Time to turn the RV to head south and east toward home, but actually we went south for a week. We drove to the mouth of the Columbia River to see the Lewis and Clark monuments and the fort commemorating the journey of the Corps of Discovery and their winter encampment of 1805. The Lewis and Clark interpretative center is on the Washington coast along with the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. Lewis and Clark had hoped to secure goods from a passing ship for which they had a letter of credit from President Jefferson. But the Columbia river has a number of sandbars, presenting quite a challenge to any ocean going ship without GPS. Plus the winter months are very stormy, so no ships were seen during the week on the southern coast of what is now the State of Washington.

After visiting the interpretative center and walking about 0.5 mile to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, we decided that we would go back the few miles to Long Beach and stay at our friend’s beach house where there is a pad for the RV. Long Beach is a small beach town with all the stores and restaurants that you find in any other beach town. We ate at the Lighthouse restaurant and John had baby neck clams for an appetizer which came back to bite him bad. Tuesday and Wednesday were sick days John got a bad clam apparently never eat clams and oysters in a month with no "R"!! Lewis and Clark, however, apparently did not like clams so they walked six miles up the Washington coastline along what is now Long Beach within a block of where our friends have a summer cottage. The Clatsop Indians in the area said that across the river (in Oregon) were lots of elk. The Corps of Discovery took a vote of all their members including Sakakawea (now spelled Sacagawea in WA and OR) and York who was the black servant of Clark. This was the first time in history that both a woman and a black man were allowed to vote in this country. York and Sacagawea were equal members of the party and all opinions were valuable. They voted to go to the Oregon coast and this required the Corps of Discovery to travel back inland on the Columbia River about 20 miles in order to cross the stormy mouth of the river. They set up camp near the present day city of Astoria and built Fort Clatsop for the winter of 1805-06 consisting of three months from December to early March. During these three months in the fort that was similar to Fort Mandan in North Dakota, there was rain all but twelve days and they saw the sun only six times!!

We had similar weather to browse through the reproduction of their fort. The Oregon coast on Tuesday and Wednesday was shrouded in clouds and fog. Cannon Beach, Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, Tillamook, DePoe Bay, Newport, Coos Bay, and other little beach communities had lots of no vacancy signs, but unfortunately for the tourist, they had dreary weather. We stayed near Waldport at Tillicum State Park. We were able to walk down to the beach and enjoy the views of the rough ocean.

We stayed further down the coast at Klamath, CA on Wednesday night intending to drive on to San Jose to see Don and Sherry on Friday and Saturday. Along the California coast are the redwood forests and parallel to route 101 there is a 31 mile route through the redwoods called the Avenue of the Giants (photo). Trees that have trunks wider than the RV width and reaching skyward for 100's of feet. We arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge about 3 pm and we enjoyed a scenic view of the region while we were stopped in traffic. San Jose is about one hour south of San Francisco and Don and Sherry's driveway just fit the RV, but John had to use some of Don's wood to level the RV. Don and Sherry lived across the street from us in 1969-72 while Don was a medical intern at Walter Reed. On Friday, we drove with Sherry to Stanford where she works. We toured the Stanford campus and then we drove Sherry's car to San Francisco where we went to the San Francisco Zoo . We returned to Stanford and enjoyed the Rodin exhibit at the Stanford museum. Stanford, the man involved in financing the transcontinental railroad from the west, endowed the university in the name of his son. After a great steak dinner and relaxing evening enjoying the stars with Don and Sherry, we turned in for the night for tomorrow we would head to Sacramento.

We arrived in Sacramento on Saturday, August 14^th, and drove to our friend Karen's home. We headed out to the Sacramento Zoo where Karen does some volunteer work especially for the annual ice cream social. She had called ahead to attempt to arrange a tour of the orang utan environment, but she was put off by the education department and others she talked with. The zoo has three orang utans, one 19 year old male (Urban Orange), a 34 year old (Ginger) and a 16 year old female (Sayang). We looked around for a keeper and found Rob, who was quite interested in talking with us. In all of the zoos that we visit we drop a few names and what we do at the National Zoo and the red carpet is put out for us. Rob told us about the three orangs, their family history, and invited us to view the "bedrooms" to the amazement of Karen. The zoo also has a five member chimpanzee colony into which two new ones had recently been introduced. After the zoo, we returned to Karen's home for a relaxing dinner and to see her photojournalism scrapbooks. We found a very nice campground about four miles from Karen's.

On Sunday morning, Karen picked us up for our tour of Sacramento. First was Sutter's Fort, where John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant, who made his way across the US in the 1840's and founded Sutter's fort. He hired the local Indians and Mexicans and had large farms and other businesses around the Fort. He was eventually overrun by gold miners, who took all of his land and put Sutter out of business. He tried desperately to petition the US government for retribution, but failed and was bankrupted. At the fort one of the docents gave an interesting talk on the clothing of the 1800's. The clothing worn during the 1800's was practical for the life style of that period. The men and women were outdoors in the fields and needed to keep the sun off them plus provide a cooling effect. By layering with 5-6 layers, the air was trapped and prevented the heat from getting through. The white garments worn under the outer colored garment were more easily washed. The water was heated, soap was dissolved, and the clothes put in to boil. Colored clothes would fade if treated with hot water and were seldom washed. The white garment next to the skin was the one most frequently washed while the others just were shaken to rid them of dust. Starch was used to clog the holes in the cotton, thus keeping the air trapped and allowed for a surface that dirt wouldn't cling to. White sleeves that would extend from the wrist to the upper arm were used and thus could be washed individually when dirty. Women wore long dresses with 2-3 starched crinolines and rarely any undergarments to allow them to have privacy when they needed to go to the bathroom. Victoria's Secret did not invent the split crotch underwear. Remember--the bathroom was the great outdoors. The women also wore corsets and when you think of the back breaking work they would do - hoeing, cooking over the fireplace and picking up heavy pots/pans - the original corset was really a back brace back.

