More Phoenix Fun… And The London Bridge Wraps Up Our Road Trip
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
No matter how great any road trip is, they all have one thing in common: they must at some point come to an end. The last day for Bob and me to be on the road was Friday, April 1, 2011. We woke up in our motel in Phoenix, Arizona, wished each other a happy birthday for the fourth year in a row, and headed out on our last day’s adventures. I was rather excited for our first stop, mostly because it involved eating breakfast. We had stopped by here the night before, but they had been closed – so we decided to come back for our morning meal to Mel’s Diner. Yes, this was the location (exterior only) that was featured in the TV series Alice. Read the rest of this entry »
I had warned Jamie that the first two days of our road trip were going to be incredibly fast-paced and extremely full. Saturday in Nashville had lived up to those designations with flying colors, and our day in Memphis on Sunday, July 3, 2011, would certainly be no exception. After the long day and late night we had had, I was amazed at our fortitude in getting up and ready, and departing our Nashville Howard Johnson’s motel by 7:15am. It was already hot outside as we bid farewell to the city, our lodgings, and the very creaky elevator. 
Our time on the road was winding down as Bob and I departed the Grand Canyon National Park on the morning of Thursday, March 31, 2011. We had only one more major city to hit and this would be Phoenix, Arizona, which I would be seeing for the first time. We headed out that morning at around 9:30am, with only the minor distraction of seeing a Smokey the Bear statue delaying us initially. Then we came upon the small Arizona community of Valle, where we were sidetracked for over an hour. The reasons for this: Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. 
By the time that Monday, May 30, 2011, had rolled around and Jamie and I were enjoying our last day in Colorado with my cousin Chris, I think we all forgot that it was actually Memorial Day. It didn’t make all that much difference anyway, since our family back home had celebrated it on Sunday. And since Chris was currently staying home with Livi, he couldn’t tell the difference. Sarah chose to stay at home on this day so she could spend some time with Livi, and therefore didn’t join us on our final day’s adventures. 
Metropolis was cool. The Super Museum was amazing. The celebrity encounters were quite successful. And it was fun hanging out with my pal Dean. But still, if there was anything that had tipped the scales in convincing me to make the trip to this remote area of Illinois, it was the fact that I was going to have to get there one day anyway. That is, I was going to have to get to the neighboring city of Paducah, Kentucky, if I had any hopes of ever completing my Vice-Presidential grave visits and photo collection.