8/7/05

The last leg of our journey home to Milwaukee! Spent some time in the observation lounge, since it was early enough and not full. The ridge was " up" in Burlington, Illinois.

We weren't doing too badly on time - considering that the train from out west is notoriously several hours late. But it looked as though we would probably get into Chicago in plenty of time to make our connection to Milwaukee.

We did make it to Chicago only an hour late, which actually gave us plenty of time to catch the earlier connection to Milwaukee. We kept waiting for our luggage to appear, and when it didn't, I asked the baggage claim attendant about it, since the baggage people in Emeryville -- remember Emeryville? -- put MKE on our tags instead of CHI. The attendant quickly made a phone call and had our bags rescued and sent up.

I would say that the most terrifying part of our trip was the cab ride from the Milwaukee Amtrak station to mom's house!!

And home again...always good to get home, no matter how good of a time we had while we were gone.

All in all, this was the best trip, the best vacation I'd ever experienced! We had so much fun, and it was SUCH an adventure!! It wouldn't have been possible without the generosity of my mom, so, Mama -- thanks a bundle!!! You're the best!!! Gary and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, and I hope you had as good a time as we did!

8/6/05

Continuing on our train ride back to Milwaukee...Had a couple of smokers who were irate that they weren't able to get off the train in Utah to have a smoke. Oh well!

Amazing what some people do when they get off the train for a 10 minute layover -- some people smoke, some buy postcards, some eat and drink -- and one poor old soul with a laptop computer, obviously wireless, was running around outside waving his laptop about in the air, hoping to pick up a signal somewhere...I don't think he was successful.

In Colorado, we picked up some new "neighbors" who were very technology savvy...had laptops, cell phones...and a buffet! LOL! Looks like they bought out the local grocery store before they got on board. One of them, a girl in her 20's, apparently forgot her purse at the train station, and didn't even realize it. Later on in the day, the station master got hold of our engineer and told him about it, and he relayed the info to the girl, and she called and arranged to have her purse overnighted to Chicago.

In Omaha, we picked up a couple of young yuppies...who apparently didn't know each other, but because it was a full train, ended up sitting next to each other. Well, these two talked and talked and talked and talked into the wee hours...and not at hushed tones either. There was no way anyone around them could get any sleep. So.....at 12:30 I finally asked them if they could take their conversation elsewhere or else tone it down a little bit so that the rest of us could get some sleep -- and they retired to the lounge car, where I assume they continued their conversation through the night.

Went through the Rockies and the Moffatt Tunnel...and on the Colorado River, were greeted by many "mooners" along the way.

8/5/05

Up at 4:00 a.m., to get an early start to Emeryville, where we catch the train to come back home. Very sorry to leave San Jose at all, but...reality sinks in, and we must get back to work, unfortunately!

Train left Emeryville at 9:15, right on time. Scenery was absolutely gorgeous through the Truckee area, especially the Truckee River. We saw people in the river trout fi shing, canoeing and kayaking.

In the Nevada desert, east of Sparks, we went through some rain, and then saw several "dust devils" and a tornado out in the distance. Quite an experience!

We changed train cars after we were out of the Sparks area, due to an African American family of 6 across the aisle from us. Although Amtrak rules limit "carry-ons" to 2 per preson, these 6 people, between them, had at least 20 carry-ons, mostly plastic garbage bags full of things, plus bed rolls, pillows and coolers. It was impossible to get through the aisles, as one of them was always in the middle of the aisle, climbing all over the chairs, looking for something in one of their dozens of carry-ons. They'd no sooner settle down when one would ask for something else and they'd have to go through the entire ritual again.

Add to that the fact that they had portable DVD players with no headphones, and they had the volume quite loud. The littlest ones also had some sort of annoying toys that made loud noises, and although they were told at least a half dozen times to knock it off by their grandmother, nobody bothered to take the toys away from them.

I finally noticed that the tags above their seats read "CHI"...same destination as ours, and there was no way on God's green earth that I was going to put up with these annoyances for 3000 miles, so I finally did ask the conductor if we could change cars, and she said "Go ahead. I don't blame you at all." So we went to the next car ahead, which was much quieter -- and closer to the lounge and dining cars!

