All Quiet Until the Kangoo Shoes Arrive…

Sunday, 2 August 2020Thursday, 6 August 2020Leave a comment

Sunday, 2 August 2020

Sunday was our first full day alone on the mountain, and the house was eerily quiet without the pitter patter of little feet and the music of children’s voices! We spent a restful morning just sitting around doing nothing in particular. While perusing the internet, Kim found some interesting fitness equipment called Kangaroo shoes. She got so excited about them that we spent quite some time watching Kangoo shoes videos and reading reviews. I was not as thrilled with the idea and kept reminding her that it’s about 45 minutes to the nearest hospital from here, but she was undeterred. I will post a link to the funniest video about these shoes in the comments. More to come on this subject!

We ate our lunch outside and enjoyed the hummingbirds and the cool sunny day, then decided we’d take a walk down our street. Sadly, since we are at the top of the hill, that means the toughest part of the walk is the climb home! But we walked all the way to the end and saw 6 of the 8 homes (including ours) that have been built here. We ran into our opposite end of the street neighbors as they were heading back to Charlotte for the work week. We stopped to photograph butterflies, bees, wildflowers, trees, and mushrooms (always the mushrooms!). We had worked up a sweat by the time we made it back up the hill, but Crockett could have kept going, I’m sure.

We decided to have pizza night on Sunday this week, but since it was too hot for the Tulikivi, we just used the regular oven. But, I did make homemade crust (easy and VERY tasty recipe, which I’ll post later). Kim’s half had sausage, onions, and spinach and mine was sausage, onions, and red peppers. So good. We could have eaten the whole thing, but we each saved a piece for tomorrow’s lunch.

My Durham friend Mary Pickard has been posting delicious sounding and beautiful looking cocktail recipes during the pandemic, and she had posted a really good sounding peach and mint concoction recently. Hers had rum, but since Kim doesn’t do rum (long story involving an evening of too much rum long ago), I made them with some Deep Eddy Peach vodka and some Titos. I’m thinking the recipe might have been for a crowd, but we enjoyed it!

Since it was Sunday, we treated ourselves to chocolate sundaes later in the evening. Mmm, mmm, good!

Oh, and Kim ordered the Kangoo shoes…..

Just call us Adventurers. Food Adventurers!

Friday, 9 August 2019Friday, 9 August 2019Leave a comment

Friday, 9 August 2019

Our food tour was not starting until 11 AM, so we enjoyed a lazy morning of snoozing, TV, and surfing the internet, until there was a knock at the door and a call of room service. I told the man we hadn’t ordered room service, and he said he had a package for us. Since I was expecting a package (I forgot my camera charger and extra battery and Rex was kind enough to find it and send it to me), I opened the door and scared poor Clifton with my bed head! But I’ve got the batteries and the charger!

We strolled down to the North Market and saw a few other women waiting at the meeting spot. Soon our guide Debra appeared as did ten more women. It was definitely sisters day!! Of the three women, two were twins and the other had been friends with them since 4th grade. Of the group of six women, four were sisters and the other two were married to their brothers. We are pretty sure the other group of four women included a pair of sisters as well. Debra said it was her first all woman group in 8 years!

Our itinerary for the day included stops at Hot Chicken Takeover, several shops in North Market, The Guild House, Pint House, and Jeni’s. Good to know we can still pick the good eats!

Debra was a fantastic guide, and we learned some Columbus history was well as tasting some of its fabulous food. We also had a quick stop at the sculpture garden of an art museum.

In case a trip to Columbus is in your future, check out http://www.ColumbusFoodAdventures.com or their sister companies, Columbus Brew Adventures or Columbus City Adventures. The Sassy Sisters give them two thumbs up!

And the moral is…Stick to the Back Roads

Thursday, 8 August 2019Friday, 9 August 2019Leave a comment

Thursday, 8 August 2019

Kim and I both woke up really early (like 4:30 or so) and tried but failed to go back to sleep for any length of time. I finally got up and got in the shower and then wished I had just gone out for a walk, since Bardstown is a small, safe place to be. Oh well. We had plenty of time to get ready and pack before walking down a couple of blocks to our high school friends’ (Bob and Cara Chumbler Blackmon) house for a visit.

The last time we were here, about three years ago, they had just closed on the house, so we were anxious to see the inside. It was charming, and you could tell it was arranged especially for their 6 (about to be 7) grandchildren. Bob had built a ‘dorm room’ with four twin beds (no room for bunks due to low slanted ceilings) and there was a crib room, too. Not to mention the cool reading nook with a map-papered vaulted ceiling and the little play area/classroom. I may need to take grandparenting lessons from Cara and Bob!

Bob took us on a tour of the backyard, which was equally kid-friendly. There was a gorgeous koi pond, an elevated vegetable garden, a delightfully whimsical fairy garden, and a soon-to-be playhouse built from reclaimed barn wood and cedar shingles. God knew what he was doing when he blessed Bob, a former star football player and dad to three sons, with FIVE granddaughters!! I can tell Cara has loved it, too!

We all walked back to the Old Talbott Tavern for breakfast, and Kim and I hit the road a little after 10:30. Our destinations today were Kettering, Ohio, where my niece Emilee lives, and then Columbus, where we had the only reservations we planned for this trip, which was a food tour on Friday morning.

As usual, our route did not involve interstate highways, so it was going to take us almost five hours to get there. We ended up hopping on the interstate south of Cincinnati in hopes of shaving a few minutes off of the trip, since Emilee had a work event, but the traffic was so bad that we got right off. Even with a quick pit stop and that little traffic snarl, we pulled up to Emilee and Gus’s house at about 3:45. Their son Fynn had just waked up from his nap, but after about two minutes, we were old friends! This was our first time to meet sweet Fynn, and I hadn’t seen Emilee and Gus since shortly after they learned they were expecting Fynn, who is now three.

Fynn showed us his sea creatures, his room, his dinosaurs, and shared his stickers with us. He served us the cheese and crackers Em had ready for us, and he even posed for some photos. We were sad to leave! Thanks for having us, Emilee and Gus! We loved your house and your cute son!

Our ride to Columbus was uneventful except for a detour we weren’t expecting. I had made reservations at the downtown Hampton Inn before falling asleep Wednesday night in hopes that it was close to our food tour, and then we decided we should just stay two nights. Thankfully, that was not a problem, and it turned out we were not even a block away from the start of the food tour.

The staff at the Hampton was fantastic – so friendly! Cherokee checked us in and pointed us in the direction of good food; Tiffany checked in to make sure all was well; Clifton the greeter delivered us a FedEx package and blessed us upon leaving and arriving; and James the manager kept it all in control.

We walked a few blocks down the street to the Pint House for dinner on Cherokee’s recommendation. Even on Thursday night, the place was hopping! But, it was Thursday night football and the Browns were playing, so that made sense. Kim had a grilled cheese and fries and I had the short rib tacos. I got a beer sampler and Kim had the Fat Head Bumbleberry, then we both had a grapefruit beer. Of course, since there was a Jeni’s ice cream shop (founded in Columbus) on our way home, we had to stop there, too.

It was a fun day, filled with friends, family, and food. What more could you want?

Off Like a Herd of Turtles…

Wednesday, 7 August 2019Friday, 9 August 2019Leave a comment

Wednesday, 7 August 2019
Memphis TN to Bardstown KY

As you know, the Sassy Sisters travel on our own time and without a lot of planning, and this year we are taking it to the limit. We have NO plans and only one reservation (for a food tour). So, we will be as surprised as you to learn where we are going and when! Our general destination is upstate New York, with a stop in Columbus OH to see the Chihuly exhibit there.

We left Memphis about 1 PM today after stopping off to see Kim’s daughter, Kerry, and her cute bungalow and lovable dog and then going to Crosstown Concourse for lunch. What a cool venue! The gigantic building used to be a Sears retail store and distribution center, and at one time it was the country’s largest warehouse. After sitting abandoned and idle for years, it was reclaimed and renovated and is now home to a clinic, condos and apartments, many restaurants, an art gallery, a meeting place, and more.

We wandered around, then had lunch at the Saucy Chicken, followed by some cookies for Kim from lucy j’s bakery and a Mexican popsicle for me (roasted peaches) from MemPops. It was all good!

We chose to take US 70 and 79 out of Memphis and travelled through some of the towns of our childhood – Bells, Humboldt, and Milan – before making our first stop in Paris. When we saw a sign for the Eiffel Tower Park, of course we had to stop. This was my third Eiffel Tower sighting in five weeks!

We took a short Sonic break then set a course for Bardstown, KY, and the lovely Talbott Inn, owned by our friend Kathy Kuhn Kelley. We sort of forgot we’d lose an hour to Eastern time, so we opted to stop in Litchfield for dinner while still on Central time. Sorry we missed you, Shan Fox Embry! We had a fantastic pizza at Rough River Pizza. Oh, and of course we made a pit stop at Beaver Dam. Our Kentucky friends know that’s a rule!

We rolled in to Bardstown about 10:15, found our hidden room key, and settled right in our huge and comfortable room. Kim is already off to dreamland. Night!

Saturday, 18 August 2018Wednesday, 8 July 2026Leave a comment

13 August 2018

Our first stop was at Helen’s Pancake House in Chadron for breakfast. Helen’s is also a steakhouse by night (different dining room, same building). Kim got a pecan waffle which was pretty and tasty. We were ready to hit the road, and we had thought we might make it to Thermopolis, WY, but you never know…

We were not far from Crawford, NE, so of course we had to stop by there. It, like many other towns we’ve seen on this trip, had seen more prosperous and populous days, but it had a stunning backdrop of three big rocks. It also had a free museum, so naturally we spent a while there, soaking up the local history and culture.

Our next planned destination was Toadstool Geologic Park, just north of Crawford. Since it was a 19.5 mile (each way) trip on a gravel road, it took us quite some time to get there and my car may never be the same. Once there, we were a bit surprised to see several other cars and people there, but we’ve learned that people show up in the darnedest places! Toadstool is very odd – think the Badlands meet Craters of the Moon – but we enjoyed our loop trail with explanations of what we were seeing.

We considered stopping at a restaurant (also on the gravel road, but another 5 or so miles out of the way) that the guy in the Crawford museum had recommended, but voted to just get out of the dust and move west. The next town of any size (and with any promise of food) was Lusk, Wyoming, where we rolled in a little before 3 PM. We stopped in at the Stagecoach Museum there to see how late it was open and to get a lunch recommendation and learned that ‘the best pizza in the state’ could be found here. Score! Sadly, it was closed but only until 4 PM, so we went back to the museum and checked it out before having an early dinner of really good pizza.

At this point, we decided that an early evening in Casper may be just what we needed, so that is what we did. It started to rain just as we arrived a little after 7 PM, so we got settled and then enjoyed the happy hour at the hotel. Another fine day!

Monday, 13 August 2018Wednesday, 8 July 2026Leave a comment

13 August 2018

So, it’s not even 10 PM and we are in our PJs, unwinding after another fun day. We could not find a single place in Colby, Oakley, Oberlin, or McCook to have breakfast, so we opted for a quick bite and a big iced tea at Sonic before we left Colby. Took us until day 3 to stop at Sonic – I think that’s a record!

We traveled up US 83 out of Kansas and into Nebraska, and saw very few cars and almost no big trucks, so we made great time. We had traveled this road before, so we didn’t make stops in those towns this time, especially since not much is open on Sunday mornings.

We decided to have lunch in North Platte, and we chose the Lincoln Highway Diner because we love the Lincoln Highway. It was an okay choice – we’ve been pretty underwhelmed with food options so far! We each had the hot roast beef sandwich and we left the bread and some of the mashed potatoes behind. It was tasty. Since it was a for real diner, you know they had pie, so we did, too….

We continued on Hwy 83 to Thedford, where we hopped on Nebraska 2, which is a scenic drive across the middle of the state. Lots of green rolling hills (if you’ve been to Scotland or Ireland, it’s very reminiscent), plenty of wildflowers, and NO traffic. We passed two cars, one motorcycle passed us, and two cars that were ahead of us briefly turned off. That’s it. Five other cars going the same direction that we were in almost two hours. We saw more trains than cars!

When we hit Allliance, we figured we may as well stop in at Carhenge (again). We were first here in 2007, on the Roadside Giant Tour. It hadn’t changed much, although now there is a little gift shop/concession stand and a for real parking lot. We drove on through Alliance and turned north to Chadron, NE.

We got to town about 5:30 and checked in our hotel and settled in, then went back down the road to the Chadron State Park for a little hike. We had done very little but ride and eat all day! We drove a couple of miles up a gravel road and then did the Black Hills Overlook trail. The scenery is so interesting here – think the prairie meets the badlands – and we were walking right along the top of a ridge. It was VERY windy – there were times we felt we could be blown right off the trail. Thankfully, we were not wearing our Sister Bertrille headgear (or any headgear!) so we stayed on the ground.

The sun was just setting as we drove back to town and headed to the Country Kitchen for a nice salad. Finally! We were about sandwiched out. Then we had to try out the famous ice cream shop here….

So that was our day – not too exciting, but a nice day for a Sunday drive!

Sunday, 12 August 2018Wednesday, 8 July 2026Leave a comment

12 August 2018

Yesterday was a LONG day, and so much fun! We were up early (6 AM early) and had finished breakfast at Jimmy’s Egg in Wichita Falls by 8. We were getting an early start in hopes of meeting up with Kim, Blake, and Momo for lunch in the panhandle; in the end, logistics foiled that plan, but we took advantage of our early start.

Kim told us there was a town called Dodson that wasn’t far from where we were, and since Dodson is the name we grew up with, we had to go there. Also on our route was Memphis (also in Texas), but we would be bypassing Paducah (TX) this time.

Our plan was to meet the kids in Memphis for lunch, but not much there was open on Saturday, so we drove north to Pampa and the Coney Island Cafe, famous for hot dogs and homemade pie. Of course! We walked all over the downtown area and spent time in the White Deer Land Museum, which was very well done and so interesting!

We finally made it out of Texas a little after 4 PM, and 30 minutes later we were out of Oklahoma and in Liberal, Kansas. If you’re a longtime Sassy Sister follower, you may remember we’ve passed this way before, so we had already seen Dorothy’s House (think Oz, Kansas, etc.) I needed to stop driving for a bit, so we went to the Mid-America Air Museum. Fabulous exhibit, and they were open until 6, so we didn’t have to rush. We may have had an ice cream break before getting on the road again…

Somehow, we rolled into Colby, Kansas, just as the sun went down, so we didn’t break our ‘stop before dark’ two days in a row. We had an adult beverage and a snack at the nearby City Limits bar and then called it a day. I was asleep in minutes!

We are taking it easy this morning, but it’s time to get moving!

Getting Seasoned and Cultured

Wednesday, 6 September 2017Thursday, 9 August 2018Leave a comment

Crystal Bridges 2017

Wednesday, 6 September 2017

Hutchinson, KS to Bentonville, AR 304 miles

Hutchinson to Bentonville

Hutchinson is home of Strataca, which is a humongous underground salt mine. We decided it was worth a three hour tour to go 650 feet underground to see what is hiding underneath Kansas, so we were up early this morning so that we could get a good breakfast before going underground. Our restaurant choice was the Firehouse Cafe, which, you guessed it, was in what used to be a firehouse. We loved it! Full of locals, of course, a cool venue, and good, hearty food – what’s not to love?

The menu was on fire!

Loved the interior

So much food!

It really was a fire house once!

