I really like the Amarillo Comfort Inn. I had a nice breakfast of eggs and sausage from the buffet then took some pics outside of rusted antique cars and pickup trucks. Headed West on 40 and noted that there were a lot of people around the Cadillac ranch cars. The cows also moved forward to around the people and the cars. The trip across the Texas plains was fascinating. The landscape changes so fast. When I crossed into NM it really changed a lot into hilly desert country. I bought gas just outside Albuquerque at 2.79. I called Libbie around noon. She was just getting to the airport and I was just arriving in ALBQ. I went to the Art Museum and hung around for a few hours. The special exhibit of Turner to Cezanne was nice but the museum itself was not that great. I still had more time and talked to Libbie while she changed planes in Dallas. I decided and she thought it was a good idea to visit the Nuclear museum. Wow, what a trip. This place is devoted to nuclear bombs all labeled with megatonnage and delivery system. Out back there were minuteman missiles and a B52 nuclear boomber. When I was done I walked around Old Town then made my way the back way to the airport across the campus. What a bleak and dismal place ALBQ is. At the airport I parked in an aircraft observation area and watched planes landing and taking off. I even saw Libbie's 6:40 American Airline plane land at 6:43. Not bad. I waited till she called then went to the luggage area and picked her up. We went to Old Town and had a nice dinner with a Margarita on the porch of La Hacienda. We drove in the dark up I-25 to Santa Fe and found Romero St but had a little difficulty finding the Benziger condo in the dark. We had the wrong address but eventually found our way and unloaded the car and went to sleep.

Didn't care for the breakfast at Country Inn. I had some self made waffle and a bagel. Glad to leave there. Went over to the Western Museum around 9:30 and waited for them to open at 10. There were quite a few people waiting as well. The Art was lovely, photography was not allowed. The Prx de West had some outstanding pieces. I fell in love with a piece called "reflection" or something like that. I wanted desperately to photograph it but instead I made notes. I want to recreate this pose I loved it so much. Left there and headed West to Amarillo. It was an easy drive but the road outside OKC was rough. They seem to be replacing it since quite a bit of it was single lane. I saw some huge windmills and a tilted tower in Groom, TX. Also notable was the vast plain of nothingness. I did enjoy the scenery. Stopped for gas which was outside Amarillo next to a Texas Info Center. The two ladies at the desk knew about Biti Pies and gave me a map and even told me today was Monday, Lemon Pie day, I found Biti, a tiny little shack but with a pretty girl running the counter and drive up. I ended up buying 5 Biti's. One for tonight and 4 to share with Libbie when I see her tomorrow. I'll have to put Ice in the ice chest to keep the pies. After finding the Comfort Inn, which was very very nice, I set out for the Cadillac Ranch. Enjoyed the field of Cadillacs, I even painted one with Bluebird in red. Took soome photos thenlooked for Mooses BBQ on Rt 66. Mooses is gone so I went to Wendy's and had a very nice Baja salad. Excellent. I wonder what the calorie count is? This is a wonderful Comfort Inn, it seems to be brand new since it's on the edge of town.

I had a peaceful drive to OKC through the Ozarks. There was a bit of traffic but I enjoyed the scenery and the clouds. Got to the hotel in late afternoon, the Country Suites. Don't like the place. If it wasn't free I would not choose to stay there. No smoke detector, generally shabby appearance. I'm missing a lamp by the sofa. Cleaning is not great. Free internet and free breakfast in a free room however make it a keeper but just barely. Visited the Charcoal Oven down the street where I had a very tasty hamburger and curly q dinner. $8 for all including drink. Stopped into Borders next to the hotel and bought a Western Art magazine. Went to the Cowboy museum and browsed the free areas. They were going to close in less than an hour but I saw the preview movie and the large sculptures including their icon, the end of the trail.
Went downtown looking for the arts museum and ended up at the OKC Memorial. This was a very peaceful reflecting memorial for the Murrah federal building bombing. Looked up some of the gift shop art books from the cowboy museum on Amazon. I may be ordering when I get back.