In the park, beside Sutter's Fort, was a birthday party for a 100-year-old Native American. She was given a commendation letter from the governor of California. In the afternoon, we went to old town Sacramento and spent several hours at the Railroad Museum. A docent was giving a tour of the museum and he told stories and background of the individuals involved in building the transcontinental railroad. Stanford, Huntington, and two others were in the retail business - grocery or hardware - who were the financiers and managers of the building of the railroad heading east. The government paid for each mile completed and there were different rates for flat land versus hills. The surveyor on the California side determined that the Sierra Nevada Mountains started in Sacramento!

The city has a water taxi transporting people from the Old Town up the Sacramento River to several restaurants. We took the 5:15 taxi up to the Virgin Sturgeon for dinner.

Leaving Sacramento on Monday morning August 16^th, we headed southeast with the destination of Edwards Air Force Base for the night. Along the way in Modesto, we discovered a Blue Almond factory and retail store from our Map & Go database. The Blue Almond Company used to have a retail store in old town Sacramento, but closed it and only the main store in Sacramento is open. Sacramento is the location where all the almonds are processed into the different flavors. When you go to a factory retail store you have the choice of all their almond flavors. Our favorite is the green onion, which you can't get in the east. Of course, we bought several giant cans of them in Modesto.

A little town of Tehachapi, about 50 miles from Bakersfield and 50 miles from Edwards AFB has two significant attractions. The town is an old railroad town and sits in the Sierra Nevada mountains. An engineer conceived the Tehachapi loop in 1876 to surmount a steep grade. The loop enables the last car of an 85-car train to pass over the engine in a tunnel below. There is no museum or monument, only the tunnel and the track that you can view. The tunnel is just off the main road, three miles paralleling route 58. The other attraction in Tehachapi is the Tehachapi-Mojave Wind Resource Area (photo), which has over 5,000 windmills stretched out on the mountainsides and tops to take advantage of the wind from the Mojave Desert. The wind generates 1.5 billion kilowatts of electricity per year. The windmills were neat to see with their three white paddles slowly turning in the wind. They face different directions as the prevailing wind goes through the gap in the mountains. Some are operating all the time. As we drove through the area, we had climbed 3,800 feet in elevation.

We definitely had left the cooler weather behind. Driving into the desert was hot and dry. Edwards AFB is 17 miles from Mojave, which had only one campground, so we were concerned that there might not be any sites available at the FamCamp. But no fear, I guess this is not a big drawing card in the summer heat for there were 18 of the 26 campsites available. We had a steak dinner at the Officers Club, chatted with several campers at the FamCamp, then settled in for the night.

On the AFB is the Dryden Research Center, where NASA flight research is done. Yeager's X-15 speed of sound breaking flight was accomplished here. History now recognizes that Yeager was not the first to break the speed of sound barrier. The Air Force, however, still does not recognize history. A Northrop civilian flight test pilot in a prototype F-86 broke the barrier several times prior to Yeager's flight. Air Force policy dictates that Yeager was chosen for the honor and they continue to cite history to conform to their policy. Since the winners write history, I guess that Northrop was the loser. The space shuttle also lands at Edwards AFB, when the spacecraft can't land at Cape Kennedy. The tour of the Dryden part of the AFB was well done. We even saw the "eternal" aircraft. This is a solar powered high altitude vehicle that is designed to fly at about 70,000 feet while carrying about 200 pounds of research or imaging equipment. You could even think of the vehicle as a low flying satellite!!

John noted with pride that NASA is using original test versions of the F-18 US Navy planes for the chase planes for the NASA research flights. He also noted that one of his early (Mid 1960's) solutions to the problem of using pitot-static tubes to sense airspeed, altitude and Mach Number of an aircraft is finally maturing in the X-33. The problem with conventional pitot-static air data systems is that they protrude out into the airstream where problems such as bird strikes occur. Radar reflections from the probe also make the aircraft have a larger radar image (less stealthy). The small static holes also have a problem with insects that want to build their nests while the aircraft is parked. After John's early laboratory and flight tests in the late 1950's in Warminster, angle of attack probes to sense angle of attack were installed initially only on naval aircraft. Later on Air Force installed the angle of attack probes and eventually they were installed on most commercial aircraft. Wind tunnel tests had proven an aircraft can fly most efficiently at a specific angle of attack for a current weight. Flight control computers now automatically control the aircraft, but the angle of attack probe is still out there dangling off the side of the aircraft for birds to strike. The cost of these Air Data maintenance problems has been great for all military and commercial aircraft. John had sponsored the initial Air Data modeling research at McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing) back in his "former" life at NAVAIR. The X-33 is a NASA technology demonstration vehicle that is designed to replace the Shuttle by taking off vertically with the vehicles single stage (totally reusable launch vehicle) and returning from space to land like an aircraft. There are no protruding probes to sense Air Data on the X-33. The design of the nose is such that pressure sensors are located flush with the skin of the vehicle and, using advanced computer modeling, the sensed data can be used to compute altitude, airspeed, yaw, mach number and angle of attack. The system is called a Flush Air Data System and eventually the concept will be incorporated into all future aircraft due to cost avoidance. Computer memory requirements (modeling) and speed (computation rate) have been the main reason why this technology has not been implemented earlier. Several flights of the X-33 have occurred at Dryden and a decision on building a full scale commercial, Reusable Launch Vehicle is expected next year.

