We decided to shift a little south to another part of Provence. The town of St. Remy de Provence was highly recommended to us, so here we are.
St. Remy turned out to be a very nice but touristy town. But it did have an interesting walk themed around Van Gogh. He spent a year here in a sanitarium trying to clear his head, and did some really nice painting. The walk had you follow a road out of town to the sanitarium where he stayed and periodically showed you sites where Van Gogh had painted pictures. It was quite fascinating and at several of the stops you could really see quite clearly the setting he used.
We think this is the setting for this picture.
At the end of the road was the sanitarium where he stayed, and it is still functioning as a sanitarium today having been founded around 1200 AD. The room where Van Gogh stayed is on display, as are the gardens that inspired some of his paintings. We really enjoyed ourselves and found the place fascinating.
Van Gogh’s room in the sanitarium.
On the way back we stopped at the ruins of the Roman settlement of Glanum. We poked around a bit and saw the Arch of Triumph, but decided to pass on visiting the Roman ruins.
Part of the Roman Arc, the Arc itself is a slightly more worn version of the one in Orange yesterday.
As we passed thru town we decided that this one of the more upscale towns we had been in, and it reflected in the price of the restaurants. So we decided to postpone our Provence meal, and headed back to François for a very late lunch, and a siesta.
The day started out with a visit to the cheese shop under the supervision of Patrick the campsite owner. He also had a French couple in tow who turned out to be from the Yonne department of Burgundy which is our honorary French home, as that is where François the RV is based. We ended up with about 1/3 of a kilo each of three Cantal cheeses, one is called Cantal, one was called Salers, and the last was a blue cheese from the area which one food critic labeled the best he had ever tasted. The Salers cheese is a variant of Cantal that is only produced in two months when a certain flower is in bloom in the region, as the flowers mixed with the grass makes the cows milk that much better, you have got to love the French! We will give you a report later if the flowers make a big difference.
Patrick leading us down the road to the cheese store.
After two days of cold and damp weather we decided to head south in search of sun and heat. We had originally picked out a target of a town that was about 130km as the crow flies. But when Ron punched it into the GPS, the route said it was over 400km’s. Ron cursed and figured he had punched in the coordinates wrong. But after some further study of the map it turned out that this was really a case of the proverbial you can’t get there from here.
This cow is a Cantal whicn is a breed unique to the area around Salers.Ton likes Cows and this calf is the cutest she has ever seen, it almost looks like a sheep.
Now it was Ton’s turns to study maps, she proposed the town of Albi as a destination. It was south, the roads looked reasonable, and best of all it was the hometown of Toulouse-Lautrec which is both of our favorite French Artist.
The bridge in the foreground was built around 1300 and is still used for traffic today.
The plan for the night was to stay in the Aire in Albi. The GPS led us close to the medieval old town down increasingly narrow roads, and only about 500 yards from the final destination we came to an arch that the road was going under, but the road under the arch was filled with construction equipment. After some studying of the map, and a little maneuvering in tight quarters we headed to our alternative route to the aire. About half way there we fell in behind a Dutch RV that appeared to be going to the same place. Again within about 500 meters of the aire we ran into some more construction and the Dutch pulled over and parked. Ron parked up behind them and knowing that almost all Dutch speak English he walked up and asked them about the aire. It turns out that the road to the aire is under construction and while you can barely make it there, it was full anyway. The husband said that they were thinking about parking for the night at a site we had passed on the way in, but the wife switched from English to Dutch and told him no way they were parking there. I don’t speak a word of Dutch but I didn’t need to to understand that conversation.
Ton and I decided to just leave François where he was and head into Albi to have a look around. Albi turned out to be a real Gem. This is why you do these trips without agendas, to find places like this. Our first stop was the Toulouse-Lautrec museum. The museum has an incredible collection of his art, because apparently the Louvre turned down the collection when his parents offered it to them. The museum is housed in the Palais de la Berbie which is the old palace of the archbishop of Albi. The building is as impressive as the art collection.
An example of the art in the Toulouse-Lautrec museum.The exterior of the Toulouse-Lautrec museum which is in the old palace of the archbishop.
Next door is the Cathedral of Albi, which is the largest brick church in the world. We went into the Cathedral and it was as impressive as the outside. We got a break as one half which usually costs 5 euro to get in was open in preperation for a concert so we got a free look at it.