It was easy to find Strataca, since it’s the main tourist attraction in town and since it’s so flat you could see it coming. It’s not so easy to get into the mine, since it is WAY down under. This salt mine was formed 275 million years ago and it’s part of the Permian Basin, which you may remember we visited parts of a few years ago (Sassy Sisters 2013, Rocky Mountain High) when we drove from New Mexico into the western edge of the basin near Midland and Odessa, Texas. We’d also driven across part of it (Sassy Sisters 2007, Roadside Giant Tour) when we saw the Monument Rocks of western Kansas. This year, we’re seeing the purest portion of a 27,000 square mile salt vein, which just happens to be right under Hutchinson. The entire Permian Basin salt deposit covers over 100,000 square miles! The salt mine that is Strataca is 300,000 square feet and it was discovered in 1887 when Ben Blanchard was drilling for oil and found salt instead.

Emerson Carey, a local entreprenuer, started the Carey Salt Mine in 1923. The salt mined here is rock salt, used mainly for de-icing roads or freezing homemade ice cream. Over 500,000 tons of rock salt is excavated each year! In addition to mining salt, the tunnels that remain happen to be the perfect storage place for important media collections. Since 1959, Underground Vaults and Storage has been safekeeping data, movies, newspapers, and more (even nuclear waste!), right here in Kansas.

Our tour guide, Bob, got us outfitted with hard hats and buddy tags, and then we hopped on the double-decker six-ton transporter hoist that took us through frozen aquifer and many layers of rock and silt into the heart of the salt mine. Once there, we had the chance to look at museum-like exhibits about the mine and its history, and then we took a train ride deeper into the mine. We were able to drive down now-abandoned shafts and tunnels that were mined in the 40s and 50s. What’s so interesting about the mine is that anything that goes into the mine stays there, so it truly was like traveling back in time. The trash piles marked the decades as well as the decrepit vehicles that are frozen in their tracks (and in time). It was one of the most fascinating tours we’ve done!

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It was almost 1 PM before we left Hutchinson, and we had 300 miles to go to get to Crystal Bridges. We didn’t want to miss the Chihuly exhibit, so we skedaddled! We had thought we might stop in Wichita for lunch or to see something of interest there, but we pushed on instead. We got to Bentonville and found Crystal Bridges with no problem, and the timing was perfect. We got to see the Chihuly glass in the daylight, then went inside to see the art inside the gallery, and then we went back out to see the glass all lit up at night. Spectacular!

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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art was founded in 2005 by the Walton Family Foundation. Sam Walton’s daughter, Alice Walton, is the patron and chair of the museum’s board of directors. The museum was designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie and the building opened on 11 November 2011. It was named for a nearby natural spring and the bridge construction incorporated in the building by Safdie. The museum’s permanent collection spans five centuries of American masterworks ranging from the Colonial era to the current day.

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By the time we had seen all of the art that we wanted to, it was time for dinner. We were so hungry (no lunch, after all!) that we opted to eat in the restaurant at Crystal Bridges. Great choice! Dinner was fabulous! Afterwards, we made our way to our hotel and called it a day. What a wonderful way to wind down our trip!

Eleven at Crystal Bridges

The menu

This twist on a margarita was delicious – grilled pineapple and some jalapeno

I had the short ribs

Kim had the pork loin

You know this was good!

Redemption for Kansas?

Tuesday, 5 September 2017Thursday, 1 September 2022Leave a comment

Tuesday, 5 September 2017
Lamar, CO to Hutchinson, KS ~ 275 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy AAA

We kind of figured the Thai Spicy Basil would not be open for breakfast, so we decided to give the nearby Hickory House a try. Another good call – not only was the food fine, we had another cute as could be and super friendly server! We had fun chatting with her and sharing our story. On our way out of town, we stopped by a Roadside America site to see a building made of petrified wood – nothing terribly exciting, but since we’d been to the petrified forest state park, it was kind of interesting. Soon we were on the road, and before too long we were crossing the border into Kansas. Have I mentioned that until this trip, Kansas was our least favorite state of all fifty of them? I had a feeling that after the past few days and the roads we’d been on, Kim may have been looking forward to some flat, boring prairie driving – and she was!

Our breakfast destination

Omelet and hash browns – all good!

The petrified wood building

On another famous trail

It’s looking a lot like Kansas!

Kim was happy to see this road!

We’ve driven across Kansas (west to east), albeit on the interstate, and we’ve driven south to north across it on Hwy 83 (the Road to Nowhere), and we’ve explored the southeast corner several times (on Route 66), and while some of the sights we’ve seen (Dorothy’s House in Liberal, Monument Rocks in the middle of nowhere (one of the 8 wonders of Kansas), Prairie Dog Town near Oakley (now closed), Baxter Springs (on the Route) have been good ones, others – Garden City, Scott (lake, city, county, state park, etc.) have been underwhelming. As kids, we rode across Kansas and stopped at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene and then Daddy just drove and drove and drove. For us, even North Dakota and South Dakota were more interesting; however, after criss-crossing Nevada twice now, Kansas was in good shape to move up a rung or two. Fingers crossed, because our first stop was to be Garden City. Was redemption at hand?

On our first trip to Garden City, back in 2007, the main thing we wanted to see was the Big Pool. The Big Pool was hand dug and concrete poured by the people of Garden City in 1921 and opened for its inaugural season in 1922. The bath house was a WPA project constructed during the 1930s, and a children’s wading pool was also added in the 1930s. Sounds intriguing, right? Thing is, we arrived there on the day before Mother’s Day, which was early enough in May that the pool wasn’t open yet. Bummer. Not only that, but our meals in Garden City that trip were at Arby’s and Long John Silver’s – not because we were craving fast food (you know it’s against the rules) but because it’s all we could find open! Well, that’s not exactly true – we were directed to the Ramada Inn for the Mother’s Day buffet, but after about five minutes inside (we had even been seated), we left. Not happening! Anyway, here we were, back in Garden City, and it’s the day after Labor Day. I was hoping that the pool would still be full! You’re probably wondering what could be so exciting about a municipal swimming pool, but this isn’t just any pool – it’s the BIG POOL! When I say big, I mean BIGGEST! At 330 feet long by 220 feet wide, it’s longer than a football field and four times wider. It is so big that people have water skied and wind surfed in it! It takes two teams of eight people SIX DAYS to vacuum it. A motorized boat is used to sprinkle soda ash in it, and there is a guard stand in the middle of the pool, meaning you would have to get wet to get on the stand – all of you former lifeguards out there – you know what a bitch that would be on a chilly day, a rainy day, or on first or last shifts! Thankfully, we were rewarded – the pool was closed (meaning we could take all of the photos we wanted) and it was still full of water. The pool is right next to the city zoo, and we learned that, back in the day, they brought the elephants over to frolic in the pool after it closed for the season. Sadly, the elephants aren’t there any more, so we missed that spectacle, but there is an elephant slide in the kiddie pool.

Some of the history of the Big Pool

It really is ENORMOUS! This is the shallow end, with the bathhouse/concession area at left.

Pictures don’t do it justice! Two low dives and two water slides in the deep end.

See the guard chair in the middle of the pool??

Turns out that the zoo and the city museum (also next door) are free, so we decided to get a few steps by walking through the zoo. And, if you drive through the zoo, it’s $10, and you don’t see much. Go figure. Kim probably wished we had skipped the zoo, since I love taking pictures of animals, but I really enjoyed it. It was not a huge zoo, but it had some fun stuff. You can skip the pics if you want – I may have gotten carried away…

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After the zoo, we had to go to the museum, since the main reason we stopped was to see (I’m not kidding here) the world’s largest hairball. There, I said it. And it was right here in Garden City, although we almost missed it! The museum was nicely done and we learned a bit more about Garden City, the Santa Fe Trail, and life on the prairie. And about the hairball…

An original International Harvester

And the showstopper – the Giant Hairball!

Map of the Santa Fe Trail

One of Garden City’s more colorful characters

Our next stop after Garden City was Dodge City, which I was concerned would be the Gatlinburg of the Prairie. In case you are not a long-term Sassy Sister follower, we have a habit of bestowing the ‘Gatlinburg of the ______’ moniker on things that we thought would be cool, interesting, or at least worth a stop but that ended up being tourist traps more than the places we expected (and that they probably once were). It’s kind of sad, because we grew up going to Gatlinburg and loving it, before it became, well, THE Gatlinburg. In case you’re wondering about some of our ‘award’ winners:

Gatlinburg of the Midwest – Wisconsin Dells
Gatlinburg of the Civil War – Gettysburg
Gatlinburg of the Coast – Myrtle Beach
Gatlinburg of the Badlands – Wall Drug

You get the idea! Let us know if you have someplace we should include on this list!

Another blessing – Dodge City was not a Gatlinburg! Our main stop in Dodge was as quirky as they come – the Wild West Wax Museum/Kansas Teacher’s Hall of Fame. Yep, both of these oddities are housed in the same building, and the story is a funny one. Turns out the guy who owned the building was a photographer who somehow started collecting wax figures, mostly of wild west heroes and villains, with a few exceptions – John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein, most notably. His photography studio was on the first floor, and the entire second floor was filled with these wax figures in semi-elaborate dioramas with a backdrop of black velvet, black light painted murals. When the teacher’s Hall of Fame was looking for a home, the studio was just perfect, and the wax museum was part of the deal. The coolest part of the wax museum is that it hasn’t changed since the 60’s!! We almost didn’t get to see either the museum or the Hall of Fame, as it was open by appointment only after Labor Day, but the nice lady who answered our phone call agreed to meet us at 3 PM or shortly after, and sure enough, when we arrived about ten after three, Miss Mary Lou was there to greet us. She sent us upstairs to see the wax museum, and then she was our personal tour guide for the Hall of Fame and it’s piece d’resistance, an authentic one-room schoolhouse that has been restored and permanently placed on the property.

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The Kansas State Teacher’s Hall of Fame was very impressive! Since 1977, the best teachers in Kansas have been honored by their peers, and it’s not easy to be in this group. First, a teacher must have taught in Kansas for 25 years, and then, he or she must be nominated for the award. Of course, many letters and recommendations are needed and then a group selects the award recipients from the larger group. In addition to being a place of honor for these dedicated educators, there is a small museum featuring desks, books, typewriters. blackboards, musical instruments, etc. through the decades, and there is a gift shop, too – all in addition to the one-room schoolhouse, which is a museum itself. We appreciated Miss Mary Lou taking time from her day to share these museums with us!

The refurbished one-room schoolhouse

In the Hall of Fame Museum, we took a trip down Memory Lane with Dick & Jane

and My Weekly Reader

Teaching math in 1927

And learning about Kansas

The interior of the school

Beautiful butterfly garden in front of the schoolhouse

We thought about finding something to eat or drink while in Dodge, so we walked down the hill to the famous (or infamous) Boot Hill. We opted not to pay to see the recreated Main Street, but we walked by it and then up and down a few blocks of the town. In the end, we didn’t get refreshments (the brew pub and the distillery were closed) and just decided to head on to Hutchinson, our destination for the day. On the way, we passed a huge feedyard of cattle and then an even bigger wind farm. No kidding, the windmills, by the thousand, went on and on for miles! We had already passed two different windmill-making facilities and a truck with a windmill arm. This is definitely the place for it!

Boot Hill in Dodge City

A shootout on the lawless streets of Dodge

Mural of a stagecoach on the Santa Fe Trail

The old town

Big Longhorn

Posing with Matt again

The Boot Hill Distillery

Lots of grain elevators on the prairie

BIG feedyard

Ginormous wind farms!

And sort of what we expected..

We were looking forward to staying in a Hampton Inn again, and we had no trouble finding ours in Hutchinson, since we arrived before dark (again!). After getting some recommendations for dinner, we decided to drive a few miles south to the town of Yoder (population 194) and a place called Carriage Crossing. Turns out Yoder is the center of several nearby Amish communities, and this restaurant (and bakery and gift shop) is family-owned and is known for its comfort food, which can be served family style if there are enough of you. We were happy with our choice – good food, plenty of it, great prices, and PIE!

Our dinner spot for the night

A bit about the restaurant

Freshly baked bread and cinnamon butter

I had roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans

And peach pie…

Animals, Dunes, and Depression

Monday, 4 September 2017Sunday, 10 September 2017Leave a comment

Monday, 4 September 2017

Blanding, Utah to Lamar, Colorado – 475 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017

There weren’t many options for breakfast this morning, but we found Yak’s Cafe on our way out of town. The parking lot was pretty full, and that’s usually a good sign, so we were hopeful – and again, we were not disappointed! The staff was friendly and though we got the expected ‘you’re not from around here’ looks from the regulars, everyone was nice and the food was hot and good. Nothing fancy – good ole scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns are a great way to start the day. You may have noticed that we’ve been eating only two meals a day most days. We’ve learned that a hearty breakfast can go a long way, and we haven’t even been snacking on the snacks we bought at the Dutch Bakery. Well, except for the vegetable chips which I may be becoming addicted to… Back to the subject at hand – today’s route would take us across southern Colorado, most of which we had not seen before. We visited Durango, Mesa Verde, and the Four Corners Monument on our Sassy Sister trip in 2013, and this time we’d be passing through Durango from west to east instead of north to south, although we did reminisce about our stormy, rainy, curvy, scary drive on US 550 past Ouray on that trip. We also realized that the lovely day we spent soaking in natural hot springs was in Pagosa Springs, which was right on our route on Highway 160 today. Sadly, we didn’t have time to stop at any of those places this time, as we had lots of ground to cover.

Breakfast at Yak’s

Long, straight, and hilly for now

Another state to experience

A nice reminder of our 2013 trip to Mesa Verde, Four Corners, Durango, and Pagosa Springs

Starting to see some mountains ahead

This terrain is more familiar to us

Kim didn’t mind driving here as much as in strange Utah

The drought is real!

This was the longest rain we had on this whole trip. It lasted maybe 15 minutes

We thought this was a coyote, but on closer inspection, it appears to be a fox. We saw several dead foxes on this trip.

More traffic in Colorado

Petticoat Junction!

Sweet little church

Our first stop of the day was an unexpected one, but who can resist hand-lettered signs for an elk ranch? We were near Del Norte, and Kim gamely (haha) turned in at my request. What a hoot! From the Burma Shave-like signs lining the drive to the ‘Welcome to Ribeye, Colorado’ (population 12) sign to the photo ops to the store full of game meats to the pens of elk and caribou to the cute little kittens hanging out on the steps, we enjoyed our short detour at Anta Grande Elk Ranch.

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It turned out to be a good thing we stopped here, because from Del Norte to Lamar, there was very little of interest. The small towns were sad – very depressed, very little open – we wanted to stop for rest and refreshment, but there were no options along our route, even in the bigger places. We were astonished to learn that there was a National Park in the middle of this nothingness, so we decided to have a look at Great Sand Dunes National Park, and we planned to ‘sled’ down the dunes. Alas, you needed to have procured your sled in town before arriving at the park. Oh well, we just opted to take a short hike, get some photos, and learn a bit about the dunes and the surrounding area.

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The rest of today’s trip was blah! No scenery, no people, no place to stop, and very little of interest. We took a little accidental side trip in Walsenburg, and that was even more depressing! We were glad we actually knew a good place to eat in Lamar and we really wished we had known there was a brand new Holiday Inn Express (right next door to our dreary Days Inn) – Booking.com, you let us down this time! We stopped at a Sonic in Lamar for some iced tea and saw an interesting sight, but we couldn’t get a good photo. Until we stopped for gas a couple of blocks later (whew!) and the same truck pulled up next to us. Too funny! We passed our Days Inn and were really tempted to drive on, but it had been a long day and there was nothing promising on the horizon, and we had already paid for the room. We ate a delicious dinner at Thai Spicy Basil (we had eaten here on our 2013 trip) – Kung Pao Chicken and Moo Goo Gai Pan, with some chicken coconut soup for me – and then we resigned ourselves to the motel. Just to add insult to injury, there was no elevator, and even though we both had two bags and the guy ahead of us had a tiny bag, he got the first floor room and we got the second floor room that was as far from the front desk (and stairs) as it could have been. We see how it is. I think I get cranky when we are heading home!