8/4/05

I'm sounding like a broken record....breakfast at our usual spot! (Can I bring them home with me??)

Mom, Gary and I headed out by ourselves to try and find a Barnes & Nobel for maps, magazines, and such for the train ride home. Mission completed, we then headed out, intending to get to Monterey.

The drive to Monterey was along a very steep, two-lane highway. The mountain was so steep that there were warning signs to turn off air conditioning, etc., to lower the running temperature in the car! Of course, I didn't believe that for a minute until I started noticing that our temperature gauge was climbing!! S o, I turned off the air....

Traffic was unbelievable on that mountain! And people, obviously more used to the trip than I, were not thinking anything about high speeds along the way...I was getting a little uncomfortable driving in these conditions, so we opted to stop in Santa Cruz.

We took a look around town, but really didn't stay too long. I hear that Santa Cruz is quite the party town for youngsters....

Back to the hotel, and Gary and I went out to the poolside for a while, but the sun was pretty intense, so we didn't stay out there TOO long. Did NOT want to burn!

Later that evening, we picked up Jeffrey and Brittany and we met Kelly at Teske's Germania, Jeff and Kelly's favorite restaurant. Met some of Jeff's acquaintances there, and had a really good time -- very good German food there!! I can see why it's high on their list!

Headed back to the hotel for en early night, since we needed to get an early start back home the next morning.

8/3/05

Ate breakfast at our usual place and had the usual avacado omelet...don't know of any place in Wisconsin that has such a delightful creation!!

After breakfast, we drove out to Kelly & Jeff's place and picked them up. We decided to check out one of the local hobby shops, to see if Gary could find anything there that he wanted (since my next stop was going to be a stitching shop!). We nosed around a little bit there, and then we headed to Makings Stitching Shop. I did manage to find a few items there, including some Jazzlyn fabric that I always love to have on hand, as well as a few other fabrics that looked interesting.

From there, we all headed out to Half Moon Bay, so we could sink our feet into the Pacific Ocean. It was fairly foggy there that day, but what a treat! We saw seals in the water, and seagulls were everywhere. Waded a little bit in the water, and I could then understand how easily a child could be pulled in by the undertow -- very strong undertow!! I had a little trouble myself staying on my feet! We took some pictures and then headed into the atual town to nose around the quaint shops there. Had lunch in town as well. Very nice visit, a nice little town that I wouldn't mind going back to!

We then went back to the hotel for a little bit of a rest - all this fresh air was beginning to make us all tired!

Dinner was at Maggiano's Little Italy -- what a lot of traffic in that area of San Jose!! I can understand why they have all of the public transportation they do! Dinner was absolutely scrumptious - way too much food, of course. Kelly and Jeff and Brit gave me a lovely oak box for stitching for my birthday! It's one from Sudbury House, and you stitch something and put it in the top of the box, so that it really is personalized by the stitcher.

Took city streets home rather than try to battle the mish-mash of highways!!

8/2/05

Breakfast at the Palms Cafe again - same avacado and cheese omelet!

After breakfast, we picked up Jeff and Kelly and headed off for San Francisco. We drove to Fremont and caught the BART there -- what a wonderful transportation system they have in that area of the country! If they had anything HALF that good in Wisconsin, I wouldn't even own a car!! The BART ride was really interesting, especially where it goes underneath the Bay! My ears were popping like crazy!

Got off the BART in San Francisco and then took a cable car to Fisherman's Wharf, where we had lunch and did some shopping. Then the four of us, minus Mom (who decided to stay on the Wharf and do some shopping), went on the Bay Cruise, which went all the way out to the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island. Sure was windy and cold out there on the bay!! But what a view! Was foggy out by the Bridge, but managed to get some good pictures anyway.

After the cruise, we shopped a little on Pier 39 -- which we quickly determined was quite the tourist trap! Nothing we really needed there, so we hopped on a horse and carriage and went back to the cable car area. Quite a line waiting for the cable cars, so while we were waiting, there was a jazz musician entertainin all of us -- very talented, and a very nice man. Got on the cable car, hopped the BART and drove back to Jeff and Kelly's from Fremont.

Wonderful day!!! We sure were tired after all of that fresh air, especially the cooler air on the bay!

