Travel
Detailed travel logs and trip journals live here. Expect day‑by‑day itineraries (e.g., our Switzerland & Italy trip) with weather notes, meals and family anecdotes, plus posts on museum visits, road‑trips and cruises.
- 8:24 am: On the road again. 429 miles until we are home.
- 11:06 am: On I-35 north. We are in the final stretch!
- 11:30 am: Back in Culver’s country.
- 1:57 pm: Hello Minnesota!
- 3:28 pm: Home Sweet Home!
- 7:17 pm: Thanks for all of the Welcome Backs! It’s really great to be home again. Much to catch up on!
- 10:48 pm: Really happy to be sleeping at home tonight.
- 12:45 pm: Heading home.
- 1:17 pm: 906 miles to go.
- 3:01 pm: DQ stop in Ogallala, NE.
- 3:04 pm: Excited to be heading home, but equally sad that our big road trip is ending.
- 3:04 pm: 706 miles to go.
- 8:06 pm: Done driving for the day. Stopping in Lincoln, NE.
- 8:14 pm: Stuck behind 50 basketball camp teens checking in. OMG.
- 2:07 pm: First ride at the dude ranch was really great. My horse for the week is Buster.
- 10:59 pm: The Internet is exceptionally elusive at the dude ranch.
- 9:27 am: Nice breakfast at Cali Cochitta B&B in Moab. Heading to see Arches soon.
- 10:51 am: Great vistas at Arches National Park.
- 12:12 pm: Heading out of Arches park and starting drive to C-Lazy-U Ranch near Granby, CO.
- 2:30 pm: Hello Colorado!
- 2:59 pm: U2 seems like Colorado music. Working well for us!
- 4:37 pm: Iced Triple Espresso from Sacred Grounds coffee shop in Glenwood Springs, CO.
- 5:43 pm: Still decent amount of snow at 11,000 feet.
- 6:44 pm: Trying to explain to Mazie why a mosquito bit her. Not going well.
- 6:56 pm: Hello Winter Park, CO! Shout out to Jim Bernard and Jeb Sr.
- 2:49 pm: Hello Utah!
- 2:50 pm: Driving from Sedona, AZ to Moab, UT today. Quick stop in Moab on way to Colorado.
- 4:36 pm: Exploring downtown Moab.
- 6:51 pm: Nice dinner at Miguel’s Baja Grill in Moab. Trying to quick adapt Mazie to time change.
- 11:55 am: Heading to Montezuma Castle National Monument.
- 1:45 pm: Lunch at Judi’s in Sedona.
- 2:49 pm: 104 °F in Sedona today. Yeah, hot!
- 3:34 pm: I still don’t understand how and when to take out the video camera. I’m so much more comfortable with photography.
London Apartment
Our London trip is a lot different from our Summer of Love West Coast Road Tour. Notably, we aren’t on the road very much for London and with the exception of a short jaunt to Scotland for Tammy and I, we are staying put in London proper.
We rented an apartment for the month and have gotten settled in. We are in the Kensington area at Philbeach Gardens. The apartment is good. We have about 800 square feet and behind the apartment is a very large private courtyard where Mazie can play. I think the nicest thing about the apartment is the dining room with a glass ceiling. I’ve setup my computer in this area with great light.
On the downside we are missing some niceties. Mainly what was advertised as included Internet access is really a 3G HSDPA Modem (Huawei E220). It’s better than nothing, but you have to tip toe around the Internet and wait for long delays. We have a washing machine but no dryer, I guess we just hang our clothes to dry.
We went shopping for some supplies at a nearby Tesco. It took us over an hour to find what we were looking for. It’s great that London is English, but there is no doubt you are in a foreign country. It took us about 10 minutes to find baking soda.
Here are photos for a little virtual tour.
Getting to London
The trick with spending a month in London is that you have to get there, and that has to be done on a plane. Mazie had never been on a plane before and we bullishly pushed through with a trans-atlantic flight as her very first one. Tammy has been on many flights, but has a very real fear of flying causing much stress and anxiety. She was an absolute rock star though keeping all of that to herself and not causing any undue stress for Mazie.
We departed at 9:45 p.m. For whatever reason I felt it absolutely necessary to get to the airport at 6:30 p.m. Having never flown with a kid, and knowing we had 5 bags to check, I figured we needed all the time we could get. In reality, we checked all 5 bags in a few minutes at the curb and flew through security without any issues. With over an hour to spare we decided to have desert at Ike’s in the airport. They have a chocolate cake that is a foot tall, rather crazy actually.
The flight itself was fine, but getting Mazie to sleep was not. I had this idea that we would leave at 9:45 p.m. and after the excitement of takeoff ended Mazie would just naturally fall asleep. This was not the case. She didn’t go to bed until 1:30 a.m. central time. We tried everything short of medication and nothing would work. I got furious with the screens in the back of every chair that constantly flashed different messages at us, keeping Mazie enthralled with them.
Anyway, she finally got to sleep and I crashed about the same time. Tammy on the other hand spent most of the night playing Quordy on her iPhone and got maybe 15 minutes of sleep.
After landing we collected all of our luggage, got through customs, and found a cab for the £55 ride into Kensington. I’m trying to not do £ to $ conversions here since it’s just depressing.
Our first day here was spent mostly recovering from jet lag. We were all crazy tired.
Mazie and I up and having croissant breakfast this morning. Today we get the apartment situated and visit the market.
Summer of Love Day 43 Log
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Summer of Love Day 42 Log
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Horse Run
We are having a great time here at C-Lazy-U. Every evening they send the horses out to the pasture for the night, and the wranglers get up early to go get them back in for the day. Sometimes they send them down the main road to a pasture across the way, and it makes for an amazing sight, and sound.
Summer of Love Day 36 Log
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Summer of Love Day 35 Log
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Summer of Love Day 34 Log
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Summer of Love Day 33 Log
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