I’m laughing as I look at this photo of the Huerfano County courthouse, since I totally missed the highway sign we needed as we wandered through Walsenburg!

Not sure where we saw this, but I was getting desperate for photos

At least it wasn’t a curvy mountain road…

A hill! Excitement!

Yes, I was bored!

Here’s the funny thing we saw at Sonic. It followed us to the gas station.

Across the street from Thai Spicy Basil

Yum! Kung Pao chicken for dinner.

Surviving the Surreal

Sunday, 3 September 2017Sunday, 10 September 20172 Comments

Sunday, 3 September 2017

Cedar City to Blanding, Utah, 360 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy AAA

Thanks to our superb server, Jacee at Centro Pizza, we knew that the place to go for breakfast this morning (another Sunday morning in Utah – sort of limits your breakfast choices!) was the All-American Diner, and we even knew where it was, since we had passed it on our way to dinner the night before. We were not steered wrong – I had a standard All-American breakfast of eggs over easy, bacon, and hash browns with a splurge of a pancake. It was all great, and I didn’t even eat all of the pancake or the potatoes. It was about 9:30 when we started off on what would be one of our most challenging drives ever on our trip across what must be America’s strangest state, at least as far as terrain and topography are concerned! The drive started out innocently enough, and we were on familiar territory, as we had stayed three nights in Cedar City on our very first Sassy Sister trip in 2006, on our way home from Route 66. The first part of our journey took us through the Dixie National Forest until we turned onto Utah Scenic Byway 12 (an All-American Road), which took us past Bryce Canyon National Park, but we didn’t stop since we had spent a day there previously.

Great breakfast (all day) at the All American Diner in Cedar City UT

The standard

The splurge!

Lots of cedars on the road out of Cedar City

We turned onto Utah Hwy 12 just before Bryce Canyon

Soon the cedars were no more

And the terrain changed from the hoodoos of Bryce to this

And the road got a bit curvier

We made a quick stop at the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument Visitor Center in Cannonville and talked to a friendly ranger there who suggested that we stop at the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park and do a short hike there, since we really didn’t have time to explore the Grand Staircase much more than that. It wasn’t too long before we traveled the 32 miles to the park, where the ranger there didn’t seem to think we would be up to the challenge of the short but steep hike up to see the petrified trees. Needless to say, that decided it. We filled our water bottles, put on sunscreen, hats, and sunglasses, and after checking out the 50′ petrified tree at the base of the hill, headed up the dirt trail, which was almost completely unshaded. Mrs. Ranger had given us a map that had info for each of the numbered stops along the trail, so we learned a bit as we hiked. The trail was at its steepest early on, so the going was hardest at the beginning. Since we were just off of Vernal Fall though, it was a piece of cake! One of the interesting things we learned was that the town of Escalante was named for a Spanish Franciscan priest who had explored the area in 1776, looking for an overland route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California.

The 50′ petrified tree

Here we are!

The dirt trail up the hill – we were already about halfway up by this point

Looking down on the town of Escalante

Our first petrified log on the trail

A closer look reveals a beautiful palette of colors

and interesting textures

From the back side of the trail (the hard part) – easy to see why this area is called the Grand Staircase

From the top, looking down to the lake at the park’s campground.

With a little hike under our belts, we were ready for some more driving. We thought! What no one had mentioned to us (and since we had done no research, we didn’t know) is that the next section of the road we would be traveling was near another road called ‘Hell’s Backbone‘, which is a gravel road built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, and let me just say that I am sure it is very aptly named! I have to give total props to Kim, who drove Highway 12 masterfully and didn’t get to enjoy the spectacle nearly as much as I did. The road featured several sections of 8 to 10% grades, no guardrails, and lots of curves. The best news was that the road was obviously recently repaved! The other good news – evidently, most people travel on interstate highways! We were both thankful that we didn’t come upon any crazy bicyclists on this road and were stunned to read (days later) that Colin had taken this exact route on his travel the opposite direction! Colin, when you read this, we are SO GLAD you made it safely!! These next photos need no explanation – the first ones were taken over about a 15 minute time period, and the ones with the aspen trees were about 25 minutes after that.

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About thirty minutes later, we turned off of Hwy 12 onto Hwy 24 at Torrey and soon found ourselves in Capitol Reef National Park, with yet another stunning terrain change. Capitol Dome is a Navajo sandstone feature that was named for its resemblance to the US Capitol. This dome, along with the nearly 100-mile Waterpocket Fold (a barrier of rock that obstructed early travelers like a barrier “reef”), inspired the park’s name. Capitol Reef became a National Park in 1937, and it has three main districts – the Fruita area, which was a Mormon settlement with a school and orchards, which are one of the largest historic orchards in the National Park Service with almost 3,000 trees, including apple, peach, pear, apricot, cherry, and plum; the Waterpocket District, which encompasses the 100 mile long Waterpocket Fold; and Cathedral Valley, which is a backcountry area. While we would have liked to have explored this park more, it was quite hot and we still had a long way to go to get to our destination before dark. And if the road ahead was like the one we had just traveled… Anyway, we stopped in the Fruita district to see the petroglyphs.

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We continued on Hwy 24 until we reached Hanksville, where we turned south on Hwy 95 (the Bicentennial Highway), headed for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Natural Bridges National Monument, and ultimately, the town of Blanding. Kim was almost over it with the driving (and I can see why) and we really wanted to make sure we were situated well before dark, so we mostly enjoyed the views from the car. We stopped at an overlook to see Lake Powell, and we were in for a nice surprise. From the Hite Overlook (which was quite a ways up and a mile or so off the road) we could see not only Lake Powell, but also the bridge over the Colorado River that we would be crossing soon.

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Before long, we were pulling into Blanding, not sure whether or not we would be happy with our choice of a place to stay. Let’s just say it was not up to our usual standards, and if we had known then what we know now, we would have gone a bit farther up the road. But we were safe and had beds and a shower – and air conditioning, so no complaints. Before we checked in, we drove around town a bit since it was still light and found pretty much the only place to eat, which looked okay. Turned out, we really enjoyed the Homestead Steak House!

We made it, well before dark!

We ate outside at the Homestead Steak House

We shared a Navajo Fry Bread Taco

and a side of fresh veggies

and a made in house chocolate ice cream cake

Crossing the Desert

Saturday, 2 September 2017Sunday, 10 September 20172 Comments

Saturday, 2 September 2017

Yosemite NP to Cedar City, Utah, 495 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy AAA

Saturday morning, we were not in a huge hurry to get going, as we planned to use our breakfast vouchers at the Majestic, so we got packed up and made our way down to the dining room. While we would have preferred to order from the menu, it was pretty clear that having the buffet would be the thing to do, so we surrendered. The buffet was good, and the food was fresh since there were a lot of people getting it, too. Just one problem – the eggs Benedict was a very popular item, and it was out almost the whole time we were there. I finally got one just when I was about to give up, and had the egg over the delicious lox they served. It was time to say goodbye to Yosemite Valley, though we would still be in the park for quite a while longer. After one last look at the lovely old hotel, we hit the road – turning east for the first time….

The main dining room at the Majestic

The lobby/gathering area/great room at the Majestic

One of the gorgeous windows in the great room

A bit of info about the Majestic

Our last look back – from the parking area looking back to the registration desk door

Our route would take us back out to California Highway 120, which would take us completely across the northern portion of Yosemite, and then we would take US 395 south for a bit. It was a pleasant drive through parts of the park that we hadn’t seen, and there were lots of people hiking, camping, swimming, and hanging out on this holiday weekend. We drove past Tuolumne Meadows and then caught a glimpse of Mt. Dana, the second-highest peak in the park, which still had snow on it! Kim was getting her first practice at winding mountain roads after a few days of no driving at all.

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We were almost out of gas, and we had heard all about a little gas station that had a great restaurant in it, but somehow we missed seeing it. We went into the town of Lee Vining hoping to find it, but no luck. We did find Lake Mono National Park, so we stopped there to see what it was and to find out about the gas station, which turned out to be just inside the park. We had a look at Lake Mono, which is a big saline lake with some volcanic islands in it, and it’s a great place for birding. It was already getting hot, and we had a lot of ground to cover, so back we went to the Mobil station (home of the Whoa Nellie Deli) to fill up, and then we were off, ready to cross the desert that is Nevada.

Lake Mono Visitor Center

Lake Mono is a big saline lake with a few volcanic islands in it

It’s a big bird sanctuary

Just outside Yosemite, the topography is completely different!

Out of Yosemite, heading south on the scenic route

Ran across this behemoth as we drove down the highway.

While US 50 across Nevada may have earned the title “Loneliest Road in America”, we would beg to differ with that opinion. At least it had three little towns on it! This southern route was much more deserted! If not for the horses, cows, and extraterrestrials, we would not have seen any living things. We saw not a single other car going in our direction! Early in the route we went through the town of Tonopah, home to the creepy Clown Motel (calling David M!!) and then we saw not much else except the ‘town’ of Rachel (which was pretty much a trailer park). We enjoyed the Extraterrestrial Highway, but we disappointed not to have any (live) ET sightings. We stopped for gas in Caliente, the smallest incorporated town in Nevada (population around 1100) and admired the depot (which is also the library, town hall, and museum) that was across the street from the Sinclair station. We finally made it to the Utah border and found our way to the Holiday Inn Express in Cedar City.

We saw this scary sight in Tonopah!

Long and straight

Wild horses on one side of the road

Lots of open range cattle warnings!

Aptly placed!

And some mountains!

More cows

Time to trim the tumbleweed wannabes

On the Extraterrestrial Highway

The terrain changes a bit

Seriously, there is no one out here!

Another alien sighting

The mountains are getting closer

Welcome to Rachel!

The AleInn in Rachel (this was pretty much all of Rachel).

At the end of the ET highway…

Great mural here

Rest of the mural

The little town of Caliente had a cool depot and a train roared past as we were there.

Even though it was Saturday night, we barely made it to Centro Woodfired Pizza before it closed at 10 PM; however, the host seated us cheerfully and our server, Jacee, could not have been friendlier. We shared a pizza – Kim had Fennel Sausage and I had Pollo Bianco – and had a beer and both were delicious! The thin crust pizza was done perfectly and the toppings were plentiful and good. We were enticed by the Nutella Piegato for dessert – “pizza dough filled with creamy Nutella, folded (Piegato) and baked in our wood fired oven until gooey and delicious. Finished with whipped cream and a nutella drizzle.” Oh boy, was it good! And we saved enough to give Jayce a couple of pieces, too.

At Centro Wood-fired Pizza in Cedar City, UT

The menu

The main course

The fabulous dessert!!

We didn’t even try to blog or do pictures tonight, because tomorrow would be a LONG day and we needed to get some rest.

Majestic Yosemite

Friday, 1 September 2017Wednesday, 6 September 20172 Comments

Friday, 1 September 2017

Yosemite National Park

Kim and I had big plans for the day today, as it was our last full day at Yosemite. We had to check out of our Yosemite Lodge room before 11 AM and then check into the famous Majestic Hotel, but not until 4 PM, so we planned to pack up, load the car, and do a couple of hikes in the morning and then do a Valley tour in the afternoon before moving to our new not-so-humble abode. I won’t say how much, but let’s just say in all of my travels, I have NEVER paid anywhere near as much money for a hotel room of any kind as we paid for 18 hours (maybe) at the Majestic. We were sure hoping it wouldn’t have been a mistake! (The only reason we were moving was because that was the only place in the park that we could get a room for the first night of Labor Day weekend.)

Anyway, we went to the Lodge’s food court for breakfast, and my mom told me if I couldn’t say anything nice, not to say anything at all.

We caught a shuttle bus right outside the front desk at the Lodge and rode it to stop #16, Happy Isles. The bus was almost empty when we got on, and thirty minutes later, when we got off, it was packed to the gills. Almost everyone got off with us – seemed a hike to Vernal Fall was on lots of people’s agendas this morning. It was a gorgeous day – not nearly as smoky as it had been yesterday – and it was just starting to get hot. The Vernal Falls hike (aka the Mist Trail) had been listed as ‘moderate to strenuous’ on the info sheet, but the info lady we had spoken to yesterday decreed that we would have no trouble with it. The hardest part about it, she said, was that there was a pretty steep elevation change over a short distance, but that if we took it slow and easy, we’d be fine. Right.

It didn’t help that we chose the wrong trail to start off on, but we got to see a stream measuring station and talk to the nice lady at the Happy Isles visitor center, and we weren’t the only ones who had made that mistake. Off we went, back to the bus stop, across the bridge, and up the hill. We were behind a large group of Asians who were about our age or older and who had grasped the idea of ‘slow and steady’. I guess I am more hare than tortoise, and I have no problem stopping to rest and then moving on again. With my long legs, it’s harder to go slowly than to move on a rest when I need to! We had been warned to stay adequately hydrated, so every time we stopped, we had a drink of water. I was loving the cool water ‘bottle’ that I bought at Tahoe and wishing I had purchased more than one. I really wish my photos were a better representation of the elevation change and how strenuous it was. Granted, some young people seemed to be having no trouble with it, but there were LOTS of people having way more difficulty than Kim and I were.

Our first glimpse of Half Dome

The Happy Isles stream monitoring station

Happy Isles Visitor Center

Crossing the river to begin our hike as the shuttle bus moves on

This doesn’t look so bad!

The hike is not too long…

Before too long, we reached the footbridge and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the waterfall. Our original plan was to refill our water bottles here (with the potable water available) and head back down, but the activities guy at the Lodge and implored us to continue up the hill for a better view. So after we rested a bit and took some photos, off we went, looking for the big rock he had told us to climb to. We found the rock, but kept going, always hoping for a better view around each turn. We went until we reached the rocky stairway that led to the very top of the falls and decided we’d had enough – in fact, had we kept going, we wouldn’t have had time for the rest of our day’s agenda! After a few more photos, back down the hill we went. As expected, going down was as hard on the knees as going up was on the lungs, but it went lots faster!

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We made it down to the bus stop just before another bus arrived to take us to the next stop, the Mirror Lake trailhead, which was about a mile away. We had been told that there was still water in the lake (usually there was only water in winter and spring) and that it was a nice, easy hike on a paved road. Thankfully, those reports were correct. We had great views of Half Dome and the lake, while not full, did have enough water for people to frolic in and for us to cool off with. We walked back part of the way on a trail instead of the road since it was shady and nice. We didn’t have to wait long for a bus, so it looked like we would make it back to the Lodge in plenty of time for our planned 2:00 Valley Tour.

Next stop: Mirror Lake

OK, so ‘lake’ may be a little bit misleading

This cute little duck was right next to us

Isn’t he pretty?

We not only made it back before the tour started, we had just enough time to grab a beer and make a quick rest stop. Rejuvenated, we hopped on the tour train, sitting in the front row, since all others were taken. That turned out to be great for several reasons – we had the whole row to ourselves, there was no one in our way when taking pictures, and we got to be the ranger’s pets. Our ranger guide was Owain (pronounced Owen) who had been a ranger at our old favorite, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He did a fabulous job pointing out the sites and telling us a lot of history about the park and filling us in on the flora, fauna, and geography of the park as well. The tour was two hours, and we made two stops – one about 30 minutes in and one 30 minutes later – and even though it was really hot by mid-afternoon, we kept moving just enough to stay cool. It really helped to be able to spread out a bit, too! We got to see all of the most iconic Yosemite landmarks and we saw parts of the park we had not gotten to on our own, so it was a good activity for us.

Owain, our tour guide

Just leaving from Cook’s Meadow – Sentinel Rock

El Capitan

We tried hard to see if there were any climbers, but didn’t see any today

Our first view of Bridal Veil Fall

A little closer

More spectacular views

It was fun to see these rocks from different perspectives

Do you see Bridal Veil Fall?

There it is!

