Our first stop was at Helen’s Pancake House in Chadron for breakfast. Helen’s is also a steakhouse by night (different dining room, same building). Kim got a pecan waffle which was pretty and tasty. We were ready to hit the road, and we had thought we might make it to Thermopolis, WY, but you never know…
We were not far from Crawford, NE, so of course we had to stop by there. It, like many other towns we’ve seen on this trip, had seen more prosperous and populous days, but it had a stunning backdrop of three big rocks. It also had a free museum, so naturally we spent a while there, soaking up the local history and culture.
Our next planned destination was Toadstool Geologic Park, just north of Crawford. Since it was a 19.5 mile (each way) trip on a gravel road, it took us quite some time to get there and my car may never be the same. Once there, we were a bit surprised to see several other cars and people there, but we’ve learned that people show up in the darnedest places! Toadstool is very odd – think the Badlands meet Craters of the Moon – but we enjoyed our loop trail with explanations of what we were seeing.
We considered stopping at a restaurant (also on the gravel road, but another 5 or so miles out of the way) that the guy in the Crawford museum had recommended, but voted to just get out of the dust and move west. The next town of any size (and with any promise of food) was Lusk, Wyoming, where we rolled in a little before 3 PM. We stopped in at the Stagecoach Museum there to see how late it was open and to get a lunch recommendation and learned that ‘the best pizza in the state’ could be found here. Score! Sadly, it was closed but only until 4 PM, so we went back to the museum and checked it out before having an early dinner of really good pizza.
At this point, we decided that an early evening in Casper may be just what we needed, so that is what we did. It started to rain just as we arrived a little after 7 PM, so we got settled and then enjoyed the happy hour at the hotel. Another fine day!
So, it’s not even 10 PM and we are in our PJs, unwinding after another fun day. We could not find a single place in Colby, Oakley, Oberlin, or McCook to have breakfast, so we opted for a quick bite and a big iced tea at Sonic before we left Colby. Took us until day 3 to stop at Sonic – I think that’s a record!
We traveled up US 83 out of Kansas and into Nebraska, and saw very few cars and almost no big trucks, so we made great time. We had traveled this road before, so we didn’t make stops in those towns this time, especially since not much is open on Sunday mornings.
We decided to have lunch in North Platte, and we chose the Lincoln Highway Diner because we love the Lincoln Highway. It was an okay choice – we’ve been pretty underwhelmed with food options so far! We each had the hot roast beef sandwich and we left the bread and some of the mashed potatoes behind. It was tasty. Since it was a for real diner, you know they had pie, so we did, too….
We continued on Hwy 83 to Thedford, where we hopped on Nebraska 2, which is a scenic drive across the middle of the state. Lots of green rolling hills (if you’ve been to Scotland or Ireland, it’s very reminiscent), plenty of wildflowers, and NO traffic. We passed two cars, one motorcycle passed us, and two cars that were ahead of us briefly turned off. That’s it. Five other cars going the same direction that we were in almost two hours. We saw more trains than cars!
When we hit Allliance, we figured we may as well stop in at Carhenge (again). We were first here in 2007, on the Roadside Giant Tour. It hadn’t changed much, although now there is a little gift shop/concession stand and a for real parking lot. We drove on through Alliance and turned north to Chadron, NE.
We got to town about 5:30 and checked in our hotel and settled in, then went back down the road to the Chadron State Park for a little hike. We had done very little but ride and eat all day! We drove a couple of miles up a gravel road and then did the Black Hills Overlook trail. The scenery is so interesting here – think the prairie meets the badlands – and we were walking right along the top of a ridge. It was VERY windy – there were times we felt we could be blown right off the trail. Thankfully, we were not wearing our Sister Bertrille headgear (or any headgear!) so we stayed on the ground.
The sun was just setting as we drove back to town and headed to the Country Kitchen for a nice salad. Finally! We were about sandwiched out. Then we had to try out the famous ice cream shop here….
So that was our day – not too exciting, but a nice day for a Sunday drive!
Yesterday was a LONG day, and so much fun! We were up early (6 AM early) and had finished breakfast at Jimmy’s Egg in Wichita Falls by 8. We were getting an early start in hopes of meeting up with Kim, Blake, and Momo for lunch in the panhandle; in the end, logistics foiled that plan, but we took advantage of our early start.
Kim told us there was a town called Dodson that wasn’t far from where we were, and since Dodson is the name we grew up with, we had to go there. Also on our route was Memphis (also in Texas), but we would be bypassing Paducah (TX) this time.
Our plan was to meet the kids in Memphis for lunch, but not much there was open on Saturday, so we drove north to Pampa and the Coney Island Cafe, famous for hot dogs and homemade pie. Of course! We walked all over the downtown area and spent time in the White Deer Land Museum, which was very well done and so interesting!
