Day Nineteen to Day Twenty-Four: Bloomington,MN aka Mall of America

Walt and I have spent the last few days wandering around Mall of America. The largest mall in the US. Four floors of stores and restaraunts. The cool part though was the Nickeloden Adventure Park. It took 6x on the roller coaster for me to open my eyes and enjoy the ride. Overall a successful trip but sadly I ended up sick. :/

Enjoy some of our Mall Selfies and some other attractions. 

TTFN,

Ashley

Day Twelve Thru Day Eighteen Chicago,IL

So we left St. Louis to head for Chicago. 

This entire week was dedicated to Book Expo America. I'll be doing an entire BEA Wrap-Up on my book blog next month so look out for that there. 

Heres some photos from The Expo

Jay Kristoff was amazing to meet and I can't wait to Read both Illuminae and Geminae. 

Last year there was 15-20 people that attended Blogger Dinner this year however over 40 people were there. Was an awesome way to end the week. 

Finally met my favorite Booktuber Lat from Katytastic

Spent a majority of my time hanging with these lovely ladies. 

Preview of some of the books I'll be reading and reviewing the next few months. 

After the Expo was over Walt and I spent two days doing tourist things. 

Went to the Museum of Science and Industry on Saturday. On Sunday we went to the Field Museum and the Navy Pier. We also enjoyed some deep dish pizza and tasty local donuts. 

Now onto Wisconsin for a drive day and then Mall of America for a few days. 

TTFN,

Ashley

Day Eleven: St. Louis

Today we walked the mile to wait in line to up in the Gateway Arch. The weather was a little misty but not bad at all. 

Because I'm a cripple we were able to take the closest tram so slightly less stairs. Guess there's some benefit of having an injured knee. 

The view of the city of St Louisiana on one side of the arch. 

On the other side you've got te Mississippi River.  Walt was a little nervous looking out over the edge through the window. I was more nervous on the 4min rose up the team. We were packed in 5 people per cart. 

After finishing up our morning at the arch we went to the old courthouse to admire the architecture and watch how the arch was built. 

Then we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe near our hotel.  Successful day overall minus the afternoon of a killer cab driver. Missouri Stops are worse than California Stops. :/

Tomorrow we are off to Chicago to start our adventure of Book Wxpo America. I'll link up the next 3 days of our trip to my book blog since that's where BEA updates will be. This weekend will be tourist days as well. 

TTFN,

Ashley

Day Nine & Ten: Junction City,KS to St. Louis,MO

Day Eight:

We left Limon and drove nearly 6 hours to get to Junction City,Kansas. Was just a drive day. 

Day Nine: St. Louis, Missouri 

We left Junction City and headed start to St Louis. We made pretty good timing. 

We are staying at the old Union Station. It's actually a historical site. Every thirty minutes they do a light show on the ceiling of the main floor. Our hotel is a complete maze so I feel like leaving bread crumbs. Hehe

Tomorrow we are off to ride up into the arch. This is something I've wanted to do for quiet a while thanks to my nana. Before she passed away she came here with my papa and did the same thing I'm about to do. So as I'm hiking my skinny butt up those 96 stairs I know she's with me. 

Look forward to pictures in next post :)

TTFN,

Ashley

Day Eight: Limon,CO

We left Grand Junction this morning at 9am and arrived in Limon around 3pm. Today was just another drive day but we drove through Eisenhower Tunnel. This is an engineering masterpiece because unlike normal tunnels this one was constructed with long beams running the length of the tunnel. The Eisenhower Tunnel is made right along the Continental plates so the long beams shift with the movement.

Tomorrow is another drive day so wont be as many pictures either.

TTFN,

Ashley

Day Seven: Grand Junction,CO

Today was just a drive day to back track to get to Grand Junction. We literally jumped right back on the highway and headed towards Moab,UT. Stopped there for a delicious burger then back in the road. 

When I Moab I went and shot some pool with a few locals. At the diner ran back into one of the people I played against. 

Tanner was absolutely hilarious and is a traveler himself. In fact Walt and I have added a few more sites to see on next years trip. 

We arrived in Grand Junction earlier than planned so went a little further to Pallisades. Pallisades is where my Uncle Jack use to live before he passed. He is the cause of Walt and Mones road tripping adventures. Was kind of nice to see what his old place looked like. We also stopped at a winery and did a little tasting those what was really fun. 

Tomorrow is just a drive day as well to Limon,CO. We are going to drive through the Eisenhower Tunnel which is an engineering marvel. So pictures of that tomorrow. 

TTFN,

Ashley

(Come on hotels get some pictures on your walls. 

Day 6: Bloomfield,NM

Today was amazing. I have a new love....Masonry. Chaco Canyon was absolutely phenomenal. Chaco Canyon hosts the densest and most preserved pueblos in the Southwest. The Chacoan Ruins were built between 850 A.D to 1150 A.D.
Now that you`ve had a brief history lesson let me tell you about our day. We arrived at the meet-up site at 8am. Then drove the 1.5hrs out to the canyon. Spent all day hiking around these different archeoligcal ruin sites (10ish miles total) then headed back to get car. This was an incredible trip and I would highly suggest getting a tour instead of trying to go out by yourself. The knowledge our guide Larry had was amazing. Speaking of Larry, here he is with Walt and I after our long day. ( I am so burnt)

We were able to not only walk around some of the kevas and housing structures but were able to step inside some of them as well. The Keva was where ceremonies and meetings were held and around that were large structures made up of 10-100 rooms for families to live in. One of the largest sites were were able to see was 3 acres in total and was 4 stories high. Sadly Giant rocks crushed the surviving 4th floor so you can only see a small bit of it standing.

The interesting thing was that we were mostly walking along the 2nd floor because the 1st was covered with so much dirt from the years. The people of this time era were short so some of us struggled to get through doorways. They were anywhere between 4`10 for women and 5`4 for men (my kind of people)

The wood you see is part of an intact ceiling from a small room that I had to crawl into. Walt sacrificed me. Was incredible to look up and see preserved what people a thousand years ago would see.

Now onto the part that I focused a majority of my day asking questions about...Masonry. The effort these people put in to make their structures was crazy. The stone work has lasted so long and we had the opportunity to also see a room that still had original plaster on the walls. There are 6 types of stones structure styles to be found along the ruins.

Type 1 and 2 are normally larger stones with large sections of mortar as well. In the empty parts there is chinking which are small pieces of stone.
Type 3 and 4 are a single line of large stone then two to three layers of smaller stone with mortar in between. This type most likely came about due to the lack of large stone available. The structures weren`t built all at once (over hundreds of years) and the Chacoans didn't have the means to face the canyon wall to get stone from there.

Type 5 and 6 is mostly small pieces of stone with very little mortar. This is thought to be because there was signs of a very long drought making mortar hard to make.

Each of these types can be seen throughout the ruins. It is amazing that after thousands of years these ruins are still standing. The roofs have since fallen apart as have most of the floors but the structure itself still stands. The Chacoans built a place to last and although they moved on their style and culture is preserved today.

I hope you enjoyed my long post for today. There was so much information and incredible views that its hard to get it all down in words. If you ever want to listen to me ramble about today's trip feel free to ask (or dont because i might just ramble anyways)

TTFN,
Ashley