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….
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
Have you ever wished you could travel back in time? Back to a simpler way of life, to a slower pace, and to your childhood? While I look forward to the future with anticipation and I can get nostalgic about the past, I love my life and being in the ‘here and now’ best of all. That said, I think that one reason I love my Sassy Sister road trips so much is that they allow me that little peek into road trips of the past and the memories they evoke.
Road trips with Mom and Dad have provided my sister and me hours of laughs. Every time we travel together, we re-enact some of the things that happened on our family trips and outings. We giggle ourselves silly! See, our mom loved flowers and plants and flower arranging and wreath making and dried flowers and weeds and (I could go on and on….) We never traveled without clippers and gloves and containers that could hold living things. We’d be flying down the highway, windows down (no AC, you know…), unbelted (no seatbelts), and Mom would spy some Queen Anne’s lace, or cattails, or teasel, or Joe Pye weed and she would say, “Dave! Stop! Look at that beautiful ________!” And no matter where we were, how busy the traffic was, how narrow the road was, how many big trucks or slow cars we had FINALLY passed, Daddy would pull over, backing up on the shoulder, until he was close enough to clamber out of the car, scramble down the hill, and let Mom direct him to the specimens she wanted. Then he would dutifully cut as much as she wanted and bring his prize back to the car. Of course, it went in the back seat with us, or later, in the back back of the station wagon. Given that I am the one who is allergic to every kind of grass, tree, plant, etc., it was sometimes agony. I have distinct memories of two horrible trips, one involving cattails and one with goldenrod. Aa-choo! I can’t even write about it without sneezing…
On our most memorable car trip ever, we traveled from our home in Paducah to Idaho Falls, Idaho, over a two week period in October 1968. I was in the 8th grade, and it was unheard of for parents to take their kids out of junior high school for TWO FULL WEEKS. Heck, today I reckon they would call Social Services for that. We went to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons; we saw Dinosaur National Monument; we visited the state capitols of Utah and Colorado; we spent the night in a cabin on the side of a mountain; we visited the Eisenhower Library; we hiked in Craters of the Moon National Park; we saw the Mormon Temple and Tabernacle and the Great Salt Lake; we spent a few idyllic days in a dude ranch in Wyoming; and we brought home more pine cones, seed pods, pinon nuts, weeds, and “interesting” plants than we had luggage. There was barely room for Kim and me by the time we got home! (I am not exaggerating!)
Anyway, you can see how our Sassy Sister trips came to be – they were in-bred! In case you are a new reader, these trips that my sister and I make involve highways (not interstates), local restaurants (no chains), visits to state capitols, museums, and off-beat attractions, stays at motels with real keys, and LOTS of activities crammed into our days. We typically have a theme but no real destination. We start somewhere and end there, making sort of a loop along the way. Our most recent trip last month was our “Old Florida” trip. We wanted to see the Florida we remembered from our childhood – not the Disney/Universal Studios Florida that appeases most people, but the one that offered us that glimpse back to a simpler time. And we found it!
We stayed in places that had toilet seats and water glasses that had been sanitized for our protection. We stayed in places where we could sleep with our windows open and where we could hear and smell the ocean. We walked along trolley routes and watched the seemingly brain-dead people on the trolleys. We sniffed out restaurants that would have food we didn’t expect and were never disappointed. We passed billboards advertising some random attractions and turned around to go see what was there. Always a gem! We went to “hokey” places like Weeki Wachee and Speedy’s Air Boat rides and loved every minute. We saw more cool animals, both in the wild and in captivity, than you can imagine. We walked on beaches where the sand looked like sugar and the water was emerald and turquoise and teal. We stayed in a Florida cracker house and we took a boat to Key West. We felt what is was like to blast off on the space shuttle and we wandered through the streets of the oldest city in America. We saw friends who welcomed us and kept us and fed us and joined us for part of our adventure. We had our own monogrammed towels in our guest suite at Camp Naples. We met people from all over the world as well as native Floridians. We had dinner with Pixie Penny and her mom and went to Pixie Anne’s home town. We even stayed at two different places where the owners weren’t home but let us stay there anyway! All in all, we not only found what we were looking for, we got bonuses!
Because I took a good number of photos and I wrote about our adventures, I’ll be able to put together a book that will let Kim and me relive our fun times. I can make it as simple or as creatively crafted as I want, using my favorite FOREVER Artisan software and pixels2Pages Blueprints. In fact, I can do some really fast pages (like the ones I’m sharing here) and I can do some more intricate, complex pages in the same book. I love it that I have that kind of flexibility! If only I had more time….
I’ve been on the road again, and it’s gotten a little bit crazy, even for me! Hop in, fasten your seat belt, and I’ll take you on a quick whirlwind trip…
It all started at the end of September. I got in my little blue Prius and took off for Atlanta, where I was going to be doing a pixels2Pages LIVE event for some of friends who had hired me to represent pixels2Pages at their fall digital retreat, and I was so excited! Armed with the audio book version of Winter of the World (second in Ken Follett’s newest trilogy – excellent series!), I was off! Sadly, as usual, my 10 AM ‘want to leave by” passed my 12 Noon “hope to leave by” but I was pleased to get away at 1 PM before my “HAVE to be on the road by” 2 PM. That meant I rolled into Montgomery, AL just a tad bit after midnight. I was on the road early Friday (well, it was before 8 AM!) and made it to lunch with the gang before the food got to the table.
What a fun weekend we had! Almost fifty digital croppers spent the weekend learning and practicing what they learned. There were even a couple of women from Florida and two from South Carolina in attendance! I did my best to help people learn their way around the brand new website. And boy, was I ever glad the site had FINALLY gone live a few days before!
Before I knew it, the weekend retreat was drawing to an end. I had such a good time visiting my old friends, meeting new ones, and sharing my love for pixels2Pages. Thanks, friends, for having me! Sunday afternoon I set off for Memphis, where my sister lives. I finished the audio book just a few miles before her house – perfect timing! I loved driving through north Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi on roads I hadn’t been on in years. It was a relaxing drive through pretty country.
Kim and I were taking a road trip to Mackinac Island, Michigan, at the invitation of p2P fan Kathleen. We were so excited – we had never been there before! Kim was supposed to play in a golf tournament on Monday, but it rained, so we decided to head up the road to our hometown of Paducah, Kentucky, that afternoon. As luck would have it, our friends saw from our Facebook posts that we were headed that way, and before we got there, we had dinner plans with the girls and a place to stay! We met our friends Judy, Mary, Mary, and Jan at Doe’s Eat Place where we wolfed down good eats and shared the famous Chocolate Cobbler. Oh my, it is so good! Judy got us tucked in and then out the next morning (after homemade blueberry waffles!) and our northern adventure began. Did I mention it was in the 90’s when I left Tiki Island?
Our route took us up through western Kentucky and across the Ohio River at Owensboro. We stopped in at Santa Claus, Indiana, in hopes of finding some Frozen Hot Chocolate at Candyland, but it was closed. Sad face. On we went to Indianapolis, where we would be staying with Pixie Carolyn. First, a detour to Nordstrom for Kim to try on her mother-of-the-groom dress and for me to buy some appropriate clothing – warm PJ’s, a pair of Uggs (I had flip flops!), and some socks. We met Carolyn for dinner and then spent a lovely evening chatting at her house.
The next morning, once we finally woke up (!), we had breakfast and headed for northern Michigan. We quickly realized that we would not make the last ferry of the day, so the pressure was off. We were able to relax and enjoy the beautiful fall foliage, and we stopped in Lansing to visit the Capitol and we even made a side trip there to visit an old high school friend. We stopped in Grayling at Dawson & Stephens Diner and Coke Museum (what a treat!) and it was o’dark thirty when we rolled into Mackinaw City. But bright and early the next morning, we were on the ferry and meeting Kathleen on beautiful (but foggy) Mackinac Island.
We spent a lovely day exploring the island by foot (no cars allowed – bikes, feet, or horses are accepted modes of transportation) and the sun came out and the temperature was pleasant tee shirt weather. We met Janice, Katrina, and Connie, and we were loving the slower pace that Mackinac offers. Carolyn and Tameka arrived after the cold front the next afternoon. By the time they got there, I had bought a warm windbreaker, a couple of long-sleeved shirts, a scarf, and a hat! Good thing I wasn’t flying! I’ll share the rest of the Mackinac adventures on my pages – at this rate, we won’t get far! Suffice it to say that Kathleen’s hospitality is boundless and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay! Thanks, Kathleen, from the Sassy Sisters!