This is called ‘Tunnel View’ – El Capitan on the left, Cathedral Rocks on the right

Yosemite Falls

Another view of Yosemite Falls

The Merced River

Half Dome

Royal Arches

By the time we got back to the Lodge, it was check in time at the Majestic, and we were hot, tired, thirsty, and pretty stinky. We self-parked, lugged in our bags, checked in, and made our way to our room, only to find out that it was occupied! Ack! At least the couple lounging in there was fully dressed!! I went back down to the desk and after many apologies and no one knowing quite what happened, we got a new room (a corner one!) and a voucher for a free breakfast (no small change there – that was a $45 value!). Kim reported that we should be glad we were the ones to move, as a very large and very loud party had checked in to the room next door to our original room. Thankfully, we were on the same floor, so our move was a short one.

The Majestic

Lots of great native American art here

The front door

Reception area

Light fixture

Fireplace on main floor

Elevator ceiling

Our room was plenty big and hooray!! It had air conditioning!!! Best of all, the shower was heavenly!!! I think I took a 30 minute shower! Once we were clean and fresh and ready to rejoin civilization, we went down to the Majestic Lounge and got a table on the patio, had a cocktail, and then enjoyed a nice supper. We split a Caprese salad and a Cuban sandwich and then we each had a dessert – Kim had a chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and I had the famous Majestic boysenberry pie, also with ice cream. It was the perfect end to our fun-filled and busy day!

Back to sharing a bed – at least it was a big one!

Plenty of room to move around

Lots of sitting areas

Great shower!

A ranger rubber ducky and wonderful smelling bath products

These dogs were TARRED!!

We liked those peach mules so much…

Our view from the patio bar

We would be leaving Yosemite on Saturday morning, which also meant we would be heading east for the first time in two weeks….but we still have almost a week to go!

Walking Through Woods and Meadows

Friday, 1 September 2017Tuesday, 5 September 20172 Comments

Thursday, 31 August 2017

Yosemite National Park

For the first time in weeks, we slept in because we had no place to be at any particular time and we didn’t need to be moving on. It’s probably a good thing we didn’t have AC, because we might have slept until noon! Kim was feeling pretty nervous about the forest fires in the area, and it didn’t help that it was very smoky outside – it was not going to be a great day for photos, that much was certain! As it was, by the time we were ready to head out, we had pretty much missed breakfast, so we wandered over to Yosemite Village and got some lunch at the Yosemite Grill. We had burgers and split an allegedly unbelievably good milkshake – neither were anything to write home about, but they hit the spot.

It was nice to be able to stay in the park – we were so close to all of the action!

The Village Store was a happening place!

It was just okay…

On our way to the Falls, we saw a few cute deer having their lunch

Such a peaceful walk through the woods

Lots of big rocks, lots of people playing on them

The famous Yosemite Falls

And without the people..

We had already decided that some pool time was going to be in order later in the afternoon, so we did the short hike back to see the beautiful Yosemite Falls. This was a very easy, very flat trail, but we still got a kick out of some of the hiking attire sported, mostly by women. Heels, flip flops, fancy jewelry, and my favorite, designer backpack/pocketbooks. Seriously? When we arrived at the base of the falls, lots of people (and many, many young children) were playing on the huge rocks, despite constant warnings of falls, swift water, slick rocks, etc. So many people forget to pack their common sense when they go out into nature! We learned that at Yosemite, if a waterfall is one single cataract, it is called a fall, like Bridal Veil Fall, but if it is made up of multiple parts, like Yosemite Falls, it is called falls. Important distinction, evidently!

We walked on back to our room in the Willow building of Yosemite Lodge and got our suits on and headed for the pool, which was right next door. We practically had the whole pool to ourselves, and yes, we not only got in, but we stayed in for a while and swam. And impressed the lifeguards with our stellar floating abilities. Until we heard them discussing body fat and its relationship to good floating…. Once we were fully refreshed and had maybe had a short nap in the sun, we geared up for more afternoon activities, starting with happy hour outside the Mountain Room Lounge. We each had a Peach Mule and shared some popcorn. A little squirrel may have been the recipient of some wayward kernels.

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After our libations, we took a photo walk through Cook’s Meadow. The light was great, but it was still too hazy and smoky to get really good rock/waterfall photos. Thankfully, there were plenty of other great photo ops! After our walk, we had a lovely dinner at the Mountain Room. Kim had a smoked salmon flatbread and I had grilled salmon with sweet corn polenta and asparagus. We split a decadently rich chocolate cake – so good! It was dark by the time we walked back to our room, and the moon was gorgeous! It was a fun day – restful and full of nature!

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So Long, Long Hike, Longer than Expected Drive

Wednesday, 30 August 2017Sunday, 10 September 2017Leave a comment

Wednesday, 30 August 2017

Lake Tahoe, California to Yosemite National Park, California, 245 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy AAA

Since it was our last morning in paradise, Kim and I wanted to take Laura and Don out for breakfast and one of their favorite places called Bert’s, which happens to be right across the street from Ernie’s. Too funny! Bert’s would have been one of my go-to joints as well – my sausage Benedict was incredible, and Kim’s eggs, bacon, and blueberry pancake looked yummy. We went back to the cabin and loaded our car, and then Kim and I headed up the lake toward Emerald Bay for a hike and a tour of Vikingsholm. We parked the car at Eagle Point Campground and made our way to the trailhead of the Rubicon trail, which was about 1.5 miles from Vikingsholm, which was a private home built by Mrs. Lora Knight in 1929.

What a great breakfast place!

Had my Benedict with sausage and no muffin today. Yum!

Laura and Don at their fabulous cabin on the lake

Rex and I had been to Vikingsholm before, but we had hiked down the driveway, which is a VERY STEEP 1 mile hike – killer on the knees going down and aerobically exhausting getting back up. The Rubicon trail is longer, but on a much easier grade. It was a fun hike, as we could see the tea house on Fannette Island and then even Vikingsholm on the way down the mountain. Just before reaching the house, we crossed a bridge over a pretty running creek. We got there just in time for the noon tour, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Be sure to read more about Vikingsholm HERE, and visit it when you go to Lake Tahoe.

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The hike back up was not bad at all, although it was a good bit warmer by the time we started up the hill. Just as we reached the end of the trail, we met a couple and a Tahoe photography tour guide who were on their way to the Point, so we extended our hike long enough to see the view from there. We were rewarded with panoramic views of the lake and of Emerald Bay, and we could even see Don and Laura’s place from there. We saw a huge eagle’s nest on the way back, but no eagles – bummer!

The lake through the trees

Looking down….

A look back at Vikingsholm

We spotted an eagle’s nest

but no eagles were home

Such a gorgeous view!

The bay from the point

This lake is so HUGE!

The MS Dixie paddles into the bay

Aaaahhh

loved these little pine cones

At the point

another selfie

Panoramic view

Since we were going to Yosemite, we knew we needed to get on the road soon, so we didn’t delay any more, nor did we stop for a cold drink. It was just as well, since the route we had decided to take proved to be impassable due to a forest fire. Thankfully, we did not have to backtrack too far to get on a different path (thanks to a friendly sheriff who was in the right place at the right time for us – getting his mail from a rural mailbox where we just happened to be turning around!) and we made it to the Yosemite Valley Lodge just as darkness fell. Turns out it was really good we talked to the sheriff, because the alternate route we would have taken was also closed due to a different fire! Yosemite is one of those places that you have to wanna be – it was not an easy drive, but it was beautiful! At least I was able to enjoy it – I had to keep telling Kim not to look, as it was a steep, curvy mountain road with very few guardrails. We were very thankful to have gotten as far as we did before the sun started setting!

Our route got changed due to forest fires!

We got caught behind some slow-moving trucks carrying hay for a while

But we got to go through Calaveras County – more Mark Twain!

Some pretty views

From scary mountain roads!

Look at those pipes!

And look at these curves!

One of our first views in the park – El Capitan!

Another look at the big guy

And the Three Brothers

Soon after we checked in, we were at the bar

And having our first food since breakfast at Bert’s!

We got checked in, found our room (not without incident!), unloaded the car, and headed to the Mountain Room Lounge for a late dinner and a well-deserved adult beverage. We opted to share a big appetizer platter of ceviche, a charcuterie, and chips and salsa while sipping on cocktails. We had enough food for about six people and we did not eat it all!

After our long and tiring day (all 17,000 steps of it), we sort of collapsed into our beds and were asleep right away. If only we’d had some air conditioning, we may have slept really well! And if Kim hadn’t waked up worrying about forest fires! Anyway, it was a fantastic day and we were thrilled to be in the park!

We’re on Tahoe Time

Tuesday, 29 August 2017Sunday, 3 September 20171 Comment

Tuesday, 29 August 2017

Lake Tahoe, California

It sure felt great to wake up and know we didn’t have to pack things up and move on! I woke up early and went out to see the sun coming up over the lake – what a sight! I might get up earlier if I knew I would see that every morning! Laura fixed us a wonderful breakfast of pastries and fresh raspberries and strawberries – so juicy and good. After breakfast, we just sat outside and watched the lake come alive here at the end of the summer. Before long, we saw a huge yellow hot air balloon floating almost silently across the lake. It was so quiet that we could hear the bursts of fire as the balloon went higher. Laura showed us the barge where the balloon would land out in the middle of the lake (well, middle from where we were – it’s a BIG lake!). So we watched the landing and we watched a parasailer, and we watched Laura’s friends and their dog go out on their paddleboards for a ride. I brought my laptop outside and sat at the picnic table and wrote a blog post – it was a wonderful lazy morning!

Early morning from Laura’s cabin on Lake Tahoe

Looking down the beach

So peaceful!

Love the reflections

Looking down Laura’s dock

Looking back at the cabin from the dock

It doesn’t get much better!

The balloon skimming the surface of the lake

The balloon landing on the barge

Laura’s neighbors on their paddleboards

After a while, Laura took us on a walk over to a historic section of Lake Tahoe called Tallac, which was very close to their neighborhood. We saw old lake homes, boats, cars, and firetrucks that have been protected and restored – so fun to see how the really wealthy lived here, way back when! From there, we walked to the Stream Research place where we could go inside a building and see the actual stream next to us – fish, crawdads, and other living things right in front of us. The pine trees provided loads of shade for us near the old homes, and pines, birch, and other trees offered a canopy otherwise, until we crossed a meadow. Going back, we followed the bike path, which was paved and faster, but not nearly as shaded.

Valhalla

Famous old wooden boat

Love these posters!

Cool old lake cabin

Twin cabin

HUGE Ponderosa pines

Squirrel!

Looking up

The gazebo

View from the gazebo

Cute little chipmunk

The butterfly garden

Antique firetruck

A new birdhouse is added each year

Oh, the pine cones – they were massive and plentiful

Looking across the meadow

Grove of birch trees

Inside the stream center

Dueling crawdads

Once back at the cabin, Laura fixed us a light lunch of corn chips with ground beef, salsa, and cheese – very yummy! We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside and only going in to do some laundry. I even got brave (and hot enough) to go swimming in the lake – pure refreshment!! Way better than the fountain in Carson City! It was not nearly as cold as I was afraid it might have been – I really enjoyed it. The water is so clear – I could see the bottom way out past where I could touch it! Before we knew it, it was time for a sundowner.

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For dinner, Don grilled delicious pork tenderloins and Laura made salad, pasta, green beans, and hot rolls. How lucky were we?? Thanks so much for your wonderful hospitality, Don and Laura! Laura showed us some photos of the cabin (which was built by her dad back in 1956) and its evolution, along with family photos and photos of her new grandbaby. We had a mini Historian lesson and then we all spent time on our laptops in front of the TV. Oh, and we may have had a bit of ice cream…and of course we chattered all evening, as if we had all known each other for years! Kim and I got the laundry done and got things packed up as best we could. We were both sad to be leaving such a magical place the next day!

Carson City, Colin, and Cozy Cabin

Monday, 28 August 2017Sunday, 10 September 20173 Comments

Monday, 28 August 2017

Carson City, Nevada to Lake Tahoe, California, about 35 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy AAA

We awoke to a bright sunny day in Carson City and decided to have some of our French silk pie from the night before for breakfast. My, was it good – rich and chocolatey – and we didn’t even eat the whole piece. Our plan for the day was to go see the capitol of Nevada and explore Carson City a bit and then drive the short distance to Tahoe early enough to enjoy the lake a bit and to get there before Happy Hour!

Carson City is not a big place, so it was easy to find our way into town, and we parked in a public lot behind the State Supreme Court, which is next to the silver-domed capitol building. In between the court and the capitol is a lovely shaded greenspace full of monuments and lined with an arcade of leafy trees. It was so cool and attractive there, especially on a hot summer day. We saw a statue of Abe Curry, founder of the city, and Kit Carson, for whom the city was named. There was a memorial to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty and a statue honoring the miners from this state, which probably became a state due to the wealth of mineral deposits found and mined here.

Nevada Supreme Court

Capitol grounds

Abe Curry, founder of Carson City

Kit Carson, for whom the city was named

Up close view of Kit’s spurs and such

Memorial to fallen law enforcement officers

Mining statue

The capitol building, completed in 1872, is a Victorian building made of sandstone quarried from a local quarry (owned by Abe Curry) using prison labor (no extra cost to the taxpayers) and whose cupola was topped by a real silver dome, back in the day. Today’s dome only looks like it’s the real thing. It’s not a big building, nor is it lavishly decorated. The walls are made of Alaskan marble and there is an interesting painted border at the top of the walls that honors the many different minerals, metals, and rocks that are (or were) so plentiful in the state. The original Supreme Courtroom here was big enough for about a dozen people to sit in. The legislative branch is no longer housed in this building, either, but the House chamber was still set up as it had been. The Senate chamber is now a museum about the capitol and Nevada’s history, so we spent some time in there.

Capitol Building from the front

In case you weren’t sure…

The once silver-coated dome

Painted mineral border

A colorful safe

Legislative chamber

Great Seal

Former State Supreme Court

While in the museum, we ran into a young man in biking clothes, so of course, we started talking to him. Turns out he is riding his bike from Boston to San Francisco (and moving there) and we’re pretty sure he is the biker we passed on Highway 50 yesterday. His name is Colin, and his blog is called No Edge Lines. As I am writing this post, he is likely riding victoriously into San Francisco to the cheers of his friends and family. Way to go, Colin! We also met a Carson City resident and author named Don (check out his blog HERE), who told us about the city and some places to be sure to see and places we might want to eat. Since it was getting on noontime, we decided it was time for lunch, so we walked a few blocks down to the Union, a new brewpub that Charlotte at the Hampton had recommended to us. Good choice!

More about Nevada’s mining heritage in the Capitol museum

Original plan for the Capitol

The Lincoln Highway traverses Nevada, now known as The Loneliest Road in America

The Capitol after some of the trees have grown

On the Kit Carson trail

Colin and Kim in the museum

Don and Colin

We sat outside (under shade) and started off with a shared flight of beer samples – Peach Ale, Taco Truck Amber, Cherry Berliner Weisse, and a stout called Redheaded Stranger – and a most satisfying heirloom tomato salad. For lunch, Kim had a pepperoni and homemade sausage pizza, and I had a BLTA sandwich and a cup of onion lentil soup. Our server, Heather, was so friendly and nice – we enjoyed chatting with her and with the two other tables of women out on the patio. Since we were in no hurry, and since we were going to Scoups later for ice cream, we took time to enjoy another adult beverage. Kim had a peach ale and I had the special of the day, a lavender lemonade (with a bit of gin). One of the women next to us suggested that we go to the Nevada state museum, so when we were done, we headed that direction. Sadly, it was closed on Monday, so we followed the blue line on the street per Don’s recommendation and went to see the home of Orion Clemens, former Secretary of the Nevada Territory and brother of ne’er do well Samuel, who became famous as Mark Twain after moving in with Orion to serve as his secretary and to get his act together. Samuel went on to become a newspaper editor in nearby Virginia City, and well, you know the rest of the story! The home is now a law firm, and was across the street from a sweet little Episcopal church which had won an award for the best stop on the Wine Walk. My kind of church!

