We leave Toledo with our new Volkswagen camper around 8:30 in the morning, ready to tackle the 500 or so miles to Nashville where Sandy and Becky live. The van is a gift from my parents for our 10th anniversary. They decided to give it to us since they now use it so rarely (they put only 15,000 miles in the 9 years they've owned it). It is almost a repeat of 10 year ago when they gave us their '65 van as a wedding present. This time instead of going back through Canada (via Niagara Falls as befits newlyweds), we head back to Santa Cruz via Nashville where Lisa's sister just moved to attend Vanderbilt College to get her Masters degree.
We packed and prepared the van the previous night to get it ready for the trip. We filled the water tank, we tested the stove, and packed our belongings into all the nooks and crannies. We've driven the van before to the Toledo zoo and to Greenfield village so we know that the van is much more powerful than the old one and instead of needing to leave early to go fast, we can leave at a normal hour.
The trip is pretty uneventful, and since we want to arrive that night we don't really stop anywhere except for rest and fueling stops. Natalie is pretty easy, and Lisa and I alternate taking care of her in the back. We make pretty good time, and since we gain an hour when crossing over to Central time in the middle of Kentucky, we manage to arrive in Nashville by 6:00 pm. After getting mixed up once, we finally find Sandy and Becky's place. They have a one bedroom apartment in a condo complex on the southeast side of Nashville (actually in Antioch). We have a pasta dinner, then we watch The Aristocats on the TV in their bedroom, but I manage to fall asleep on their bed instead.
Today we spend the day visiting Nashville with the Morisons. Sandy knows of a breakfast place, but there is such a long waiting line that we decide to go elsewhere. On the way downtown, we stop by to visit Vanderbilt University where Becky now goes to school. It's a big campus with old-fashioned brick buildings located in large spreads of very green lawns. We continue downtown and park the van. We hunt for a breakfast place, but not too successfully. We go into the Hard Rock Café thinking they would have breakfast as any café would, but they only serve lunch, and is very noisy besides. The Wild Horse saloon just opens as we go by, and we peek inside at the horses running on the ceiling above the glitzy dance floor. We end up eating at Henry's, a pub which also just opened and has some omelette/bagels; it is quiet and we are glad to finally have breakfast.
Afterwards we stroll around the streets made famous by all the country musicians calling Nashville their home. We look at the waterfront where a Mississippi-style paddle boat is tied to the dock and ready to go to Opryland, our next scheduled stop. But since Sandy has to be at an audition at 4 pm, we don't really have the time to take its leisurely cruise. We drive instead. At Opryland, we just visit the hotel which has several magnificent covered gardens: all air conditioned -- a fact we readily appreciate. There are 3 gardens, each several times the size of a football field with the hotel rooms overlooking them. There are paths and fountains galore, with tropical plants all around. We take a short ride on a small boat going around one of the gardens. Natalie loves it. Each garden has a different name, each with a slightly different theme (Delta Queen, Conservatory, xxx).
We get back to Sandy and Becky's apartment, and relax while Sandy goes to his audition. We read the Sunday paper, munch on Berry-Berry-Kix, go swimming in the pool, and discuss travel plans while Natalie takes a nap. I later join her while Lisa and Becky go to Target. Natalie and I have time to watch the tail-end of Casper on video tape before their return. The four of us have dinner at a Tex-Mex restaurant in the neighborhood, then stop by Kroger to pick up a few last minute groceries for the next days' travel.
We leave Nashville around 11 am after taking a few pictures of Sandy and Becky in their new place. We take Interstate 24 west for 1½ hours,then we stop for lunch by Cadiz, Kentucky. The freeway is one of those pleasant midwestern freeways with lots of greenery, and a very wide median which hides the two lanes in the other direction. The countryside is very woodsy. The temperature increases steadily as we proceed northwestwardly. When we cross into Kentucky, the countryside changes and we get pastures and agricultural fields. The land is flatter because we have crossed into the deposits left by the retreating glaciers during the last ice age. After lunch, we continue on I-24, and cross into Illinois crossing a very wide Ohio river. Just on the other side is Metropolis, the adopted city of Superman. We stop and take pictures at the giant statue of Superman. We visit the store across the street with superman memorabilia, but we only get a couple of postcards due to their inflated prices ($1/card!).