We finally made it out of Texas a little after 4 PM, and 30 minutes later we were out of Oklahoma and in Liberal, Kansas. If you’re a longtime Sassy Sister follower, you may remember we’ve passed this way before, so we had already seen Dorothy’s House (think Oz, Kansas, etc.) I needed to stop driving for a bit, so we went to the Mid-America Air Museum. Fabulous exhibit, and they were open until 6, so we didn’t have to rush. We may have had an ice cream break before getting on the road again…
Somehow, we rolled into Colby, Kansas, just as the sun went down, so we didn’t break our ‘stop before dark’ two days in a row. We had an adult beverage and a snack at the nearby City Limits bar and then called it a day. I was asleep in minutes!
We are taking it easy this morning, but it’s time to get moving!
We weren’t in a big rush this morning, since we didn’t have far to go today. On the agenda – breakfast, a visit to Graceland Too in Holly Springs (allegedly open 24/7, in the home of an eccentric Elvis-loving man), a stop at Kim’s house in Memphis, and ending up in Paducah in time to eat at Doe’s (we were already craving chocolate cobbler…) It was a little drizzly and foggy – the perfect weather for dawdling. We weren’t sure where to eat, but since Oxford is a college town, we knew there would be some great breakfast places nearby. Sure enough, a little research on the iphone took us straight to Big Bad Breakfast, which was tucked away in a little strip shopping center. I was pretty sure I would like it just from the name, but when we walked through the front door, which was clearly recycled from a college classroom and bore the label “Organic Chemistry” I knew we had come to the right place!
The menu looked great – obviously lots of dishes were prepared with locally grown and/or fresh ingredients, although you can probably guess that there weren’t many ‘heart-healthy’ items on the list. Kim chose the Big Bad Breakfast, which was scrambled eggs, bacon, home fries, and toast. I got the Secret History, which was fantastic! It was a huge omelet, made with shallots, fresh herbs, tomatoes, and Swiss cheese, and it was served with home fries and a big biscuit. Best part about the biscuit (which I couldn’t finish) was the homemade raspberry jam. Great way to start the day! Another thing we loved about it was the light fixtures over each booth. All different and all made from recycled items – see for yourself!
Holly Springs and Graceland Too are just up the road from Oxford, so off we went. Kim’s daughter, Kerry, has visited GT many times, so we had an idea what to expect. It would be a little hard to describe, and many others have tried. Sadly, there were two things that we weren’t prepared for – first, the house is not pink and second, contrary to ALL published accounts and first-hand reports, NO ONE CAME TO THE DOOR! We rang the bell, we knocked, we honked, we yelled, we circled the property, we attempted to agitate the dog, we stood around for much longer than we should have, and we DIDN’T GET IN!! Bummer. NOTE: It is permanently closed as of 2014, when the owner died.
Spurned by the host who is always home, we dejectedly got back in the car and headed for Memphis. We arrived just about the time we knew that Jim would be on his lunch break, and sure enough, we tracked him down. Since we were still stuffed from breakfast and Jim had finished lunch, we just settled for hugs in the parking lot. We stopped by Kim’s house just long enough for her to gather up some things she needed, clean out the car a little bit, off-load some things we wouldn’t need any more, and to give Kim some time to take care of a little business since she’d been gone for a couple of weeks.
In one of our less than stellar moves, we decided to take the “scenic” route to Paducah, and rather than taking the normal, albeit boring route up the parkway from Fulton, we got back on the Great River Road and toured rural (very rural) western Kentucky. There had been so much rain lately that the road itself looked like a river in places! There was not much to see, although we did see a magnificent heron taking flight.
We had some fond memories of family outings and picnics at Columbus-Belmont State Park, so we set our sights for it. To give you a little background – Columbus Belmont is right on the Mississippi River, and it’s where Confederate troops got the bright idea to stretch a giant chain across the river in an attempt to stop the advancing Union troops. You get a gold star if you figured out that the plan didn’t work. But here’s a piece of the chain and a look at the river!
Columbus was called the “Gibraltar of the West” by the Confederates, and was considered by them the key to their defense of the upper Mississippi River valley. The anchor weighs six tons…
It was dreary and raining a little bit while we were here, and it probably goes without saying that we were the only ones visiting this out of the way state park today. I’m not even sure if the rangers were there! We are impressed by the Kentucky State Park system, though. Many of the parks have gorgeous and challenging golf courses, and most of them have pretty decent lodging and camping facilities. Much better than the NC state parks I’ve seen! As we left the park, we just decided to make a beeline for Paducah (not that there is a very direct route from here to anywhere…) but we got stopped by a commotion in the middle of the road.