The Union

Part of the Union menu

Our beer flight

Heirloom tomato salad

My BLTA and soup

A Sassy Sister lunch

Lavender Lemonade and peach ale

Orion Clemmons home

St, Peter’s Episcopal Church in Carson City

We were getting pretty hot and it was getting late, so we walked on down to Scoups, which is famous for its ice cream and for its soups, hence the name. Kim splurged and had a brownie sundae with salted caramel ice cream and I just had a scoop of salted caramel with chocolate sauce. Oh boy, did that hit the spot. The ice cream parlor was right next to a splash pad where a mom was watching her two kids run through it in their bathing suits. I was still so hot that I made them (and anyone else watching) laugh as I ran through the cold water, fully clothed. Gosh, did that feel good! And my hair looked great afterwards…

Scoups Ice Cream

Kim’s sundae

Running through the fountain

Aaaahh!

We walked back through the arcade on the capitol grounds and got ready to go to Lake Tahoe. Laura had warned us to be sure to gas up in Nevada, so we made that stop on our way out of town, and it wasn’t long before we saw the huge blue shimmering water between the trees and mountains. We also passed Colin going up the mountain, so we honked and waved at him. If you have never been to Tahoe, I highly recommend it! I had been here several times before, but it was a new experience for Kim, and it was new for me to have such a perfect place to land for a few days! Thanks, Laura and Don!

Our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe

Laura is one of my Facebook friends who I had gotten to know via pixels2Pages, and it just happened that she saw a post about our trip one night a couple of weeks ago. When she heard we were headed west, she asked if we would be coming to Tahoe, and since it was a big part of our plans, I answered affirmatively. She insisted that we stop by to meet her and talk to her about what to do, as she has been summering in Tahoe for her whole life! The Sassy Sisters never turn down an invitation like that! As it turned out, it took us so long to get there that we ended up being invited to stay with them in the most delightful cabin directly on the beach of the lake!! It could not have been a more perfect place to stay! Laura is a great cook and Don is a fab grill master, and we even got to do laundry! We slept like logs and woke up to the most spectacular sunrises over a lake that looked like glass. We had cocktails every afternoon at five and we delighted in the ducks and dogs that frolicked nearby. We met neighbors (lifelong friends of Laura and Don) and we had a blast sitting by the lake sharing stories and becoming ‘old’ friends.

View from the cabin

A few of the ducks

The marina

On the beach

I had read Colin’s blog to Kim as we were driving to Tahoe, and we knew his plan was to stay a day or so here, so we contacted him and invited him to join us for dinner. Laura suggested a place called Freshies that was not far from where Colin was staying, so we left Don watching football and took off to meet Colin. Freshies was awesome – fantastic healthy and fresh food as well as wine and beer – and Kim, Colin, and I all had tacos, and they were so tasty. Laura, Kim, and I peppered Colin with questions about his ride, his new job, his old job, his schooling, etc. and he was a good sport and filled us in. It was quite dark by the time dinner was over, so we offered Colin a ride home in Laura’s Santa Fe (just like Kim’s). He took the wheels off his bike and we crammed it in the back of the car and dropped him off at his motel.

Freshie’s

Colin, taking the wheels off

Back at Laura and Don’s, we gave Don his stir fry (I’m sure he was about to gnaw on his arm by then!) and we just sat and chatted and looked at photos and blogged a bit until time for bed. What a fabulous day!

Staying on the Straight and Narrow

Sunday, 27 August 2017Sunday, 10 September 2017Leave a comment

Sunday, 27 August 2017

Orem, Utah to Carson City, Nevada ~570 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy AAA

We tried to get off to an early start (you may be noticing a pattern here) and were excited about going to Guru’s for breakfast before hitting ‘The Loneliest Road in America”. It was amazing how little traffic was on the road in Orem and Provo, compared to what we had seen the night before. We pulled up to Guru’s and found a primo parking place; alas, it was closed on Sunday. As was almost EVERY place around! We decided to move on, wishing we had taken advantage of the free breakfast at our Hampton, and were just about to get on the highway when we saw a diner that was open. Hold the bus! We didn’t even have to wait to get seated at Café 300, housed in a gleaming chrome building just like diners of the past. Soon we were fortified and ready to tackle the desert.

We still had quite a way to go to get out of Utah before we were actually on US 50 in Nevada, and we knew we needed to start that part of the trek with a full tank of gas, so we went ahead and filled up in Nephi, UT with plans to fill up again in Ely, Nevada. At the gas station in Nephi, we ran into a whole group of antique car owners who had been to a big rally in Bryce Canyon. Man, those cars were something else! We drove through the smallish town of Delta in Utah, where we picked up US 50, and saw some decent-looking motels – we were a little bit sorry we hadn’t kept driving the day before, until we remembered our wonderful dinner at Communal. Driving along US 50, we passed a couple of interesting looking brick structures, so Kim u-turned it so we could check them out. The highway sign said they were ‘Burining Pits”, but we are pretty sure that was a typo. The beehive-shaped charcoal ovens were used from 1876 through 1879 to help process rich silver ore that was discovered in Nevada. Once mining ended, the ovens were used to shelter travelers and even had a reputation as a hideout for stagecoach bandits. We were glad we stopped to investigate! It was a warm sunny day, and one of us, not the driver, may have dozed off for a little bit… The road was long and straight, except when it wasn’t, usually because we were going through a mountain pass. We stopped briefly at the Nevada state line to take some pictures (but not to play the slots) and then went on to Ely and stopped to gas up.

Cafe 300 in Provo – open on Sunday!!

Some of the antique cars we saw in Nephi

The road is long….

with many a winding turn

that leads us to who knows where

This is why we turned around

Charcoal kilns

used in silver mining

a view of the road, from the middle of the road

interesting structures!

No more turns in the road for a while

it just keeps going

and going

until we hit Nevada!

And now we’re really on the loneliest road.

across the street from the slots & casino, of course!

Ely (pronounced eely) looked like a neat little town, so we went to the historic district and walked around a bit until it started raining on us. There was a pretty park, some great murals, a duck pond with a man on a bike with a big sack of bread for the eager pigeons and ducks, a library, and the semi-famous Hotel Nevada. It was nice to walk around a bit! Ely is also the closest town to the Great Basin National Park, which we considered visiting until we realized how far off the route it was. We definitely got the feel of being in a great basin, ringed completely by mountain ranges. It reminded us of the Midland/Odessa area of Texas in the Permian Basin.

A mural about Lehman Caverns

and one about the telephone workers

Pigeons having lunch on one side of the fence

and ducks on the other

At the library

‘Shoshone Woman Gathering Pinenuts’, created in 2002 by sculptor Joe Pachak

Ely is the county seat of White Pine County

An old Lincoln Highway marker!

Ward Charcoal Ovens mural

Railroad mural

Ely is the gateway to the Great Basin National Park

Most famous mural in Ely, on the side of the Nevada Hotel

The famous Nevada Hotel

The only towns of note between Ely and Carson City are Eureka, Austin, and Fallon, so we didn’t anticipate too much excitement today. We passed one bicyclist and two different walking people (who looked like they were walking across the country), and there were more cars than we expected, but it was a pretty uneventful drive. We saw a huge archway made of antlers and we passed a large windmill farm. We stopped in Austin because there was a little restaurant advertising “Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner” and ice cream; unfortunately, it closed at 4 PM (early dinner, I reckon!) and it was 4:20 when we arrived. Fortunately, the door was unlocked, and when we and a local father/son combo came in, they relented and sold us some cones (only vanilla, only small cones!) so we did have a little break. Between Austin and Fallon, we passed some really sandy areas with some dunes and a lot of quicksandy-looking places right next to the road. We didn’t stop to see if they were really quicksand though!

The antler arch

and a windmill farm

and on we go…

Loved the sun’s rays over the mountains

Yep, we’re there

ICE CREAM! In the desert!

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner – as long as dinner is over before 4 PM!

Score!

Austin courthouse

and the cemetary

back on the road

out of the basin and into the range

Lots of sandy looking stuff

and quick-sandy!

with messages along the way

Fallon NAS

Fallon is the home of the NAS (Naval Air Station) made famous by the movie Top Gun. We drove right past it but didn’t get to see any fancy flying going on. We did get behind a driver who was either drunk, sleepy, or texting though – we kept our distance and finally called 911. It was pretty bad! Fallon also had a unique irrigation system full of small dams and spillways right next to the highway.

Sooner than we thought, and before dark (YAY!), we arrived in Carson City and made our way to the Hampton Inn. They even had covered parking there, and in the light of day, it appeared that the covers were actually solar panels. Very clever! We got a great recommendation for dinner and showed up slightly underdressed at Glen Eagles, where there were white linen tablecloths! We sort of got a dining room all to ourselves, and we had HUGE portions of pasta Pomodoro (Kim) and scrumptious pork chops (not one, but TWO) perfectly grilled chops for me, along with mashed potatoes and veggies. I could only eat one chop – so good!! – but we did get a French Silk pie to go and then didn’t eat it that night!

Nice dinner salad

Really scrumptious pork chops, but I could only eat one! Served with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies

Of course we couldn’t resist, but we didn’t even eat our pie tonight!

We were excited to spend the next morning exploring Carson City before meeting our new friend Laura, who had invited us to stay at her place at Lake Tahoe! Our excitement was tempered by seeing the reports coming in about the horrible flooding taking place in Houston and the area between Houston and Galveston, as well as much of southeastern Texas. I’d be lying if I said I wish I had been at home, but it sure seemed surreal but very believable and sad to see the damage and reports from afar.

A Day Full of Forks

Saturday, 26 August 2017Sunday, 10 September 2017Leave a comment

Saturday, 26 August 2017

Casper, Wyoming to Orem, Utah 475 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy of AAA

Breakfast at the Red Butte Lodge was being served at 7:30, so for once we were assured of a somewhat early start! Ruth, our host, cooked a most delectable veggie omelet with fresh dill and served it along with a fresh fruit salad, a huge muffin, toast, and juice. We had time to look around the property a bit and have our pictures taken next to the river and in front of the red rocks. We were on the road by 8:30, with good suggestions from Gerise about places to stop along the way. We checked in with Rex to see how things were doing on Tiki as Hurricane Harvey was making its way across the area. So far, so good for us, but Houston was in for a very wet few days.

Red Butte Lodge

Breakfast at Red Butte

The North Platte was just outside the door

In front of the Red Butte rocks

The wind from Harvey blew down a few downspouts

Hurricane Harvey had started up and was taking some of our dock

Our first stop was at Independence Rock. All three of the main trails west, the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Mormon Pioneer Trail all followed essentially the same route to this point and about 100 miles farther before they branched off to Oregon, California, and Utah. Like Scott’s Bluff, Independence Rock was a ‘register rock’, where many pioneers carved their names into the granite monolith. Wagon trains first passed it on Independence Day, 1832, which is how it got its name. It is estimated that 50,000 emigrants passed this rock in 1853 as pioneers continued moving west across America. We walked around the northwest side of the rock where most of the names are carved, and along the way we saw lots of rabbits, hawks, and one little frog. Again, we were reminded of our many blessings and vowed to be more patient and ever grateful, especially when travel plans don’t go just the way we want them to.

Independence Rock

We are here

We are following the Oregon Trail

Some of the names carved on Independence Rock

More names on the rock, along with some plaques

Yet another Oregon Trail marker

Cute little bunny

and a little frog

Looking back across the prairie

Lots of trails passed by here

I just liked this sign…

Our next stop was the small town of Lander, WY, which was just a short detour north at the first fork in the road. We parked and wandered down main street, stopping to buy some jewelry in a local art gallery/shop called Alchemy. The women there told us we must go a bit farther out of town to see a river that flows into an underground cavern and then comes back out again a ways downstream. We were really thirsty though, so first we stopped at a cute restaurant called The Middle Fork and sat outside to have a glass of tea. Our tea turned into lunch (the first time we’ve had breakfast and lunch in one day!) and Kim had a grilled cheese with wilted spinach and I had a BLTA and fresh fruit. Once fortified, we were ready to ride up the canyon to see the river whose name we couldn’t figure out. We passed a sign that said something about the middle fork of the Popo Agie, but that still didn’t ring any bells…

We saw lots of antelope in fields next to the highway

Our first glimpse of the Rockies

Lots of interesting topography here

Lovely outdoor seating area at the Middle Fork

Another great local restaurant

Yummy BLTA and fruit

Soon we came to the Sinks of the Popo Agie visitor center, so we went in to check things out. Turns out the river’s name is pronounced ‘Puh – Po Shuh, and it’s thought to be a native American word for ‘gurgling water’. At any rate, it was very cool! The river comes down the steep rocky bed and flows into a cavern, where it disappears from view. We hiked down to the cavern, which had a rocky but very sandy trail ending on a sandy beach. We went back up, then followed a sidewalk down the hill and across the street and down the hill a bit farther until we were at the ‘rise’ of the river. At this point, there was a huge pool of crystal clear water bubbling up from the bottom, and it was full of giant trout! Big brown trout and beautiful rainbow trout were feasting on food thrown by visitors – it was quite the site! The river flowed on from there – it was really pretty, and we were glad we had taken the time to see it.

The Popo Agie visitor center

A bit about the river

Tumbling down the hill

Plunging into the cavern

The view from below

The water just disappears in the cavern

I just liked this little tree

Some of the boulders left by long ago glaciers

Sedimentary rocks all around here

Loads of trout at the Rise of the Popo Agie!

Here’s the beautiful pool where the river reappears

Gorgeous rainbow trout!

The water just bubbles up from below

Caught this big jay on the walk back

We drove back in to Lander and retraced our route back to the highway, where we opted to take the right fork in the road and continue on the more scenic drive away from the interstate for a bit longer. Eventually, we would be forced to hop on I-80, but we could wait for that! Once we did get on the four-lane, we were not surprised to see it reduced to two lanes, no passing, due to construction… We crossed the Utah border and bypassed Salt Lake City, since we have been there before and seen the capitol (albeit when we were 12 and 13) and since it was after five on Saturday afternoon. We made our way to the Hampton in Orem/Provo, and realized we were lucky to have gotten a room, since there had been a BYU game that day and there was an outdoor concert right across the street. We found a cool place to eat and decided to Uber to it so Kim could have a break (and a drink or two!)

One reason we avoid interstates…

Welcome to Utah

Caught this neat waterfall on the way into Provo

This is Communal, where we ate dinner – not much to look at from the side!

The name of the restaurant where we ate was called Communal, and there was a long table where many people could sit as well as several small tables. Kim and I had a two-top, and our waiter explained that the menu was designed to be shared. We had no trouble agreeing on an heirloom tomato, watermelon, feta, and watercress appetizer and an almond-crusted smoked sockeye salmon with creme fraiche and capers with a side of succotash of edamame, local corn, asparagus, tomatoes, and chives. Dessert was fabulous, and we didn’t share it. Kim had a sundae of Marionberry pie and blackberry- Oreo ice cream with warm cinnamon-chocolate fudge sauce, and I had a Nutella-banana pudding with crumbled shortbread and whipped cream. DIVINE!! Oh, and we each had a couple of local beers. It was a wonderful night out and we were still in at a decent hour, ready to rest up for our trip along the ‘loneliest road in America’ tomorrow.

