Week 22: Winnemucca to Petaluma California

Our general travel route for this week..

Sunday was our last day in the great wasteland, so off we went across the western part of Nevada past Reno and on into California.

We stopped for the night at the Coachland RV Park just outside the small touristy town of Truckee, California. Once again, after days of flat, flat, flat, it is so different, and quite nice to be amongst the tall pine trees.  After getting set up we headed into Truckee for some lunch. The tourist stretch in this small town is about 3 blocks long with large parking lots on each end. We managed to find a parking spot on the street right about in the middle. It was pay parking but a lot less walking.  We walked along the shady side of the street to Moody's Bistro, Bar & Beats where we ordered an appetizer size crispy calamari and a margherita pizza with bacon added to it. The calamari were not as crispy as they could have been and there was a lot so we didn't finish that but the pizza was superb!
When we were finished the waitress brought our bill and after checking it, Brian placed his credit card on it and we waited for the waitress. Some other "guy" came past the table, picked it up and said "we'll take care of that for you" and disappeared through the doors which we presume was the kitchen. A few minutes later he appears through another door and sits at the bar. Several more minutes go by. Brian was just about to get up and ask the guy what kind of voyage his card has gone on when the waitress appears with it. Brian explained to her that, after having his card replaced three times since we left home 5 months ago,  he was not particularly happy with someone other than the waitress picking up his credit card and disappearing with it. She thought it was quite funny because "we do that all the time". She just didn't get it and was quite surprised when we explained to her how easy it is to skim a card and make a new one if you have the right equipment. She had not yet heard about the impending "pin cards" coming their way and was clearly lost on how they would work even after we went over it several times. It might be a long learning curve in these parts.  After lunch we wandered the street taking in the various tourist shops and boutiques. It was a pretty hot day and the RV park doesn't have a pool and it was too late to head to Lake Tahoe so we headed off to Starbucks for a couple of iced lattes instead. Later we picked up some deli fixings for a light dinner back at the RV park.  In the evening when we decided to have dinner outside we were no sooner sat down than the wasps came out... screw that, we moved into the wee trailer.

Monday we continued west on I-80. We thought we would find a Black Bear Diner for some lunch. We had stopped at one of these back in Week 2 and found it to be reasonably good and reasonably priced.  It seemed that the billboards we saw for Black Bear Diner were not particularly well placed as twice we were literally past the exit before we noticed the signs. Finally we saw one advertised for downtown Davis California, so headed off on an exit labelled "Davis - Downtown" so it should be easy... and it was, except for one thing... PARKING. This Black Bear Diner is strategically placed to take advantage of being really close to the University Of California at Davis and all the parking anywhere near the place is reserved for those with permits. Narrow streets, lots of traffic, no parking, lots of pedestrians all added up to a decision to just leave the jurisdiction. At one point, there was a delivery truck parked in our lane leaving us no choice but to go around it in the on-coming lane. Brian waited until there was a break in the on-coming traffic then went around it. The truck was parked right near an intersection such that Brian couldn't see the stop sign but was going slow enough to recognize it as we entered the intersection. A woman coming the other way and making a left turn across in front of us thought Brian was violating her universe. She was yelling and waving her hands even though we had stopped and Brian was waving her through. Man, was she on a rant; we thought she was going to blow a gasket. Kris got into the spirit of things by giving her the royal digit :-)

Back on I-80 we thought we'd see if our GPS could find a California Pizza Kitchen anywhere nearby. Turns out it found one so about 45 kms down the interstate we took an exit into Fairfield and followed the GPS instructions to the appropriate address. WELL... we can definitely say that there is not presently, likely never has been and likely never will be a California Pizza Kitchen at 1247 W. Texas St in Fairfield California! So another GPS SNAFU!  We were now less than an hour away from Petaluma so we decided to just get there, get checked in at the KOA and do a late lunch in Petaluma.

At the KOA Brian asked the desk clerk what our KOA rewards situation was and the guy said that we had $75 to use if we wished. We wished!... the Petaluma KOA is very nice but is quite pricey so the $75 knocked a chunk off our 4 night stay at $62 (less our 10% discount) per night. We'll take it.

For lunch we decided to do a repeat visit to one of our favourite little cafes... Aqus. Kris ordered a chicken quesadilla and Brian had a AqusClub (like a BLT but add turkey and avocado). Both were excellent as expected. About the only thing we did after that was to go to Pete's for a couple of iced lattes while Kris did a bit of knitting and Brian surfed the internet. For dinner we picked up a couple of pieces of meatloaf and some yellow beet,  mango and fennel salad at the Petaluma Market.  Man, that salad was tasty.

Tuesday was a veg out around Petaluma day. Not much doing. After coffee we drove around Petaluma a bit as well as making sure we knew where the Sonoma Airport Express bus terminal was (so we'd know where to meet Marian on Friday).  We stopped at Trader Joe's and picked up some pre-made salads for lunch back at the KOA. After lunch Brian dropped Kris off downtown while he went off to see what kinds of cool things Friedman's Home Improvement store has going these day. We met back up at the Starbucks for the regular iced lattes. Kris had a good look around the central core while Brian checked out the Big Green Egg bbq's at Friedman's. We hope this is the year we finally get around to buying one of those things. For dinner we picked up a couple of nice steaks, to grill, also from the Petaluma Market. Finally getting a chance to use our griller.

Wednesday we drove into San Francisco. It's about an hours drive each way so no plans  to do a whole lot other than hit a few favourite stores before trying to beat the rush hour out of town. First stop was a Nordstrom Rack where Kris picked up a pair of shoes and Brian bought a shirt (yes, checkered, go figure!). For lunch we drove over to the strip mall in Laurel Heights and went into the Rigolo Cafe, a french bistro type of place, where Kris had a Salad Nicoise and Brian had a toasted BLTA (a=avocado). After lunch we checked out a couple of boutique stores and the excellent Books Inc bookstore.

For our last errand, in town, we drove over to Clement Street to Fabrix, one of Kris' favourite fabric stores. Then there was a moment of panic as we stopped and gaped at the closed storefront...

... then Kris, saying "This is not possible!", whipped out her iPhone and looked up Fabrix on the internet, got a phone number, called it and when someone answered Kris pleaded... "please tell me you have moved!" .... and, yes, they have moved since we were here last year. Following instructions, a few blocks down Clement Street we found the new, and improved, Fabrix store...

....WHEW, anxiety attack averted!!!!! That AT&T "go plan" for $60 a month more than paid for itself in those brief moments after seeing the empty store front!

So after all that, Kris was in the store for only a little less than an hour and came out with a small armload of fabric for a few projects when we get home...

By the time this was all said and done we were in the height of rush hour heading north over and past the Golden Gate Bridge...

We stopped in Corte Madera, a few miles north of the bridge, for a couple of iced lattes, some window shopping and a visit to The Container Store to replace one of our waterproof bins that suffered a wounding (i.e. a great big hole in the lid) when a large flashlight flew out of an upper cabinet, in the wee trailer, during a particularly bumpy section of highway last week.

It was early evening by the time we arrived back at the KOA so we decided we should head to McNear's Saloon and Dining House for some dinner and take in a bit of the Giants ball game (they have about a dozen large TV screens so pretty good view regardless of where you sit).  A dinner of Ahi Tuna tacos and Sheperd's Pie went well with a couple of glasses of wine and the Giants 4-2 win over the Cubbies.

