Travel Gallery

Travel Log

Feb 8

Renville Corner - first stop in US
Gas in Minot
Stop at Herreid.
Overnight at Selby. Supper in the bar / restaurant at the hotel. Rather lame breakfast.

Feb. 9

Left about 9. Gas at Pierre about 10:40. Nice looking town. Missouri River has some open water at the bridge.
Fort Pierre National Grassland just south of town.
Murdo at 11:30. Didn't stop but it looked to have a few attractions. Pioneer town etc.
Hilly bare country, not a very good road. Some light snow .
Interesting small bushes?
Stopped in White River, a bit of snow on the road.
Passed the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
Sicanuga Village
Rosebud Casino Nebraska border.
Niobrara River near Valentine
Left Valentine after lunch, McDonald's, with the weather looking good, but conditions deteriorated just when it was getting too late to turn back.
Tough trip to Telford and things were looking better so we kept going. Snow covered roads and then some slippery sections and passed an accident.
More tough sledding til North Platte where it had really started to snow heavily.
Room at the Motel 6 and supper at Luigis along with a good local brew.

Feb 10

Left at about 9, and drove snow covered roads until McCook, McD breakfast. Snow until near Oberlin, Kansas. I was worried that the car was vibrating like it needed the wheels balanced. Turns out that the snow packed in the wheels was causing it. Cleaned them and it was fine.
Scott City, the highway goes right through the old Main Street. Took photos.
Oakley Kansas past the Annie Oakley motel and Buffalo Bill statue etc.
Surprised by the size of Garden City. On towards LIberal, Perrytown, and stayed at Canadian. Best Western. Supper from the grocery store across the road from the hotel. Interesting town, like so many Texas towns, it seems to be in decline. There seems to be all kinds of economic activity alongside all sorts of cheap housing and abandoned and poorly maintained buildings.

Feb 11

Through Shamrock and Wellington.
Paducah, another town in decline with interesting old buildings crumbling away. Photo of what looked like a cotton field.
Passed through Guthrie , no services, but a big school, churches etc.
Tuscola - neat old buildings but many were poorly maintained.
Brief stop at Winters, gas at 7 Eleven
Neat brush-like plants and cacti.

Eden - DQ lunch,

Where those cotton fields near Childress?
What I see along my route, over and over, are fairly large towns that appear to be run down, in decline. Downtown strips with derelict or poorly maintained buildings.
Run down homes and vacant lots.
Like Hartney would be if a proactive local government and public minded property owners didn't tear down and clean up.
Found a Motel 6 right by the junction, at... Junction. Went for a short walk around, weather almost decent for a change. McD coffee, leftover wraps supper.

Feb 12
McD breakfast?
And on to San Antonio. As we approached from Junction we noticed a pleasing change in the landscape. Rolling country, exposed bedrock, wide valleys and trees.

San Antonio was as advertised. We enjoyed the River Walk, the Alamo, and all the downtown attractions.

Took the Interstate 10 out of town ,multi vehicle pileup, most in ditch, just outside SA, other side of I- 10. and after a hour or so stopped at Flatonia.

Overheard in the breakfast room of a hotel outside Flatonia Texas....

Two ladies were discussing the news report that an Amtrak train had ejected an 80 year old woman at the nearby small town, with very little verifiable cause.

The one lady said that the people operating the train were probably Democrats.

Two things that seem to accelerate the stupidity level in a society are hyper-partisanship and the inertia and resistance to changed brought on by bureaucracy.

McD supper.

Feb 13. Another accident, 1 vehicle in ditch, a few others stopped? Saw a sign around there that said "Do not pick up hitch hikers, prison area." Short pleasant drive to Freeport. Nice to get off of the Interstate. Other roads are quieter, but still well maintained. Nice to drive through towns rather than around them. Freeport is heavily industrial. Dow Chemical etc.

Arrived at the Timeshare about 3. Walked the beach etc. Nice day with fog.

Feb 14

Warmer weather. Great relaxing day. Heavy mist most of the time.

Feb 15

The mist lifted for a while. Drove to Surfside Beach for water and beer.

Feb 16

Warmest day yet, we waded a bit in the surf. Walked to the interior shore.

Feb 17

Another nice day, better visibility. Sad to see how much garbage has been tossed into the dunes along the beach. Allowing vehicles can't be helping.
Shopped in Freeport. Really warm and humid there.
Fresh Catfish fillets from the Matt's Seafood Market for supper. Passed on the opportunity to buy alligator meat.