Tomato, watermelon, feta, and cress salad

Almond-crusted sockeye salmon

Succotash

Kim’s dessert

My Nutella-banana pudding jar

Starting and Ending with Friends

Friday, 25 August 2017Monday, 11 September 2017Leave a comment

25 August 2017

Wellfleet, Nebraska to Casper, Wyoming 425 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy AAA

We were excited to be able to hike the trails around Dancing Leaf Lodge and to have a look at the earthen lodge where we had stayed 10 years prior. Les and Jan had left a map with hiking trails in our cabin, so we walked up to the lodge, which had a ‘no trespassing’ sign on it – sad face – so we just peeped in. It was exactly as we remembered it, including the area around the lodge where we had enjoyed our breakfast many years ago. We hiked on down the hill and came across a wooden swing (of course we got on it!) and an area that served as an outdoor kitchen and eating area, complete with an outhouse. No, we didn’t peek it that! We hiked on until we came to the spring and then we hiked back up the trail. At one point, we saw a beautiful hawk resting on top of a pole and watched him until he flew to the top of a nearby tree. As we walked up by the former mess hall (this area had been used by Boy Scout troops in the past), we saw a doe and an older fawn in the meadow. The doe ran, but the fawn stood, transfixed, watching us. Soon another fawn approached and we all played a little game of chicken. Kim and I won, but not before we got some good shots of them.

Back at the earthen lodge!

It was sad to see the no trespassing sign on the lodge

Outside the lodge

Peeking in

A side view of the lodge

The whole lodge area

It’s a beautiful morning!

Starting the day with a swing

No outhouse trips for us!

But we did walk the planks

Until we arrived at the springs

Saw this mighty hawk

And a few deer crossing the meadow

This one didn’t know whether to stop or go

So he looked around for mom

And this a sibling arrived…and they were off!

Our lodging for the night

Back at our cabin, we cleaned up, packed up, and I ate some more of my cinnamon roll, and we loaded up the car and went searching for Jan and Les so we could pay for our accommodation. We chatted a bit about how sad we were that the lodge and museum are closed now and inquired about what would befall them in years to come, as Les and Jan do not have kids. If you know of anyone who would love to live a cool, fairly isolated life in rural western Nebraska where there are lots of dinosaur fossils and an earthen lodge and campground, let us know – we’d love to find a good caretaker for it!

Our hosts, Les and Jan Hosick of Dancing Leaf Lodge

We struck out for Casper, via Ogallala and Scottsbluff, but we opted to take a bit of a side route to have a bite to eat at Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse in Paxton, since it was in our Nebraska Passport booklet. The Official Passport Travel Program is in its 8^th year – the Nebraska Tourism group selects 80 stops all over the state that give you a great overview of the state, from museums to good food to gorgeous scenery and more – our kind of program! We were sad that we hadn’t known about this program earlier, since we’d already passed quite a few things before we got our passports in Holdrege! But, should you plan a trip to Nebraska, be sure to play along! I wish every state had something like this! Ole’s was in the “Uniquely Nebraska” section, and boy, was it! Full of mounted animals of all varieties – polar bears, leopards, owls, moose, giraffes – you name it, and Ole had hunted it! Since the restaurant was famous for its beef, and it was almost noon when we arrived, we both had a cheeseburger – very tasty!

On the road again

Big power plant ahead!

We are on the right track!

Ole’s

The menu and the lotto card

A few of the photos at our booth

Bullwinkle was looming over Kim

Good burger!

Good for a laugh

A view of the dining room

Leopard over the bar

Giraffe in the corner

Back on the road, we passed through Ogallala, the cowboy capital of Nebraska, and a place we’ve been twice before on our trips – in 2007 and in 2010 – and we didn’t stop at Homemade Heaven, a little sandwich shop we love (they have pie!) mainly because of their fabulous homemade bread, buns, and pies. This trip, we veered northwest toward Scottsbluff, but again, we chose to take another side trip to the Double L Country Store and Café in Harrisburg. It was late afternoon when we arrived, just in time for a little snack. Kim had a yummy looking chocolate sundae and I had a piece of homemade peach pie, a la mode. Oh my goodness! The crust was divine – we were both happy with our choices. I browsed around the little store a bit – very cute things made by local artists – and soon we were on our way to Scottsbluff.

Passing through Ogallala

A huge stockyard in cowboy country

Always a train out west!

You never know what you’ll see out here

We took a funny little route to get to the Double L

And we saw this interesting rock

Yep, it’s a gravel road…

with farm equipment

We found it!

Outside the shop

And inside

Cool copper counter, but my eyes were on the pie!

Homemade peach pie, ice cream, and iced tea – perfect afternoon snack!

Cowboy art

Not sure where they came from, but we felt protected

Our main reason for going to Scottsbluff, in addition to the fact it was on the route we had chosen, was to see the huge rock formation that had been a prominent marker for pioneers traversing the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the California Trail. Whenever we travel across the country, especially when we are on the old roads (and not the interstate highways), we can’t help but think about what it would have been like to have walked across the country beside a wagon carrying your children and all of your worldly possessions that you thought you had to have. We try to put ourselves in the place of women who made this treacherous journey, and it’s hard to imagine how any of them made it! We are so blessed these days, yet we let the least little things get to us…what, no cell service here??

Anyway, we saw a sign for the Legacy of the Plains Museum in Gering and realized it was in our Passport book, so we stopped in for a visit. What a great museum it was! Looked brand new, and it was so nicely done! It was divided into seven themed sections – High Plains, Dwellings and Domestic Life, Commerce and Trade, Irrigated Farming, Dryland Farming, Ranching and Livestock, and Trails, Transportation, and Communication – all housed in one giant room. The displays were really nicely done – we could have spent longer here, but wanted to get to the big rock and get to Casper before dark! Thankfully, the Scottsbluff National Monument was just a few miles down the road – we could see the rock from the museum, so off we went. First, we walked along the path of the old Oregon Trail, where you could see wagon ruts and up high enough to get a good view of the prairie behind us and the mountains looming ahead. Kim and I decided we knew how so many little communities were established along these trails – from women who put their feet down and said, “You can keep going, honey, and the kids and I will be waiting for you here!” There was a nice road up the rock, so we drove through a few tunnels up to the summit where there were incredible views!

We found this one in our Passport book, too

And it was a winner!

Cool plant art

Kim climbed on

Who knew Nebraska was a leading producer of sugar beets?

Preview Edit Layout Tiled Mosaic Individual Images Thumbnail Grid Tiled Mosaic Square Tiles Circles Tiled Columns Slideshow Random Order Link To Attachment Page Attachment Page Media File NoneAn exhibit was in this teepee

Scott’s Bluff National Monument was just down the road

Westward Ho!

The monolith that was famous on the trails

You can still see wagon ruts on this trail

We walked a good way up to the bluff

The views were impressive

Imagine this sight if you were a pioneer

walking along beside your wagon train

We drove up to the top of the bluff

It was nice to see some flowers

and color

Amazing view from here!

And we’re off – again!

While there were a few more things in the area that were in the passport book, we knew we needed to get on the road to Wyoming, because we were staying at a bed & breakfast out from town and we needed to be able to find our way before dark. Also, we were meeting up with our friend Gerise for a late dinner in town! We made good time and found the Red Butte Lodge (no help from Waze, who got us almost there, but sent us the long, gravel road way when we could have driven on a paved road!). I was glad I had seen a photo of the entryway on the website, or we would still be driving around trying to find it! Ruth, the proprietor, had the Australia room all ready for us – perfect! Ruth is from New Zealand, lived in Australia for 18 years, and has been in the US since 2002. We were very comfortable in her home. We got settled and then went to town to meet Gerise for dinner at J’s Pub & Grill. Gerise brought us a lovely book about Wyoming, full of spectacular photographs, and we had a wonderful time visiting and enjoying a lovely dinner. Thanks, Gerise, for making time for us, for the book, and for your wonderful recommendations! Next time we will see the studio!

Kim had a beer and I had a delightful grapefruit jalapeno margarita

It was great to spend some time with Gerise! Thanks for coming out!

We filled the gas tank on our way home and settled in for the night, ready for another big day tomorrow! While I am glad to be having fun on our trip, I’m so sad to hear about the calamitous rain, wind, and storms hitting the Gulf coast of Texas and the city of Houston and surrounding areas. Rex reports that other than some minor damage to our dock and downspouts on our gutters, all is well at Tiki; however, our Houston friends and many in between are in a bad way. If you feel inclined to contribute, please consider giving to the Red Cross. And all prayers are appreciated!

A BIG Day in Nebraska

Thursday, 24 August 2017Monday, 11 September 20172 Comments

24 August 2017

Lincoln to Wellfleet, Nebraska, 256 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy AAA

Since we had not done good reconnaissance the night before, we had no idea our hotel was adjacent to a lovely greenway/walking trail, so we had opted to try and get our steps in by sightseeing today. We slept in a teeny bit since we had gotten in so late the night before, but we rolled out and took off for Tina’s Café for breakfast and to see what was so special about her cinnamon rolls. We had no problem finding Tina’s, and what a treasure it was! With a NASCAR theme and a couple of funny and friendly servers, we had a blast at breakfast. Another pair of sisters heard all of our talk of maps and road trips and stopped by our table to investigate. Our server insisted that we try a cinnamon roll, even though one was more than enough to serve about eight people! Seriously – it looked like it was baked in an 8×8” pan and it was two stories high, covered in frosting AND our server heated it up and put butter on the top! Kim ate about 1/16^th of it and I ate most of the rest of that half… And the rest was wrapped up for later… At this point, I should probably not mention that we had regular breakfast, although I skipped potatoes and bread! Kim felt the need to try the blueberry pancakes (also a specialty) and said they were delectable.

Tina’s – our kind of place!

The GIGANTIC cinnamon roll!!

Kim and Bobby LaBonte

While munching away, we were looking at our Roadside America app to make sure we didn’t miss anything in Lincoln or along the way when we saw that the National Museum of Roller Skating was on the SAME STREET we were on, albeit about 30 blocks away. Since Kim’s daughter Kerry did roller derby for a number of years, we were obliged to visit. It was a real treat – housed in a building with a slate roof and copper gutters, it contains everything you could want to know about roller skating, from roller hockey to roller derby to skate dancing to speed skating and everything in between. We were greeted at the door by Rhonda, an ex-skater, who told us all about the museum and got our visit started off right. An hour later, we were making our way to the Nebraska State Capitol, which is one of only four skyscraper capitol buildings in the US. Can you name the other three? Kim and I have been to two of them on Sassy Sister trips and to the other one separately.

At the Roller Skating Museum

Roller derby

Love the boot skates!

Roller hockey

T shirt from the museum

We really enjoyed our quick tour of the Nebraska capitol, since we got to go inside this time. Last time we were here, on our 2010 trip, we arrived too late to go in. First, we rode the tiny ancient elevator up to the 14^th floor observation deck and looked at Lincoln from above and saw the interior of the dome. Later, we went down to the main floor and admired the gorgeous mosaics and paintings – there was lots of symbolism (as always, in capitol buildings) and since this is Nebraska’s 150^th year of statehood, it was fun to learn more about the state and its capitol.

One of four skyscraper capitols

Top of the dome

Lincoln in Lincoln

The ancient elevator

Looking west from the 14th floor

Looking up in the dome

Still looking up

Close up of the light fixture in the dome

Close up of the mosaic in the dome

Looking down in the rotunda

Looking up in the rotunda

Gorgeous door on the main floor

Closer up in the dome

Love how this light looks like Saturn!

Above the ‘Saturn’ light

A closer look – loving my new camera!

Another mosaic in the hall

The Sower, atop the dome

Of course, it was well after noon before we started west – so much for getting to Scottsbluff today, as we had other stops to make. In York, we were treated to a water tower painted to look like a hot air balloon, and we stopped in to visit Lee’s Legendary Marble Museum. Lee himself was kind of legendary – he was wearing one of those visors with the built in wild wigs – think Rod Stewart hair – and his shop was FULL of marbles, antiques, coins, possible collectables, and junk. After today, Kim and I have determined that Nebraskans do not throw anything away. Ever. Somehow we made it out without even making a purchase.

Welcome to York!

Here’s Lee’s

The storefront

One of many marble displays

I was sure Dave would want a clown…

Our next stop was Minden, also known as Nebraska’s Christmas City, and the home of Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village. I was expecting something like the frontier village we had seen in Jamestown, North Dakota (site of our hilarious stagecoach ride!), or possibly something like Roadside America in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania (one of our very favorite attractions!), but this was neither of those. This was one man’s ENORMOUS collection of artifacts from Nebraska’s pioneer days until the 1980’s, and it was housed in 26 separate buildings, each with its own theme. The transportation collections were incredible – from wagon trains to buggies and carriages to horseless carriages to vintage autos to planes (like Orville and Wilbur’s), boats, trolley cars, trains, and more. Many of the buildings were historic themselves – log cabins, a sod house, a prairie church, a carousel, a train depot, and a land office, for example – and then they were full of accompanying exhibits. The interesting thing about this collection was that it was really mostly that – a huge collection of items that were categorized and on display, but you could tell that as time went on and more items were added to certain displays, they just kind of got added to the pile. There was not as much explanation of what the more modern things were or their significance, but the pioneer relics were very well organized and arranged. Many of the pioneer pieces belonged to Mr. Warp’s parents and grandparents, so there was a lot of family history along with those. One huge building was devoted to homes and work and had rooms set up as they would have been in different decades – kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms, all full of period pieces. But it was this buiding which seemed to have become a bit of a repository for things people wanted to be rid of but didn’t want to throw away. We spent about two hours there and went to almost every building – pretty good, since the lady who greeted us told us most people stay between 4-6 hours!

Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village in Minden, NE

A bit about the village

The very first display we saw

Covered wagon ride, anyone?

Ready for a game of golf?

Or a ride on the lake?

Streetcar

Mr. Warp’s parents

Log cabin

Land management office

One room schoolhouse

Sod house

Other buildings on the green

Carousel

Home and work display

One of many vintage cars

You guessed it – we found more hair art!

By the time we left, it was time for us to consider two important questions – where would we find dinner and where would we spend the night. One of the hazards of taking the road less traveled is that there are not as many choices for either of those things, but you often get really lucky anyway. A quick look at our apps found us a few choices for dinner, with the best one being nearby but not opening for another 30 minutes (at 5:30) and then a good look at the map told us we weren’t going to get too far before dark, so we opted to call our old friends at the Dancing Leaf Lodge near Wellfleet to see if we could find a bed (or a pallet of deer skins) for the evening. We were in luck! We learned that the lodge itself is no longer available for overnight guests, but the cabin was open. With that decided, we turned the car toward Holdrege and the Speakeasy.

What a find! Out in the middle of NOWHERE (and I am not kidding!) was a little brick building next to a grain silo. We entered through a dark, narrow hallway and halfway expected to have to know a password, but happily, we were seated and presented with an incredible looking menu! Go figure! Kim had a local beer and I had an Old Fashioned (there are perks to not being the driver) and we scarfed down the warm bread that was served. We learned about a Nebraska favorite salad dressing called the ‘Dorothy’ (it’s good!) and when our meals arrived they were humongous! Kim had beef tips over mashed potatoes and I had a pork Osso Bucco style over mashed potatoes and broccolini. When the server told us dessert was pots de crème, we couldn’t resist, thinking it was chocolate, but we were in for a surprise! It was a vanilla custard topped with maple syrup and it was heavenly! Not too sweet or too rich – we scraped the sides of the little Mason jar it was in!

Turn down yonder, cross the railroad tracks, and just before the big silo…

Truly, in the middle of nowhere!

we found the Speakeasy

Great drink menu

Getting our passport stamped

Our luscious dessert!

We didn’t linger, except we did get our Nebraska passports stamped and learned about Faceless Fred, the Speakeasy’s ghost, and then we were off to Wellfleet, hoping to arrive before dark. And we made it! It was good to see Les and Jan again, and the place looked great. We settled in for the night and kind of enjoyed not having wifi for a change! We didn’t make if far today, but we saw plenty of good stuff! Not only that, we have decided that the Nebraskans we have met along the way could be Southerners – they are so friendly! Not a glum face all day!