By the time we left the island on Sunday, it was still cold but the trees were GLORIOUS! We took Highway 119, aptly named the Tunnel of Trees, and ate delicious pot pies at the Good Hart General Store. We parted ways with Carolyn and Meka and made it to Kankakee, IL, in time for my weekly p2P call. We made it back to Memphis the next day, after detours to the Corvette place in Effingham, a hike in the woods at Fern Clyffe, ice cream at Parker’s Drive In in Paducah, and a stop at mom’s house (wish she were still there….)
The next day was all business for me, as I needed to be back on Tiki before Rex got home (about an 11 hour trip!) I made it with 15 minutes to spare, and then we turned around and drove into Houston for dinner with some of his college friends. At least I had time to change clothes and freshen up! You’ve probably lost count, but it was now Tuesday evening, 9 October, and I had four high school friends (from Paducah!) coming in for the weekend on Thursday! Needless to say, I did laundry, went to the grocery, cleaned house, cooked, got a haircut, and checked in on mom. And I was ready when they flew in Thursday afternoon!
As always, we had a fantastic time and the weekend came to an end all too soon. Last Monday morning, when I took the girls to the airport, my flight left before theirs (only 15 minutes!). What flight, you ask? Well, I was headed to Tucson, Arizona, with my dear NC friend, Jenny, for a meeting of women entrepreneurs called ‘The Secret Energy of Money”. I arrived at the Phoenix airport about an hour before she did, then we picked up a car, stopped at Z Tejas for lunch, and hightailed it to Tucson.
We had a fantastic week, learned lots, ate lots of Mexican food, and even got to spend a lovely evening with p2P Peep Martha! She saw my Facebook post and came to our hotel for a drink and a bite to eat! Thanks, Martha, for making the effort! On our last day in Tucson, we took a walk up to a really cool waterfall on the hotel property and wished we had an extra day or so just to enjoy the Southwest scenery. But no, we drove back to Phoenix Thursday night so that we could make our before 7 AM flight on Friday!
I love to travel, especially by car. I’ve been to all fifty states, most of them more than once. In fact, I think Alaska is the only state I’ve only been to one time. I’ve been to a lot of state capitols – gone through security (for the few that have them!), signed their guest registers, taken tours, taken tons of photos, and marveled at the grandeur of some and the simplicity of others.
I’ve lived in four states – Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Texas. A couple of years ago, my sister and I, who grew up in Kentucky, went inside the Kentucky state capitol in Frankfort for the first time ever. Care to guess three other state capitols I have NOT been inside? Bingo – Tennessee, North Carolina, and Texas! Why do we do that? Why is it that we make it a point to see the unfamiliar while we ignore what’s in our own backyard?
I’m on the road again, with my sister, and we spent the past day or so touring eastern Kentucky, traveling on roads through counties we’d only heard of (our whole lives!) but had NEVER been near. We sat through a traffic jam (due to a bad wreck) in Hazard (yes, that same Dukes of Hazzard Hazard!), stopped at farmers’ market in Corbin (home of the Colonel Sanders Cafe and Museum), sat down and listened to Loretta Lynn in Butcher Holler, gazed at the strip mines and the stuff that came out of them, passed through towns like Eighty-eight, Rowdy, Sassafras, Seventy-six, and Dice, and we started our day the best way – admiring a spectacular rainbow caused by Cumberland Falls.
We traveled on US highways, state highways, county roads, roads with four numbers that are barely over two lanes wide and are very curvy, parkways, scenic byways, and even a few miles (less than twenty!) on interstates. We dodged critters – deer, dogs, cats, and raccoons – and saw (and smelled) plenty of evidence of those that didn’t get out of the way fast enough. We delighted in the thousands of lightning bugs we saw last night, and we noticed that even the smallest of towns in eastern Kentucky seemed to have Dollar General Stores, Arby’s, McDonald’s, Subway, Long John Silvers, KFC, and of course, Wal-Mart. A dismal commentary, in my mind!
We traversed the Daniel Boone National Forest, much of which probably hasn’t changed since Daniel Boone passed through, and we rode up the Country Music Highway. We have a new appreciation for the other end of our home state, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we come back some day. So what’s in your backyard that you haven’t explored? What is it you don’t appreciate or that you just take for granted? I’ll bet that if you made it a point to treat your home town or state as an exotic location, you’d find jewels just like we have!
I love road trips! I mean, I really, really love them! I just rolled in from my most recent one about 10:30 last night after being on the road for a month. and I already miss the feeling of waking up and not knowing what the day will hold for me and anticipating new and different sights, activities, weather, and foods. I miss driving just to drive and seeing what there is to see; I miss the grandeur of US Capitol Buildings and the ordinariness of small town squares. I miss wide open spaces, purple mountains majesty, amber waves of grain, and fruited plains. I miss hearing the robotic, yet lyrical, electronic voice of Lee, our Australian Garmin guy and I miss the laughs my sister and I shared. And I really miss the cool weather!
For the past five years, my sister Kim and I have taken a road trip, and this year’s was one of the best. Of course, they’ve all been great fun! This year’s was a little bit different for me, as I tacked on a couple of other trips on the front and back end. First, I drove my cute little red Prius, Scarlett, from my home in North Carolina through Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin on the way to Showcase in Minneapolis with Pixie Anne riding shotgun. Along the way, we stopped off and spent the night at Pixie Carolyn’s house in Indianapolis – it was so nice of her to have us, especially since she had never even met us!! She even went out and got some super yummy desserts for us and put up with our late arrival and early departure. Since Anne and I had a destination in mind and a timeline, we had to drive on the interstates and not make too many random stops, but we still managed to have a few adventures, share some wonderful road food meals, and get in plenty of laughs.
After Showcase, my sister flew to Minneapolis so that we could begin our long-awaited Pacific Northwest road trip. Every year we have a route in mind, but not really a ‘destination’. We have places we want to see and sort of an idea how we’d like to get there, but we’re very flexible. We also try to have some sort of theme for the trip, and this year was no different, as we decided to visit as many state Capitols as we could along the way, hence the name of this year’s trip: “It’s a Capitol Idea!” We also wanted to make sure we got to Washington and Oregon, as those were the only two states (of the lower 48) that Kim had not visited.
To make a long story short, Kim and I headed west through Minnesota, drove across North Dakota, dipped into South Dakota, peeked at Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, spent a few days in the Big Sky country of Montana, lost our hearts to the beauty of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, crossed Washington, criss-crossed Oregon, crossed the southern part of Idaho, relaxed in the Tetons and saw the rest of Wyoming, traversed Nebraska, barely touched Iowa, went north to south and west to east in Missouri, and caught a corner of Arkansas before I dropped Kim off in Memphis. We toured Capitols in St. Paul, Bismarck, Olympia, Boise, Cheyenne, and Jefferson City; we stopped at (but didn’t get to tour) the capitols in Salem and Lincoln; and I drove through the capitol cities of Charleston (saw the dome!) Indianapolis, and Madison, and we had already toured the ones in Helena, Pierre, and Nashville. I even got my daughter Kim to tour the Arkansas state capitol in Little Rock on our way home from Texas!
Along the way we got to visit with several CM friends and benefit from their wonderful hospitality (major shout outs to Melode, Pam, and Nancy for their incredible hospitality!!) and we met lots of wonderful people who shared their love of their towns and states with us. We tend to avoid interstates, so we get lots of chances to see the things that most of you tend to drive right past without even knowing they are there. We went on hikes, saw waterfalls, learned all kinds of trivia in all kinds of museums, gawked in renovated hotels, floated down a river, hiked up a mountain, had a close encounter with a rattlesnake, petted alpacas, spotted bald eagles, saw giant animals sculpted out of junk, panned for sapphires, watched a laser light show on the face of a dam, toured abandoned underground cities, bordellos, and prisons, walked across and over an interstate, were awed by incredible sunsets, and ate way too much delicious food. In short, we had a BLAST!
And for me, the fun wasn’t over when I dropped Kim off in Memphis – I drove on to Little Rock and caught a flight to Houston, where I got to spend a few days with my husband at what will soon be my new home near Galveston. After that, I flew back (with my daughter) to Little Rock and then we drove back here to North Carolina. As I write this, the car has been unloaded but the suitcases are not unpacked, the mail hasn’t been touched, and the fridge is still empty. But…just over 3000 digital images have been sorted, ranked, and edited in Memory Manager, and many of them have been shared on facebook. The hardest part of the job has been done!!
