Stepping Back in Time

Leave a comment

14 September 2009

This morning we were up before the sun – a rare occurrence – because we had lots to see and do.  Just as we were leaving the hotel, we got a message from Jim, another of our high school friends who lives in Louisville.  We decided to take a short detour by his house to say hello on our way out of town.  It was great to see him and his home studio – he’s gone from lawyer to artist, so that’s a good thing in my book!  I ate part of my caramel Dutch apple pie (no, Kim didn’t want any) on the way there and we didn’t ever really stop for a proper breakfast, so Kim scarfed down a granola bar for sustenance.

Today’s destination was Mammoth Cave National Park, which is in south central Kentucky.  I think we took Hwy 31 E down there – whatever road it was went through some pretty green rolling hills and some not too thriving looking little towns.  We decided this part of Kentucky is nice where there is no population center but looks pretty shabby where there are people.  Not sure exactly what that says…  We passed very little industry – a small cooperage, likely making bourbon barrels, was about the extent of it.

Our route took us through Hodgenville, which is the birthplace of Kentucky’s favorite son, Abraham Lincoln.  Just north of there we passed Abe’s birthplace, which was being reconstructed (?) by state workers and cleaned up by state detainees.  We didn’t linger. The town square of Hodgenville is dominated by a large statue of Abe, and banners were flying that noted it was the 200th anniversary of his birth.  We sort of took a wrong turn (I know, hard to imagine) on our way out of town, so we missed the shrine to the cabin where he actually entered the world.  We had seen it before in our formative years, so we didn’t turn around.  We were on a bit of a schedule, never a good thing with us, since we had a cave tour at noon.

We knew we were getting close when we passed Wigwam Village #2, which was where we would be spending the night.  We drove on through Cave City and as soon as we neared the interstate interchange, we found fast food joints lining one side of the highway and really cheesy looking ‘attractions’ lining the other (cave side).  This couldn’t even qualify for one of our “Gatlinburg of the ____________” designations – too depressing!  We saw Dinosaur World, a couple of closed and/or abandoned mini golf courses, Big Mike’s Rock Shop, an almost reasonable facsimile of a water slide, and a few campgrounds and playgrounds.  You could tell there is a recession here! 

The drive to the cave is lovely – tree-lined and peaceful, at least for today.  One of the many benefits of traveling in the off-season!  We arrived at the visitors’ center (also under construction, so at least someone is working) in plenty of time for our tour.  As we sat through the requisite warnings about the dangers of city spelunking,  we wondered about the people in our group to whom the ranger seemed to be talking, but who did not seem to think they were the targeted audience.  I’m thinking it would be a great idea to have something akin to the height requirement sticks like they use at Disney, except for girth here!  No lie, sitting near us was a large man so square that he looked like Sponge Bob, and he didn’t even look at his wife (also on the large side, but in a completely different way) when the ranger talked about traversing Fat Man’s Misery and walking up 400+ stairs in the dark, gloomy, cold, remote, deep cave.  Go figure.

We had chosen to do the two hour Historic Tour of the cave, which meant we just walked down the hill to the original entrance to the cave.  Before we even got down the stairs to the entrance, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees.  The cave stays about 54 – 60 degrees F year-round, so most of us were putting on jackets at the entrance.  Mammoth Cave is VERY aptly named – it is HUGE!!!  To date, about 367 miles of passageways have been mapped, and some people estimate there could be as many as 1000 miles of caveways!!!  Our first stop was the enormous Rotunda, where there is still evidence of the salt peter mining that took place here in the early 1800’s.  An essential ingredient for gunpowder, the cave was a major supplier of ammo for the War of 1812.

Deeper into the cave we walked, wondering what it must have been like to have been one of the early explorers of such a giant underground labyrinth.  Because this cave is covered by a layer of sandstone (the cave itself is limestone), it is largely protected from the elements and is a dry cave.  That means a couple of things – it’s not slippery and wet like some caves, and it doesn’t have the same kind of cool formations like stalactites and stalagmites that most of us associate with caves.  That did make the walking part a bit easier, but we still squeezed through the serpentine Fat Man’s Misery and duck-walked through Tall Man’s Misery.  We sort of stayed at the end of the pack, not wanting to witness anyone getting stuck…Thankfully, no one did that we saw!

We passed the Giant’s Coffin and the Bottomless Pit, the Methodist Church and the Cathedral, and then it was time to start back up and out.  We didn’t find the stairs to be too bad, but we were in the minority.  Lots of whining and huffing and puffing going on!  One man kept asking if anyone had ever had a heart attack down here – who needs to know that???  Turns out our ranger, William, was from near Paducah, but he never would say exactly where.  Out we went from the coolness of the cave into the heat and humidity we’ve long been accustomed to.  It was 2:00 on the nose (I don’t know how they do that) so we headed back to Cave City in search of food.

But wait – a detour – we stopped in at Big Mike’s, where we somehow refrained from buying more glass rocks (even though they had some nice ones!) and went straight for the main attraction – Big Mike’s Mystery House.  At only $1 per head, how could we resist seeing gravity defied???  Clearly devised in the late 60’s or early 70’s by someone stoned, we loved it!  Black light posters that we used to have lined the hallways, and we stood up on a slanty table, watched water flow uphill, and got damn near dizzy with the optical illusions there.  David, our guide, cracked us up, too.  As he reminded us – it’s only a dollar!!

By now, we were really hungry, so we stopped in at the Watermill Restaurant  because it was open.  They had a great buffet, but since it was almost three, we didn’t want to spoil our dinner.  I had the vegetable plate with green beans, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy.. pinto beans, and cornbread.  Kim (of the no-breakfast) had a cheeseburger and fries.   We were ready to face the rest of the day!

We had just enough time to run down to Bowling Green and see the National Corvette Museum, so off we went.  WOW!!  It’s a huge complex, just across the street from where ‘Vettes are manufactured. They’ve done a wonderful job with the displays and dioramas, and you just wouldn’t believe how many people have donated or loaned their cars to the museum.  Of course, we loved the Route 66 display!  There’s also a Hall of Fame section (which is housed in the cool part of the museum that you see from the outside).  One of the cars there is the only 1983 Corvette still in existence.

After the museum closed at five, we headed back to Cave City and our Wigwam, and then we called my friend Leanne, who lives nearby.  These wigwams weren’t quite as nice as the ones we stayed in while in Holbrook, AZ, on Route 66, but they were very similar!  Not much extra space, and no internet connection (unless we sat outside on the bench in front of our teepee).  Leanne came over for a wigwam visit and then she went with us to eat dinner at Snappy’s Pizza [NOTE: Permanently closed] in Horse Cave.  Kim and I had spaghetti that was just fine, but we were closing the place down at about 8:30.  Sidewalks roll up early here!

Back at the wigwam, we sat outside on our computers until a cat jumped up on the back of the bench, leapt over me, and walked across Kim’s keyboard.  That put me inside, where I had to take care of a giant green grasshopper in our shower.  It’s such an exciting life!  The TV was attached to a cable, but reception was awful, so that was it for me.

Have you slept in a wigwam lately?

Jan

Looking at Louisville

Leave a comment

13 September 2009

Having a bad day in Louisville?  Just head on over to Lynn’s Paradise Cafe and World of Swirl and everything will be all better!  And did you know they take reservations there – definitely the way to go!!  We had made reservations for 11:30 Sunday morning and even though the place was packed and the line was long, we got seated on the patio right away!  It was a gloriously beautiful day, and being surrounded by all the pink, purple, yellow, and red silk flowers just made it perfect.  And then we saw the menu.  OMG!!!  I almost got what would have amounted to dessert for breakfast – thick slices of cinnamon swirl bread, griddled in vanilla nutmeg batter, smothered with chocolate sauce, strawberries, and whipped cream, disguised as French Toast – but sanity prevailed.  Instead, I had the Kentucky Farmhouse Scramble – three eggs, scrambled with roasted red peppers and country ham, topped with local cheese and tobacco onions, served with fried green tomatoes, bread with honey butter, and a side of cheese grits like you’ve never tasted!  I guess that could be a heart attack disguised as breakfast, but it was SO GOOD!!!!  Kim had the fried green tomato BLT with a side of fruit.  She is so good…

[NOTE: Sadly, Lynn’s is no longer open, as of January 2013. A pity.]

We loved the people watching there and had fun after breakfast looking through the gift shop (the World of Swirl) and checking out some of the fun displays out in the parking lot.  Peppy had fun posing as a spoon.  From here, we drove over to the lovely Cave Hill Cemetery, which is the final resting place of Colonel Sanders and George Rogers Clark, among others.  The cemetery is HUGE, and even though we got directions to the Colonel’s grave, we got a little lost.  Imagine that.  But we found it, many other interesting monuments (we loved the magician’s), AND we got out.

Our next stop was Churchill Downs, where the famous twin spires have pretty much been overshadowed by the sky boxes, museum, and other signs of progress…  The museum was closed due to flood damage, so we just took some photos out in the parking lot.  The monument to Barbaro was stunning – he looked like he was in full gallop, riding through the air.

We drove through the UofL campus and found our way back to the Hyatt, where we parked the car and started off walking.  On the way to the Louisville Slugger plant, we passed lots of the Gallopalooza horses on display throughout town, and then we went past the 21c Museum Hotel, which was decorated with red penguins and had a pomegranate stretch limousine parked out front.

Perhaps we should have stayed here – check it out:

“21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, KY is the first of its kind—a 90-room hotel dedicated to accessible luxuries, Southern-style hospitality and contemporary art from living artists, exhibited throughout its galleries and public space. Among the many upscale offerings: iPods with a wide variety of music for guests’ listening pleasure, award winning design and décor, poster art, 42″ HDTV flat screen televisions, WiFi, 500 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets imported from Italy crowning the exquisite bedding, silver mint julep cups, gourmet coffee makers, mini-bar refrigerators, Malin + Goetz bath amenities, and nightly turn down and Concierge services. The hotel also offers a full exercise facility with a steam room, sauna and spa services. And, of course, red penguins.” 

Around the corner, we passed a strange sculpture of Daniel Boone, and then we arrived at the Louisville Slugger factory and museum.  You can’t miss it – the world’s largest baseball bat is propped up on the building.  It’s 120 feet high and weighs 68.000 pounds!! It’s hollow, and could hold 30,000 gallons of water….  We had to laugh, because right next door is the Kentucky Mirror and Plate Glass Company, complete with a mural of a baseball breaking a window.  We popped in long enough to get our tour ticket, even though supposedly they don’t do tours on Sunday, and then we walked around the corner to GlassWorks.  One of the cool things about Louisville is that lots of the museums are all situated near each other – the Science Museum was just across the street from Louisville Slugger.  Makes it easy to see a lot in a little bit of time!

Glassworks was worth a look – we wanted to see the gallery there.  Kim is a fused glass artist (she has done some great stuff!!!) so even though there was a lot more blown glass than fused, it was still fun to see all the creativity and talent on display.  Back we went to the Slugger, where we joined about 20 other people for a really interesting tour of the factory.  Great interactive displays and very knowledgeable guides made this a fun activity.  It was hard to believe that all Louisville Slugger bats are made here, and that most of the wooden bats in use are Sluggers.  Yet another example of a family-owned, small, very successful Kentucky companies – they may be onto something!  Make sure to stop by next time you’re in Louisville!

On the way back to the hotel, we walked down by the river (the mighty Ohio, for those a little geography challenged) and we agreed that Louisville has really not capitalized on the riverfront like it could have.  The Ohio also flows past our hometown of Paducah, where it is a focal point of the city.  No wonder riverboat riders are pleasantly surprised when they stop over in Paducah!  We re-entered the city on 4th Street at the Galt House and took our souvenir bats back to our hotel room.  When we got hungry (did you notice we didn’t have lunch???) we walked down 4th Street Live in hopes of finding something good, but we found nothing that suited us.  Back to the car!

We found our way down Bardstown Road and stopped in at Wick’s Pizza, which was hopping with football fans.  It reminded me of Mellow Mushroom, so you know it was good!  We chilled over our Blue Moons and pizza and watched a little football, then we went looking for Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen.  Aaahh, sweet reward!  This is my kind of place!  We shared a piece of chocolate chess pie with cookie dough ice cream, and I got a piece of caramel Dutch apple to go (for a healthy breakfast).  We sat outside – perfect weather – and enjoyed our slice!

Since we didn’t have a wheelbarrow, we had to waddle back to the car and to the hotel, where I was too stuffed to blog.  What a satisfying day!!

Loving Louisville!

Jan

Let’s Potty!

Leave a comment

12 September 2009

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!

Privy to fun!
Jan

Making Our Marks

Leave a comment

11 September 2009

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!

Kentucky bred,
Jan

From Loveless to Gasless!

Leave a comment

Thursday, 10 September 2009

Welcome aboard!  We’re glad you decided to ride along with us this year – Peppy is always happy to have some company, and it should be an exciting trip, since we haven’t planned it in advance.  We’re just taking a page out of Daddy’s book and making it up as we go along, so fasten your seat belts! 

Here’s what we do know: we are going to hit the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky, then we are taking the Natchez Trace from Nashville to Natchez MS, the we are meeting Rex and friends Jim and Alex in NOLA, and we are ending up in Paducah for our combined 35th and 36th high school reunions on the weekend of BBQ on the River. For that reason, we’ve named this adventure Bourbon, Blues, and BBQ.

Everything is inside out and upside down this trip – I flew over to Nashville where Kim and Peppy picked me up, and Kim is driving and I’m navigating.  This has already proved to be a great example of us not working to our strengths – we had done at least two (maybe three) U-ies before we got out of Nashville, and we came mighty close to running out of gas.  Could be interesting!

Kim had never eaten at the Loveless Cafe before, so that was as far as I’d gotten by way of planning for today.  What a treat!!  Check it out for yourself at www.lovelesscafe.com and check out our pix!  It’s been a Nashville institution since 1951, and is famous for its homemade biscuits and jam, fried chicken, breakfast all day, and just FINE country cookin’!  It was almost dark when we arrived, which was great because the neon was looking good and the sky was gorgeous.

There was no line tonight, so we got right down to the business at hand – devouring the hot biscuits set down before us, complete with butter, homemade jam (strawberry and blackberry) and honey.  They were calling to us so loudly we had almost finished them before we remembered to take a picture for you!

And check out those giant glasses of refreshing iced tea with lemon.  I’m in heaven, since I’m just back from a month in Australia, which I loved, but where it was almost impossible to find iced tea. Or ice, period! 

Choosing what to eat was no easy task, either.  I’m trying to undo some of the damage I did Down Under, but I had to defer any stab at healthy eating while at Loveless!  When someplace is famous for fried chicken, you order fried chicken!  Or at least I did.  Kim got grilled catfish, which looked great.  We had both toyed with getting veggie plates – the list was so good!  I settled on slow-cooked green beans and hashbrown casserole and Kim got fried okra and mac & cheese.  We both exhibited a little restraint and didn’t clean our plates.  Of course, that was because you know when you walk into a place like this that dessert will find its way to your table.  We split a bowl of peach/blackberry cobbler (with ice cream) and didn’t eat all of it either!  We had fun chatting with Tammy, our server.  She was intrigued that we could spend this much time together in a car.  We are so lucky that we like each other and we get along!!  Miles of smiles!

It helps to laugh, especially when your navigator (that would be me, today!) is too ADD to pay attention to the road signs.  But we found our way from the airport to Loveless AND back to the highway.  It was dark thirty by the time we left, so onto the interstate we hopped, bound for Our Old Kentucky Home.  Really!  We’ll show you pictures tomorrow!  I was no help at all, as my very early (3 AM) morning had caught up with me, piling onto my already jet-lagged self, and I was soon snoozing while Kim drove.  I woke up in time to help her find the hardly-traveled-on Bluegrass Parkway, but I didn’t notice that the gas tank was on empty.  Or beyond.  Neither did Kim, until we passed the last gas station…

So, for my gratitude journal today, I’m thankful for airplanes that land safely, country cooking, my sister, a car that says it can only go 323 miles but really goes 405, and a 24 hour gas station in a town where nothing is open 24 hours!!  And my iphone, that got us where we were going!

We even found a place to stay, so we’re ready to crash tonight and hit the trail – the Bourbon Trail – tomorrow!

Live, but sleepy, from My Old Kentucky Home!

Jan

Ye Olde Curiosity Tour Wrap-Up

Leave a comment

1 July 2008

Our trip may be over, but we still have some accounting to do!

Critter Count 2008

Critter Count

As usual, we saw lots of wildlife on this trip. Here’s a list:

  • lots of horses, cows, goats, butterflies, and fish
  • many deer, mostly up close
  • 2 wild turkeys
  • plenty of chipmunks
  • 2 snakes
  • too many raccoons, some live, some not, and some babies
  • several dead possums (at least they looked pretty dead – hard to tell with possums)
  • 1 red tail hawk (up close and personal)
  • lots more soaring hawks
  • ducks, ducklings, and more ducks
  • several schools of fish (albino ones, too)
  • rabbits
  • plenty of donkeys
  • a whole barnyard full of sheep, pigs, chickens, goats, ponies, and roosters
  • 6 pet dogs, including sweet Quincy (who went with the two cute young men from Vermont), Chase, Buddy, Boo, and Tess
  • lots of cats
  • a gazillion ground hogs
  • lots of bluebirds, as well as some goldfinches and robins, orioles, chickadees, sparrows, and woodpeckers
  • ravens
  • swans
  • a few squirrels
  • a trainyard full of Thomas crazy little boys (if you don’t think they are critters, think again!)
  • a gaggle of geese
  • frogs and tadpoles
  • 1 very large, very dead snapping turtle
  • many, many June bugs and other flying insects
  • a goodly number of very drunk, nicotine addicted, tie-dyed, friendly, and feeling no pain ‘hippies’ (for lack of a better word)
  • a camel (really, not a llama)
  • alpacas
  • a cormorant
  • a black bear (really!)
  • a herd of ostriches
  • an osprey
  • fainting goats
  • a skunk (real, not just Peppy)
  • a parrot

Where’s Peppy?

To liven up this trip, we had a game where we asked our followers to guess where our travel companion, Peppy, was based on a photograph and a clue. For those not familiar with Peppy, he is a plaster skunk who was a 7th grade art project of Kim’s. Our mom dutifully saved him all these years, then gave her to Kim one Christmas. Just after Kim and her kids held a ceremonial going away party for Peppy and dumped him in the trash, Mom called to tell Kim she’d better not throw that skunk away! Needless to say, Peppy lives!

We took him with us on our first Sassy Sister trip, The Mother Road, in 2006 and photographed him at iconic Rt. 66 stops. He is a great conversation starter, allowing us to talk to the strangers Mom told us not to talk to, so there you have it.

There are still some unanswered questions, but I’m not sure we will even remember where some of them are!