We take small blue highways and cut across straight to the west to Cape Gerardieu where we view the Mississippi for the first time. We cross it on a small two lane bridge, the only bridge crossing the river for quite a distance. We continue north on the Interstate (I-55) until Ste Genevieve. We do a quick survey by car, pick up some groceries for dinner, and go to Hawn State Park some 11 miles on the other side of the freeway to spend the night. The campground is brand new, and we innaugurate many of Caroline's facilities: first electrical hook-up, first meal cooked on the stove, and first night spent in it. Natalie sleeps in the back, while we sleep upstairs. It was quite hot to begin with, but we have to snuggle up underneath the sleeping bag towards the middle of the night.
Natalie wakes us up before 7:30 am, so I relunctantly get up to minize the disruption she can do downstairs. Needing to go to the potty is another good argument. After this Lisa gets up, and we make coffee, and have cereal and bagels for breakfast. We are ready to go by 9:30 am, which is not bad since this is the first time we break camp in the van.
We go to Ste Genevieve, which we had glanced at yesterday. It is the first settlement by the French on the west side of the Mississippi. The town was flooded and completely destroyed something like 50 years later, and what remains of the town is at the new location somewhat higher on the bank of the mighty Mississippi. We visit the Tourist center located at the center of the old town, and visit in depth one of the abodes. It was owned by a French family until the 1940s when the last surviving daughter died without heir. The house consists of two rooms (a living room and a bedroom, both were shared by all) and a spacious hallway where the master of the house took care of business with the 25 or so slaves he owned. The kitchen was actually in a separate little building because they were really afraid of grease fires. In addition there is bare dirt all around the house also to prevent wildfires from burning the house down. Since we are here early and in the off-season, we have a personal guide: a sixtyish docent. She knows her material and is sure to involve Natalie when showing off the various items. Later we stroll through the village; Lisa buys a bottle of white wine from a local winery.
On the way back to the freeway, we stop at a Dairy Queen for a quick lunch. Natalie (and her Dad) love the free toy in her meal: a little Magic Schoolbus.
Then it's back on the road to St. Louis. We stop on the Mississippi waterfront right below the arch. We go inside, and take one of the eight passenger nacelles going to the top. They rotate as they go up to keep you horizontal. The ride is short and sauna like, but the view at the top is magnificient. Since the cross-section of the arch is triangular, you have to lean over to peer through the set of small windows on both sides. You can also look straight down: not something to do if you have a fear of heights.
Once we are again on firm ground, we go back to Caroline; Natalie falls asleep almost instantaneously while still chewing a cracker. We drive on I-70 west, and get caught in the five o'clock traffic. We stop at a small no-frills campground alongside the freeway just past Columbia, just as Natalie wakes up.
From Bobber Lake, we take I-70 again, and we keep on driving west. We get to Kansas City a little before noon. We stop at the visitor's center right next to the two big stadiums. There is no game, so the vast parking lots are empty. We decide to go to the Country Club Plaza which is supposedly the first shopping mall in America. It is designed by a famous architect in a spanish style, and it spreads over several city blocks. There are water fountains everywhere which makes it a very pleasant place. At the exit of the parking lot, we find a wonderful train shop, and Natalie is in heaven: it's too bad we cannot take one of every toy. We eat at KC Masterpiece BBQ restaurant where we have more barbequeued beef, pork and turkey than we can finish. It is a meat-eater's paradise. Getting out of the covered parking lot is more of a challenge since the van is too high to go through the exit. We have to back up and exit through the entrance. We get gas, catch I-435, the ring road around Kansas City, and take the 10 freeway to Lawrence, a nice university town, before rejoining I-70 west.
