Road Trips and Hike Reports

By Chris Ransdell Thursday started off with a Neil Diamond Tribute show by Keith Allynn.  It came recommended a few years ago by a family member and I figured Brian would appreciate it as much as my mother did.  It was wonderful and this time Keith's wife was able to join him for a few songs and she has an amazing voice. Lunch Thursday was Steak 'n Shake which is nothing special but something Brian had never been to and liked.  We ate as soon as the show got out so we had plenty of time between lunch and Dixie Stampede .  I stopped in to turn our vouchers into actual tickets because I know the 'Stampede' could be named for what happens in the ticket lobby before show.  I asked if I could upgrade the seats to premium seats and the ticket guy was awesome and did it for free.  I've been to the stampede in Branson 3 times now and I just love it.  While the story and the game competitions between the North and South are pretty weak (and we in the North got ho

By Brian Gilbar and Chris Ransdell Not much to say on this blog so it will be quite short.  Luckily we had our massage in the morning because we ended up driving all day.  The trip to McAlester started around 10 a.m. and we got there about 10 p.m.  My upper back and neck have been bothering me for several days and the pain comes and goes, but it was quite intense by the time I finished driving a bit over 200 miles of our 500 mile trip today.  We ate a nice breakfast at the hotel in San Antonio, then had lunch at Dairy Queen on the way.  I had some very nasty nachos with melted plastic looking cheese.  Chris had a good burger with some deep fried jalapeno's on top.  He said it tasted good.  We had quite a few stops along the way to get gas and use restrooms.  On our way we stopped at Applebees for dinner and had a really nice meal in Ada, OK.  Our server was on his second day on his own and did a great job.  My back and neck were feeling a little better by then...I think the ibu

By Chris Ransdell Just a quick post after our evening in San Antonio.  We got to town about 11 am.  Luckily, the Riverwalk Hyatt Place was ready for us and after an issue back in Portland was resolved, I had my most productive work day to date on the trip.  The Hyatt Place room really impressed me.  It has a great layout with a couch and desk off to one side and the bed and bathroom to the other.  The window is off to the side and doesn't shine onto the computer desk no matter the condition.  The shower is an oversized all glass enclosure and very attractive.  We even tried their food service out by splitting a chicken quesadilla and chocolate chip cookie.  Very good food and priced reasonably by hotel standards.  Brian has had an upper back pain that has been very persistent.  I tried to get a same day massage appointment but the best we could do was Tuesday morning at 9. After getting some hours in, we walked to dinner along the Riverwalk.  I had only been to San Antoni

By Chris Ransdell Our first full day in Kerrville was Saturday.  I worked 4.5 hours and Brian did laundry and looked at job stuff in PA.  It was rainy but started to clear up in the afternoon.  First we went to a Western Museum which was ok. We drove out to Enchanted Rock which was 'open' but the trails were not so that was kind of a bust. We decided to go to San Antonio for dinner and to check out the night life.  By the time we got ready to actually leave it was 7 pm so there was only an hour of daylight but it was enough to get through the curviest parts of TX-16 towards San Antonio.  We saw some deer on the way. They are small deer called "chital".  It was way after 8 when we arrived at Buffalo Wild Wings in outer San Antonio and we were hungry.  After dinner we made a brief visit to 'The Annex' which is a dive bar near downtown.  It was heavy on the dive aspect and not so much on having interesting (or even all that many) people for us.  I just lik

March 18-20 2 nights camping, Carlsbad caverns, Guadalupe peak, on to Kerrville By Chris Ransdell There were lots of first world problems at the hotel last night (Tuesday).  The hot tub wasn't hot (or clean), the wireless internet was very poor at all hours and the shower diverter thing didn't work.  On top of that it was almost as expensive as Gilroy CA (Bay Area).  I complained vocally and the manager wiped my bill clean for the stay which is obviously appreciated.  I woke up very early (5:30) thinking I was done sleeping and tried to work but after a frustrating hour (see bad Internet above), gave up and we headed out, both of us a little tired and crabby.  The drive to Carlsbad was fast and dull (fine with me). I was under the impression that Cavern tours were guided and thus might sell out on spring break.  Luckily, there is a very smartly placed national park service information building in the town of Carlsbad which has information on both Carlsbad Caverns and Gua

By Brian Gilbar (some additions by Chris) Saturday we headed to Tulsa, OK.  It was a long drive in from the panhandle but we each drove half and the day went by quickly.  We stopped for lunch at Pub on the Bricks in Guymon, OK.  The food was good and it seemed like a nice, friendly town.  Once in Tulsa we decided to head right out to dinner to an Italian restaurant Chris had eaten at before, Dalesandros.  The food was amazing, but the portions were way too big.  We could have easily shared.  Chris has chicken cacciatore and I had a carbonara with two kinds of bacon...so delicious!  We then went out for a couple drinks at the Tulsa Eagle.  Not many people there but we had a lot of fun and it was relaxing. Sunday morning we headed to Oklahoma City.  On the way we headed to Carl Blackwell Lake for a 7.7 mile hike.  It was a strange hike to start as it was a bunch of horse trails and it appeared initially that we would just be walking around a field.  However, over time it wandered