Along the Way
2014 Update: Since June 12th we have been visiting national parks. We are pretty much just driving from one park to another but along the way we've stopped at a few points of interest.
Below: Fishing in the Florida Keys was fun. Bill caught a nice Jack Crevalle but Jamie stole the day with her 21" Grouper ...
... Ladyfish as long as her arm ... and six Mangrove Snapper which we ate for two days. Yum!
Below: We stayed in the Florida Keys for a week and everything was fine until this two-foot-long Bride of Godzilla showed up on our back porch. After that we just stayed inside and watched TV.
Below: Salem Sue ... the largest cow in the world ... lives in New Salem, North Dakota. For fun, they should make it where her udder bursts open whenever someone stands underneath her and washes you down the hill with milk. Then New Salem would really be on the map!
Below: A huge field of sunflowers in North Dakota.
Below: Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
Below: Inside the shuttle bus in Grand Canyon National Park is a sign with helpful hints like "Do not poop on the trail." This is listed as a guideline, not an official park rule. The mules are, apparently, exempt from this guideline because the trail we were on was a freeway of poop. You could poop on the trail and no one would even notice. It's normal.
Below: Florence, Oregon has a large patch of Darlingtonia, or Cobra Lily (Darlingtonia californica) growing naturally on the side of the road. Darlingtonia is a rare carnivorous plant that eats insects. We stopped here in January, then again in July to see how they were doing. Yep, they're doing fine. We had to laugh because no one was on the Darlingtonia Observation Deck either time. Why haven't other tourists discovered this exciting free attraction?
Below: Everett, Washington is home to the largest building in the world. The building is so big Disneyland in California can fit inside with 12 acres left over ... enough for Disneyland's covered parking structure. What do you do in such a large building? Build 747s, of course. The Boeing manufacturing plant tour was mind-boggling. If you like commercial jetliners, or manufacturing plants, we highly recommend this tour! We got to see a Dreamlifter take off from the on-site airport. A Dreamlifter is a modified 747 designed to ferry-in the pre-fabricated sections of 787 Dreamliners for assembly. The manufacturing plant is a veritable city with 41,000 employees. It's the only place 747s have ever been built. This place is a "Wow!"
(No photos allowed on the tour. The photo above was supplied by Boeing. It's the only photo on our website that we didn't take.)
Our tour guide asked if anyone would like to whip out their checkbook and buy a new 747. The cost? $350 million but that does not include engines or seats. Engines are $25 million each (you need four of those) and so, depending on your upholstery option, you could get out the door for under $500 million. Boeing does not deliver so you have to send your own pilot to Everett, Washington to hop in and fly it home.
Below: Odessa, Washington is wheat-growing country. For as far as we could see, the gently-rolling landscape was blanketed with amber waves of grain.
Below: We saw a moose walking in a swamp just east of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Below: Lake Havasu, Arizona has 24 lighthouses around the lake. They are 1/3rd-scale replicas of actual lighthouses but they are functional. Since Jamie loves lighthouses, we had to stop and see one.
Below: Lake Havasu, Arizona is also home to the London Bridge (yes, the one that used to be in England).
