Horn’s Bar & Grill.com Blog

A new horizon

This will be short but sweet.

I’m sorry I didn’t do a proper wrap-up of our trip. Time sort of got away from me. I will be looking back on pictures and souvenirs and commenting here and on the Horn’s Bar & Grill site. Keep an eye on the What’s New page.

I have spent the last 4 months sleeping on an air mattress and up until recently, working at a popular electronics store. I’ve been a chauffeur for kids, grandkids, and a great grandson. I’ve shoveled snow and changed a few diapers. A month ago came an even bigger change.

We collectively clicked our heels and found ourselves in Kansas. I’m a Tiger in the land of Jayhawks and Wildcats.

I may have to apply for dual citizenship!

Cool, colorful, Colorado

I’m not much of a rainy day person. I honestly prefer sunny days to cloudy days. But,… After several days of temps in the triple digits,… this scene looked pretty good!

We spent our first night in Grand Junction and just enjoyed the cool evening air. The next day we headed for Vail. During this last month we have made a habit of packing a lunch before we leave our hotel and stopping at rest areas along the highways. We couldn’t resist stopping at one along the Colorado River after passing so many rafters in the water.

I would have loved to have joined the crowd but I’m afraid I would have looked like this young lady most of the time.

Maybe if I had a good GPS and auto-tracking trolling motors on each corner.

While we were in Vail, we visited a local outdoor mall area. We took tons of pictures, mostly of flowers, flowing fountains, frozen bronze statues. We also visited very expensive galleries; some of the pictures cost more than any home in our old neighborhood. We talked with many out-of-state visiters. We also alloted time for some of the locals.
The fellow on my right was a little down on his luck. A rare skin condition had him out skimming for tips to pay for his expensive lotions.

He ran me off after this shot for fear that people would think I needed the money more than him. I told him to embrace change but deposit the $10’s and $20’s into a good interest bearing account. We parted on good terms.

From Vail we drove into sometimes sunny Colorado Springs. We ventured into The Garden of the Gods to take pictures of rocks and other people who came to see the rocks. Before going into Manitou Springs for lunch, we asked some of the locals for the best places to eat. They consulted for a few minutes before giving us a tip that wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

The food was good but I found myself wanting to crawl into a hole afterwards.

My next blog will be a wrap-up for the entire trip.

Backtracking the Oregon Trail… sort of

Are you ready for something colorful?

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Do you like river rafting?

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Do large rocks send shivers down your spine?

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Well… check the next blog about Colorado.

After we left Seattle we spent the night in Portland, OR. For people who live in this state or visit there with any regularity, you would not be suprised at the picture below.

Up to this point we had driven through 44 states and visited gas stations in most of them. There are some places that still offer ‘full service’… for an added fee. Imagine our surprise when Brian here told us customers were not allowed to pump their own gas in the state of Oregon. He even washed the windshield. I had to get him to slow down for the picture.

I wish I had more pictures to share. I wish I could share some of the 100+ temperatures we enjoyed while driving through Oregon, Idaho, and Utah.

As much as I love golf, I gave it a pass while Lynnette was painting with some of her painting friends in Boise. Instead, I wrote, watched HBO, ate the last of the wonderful watermelon my dear aunt Lena sent with us, then went to watch the latest X-Men movie with popcorn and a soft drink. Sitting in a cool theater watching senseless violence made much more sense.

I wish I could say lots of wonderful things about Utah but we didn’t wander out of the truck except for gas and to hurry into a cool hotel room.

We left the Salt Lake area with clouds moving in and the temperatures easing off. Four days in Colorado lay ahead of us.

Stay tuned.

Settlin’ in near Seattle

We drove a short distance down I-5 in the state of Washington for a too short of a stay with my Aunt Lena and her husband Gene.

They put up with us as well as putting us up in their home for a few days. They fed us well and made sure I had plenty of beer to drink. (Root Beer that is) All of the girls(?) dropped in at different times and were kind enough to act interested while listening to some of my boring stories.

On the left is my cousin Linda with her husband Jim. On the right is Jo with her husband Mike and their very spirited grand daughter Jadee.

Below is Debbie with her husband Doug and their son Christopher.

Now I ask you, doesn’t my cousin Mary Ann look interested in what I have to say.

