The Wild, Wild West

Good Tuesday afternoon!

I'm going to put the entire Wild, Wild West trip in one post.

I'll hit the highlights and lowlights.

I will share a small fraction of the pics I took.

I will keep the verbage light and airy.

At least, that's the plan!

ALABAMA

The smile plastered on my face was 100 percent fake.

Not gonna lie!

MISSISSIPPI

We went through Tupelo (home of Elvis), but as any good Southerner will tell you, we had already spent time in Tupelo paying homage to Elvis many years ago.

All that to say, we didn't stop and we didn't take any pics.

TENNESSEE

We've been to Tennessee dozens and dozens of times, but on this specific trip, we stopped in Memphis for Gus's World Famous Hot and Spicy Fried Chicken.

Guess who was "hangry?"

ARKANSAS

I have never had a life experience in Arkansas, so I was getting ready for something really, really spectacular.

This is what the entire state of Arkansas (and part of Oklahoma) looked like on our first day of driving.

We stopped at a Waffle House for dinner.

We saw an unbelievable and frightening lightning display.

It wasn't so much a "life experience" I will remember as a "near-death experience" I survived.

OKLAHOMA

The end of Day One we ended up in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a very clean and comfortable Marriott Hotel.

We saw not one, but two, murals on our way to the Interstate in Tulsa the next morning.

We drove by fields of windmills...

And oil rigs with fields of windmills behind them...

And we stopped for Arbuckle Fried Pies at a little roadside store.

There were many different flavors to choose from in a large display case.

Mikie had peach...

Roxie had vanilla custard...

And I went with the chocolate.

They were different from the Alabama fried pies I have had since my youth, but still very, very good.

As we were leaving with our fried pies in hand, we walked across the parking lot to look at two horses we had spotted...

And one was a Clydesdale.

I know it was a Clydesdale because of the thousands upon thousands of Budweiser Beer Christmas commercials I have seen over the past 60 years.

Until I return to Oklahoma to visit my pretend friend, The Pioneer Woman (which I hope will be in the very near future), the above will be my "life experience" in the great State of Oklahoma!

KANSAS

Everyone said Kansas would be the hardest part of the drive because there was absolutely nothing in Kansas except flat land and blue skies, but after all the horrible weather we drove through in Arkansas, I must say Kansas was very peaceful and relaxing.

And even though the windmills had first been spied in Oklahoma, I liked the way Kansas continued to carry the theme all the way to the Colorado border.

Also, we stopped in Hays, Kansas to eat at a little place called Gella's Diner, and it was oh, so delicious and lovely.

And I will just add this little nugget to the story...

When we got out of the car to walk up the cobblestone street to Gella's, we heard live bagpipe music being played somewhere nearby.

I'm not usually what you would call a bagpipe groupie, but it just kind of fit my mood, I tell you.

I gave Hays, Kansas FIVE STARS!

COLORADO

We ended our Day Two drive in yet another Marriott in Denver, Colorado.

Our dinner was from a Chick-Fil-A drive-thru because (after 13 hours on the road) all we wanted was familiar chicken, cozy pajamas and a comfortable bed.

And it suited us just fine!

My Colorado "life experience" will be remembered as one of the best night's sleep I have ever experienced.

Quite possibly one of the Top Ten Best Night's Sleep in the past 60 years!

I was JUST THAT TIRED!

WYOMING

I have to say, Wyoming was a surprise. We were supposed to stay in Colorado for most of our Day Three journey, but because of a GPS warning of a wreck on our route, we ended up in Wyoming for the majority of our day...

And it was lovely.

FUN FACT FOR YOU - If we raced past the obligatory "WELCOME TO" state signs (and I didn't have time to take a pic), there wasn't any way to keep up with which state we were leaving or entering on my camera.

I just knew some of the Oklahoma fields were going to look a lot like the Kansas fields...

And some of the Colorado mountains were going to get mixed up with the Wyoming mountains.

And in the end, it was going to bother me greatly.

I came up with what I think was a brilliant plan of taking a picture of my feet whenever we entered a different state to keep everything separated, accurate and in order.

This is the exact picture I took while leaving Colorado and entering Wyoming.

Feel free to use this tip. It's just a little gift from me to you!

So we decided to have lunch at a place called Cactus Jack's.

As you can tell from the outside, it was an "iffy" spot to stop, but the other side of that...

There weren't that many places to stop, so you had to be willing to try something "new" and hope in the end it didn't kill you.

It was clean...

And the food was good (chicken-fried steak for the win)...

And we were happy.

The entire time we were in Wyoming, we were halfway expecting to hear big, sweeping "cowboy music" and see John Wayne-types riding alongside us on horseback...

But no such luck.

Mike and I, however, cannot wait to go back to Wyoming!

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

We arrived in Salt Lake City, dropped Roxie off at her new apartment with her roommates, Kylie and Helen, and drove to our hotel for the evening...

Hyatt Place Salt Lake City/Cottonwood.

Now the hotel was fine, but it wasn't anything super duper special...

Until you looked out your window the next morning.

I asked Mike if we had to pay extra for the golf course/mountain range view, but what became obvious as we explored Salt Lake City with Roxie was this simple fact...

If there was a window, there was most definitely a view!

We walked around downtown SLC for a little while (very pretty, by the way), grabbed some lunch and headed only a few minutes away (30 or 35) to the top of a ski resort on the outskirts of town.

I cannot remember why I'm hiding behind the big boulder, but I am only a few steps from the car in this pic.

It is an amazing, beautiful place, and Mike and I are looking forward to exploring it much more in the months to come...

Or maybe we'll just stay at Roxie's apartment and stare at her for days at a time.

Yeah.

That sounds fun, too.

I'll be back in a day or so with this, that and pics to prove I'm telling the truth.

Take care.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda

P.S. Here are just a few photos of some of the things Roxie has been doing in the 20 days since we dropped her off!

She and Kylie camped and hiked in the Grand Tetons...

And Emma and Nat came for a long weekend to horseback ride, hike and see all the sights.

P.P.S. The next post will include a few more pics like these from my 60th Birthday Fiesta.