Thursday was another relaxing day as we await Marian's arrival on Friday.  For our morning coffee we decided to check out Acre Coffee, a local place that appeared to be quite popular.... and it was. A very busy place for a Thursday morning but they served up very good lattes so no wonder it was busy. For lunch we went off and bought some watermelon, tomatoes and avocado for a lunch salad. After lunch we headed for the pool at the KOA. Usually the water in their pool is quite warm but on this day it was nice and crisp. Very nice indeed. The only weird  thing was when Kris saw a small toddler (very small toddler) sitting by himself in the hot tub. She asked a couple of other couples if that was their child but not so much. Another fellow got out of the pool and went to the far corner of the pool deck to ask a woman if it was her child. "Yes, he is but I know where he is!"... wow... here's someone who simply doesn't understand how fast it can take for a child to slip and fall under and drown.... AND she actually wasn't watching; she was paying way more attention to her cell phone! Pathetic parenting in action!

Friday was moving day as Marian arrived late afternoon and we were all moving into a rented house for the weekend. We had to be out of the KOA by 11:00 AM so we got ready, packed up and departed. Marian was not to arrive until late afternoon and we had some time to kill before we could take over the rental house. So we headed into downtown Petaluma with the wee trailer and found a parking spot on a street not too far from a Starbucks. Morning lattes and some knitting for Kris before we headed over to Aqus for some lunch. By the time we finished lunch it was time to head out to the house where we dropped off the wee trailer and moved most of our stuff into the house. Our rental is a VRBO on the outskirts of Petaluma. This place looks to be quite nice with a nice deck overlooking the countryside...

... After the trailer was unloaded we headed back into Petaluma to have a couple of iced lattes while waiting for Marian to arrive. Her flight arrived in time for her to catch the 3:30 PM Sonoma Airporter Express meaning she should arrive in Petaluma at 5:00 PM....BUT...it is Friday afternoon so the rush hour traffic will be a bit worse than usual. That did prove to be the case as the bus arrived about twenty minutes late.  After going back to the house and resting for a bit we headed downtown to McNears for some pub grub dinner and to catch a bit of the Giants/Cards game.

Saturday was just a "get Marian acquainted with Petaluma day". We went own to Acre Coffee to start then Kris and Marian had a good wander around the downtown while Brian went off to Friedman's (again) to see if they carry the type of motion detector lights used along the pathway at our rental house. They do, but are out of stock at this time :-(  The other bad news is that the Petaluma Seed Bank is closed on Saturdays. We knew Marian would enjoy that place so we'll have to come back Sunday or Monday.  For lunch we took Marian to Aqus then headed back to the house for some rest and relaxation.  Sitting out on the deck we tried to get a video of a hummingbird at the feeder...

If the video doesn't work, see if you can see the hummingbird beside the feeder in this still pic...

Later we drove back into town and went to Lala's Creamery, an old fashioned ice cream parlour for some excellent vanilla and chocolate/raspberry ice cream. For dinner we picked up some nice thick pork chops, veggies, salad and cantaloupe at the Petaluma Market then went back to the house to start working on the jig saw puzzle we purchased earlier in the day.  It is a Monet of water lilies. We got a good start but it looks to be a toughie and we are not sure if we will get it done by the time we leave here Tuesday morning...

For dinner we fired up the nice gas BBQ supplied with the rental house. Everything worked great and the dinner turned out to be pretty well perfect. Very nice.

Not much on the TV channels we get at the house so we ended up watching a couple of old re-run episodes of Miami Vice, an American crime drama series that ran through the last half of the 80's, to end this week...

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Back to Week 21

On to Week 23

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Week 21: Kansas City to Minnewucca Nevada

Our general travel route for this week...

Sunday we packed up and and headed into the southern suburbs of Kansas City to stop at a Trader Joe's store, mostly to see if they have a KC themed TJ's grocery bag. They didn't have a KC themed bag so we just picked up some salads, snacks and wine to cover us the next couple of days. The salads will go good with the BBQ we picked up at LC's yesterday.  After TJ's we continued west through Lawrence toward Topeka, the state capital, where the KOA is our destination for the night. Not a long driving day but it does knock over an hour off the next day's drive west to Wakeeney. Besides, it gives Kris a chance to visit The Sewing Workshop, a mail order place that she is familiar with, as they have a retail store front in Topeka. While there she had a great chat, with the owner and a couple of other employees, about numerous sewing and knitting places she has been on this trip.

Bit of a bugger to end the day though. Brian's credit card was declined back at Trader Joe's. When we got to the KOA in Topeka he called the bank only to be told that his card has been compromised and must be replaced. Third one since we left home on this trip!  Sure wish the USA would hurry up and move into the current century and make chip cards universal! A real pain in the ass especially when traveling as we have to figure out a place they can send the new card to. We have since found out that the USA is going country wide with the chip cards in October of this year.

Monday morning Brian called the KOA in Cheyenne Wyoming, talked to the owner and he said that we could have a package sent there and they would hold it for us. Nice. Called the credit card company to find that more attempts had been made with Brian's number so the old number was officially cancelled and to have the new card sent to the KOA in Cheyenne. We expect to be there Wednesday afternoon so more than enough time for the card to get there before us.

That done, we packed up and headed west. Our travels over the next week will basically be daily drives until we get to Petaluma California, about an hour north of San Francisco.  This is close to the same route we took 3 years ago when it was terrible drought through Kansas and Nebraska. On the other hand maybe, fingers crossed, it won't seem as boring crossing Wyoming, Utah and Nevada :-)

Using Mapquest, from Topeka, Kansas to Petaluma, California is about 2900 kms with an estimated 29 hours driving time. For someone who likes to put in mega miles and mega hours driving each day, this could probably be done in two to three days. That's definitely not our style. We'll break it up into eight days something like this:

1. Topeka to Wakeeney Kansas; 3.5 hours driving; 380 kms
2. Wakeeney to North Platte Nebraska; 3 hours; 290 kms
3. North Platte to Cheyenne Wyoming; 3.5 hours; 360 kms
4. Cheyenne to Rock Springs Wyoming; 4 hours; 415 kms
5. Rock Springs to West Wendover Nevada; 4.75 hours; 490 kms
6. West Wendover to Winnemucca Nevada; 3.5 hours; 355 kms
7. Winnemucca to Truckee California; 3 hours; 318 kms
8. Truckee to Petaluma California; 3 hours; 290 kms

There you have it. Set the cruise at around 100-110 kph (around 65 mph) and take it easy. Take good lunch breaks and get there early to mid afternoon so lots of time for pooling, if available. There's lots of room on the interstates for all the folks who like to go a lot faster.  This will also be a pretty blasé part of the overall trip so most days will be: get up, shower and make coffee; pack up; drive for a while; stop for lunch; drive for a while; stop for the day; have a swim; have some dinner; watch an episode or two of The Wire; go to bed. Repeat...

Monday we stopped for lunch at Martinelli's Little Italy in the pretty town of Salina before continuing on to Wakeeney. The KOA at Wakeeney is one of those nice little overnight stop places. Besides they have a lovely cold pool which keeps most other folks out leaving us with a pool to ourselves. Early evening we drove into the small town to see if the old saloon (The Western Kansas Saloon & Grill) on main street was open. Rats... closed Monday. Too bad, might have been our last chance at it as we doubt we will come this way again.