While we were in town we visited a local farmers market. We took pictures of flowers and veggies. We sampled and bought some really good peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies.
It wasn’t a large market but had most of the items you would expect to see.
What I wasn’t expecting was a square full of small fountains. Dozens of kids were running through them, laughing and squealing in delight. This little girl walked across a small fountain as it activated.

Below is my cousin Christy. She waited to the last minute to come see us but it was worth the wait.

Thanks for a wonderful visit, Aunt Lena and Uncle Gene.

B. C. bopping

The title of this post could be a little misleading. We really just bopped around Vancouver and a few of it’s suburbs. Using Bellingham, WA as our home base, we gathered info and bought online tickets. Our main goal was to see a Dutch art exhibit while catching a few other sights via one of the local trolley tours.

Something I had not expected to see was the city skyline filled with so many hi-rise apartment buildings.

In the middle of our trolley tour we got off at a part of the city known as Gastown. Named for the ‘gentleman’ on the left, Gassy Jack. Things were done a little differently around there. Apartment buildings were built according to a different plan. Personally, I think they took the word efficiency to a whole new level.

We sat and had a drink in the shade and watched as several people would get off the different tour vehicles and wander about. We set out on foot to see what brought these people to this neck of the woods. To look at this picture you would think some people had never seen a steam-powered, whistling, outdoor, four-faced clock!

We wandered around for awhile to check out the many shops. The one on the left sold a wide variety of items. I was curious about the mark-up on recently expired plates.
Next, was a little cafe that struck a certain harmony. I was tempted to stop for another drink to see how well I would fit in. Honestly, I do play well with others!

Oh, well, it’s time for us to fly off into the sunset!

Mountain hopping

What do these two pictures have in common? Absolutely nothing! Well, I take that back. They were shot in the same state. They were shot on different sides of Wyoming.

In the first picture, Lynnette is standing behind me while I shot this picture of Devil’s Tower. She was telling me to get out of the way of an oncoming truck. She didn’t want anything to happen to the camera. In the other picture she got between me and this geyser in Yellowstone National Park. She didn’t want anything to happen to the camera.

The picture below is what I dreamed of doing with the camera but didn’t dare do.

Instead, I took photos of blissful elk foraging on the land.

I snapped off pictures of flowers and people with flowers. I captured multiple megabytes of vans with flowers carefully painted upon them.

I digitally ensnared mountains with glaciers running amok.

Ok, this particular glacier in Glacier National park was behaving quite nicely.

God, I love this camera.

To the Badlands

We left Omaha to spend the 4th of July in the Badlands. We had one stop along the way.

This is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The building and the immediate area around it are what I often refer to as a ‘trappey de turiste’. Actually the concept is kind of neat. Using different types of corn to create murals. I couldn’t help but get into the spirit.

The next day we put the pedal down and zipped out to Spearfish, SD. We settled in to enjoy the holiday festivities. Actually, thanks to a steady drizzle, we stayed in the first day dealing with laundry, writing and Lynnette did a little painting. We did venture into town during a short break in the weather to see what was going on.

Personally, with all of the dark, low-hanging clouds around, I thought these people were crazy to jump onto that stage. Considering there would no fireworks shot locally that weekend, the crowd might have been wishing for rain to see a little sizzle.
We did not brave the crowds to see the display at Mt Rushmore. No big deal. With an early fog coming in, nobody more that a mile away saw anything worth talking about.

The next day was another story. We ran down to Mt Rushmore early and got some good pictures.

I overheard one little girl ask who the second man from the right was. Her brother, who wasn’t much older, told her, “Robin Williams”.

Thanks to a really good tip from a guy who wore his hat real low, we stopped and got discount tickets at the park entrance. Later we discovered it involved a tour of vacation homes. We fell in love with one of the discount models and bought three weeks around spring break at a huge savings.

For a few dollars more we were gauranteed the same furnishings seen here!

Later we ran down to visit a work in progress.

As you may have guessed, this is Crazy Horse.

……………………..(in the background, silly)

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They started this project when my grandfather was a young man. Hopefully, it will be finished by the time my grandchildren are my age. I hope they use the gravel to improve some of the roads we drove across to get there!

Family ties

We took time out from our busy fact-finding mission to visit with some of my long lost relatives in Des Moines, IA and Omaha, NE. We did visit some of the local sights so I hope the IRA will still let us count this as a legit expense.

