What a day

Wow, two states, many sights, and two capitols in the same state.

Now that I got your attention, lets review day 6 of "The Trip". We got a late start and didn't wake up until 10:30. I woke up with a small migrane headache as did Mom. We both took some pain reliever for the headaches. We started out for the Iowa Lincoln memorial on one of the many hill sides here in Council Bluffs (CB). The Picture below is the view of Omaha, NE from the Lincoln memorial.

From the Lincoln Memorial we went over to the Lewis & Clark Memorial. Lewis & Clark made thier first meeting with the Indians of the region here in CB. I have a video of the view from the memorial for your viewing pleasure on myspace.

From there, we went to the spot that the US Government will tell you that nothing happened, but in reality it is where the Golden Spike that really connects East and West Coast. This is were the Union Pacific began their trek to the West Coast.

From there we came back to the Hotel for me to change from sandals to shoes. We then made our way to the location in Nebraska that many many years ago where the Oregon and California trails converged. After that we went to the Teritorial Capitol of Nebraska in Omaha. From there we crossed town to see the birthplace of 38th President of the USA (Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr.).

After a quick stop to get drinks, we headed off for the current capitol of the state of Nebraska, Lincoln. It was about an hour drive from Omaha. Everything went quietly today as far as Mom & Dad were concerned. Once in Lincoln we went to the Capitol (known in these parts as "The tower of the plains"). After that we traveled cross-town to see what on 8 times a year is the 3rd largest city in the state of Nebraska, Memorial Stadium. Which is home to the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team (again, I have pictures and a video over at myspace). We came back to the hotel to get directions to this steak house with a non-steak house name (Pizza King). Real old-school flavored steak house with an Italian twist, from what the front desk here at the hotel was saying pretty much all of the non-chain steak houses here in "the metro" (CB & Omaha) have an Italian twist who knew there was such an Italian base here? We went over to Pizza King and had dinner, Dad had Prime Rib (HUGE portion), Mom ordered Steak (she asked for it to be Well, it came back Medium, she wasn't happy) and shrimp and I ordered a Steak Tips and Rice. It was kinda on the expensive side, but it was overall good.

We came back to the hotel after dinner and watched the rest of the UNC/Fresno State game from 4.7 miles away (UNC won, final game on Sunday to decides who plays on Monday when we go). We got directions printed out and went over to see where the riverboat that we are going to be on in the morning is so that we know where to go. On the way over we found this really sweet looking Union Pacific Railroad memorial, unfortanatly the pictures really didn't come out. We asked a few people (include a cop) where the sign that says Omaha that ESPN always shows during the coverage of the CWS was and really no one knew where it was we got a couple of guesses, and one of them got it right, the picture is on myspace, but I'm going to go back and get another one during the day.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to go on a riverboat cruise, and then down to Nebraska City to checkout the outlet stores down there (50 or so miles South of Omaha), then for dinner we are going to the Buffet that I prommised my Dad that we would go to. As of now, it looks like on Monday we might go 30 Miles or so into Nebraska to see a Strategic Air Meuseum that we saw signs for on the way to Lincoln. Later.

Des Moines to Council Bluffs

So we left Des Moines this am and took out on I-80 West. We took that to US-6 in the outskirts of Atlantic, Iowa. We stoped at the Valley Cafe at the intersection of I-80 and US-6. The 3 of us had a 1/4 hamburger (Dad), Grilled Cheese (Mom) and a French Dip (Chris) add in two drinks and the entire bill came to $17. Compare that to dinner here in Council Bluffs at a casino that cost $60. Back to the trip. We traveled South on US-6, which joined up with US-59, continued on US-59 until we got to the outskirts of Carson, Iowa where we transitioned to Iowa 92. From there we rode IA-92 all the way into hotel (A short two exits on I-29) in Council Bluffs.

Way, way too much arguing between Mom & Dad over how to drive. Most of the arguing coming from Dad and was because of his blood sugar that he has never really gotten control over.

Final day in Des Moines

Well, today was all about my Dad and seeing where he grew up here in Des Moines. First we went to Aunt Minnie's house (?). We then went over to Aunt Hey's house (again ?). From there we went over to the Govenors mansion and the Clear Channel office that is just a block away from the mansion. We then went to the state capitol (we were there late last night, and were tailed by a Iowa State Patrol cause we pulled into the service driveway for too long apperantly, we only took two photos). After that we went to my dad's old neighborhood and found where he used to live and where he used to go to school. From there it was only two blocks to the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Mom found a bead store and went into the store with Dad, while they were inside, I stayed in the car and listened to San Diego traffic and weather on Sirius satalite radio in the rental car, it was cool to hear what was going on back home.

We went to dinner at Applebees around the corner from the hotel. After that we decided to take a look around a Super Target. Then I came back to the hotel, and getting ready to take off to go to Omaha and Council Bluffs.