Where’s Peppy #1

Where's Peppy? #1 Roadside Giants Tour

Hooray! At long last Suzanne has figured out that this was at the USS South Dakota Memorial in Sioux Falls, SD, from last year’s trip!

Where’s Peppy? #2

Where's Peppy? #2
Congrats to Patty C, who submitted the correct answer! Peppy is with Merlin at Foamhenge, Natural Bridge, VA.

Where’s Peppy? #3

Where's Peppy? #3
And the prize goes to Patty C (she is so smart!) who knew Peppy was on the tail of a dinosaur at Dinosaurland, White Post, VA

Where’s Peppy? #4

Where's Peppy? #4
Has Peppy flipped his lid?

Where’s Peppy? #5

Where's Peppy? #5
This is an easy one…and we have a winner! Patty C correctly placed Peppy at the National Toy Hall of Fame in the Strong Museum of Play, Rochester NY

Where’s Peppy? #6

Where's Peppy? #6
Babs has somehow figured out that Peppy is at the TePee Trading Post in Cherry Valley, NY. Good work!

Where’s Peppy? #7

Where's Peppy? #7
Congrats, Babs, for knowing Peppy was keeping secrets in the Secret Garden at the Stone Hill Quarry Art Park!

Where’s Peppy? #8

Where's Peppy? #8
Cool moove…and MOO! to Suzanne, who knoooo that Peppy was on the grill of the Ben and Jerry’s truck in Waterbury VT!

Where’s Peppy? #9

Where's Peppy? #9
Rock on! Suzanne has correctly placed Peppy at the Rock of Ages granite quarry. He’s actually in one of the cages that the workers get lowered down (by a huge crane-like thing on a derrick) into the 600 foot deep quarry.

Where’s Peppy? #10

Where's Peppy? #10
Congrats to Cathy P! Peppy is taking a break on the front porch of the Sugar Hill Inn in Franconia, NH

Where’s Peppy? #11

Where's Peppy? #11

Slow down!

Where’s Peppy? #12

Where's Peppy? #12
Which way to Canada?

Where’s Peppy? #13

Where's Peppy? #13
Once again, Babs knew Peppy was in the mood to talk at Moody’s Diner!

Where’s Peppy? #14

Where's Peppy? #14
Babs knew Peppy was wanting a ride on an old Ford at Owl’s Head!

Where’s Peppy? #15

Where's Peppy? #15
Babs was on a roll (thankfully, Peppy wasn’t, even though he was cleverly disguised as a lobster!)

Where’s Peppy? #16

Where's Peppy? #16
Even me?

Where’s Peppy? #17

Where's Peppy? #17
Home, sweet home – Anne recognized Sandy’s beautiful roses hanging over her picket fence and correctly placed Peppy in Stonington, CT

Where’s Peppy? #18

Where's Peppy? #18
Good job, Suzanne! Peppy was not in Madison County, but he is in the covered bridge at Kent Falls, CT

Where’s Peppy? #19

Where's Peppy? #19
Kim Mc knew Peppy was in the press box at Yankee Stadium!

Where’s Peppy? #20

Where's Peppy? #20
Like talking to a rock!

Where’s Peppy? #21

Where's Peppy? #21
Rex correctly placed Peppy under the treads of a tank at West Point

Where’s Peppy? #22

Where's Peppy? #22
That’s right, Suzanne! Peppy’s standing on Lucy’s toes.

Where’s Peppy? #23

Where's Peppy? #23
Can you spare a quarter for a tune?

Where’s Peppy? #24

Where's Peppy? #24
You’re right, Suzanne – Peppy is peeping through the window of the Shoe House in Haddam, PA

Where’s Peppy? #25

Where's Peppy? #25
I’m not leaving!!

Our Favorites

Each year, we try to come up with some lists of our favorites. Stay tuned!

Best Eats

Favorite Experiences

Biggest Surprises (and Disappointments)

Coolest Icons

Memorable People

Funniest Things

States Visited

  • North Carolina
  • Virginia
  • West Virginia
  • Maryland
  • Pennsylvania
  • New York
  • Vermont (toured the capitol in Montpelier)
  • New Hampshire
  • Maine
  • Massachusetts
  • Rhode Island (toured the capitol in Providence)
  • Connecticut
  • New Jersey
  • Delaware

Friends We Got to See Along the Way (and who were kind enough to host us!)

Thanks, friends! You made our trip the best!

  • Lynn & Robert (and kids)
  • Katy
  • Diane & Louis
  • Denise & David (and kids)
  • Sandy
  • Melanie & David (and kids)

At long last, the last day…

Leave a comment

30 June 2008

We left Leesburg, VA, about 8:30 after just grabbing some breakfast at the Hampton. Since we were headed away from DC, the traffic was not bad and the ride was pretty uneventful. Our first stop of the day was to be Charlottesville, VA, and the home of “Mr. Jefferson’s University,” the University of Virginia. I have always heard that it is a beautiful campus so I was anxious to see it and compare it to Duke, UNC, and some of the other pretty campuses we’ve visited. In case you didn’t know, UVa was founded, designed, and originally funded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819. The American Institute of America allegedly named the main quadrangle ‘the most perfect place in the country.’ I’m not sure I’d go quite that far, although it is lovely.

As we drove into Charlottesville, we had no trouble finding the university. Our first stop was their new athletic facility, the John Paul Jones Arena. From there we attempted to find a place to park, which turned out to be easier than we thought it might be. It was noontime and we were hungrier than we were curious, so we slipped into one of several little cafes/sandwich shops lining the street across from the main quad. I don’t remember the name of the place we chose, but I do remember that Kim had a gyro and I had a meatball sandwich and that it was freezing inside and it took WAY too long for us to get our food. The people behind us had to wait a long time, too, and then they had brought the woman the wrong thing, and she ended up having to take her meal to go because it took them so long to fix it. And they didn’t even comp her and they barely apologized!! And the restaurant had fewer than ten tables occupied… At least our food was good and it warmed us up a little bit!

We walked across the street to see the main quad, and it is exactly what you think a good Southern university should look like. It reminded us a lot of Washington and Lee, especially with the little chapel just across the way from the main buildings. Did you know that Edgar Allan Poe attended (but did not graduate from) Virginia? He lived in Room 13 (!) in the West Range. Evidently, his room is decorated to look like it did back in 1826, but we didn’t see it.

From Charlottesville, we went to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, which he also designed and built over a forty year period, from 1769 to 1809. I think that two of the people I would most like to meet and have dinner with are Jefferson and Thomas Edison – wouldn’t it be fascinating to be able to see what made them tick? Anyway, the drive up to Monticello was scenic and peaceful, but that all changed once we got there. I’m not sure how they got there (we didn’t see all that many cars on the road) but the parking lots at Monticello were full of cars from all over America! But they were smarter than we were, because they had gotten there early and had time to enjoy the tour. Alas, we had just missed the bus for the next tour and it would be another hour before we could even get up to the house and then the tour took over an hour. We inquired about just walking ourselves up there instead of riding the shuttle bus, and just being satisfied with seeing the outside of the home, but it would have cost us the same $15 each to do that, so we decided that we would see Monticello on another day. Before we do, though, we’ll be sure to visit http://www.monticello.org/ so we won’t be surprised when we get there!

On the way up to Monticello, we had passed Michie (pronounced Mickey) Tavern, so we stopped there on the way back down the road. We shopped around in the General Store, which was also a working mill, and just took a little time to relax. As we were getting in the car to leave, we heard a BANG and saw that there had been a parking lot accident – what a vacation bummer! A big van had backed out of his space right into the side of a sedan that had just backed out and started going. We counted ourselves so lucky that we had not had any issues with the car beyond our fuses!

Our next stop, and probably our last one, was to be the Walton Mountain Museum somewhere near Schuyler, VA. Bet you didn’t even know there was a Walton Mountain Museum!! We didn’t either, until we read about it in one of our favorite road books, Road Trip USA, by Jamie Jensen. If you’re as old as we are, you’ll remember the 70’s TV show “The Waltons” (good night, John Boy) which was set in the Appalachains during the Depression. The show’s writer, Earl Hamner, Jr., is from Schuyler. He’s a very prolific writer (http://www.the-waltons.com/earl.html) – we had no idea! We found the drive from Monticello to Schuyler to be one of the prettiest (if not THE prettiest) drive of our whole trip. The Blue Ridge mountains were visible, the trees were green, the sunlight was filtering through the trees, the road curved gently, a nice breeze blew through our open windows, there were no other cars on the road, what more could you ask for? I wished we could just keep driving for weeks and weeks!

 

As we neared Schuyler, we passed a Walton General Store, the New World Stone Company, (which is the only source of Virginia Soapstone) and then we arrived at the Schuyler Community Center, which used to be the Elementary School and is now also home to Walton Mountain Museum. The sign on the door told us that the museum was open until 4 PM and that visitors were not allowed in after 3:40. What time was it? 3:35!!! We paid our money to the nice little old lady at the ticket desk (an old school desk) just inside the door, essentially in the school gym. She gave us our directions and off we went.

We saw John Boy’s bedroom, which is exactly as it was on the show except for the window AC unit, which we were glad was there. We went in Ike Godsey’s store, the Walton’s living room (complete with radio), the Walton’s kitchen, the room where all the scripts are stored and where the writers met to discuss them, and a room that had a real working “Recipe Machine” that had been confiscated from the nearby hills. Shine on!

While we were in the general store, which is also really the post office for Schuyler, we spoke to the proprietor, who was ready for it to be 4 PM. He was a cynical guy, but he did get interested in hearing about our trip. He was from upstate New York (what a surprise!) and there were people in there from Pennsylvania, so we regaled them with tales of Roadside America (never heard of it), Pollywogg Holler (of course they’d never heard of it!), and other fun places we had been. I’m sure they went to their cars and asked their Garmins how to get there! Maybe someday they will appreciate some of the things in their own backyards. After all, they were at the Walton Mountain Museum!

Once we left Schuyler, we made our way to Highway 29 and just enjoyed the drive down to Danville. From there, we went to Reidsville, NC, where we ate barbeque at Short Sugar’s (http://www.ibiblio.org/lineback/bbq/jnt3.htm) Mighty fine! We reluctantly got in the car, knowing that our next stop in Salisbury meant the end of the road for this year’s trip. We spent our last hour thinking about next year – we’ve got the Pacific Northwest on our minds, maybe starting with a train trip… We got to Lynn and Robert’s and found Kim’s car well taken care of, so we spent the evening downloading and copying pictures and sharing favorite tales of our trip. Thanks, Lynn, Robert, and Sarah, for letting us invade your home and for letting us leave Kim’s car there with you for three weeks! It was great to see you as always!

Thanks for riding along with us and stay tuned! If you have suggestions for us about places we won’t want to miss, please share them.

Happy Trails, and goodnight, John Boy!

Jan

A BIG Day!

Leave a comment

29 June 2008

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…

Taking time to smell the flowers,

Jan

From the banks of the Hudson to the Jersey shore

Leave a comment

28 June 2008

We slept in a bit in an attempt to recover from our long hot days in the city, and then we still had laundry to fold, bags to pack, and a car to load, so we did not get an early start this morning. Melanie showed us around the yard so that we could see the results of their landscaping projects. I especially love their beautiful pool and the way it is surrounded by grass instead of a typical deck. The view of the Hudson is spectacular, and she and David recently re-roofed and re-windowed their solarium. They will surely enjoy it this summer! David had suggested that we check out the Croton Mini Deli for an egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich (with ketchup and pepper), so we found our way there (no problems, Mel – good directions!) and got our food and some ice for the road.

We drove north up Route 9 to Bear Bridge, where we crossed the Hudson River. Just before we crossed the bridge, we stopped at a scenic overlook (complete with a street vendor!) and saw the place where the American colonists had stretched a chain across the Hudson in an attempt to stop the British during the Revolutionary War. Didn’t work, but it was an interesting thought!

We drove a bit farther north to West Point, which is where I wanted to go to school when I was young (and before they accepted women!) Wonder what I was thinking then!! We were hoping to take a tour of the US Military Academy, but we couldn’t get on the next one and it was too long to wait for the one after that and do the tour, so we settled for checking out the visitors’ center and wandering through the museum. They were very well done and we learned a lot about the history of West Point and a good bit about the life of a cadet. New plebes would be arriving on Monday, so it was pretty quiet today. Kim and I could not imagine how it must feel to drop one’s child off with only the clothes on his/her back and some toiletries as a freshman in college! Sure would make packing easy, but the goodbyes must be really tough!

From West Point, we drove along the west side of the Hudson and into New Jersey. We were so disappointed not to find a ‘Welcome to New Jersey’ sign, but we were excited about being in a state where it’s against the law to pump your own gas! Between that and the low gas prices (lowest ones we saw all trip!) we could see many fill-ups in the not-too-distant future. We were looking for a place called the Gingerbread Castle in Hamburg, NJ. The ride to Hamburg was excruciating – lots of traffic on a four-lane highway going through little towns – and we were hoping we wouldn’t have to go back the same way. Jill was having trouble getting us where we wanted to go (but at least we had her, since Melanie charged her up for us!) but we spotted a street sign for a street called ‘Gingerbread House Road’ and decided to take it. 

We were warned about a one-lane bridge and we went past an old mill and factory, but we did not find the castle/house that we were looking for. Soon, we were back to a highway, so we stopped at a service station and got filled up. We asked the attendant about the castle, and he told us where it was (we had driven right past it) and said that it was in bad repair and under new ownership and that he thought it was closed. We turned around and went back anyway. Lo and behold, there it was, right where we had been distracted by the one lane bridge. It was looking a good bit worse for the wear and indeed, had lots of no trespassing signs posted. So we parked on the side of the road and took pictures from a distance. It looked like it would have been pretty neat back in its heyday. We still saw Humpty Dumpty, the well that I assume Jack and Jill used, the pie that may have contained four and twenty blackbirds, and a few other recognizable nursery rhyme icons.

We were getting pretty hungry, and the gas station guy had told us about a place down the road with a big horse in front of it that had good food, so we went in search of. Before long we came to the horse and the Homestead Rest Restaurant. It was about two o’clock, but thankfully, we could still get lunch. It was an interesting place – the walls were COVERED with photos of prize winning horses and it had a rustic western theme going on. We ordered our iced teas and our server, Kim, brought out these gigantic Ball jars full of ice and tea – my kind of place!! We each got a spinach salad and shared some onion rings. The onion rings were really good, but the salad was missing some ingredients (pine nuts), heavy on others (red onions and goat cheese – yum!) but the dressing was pretty overpowering and we had not thought to ask for it on the side. It was spicy, and even though I love spicy, it was not the complement that it could have been. We ate what we could and then hit the road.

Somewhere along the way, we came to a Toyota dealership and decided to pull in and just see if the service department was still open and we could get our new fuses. Well, we were sort of in luck. It was just after three and the service guys had just left, but the salesmen were extra helpful. We spoke to one man who was in the middle of a sale in the lot, and he made some calls and directed us inside. There, the receptionist called a salesman to help us, and boy, did Tony do the job! He crawled up in the small space under the steering wheel and located the bad fuses (see Mr. Clifton Park Toyota man, I knew it was just bad fuses!!) and then salesman number one came to check on us and he went in to get new fuses. Tony replaced them for us (it was pretty hot out by now, and he worked up a sweat there in the lot – we really appreciated his goodwill!!) and then would not charge us for his work. We checked to make sure everything was working and we all cheered when the XM came on – even Tony! He even gave us a couple of extra fuses in case we blew them out again. We told him all about our trip and gave him our blog address, so Tony, if you haven’t given up on us yet, here’s a shout out to you!! We thank you so much for helping us, so if any of you are ever in New Jersey and need a new Toyota, go see Tony at Condit Toyota on Routes 206 and 94 in Newton, NJ.

With tunes blaring, we had renewed energy as we continued south towards Princeton and Trenton. We had heard they were both pretty towns, and of course, Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, so we wanted to at least see the capitol building. And then it rained. HARD! Just as we were getting to Princeton, and all the way to Trenton, it just poured. We finally stopped in Trenton to readjust our route, because we would never make it to Lucy the Elephant if we stayed on the back roads in this downpour. We reluctantly decided to take the interstate, so for me at least, the rest of New Jersey on this day is pretty much a blur. It did stop raining, and we drove down and across the state without incident.

Lucy, who is a national landmark, lives in Margate City, just south of Atlantic City. We needed to get to her before the last tour began at 7:30 (thank goodness it was officially summer somewhere up here!) and so we cheered as we pulled into her parking lot at 6:50.

Lucy is a magnificent pachyderm with a storied history. Read all about her at http://www.lucytheelephant.org/ and you’ll understand (well, maybe you won’t understand, but you’ll get the picture, anyway) why we wanted to see her. We had time to take some photos and make a pit stop before our tour began, and then Connor, our tour guide led us up through Lucy’s left rear leg. Just inside the door was the original ticket booth, and then we made our way up to the main floor. There were lots of photographic displays of Lucy and her history, and we watched a video about her. At one time, a family had actually lived in Lucy, and we could still see their bathtub. We all got a chance to walk up and look out of Lucy’s eyes, and then we all trooped up another set of stairs and outside to the very tip-top of Lucy!

From there we had a grand view of the Atlantic and Atlantic City to the north (in the hazy distance). We came back down through Lucy’s back right leg and even saw the peanuts she’d had for lunch that day. We spent some time in the gift shop, where we talked to Joan and Sue (who were working there) and a man from California who was talking about the Wigwams. We of course shared our story about staying at the Wigwam Motel while on Route 66, and then we told them about this year’s trip and some of the unusual buildings we’d seen so far. We were all the more determined to make a detour to the Shoe House (that we’d missed in Pennsylvania on the way up) on our way home the next day.

Leaving Lucy, we made our way through some of the Monopoly streets (Ventnor Avenue being the main one) and located our Hampton for the night. It was not our favorite one – in a bit of a seedy area between Pleasantville and Bayside, just outside Atlantic City. We were not at all tempted to venture into Atlantic City, and we felt like we were being pretty daring to go out for dinner. We had only passed a couple of possibilities, and one of them was recommended to us by the people at the front desk, so we decided to try JoJo’s Italian Grille just down the street. Turned out to be a wonderful choice – lots of locals were there and they had brick oven pizza and yummy looking desserts. I had a pizza with roasted red peppers, basil, cheese, grilled asparagus, and prosciutto, and Kim had one with prosciutto, cheese, and basil. Both were delicious and we could not eat all of them, especially since we saved room for dessert. We split a piece of homemade cheesecake with cherries – most excellent! Once again, our server’s name was Kim, which we thought was kind of funny. We went back to the hotel, worked on the computer and watched TV, and called it a night pretty early. It was hard to believe that we only had a couple of days left on our trip!