While I worked on the computer this morning, Kim went for a walk around the old West town of Medora. While out, she spotted a good place for breakfast, which was right behind our hotel. The Cowboy Cafe is known for its sour cream raisin pie, which is evidently a local favorite. We haven’t tried it yet, and today would not be the day, either, as they hadn’t made the pie yet. But we were here for a substantial breakfast, and we got one! We each had eggs and meat and shared a fruit bowl, then we sat on the terrace of the newly restored Rough Rider Hotel and Conference Center and wrote some postcards to Mom, since we were right next door to the post office. And then we were off to explore nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
This park is the northern reaches of the Badlands, which stretch all the way to southwestern South Dakota. The park was dedicated in 1949, and it is a real monument to Teddy Roosevelt and his love of the Badlands of the west. We found it prettier than the Badlands in South Dakota, probably because there was more vegetation here. It is very close to the interstate, and there is a 36 mile loop (two way, thankfully!) that you can drive, stopping for photos, hikes, or whatever. Just after we began there was a huge prairie dog town, so we stopped for a minute or two to listen to the chattering animals and watch them peeking up out of their burrows. We got some good photos from several of the scenic pull-off areas, and then we decided to take a short little ‘nature’ hike. Little did we know what an exciting National Geographic moment awaited us…We were just ending a delightful, not too hard Ridgeline Nature Trail walk – on the steps on the way down to the parking area, when right next to my right foot (clad in open sided Keens, not hiking boots!) I heard the unmistakable rattle of a you know what. So what if I’d never heard it before or that I couldn’t see anything – I skeedaddled! Behind me, Kim (wearing sensible hiking boots and socks) actually SAW the source of the noise and stopped. And backed up! So now we were separated by a snake! Just as Kim finished telling me it was a small one, it decided to cross the path. Suffice it to say that any snake that is as long as the path is wide does not fit my definition of small… Kim changed her mind, too, both about ‘small’ and about crossing the path anytime soon. I, of course, took the opportunity to get some really great photos! Once the snake decided to stay put (it actually acted like it might cross again, and at one point Kim reported it was in ‘strike position’) Kim got brave and scampered down the path. We quickly alerted the family with three young kids coming up the path to the danger, and they opted for another fun activity. The dad tried to get some pix, but the snake was no longer cooperating. So down we all went to the parking area, where I was able to at least share the pictures on my camera. We finished the rest of the loop without incident (and without getting out of the car!) and then went to Painted Canyon, another part of the park several miles east of the main entrance. We had been told not to miss it, but we were underwhelmed.
Leaving the Badlands behind, we retraced our route toward Dickinson, ND, and turned south towards the geographic center of the United States. In 1959, the US Coast and Geodetic Survey officially designated a point 20 miles north of Belle Fourche, SD, as the Geographic Center of the Nation. While we drove right past the actual point, we stopped in Belle Fourche (pronounced ‘Bell Foosh’) to see a newly built monument. It was the map of the US mounted atop a compass and surrounded by flags of all of the states, and it was made of South Dakota granite. It was in the back yard of the Tri-State Museum, so of course we checked it out, too. The ride down here was the most boring so far. Kim kindly drove and I unkindly slept! But it was my turn back at the wheel, as we were off on another detour.
We should have known better, but we were lured by the promise of a fun, funky, fifties roadside attraction called Boondocks, just south of nearby Deadwood, SD. Since we skipped both Deadwood and Sturgis when we were out here three years ago (www.roadsidegiants07.blogspot.com) we decided to give it a try. And why should we have known better? Because we know that the first Saturday in August is Bikers’ Week in STURGIS, SD!!! And this was on the first Wednesday of August…we may as well have been invisible, arriving as we did in our Prius, which makes NO NOISE. All told, we could have done without Deadwood (now officially designated as the Sassy Sisters’ Gatlinburg of the Badlands) and we had to drive through it TWICE, and we sat in a diner at Boondocks for easily ten minutes without being acknowledged (or finding anyone who cared) and yes, it was open. But, we got some pix and we can say we have been there, done that and we never need to wonder if we have missed something good! Onward we went to Devil’s Tower, which we did miss the last time we were near. However, due to our time wasted in Deadwood, we decided not to actually go into the park, as we figured we had seen what we came for! We were so hungry by now (breakfast being a LONG time ago now!) that we even ate at the KOA Kampground. Not worth wasting words on, but at least we were no longer hungry and they served beer.
The sky had been gorgeous all day, but it was clouding up. While that meant we might get a beautiful sunset (and we did), it also meant we likely would not get to see the Northern Lights (we didn’t) on the last night possible. It also meant there was a big storm coming, which we really wanted to avoid. We had heard at the Tri-State Museum that they had had six INCHES of HAIL the day before. If you follow along with us regularly, you know that we attract hail like some attract lightning. I think my insurance company would get suspicious if I asked for a third hail repair…So without further ado, we made a beeline for Gillette, WY, and shelter from the night at a Hampton Inn. We got there just before the sky opened up!
How lovely it was to sleep in this morning!! We had a date to meet Jim and Alex in the lobby at 11:15, so we were able to take our time. No breakfast needed, as we were heading for a gastronomic experience at Galatoire’s, a New Orleans institution – and it was just down the street, so no worries! Alex is a NOLA planner extraordinaire, and we were along for the ride and loving every minute of it! Even Jim and I were on time for this fine day, so off we went. Let the good times roll!
Galatoire’s opens at 11:30 and doesn’t take reservations for the downstairs dining room, so we made sure to be there early. First stop – the upstairs bar. Bloody Marys for Jim and me, Mimosas for Rex and Kim, and a brandy milk punch for Alex, and before we had finished them, it was time to get our table. Jim and Alex are regulars here on their trips to New Orleans, and Bryant is their server of choice – we can see why! He was great! Baskets of fresh bread were waiting on us, and our drinks were quickly refilled. Garlic bread was next, followed closely by shrimp remoulade and oysters en brochette. We had a couple of salads, one with shrimp and one with crabmeat, then it was time for the main courses. Alex and I had two of our favorite things – Eggs Benedict and a filet, Jim had broiled drum, Rex had Poisson meuniere amandine, and Kim had a filet. I think. We also ordered cauliflower au gratin, onion rings, and asparagus with Hollandaise to share, and there was plenty of Bearnaise sauce for our meat. Rex, Jim, and I decided to try a Pimm’s Cup, and Kim and Alex stuck to beer.
One thing I love about New Orleans restaurants, beside the obvious, is that they are lined with mirrors so you can see everything going on around you. We had fun people watching, and were pretty sure we had spotted a celebrity. Kim recognized Laurie from Trading Spaces, and sure enough, she and her husband were there celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary. We sang Happy Birthday about half a dozen times (but not to Rex!), too. The table behind us looked like the Sopranos had come to town, complete with a little kid who looked like Eddie Munster and who kept falling asleep between courses.
You may think we’d eaten so much that we couldn’t possibly want more, but there was more! Alex had arranged for us to have some Café’ Brulot (a brandied coffee drink that Bryant flamed at our table), and I even had two cups of it. And I HATE coffee!!! Out came dessert – a couple of chocolate sundaes for Jim, Kim, and Alex and an order of banana bread pudding (not banana bread, but bread pudding with bananas) for Rex and me. Oh my. When we looked at the time, it was 3:30 – we had been there for FOUR HOURS!!!! What a special treat!! Thanks, ALEX!! When you come to New Orleans next time, make sure you save time for Galatoire’s!
We waddled back to the hotel thinking we might spend some time by the pool (don’t ask what we were thinking – I had not brought a maternity bathing suit with me and I’m sure the one I had wouldn’t hold me after that lunch!!) but there were too many young people out there, so we just put on our shorts and t-shirts and went for a walk. Somehow we ended up at a bar, one that may be the oldest continually operated bar in the country. It was Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which we thought was fitting, since Saturday was “Talk Like a Pirate Day”. It is home of the Voodoo, a frozen concoction that tastes like a grape Icee but is full of vodka. A most dangerous combination!! We all had to have one, of course, and since Florida was kicking Tennessee’s butt, some of us (Jim, Alex, and I) had a second one for the road.
