Heading up to Indy

Sam Hornish Jr's 77 showcar in the lobby of our hotel.

Since AW went for the week to visit family, I wondered where the NASCAR race was being held for the week. When I learned it was going to be in Indianapolis, I started looking at distance and whether or not we could stay on Allen's Marriott points. The next challenge was if Allen would be up for the trip because he would have to take a redeye back from Arizona for it to work out. Once he gave the go ahead, I booked us at the downtown Marriott and we were on our way.

When we arrived at the hotel, it was buzzing with a reception for the Mobile One sponsors. Sam Hornish Jr's 77 showcar was sitting in the lobby when we walked in. We went up to our room that overlooked the state capitol so Allen could get a power nap before dinner.

Looking out our hotel window at the Indiana State Capitol.

About 7:00 pm, we decided it was time to get something to eat. Within walking distance of the Marriott, there was every type of food that you would want. We had problems in making up our mind, until we saw St. Elmo steakhouse. They happen to have a reservation at 8:30, so we took the t-shirts that we bought at the Hard Rock Cafe back to the room and hung out at the hotel until time. I am so glad that we waited, it was one of the best steaks that I have ever eaten. I had the NY Strip cooked medium, while Allen had their Filet Mignon. Allen would have been better off getting his cooked medium rare because medium on his filet was a little more done than he usually likes, but both of us were happy with our food. The Shrimp cocktail was very good as well and was the perfect size for us to share.

With us having to get up early for the race, we called it an evening and headed to bed. It would have been nice to have caught they baseball game that the Indianapolis Indians (The Pittsburg Triple A team) was playing, but Allen was wiped out from the redeye flight.

The race took up our day on Sunday, so after we returned to the hotel, we shared nachos down in Champions sports bar and grill in the Marriott. We had already had a snack in the concierge lounge and didn't feel like doing anymore walking. The food was reasonable for being in the hotel and was also tasty.

Indianapolis is a place I would like to go back with AW. It has one of the World's largest Children's Musuems, plus the Indianapolis Zoo. I want to check out the NCAA Hall of Fame, which was a couple of blocks from the hotel, while Allen wants to go see the Musuem out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hopefully, we'll be able to go back in a few months and check out the other sites.

A side trip to Paragould

On Thursday, my son went to Arkansas to stay with Allen's family. I met my sister-in-law in Forest City, AR so she could take him back to western Arkansas. Since Allen was also out of town, I decided to head up to Paragould, AR for the night to visit friends.

Paragould is a town of about 22,000 up on Crowley's Ridge. I moved there when I started teaching at Crowley's Ridge College. It was my first, full-time teaching position. Also, it was my first experience in either attending or working at a Christian school. It was a big adjustment for me, but I met some of the best people in the Paragould area.

Wednesday night, I finally texted Myleea that I was going to come up for the night. Usually I don't make such last minute plans, but sometimes with Allen's schedule, I have to wait longer than I would like to in deciding to go somewhere. Myleea was understanding and didn't have much going on last week.

About 3:00 p.m., I arrived at Myleea's house. I didn't have much I wanted to do, except to go see friends that I have around there. We did go over to CRC to see the new addition to the gym so that the students would have a lounge. Dinner was at a Japaneses steak house that was very good, but the best meal was for lunch on Friday at Brickhouse Pizza. It might have been a good thing that it was not there when I lived there because I would have weighted a lot more.

While I was there, I realize that on the next trip there, I need to spend a couple of nights so I can visit more people. Paragould is not an exciting tourist location, but it's a special place to me.

Trips Across New Mexico

On Facebook yesterday, one of my former students from Crowley's Ridge College had posted a couple of pictures that looked to be taken in either New Mexico or Arizona. Seeing the pictures got me to thinking about all the strange and funny trips across New Mexico. For most of our memorable road trips, it seems like it always starts out, "we were driving across New Mexico".

The summer of 1999, I was working at New Mexico State University for my cousin, Ellis' stats guy. I was suppose to be helping him with some stats from an Entomology study, but he either didn't have the time or wasn't into working on it, so basically, I was paid to sit around and go to class once a week. Many weekends that summer were spent up at my cousin, Judy's house.One Sunday, Judy decides to take me down to Juarez since I had never been. After getting back across the border, we get to the car and start to leave town. Judy stops at a convenience store for us to go to the bathroom and get some snacks for the road. One thing we failed to get was gas. The stretch from El Paso to Alamogordo is very desolate. Judy was convinced that we had enough gas to make it, but that evening, we learned two things, don't go by the mileage estimate on a Cadillac and my ability to remember what the last mile marker we pasted. AAA sent people out with gas at least two times before they found us because we gave them the wrong mile marker.