Betting that elephants never forget,

Jan

A Ride with a View: Taxi, Pedicab, Feet, Car, Boat, and Train

Leave a comment

Friday, 27 June 2008

We had one more day in the big city and we wanted to make the most of it, so we hit the ground running. On the news the night before, we had seen a big story about the unveiling of an interesting art project – four waterfalls on the East River. They were installed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, and they range from 90 to 120 feet tall. Yesterday was opening day, and they’ll be up through October 13, 2008. How could we leave New York without seeing them in person? We went to the website, http://www.nycwaterfalls.org/, and ordered tickets on a water taxi for later in the afternoon, and then we checked out of our Hampton and hailed a cab heading for the Hearst Building.

We had had the bright idea to ask our cousin Melanie’s husband, David, to take our bags home with him so that we could spend the day unencumbered, and he had agreed. Thanks, David!!! You saved us many headaches. After we had told the cabbie where to take us, it occurred to me that David might not want to have to lug our bags from his office to wherever his car was, so we gave him a quick call. When we gave the cabbie our new destination, maybe two or three blocks away from the original one, you would have thought we had asked him to take us to China the long way! At any rate, we met David at the Applejack Diner, got our bags safely stowed in his car, bid him thanks and a good day, and went back to the Diner for breakfast. I had eggs Benedict (you know I’d been craving them since Kitchen Little – they would have been better there, I suspect) and Kim had her usual. Just as we were leaving, a huge school group came in for breakfast, almost filling the whole restaurant. It was a good time to go!

We walked around Columbus Circle and crossed over to Central Park. Several buggy drivers attempted to solicit our business, but we were just planning to stroll around for a while. Then this cute young man – blond hair, blue eyes, foreign accent – accosted us and he was so earnest and sweet that we agreed to ride with him. Then he told us to wait right there while he got his bike! We had no clue that we had just hired a pedicab, but we had, and it was such fun! Nick (Nikolai, from Russia, small town of half a million people on the Volga River near Moscow) was a great tour guide. We loved his accent (he told us some people told him it made him sound sexy, so we just called him our Sexy Mon) and his charm. As you can imagine, he had to work pretty hard pulling us around by bike, and it was becoming very hot and very humid very fast. He was full of information and we helped him out with a few pronounciations and facts that he didn’t know about. Turns out he has been in America all of four WEEKS, and he’s been doing this job for only two. Prior to that he had worked for an air conditioner company, a butcher shop, and had been a flyer boy – we think he has found his niche for now!

Anyway, he rode us all through Central Park (http://www.centralpark.com/), past the carousel, the dairy, the statue of Balto (the Alaskan sled dog of the diphtheria vaccine fame), statues of Mother Goose and a pilgrim, to the Bethesda Terrace, Cherry Hill, Strawberry Fields, the Great Lawn, the Tavern on the Green, and much, much, more. He narrated the whole time, never missing a beat, even talking about many of the buildings surrounding the park. We stopped several times and were able to take pictures and he even took one of us (it was not flattering so I’m not sharing it – you’ll just have to imagine how pampered we looked in our pedicab). We had a great time and I recommend pedicabs over buggies (I’ve done them, too) in Central Park any day! I’m so glad we didn’t end up trying to walk our way around, because we walked enough the rest of the day…

 

After we said our goodbyes to Nick, we walked across the park to the newly renovated Plaza Hotel. It was still closed when Rex and I had been to New York in December, so I was glad to get a chance to see it. We admired the Baccarat crystal chandelier (commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia) and the Palm Court, then we found Eloise’s portrait and wandered around part of the renovated area where shops are being installed. Then we crossed Fifth Avenue to go to FAO Schwartz, where we were greeted by the doorman who must have been HOT inside all that regalia. It was not as cool as it had been in December, but it’s still my favorite store to shop in. I guess I’ll always be a kid at heart..

We left the toy store and strolled down 5th Avenue, just taking in all of the window displays (which were pretty inventive, but not as much fun as they are at Christmas time), storefronts, churches, tall buildings, and people. As usual, people watching won out! It was pretty crowded, especially for a hot summer weekday. We chose not to go to the Top of the Rock, opting instead for the Empire State Building. We were pretty tuckered out by the time we got there at 12:30, and were so disappointed to see that it was under construction. Kim didn’t even get to see the gorgeous Art Deco work in the lobby. It was going to take longer than we had to go to the top (we had 2:00 reservations on the water taxi) so we took a load off and sat at the bar of the nearby Heartland Brewery for a bite of lunch. We split a shrimp appetizer and some onion rings, but mostly I drank my iced tea! I think I had three or four glasses and was very thankful that they didn’t charge me for refills (for a change!) As a matter of fact, we acknowledged the bartender for being one of the only servers we’ve had on the entire trip who offered us refills (without us having to ask) and he was the ONLY one who gave us a fresh slice of lemon. Good tip for him!

Feeling almost rehydrated, we tried to hail a cab and ended up getting a car instead. Costs more, but it was worth it to have the AC on and the windows up and to be in a Lincoln instead of a yellow cab. We had a bit of a drive down to the Southside Seaport, and we were really just glad to be riding instead of walking. We passed the Fulton Street Fish Market – I wish we had had time to check it out. I had not ever been to this part of the city before – it was a bustling place. But we needed to get our tickets from will call so we could see the waterfalls and the city from a different perspective. As it turned out, our boat was running about thirty minutes behind, so we just watched more people. Sharing our boat was a busload of Asian tourists, so we were ready for a lot of picture taking and excitement. We were not disappointed – I took lots of group photos, and then they would take a picture of me – it was pretty funny, and it was fun to be with a group that didn’t just sit back and watch. Our tour guide was the greatest – his name was Lee, and he did a rhyming version (would have been a rap with a little background sound) of the tour spiel – we loved it!

We passed the Staten Island Ferry, Battery Park, the Colgate clock, the NJ train station, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, Governor’s Island, several bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge, and of course, the waterfalls. I would love to see the falls at night, and if you’re planning a trip to the city, you don’t have to take a boat ride to see the falls; however, if you’ve never experienced the NYC skyline from New York Harbor, I highly recommend a tour by boat. As we were stopped at the Statue of Liberty, Lee offered to take pictures of anyone who wanted them, holding an American flag that he provided and with Lady Liberty in the background. He was awesome! All too soon, the tour was over…

Time to head back to Grand Central and catch our train back to Croton – we had no trouble getting a cab this time, and we drove right along the riverside past NYU Medical Center and getting great views of both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building.

  

We got to the terminal just before 4:00, found our ticket counter, but were a little unsure which train to take. The cashier cut right to the chase, sold us two tickets, and then said, “You have one minute to get to track 26, behind you and to the left. Run!” We made it, but barely! At least we didn’t waste much time waiting around, and we were able to get an off-peak express train to boot.

Melanie met us at the station and we went back to the house and regrouped – we had practically unloaded the whole car and repacked for our trip to the city, so we got organized again. David got home soon after we did, and once we had our luggage from him, we started in on laundry. I don’t know what we would have done on this trip without a little help and a lot of hospitality from family and friends! It sure made it a lot of fun to see people we knew and be in their homes instead of always a hotel room (or tree house!) Thanks again to all of you who opened your doors to us, fed us, and made us feel welcome!! Sure hope we can return the favor someday!

We sat out on the patio, enjoying the view and a chilly one, and then Melanie and David fixed dinner for us. David grilled some giant steaks and Melanie had prepared a delicious tomato, cheese, and spinach salad and some great potatoes. Add a good bottle or two of wine and some lively conversation with them and their twin daughters – what an enjoyable evening! The girls were going into the city for a party, so we stayed up and caught up on family news, heard about their family’s recent trip to Spain and Portugal, shared some of our experiences, and pontificated on life in general. What a fine way to spend a Friday night!

Loving looking at life from lots of different perspectives,

Jan

Taking a Bite Out of the Big Apple

Leave a comment

26 June 2008

We had two big things on our agenda today – a tour of Yankee Stadium and “Young Frankenstein” – so we hit the ground running. We had the name of some Chelsea area restaurants, so we got our bearings and walked over to Madeleine Patisserie for breakfast. Kim had a ham and cheese croissant and I had Canadian bacon and grilled onion quiche, which also came with a salad. I’m not accustomed to having salad with breakfast, but it was good! This little restaurant is famous for their macarons (no, not macaroons) but we did not get any this morning, thinking we might stop back by. That didn’t happen, so I’ll have to try a macaron some other time. It was raining a little bit, so we had our jackets and hoods on, which was making us pretty sticky and hot, as it was warming up fast and was pretty humid.

We were already a little stressed, just knowing we had to get ourselves from lower Manhattan to the Bronx on the subway. But, being the intelligent, intrepid adventurers that we are, we made our way to the subway entrance and entered the underworld. Even though we had specific instructions about which trains to take, we did what any smart Southern girls would do – we went to the window and asked what to do. The attendant could not have been nicer – she sold us our tickets, told us how and when to change trains, and pointed us in the right direction. Now, if only we could follow her instructions! We did pretty well, only having to ask a nice man at the next stop which train we were supposed to get on (we had been in the right place) and soon we were arriving in the Bronx. Of course, we went the wrong way when we got off, so we stopped in a little grocery store and got re-oriented.

Once we went around the corner in the right direction, there it was, right in front of us – the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium! And immediately across the street was the new stadium, well underway. For those of you who are not big baseball fans, this is the last year that the venerable old stadium will be used, as it is slated to be demolished once the new venue is completed. The first game in “The House That Ruth Built” was played in 1923, so you can imagine that it’s seen a lot of wear and tear. Read more about it at http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=nyy and see some great photos. On the way from the subway to the stadium, we met a dad with his daughter and son who were also going for a tour. They were from Lubbock, Texas, and we had fun chatting with them. It was raining pretty steadily so we all sought shelter under awnings as we waited for the tour to begin.

Soon we were inside, being separated into four groups. Our group began the tour in the Yankee clubhouse, which was a big surprise – not all the tours get to go in the clubhouse. This was the only place we couldn’t take pictures, but it was still fun. A couple of things of interest – the late Thurmon Munson (a Yankee who was killed in a plane crash) still has a locker and Derek Jeter has two lockers – the one he uses like everyone uses, and the one next to it that is full of his fan mail! From the clubhouse, we went through the tunnel and into the dugout just like the players would. That was pretty cool, too! We sat on the bench in the dugout and got to see the same view the players would during a game. By now, it had stopped raining, and we were able to fully enjoy the experience. From the dugout, we walked through the stadium (up the stairs and ramps) to the press box. One of the funniest things about that was the wire baskets used for the press kits and stat packs – it looked like something you would have seen forty or fifty years ago, especially next to the green blackboard with lineups written in chalk. Not exactly high tech here!

 

The view from the press box was primo! One thing we learned about was the area in the outfield bleachers called the Batter’s Eye – out in dead center field was a section painted black (as opposed to Yankee blue) and no one ever sits there so that there is nothing to distract the batter from beingable to see the little white ball that’s coming at him. Who knew? We got a chance to buy a special version of the Yankee press guide (we bit) and then we walked out to Monument Park, which is near left field, next to the bullpen. Along the wall leading to it are the numbers of all the retired Yankee jerseys. Did you know there were two number 8’s retired? Both belonged to catchers – Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. Around the corner were the monuments – some to famous Yankees like Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and some plaques commemorating things like the Papal blessings (there have been three) of Yankee Stadium and 9/11. All too soon, (even for Cardinal fans) the tour was over and we were on our way back to the subway.

Once again, we stopped to ask specifics. The attendant we asked this time was just getting off duty, so she personally escorted us to the correct train and then said, “Where in the South are you ladies from?” We just had that look about us, I guess! We had a nice chat with her and then just waited for the train to come. We were sort of leaning against the wall (germophobes, don’t even think about it) and Kim had her bag on the floor at her feet. Suddenly, this man swooped in and stood right next to Kim, ostensibly reading his paper but in reality scoping out her seemingly unattended bag. We were looking at pictures on my camera (while really paying attention to everything around us) and after a while, Kim casually reached down and picked up her bag. With that, the newspaper guy left, just as quickly as he had arrived. We were almost hysterical thinking what he would have done with Kim’s bag had he stolen it, since all it contained was Kim’s rainjacket and Peppy!! I told her we were lucky he didn’t take it – he might have come back and shot us when he saw what was in it!

We got back to the hotel without further incident, and since it was getting on in the afternoon, we looked for lunch options. Ya know, in New York City, you can eat just about anything, anywhere, at almost any price, but I’ll bet there aren’t many of you who would have found the Trailer Park Lounge and Grill. But the Sassy Sisters did, and it was just our speed! On our way there, we passed the iconic Hotel Chelsea, which was practically across the street from the TPL&G. The minute we stepped through the screen door (no lie!) we felt RITE at home. There was a bowling alley section, a real trailer, lots of black velvet Elvi, and tons of Southern signage and such. I’ll try to post a variety of photos so you can get the full effect. At any rate, the place was practically empty (it was about 3:30) except for a few people at the bar. We had chicken salad sandwiches – Kim had mac and cheese (it was FINE!) and I had sweet potato fries – and we had really good frozen margaritas – strawberry (K) and mango (J). The place was so cool (temperature-wise, too) and entertaining that we lingered over our meal, chatted with the bartender, and took lots of pictures. I have no shame! The bartender was a fine southern boy – from South Dakota! We talked to him about all the places in SD that we had visited last summer. He doesn’t miss it.

After lupper (you know, lunch/supper) we walked down to the Chelsea Market. This melange of neat shops is housed in what used to be the Nabisco factory, and boy, have they retrofitted it! It was a fantastic place, full of foods of all kinds and home (at least we think so) to the Food Network. There was definitely something Iron Cheffy going on there – we followed the VIP signs until they caught onto us. We watched bread being made and baked at Amy’s Bakery, somehow passed by gelato without getting any, looked through a market full of produce, spices, dried fruits, cheeses, and more, wandered through an awesome kitchen store, and finally succumbed to ice cream (coke float for me, purple cow for Kim) at this fun little dairy bar. Got milk?

We were sad to hear that the Chelsea Flower Market was closed, cause we had heard good things about it. Since we had play plans for that evening, it was time to move on. We walked back via a different route, and just enjoyed the street life of New York. Except for the man who looked around to see if anyone was looking, saw us, and peed into a fenced in churchyard anyway, right there on the street! Is nothing sacred? We crossed the street. We had a little bit of time to cool off and rest before show time, and then we were off to the theatre district.

We started out walking to the Hilton Theatre, because cabs weren’t stopping on 6th right then, but by the time we got to about 30th or 32nd, we got a cab. The Hilton is at 42nd and Broadway, so Kim got to see a little slice of Times Square and all of its craziness. We were excited about seeing Young Frankenstein, as it was one of our favorite movies of all time. I just hoped it could live up to my expectations. The cast was great – Dr. Frankenstein was played by the guy who played George (the creepy pharmacist on Desperate Housewives), his fiance, Elizabeth was Megan Mulalley, who was on Will and Grace, and Inge was played by Sutton Foster, who was the lead in Thoroughly Modern Millie on Broadway a few years ago (Rex & I had seen her in that). The set and special effects were beyond fantastic, and the play stayed true to the movie, and all the hilarious jokes (and more) were in there. We were howling most of the evening! If you’re a Young Frankenstein fan, you’d love the play, and if you’re not a Young Frankenstein fan, I’m sorry!

After the play, we walked back to the hotel and again observed and enjoyed life in Manhattan. It is not like where we’re from! It had been a long day, and by the time I downloaded pictures, we were crashing and burning. Now you know how I got so far behind on my blogging…

Much more to see and do tomorrow – the waterfalls are calling us…

Jan

Hail Yes!

Leave a comment

24 June 2008

Since we were so close to our first morning’s event and it didn’t open until 10 AM, we took our time this morning. We ate our breakfast at the Hampton and on the way out of the parking lot we saw NASCAR driver Carl Edwards’ car trailer. This weekend’s race would be in New Hampshire. This was exciting for me but Kim could have cared less. I kind of like Carl (he’s tall & does back flips!) and NASCAR. Somehow, between Jill and our maps, we found our way to America’s Stonehenge, although it took us much longer than we planned for. Funny how that seems to be a theme for ALL of our escapades…

We entered A.S. through the gift shop and watched a short orientation video about the site. You will definitely want to learn more about it at http://www.stonehengeusa.com/ – it was fascinating! Most of the rock formations found have been carbon dated to the 15th century, which as any of you who know even a little history will recognize as being before most any Europeans were thought to have been in this country. Of course, this area of America had long been home to many different tribes of Native Americans. While it is not known who built these homes, drainage systems, walls, and communal places, parts of it reminded me very much of the medicine wheel we saw in Nebraska last year (check out last year’s blog and read the part about Dancing Leaf Lodge in Wellfleet, NE).

There was an elaborate placement of large rocks which align with the sun’s position on the equinoxes (equinoxi?) and solstices and other important solar and lunar dates. Many think that the boulders of Stonehenge in England as well as other mystical sites are also markers of this kind. What was also neat is how well the drainage systems still work – it had rained really hard the night before, but the area all around these rocks was dry except where water was coming out of the drainage ‘rocks’.

Remember our Massachusetts friends from the Sugar Hill Inn? They had been to A.S. on their way up to Vermont, so they had been just in time for the summer solstice celebration that happened here. We saw remnants of where the ceremony took place, as there were still flowers and spices placed on a large rock flower and a series of trees formed into arches encircled the ‘altar’. As we walked back from the main site, we were enchanted by the beautiful birds that were singing and playing around in the woods. We saw orioles (not something we are used to seeing), chickadees, sparrows, and woodpeckers, as well as lots of chipmunks and some of those green bottleflies. It is worth reporting here that the ‘green’ bug spray we paid $8 for (in Vermont, where else?) works pretty well and we have been glad we had it on more than one occasion. When people tell you the north woods mosquitos could carry you away, they are not kidding.

As we got back to the gift shop, we hiked by several pens of alpacas, so we got to see them up close and personal. They are indeed the ‘lambas’ we saw in Pennsylvania. They are so funny looking, especially after they have been shorn! We are pleased to say that we both love our new hiking boots and after having very little cell phone service for the entire trip up to this point, somehow, in the middle of NOWHERE NH, we both had five bars of service the whole time we were here. Go figure. Anyway, we stayed here longer than we thought we would and now we were over 90 minutes behind schedule. My road to hell must be at least 90% paved by now, especially since I haven’t yet sent my Christmas cards which say “Happy New Year!”

Given our time issues and the fact that Massachusetts does not seem to have many non-interstates/big highways that go anywhere in a north-south direction (all roads lead to Boston or around it), we took the path of least resistance and time (we hoped) and braced ourselves for the interstate straight through Boston to Pawtucket, RI. Astonishingly enough, we sped right through Boston and even went through the tunnel of ‘Big Dig’ fame with no problems. We got back on US 1 as we got close to Pawtucket, where our first stop was the Hasbro headquarters, as we had a date with Mr. Potatohead.