It was almost dark by the time we got to town, so we checked into our new home away from home (it’s really strange to stay in a hotel room in the town you grew up in) and then we went straight downtown to Doe’s. The Barbeque on the River fest was in full swing, although given the lateness of the hour and the rain that was starting to fall, we were able to get a parking place without too much trouble. The lower blocks of Broadway and Jefferson were closed to vehicles, and there were still LOTS of people downtown. Thankfully, most of them were eating barbeque, so we got a great table right in front of the Ole Miss – South Carolina football game on the big screen. Gotta love Thursday night football! Doe’s was worth the wait – man, is their food good! Kim opted for their famous tamales and chili, but I splurged on a nice big rare filet and a perfect baked potato. Good eats! But the best was yet to come – the main reason we came was for the chocolate cobbler, and we were not disappointed! Don’t miss Doe’s when you come to Paducah!
We were excited to be back in our hometown and were looking forward to reconnecting with our high school classmates over the next few days. But for now, stuffed and sated and sleepy, it was dreamtime!
It was another slow-starting morning! We had lots of catching up to do, both on sleep and on blogging and Facebooking and photos after our weekend in New Orleans. We didn’t really have too much on our agenda today – we planned to learn a bit about Acadian culture, eat some good Cajun food, and visit our childhood friend Merrill in the capital city of Baton Rouge. So it was after ten when we finally found ourselves at Dwyer’s Café in downtown Lafayette, ordering our sweet potato pancakes with sugar cane syrup and some eggs. We sat outside on the patio, right on the main drag, where we could admire a beautiful mural painted on the side of a building across a parking lot from us. A local couple joined us outside and we chatted with them throughout our meal. That’s one of the most fun things about this kind of travel – we’ve met some really interesting and nice folks along the way! We had read about this restaurant in several of our books, and it did not disappoint! The pancakes were especially tasty – and healthy, too, right? Oh, and just as we were leaving, Elvis, in the flesh, came walking in the door. I couldn’t get a photo – sorry!
Love the colors in the mural. And you know how I love street art!Delicious sweet potato pancakes
After breakfast, we drove downtown, looking for the Borden Dairy store where we planned to have a frappe’ later on. We heard at breakfast that it was being renovated by its new owner, but that it was now open for business – good thing! Sure enough, when we went by, the parking lot was full of workmen. At least we knew where to find it when we were ready for ice cream! Our next stop was at the Jean Lafitte Acadian Cultural Center, which is home to a museum about the exile and relocation of the Acadian people from Nova Scotia and areas around there. We’d also heard they had a very informative movie about the exile, too. Turns out we got there in mid-cycle of the movie, and even though it appeared we were the only ones there, we would have to wait for the next show. So, we took our time in the museum section, which was really well done.
Borden’s Dairy Bar in Lafayette LA
In case you don’t know, this area of Louisiana has quite a storied history. The Acadians were French immigrants who settled in and around the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. When the French and Indian war began, the British expelled these people, who sailed around the east coast of America, only to be repulsed and denied safe harbor in any of the colonies. They continued looking for a home and eventually settled in the area that is now present-day Lafayette, Louisiana, and includes 22 parishes, which are now known as Acadiana. The word ‘Cajun’ is a derivative of the word ‘Acadian’ and descendants of these people still speak a dialect of French and observe many of the traditions of their ancestors. Many other peoples settled in this untamed, mostly unclaimed area of the Louisiana Purchase – native Americans were already here, and they were joined by Spaniards, Africans, Germans, English, and West Indians. Many of these other cultures refer to themselves as Creole, but there has been a lot of blending of cultures over time. All I know is the food is fantastic, the music unusual but fun to listen to and impossible not to move to, the language is like music to the ears, and the people are friendly. What’s not to love?
The movie started eventually – a private showing for Kim and me – and even though it was very well done and quite moving, I found myself nodding off at times. Kim said the movie was sad and she wondered why she was sitting there watching it while I slept! But I didn’t miss it all! You may be familiar with the Longfellow poem “Evangeline”, which is the story of two lovers separated by the exile of the Acadians. Lots of roads down here (and other things, like businesses) are named Evangeline, which now we understand. After the movie was over, we finished looking at the museum, and then we were off to explore Breaux Bridge and find some of the good restaurants we’d heard about there. But first – we went back to town to get our frappe’, only to be direly disappointed – CLOSED on MONDAYS!! Sadly, we were about to learn that this would be the theme for the day….
The bridge at Breaux Bridge LA
We soon found ourselves in Breaux Bridge, parking on the street, right in front of Café des Amis. That should have been our first clue…and indeed there on the door was the dreaded “Closed on Mondays” sign. See what we missed (check the menu) and you’ll know how bummed we were! Okay, on to our next place, which was Champagne’s Breaux Bridge Bakery, allegedly serving breakfast and lunch and not to be missed. Hmmm…maybe something has changed since the Road Food people rolled through, but I doubt it. Didn’t look like much had changed in thirty or forty years, but believe it or not, there is a website! One room, no tables, no drinks, no parking, no menu, lots of cookies, and a handful of meat pies. So we bought a dozen cookies for the road – two each of: the specialty of the house, a pink filled sandwich cookie, a similar looking chocolate crème filled cookie, some cookies that looked like Kim’s favorite, the Mexican wedding cookie, chocolate crinkles, macaroons, and brownies. We crossed back over the bridge (yes, there really is one, built in 1950, crossing the Bayou Teche and topped by a giant crawfish) and went to the Visitor Information Center, rather than heading down a rural highway to get the best cracklin’s in the state (according to our breakfast friends) in a place that MIGHT just be closed on Mondays.
