Colorado Springs

For being a rather small city, Colorado Springs has a lot to offer. First of all it is located in a spectacular setting, right at the foot of the Rockies. From almost anywhere in town you get a stunning view of this majestic mountain range. Attractions locally include Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods and the Cave of Winds...not to mention the rollicking Flying "W" Ranch. It is also the home of the Air Force Academy, the Olympic Training Center and Focus on the Family. Not bad for a town that plays second fiddle to Denver. This is our second trip to Colorado Springs and since we visited Pike's Peak on the last visit, we spent our time this year at the Air Force Academy and the Garden of the Gods. Both of these are absolute "do not miss" venues if you travel this way. We had heard of the beauty and grandeur of the Cadet Chapel at the AFA and it truly lives up to its reputation. Not only is the Chapel absolutely beautiful, but if offers that wonderful feeling of solitude, restfulness and holiness. A wonderful place to worship Almighty God. We found it quite ironic that in a country that seems to be doing everything it can to remove God from our public life, that here at this military academy, the House of God is right in the center of everything...is the most beautiful building on campus...and is the tallest building and can be see from just about everywhere. If only the rest of the country would take note. Following the AFA visit we drove through the Garden of the Gods. Here you find beautiful and colorful rock formations and an area that is a hikers dream. They allow hikers to traverse just about every inch of this very unique park. We have really enjoyed our time in Colorado Springs and look forward to returning.

Kansas City #2

Today was a beautiful day in Kansas City! Our destination this morning was Independence, the home of our 33rd President, Harry S. Truman. We toured the Truman Museum and Library, stopped at the Truman home where Harry and Bess lived all of their married life, and drove through Independence. The Library and Museum was wonderful. Every aspect of Truman's long and varied career was carefully laid out and documented. His was a turbulent presidency, not unlike George W. Bush, and he left office with a very low approval rating...again, not unlike Bush. It was not until later when the eyes of history became more clear did everyone start to realize what a tough and good job Harry S. had done. Personally, I think history will treat Bush the same way. I have included a picture of the home in which Harry and Bess spent their life together. As you drive the couple of blocks from the Truman home into downtown Independence you feel like you stepped back in time about 50 years. It is as if in 1953 when the Truman's returned from Washington they stopped all of the clocks and they have never been restarted. However...this small, historic town does have a wonderful calm and unhurried feel about it. We have truly enjoyed this short visit to Kansas City a city we found most comfortable and very interesting.

Kansas City #1

As Rogers and Hammerstein once said, "Everything is up to date in Kansas City!" We arrived just after noon today from St. Louis and set out a little later for our first tour of the city. First stop...naturally...was the Truman Sports Complex which houses the stadiums for both the Royals and the Chiefs...side by side with a huge parking lot. This makes so much sense as no matter which team is playing there is plenty of parking for everybody. Then it was downtown to the Crown Center which is, probably, the entertainment, restaurant, office, shopping and apartment center of the city. It is also the home of the center piece of Kansas City industry, Hallmark Cards. We did a tour of the Hallmark visitor center and really enjoyed a walk through the history of the company, their cards, television shows and every other aspect of their empire. They even had working presses and explained how cards are made from concept to final print. We found downtown KC to be very nice, clean, and a good mixture of very new and very old buildings and good wide streets. Then it was time for the grand finale...dinner at the restaurant that food critic and author Calvin Trillin called the best restaurant in America...Arthur Bryant's Bar-B-Q. As you can see in the picture, the wait in line was about 30 minutes, but worth every minute. I will have to explain in person the entire process and exquisite taste as I just can't put it in writing. Oh well, the perfect ending to a perfect day. God is so good!