Tuesday we headed a bit west then north into Nebraska. We stopped for lunch at the very quaint Landmark Inn in Oberlin, Kansas, where it is fun to have the waitress read off what they have available. Kris chose the Salmon quiche with salad and Brian chose the Taco quiche with salad. Both excellent and then.... we chose the German chocolate brownie sundae and it too was excellent even if over the top decadent :-)

For the night we stayed at the Holiday RV Park in North Platte Nebraska. For dinner we went down the street to the Whiskey Creek Wood Fire Grill where the menu has changed since we were last here. We sat at the bar so we could watch a ball game while eating burnt ends (brisket) and a slab of ribs. On the BBQ continuum, this place would be on the lower end of the scale, although these were all new items on the menu so maybe their bbq-ing skills will improve over time :-(

Wednesday continuing west, we stopped in Sidney Nebraska for lunch at Grandma Jo's, a small main street diner serving decent salads and omelettes. We were surprised that this little diner, essentially in the middle of nowhere, actually has a credit card chip machine. It was pretty new to them and the waitress had a hard time using it. The chip machine kept telling her to key in the amount, insert the card, then remove the card before asking for the pin which resulted in a cancelled transaction. She had to call the owner who took about 5 minutes to get there. We said we didn't mind waiting because of our recent experience and liked the fact that they were starting to use a chip machine. The owner arrived and had the same problems so ended up just swiping the card. Frustrating for them but they will get it worked out and the world will be a better place for it. After lunch we went into the Cabela's flagship store, part of their world headquarters office complex. It didn't seem to be the largest Cabela's store, as we had been led to believe, and nothing for us to buy on this day. We think the Cabela's store in Nanaimo might be bigger in footprint size. After that we continued on to Cheyenne where waiting for us at the KOA desk was Brian's new credit card.  That was nice except the owner forgot (or neglected) to tell the front desk staff about it. When we asked about it the clerk told us that it just arrived earlier in the day and when she looked at it she didn't see a reservation in that name and almost sent it back right away. Lucky, she decided to hold it for a day!  For dinner we dropped into a Safeway store and picked up some pre-made salad and deli chicken. We had thought we might break out the griller tonight but it was way too windy to do much outside. In fact, when we got back to the KOA, the bins we use for washing dishes etc, had disappeared. Turns out they had blown off the table and half way across the campground. Someone had turned them in at the office.

Thursday was the beginning of the most boring part of the drive to California. Parts of Wyoming are pretty picturesque but so much of it is flat flat flat. With the cruise control on, we decided we should start to play the alphabet game, although we violated the basic rules and just used any instance of each letter wherever we saw it, be it on a sign, license plate or even a car model name and the letter didn't have to start a word. We also played as a team rather than competing with each other. Kept us both awake anyway.  Around lunch time we drove into the town of Rawlins to see what we could find in the way of eats. Not much down the main street so we drove around a couple of side streets. Kris spotted an old house that looked like it had been turned into a restaurant and it had an "open" sign in the window so we decided to give it a try. After finding a place to park the wee trailer we walked over to the old house or Aspen House Restaurant as it was called. Curtains closed across all the windows but what the hey... in we went. Turned out to be a delightful Thai/American place in this quaint Victorian interior of a historic house. The restaurant took up all the small front parlour rooms with  a couple of tables in each room. We had a couple of excellent steak salads followed by a shared Key Lime pie for dessert. Very nice.  For the night we stopped at the KOA in Rock Springs Wyoming, a rather forlorn place to say the least...

... nice view of the tank farm though :-) The park did fill up a lot more as the afternoon and evening wore on. It was really hot when we got there but somebody had put too much chlorine in the pool and they had to close it. No discount offered though! We went off and found a Starbucks and a couple of iced lattes instead.

Friday was the day to cross Utah. The boring drive and the alphabet game continued. When we got to Salt Lake City, we spotted a sign pointing to a Mellow Mushroom restaurant. We ate at a few of these places a few years ago but this is the farthest west we have seen one. For sure we headed off the interstate for some lunch. It took a bit to find the Mellow Mushroom but we finally spotted it then found a place to park. On the walk to the restaurant we stopped in a Dick Blick Art Supply place but just for a quick look.... there was a pizza awaiting our attention!  We opted to sit at the bar so that we could watch a ball game on TV. The Little League World Series opening round started today and we watched most of the US bracket game where the West thrashed the Great Lakes team 14-2. The pizza was excellent as expected.

Interesting side note... all the beer taps on the bar are fake. The waitress explained that it was due to the type of liquor license they have. Children are allowed in the bar area and, in this jurisdiction, children are not allowed to see the dispensing of alcohol. So all dispensing is done behind a wall unseen by prying eyes. Well, we are in Utah!

The morning drive through the eastern part of Utah had a few interesting geological formations...

... but the afternoon west of Salt Lake City is brutal with, for the most part, salt flats as far as the eye can see...

... at times it looks like a wall but then you see a long line of telephone poles disappearing into the distance to regain the visual effect that you are actually looking across many miles of, well, flat salt flats. There was also a lot of smoke from the fires further north and west; at times there was no point of reference on the horizon - just white salt flats bleeding up into a white/grey haze.

For the night we stopped barely over the Utah/Nevada border in West Wendover, Nevada. We didn't get a picture of it but there is a casino, The Golden Nugget, that sits literally inches over the state line. They have a line painted on the road out front. The casino parkade is in Utah but the casino itself is in Nevada! We had read numerous really negative reviews about the KOA in West Wendover but we arrived to find absolutely nothing wrong with the place. Excellent pool and washrooms where you could eat off the floor (if you were of the mind to do so that is).  Sure, it's all gravel but you sort of expect that in this part of the world.  We had a very nice afternoon swim, in the pool of course, where we chatted with another couple on a grand adventure. They are from Maryland and are on their way home after spending time in north west. Early evening we went to the Red Garter Casino restaurant to do a bit of gambling and have some dinner.  On the way into the casino we were treated to a pretty cool sunset...

... that had some added colour due to the haze from forest fires further northwest. For dinner Kris had prime rib and Brian had sirloin steak. Pretty darn good meal for less than $20 for the two of us.  

Another side note: when the waiter brought our bill he said "I have bad news and good news... the bad news is that I gave your bill to another couple so I need to give you theirs. The good news is that their bill is a couple of dollars less than yours".  Ok, we can accept that.   Before and after dinner we sat at one of the casino bars and played video poker while sipping dreadful wine. Besides the dinner we lost only about $10... entertainment value!

Saturday we continued across Nevada. We stopped for lunch in Elko at Winger's Roadhouse Grill, the same place we stopped on this route a few years ago. Kris had a combo lunch of salad and chicken tortilla soup (Rick Bayless at Topolobampo, in Chicago has nothing to worry about) and Brian had a very large bacon, cheese, mushroom burger. Late afternoon we arrived in Winnemucca to find that the High Desert RV Park we stayed in a few years ago has joined the KOA family. The guy at the desk said that the move has definitely been good for business. Another excellent pool but again, the water could have been a bit colder for our tastes, but very refreshing none the less. For dinner we drove into town and picked up some baked chicken and salad fixings at Raley's a supermarket chain in the west.

Another week done...

