Wisconsin

Beautiful colors at the rest stop, love the contrast with the bright blue sky!

Cary had some returns to Lands' End in Dodgeville; each item will be evaluated and appraised, then someone will get back to us.

If you had any doubts about where we were...the tostitos in the chips aisle would erase all doubt!

We made it to Sheila's around 3:00, unloaded our stuff and relaxed. Sheila fixed a yummy chicken breast stuffed with spinach--cream cheese, garlic, artichokes (I think)...also a salad and some wine.

Kathy and Jim Wollner rode their bikes over to say hello. Great visit.

Cedar Rapids

After a very simple breakfast at the Econolodge (no juice, although there was a juice machine and no water), we started the journey to Cedar Rapids. While I was programming the GPS, Cary missed a turn, so we drove about 12 miles out of the way...not too bad...but got turned around and all went well from there.

Lunch at a Perkins, tasty and filling. We arrived at the Clarion in Cedar Rapids just after 3:00. I had called last night for a reservation, used a coupon from the book we got at a rest stop and save about $20.

This is the lobby. Coffee and fruit when we checked in. Supper at the nearby Perkins (yes, again), and now the Viet Nam War special on PBS.

More Junction City, Wamego

 We started the day at the New Horizons factory. Very well-made 5th wheels, usually made for folks who fulltime, so they are larger and heavier than the ones we usually see on the road.

This one was being refurbished; all the decals we stripped off in preparation of a new paint job. Painting is done at the Winnebago factory, the same place where ours was painted.

Intended to be a "floor model," this was sold (most are custom made to customers' specs), but we were able to walk through it. Very impressive!

 In Wamego we had a great tour of the Oz museum. Lots of information, a video about L. Frank Baum and one about the making of the movie.

Dorothy and Toto

The Scarecrow...and my husband reading the sign.

A wonderful three-dimensional quilt

The Tin Woodman

Something like this was used to represent the cyclone. The idea was used in other tornados after this.

I took this picture of the funnel because five years ago I made a tin woodman costume for 2-month old Kaila. Cary used a funnel for her hat also.

We had lunch at a cute little diner, The Friendly Cooker, where Cary got an order of a hot roast beef sandwich, mashed potatoes and gravy. Very happy.

Tonight we ate supper in our room at the Econolodge in Cameron, Missouri, leftovers from yesterday's supper, today's lunch, and a fish sandwich from Burger King.

We thought it would be simple to watch the Vietnam War special; naturally it took a while to get the captioning...but then the audio came on in Spanish! Yeesh. But we persisted and now everything is fine...until the next motel, TV and remote control!

Junction City

After another great breakfast at the motel, and an hour of "Sunday Morning," we began the drive to Junction City. Lunch at an IHOP, looked for the New Horizons factory and settled into a nearby Motel 6. We will tour the factory in the morning.

We are not in the market for a new one, but we always like to look!

A quick trip to Walmart for some more yogurts, a Thai salad for supper, and more bananas, settling in for the Packers game.

Dorothy's House

In Liberal, Kansas, we took a tour of a re-creation of Dorothy's home that she shared with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. There is even a mock storm shelter on the property.

 We then got a guided tour from the tornado that started the adventure, to Dorothy's walk down the yellow brick road. Dorothy had lots of information about the movie, some blips that remain, all in all, quite informative. I wore my miniature Wizard of Oz pendant, which doesn't show up at all!

Glinda and Dorothy

The house landed on the witch.

She came across the tin man,

the scarecrow (he actually spoke to us), and the Cowardly Lion

Another area here.

Unfortunately, the Wizard and Emerald City did not show up in the photos I took!

This model house was actually used in the movie in the scenes from the tornado.

Read more about the place here: http://www.dorothyshouse.com/about-us.html

My interests are mainly with the book. I  will now go back to re-read it and also watch the movie for the umpteenth time!

Since it was still early in the day, we drove on to Pratt where we are spending the night. I will write about our adventures there another time! I miss my own cooking, I have to say!

September 15, Tucumcari

We had a great breakfast at the Best Western before leaving Deming around 8:15. A beautiful drive--New Mexico is really a gorgeous state--lots of wide open spaces.

Cary pulled over so I could take some cloud pictures!

Look carefully in the middle of the photo to see two antelope playing! 

After settling into our Quality Motel in Tucumcari, Cary wanted to find the train station.

In the mid 1950s Cary and his family started from Tucson on the Southern Pacific Golden State Limited on their way to visit family in Wisconsin. He always thought the train switched to a Rock Island Line engine in El Paso. However, after researching it, he found out the change was made in Tucumcari.

We had another meal at Denny's with our coupon and are now relaxing, more or less, back at the motel. I have reached more dead ends trying to establish Cary's gmail account. The latest from Google is that they can't prove he is who is says he is!

First Stop--Deming

We got a very nice room at the Best Western in Deming (even found a coupon at the NM Welcome Center). Dinner at Denny's with another coupon (better than the AARP discount), so we are happy.

Cary's blood pressure did go up somewhat when his 8:30 doctor's appointment was changed to 12:30, showed up and was told the doc was in Bisbee all day! I was at the house when he got the call a few weeks ago that the appointment had to be changed. Very strange.

My challenge now is to try to figure out how to get Cary's gmail. If anyone reading this has his old email address, that may be the best way to contact him for now! I wrote down his password at home.

Tucumcari tomorrow.