DMA Charity Ride - Day 2

This was a ROUGH rough day. The trail between Defiance and Hermann was very torn up, downed trees, washed out areas. Just plain bad. Add to it a head wind of 13 mph, so the going was tough.

Highlights:

Stopping at Lost Creek Winery in Gore for lunch and wine. A BIG thanks to Larry for his hospitality.

Getting to the Alpenhorn Gast Haus for showers & soft beds and Kim Udell showing up as our support with supplies and shuttling us to dinner.

Pics of the day:

DMA Charity Ride

DAY 1: Machens to Defiance (32 miles)

Great day on the Katy Trail. Our friend Kim Udell had to drop out of the ride due to hand surgery. So she graciously offered to be our shuttle to Machens. 

Highlights:  Redbuds blooming, wild flowers, lunch at Trailhead Brewery in St. Charles, downed tree across the trail, a bubbling spring at Weldon Spring, getting to Defiance with a home-cooked meal by Kim and cleanup support by Sue Davisson.

Pics below from today:

Mike Davisson, Kim Udell (support), Scott Kiziatek, Jeff Comotto, Norm Kellar (Chris Comotto taking photo, and Chuck Gillentine missing from photo).

Downed tree past Greens Bottoms Road

Spring by Weldon Spring

Tomorrow will be another adventurous day!

Riding the Katy Trail - the WHOLE enchilada!

Defiance Merchants (DMA Riders) take on the trail to benefit the Asthma & Allergy Foundation

About a year ago we began talking with other local business owners in the Defiance Merchant Association about riding the entire Katy Trail (242-miles across Missouri) to benefit a charity.  After months of planning, eight of us are just about ready to leave for our adventure.  We decided to support the Asthma & Allergy Foundation for our first year of what we hope will be an annual ride. Living in Missouri with Asthma & Allergies is not easy (as many of you know), and biking the trail in support of those individuals and research to help them seemed like the perfect fit.

Want to find out more and follow our daily trek?  Go to:

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/defiance-merchants/DMARide

We'll be journaling our ride each evening on the above site along with sharing a few pictures of the day.

We leave Sunday, April 12 after our guests check out and will return Friday evening, April 17.

Wish us Luck and GOOD WEATHER!



Snowbirds in February - Week 5

What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas

Okay, surely after a couple has been gone all of the month of January they've gotten this "snowbird travel-thing" out of their systems, right?  WRONG!

Our friends Tom & Sue talked about going to Las Vegas; and the next thing we knew, we were going there, too ... ha!

It's sort of funny, because we aren't even gamblers.  We do, however, enjoy all of the things Las Vegas has to offer. We love the beauty of the desert, seeing interesting sights on the strip, going to shows, and seeing some of the "craziness" that always seems present somehow in Las Vegas. The weather during the winter is always a bonus

A few highlights: 
Red Rock Canyon, the Minus5 Ice Bar (brrrrr.....), Fremont Street, and "The Rat Pack is Back" show.

 The Minus 5 Ice Bar in the Monte Carlo.  Chilly!

Us with "Dino"

 The Link - new addition to the strip

 The Individual cars of the Link

 The botanical garden at the Bellago

 Red Rock Canyon

Freemont Street Experience

 

There was a great Faberge exhibit at the Bellagio art gallery, and the botanical gardens mimicked a Faberge egg in all floral.  We also enjoyed riding the new Link (or was it Linq?) -- the gigantic ferris-wheel type attraction on the strip.  The cars are huge and you get a wonderful view of the strip and the surroundings.

 

The Minus 5 Ice Bar was really a fun thing to do (and Tom works in the Ice industry, so he had to go in without a coat.  Notice Jeff had to join in.. ha!)

 

The Rat Pack is Back show was great fun, with songs of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., with Joey Bishop as emcee.  My parents would have loved this.

 

We had a great time  in Vegas and our trip went by too quickly.  Our flight back got cancelled due to snowy weather back home, and we were forced (aw, darn) to spend an additional night.

 

We hope to get back next year to see the rest of the sights.