Can’t leave a bakery without cookies for the road!Mulate’s was deserted when we arrived, but not for long.
The nice lady there thought we should go back to Mulate’s, which we had seen on the way into town, for some good Cajun food, so we did. Since it was about two thirty, the place was deserted, until we got there. As is often the case, almost immediately the place filled up – four tables came in! You’d be surprised how often that happens to us. Anyway, we weren’t really hungry, but we had no idea where we were going that night or when we might eat again, and you’ve probably noticed that if we go too long without a meal, we might require medical assistance. We split a catfish po’boy and that was just right! The restaurant was dark and cool inside, and you could see there was plenty of room for dancing in front of the stage that, sadly, was empty this afternoon. Looks like lots of famous area musical acts have played here, and we were sorry to miss that fun! Get a shot of ear and eye candy and you’ll almost feel like you were there!
We called our friend Merrill in Baton Rouge, and it turned out she was waiting for us (sorry, Merrill!!) so we hopped on I-10 and skedaddled across the Atchafalaya Swamp, arriving in Baton Rouge in front of the Old State Capitol at about four. We found Merrill, who we haven’t seen since Jr. High School (gotta love Facebook!) and went inside. I loved this old building! It looked like a big castle, and on the inside, it had the most beautiful stained glass windows and dome! We walked around a bit, noting what a pretty place it would be for a reception or party, and we didn’t find the missing statue of George Washington, either. Even though it was warmish outside, we opted to walk down to the ‘new’ capitol building, which was built in about 1935.
Crossing the swampThe old state Capitol
The brainchild and pet project of then-Governor Huey P. Long (yes, of bridge fame!), it is the tallest state capitol building in the US at 34 stories! The interior of the lobby and first floor is very ornate and looks like a capitol building that is out to impress – lots of naked women on murals on the ceiling and some pretty Art Deco features – but the tower was closed for maintenance so we didn’t get to see the view from the top. As it turns out, Governor Long, aka the Kingfish, ran for US Senate and won, so he never occupied this building as governor of the state. Even sadder, it was here in the back hall of this building that he was gunned down and killed by a mild-mannered-looking doctor when he was only 42 years old. Long was a much loved and evidently much hated figure in Louisiana politics, and pretty much of a legend around here.
The Louisiana state capitol is one of four ‘skyscraper’ capitols in the US.Naked lady mural…
I neglected to mention the outside of the capitol – it sits on a bit of a hill, looking out over a mall of sorts, complete with a huge statue of – you guessed it – Huey P. Long. The front doors of the capitol are HUGE, and there’s lots of great statuary out front. There are a lot of wide steps leading up to the doors – thirteen on the first section, each one labeled with the name of one of the thirteen original states and the date of its entrance into the Union. After a landing, more stairs of the other states, in order of statehood, ending with Arizona, which I guess was the last state at the time the building was completed. All in all, it was a lovely capitol and one more to add to our collection of capitol buildings we have seen and/or visited. This trip has been kind of fun in that we’ve been through the capitals of each state we visited – Nashville, Tennessee; Frankfort, Kentucky; Jackson, Mississippi; and now Baton Rouge. Technically, we were in Alabama for a few miles on the Natchez Trace, but we’ve both been to Montgomery before anyway.
The stairs leading up to the capitolHuey P. Long, of courseMassive doors!
As we walked back through downtown Baton Rouge, Merrill showed us some of the other great buildings there and told us how, like many other places, the downtown is finally being revitalized and people are starting to come back to their city again. We are glad to see that happening all over the country and regret that the 70’s and 80’s had the influence on city centers that they did. We still reminisce, as we did that day with Merrill, about our bus trips to bustling downtown Paducah when we were kids, getting dressed up, window shopping with our friends, and spending our allowances at the counters of Kresge or the booths of Walgreen’s. Remember that strawberry pie, y’all?? Good times! Speaking of – we sure were glad to find one coffee shop (Community Coffee – a local business) still open (just before 5, downtown!) so we could get that refreshing glass of iced tea – we were all HOT, HOT, HOT!!
We parted company with Merrill back at the Old Capitol, across the street from what used to be the Yazoo and Mississippi Railroad Depot and is now a museum, and we decided to go a little farther north since it was still pretty early. We set our sights on St. Francisville, the second oldest town in Louisiana, and we took the Great River Road to get there. This part of the GRR is often called Plantation Alley for all the lovely antebellum homes that used to line the land behind the levees of the Mississippi here in the Delta. Of course, it first took us past the “Chemical Corridor” of Baton Rouge – evidence of the oil industry that still thrives here – we get to see all the sights! Soon we were in rural Louisiana, passing fields of sugar cane that made me feel like I was back in Queensland for a minute! Somewhere along the way we ended up on the west side of the river, and since St. Francisville was on the east side, we weren’t exactly sure how we would be getting over there. Guess the navigator should have looked ahead!