He was so cute – a big ole spud in between the HQ and the R&D (and maybe manufacturing plant – we don’t know ’cause they wouldn’t let us in – top secret toy stuff, you know) buildings. The places in the parking lot were marked with Monopoly cards – we really tried to figure a way to infiltrate the plant, but they were onto us right away. Wouldn’t even let us take pictures in the HQ building or get past the guy in the lobby of R&D. How do you get to work at a toy place, anyway? I love to play!

It was getting so far past a normal lunch hour that our options were very limited (same old story, I know) but as luck would have it, most diners are open 24/7, and the one on our list today was the Modern Diner in Pawtucket. It was housed in a Sterling Streamliner and was the first diner in the country to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Bet you didn’t know that diners originated in Providence, RI, in 1872. Our server told us that they had great hamburgers, so we tested them to make sure. She was right, and their onion rings were not too bad, either. As we were leaving the diner, the heavens opened up and… 

We got drenched just running to the car. Our next stop was Providence, and in case you don’t know, Pawtucket and Providence are right next to each other (as everything in the tiny state of Rhode Island is not too far from anything else). We were going to see the state capitol, so we figured, no big deal, we’re almost there anyway – how hard could that be? Well, if it had not started HAILING immediately after we got on the interstate, we would have been fine. As it was, I was driving down the road with one arm up over my head because it sounded like we were under artillery fire!! We expected the windshield to be cracked and broken at any second. The hail was at least marble (shooter) sized – not quite golf balls but damn, it sounded like cannon balls were landing on us! I was so afraid to see my car – I was almost glad that it was still raining when we stopped so I couldn’t tell what the damage was. I just knew there was some. And there was…

We parked (parallel again!) on the street in front of the capitol building, and for the first time in a long time, we had to go through a metal detector to get in. We spent the rest of the thunderstorm inside and enjoyed seeing another beautiful capitol. Kim and I were talking about how neat it is that these old buildings are, for the most part, still being used for the purposes they were intended – they are not torn down or even renovated (at least not to the point that most of us can tell – maybe wiring, AC, computers, etc.) but the furnishings in many look to be original. The Rhode Island capitol was full of fascinating artifacts – my favorite was the Gettysburg Cannon, which was a cannon used at that famous battle but it got a cannonball stuck in it when it got struck by a Rebel cannonball just as the yankees were loading their cannon. So there it was in the building, cannonball still sticking out of the bore.

Next, we were intentionally heading to the PJ’s so we could see Nibbles Woodaway, the giant termite perched on top of some pest control building. Sadly, he’s easily visible (but not photographable) from the interstate, but from the lovely alley where we were (we opted not to pull into the “Cheaters Gentlemen’s Club” parking lot) we only got a side/rear view of Mr. Woodaway. But we got that, anyway.

We drove down US 1 (aka Post Road) to the coast of Rhode Island, stopping in for a look-see at Smith’s Castle, circa 1678. We were sad to see that it was closed, although it was not at all what we were expecting. Unless you think that normal looking old frame houses should be called ‘castles’ I think you would have been surprised, too. The grounds were lovely, though, and there were lots of geese and ducks out on the water behind the house. Turns out Richard Smith (it was his castle) must have been a big deal back then, because everything in that area of the state was named for him. I have not researched him yet, but I may have to find out a little more about him.

Next stop, the Watch Hill Bathing Beach and their Flying Horse Carousel, which is the oldest one in the country, having been built in 1883. The horses had real hair manes and tails, and they were suspended from the ceiling by chains. There was a chute for the brass rings that the kids tried to grab as they went round and round. If they were lucky enough to get a ring (the attendants even handed them to the littlest riders) they put them over their horses’ ears until the ride was over. The panels on the interior were painted with different ‘flying horses’ – it was a charming ride in a very high rent district.

We were just across the state line from Stonington, Connecticut, where we were spending the night. Thanks to my good friend, Anne, we had reservations at the home of her good friend, Sandy, who I had met but didn’t really know. What a trusting soul she is, to let two almost complete (and some would say crazy) strangers stay with her! We are grateful to our friends and theirs! We found Sandy’s charming little cottage with no trouble, and even though she wasn’t home, she had left the door open for us. It’s hard to imagine being able to live like that in the places where we live. Shortly after we arrived, Sandy pulled in and gave us a quick tour of the house and the lovely beach area nearby. After that, we were off to Mystic to see what was there and to eat dinner, and Sandy was off to a previous engagement. 

We found Mystic to be quite touristy, which is rarely to our liking. The movie Mystic Pizza, starring Julia Roberts, was actually filmed in quaint and lovely Stonington. Not a surprise to me! We found one of the restaurants Sandy had recommended in Mystic, but when we found out there was a 45 minute wait (at 8:30 PM) we hightailed it back for Stonington. On the way back, we saw a beautiful rainbow (for no apparent reason) and this time we got a picture of it. Going back was a good choice! Sandy had told us about a place called Noah’s, which we walked right to from Sandy’s house. We had one of our best meals of the whole trip there! Kim had panko-crusted broiled flounder with garlic-chive mashed potatoes and green beans, and I had sea scallops with an orange-chili salsa, rice, and a medley of fresh vegetables. Oh, and we each had a delicious salad – Kim’s with bleu cheese and mine with avocado slices. The homemade bread was great, too, but the piece de resistance was dessert.

When I saw that they made pavlovas there, I told Kim we HAD to have one. So we each had one! For those of you not familiar with this Australian favorite, a pavlova is a meringue shell, filled with ice cream and/or whipped cream (that would be an AND in this case) and garnished with fruits like kiwis, strawberries, raspberries, and oranges. And maybe drizzled with raspberry puree. Heavenly! I dreamed about mine!

When we got back to Sandy’s, she had left a note saying she’d found a ride into New York City and had decided to leave that night, so we had the house to ourselves with instructions to lock the doors and turn out the lights when we left. Thanks a million, Sandy, for truly opening your home to us, and to you, too, Anne, for telling Sandy we weren’t known criminals. Our only excitement for the night occurred when Kim went out to the car to get something and there was a for real, live and in person (or in animal) SKUNK out by my car. And then it went UNDER my car! Thankfully, it did not spray Kim or the car. We think it heard that Peppy was in the hood…

I’m dreaming of a white pavlova, just like the one I ate tonight,

Jan

Rocks and water; frogs and flies; trains and taxis

Leave a comment

25 June 2008

 

We had another packed agenda for the day, as we planned to ride all over Connecticut on our way to our cousin’s house in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, and then take the train into the city, so we did not tarry at Sandy’s this morning. We took some pix of the house – we loved the way it was decorated, and we were so intrigued by the ingenious way Sandy had managed to pack so much into such a compact space. The stairs were particularly fascinating to us – they were very narrow and quite steep, since there really wasn’t enough room to put a full flight of stairs from the first floor to the second. My favorite room was the dining room, which felt sort of cavelike, since the one wall was a huge boulder. Very cool digs – thanks again, Sandy, for letting us stay for the night, and for your great recommendations of Noah’s and Kitchen Little.

Speaking of Kitchen Little, that’s where we were headed for breakfast this morning. In addition to Sandy’s suggestion, we had already read about Kitchen Little in Road Food, where it received great raves. It really is a teeny place – about 400 sq. ft., according to Road Food! We opted to eat outdoors, where we shared a picnic table with an elderly local couple. It was a beautiful day, and we were almost a little chilly in the shade.

Kitchen Little lives up to its motto, “AM Eggstasy” – I had a difficult time making my breakfast choice! If I had seen the special board before I ordered, I would have had no problem, since I would have gotten Eggs Benedict with avocados and tomatoes, but somehow I missed that. I don’t remember the name of what I had, but it was some concoction of eggs and vegetables and cheese over potatoes, and it was delicious. I will leave Kim’s breakfast choice up to you to guess… The view from the patio was so peaceful and serene – if only I could start every day this way!

 

From Kitchen Little and Mystic, our route took us up the Connecticut River to East Haddam, where we would be touring the Gillette Castle. Almost everyone guesses that this was built by the razor blade Gillette’s, but it wasn’t. William Hooker Gillette was a stage actor who was famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. He lived for many years on a 104′ houseboat (that he later expanded to 144′) named the Aunt Polly, and one day as he sailed up the river, he found a spot he liked, hopped out, hiked up, loved the view, and decided to build his ‘retirement home’ there. He never really retired, but he designed and oversaw the building of this extraordinary home and the railroad around it. I could write for PAGES about this place – it was definitely one of my favorite places – but I invite those of you who want to know more about it to go to http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2716&q=325204&depNav_GID=1650 and/or http://www.friendsofgillettecastle.org/sofgillettecastle.org/ – they both have great pictures and plenty of facts.

The castle was named Seventh Sister, after the mountains in the area. Gillette was fascinated by trains and built three miles of narrow guage railroad around the property, including switches, turnouts, trestles, a roundhouse, a repair shop, and Grand Central Station. He had two engines built, an electric engine and a steam engine, and he had two Pullman cars which held seven passengers each, and one serpentine observation car that held 20 passengers. Albert Einstein and Calvin Coolidge both rode on the Seventh Sister Shortline, which cost $50,000 to build. The house itself cost a million dollars, and it took twenty men five years to construct. After Gillette’s death, his heirs sold the Castle to the state of Connecticut for $30,000.

 

 

As we left the Castle, we passed by a pond covered with lily pads, so we pulled in for a closer look. I love taking pictures of frogs, lily pads, and lotus blossoms, and I felt sure there would be plenty of opportunities here. I was right! There were about six HUGE frogs sitting near one side of the wall, then a couple of giant tadpoles that were maybe two weeks away from being frogs, and after carefully scanning the lily pads, I found a couple of frogs sunning on them. Aren’t the lotus blossoms beautiful?

By the time we left the castle grounds, it was after noon. We went through several little Connecticut towns, many of which had horrible traffic patterns (Middletown and Meriden, to name a couple). It seemed like it took us forever to get even just a little way across this small state. We stopped in at the Timexpo Museum in Waterbury and learned tons about clocks, watches, and timepieces as well as the role that this factory played in the town’s history.

l

From Waterbury, we made our way to the rolling hills of Litchfield, and by now we were pretty hungry, even after our big breakfasts at Kitchen Little. The first place we tried to eat in Litchfield was a little bakery that had already stopped serving lunch (it was three o’clock…) The girl there recommended a couple of other places around the corner, so we went in search of food.

The first place we went to didn’t seem to have a door, so we went back to the Village, where we sat at the bar and had a couple of salads. The walls of the bar were covered with pictures from the Litchfield Hills Road Races throughout the years. This was a pretty little town, and we had parked on the town square right next to a statue honoring Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was born here. We were really running late now, so at Torrington, we altered our route and went across the state to Kent Falls, which had a little covered bridge and a waterfall that went on and on. We took the quarter-mile (straight up) hike and got so many different views of the waterfall. Everything was so lush and green – not at all what I had thought about seeing in Connecticut!

As we were leaving the Falls, we saw some exquisite dragonflies. Aren’t they pretty?

After we left the falls, we intended to make a beeline for Croton, but then we passed a huge spillway and saw a sign for a one-lane covered bridge, so you know what happened next… We were at Bulls Bridge, where we took a short hike that was right next to (and on a pretty slippery trail) the roaring river.

It was almost six by the time we left, so we went straight to Croton with no other stops. Much to Melanie’s surprise, we showed up at her door without having to call for specific directions, and without Jill’s help, since she had gone silent on us. Remember our fuse problem? It was still not fixed (no thanks to you, Clifton Park Toyota!) and now we apparently have blown another fuse, since neither auxiliary adapter works now. Needless to say, the XM is not singing to us, either. Anyway, it was great to see our cousin Melanie and her daughter, Nora, and Nora’s boyfriend, David. Melanie fixed us drinks and she had already cooked some yummy chicken and a Caesar salad, which we ate out on the terrace while looking across the Hudson River all the way to Manhattan. On a clear day…

Soon it was time for Kim to make her virgin run into NYC! Melanie took us to the train station (after we practically totally unloaded the car and re-packed for the city) and walked us through the ticket buying process and delivered us right to the track, where the train arrived about five minutes later. Wouldn’t want to rush into anything… The train ride was uneventful and Kim loved Grand Central Station and its beautiful ceiling and just the grandeur of the whole place. We caught a cab and yi-haw!!! Off we flew! Actually, we started at a crawl through Times Square, but the minute our cabbie saw daylight, we were off for the races! We were staying at the Hampton in Chelsea, and we got there about eleven, got settled, and crashed, ready to see the city the next day!

Falling for New England,

Jan

Bed, Bath, and Beyond

Leave a comment

23 June 2008

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.

Not quite from beyond the pale,

Jan

Driving the Misses Sassy

Leave a comment

Sunday, 22 June 2008

After a great night’s sleep at Denise and David’s, we slept in for a little bit – a much overdue rest! Denise kindly agreed to accompany us today, and even better, she offered to be our tour guide and drive! We both got to take a break from our jobs as driver and navigator. Unfortunately, we practically had to unload the car to make room for a third person, since the SisMo was packed! In the process of taking things out, we discovered that we had had a leak of dishwashing liquid, which had dried over much of the back seat. I was afraid to put water to it, thinking we might get sudsed out in a scene similar to I Love Lucy or the Brady Bunch or something, so I just cleaned it off as best as I could with paper towels.

We made our way through Round Pond heading for US1, and in the process we passed an old cemetery that still had a doorway leading to a storage vault. Back before we had heavy equipment for grave-digging, it was often too cold for men to dig graves in the cold northern winters, so they stored caskets in these vaults until spring thawed the ground enough for digging. It’s amazing the things you learn on the back roads! We also passed some recycled metal sculptures, mostly in the yard of one man who either needs to start selling them or stop making them…

We were on our way to the world famous Moody’s Diner on Route 1 in Waldoboro, Maine, where we love their slogan – “When I get hungry, I get Moody’s!” We bought a sticker of that saying for Kim’s kids to give to her ex, since it fit’s him to a T! We had a fantastic breakfast there – Kim had her usual, I had eggs scrambled with lots of veggies and home fries, and Denise had some yummy looking blueberry pancakes. We loved the diner – it’s truly a Maine landmark, and it has a great gift shop. 

Denise modeled a moose hat that was really funny – with her sunglasses on she reminded me of Bullwinkle! (Sorry Denise – it was too cute not to include in the pictures!)

From Moody’s we went to the Maine State Prison Store, in which inmates sell mostly wooden furniture, games, and functional pieces (salad bowls, cutting boards, bird houses, etc.) that they have made. The state prison is no longer there, having been torn down some years ago, but they did leave one concrete watch tower to commemorate the space. One of my all-time favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption, was set there (but not filmed there). Of course, we all found something there that we couldn’t live without… We were impressed with the inmates who were working there, too – they were very well-mannered, helpful, and we could tell they were proud of their handiwork. Too bad all prisons aren’t teaching their residents great marketable skills while they are incarcerated.

Our next stop was the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum, which was HUGE and very cool. The very first exhibit we saw was a flying machine whose wings were completely made from bird feathers. There was a full scale model of the Wright Brothers plane that flew 120 feet at Kitty Hawk, NC, and then there were coaches, cars, bikes, and planes from every era. I loved the cute little midget car and the Red Baron’s plane, but that stylin’ Packard was my fave. After we finished looking at the exhibits, we all three got to ride in a Model T out behind the museum. Way cool!

We left Owl’s Head for Boothbay Harbor to the south, hoping for a game of candlepin bowling. We got to peer in the windows at the bowling lanes (the pins are really narrow, the balls are small and wooden, and you set your own pins) but the official summer season didn’t start in Maine until the next day. Rats! We drowned our sorrows in ice cream – homemade, no less! I had Maine Moose, Kim had Whoopie Pie, and Denise was good and had Mango sherbert. Ours was better, though! We wandered around the harbor a bit. Did I mention they make some of the best ever salt water taffy there? In the interest of truth in advertising, we all tried some so that we could assure you, our dearest readers, that it really is GOOD!

On the way back to Round Pond, we saw Miss Piggy, who changes clothes with the season. She and the rest of Maine are busily gearing up for the 4th of July, which Denise tells us is a big huge deal up in these parts. It was neat to see all of the bunting and flags up, as well as reading about all of the fun parades that were being planned. We just had to stop in at Edgecomb Pottery, ostensibly just to look. Ha! I bought jewelry and Kim bought pottery. Denise already has a good sampling of their gorgeous wares! Their stuff is really beautiful and so unique. We could have spent hours there, to say nothing of lots of dollars! After we left there, we stopped in to see some ostriches and fainting goats, and then we were off to King Ro’s to pick up some Moxie soda. King Ro’s is a great New England general store, with little bits of everything. Their gas pumps are old and don’t go to $4 (too bad gasoline does!) so they just make the price half of what it really is and then they post a note saying to double the total. Ya gotta love it! I’d like to see them try that in Durham!

Back at the house, I took some time to download and back up pictures while Kim and Denise went down to the dock to look at starfish. I wish we had a picture that would do them justice, but we don’t. Kim reports they were of all colors and sizes and that there were hundreds of them! Denise said that they had not ever seen them until they built the bridge out to the dock. Just believe us when we all say they are so fascinating! Before we left for dinner, Kim and I bravely tested our Moxie and then gave the rest to Braxton, who happily guzzled it down. He is more of a man than we are!

We were going to Shaw’s for an early lobster dinner, but first we stopped by the Pemaquid Lighthouse. It is so picturesque, and the rocks of the shoreline were unbelievable. You can almost see geology in action, as there are layers of sedimentary rocks alternating with metamorphic rocks.

We stopped by the grocery store where Wyche works so that he would know to join us for dinner, and then we were off to Shaw’s where several lobsters there were swimming their last. Great onion rings, a cold Cape Cod, and succulent, fresh lobster, a beautiful view overlooking the water, and friends to share with – what more could we ask for?

When we left Shaw’s, it had started raining pretty hard, but this couple was oblivious to the fact that everyone else had moved indoors. Ah, love and lobster!

After we got back to the house, Kim and I took Tess down to the docks for a last look at the starfish. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend in Maine. Thanks, Denise and David, for your wonderful southern hospitality and Maine knowledge, and for opening your stupendous home to us!

Belated greetings from the coast of Maine, even though I’m writing from the coast (sorry, SHORE) of New Jersey. Apologies for getting so far behind, and we appreciate your patience. Good things come to those who wait!

Better late than never,

Jan

Summer Days

Leave a comment

21 June 2008

The first day of summer started for us about 1 AM as we loudly creaked our way up the stairs of the Sugar Hill Inn in Franconia, NH. We were so lucky to have stumbled upon this great inn! It was so old that the floors slanted downhill and the doorways were too short for Rex to have fit through. We were in the Blue Room, which as you may have astutely deduced was decorated in shades of blue. The bathrooms in this old inn have been remodeled and renewed, so we were treated to wonderful showers. We got to sleep in a little bit (until 7:15) since breakfast was not served until 8. We got there about 8:10 and found that Joey, Kathy, Jean, and Keith were already there and Jean and Keith did go for their morning run! We were impressed with their diligence and discipline, especially since we kept them up partying until way after their bedtimes! Not only that, we were jealous, because they saw a moose on their run. We still have not seen a real live one yet.

