Ken and Karen’s travel adventures
Sunday: Miles traveled today: 480 Elevation tonight: 37’ … see… we really do live at sea level!
Well….. not really lickety split.
It took us 19 days to get here since we went in circles around Colorado. But – we’re home! It was another long non-eventful day.
Saturday: miles traveled 470. Elevation tonight 640’ in Greensboro, Georgia.
Today was a long day on the road, from Memphis Tennessee to east of Atlanta Georgia. I originally had our itinerary taking us from Memphis to New Orleans. But somewhere along the way, Kenny suggested that we look at the mileage, and if our friends Sherry & Alan were home that maybe we go east before going south. These are our fun Bayliner friends from doing the Great Loop last year. I checked with Sherry, and she said they would just be getting home from a trip to New England on Saturday 9/28, so if we came after 6:00pm, they’d be home… and YES!, please come visit! So I happily adjusted our itinerary, and that is what we did!
Friday: Miles traveled today… maybe 60. Elevation… the same as yesterday.
My original plan for today was to go to Graceland and see Elvis’s estate and various exhibits. BUT! Once I looked and saw that the least expensive ticket was $46/person plus $10 parking….. I decided that it wasn’t worth over $100 just to see his house and airplane. So now I didn’t have a plan. And I am not good at finding stuff to do quickly. Finally we decided to go find some breakfast. I looked at local joints nearby, and I just wasn’t into catfish and grits for breakfast. So we went to a Waffle House. Read more
Thursday: Miles traveled today- 195 miles. Elevation tonight is 266’ in Memphis, Tennessee.
We stared our day by checking out of our hotel and going to Buckstaff Bath for a traditional bathhouse experience. This bathhouse has been in continuous use since 1912. And I think many/most of the fixtures are original. It was so cool! I picked the Traditional Package for each of us, which includes a private whirlpool tub bath, sitz bath, hot packs, vapor cabinet, needle shower, and Swedish style massage. Just like there always has been, there are separate facilities for men and women. The men’s facilities are on the first floor, women on the second floor. I was taken up an old fashioned original elevator. It was really neat. The elevator escort had to open the gates by hand and rotate a big lever to operate it.
Wednesday: Total miles today 460. Elevation tonight 658’ in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Getting much closer to sea-level!
We crossed the state of Oklahoma, through Oklahoma City on I-40 today. When we got to Arkansas, the sky opened up for about 5 minutes to welcome us. We kept our eyeballs peeled for tornadoes.
Tuesday: 460 miles traveled today. Elevation tonight is 1995’ in Elk City, Oklahoma.
We dropped about 5000’ in elevation today! Ah — it feels good to breathe and not feel out of breath! 😁👍 Maybe we’ll sleep better tonight! We left Taos at about 8:30, and took a scenic highway through the mountains to make our way down to I-40. It was really beautiful! Here is our route:
Monday: Miles traveled today 95. Elevation tonight: 6,940 in Taos New Mexico.
This is the first day that we had a schedule that we had to make! We had reservations to spend the day on a scenic railway, so we needed to get to Antonito Colorado before 9:30. Our train would leave the station at 10:00. Antonito was just 30 miles south of Alamosa, so we got up, went to Starbucks for morning wake-up, and tootled on down the road. Poor Sonny was showing a low tire pressure… but we figure it must have been due to the 4o degree weather this morning! Kenny checked all the tires, and they were fine.
We arrived in Antonito in plenty of time, picked up our tickets, and waited for the “all aboard!”. Our tickets were for seats in “coach”, and we were assigned seats in this third red car. There are two nicer classes that had chairs that you could move and look directly outside. Our seats were forward facing and this was going to be just fine for us.
Sunday: Miles traveled 210. Elevation tonight 7,550 in Alamosa, Colorado.
Highest elevation today was over 9300’ —-a couple of times over different passes.
It was another sleep in day. 😁 It was nice, because even with a C-pap, Kenny isn’t sleeping well at the high elevation. We weren’t in a hurry this morning, because our first stop on our adventure today wouldn’t be open until noon, and it was only an hour drive away. So – I found a local Uncle Sam’s Pancake House for breakfast. There was quite a wait, so we knew it was a favorite with the locals. It was good. Kenny had an omelet that had hashbrowns and sausage inside, then smothered with country gravy. But the best gem received was from our waiter! We were talking about the elevation and the trouble Kenny’s been having. He said we could get cans of oxygen at WalMart! Who knew?! There was a WalMart on our way out of town, so we stopped in. They had various scented/flavored O2 (mint, grapefruit, menthol). We got the plain unscented. A big can and a pocket can! It is spendy… the big can was $15, and the pocket one was $10. You use it like an inhaler. The little can should have 40 one second blasts. The big can = 200 one second blasts. Kenny tried it. He took a big hit and held it for a long time. He said it really did make him feel better! So – he’ll be sleeping with that next to the bed, and in his pocket where ever we go! Man – sure wish we knew about this a week ago!
Saturday: few miles traveled around town. Elevation: still the same as yesterday: too high for Kenny to sleep/breathe well.
My list of things to do today was short since hiking is not the best choice for us. So we slept in, and I did laundry. Then we took a drive over to the Garden of the Gods. It was less than two miles from our motel. It was going to involve some walking, but mostly on paved trails and hopefully pretty level. The nice thing about this park is that it is free!
Got Oxygen?? 😳😲🥴
Friday: Miles today 210. Elevation tonight is 6,250 in Manitou Springs. Highest elevation today: 14,110!!
For you Washingtonians… Mt. Rainier is 14,411… just for comparison.
Here was our route today (the blue line). We traveled from Estes Park at the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park, south to just barely west of Colorado Springs. We took back roads as usual, since we both hate city traffic, we wanted to avoid Denver. But now – we both have had just about enough of Colorado’s “up the hill, down the hill, around the corner, switchback, repeat”. That is what Colorado does! Everywhere we go! Read more