Day 2 in Des Moines

Well day 2 in Des Moines found the Davis' going South back towards KC...no we didn't decide to forget teh rest of the trip, we were just going 45 minutes to the South. For those of not familiar with the greater central Iowa region, 45 minutes South of Des Moines is Madison County. Within Madison County is the famed covered bridges. There are a total of six bridges, we decided to see five of the six with the only bridge that we didn't see being the Cedar bridge. Check more out about the bridges here.

After we got done with the bridges, which took about 5 hours to complete, as the bridges are not anywhere close to I-35 and are widely spread around the Winterset community. The Imes Bridge whihc is the furthest SE on the "bridge road". From the Imes bridge to the Holliwell Bridge it took about 45 miunutes (mainly gravel roads). The Holliwell bridge was one of the two main bridges used in the movie. We then went to the Cutler-Donahue bridge which is in the city park of Winterset. After that, we went to the birthplace of John Wayne (Pilgrim!) where my Dad took the tour, and he was very happy since he is a huge John Wayne fan. The second to final bridge that we visited took us an hour to the West of Winterset to find the Roseman Bridge which was the other bridge used extensively in the movie. We made our way back to Winterset to have lunch and then finally to the only bridge that you can drive through the Cedar bridge. The reason why it is the only one that you can drive on is because it was torched by an arsonist in 2002, and was rebuilt with the same design as the original, and with the same materials.

We came back to the hotel for a few seconds and then went to Fudruckers for dinner where all three of us had Buffalo Burgers (YUM!!!!!!). We then toured Des Moines and found the Govenor's mansion along with the Capitol building and the first signs of actual damage in the downtown district. I will have more pictures up on myspace with all of the downtown areas and the area that my Dad grew up in East Des Moines.

Til later, c ya

MY BAD

Ooops, sorry, had so much fun in KC last night (not to mention I was trying to adjust to Central time) I forgot to blog.

Monday -- Left San Diego on Midwest Airlines on time (12:30pm). We got into KC right on time as we had wheels down at 3:30 (PDT)/5:30 (CDT). We got our rental car (a White Dodge Charger) and drove the 20 minutes to our Hotel. We got checked in and as we were driving into the hotel we saw that there was not only a Super Wal-Mart across the street from the hotel, but we also saw where we ended up having dinner. The resturant in question......Waffle House. This was the first time that my mom and I had ever even been inside a Waffle House, while it was the first time in more than 20 years. After dinner, we decided to go tour downtown KC. If you check out my myspace page you can checkout the pictures.

Tuesday -- Left the hotel NE of KC around 10:30am and arrived in West Des Moines around 4:30pm. In that timeframe, we drove around and attempted to find the location that the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails met (we couldn't find the marker though). After that run around, we continued North and then took a side trip to Davis City, Iowa....yes a city that has my name in it COOL!!!!! While on the way to Davis City we passed an Amish buggy on the way there. After that we stoped in Osceola to gamble alittle at my sisters hotel company. While at the casino I lost, while my father (JOKING HERE) the bastard won over $150 on the penny slots. We drove by where we will be in the next couple of days, the covered bridges of Madison County & the birthplace of John Wayne. We are in West Des Moines until Friday, so if you have any questions on Iowa, drop me a line. I'll try and figure out the answer.

OK, its time to go

Well, in just about 24 hours I will be in Kansas City, Mo. to begin "the adventure" known as a major trip. The itinarary in case you don't already know has the family leaving San Diego with a non-stop flight to Kansas City. Stay the night (Monday) in KC to get used to the time zone and everything. On Tuesday, we travel to the dry part of Des Moines, IA and stay in the "flood zone" (Des Moines) for a few days. After that we take I-80 West to Council Bluffs/Omaha for the College World Series. We will be in attendance during game one of the best-of-three championship series at the CWS. After our fun at Rosenblatt Stadium, we make the journey down I-29 South to I-70 and finally US-81 to Wichita for the National Square Dance Convention.

It will be an interesting trip, Dad is happy that we will be touring the Greyhound Hall of Fame in Abilene, Kansas. My Dad used to run Greyhounds at Caliente in Tiajuana and other locations here in the US. Talk to you from the road.

I can die happy now

WOW, that is really all I can say. I just (11:00am) met my idol, the Hall of Famer Vin Scully! I am working the Padres/Dodgers game today for Metro Networks. So before the game, I went over to where I thought Vin Scully would be and coming out of the booth was one of the Dodgers media relation guys. I asked him if Mr. Scully was in the booth, he said yes and asked who I was and where I was from. I stated that I was from KOGO here in San Diego and he said hang on a second. He went inside and I'm guessing that he asked if it was ok for me to come in and talk to him for a few seconds.



He came back out a few seconds later, and said to come on in. I walked right up to Mr. Scully and shook his hand. I later told him that the only Dodgers that I liked where Orel Hershiser and Him. I then said that in reality I hate the Dodgers but I loved him. He smiled and said I'm glad that I'm in the select few. I told him no sir, you ARE the few, since Orel in now with the World Wide Leader in Sports (ESPN).



So really nothing important on this blog other than getting to meet one of my idols.