Sugar cane fields aboundOn the ferry, heading to St. Francisville.
Turns out a ferry boat ride was in order, and it looked like we might have just missed the one that supposedly ran on the hour and the half hour, which was not a good thing, since we were both feeling the effects of our two glasses of tea. But we were in luck! The guidebooks were misguided, and the ferry actually runs at a quarter past and a quarter to the hour! Saved!! Kim bravely steered us on board the ferry, following the directions of the boatman that no one else seemed to need. I reckon most of the folks on this late afternoon ferry are on it twice a day, every day. So it goes without saying that they all had a big laugh when the horn sounded and we about jumped out of the sunroof! We ate some of our cookies to take our minds off the fact that there were no facilities on board, and that worked pretty well, in case you ever need a good remedy. The ride was short and uneventful, the best kind, and soon we were leaving the ferry in a cloud of dust and making our way into St. Francisville.
Our lodging for the night – St. Francisville Inn and Wine Parlor
You’ve likely guessed that St. Francisville was named for none other than THE St. Francis, he of the friend to birds and other animals. The town grew up around one of the French Catholic monasteries that dotted this area of Louisiana, and it is home to many well-preserved homes and antebellum manors. We had plans to see a few of these in the light of day, which was fading fast, but we had no plans for dinner or lodging. We had called a few places on our way into town but had not found a place to sleep yet. No worries! We pulled into a gas station to see what our options were, and when I looked up, it was to see a sign that said “St. Francisville Inn and Wine Parlor”, and we were right next door to it! So, guess where we stayed?
The proprietor, Laurie Walsh, couldn’t have been nicer, and soon we had a key to our B&B room with two beds, which is not an easy thing to find! She also gave us a map of a walking tour and told us which restaurants were still serving (after all, it was 7:30!!!) and so around the corner we went, to George’s Feliciana. Even though it was our only choice, it was a GREAT one!! I thought I’d have a light supper of a shrimp remoulade salad and some corn and shrimp soup, and Kim opted for a shrimp po’boy. Then we threw in an order of sweet potato fries, just because. Well, when our order was ready, there was enough food on our tray to feed the whole restaurant! I have to tell you, my soup was really yummy, but my salad, which was FULL of lemony shrimp and lined with huge chunks of avocado and tomatoes, was to die for!! I ate every last bite! Kim couldn’t begin to eat all of her sandwich, which must have had about a pound of fried shrimp on it and around it. Needless to say, the BUCKET of sweet potato fries went largely untouched, which was too bad, because the ones we did eat were perfect. We were not even tempted to even think about ordering pie, which looked yummy, too.
Gigantic and delicious shrimp saladAnyone hungry? We had a gracious plenty!
I forgot to say that we had attempted to eat at a little place across the street at the V3 Motor Lodge, but the Baldwin Sisters were playing and they stopped serving soup and sandwiches at 7:30. Got lucky, I guess! Sometimes it pays to be slow. We shuffled our over-stuffed selves back to our room to watch the rest of MNF (Go Colts!) and do a little blogging, even though we had no internet. Can’t have everything, but now you know how easy it is for me to get behind on these trips!
I was sound asleep before Peyton was able to work his weekly miracle, but Kim saw the demise of the Dolphins and then could rest easy. It was time to head north in earnest, but we sure have enjoyed our time in Cajun country!
Amazingly, I was clear-headed this morning but seriously wondering why on earth we agreed to a 9 AM start! I got my day going right with a large glass of iced tea from the Starbucks in the lobby of the hotel, and that turned out to be one smart move! Sunday morning in N’awlins means Café du Monde for beignets, so off we went. There was more activity than I expected at this hour, and it was hot, hot, hot already. But we didn’t have to wait long, and soon we were stuffing our faces with those hot, melt-in-your-mouth, powdered sugar-coated morsels that make me drool just writing about them. We sat and savored them for as long as we could, given the people in line waiting for their turn at nirvana.
We strolled around the shops near Jackson Square, buying some pralines and a few little lagniappes for friends back home. We got a kick out of the street performers and the buggy drivers, and Alex and Kim bought some art from the street vendors. We took our time getting back to the hotel, and when we got there, we saw Storm Troopers (from Star Wars) in the lobby. Go figure. We dropped off our purchases, and everyone got a glass of tea to go this time. It was HOT! Even though we had just eaten (a seemingly non-stop activity this weekend), we walked over to Canal Street to catch the St. Charles streetcar so that we could have lunch at the Camellia Grill.