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Back to Week 20

On to Week 22

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Week 20: Alma Center to Kansas City Missouri

Our general travel route for this week...

Sunday we packed up and continued west along US-10 towards Minneapolis. Along the way, for lunch, we stopped at a little roadside diner, Angel's Hwy 63 Diner (in case you are wondering why it is the Hwy 63 Diner; US-10 and WI-63 are the same highway at this point), in Ellsworth Wisconsin. It looked like others had the same idea as two couples, who were together, followed by 3 couples, traveling together in a couple of RVs, arrived just before us. Not a lot of people but for this small hole in the wall, it appeared to be a bit overwhelming so we had a bit of a wait for our meals. That said, the chef's salad as well as the eggs with sausages (and sourdough toast with PB) were more than decent.

Continuing along US-10 we crossed into Minnesota and soon found ourselves in the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St Paul) on our way to the KOA in Jordan, about 35 minutes south of downtown Minneapolis.  Along the way we nearly witnessed another case of folks driving too fast and following too close. We came upon the scene some minutes after it happened. It appears one car must have slowed for a yellow light causing about 6 others to pile into each other. It didn't look like there were any serious injuries but several airbags had gone off. Folks had the situation under control so other than a bit of rubber necking we didn't stop.  We arrived at the KOA late afternoon and after getting checked in we drove out to a Caribou Coffee for a couple of iced lattes then to a Cub grocery store where we picked up some nice looking pork chops for dinner. Turns out they were as tough as old boots!

That evening our neighbours Paul and Jenelle came over and introduced themselves and their six kids. They have two teenagers (a boy and a girl), a six year old boy, four year old twin boys and a baby boy.  The smaller kids were in awe of our wee trailer and wanted to go inside. One of the twins said he liked it because it was only one step out of bed to the breakfast table :-)  The other twin thought it was really fun to be able stand in the trailer and rock it a bit. Anyway, they seem like a real nice family and over the days we were there we were very impressed with how the teenagers looked out for the younger ones while Paul was away at work. They live about 2-3 hours north of Minneapolis and Paul commutes that every day. They are here this week so they can spend a bit more time together and he doesn't have to commute as far. It was also funny that the window for the slide out where the little ones slept was overlooking our picnic table and we were under a lot of scrutiny from tiny eyes :-)

Although we generally prefer going to day games, so that we are not having to drive in a strange large city late at night, we decided to do a night game in Minneapolis to give us a couple of extra days getting out to the west coast.  So we'll go to a game Tuesday night rather than Thursday afternoon and leave Minneapolis Wednesday instead of Friday.

Monday morning we headed into Minneapolis to go to Target Field to get tickets for Tuesday night's game. Easy drive into town and easy parking right outside the ticket area. Within minutes we had our tickets. We spent a bit more than we wanted but the agent promised us shade and excellent seats. We'll see when we get to the game! It turned out that the big team store was open so we opted to pick up our standard souvenirs now while there was nobody else in the store.

After getting the tickets we drove over to the twin city - St Paul; to Grand Ave, an area purported to be very trendy with cool boutiques, restaurants and The Yarnery, a knitting store Kris wanted to go.  BUT, first things first; it was time for some lunch. We walked along Grand Ave for a bit before deciding on the Bonfire where we shared a nice bowl of chicken tortilla soup and a thin crust 3 meat pizza. Excellent! After lunch Kris went over to The Yarnery where she found some patterns and wool she was looking for while Brian went to a bakery next door for some dessert.... a somewhat decadent and tasty chocolate and raspberry scone. On the way home we stopped at a Trader Joe's for some pre-made salads for dinner and to stock up a bit on the strategic wine supply, always a good idea!

Tuesday we lounged around and did laundry killing time before we had to head into Minneapolis sometime around mid afternoon. For lunch we munched on cheese and crackers and some tomatoes we had in the cooler. We headed into town a little after 3:00 and got there in just over half an hour, found a parking spot in the parkade right across the street from Target Field; in fact the spot was on the same level as the walkover into the stadium. Sweet! With lots of time before the first pitch at 7:10 PM we wandered through the Skywalk System into the downtown core.  Man did this place ever remind us of Calgary. The Minneapolis Skywalk System covers about 8 miles of the downtown core. The Calgary Plus 15 System covers closer to 11 miles.  The Nicollet Mall is a pedestrian shopping and dining mall that runs about 11 blocks through the middle of downtown Minneapolis. The Stephen Ave Mall is a similar type of mall that runs about 5 blocks through the middle of downtown Calgary.
After getting our bearings on the mall we stopped in at a Starbucks for a couple of iced lattes, grabbed a couple of counter seats overlooking the mall and sat and watched folks strolling the mall and just like Calgary, as late afternoon arrives the pedestrian population on the mall rises significantly. Great for people watching!

Late afternoon we headed back towards Target Field stopping at O'Donovans Irish Pub for some dinner prior to the game. Pretty good Sheperd's Pie but not as good as the ones we had back in Findlay Ohio (Week 16).  On the way to the park we stopped back at the car to pick up our "game bag" (glove, water, peanuts) then went across the walkway directly to the park. Past security we stopped at a wall display of pictures from every major league ball park. We met a couple who were excited to tell us that after tonight's game they have only 10 parks to go in their quest to see them all. They were even more excited to hear that this game was our #30 making our quest now complete. We had a fun chat with them about our respective travels etc.

We wandered around the concourse for a bit then headed for our seats. Man, that ticket agent was right; they were totally in the shade...

... and they were GREAT SEATS and we had fab views of some of today's best hitters including the Ranger's Prince Fielder...

... and the Twin's Joe Mauer...

For the last game on our quest, to see all the MLB parks, we were treated to an excellent display of pitching, fielding and hitting. The Ranger's jumped to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Elvis Andrus' two run homer and that score held up until the Twins rallied to tie the game at 2-2 in the eight before winning it in the bottom of the ninth on a run scoring walk off double. The fans were very happy!!!

Then the "not fun" started. We entered the parkade at 10:45, got in the car and joined the line heading out. The exit was essentially an on-ramp to I-394 westbound which is exactly where we wanted to go. So it sounded so easy. BUT.... unknown to us were the other 4 exits also merging onto I-394 as well as the construction in the westbound lanes that dropped all traffic on I-394 to a single lane about a mile from the parkade just past several other merging on ramps. Bottom line... it took us until after midnight just to get out of the parkade. All in all we did not get back to the KOA until after 1:00 AM. So an anticipated 35 minute drive ended up taking over two and a half hours!

After that snafu, when we got back to the KOA we grabbed a bottle of wine, found a spot in the campground with several vacant sites, set up our chairs and sat back to sip some wine and see if we can spot any sign of the Perseids which were expected to start tonight. No sign of shooting stars so with a bottle of wine finished we called it a night.

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed southwest toward Sioux Falls South Dakota. For lunch we stopped for what turned out to be a most mediocre lunch at Pub 500 in Mankato Minnesota. Should have tried a good looking place down the street instead. Oh well. You never know.

Once settled in at the KOA in Sioux Falls we drove into town to get some gas and check out the Athena Fibers yarn store where Kris picked up a cute pen (with sheep on it) and a great new sticker for the wee trailer "Knit Happens".  While driving around town we witnessed, yet again, how much folks in these parts like to tailgate. In the space of two city blocks we saw the result of two separate multi-car rear-enders. On the way back to the KOA we stopped at a HyVee grocery store for some baked chicken pieces and pre-made salads for dinner; got back to the KOA and hit the pool. Nice but the water was still a bit on the warm side for our liking.