Just outside of Edwards AFB is the town of Boron where the Borax Company mines for borax. The company is an English company and this is the largest mine in the US. The competition is in Turkey, which had been owned by Borax until the government appropriated the mine. The large trucks transporting the ore from the mine to the conveyor belts hold 200,000 tons and are GPS controlled. Borax's trademark is the 20 mule team Borax is an element critical in the making of fiberglass, glass, and is present in many other home products - cosmetics, fabric, plastics, and film processing. The ride through Death Valley provided spectacular views of the pink, tan, and brown mountains with dry lake beds in the valleys. The temperature was 90-100.

We arrived at Las Vegas in early afternoon and found a very nice campsite at Oasis Campground about two miles south of the newest hotel/casino on the strip. Since we were last in Las Vegas in 1994, there have been five new hotel/casinos: 1) New York, New York, that recreates the street scenes of NY, statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and a roller coaster that simulates the sounds of the subway; 2) Mandalay Bay has a Pacific rim atmosphere with a coral reef lounge, circular pool, wave action pool, sports bar and lots of different restaurants such as Chinese, Japanese, and Russian (really Americanized). This hotel also has a 1,700 seat theater for Broadway type shows. 3) Bellagio, an Italian theme hotel, has a lovely flower conservatory to stroll through or have lunch/dinner. There is a large pool area in the front of the hotel and the hotel forms a "C" shape behind the pool. A water fountain show is done from 3-9 pm. 4) Monte Carlo is huge and opulent. In fact, all the new places are opulent! No expenses spared! And 5) The Venetian, which has recreated St. Marks square including the Doges Palace and the Canals of Venice. As you enter the main casino area, there is a huge ceiling five stories overhead with beautiful murals. Mosaics in the floor and a large sky ceiling, bigger than a football stadium, covers the upscale shops and canal complete with gondolas and gondoliers.

Another new hotel/casino, Paris, will open on September 1 and has the Eiffel tower and other recreated scenes of Paris. In addition to the new hotels, the other ones have been remodeled. Ballys has completed their entranceway and now have a tram connecting to the MGM. Luxor removed their Nile River from the first floor and replaced the in door river with check-in counters and slots. There are now trams between Bellagio to Monte Carlo; Exclaibur-Luxor-Mandalay. People movers are also in great use at the Caesar's Palace, Monte Carlo, and the Venetian. Caesar's Palace put in a new "Atlantis" fountain/water show inside the Forum area and a large aquarium behind the fountain. The fountain does the "destruction" of Atlantis every hour in the evenings. Aladdin, where we stayed in 1994, is being rebuilt.

Other themes that are seen around the town are habitats for animals. Mirage has the white tiger habitat for Siegfried and Roy's tigers. Tropicana has a habitat for Rick Thomas's tigers that he uses in his great magic show. MGM removed the Wizard of Oz area and replaced the yellow brick road with a Lion habitat. Here you can have your photo taken feeding a baby lion. The trainers are in the habitat with a mature lion keeping him stimulated so that the people can see the lions moving around instead of sleeping! Fortunately for the lions, they only rotate them into the display area for a few hours per week. From Treasure Island to the end of the strip at present are: Mirage, Caesar's Palace, Bellagio, Monte Carlo, New York New York, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay; on the other side of the street are Harrah's, Imperial Palace, Barbary Coast, Bally's, Paris, Aladdin, MGM Grand, and Tropicana.

We spent most of two days, from morning till midnight in town walking around to see the new places and seeing four big shows. We saw Chicago, which is not really worth the money or the time. Very expensive and the music is mediocre and the story is lousy - about women who kill their boyfriend or husband, are in jail, then lawyers get them freed. We took in the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana and also Rick Thomas's magic show at the Tropicana. Great magic including tigers appearing! At Treasure Island, we saw Cirque de Soleil Mystere, which is AWESOME and FANTASTIC!! Your visual and sensory senses are challenged to see and hear what is happening. So many things are going on all at once that you don't know where to look or what to focus upon. This show features acrobatics - rings, trapeze, bungie and trapeze, trampoline, and balancing. The entertainment is precision and beautiful to watch. The costumes are unique, colorful, and appeal to the senses. Drums are all around the theater and a large one in the center start and end the show. This is a must see show for anyone visiting Vegas.