8/1/05

Had breakfast at the Palms Cafe & Deli -- looked like a little hole in the wall - in fact I don't think it would seat much more than 15 people on a good day. Had a wonderful omelet -- cheese and avacado -- which I quickly became addicted to!

Was a very warm day -- but not humid, which is nice in this part of the country. Picked up Brittany and the four of us took off for the Winchester Mystery House. What a great place to tour! I'd heard about it, because the house in Stephen King's "Rose Red" was fashioned after this particular home. Tons of rooms, staircases that go nowhere, doors that have no rooms behind them...you name it, it's in this house. They had a marvelous gift shop - of course!

After we left there, we drove back to Jeff's house and spent some time there. Then we went on to Albertson's for a few things, and Mom was looking for stamps -- but they didn't have any there -- they directed us to The Stamp Store, in the same area. The Stamp Store wanted more than face value of the stamps for their stamps, so we passed on that, intending instead to find a post office somewhere in the area, which we did later that night.

Had dinner at a place called Sweet Tomatoes -- which was a kind of a salad bar restaurant -- they also had a soup bar, a bakery bar, a dessert bar, a pizza/pasta bar....it was really neat -- wish they had one in Wisconsin, but they don't!

7/31/05

Continuing our journey to San Jose via Amtrak. When we pulled into Sacramento, we were already 2 hours and 50 minutes behind schedule -- don't know how THAT happened!

Gorgeous palm trees -- they fascinate me! Many orchards we passed through, as well as fields of sunflowers.

There was a very odd man across the aisle from us, with someone who was apparently his daughter -- though who knows these days! She was perhaps 6 years old. Things were very strange between them, the type of conversation, etc. He inquired about a sleeping car for the two of them, and when he was told one was available, he said he had to check his credit card -- at which point he called his mother and asked if he could use a sleeping car and was apparently told no, because he never did take it. Noted when the little girl was sleeping, she was naked from the waist down, so....I dunno...we took photos of her and him,as well as the tag on his luggage when he left the car for a while, just in case we would see them profiled on America's Most Wanted or something like that.

The conductor in our car for this leg of the trip was nicer, but she was sitting right behind us, and every time one of the Taiwan children would run through the car, she would holler "NO RUNNING, NO RUNNING!" and woke me up several times by doing so.

We arrived in San Jose about 3 1/2 hour behind schedule, but at least we were there! From what others said, this was typical of a north/south Amtrak train. We did note that the north/south trains were not as nice as the east/west trains.Took a taxi from the train station to the car rental place and picked up our rental, then drove to our hotel in San Jose.

VERY nice extended stay hotel, with stove, fridge, coffee maker, microwave...No shower ever felt so good as the one I took when we got there, after 3 days without one...

After freshening up, we drove to Jeff & Kelly's house....pretty house! Visited for a while there with them and my niece, Brittany. The stitching that I made for Kelly many years ago was hanging on the wall! I was glad to see that! We had dinner at Tony Roma's, and Brittany rode with us, so that she could navigate us back to her house in the dark.Did laundry at the hotel, and hit the sack! It was a long day!

7/30/05

Still on the train, taking lots of pictures through Washington and Oregon. We changed trains in Portland - effectively losing Brunhilda and Chief Rain In The Face - thank goodness.

While at the station in Portland, waiting for our next train, we were informed that there is no sales tax in Oregon, and we were encouraged to "buy all you want!" Well, we didn't really find anything to buy there, and we didn't want to run around to any department stores...

There were 32 Taiwan children in the last car of the train...for the most part fairly well behaved, but having to run back and forth to the club car or the observation car every few minutes, so there was a lot of running back and forth.

We took lots of photos again, through Oregon and California. Gorgeous scenery. Had dinner in the dining car again, shared a table with a nice young man from London.

7/29/05

Happy birthday to me! LOL!

We returned our rental car to Avis after stopping at WalMart again, as well as Albertson's -- we had some time to waste! Also checked out many of the gas stations in the area to see if they had any maps we were looking for. The gals at Avis gave us a ride to the Amtrak station, where we patiently awaited the beginning of our journey to California.