Thursday we turned southward toward Lincoln Nebraska.  We were headed to the Camp A Way RV Park in Lincoln but the address our GPS had led us down a gravel road with no RV Park in sight when the GPS happily announced "arriving at Camp A Way on the left". Brian phoned the park and got proper directions... we needed to turn right off the freeway rather than left. Apparently lots of others have fallen into this particular GPS trap. The guy at the RV park explained that they had changed their address a few years ago specifically because of this problem but he said many GPS' still point to the old address. It'll probably take years to work itself through the GPS system.

Anyway, Lincoln is the home of the International Quilt Study Centre and Museum a "necessary" stop on our journey. Located on the campus of the University of Nebraska, the Quilt House is a beautiful modern building which houses a collection of some 4500 quilts from around the world. At any point in time they have the ability to display about 100 quilts and the ones they had on this day were exquisite...

.... and they also had a terrific display of doll beds with quilts as well as miniature sewing machines...

... wonderful place.

For dinner we stopped at another HyVee grocery store. This one was a brand new store and along with the usual deli counter they also have a pizza oven. We ordered up a thin crust pizza with sausage, onions and mushrooms and for all of $8.99 was a pretty darn good pizza.

Friday we continued south on I-29 towards Kansas City.  We stopped for gas and lunch at a Stuckey's along the way. It has been years since we have seen one of those. Anyway, for a truck stop kind of place, the restaurant served up a decent chef salad and omelet for lunch and we were quickly on our way. We arrived in the outskirts of Kansas City just as their rush hour was starting so we had pretty heavy traffic even as we took the ring road freeway around the north east of the city to our destination, the East Kansas KOA which is in the eastern suburb of Oak Grove.  After getting settled in we thought we might try a newer BBQ place, Q39, for which we have heard good things, but when we phoned to check their hours we were told we needed reservations and we couldn't get in until 9:00 PM (it was now only about five) so we decided to pass on them for today. Instead we opted for a return to Oklahoma Joe's, the very popular place we tried, and really liked, three years ago when we were here. Three years ago there was a very short line. This time there was a very long line. We asked a couple of folks in front of us if they had any idea how long it would take to get in and served. The woman, who appeared to be well up on these things, said it would be about 40-45 minutes Hmmm.... well we are here so might as well stick it out. She was right, it did take just about right on 45 minutes for us to get to the order desk (you order, pay, get your food then sit at this place). Kris ordered sausage with smoked turkey while Brian ordered a half slab of ribs. We both added potato salad as a side. Unfortunately the food was a bit disappointing. Maybe our expectations were a bit too high or the wait was a bit too long but none of the food came close to being as good as we remembered it last time. We also found out that in the last couple of years they have changed the name of the place to be Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que. We can only hope the change in name did not bring about a negative change in the quality of the food and that tonight was just one of those anomalies when their food and our tastes just didn't match up. We guess the long line attests to their continued popularity.

We have found that in most large cities it is best to plan on accomplishing one and only one main errand. If you get that done along with something else then bonus. Saturday was this type of day. Our errand for today was to find a BBQ store we went to when we were here 3 years ago. We remember it being in a strip mall beside one of the Oklahoma Joe's we went to. We looked in our blog and decided it must have been the Joe's in Leawood so set our GPS to get us there. At this point in time there is a phenomenal amount of road construction going on in Kansas City and it took us over an hour to get to our destination. BUT.... no BBQ store. Hmmm, could have sworn it was here; so Brian went into the Joe's and asked about it and was told that The Kansas City BBQ Store is right beside the Joe's in Olathe. Rats... we forgot about that one! So off we went for another half hour drive to get there but there it was.  We spent a bit of time browsing the store then picked out an assortment of rubs and sauces that we will try out when we get back home...

By the time we left the store it was early afternoon and time for some lunch. We decided to give Q39 a try. Another good half hour drive to get there only to find a line with a good half hour wait. BUT... they have a bar that doesn't play in the waiting game. Brian was able to snag a couple of seats together at the bar and we were in with no wait. To boot, the Jays/Yankees ball game was on TV right in front of us. Kris ordered a combination plate of brisket and burnt ends and Brian ordered yet another half slab of ribs. The plates also came with a decent chunk of corn bread... standard fare for most places in the west. The food was excellent and, hating to say it but, much better than last night at Joe's.. For a side we both ordered potato salad  By the time we left the restaurant it was past mid afternoon and time for a nice cold iced latte (the outside temperature was in the high 90's and it was very humid) so we used the GPS to find a nearby Starbucks which turned out to be only about 5 minutes away. Nice. While at Starbucks we looked up AT&T retail stores as Kris' iPhone account was due for another month renewal. Luck was with us once again as there was an AT&T store within minutes. We got there pretty quick and got "checked in" by the store greeter who informed us we were next in line. After what seemed an eternity, an agent showed up and got us fixed up. By now it was after 5:00 and time to head back to the KOA. Along the way we decided to stop at LC's BBQ and pick up some BBQ for later munchies and dinner tomorrow. LC's is close to Kauffman Stadium, the home of the MLB Royals and there was a game starting at 7:00 PM and we hit LC's right in the middle of the pre-game rush so we had a bit of a wait there as well. Oh well, we are pretty sure this will be good. We picked up our order of a pound of burnt ends and a half pound of smoked turkey then headed back to the KOA to end the week with a dip in the pool before we say goodbye to Missouri tomorrow.

As a note, we had thought about going to the Royals game Saturday night but when we arrived in Kansas City on Friday and checked ticket availability, we found the cheapest seats available were $104 each and could not be guaranteed that we could get two together. Very popular. That's what comes with a winning team :-) We decided to give it a miss.

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Back to Week 19

On to Week 21

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Week 19: Chicago to Alma Center Wisconsin

Our general travel route for this week...

Sunday we took in a Chicago White Sox ball game at U.S. Cellular field. One lady explained that the park name is spelled Cellular Field, but pronounced Comiskey Park. Old names die hard! We bought our tickets a few days ago as the game was projected to be a sellout; well the Yankees are in town, so go figure. Anyway, our tickets were nosebleeds to be sure and were "obstructed view". Along with the game tickets we bought a parking pass for the "green lot".  The game start time was 1:10 PM so we left way, way early due to the construction and the expected traffic for lollapalooza.  The traffic turned out worse than we expected! We had planned to stop somewhere, for breakfast, on the way, but once in traffic we figured we best sit tight and just get to the ball park.... and it took that long. We arrived at the ball park around 12:15 PM and found the parking directions to the "green lot". When we finally got to the lot entrance Brian handed the guy the receipt we printed out from our online purchase of tickets and parking. The guy says "where's your coupon?" to which Brian says "What coupon? I purchased parking online along with our game day tickets; there was no mention of a coupon!" Buddy was baffled; he said that we should have gone to the box office to get the coupon! "WHAT!... we bought the tickets online so we wouldn't have to go to the box office!"... so buddy waves us on to the next gate attendant and yells "they don't have a coupon, just some receipt!". We drive up to the next gate attendant and show her the receipt. She takes it, has a quick look and waves us in. So we are there!  To be honest, these folks are in no position to turn any car away as all streets/lanes at this time are 'one way only' on the way into the park.  A short walk to the main entrance where we saw an ATM like station where we could print our own "will call" tickets. Nice touch!