The streetcar ride was lots of fun and something I had not done before. Kim was really getting her money’s worth for her first trip to the Big Easy! We rode past the Garden District – great houses! – and past the Audubon Zoo, and Tulane, Loyola, and Newcomb on our way to the end of the line and the treats that awaited us there. The Camellia Grill is an institution that almost met its end, but has been resurrected. You’ll want to make plans to get there as soon as you can!
Our wait wasn’t too long, and it just gave us time to digest breakfast. Soon we were at least inside, in the AC, waiting for our turn at the counter. White-coated, bow-tied waiters and cooks worked with flair and economy of movement as they grilled, fried, and soda-jerked our burgers, onion rings, fries, and shakes. And they had the most awesome crushed ice!! My all-time favorite meal – loaded cheeseburger and onion rings – stick a fork in me now ‘cause I am DONE!!! It was SO GOOD!!! We absolutely could not eat a piece of pie this time! Josh, our waiter, even filled up my giant Sonic cup with that wonderful ice, and we were ready for the ride back to the hotel.
This time, our streetcar driver wouldn’t let me on because my cup of precious ice had no lid, so I had to toss it…so sad!! So I didn’t enjoy that ride back as much as I would have!! By the time we got back, it was our late checkout time – Kim and I had miles to go and Rex had a plane to catch, but Jim and Alex weren’t leaving until Monday. I’m not sure I could have eaten or drunk any more rich New Orleans food! We said our goodbyes to the guys and headed down to the car, and it probably won’t surprise you to know that we had an interesting adventure just trying to get out of New Orleans. Never a dull moment in the car with us! But we made it, and soon we were crossing the Huey P. Long bridge (or at least an annex of the bridge!) and were on our way to Houma.
We were going to Houma to see my friends Rod and Beulah, who had befriended Rex and me and fed and housed us four years ago when we were in Houma to build a Volunteer Village to house people who were coming to aid with relief from Hurricane Katrina. The village is still being used, as relief still continues for a part of the state that was very badly damaged yet receives little notice from the rest of the world. Camp Good Earth is run by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. It was no surprise to me that Beulah is still a force! My daughter, Kim, and I stopped in to visit Rod and Beulah last summer when we were on our way home from Austin – it is always good to be in their home.
Houma is deep in the heart of Cajun country, and Rod is a bona fide Cajun (and boy, can he cook, too!!) Back in the day, he used to host a Cajun radio show, in the native tongue, and he plays in Cajun bands. We headed even deeper into Acadian Louisiana, bound for Lafayette. We passed bayou after bayou, noting the ‘bear crossing’ signs with interest. Hmmm – we would have to find out more about that!
It was almost dark by the time we found our hotel in Lafayette, and Lee the Garmin man was hell-bent to send us through the hood to get to the restaurant we were going to. It’s not easy finding things open on Sunday night (by night, I mean after about 7:30) so we headed to Prejean’s, which was open. Good choice, once we got there! I had corn and crab chowder and crawfish enchiladas, and Kim had a huge bowl of shrimp gumbo. More good eats!
We had an easier time getting back to the hotel, and were looking forward to learning about Cajun country over the next few days.
How lovely it was to sleep in this morning!! We had a date to meet Jim and Alex in the lobby at 11:15, so we were able to take our time. No breakfast needed, as we were heading for a gastronomic experience at Galatoire’s, a New Orleans institution – and it was just down the street, so no worries! Alex is a NOLA planner extraordinaire, and we were along for the ride and loving every minute of it! Even Jim and I were on time for this fine day, so off we went. Let the good times roll!
Galatoire’s opens at 11:30 and doesn’t take reservations for the downstairs dining room, so we made sure to be there early. First stop – the upstairs bar. Bloody Marys for Jim and me, Mimosas for Rex and Kim, and a brandy milk punch for Alex, and before we had finished them, it was time to get our table. Jim and Alex are regulars here on their trips to New Orleans, and Bryant is their server of choice – we can see why! He was great! Baskets of fresh bread were waiting on us, and our drinks were quickly refilled. Garlic bread was next, followed closely by shrimp remoulade and oysters en brochette. We had a couple of salads, one with shrimp and one with crabmeat, then it was time for the main courses. Alex and I had two of our favorite things – Eggs Benedict and a filet, Jim had broiled drum, Rex had Poisson meuniere amandine, and Kim had a filet. I think. We also ordered cauliflower au gratin, onion rings, and asparagus with Hollandaise to share, and there was plenty of Bearnaise sauce for our meat. Rex, Jim, and I decided to try a Pimm’s Cup, and Kim and Alex stuck to beer.
One thing I love about New Orleans restaurants, beside the obvious, is that they are lined with mirrors so you can see everything going on around you. We had fun people watching, and were pretty sure we had spotted a celebrity. Kim recognized Laurie from Trading Spaces, and sure enough, she and her husband were there celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary. We sang Happy Birthday about half a dozen times (but not to Rex!), too. The table behind us looked like the Sopranos had come to town, complete with a little kid who looked like Eddie Munster and who kept falling asleep between courses.