We woke up to a pretty steady rain in our Aire in Cluny. Ton pointed out that I had been throwing the term Aire around in the blog when there is nothing like it in the US. An Aire is a very basic place for RV’s to park up for the night. There are thousands of them in France and they range from designated areas in parking lots with no services, to parking areas with electric, water, and dump stations. Most of them do not provide electric, but do provide a place to get rid of the waste water. A surprising amount of them are free, and the rest charge a nominal amount. The towns put them in figuring if you park up for the night you will end up dropping a few Euro somewhere in town.
Typical countryside in Beaujolais. It is as green as Oregon this time of year.
After a quick check of the weather and seeing that it was supposed to clear up shortly, we hit the road. The intent was to follow the route of one of the scenic drives in Ton’s DK Backroads France book. The drive was called the heart of France and was about 60km’s. We managed to keep on it for most of the trip though there were a couple of unexpected detours caused by missed turns.
Typical vineyard just as the bud is breaking on the vine.
Around lunch we came to Chateau de la Greffirere that advertised tasting and a museum. When we arrived we were met by a lady who asked if we spoke any French at all, when we said no, she looked a little flustered but began pouring us wine. A couple of minutes later we were greeted by another lady who completed the tasting and gave us a tour of the facilities. At the end she opened up the real prize for us and as it was lunch time handed us an English book and went off to lunch. The museum was fantastic as it was full of antique wine production equipment. We spent about an hour wandering around and really enjoyed ourselves.
Antique wine making equipment.
Leaving we continued following the Heart of France drive, but went amiss somewhere and ended up in the town of Macon. It felt more urban than anything else we have encountered so we punched in the place we planned to stop for the night and let Garmin guide us from there.
For the night we are staying at a France Passion site on a winery called Domaine Mortet. We were greeted by Jean Pierre Mortet after we parked up for the night. He was just in from the fields, but took us down into his cellar for a personal tasting. It was fun and very interesting speaking to Jean as he is a literally a one man show. He is the owner, winemaker, vineyard manager, and sales manager. He took over the winery from his father, who dropped in while we were tasting. We want to thank Jean Pierre for his hospitality.
Jean Pierre and Ton in the cave of Domaine Mortet. Thanks so much Jean Pierre.
Last night we decided to head south for the trip. It took us up to now to finalize our plans, though we are going to make daily plans so how far we move each day is up to debate. The problem is we keep finding things to do so we are not covering much distance. In fact after 6 days we are sill in Burgundy and are only 175 miles from our starting point.
Today we had two stops in mind, a cheese factory outside Dijon and the Cluny Abbey. The first stop was a factory that specializes in soft cheese manufacture. We did the self guided tour. This involved peering thru windows at workers who tried to look unimpressed and watching videos of the process. It was interesting if a little impersonal. The fun began at the end where we were given five cheeses to taste and of course some bread and wine to go with them. Ton really liked the cheeses as she likes softer cheeses. Ron is a cheddar fan which makes him pretty much a charlatan, at least in Burgundy.
Some of the workers in the plant performing one of the three cleanings each cheese gets.
Our long drive of about 60 miles began after that. On the way to Cluny we came to the town of Cormatin it was pretty well developed and we where trying to figure out why, when we saw an interesting Chateau on the river. We were already by it when we decided to go back and check it out. The signs said open, but the door to the ticket office was locked and the tourist office was also closed for lunch. So we had to settle for some photos over the fence in the parking lot before moving on to Cluny.
Looks like it would have been an interesting walk but we could not find anyone to take our 6 Euros.
Our destination for today was the Abby of Cluny. At one time the largest building in Christendom before the building of St. Peters in Rome. On arrival in town we were looking for the town aire. After much circling around including one trip into the heart of the town down narrow one way streets we found a parking lot kind of in the right part of town. It had four or five RV’s parked up so we decided why not join them.
The original church went from the point of this photo to the spire below. That spire is one of the three that were in place in the church.
We headed into town to take the Abby tour. The Abby is now mostly in ruins with only 10% of the original buildings still standing. What is there is really impressive and it does not take much imagination to see the beauty of the remainder. The rest was lost because the order that originally built it ran out of money to maintain it and they ended up selling it to the town. The town then dismantled the church and sold the stone locally and in Paris. If it was standing today in it’s finished state it would surely be one of the biggest attractions in Burgundy if not France.
A view of the town of Cluny from the tower of Fromagges next to the Abby.