Anyway, we made our way into the stadium, bought the usual souvenirs then headed towards our seats. We tried to go onto the main level concourse and were blocked by a young man who told us that since the game was a sellout they were only allowing people with tickets for the 100 level to enter the concourse. So we had to walk up an exterior ramp to level 5 where our seats were. When we got up to level 5 we went to guest services and told the guy that we are touring all MLB parks and here is the only place we have been blocked from the main concourse where the better food courts typically are. He immediately said "come with me" and took us over to the (guarded) elevator lobby, called up the elevator and told the operator to take us to the concourse. So we got to the concourse and found a seated food service area where we asked another couple if we could share their table. Nice people and very "south-sider". No love for the Cubbies there! Huge sandwiches for lunch.

After grabbing the bite to eat we went back up to level 5 and found our seats... man were they ever "obstructed view" seats...

... Kris could see the catcher and the umpire but not the pitcher. Brian could see the pitcher but not the catcher or umpire. So after the first inning we moved down a few rows and over a section to much better seats...

... although the crowd was still filing in so we had to move a couple of times when latecomers arrived with their tickets. One group didn't show up until the 5th inning. What's that all about?  We ended up having decent nosebleed seats for the most part and watched the Yankees put a beating on the White Sox. It started with the second pitch of the game when Jacoby Ellsbury put it over the left center field fence for a quick one run lead for the Yankees.  The Yankees built up a 12-1 lead before a couple of the White Sox batters hit solo home runs in the later innings. After each White Sox dinger the fireworks went off (although in the nighttime they would have been quite a bit more spectacular...

... final score 12-3 New York. After the game we decided to try to avoid the heavy traffic by just heading west from the ball park. Took a couple of hours to get back to the KOA stopping at a Fresh Market for a roasted chicken and broccoli/kale salad for dinner.

That night we had a fabulous lightening light show put on by nature. First the "red sky at night" as the sun  started to go down over the horizon...

... then a couple of hours later, as dark clouds started to surround us, the sheet lightening show started. Here's a pic of the darkness, followed by a camera click, seconds later, trying to get a single shot, rather than a video, of the sheet lightening...

... it was quite the show and lasted well over an hour. The interesting thing, it was like we were in a diorama. The sheet lightening was all around us but directly overhead the sky was clear and we could see the stars there. Very neat!

Monday we headed north to Milwaukee. We decided to avoid the interstate directly north and take the smaller highways along the coast. We thought we might drive through some cool resort towns along the western shore of Lake Michigan, something like South Haven on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Not so much. We drove through numerous small towns that look like they have fallen on really hard times with empty store fronts along the main streets. Although in one place where there were numerous boarded up buildings there was one open business with it's sign advertising "Bowling Ball Repair". Now, that's interesting. Wonder how this business manages to survive when so many others could not? So not the most exciting drive along the coast. We stopped in a little roadside bar for a chef salad and burger for lunch then grabbed some deli fixings for dinner before we arrived at the Jellystone RV Park in Caledonia (a souther suburb of Milwaukee).

Tuesday started with Brian taking the car into Gordie Boucher Nissan for an oil change and check up.  They found a leaking oil pan gasket so we had that changed along with the engine oil. Afterwards, we drove into Milwaukee to explore the Historic Third Ward...

...an old district that is going through a bit of a resurgence. Very popular with many of the old buildings now home to upscale boutiques, restaurants and craft stores.  We decided to try the Smoke Shack for lunch.  No ribs available until evening so Brian settled for the smoked sausage and Kris went for the wedge salad with pulled pork. Very middle of the road at best.

In the area there is also a very nice Public Market, much like Granville Island Market in Vancouver but only about a quarter of the size of Granville Island. Lots of cheese though (we are in America's Dairyland after all)...

For dinner that night we stopped in at the recently opened Water Street Brewery not far from the campground, where we grabbed a couple of seats at the bar, chatted with the bartender, watched the Brewer's ball game while sipping some mediocre local wine to go along with an excellent burger and sausage plate.

Wednesday morning we drove into the city to pick up tickets for Thursday's Brewers baseball game. We found our way to the ticket office at Miller Park where we were welcomed by a very friendly young ticket agent. We requested a couple of seats in the shade and, if possible, somewhere between 1st and 3rd base. She told us that the entire right side will be in the shade. So we looked at some semi-nosebleed seats up behind the dugout on the first base side. We had decided on the $25 seats not quite as high up when she asked if either of us was a senior. Well one of us is so she said the ticket would be half price whereupon Brian asks "does that go for his companion as well?" to which she responds "We can do that, but if you want we can get you seats much closer in a lower section if you'd like... so we ended up in $42 seats looking right down the third base line (half price being $21) along with a preferred parking lot reservation for $16. An MLB game with preferred parking and good seats for $58 ranks as one of the best deals we have had in the 29 parks to date! Nice! Leaving the ticket office we stopped for a couple of pics outside the park... (one of the park and one of the statue of "Hammerin' Hank Aaron")...

Leaving the park we had a bit of shopping to do so we headed to a northern suburb where we had the usual excellent lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. Later we stopped at the, newly opened today, Meijer grocery store and picked up some pork chops to be grilled for dinner.

Thursday morning we lounged around a bit before heading into Milwaukee for the ball game. Easy peasy off the interstate into the preferred parking lot and only a short walk to the main entrance. No issues at security and in we went. First stop was the team store for the usual souvenirs then to a food stall for a couple of "brats" each. These were the best bratwursts we have had. Kris even had two so that says a LOT! Our seats were even better than the ticket agent suggested they would be and they were indeed totally in the shade. Bless her heart!...

... these were the best seats we have had in a long time, maybe even better than the ones we gave up in Detroit!  They were close enough that we could very clearly hear the "crack of the bat" when the batter hit a pitch.  Funny, sitting right behind us was an elderly man whose eyesight was apparently not what it used to be, but his hearing was ok... almost every time a batter hit a ball (the crack of the bat) we immediately heard, from behind us, "Where the hell did that one go?"  On this day our home team mojo was full on for this day. Thanks to two 3 run home runs by Khris Davis the Brewers blew away the visiting San Diego Padres 10-1. Beautiful day for a ball game, so the retractable roof was wide open...

...although the number of empty seats sort of says it all as to how the Brewers are doing this season...

...fun ball park though! We rank this one right up there with Arlington, Texas as one of our favourites.

Friday it was time to pack up and head north and west. We had planned to get to Green Bay early afternoon, spend a few hours there then head west to Marion our destination for the day. We stopped in Sheboygan for lunch at the Highland House where the quesadilla and burrito were both so large that we took half of each home for later. Leaving Sheboygan we headed for Sheboygan Falls in Kohler County, home of Kohler kitchen and bathroom fixtures and Magpies Cottage, another yarn store where Kris had a nice look around while Brian had yet another nap in the car.