Starting in 2002, Allen and I couldn't make a trip across New Mexico without something happening. When we were moving my things from Arkansas to Arizona, after the wedding, my air conditioner went out in my car in Oklahoma. Allen was driving his new F-150 that he had bought the day before in Paris. To his credit, he kept offering for me to drive it, but since I had never pulled a trailer, nor drove a vehicle larger than my first apartment, I stayed with my car. I was in tears driving west of Amarillo from the smell of the feedlots and being so hot. When we stopped for the night in Santa Rosa, our room had two full size beds. I was so hot and tired that I looked at Allen and said, "your sleeping in that bed, I'm sleeping in this bed."

The scariest trip occurred the same summer. Allen was working in Plano, TX, so we were driving from Tucson to Ruidoso to spend the night before driving on over to Texas. Around Deming, NM, we ended up in the worst dust storm I have ever been in. You could not see much past the hood of the car. Allen was having to follow the car in front because you couldn't see to pull over. We were in a rental car so we started to try to find the hazard lights to turn on. We looked everywhere on the steering wheel, but couldn't find it until we got out of the dust storm and found the big, red button on the dash. It wasn't until the next day that we found out right after we went through that area, there had been a ten car pile-up that closed I-10 down for four hours. We figured we caused it while looking for the hazard lights.

I won't embarrass Allen by telling the story of him and the lack of bathrooms between Carlsbad and El Paso, but needless to say, if you need to drive across New Mexico, make sure we are not with you.


From John and Judy's living room in Ruidoso, NM.

Travel info via Twitter

Yes, I have a Twitter account. I use it mainly for NASCAR and other sports related info, but I have discovered that it is a great source for travel information.

Most of my travel tweets that I follow are from the DC area. A couple of my favorite are the Washington D.C. Convention and Tourism Corporation, the National Children's Museum, American History Museum, Air and Space Museum and the National Zoo. The DC Convention and Tourism Corporation is always sending out links to activities across the city and the National Children's Museum often sends links to top family activities for the week. Tweets that are sent out from the Air and Space Museum often will tell of book signings or this day in history facts.

A twitter account that has been a source of information on the Gulf Coast has been @alabamabeaches. They sent out up to date beach information, along with links to their daily You Tube beach report.I was able to keep informed of beach info while I was on vacation by using one of the free Twitter apps for my iPhone.

Tips for the Newseum

Our last trip to Washington DC, I finally had the chance to go to the Newseum. I had been wanting to go, but figured that my son would not be interested in the exhibits. After I discovered that ages 6 and under were free and that your ticket was good for two consecutive days, I decided to take the chance and go. It was a great experience to the point that my son wanted to stop back the next day to see the news chopper that hangs from the ceiling and satellite truck again.

One of the most touching exhibits that was in there was a section of the Berlin Wall and the guard tower. Remembering watching the television reports when the wall was coming down, then getting to see a section of it was meaningful.

The 9-11 exhibit was one that I would have liked to have spent more time looking at, but sometimes you are limited with a child. Besides the front page headlines from the attack, they also had the remains of the telecommunications tower that was on top of the North Tower. There was also a video, but figured it would be too much for a small child.

While we were at the Newseum, we also saw the Elvis exhibit that is on loan from Graceland. Of course, I enjoyed seeing some of the pictures from Camp Chaffee with growing up down the road from Ft. Chaffee.

For families with older children, up to the age of 18, they can get in free with a paid adult until Labor Day at the Newseum. The kids will enjoy all of the interactive items and the parents will enjoy reflecting the change in media.

What am I getting myself into?

About a year ago, a couple of friends mentioned to me that I needed to consider starting a blog about traveling. Not that I go to a lot of exciting places, but more like I go to the same places over and over. My husband has to travel for his job, so instead of sitting at home, my son and I try to join him when we are able to, especially when he goes to the D.C. area. Hopefully, with this blog, I can give some suggestions on things to do in the places that we have visited in the past.