St. Louis

We have found that RV Parks associated with casinos are usually very nice…and this is no exception. We are staying at the Casino Queen RV Park which is located directly across the river from downtown St. Louis. From our coach we have a wonderful view of the downtown skyline and the famous St. Louis Arch. We visited the Arch and the beautiful park in which it is located shortly after we arrived. First of all…I don’t know what we expected, but what we found was certainly much bigger than we had imagined. The Arch is huge!! It is 630 feet tall…that’s 63 stories…making for one big hummer Arch! The rather large park that surrounds it is also very nice. I have included a typical view of the park in the attached pictures. Just a couple of blocks from The Arch is Busch Stadium, the home of the baseball Cardinals. I was not aware of the several statues out front honoring some of the great Cardinal players, which is a rather nice touch. I am not sure where the fans park when they come to games as the stadium is right in the middle of downtown St. Louis…but, I guess after all of these years they have it figured out. On the second day we visited Forest Park, which is a very large (larger than Central Park in New York) and very lovely park. It contains, among other things, a cricket field, tennis courts, golf course, history museum, art museum, science center and the St. Louis Zoo, which was our destination. This has to be one of the primo zoos in all of the US. I was very impressed with the design and layout, which bore a striking resemblance to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I would guess that Disney paid a visit here when they were in the design stages for the park. For anyone who visits St. Louis after you see the Arch do not miss the zoo…it is well worth the visit. We also found that driving in downtown St. Louis was reminiscent of driving in Dallas…not nearly as much traffic as you would think there would be. I think downtown Bowling Green was more congested than St. Louis. We have enjoyed two great days here (including dinner at the Casino Queen Buffet restaurant) and will be off to Kansas City next.

FMCA Convention

The Family Motor Coach Association conventions are always fun. This is the fourth one that we had attended and we always enjoy them. In case you are wondering exactly what goes on at one of these gatherings let me explain. There are four days of seminars that range in subject matter from health care, crafts, photography and cooking to all forms of RV technical topics such as batteries, refrigeration, electrical systems, inverters and coach maintenance. In addition the major coach body and engine manufacturers have seminars to give tips on how to maintain their products. All of the major motorhome manufacturers have their new coaches on display…and for sale. Some of the most fun is just wandering through all of the vendor areas where everything you could possible image a motorhome owner ever wanting or needing is for sale. Each night there is special entertainment with one evening featuring the main headliner, which this year was country singer Lorrie Morgan. As busy as all of this sounds, so much of the fun is just renewing old friendships. This year I was the moderator at two of the seminars: Towing Roundtable and Supplemental Towed Car Braking. I am sure that these may sound like topics that would put you to sleep…but, not if you owned a motorhome. As a member of the Marketing Strategy committee, I was also part of a team presentation seminar giving tips and information as to how current members can reach out to other motorhome owners to generate new members. Each of these conventions usually attracts between four and six thousand people…which means that it takes a lot of space to park between two and three thousand motorhomes. This is the first time that the convention has been held here in Bowling Green, Ohio, on the campus of Bowling Green State University. All of the students and staff of the University who have been assisting us have just gone out of their way to be accommodating and are so very nice and helpful. The university grounds are absolutely lovely. Lots of new buildings surrounded by quiet, tree lined sidewalks and roads. The setting is the perfect picture of the small college in a small college town. We have had a great time and look forward to returning. Next we are off to St. Louis with a one night stop along the way in Indianapolis.

Air Force Museum

What a place! I never knew that many airplanes existed. Without question this has to be one of the finest museums in the world. It would literally take several days to see everything, read everything and view every video in this magnificent celebration of the history of the U. S. Air Force. We only spent five hours and just skimmed everything by quickly walking by the aircraft on display which range from early Wright Brothers planes right up to the B-2 Stealth Bomber. There are three hangers filled with planes all arranged by time period...from Early Aviation right on up through WWI, WWII, Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq. We also got there early enough to sign up for the tour of the presidential planes. There were four Air Force Ones that we walked through: Ones used by Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and the big jet used by Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Carter. In walking through it we saw the area where Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president after the assignation of John Kennedy in Dallas. So much history...it was a strange feeling. The pictures show the three huge hangers that house the museum, me standing in front of a B-17, the type of plane my father flew when he trained crews during WWII, a B-29 like the one used to drop the atomic bomb...complete with an atomic bomb so you can see the size, and Air Force One. I have a lot more pictures that I will try and post in a Facebook album. Needless to say, we were both very impressed with how well everything was presented. Tomorrow we are off to Bowling Green, Ohio for the FMCA convention.

