Home, A Look Back 1

We are home after an exciting and enjoyable trip across the country.  The more you see of this country, the more you are thankful that you live here and can enjoy the natural beauty but just getting in your car and taking a road trip.  And what a road trip it was.  Sixty-eight hundred miles and twenty-seven days of superb vista’s, some never seen by us before.

It started with a trip to Lewiston, Idaho to spend an evening with cousins.  We had dinner and caught up on the families and tried to figure out how all of us figured into the family tree.  We left the next day to head to Montana and make the cross-state trip to North Dakota landing in Dickenson for a couple of days.  Our primary purpose for going the North Dakota was to investigate further my grandmother’s family on my dad’s side of the family.  We had some information about homesteads and their locations within Dunn County.  We visited my great-grandmother and grandfather’s graves in the Dunn County Cemetery.  Spending time looking at some of the landscape that they dealt with and thinking about all the things they didn’t have when they arrived in the late 1800’s.  

My grandmother was one of four daughters.  She left North Dakota and ended up in Seattle, Washington where our family is rooted.  The other three daughters were granted homestead patents in 1914.  These were the pieces of property that we were able to find.  At the time, I had the location of my great grandfather’s property but I had miss placed it.  Still, we had an opportunity to imagine what it must have been like to live there in their time and place in history.

Cousin, center front and her family.

Food poisoning attacked me during our last day in Dickerson but we still left to go down to Watertown, South Dakota to visit my 95-year-old cousin, daughter of one of those sisters mentioned above.  She is an amazing woman and her daughter, grand-daughter and family take very good care of her.  Even though she is in an assisted living facility, she spends time with family and friends.  Unfortunately, I was still feeling the effects of my very uncomfortable experience in Dickerson and we only had one short, early evening meeting that did include a fantastic dinner put together by the family.  We left the following day, sad that we weren’t able to stay longer but, Ken, in his need to plan, had already made a reservation for a hotel and an evening stay in Kansas City before heading further south to visit another cousin in Lebanon, Missouri.

More on that visit and other things along our road trip will be upcoming.  Hope all is well.

Route 66 to Kingman

We spent the night in Seligman, Arizona last night in one of the original hotels along Route 66.  This would be the starting point for our drive along the longest remaining stretch of Old 66 left in America.  The hotel was unique to say the least.  It had an old gas wall heater along with some modern convienences.  Of course, her highness loves to take over the bed.

We had a nice drive to Kingman and spent the day in Museums and Quilt Shops.

Oh yeah, Quilt Shops.

Just in case someone wonders if she actually goes in.

I have many more pictures but the hotspot isn't cooperating this evening.

Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.

Seligman

We spent last night in Gallup, New Mexico after visiting Albuquerque on our trip from Tucumcari.  I specifically stopped and took Mia to another quilt shop.  This one was one of the nicest we have visited.

Ken naps

While I wait

We had a short trip to Seligman, Arizona today.  Seligman's claim to fame is being the, "Birthplace of Historic Route 66.  Founded in 1886 at the junction of the railroad from Prescott to Santa Fe's mainline.  Prominent banker from New York, Jesse Seligman, was responsible for financing a lot of the railroads business.  Primarily due to the Seligman Chamber of Commerce, the state of Arizona dedicated old U.S. Route 66 from Seligman to Kingman Arizona as Historic Route 66.  The 1987 dedication will preserve the longest remaining section of old Route 66 left in the U.S.

Pictures from Seligman:

I have more pictures but loading them is difficult.  To say the least, this place is set up for the camera bug.  It will be interesting to see what we come across on the way up Route 66 on the way to Kingman tomorrow.

Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.e preservation of the longest remaining stretch of old Route 66 left in the United States.

We Got Out

We left Texas at around one o'clock this afternoon after having another really good barbecue dinner at Dyer's Barbecue in Amarillo, Texas.  A local places that serves dinner family style.  Great service and the ribs were absolutely great and the onion rings were so well done that we could eat the whole thing and not pull out the onion.  With the exception of the beans, we loved every bite.  We told the lady at the desk that they needed to move to Seattle.

A funny thing happened on the way to the actual restaurant location.  Google maps has been our go to GPS for finding place and usually she is right on the mark.  Today we entered BBQ shops around us and found Dyer's to be one of a couple that were open.  Sunday seems to be a day for closure or what they call "Shut" here in Texas and New Orleans.  Anyway, we found ourselves driving about 13 miles out of town and ended up at the entrance to a private country club.  The guard in the entry shack told us the Dyer's live in the country club but the actual restaurant is 15 miles away.  We got directions and found it.  Sure glad we did.

Amarillo is a pretty large town, as towns go along I40.  We got to see some of the sites while trying to find dinner.

Honey likes the grass in Texas.  Every time we got her out of the car she wouldn't take her nose out of it.

Tonight we are staying in Tucumcari, New Mexico just alongside I40.  Old Highway Route 66 runs right through the center of town and many of the buildings in town look like they have been here since the highways heyday.  In addition, Tucumcari was the location of the filming of 14 episodes of the early television show, Rawhide.  There is even a hotel that says, "Clint Eastwood slept here."  I am kind of waiting for the sun to start down so I can go take some pictures of some of the buildings.  It is just a little to bright right at the moment.

Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.