Taken in the two Best Westerns we stayed in on the way down...
Thought you might enjoy this
Monday, February 28, 2011
Got this gnome as a gift from my sons....He is a Winnipeg Blue Bomber traveling gnome now....
Taken in the two Best Westerns we stayed in on the way down...
Taken in the two Best Westerns we stayed in on the way down...
3rd day of travel
Got up at 6 this morning and had the continental breakfast at the Hotel...pretty typical but a few hot dishes.
We were on the road by 7:30 and traffic was very light as it was Sunday. No problem getting around Dallas and Fort Worth..during the week that can be brutal. As we approached the toll road by-pass for Austin, we decided to skip that as the traffic was not too bad and the gps was not reporting any delays whatsoever. We stayed on I35 and got to the factory outlets at San Marcos around 11:30.
Katie got her favorite sandals which she just loves..they are sketchers..she also got a different style. Went to Under Armour got T shirts for the boys, and one for Jim. Noticed that the prices in general seem to be up from last year...not as many deals.
Went to Katie's favorite store of all time, and it requires Jim to be patient, while tops are taken off bottles, and lots of sniffing going on. Scents are rubbed on arms...testers are tried...and finally there is a large bill at the checkout. We're talking Bath and Body Works of course. This is a good stop for Katie as the prices are good and they have some products at this store that they don't have anywhere else.
We met Bob and Joan at Starbucks, sat outside and had a nice chat, getting caught up on each others lives since we saw them last.
Katie and I had been debating about whether to stay overnight in San Marcos or keep driving to our mobile home. It was still pretty early, and shopping was done, so we elected to drive. Got the GPS to tell us where there was a Cracker Barrel Restaurant on route, so 30 miles later we were there. For those of you who have never been to one, you are missing a good spot. Prices are good, portions large and the food is very much like Grandma made. We had the roast beef dinner and it was very good as usual.
Got around San Antonio pretty well, traffic was medium but no real problem and no delays. As we were on 281 South of San Antonio which should not be too busy at all, the GPS reported about as 10 minute delay. After a few minutes it said no delay. Around 15 miles further south, we discovered why....There was a car rolled over in the ditch, which lots of Police, and Fire Trucks present. It was down to one lane, but things were well in hand so no real delay now.
We arrived at our Mobile around 7:45 and unpacked the car. It was nice and cool in the trailer, and we thought that was odd, as the temperature today was 36 C and humid. We later found out the reason, our friend Terry was considerate enough to come over and turn on the lights, water heater, and air conditioning, on a hunch that we would arrive Sunday night instead of Monday. Very much appreciated!
Off we went to HEB the supermarket to get groceries. When we returned Terry was just rounding the corner in his golf cart to check on things...what a coincidence same thing happened last year...we came around the corner and so did he at the same time.
Spent the rest of the night getting organized...then off to bed for the weary travelers.
more later...and another great day in the valley!
We were on the road by 7:30 and traffic was very light as it was Sunday. No problem getting around Dallas and Fort Worth..during the week that can be brutal. As we approached the toll road by-pass for Austin, we decided to skip that as the traffic was not too bad and the gps was not reporting any delays whatsoever. We stayed on I35 and got to the factory outlets at San Marcos around 11:30.
Katie got her favorite sandals which she just loves..they are sketchers..she also got a different style. Went to Under Armour got T shirts for the boys, and one for Jim. Noticed that the prices in general seem to be up from last year...not as many deals.
Went to Katie's favorite store of all time, and it requires Jim to be patient, while tops are taken off bottles, and lots of sniffing going on. Scents are rubbed on arms...testers are tried...and finally there is a large bill at the checkout. We're talking Bath and Body Works of course. This is a good stop for Katie as the prices are good and they have some products at this store that they don't have anywhere else.
We met Bob and Joan at Starbucks, sat outside and had a nice chat, getting caught up on each others lives since we saw them last.
Katie and I had been debating about whether to stay overnight in San Marcos or keep driving to our mobile home. It was still pretty early, and shopping was done, so we elected to drive. Got the GPS to tell us where there was a Cracker Barrel Restaurant on route, so 30 miles later we were there. For those of you who have never been to one, you are missing a good spot. Prices are good, portions large and the food is very much like Grandma made. We had the roast beef dinner and it was very good as usual.
Got around San Antonio pretty well, traffic was medium but no real problem and no delays. As we were on 281 South of San Antonio which should not be too busy at all, the GPS reported about as 10 minute delay. After a few minutes it said no delay. Around 15 miles further south, we discovered why....There was a car rolled over in the ditch, which lots of Police, and Fire Trucks present. It was down to one lane, but things were well in hand so no real delay now.