When we returned to our parking lot there were only two other RV’s left so Ron came to the conclusion that this was not the aire. After some googling he got a map to the aire. When we arrived it was clearly an aire. The problem was that instead of being free as advertised it cost 10 Euro, and you had to call the town police to pay up, and failure to call in a timely manner increased the cost to 22 Euro. Eventually we found a nice lady who made the call for us. So tonight we are watching a parade of horses go by to the local stables in the town Hippodrome next door.
The jet lag is starting to wear off a bit and we were both up and moving around a little earlier. We were undecided about the day as it is supposed to rain this afternoon, and it was spitting a little this morning to give us a taste.
We did want to visit a winery and after much research Ton decided on Bernard Rion Sarl in the village of Vosnee Romanee. It was a great choice. We were met by the owners wife as we pulled up in front. She assigned us to Bastien who gave us a personal tour of the winery and poured about 8 or 9 wines for us to taste. During the pouring the wife came down and offered us some truffles and bread to go with the tasting from their kitchen. A little later the owner Bernard came in and said hello, and offered us some tips on where to find good beer in the area. We decided to buy only two bottles as we do not have a lot of room. Ron was very tempted by the Grand Cru but at 90 Euro a bottle it seemed a little extravagant for anything we could whip up in the RV. We instead settled for a couple of lessor wines that were still very good, and one we will save for a special night before we leave.
Ron pretending he is a tasting room worker in France.
As we are learning the system here we needed some more supplies so we popped in to another grocery store for some more stuff. After tasting some great wine, Ton was fascinated with the wine selection in the grocery and decided to buy a 1.99 Euro bottle to compare with what we had just tasted. We are drinking it as we write this and it is quite enjoyable, though not up to the standard of Bernard Rion Sarl.
Bird along the Canal De Bourgogne. Not a species we are familiar with.
When we arrived at Dijon the weather was not very threatening so we decided to head into town. It was about a mile and half walk mostly along the river to the old part of town. Tomorrow we are going to explore the town seriously, but today we visited the Musee Del Bel Artes in the old Duke of Bourgogne’s palace. It was a very impressive museum with great medieval art and armaments. The palace itself is massive and reflects the power the Duchy of Bourgogne had during the early Renaissance period. It was under construction so there will be more to see in the future.
The square outside the Duke of Bourgogne’s palace.
We decided to head back a little early as the sky was starting to threaten rain. We made it back just in time before a really large thunderstorm moved thru the area complete with lightning and a real gully washer of rain that would have competed with any thunderstorm in the mid-west.
We are still fighting a bit of jet lag so we had another slow start to the day. We finally hit the road about 1030 for the 120 km trip to Beaune. We told the GPS to avoid tolls so we found ourselves driving thru some really beautiful country on roads that ranged from two good lanes with passing zones every few miles to 11/2 lane roads thru small villages. We probably only averaged about 40mph but it was worth it for the view.
This stretch of road is typical with fields and small villages. This stretch was not particularly narrow.
We arrived in Beaune around lunch time with the intent of checking out the free aire, but we missed the sign going thru town despite the really light traffic. We saw the sign for the municipal campground and decided to go ahead and pay up for the night.
After a nice lunch prepared by Ton we headed into Beaune. It is a well preserved medieval city. Our primary stop for the day was going to be the Hospices De Beaune. On the walk there, and as we were entering the downtown “tourist” core suddenly there were sirens converging on the area in mass. Unfortunately in these times we were worried that something really bad was happening. As it turned out Beaune is hosting a “Police Film Festival” this weekend, and what we heard were a bunch of guys whose hobby is to fix up cars and dress like foreign police. So when we got down town we were treated to the site of a bunch of American Police cars including two NYPD, one California Highway Patrol and one LAPD cruiser. There was also a 1950’s Cadillac painted as an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Car. While the theme was definitely American there were a couple of antique French Police Cars, and a group of guys dressed up like Italian Carabiniere (national police) complete with a Maserati.
One of several “American” Police cars we came across in Beaune.
The Hospice De Beaune was built in 1443 and was active as a Hospital until 1972. The thought that went into it is quite impressive for its time and allowed it to function for over 500 years. But this being France it was partially endowed by the production of wine on site, and the wine from the Hospice is still very sought after.
The roof of the Hospice de Beaune is done in a traditional Burgundian style with colored tiles.