Friday, August 20^th we left Las Vegas heading for Flagstaff, Arizona. However, we were not too far across the Hoover Dam that we decided to turn north and camp at Tempe Bar along the shores of Lake Mead. About 30 houseboats are in the small marina. This is a water playground for people around this corner of Arizona and Nevada. Motor boats, houseboats, and jet skis are enjoying the vast waters of Lake Mead. Time for a swim water was beautiful, warm, and very clear! On Saturday morning, we put the kayak together and paddled for several hours around several islands enjoying the views and lovely calm water. We stopped at a little beach area to snorkel. The visibility was over 30 feet and the fish were all over. Upon getting back into the kayak, we goofed and rolled over in three inches of water!! Carolyn was already seated in the kayak as John got in and in a nanosecond we were in the water and giggling at our foolishness. John muttered something about metacentric height and buoyancy!! Well, we needed the inside of the kayak rinsed out!! On vacant beaches there are, fortunately, no witnesses.

Saturday, August 21^st and at 2 pm we reached Kingman, Az known as the Heart of Route 66 - Get your Kicks on Route 66! Route 66 has been known as The Main Street of America, the Will Rogers Highway, and the Mother Road. A 52 mile loop from Kingman to Ash Fork is a scenic two lane road. Views of the distant Grand Canyon National Park, the Hualapai Indian Reservation and several little towns along the road make for an interesting drive. Towns such as Valle Vista, Hackberry, Truxton, Peach Springs and Seligman were settled in the early 1900s. Route 66 followed old Indian trails and lies roughly along the 35^th parallel and was laid out by Beale for the government. The then Secretary of State, Jefferson Davis, directed Lt Beale to find a safe all-weather route across the southwest so immigrants could reach California. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad follows alongside the highway. Historic Route 66 is usable in parts of the southwest, some parts have disappeared, while other parts are underneath I-40.

Sunday, August 22^nd, we explored the Meteor Crater, near Winslow, AZ, and the Petrified Forest National Park, near Holbrook, AZ. Over 50,000 years ago, a meteor about 150 feet in diameter hit the earth creating a crater that is 700 feet deep and 4,000 feet across. Today, because of erosion, the crater floor is 550 feet deep, ie a 60 story building or the height of the Washington Monument. Franklin, who was a scout for Custer, wrote a report about the depression and for years the area was called Franklin's Hole. Later in time, G.K. Gibert, a US Geological Survey geologist, visited and declared that a volcano caused the crater. Finally in 1902, when Daniel Barringer, a Philadelphia mining engineer became interested in the site as a source for mining iron, there was confirmation of a celestial event. For years, he spent the family fortune drilling and excavating to no avail. There was no large deposit of iron left from the meteor that hit, for the unmanned natural space vehicle was all vaporized, melted, and fragmented. Barringer constantly kept trying to sell the property to the Federal government or to the state of Arizona, but no one wanted to buy. Finally, the Bar T Bar Ranch bought all the acreage around and they secured a long-term lease for the crater. The Ranch formed the Meteor Crater Enterprises and runs the tourist business. Can you believe that over 300,000 people visit this crater annually?? There is a small museum and a walking tour around 1/4 of the rim. For several years the Apollo Astronauts were trained to determine various types and ages of materials in and around the crater prior to their trips to the moon.

A little way down I-40 was our next adventure. The Petrified Forest National Park encompasses the Painted Desert and the Forest which surrounds Interstate 40 (historic route 66). The road through the park is 28 miles long and takes you past vistas of eroded hills and petrified logs of various lengths. Mom and Dad had visited here on one of their trips across the country. During the Triassic Period, 225 million years ago, this area sank, flooded and was covered with freshwater sediments. This was when this area was near the Equator, around where Panama is now located before the continents started to really get moving. Much later, the area was uplifted creating stresses that cracked the giant logs. Wind and rain expose the layers of sediments to expose the petrified trees. In the area are also a lot of petroglyphs by native Americans.

Monday, August 23^rd we headed toward Albuquerque with a stop for a hike at the El Morro National Monument (photo). Many early travelers visited this large headland for there is a natural pool of water at the base. The pool is fed by rainwater and melted snows. The ancient Indians had a pueblo nearby, the Spanish traveled around the area, and Lt. Beale came by to lay out route 66, the road to the west from Chicago. Many people carved their names and dates on this mammoth sandstone and many names are still visible today. On to visit the Albuquerque Biological Park where we ran into our first major rainstorm. As we entered the zoo, the heavens opened, so we ran to the indoor exhibits. We didn't get to see the orang utans, because they scampered inside as soon as the rain started. We did talk with the keeper when the rain finally stopped.

Tuesday morning, we continued north toward Santa Fe for we had planned on meeting with a friend that Carolyn had worked with at the National Library of Medicine. Ken had moved out to NM in 1992 and has been working at Los Alamos since then. We drove around Santa Fe and then parked the RV and walked around the plaza area. The southwestern architecture is lovely with the adobe walls and vegas (logs extending through the outside wall and across the ceilings). The historic preservation group in Santa Fe has done a remarkable job requiring the buildings to comply with the historic architecture. We, unfortunately, didn't have much time in Santa Fe that day for we wanted to get to Los Alamos to get our campsite and meet Ken for dinner. We did have time to drive up to the mesa where Los Alamos is located. Back in the 1943 time period, the mesa was selected to be a secure area for the development of the atomic bomb. The greatest minds in science were gathered and focused on a single goal. These people were sequestered in an area that was arid and separated from the world. They endured difficult living conditions and travel conditions all for the project that they only knew their little part. Oppenheimer was the civilian in charge of the entire lab and General Groves was the military director. The Bradbury museum in Los Alamos relates the historical happenings of the time. We only had one hour, but we would return on Wednesday to finish the museum. We met Ken for dinner at Gabriels and had a lovely southwestern meal. Names of mutual friends and workers flew back and forth across the dinner table.