We stop for the day at Abilene, hometown of President Eisenhower. The campground is called the Covered Wagon RV Park, and is very homely. The hostess is very friendly, and is interested in genealogy. Natalie spots the swings immediately. We go grocery shopping, buy some stamps, then eat a light dinner consisting of fresh corn and leftovers from the restaurant. The humid heat is oppressing.
We leave somewhat later than usual because we do a load of laundry before leaving. We blast on I-70 across Kansas, stopping only for gas and rest stops. The road is long and we want to get to Colorado away from the heat and humidity as soon as possible.
At the last city in Kansas, we refill the proprane tank. The attendant only manages to put 1.2 gallons (it is a 3 gallon tank, but you can only fill it to 80%); he considers it such a small amount that it's not worth his time to make us pay for it.
We continue and enter Colorado. We also gain an hour. There are heavy dark clouds all around us except where we are heading. But the radio announces that we are under a severe thunderstorm and tornado watch. We stop close to the Colorado-Kansas boundary in Stratton, and camp within sight of thre freeway at the Trail's End campground. We cook a dinner of brown rice and soup with the left-over Kansas City BBQ beef and pork. After dinner, Natalie wants to play at the small putt-putt golf, but she doesn't get the chance because the rain starts. When we are ready for bed, the van is shaken so much by the wind that we decide to fold up the top, and sleep below. We make a nest on the floor for Natalie who is already asleep. There are lots of thunder, but Natalie sleeps through it all just like she did when we were in the south of France. I don't sleep too well.
It stopped raining during the night, but it starts again in the morning. We pack the van trying not to get too wet, and leave the camp at 9:30 am. We drive around Denver and take the road to Rocky Mountains National park via Boulder and Estes Park.
Once in the park, we stop several times to admire the mountains and valleys, and also once by mule deers crossing the road. Natalie jumps around a lot and climbs on some rocks at one of the stops, but when we start up again she complains of many things: tummy aches, wanting to vomit, needing to go to the potty; she is also very pale. We suspect altitude sickness, since the road stays above 10,000 ft (and over 12,000 ft in places) for quite a while. Once we come back down, she regains her colors.
We have basically entered the park on the east side, and have gone all the way to the other side. We stop at the Timber Creek campground at 6:00 pm. We are lucky: despite being the start of the Labor day weekend, we get a spot, one of the last three. It's not the best location since the van is in a 4 car parking lot with the table a hundred feet away. But we sleep pretty well despite the cold, although Natalie wakes us up early because she is cold and does not heed our warnings to stay underneath her sleeping bag. We need a thermometer in this van!
We leave our campsite and drive just a couple of miles to reach the trailhead for the Never Summer ranch in the Rocky Mountains Nat. Park. A short ½ mile walk take us to the site of the former dude ranch which started oiperating in the twenties when the road to Estes Park was finally opened. It is one of the most recent addition to the park. It consists of a series of small cabins and a few large ones. There is a series of volunteer rangers to describe the site. Lisa and Natalie mount a saddle and try their hands at roping. Natalie is fascinated with the old washer and wants to roll out more and more socks. This trail is the ideal length for Natalie.
We have a picnic in the parking lot when we return, and continue on blue highways before rejoining I-70 at Dillon. We then go to Vail. We drive first toward Lionshead but notice that indeed the gondola is being replaced and not available for rides. So we go to the village itself, park in their garage. Lisa calls and make a reservation for tonight since we are afraid we might not have a place to stay since this is the Labor day weekend. We ride up the Vista-Bahn up to Mid-Vail. We look around a little bit then we go back down and stroll through the village.
We then drive to our camping site just west of Glenwood Springs. The approach to Glenwood Spring is through a narrow canyon cut by the Colorado river: a very dramatic approach. We stop at New Castle at a KOA. It is a nice site with a river cutting through it. They have a small outside restaurant which we take advantage of; it turns out to be the slowest service you can imagine... we wait over an hour for our chicken and burger. They have nice showers however.
