Brucato's USA Loop

September 21, 2023 – Thursday, Farmington, New Mexico   A passable breakfast (for a change) at the hotel.  Scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes.  A lovely day, with scattered cumulus clouds.   Out of Albuquerque (with many balloons in the air; the annual balloon-fest will be in early October), heading north on Highway US-550.  It turns out that R traveled this route in 1969, as he drove back to Chicago after observing at McDonald Observatory in west Texas.  A lot has changed in 54 years!   Crossed the Continental Divide – Back in the West – and heading to Chaco Canyon National Monument – site of major Indian ruins occupied between ~ 850 A.D. to 1150 A.D. by the ancestors of the present-day Pueblo peoples.  A severe drought beginning in about 1130 A.D. is the probable cause for the culture to disburse, possibly linked to the rise of Paquime in Northern Mexico.  The ruins at Chaco Canyon are huge and well-preserved, fea...

September 20, 2023 – Wednesday – Albuquerque, New Mexico   Skipped the complimentary breakfast again!  (Way too much biscuits and gravy for our taste, and as we had some leftover pizza and spaghetti in the fridge, we went that route instead!). So, we simply packed up and went down to recover our car from valet parking ($32).  This time, at least, the guy could drive a car with a manual transmission.  Away from the hotel at about 6:30 – still dark! – heading for Albuquerque, freeways all the way.   We left Oklahoma and crossed through the Texas panhandle, through Amarillo, through the home of the 72 oz steak – without stopping.  Mostly clear or partly cloudy but with increasing clouds at Albuquerque.  Checked in (room 523), unpacked and, by about 4:30, decided to head out for dinner.  (Note from M:  I did our last wash of the trip.  $2.00 per wash/dry this time, and rather than machines that took qu...

September 19, 2023 – Tuesday – Oklahoma City   Down to breakfast that, this morning, was an improvement over the past several hotels.  In addition to the usual scrambled eggs and tater-tot sorta potatoes, we finally got bacon, along with slices of hot dog-like sausage.  And the coffee was good.   We didn’t have very far to go, so we lolled around the room for a bit, watching  Disasters-Are-Us  (aka:  The Weather Channel ) as they predicted all kinds of bad weather for Oklahoma City, our goal for today.  Heavy rain, hail (up to 2-inches) but, thankfully, no tornados.   We got on the road but had a problem with Emmy, our GPS, who kept giving us crazy routes to Oklahoma City.  It took a while before we figured out that we had engaged the “No Toll Roads” feature, which is not included in the other route preferences.  And, since I-35 south of Wichita is a toll road, Emmy would touch it.  (The toll from ...

September 18, 2023 – Monday – Overland Park, Kansas   7:30 and down to breakfast.  Not bad (for a change): Scrambled eggs (for  M ), sausages and fried potatoes.  The also offered biscuits and gravy – UGH!  Apparently, we haven’t gone far enough west to get away from biscuits and gravy.   We spent an easy morning, waiting to make our move to Kaufman Stadium for the baseball game this afternoon (starts at 1:10) between the  Kansas City Royals  and  Cleveland Guardians  (no longer the  Indians ).  Parking at the ball park would cost us $30 ($20 for parking plus $10 for not having pre-paid), so we decided to take  Uber  instead of driving.  It may cost a bit more but the  Uber  drop-off/pick-up will be right at the gate (we think).     OK!  Picked up by Uber, according to plan and off to Kaufman Stadium – about 20 minutes.  A bit expensive ($28) b...

September 17, 2023 – Sunday – Overland Park, Kansas    Up at the usual time to a nice day.  The rain is gone.  We didn’t have a big travel day in front of us (about 5 ½ hours), so there was no hurry to get on the road.  The breakfast looked particularly unappetizing, so we ( M , actually) decided to do the laundry instead.  (Actually, it was a jump ball…arriving early to the new hotel and taking the chance on whether a room would be available then or not, or staying where we were for a bit and doing laundry in a very nice laundry room for a great price!  Like the first Homewood Suites, it was $1.50 per load to wash, and another $1.50 to dry – and it worked out great!  We were able to get everything washed and then checked out of the hotel and on the road about 9:15 am!)   Left the hotel at about 9:30 for a 5-hour trip from Davenport to Kansas City – freeways all the way.  Iowa, it turned out, wasn’t as ...

September 16, 2023 – Saturday – Davenport, Iowa   A very, very lazy day.  Skipped breakfast, which didn’t look attractive, and got on the road toward Davenport, freeways all the way.   The challenge was to get around Chicago but it turned out to be no problem at all.     Arrived in Davenport after a drive of a bit over 7 hours, checked in at Homewood Suites – Davenport (room 427) which was quite comfortable.  Unpacked, set up the computer and then headed out to dinner at  The Granite City Food and Brewery .  For starters, we had Asian Shrimp that we really excellent, then Cheese & Ale Soup (good) and Blue Cheese Chopped Salad (not very good) for  M , Chicken Toscano (okay) for  R .   During dinner, the skies opened up for a first-class downpour.  Fortunately, by the time we left the restaurant, the rain had eased off to a drizzle but heavy rain cells were in the area most of the evening.   Back...