, you cross the Continental Divide at over 11,000 Feet.

We went past Aspen, and through Vail, and there is a lot of snow still on the higher peaks. Got to Golden about 3:30 PM Mountain time and got settled into our camp ground. Drove around a bit, and got our bearings for Tuesday.

Woke up Tuesday to a beautiful sunny day. Had breakfast, cleaned up, left Lucky “home” with the AC and the TV on and made it to the Coors Brewery in time for one of the first tours of the day. Really interesting and tasty too we might add. Didn’t know that Coors was involved in as many brands of beverages as they are. They’re the third biggest brewer in the US, and number 5 in the world.

Even teetotaler Karen did some sampling. Her favorite was the Zima Black Cherry.

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There’s more than 150 Pictures in the Golden Gallery

You may have already noticed the many flower pictures intersperesed in the galleries that go along with this BLOG. You will also see several flower pictures in the Coors chapter of the Golden Gallery. It’s not an accident. Bill Coors wife started the practice of having fresh flowers placed around the brewery to welcome visitors, and cheer up the employees. The practice has continued over time. The company maintains a green house on the premises (2200 acres), and there are always fresh flowers in expected and even unexpected places around the facility.

After, the Brewery Tour, we drove north 20 some miles to Boulder to visit the Leave No Trace Center For Outdoor Ethics. Richard is still the State Leave No Trace Advocate for Georgia, so we visited with the folks at the center for awhile, and Richard spent most of his allotment for materials that we’ll bring back to GA, and use for His Leave No Trace Training Programs.

After that, we went back “home” walked the dog, and then visited the Colorado Railroad Museum and had diner on the sidewalk in downtown Golden.

On the road again tomorrow. Not sure where we’ll end up so you’ll just have to come back and read the BLOG later to find out.

So today we made it from Fruit Heights, UT to Fruita CO. Nice Drive through more beautiful mountain scenery. Followed US 6 East from Provo till it joined up with I 70. Think we’ll probably stay with the Interstate for a while. Thought we’d make it to Denver, but that would have been a really long day.

Stopped at a nice campground, Had an excellent diner at the local’s favorite Mexican Restaurant. We’ll be on our way again tomorrow.

The campground is Cherry Hill, Fruit Heights is about 20 miles north of downtown Salt Lake City Utah. Drove here on Friday from Ely Nevada. This is our 10 th State since leaving Georgia May 21.

Spent Saturday visiting Temple Square, the Bee House (home and office of Brigham Young), and the Red Butte Gardens. Learned some things about the Mormon Faith, and saw some beautiful gardens.

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See all the photos in the Salt Lake City, Uath Gallery

Rained all night Saturday. Weather has been cool. We’ve been using the heater more than the AC. Haven’t turned the AC on since we were in Memphis.

Short drive today from Eureka to Ely NV. Stopped at a KOA. Nice campground but had problems with the sewer connections, and the wireless internet connection.

Got in early, and spent the day sight seeing. Tried to see the train Museum, but it’s kind of a different set up, and we didn’t see much there. The historic museum downtown is more interesting. Also stopped in at the Visitor Information Center. Had a good conversation with the lady that runs the place, and we learned a lot.

Most fun was driving out to the Garnet Hill prospecting area run by the Bureau of Land Management. Spent a couple of hours wandering around the hill looking at the ground for rocks. found some nice pieces of raw garnet.

Left Zepher Cove this morning. Planned to make it across “The Loneliest Highway in America” US 50 to Ely Nevada. We only got as far as Eureka which is about 2/3 of the way to Ely. Stayed at a small campground right along the highway. You can see the photo’s in the Eureka Ely Gallery.

US 50 really is the lonliest highway in America. There is even a trip ticket that you can complete and the Govenor of Nevada will send you a certificate for surviving the trip. There’s nothing there but beautiful mountains, and great high plains on that route. If you love great scenery you should really take the trip at least once in your lifetime. Just be sure you have a full gas tank, and plenty of water before you leave Carson City east bound or Ely westbound. As you cross some of the high plains, you can see for 20 miles in every direction. There are times when there is no other vehicle of any kind in site in either direction.

