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For Thanksgiving with family and friends, Shirley and Bob drive from Santa Rosa, California to Scheller, Illinois, then to Naperville, which is where David and Gillian live, very near Chicago. We drove a total of 5,112 miles getting there and back!
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For the night we stay at Hampton Inn and Suites.
The next day we drive from Barstow to Flagstaff, Arizona. Drive goes smoothly, although it does rain for most of the day. For lunch we stop at Subway in Kingman, Arizona. We see beautiful views of mountains on the way, then drive through the Mohave desert and notice how green it is getting.
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Rain with a busy drive through Albuquerque where we walked to the Pilot Traffic Center. Bob got a Subway sandwich. Saw the biggest traffic jam on the opposite roadway. Also saw a gorgeous pink sky in the late afternoon.
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Day 4, Sunday, November 23 (Santa Rosa, New Mexico to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Just as we started our drive in the morning it began hailing. There are heavy rains on and off, then more hail. Lots of truck traffic. Beautiful clouds. Drive through hill country followed by flat plains of Oklahoma. Three times we see oversize truck loads hauling blades of the big wind turbines. The countryside has lots of wind turbines. For lunch we visit a Love Truck Stop.
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Day 5, Monday, November 24 (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Pacific, Missouri)
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Day 6, Tuesday, November 25 (Pacific, Missouri to Waltonville)
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Day 7, Wednesday, November 26 (Surestay Motel, Waltonville?)
After breakfast we visit Jeannine and Ray. Next we go with Robert to the Waltonville Cafe, then back to Jeanine and Ray's to drop off Robert. Later for dinner we go with Robert to the Scheller Playhouse Cafe. There are lots of family members there. Then we drive home, stopping at the cemetery where some of Shirley's family are buried.
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Day 8, Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving Day, Surestay Motel, Waltonville?)
Robert comes over to Surestay Motel for breakfast with us. The three of us go to Jeannine and Ray's where Shirley cuts up lots of apples. Then we go to Clark and Krista's for Thanksgiving Dinner! Lots of people - 48! Great nieces and nephews running around. Take lots of photos outside! After lunch and football games on TV we play Bingo. Dylan has guitar and drums out. Weather is very cold and windy with a temperature around 35. Tomorrow we will be heading to Naperville.
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Day 9, Friday, November 28 (Drive to Naperville, Visit David/Gillian)
We drive from our Sure Stay Motel to Naperville to visit David and Gillian. As we drive there are lots of roads with big flat fields of black soil and lots of wind turbines again throughout the fields. We drop by David's house, bringing him childhood boxes including shells and action figures and books we have carried in the car from Santa Rosa. In Naperville we see lots of Christmas lights. We buy take-out and eat at their place. Weather continues very cold.
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Day 10, Saturday, November 29 (Snow all day, stay at motel)
This is our 39th Wedding Anniversary. We watch snow coming down ALL day. We watch all 3 Godfather movies. Still great after all these years. We eat from groceries in the motel room. DID NOT want to go out (so Bob walked hallways for 41 minutes - 4 stories, 4 hallways, up and down, back and forth).
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Day 11, Sunday, November 30 (Move to AirBNB in Naperville)
We drive from our SureStay motel to Naperville where we get settled into our airBNB. It sits right across the street from an elementary school.
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Day 12, Monday, December 1 (Visit David and Gillian, shop)
We stop by Walmart and pick up a few items. Then visit David and Gillian. We all go to lunch of tacos at Fresh Market. Fresh Market is an amazing grocery store with so many ethnic items. We then go back to Gillian and David's where we work on building a gingerbread castle. It is too cold to go outside for a walk.
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Day 13, Tuesday, December 2 (David and Gillian visit AirBNB, we shopped, it snowed)
Gillian and David walk over to our place. We have lunch and watch TV (David and Gillian nap). They walk home while we watch An Honest Thief on TV. We walk to Trader Joes and a pharmacy gift store. There is more snow. The kids in Elmwood elementary school have fun playing in the snow.
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Day 14, Wednesday, December 3 (Visit David and Gillian, eat at Great Harvest Bread Co.)
Bob takes a shower! We drive over to Fresh Market and look at ethnic foods. We drop by David's, then eat lunch at Great Market Bread Co. David, Gillian, Bob get lottery tickets at Oswalds Pharmacy. All of us go to David and Gillian's and play Tumble Tower. David and Gillian in the evening go to Irish Pub while we watch Nightcrawler movie on TV. (No luck on lottery).