Pictured above is my aunt Lee and her husband. There is a story involving his name.

When I was a little boy, knee-high to a pachyderm, I called him uncle Clarence and he called me ‘junior’. Some time between losing my baby teeth and puberty he started calling me Alfred. I still called him Clarence. Some time after I legally entered adulthood, ‘other’ members of the family started calling him Bob while I became Al Jr. After my dad passed away, family started calling me Al and I began to refer to him as uncle Bob. I didn’t want to be one of the odd men out. (now my brothers Dave and Tom are the odd ones)

Before we left town we dropped by to see two of my cousins, Glenda, and Karla.

I would tell you which one was witch but it’s been over a week and I’m doing good just to remember their names. I do recall drinking some chocolate ale. That’s the part I would like to forget.

On our way to Omaha, we got side-tracked long enough to visit Winterset, IA. In addition to having a really nice town square, this town is the boyhood home of John Wayne. A fact they are proud to share with anybody that drives through town.

Well, partner… I think even the Duke would be proud.

Later that day we cruised into Omaha and had dinner with my aunt Verda, (the one in the middle) my cousin Lisa, (the one on the right) and her husband, Duane. (the other one)

The next post will feature stops in South Dakota. Do you think the laddies in Ireland will appreciate it? That might be a little spooky!

Catching up

The last couple of weeks have been very fast paced. I am three weeks behind and will be taking the next ten days to get caught up.

After taking some time off to visit with friends and family, we headed for Peoria, IL to a conference for the Society of Decorative Painters. Would you like to see what all goes on? Let me show you:

I know, there is not much to see. I snapped this picture and the Painters Police told me that cameras weren’t allowed. Then she wanted to know who I was. My “Horn, Al Horn” routine didn’t go over very well. The idea of keeping my camera out wouldn’t have bothered me so much if it hadn’t been for the three or four hundred women running around with cell phone cameras flashing away. I’ll bet if I had been a girl they would have treated me different!

After the conference ended we scooted up to the famous(?) Wisconsin Dells. The whole area reminded me of Branson, MO without all of the country music halls. We took an outside adventure tour and discovered something a little strange.

As if ducks could read!

From the Dells we skipped over to Minneapolis to visit Lynnettes ancestral grounds. We found a couple of tomestones that tied a few things together for her. We spent the rest of the day looking for the farm she visited every summer. Things had changed a lot since she was a little girl. Familiar landmarks had changed or been torn down. We were about to give up when we turned down the last road worth investigating. The only way she could recognize the place was because they still employed the same kind of summer help. We caught them on a short break:

I ran out and told them if they unionized they could strike for better conditions. They just looked at me like they didn’t understand a word I was saying.

Next we drove up to Fargo, ND. We did this because it fit our route for seeing all of the lower 48 states. As it turned out, we got more than we bargained for. Lynnette had been there years ago on business and had heard they were building a replica of a viking ship in a Nordic museum. With nothing else on our agenda, we decided to visit. We hit a jackpot.

The museum was sponsoring a Nordic festival with people in costumes and authentic foods. They also had live entertainment. We watched a young woman from Iceland perform an interpretive dance. Later we caught a teen rock group on stage.

The young man is playing an instrument called a ‘kantele’. It’s like an electric harp. This guy was laying down some pretty mean Santana riffs.

Up next, a visit with some long lost relatives. (They couldn’t hide from me forever!)

Time off… to be a kid.

Again, this post is coming late. I could write over a thousand words to describe the two weeks since we left Niagara Falls. Instead, I’ll post a thousand pictures.

Would you believe a dozen?

After we left the Falls we headed for Louisville, Kentucky to spend some time with friends. Lynnette did a lot of painting, I played a lot of golf. We also got caught up in several mudslides. The kind you sip on over friendly conversation.

Our host, Ann and Ernie took us to see some of the countryside as well as some interesting sights in Louisville.

Some of the other locals appeared to be rather dense.

Trying to get simple directions left one fellow in mental gridlock.

This trip we have made some rather amazing discoveries.

I rather like this simple, unassuming exhibit we found at the art museum at the University of Louisville.

After Louisville we headed back to the midwest and some pleasant time with our grandkids.

From here we are headed north. Stay tuned.