It had been raining pretty well all morning but it really started just after noon. Our destination for the day was a campground near Marion WI, about an hour west of Green Bay. We estimated it would take us about an hour from Sheboygan Falls to Green Bay, on I-43, then we could spend a few hours in Green Bay before heading west in the early evening. We found out different! In the pouring rain folks still drive like idiots! We cruised at the speed limit (70 mph) in the slow lane while others passed us in the fast lane; sometimes several vehicles no more than a car length apart would go past at the same time (remember this is in the pouring rain). Well it happened.... about 20 minutes north of Sheboygan the traffic ground to a halt. We inched in a stop and go fashion for well over 2 hours before being diverted to an off-ramp where we could see (just up the freeway) a whack of police and ambulance vehicles and numerous cars just up ahead. Looked like a brutal accident scene. The diversion through the country side with the heavy traffic load took us until after 6:00 PM to get just to the outskirts of Green Bay. It was still raining so we stopped for a break in Starbucks. While there Brian phoned the campground to verify our reservation. Good thing! The woman there said to disregard all GPS instructions (Brian had been using our GPS to find the best way there from where we were and it did seem to take us on a rather circuitous route of more than an hour and a half) so she gave us instructions that were easy to follow and took less than an hour and, thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time we got there. Farmer Gene's Campground is absolutely huge. We were placed in site #471 and were not at the end yet!  We decided to try their onsite bar and grill, "The Barn and Feed Trough" (go figure), for some dinner.  The burger and baked haddock were pretty good but the wine - YIKES - best stick to beer in this place!

Saturday it was a tad damp when we got up so we elected to pass on making our own coffee since there was a Starbucks about an hour away in Stevens Point.  The skies cleared and it turned out to be a nice drive through the Wisconsin country side on secondary highways. We stopped in Stevens Point for a leisurely sipped coffee then found a grocery store for some dinner items (since this was likely to be the biggest town we would pass through today). By then it was lunch time and on the outskirts of town we spotted a Perkins Family Restaurant so headed in there for a late breakfast. A tomato and spinach omelet for Kris and a "hearty man's" eggs, sausage, bacon, ham and toast with peanut butter for Brian. You can always get a decent breakfast at Perkins!

The rest of the afternoon continued to be a pleasant drive along US-10 as it cut across Wisconsin. The vast corn fields and soy bean fields through the whole of this part of the country continue to amaze us. They just go on forever!  Our stop for the night was the KOA midway between Alma Center and Hixton. Once there and settled in, Kris wanted to phone Marian, our friend back in Vancouver, but quickly realized that there was no service for her AT&T cell account. So we drove into Hixton, still no service, so tried Black River Falls about 10 miles further down the road. Still no service so we settled on going into the Orange Moose Bar and Grill (in a Best Western) for a couple of glasses of wine, as a compromise. This place gets terrible reviews but the wine was pretty good and the service not bad considering a single waitress/bartender for a fairly busy place. Apparently this area of Wisconsin is very popular with ATV enthusiasts. We chatted with one guy from a group of three couples who, he said, come here quite often for the off-road trails and to get covered in mud. The trucks with trailers and very muddy ATV vehicles in the parking lot attested to that!

Well, we finish this week with only one MLB park to go, so on to Minneapolis next week to catch the Twins at Target Field...

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Back to Week 18

On to Week 20

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Week 18: St Louis to Chicago Illinois

Our general travel route for this week...

Late Saturday night/Sunday morning nature put on quite a thunder and lightning show along with, of course, the obligatory rain. It poured! By Sunday morning it was still raining off and on but we were able to get packed up and on our way without getting too soaked. We stopped at Super Smokers BBQ for some take away, namely half a smoked chicken and an order of those delicious burnt ends. The chicken went in the cooler, for later, while the burnt ends came in the car with us for nibbles along the way. Lunch on the go... Yummm!

Our destination for Sunday was the Crazy Horse Campground just outside of Jacksonville, Illinois. Fairly easy drive except about 15 kms or so before we got there our car went into the "no power" mode reminiscent of our drive into Gallup New Mexico three and a half months ago. Since it was Sunday, we decided to try to get to the campground and worry about the car on Monday. There is a Nissan dealership in Jacksonville. We made it to the campground and had a nice chat with Andy (we think he is one of, if not the, owners). We told him about our car and asked if he happened to have any engine oil available and sure enough he did. While he went to get it, we opened the hood on the car and checked the oil level. Sure enough, not even registering on the dipstick. This is a tad weird because we have had four oil changes since the incident in Gallup and have had no issues with engine oil. Anyway, we added about a quart and a half before it showed as normal on the dipstick. We let the car sit for a bit, checked the oil again then took a drive into town. Car ran fine! Again, since it was Sunday, not a lot of places open so we drove across Jacksonville to the Walmart and picked up a 5 gallon container of engine oil. We'll start checking it quite regularly now!!!!  While in Jacksonville we stopped for an ice cream and peanut butter milkshake. Very refreshing.  Anyway, thanks to Andy for helping us out, and by the way, this is quite a nice campground.

Monday we continued north in Illinois, stopping for a lunch of chef salad and omelet in Louie's Diner in Macomb. It is a little hole in the wall diner just off the town square. The waitress was being run off her feet when she stumbled and dropped some dishes that, of course, smashed to bits. A guy who must be a regular customer stood up and said to her, "You are really busy, I'll clean that up for you". How nice is that! After lunch it was on to Rock Island, just across the river from Davenport Iowa. They call it Quad Cities as there are four cities sort of all connected. We stayed at the Rock Island/Quad Cities KOA. After getting checked in, we headed off in search of a Starbucks and a couple of iced lattes. It only took 3 tries, on our GPS, to arrive at a Starbucks that was actually there; the other two were no where to be seen! For dinner we picked up some deli and salad fixings from a HyVee grocery store. Late afternoon we met a guy who is bicycling the Mississippi Valley. He started his trip in Bemidji, Minnesota and estimates it will take him about 6 weeks to get to New Orleans. Oh, let's not forget to mention that this guy is 76 years old!

Tuesday we headed north east across Illinois towards Chicago with our destination being the Chicago Northwest KOA in Union, Illinois. After duly researching for RV parks in the Chicago vicinity this one appeared to be about the best and closest into the city. We checked in early afternoon and paid for six nights as we plan to see the Cubs tomorrow and the White Sox on Sunday. Since it was early to mid afternoon we headed down the highway to the Time Out Sports Bar and Grill for some lunch. On the door, they have a sign saying "Due to this being a family restaurant, no biker colors are allowed!" and just to reinforce the idea, there is a second one on the second door you go through to get into the place. Hmmm... where someone is making a rule, there is usually a reason. We watched a ball game on TV while eating our way through somewhat mediocre, to be generous, salad and burger. Afterwards we drove into Marengo for gas and to Sullivan's grocery for more deli and salad stuff for dinner. We are finding that in the heat spell, we are currently going through, we don't have much for appetite. Back at the KOA we immediately hit the pool. This one is a little colder that the last few we have been in but could still be colder for our tastes.

When we checked into the KOA, the woman at the desk gave us all sorts of travel info related to getting into and out of Chicago. We were also told, and we heard it many more times over the next few days, that there are only two seasons in Chicago - winter and construction. She recommended we take the Wrigley Express bus from Schaumburg, a Chicago northwest suburb, if the only reason we are going into town is to see the Cubs play.... AND to give ourselves lots of extra time because of the construction on I-90.

We took her advice. Wednesday morning we decided to catch the 11:00  AM express bus which would get us to the park over an hour before the game started at 1:08 PM. So we left the KOA at 9:30 for the estimated 20 (by mapquest.com) minute drive. The drive actually took over an hour so we had only a bit of time to whip into the Whole Foods next door to the bus station, for a quick bite to eat. The express bus arrived pretty much on time...