 

 



Snowbirds in January - Week 4

On the long road back through the Keys, we stopped in Marathon to meet up with our friends from Defiance for lunch (you'd think we'd do that more regularly when we're all in our home town!  Ha!)  Our next leg of the trip took us through areas that had numerous roadside produce stands.  Jeff bought three avocados as big as your head, a papaya that could have doubled for a soccer ball, and a mango that was enormous.  We happily loaded our goodies into what little space was left in the back of the car and drove on to:

Bonita Beach.
We have a good friend who has a condo in that area, so we luckily stayed in the perfect area right across from the beach.  Phil (our friend) took us to an interesting afternoon in Goodland for the Mullet Festival at Stan's Idle Hour and crowning of the Buzzard Queen.  It was seriously fun (although the smoked Mullet -- the FISH not the hairdo -- was not very good.  Must be an acquired taste).

Some of the best things that week were just riding bikes to Barefoot Beach and canoeing at the Barefoot Beach Preserve, watching the sunsets at Doc's Beach House, going out on a boat and seeing dolphins and other nature, meeting up with some of Jeff's AB retiree friends for dinner, and just relaxing on the beach.

After seven whole nights in Bonita Beach, we said good bye once again and headed to:

Seminole Florida
We were so blessed to have a couple stay with us at the Inn last summer for a long-term stay.  We became friends in the interim with Larry & Donna, and they invited us to spend the evening at their house and enjoy the Super Bowl game at their home with friends.

After a fun-filled day and night with Donna & Larry and their friends, we woke the next morning to take on the sad task of driving back INTO THE COLD of the Midwest.

Was being a Snowbird fun?  You bet it was.  Maybe we'll try it again next year!

Snowbirds in January - Week 3

This was a long leg of the trip, as we drove back past Jupiter (hi Cardinals!) and further south.  Our next destination was:

Key West.
Wow.  We had no idea it took so long to get from Miami all the way to the end of the Keys, but it does.  Just about 4 hours of driving from point to point, but on two-lane roads with very little ability to pass.  We drove through Key Largo, Marathon, all of these places we've heard and/or read about, but had no clue what they looked like or where they were. We were supposed to meet friends at the airport in Key West to bring them to the condo we rented together; but.... we found we couldn't fit them in the car because of all of the stuff we (make that Chris) packed.  Plus, driving in on a Sunday with all of the slow-paced Sunday drivers made it impossible to get there on time.

Of course, we were in for a surprise.  We hadn't looked up any information really at all on Key West.  We knew Hemmingway had lived there and written there.  We knew Jimmy Buffett sang about it.  We knew it was supposed to be a laid-back place.  What we didn't know was that it was a mix of Bourbon Street meets Beale Street.

We tried to take in as many sights as possible, ride bikes around the entire Key, hit all of the popular restaurants in the tourist guides, go to Smather's Beach and Higgs Beach, and the Southern Most Point, along with the Hemmingway House and Truman's Little White House. One of the best things is going to Mallory Square to celebrate Sunset -- which we did! Funniest Bar is Captain Tony's (need lingerie? Ha!).  First time I've sat next to a tombstone in a bar!

After a week watching the sunsets from Key West, we again packed up the car for the next leg of our trip.  Funniest moment in Key West -- standing in Mallory Square and running into six other people from Defiance!  Seriously!

"It's a Long Way Down to Holiday Road....."

Snowbirds in January - Week 2

"Holiday Road"....

After a fun but schedule-filled week in Jupiter, we were ready to take in a different type of action.  As we watched the money leak quickly from our SunPass as we continued on the Florida Turnpike, we arrived at our next destination:

Orlando.
It's really different going there as two adults without children.  But it was FUN!  We stayed at a Hilton Grand Vacation Resort across from SeaWorld. We spent four days of visiting theme parks:
SeaWorld, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  We got to visit with friends of Jeff's who still work in the area, and Chris got to go to her Harry Potter Dream vacation:  Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.

Chris took a lot of photos on her camera (not on her phone), but she did take a photo of one of her favorite flowers -- Bird of Paradise.  We did get a chance to relax though, too, as our hotel had a fabulous pool with many hot tubs and good walking paths around a lake.

After a week of Orlando, we said "good bye", packed up the car and drove to our next destination (watching the dollars float away as we went through the toll booths).