This time we walked down to Jackson Square, watching street performers and just taking in the sights. I loved seeing all of the creative hanging signs outside the shops that lined the streets, and the balconies covered with lush green plants and laced with wrought iron were so pretty! Somehow, we ended up back at the voodoo place, where the three of us had yet another drink. What were we thinking?? By 8:30 or 9:00, we were thinking we might should eat (what?!?!) so we got a table at Mona Lisa’s pizza, where I am told we enjoyed really good garlic cheese bread and a couple of pizzas.
It was a fun, full day, but it was time to call it a night. We walked back to the hotel (wasn’t this a cool shadow we saw along the way?) and made plans for the morning, and I’m sure the rest of the gang didn’t think I’d remember enough to write this! And I know David and Kim enjoyed getting our (possible impaired) text messages from the Mona Lisa!!
It would have been the perfect Saturday if the Vols had won…
Although we had very few ideas about what we might be seeing in Natchez today, we were excited to find out what the possibilities were and we were stoked to know we’d be in New Orleans by dinner time. At least, that was the plan!! We found a little breakfast place on one of the downtown streets and tried to be a little healthier than usual. We split a yogurt, granola, and fruit cup, and Kim had a cranberry orange muffin (she said it was like eating cake!) and I had a blueberry scone that was about the size of a softball. I didn’t even eat half of it!! We asked the nice lady in the coffee shop what we shouldn’t leave Natchez without seeing, and she suggested St. Mary’s Basilica, just around the corner, and the Longwood Plantation, also not far away. We already knew we would be driving out of town past Mammy’s Cupboard, so that seemed like a good start – we could always come back through this way on the flip side.
We had noticed the basilica on our way to the hotel last night, even commenting on it, but we hadn’t known what it was. There was a lovely park just behind the church – trees festooned with Spanish moss, a gorgeous fountain, a Civil War statue, and benches set in shady spots. We walked around the corner to the TALL front doors of the building – it was quite an imposing ediface! After taking a few photos from the outside and noting that mass was at 8:30 AM (it was about 11 AM), we started to go into the sanctuary when we realized there was a service of some sort going on, so we made a note to stop back in on our trip home, because the stained glass windows are supposed to be stunning.
Off we went to Longwood, following the instructions on the Garmin, so we saw neighborhoods that most people would have missed. We passed several other plantations on the way, so we wondered what made Longwood so special. We pulled into the drive and were instantly transported to an earlier time, driving down a long drive under an arcade of trees full of Spanish moss. Our first glimpse of the house was impressive – it was very tall, and it was octagonal! We couldn’t wait to see the inside of it! We parked and found our way into the gift shop, which was darling and full of funny books about the South, lots of good sounding cookbooks, postcards, and little pretties. We did a bit of shopping as we waited for our tour to start – reading material for the road!
As is typical on many of these tours, we could not take pictures of the main floor, so I won’t be able to share a whole lot with you, but here are a few of the details I remember. The house was the dream of Dr. Haller Nutt, who wanted a different kind of plantation home, hence the shape and style of the house. To build the facade, a kiln for making bricks was built on the property and 750,000 bricks were produced here. At the time the war broke out, the facade was finished, as was the 10,000 square foot basement, consisting of nine rooms. The house was six stories and would have 30,000 square feet of finished space when it was done, but most of the builders and craftsmen were from Pennsylvania and other states in the northeast, so they left most of their tools and supplies and went home. At the time, people thought this ‘uprising’ would be settled quickly, so the workers thought they would soon be back to finish their work. As you may have guessed, this never happened.
The war lasted four years, Dr. Nutt lost his fortune and then died before the end of the war, and his wife and eight children lived in the finished basement of the house for the duration. As hard as it is for me to believe, the house NEVER got finished, yet it somehow survived. It was finally purchased by a Texas man who has stipulated that it never be completed but that it be open for the public to enjoy as it is.
One thing that adds to it’s historical value – since the facade was completed and the flooring put in for the other floors, the top five stories of the house were used for storage. That means that almost EVERYTHING – packing crates, even for the piano – was stored in the house and many of the original boxes are still there. Be sure to visit it when you come to Natchez! Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, and you can tell that the people caring for and showing this house really love it!
Although we were sure when we started out this morning that we would be on the road before Mammy’s Cupboard opened for the day, we were now going to be lucky to get there before it closed! Only open from 11-2 and closed on Mondays, we were afraid if we missed it today, we might have missed it for good. The Garmin sent us off in exactly the opposite direction than we should have gone, but common sense, a phone call, and the iphone got us to Mammy’s. And yes, Mammy’s could be considered politically incorrect, although she is now painted more of a flesh-tone than I’m sure she used to be, but who could help but want to eat lunch under the skirts of a 28 foot tall woman? Okay, that didn’t sound exactly the way I intended it, but maybe you get the picture. If not, look at our picture and then go to http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/3344 for the rest of the story.
Even though we were still stuffed from breakfast, we could not resist lunch here! Homemade bread, delicious sandwiches, and mile high pies – oh my goodness!!! My roast turkey sandwich came with avocado and blueberry chutney, and it was served with homemade vegetable soup and a side of potato salad. It was SO GOOD!!! Kim had a ham sandwich that looked equally tasty, but so that we could have some pie, we each only ate half of our sandwiches, then we shared a piece of chocolate icebox pie (we only shared it because it was the last piece…) We could not wait to come back here when we were really hungry!!
By now we were afraid Rex would arrive in New Orleans before we did, so we skedaddled off down Highway 61 (the Blues Highway) bound for Baton Rouge and New Orleans. No more stops for us (except for tea!) and we probably passed the airport about the time Rex’s plane landed!! But since we were sure we would have already been in NOLA and drinking by then, we’d had Kim’s friends Jim and Alex arrange a ride for Rex! We found our way into the city, to the hotel, and into the parking garage without incident, and soon we were joining Jim and Alex for drinks at the Old Absinthe House, just across the street from our hotel. Rex got there not long after we did, so our New Orleans party weekend could officially begin. I probably forgot to mention that we were celebrating Rex’s double-nickel birthday, which is really on the 26th, and ORIGINALLY, the rest of his family (adults, not our kids) were to be partying with us. We see how well that went over…they won’t know what fun they missed and will have to read about it here!!
We met some of Jim and Alex’s friends at the bar – thanks for the great hotel rooms, Allison!! – and then went back to the Royal Sonesta to make arrangements for dinner. Russell, the concierge, set us up with late reservations at Clancy’s, on Annunciation in Uptown New Orleans. We cleaned up a bit, then took a taxi over to St. Joe’s Bar for a drink before dinner. It was a cool bar complete with church pews and other icons. We sat out on the back porch until it was time to walk over to Clancy’s.
Clancy’s was a hopping place – packed with people (mostly local, I’d say) having a good time and enjoying great food – and it was loud! I’m sure I won’t remember what everyone else had, but I got some shrimp and crab gumbo, the Clancy’s crab salad, and an order of fried green tomatoes. With crabmeat! Rex and Kim got the gumbo, too, and I think Jim and Alex got salads. Jim and Alex got veal, Kim got the same crab salad I did, and Rex got the lobster risotto that I was thinking about ordering – saved! We had a pretty long wait for dinner (good thing the bread was good!) but it was worth it – delish!! We split some desserts – Kim, Jim, and Alex shared a big brownie with ice cream, and Rex and I had a frozen lemon pie. Oh man, we hit the mother lode! That pie was fantastic!!
Somehow, we made it back to the French Quarter and walked around a bit. Kim had never been to Nawlins, so we made the obligatory trip to Pat O’Brien’s for a nightcap. The streets were wild – it’s Friday night – so we saw all we needed to see and then went back to rest up for our big lunch date at Galatoire’s. I probably gained five pounds today – it was great!!
It was pouring down rain when we got up, so we just didn’t get moving. We caught up on some computer time and were just avoiding the inevitable when we got a call from the place where our mom lives in Durham. They reported that mom had been found on the floor next to her bed that morning, and that while she seemed okay, could I please come take her to the doctor? Needless to say, that was a no, so they took her to the ER at Duke, where she spent the day but was released in good shape. David and Rex went to visit her last night and said she seemed none the worse for wear and that she apparently just rolled out of the bed in her sleep. We are grateful that it was nothing more!
We had thought we might go back to the Loveless Café for breakfast, but Laura had told us about another place we might want to try called Barbara’s Home Cookin’ on Old Hillsboro Road. It was almost 11:30 and still raining by the time we got over there, but boy, was it worth it. We were greeted at the door by a lovely South African woman and a sign that said “Barbara’s Home Cookin’ welcomes all families HOWEVER, unruly children Will Be DEEP FRIED (the secret is in the sauce)” – ya gotta love it! We had the CUTEST server in the world named Matt. We knew we loved him when he brought us a basket of three huge hot rolls with our iced teas. For those of you Clark School kids who remember how you never wanted to miss Thursdays because it was hot roll day in the cafeteria – these were the closest thing to those that I’ve had in years! Heaven in a yeast roll, with a huge bowl of butter, too!
NOTE: Barbara’s Home Cookin’ closed in December 2025 after being in business for almost 30 years.
Matt proceeded to help us order from the giant blackboard right above our table. Kim chose a vegetable plate with cucumber and tomato salad, broccoli cheese casserole, and fried okra, and I had a scoop of the chicken salad on top of a bed of spinach with feta cheese and fresh fruit – strawberries, grapes, and oranges – with a little yummy dressing. Right after we ordered, one of Kim’s college roommates, Debbie, called. She lives just up the road, so she came over and joined us. She got the poppyseed chicken casserole with turnip greens and zucchini and tomato casserole. Dessert proved to be impossible to resist – we were going to share the peach cobbler, until it became either blackberry or blueberry, so I went for the chocolate chip bread pudding with caramel sauce, and Kim had ice cream. Debbie abstained, and she also didn’t eat her basket of rolls, so we took them with us to go with our pimiento cheese. We wanted to take Matt with us, but we didn’t have room in the car…
It was still raining when we left Barbara’s, so Debbie led us to the terminus of the Natchez Trace, which is right next to the Loveless. It was almost two when we started off, and it’s 444 miles of 40 to 50 mph parkway. Yikes! Right away we pulled off to photograph the beautiful Birdsong Hollow bridge, and the rain even let up some. The bridge is 155 feet above the valley below, and its double-arch construction has won design awards.
We considered stopping at the historic Leiper’s Fork, but it was raining too hard to be worth it. The rain was short-lived, though, once we got going on the Trace, and we stopped off at several overlooks, historic sights, and hiking spots along the way. In fact, we stopped so much that after almost three hours, we’d only covered about 50 miles! We hiked down about 900 feet to see a waterfall that we thought would be raging, given the recent rains, but we were wrong. It was better than the Western Australia waterfall, but it was not much! We stopped at an old tobacco barn and were able to drive about a mile down an original section of the Trace, and we hiked down to a place where there was a ferryboat landing, way back in the day. We stopped at Meriwether Lewis’s grave, crossed the bridge spanning the Tennessee River, and saw several ancient Indian burial mounds. For those of you unfamiliar with the Natchez Trace, make plans to drive it someday when you are not in a hurry to get anywhere. It was originally a buffalo trail, then an Indian one, and then it was a postal route from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Now it’s a parkway, similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway, just without the mountains. It’s a beautiful drive!
It was almost dark when we rolled into Tupelo and found our hotel. We got the car unloaded and then went to Harvey’s, a local restaurant. Great food and friendly service! Kim and I both had Blue Moons, then she had a salad and I had the tenderloin kabobs with rice pilaf, vegetables, and a side salad. We split a delicious coconut chess pie for dessert, then headed back to the hotel. We had a long drive ahead of us tomorrow since we still had about 270 miles of Parkway to go before we got to Natchez.
We were up early for the exciting festivities of the day, but it was still later than we wanted it to be by the time we got going. We went back to the area where we were last night, since we had seen a little diner that we were hoping would be open. Sure enough, the “Open” light was glowing in the window of the Backstretch Diner, so we found a booth and settled in. We were glad to see country ham on the menu, so we both ordered it – that is some good eatin’! The diner was not full, but was doing a brisk business – well, not too brisk – we had to wait a pretty long time for our food, but it was tasty.
After breakfast, we stopped at a little bakery across the street and got some cookies for the road – you never know when you might find yourself out in the middle of nowhere… We were so impressed that the young girl behind the counter at the bakery tied our box with string, although it was clear she had grown up there. Her pictures, from birth to present, were covering the walls of this family-owned shop. Any place that you can get freshly baked cookies at 9 AM is all right with me!
From cookies to candy we went – straight to the Rebecca Ruth candy factory, which is housed in a house! There’s a wonderful story here but all you really need to know is that they make the BEST bourbon balls, as they should, since they invented them! It’s hard to believe that all this delicious candy is made in this little factory inside a house on a regular street in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Around the corner we went, and soon we were standing on the front steps of Kentucky’s state capitol. We found it to be one of the most beautiful capitol buildings we’ve seen, and we make it a habit to stop in any capitols we happen on as we travel. We had to laugh though, to realize that even though we spent our first 18 years living in Kentucky, we had never been to our own state capitol. Guess that’s what happens when your parents are from Tennessee! I was most surprised to see that Kentucky honors Jefferson Davis in its rotunda – not that I think they shouldn’t, I was just surprised they did. It has always been interesting to me that both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were from Kentucky, a border state that never went one way or the other during the War Between the States. Of course, we’re still a bit backwards here in Kentucky, since smack in the middle of the First Lady Inaugural Ball Dress exhibit was Martha Layne Collins, and she was the GOVERNOR, not a first lady!!!!! What gives there?
Capitol buildings intrigue me, too – some are in small towns like Frankfort, in the middle of a very normal, middle-class neighborhood, while some are in the center of huge cities. Some are surrounded by security and official looking cars and signs, and some you just walk right in without seeing anyone around, but ALL of them are such works of art, built at a time when building was not easy, and I always wonder if buildings like this could even be built today. They are a testament to the power of our government, too – democracy in action, buildings that house the people who we elected to make the laws of our states. Check out your own capitol someday!
We stepped out the back door of the capitol in search of the Floral Clock that Kentucky is famous for. Never heard about it? Here’s what the website says: There are other flower clocks in the world — one in Canada at Niagara Falls, some in Europe, and smaller ones in the United States. Kentucky’s is unique because it keeps time over a pool of water instead of resting on a bank of earth. The face of the giant clock is 34 feet across. The planter that holds it weighs 100 tons. Dedicated in 1961, the floral clock was a project of the Commonwealth and the Garden Club of Kentucky. We had a little trouble finding it, but it’s hard to hide a 34 foot clock made of flowers!
From the stately halls of the capitol, we went in search of a truly Kentucky Saturday afternoon event – the Great Outhouse Blowout, which would be held on the grounds of Penn’s Store in the bustling metropolis of Gravel Switch, Kentucky. I know you think we are making this up, but we’re not. We had hoped to have time to stop in at a few distilleries along the way, but we didn’t want to miss the Privy Parade, so we chose to believe that if you’ve seen one bourbon distillery, you’ve seen them all. I know that’s not true, and we’ll probably stop in at least one more, but we have our priorities.
We had gotten directions from the website, from AAA, and we had the Garmin (Lee did NOT want us to go the way we wanted to go), but it was the Maps app on my iphone that got us there. We were afraid that we would have missed all of the outhouse action since we were running late, but not to worry, so were they!
Once again, we had the experience of driving to some remote location, not seeing any other vehicles headed our way (or even going the other way), and arriving at our destination only to find HUNDREDS of people there!! Where do they come from, and how did they get here? It’s enough to make you believe in Close Encounters of the Third Kind… We paid our entrance fee (for door prizes!) of $3, well under our $5 limit, and parked our car in the huge pasture available for parking. We could see the rolling outhouses across the meadow, so off we went. There is one paved road leading to Penn’s Store, and it was serving as the racetrack. It was turning out to be a really hot day – I was glad we didn’t have an entry into this race! We watched a few heats and talked to a couple whose daughter was running in one. They told us we had missed the near-collision of an outhouse and a loose dog on the track – no injuries, but the privy was damaged when it turned over. Hate that we missed that!
When we’d had enough, we strolled over to the store for a look see. Penn’s Store is the oldest country store in America being run continuously by the same family. It’s been in the Penn family since 1850!! You may have seen it on the Today show. There were about 20 people crammed in the shade of the store, and since that was about 18 too many, we didn’t stay to browse. We paid homage to Penn’s Privy, the outhouse that started it all (reminded us of Girl Scout Camp!) and then got in line at one of the ‘caterers’ outside, hoping for a cold drink, but waiting way too long with nothing happening. Time to get back to real life! We gave up any chance of winning a door prize and headed for the car.