We arrived at our Mobile around 7:45 and unpacked the car. It was nice and cool in the trailer, and we thought that was odd, as the temperature today was 36 C and humid. We later found out the reason, our friend Terry was considerate enough to come over and turn on the lights, water heater, and air conditioning, on a hunch that we would arrive Sunday night instead of Monday. Very much appreciated!
Off we went to HEB the supermarket to get groceries. When we returned Terry was just rounding the corner in his golf cart to check on things...what a coincidence same thing happened last year...we came around the corner and so did he at the same time.
Spent the rest of the night getting organized...then off to bed for the weary travelers.
more later...and another great day in the valley!
2nd day of travel
Saturday, February 26, 2011
We left Omaha this morning around 8, still quite a bit of melting snow..but roads were still decent for travel.
Around noon we spotted a large Indian Casino, the Kickapoo Reserve, so we just had to stop, after missing the trip to the Casino in Council Bluffs last night. Well of course Jim just holds his own, but Katie's usual luck prevails and we walk out after an hour with $140 profit.
After a few hours, the snow started to disappear and the temperature started rising. Good day of travel and we arrived at the Best Western in Denton called Best Western Premiere...and wow...is it ever Premiere! This is one of the nicest rooms in a hotel I have ever been in. The room is huge, decorated like a show home! We took some pictures which I will post when I get time. Wireless unlike last night, and Continental breakfast which includes omelets made to order. Got a really good rate...would stay here again anytime!!!
Temperature is 21 C, Katie and I had supper outside at Rudy's Barbeque...smoked turkey sandwhich and potato salad...it was excellent!
Katie drove a couple of hours today, which gave me a break as I was really tired. That break refreshed me to the point I was fine for the rest of the day.
Soon to bed...4.5 hour drive tomorrow to San Marcos...we are meeting a couple of friends, Bob and Joan for coffee.
more later...
Around noon we spotted a large Indian Casino, the Kickapoo Reserve, so we just had to stop, after missing the trip to the Casino in Council Bluffs last night. Well of course Jim just holds his own, but Katie's usual luck prevails and we walk out after an hour with $140 profit.
After a few hours, the snow started to disappear and the temperature started rising. Good day of travel and we arrived at the Best Western in Denton called Best Western Premiere...and wow...is it ever Premiere! This is one of the nicest rooms in a hotel I have ever been in. The room is huge, decorated like a show home! We took some pictures which I will post when I get time. Wireless unlike last night, and Continental breakfast which includes omelets made to order. Got a really good rate...would stay here again anytime!!!
Temperature is 21 C, Katie and I had supper outside at Rudy's Barbeque...smoked turkey sandwhich and potato salad...it was excellent!
Katie drove a couple of hours today, which gave me a break as I was really tired. That break refreshed me to the point I was fine for the rest of the day.
Soon to bed...4.5 hour drive tomorrow to San Marcos...we are meeting a couple of friends, Bob and Joan for coffee.
more later...
first day on the road
Quite the day. Left home pretty much on schedule, very cold -29C but warm in the car. Got to the border with only a couple of cars ahead of us in line, one or two got pulled into the garage for a good search, but my honest face and excellent ability to lie about the 4 bananas we had in the car...and we sailed right through.
Seems odd to me that the US allows millions of products including fish and food stuffs to be imported from all sorts of countries especially China, with not enough inspectors, but for many years you always get the question at the border about whether you have any fruit in the car...but I digress.
Not that much snow around Grand Forks and Fargo, but in South Dakota...much more. Roads were great, but strange weather with light snow sometimes, sun sometimes, very overcast sometimes. When we got about 45 miles from Omaha, snow started heavier, visibility somewhat restricted but no real problem for us. Mostly slush by the time we got near our hotel.
Tom (tomtom)took us right to the hotel no problem, good thing too, kind of tricky set of exits from the freeway. We checked in with our Air Miles Best Western Travel Cards, the desk clerk was able to make a conversion from Cdn $100 value on the card to US dollars so we ended up with a card being worth $101.78. Hotel was $78 so we end up with a credit on the card.
Up to the room, really nice room, new, large, and clean. After our preliminary search for bedbugs...I know many of you will not care or are willing to take a chance with this new nationwide real problem...we are not...the worse thing that can happen is that you take them home with you. This is a serious problem and expensive to try and deal with. So we inspected the bed, and lifted off the headboard which is easy and only takes a few minutes. No signs were found.
If any of you are unaware and want to educate yourselves...look here
http://bedbugregistry.com and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kk7i2eiufA....just because it is a 5 star hotel means nothing.