Ton had a restaurant on her bucket list that is near Reno. So we began our day by heading towards Gardnerville to get a Basque meal at JT Basque Restaurant. She had read about this place at a Basque Museum in Boise and she had been looking forward to the next time we passed thru Reno to give it a try. We had the family style meal which included all you could eat soup, salad, beef stew, bread, beans and French Fries, and an entree and a small bottle of wine. The food was superb and it only cost $25 per person. Ton was really pleased and crossed JT’s off her bucket list with all of her expectations met. If you are in the Reno area JT’s is worth the 45 minute drive over to Gardnerville.
After JT’s we headed over to Virginia City. It is one of the most famous boom towns from the gold rush era. At one point it had a population of over 30,000 including Mark Twain who worked at the paper in town. It is in the hills above Reno and has a great collection of mid to late 19th century buildings. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and we were impressed with the buildings and the setting. We were tempted by a couple of the saloons in town, but were too stuffed from our lunch in Gardnerville to do it. It is probably overrun with tourists in the summer, but was pleasantly quiet in January.
A saloon originally built during the gold rush still in operation in Virginia City.
Our last stop was the Costco in Sparks. We were excited because the Sparks Costco had Diesel available and our experience on our Alaska trip was that Costco had by far the cheapest diesel in any town. So after going out of our way and driving during rush hour to get there we were disappointed that the Costco fuel was actually higher than one of the major chain stations in town. This is the first time Costco has let us down.
Dylan suggested we head up to San Juan Capistrano to visit the mission there. It is about an hour north of here and you have to transit thru Camp Pendleton. The Marines were out playing today. There was an amphibious ship off shore, and we saw some ship to shore movement including some helicopters, and amphibious tractors. It brought back some nice memories for Ron.
A CH-53 helicopter stopping traffic on I-5 as it passes thru Camp Pendleton.
San Juan Capistrano is one of the best preserved of the California Missions. When the Spanish were colonizing Alta California in the 1700’s they built a string of missions along the coast about one days horse ride apart. Each mission was part fort and part Catholic church. They were designed to encourage the native Americans to convert to Catholicism. California uses the missions as part of the 4th grade curriculum for elementary schools. We remember helping Alex with the construction of his model mission when we lived in California. The mission at San Juan Capistrano used to be famous for an annual return of swallows to the mission. These days the swallows are going some where else due to urbanization around the mission.
The interior of the chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
After the mission we stopped at a couple of breweries, and swung by Walmart to buy a new water hose for Scout as our old one gave up the ghost yesterday. We have been really impressed with the quality of the breweries in San Diego.
Our final day with Dylan on this trip was the San Diego Zoo. Dylan is a member of the zoo so we were able to tag along for free using his membership. The San Diego Zoo is world famous and rightfully so. We spent 5 hours going from exhibit to exhibit. We hit all of the big animals and really enjoyed ourselves.
Impressive big cat at the San Diego Zoo.The San Diego Zoo specializes in taking care of elderly elephants. This one is over 40 years old.
Our other priority for the day was to find a fan. Our roof fan has decided to stop working and probably needs a new rain sensor, as it seems convinced it is raining and will not open. After the zoo we went to Costco and Ikea and they were both out of fans as it has been unusually warm here. Finally we found a fan at Target.
Dinner was another great meal at a seafood market and restaurant. It is an old part of town, but the food was really outstanding and the line to get end never ended while we were there. San Diego has really been a good food experience on this trip from the unexpected Thai Hamburger to the great sea food. It was good to see Dylan and we really enjoyed ourselves here.
Today we played tourists in San Francisco. We headed into the city early to beat the traffic and headed to the Embarcadero area. We lived in the “Bay Area” in the late 90’s so had done the San Francisco tours in the past with visitors. We were trying to convince our friends that they did not need to do this. Luckily they insisted as we really enjoyed ourselves.
We covered the Embarcadero area in detail, and hit a couple of the big tourist sites along the water front. It was a beautiful day so we had nice views of the bay. As we kept walking we visited the Ghiradelli chocolate factory for an ice cream sundae.
Ton liked this painting.
We ended the day at the palace of fine arts which Ton and I had never visited. It was built for the world exposition in 1913 it is quite impressive and fortunate to be still around. Originally it was built to only last for the exhibition, but people loved it so much they decided to keep it. Over time some of the love faded and the maintenance deteriorated, during World War II the army took over as it was located on military property, and used it as a motor vehicle maintenance area. After the war it had deteriorated to the point where they considered tearing it down, but fortunately did not.