However, we did have a little excitement at breakfast. We had finished our meal of fresh strawberries and blueberries, a blueberry muffin, eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese, bacon, and home fries when Alan called out, “There’s a bear!” We all looked to see where he was pointing, and it was at the house across the street. And when I say at the house, I mean the bear was up on the front porch looking like it was ringing the doorbell! It was a good sized black bear, and when no one came to the door, it went around the house and came out on the other side and headed across the yard to the woods. Not an everyday occurrence for us! We said our goodbyes to everyone and pointed the car in the direction of Mt. Washington and the famous Cog Railway. As usual, we had intended to be there when the first train ran at 9 AM, but since we didn’t leave until about 9:30, that wasn’t happening. In addition, we foolishly left the directions to Jill, who told us we were there when we were still miles away…

As you know, though, we are resourceful and able to read maps (perhaps better than the people who program GPS systems) so we pulled in the parking lot about 10:30, in plenty of time to catch the 11:00 train. The ride takes about 3 hours in all, which includes a twenty minute stop at the top of Mt. Washington, home to some of the worst weather in the world. In fact, the highest wind speeds ever recorded were there – 231 mph!! Mt. Washington is in the Presidential Range, and it’s the second highest mountain east of the Mississippi (NC’s Mt. Mitchell is the highest). The Appalachian Trail runs along the ridge to the summit, so it was funny to see hikers taking pictures of us on the train as we took pictures of them. We each probably thought the other was crazy.  

What was really crazy was that there was a road race going on that morning, too, which was just ending as we approached the peak. Believe it or not, LOTS of people actually ran up the road from the bottom to the top of Mt. Washington! They are the really insane ones! There they were in their shorts and sleeveless tanks while everyone on the train was putting on their fleeces and jackets. And no telling how long they’d been running! The Cog Railway is really something. It goes up the opposite side of Mt. Washington as the road, and the train is powered by coal. On the way up, a locomotive pushes the train and it runs on a cog system. On the way down, gravity takes over and the brakeman earns his keep. You’ll have to check out all the details at http://www.cog-railway.com/.

It was after two when we left Mt. Washington, headed for Maine. Not being quick learners, we again let Jill do her thing. Big mistake. An hour later, we might have gone 15 or 20 miles, but at least we were on the right track.

 

We didn’t have much of an agenda for the rest of the day – we wanted to see the famous Lynchville, Maine, signpost and we wanted to get where we were going by about 7 PM. Could we make it??? When we were just stopping for lunch at 3 o’clock (and finding almost everything closed) and we were STILL in New Hampshire, it was beginning to look like we would not make it all the way across Maine to the coast.

For heaven’s sake, we couldn’t even get out of New Hampshire and we were maybe 50 miles from the border at most to begin with! We were in Gorham, and thankfully found a small café that was still serving. SALT was in the basement/bottom floor of a building that used to be a bank, and it was really cool. The nicest young man served us, and Kim had a chicken sandwich with roasted tomatoes and lettuce on delicious looking bread, and I had a chorizo meatloaf with pepper jack cheese sandwich, also on very tasty homemade bread. For dessert we split a whoopie pie, which was two cakey chocolate cookies (big ones) with buttercream frosting in between them and homemade toffee bits on the edges of the frosting that were showing. YUM!! The toffee was so good we got a piece to go!

Soon after we got back on the road, we crossed the border into Maine. One thing we have noticed on this trip, as well as our other road trips, is that we can almost tell when we’ve passed from one state to another even without ‘Welcome to….” signs. It’s like they each have a very distinct personality and geography. The road we were on (Route 2) was extremely bumpy and clearly suffered from many harsh winters. We were a bit leery about getting off of this ‘good’ road onto a smaller one, but that’s how we had to go to see what we wanted to see. As it turned out, the smaller road was just fine and in much better shape. Before long, we passed a yard with lots of interesting yard art and a man out working in it. We were reminded of John (on Route 66 last year) and we thought about stopping to chat with him, but we didn’t.

Until we noticed the signpost in the corner of his yard – STOP!!! We found a place to park not too far down the road and came back for some photo ops. We found out that the owner of the property was from London, and even though he’s been in country for 16 years, he still sounded like an East Ender. We asked him how that happened, and he laughed and said he didn’t want to sound like an American!

Back on the highway, we were on a mission to get to Round Pond. We bypassed ice cream and only stopped to take a picture of Red’s Eats in Wiscasset, and by some minor miracle, we pulled into Denise and David’s driveway (which is a mile long!) just a little after seven. Friends from Durham who have recently built a dream vacation home in Maine, Denise and David were so kind to offer us a place to stay for a couple of days. I can’t begin to describe how beautiful and well thought out their ‘cottage’ (aka, palatial home) right on the rocky coast is! Besides being huge and wonderfully planned, it is decorated perfectly. Not one detail was overlooked that I could see, and our room was looking so comfortable and inviting it was all I could do to not crawl into bed and snuggle under. Except for one thing – dinner and music!

We took off for Schooner Landing where some friends of David and Denise’s were playing in a trio there that night. The Horseshoe Crabs were great and the food was mighty good, too! I had fresh fried oysters, just pulled out of the water out back of the restaurant that day, a baked potato, and cole slaw. Kim had broiled haddock, a salad, and garlic chive mashed potatoes. Worth driving all day for! We listened to the music for a while longer, and then made our way back to the house. I spent a while downloading and backing up photos, and then it was bedtime. Let me just say right now that Denise wins the prize for best bed, best shower, and best house right now. Kim and I give her a five or ten star rating! And she was worried about being one of our curiosities! We told her the only thing curious about her was that she invited us to stay with her, but we are so glad and grateful that she did.


Loving Maine and fresh seafood,

Jan

Dog Day Afternoon

Leave a comment

20 June 2008

On Friday morning, we got up early at Katy’s and had breakfast and chatted with her for a while. We had so enjoyed our time at The Princeton, and we were not as eager to get into our car after such wonderful hospitality. But we did, since Katy had wedding planning to do and we had miles to cover! Thanks a gazillion, Katy (and Chal) for having us and treating us to a delicious meal and a gorgeous sunset! While we had been talking at breakfast, Katy mentioned that there was a Champy (Lake Champlain’s sea monster) in Vergennes that we had missed the night before, so we started off heading south instead of north. We found Champy and then went on our way towards Burlington.

On our way, we saw one of several old round barns we’ve noticed on this trip. This particular one is in bad repair, but it’s cool all the same.Since it had taken us so long to get from Waterbury to Burlington the day before, we voted to try the interstate for the short drive from Burlington to Montpelier, the state capital of Vermont.

So far on this trip, we have been very close to several capitals that we have not opted to see the capitol buildings, but this one is practically right on the way. It’s a beautiful building that is the oldest State House still being used for its original purpose. Out on the front lawn was an interesting sculpture of bicycle parts, which turned out to be only one of many odd bicycle sculptures we viewed around the town.

At the front door of the building (which was HUGE!) was a statue of Ethan Allen, leader of the Green Mountain Boys. Once inside, we met a nice man (we’re pretty sure he was a congressman) who told us some fun facts about the building and told us to take our time looking around. He also told us about a Maple Sugar farm not far from town. We took some time to tour the capitol and then took off for Morse Farm Maple Sugar Works. The first thing we saw there was a miniature of the capitol building!


There was a great self-guided tour at this farm (go to the Woodshed Theatre and pull up a stump while you watch this DVD) and some funny and good sculptures and really life-like mannequins. I especially liked this one of the horse’s ass…

Our congressman had also suggested that we be sure to visit Barre, which is famous for its granite works, so we drew a bead on “Rock of Ages” and headed in that direction. We got there just in time to miss the last tour before lunch, so the friendly lady at the desk suggested that we go down the hill to the Hilltop (go figure) Restaurant and then come back for the after lunch tour. So we did! 

We had some delicious chicken and rice soup, and I had the salad bar and Kim had a ham sandwich. It hit the spot, but we had to wait so long to get our check that we thought we would miss the next tour, too! It turns out the tour was a caravan tour, and we got back just in time to be the last car. We tuned our radio to the designated station and then followed the leader up to the quarry. Wow – was it ever impressive!!! They are now on the third hole being quarried, and it was so deep the workmen looked like little play people.  

It was 600 feet from top to bottom, and the blocks they dig out and bring up are humongous! When we got back to the main building, we watched a video and then went to the outdoor bowling alley that was built out of granite as an experiment that obviously didn’t take. From here, we went to the Hope Cemetery, which is full of interesting monuments that some of the area granite artisans had made. Most interesting…

On the way to the cemetery, we learned why the Hilltop Restaurant was so named – even though it was at the bottom of the hill to us, it was at the top of a very steep hill!


After touring the cemetery (don’t you wish you were on this trip seeing all of the highlights we’re seeing?), we went to Cabot to see the Cabot cheese factory. Once again, we just missed a tour, but they had samples of about 25 different cheeses, spreads, dips, sauces, and popcorn for us to nibble on while we were waiting. That was a good thing, since the samples were about 100% better than the tour itself. It was getting late, and we wanted to see the Dog Chapel in St. Johnsbury, which is right on the Vermont border.

It was time to put Jill to work, and she sort of got us where we needed to be. On the way, we saw this funny moose at the miniature golf place. Jill didn’t exactly know where the Dog Chapel was, so we asked her to take us to the St. Johnsbury Athenaum. We had no clue what that was, but Jill got us there and it was this totally cool old building that is now home to an art gallery and the library. Even better, the librarian gave us directions to the Dog Chapel. Unfortunately, it closed at 5:00, and it was about 5:05. So, we did what any resourceful and sassy sisters would do – we called and begged them to stay open til we could get there. Actually, we didn’t have to beg – they very kindly agreed to let us see the chapel, so we were off.

I’m not sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it. After experiencing a near-death experience, the artist, Stephen Huneck, was inspired to build a chapel honoring dogs and the friendships humans form with them. Out front is a sign that says, “All breeds, All creeds. No dogmas allowed.” and inside, the pews are decorated with dogs on the ends. All that, I was expecting. What I was not prepared for was that every square inch of wall space was covered with notes, photos, and drawings to and of dogs and pets who are deceased. Clearly, their owners miss them terribly. I was sobbing by the time we left. I have never even had a dog in my whole life, but now I want one because I feel like I must be missing something very special. I’m so glad we got to see this dear, special place.

From St. Johnsbury, it was a short trip to Littleton, New Hampshire, where we were staying at a Hampton for the evening. I was so excited that we would have an early day, internet, and a great bed! I would have plenty of time to catch up on the blog. Wrong. It turns out that I did not have a reservation for Friday night, but we had gotten to pay for our room on Thursday night…and of course, they were FULL tonight. Bummer. We just got back in the car and drove on. I was rapidly losing my personality.

In Franconia, we were looking for the “Rustic Log Cabins” that the Garmin told us about, but when Jill led us to them, she commanded us to turn right into our destination. Into a CHURCH. Thankfully, we had passed a couple of B&B’s that advertised vacancies. We stopped at one, and Kim went in to get us a room. Amazingly enough, although the door was open, no one was home. There was a note on the door to the people they were expecting, telling them to pick a room and the innkeepers would be there in a couple of hours. We considered picking a room, but we went on. You know, sometimes things happen for a reason.

We got a room at the Sugar Hill Inn, which was built in the late 18th century. After a quick tour, we went in search of food at the Dutch Treat. We shared some pork dumplings, and Kim had a grilled rosemary chicken salad and I had Thai Vegetables over pasta. Maybe it’s just me, but I was expecting Japanese noodles or maybe cellophane noodles, but I never considered penne. Oh, the culinary delights we are experiencing! Actually, it was pretty good, and dessert (a Chocolate Chambourd Torte) more than made up for it. Back at the Inn, which miraculously had wireless internet AND a bar, we dragged the laptop down to the lounge and prepared to get to work. There were two couples already there, so we quietly sat at a table by the windows. Before long, though, we had made new friends!

Joey and Jean, who are brother and sister, and their respective spouses, Kathy and Keith, were vacationing together from Taunton, Mass, and we had a blast sharing stories with them. We were laughing and talking so much that a couple (Clive and Sheila) from the dining room joined us (they were from Australia) and then later another Boston area couple (Alan and Tracy) came out, too. Turns out Susan, the bartender, makes a fantastic margarita (we agree!) and before long, it was midnight and everyone was still up. Nothing new for me, but our Boston friends are early to bed and early to rise (and run) kind of people. We were corrupting them already! Thanks, Joey, for that round of drinks – you made what had been a grumpy evening turn into a fine, fun one!

Cheers to friends, old and new!

Jan

Sunshine, good times, and friends!

Leave a comment

Thursday, 19 June 2008

At about 5:15 AM, we got good news and bad news. The good news was that the sun was shining brightly; the bad news was that the sun was shining brightly in our eyes and it was 5:15 AM…

Not surprisingly, we were able to get back to sleep for another hour or two. We found that the Trapp Lodge had the best shower on our trip so far – great water pressure, hot, hot water, and big fluffy towels. A wonderful way to start the day! Since we were kind of out in the middle of nowhere, we opted for the huge European style buffet breakfast at the lodge. Great idea! I had a healthy bowl of Muesli (with added flax seed, for those of you who worry about my eating habits) and a big plate of fruit. Oh, and also possibly the best blueberry muffin I’ve ever had and a teeny little croissant with homemade raspberry jam and strawberry preserves. Kim had fruit, granola, meat, cheese, and a cranberry muffin. Our iced tea gave us our morning shot of caffeine and we were good to go. It was probably after nine before we left, but we didn’t have a big travel day planned. Oh, and we realized we were eating at a table next to one of the Trapp family!

On our way to Burlington, we realized that we had forgotten to check out the Flavor Graveyard at Ben and Jerry’s, so we took our first detour of the day. The Flavor Graveyard is where all of the permanently retired B&J flavors have been laid to rest. It was pretty funny, and you know we love a good cemetery! Since we were stuffed from breakfast, we were able to resist the very strong temptation to have ice cream…for now, anyway.

 

We took US 2 into Burlington, which took us just forever! We barely drove through town, just passing by the University of Vermont and the hospital. We took an unintended side trip to the Intervale, which we have no idea what it is, but we’re quite sure they were not expecting cars on what appeared to be a bike path. We were in search of the Grand Isle ferry, which we eventually found. We had to laugh, though, because when we were at Ben & Jerry’s at 10:30 and we found out that the next Burlington ferry didn’t leave until 11:45, we opted to go for the Grand Isle ferry instead, since it left about every 12 minutes or so and we could get on it much sooner. It probably won’t surprise you that we were on the 12:30 ferry…

On the ferry ride, we saw huge osprey nests and we got dumped off in Plattsburg, NY. Our plan was to find a grocery store and get a picnic lunch for our hike in the Ausable Chasm, but then we found ourselves in front of a restaurant called Gus’s, which was advertising Red Hots. From somewhere deep in my memory banks, I seemed to recall reading about this place in Road Food, so we stopped and got the book out of our backseat library (right next to our backseat bar). Sure enough, there were THREE Plattsburg eateries in the food bible, so we read about all of them and decided to try the red hots, aka Michigans, aka chili dogs (from where I come from, anyway) at a place called McSweeney’s. We had barely gotten going down the street and were trying to ask Jill where to go when we drove right past it. U turn! It was a great choice!

We had our virgin Michigans and shared an order of onion rings. Yum! But the best part was talking to our hosts, JoAnn and Stephen. They were so nice and friendly and their food was great! We shared our road trip book with them and hopefully they’ll find time to take a road trip of their own someday soon. JoAnn and Stephen, thanks for the hospitality and have a wonderful trip to North Carolina for your nephew’s wedding! 

Soon we were in the Adirondacks, and they were so pretty! We passed an interesting little sculpture park that had lots of sculptures, but we could not figure out how to get in there. We had passed it, turned around, drove past again, and still never found a driveway. So we just pulled off and got a couple of pictures. Soon after that, we passed a sign for Ausable Point, so I quickly turned in, because I thought that’s where we were going. I was a little premature, but it was so odd to see marshes up here that look so similar to those at the beach. Well, except for the minor detail of mountains in the background… Anyway, we were still searching for the Ausable Chasm and sincerely hoping the rain would stop just anytime. We were in need of a hike to walk off our red hots!

Soon enough, we were rewarded, or at least we hoped that was the case. We saw the big signs for Ausable Chasm, but they looked so much like the signs at Natural Bridge that we were a little bit concerned that it might turn out to be another underwhelming adventure.

It was raining pretty hard when we got there, so we donned our rainy day gear (such as it is) and our ball caps and went into the visitor center. Can you imagine that we were the only ones there, except for the workers? We just laughed when they tried to sell us rafting tickets. It may have been 61 degrees… We got extensive instructions and several maps for our $16 ‘tour’ and we were thinking we had really been had. We ended up having a great time and seeing nature at its finest. And we weren’t with the 200 children who had been there earlier in the day!

First we saw a structure called Elephant’s Head, which you’ll have to agree was very aptly named. Then we crossed the bridge and got a good peek at Rainbow Falls. So far, so good! We walked on down a path that had been recently restocked with wood chips, so it was soft and smelled great. And by then it had even stopped raining! Soon we were standing above Elephant’s Head and looking back over where we had started. There was a LONG set of stairs that we had noticed when we were over there (hoping that we would not have to go down them, since that usually means you have to come back up them) when we noticed something odd. The last few sections of stairs were broken and the last ‘step’ was about 20 feet! Turns out that in 1996, the area had flooded so badly that all of the footpaths and all but two bridges had been washed away, which means that the water had risen to at least 150 feet in the gorge!

There were lots of different geologic features to the chasm, and the trail was well marked with signs telling about each feature and how it had been formed. There was so much moss and millions of ferns – it was lush with greenery and dripping with water. The earthy smell after the rain was wonderful, and the peaceful, quiet walk was a great way to spend the day. Until we had to climb up as many stairs as we had come down! We saw the place where the rafters put in and noticed a sign saying the park closed at 4 PM. It was about 3:50 at the time, and no one had mentioned any time limits to us! Amazingly, a shuttle bus arrived to take us back to our car (the only one left in the lot) so we were safe!


Since my friend Katy was expecting us sometime after five, we thought we’d better make our way to the ferry back to Vermont. On the way, we saw an incredible rainbow (yes, it started raining again just as we finished our hike) and we got to the ferry about 10 minutes before it was to leave. In the meantime, I called my Looper friends Diane and Louis, who are from Durham, and they are taking a year to tour the Grand Loop on their boat, the Bella Luna. They started at their home port in Morehead City, NC, and they have come up the intercoastal waterway, sailed into New York harbor, come up the Hudson River, and if you can believe it, they were on the southern end of Lake Champlain docked for the night at the town of Vergennes, which is about 15 minutes from where we were staying! Coincidences like that don’t just happen!