Wednesday, August 25^th, we visited Bandelier National Monument (photo). This monument is located in the Frijoles Canyon beside the Los Alamos mesa. The Civilian Conservation Corps build the trails and the visitor center here. The Pueblo people have lived in the American Southwest for many centuries. The ancient people of the Bandelier area, like the Puebloan ancestors elsewhere, were farmers. The occupied the Bandelier area for nearly 50 years and lived in small, scattered settlements consisting of perhaps only one or two families. Then from about 1150-1325 AD, the population increased and they came together in larger groups and lived in villages or pueblos. In 1880, a 40-year-old anthropologist named Adolph Bandelier came to New Mexico under the sponsorship of the Archeological Institute of America with the goal of tracing the social organization, customs, and movements of these Pueblo people. Bandelier’s novel, called the "Delight Makers" is the definitive document on the geology, archeology and the ways the people of this part of the country lived during the 13^th century. The Bandelier National Monument offers a hike of 1.5 miles to the large circular village and the cliffs or cave rooms hewn out of the soft tuff sandstone were people lived. Climbing up the steps to the caves, climbing up the ladders into the caves enabled you to step back in time. Plastered cave walls, adobe structures of 3-4 stores on the front of the caves and petroglyphs on the walls of the caves gave an interesting history of our prehistoric native Americans. We even stopped and watched a deer and her fawn mosey along the same stream that these early people depended upon for their water year after year.

We returned to Los Alamos and re-explored the interesting Bradbury Museum. Los Alamos is involved in many research projects such as mapping chromosome 16, laser research and disposing of radioactive wastes safely. Later in the afternoon, as prearranged, we drove over to Bruce and Sue’s home. Bruce is a fraternity brother of John's and we hadn't seen them in 35 years! Bruce and Sue had retired from Los Alamos and were celebrating their 35^th anniversary on the 23^rd and we were celebrating our 36^th on the 26^th. So, needless to say, we celebrated together. Bruce and Sue are wine connoisseurs intending on opening up a winery ten miles north of Espanola in an area called Los Luceros. They also are very big on Opera and Sue is the current President of the Opera Guilds. On Thursday, we drove up to the winery that is completely constructed except for the interior furnishings. The building is near the Rio Grande River on historic land that is being redeveloped by the Cabot family. The winery building is a straw bale construction which means the walls are made using bales of straw covered with stucco so they are over one foot thick. With the thickness of the walls, the room temperature is that of the earth, 65 degrees, thus providing a natural cooling for the wine. After leaving the winery, we headed to Santa Fe including walking around the plaza, seeing several art museums including the Georgia O'Keefe museum. That night, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and wonderful wines celebrating the anniversaries. Sue is a gourmet cook and we had duck pate with greens and roasted macadamia nuts; shrimp wrapped with sage and bacon; rack of lamb with golden potatoes and corn, zucchini, Monterey jack cheese, and tortilla chips; fruit tart for dessert. For each course, Bruce and Sue provided a specially selected wine from their own wine cellar to complement the course. What a delicious meal and a fine evening!

On Friday, we enjoyed another delicious breakfast - baked eggs, cheese, green chilies, which you place in a flour tortilla along with salsa. Wine to complement the blueberry strudel ended the breakfast. Before and during breakfast we were treated to several love arias from specially selected operas in honor of our anniversaries. Bruce and Sue have a fantastic knowledge of opera and Bruce explained the operas, the love and death scenes. After breakfast, the four of us headed north toward Taos driving the back roads seeing the scenery. We followed the Rio Grande as much as possible and just to the west of Taos the river has cut a very deep gorge. Many raft trips come down this stretch of the river and have class 3 rapids then an eight foot waterfall, depending on the water level of the river. We ate a light lunch in Taos. Unfortunately, we were not able to visit the Taos pueblo for the area was closed to the public that day. Taos really consists of three towns, the original Spanish town which is the center of art and tourism, the San Geronimo de Taos or the home of the conservative Taos Indians; and Ranchos de Taos which is the farming community. The view from Taos is spectacular for the town sits on a plateau between the Rio Grande and the western foot of the Sangre de Cristo Range. We stopped to see the El Santuario de Nuestro Senor de Esquipulas in the town of Chimayo. Legend says that a farmer, instructed by a vision to dig beneath his plow for earth endowed with healing powers, uncovered a cross and a piece of cloth belonging to two priests martyred on the spot. The farmer built an adobe chapel in 1816 for the cross and cloth and many people come to the chapel to partake, i.e. eat, of the curative earth found in a pit inside the chapel. We returned from our very scenic drive about 5:30. Bruce and Sue had an engagement Friday evening, so we swam in their pool and then went to a local restaurant, El Paraqua, in an old hacienda for dinner.

