We’re enjoying a new route south this year.
Our bucket list hit yesterday was the town of Blue Earth, Minnesota – the home of Green Giant Vegetables.
We enjoyed visiting the giant statue of the Jolly Green Giant, as well as a visit to the museum on the same property, which told the history of this well known brand of canned and frozen vegetables.
A while ago, I wrote a post about my office … the special place just for me in our home.
In this space, I’ve surrounded myself with meaningful memories.
My feature photo today is of a souvenir hubs and our daughter brought me from Graceland, when they travelled there together in the semi. On either side of the musical teddy bear is a photo of each of our grandkids when they were little. They both loved pressing the belt buckle to hear Elvis sing “Love Me Tender”
The parlour guitar above was gifted to me by Mom. She learned to play on it when she was a young girl. Her parents bought it for her from an old lady who had been a classical guitarist.
Mom eventually taught me to play on this same guitar. The instrument is well over 100 years old. I have fond memories of my mom playing this guitar and singing in her clear, sweet voice, at all of our family gatherings. (BTW, at 91 years young, my mom still plays guitar and sings beautifully- she graduated to a 12-string about 20 years ago).
Today, we start making our way to Texas, where we’ll spend the winter.
We’re taking a new route again to catch some travel bucket list hits, so I’ll try to do a few posts along the way.
It’s about an hour’s drive from our winter home to Boca Chica Beach, TX.
This is where the Texas SpaceX rocket production facility and launch pad is located.
We visit there at least twice each winter to see what’s new.
Last year, by the time we made our first visit to Space X, the new rocket production facility had been completed and the massive building had an equally massive mural on an end wall.
Before we left Arizona in mid February of 2016, I learned that through a MLM company I had joined just prior to my retirement from nursing, I had earned an all expenses paid trip for two to The Hard Rock Resort, Mayan Riviera, Mexico. The trip was to take place in mid March.
Absolutely everything was paid for from flights, to airport transportation, to the all-inclusive resort, and to side tours from there. The only time we had to use our wallets was to tip someone.
Hubs and I had time to unpack, do laundry, and repack for the next trip.
It was a whirlwind defined, and we loved every single second.
My feature photo is of our hotel lobby.
Mid March at the Mayan Riviera was hot and so humid that my camera lens kept fogging up, but that was truly the only issue. Everything else was perfect.
In 2023, en route home from our winter in Texas, we explored New Mexico from bottom to top and side to side.
My feature photo is of a mural at the Taos Plaza in downtown Taos – an extremely artsy and cultural area.
Our main reason for visiting Taos, NM was to tour the Taos Pueblo. Both the town and the Pueblo were among our favourite New Mexico stops.
After touring my cousin around the Las Vegas area for a week, we took her to the plane and then made our way home via a different route than usual.
My feature photo is of a portion of Arches National Park near Moab, UT. We didn’t take any side roads to see the actual arches, but even without that, the scenery “on the way by” was spectacular.
We’d hoped to drive from there to Denver, Co.
At Grand Junction, Co, where we spent the night, we were advised the next morning by the hotel clerk, that there had been a rockslide ahead, so the road we planned to take was closed. We were also informed that roads out of Denver (from our direction) were closed for the winter.
Enter Plan B:
We drove on as far as Aspen, Co, toured the place and watched some skiing. Neither of us had been there before, so it was a fun little “been there done that” trip.
After Aspen, we turned around and headed back to Grand Junction.
From there, we headed north to and through Wyoming and more incredible scenery.
After Wyoming, it was South Dakota and then North Dakota (which I’ll cover in a future post) and then home.
In 2013, hubs and I spent 10 days exploring the Caribbean island of Curaçao.
On a walkabout around the capital city of Willemstad, we came across a courtyard adorned with two giant murals that depicted both every day life and some of the history of the city.
Here’s a closer shot of one of the sections of my feature photo:
Here’s the historical one:
This one needs lots of post processing. I’ll edit out a few of the distracting elements in the photo, and try to improve the clarity. This is a complicated one so I’ll wait until I’m further along in my photo editing course.
Whether man made or Mother Nature made, there are more marvels in this world than one could hope to see in a lifetime.
After a few days on the Vegas Strip and Fremont Street, we took my cousin, Carrie out of town to Laughlin, NV.
On the way, we showed Carrie the spectacular and historical Hoover Dam (hubs and I had been there several times before). On our second day at Laughlin, we took in the West Rim of The Grand Canyon (first time for all of us).
There’s nothing that beats the feeling of sharing these incredible sights and experiences with family.
Once we completed our 2016 exploration of places in Arizona we hadn’t seen on previous visits, we headed to Nevada, picked up my cousin, Carrie, at the airport, and proceeded for the nest week, to tour her around the Las Vegas area.
Carrie had never been there before, so the fact that her visit coincided with the Chinese New Year made the trip for her all the more fun – and definitely extremely colourful!
Outside of China, I’d bet that Las Vegas is the next best place for Chinese New Year decor.
Old Tucson is the set location of many western movies and TV shows, both recent and vintage.
We spent an entire day here, and found it to be better presented and much more interactive than Tombstone.
If you’re visiting the area, and you’re a fan of western movies and TV shows, I’d highly recommend setting aside a day to see Old Tucson. You won’t be disappointed.
Radically Retired 