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Day 15, Thursday, December 4 (Visit Christkindl Market in Aurora; pizza and movie at David's)
Bob goes for a walk, then we go to Blackberry Cafe for an early lunch. We drive to Christkindl market in Aurora. Very cold weather and most items there are vastly overpriced.
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We go home for naps, then have pizza and watch movie - "The Family Stone" - at David's. We all do a jigsaw puzzle.
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Day 16, Friday, December 5 (Shopping, visit David and Gillian)
In the morning we go shopping then go to art league gallery. Also stop at Pinz's spices, then eat at Greek restaurant. In the evening we go to David and Gillian's and work on their Christmas tree (there are lots of cords mixed together). We watch a documentary on Himalayan climbing. (6 years ago, in 2019, Bob had hiked in the Himalayas in Bhutan).
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Day 17, Saturday, December 6 (Kids visit us, then we them)
We walk to shopping center, get bacon and eggs, come back to house. Kids come over and we have breakfast together. Then we all go to their place and watch the movie The Holdout. We come back to our house and then go back to their house and watch TV. We clean up house, pack in expectation of starting drive back to California tomorrow and read. It snows heavily overnight.
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Day 18, Sunday, December 7 (Walked, shopped, Scrabble, TV movies)
We do not begin drive home as planned, too much snow. In the early morning we watch the movie Lord of War, which we both totally enjoy.
We walk to shopping center. Gillian and David walk over to meet us there. We all eat lunch there then walk back to our house. David gets Scrabble game out of his pack and we play. David wins, Gillian comes in second. At night Bob and Shirley watch the movie Requiem for a Dream. Bob thinks it is awful.
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Day 19, Monday, December 8 (Drive to Columbia, Illinois, Hilton Hotel, visit James, Shanna, Bonnie, Larry)
We pack up our car, check out of the AirBNB, stop at David and Gillian's, give hugs, then start our drive to Columbia, Illinois. We stop at McDonald's where Bob first eats his homemade cheese sandwich, then eats a McDonald's chicken sandwich like Shirley had. We drive to Columbia and check into the Hilton hotel.
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After resting we visit James and Shanna. Bonnie shows up and later Larry. Shanna bakes lots of cookies for an upcoming event and we all eat some. She also bakes another dessert and we each get one small piece.
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We drive back to hotel and Shirley calls her friend Judy. Next door to us a lady sings very loudly until 10 PM. We talk with them and she stops.
Day 20, Tuesday, December 9 (Drive to Comfort Inn in Tulsa, Oklahoma)
We leave Columbia and drive across Missouri, stopping for lunch at a McDonald's. The McDonald's has an interesting work of art on the wall.
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We stop at a Comfort Inn in Tulsa:
Wide open, clear roads, lots of wind turbines, sunny. Eat lunch at Shamrock, Texas. When we get to Amarillo we eat at Buc-ee's.
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Later we stop at a Taco Bell and get to watch a crow eating.
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After driving to our motel and checking in, we walk around it.
Day 22, Thursday, December 11 (Drive to Petrified Forest, Arizona)
The drive to Petrified Forest in Arizona goes smoothly in good weather - sun, clouds, high of 64 degrees. There is however at one point a 45 minute delay over a few miles because of a crash.
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We see one big windmill farm with none of the windmills turning. We get a room at the Surestay hotel in the Petrified Forest - in spite of it being on top of Interstate 40 West! We ask for a wake up call at 6:30 AM.
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Day 23, Friday, December 12 (Petrified Forest to Barstow, California)
We get our wakeup call at 4:30 AM. Bummer. There is a beautiful sunrise, sky is red and gold. It is a long drive to Barstow. We see the Black Mountains and black rocks (?) in the Mojave Desert due to ancient volcanic activity. Very pretty. We see a huge windfarm and solar panel farm. We take a quick stop for breakfast and see a big motorcycle gang. At Barstow we walk to the nearby mall.
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Day 24, Saturday, December 13 (Barstow, California to Santa Rosa home!)
Along the way we see several mining areas - one mining boron. There is a very dense fog as we descend into the Sacramento Valley/Bakersfield area. Very scenic mountain downhills. Highway 99 is VERY BUSY and congested. We take highway 12 to get back home from Stockton. We have so many ripe persimmons ripe!
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Photos by Shirley and Bob
Bob Phillips [phillips bob 27 at yahoo dot com - no spaces]
Santa Rosa, CA
February 3, 2025