You may think we’d eaten so much that we couldn’t possibly want more, but there was more! Alex had arranged for us to have some Café’ Brulot (a brandied coffee drink that Bryant flamed at our table), and I even had two cups of it. And I HATE coffee!!! Out came dessert – a couple of chocolate sundaes for Jim, Kim, and Alex and an order of banana bread pudding (not banana bread, but bread pudding with bananas) for Rex and me. Oh my. When we looked at the time, it was 3:30 – we had been there for FOUR HOURS!!!! What a special treat!! Thanks, ALEX!! When you come to New Orleans next time, make sure you save time for Galatoire’s!
We waddled back to the hotel thinking we might spend some time by the pool (don’t ask what we were thinking – I had not brought a maternity bathing suit with me and I’m sure the one I had wouldn’t hold me after that lunch!!) but there were too many young people out there, so we just put on our shorts and t-shirts and went for a walk. Somehow we ended up at a bar, one that may be the oldest continually operated bar in the country. It was Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which we thought was fitting, since Saturday was “Talk Like a Pirate Day”. It is home of the Voodoo, a frozen concoction that tastes like a grape Icee but is full of vodka. A most dangerous combination!! We all had to have one, of course, and since Florida was kicking Tennessee’s butt, some of us (Jim, Alex, and I) had a second one for the road.
This time we walked down to Jackson Square, watching street performers and just taking in the sights. I loved seeing all of the creative hanging signs outside the shops that lined the streets, and the balconies covered with lush green plants and laced with wrought iron were so pretty! Somehow, we ended up back at the voodoo place, where the three of us had yet another drink. What were we thinking?? By 8:30 or 9:00, we were thinking we might should eat (what?!?!) so we got a table at Mona Lisa’s pizza, where I am told we enjoyed really good garlic cheese bread and a couple of pizzas.
It was a fun, full day, but it was time to call it a night. We walked back to the hotel (wasn’t this a cool shadow we saw along the way?) and made plans for the morning, and I’m sure the rest of the gang didn’t think I’d remember enough to write this! And I know David and Kim enjoyed getting our (possible impaired) text messages from the Mona Lisa!!
It would have been the perfect Saturday if the Vols had won…
Although we had very few ideas about what we might be seeing in Natchez today, we were excited to find out what the possibilities were and we were stoked to know we’d be in New Orleans by dinner time. At least, that was the plan!! We found a little breakfast place on one of the downtown streets and tried to be a little healthier than usual. We split a yogurt, granola, and fruit cup, and Kim had a cranberry orange muffin (she said it was like eating cake!) and I had a blueberry scone that was about the size of a softball. I didn’t even eat half of it!! We asked the nice lady in the coffee shop what we shouldn’t leave Natchez without seeing, and she suggested St. Mary’s Basilica, just around the corner, and the Longwood Plantation, also not far away. We already knew we would be driving out of town past Mammy’s Cupboard, so that seemed like a good start – we could always come back through this way on the flip side.
We had noticed the basilica on our way to the hotel last night, even commenting on it, but we hadn’t known what it was. There was a lovely park just behind the church – trees festooned with Spanish moss, a gorgeous fountain, a Civil War statue, and benches set in shady spots. We walked around the corner to the TALL front doors of the building – it was quite an imposing ediface! After taking a few photos from the outside and noting that mass was at 8:30 AM (it was about 11 AM), we started to go into the sanctuary when we realized there was a service of some sort going on, so we made a note to stop back in on our trip home, because the stained glass windows are supposed to be stunning.
Off we went to Longwood, following the instructions on the Garmin, so we saw neighborhoods that most people would have missed. We passed several other plantations on the way, so we wondered what made Longwood so special. We pulled into the drive and were instantly transported to an earlier time, driving down a long drive under an arcade of trees full of Spanish moss. Our first glimpse of the house was impressive – it was very tall, and it was octagonal! We couldn’t wait to see the inside of it! We parked and found our way into the gift shop, which was darling and full of funny books about the South, lots of good sounding cookbooks, postcards, and little pretties. We did a bit of shopping as we waited for our tour to start – reading material for the road!
As is typical on many of these tours, we could not take pictures of the main floor, so I won’t be able to share a whole lot with you, but here are a few of the details I remember. The house was the dream of Dr. Haller Nutt, who wanted a different kind of plantation home, hence the shape and style of the house. To build the facade, a kiln for making bricks was built on the property and 750,000 bricks were produced here. At the time the war broke out, the facade was finished, as was the 10,000 square foot basement, consisting of nine rooms. The house was six stories and would have 30,000 square feet of finished space when it was done, but most of the builders and craftsmen were from Pennsylvania and other states in the northeast, so they left most of their tools and supplies and went home. At the time, people thought this ‘uprising’ would be settled quickly, so the workers thought they would soon be back to finish their work. As you may have guessed, this never happened.