We go back to Glenwood Springs this morning. We park the van in the old downtown area, and have a sunday brunch at a small café.
We cross the river on the pedestrian bridge and view people rafting down the Colorado river. The bridge also overlooks a giant swimming pool with a big water slide. Next to it is a miniature golf and we have a round with Natalie to replace the one she missed due to the rain in Stratton.
We gas up, and continue on I-70 to Rifle where we leave the freeway to go to Dinosaur National Monument. On the way we pass by Dinosaur, the last city in Colorado before crossing into Utah. We take a few pictures and read the aptly named street sign: Brontosaurus Drive.
We arrive at the monument around 5:30 pm, in plenty of time to enjoy the museum quarry which closes at 7:00 pm. We set up camp in the monument at the Green River campground, alongside the Green river. The drive to the campground is spectacular with the sunset coloring all the strangely shaped rocks all around us. We make dinner, look at the stars. It is pretty warm at 10:00 pm, but cools down enough in the morning that we require our sleeping bacgs. There are zillions of little bugs less than a millimeter in size which are attracted by any light, even by our flashlights.
In the morning we take a hike in a box canyon by Josie's cabin. The canyon has a very narrow entrance and very steep walls all around, so by fencing its mouth, homesteaders could use it as a natural corral with a minimum of fencing. We hike up for maybe ½ mile until boulders prevent us from going any further with Natalie in tow. We take pictures of the sheer walls surrounding us
At the mouth of the box canyon we visit Josie's cabin, one of the rare homesteaders in this area. She lived here until the sixties. The cabin is rustic and very much in disrepair when compared to the pictures that were taken when she was still living here. The site is idyllic with a little stream running by, and tall trees all around providing the needed shade.
On the way back we stop to look at some Indian petroglyphs carved on shear rock faces.
Natalie requests a second look at the dinosaur visitor center, and we oblige even though she manages to fall asleep in the 10 miles we drive to go back to the quarry. This time we are in with the daytime crowd, and we have to park at the lower parking lot and take the little shuttle up to the center. Natalie enjoys the ride, and approaches strangers in the exhibits area to tell them all she knows about dinosaurs. She'll be a docent someday, predicts Lisa.
It is early afternoon by the time we leave, and we keep on driving towards Salt Lake City. On the way, we drive by the Park City ski area, and take the little road crossing the mountains rather than go back to the major highway. It is some shortcut! We lose the asphalt half-way up the pass, and it becomes a very narrow bumpy gravel and dirt road. Caroline takes it in stride, although Lisa, riding in the back with Natalie, is anxious both about the state of the road and whether we are even on the right road. The road on the other side is paved and go by the Solitude ski area. We encounters a string of locals driving back to Slat Lake City, so the going is slow until we reach the freeway.
Once on I-80, we keep on driving until we're in Nevada, and stop at a KOA right next to the casino strip.
We leave West Wendover early, gas up, and drive west on I-80. It is not a very eventful trip. I feel indeed that the trip is coming to an end and that we are just going back home now. There is a fire and lots of smoke in the middle of Nevada; we scan the radio for news but never hear where it comes from.
Natalie sleeps for a good part of the afternoon which makes it easier to push on past glitzy Reno which actually looks pretty dreadful in the daylight hours during rush hour. We escape the desert and climb into Truckee where we have dinner at a pizza house, before driving to Donner State Park just outside the city. It's a beautiful park, but we hear the noisy freeway in the distance. It's chilly, but less chilly than it was in the Rockies.
We cook pancakes for breakfast, and leave fairly early despite the fancy breakfast. Caroline II climbs slowly up Donner Pass, but once we're on top, it is a steady downhill until Sacramento. Traffic picks up once we are in the bay area, but there is no bottleneck so we arrive home fairly early in the afternoon.
Caroline II has been a delight, and this has been a wonderful trip despite the humid heat in the Midwest and the many miles we had to do every day to get back home. I'm already thinking of future weekend trips we will be able to do in Caroline, probably in the Bear Valley area in the Sierras.