One of the big tourist points Pier 39.
All of our touristing around resulted in a new step record for our friend of 30,000 steps in one day, so we decided to reward ourselves with some Chinese food for dinner. It was a really nice day.
The theme of the trip to San Diego is mornings doing touristy things and the afternoons visiting breweries. San Diego is a great town to look around and despite living only 80 miles away for 5 years we had not seen a lot of the city.
The morning we visited Balboa Park which is one of the best parks in the US. We were particularly impressed with the Prado and the Museum of Man. The buildings were built for an exposition in the 30’s and have been used for many purposes since, including a garrison and hospital during WWII. There are also many different types of gardens and fountains that are quite beautiful. Ton really loved the cactus garden though she would have like to seem some name plaques on some of the cactus that we were unable to identify.
Balboa Park in San Diego is home to some great gardens and museums.
After finishing with Balboa Park we headed out to Escondido to visit Stone Brewery. The facility was really large and impressive. The beer was ok, and the food very fancy. The tour was really good and the “beer indoctrinator” was really knowledgeable about beer and the industry. Stone brewery is quite large for a craft brewery and is in the process of opening a brewery in Berlin. I am curious how it will be received, there was a German couple on the tour and they thought it might go over ok, as there are actually not that many breweries in Berlin compared to the rest of Germany.
At the end of the day we decided that we wanted to see La Jolla and check out another brewery, luckily we were able to get the last spot available for tomorrow in the Navy RV park so we are extending in San Diego.
Today we drove the most famous stretch of PCH from Carmel to San Simeon. The weather was perfect for the drive. Ton was very impressed with the trip and I was less so. For me it was less impressive than I expected, and for Ton it was everything it was built up to be. I think the difference is that for me as the driver it was just another cliff side drive, and in fact is less challenging than the stretches north of Mendocino, and between Point Reyes and San Francisco. For the passenger who can look out the window the cliffs are higher and the vistas are grander so the view is incredible.
The famous bridge on the PCH that is featured in so many car commercials.
We stopped at what I think was a private home that had planted flowers and had some art by the road near Pacific Valley. It was really spectacular and Ton spent nearly an hour taking pictures there. Not only where there great flowers but the views of the ocean were also tremendous.
Near San Simeon we came along to a beach with thousands of elephant seals. It was fascinating watching them from up close as they lay on the beach. This colony of seals is recent with the first ones showing up in the early 90’s and growing up to 15,000 seals. This time of year the colony is mostly made up of females and juvenile males. The males are in Alaska. They come down to the colony twice a year in the spring and the late fall.
The elephant seal colony. They are just resting before swimming off to Alaska.
The last stop was Hearst Castle which is now part of the California State Park system. I guess it is interesting what unlimited money and time can do. To me it is a little over the top excess, but there are a lot of interesting art pieces that were brought in from Europe.
Today was a day to sight see around Monterey. We started by visiting Point Lobos State Reserve. Another stretch of beautiful coast with views over to Pebble Beach and out to sea. We saw more birds, sea lions, and harbor seals. We walked for a couple of hours just enjoying the view and of course taking many pictures.
Sea Lions on the rocks at Point Lobos State Reserve.
After Point Lobos Ton wanted to head over to Salinas to visit the John Steinbeck Museum. On the way we were amazed with the amount of vegetables and other crops we could not identify. I know the mid-west is supposed to be America’s bed basket, but as you drive thru it is long sections of one crop. What we always find amazing about California is the diversity of crops in small areas, I guess this makes California Americas fruit and vegetable stand.
One of the many vegetable fields we saw around Salinas.
We stopped in a great visitors center in Salinas. The place was tucked into a strip mall, but was staffed with the typical friendly people you find in all visitors centers, and had a plethora of information about the central coast and the rest of California. Ton loved the free local raisins.
The Steinbeck Museum was nice, though one of the exhibits was closed and they were preparing for a festival. I enjoyed the exhibits on his early life in Salinas and how the local area influenced his writing. But the highlight for me was seeing Rocinante Steinbeck’s truck camper he used for researching Travels With Charley this book was one of my inspirations for doing this. I only wish I had Steinbeck’s ability to write about what we are seeing, but I am sure I am not the first person who wished they could write like Steinbeck.