On Saturday, we started off with another scrumptious breakfast by Sue...fresh fruit with yogurt and zest of lime. Second course was French toast, but a very different French toast. Large slices of bread dipped in bread and milk and fried. Topped with crabmeat, cheese, slice of tomato and basil. YUM! Naturally, we had three special wines, chosen by Bruce, with the meal, one of which was Bruce's own, Zia Vineyards. Bruce is renown in New Mexico for the best wine tasting palate. His depth of knowledge about wine and opera is quite something. About 12:30 we left the fine company of Bruce and Sue and a nice quiet campground and pointed the RV east toward Amarillo, Texas via route 25 through the Glorieta Pass. Glorieta is famous for the civil war battle that took place here that drove the confederate forces from the area. The southern border of the Rocky Mountains is just to the north of route 25. We got all the way to Amarillo where the campground had telephone to the site and Juno was a local number!!

Sunday, August 29^th, was a HOT day. We drove to Oklahoma City where the temperature was 100 degrees in the shade! We stopped at the Oklahoma City Zoo for they have new primate and cat habitats. The primate environment, the Great EscAPE, has orang utans, gorillas and chimpanzees. There were two 3-4 month old gorillas fathered by the same male. There were only two orang utans on exhibit and a new one that hasn't been introduced yet. We camped at the very nice FAMCAMP at Tinker AFB just outside the city. Unfortunately, the Officers Club was closed that night, but we made do with steak on our portable gas grill.

Monday was a driving day into Arkansas near Eureka Springs. A civil war battlefield at Pea Ridge, even though this area was in Arkansas, was a key battle that kept Missouri in the Union and thus preserved the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in the Union hands. On Tuesday, we arrived at Branson, Missouri, the capital of country music. We had previously picked out a downtown campsite so we could walk to at least six shows. Since school has begun, the crowds were very thin and there was no problem getting excellent tickets. On our first night in town, we saw Andy Williams, front center, 7^th row! He has aged, but he still has his voice. Singing old favorites, movie hits, and Broadway hits, the show was three hours long with no intermission. Wednesday was a three-show day starting at 9:30 am to see Jennifer Wilson, First Lady of the USO. She sings, dances, and makes 15 or more dazzling costume changes during the show. At 2 pm was the Wild Wild West Show with Sunny, the Wild Bunch, and 13 year old Jessika Ross. Great show. At 8 pm was the Osmond Brothers show. The four brothers, Jay, Melvin, Jimmy, and Wayne performance is combined with ice skaters on stage doing all kinds of fancy routines as the brothers sing. Occasionally, the Osmond brothers walk on the ice so they must have spikes on their shoes so they don't fall! For over 40 years, there have been Osmond brothers in the singing business. The famous Donny and Marie are now doing a TV daytime show. What a successful and wholesome family of George and Olive Osmond with nine successful children and now there are 53 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

The comedian part of the show featured a ventriloquist, who featured a dinosaur baby dummy that came out of an egg. We were seated in the front row left of center stage and, about ten minutes into the act, the dinosaur and the ventriloquist-comedian started a conversation with John that ended up with John being asked to come up and sit on the ventriloquist's knee. His whispered instructions to John, the dummy, were to open his mouth only when the ventriloquist squeezed the back of his neck. The ventriloquist then went into another routine that to Carolyn and the rest of the audience was quite funny. John just opened and closed his mouth!! John got a lot of funny comments as we left the theater. Maybe he will go professional, but he has no idea of what came out of his mouth every time his neck was squeezed!

On Thursday 2 September, we were up and out for a 9 am show laughing ourselves silly at Yakov Smirnoff, the Russian comedian. He "sees things in a different way". Since coming to America in the 1970's, he had to learn English and many of the irrational aspects of our language has made for quite a comic act. For example, the baby changing station one sees in the washrooms. Gee, is this where you come to "swap your baby for another one?" He is very proud to be an American and one of the most moving parts of his show was seeing the Statue of Liberty on his stage and having the statue come to life! The statue was a real person dressed and made up in grey-green. When Yakov became a citizen in a ceremony on Ellis Island where he held a small statue of the Statue of Liberty in his lap Lady Liberty was his vision. In addition to Yakov, there was a juggler, Slim Chance, who was very entertaining. Just before the show began, a stage light on the ceiling of the stage burst into flames, then died out and the bulb popped out of the receptacle and fell onto the stage. The audience was all concerned a stage hand and a repair person, who turned out to be Slim Chance, comes on stage and did a very funny scene trying to repair the light that was in reality just a stage prop.

On Thursday evening, we went to see the Shoji Tabuchi Show. Shoji is a native of Osaka, Japan, and has been acclaimed as one of the greatest entertainers in the world. He is a marvelous violinist who can play Mozart, Cajun, country, bluegrass, swing, Broadway you name the style, he plays the tune. His 18 year old daughter, Christina, is very talented sings, dances, and is a key person in the show. She has been performing with him since she was six, so, of course, she has a very mature stage presence. Shoji's wife, Dorothy, is the producer of the show. The show brings to the US some native Japanese culture including the Taiko drums. There are 25 drums of three different sizes that are very dynamic. The largest, over six feet in diameter, is called the Odaiko and is the largest drum of this type in the world being used daily. The manufacturing process took about five years to make the drum starting with finding the large tree in South Africa, curing the wood, carving out the inside, curing the wood some more, and finally the drum was ready. We saw these same Taiko drums used at the Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas. The Shoji Theater is a showcase in itself. The décor is reminiscent of the grand theater palaces of the 1930's. The restrooms are also magnificent! Orchids on every washstand, a lady dispensing hand cream, lots of artificial flowers within a green and purple room. In the men's room, there is a pool table and a man giving out cigars. Of course, in Branson, you can't smoke in any theater area and must go outside.