Since I was only 172 miles from Memphis, the drive was very easy. I-40 was lighter than yesterday but very patrolled.I got to the Dixon Gallery at 10:30. Admission is free from 10 to 12 on Saturdays and this was Saturday. Had to use the bathroom in the art gallery before i started. The gardens were nice with a lot of art sprinkled throughout. The gardens were not as nice as Cheekwood. The museum was outstanding. Could not take pictures of the collection but it was fantastic. I saw some Renoirs that I have never seen. They also had a lot of the European impressionists. This is their stated mission. I really enjoyed the special show, the paintings of Helen M Turner, an American impressionist who lived from 1858 - 1958. Her work is lovely, impressionistic paintings of flowers and woman in the garden. Next stop was the Hampton on Beale. I had to wait an hour for my room so I walked around Beale St. Enjoyed the music and picked out a spot I'll return to.
Got checked into my room in the early afternoon then went to Beale St. Bought a Big Ass Blue Moon for $4 and listened to a large black woman wail away with her blues band from LA. She was quite good and entertaining. Had some pizza next to the hotel, changed my shirt then went back down to Beale at night. They were checking ID before you got onto the street. They wouldn't let a very pretty girl with black lace top onto the street without a photo id. I enjoyed several blues bands in various street venues before hanging it up at midnight. I dragged myself to the room and dropped right off to sleep.

Got off a little later than planned but still OK. Left at 7:40. Uneventful journey. It was a little slow going by the big rock slide at the NC-TN border but kept moving along. Stopped in Knoxville for gas and got my watermelon out of the cooler for lunch. Hit a little rain in downtown Nashville, traffic was a little slow but moving through the twists and turns. Arrived at Dickson at 3:30. Checked into the Comfort Inn, cleaned up a little, changed my shirt and was off to Cheekwood. The quality of the gardens blew me away. There was so much more Chilhuly glass than I expected. It was everywhere. The sky was lightly raining and there was thunder and lightning in the distance but nothing serious. I got a little wet, the breeze actually felt good since I was soaked. Came back at 7:30 and went up the street a mile from the hotel and had Barts BBQ. A plate of pulled pork with sides of BBQ beans and potato salad. They served the corn bread in a weird cornbread flat pancake like form. Libbie's is so much better.

Rotated the tires this morning then went to the CU to get money, $500. Did a lot of packing and also worked on the AVSA pictures getting them pretty close to completion. Dinner tonight was scallops with mushrooms and rice. Trader Joes meal but very nice. Last dinner at home tonight for a few weeks.

Marjorie sent her design photos overnight. I incorporated them into the AVSA library pics and things look well. Still do not have the display table photos. The plastic boxes came this afternoon. Libbie and I took them to Cary for cutting and got a nickel tour of the facility. The replacement motherboard also came. Thank goodness it fixed the problem, however the LAN wire is bad. I temporarily put a wireless adapter into the USB. Will replace the wire at another time. Dinner was pasta.

Spent the whole day working on AVSA pics and researching interesting places on my cross country drive. Uploaded all my completed pics and request design photos from Marjorie. Dinner was eggplant and leftover ribs.

It was a quiet day. Spent time online looking at options in Memphis and Nashville. Got the info about the Benziger condo then swapped some of my hotels around. Freebie in OK city from Radisson rewards. Canceled Santa Fe Hampton. Dinner was eggplant.

Went out early for a paper. Wanted to spend the day on AVSA pics but instead worked a little outside then took a walk. Lots of poolside bikinis today. Dinner was Libbie's super pizza.

Libbie helped me in the flower garden today. I used the string trimmer on the japanese irises, cut the rose bushes down and weeded everything. I also tied the peppers and tomatoes with string. Later in the PM we went to BJ's to get ribs but I forgot my coupon. I also went into Kohls next door and picked up 2 tee shirts for 6.50 each. I didn't want to pat $10 in BJ's. I also wanted Cascade soap powder but the stuff they had was the wrong color and appeared to be scented. Dinner was corn on the cob, ribs and Shiraz.

This morning I built a mechanical prototype of Kahlo and brought it over to Allen at Touchstone3D. When I came back I looked into negative DC-DC converters some more. The module I had been using was a surplus item that is no longer available. I found a Microchip part, the TC1121 that looks like it will work and doesn't involve using inductors. The part is $1.05 in quantity 25. Lib and I went to the Farmers Market and got corn, eggplant and a watermelon. Some cute Farmers daughters were selling the corn. Dinner was eggplant parmesan with corn and Shiraz. Yum.

Received the quote for the cases today. Roughly $200 to cut holes in 10 cases. I looked up the case number and ordered 10 of them from Merlin Electronics. I went over there on Maynard in Cary and got the nickel tour. Lots of impressive equipment. Market continues to do good. IRA is at a new high of 346. Used the money from the IGD sale yesterday to pick up 100 shares for TCF, a finance company paying 9.7%. My percent allocation of this was under 4% so I had room to add to my position. I have none of this stuff in my individual port although I should because of the divvy. Maybe I will re-evaluate the portfolio. It rained this evening, whoo hoo!!! Dinner was Chile Releno frozen from Trader Joes.