Finished the day by visiting Pessagno Winery. We enjoyed our talk with the tasting room manager Chris about the Salinas Valley, the Philippine influence on the local culture, and how the local people felt about Steinbeck. The wine was good also.
We ended the day with a dinner at Pebble Beach. The sunset was a bit of a disappointment, but not the day.
I planned to have an easy day in Tucson before watching the superbowl. But the game was pretty late so I looked for something to do early in the day.
Since I was on an airbase it seemed appropriate.to visit the the Pima Air Museum which has the second largest collection of airplanes in the world. On the way I drove by the boneyard. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base where I am staying is where the US stores aircraft that are not currently being used but not ready to be scrapped. Some are being held in reserve in case they are needed in the future. Some are being stored for possible sale to other countries Air Forces, and some are being harvested for spare parts for similar aircraft. There are thousands of aircraft stored here in the desert and it is quite a site. The storage area is referred to as the boneyard.
Some of the thousands of aircraft in the “boneyard” next to the campground.
The Pima Museum was very impressive, I spent about three hours wandering thru the exhibitions looking at both military and commercial aircraft. There were some interesting experimental planes, and some classics. The WWII exhibits were especially impressive. If you like planes or just like mechanical things I highly recommend the Pima Museum.
A cool strategic bomber from the late 1940’s at the Pima Air Museum.
My last adventure for the day was to try to find an ATM from my bank. It took two tries and about 10 miles of driving to find one. Scout would not fit into the drive thru so I parked and was walking up to use it when a car sped around me and cut in to beat me to the machine. Then they spent about five minutes getting ready to deposit checks while I cooled my heals in the sun standing behind them. The guy did not even have the guts to make eye contact with me while I waited for them to complete their complicated transaction from the comfort of their car.
Today is my day for jerks, as my neighbor at the campground is apparently using his truck engine as his generator to power his RV, so every hour he runs his truck for 15 minutes right outside the door of my RV even when I am sitting outside watching the Super Bowl. On top of that the team I was rooting for in the Super Bowl lost. Tucson so far has been my least favorite stop on the trip.
Today turned into a shopping day. I wanted to swing by a couple of military bases to pick up some food and stuff. Yuma has both an Army testing area, and a Marine Corps Air Station.
I started at the Army base as they have a RV camp and I needed to dump and get some water. While I was in there I asked about availability and they said they had only one spot available so I moved on to the Marines.
After a run thru there stores it was early afternoon and I had to decide what to do. I had a couple of options there is a National Wildlife Refuge in the area so I headed over to their headquarters to look at the option. The nearest place I could camp was about 90 minutes away. I checked the next option which was to head on to Organ Pipe National Monument and that was over 2 hours away. I decided to call the Army to see if they still had that spot and they did so I headed over there for the night.
The base does ordnance testing, is the sight of the armed forces High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachuting school, which is done by special operations, and interestingly the place where they test bridging equipment despite the fact that it is in the middle of the Sonora Desert.
A WWII Sherman tank on display at Yuma Proving Grounds.
At the base entrance they have an interesting display of old armor and artillery that I stopped in to take a look at. This place was a major training area during WWII with three infantry divisions going thru here before heading to Europe. I wandered thru the old equipment for a while. Included in the display was an example of the howitzer that I worked on during my first two years in the Marines.
The M101 105mm howitzer that I operated during my first two years in the Marines.
By the campground they had an interesting display of a land train concept that was trialed at this base during the early 1960’s. The concept was to have a train that did not run on rails and was capable of going across country off of roads. The thinking was that this would allow for flexible logistics. The train consisted of a command unit, two power units, and 10 wagons. The entire thing was over 500 feet long. They tested it here for 3 years before abandoning the concept.
The command unit of the land train. The back includes quarters for 6 people. The wheels are over 10 feet tall.
Well it was another gray day. The forecast was clouds and occasional showers, and they were right. Because of the weather forecast we decided to buy tickets to the Alaska Sea Life Center. It is a very nice aquarium with a focus on Alaska’s marine wildlife. The highlight of the visit today was a 3 month old orphaned walrus. We were able to watch a feeding and like all babies he was very cute.
The orphan walrus.
The rest of the day was a leisurely walk around town. Of course we visited the local brewery which was fair. The rain held off for most of the day but we called it a day pretty early and went back and gave Scout a bit of scrubbing.