Finally got out of Manteca today. Almost thought we were going to put down roots. Drove up US 50 to Lake Tahoe. Drove through South Lake Tahoe, and Stateline Nevada. Found a beautiful site at Zepher Cove.

We spent the afternoon driving around the lake. Had diner in the historic lodge at Zepher Cove that was built in the mid 1800’s. After diner we drove across the pass to Carson City, and did a quick look around. Decided we did well to land at Zepher Cove.

Took some more interesting photos. Uploaded them to the Tahoe Gallery on the web site.

Reluctantly left Yosemite friday morning. Had a hair raising experience driving down CA highway 120 to Manteca. Manteca is in the San Juaquin (Central Valley) between Sacramento and Fresno. If anyone had told Richard that he would enjoy spending 4 days in Manteca when he was growing up, he would have thought they were nuts.

Found a nice campground called French Camp RV. Felt like poor relatives with the Northern California Monaco Owners Club meeting there over the weekend.

We only planned to spend 3 days relaxing, catching up on house work, and doing some shopping. But, we ended up staying over Monday to get refills for some of Karen’s prescriptions at the local Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy.

What a beautiful morning. We woke up in Yosemite Valley. It really is beautiful no matter what direction you look.

After breakfast we took Lucky, and walked up to Happy Isles, and took a bunch of really neat photos. Check out the Yosemite Gallery We got a lot of really beautiful photos. Happy Isles is on the Merced River Below Nevada and Vernal Falls.

After lunch, we jumped in the Jeep and took a ride around the Valley Floor. Stopped and walked back to the base of Yosemite Falls. Got more great photo’s. The water is really cold, and we got wet in the spray. Lucky had a great time wading in some of the little side streams.

We also visited the Post Office, Ansel Adams Gallery, and the Museum.

Later in the afternoon, Richard took his camera, hopped the shuttle back to Happy Isles, and hiked a mile up the trail to the base of Vernal Falls.
Got some good photos from the trail, and walked a ways up the Mist Trail toward the top of Vernal Falls. The Vernal Falls Trail is also the begining of the John Muir Trail that follows the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains from Yosemite to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National parks ending at the top of Mt McKinley. The John Muir also is part of the Pacific Crest Trail. Returned “home” in time for diner.

Now we wish we’d made the reservation for a longer time.

Left the KOA in Visalia today and drove up to Yosemite. The roads are very steep and winding. Wouldn’t want to try it with anything bigger than our Journey.

Saw a prescribed burn inside the park while we were driving down into the valley. Also a big brown (black) bear crossed the road right in front of us. Lucky was very interested in him. Glad we were in the Coach, and he was moving off into the woods.

Finally found our campsite. people were lined up in the parking lot waiting in line for no shows and cancellations. Boy are we glad we had reservations. The campground is beautiful, and laid out so each site has plenty of privacy, and there’s lots of open space between the loops.

There’s no phone service at all in the campground.

WOW!! Those are some big Trees!

Packed a lunch, took Lucky, and spent the day exploring Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks. They have to be about the best kept secrets of the National Park System.

I thought the Coast Redwoods at Muir woods were spectacular. They look like toothpick compared to the Sequoia Semprevirans (sp?) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They only grow in a few places where the climate is right between 5,000 and 7,000 ft.

THERE’S STILL SNOW IN THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS IN JUNE!

We’re staying at the KOA in Visalia again tonight, and off to Yosemite tomorrow.

Drove over here from Las Vegas today. found a nice KOA camp ground. It’s a longer drive than I thought it was. We’re really glad we didn’t wait and try to drive all the way to Yosemite in one day.

Visalia is a little south of Fresno. Has ready access to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Also, close enough to make it a reasonable drive into Yosemite Valley on Wednesday.

Grilled steaks, with baked potatoes and corn on the cob. Must be the first year since we’ve been in Georgia, that I didn’t do spare ribs on Memorial Day.