The war lasted four years, Dr. Nutt lost his fortune and then died before the end of the war, and his wife and eight children lived in the finished basement of the house for the duration. As hard as it is for me to believe, the house NEVER got finished, yet it somehow survived. It was finally purchased by a Texas man who has stipulated that it never be completed but that it be open for the public to enjoy as it is.
One thing that adds to it’s historical value – since the facade was completed and the flooring put in for the other floors, the top five stories of the house were used for storage. That means that almost EVERYTHING – packing crates, even for the piano – was stored in the house and many of the original boxes are still there. Be sure to visit it when you come to Natchez! Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, and you can tell that the people caring for and showing this house really love it!
Although we were sure when we started out this morning that we would be on the road before Mammy’s Cupboard opened for the day, we were now going to be lucky to get there before it closed! Only open from 11-2 and closed on Mondays, we were afraid if we missed it today, we might have missed it for good. The Garmin sent us off in exactly the opposite direction than we should have gone, but common sense, a phone call, and the iphone got us to Mammy’s. And yes, Mammy’s could be considered politically incorrect, although she is now painted more of a flesh-tone than I’m sure she used to be, but who could help but want to eat lunch under the skirts of a 28 foot tall woman? Okay, that didn’t sound exactly the way I intended it, but maybe you get the picture. If not, look at our picture and then go to http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/3344 for the rest of the story.
Even though we were still stuffed from breakfast, we could not resist lunch here! Homemade bread, delicious sandwiches, and mile high pies – oh my goodness!!! My roast turkey sandwich came with avocado and blueberry chutney, and it was served with homemade vegetable soup and a side of potato salad. It was SO GOOD!!! Kim had a ham sandwich that looked equally tasty, but so that we could have some pie, we each only ate half of our sandwiches, then we shared a piece of chocolate icebox pie (we only shared it because it was the last piece…) We could not wait to come back here when we were really hungry!!
By now we were afraid Rex would arrive in New Orleans before we did, so we skedaddled off down Highway 61 (the Blues Highway) bound for Baton Rouge and New Orleans. No more stops for us (except for tea!) and we probably passed the airport about the time Rex’s plane landed!! But since we were sure we would have already been in NOLA and drinking by then, we’d had Kim’s friends Jim and Alex arrange a ride for Rex! We found our way into the city, to the hotel, and into the parking garage without incident, and soon we were joining Jim and Alex for drinks at the Old Absinthe House, just across the street from our hotel. Rex got there not long after we did, so our New Orleans party weekend could officially begin. I probably forgot to mention that we were celebrating Rex’s double-nickel birthday, which is really on the 26th, and ORIGINALLY, the rest of his family (adults, not our kids) were to be partying with us. We see how well that went over…they won’t know what fun they missed and will have to read about it here!!
We met some of Jim and Alex’s friends at the bar – thanks for the great hotel rooms, Allison!! – and then went back to the Royal Sonesta to make arrangements for dinner. Russell, the concierge, set us up with late reservations at Clancy’s, on Annunciation in Uptown New Orleans. We cleaned up a bit, then took a taxi over to St. Joe’s Bar for a drink before dinner. It was a cool bar complete with church pews and other icons. We sat out on the back porch until it was time to walk over to Clancy’s.
Clancy’s was a hopping place – packed with people (mostly local, I’d say) having a good time and enjoying great food – and it was loud! I’m sure I won’t remember what everyone else had, but I got some shrimp and crab gumbo, the Clancy’s crab salad, and an order of fried green tomatoes. With crabmeat! Rex and Kim got the gumbo, too, and I think Jim and Alex got salads. Jim and Alex got veal, Kim got the same crab salad I did, and Rex got the lobster risotto that I was thinking about ordering – saved! We had a pretty long wait for dinner (good thing the bread was good!) but it was worth it – delish!! We split some desserts – Kim, Jim, and Alex shared a big brownie with ice cream, and Rex and I had a frozen lemon pie. Oh man, we hit the mother lode! That pie was fantastic!!
Somehow, we made it back to the French Quarter and walked around a bit. Kim had never been to Nawlins, so we made the obligatory trip to Pat O’Brien’s for a nightcap. The streets were wild – it’s Friday night – so we saw all we needed to see and then went back to rest up for our big lunch date at Galatoire’s. I probably gained five pounds today – it was great!!
We got off to a fairly early start, at least for us, in Tupelo. Not finding any mention of good breakfast places in any of our books, we went looking on our own and arrived at Shockley’s, which looked pretty grim, outside and in, but had decent enough breakfast. Kim liked her hash browns and said her ham was mighty tasty. I had a cheese omelet, which was fine. Since the atmosphere was depressing (think school cafeteria, or worse), we didn’t linger. Besides, we were off to see where Elvis grew up.
We’ve learned that no matter where we travel, Elvis finds us – hunts us down and pretty much haunts us – and begs us to have something to do with him. So here we were in his birthplace, