October 14 - 31, 2001

Sunday, October 14, 2001                                                                            Golden, CO

We had a great Sunday.  Christine fixed up some blueberry pancakes with some of our Alaskan blueberries, and then we went over to Hops Restaurant/Brewery to watch the Packers walk all over the Ravens.  We did some shopping and then caught a matinee before returning to the RV for dinner.

Monday, October 15, 2001                                                                Estes Park, CO

I found a place to get my oil changed this morning, and then we headed up the road.  We stopped for a couple hours at a fantastic new mall north of Denver.  I’m good for a little mall time every few months.  I spent an uninterrupted 20 minutes trying out the $3000 massage chair in Sharper Image.  Malls are dead on Mondays.  I also found a new ski jacket for the upcoming season.  Christine ran a few errands of her own.

We drove up to the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We learned that the Trail Ridge Road through the park was closed due to ice and snow at the passes.  We decided to drive around the east side of the park.  All the elk had been coaxed down from the mountains by the snow and were now abundant in the open meadows.  We saw nearly 200 in one meadow as we drove up to Sprague Lake for a late afternoon walk around the lake.  The afternoon light gave the scene an added beauty.  We paused to watch the cutthroat trout swimming in the lake.

 Sprague Lake

Tuesday, October 16, 2001                                                                            Wray, CO

We got up early to go hiking in the park.  We drove back up to Sprague Lake and repeated our walk from last night, hoping to see it differently now in the morning light, but a high ceiling of clouds cast a gray pallor on the landscape.

We drove on up to Bear Lake and had a very adventurous hike up past Nymph Lake and Dream Lake, all the way to Emerald Lake.  The hike was only about 2 miles one-way to Emerald Lake, but the trail was 90% covered in very slippery ice and snow.  We were two of a very small handful that ventured up there this morning.  The sky began to clear as we gained elevation to over 10,000 feet.  It was a good bit of exercise.  Christine and I both had wipeouts on the ice—it was unavoidable.

The views along the trail were spectacular.  Christine and I were really enjoying this hike.  We took some great photographs before heading down.  The descent was more dangerous than the climb, except that the sun had come out and softened some of the ice.  We climbed back in the RV and had some lunch before leaving the park and pointing the rig east.  We descended into the flat plains of eastern Colorado on our way back to Wisconsin.

1) The first lake, is that enough snow for October 16th?  2 and 3) Dream Lake; 4) Emerald Lake, the end of the trail.

Wednesday, October 17, 2001                                                                Topeka, KS

We had a very smooth ride today across Kansas.  The wind held off until the afternoon and Christine did most of the driving.  We were amused as we watched the outside temperature climb to 80 degrees, after hiking in snow yesterday.  After over 400 miles on the road we stopped in Topeka, capital city of Kansas.

Thursday, October 18, 2001                                                                St. Louis, MO

We drove into Topeka and paid a visit to the State Capitol building.  It is a very impressive structure similar to the French Renaissance style of our national Capitol.  We took a self-guided tour that included bother chambers and the state supreme court.

Back on the road, we drove through the sprawling city of Kansas City on our way to St. Louis.  We found a campground right in downtown St. Louis—a parking lot with hookups.  We were close enough to walk to Schlafly’s St. Louis Brewery and Tap Room.  We had a great meal of mid-west fare and some fine beers.

 The Kansas State Capital building.

Friday, October 19, 2001                                                                            Keokuk, IA

We rose early to drive up to the New City School where Christine had arranged to tour the school.  This school is successfully executing a Multiple Intelligence approach to its curriculum, and Christine has studied MI with strong interest recently.  Her tour was very rewarding for her.

We then drove down to the river landing to visit the Gateway Arch along the Mississippi River.  We sat through an excellent documentary on the design and construction of the 630-foot tall arch.  We chose not to go up on the tram in the arch, but instead enjoyed it from below.  The smooth surfaces and unusual shape make the scale of the structure very deceptive.  At nearly a hundred feet taller than the Washington Monument, the Arch is truly impressive.

We walked the landing and had lunch before heading north out of town on the Great River Road Scenic Drive.  This route running along the west side of the Mississippi River was a great ride.  We even drove through Mark Twain’s stomping ground of Hannibal, Missouri.  The clouds cleared a bit so we could enjoy the late afternoon sun on the autumn colors.

By Christine: As Joe stated, I had a great visit this morning at the New City School.  It was very interesting to see a theory that I had studied working and how the school, it's faculty, and staff made it work.  To work in a school were the students are that excited would be neat.

   The Saint Louis Arch.

Saturday, October 20, 2001                                                                Madison, WI

We had a nice clear day to start the day’s drive.  I took my motorcycle off the RV so that I could drive some of the twistier roads to Madison.  We had about 350 miles to cover today.  We started off by driving through Keokuk and then crossing the Mississippi River over to Illinois for a very scenic drive along the east side of the river to Nauvoo, IL.  This town is historic because of its link to the origins of the Mormon movement.  Nauvoo was established by Joseph Smith in the 1840’s and became the largest city in Illinois within two years.  The population growth brought an unsettling political strength to the Mormon settlement.  This brought a concern to the non-Mormon peoples of Illinois leading to riots and uprisings.  Joseph Smith was finally killed during one of these outbreaks leading to Brigham Young’s two-year migration to a new settlement in Utah.

Christine and I missed our planned rendezvous with each other for lunch.  We finally reached each other by phone and agreed to meet in Madison.  We arrived late in the afternoon to stay with our friends Teresa and Doug.  We enjoyed a great dinner out at a supper club and generally caught up with each other.

Sunday, October 21, 2001                                                                         Madison, WI

Christine and I hung out with Doug before we met La and Brian at a pub to watch the Green Bay Packers game.  The game was so disappointing that we left at half-time to watch the rest at their home.  Brian threw some monster steaks on the grill and we ate away the miserable loss against the Vikings.

Monday, October 22, 2001                                                                          Madison, WI

Teresa took the day off of work to spend with us.  We went downtown for lunch, and then we took an excellent tour of Wisconsin’s Capitol building.  To our good fortune, the building had just last month completed a 12-year restoration process that touched the entire building.

We were caught by a heavy rain as we left the capitol and made our way back to the car.  Christine and I later met some people for dinner that I had met while hiking the Appalachian Trail in 1997.  Keith and Sherri had kept in touch via e-mail, and it was very pleasant getting to see them again and exchange travel stories.

By Christine: We don't have a picture of the State Capital because it was raining so hard when we emerged, but I'm sure we will visit again and get a picture.  I lived in Madison for 6 years and never went on that tour.  This is just as well, as it was under construction for most of the time I lived in Madison.  Just a few interesting notes that Joe hasn't mentioned.  When we visited the Kansas Capital building we learned that their capital is taller than the National Capital building.  When the architect that built the Wisconsin Capital building came up with the plans, he originally had the building taller than the Nation's Capital, but we decided that wasn't right, so we had him lower the building to just under the height of the Nations capital.  But, he didn't lower the dome, our dome is actually larger than the dome on the Nations capital building.  This was a beautiful building and a great tour.  I highly suggest it to anyone visiting Madison.

Tuesday, October 23, 2001                                                                         Madison, WI

Teresa also took today off, so she joined us for a fun lunch that reunited Christine with an old college friend, Eric.  Later we met up with our old neighbors from Charlotte, Nancy and Wick, visiting their niece, Ann, Chris and family.  We had a great evening of telling stories.

Wednesday, October 24, 2001                                                    Francis Creek, WI

We got a pretty early start leaving Madison this morning, only to notice that the RV had a flat tire.  One of the two remaining original tires had picked up a screw.  I still had a spare so we fortunately found a service center that quickly mounted the spare and sent us on our way.  We had met up with a lot of friends in Madison and looked forward to seeing my in-laws. 

We arrived in Francis Creek in the early afternoon after a very wet drive.  The RV will stay here for the next two months as we travel to England without it.  We’ll spend the next few days packing and preparing for our continuing journey.

My mother-in-law, Carol, pulled a fresh-baked pie out of the oven soon after we got here.  It was a pumpkin-pecan pie.  I had never heard of such a perfect pie.  It reminded me of the seasonal pies my grandmother baked.  She made great pumpkin pies and pecan pies.  I grew up always taking a slice of each, never being able to choose between the two.  I think my grandmother would have thoroughly approved of this combination pumpkin-pecan pie.  It was by all measures—a perfect pie.

The pie waited until after dinner, which was the finest venison roast I have ever had.  In so many ways it felt good to be home.    We spent the rest of the evening in warm relaxation.

Thursday, October 25, 2001                                                             Francis Creek, WI

We woke to cold wind blowing hard out of the west.  It blew out the electricity for an hour and took with it my ambition.  I spent a couple hours preparing the RV for storage.  Christine and Carol prepared a dinner that we could take over to her grandparents.

We drove the RV over to her grandparents to use it for carrying back a freezer that John and Carol were taking.  We enjoyed a great dinner of venison stew before hauling the freezer up from the basement and carting it back home in the RV.

By Christine: Today I actually left about 1PM to go by Grandma and see if I could help her with anything.  Mom and family did not arrive until about 6 PM.  I was able to help with a few things but confess I spent most of the afternoon in pleasant conversation with Grandma.  About 4:30 PM Grandma and I went and picked up my Grandpa from the home he stays at so that he could enjoy supper with us.  It has been very pleasant to see Grandma and Grandpa so often this year.  I look forward to spending more time around the holidays with them. 

Friday, October 26, 2001                                                                Francis Creek, WI

Christine and I drove the RV into Green Bay to run a list of errands that we had accumulated.  The wind was really rocking the RV.  I was glad that we weren’t trying to cover a lot of miles today. 

By Christine: It might interest some to hear some of the things we are trying to do to prepare the RV for its rest.  Today we emptied the Black water twice.  About a week ago, on our last night in the RV, we emptied the black water and filled the tank with fresh water and soap.  Today we emptied that and filled it once again with fresh water.  We let that slosh around while we drove our errands and then emptied it and the other tanks for the last time.  I have cleaned and emptied the refrigerator and freezer, and cleaned the floors.  The RV is as clean and empty as it's been in 9 months. 

Saturday, October 27, 2001                                                          Francis Creek, WI

The wind finally let up some today.  It was still cold, but almost tolerable.  After running some errands in the morning we went over to the 141 Speedway to watch Christine’s cousin, Mark race in another compact enduro race.  The Toyota Tercel that I watched Mark race in July had not survived.  He was now driving a 1970’s BMW 3 series.  It stood out in the field of 93 cars crammed onto the quarter-mile oval.  This was the first race where Mark was actually still running when the 300-lap race ended.  He completed 274 laps, a respectable finish, since only 40 cars were running at the end.  That’s pretty heavy attrition.

We were bundled up for the race, but the cold north wind was sucking away our warmth.  It was good to finally get back indoors and warm up after the race.  We came back home and cleaned up before heading back out for an evening of theatre.  In the town of Tisch Mills, merely a rural crossroads, an old dance hall has been converted into the Little Sandwich Theatre.  This professionally run community theatre guarantees an intimate experience for the audience of 75.

We arrived at the theatre early enough to enjoy a cocktail in the historic bar before finding our seats and enjoying a ‘sandwich’ plate meal.  Tonight’s performance was “Give My Regards…” a tribute to Broadway.  The troupe of four veteran music theatre performers was very entertaining and they brought with them some wonderful talent.  Going from car race to music theatre made for a diverse day of activities.

Sunday, October 28, 2001                                                      Francis Creek, WI

Our flight to London tomorrow departs from Milwaukee, so we spent the day getting organized and packed for a month of living out of a suitcase.

Monday, October 29, 2001                                                    London, England

We rose early and rushed through some last minute packing before driving down to Milwaukee with Carol to catch our plane.  We arrived very early to ensure that we would have exit-row seats for our flight all the way through Newark to London.  We then killed a couple hours at a mall before having Carol drop us back off at the airport.  Our flight to Newark had only ten passengers, and left us next to the same gate from which we would depart to England.

By Christine: Only one thing could have gone better on these flights, I could have slept.  Other than that, they were perfect.  We had a great view of New York City in the daytime flying into Newark and we had a great view of the lights of New York City flying out of Newark.  I even found a data jack in the Newark airport and checked email.  The flight to London was smooth and we had pretty good movies to watch.

Tuesday, October 30, 2001                                                   London, England

Our flight across the Atlantic went well and we arrived at Gatwick Airport shortly after 6:00 AM, getting very little sleep.  We called my sister, Maria to alert her of our arrival and arrange for her to meet us.  We caught the 30-minute train ride to Victoria Station where Maria met us in her mini-van.  She drove us back to her house and put us to bed for several hours.

We struggled to wake up from our naps, but we finally came around after a couple showers.  My three nephews: Benjamin, Zachary and Alexander came home from school and we all enjoyed a curry dinner prepared by my brother-in-law, Scott.  We then spent a quiet evening catching up and formulating our plans for our stay here.

By Christine:  We trusted Maria as this family travels often, so we followed her lead on when to sleep.  We talked for a couple hours after arriving at the house and then at her suggestion slept from 10 AM to 2 PM.  She woke us up and we showered to help us wake up.  Then she took us on a tour of their local neighborhood and showed us how to get to the “tube” stop a few blocks away and how to buy tickets.  We also picked up a map of the stops, so we could plan our travels. 

Wednesday, October 31, 2001                                                    London, England

We both slept very well and woke ready to tackle the town.  The weather was splendid with cool clear skies greeting our first day of tourist activities.  We caught the “Tube,” London’s subway, into town and then began a tour of the city from an open-top double-decker bus.  The guided commentary was interesting.  We got off the bus at Westminster Bridge and had a great view of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.  We were also by the London Eye, the world’s tallest Ferris Wheel at 445 feet in height.  We took a ride in one of the 32 egg-shaped capsules for a single revolution, which took 30 minutes.  The clear views today were very good, and gave us a worthwhile perspective of the sprawling city.

We returned to the tour bus after a brief lunch.  Our next stop was at the Tower of London where we received an excellent primer on English history.  After winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William The Conqueror built the White Tower (central building in the complex) as a display of Norman might.  Tower is still a royal palace, though no monarch has resided there since Henry VII in the late 1400’s.  The Tower has been guarded by Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) ever since.  These guards now serve as very animated tour guides.  We found this tour to be a fine balance of history and hysterics. 

The Tower of London is most widely known for the thousands of medieval executions that were performed there, the most notable of which were the traitors.  Notable names such as Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Anne Boleyn and the Earl of Essex were all imprisoned in the Tower and later beheaded, hung, or drawn and quartered.

Today, the Tower is home of the Crown Jewels, a collection so famous and priceless that they are not even insured.  The security at the exhibit of the Jewels was very impressive.  We completed our visit to the Tower complex by visiting the armory displays in the White Tower.

We captured some great pictures of the Tower Bridge in the late afternoon sun before catching a boat ride up the Thames back to the Houses of Parliament. We walked around Westminster Abbey before catching the Tube back to Maria’s neighborhood in a northwest suburb of London.  We stopped for a pint of bitter in a pub on the way back to the house from the Tube stop.  It had been an excellent first day in London.

1) This is a view of the Parliament building and Big Ben from across the Thames River.  2) The London Eye and 3) The Tower Bridge.  And what else do you see????  Beautiful blue sky in London for our first day!