Now to try and get the Live Services working on the GPS....oops we try and dial the 1-800 number for TomTom, but it won't work on the phone, so the front desk sends a maintenance man to change the phone...he does with some strange comments...and still doesn't work. So we change rooms...still doesn't work...pain in the A...So we tell the front desk they should contact the phone company. They do...and after half hour or so..the phone company reboots something and fixes it for the whole hotel.
Now to make a long story short...and leaving out many frustrating details...I finally get Live services up and running.
Now we find out there is no wireless in the room, so you have to be hard wired. That means that one of us at a time can use the computer, not Katie on hers and me on mine....grrrrr. Never seen this before, virtually all chains have wireless in the room.
I bought a Tracfone...what a deal $15 with double minutes for life...bluetooth and a free bluetooth ear device. So a 60 minute purchase with 90 day expiry turned out to be 120 minutes. We are going to waste minutes but want it for emergencies on the road mainly. We activated that on the net once we got hooked up, with little difficulty.
We were going to go the Casinos in Council Bluffs across the river, but by the time we finished with all the problems we were having it was too late, and we were too tired...bummer.
We went downstairs to eat, there is a Perkins actually attached to the hotel and you get 10 percent off because you are a hotel desk. So no continental breakfast at the hotel on account of Perkins being there.
Gas prices on the way down ranged from $3.19 to $3.35...certainly way up from our trip last year by about $2.00/gal.
Even though the bed was good, king size with lots of pillows and quality bedding, it was hot in the room and could not get it cooled off. It has a central unit not the normal, noisy, through the wall kind. Don't know why it wouldn't get cooler but made for a very restless sleep, lots of awake asleep time, so I am really tired and not so much looking forward to 10 hour drive. Just glad we made it 10 and not try and push it and make it 13.
Used Google phone, which is part of google email to phone home last night. It is free works over the internet, is extremely clear with no delay between talking and receiving...I will use it instead of Skype because you can dial any phone directly without having to have money in an account like you do with Skype. Of course with Skype you can do it free computer to computer, but the other person has to be at the computer...this way, you just dial the phone with google's dialer and you are in business. It is excellent. It is free for calls to Canada for the next year, then they may start charging for it.
Forecast for Omaha...Cloudy. Snow likely and chance of light freezing drizzle in the morning...then snow likely in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Highs in the upper 20s. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent....but we will be in Texas tonight so looking forward to warmer temperatures and no snow.
more later...
Just had to add this...when we were getting ready this morning...Katie went to have a shower...oh joy!!! no water. We had to phone the front desk and they sent up a key so we could shower in the room next door.
When we checked out, they bought us breakfast as Perkins which was fine with us and we enjoyed it.
Seems odd to me that the US allows millions of products including fish and food stuffs to be imported from all sorts of countries especially China, with not enough inspectors, but for many years you always get the question at the border about whether you have any fruit in the car...but I digress.
Not that much snow around Grand Forks and Fargo, but in South Dakota...much more. Roads were great, but strange weather with light snow sometimes, sun sometimes, very overcast sometimes. When we got about 45 miles from Omaha, snow started heavier, visibility somewhat restricted but no real problem for us. Mostly slush by the time we got near our hotel.
Tom (tomtom)took us right to the hotel no problem, good thing too, kind of tricky set of exits from the freeway. We checked in with our Air Miles Best Western Travel Cards, the desk clerk was able to make a conversion from Cdn $100 value on the card to US dollars so we ended up with a card being worth $101.78. Hotel was $78 so we end up with a credit on the card.
Up to the room, really nice room, new, large, and clean. After our preliminary search for bedbugs...I know many of you will not care or are willing to take a chance with this new nationwide real problem...we are not...the worse thing that can happen is that you take them home with you. This is a serious problem and expensive to try and deal with. So we inspected the bed, and lifted off the headboard which is easy and only takes a few minutes. No signs were found.
If any of you are unaware and want to educate yourselves...look here
http://bedbugregistry.com and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kk7i2eiufA....just because it is a 5 star hotel means nothing.
Now to try and get the Live Services working on the GPS....oops we try and dial the 1-800 number for TomTom, but it won't work on the phone, so the front desk sends a maintenance man to change the phone...he does with some strange comments...and still doesn't work. So we change rooms...still doesn't work...pain in the A...So we tell the front desk they should contact the phone company. They do...and after half hour or so..the phone company reboots something and fixes it for the whole hotel.
Now to make a long story short...and leaving out many frustrating details...I finally get Live services up and running.