We got off the ferry about 5:30 and miraculously found our way to Katy’s brand new camp (that’s Vermont talk for house on the lake) in North Ferrisburg. It was so AWESOME!! And she was kind enough to let us be her first house guests! She and her husband, Chal, had just gotten furniture moved in last weekend, and I am here to report that I did not see ONE BOX. Amazing! I was ready to spend the summer at camp! Except for one thing – Katy and Chal’s oldest child is getting married up there at the end of next month, so they have lots to do between now and then. But we are so grateful to both of them for opening their brand new home to us! We talked Katy into going down to see Diane and Louis with us, which meant she had to drive, since we couldn’t fit her in our car. We found the Bella Luna and her crew with no trouble. Aren’t the falls at Vergennes pretty?

The Bella Luna was docked with a clear view of the falls! We met some of the other Loopers that Diane and Louis have been traveling with, and we shared a drink with them and got a tour of their wonderful boat. Their dog, Buddy, was happy to see us, too! It was such fun to have our paths cross and to hear about Diane and Louis’s adventures. We got to see their route and realized they would be cruising through our hometown of Paducah, Kentucky, in a few months, so we are going to try and meet them there, too. I love the plaque Diane has hanging in the galley of the Bella Luna. It says, “Take time to explore, as every step of the journey IS the journey.” Hear, hear!

We went back to Katy’s to enjoy the sunset and have dinner and just catch up. Katy’s dog, Boo, was enjoying the lake view, too!

We got a grand tour of the whole camp and the dock, and it was spectacular! Katy fixed a most delicious pasta dinner for us and we spent the remaining daylight hours on the back porch and then had a leisurely dinner, sharing stories and laughing into the night. It is moments like those that make trips like these so worthwhile! To have gotten to see three friends in the same day when we are hundreds of miles from home – how special is that? No wonder the sunset over the lake was the first one they’ve had for days!

Feeling particularly blessed today,

Jan

I Scream

Leave a comment

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

We were up early this morning at 6:15, even before our alarm went off! You would have thought that meant we were going to have a great day where all went according to plan. You would think…

We had in mind to eat just a little something as we left town, as we were headed to Manchester, VT, for breakfast at Up for Breakfast, which came highly recommended. So we had a Kashi bar and some iced tea, but it was still almost 8:00 by the time we got going. We got gas and finally got headed in the right direction, and then we got stopped at a sheriff’s checkpoint. Seat belts or inspection stickers, we’re not sure, but we passed. Then we came upon a Toyota dealer, so we decided to stop in and get them to get us a new fuse. Remember the day we sat in the driveway at the Pollywogg Holler office trying to get online? Pretty sure we blew a fuse then as we tried to use the AC adapter to charge the computer. Ever since then, that charger outlet and the XM radio have not worked… Anyway, even though we told the Toyota service people what we thought was the problem, and we told them we were from out of town and needed to be on our way, they told us they might be able to work us in. In an hour. Give me Mark Jacobsen any day! By now it was after 8:30 and we were still in Clifton Park!!! It was a sign.

Jill took us all over the countryside as we just tried to get to Manchester, but we made it. On the way, we saw this giant chair, so we had to have a photo of it. We bypassed Bennington, but we saw this monument to Robert Frost. Finally, we stopped at a pharmacy and got great directions to the restaurant, and boy, was it worth the wait! Kim had ‘The Standard’ (their menu title of her usual breakfast – two eggs, scrambled, with some meat (Canadian bacon today) and toast) and I had wild turkey hash (peppers, onions, mushrooms, pine nuts, spices) topped with two poached eggs and Hollandaise. It was fantastic! Kim had really tasty hot chocolate topped with real whipped cream and I had pomegranate iced tea. It was good, but hardly worth $3.95!! We sat at the counter and watched the cooks (one was the owner) at work. We knew we wouldn’t be needing lunch today! We realized we had neglected to adequately plan our route in Vermont, so we went to the library to get online. We were only semi-successful, but we came up with a plan. We took off for Highway 7, easier said than done, and eventually we even got there. We took 7 to Rutland, and along the way we saw “Boy with Boot” and the Bear Family. They came upon us so quickly that we didn’t even get pictures, but if you want to see them, go to http://www.roadsideamerica.com/ and go to Vermont.

At Rutland, we went west toward Killington, where we were looking for the Tree with Bras, which is supposedly on a ski run at Bear Mountain there. We drove up to the top of Bear Mountain (Killington is a total ghost town in the summer!) but saw nothing like what we were looking for. We saw the dragon and the bear, but we decided not to ask anyone where we could find the bra tree. On Highway 4, we saw a bear made out of hay bales, and when we went back for a photo, we realized the little store there was really cute and had a neat, working water wheel. We bought Powerball tickets (cross your fingers!) and then scooted over to Highway 100, aka the Skier’s Highway. It was a very scenic drive through many small towns, and it looked just like you would expect Vermont to look. Rolling green hills, lots of trees, a stream by the roadside, and quaint little villages with greens and white churches. We stopped at one point to walk over to see a waterfall, and who did we park behind? A couple from Raleigh, NC. Funny, huh?

Finally, we made it to our real destination: Waterbury, home of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream!!! We got a scoop each (Coconut Seven Layer Cake for Kim, Coconut Almond, Chocolate Chunk for me) and then took a tour of the plant. At the end of the tour we got a sample scoop – of the flavor Kim had! We learned about another new flavor, Yellow Cake with Chocolate frosting, so we split a scoop of it. Oink, oink.

It was raining a tiny bit when we left B&J’s, but it was not far from there to Stowe and our splurge at the Trapp Family Lodge. We arrived at just five o’clock, 200 miles after leaving Clifton Park this morning. We love the lodge! It really felt like Austria when more than half of the guests we saw were speaking German. The grounds are gorgeous and the hallways are filled with photos and memorabilia of the von Trapp family. Our room is huge and we have a balcony overlooking the mountains. We had a delicious dinner in the lounge (since the dining room required ‘smart casual’ dress, and we only brought dumb casual), starting with a beer and ending with us splitting the two house specialties – bratwurst and wiener schnitzel. No mistakes there, except eating it all!

We’ve spent a quiet evening in front of the tv, with Kim mapping our route for tomorrow and me blogging and becoming very frustrated when I finished yesterday’s blog and lost it as I got kicked offline just as I tried to post it. It was not pretty. We walked around the grounds after dinner – they are lovely, and even have the final resting places of the von Trapps in a beautiful garden. There was a gorgeous sunset and a full moon. Heavenly!

Screaming for ice cream and from frustration,

Jan

Across the Empire

Leave a comment

17 June 2008

We thought we would take advantage of the breakfast bar at the Hampton, so by the time we got on the road we had at least been nourished! I don’t remember now what time we got away, but it was not a terribly early start. We were riding across the state on Highway 20, which goes across the tops of most of the Finger Lakes. We drove through Seneca Falls, home of the women’s suffrage movement, across Cayuga Lake, and through Auburn. Our first stop was at Skaneateles, on Skaneateles Lake, which we have no idea how to pronounce, so we just called it Skittles. Many of the towns, counties, and lakes have Indian names, which I think is so cool – it really reminds us who was here first and is sort of like stepping back in history – but I have no idea how to pronounce them!  

We found a spot to park on the street, and I had just gotten us parked when a man knocked on Kim’s window. Turns out it was the driver of the bus who was a few spots behind us, telling us that the meter just ahead of him still had 92 minutes left on it. So we thanked him and backed up! We first walked out on the jetty, where several people were fishing. It was chilly today – highs were not expected to be out of the 60’s – and with the wind blowing across the water, we were glad we had our jackets on. We were amazed at how clear the lake water was! It didn’t seem fair to the fish that the fishermen could see them!

Since the bus that was parked behind us was full of senior citizens walking and rolling around town, we thought it best that we give them a head start, so we chatted with some of the fisherman (rock bass, biting well) and then walked around a bit. We had the names of a couple of Road Food places, so we first found a cute little bakery (Skaneateles Bakery) and we shared a Half-Moon cookie (a great big sugar cookie, iced half with vanilla and half with chocolate – yummy!). Then we checked out Doug’s Fish Fry, which was just across the street. Unfortunately, it was too early for lunch and we were not about to put fish lunches to go in our car for a few hours…but it looked and smelled great! There was a great mural of the town covering one wall, and a train ran on an elevated track through all three rooms of the restaurant. Loved the fish light fixture, too!

We did a little window shopping on the way back to the car, and then we were off again. Our next stop was the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park just past Cazenovia. We thought about detouring off to see Chittenango Falls, but we decided not to. Later, we decided that was a mistake, but more on that in a bit. We were just about to give up on finding the art park when all of a sudden, there was a sign for it. We pulled into a gravel driveway and somehow knew we were in the right place. We saw signs for a secret garden – who could resist that? – so off we hiked. After finding the cool little garden area, we drove up the hill to the parking area.

There was a little old lady pulling weeds, so we greeted her and then looked around a bit. There were lots of neat sculptures, and then we made our way back to see the gardener. She reminded us so much of our mom – very sweet and knowledgeable about gardens and art. She invited us to go in the gift shop/visitors’ center, and she was genuinely pleased that I correctly guessed that she was Dorothy, the artist who had sculpted many of the pieces we had already seen. We so enjoyed chatting with her! We poked around a little more, taking some great pix of the loud frogs in the pond and looking at more of the flowers and sculptures. I especially d the one of the camera!

As we left the art park, we considered turning around and going to see Chittenango Falls, which was only about 13 miles away. Dorothy had told us it was the end of the Appalachian Mountain range and that it had pretty limestone cliffs. We weren’t sure how far we would have to hike to see the falls, and it looked like it could rain at any minute, so we drove on. Once we had really gotten too far to turn back, we realized that Chittenango was the home of L. Frank Baum, who wrote The Wizard of Oz. We’re thinking we may have really missed something…

The next place we had planned to stop was Richfield Springs, which is home to the Petrified Creatures Museum. As we rolled into town, we realized we might should eat some lunch, since it was after two. We stopped at the Tally Ho restaurant, which was next to our target, the Village Snack Shop (closed – not summer yet…) Even though Tonya, our server, did not know what was good or if there was anything on the menu that they were known for, lunch was fine. Kim had a grilled cheese and I had a Hatfield sandwich (roast pork, horseradish, lettuce). Since they had over a dozen homemade pies, we each got a slice to go – Apple Cranberry Crumb for Kim and peach for me (even though Tonya had never had it). Tonya did know where the Petrified Creatures Museum was, although you guessed it, she’d never been there. We struck out in search of it and soon almost drove right past it. There were no cars in the lot (bad sign) and indeed, it was closed. And it had seemed so promisingly cheesy!

At this point, we turned south for Cooperstown. The drive was wonderfully scenic as the road hugged the shore of Lake Otsego. We came upon a sign for the Glimmerglass Opera, so we turned in even though the season hasn’t started yet (not being summer and all). Wow! It was HUGE!!! Made us sorry we couldn’t see a show. Soon we were arriving in Cooperstown, where we had just planned to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, as we drove past the Farmers’ Museum on our way into town, we decided to check it out, so we turned around. What a good choice! Turns out we could get combo tickets for the farmers and baseball, and it was a fun, interactive, educational experience.

We entered through a huge stone barn, which was original to the site. Just inside was the world famous Cardiff Giant, which started as a small hoax and ended up being an international sensation. From there, we walked through the barn learning all about the history of ice cream – fascinating! Once outside, we were at a fair – people walking on stilts, a real carousel, and other entertainment. We rode the carousel, which was run by a man whose son lives in Roxboro, NC. Kim rode Willy the Wildcat, I chose Bucky the Beaver (the first animal carved for this carousel), and Peppy rode on  Sophie the Skunk – we hope he’s not in love!

Once out in the village, each building was manned by someone dressed in period costume who told all about what his or her job would have been, back in the day. The frame buildings had all been dismantled, moved, and reconstructed just like the originals. We went in the general store, the barnyard, blacksmith shop, doctor’s office, apothecary, law office, church, inn/tavern, family home, and school. We learned it was really a working village, as most of the things sold in the general store are made in the village. We were so glad we stopped! Even though we were warned to ride the shuttle bus to the Hall of Fame, we took our chances and drove. We ended up parking behind a family from Fuquay Varina, NC. Small world.


 

There were tons of people at the Hall of Fame! The final (ever) Hall of Fame ballgame was supposed to have been on Monday, but it was cancelled due to the horrible weather. We’re guessing lots of people were still in the area who had come for that game. We had a blast learning even more about baseball than we already knew, and we were awed by the actual Hall of Fame. It was such fun to see our favorite St. Louis Cardinal players and read about the famous and fabulous players from days gone by. Before we knew it, it was after six and we needed to get going.

 

We had ignored Jill (the Garmin voice) all day, so we paid for it now. We were no sooner out of Cooperstown than she had us on a gravel road that had been pretty washed out in the rain the day before, but soon we got to a real road. We were aiming for Cherry Valley, which is home to the ‘world-famous TePee’ and before long we rolled into town. We couldn’t find the teepee though, even after driving through town. Twice. How hard can it be to find a fifty foot teepee??? We gave up and took off for Albany, and you guessed it, there it was, right on the highway (not where we had been advised to look). We pulled in to find out that even though it was open six days a week, every week, it was closed on Tuesdays. Bummer.

Jill managed to get us past Albany and Schenectady and straight (well, maybe not straight) to our Hampton in Clifton Park. I got to work on the blog while Kim walked across the street for pizza, which we ate in our room. We had our pie for dessert – yum! I was still blogging and Kim did yeoman’s work and got our laundry done. We were exhausted and we had an early day ahead of us, but we were almost all the way across the Empire State!

Tuckered out, but with clean clothes!
Jan

Play Day!

Leave a comment
16 June 2008


After a semi-restful night’s sleep in the Wood Loft, we were up early as the sun came streaming in our double garage door windows. We were just happy it was sunshine and not rain that was streaming in! We dressed without showering (in the spring water shower that shared accommodations with the ‘efficient composting toilet’), gathered up our things, and started trudging down the very muddy path to our car. The party had lasted until about 4:30 AM; needless to say, no one else was stirring.

 

The remains of our steak dinner and all of the wine glasses were still sitting where theyhad been left the night (morning?) before. Mickey had told us he’d be at the office by 7:00, but breakfast wasn’t until 9:00. We didn’t feel like sticking around that long, so we planned to meet him in the office to settle up. What a shocker that neither he nor anyone else was there at about 7:50…We amused ourselves by getting online and posting yesterday’s message. About 8:15, Bill and Barbara appeared so we paid our bill (our most expensive lodging bill to date by FAR) and left without our “hearty breakfast” – we were afraid it might have been more homemade wine! At lunch time!

As we drove down the gravel road in search of the interstate, we laughed about the whole experience, and once we got on the highway, we noticed how normal the woods on either side of the road looked. We will never think those are just woods from now on! You’d be amazed at what is hiding in almost plain sight…




We were on our way to the town of LeRoy and the Jell-O Museum, and we vowed to stop at our first opportunity for breakfast (and a bathroom with a flushing toilet!). Sadly, that didn’t come for quite a while. We stopped in Fillmore and ate a delicious breakfast at Friends and Family Restaurant. Other than the fact that their iced tea tasted more like coffee than tea, the food was tasty! Kim had scrambled eggs and sausage; I had a Scramblemelt, which was eggs scrambled with onions, peppers, and mushrooms and topped with cheese and tomatoes. It was served with home fries (good) and whole wheat toast (which Kim ate). The locals there were very friendly and told us which way they would go to get to LeRoy. They seemed to know we were not from around there. And did I mention our total bill was $6?

It was an uneventful ride to LeRoy, which was a very picturesque little town. We could really tell which towns had been prosperous and which had not… LeRoy surely benefitted from the invention of Jell-O in 1897, and even though the manufacturing plant has been in Dover, Delaware for quite some time now, the town is still capitalizing on it. The Jell-O Museum was full of fun facts and great advertising, which has been the secret to Jell-O’s success. We had fun there, and our tour guide, Caroline, was so nice and helpful. Downstairs was a transportation museum, which featured everything from an ox cart to a 1908 Cadillac. It was a great display as well. We enjoyed our jaunt to LeRoy, but we were off in search of our next fun time.

Rochester is probably best known for George Eastman and the Rochester Institute of Technology, but since the Eastman House was closed on Monday, our destination was the Strong National Museum of Play. Boy, did we have fun! It’s home to a carousel made just down the road at the Herschell Carousel company in North Towanda, Dancing Wings, a butterfly house, and the National Toy Hall of Fame. Kids of all ages were having so much fun with the mostly interactive exhibits there. We ate lunch at the Skyliner Diner (there is one in the museum) and had fantastic burgers. It poured down rain while we were at play, so it didn’t bother us at all! We found out later (once we got to our hotel room) that there had been severe weather going on around us – a fierce hail storm and possibly a tornado. We were glad we missed those!

We had no problems leaving Rochester, but we were surprised to cross the Erie Canal. We turned off to see if we could get right near it, and we could by crossing a one-lane steel bottom bridge. Unfortunately, there was a good bit of traffic over that bridge, so we couldn’t get a great photo from the bridge. We also realized we had likely missed our chance to see Lake Ontario…


Our next stop was Ganondagan State Historic Site, which has a replica of a Seneca Longhouse. We were sadly surprised to see that the park was closed on Mondays, so we couldn’t go inside the longhouse. We were able to walk down to it, so we walked off a bite or two of our burgers. It was our second walk of the day, since we had had to hike our way out of Pollywogg Holler.

By this time, we were pretty worn out and it was almost five, so we just headed for our Hampton (I can’t tell you how excited we are to be staying in a Hampton!!!) and the beautiful Finger Lakes. After I crashed for an hour and Kim enjoyed a hot shower (our Pollywogg night had caught up with us) we took off walking through the streets of Geneva in search of food. We found it at Parker’s Grill and Taproom, where we had a light supper of Harvest Soup and a house salad followed by an ice cream cone on the lake. Yum. We watched the almost full moon rise over the lake and wondered if the fish were biting. We talked to a neat young man with dreads who biked out on the pier where we were having our ice cream. He had a guitar with him and was very friendly. Later on, as we were walking back to the hotel, we passed him again, only this time he was riding his bike while singing and playing the guitar. Now that’s talent! We’ve enjoyed watching our first TV since we left home, although we were sad to see how bad the flooding in the midwest is and we were very thankful that it was last year’s trip that took us to that part of the country.

All played out,
Jan

Holla! From Pollywogg Holler….