With no particular plan in mind, we decided to wander over to Danville, Kentucky, home of Centre College, and another place we’d never been. It’s a pretty little town and we strolled around an almost deserted campus for a while, then drove down to Constitution Square. Danville was the capital of the Kentucky Territory of Virginia, and the constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky was written here. We stopped at a street vendor’s market along the way and bought some grape tomatoes, which were juicy and tasty. We wandered around the old buildings in Constitution Square – the first post office, a church meeting place, the jail, a tavern, and a schoolhouse – and then we took off for Louisville. You may have wondered what happened to lunch – we did, too! We broke out the cookies to sustain us for the long ride ahead. Yum.
We got to Louisville a little before five, after passing some beautiful horse farms in this lovely bluegrass section of Kentucky. The rolling hills and green (didn’t look blue to me!) grass reminded us of Amish country – it was the perfect day for a ride through the country. Once in Louisville, we checked in to our hotel and then met our friend Mike Dalton for a beer and some reminiscing. And some football! Note to Jonathan Crompton, Tennessee quarterback: The object is to throw the ball TO the guys in the bright orange uniforms. It is not like hunting, when you try NOT to hit the men in orange. I hate UCLA.
We didn’t really eat dinner either, unless you count chips as dinner, which we did. Thanks, Mike – great to see you and we appreciate the hospitality! Back to the hotel we went, where I promptly crashed and Kim watched football. It was a great day, except for Tennessee football. But go, Duke!
Our first thoughts this morning were of this date eight years ago and the lives that were lost in America that day. How much things have changed in America since then! We honor the memories of those who died and we are grateful for the men and women in the armed forces who continue to defend our borders and protect our freedoms.
Even after all of our chances to learn the “don’t start the day without eating breakfast” rule last year, we left without eating, which we would soon regret. But, we had lots we wanted to see and do today and time was a wastin’! Our first stop this morning was the Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown, KY, which Kim’s friend Jim told us about. One of his good friends from college is married to the owner, so of course, we dropped by to say hello. Kathy wasn’t in, but we loved the old (1779) place.
The Old Talbott Inn is the oldest inn in Kentucky
Next door was what used to be the old jail and is now another bed and breakfast, complete with stocks our front. We took a few photos and got ready to leave, when a man in a UK cap stopped to talk about John Calipari when he saw Kim’s Memphis Tigers license plate. He ended up telling us about lots to see and do in the area and pointed us in the direction of My Old Kentucky Home. On the way to the Home, we passed the Stephen Foster Story, so we had to stop there first. It’s an open air amphitheater that’s only open during the summer, so we wouldn’t get to see the performance. We were able to look around and go down to the stage, all the while listening to a medley of Stephen Foster songs. We were in the middle of one of Kentucky’s many state parks, most of which have really beautiful golf courses. This one is no exception, and given the nice day, the links were busy!
Just down the road was My Old Kentucky Home, originally known as Federal Hill, which was the private home of the Rowan family. Now there is a lovely visitors’ center, gift shop, meeting facility, and large outdoor rotunda and they give guided tours of the home. History tells us that Stephen Foster was related to the Rowan family and had visited them here, where he was inspired to write “My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night.” The house was HUGE – the three stories were each 13 feet tall and the rooms were big. Renovated just a couple of years ago, the house is decorated in a style befitting a family of such wealth in the 1840’s. The colors were bright and bold, and the look was really quite modern.
We couldn’t take photos inside, but here’s the exterior of My Old Kentucky Home.
The day was heating up and we felt sorry for the women dressed in period costume (well, except for the tennis shoes) who led the tours, but we were getting pretty hungry and were a little afraid we might be having a touch of low blood! Of course, the people in our little tour group kept asking questions that Tammy, our guide, didn’t know the answers to. Like, what did they use for toilet paper on the cushioned chamberpot seat? Seriously. Now we can say we daughters of Kentucky have finally been to the mecca. Weep no more, my ladies!
We couldn’t get back into town soon enough – we were so hungry! We decided to go back to the tavern, and just as we got there, Kathy called and said she’d come over to say hello. Business was booming, and Kathy arrived just as we were being seated, so she joined us at the table and then proceeded to treat us to a most delicious lunch! Thanks, Kathy!! Kim yet again showed remarkable restraint and ordered a salad, while I was lured into trying the Hot Brown. And the fried green tomatoes! Kim and I shared the tomatoes, which were beyond good. My Hot Brown was mighty fine as well. For those of you who don’t know, a Hot Brown consists of a piece of toast topped with ham, turkey, tomatoes, a supremely yummy cheese sauce, and bacon. It’s served hot and in a casserole dish – it’s a Kentucky favorite that was invented at the Brown Hotel in Louisville. Try one if you get a chance.
Cheesy perfection – a Kentucky Hot Brown
After lunch, Kathy showed us around the property – we saw the tavern, which is a hopping and lively place at night, the old pub, and some of the guest rooms at the inn. We decided to walk over to the Tom Moore Distillery to see the world’s largest bourbon barrel, so Kathy came with us. On the way, we passed the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral, which used to be the archdiocese of Kentucky until it moved to Louisville. This particular distillery used to be Barton’s, then it was Constellation Spirits, and it is in the process of becoming the Tom Moore Distillery now. We were too late for a tour, and it turns out you can only see the giant barrel on a tour. Oh well, maybe we walked off half of a fried green tomato!
On the walk back to the Tavern, we passed some fun yard art, old businesses, and great homes, and then we found ourselves at an old cemetery just behind the old jail. Turns out the tavern is supposed to be haunted, so it’s no wonder – with this ancient burial ground just next door, the ghosts don’t have far to go. We told Kathy goodbye and started down the road to Heaven Hill and Maker’s Mark, more stops on the Bourbon Trail.
We really wanted to see Maker’s Mark, where the last tour started at 3:30, so we waved as we passed Heaven Hill and took off for the tiny village of Loretto. Maker’s Mark puts on quite a show! The campus is gorgeous and I recommend taking the tour there. Did you know that if you go to their website you can become an Ambassador? Ask me how I know… That means your name will be put on a plaque (along with 29 others) which is put on a barrel of your very own bourbon. You’ll get updates about the status of your mash (it takes 5 to 7 years to make this liquid gold!) and when it’s ready, you are invited to come fill two bottles and dip them in Maker’s Mark signature red wax. Sign up today!
Our tour guide, Mike, was great and once more we were surprised when we arrived for the tour. We had been driving on back roads in Kentucky all alone – no other vehicles on the road – and we arrive to a full parking lot and about 50 people on our tour. How did they get there and where did they come from??? Shades of Oatman on our Route 66 adventure!
Big vats of mash at Maker’s Mark
After the tour, we were ushered into the gift shop for a bourbon tasting. First, we were taught how to smell it (not with your nose – inhale through your open mouth over the glass) and then how to sip it (letting the liquid roll over your whole tongue before swallowing it). Before we sampled the finished product, we tasted “white dog”, which is the uncured pure grain alcohol – pretty raw stuff! Then we got the sweeter amber concoction – so smooth! Kim hated it and thought she was going to die – it took her breath away! I loved it, so I finished hers, too. Nothing I wouldn’t do for my sista!
We had considered going to Louisville this evening and watching a ballgame – the Louisville Bats were playing the Durham Bulls!! – but instead we opted for the capital city, Frankfort. We were beat and just chilled in our hotel room for a while, then we went to a nice little Italian restaurant down next to the old state Capitol building.
The restaurant was Serafini’s – good food! We ate outside right next to the street, where we were surprised to see that a train track ran down the center of Broadway in front of the old Capitol. I had one of my favorite salads – apple, goat cheese, candied pecans, greens, and the risotto of the day, which came with a fish I’ve never heard of and can’t spell and therefore cannot google. The risotto was portabello and leek with a pink peppercorn sauce and asparagus – very nice! Kim had Penne Santini, which had shrimp and a spicy tomato cream sauce with vegetables. We were strong though, and didn’t have dessert, even though they sounded wonderful!
During dinner, we were “serenaded” (although not nearly as nice as the Stephen Foster music) by an amateur guitar player/singer who unfortunately had access to a microphone & PA system across the street at the old Capitol. There had been a 5K run earlier and lots of kids were still milling around and listening. About the time we finished up, so did our troubador…. We took a walk around this area of Frankfort after dinner – lots of small bars and bistros with an eclectic crowd – interesting place! We found a diner we may check out for breakfast, and we look forward to seeing our home state’s Capitol in the light of day.