Good to be back at the Dancing Leaf Lodge!

Hair Today, Lincoln Tomorrow

Wednesday, 23 August 2017Monday, 11 September 2017Leave a comment

Wednesday, 23 August 2017
Jefferson City, MO to Lincoln NE, ~ 400 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017 courtesy AAA

Kim and I arose to almost chilly temperatures in Jefferson City and drove a couple of miles west to Binder Lake park for a short hike. Other than lots of bugs in the parking lot there, the walk was a nice one. It was still very dewy, so we opted to walk along the road next to the perfectly still lake. Except for one fisherman, the lawn mowers, and the garbage man, we were the only ones around. We didn’t see much wildlife except for one heron who had staked out a good fishing spot, and the numerous frogs we heard but didn’t see in a lily-pad covered pond.

Binder Lake State Park

After we showered and dressed, we back-tracked into the city to have breakfast at Oscar’s Classic Diner, which we chose based on its name (in memory of my fabulous father-in-law). As expected, Oscar did not disappoint! We had the most delightful server and breakfast was tasty – Kim had a ham and cheese omelet and I had eggs benedict, but over tomato slices and avocado instead of bread and meat. We both had the grilled hash browns, which were delicious! The other great things about Oscar’s were the décor – we ate right under Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and Bogart and Bacall – and the hysterical ladies room (Beauty Salon – Miracles Performed Daily!).

Roy and Dale watched us eat breakfast

The menu was as entertaining as the decor

My benny was scrumptious!

The ladies room was hysterical!

Sign on ladies room door at Oscar’s

Finally on the road after 11 AM (we just cannot seem to get an early start no matter what…) we hopped on US 50 and headed west. Kim had done some ‘places we might want to stop’ research and our first stop was not too far away – a water tower painted like an 8 ball in Tipton – and we thought it would just be a fun photo op/drive by. Until we read a note that said the parking lot of the Dutch Bakery was a good place to take the photo….of course we had to go in! At least 30 minutes later, armed with snacks for the road, we were off.

We stopped to see this water tower

And this was the best spot to view it,

so we stayed to buy snacks

and even some healthy food (yes, we bought some tomatoes!)

A little later down the road, we came upon the town of Sedalia and saw a giant structure covered in white sheets. Wondering if some humongous Civil War monument was under wraps, we veered off to investigate. We still aren’t sure what it was – our best guess is a water tower being painted – but we loved the quaint little downtown and ended up spending another 30 or 45 minutes walking around. We learned that Scott Joplin invented ragtime here, and we went in a wonderful old hotel that was where Harry Truman launched his political career. There was a fabulous old theater that has been turned into an art gallery and several colorful murals painted on buildings, and we saw our second Statue of Liberty (so far). You may be understanding now why we don’t make particularly good time on these trips…

We stopped to see this, which we determined is a water tower being painted

Sedalia is the home of ragtime, courtesy of Scott Joplin

The Bothwell Hotel

Loved this old building, which is being renovated

The old Lona Theater, now an art museum

One of the murals in Sedalia -we didn’t really recognize these folks

another Statue of Liberty

Back on the road, we were determined not to stop again until we made it to our next planned destination, Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence. I will tell you that since Kim had made this list, I wasn’t sure what to expect at a hair museum, but what we saw at Leila’s wasn’t it! In my next lifetime…. It was fascinating, for sure, and very unique, as was Leila, who gave us a private tour. Leila is 85 years old and she has been collecting hair art since 1956. She is also a cosmetologist and she teaches hair art lessons now. She has written three books and is working on a fourth, and she has the largest hair art collection in the world. Possibly the only one…

Leila’s Hair Museum

Leila’s car

So here’s the thing – hair art dates back centuries, but became mostly extinct with the advent of family photography. Women used to ‘embroider’ with hair from different family members, thus making a unique family tree – imagine what you could learn about your family with all of that DNA!! – and these flowers/vines/nuts/etc. made from hair were put together in a way that made a pretty arrangement and then framed in boxes lined with satin (think inside of a coffin, because that’s often who made the hair art boxes). Anyway, you’ve probably never seen anything like it! There was more – gentlemen had watch chains made from the hair of their wives/mothers/lovers – and all sorts of things. You have to see it all to believe it, and we were not allowed to photograph anything in two of the rooms of the museum.

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By the time we left Leila’s, we knew we would not make it to Topeka in time to tour the capitol building, but we decided to go anyway. I have done the Kansas state capitol tour, so we thought we’d just photograph the outside and find a place to eat before continuing to Lincoln for the night. Good call! We got great shots of the capitol and the sculptures around it (including the Statue of Liberty) and we saw the outside of the First Presbyterian Church which is famous for its Tiffany stained glass windows. We tried several doors….

Lincoln in front of the Kansas statehouse

On top of the Kansas Capitol building

Another Statue of Liberty

Wish we could have seen the Tiffany windows in this Presbyterian church

The best thing that happened in Topeka was dinner! We found a little restaurant called the Rowhouse that was just a few blocks from the capitol – what a gem! It was in an old row house (surprise!) and it served a set prix fixe menu, so we didn’t even have to make decisions! The dinner was five courses, including three small entrée servings and three desserts (!!) and it was divine! Since it had been a long time since breakfast (no snacks, either!), it hit the spot! And Zach, our waiter, was just great.

Row House Restaurant, Topeka

Tonight’s Menu – we got ALL of this!

A lovely libation to start the evening – it’s a Jacana – sort of a grapefruit margarita

This take on a Caprese salad was the Chef’s Taste tonight

The chilled cantaloupe soup – very refreshing!

Two of our three entrees, the Mahi-Mahi and the spare ribs

Our dessert plate, with extra sorbet instead of the coffee-flavored one

Sufficiently sated but not stuffed, we turned north and rolled into Lincoln well after dark. Another day of adventure in the books!

Gorgeous sunset!

Look at the moon!

Over the Rivers and through the Fields

Tuesday, 22 August 2017Monday, 11 September 2017Leave a comment

Tuesday, 22 August 2017
Paducah, KY to Jefferson City, MO, ~300 miles

Map credit: Google Maps 2017, courtesy of AAA

We decided to walk down by the river this morning, so we parked near the new Holiday Inn and walked along Riverfront Park. The Queen of the Mississippi was in port, so we got a better look at her this morning. Once we got to the Crounse Corporation, we started walking down the street, and before we knew it, we were just walking up and down blocks and blocks of Paducah’s downtown, snapping photos and having a little stroll down memory lane, trying to remember which storefront was which, back in the day.

Talking a walk along the riverfront today

Paducah is a river and rail town

Love the cobblestones street and the floodwall murals

P & L Building

Freight House is at the left end of this building

Had a great dinner here Saturday night – and we were in the Chicago Tribune!

Our ‘skyscraper’

Who knew?

Kind of creepy fake ticket taker

The Columbia Theater was a gem!

As was the Hotel Irvin Cobb

Broadway Methodist Church

Grace Episcopal Church steeple

First Presbyterian Church

Mom worked hard to get this old home renovated and to get its gardens in shape

We walked over to Lower Town and took pictures of some of the decorated fire hydrants and looked at the houses and studios. If you don’t know about Paducah’s Artist Relocation program and the Lower Town Arts District, please check it out HERE. It’s one of the main reasons Paducah is a UNESCO city for creative arts. We then made the fateful decision to have breakfast at Gold Rush. No problem with the food – we just got ‘accosted’ by a totally crazy woman who sat down next to us and talked non-stop (to us) the entire time we were there. And when I say crazy, I mean seriously mentally ill. It was sad, truly, and it did put a damper on our day, at least for a little while. As soon as we could escape gracefully, we did, and we stopped by the Visitor’s Bureau to say goodbye to Mary, then we stopped by the River Discovery Center to see if there were any eclipse t-shirts left. No luck!

Lower Town Visitor Center

Paint the Plugs Project

Queen of the Mississippi

We’ll be crossing this soon….

We drove back to the hotel and got cleaned up and loaded the car, and we were off, but not until after noon!! Kim bravely decided that she could drive across the old, narrow, iron grate-bottomed, scary Irvin Cobb Bridge over to Brookport, Illinois, so off we went, with no plan and no paper map of Illinois! We opted to cross the Mississippi at Chester instead of going all the way to St. Louis, and on the way we went through Metropolis, Vienna, Anna, and Jonesboro. We went through a bit of a hard rain between Vienna and Anna, but it had almost stopped raining by the time we saw a sign for the site of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. It doesn’t take much for us to stop…

As we drove into Chester, we noted that it was the home of Popeye (the Sailor Man) and his assorted motley crew, so again, we were forced to stop for some photo opportunities. Kim crossed another old bridge here, and we went from being high on a bluff to in the flatlands of Missouri. Before long though, we were in some hilly-ish country. As usual, we opted to stay off of interstates as much as possible, but we did have to hop on for a few miles to get up to Festus. Shades of Gunsmoke!

The old, narrow, grate-floored Irvin Cobb Bridge

She did it and even smiled about it!

It’s an interesting ride….

Welcome to Brookport, Illinois

Site of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates

A closer look at Abe

Another old bridge – this one at Chester is the only place to cross the Mississippi between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau.

A statue to Wimpy – “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

Somehow, I didn’t know that Chester was the home of Popeye.

Driving on the Great River Road

Olive Oyl, Swee’ Pea, and the Jeep

The American Queen was in port in Chester, on her way to Paducah.

From looking at the map, it looked like we could make it to Jefferson City for the evening, and it also looked like our best chance for a meal before then was in St. Clair, a little town on Route 66. We had eaten at the Lewis Cafe there for breakfast back on our second Route 66 venture back in 2007, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the restaurant was still open! Since they butcher their own meat, we opted for burgers and shared a plate of homemade onion rings. And since they had pie….

Welcome to Missouri!

You can always find Route 66 icons anywhere along the Route

It may not look like much, but the Lewis Cafe has it goin’ on!

The story of the family-owned business

Great burger and incredibly good onion rings!

I had coconut cream and Kim had chocolate

Continuing on – and it’s still light!

We made it to Jeff City (before dark)

Once done with dinner, we made our way to Missouri’s capital city, arriving at our hotel before 8 PM! Since we had toured the capitol building on our 2010 road trip, we did not need to redo that, even though the capitol is one of my favorites – and it is massive! We spent our evening looking through photos and blogging, and wondering where the next day would find us!

Totally Experiencing Totality!

Monday, 21 August 2017Tuesday, 22 August 2017Leave a comment

At long last, the day of the eclipse was upon us! Kim and I went for a walk and it was hotter than any of the previous days, even though we got an earlier start – not a great sign! The sky was clear, though, so we were hoping it would stay that way. Judy had gone to Red’s for doughnuts, so we all shared a big box of pure sweetness – heavenly!

We got downtown and found parking spaces with no problems, and we just wandered around a bit prior to time to enter the party area. Soon it was time, so we staked out a table in the breeziest section of the yard. We were joined by Jeanne and Pat, a delightful couple from Chicago who had come to Paducah for the big event. They were a hoot and we loved having them celebrate with us! It was plenty warm, so Jim and Alex went back to their car to get a couple of golf umbrellas, as we had no shade at all. Thankfully, we could go into the Carson Center for beer and bathroom breaks. Lunch was served about 11:30, but we waited a good bit later so that the line was not so long. BBQ, baked beans, hash brown casserole, cole slaw, cookies, and Moon Pies were on the menu, and they were delicious!

I had a great eclipse timer app, so we were able to know the exact moment when first contact would appear at our location – it was so exciting!! Things started moving quickly after that, and we were all so surprised that our eclipse glasses worked so well, because you could not see one thing out of them in normal light! We decided to try some pinhole ‘cameras’, and that was fun. We took pictures of the eclipse shadows on our hands, on eclipse handouts, and on plain paper. It took us a while to work out the best angles and positions, but we did it!

At one point, we noticed that shadows of the leaves on the sidewalk had changed, and anywhere there was a hole in a leaf, there was a crescent-shaped shadow. We took off the tablecloth on the table next to us in hopes of seeing shadow bands (at second and fourth contact) on the white surface. And we did, but it was really hard to get a good photo of them. Blissfully, as it got closer to time for the full eclipse, the temperature dropped significantly. There were no animals around to observe ‘strange’ behavior, and before we knew it, the total eclipse was happening! We saw the diamond ring, and then we heard the app tell us “Glasses off!!” – the moment of totality was finally here! I got a couple of great photos, and noticed lots of bugs hitting my arms. Then the app told us to observe the horizon, and we say what looked like a beautiful sunset.

All too soon, it was time to put our glasses back on and prepare for fourth contact. Pat had recorded a video during totality, and we were shocked to hear the crickets chirping and cicadas humming during it. That explained the bugs hitting me – as if it were nightfall! The big post-eclipse excitement was learning that Paducah would be in the path of the next one, which just happens to be on Jenny’s birthday in 2024!! Pat and Jeanne are planning to join us, wherever we end up watching it!

Lots of people started leaving fairly soon, even though the moon still had a ways to go before the sun was uncovered. Between the heat and the fear of huge traffic jams, many were ready to get out of there! Jim and Alex left after a while to get back to Memphis, but Jenny and Judy had some shopping to do. We were able to see the last bit of the eclipse before leaving.

On our way back to the hotel, we drove by PTHS (our high school) and we stopped by the Chief Paduke statue. J & J headed back to Nashville hoping not to run into a big traffic jam, and thankfully, they were rewarded! None of our group hit traffic, but we talked to several who had a seven hour ride back to Louisville (about twice what it would normally be)!!

Kim went to visit her friend Francie, and I did some laundry for us, and then we both enjoyed the Homewood happy hour. On our way downtown for dinner, we drove by our old house, and then we made our way to Max’s, where we enjoyed delicious salmon and a perfect gin and tonic. After dinner, we walked back down to the river to see the Queen of the Mississippi, and then we called it a day. And what a special one it was!!

It’s finally here! Let’s have a cookie!

Sundrop/Moon Pie Eclipse Party is about to begin!

Judy has her first Moon Pie

Jim and Kim taking in the action.

Jenny has the eclipse in her hand.

It took a team effort to get the pinhole pictures!

Another pinhole shadow

One more

Jenny getting a good view

The whole crowd was into it!

It’s hard to see, but these were the shadow bands…

Glasses off – TOTALITY!!

It was almost like sundown…

Looking toward the river during totality

We stopped by the Chief Paduke statue before Jenny and Judy left town.

Our old house is looking pretty good.

Our home away from home for a few days – neat clouds on eclipse day!

The Queen of the Mississippi was docked in Paducah

Love this sign!

Kim and I went to Max’s for dinner.

A delicious eclipse Hendrick’s and Fever-Tree

Let’s Get This Party Started

Sunday, 20 August 2017Monday, 21 August 20172 Comments

Sunday, 20 August 2017
Paducah KY

For the second day in a row (off to a good start!), Kim and I got a walk in. We drove over to Noble Park where we walked through the park, on top of the levee, and on the greenway to Stuart Nelson Park and back. By the time we got back and cleaned up, Judy and Jenny were back from church and Jim and Alex were almost here. The girls enjoyed the service at Grace Episcopal and thought the church was beautiful. The guys had no problem getting here – no traffic jams between here and Memphis.

Soon we were off in search of lunch downtown, where we found that quite a few people had the same idea. Shandie’s was packed and reported an hour wait, so we opted for Kirchhoff’s instead. Good call! Our sandwiches were huge, tasty, and the bread was divine! Most of us could not even finish our meals! After lunch, we walked over to the National Quilt Museum, where we spent the next couple of hours admiring the incredible fiber arts on display there. As is always the case, our guests, who were humoring us by agreeing to go to the museum, were amazed by what they saw! This is NOT your grandma’s quilt museum! Should you ever find yourself in Paducah, whether you are a quilter or not, male or female, young or old – please trust me and spend an hour in the National Quilt Museum. You will not be disappointed – except that you can’t take photos! Judy, Jenny, Jim, and Alex all agreed that the museum is badly named and they were glad we insisted they visit it. Like I said – just trust us. I go every time I’m in town, as the exhibits change regularly.

By the time we walked back in the hot sun, we were all screaming for ice cream, so back we went to Curls & Cream – since Jim and Alex had missed yesterday’s run. I opted for S’mores this time -so good! Kim had Oreo with pecans, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. Yum! We wanted to show the gang the Hotel 1857, and it just happened that the bar was open and the AC was going strong, so we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon there, chatting with Jacob the bartender and with other patrons (including a bourbon purveyor). Before we knew it, it was time to go to Doe’s Eat Place for dinner. Doe’s was packed and the place was hopping! Somehow, we managed to eat most of our steaks and shrimp – again, Doe’s knows steak!

By this time, we were all about to crash, so we headed back to the hotel so that we could rest up for the big event! Thanks, Kim Ford, for having Kim & me!!

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Grace Episcopal Church, Paducah KY

Greenway trails

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The duck pond at Noble Park

Walking along the levee

Why did the ducks cross the road?

Such good bread!

Eclipse cookies at Kirchhoff’s

Lewis & Clark and Sacajawea in front og the Quilt Museum

The Yeiser yak is ready for the eclipse

Love the Curls & Cream t-shirts!

This is how they roll the ice cream – so cool!

My s’mores cup with Reese’s, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. And toasted marshmallows, of course!

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The J team!

Out on the Town

Sunday, 20 August 2017Sunday, 20 August 20178 Comments

18 August 2017
Houston, Texas to Memphis, Tennessee to Paducah, Kentucky

My flight left Houston about the time it was supposed to land in Memphis, so our afternoon plans got messed up before I even arrived, but no worries – we adapted. After Kim picked me up, we drove out to her house to get her bags and load the car, then we stopped for a quick bite of sushi at a cool restaurant in a newly renovated old home in Midtown. From there, we went to the High Cotton Brewing Company for a work party for Kim. It was fun to meet her co-workers, and the brewery was in a fantastic space. The food looked great, and we managed to not sample anything (but the beer, of course!). After the party, we took off for Paducah, knowing that my friends Judy and Jenny, who were joining us for the eclipse weekend, would get there before us.

Once we made it out of Memphis, it was smooth sailing to get to Paducah – no eclipse traffic jams yet. We heard from J & J that they had checked in to our hotel and we sent them to the Mellow Mushroom in the old Coca Cola Bottling Plant. And yes, we know it’s a chain, but I haven’t ever seen another M M in our beautiful Art Deco Coke building! It’s a spectacular building – read all about it and follow it on Facebook! Best of all (and the pizza was scrumptious) was that the neon on the dome was shining again! We got checked in by about 11 PM or so, and of course we all stayed up talking too late! It’s good to be home!

Saturday, 19 August 2017
Paducah

Kim and I got up and went for a walk – tomorrow we must get an earlier start – it was already really hot by the time we went out. We each had lunch plans with former classmates – Kim and her friends met at JP’s downtown, and my friends and I were planning to go to Flamingo Row, but it was packed! We opted for Jasmine instead, and after a delicious meal, we all traipsed to Roof Liquors in search of Kentucky bourbon and anything else we might find. At this point, everyone went their separate ways, and I took Judy and Jenny the nickel tour of Paducah. After showing them our old house and neighborhood, schools, and church, we drove downtown to see the goings-on down there. We checked out the floodwall murals, walked along the riverfront, and then met Kim. It was blazing hot, with no shade on our side of the floodwall, so we were ready for a respite from the sun and some cold ice cream. Never having heard of ‘rolled ice cream’ until lunch today, we opted to try Curls & Cream downtown. Good call!

After getting rejuvenated, we did some window shopping and real shopping, then we went to the 1857 in hopes of having a drink. Sadly, it was closed for a private party, so we went to Tribeca instead. From there, we took in the art exhibit at the Yeiser Art Center in the old Market House, and then we met Judy W at the Freight House for dinner. It was PACKED, and there was a very long wait for our food, but it was worth it! It was after 10 before we made our way back to the hotel. Long day, and a fun one!

HERE are some photos.

That’s the Way We Roll

Saturday, 12 August 2017Tuesday, 15 August 20171 Comment

In case this is your first trip with us, I’ll give you an idea about how we travel by sharing our Sassy Sister Road Rules with you:

* Talk to strangers, the stranger the better.
* Drive on two-lane roads as much as possible.
* Be off the two-lane roads before dark.
* Eat at local restaurants (not chains) for every meal possible.
* Always stop for ice cream, regardless of the hour.
* Start early and eat breakfast before you go too far…
* Check the tub before you get naked.
* If you think you should take a picture, stop, get out of the car, and take it. Go back and take it if you have to.
* Turning around is advised – you’ll always regret that you didn’t stop.
* Stop and see any attraction that costs less than $5, especially if it has great billboards.
* If there is an alternate route or detour, it’s worth a look.
* If it’s a national park, monument, lakeshore, or recreation area, it’s worth stopping for. That’s why you’ll want to have a national park pass! And if you’re 62 or over, hurry up and get your lifetime senior pass for $10!
* Ask for what you want. Just because a place looks closed doesn’t mean you can’t go in.
* Keep your cell phone charged and handy, and have great apps downloaded and ready. Just don’t expect to always have service or wifi or cellular data!
* Laugh loudly and laugh often, especially if you’re lost.
* Have an idea where you’re going and do your research so you won’t miss anything good.
* Be prepared to change your mind and your route at any time.
* Be flexible. Call ahead when you’re running late and make alternate arrangements.
* When you get lost, blame the mapmaker or the road signs or the GPS instead of the navigator or the driver.
* Be prepared. Travel with plenty of ice and drinks (always have one beer per person in the bottom of the cooler) and take your favorite snacks, too.
* Remember all the little stuff you may need – Tide to Go, TP, Sharpies, batteries, paper towels, pocket knives, GPS, etc.
* Have great music and play it loudly. And sing.
* Synchronize the date and time on all cameras.
* Blog or journal and download your pictures every day. It’s amazing what you forget! Use a tape recorder, too.
* Take a file for your memorabilia, maps, tickets, plans, etc. and use it.
* ALWAYS have a camera with you (especially in bathrooms!).
* 300 miles in one day is a lot to travel on two lane roads with lots to see and do. However long you think it will take, add several hours.
* Always have plenty of gas in the tank.
* Remember that the ‘rules’ are really suggestions – be safe and have fun!

If you know me at all, you’ll recognize the absurdity of at least two things – 1) I made a list and 2) it’s a list of RULES. Everyone knows I lose lists and break rules, but you never know, this year might be different! It’s almost time to start my engine….

and no, I haven’t started packing yet,

Jan

The Saga of the Sassy Sisters

Wednesday, 9 August 2017Sunday, 13 August 20172 Comments

Our road trip history goes way back – so far back that even we don’t remember those first trips. During our formative years, in the Leave It to Beaver days, all of our trips and vacations were taken in a car. I took my first plane ride when I was 16, when for some unexplained reason, Mom and Dad allowed me to go to Mardi Gras by myself! Not completely alone, mind you, but I stayed with a girl I had met at Girl Scout camp the summer before and whose parents my parents had never met. I’ll never understand quite what happened, but I took my $100 in savings, booked a Delta ticket from Paducah to New Orleans, and had $33 left for spending money. And I lived to tell about it!

I’m pretty sure my next plane ride was a few years later when I took my grandmother to Boston for the Bicentennial. Once I became a full-fledged adult, flying became more common, but when I have the time, I’ll pick a road trip any day of the week. My sister Kim and I have fond memories of some of our longer family vacations – trips to Florida, a monumental trip out west (when we missed two weeks of middle school!), and the frequent journeys to see our grandparents – monthly trips to west Tennessee and twice a year (or more) trips to Knoxville. We can still recite the names of the little towns we passed along the way, the names of restaurants where we always stopped, and how many times we crossed the Caney Fork River.

Since I went to college in Knoxville and then spent most of my married life in North Carolina, that route became one I could almost drive in my sleep. Kim headed south to Memphis, so for her, those little towns in west Tennessee remained familiar friends. One year, when our kids were in middle school, Kim and I decided they needed a road trip like the one we loved and remembered, so we hatched a plan.

I drove my kids from Durham to Memphis, where we combined an Amtrak train/plane trip with a road trip in a 15 passenger club van. We boarded the City of New Orleans at midnight in Memphis and woke up in Chicago. We spent our six hour layover hitting the Magnificent Mile, Water Tower Place, and Navy Pier, then all six of us crammed into one taxi so we could make it back to Union Station on time. The Empire Builder took us from Chicago to Glacier National Park in only two days, and Rex met us at the train station in Glacier after he flew to Calgary and rented the giant club van.

What a grand time we had! We toured Glacier, Yellowstone, the Tetons, and places in between and then Rex flew home from Jackson. Katie bar the door! Kim and I took off, completely deviating from the plan as we criss-crossed Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana on our way to Alberta, Banff, Lake Louise, and Moraine Lake, and then we flew back to Memphis from Calgary (via San Francisco and Chicago – go figure!).

While that trip was fabulous, Kim and I didn’t take another road together until 2005, when we ventured from Knoxville to Gulfport, Mississippi, to do relief work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance after Hurricane Katrina. When we survived that week – showering outdoors (or not showering at all), sleeping in a tent, on cots in a room with scores of snoring men and women, in sleeping bags in the back of a Suburban (in freezing weather), on the floor of a pantry, and in a prefab structure that we built – we knew we could road trip together and have fun doing it. And so began the saga of the Sassy Sisters road trips!

The page below was made years ago, but I love it and the story it tells:

Natchez Trace MS 2009 Bourbon Trail to Bourbon Street

A Perfect Kiawah Day

Friday, 18 September 2015Sunday, 13 August 2017Leave a comment

We had an awesome day on Kiawah today! Starting with breakfast of our freshly baked chocolate croissants (bought them frozen from Kudzu Bakery yesterday) and fruit salad (from the unbelieveable Harris Teeter at Freshfields – that was a new one for us, but we love it!) and then on to our hours spent on the beach this afternoon. Kim even saw a baby turtle hatchling make it to the ocean on her walk this morning! Later, we biked down to our old family hangout, which has been torn down and replaced by a HUMONGOUS house (and the one we stayed in was 10 bedrooms!!). We also saw two other homes we had rented before we found the big one. Good times! We had dinner at Red’s at Bohicket Marina where we watched the sunset. Back on Kiawah, we stopped at Mingo Point to see the rest of the sunset – the perfect day!

From OBX to the Low Country

Thursday, 17 September 2015Sunday, 13 August 2017Leave a comment

14 – 17 September 2015
Atlantic Beach NC to Kiawah Island, SC

Monday’s boat ride out to Shackleford Banks and to Cape Lookout was incredible!! We saw a whole harem of wild mustangs and their stallion and some colts. These beautiful horses are descendents of Spanish mustangs brought to the New World centuries ago. We watched them feed and water for about 15-20 minutes and got some good shots.

While we didn’t go to the beautiful Cape Lookout lighthouse, we certainly saw it. It was not open for us to climb to the top, so we opted to beach the boat out at the point of the Cape and do some shelling. We saw some dead jellyfish on the shore, but we also saw a live moon jelly in the surf! We collected a few shells and picked up some trash, then waded back to the boat. Jess saw a school of mullet swim by, so he threw out a net and snared them. He also caught some tiny pompanos, but we threw them back.

I can’t begin to tell you how beautiful the day was – blue skies, warm sun, calm sparkling water – it simply doesn’t get any better!! Our four hours was up way too soon! If you are in the Morehead City/Atlantic Beach area, we highly recommend a Crystal Coast Ecotour with Captain Jess! Tell him the Sassy Sisters sent you – contact him at http://www.crystalcoastecotours.com/

It was time to head south, so we stopped at El’s for shrimp burgers and onion rings on the way out of town. A perfect farewell to the gorgeous Crystal Coast! Thanks again, Diane!!

Our next destination was Ocean Isle Beach for a visit with my dear friend Anne and her husband Arch at their ‘step back in time’ beach cottage. Of course, we had to stop along the way to tour the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington. We only had 90 minutes and we didn’t come near finishing the tour of this huge ship – we never made it out of the ‘belowdecks’ area! Another day…

We got to Anne’s just in time to eat a bite of her scrumptious lasagna before she and I had to be on a p2P phone call. After work, we all played a few rounds of dominoes – so fun! It was a full day, and by bedtime we were in our sweatshirts as temps dropped into the 50’s. Did I mention that Anne’s beach house is neither heated nor air conditioned? Perfect sleeping weather!

Tuesday was meant to be a work day for me, so Kim went off to sit on the beach at OBI while Arch went to work on ‘decrapifying’ my new laptop (it was a demo gaming model – plenty of stuff to delete!!). Anne and I worked on presentations for Forever LIVE (can’t wait – less than a week away!!) until we three girls went to run some errands after lunch and give Arch some peace and quiet. We may have had an ice cream treat while we were out… We all went up to Holden Beach for dinner at Provisions and then it was back to work for Anne and me.

Wednesday morning we took off for Pawley’s, but we stopped on the way to have breakfast at the Sea Captain’s House in North Myrtle and then we took a spin on the Sky Wheel. We got our exercise though, as we parked about a mile away from the restaurant so we could get some steps! It was after one before we left, but it was a short ride to beautiful Brookgreen Gardens.

We started off by feeding the turtles (thanks for the crackers and the tip, Anne) and then we went to the welcome center to get our bearings. We had hoped to do the ‘Trekker’ tour, but it was full, so we opted for a boat ride instead. We had a little over an hour, so we made our way through the Low Country Trail and learned about life on a rice plantation in the antebellum South. Next, we ambled through the ‘zoo’ and loved watching the cutest and liveliest otters I’ve ever seen! The foxes were also a big hit! The boat ride was pleasant and informative, but not too exciting. We did see a couple of gators though. It was just about to start raining by the time we got to Pawley’s. We stopped by the Sea View Inn in hopes of finding a vacancy, but no luck…oh well – there was a Hampton near by.

We opted for an early dinner at the cozy Chive Blossom Cafe – great suggestion, Dana and Laura!!! FANTASTIC food! I had a Fried Green Tomato Napoleon (with pimiento cheese and red pepper jelly) followed by Mahi Mahi with zucchini ‘spaghetti’, sweet corn, and a tarragon sauce. Kim had grouper with a warm potato/lobster/corn salad and some fried okra. Oh, such good food!! We splurged on dessert, sharing a warm chocolate brownie topped with coconut ice cream and strawberries. MMMMMM! There may have been cocktails involved as well….

Thursday morning we drove back up the road to the Huntington Beach State Park to walk on the beach. The sky was threatening but we didn’t care – it was the beach, and it was almost deserted! After our walk, we toured the Atalaya Castle, the Spanish Moorish style winter home of the Huntingtons (owners of the four plantations that became Brookgreen Gardens). Learn more about them and Brookgreen here: http://www.brookgreen.org/

It did start raining while we were touring the castle, so we took that (and the fact that we were hungry – no breakfast!) as our cue to hit the road. We stopped in Georgetown and found the Atlantic House Restaurant, where we met Roz (best chef in the low country!) and had a delightful lunch of Jalapeno Pimiento BLTs and Black-eyed Pea Salad. We may have shared some pound cake and strawberries for dessert.

After lunch, we walked along the waterfront and then went to the Gullah Museum. It was so interesting, but had we known we would be there for over an hour (listening to Andrew tell us about Gullah history), we may not have gone in! Thankfully, it was right across the street from the Kudzu Bakery, so we were rewarded! Another good call, Dana, Laura, and Anne!

And now we are in our most favorite place for a few days! More later!