This was not my first LONG train trip, but it was for Gary and for Mother. Someone was already sitting in the seat that the conductor told Mother to sit in - he'd been assigned a different seat, but refused to move, so Mother ended up sitting behind us, and we dubbed this person "Chief Rain In The Face", since he was such a dolt! Every hour or so, he would get up and do his exercises in the aisle, sticking his fanny in my face....I was stitching (of course), so Gary motioned for me to poke him in the butt with my needle, but I didn't.

The conductor we dubbed "Brunhilda", because she had no sense of humor either. She kept announcing that everyone had to stay in their assigned seats and not "spread out", as "We're going to have a very full train!" NOT! There were enough seats the whole way to Oregon for us each to have at least 4...

We had dinner in the diner, complete with wine for my birthday celebration...what fun we had!!

Sometime during the night, our train was stopped for quite a while, so Amtrak could move some cars around. Mother and I (while everyone else was sleeping) found everything quite amusing, and were having giggle fits...and Chief Rain In The Face whined about that, at one point muttered "give us a break, would you?" No sense of humor. No personality.

7/28/05

Before leaving Lodgepole, we took a "tour" of Butch's property -- with Jake running ahead, guiding the truck! What a nice piece of land he has!! And he's obviously very proud of it!

We left Lodgepole fairly early, then drove through to North Dakota's Painted Canyon and stopped at the Visitor Center there and took some picture of the buttes. Drove through Theodore Roosevelt National Park, taking pictures on the "loop" -- where we finally ran across a group of buffalo -- couldn't really call it a herd, but there were enought here to get some great pictures.

Stopped at Williston for the night at the Super 8, had dinner at Applebee's and also stopped at the WalMart to look for another memory stick for the camera.

7/27/05

Started out the day with breakfast at Butch & Phyl's place, then wandered out to see the sod hut not far from their home...very interesting place!

From there, we traveled to Lemmon, SD, to visit the petrified wood park -- have never seen so many sculptures made out of petrified wood in my life! It was really neat -- even the benches were made out of petrified wood...

Also stopped in at the Ben Franklin to see if they had any craft supplies -- picked up a few items there, then stopped at the Wheeler Manufacturing office to see if they had any Black Hills Gold jewelry. We were told they only sold wholesale there, and that we'd have to stop in at Northwest Supply on the outskirts of town for their retail operation.We stopped there to see what they have -- and they had some gorgeous pieces, but nothing that screamed "take me home", so I didn't buy any of the gold, but I did pick up a couple of pair of earrings that were black diamonds, as well as a couple of charms for my Italian charm bracelet.

From there we went to the nursing home in Hettinger, where we met up with Dana and the kids, as well as Phyl, and we spent some time visiting with Phyl's parents, who are both residents there.

Then we stopped in at the bee farm, which Eric bought from Butch a few years ago. They'd just brought in a few hives, and the bees were a bit on the feisty side, so we drove around to the other side of the building and saw the operation. What a process!!! Makes me appreciate honey all that much more!

That evening, Lodgepole held their annual ice cream social, so we all attended that -- what a turnout they had! It was a lot of fun, lots of food, lots of ice cream...It was a great day!!!

7/26/05

Spent the day in and around Hettinger, ND, for the most part. Saw a lot of the damange from the softball sized hail they received a few days ago. Unreal...I can't imagine driving and having that stuff come down on my car. Saw cars with absolutely no windows, homes with broken windows....boarded up...and someone with a sense of humor who put on his business' sign, "Thanks for the rain, but please NO MORE HAIL!"

Took a tour of Denise's work facilities, the Wellness Center...very impressive!! Denise was obviously very proud of her work, and rightfully so.

From there, we met up with Ethan and toured his vet office...being a country vet, he takes care of everything from kittens to horses and cattle. Not your every-day vet's office! Having just lost my beloved cat, Sassy, of course I fell in love with the kitties there....Also stopped in at the Dakota Cabin Quilt Shop, where Phyl works. What a lovely store! Quite an impressive quilt shop for such a tiny town! Very nice little town, Hettinger. I could easily live there....

In the evening, we had a barbecue at Denise and Ethan's place....Denise made GREAT hamburgers, and this combination fruit and veggie salad that was absolutely out of this world -- and one of these days I'm going to get the recipe from her. There was cake for a combined celebration of my birthday and Cassie's birthday (her birthday is July 30).They have a beautiful home...and we spent some time outside as well -- what a view! All in all, it was a GREAT day!