Now we find out there is no wireless in the room, so you have to be hard wired. That means that one of us at a time can use the computer, not Katie on hers and me on mine....grrrrr. Never seen this before, virtually all chains have wireless in the room.
I bought a Tracfone...what a deal $15 with double minutes for life...bluetooth and a free bluetooth ear device. So a 60 minute purchase with 90 day expiry turned out to be 120 minutes. We are going to waste minutes but want it for emergencies on the road mainly. We activated that on the net once we got hooked up, with little difficulty.
We were going to go the Casinos in Council Bluffs across the river, but by the time we finished with all the problems we were having it was too late, and we were too tired...bummer.
We went downstairs to eat, there is a Perkins actually attached to the hotel and you get 10 percent off because you are a hotel desk. So no continental breakfast at the hotel on account of Perkins being there.
Gas prices on the way down ranged from $3.19 to $3.35...certainly way up from our trip last year by about $2.00/gal.
Even though the bed was good, king size with lots of pillows and quality bedding, it was hot in the room and could not get it cooled off. It has a central unit not the normal, noisy, through the wall kind. Don't know why it wouldn't get cooler but made for a very restless sleep, lots of awake asleep time, so I am really tired and not so much looking forward to 10 hour drive. Just glad we made it 10 and not try and push it and make it 13.
Used Google phone, which is part of google email to phone home last night. It is free works over the internet, is extremely clear with no delay between talking and receiving...I will use it instead of Skype because you can dial any phone directly without having to have money in an account like you do with Skype. Of course with Skype you can do it free computer to computer, but the other person has to be at the computer...this way, you just dial the phone with google's dialer and you are in business. It is excellent. It is free for calls to Canada for the next year, then they may start charging for it.
Forecast for Omaha...Cloudy. Snow likely and chance of light freezing drizzle in the morning...then snow likely in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Highs in the upper 20s. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent....but we will be in Texas tonight so looking forward to warmer temperatures and no snow.
more later...
Just had to add this...when we were getting ready this morning...Katie went to have a shower...oh joy!!! no water. We had to phone the front desk and they sent up a key so we could shower in the room next door.
When we checked out, they bought us breakfast as Perkins which was fine with us and we enjoyed it.
Tomorrow
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Well...we're off in the morning. Looks like the travelling weather will be fine...just cold but matters not.
We will have the car all packed tonight, and plan to leave no later than 7 in the morning. Hopefully there won't be too much wait at the Border.
Will pick up a Tracphone in Grand Forks, and we have our reservation at Best Western in Omaha. We will be taking a short jaunt across the river to one of Concil Bluffs Casinos so Katie can win some $$.
more later...
We will have the car all packed tonight, and plan to leave no later than 7 in the morning. Hopefully there won't be too much wait at the Border.
Will pick up a Tracphone in Grand Forks, and we have our reservation at Best Western in Omaha. We will be taking a short jaunt across the river to one of Concil Bluffs Casinos so Katie can win some $$.
more later...
Mostly all packed...2 more getups
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
We have mostly everything packed...just a matter of packing toiletries and electronics on Thursday. I have lots of electronics as I am a gadget guy.
Time to get my ears lowered tomorrow(haircut)and get the exterior of the car washed.
Went for my usual 40 minute walk today, really cold wind, and was thinking by this time next week will already have been in the sunshine and warmth for a couple of days.
Also did some time on the eliptical.
Katie is working overtime all this week at work so she will be good and ready for a holiday come Friday.
Booked another Best Western in Denton,Tx today, again only reason is because the cancellation policy is the day of.
Looks like we're going to have decent weather Friday for traveling.
Time to get my ears lowered tomorrow(haircut)and get the exterior of the car washed.
Went for my usual 40 minute walk today, really cold wind, and was thinking by this time next week will already have been in the sunshine and warmth for a couple of days.
Also did some time on the eliptical.
Katie is working overtime all this week at work so she will be good and ready for a holiday come Friday.
Booked another Best Western in Denton,Tx today, again only reason is because the cancellation policy is the day of.
Looks like we're going to have decent weather Friday for traveling.
Good thing we're not leaving today
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Blizzard warnings North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota...not good.
Today we're going to start the packing process so we don't have to scramble come Wednesday and Thursday. Time to get the suitcases out of storage and get them packed as much as possible. Car is cleaned out already. Get golf clubs all ready to go...note to self...don't forget the foot wedge.
As always...going to try and pack economically...only what we need...yeah right!
Today we're going to start the packing process so we don't have to scramble come Wednesday and Thursday. Time to get the suitcases out of storage and get them packed as much as possible. Car is cleaned out already. Get golf clubs all ready to go...note to self...don't forget the foot wedge.