Friday was a one-show day, but we took a ride on the ducks in the afternoon! Yup, the Ozark Mountain Water Ducks have an 80 minute ride around the town and out to Table Rock Lake where you "go to sea". After the ride, we headed to the local beach, Moonshine Beach, to swim and cook dinner. This evening at eight was the Spirit of the Dance show at the Mansion. The production is in the footsteps of River Dance and Michael Flattley's Lord of the Dance. Spirit of the Dance combines Irish dance with tap, dance, jazz, classical ballet, and flamenco with a precision that is awesome. The show has a story line, but the theme wasn't very clear as to exactly what the story was telling us. The singing of the Spirit was ethereal as she searched for her true love. This is a good show, but so far, River Dance with Don and Sylvia in New York was by far the best production.

In all, Branson is a great place to come and visit for at least a week. The entertainers are very passionate about their shows, about their patriotism and their God. In all cases, the people that you meet whether buying tickets, eating dinner, or in the gift shop, are kind and courteous and are very customer oriented. The entertainers come out into the audience, where possible, and shake hands. In most all cases, they will sign autographs and meet people during intermission or after the show. All the shows include patriotic songs and religious songs in addition to the country music or other venue. All the comedians are very funny and never use bad language or off color stories. Branson is a wholesome, family place to enjoy the entertainment. No wonder lots of people come back to Branson! Where else could John sing with Andy Williams and the Osmond Brothers!!

Saturday was a slow day. We lounged at the pool and then went to the late afternoon show at the Dixie Stampede, which included dinner, and show. This is a horse show where all the audience sits around the ring in eight levels and dinner is served while watching the show. There is not a bad seat in the house, for everyone is seated facing the ring. During the country music pre show a young gentleman had arranged to have his girlfriend called up on stage on some pretext and he then came up after her, got a microphone, knelt down and proposed to her in front of over 2,000 people! The story of the horse show and stampede was the North against the South in competition. Riders had to collect the most rings using their swords; riders raced around two barrels and across the finish line; girls performed tricks while on horseback; and there was lots of singing. The audience participated in a "horseshoe" toss using toilet seats; horse race using a wooden pole with guy and girl "galloping" around two barrels; and a chicken race where four children herded four chickens across the finish line.

On Saturday the traffic hit Branson. All week long we were able to drive through Branson with no trouble, but the holiday weekend arrived and 90 minutes was the normal time to drive through the town's three miles long main street. We also noticed that the price for a gallon of gas had jumped five cents! Sunday was less hectic because the magic show we attended was on the outskirts of town was very easy to reach from our campground location. We saw Kirby Van Burch, an excellent magician. Some of the illusions we had seen before such as putting a girl in a flat box, using partitions to separate her at the waist only this time he used two girls- one dressed in red and the other in blue and he switched bottoms. He had the audience participate in developing a menu for a "road kill restaurant" using a large white board. He then asked a gentleman in the audience to count the change in his pocket, which totaled 89 cents which would be the cost of the meal. He then pointed to the envelope that had been on display during the whole act, tore the envelope open and asked the gentleman to read the note. The written words said exactly what was written on the white board including the 89 cents. His big finale was to make a helicopter appear on stage. He spent $1 million to develop this illusion and won the international magician's Merlin award. The show was followed with a trip to Mesquite Charlie's Steak house where we split a wonderful, delicious porterhouse steak. The Duck driver had mentioned this place was an excellent restaurant and said that two could share the 32-ounce porterhouse for only $3 additional. That's what we did and yum J the steak was so tender and delicious! We returned to the campground and walked up to the main street to watch the go carts (we had driven them last night) and played 18 holes of miniature golf.

On Monday September 6^th, we left downtown Branson and drove eight miles to Table Rock Lake and camped in the State Park. From our campsite, we could walk down to the water and swim. Lovely and warm. On Tuesday, we rented a Jet Ski for an hour to tour the lake and then headed to the Dickerson Park Zoo, Springfield, Missouri. This zoo is a small but focused zoo and we were fortunate to see a keeper and chat with him about the elephants. We then drove eight miles east of Springfield to see the Exotic Animal Paradise Park, which had nine miles of road through the animals. Most of the animals were of the deer family, but they did have water buffalo, buffalo, cattle, one giraffe, camels, and llamas. The carnivores were in cages with little or no stimulation.

'Tis a soft day, today September 8, 1999. Over hill and dale as we head east the trail is not dusty, or so it would seem. All throughout this trip, John has been keeping track of the Indians, well especially one Indian named Falling Rock. If you don't know the story of Falling Rock, please contact John for he can relate the history surrounding this famous Indian! People have been searching for this Indian for about 80 years when the first signs started to appear along the roads of this great country.