7/25/05

Left Chamberlain fairly early, after breakfast. Our next stop was just east of Rapid City, at a place called Prairie Homestead. This was an old homestead that had been preserved and made into a tourist spot...nice gift shop there as well. There were TONS of prairie dogs there, and they all seemed to be pretty used to having a lot of people around, as they didn't run and hide when you'd get close to them. Got some nice pictures of one....Went inside the homestead and had a look around - was almost like being in an episode of "Little House on the Prairie". Bought South Dakota t-shirts while we were in the gift shop, as well as a copper and sterling silver bracelet.

From there, we stopped at an overlook at the entrance to the Badlands National Park. Spectacular scenery!! Took lots of photos there as well. Have never seen nature quite like we saw there. Very unusual rock formations....

Our next stop was Mount Rushmore -- the trip up to the monument got a little rough -- it was raining fairly hard, and it was foggy. Thankfully, it did stop raining long enough for us to get to the visitor center there, and the fog lifted very briefly, but long enough for us to get a couple of good photos of the monument - then it came back down again. After the fog came down, someone employed by Kodak wanted to take our picture in front of the monument, so we said okay....and they told us we could see the photo in the other building in 20 minutes or so.

So, on to the gift shop, where we spent a bit of time. Gary and I, of course, bought t-shirts there as well, and Gary bought a hat he liked. I also was able to find some links for my Italian Link charm bracelet at a very good price.Done shopping, we went to the other building to take a look at our photo, which we could have purchased for $12. Unfortunately, the fog was so heavy when the picture was taken that the actual monument couldn't be seen. So, through the magic of photography, the Kodak personnel superimposed a picture of Mt. Rushmore onto our photo and it looked PERFECT! And they let us have it for $8 instead of $12, so we took it.

Our plans were then to see the Crazy Horse Monument; when we arrived there, we found out that it would cost $24 for us to see the monument, which is far from being finished; add to that the continuing fog which made it difficult to see...so we opted not to go inside...we were able to get some photos in brief fog lifts while we were turning around to head back out to the highway, so all was not lost.

The trip back down the highway was worse than the trip up -- the fog was so heavy, we could only see a few feet in front of the car...but somehow we made it! Went through Sturgis, and saw that vendors were already setting up for the upcoming bike ralley.

Next destination was my step-brother's home in Lodgepole, SD. Not much out there in Lodgepole!! What Gary would call a true "blink and spit" sort of town. There's a store and about three houses behind the store, and that's it! Butch and Phyl live just down the road from the store.Visited with Butch and Phyl for a while, along with their dog Jake and their cats Tom and Kitters.

Mom was going to stay with them while we were in town, and Gary and I were staying with my nephew Eric and his wife Dana and their two children, Conner and Alyssa. They live in Hettinger, North Dakota, which is about 12 miles from Lodgepole, South Dakota. Only thing we had to worry about was all the mule deer on the highway!! But we took it slow and made it to Eric's house without incident...

7/24/05

Still in Marcus, Iowa....we attended church at Trinity Lutheran Church, where my grandfather was baptised. Very nice service...while there, we met a few relatives who still remembered my grandfather, Lulu Grauer and Dolores Grauer.

After visiting for a while, we started back on the road again.Next stop was Baresford, SD, where we were scheduled to meet with my nephew, Elbert Andress, for lunch. Laughingly, he told us he would be the "scruffy one in the parking lot". Unfortunately, signals got crossed and we never did get to meet with Elbert; but we had a nice lunch there anyway.

From there, we traveled to Mitchell, SD, to see the Mitchell Corn Palace. What an unusual place! The entire outside of the building is constructed of corn cobs. Every year, a new design is created, and the outside is redone. The inside of the Palace was full of vendors, but we didn't do any shopping.

We drove on to Chamberlain, SD, where we stopped for the night at our next Super 8. Took time to do some laundry while we were there...not quite as hot and humid as it had been the past couple of days, but still a little uncomfortable. Anyway, the view from the Super 8 was spectacular, overlooking the Missouri River. Took lots of photos from the parking lot. Managed to get some stitching time in as well!!