Feb 18

More photos of wildlife and plant life. Huge $10 pork roast slow cooking this afternoon. Sunday - lots of vehicles on the beach. Most are fishing.

Feb 19
Donna and Bev made buns and cinnamon buns again.
Took a long walk north past the Bluewater Resort. Drove a few km north and walked a trail. Nice surf. Windiest day yet.
Saw first Portuguese man of war - "jelly fish".

Feb 20
No electricity anywhere, noticed in the night and back on about 9:30. Caught the sunrise.
Another nice day but windiest yet. Several walks on beach. Lots of brown pelicans today.

Feb 21
Woke about 3 to thunderstorm. Trip to Freeport for supplies. Stopped at the marina etc. Took some photos. Got pics of Spoonbills, pink feathers due to eating shrimp. Saw pink bonnet flowers. Poured rain when back then cleared.
Long walk along beach, waded in shallow water. Guys saw several Jellyfish. Had steak, baked potatoes, veggies, Bev made pastry and banana cream pie.

Feb 22

Walked the beach am. Lots of brown pelicans. Mist faded.
Drove the beach after an outing looking for flowers.

Feb. 23

First real swim ...in the surf and in the pool ....the water is reasonably warm.

Feb 24

Sunny morning. Walk. Swim. Drive to Surfside Beach. Walk along the jetty. Ken and dave saw a few dolphins. Surfers were catching a few waves.

Feb 25

Schedule:

Run on beach. Walk on beach. Play in waves. Swim in pool. Eat. Read. Have a beer. Nap.

Feb 26

Cool and sunny. Long walk. Video of surfer.

Feb 27

Drive to Galveston - beautiful costal drive. Brunch at Millers. Souvenir shopping. Took the ferry and drove to Jasper. Bad supper at Sonic Burger. Took photos of downtown. Mix of nice old building and general decay.

Feb 28

Crossed in to Louisiana. Nice drive on a rural highway. Lots of flooded rivers. Stopped in Plaindealing, it has the ugliest downtown yet.

Churches and public buildings are often nice but there are a lot of run down commercial and residential buildings.

Sign in NE Louisiana

"if the name Jesus offends you .....

Jesus, Jesus. Etc.

Do they think they are reaching out with that sort of snark? There is a defensiveness about fundamentalist Christianity, perhaps because so many of them can sense that the world has moved on.

As we entered Arkansas and moved north we encountered a little less of the rural decline, and a few nice towns. Stopped at Pine Bluff, a bit south of Little Rock

In the evening we received flash flood warnings for the area. Rained all night.

March 1

Still under a flash flood watch with many State Highways closed in places. Schools closed. By 9 it was brightening up and we took the short pleasant drive to Little Rock.

The city is great in several ways. Getting off the Interstate and in to downtown was easy. The travel centre with parking was right there where you turn off the interstate. It was just blocks away from downtown. A very walkable city. Well preserved downtown business district. One dollar each for a streetcar tour. Free attractions. Great unique independent bars and restaurants. Fantastic pizza at Iliana's. Variety of downtown hotels close to the river walk. Reasonably priced hotel within easy walking distance of main attractions.

March 2

We really enjoyed our stay at the Comfort Inn, great breakfast, great staff, convenient location. The drive to Memphis was marred by bad roads and wall to wall speeding semis. IS 40, the worst stretch of IS so far. Memphis was great. Easy to navigate. Good walk along the river and downtown. Lunch on Beale. Quick trip to Sun Studio.

Headed north and got as far as Sikeston MO. Best Western, good breakfast.

March 3

Took the back roads north through very interesting country. Lots of hills. St. Francois Mountains, and the Ozark Plateau. Mark Twain National Forest. Stopped at Arcadia and toured a museum that is also an active Amtrak Station.

https://media.amtrak.com/2016/11/amtrak-now-serves-missouris-arcadia-valley/

Next stop was Caledonia, community over 200 years old with great old buildings including an amazing old store that serves ice cream, coffee an treats.

Stopped at Troy MO.

March 4: Short drive to Hannibal, lots of nice old buildings. Long, but pleasant drive to Sioux City.

March 5 - Woke up to rain, sleet and wind. By he time we got to Sioux Falls (110 km) it was storming. Took hotel, went for a good walk. We are right close to a Walmart with a Liquor Store. Perfect.

March 7 - I 29 closed until about 10 am. Roads in bad shape. We decided to stay another night.
Walked to Guitar Centre, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart. Swim.

March 7 - Winnipeg - March 8 - Brandon