Went to the greenhouse to dig out the broken pipe then picked up wet/dry glue in Ace. Fixed it but it requires 2 hours to dry before pressure testing it. Sorted pics on my computer from the trip and posted some Whistler pics. Sold the IGD which I bought a few months ago. It's a CEF which are all losers. I'll never buy another CEF again, I have only gotten burned by them for hundreds of dollars. Market is up 300 today for no reason. Dinner was Trader Joe ChickenChow Mein. Very good.

It's getting hard to adjust to Eastern Time. Did the groceries but Libbie wanted the wash bottles at the greenhouse so I complied and also looked at the water leak. Went to Trader Joe's down Route 1 from the greenhouse and did the route backwards from normal. Dinner was Trader Joe's pasta. I installed the genealogy program and did quite a bit of data entry. The import from the other program didn't work so I'm manually entering it all.

I got up at 7 and after a shower took off for Krogers where I picked up milk and OJ after our trip last week. Juggled some funds and paid the Visa bill which was over 2400 dollars. I spent a lot of the day organizing receipts, sorting pictures and unpacking everything. Libbie and I took a walk up into Seagroves to see if there was anything new in construction. A few more spec houses started and the large mountain has been leveled to give a few more basement lots. After a dinner of TJ's canneloni we looked at some of the pictures. I sent some Bill Price baby pictures to Anne.

Woke at 6 AM with the alarm set at 6:05. Picked up the preprinted checkout under the door of our room and loaded up the rental car with our suitcases. We got going nicely but the GPS was not sure of where we were yet but I used the instructions it generated which were available in a list until it found our way. This was weird, I guess the Hertz GPS is not as good as my Magellan even though Magellan comes up on the screen indicating they are the manufacturer. Traffic was very light this early leaving Richmond. The tunnel had 2 lanes in and 2 lanes outbound. We got to the border and there was only one other car in front of us. We allowed 45 minutes but it took less than 5. There were no questions about plants or food or weapons. We had some Gesneriad giveaways in our carry on bags that we picked up at the convention. Once in the US we stopped at the first McDonalds for breakfast. I was carrying $20 in Canadian money which McDonalds accepted as $19 USD as payment for our breakfast. I had pancakes, Libbie had the
usual egg and sausage biscuit. Fifty or so miles later we stopped again for more coffee and picked up a couple of cinnamon buns at McDonalds for $6.48.
Humorously, I asked for a Danish. The girl asked, "what's that?". Once in
Seattle we were about an hour ahead of schedule so we stopped at Seattle Center, the park with the Space Needle. We walked all around it and did some pictures, then used the restrooms inside the visitors gift shop at the base of the needle. Luckily we found free street parking one block away. Next stop we drove by Pikes Place Market along the waterfront. It seems like all was just getting underway - the streets were empty and a lot of shops closed. It was all for the Fourth of July.
We got gas 12 miles from the airport and found our way into the parking garage without incident for the car return. Unfortunately, American Airlines was a long ways down from the return counter and the terminal was very crowded. We tried outside but the sidewalks and roads were just as clogged with people. Next challenge was the security lines which were very long, but it is the busiest travel day of the week so it was to be expected. Got to our gate, A9 in plenty of time for our 12:15 flight.
The flight however was about 15 minutes late taking off. We changed planes in Dallas. We only had less than 30 minutes and unfortunately we were dropped at gate C32 and our flight to Raleigh was in A14. Took the SkyLink to the next terminal, visited the bathroom, bought crackers and trail mix in one of the gift shops and boarded without any waiting. Our seats in row 8 were given to a fat guy who needed 2 seats putting us at the bulkhead. I was very happy with the ability to stretch out. Excellent seat. We arrived in Raleigh about 15 minutes late. The parking lot shuttle was right outside baggage claim taking us to our car. The bill for 7 full days was $28, a nice deal. Home arrival was midnight. What a surprise, the Ben Meadow order from 3 days ago was on our doorstep.

We went to Stanley Park today. Walked and drove the park a little before having lunch at the Teahouse which was lovely. I had Fish and Chips, Libbie had a crab eggs Benedict. I had a Stanley amber beer with my meal. We then went to the Rose garden and were amazed at the flower beds. A girl was getting married in the park via a horse drawn carriage. Slowly made our way back to Richmond since we had to leave early for the harbor cruise. We sat with Vladimir and a Canadian lady. The food was good and the scenery was great. What a way to see Vancouver, the Gesneriad dinner cruise. We got back to pack for our early morning takeoff home.