... and we got on the first of 6 buses (we were told there would be at least that many).   The bus left a few minutes early and took well over an hour more to get to Wrigley Field. We were really glad we took the bus because traffic around the ball park was pure mayhem!  Anyway, we were finally at Wrigley Field...

We picked up our tickets at the Will Call window. Lucky we bought them online as the game was said to be a sellout. After entering the stadium we bought our usual souvenirs then began the long trek up the many ramps to level 5 where we had seats looking down the first base line...

... but, more importantly, we were definitely in the shade on another hot day!

On this day we were treated to an excellently pitched game by Cubs starter Jon Lester...

... who fanned 14 batters over eight innings and the Cubs sent the fans home happy with a 3-2 win.

Thursday we decided to brave the traffic and drive into the western suburb of Oak Park to visit and take a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio. We avoided most of the I-90 construction by sticking to US-20 but it was a long slow drive through many of the connected towns of west Chicagoland. We arrived, found a place to park then went into the museum store to see about the next tour. We skipped the next one so we would have time to get some lunch. That gave us an hour to go walk down the street, find a place to eat and get back to the museum to start the tour. We decided on Giordano's, a pizza chain we have seen a number of times. Not a good choice. Kris ordered a salad and Brian ordered a small thin crust pizza. Kris' salad came right away but it was over 20 minutes later that Kris, having finished her salad, questioned the waitress about the pizza. "Oh, they had trouble with the thin crust, it shouldn't be much more that a few more minutes". By this time we were down to less than 15 minutes to get back for the start of the tour. The pizza did arrive a couple of minutes later and was one of the worst we have ever had and after eating a couple of small slices we left the rest behind. Won't try one of these places again... terrible service, not so good food!

We made it back with a few minutes to spare before the tour started. The tour started with the house exterior with a talk about the general building structure and the grounds...

... then into the house where the woodwork and stained/leaded glass were pretty spectacular, but a bit hard to get really good pics...

... more pics around the house are on our Picasa album (week 19) for this trip. Excellent tour! Afterwards we found a local Starbucks for a couple of iced lattes before heading back to the KOA and an early evening dip in the pool. For dinner we drove into the nearby small town of Union. First try was a tavern on the main drag (main being generous... maybe a block and a half long) but it was pretty dreary and uninviting so we went across the street to Checkers II lounge and restaurant. What a pleasant surprise! The place was packed with diners with one empty table so no wait. This is not a big place but we figured that most every adult in this small town must be out for dinner tonight. It didn't take long to find out why they were so busy. It is billed as serving "American food", but it definitely has a German flavor. Kris ordered a plate of different German sausages and Brian ordered a pork schnitzel, both of which came with a ton of potatoes and other veggies. Way too much so about half of each came home for dinner tomorrow. Excellent!
 
Friday was our designated "downtown Chicago" day. In the pool Thursday evening we chatted with a couple from Kansas City. Aside from a chat about the great KC BBQ, they reminded us about the commuter train that has a stop in Crystal Lake, about 15 miles from the KOA. The KOA lady had told us about this as well when we checked in but it was a case of info overload and we had forgotten and had thought we might brave a drive into the city. Not anymore... We had made pedicure appointments at Nordstrom Spa for 11:00 AM, so caught an early enough commuter train that we could wander around on the Magnificent (Mag) Mile a bit and have a coffee before our appointments.  We arrived at the Ogilvie Transportation Center at about 9:30 so lots of time. When we bought our train tickets, in Crystal Lake, the ticket guy told us to "go straight out the door and stay on the second level; continue over (ie above) one street then take the escalator down to street level; walk across the street and down the stairs to the water taxi stand". We followed his advice and before we knew it we were on a water taxi headed for the Mag Mile...

.... it was like being on a vaporetto in Venice again. Very nice on a beautiful sunny morning. The ride was $3 each, the stop where we got off was all of two blocks from Nordstrom and there was a Starbucks right on the corner. How convenient is that!. Along the street there are some really pretty flower beds with some of them sporting cool sculptures of "flowers" made out of old bicycle wheels...

Anyway, our original spa appointments were for 11:00 and 12:00 but they had a cancellation so we were both in at 11:00. Nice and relaxing and the feet felt great afterwards.

Since we were finished an hour earlier than we expected, we decided to walk over to the Frontera Grill for lunch. Many years ago, while in Chicago on a conference, we dined at this restaurant and also bought a cookbook and had it signed by the owner Rick Bayless, the very well known author of Mexican style (with emphasis on Oaxaca) cooking books. As expected there was a line up out the door with a wait of over an hour, but Rick has another restaurant attached to Frontera Grill, so we were able to snare a couple of spots at the bar of Topolobampo which serves the same menu. It was a bit crowded, ie shoulder to shoulder, but the food was fantastic. We both had a bowl of delicious Tortilla Soup, then shared a plate of "Street Food Trio"...

... and finished off sharing a flan. Actually, the soup was so good that if it wasn't really rude, we would have licked the bowls out.  The whole meal, especially the flan, brought back many memories of the times we spent in Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Might have to think about spending some of those wet Courtenay winter months down in Oaxaca again!


After lunch we walked back to the Mag Mile where we were able to pick up a bus south to the Art Institute of Chicago. We got off the bus about a block before the museum. The sidewalks were absolutely packed with, mostly young, people heading for the Lollapalooza Music Festival kicking off, this afternoon and running through the weekend, in Grant's Park behind the Art Institute. The rather large influx of people into the area also meant that the Art Institute was very crowded. It also seems that whenever you want to see only a few things in a museum, they are at opposite ends in separate buildings that don't connect on every floor. Such was the case here for us today!  Our main goals were to see paintings by William Turner...

... and Edward Hopper...

We also wanted to see the large Georges Seurat painting, "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte". While we were able to see it, we didn't get a really good look at it or a chance to take a picture of it because of the large number of people insisting on taking selfies in front of it. Very annoying!  Later, it was also very annoying when a young couple spent several minutes trying to position themselves in front of a painting so their friend could take their picture while everyone else had, out of politeness we suppose (something this couple didn't have), to stand aside and wait! ...

... please don't do this in a crowded museum!!!!

On the way home we stopped in at Checkers II again, this time just to sit at the bar and have a couple of glasses of wine after a fairly tiring day. The place was packed again and we even had to wait for a seat at the bar. Eventually some folks at the bar got seated at their table and we were up. The woman tending bar was even nice enough to put the ball game on TV for us. She also told us that they are busy because they draw from numerous other towns, some close by and some quite a bit further out. They have established a large and loyal clientele.   

Saturday was a do nothing sort of day. After some reading, knitting and trip planning while having a morning coffee we decided to drive into Schaumburg for a  lunch stop at a Chick-fil-A, a fast food chain serving excellent chicken salads, sandwiches etc, then to check out one of the large Menards hardware stores we have seen.  Later, on the way back to the KOA we stopped at a LL Bean store, because you can never have too many tote bags, and a World Market to replenish our dwindling strategic wine supply. For dinner we finished off those leftovers from Checkers II.

End of week, but tomorrow is ball game day at U.S. Cellular field to see the Chicago White Sox play. Looking forward to it :-)

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Back to Week 17

On to Week 19

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