We crossed the Mississippi three times today--once going east from Missouri into Cairo, IL and twice more going west and then back east on another bridge south of town. We then crossed another bridge over the Ohio River to get to Kentucky. The reason for the double cross was that we were trying to find the road to Fort Defiance, which overlooks the merge of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and got onto the approach lane back to Missouri. While back in Missouri, we filled up on the cheapest gas ($1.04) so far this trip. Just on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River is the Wickliffe Mounds. We spent well over an hour visiting the museum and the archeological site that was occupied from about 800 to 1250 AD. This site was archeologically dug, but all records were lost. The main purpose of the "dig" was for tourism, thus dirt was moved around and the present archeologists can't rely on anything that was found at that time for they really don't know what area the dirt came from. Serious archeological work has been done recently under the direction of Murray State University. Like many American Indian archeological sites, the Wickliffe Mounds show no direct evidence for the reason of their abandonment. John has a theory that there was a European disease intervention that occurred much earlier (1200 to 1300 AD) than the smallpox that is now recognized to have devastated the Indian population in the early parts of the 18^th century. His theory can be proven by DNA sampling of the extensive bone deposits found at Wickliffe and other sites (Pueblo) that were abandoned around the same time. Columbus and the Vikings were not the first Europeans to get to the Americas. Unfortunately, the excuse of the high cost to apply DNA technology to American archeology is being used to prevent the truth from being found. Even the Native Americans do not want to know the truth as witnessed by the problem with the skeleton found in the State of Washington recently. The Wickliffe site curators have had to store all of the bones uncovered since the 1930's due to the current trend on Indian burial rights. The problem today is that the native American's believe the body's spirit would be angered if the skeleton's were touched. Modern archeology wants to analyze the bones, but must have respect for native religion. There have been councils debates this issue to try to resolve the problem. We have met the enemy, and they is us!! We settled in for the night at a campground north of Paducah, Kentucky. Why Paducah??? Well a little bit of family history is necessary. In the age of steam locomotives, Paducah, Kentucky was the third largest manufacturing city of locomotives in this country. Dad used to tell me, when we talked about trains, that PADUCAH MADE was a sign of the best quality of railroad engines. He worked on several different types of steam locomotives when he was working his way through college. Most were made in Pennsylvania or New York, but the best locomotives were made in Paducah! Paducah is strategically located where the Tennessee River joins the Ohio River and about 20 miles down river from where the Cumberland River also joins the Ohio. About 40 miles further down river, the Ohio River joins the Mississippi. The town was devastated several times, since being founded by the father of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame. A major Civil War battle was fought downtown to keep the State of Kentucky in the Union. Today, the town is protected from flooding by a twenty-foot wall on which a local artist has painted over twenty murals depicting the history of the town.

On the 9^th of September, we ventured into the Land Between the Lakes. Lake Barkely and Lake Kentucky are joined at their northern extent and form an extensive vacationland. The Army Corps of Engineers built both lakes. We stayed at one of the Kentucky State Parks on Lake Kentucky, Hillman Campground, and had a lovely site right on the water. Saturday we moved to another campground, Prizer Point on Lake Barkely which turned out not to be as nice as Hillman. The following day, we headed toward Nashville Tennessee for John has the Institute of Navigation meeting from the 13^th to 17^th. We visited the Nashville Zoo, which was difficult to find. They have closed their former zoo, which was located northwest of the city, and are in the process of moving all their animals to the zoo located in the southeast section of the city. The AAA book and our mapping CD still have the defunct zoo listed. We finally found the right zoo and found out that the zoo is associated with the Nashville Aquarium. The aquarium is an excellent display, but the zoo portion is very small, but has potential. They have elephants, however, they are only out when they will be giving rides to the kids. They have river otters and other small animals. The nursery was the outstanding display featuring baby snow leopards and a panther.

We stopped to see the Parthenon, which is the only full size replica of the one in Athens and the reason for Nashville to be known as the Athens of the South. Back over twenty years ago when we were in Nashville, the city fathers of Nashville were raising money to put a large statue of Athena in the Parthenon and we donated five dollars. This time we saw the finished statue. We timed the visit well, for there was a tour and talk about the statue just as we arrived. We stayed at the Holiday Travel Park in Nashville and they offered tickets for the Grand Old Oprey radio show on Saturday evening. The auditorium was reconstructed since we were there last and this is a live radio show. There were no famous country singers at the show tonight, but the show was lively and enjoyable.

On Sunday morning, we drove over to the Opreyland Hotel, which has fabulous gardens under roof. We strolled through the magnificent gardens with over 52 acres under glass complete with an indoor river and boat ride. At noon, Carolyn caught an airplane for home while John stayed in Nashville to attend his meeting of the Institute of Navigation. He had to rent a car to commute to the Convention Center downtown for the week, since there was no public transportation from the campground near Opreyland. Over 2,200 navigators convened in Nashville for a week. Carolyn, meanwhile, got home and was busy teaching her computer course at Montgomery College and bailing out the basement entryway due to hurricanes Dennis and Floyd. The following Monday, after his meeting, John got home with the RV after logging 10, 423 miles for the total circular trip around the country. The RV now has over 24,400 miles on the odometer in just over fourteen months.

Our next task on the RV is to make a plaque with the words "ROOM WITH A VIEW" to put on a cabinet above the front window.

Final editing completed on 22 October 1999 after we attended to three months of mail and cleaned up from Floyd. Fortunately, Carolyn was home to prevent further flooding of our basement from the high water table.