This morning we did our usual McDonalds breakfast. It's a sunny warmer day. We
came back to the hotel, met Jacquie walking with her husband and invited them to
join us at VanDusen botanical gardens. We got the senior rate which was 7.25
each. It was a sunny day in the garden. We enjoyed the many, many flowers on a
walk around the garden. At one point we took a walk into a fern glade under tall
trees which was wonderful. I hope our garden turns out like this someday. We
came back to the hotel for Vladimir's talk but had time for a nice lunch sandwich
at Tim Hortons. Before Tim Hortons we went to the Bank of Montreal to exchange
money and ofund out they charge 2.50 fee for exchanges. Tim Horton said they
accept US dollars so it wasn't worth it. Vladimirs talk was a little hard to
understand but his slides were excellent. I enjoyed the stark contrast of his
before and after violet pictures, before and after the Soviet Union went to an
open society. Next up was Dr John Clark from the Univ of Alabama. He had a
detailed and technical talk of his trip to Cuba collecting Gesneriads and what
he found and how they all relate to previous Hans Wehler findings via DNA
typing. It was a fascinating lecture. For the evening we went to Steveston
Village for a nice dinner on the waterfront then had some fish and chips at a
takeout down the wharf followed by Gelato which was $9 for 2 cones. I have
developed a love for Gelato. When we got back to the hotel the dinner was over
and awards were present on the winning Gesneriads. We spent some time wandering
around and photographing the winning plants before going back up to our room and
falling asleep. We enjoyed watching the nightime trains going and coming to
Vancouver. We took some pictures and also timed their arrival and departures.
One train came about every 7 minutes.

Did yard work this morning blowing off the driveway, picking up sticks in the driveway and putting away the nail gun and compressor. When Libbie came home I was servicing the pressure washer. I put fresh gas into it, pumped up the tires and started it up. She took the wand and cleaned the front porch, the stairs and the sidewalk. I can't believe how good it all looks. Heard from Kathy Lahti. She wanted the convention reports so I spent an hour collating everything into a large document and sent the link to Kathy and Ron Davidson. We went to Trader Joes and the new Ace Hardware on Kildaire Farm Rd. Ace was very nice. I bought a metal garbage can and read the labels for the bug sprays. Can't find Orthene anymore but I found the ingredient online. It is Acephate. Dinner was leftover Eggplant Parmesan with Trader Joe's Shiraz. Earlier today I did more trip planning and booked some choice hotel rooms in Nashville, OK City and Amarillo. Choice has a deal where two hotels will earn a $50 Chili's gift card.

I planned my going West drive this morning. It's ending up to be a museum tour starting with Cheekwood and Chilhuly in Nashville, Brooks in Memphis, Beale St Sat night, the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City and ending with a Turner to Cezanne exhibit in Albuquerque. I'm looking forward to this trip. Went outside and weeded the flower garden, watered the tomatoes and scraped and caulked the soffit and fascia boards. The back is now complete except for paint. I was too lazy to paint today. Watched an exile on Main St film by the Rolling stones. It was quite good about the recording of the Exile on main St album in 1972. Dinner was eggplant parmesan with Shiraz wine from Rex Goliath winery in Woodbridge, CA. I picked this stuff up in Kroger because I didn't feel like going to Trader Joes.

It's supposed to be hot today, pretty near 100. The temp went to 101. I got burned out doing some caulking and weeding of the tomatoes.came in and spent the rest of the day indoors. Dinner was corn and bean burger. Yummy.

Good tips on GMA this morning. Eat real food, only what your body needs and eat mostly plants. Walking is a great easy exercise.]
We went to the Farmers market and got corn and watermelon and peaches and eggplant. We had the corn with bean burgers for dinner. Didn't do too much else today except for a walk. I was tired when I came back from the lake.

More trip planning. Bought a plane ticket for Libbie to fly to Santa Fe. Then over the course of the afternoon I booked hotel rooms in Santa Fe, Kayenta, and Bryce Canyon. I'm also looking at where to stay in Death Valley. We will end up in Huntington Beach on July 26. Joe offered a one week Hertz coupon. I could fly plus add 400 for another week making the total cost $800 plus Joe's coupon. Compare that to the cost of driving cross country. Some more work to do! I fixed up one corner of the soffit and caulked it then started sanding and scraping the old caulk. I have half of it done. I may paint some of the soffit this week or at least power wash the back for painting prep. Today I also hooked up the hoses and timer for the grow boxes. This is in anticipation of our Vancouver trip next week.
Dinner was BLT with Fiesta Grillin beans.

I did some trip planning today. Started out by buying Opera tickets for Santa Fe. Next step was to look at possible venues in the surrounding states. I want to visit either Bryce or Zion. Finished up the soffits today. Now I have to sand and caulk. Dinner was pasta with some of the broccoli salad I made this afternoon.