Leave a comment

15 June 2008

Dear readers,

Do you remember our earthen lodge experience from last year’s trip? You might have thought nothing could top it. You would be mistaken. Tonight we are writing to you from our treehouse in Pollywogg Holler, somewhere near Belmont, NY. By all means, please check it out at http://www.pollywoggholler.com/ otherwise you will not believe me. Keep in mind that we had looked at the website before we arrived, and the pictures look much better on the website than the accommodations look in person. Actually, it’s not the actual lodgings that are an issue, it’s more the fact that this eco-lodge is so eco friendly that it has no electricity or running water. So you know what that means…

Once again, I find myself holding my laptop in the dark, hoping my words run out before the battery does. But, at least this year I have a handy light that plugs into my USB port so I can see the keyboard! Thanks, Melanie H!! Joining us at the Holler tonight are about ten or twelve women here for a bachelorette party and a couple from Queens who are here because she’s a travel writer. They are sharing our experience, as they arrived here with not even a flashlight. We, on the other hand, being the seasoned primitive campers that we are, have a mini maglight, a battery operated lantern, and the aforementioned computer light. And a blanket!

Our ‘room’ is quite cozy, having one large bed, one twin sized bed, and one piece of foam on a wooden shelf. We also have a dresser and an oil lamp with a foil pie pan for a lampshade. I’m sitting in a normal chair and there’s also a chair made from a tree stump up here. The stairway up is made of tree branches and wood and it’s a spiral staircase. We’re thinking we will visit the “facilities” before retiring for the night, and if we have to go again, we’ll just leave. We have had nothing to drink except the homemade wine (red raspberry merlot) that we needed immediately upon arriving to Woodstock, Jr.

Yes, that’s right. No need for us to visit the newly opened Woodstock Museum, since it could be right here. When we arrived this afternoon, mercifully later than expected (surprise!) the Sunday afternoon pizza and music fest was just ending. We estimate that at least one hundred people were here, all drunker than they should be to drive on the roads that got them here, and we did feel like it was 1968 and the summer of love. We felt slightly out of place, the way you would if you showed up about four hours late to a party where you didn’t know ANYONE and they were all totally sloshed by the time you arrived. And you were stone cold sober. We had no piercings or tattoos and were older than many of the party people. We were greeted by a nice, normal young man on a customized golf cart kind of thing made out of wood. Sort of like a baggage tug at the airport… He’s the one who told us we had come to the right place and he gave us and our luggage a ride down the driveway into the Twilight Zone.

The band was just breaking down and people were wasted and trying to stagger back out to the road. A young boy came up wearing a mudpack on top of his head. Really, a brain-sized piece of mud was on his head with rivulets of muddy water streaming down his face. He was so happy! Another little boy showed us his stamps. He was stamped from the top of his head all over his body (three on his stomach) with “Funknut” in ink. He was happy, too! We were trying to figure a polite way to leave, but nothing came to us, so here we are. While the crowd was dispersing, Bill, the owner of the property, took us under his wing. Remember Harley from last year? Bill reminded us of him, only he didn’t stick his tongue in Kim’s ear!!! And he’s older. The normal man who had chauffeured us was his son, Quentin. His other son, Mickey, is our host. Mickey makes a mean strip steak on the grill out back and serves it with a fantastic tequila lime sauce that he concocted (and shared with us).

While things were winding down from the afternoon frivolities, Kim and I toured the property. That’s when we realized that plumbing was not happening here! We took LOTS of pictures (not as many as at Roadside America) especially of the tiki trail and sculpture garden. And the snake we saw lounging on a tarp by the path… Mickey told us we could get an internet connection by parking in the driveway next to the office (down the road – Kim said if we had seen it first, we could have just kept driving!!) so we did that and posted yesterday’s blog. Since dark was falling, we thought we’d better get back to our room while we could still see the path (it’s at least a half mile from the driveway to the ‘base’) so we stopped blogging before we had added all the photos. We should be able to catch up on the blog tomorrow night when we reach civilization at the Hampton Inn! We have not seen a TV since we left, and we’ve had cell service for about an hour a day. We’ve actually had more internet service than anything!

But enough (for now) about our evening’s experiences. The rest of our day was loads of fun! We spent last night at the Weeping Willow Bed and Breakfast in Tunkhannock, PA, and it was lovely! Our hosts, Patty and Randy, couldn’t have been nicer. Two couples, one from the Jersey Shore (Dennis and Eileen) and one from Mountaintop, PA, (Dave and Cindy) were at the B&B, too. We regaled them with stories of our travels at breakfast this morning, and they were kind enough to listen and laugh. We did not have a jam-packed day today, so we didn’t end up leaving there until after 11:00, even though we had gotten up at 7 again. By the time we got gas, fixed our teas for the road, and figured out our route, it was 11:30 before we were on our way.

Cindy had told us about a roadside giant in town, and Kim spied it as we zoomed past it. We turned around to snap a photo so Cindy would know we saw it. The people who live across the street from the giant (once a Big Boy, now a NAPA parts guy) were out working in their yard and stared at me as I walked from the car over to take a good picture. We are sure they’ve never even considered taking a photo of it themselves!

Once on our way, we hadn’t gone far when we had to stop for a wreck that had just happened. We were so thankful we had turned around for that picture, or we could have been in the accident. Ambulances arrived as we sat in line, so we turned around and followed the locals. At least, we hoped they were locals, since we were following them up a steep, narrow gravel road. When suddenly cars appeared on this road going the other direction, we knew we were on the right short cut. Soon we were on our way.

Our only planned stop today was at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, which is south of Wellsboro. While in Wellsboro, we went to the local Weis grocery store and bought chicken salad, slaw, cheese, and cherries to have with our Amish bread and Rt. 11 Potato Chips, and then we went to see the Grand Canyon. It reminded me of Quechee Gorge in Vermont, only not as cool. But it was neat and there were lots of hawks soaring on the updrafts and they were very entertaining. We took a short (but steepish) hike out to another overlook and had our picnic then. Did I mention that it is now raining and thundering and we haven’t made our bedtime bathroom run? What were we thinking???? Rats!!!

Our route across northern Pennsylvania was on Route 6 through the Endless Mountains. It is a nice road with quaint towns and expensive gasoline. Lots of places were still decorated for Flag Day, and it was neat to see how some towns are thriving while others are just hanging on. Once we were done at the Canyon, we stopped down the road at Animaland. We ended up just having a photo op and checking out the gift shop. I took a pit stop there and thought I would share with you the lovely jungle-themed ladies room. You may not be able to see it in the photo, but the flusher handle is a jaguar (like a hood ornament off a Jaguar) and the mirror over the sink matched the toilet seat. We didn’t stay to see the animals there, as we thought we might be missing something here at the Holler if we got here too late. If only we had known…


From the canyon it was back to Route 6 until time to cross the border into New York. We got Ms. Garmin out for the first time, and boy, was she annoyed that we had not listened to her all day. We got here, though, and now we’re waiting for a break in the rain so we can go to bed in comfort. We’re thinking we’ll be checking out early, likely sans shower…



Until tomorrow, ribbet, ribbet, ribbet,
Jan

Pictures coming tonight, without fail! We survived the night, although it poured down rain most of the night…

175 miles traveled

This just in – check out this link to get a great overview of Pollywogg Holler. You must have audio to fully appreciate it! I’m pretty sure the man singing is Bill. Enjoy! http://youtube.com/watch?v=H4DOORDbms8

It’s a Grand Old Flag Day!

Leave a comment

14 June 2008

We got up at 7:00 this morning (Saturday) and had the car packed and loaded and were ready for breakfast a little after 8:00. We had thought about eating at Hershey Family Restaurant, but since they didn’t want us last night we opted for the Red Caboose instead. They have two real dining cars that serve as their restaurant, so we ate in one of them. We, and about 20 little boys who were about to wet their pants in anticipation of a Thomas the Tank Engine sighting. They were too excited to eat, but we weren’t. We managed to exert some degree of control, though, and we each ordered a “Little Engineer” – one pancake and a couple of slices of bacon. It hit the spot! Since we could get a wireless connection in the dining car, we took that opportunity to finish posting Friday’s blog and try to clean up the previous ones. Sometimes blogspot seems to have a mind of its own – must be related to Ms. Garmin…

While we were eating, we had plenty to watch out our dining car window. There was an Amish man plowing the fields with his horses and then a real train, being pushed by THOMAS (!!!), came chugging down the tracks. We soon had the dining room to ourselves. Once we finished, we decided to go up to the top of the View Tower (read abandoned silo now fitted with stairs) and look out over the Lancaster countryside. It was gorgeous! Very hazy (we learned at breakfast that rain was expected later in the day) but the terrain is rolling hills, green pastures, and fertile farmland. And we expended a few calories (maybe two bites of pancake) in the process. Finally, we were ready to depart from the wonderful Red Caboose Motel (check them out at http://www.redcaboosemotel.com/) and see what adventures awaited us today.


In case you are considering a trip to the Red Caboose – while it was sort of cool to say we’d slept in a caboose, it had nothing on the earthen lodge or the wigwams, and since it cost well more than both of those put together (higher rates on Thomas weekends…) we would have to say you’d really have to want to be there to pay those prices. We enjoyed our private (honeymoon) deck and it was great to be able to have internet access (a new router and a signal booster made it a wonderful connection!). If you were taking kids with you, it’s a great place for them – lots of wide open spaces for bike riding, a playground, the barnyard animals, Amish buggy rides, and it’s close to many attractions – The Choo Choo Barn, the Toy Train Museum (right next door), Dutch Wonderland, Amish Village, etc. And of course, there’s Thomas… we’re thinking he comes there right often. The food in the dining car was good and the people couldn’t have been nicer. So just file it on your list of places you might want to go if you had a good reason to.

Once on the road, we had in mind to take a couple of pictures – a giant Amish boy with some pigs, the Old Village Store in Bird-in-Hand, and the famous “Welcome to Intercourse” sign.

 

We are not sure about these Amish – besides Lititz (in Leacock County), Intercourse, Bird in Hand, and Paradise, there is also a town called Blue Ball, which we missed. Maybe it’s just me, but do you notice a theme here? We took our pictures and then we stopped at an Amish roadside stand and bought some homemade bread, and we found ourselves just a tiny bit behind schedule (we wouldn’t want to disappoint you!) but on the road by about 9:30. Ever since we set the Garmin to “shortest route” instead of “fastest route,” we have been traveling not necessarily on secondary roads or even tertiary roads, but the for real back roads. The ones that because only the locals use them, there’s no need for street signs, because they know where they are… Poor Jill, she spends her time recalculating for us. A lot. By the way, did you notice the Amish bicycle/scooter above? We saw lots of kids riding them, and most of the girls we saw were using them barefooted! On the highway!

We were on our way to Reading, PA, and its famous Pagoda landmark, located on top of Mount Penn. Although the Pagoda didn’t open until noon (we knew that) we enjoyed the ride up the mountain and thought the Pagoda was really cool. It was so hazy (pollution?) in Reading that we could barely see the city laid out below us. Jill wanted to make sure we got a real feel for Reading, so we drove through the PJ’s on our way out of town. Kim M, I know you wish you were with me. Kim C is getting used to my propensity for finding the really nice neighborhoods to get a tiny bit lost in…

From Reading, we went north to Shartlesville, PA, and the home of Roadside America, the World’s Greatest Indoor Miniature Village. Let me just say right here – THEY ARE NOT KIDDING!!!!! Kim and I LOVED this place! Picture one room about the size of the ground floor of your house. Now imagine that it has murals of the countryside painted on the walls. Now see if you can envision an entire miniature COUNTRY, through the centuries, complete with roads, cars, houses, factories, lakes, bridges, churches, downtowns, coal mines, caverns, mountains, Indian villages, parks, trains, trolleys, people, an airport, a circus, a waterfall – all in the same room and all created by ONE MAN!!! Laurence Gieringer began working on it as a child in 1905 with his brother, who stopped working with him when he became a priest. It’s been a tourist attraction in the area since the 30’s, and Mr. Gieringer died in 1963, but his family continues to allow his legacy and life’s work to entertain visitors.

 

Pictures do not begin to do this project justice, but even then I couldn’t pick just one or two, so I’ve posted more on the sidebar of this blog. If you have not been to Roadside America, please put it on your list of places to see before you die. And make sure you have plenty of time to take it all in! It was AWESOMELY STUPENDOUS! [NOTE: Sadly, Roadside America is no more, as of the early 2020s. Believe it or not, we even tried to buy it to move it to Paducah, but the owners (children & grandchildren of the creator) did not think we were serious buyers. Since there were no serious buyers (allegedly) they ended up auctioning it all off in tiny lots. I was so annoyed that I refused to buy any of it. Grrrr.]

Since we were now a little more than a tiny bit behind, we were forced to hop onto the interstate to get to Easton. The ‘slow’ lane was in such bad repair that everyone was driving in the fast lane, so everyone was going very fast. The posted speed limit was 65 for a short way and then 55; the observed speed was about 80. About the time the right lane got smoothed out enough to drive in, one lane was closed for repairs. Work zone speed was posted 45; observed speed, about 80. Has no one informed these people about gas prices? We were in Easton before we knew it, and since we could have been almost anywhere in the country (who could tell, on the interstate?) we almost didn’t know we were there.

We had a couple of destinations in mind here – the Pez Dispenser Museum and the Crayola Factory. We rolled into town about 2:30 and found our way through the seamier part of town into the very lovely and happening downtown area. The Pez Museum (http://www.eastonmuseumofpez.com/) is right next door to the Crayola Factory, but it closed at 4:00 and Crayola was open until 5:00, so we went there first. I had no idea there were so many different PEZ dispensers! The museum was very cool – great exhibits and displays.

The Crayola Factory (http://www.crayolafactory.com/) had an extremely bodacious box of crayons spilling out over the doorway to the factory – great photo op! Once in the factory, we watched a show about how crayons and markers are made (and really got to see that happen) and then we got free crayons and markers, and then we got to go make things! Saturday afternoons are a big birthday party day at Crayola. We were just a little out of place. And we thought all the children within a 100 mile radius were at the Red Caboose…

By now we were wishing we had ordered the Big Engineer for breakfast, so we found our way to Pearly Baker’s Ale House and enjoyed a delicious lunch of a small Chicken Cobb Salad and some ‘yam fries’, which is yankee for sweet potato chips. It was yummy and just hit the spot. We were able to summon enough energy to keep going, but first we took a picture of Centre Square, which was where one of only three readings of the Declaration of Independence took place on July 8, 1776. On our way out of town we saw Easton’s Free Bridge, which was built in 1895. It is the last of its type in the US – very Gothic. Again, we took a tour through the sketchier side of town. Just getting a flavor for all kinds of lives in America!

We aimed north towards the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, which took us right along the banks of the Delaware River. It was a very scenic drive! We wished that we had had time to walk around a bit and enjoy the park, but remember the rain that was forecast? We could tell it might be meeting us soon, so we continued on towards the famous Pocono Mountains. Kim was really upset that I had not booked us a honeymoon suite in the Poconos. NOT!! The drive was gorgeous, although again it was like we were in the land time forgot. I’ll bet some of the same cabins, resorts, and signs we saw have been there for fifty or sixty years!


Unfortunately, it was during this drive across the mountains on one of those very rural roads that the rains came. Since we were not in traffic (unless you call meeting maybe 10 cars traffic) it was not a big deal. Just limited our visibility somewhat and caused us to take the safer option of getting on the interstate for a few miles. Again, we had hardly been on the big road when we were greeted by lofts of firemen with flares and many emergency vehicles with lights flashing. There had been a horrible accident involving a car that had left the southbound lane, driven through the grass on the median, hit a guard rail, and then flipped down the hill to the northbound lane (that would be where we were). Thankfully it did not appear he had hit anyone head on. EMTs were extracting the accident victims as we crept past the site. So much for trying to be safe! We realized though that at least that guy got found in an expedient manner… We have been a bit shocked by how often we have not had cell phone service up here in the well populated north. How do these people live?

We made it to Scranton a little before 7 PM, and we took a lovely scenic route through town in search of the Glider Diner. Jill extracts her revenge at the most inopportune times. We found it, though, and had the house specialty of hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. Diner food at its finest! We passed on pie but had just a tiny bit of ice cream. And then we were off in search of the Weeping Willow! Jill knew right where to go, with just a couple of extra turns just to prove who was in charge. We were again driving along a river, the Susquehanna we think, and got to witness a gorgeous sunset. It was a great day – we rolled in about 8:45 after covering about 250 miles today. It was a fine Flag Day!

 

Patriotically yours,
Jan

PS This entry is being posted from Pollywogg Holler, NY, which is a story in and of itself. Pictures and the story to come later, when we have returned to civilization. Pray for us!

Lucky or unlucky? You be the judge…

Leave a comment
13 June 2008

Dawn came early this Friday the 13th. We were up at 6:15 in hopes of being on the road by 7 or so. Ha! We had a minor setback as we were pulling out of the parking lot and Kim reached for the tape recorder to add something about our day and there was no tape recorder to be found. We knew we had had it the night before, so we went in search of. Twenty or thirty minutes later we left, sans tape recorder. Unless it was packed away really well. Not to worry too much – she had brought a back up and we would have only lost a couple of days worth of entries. Strike one.

So, it was almost 8 AM when we pulled out of the Skyland Resort, heading north on Skyline Drive to its terminus (actually, its origin) at Front Royal, VA, where we would be having breakfast at Sandy’s Diner. Our first stop along Skyline Drive was the Big Stony Man overlook, so that we could see the man himself and see where we were standing on our hike the day before. So here he is, in all of his recumbent glory. It’s kind of hard to tell from this photo, but that highest part on the left if supposed to be his brow, and that’s where we were. Guess you kinda had to be there to fully appreciate it.

Back on the road, we stopped at least four (and maybe five) for these friendly encounters with Bambi’s cohorts. We were surprised how unafraid of us they were (of course, the fact that my car makes very little noise allowed us to sort of sneak up on them) and how LONG their tails are! We rolled into Front Royal about nine, which is when we wanted to be at our next stop. We found Sandy’s Diner with no problem. Except one…Sandy’s is now home to Virginia Auto Group Car Sales. Strike two. On to Plan B.

 

We had passed one place that looked like it might be open for business, so back we went to the Knotty Pine. Indeed, they were “serving complete meals from 5 AM to 10 PM” so we were in luck. The Pine was a happening place to be – we were lucky to get a booth. As it turns out, these people must be of hardier stock than we are. It was like a Frigidaire in there and they were all in tank tops and camisoles. Maybe their cigarettes were keeping them warm. It was sort of like being in the land time forgot. Kim had her usual scrambled eggs, but with ham this time, and I had a cheese omelet with home fries. They were tasty but nothing to write home about.

 

Now fortified, we were off to Middletown and the Route 11 Potato Chip Factory. Jill (our friendly Garmin voice) was having a hard time letting us get there without taking the interstate, but we overruled her at every turn. Eventually, we got there! Alas, unbeknownst to their website, they had moved production to a new facility thirty miles south of here. Three weeks ago. Strike three.