Today we returned to the Chevy dealer to get the new parts installed in Scout to get the Diesel Exhaust Fluid system back in service. After a couple of hours the service representative came in and said it may be 3 or 4 more hours, and offered to have their courtesy shuttle drive us somewhere.
We decided on the Anchorage Museum. The museum was undergoing renovation, but they had a very nice display of artifacts from all of the different native groups in Alaska. The artifacts belong to the Smithsonian Museum and are on loan to Anchorage. The display was really well done and interesting. They also had a section on the relationship between Russian and Alaska. We also took a walking tour of the museum with one of the docents.
The interior of the Anchorage Museum.
We finally got Scout back about 3pm, and so with time on our hands we headed over to one of the 18 breweries in Anchorage. Odd Man Rush brewery was a hockey themed brewery with pretty good beer. The last stop for the day was the PX and Commissary at the Air Force side of the base. Gabi had told Ton that the commissary was one of the best she had seen and Ton concurred after the visit.
Last time we visited Fairbanks we were very impressed with the botanical gardens so we decided to go again. The most spectacular thing are the giant cabbages that Alaska is famous for. I think the picture tells the story pretty well.
One of the giant cabbages Alaska is famous for.
After the botanical gardens we headed over to the visitors center in Fairbanks. On this trip we have been very impressed with the network of visitors centers along the Alaska and the other highways. The Fairbanks one is really nice with the feel of both a visitors center and a museum. It also features outstanding internet, as all of them do, making them a hub for visitors in RV’s looking for free internet.
We ended the day with another visit to Fred Meyer to get some more food and supplies. Ton also was looking for some more long pants as it is colder here than she expected.
There was a slight chance of freezing rain when we went to sleep.
Today we were planning to head to Big Bend Texas but when we woke up this morning we found that the 20% chance of freezing rain had occurred and exceeded expectations. So we decided to take our time moving out and instead visit Fredericksburg Texas. Fredericksburg is in an area of the Texas Hill Country settled by Germans in the 1860’s. It is a cute little town commercializing its German heritage. It is the childhood home of Chester Nimitz who is probably one of the most underrated American military commanders in history. His father and grandfather were prominent citizens of Fredericksburg owning the main hotel in town. After the war the town decided to construct a museum to honor Nimitz. The Pacific War Museum is a very impressive museum documenting the war from its origins to post war recovery. If you are anywhere near Fredericksburg I highly recommend it.
The Nimitz house at the Pacific War Museum.
It seems that it is a tradition to name your Tiger so we have been waiting for some inspiration for a name. Today Ton came up with the name for our Tiger it is Scout. This is how she came up with it, Tiger in Thai is Seua (may not be the official transliteration), our Tiger is small so it is a young Tiger, Leuk Seua in Thai, Leuk Seua is also the Thai name for the Boy Scouts which brings us to Scout, and since a Scout is someone who explores our Tiger is Scout. The original plan was to drive without using the interstates, but we are running out of time so it looks like tomorrow we will be heading Southwest on I-10 to Big Bend National Park.
This morning we began moving north so Ron can be in Elizabethtown Kentucky for work on January 20. Ton discovered a cool concert in Granville we could go to. We told the navigator to send us on backroads only. About halfway to Granville we came across Lynchburg Tennessee which for you whiskey drinkers is the home of Jack Daniels. We swung in and took a tour of the facility. Interestingly the biggest selling whiskey in the US is in a dry county and can only sell limited addition bottles, and only give 1oz of tastes to each customer. We opted for the free no taste tour as $10 seemed a bit much for 1oz of Jack Daniels.
Ton posing with a life size cut out of Jack Daniels.
Tonight we attended the Sutton Ole Time Music Hour in Granville Tennessee. Granville is a little village on the Cumberland River, it is far off the beaten path and was slowly dying after the best farm land was covered by a dam in the 1960’s. However, the town did not die. While it is still small it has revived itself through tourism. The lake on the dam generates visitors at a couple of marinas near town. They also converted the old general store in town into a museum and visitors center. On Saturdays they host a bluegrass music concert. An old southern tradition is the live weekly concert broadcast. This is how the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville got its start. The Sutton Ole Time Music Hour is broadcast every Saturday on 15 radio stations and on the web. Everything is live including the commercials. We enjoyed the experience tremendously. Ton really enjoys bluegrass music and the music was excellent. The live experience was very interesting and enjoyable. So far one of the highlights of the trip.