7/23/05

Our destination today was Marcus, Iowa, in Cherokee County, where my Grandfather Schultz was raised. I had heard so much about the old homestead in Iowa, and it was exciting for me to finally be able to see it.Along the way, we saw many "wind farms". Have never seen so many "windmills" in one place before.

Was very hot and windy today. Temperatures around 100 degrees, but not as humid as one usually finds in Wisconsin, so it wasn't too bad.We stopped at the Library in Marcus, to drop off some of my grandfather's books that were pertinent to the area, and they were delighted to get them. Nice little library, for such a small town!

We then traveled to my grandfather's boyhood home, a farm now owned by Mr. Glassmaker. We met him, and he is a very nice man! The farm looked to be in pretty good shape, which was good to see. Had a nice chat with Mr. Glassmaker and took several photos of the farmhouse.We then drove to what had been called a "century farm" -- century farms are farms that are owned by one family for 100 years or more. Until a few months ago, there was a century farm in our family. Unfortunately, the man who owned the farm passed away quite suddenly (and quite young) a few months ago, and his widow sold the farm, so it is no longer classified as a century farm.

We continued on to Lemars, Iowa, to visit the Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream Museum. They have quite a nice museum there!!! Gary and I both bought t-shirts in the gift shop. After seeing the museum, we stopped in at their ice cream parlour and gift shop. Bought a few trinkets and then sat down for some ice cream.Gary ordered a "three scoop sampler", which was supposed to have been a scoop of three different flavors. In actuality, it was at least three scoops of each flavor! Mother and I both ordered a sundae, figuring it would come in a traditional sundae glass -- NOT! Our sundaes arrived in PLATTERS. There were at LEAST five or six scoops - large scoops - of ice cream on each platter, drowned in caramel, hot fudge, nuts, whipped cream and cherries.None of us was able to even finish HALF of our ice creams....and unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of these masterpieces before we started eating them, but...I took a picture of what was left when we couldn't eat any more, and there was STILL enough for at least another half dozen people.....what an adventure!!

Back to Marcus then, and we stopped at Trinity Lutheran's cemetery, where some of our relatives are buried....and then on to the Super 8 in Cherokee....which was not nearly as nice as the Super 8 in Clear Lake, but it was a place to stay for the night....got more stitching done!!

7/22/05

On 7/22/05, we left on our vacation....I'm actually writing this after our return, but I took some really good notes while we were gone....I'm hoping to get all of this journal in the blog, day by day.We picked up our rental car last night in Brookfield....and left this morning around 7:30.

A short time after we left, I discovered that the new "memory stick" - 512MB - I'd purchased for my digital camera, for some reason, could not be used in my camera - I kept getting the message "this card cannot be used". As the only other card I had was only 32MB, I knew I'd have to pick up another one, so we stopped at Walmart (my favorite store) in Priarie du Chien, Wisconsin. I figured maybe the new card was too big (in memory) for my camera, so tried a 256MB while I was there, and that one worked, so I bought it (along with another shirt!) and we were on our way once again.

Our first stop was in Spillville, Iowa, where we were going to see the Bily Brothers Clock Museum. Interesting place! Nothing like I figured it would be...I thought there would be just different kinds of clocks from over the centuries, but in fact it was a collection of clocks that were hand-carved by the Bily Brothers in the 1900's .These clocks were absolutely gorgeous! Most of them were taller than I am (I know, that isn't saying much, but for clocks, that's pretty tall!). Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photos in the museum, so we ended up buying postcards. Nothing anyone could have told me would have prepared me for what I saw in that museum, so I won't even try to describe these clocks here. Suffice it to say, the museum is well worth seeing, and it was well worth the stop!

We stopped in Clear Lake, Iowa, for the night, at a Super 8 Motel....nice place -- even had a recliner, which was handy for some evening stitching! They also had a computer in the lobby, so I was able to check my email -- important stuff! LOL!

Clear Lake was the first place we saw in which Super gasoline was cheaper than the Regular grade. They put 35% ethanol in the Super, and then they lower the price....neat deal...wish they'd get something like that in Wisconsin.That was the end of our first day of vacation...It was a nice, leisurely drive from Wisconsin to Clear Lake -- not much traffic to contend with, which was nice.