Nashville...#2

Yahoo, Buckeroos! We just returned from a night at the Grand Ole Opry...and what a show. On stage were Riders In The Sky, Jim Ed Brown, George Hamilton IV, and some newer stars that really had the camera phones of the young ladies in the audience popping. It was a great way to wrap up two wonderful days in Nashville. Last night we had dinner with an old boss and good friend, Jerry Norman and his lovely wife, Nancy. We had some of the best catfish and "fixin's" that you will find anywhere. Jerry also gave us a terrific tour of downtown Nashville and the world famous Music Row which is were Jerry's company is based. This morning we headed out to The Hermitage...the home of Andrew Jackson. This was a tour that we will not soon forget. So much history in this lovely home and surrounding acreage. The tour included personal audio units that would give you intricate details of all that we were seeing...each room in the house and the surrounding buildings as well as the history of the people who lived at and worked this large estate. Jackson's wife Rachel loved to work in the garden which is kept today in beautiful shape. A lovely home...and a slice of history not soon forgotten. We have thoroughly enjoyed our short stay here in Music City and look forward to returning.

Nashville...Part #1

You gotta love Nashville! Whether you are into country music or not...it doesn't matter. When you get within 50 yards of the Grand Ole Opry...you become a fan. One of the best attractions in Nashville is the Grand Ole Opry Museum...and its free! Inside you see tributes to the past greats that made the Opry what it was and what it still is today. Wonderful displays of personal artifacts from the biggest names to ever grace the stage: Roy Acuff, Marty Robbins, Jim Reaves, Minnie Pearl, Little Jimmy Dickens, Patsy Cline and many more. Beautiful costumes, guitars, picture and lots more. We loved it! And...get ready for this...we have tickets for the Opry tomorrow night! Howdy and Ya'll Come! The pictures here are, obviously, the Opry building, Marty Robbins stock car and Patsy Cline's rec room. We are having dinner tonight with Jerry Norman and his wife. Jerry was my General Manager for part of the time I was at WFUN in Miami, and later he was the national director of sales when I was the national program director. I'll have more on good old Nashville tomorrow.

Birmingham

Downtown Birmingham is not exactly a place that I would describe as "charming." The prettiest part is around the government buildings. These are surround by a lot of empty store fronts and some entire blocks of empty buildings. There is a very lovely park in downtown that, unfortunately...at least on this Sunday morning, was filled with homeless people and pan handlers...so very, very sad. Famous Legion Field was a huge disappointment. It looks old and dilapidated and is in dire need of a major overhaul and refurbishing. The roads are horrible and signage leaves a lot to be desired. I am sure that there are some lovely parts of town, but we just could find them. The best I can say for the Birmingham that we saw is: "Been There, Done That!"

We're Off!

We are off on our much anticipated trip out west. We first have a motorhome convention in Bowling Green, Ohio, so we are just taking our time and ambling that way. Our first stop is Albany, Georgia. Why Albany? I don't know. Maybe because we have never been here...and I heard they have a statue of Ray Charles. The statue is in "Ray Charles Plaza" a lovely area inside Riverfront Park on the banks of the Flint River in downtown Albany. We have been pleasantly surprised as to how lovely the entire area turned out to be and how nice the downtown area looks. Very clean and neat and the Riverfront Park is truly lovely. Next to the park is the Flint River Aquarium which we visited and really liked. We also went out to the Parks at Chehaw Wild Animal Park and thoroughly enjoyed it as well. The Albany area is going through some tough times as the economy is based on Proctor & Gamble, Cooper Tire and a Marine base. Recently P & G laid off about 300 and Cooper Tire closed up shop and moved away. In spite of this, the town continues to move forward. If you have never been here...try it someday...you'll like it.