So that was our day, and you won’t believe your eyes when you see what’s in store for you tomorrow!! Here’s a hint: it involves a parade, but one we bet you’ve NEVER seen or even heard of! Talk to you later!
We were in no rush to stick around the Atlantic City area, so we grabbed a quick bite of breakfast and were on our way by about 8:30. Did we mention that our hotel had a riverboat docked behind the dumpsters? We’re not sure why, and we did not go investigate, but it looked pretty funny to us. Atlantic City seemed to be a bit seedy to us, and in all fairness, we did not go all the way into the city to check it our for ourselves. Margate City seemed okay enough, and the beach (or shore) was pretty, but we’ll take our North and South Carolina beaches any day!
We did not have a whole lot on our agenda today – a drive-by of Storybook Land, Longwood Gardens, the Charcoal Pit, and a detour to the Haines Shoe House, which we missed in Pennsylvania at the beginning of our trip. Storybook Land was just down the road from our hotel, and it did not open until about 11, so we had to be satisfied with a few photos from the parking lot. Given that it’s an amusement park with a $20 ticket price, that’s probably all we would have done even it if were open! You can read about it at http://www.storybookland.com/ (turn your volume down – it’s loud!) and if you’re in the area with small children (somehow Atlantic City and small children don’t seem to go together…) you may want to visit. It looked really clean and well-maintained, and it’s been family owned since 1955.
On our drive across New Jersey towards Delaware, we saw a few curiosities worth stopping for – we just had to stop and turn around to get a picture of the American flag made out of colored milk jugs in someone’s front yard, and we were a little surprised by a Muffler Man sighting. Before long, we saw the twin spires of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, but not before we stopped for gas (again!) to take advantage of the lower prices and great service in New Jersey.
Our original plan was to have lunch at the Charcoal Pit in Wilmington, DE, on our way to Longwood Gardens, but since it was 10:30, we decided to visit the gardens first and then go back to the Pit. We passed the turnoff for Winterthur, which we had considered visiting, and we drove right through Chadd’s Ford, which is home to another Wyeth museum. So much to do and so little time!! We had voted on Longwood Gardens to honor our mom and grandmother, who both had gorgeous gardens and are/were excellent flower arrangers. We were not disappointed!
Longwood was the estate of Pierre du Pont, and it encompasses over a thousand acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows as well as a summer home, a conservatory, and lots of fountains. Visit it at http://www.longwoodgardens.org/ but really plan to see it in person! We strolled through the flower garden, which I loved because of the way the flowers were planted in groups of similar colors – it was like walking through a rainbow! From the flower garden, we went to the Italian Water Garden, where my favorites were the waterfall tumbling down a staircase and the frog fountains. A special display going on this summer was a series of treehouses created especially for the Gardens. The first one that we came to was the Canopy Cathedral, which reminded us of the Gillette Castle because of the way the logs were carved.
From the fountains in the Italian Water Garden, we walked up a long hill past the meadow, and soon we had come to the next treehouse, the Lookout Loft, which was in the shady Forest Walk section. It was a sort of Adirondack-style treehouse. We walked past the duPont house, not sure if we could go in it or not, and then we found ourselves at the final treehouse, the Birdhouse. It was nice to go up in the trees and enjoy a few moments out of the heat of the sun, and Kim and I were reminded of the fantastic treehouse our dad had made us when we were kids. All the neighborhood kids hung out at our house, since in addition to the treehouse (which also had a fireman’s pole) we had a bagswing and a roller coaster that Daddy had made. We had a nice little walk down Memory Lane as we walked through Longwood Gardens!
When we realized you could go in the house, we took that tour, too. It was so interesting! I have loved being in these totally well thought out and well designed homes of people who clearly knew what they wanted and could afford to have it built the way they wanted it! Some favorite things in the house were the built in map case, the hidden library, Mr. du Pont’s office, the towel warming rack in the kitchen, the silver safe, and the fly fan. Even though the air conditioner was allegedly on, it was very hot and humid in the house, so we didn’t linger as long as we might have.
From here, we went to the Conservatory, which was built in 1919 and houses almost 200,000 square feet of plants!! Outside the Conservatory was another fantastic fountain display, the Main Fountain Garden, which covers five acres and has 380 fountains spraying 10,000 gallons of recirculated water. Wow! Next to it was the topiary garden, and from there we went to the Chime Tower and Waterfall. We could have stayed here for a few more hours – there was a lot we didn’t see – but we were wilting and hungry, and we had miles to go…We stopped in at the gift shop and we have to tell you that even the bathrooms were beautiful, complete with flower arrangements and mosaics. What a spectacular place this is!
Like I said, we were hungry and couldn’t wait to eat at the Charcoal Pit, (http://www.charcoalpit.net/) which we had read about in Road Food but we’d also heard from Melanie that we would not be disappointed. We had no problem finding it, and since it was getting close to 2 o’clock, it wasn’t too crowded. On the way in, we noticed some of the awesome ice cream creations and we saw some mighty juicy burgers, so we knew we were in for a treat! Kim had a chocolate soda with her burger and fries, and I opted for the big burger (no fries or onion rings!) and a hot fudge sundae. Heavenly!! Sure wish we lived closer to the Pit!!
Backtracking again, we were soon back in Pennsylvania and before we knew it, we were back in Amish country. We had loved the rolling terrain and green farmland of this part of Pennsylvania when we first started our trip, so it was a treat to get to see it again. We drove through Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand again, and we loved hearing the clip-clop of the horses on the Amish buggies. Why, you may ask, were we not heading south since we were on our way home? Well, one of the things we had really wanted to see on this trip was the Haines Shoe House, which is near York, PA. (http://www.jarrettsville.org/family/shoehouse.htm) You may remember that we had to bypass it on our first pass through PA, or else we would not have gotten to Lititz and Wilbur’s Chocolates before it closed, so we had figured out a way we could get here on the flip side of the trip. It was just a bonus that we got to enjoy Lancaster County again!
We arrived at the Shoe House a little after 4:00 and were there in time for the last tour of the day. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, so you’ll have to be satisfied with seeing the outside and going for yourself to see the inside. I will say it was cool – people could (and have) really live there, and the current owners have decorated it really nicely – lots of shoes of all varieties add to the fun theme. We had no problem turning down the ice cream (there’s a shop there) since we were still on a sugar high from the Charcoal Pit, and now it was time to turn south and head for home.
It’s always hard to realize a trip like this is almost over, but that time was fast approaching! We weren’t sure where we would be spending the night, so we started looking at the map and perusing our Hampton Inn book. Kim made a few phone calls and we decided we could get as far as Leesburg, VA, before it got too late. We traveled down Highway 15 (which goes to Durham, too) and soon our Hampton was there to greet us. Since I’d been craving Chinese food for days, and we were pretty pooped, we took the easy way out and ordered some to be delivered. A couple of cold beers from the car, Chinese on paper plates – it was just what we needed! We got a little blogging done, downloaded pictures, planned our next day’s drive, and watched a little TV. Only one more day…
We really hated to leave Denise’s wonderful house, especially the Bed and no *#&@ Breakfast part of it! But we had miles to cover, so armed with a full pitcher of fresh tea, we were on the road by 8:30. It was a foggy, cool morning – the kind I’ll really miss once we are back home. We had planned to have breakfast at the local Bristol Diner, but they were on vacation (the week before the ‘real’ season begins) so we set our sights on Bath, sure that we could find something to eat there.
On the way, we stopped by the hugely popular Taste of Maine restaurant (not open for breakfast) and took a picture of the big lobster (we didn’t know he would be a Bubba Lobster!) out front. In addition, they had a lobster fisherman in his yellow slicker and hat (carved out of wood) and a huge pole for osprey nests.
Bath is on the coast north of Portland, on the Kennebec River, and it’s a huge shipbuilding port. It was home to Bath Iron Works, which has been sold and is now General Dynamics. Their biggest customer is the US Navy, and they’ve built battleships, frigates, cruisers, and destroyers here. It has a HUGE crane that you can see as you cross the bridge into town. We got off the highway (US 1) and went in search of food. Right away, we spotted the Starlight Cafe, but we had already passed the street we needed to turn on before we turned. As we drove around town, we enjoyed the 19th century architecture and then we passed Beale Street Barbeque. Given that Kim is from Memphis, we doubted the authenticity of the place, so we found our way back to the Starlight.
