Our road trip back EAST to visit our kids!

Sunday, September 11, 2016

We left after church in our rental car (loaded to the roof with "stuff" for the kids)

 and drove to Roosevelt and visited with Jessica and Andrew.

Rental car in front of Jessica & Andrew's house.
We saw our grand-kitties and had a great dinner!

Monday morning we left - heading East
through Vernal's Dinosaurland

COLORADO - the Centennial State

The Fall colors were starting to show going through the Rocky Mountains.
It was SO hot in Deweyville when we left but 44 degrees in Winter Park
with a little hail coming down!

this is our route going East

Pueblo, Colorado

We had overcast skies and a little rain.
It was so nice after such a hot summer.
 

We stayed the night in Trinidad, a small town on the Colorado border.

Tuesday, following the Santa Fe Trail.

into NEW MEXICO - Land of Enchantment

we saw Elk crossing and Bear crossing highway signs but
only saw lots of antelope in New Mexico.

the rain stopped but we had low clouds all morning

TEXAS - the Lone Star State

we saw a lot of oil pumps

Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, Texas

We stopped and I wrote on a Cadillac.

I didn't have paint so I wrote a note
just like we did in Copenhagen, Denmark on the "Happy Wall".

What kind of crop is this?
It surrounded the Cadillac's that were in the middle of this field.

we ate lunch at The Big Texan

Wes  :)
 

We had yummy BBQ ribs!

heavy clouds all through Texas

OKLAHOMA - the Sooner State

 

Big, dark heavy with rain clouds in Oklahoma.
We had multiple cloudbursts! 
The windshield wipers were on high and not helping.
Lots of thunder, lightning and LOTS of rain.



everything is green - New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma -
not at all like Utah this summer.

Chisholm Trail Crossing
and we were following the old Route 66 signs.

Oklahoma City

we passed the Tinker Air Force base

the sky is clearing and it is HOT and HUMID!
86 degrees and Dark at 8:00pm.
We stayed the night in Salisaw, Oklahoma.

ARKANSAS - the Land of Opportunity

we saw a baby armadillo on the side of the road
and all these webs in the trees.

 

Nuclear power plant

Arkansas River

heading towards Little Rock and Memphis!

First Pentacostal Church in Little Rock
and many others......

Driving thru Arkansas we noticed the ratio of semi trucks to cars was 60/40.
We even counted them.

We stopped for lunch in West Memphis at the Old Sawmill
for some "Southern Cookin".

Memphis, Tennessee in the distance.

crossing the Mississippi River

TENNESSEE - the Volunteer State

The "Music Highway" heading to Nashville.

Nashville was a big disappointment for me. 
The traffic was at a standstill on the freeways
and I was stressed out driving, trying to read signs and even got lost.
We finally found The Grand Ole Opry,
took a few pictures and got out of Nashville!

We should have taken a picture in the "cut-out" sign - darn!

I took this picture for Jessica.  A Rainforest Cafe' in this mall!

We stayed the night outside of Nashville and early the next morning we are heading East.

Thursday, a beautiful, foggy morning.

The Sunsphere is a huge gold ball built for the 1982 World's Fair in
Knoxville, Tennessee.

University of Tennessee

First sign we have seen for one of our churches!

We turned off and headed South towards Pigeon Forge
and Dollywood.

Dollywood, Tennessee is a town full of fun places to see and
fun things to do.

There also was an old car show/sale going on.
Thousands of old cars lined up along miles of the highway.
It was pretty cool and would be fun to stay and see.

Next, we headed South again to Gatlinburg.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee
I would LOVE to come back for a longer visit!
 

We drove through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
on slow, winding roads. 

 Part of the Appalachian Mountains.

We stopped to get National Park stamps at the visitor center.

Endless miles of beautiful forest.

We drove through the Newfound Gap and into North Carolina.

We didn't see the sign but I took this one later so I could insert it.


NORTH CAROLINA - the Tar Heel State



Finally, we are in North Carolina and almost to
Heidi and Sam's house!

We drove through Ashville, North Carolina and then 4 more hours

until we finally made it to Sanford, North Carolina.

We used our Garmin to find the swimming pool where Heidi and kids were only

to have it die on us.... then we got lost in all the trees.... until

a policeman found us and had us follow him back to Sanford.

Finally, we are with Heidi, Jade, Mayci and Kanyon!

(Sam is at a training in Texas)