As always...going to try and pack economically...only what we need...yeah right!
7 days to go...more prep
Friday, February 18, 2011
Katie and I like listening to audio books on the way down to Texas and back. It really helps to kill the time on long drives. Yesterday I got my Sansa Clip Plus which I use everyday when I go for walks(also listening to audio books) and loaded it up with books for our trip.
Today...went down to the garage and spent about an hour or so getting the car all cleaned out and organized. Next week it will be all washed up on Thursday in preparation for Friday morning departure.
Today...went down to the garage and spent about an hour or so getting the car all cleaned out and organized. Next week it will be all washed up on Thursday in preparation for Friday morning departure.
2nd step in preparations
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Last year I got a great deal on a new TomTom Gps unit which had a feature called "Live Services". This feature gives you the current weather, shows traffic congestion ahead, and offers alternate routes to get around the traffic congestion if it is too long. It also offers current gas prices so you can stop where it is most reasonable where you happen to be(we found this feature to not always be the most reliable).
Another excellent feature which we used several times is the ability to search google for addresses and/or points of interest, this worked extremely well for us.
This feature is a subscription feature and comes free for three months with the Gps. That is how I used it last year. Because I liked the feature I decided to subscribe on a month to month basis this year for $9.95/mth. You can sub for 6 months or a year but that is of no use to me because the feature is not available in Canada...it runs through AT&T. You have to give them one month notice for cancellation so this year the feature will cost approx $20.00 to cover all the days of our trip which span two months incl. traveling time.
I phoned TomTom support yesterday to accomplish this, and received excellent support, so we should be all set to use this feature again when we get to the US.
Another excellent feature which we used several times is the ability to search google for addresses and/or points of interest, this worked extremely well for us.
This feature is a subscription feature and comes free for three months with the Gps. That is how I used it last year. Because I liked the feature I decided to subscribe on a month to month basis this year for $9.95/mth. You can sub for 6 months or a year but that is of no use to me because the feature is not available in Canada...it runs through AT&T. You have to give them one month notice for cancellation so this year the feature will cost approx $20.00 to cover all the days of our trip which span two months incl. traveling time.
I phoned TomTom support yesterday to accomplish this, and received excellent support, so we should be all set to use this feature again when we get to the US.
First step in travel preparations
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Katie and I decided not to push the driving too hard...so we basically broke up the trip into two 10 hour days(approx)then a 4.5 hour day which lands us in San Marcos, TX, where the hundreds of Factory Outlet Stores are...then either continue driving to our destination(another 4.5 hours) or stay overnight in San Marcos and get to our Mobile Home around noon on Monday(this being the more likely option).
At this time of the year, of course, all depends on the weather. I won't book any hotels in advance if their cancellation policy is the day before arrival. Can't predict that with the uncertainty of the weather.
This year we got 6 $100 cards for Best Western from Airmiles. Good thing about them is there is no expiry date, and if the hotel is less..the balance stays on the cards...if more, then you just pay the difference.
We plan to drive to Council Bluffs, Iowa the first day which is about a 9.5 or 10 hour drive. We previously stayed at a Best Western there on the way home, but we were not that crazy about the location, or the room...so I booked the Best Western Kelly Inn right across the river in Omaha Nebraska. The cancellation policy is 4PM on the day of arrival, so that is fine with me, if we get delayed we can always cancel. This hotel gets good ratings.
Council Bluffs has several big casinos, and seeing as Katie is lucky at virtually any casino we ever go to, we will likely spend an hour or two,after we arrive. Notice I didn't say that I am lucky at casinos.
So we have 8 days left to departure...looking forward to it.
At this time of the year, of course, all depends on the weather. I won't book any hotels in advance if their cancellation policy is the day before arrival. Can't predict that with the uncertainty of the weather.
This year we got 6 $100 cards for Best Western from Airmiles. Good thing about them is there is no expiry date, and if the hotel is less..the balance stays on the cards...if more, then you just pay the difference.
We plan to drive to Council Bluffs, Iowa the first day which is about a 9.5 or 10 hour drive. We previously stayed at a Best Western there on the way home, but we were not that crazy about the location, or the room...so I booked the Best Western Kelly Inn right across the river in Omaha Nebraska. The cancellation policy is 4PM on the day of arrival, so that is fine with me, if we get delayed we can always cancel. This hotel gets good ratings.
Council Bluffs has several big casinos, and seeing as Katie is lucky at virtually any casino we ever go to, we will likely spend an hour or two,after we arrive. Notice I didn't say that I am lucky at casinos.
So we have 8 days left to departure...looking forward to it.
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