Boy, can we ever pick them! This was the cutest place – sort of underground – I had to duck to get in. There was a counter and several small tables. A friendly local woman urged us to try (with absolutely no hesitation) the cinnamon bun French toast. Since I could see the cinnamon buns right in front of me, I bit. The woman told me I wouldn’t need to eat for hours later and that I’d be on a sugar high all day!
Kim, ever the steadfast companion, had scrambled eggs and ham and a humongous biscuit. We loved checking out the place as we waited for our food. Each table had a different set of salt and pepper shakers – ours were lobsters, next to us was Dagwood and a huge sandwich, etc. Oh yeah, I also was unable to resist the blueberry scones that were on the counter next to the cinnamon buns, but I got it to go and didn’t eat it that day. I was stuffed by the time we left, and was on such a high that I didn’t even mind when Jill got us so lost that we were going the wrong way down a one-way street. In fact, I didn’t even notice it, but thankfully, Kim did and we were eventually able to wind our way out of Bath and back to the highway without attracting any unwanted police attention. There are hazards to having a red car, though…
The next curiosity on our list was a ‘Moose or Monster’ sculpture found in some gas station parking lot next to the highway near a Holiday Inn and a McDonalds. Believe it or not, we found it! I will spare you the ugly details about our parking lot escapade. We emerged unscathed, and no animals were injured, including humans. Or other vehicles, by some miracle. By the way, we think it’s closer to a moose than a monster.
We saw a cute little cow in a coffee cup on the ceiling of some java joint – Kim got a great shot of it, and we weren’t even expecting that one! We arrived in Freeport with one item on our agenda – to take a picture of the giant boot outside the LL Bean retail store. Well, we did that, and then we needed to go inside in search of a rest room, so now we both have a new pair of hiking boots and I have a new pair of comfy brown slides. I did not buy the $7 socks – I can get those at Target! It was a good thing we did not have time to do any more shopping, because we are running out of space almost as fast as we are running out of money. Of course, there is always UPS…
On the way to Yarmouth, we passed an outdoor furniture shop with a giant Adirondack chair, so we turned around to get a shot of it and the big Indian across the street from it. Yarmouth is home to Eartha, the world’s largest rotating globe (a certified Guinness World Record) at the DeLorme map store. She measured just under 131 feet around, and 41 feet, one-and-a-half inches across her middle, and she’s reportedly gorgeous at night, when she’s all lit up and you can see her from the highway. It was pretty impressive to see her in broad daylight, but impossible to photograph her in a way that does her justice. You sorta have to be there, but you can also check her out at http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10408
Next stop – Portland, Maine’s largest city. As you may know or have guessed, it’s also on the coast and we spent our time there in the Old Port district. We parked on the street (no mean feat, but for once on this trip I did not have to parallel park) and stopped in at the visitor center. We took a long walk along the waterfront down to the Maine Narrow Guage Railway Museum. We opted not to take a three mile train ride, but we did spend some time in the small museum there. We got to see men actively restoring some old rail cars, and we got to walk through several different kinds of passenger cars. Check it out at http://www.mngrr.org/ and learn all about narrow guage railways! Toot, toot!
We had thought we might walk UP to the old Observatory, but we satisfied ourselves with a photograph since we only had two hours parking time (on the other side of town) and we still were due for lunch at some point. Plus, it looked like it could rain at any minute. Read all about it at http://www.portlandlandmarks.org/portland_observatory/oww.portlandlandmarks.org/portland_observatory/observatory.shtml – it’s really cool and we would have liked to have seen it. Huff, puff.
On the way back towards the car, we passed the Maine Customs House (official business only, no weapons, show your ID and you’d better have a damn good reason to go in!) and walked down several cobblestone streets. There was a lot of neat shopping and some cute stores. We ducked in one that was full of maritime junque – we first saw some mermaids and other neat carvings, and when we went in there was a parrot sitting on the proprietor’s shoulder. It was a fun place to look around – kind of like Mom’s house, had she lived at a seaport.
On the way down the street, we passed a brewpub called Gritty’s and then remembered that was a place Denise had suggested we eat. So we did! I had a steak salad that was really tasty, and Kim had chicken caesar. We split some homemade potato chips and wisely (but with difficulty) avoided having beer. While there, we saw not one but TWO men wearing Tennessee shirts/jackets – these were the first even remotely close to Tennessee people we had seen on the whole trip, while we North Carolinians get around. Kim went over to talk to the guy with the UT Lacrosse jacket on – he was in town on business and was a UT alum. He said the bartender at his hotel was also from Tennessee.
We had already decided that we were going to need to take the interstate from Portland on if we were to have any chance of seeing the Paper House in Rockport, Mass, before it closed. That turned out to be a really good choice, because it began pouring down rain just after we got out of Portland. What a dreary trip! We sped through Portsmouth (sorry, Danielle!) but we did see the two HUGE state liquor stores at the NH state line (one of each side of the road). Somewhere along the way, we got off the interstate and found a road that took us through Ipswich, Essex, and into Rockport, and even more amazingly, we found the Paper House! Before it closed!! You will surely want to check it out at http://www.paperhouserockport.com/ because our photos don’t begin to do it justice.
My favorite thing about it was the honor system used for charging for the obviously self-guided tour. Put $1.50 per adult in an envelope (provided) and drop it in the mail slot of the house next door! We did, although we had to raid our laundry money since we only had twenties! Other items of interest there were the grandfather clock made out of newspapers from each state capital and the desk made of newspaper accounts of Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. Now you know what to do with all of those papers you’ve been reading!!
We went to Gloucester in hopes of getting some good shots of the Gloucester fisherman (http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc22624.php) but our hopes were dashed by the DOWNPOUR of rain. We waited it out (of course, we had parked and were walking) at a neat Spanishy Greeky (not sure which) restaurant where we had sangria and some roasted tomatoes and goat cheese. While at the bar, we learned all about the ‘Gloucester Twenty’ (the high school girls who for some insane reason got pregnant on purpose) since they (but not the boys involved…) were the news story of the day. Except for the weather, which was really the top story. So much for our lovely drive around the northern coast of Massachusetts…
Undaunted, we went to Salem even though all of the attractions there were of course closed, since it was after six by now. We found the Salem Witch Museum and what we thought was a statue of a mean old witch, but it was really just a pilgrim, Roger Conant, who was the first settler of Salem. He was born in 1592 and died in 1679. Salem must have agreed with him – good thing he wasn’t a woman! We loved the crosswalks – they were bright green with witches on them. We found the Essex Peabody Museum (highly recommended by several people) but it was closed, too. We did not see the Bewitched statue and did not look too hard for it.
Since this was one of two nights that we did not have hotel reservations, we thought we should be finding a place to spend the night. But first, we saw signs for the House of Seven Gables, so off we went. It was closed, too, but we saw the outside, the water, and several OLD houses (built in the 1770’s). From there we went to the Hampton Inn Peabody (peeBUDdy, for those of you who thought it was really Peabody) but they were booked, and so was the next closest one at Wooben (I thought he was asking me if I wanted a Reuben sandwich and maybe had a speech impediment) which is really Woburn…no wonder we couldn’t find it on the map. Good thing we don’t have to speak to Jill (Well, we do, but thank God, she can’t hear us! I hope!)
Since we were striking out in the Boston area, and we were going to America’s Stonehenge (betcha don’t know about that one!) the next day, we just decided to drive to Manchester, NH, and stay at a lovely (really – it was great!) Hampton Inn and Suites. We even had a fireplace in our room! And a kitchen and a couch! Too bad we were there for about 9 hours, most of which were spent in a deep slumber. We didn’t eat dinner (thanks to our tapas break) until after we got to Manchester. We ate at Bugaboo Creek (okay, it’s a chain, but it was close and open and nothing else was!) I had French Onion Soup (made with their ale) and lettuce wedge and a Maine blueberry mojito (really yummy!) and Kim had a chicken quesadilla. The restaurant was decorated in that north woods look, complete with a talking moose (over the mantel) and a flying squirrel that were not Rocky and Bullwinkle.
I had issues getting an internet connection so that’s one of my many excuses for being so late to post this blog entry!! But, true to Hampton form, they gave us a $25 gift certificate to Brookstone for the inconvenience. Can’t beat that with a stick.