So we satisfied ourselves with some picture taking and potato chip buying. We purchased Lightly Salted, Salt and Vinegar, Dill Pickle, and Chesapeake Crab chips. We have not even opened the first bag yet, showing remarkable restraint, we think.

Our next stop was Dinosaur Land in White Post, VA, home to replicas of forty species of dinosaurs (very educational) and a “cheesy” gift shop. We did not test either claim, but here were a couple of our favorite big guys.

 

Given our late start, we opted to pass on stopping in historic Charles Town and Harpers Ferry, WV, and just zoom on to Antietam, Maryland. Although we decided not to take the 8.6 mile tour of the battlefields and the cemetery, we did stop in at the National Cemetery there. It was a solemn place, and it was interesting to see how little the area had changed since Civil War times – the battlefields are still lined with fencing and low stone walls, and there are several cannons strategically placed.

The cemetery was very well maintained, and this cool building sat just inside the ornate gates. The number of graves was staggering – it truly must have been a bloody battle. What a sad time in our history!


From Antietam, we went in search of the Washington Monument State Park in Boonsboro, MD. This was the site of the original monument to our first president. We were looking forward to climbing up lots of stairs to get to the top of it. Someone must not be wanting us to get our exercise, because when we got almost to the park (finally, with lots of pleading with Jill) the road was blocked by a big gate and a sign telling us the park was closed due to storm damage. Aha! That explained all of the downed trees and dead branches we had been seeing. Strike four!

Then, as we tried to move on to our next stop (lunch at Chubby’s Bar-B-Q in Emmitsburg, MD), both Jill and AAA tried to send us down some totally impassable roads. This one below is gravel and heavily rutted. And there are fallen trees all over. Argh!

We were thinking a little ‘que from a place recommended highly by Road Food (Jane and Michael Stern) might just take the edge off what was becoming a frustrating day. But nooooo!

The Sterns surely are not from the south, if they think Chubby’s serves ‘southern style’ barbeque! Bless their hearts! And the sides were no better – I had macaroni and cheese that looked good and tasted like pasta with yellow water poured over it. My baked beans were tasty and almost lukewarm. Kim’s potato salad tasted sort of like the variety that is usually served hot, but it was cold. And the barbeque was not up to our high SOUTHERN standards. The sauce was okay though. Not worth finding your way to Emmitsburg for, that’s for sure! And for those of you who are clean freaks, don’t even think about going in!!! Strike five!

 

Okay, so surely the rest of our day would be better. We were off to Gettysburg and a little more Civil War history, albeit with a Union slant. What we discovered instead is that we Americans can trivialize, sensationalize, and commercialize ANYTHING. Let’s just say our new name for Gettysburg is “Gatlinburg of the Civil War.” YUCK!!! Even the old Visitor’s Center with its Cyclorama and Electric Map are closed now, and it’s hard to know where to go to see the ‘real’ Gettysburg. But if you want the Gatlinburg/Disneyland versions, you are in luck. Your sisters passed. Strike six!

Moving on, ever the optimists, we struck out for York and the Barbell Museum and Weightlifting Hall of Fame. Jill took us all over the Pennsylvania countryside, which thankfully was pretty. At long last, we were about to give up on ever finding our destination, so we decided to make a pit stop instead. I filled up the car while Kim tried to figure out where in the Sam Hill we were. She asked two ladies who worked there and got two different answers. At the same time! Anyway, we left and then immediately found what we were looking for. We just couldn’t find how to GET there. But we did save this image just for you! So maybe that’s strike six and a half.

 

Now you want to know what’s really funny? I looked down at the gas gauge and it’s still showing the same thing it was before I filled up. Now it’s starting to make sense why the machine didn’t give me a receipt… AAAARRRGH! Okay, so maybe a visit to the Haines Shoe House would cheer us up. Ha, ha, ha. Traffic on Highway 30 was heavy and not moving too quickly. We were so spoiled from the parkway! And then there was road construction. Is it five o’clock yet??? No, but it’s so close to five that if we want to get to Wilbur’s Chocolates (and you’d better believe we HAD to get there at this point!) before it closed at five, we would have to come back to the Shoe House later. Off we went with a bead on Wilbur’s. Jill seemed to know she was guiding two EXTREMELY desperate and possibly dangerous women and we got to Lititz (stop snickering – we are in Paradise tonight and are going to Intercourse tomorrow!) just about 4:30. Hooray! Chocolate saves the day!

And we loved the quaint little village of Lititz. Finally, we got to do and see something we really wanted to! I bought milk chocolate covered potato chips and milk and dark chocolate Wilbur’s Buds, and Kim got chocolate coconut clusters. And we still have some, even though they are YUMMY! Check them out at www.wilburbuds.com. After getting our chocolate fix, we walked around town where they were observing their second Friday “Lovin’ Lititz” day. We love Lititz, too.

Enough sightseeing for one day (except for the Shoe House). We went in search of our resting place for the night, the Red Caboose Motel. We arrived around seven and got checked in to…. the HONEYMOON SUITE! Yikes!

Alas, the motel is full because it’s a THOMAS weekend here in railroad crazy PA. So guess who it’s full of. KIDS, lots of young Thomas the Tank Engine crazy kids and their parents who indulge their every whim. At least the honeymoon suite is separate from the other cabooses. Isn’t it cute?

And on the way to the motel (which is right next to the Toy Train Museum, which was closed when we got here and won’t open until after we leave) we got to go over this covered bridge and see lots of Amish folk on their buggies and funny bikes/scooters. At the motel has a farmyard, complete with roosters, hens, chicks, sheep, lambs, ponies (they bite), pigs, and fainting goats, at least one of whom is very acrobatic. After we got a wireless connection on the front porch and posted yesterday’s blog, we went in search of dinner. Alas, we had not only waited too late to go see the Shoe House (it was dark) but we had missed the last seating at the Hershey Farm Restaurant (allegedly open until nine, but evidently not). We did get to take a picture of Amish Abe, and we found our way (a minor miracle) to Jennie’s Diner, which is open 24 hours.

Were we in luck there! Kim had Chicken Corn Noodle soup, which was true to its name plus it had broth, and a small salad. Well, at least she thought she ordered a small salad. In reality, it was maybe two small heads of lettuce. I had marinated grilled chicken with a baked potato and stewed tomatoes. I did get a small salad, a softball-sized potato (that’s a conservative estimate – it was almost volleyball sized!), some really sweet tomatoes, and THREE chicken breast cutlets. We were stuffed! And so now we’re back on the front porch and it’s half after midnight and we have another early morning ahead of us. So you know we really love you! Let us know it was all worth the trouble by posting some comments! We are moderating them, just in case you write something personal that you didn’t intend for the whole world to see, so if you don’t see your comment immediately, keep looking.

We’re sure glad it’s not Friday the 13th anymore, but we’re feeling lucky!

Sleepyhead Jan

Today’s expenses (for both of us, not counting tips)

Gas $31.02 for 7.92 gallons
Food: Breakfast 9.73
Lunch $27.83
Dinner $20.57
Chocolate $19.34
Potato Chips $5
Hotel $178.50 (cabooses are extra on Thomas weekends…)

Old Stony Men

Leave a comment
12 June 2008

We’ve started off on the right foot – we were up by 7:15 and on the road to Lexington, VA, by 8:15. Our stay at the Natural Bridge Hotel was adequate, but it was not without a couple of unpleasant surprises. Let’s just leave it that our first assigned room had clearly already been assigned, and in our second room, we were glad that we observed our Road Rule about checking the tub (shower stall in this case) before getting naked.

On the bright side, we had a huge, lovely balcony (our reward for the first room fiasco) and an eventual internet connection (after making friends with the maintenance man, while in our PJ’s, and one trip back to the front desk for the ONLY Ethernet cable…) And we had a TV that worked (unless you turned the light switch off) and beds with clean sheets and an AC that worked most of the night. And we got to take a trip down Memory Lane back to junior high gym class when we used the towels after our showers!

So, we were not sad as we made our way up the road to visit my two honorary fraternity (Phi Mu is officially a fraternity) brothers, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. But first, we were in search of a good breakfast (don’t go too far without one)! As we wandered the streets, we didn’t find a breakfast place right away, but we did see this great sign. And then we hit paydirt when we found Sweet Treats, where Kim had scrambled eggs and bacon (I know, it’s a total shocker) and I had (now this is a shocker) a veggie egg white omelet. Both were served with great potato hunks and homemade bread. Yum. And they had freshly brewed iced tea. Our day was looking up!


 

Little Lexington, VA, is home to two institutions of higher learning, which happen to be adjacent to each other. Washington and Lee is where Robert E. Lee and his whole family are interred, and Stonewall Jackson is buried (well, except for his left arm) at VMI (Virginia Military Institute). The schools could not be more different – W&L survived the Civil War almost unscathed, so the main buildings are those that were there in George Washington’s time. Lee Chapel, where the Lees (and R. E.’s horse, Traveller) are buried, was built immediately after the Civil War. We were even allowed to take one picture (we got two, since we each had a camera) of the general’s statue, though photos were not allowed in the Chapel. We were on our best behavior.

VMI looks like a tremendous spartan citadel with a huge parade ground (no trees) out front. Jackson is buried there, and his horse, Little Sorrel, is preserved (not stuffed – more on that later) in the museum in the basement of Jackson Chapel. We found Little Sorrel’s story to be of particular interest because of our beloved Peppy, who is made of plaster of Paris. Little Sorrel’s taxidermist used a brand new technique to preserve him – he removed his hide, made a plaster cast of his body, and covered the plaster cast with his hide. He’s been restored just once, and he looks great, don’t you think? We just don’t think Peppy would be quite the same with fun!

 

As we left Lexington for the Blue Ridge Parkway, we buzzed right past a funny silvery tin house, and then we noticed it had a spout. Oops, time for a U-turn! I wish I could say it was the first of the day, but alas, Jill (our disembodied Garmin voice) had led us astray more than once in Lexington, so we had already gotten in some good practice. After we took the picture, I realized that I had read about this coffee pot house (closed, no trespassing) and had even made note of it, but it still surprised us.

.

Back on the Parkway, we thoroughly enjoyed our scenic drive. The weather was gorgeous, blue skies and a temperature of about 73 degrees. We rolled down the windows and turned off the A/C, and we loved watching the computer tell us we were averaging over 41 miles per gallon. We stopped at a few overlooks and again enjoyed very little traffic. When we got near Waynesboro, we got off to take a little lunch detour to Wright’s Dairyette Drive In in Staunton.

 

Of course, even though interstate 64 was right there, we opted for highway 250, but Garmin Jill did not agree with us. Too bad, it was her problem and she spent the whole trip ‘recalculating’. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I swear that by the 20th time she said, “recalculating” it was sounding pretty nasty and sarcastic. We just laughed. But she may have had the last laugh, since the only reason we let her keep talking was we thought she would be helpful when we actually got to Staunton. But no, she directed us to Car Dealer Row and we had to call the drive in for directions. Which they were unable to adequately give us, other than to tell us we were on the right road and “we would just see them – can’t miss it.”

Thankfully, we persevered and were rewarded. I had a Superburger (a Wright’s original and specialty of the house since 1952), Kim had a corn dog, and we split some homemade onion rings. We even got to call in our order (dial 71) on the phone at our table! How cool is that? We were strong, though, and did not have milk shakes. But we wanted them…. Peppy was in plaster animal heaven though, as he got a new car!

Just across the street from the drive in was an enormous old facility – lots of big brick colonnaded buildings and lovely grounds that looked like what I imagine old-timey sanitariums (or sanitaria) were like. We could not tell what it was, so we went exploring. Whatever it is, it’s being turned into condos. We listened to the radio real estate info and all we found out was that it was called “the Bindery” (couldn’t decide if that was as in book binding or strait jacket binding). Oh well!

 

Anyway, we figured out how to get back (with no help from the stubborn Jill) when we saw a giant watering can in the middle of the road. Again, I belatedly remembered I knew about it, too, and the two flower pots on the other side of the bridge. So, we turned around again and got this shot. Did I remember to mention that Staunton was home to Woodrow Wilson? Just thought you’d want to know. What we really liked about Staunton was their gas prices – $3.88, so we filled up on the way back to the Parkway.

The Parkway quickly became Skyline Drive and we entered Shenandoah National Park. For some reason, there was a long and slow-moving line at the ranger station, so even though we had our NP pass, we just sat and waited, and before we knew it, we were pulling into Skyland Resort, our lodging for the night. We almost missed it, but we hung a quick left just in time! We checked into our room, and this time, instead of lugging our bags to a room that may not be ready for us, we went to check it out. It was perfect! If only we could get in the door efficiently…

You know how Abe Lincoln’s log cabin had a drawstring latch or something? Well, this door has some strange latch. We had a hard enough time getting in, but getting out is a whole ‘nother story. There is no handle!! We had to practice before we went back for our bags! It takes both of us, but with a little teamwork we can get in and out of our room… We had a fantastic view of the Shenandoah valley and the town of Luray below us. Because of the late afternoon sun, I didn’t take a picture of our view, but it was beautiful. Since the day was so nice, and since we had arrived at our destination at about 5:15, we decided to go for a hike. We hiked the Big Stony Man trail, which took us on the Appalachian Trail for a piece (in fact, we were at the highest point on the AT in the Shenandoahs) and then we hiked up to the second highest peak in Shenandoah NP. The view was spectacular, and we learned lots on the trail on the way up.


As we started to head back down the mountain, we realized we had not taken a good picture of the back of old Stony Man, so we went back. And look what we found…


By 7:15 we were on our way back to Skyland and a well-deserved beer. And dinner. On the way, we saw a big doe just munching away by the side of the road.

Back at the lodge, we tried (quite unsuccessfully) to connect to the internet via dial up. What century are we in here? Since that didn’t work, we satisfied ourselves with uploading our photos and blogging on Word. Sorry our post is late! We had dinner at the bar (!) at the lodge. We shared a plate of sweet potato fries (health food) and each had a house salad. Given that it had apples, goat cheese, and candied pecans, we thought that would be dinner. And it would have, if it hadn’t been served on a bread and butter plate. So I ordered some chili and Kim ate the cornbread that came with it. We then had some ice cream (just one scoop, and not one Cold Stone Creamery scoop, but one that the US Government would serve you). Kim had chocolate and I opted for blackberry. Yum. I might mention that the whole time I was blogging or messing with photos, a duo (Shen Fine, as in Shenandoah’s Finest) was playing guitars and singing live music in the bar. To an almost full house. They were pretty good.


Today’s totals:
Mileage 170
Time on road 9 hours
Money spent on food: B, $15, L, $12, D $30 beer, $16
Attractions: $4 (plus NP fee – we used our pass)
Gas: $18
Lodging $61

On the road again, naturally

Leave a comment

11 June 2008

Gas prices are at an all-time high, temperatures are soaring, and crazy weather is happening all over the country – it must be time for Peppy and the Sassy Sisters to start another road trip! After weeks of researching and planning our routes, I’m ready to get going. On this trip, we’ll be looking for more roadside giants and anything that’s the least bit curious, off-beat, or downright strange. That’s why this trip is dubbed Ye Olde Curiosity Tour! Our route is loosely based on ‘The Appalachian Trail’ trip from our Road Trip book, although I’m sure we’ll make plenty of deviations. along the way.

For those of you who are new to riding along with us, here’s a quick review of our “Sassy Sister Road Rules”:

  • 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!
  • 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.
  • 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 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.
  • 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!

Kim got a big laugh when we came up with all of these rules, since I’m one of those people who thinks rules are for everyone else…

This year’s trip has started off differently from all the rest – we were on the road before eight, we checked in our hotel before seven, and we saw everything we wanted to see and then some! I met Kim in Salisbury, NC, where we spent a most enjoyable evening with our friends Lynn and Robert and two of their kids, Sarah and Will. We even got to celebrate Lynn’s birthday. And a birthday shout out goes to Skip, too! Peppy could hardly wait to get going…

From Salisbury, we went to Winston-Salem in search of two curiosities – the Shell station shaped like a shell and the big tin coffee pot in Old Salem. And we found them! It was not too far from Winston to Mt. Airy, home of Andy Griffith and the inspiration for Mayberry. We had breakfast at the Snappy Lunch, which is famous for their Pork Chop Sandwiches, but we were too early for one of them. We walked all over town and saw Floyd’s Barber Shop, the Old Jail, Andy’s squad car, and more. Good times!

Fancy Gap, Virginia is just a hop, skip, and a jump from Mt. Airy, and we picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway here. It was a fine day to be on the Parkway – about 15 degrees cooler than it had been, blue skies, and hardly any traffic. We saw mostly motorcycles and a few other hybrid cars and hardly any SUV’s. Our first stop on the Parkway was Mabry Mill, which is allegedly the most photographed spot on the Parkway. You have to admit it makes for a lovely photograph!

 

The mill is a working mill, grinding cornmeal, grits, and buckwheat. There are also lots of other exhibits there – our favorite was the blacksmith’s shop. Traveling on the parkway is leisurely perforce, since the speed limit is 45 mph. That proved to be a good thing, since we saw LOTS of live animals VERY close to our car!

.

Like Asheville, NC, Roanoke is right on the parkway. We got off here and went in search of the O. Winston Link Museum. Link is famous for his photographs (mostly black and white) of steam engines and the Norfolk Southern railroad. We were very impressed! The museum also had an exhibit about Raymond Loewy, who is famous for many American advertising icons (coke bottle, Exxon and Shell logos, designing Studebakers, and more). He also had re-designed the Roanoke train station. After we had seen the museum, we walked past the Hotel Roanoke and over to City Market where we had a quick lunch. I opted for Cuban food (carne vaca) and Kim had a turkey pita. Then we were off in search of Miniature Graceland (really!) and the Mill Mountain Star. They were worth the trip!

 

Miniature Graceland is in someone’s yard in an otherwise normal residential area. You sort of have to see it to believe it! The Mill Mountain star is the largest man-made star in the world. At night, it is lit up in red, white, and blue to show support for our troops. While there, we were on StarCam and our daughters got to see us in real time. Unfortunately, we showed them not our best sides…

Back to the Parkway, and on to our next attraction – Natural Bridge, VA, which is supposedly one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World – higher than Niagara Falls, older than the dawn. We beg to differ. It was cool (well, actually is was muggy steamy buggy HOT) but we much preferred Foamhenge and other enchanted creations of Mark Cline. We went to his Enchanted Castle Studio and got to meet him and his daughter. Again, you’ve got to see it to believe it! That’s him posing with Kim and Batman, which was one of his tamer productions.

 

We had dinner at the awesome Pink Cadillac Diner and called it a night. Except for blogging, which I’ve been doing for the past two and a half hours! Uploading all these pictures is slow going, so we hope you enjoy them. So, until tomorrow, good night!