Galapagos

We've been in Ecuador for over a week being hosted by Jorge, Adriana, and their daughter Nadia.  We've been busy touring the capital city of Quito, (elevation 9,000 to 10,000 feet) then a two hour drive to Santo Domingo (elevation 2,500 feet), to visit with with Jorge's parents, and then on to Playas (sea level) to visit with other cousins.

Our hotel

Yesterday we flew from Quito to the Galapagos.  We found out that there are only two other people in our tour group and they only speak Spanish.  So, for the first few days, there are two tour guides, one who speaks English, for me and Ellen and another for the Spanish mother/daughter team.  We have a 36 passenger bus to haul us around.........

Sink Hole

The island we're on rises to over 2,500 feet in the center.  In the afternoon, we saw huge sink holes from old underground lava flows, we got to walk & crawl several hundred yards through some old underground lava tubes, and then visited a farm/refuge for the giant tortoises that live on the island.

Entering the underground lava tube

When I grow up.........

Loading up for Ecuador!

We're starting to pack for our trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.  We're leaving early Wednesday morning and will get back home late Saturday, 3 October, just in time for the Baptism of grandson, Noah Johnson!

While we’re in Ecuador, we’re being hosted by Jorge.  He is one of the three young men who worked for us in 2007 when we were building the new dairy in western Iowa.  We became close to them and they all still call Ellen:  “Mom”.   

Jorge is now married to Adriana and they have a very cute daughter……  We’ll be staying with them, and also touring the country with his parents.  

We''re looking forward to the trip!!!!

Sunday, April 5th – We Made It!

We took our time getting loaded up and found a church to visit on Easter.  It turned that the Pastor there was from Wisconsin and was an avid Packer fan.  We met several other ‘snow birds’ from the mid-west who hang out there.  We showed up in shorts in Route 66 t-shirts, so we attracted some attention….

The relatively short distance to Santa Monica took a long time.  It was mostly stop lights.  We passed through Pasadena on Colorado Boulevard where the Rose Bowl Parade is held. 

Pictures on Colorado Boulevard

 The official end of Route 66 is at the intersection of Lincoln Boulevard and Olympic Street and there is absolutely NOTHING to see there.  It’s only a few blocks away from the entrance to the Santa Monica Pier and that’s where most of recognition is given.  We celebrated there with a bottle of Champaign. 

The entrance to the Santa Monica Piel

Celebrating the END!

We spent several hours celebrating and telling our stories to people who were curious about our adventure.  We left Santa Monica about 5PM and drove south for about an hour to stay with Keith’s cousins.  We had good food and great visit recalling memories…….

We got to Jim & Yvonne's in time for grandkid's Easter Egg Hunt.

We got to sleep in a real bed again.

We'll be heading back home in the morning.....

Saturday, April 4, 2015 – Almost there!

It was nice to sleep in a little this morning.  When we were in the Museum yesterday, there was a Japanese film crew there that took a picture of Ellen and wanted permission to use it.  They told her of this really great place ‘up the road’ called “Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch”.  Unfortunately ‘up the road was behind us’.  Ellen wanted to go anyway…… so we went.  It’s too bad Elmer wasn’t there because you’re continually amazed, but aways asking “WHY?”.  Another visitor told me she thought it was ‘ART’.  I told her I agreed because it couldn’t be anything else.

The entrance to Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch

Wonder where he found this....

An old Harley that needs some work....

This is the front of the 'house'

Elmer must be pretty handy with a welder.....

A bottle tree forest.

We were glad that we went back.

We then went bact to Victorville and then down across the mountains into San Bernardino, and turned west down the ‘Valley’.

Main Street in Victorville

The famous Wigwam Motel in Rialto.  At one time there were 8 sites up and done Route 66.  Now there are only two of them.  This one has been totally modernized and is very popular...

Rancho Cucamonga claims to be the trail-head of Route 66 and has a lot of signage.

Cucamonga 'sculptures'.

Our campground is a KOA in  Pomona and was pretty pricey since it was the only site left when we made our reservation yesterday.  We were hoping that we’d have cable so we can watch the Wisconsin/Kentucky game tonight.  Luckily there’s a sports bar a couple of blocks away.

Our campsite for the night....

Got there early enough to clean out the SUV finally......

Friday, April 3, 2015 – In to California

Here's our progress for our day....

Grants NM to Victorville CA - 231 Miles

We got to sleep in a little, and even spent some time washing up the BMW X-5.  At the next fuel stop, a couple with a brand new Volvo station-wagon came over to admire our old “Foxie’.  She deserves an extra bucket of oats tonight.  So far she’s hauled our camper 2,340 miles and only gulped up 166 gallons of diesel fuel.  It’s one of the best vehicles we’ve ever owned.

It didn’t’ take too long to get across the Colorado River into California.

Railroad bridge across the Colorado river into California.

We Made It!

The ancient road along the Colorado River (They now have a high tech zip-line criss-crossing it.)

A very old bill-board with two equally old enthusiasts......

We headed up north to Needles and then west through the Mojave Desert.  I think they must have had a "Paint the Town" event like we did at home.....

Jus.t south of Fenner the road was closed due to washout’s earlier this year, so we had to do a 40 mile detour and missed the “Cadiz Summit” and the 30 mile stretch of old ’66 where travellers write their names in stones on the side of the road.  (How many rocks would it take to spell “Keith and Ellen” anyway??)

 We did make it back to the old route at Amboy, where the famous “Roy’s Café” is located.  It’s supposed to be the most popular site on all of Route 66 for appearances in commercials, videos, and movies.

California has ridiculous prices for fuel.  This is more that twice a much that we paid for diesel fuel in OK and TX.

Our campground for the night was going to be in Victorville.  We stopped at the ‘California Route 66 Museum’ first and had a great visit with other enthusiasts and bought some souvie’s. 

At the Museum

Ellen in motorcycle 'bling'

Our campground was just a few miles away, and another nice “Good Sam” facility….

It is getting 'warmer'.  We finally put our winter coats out of the way.....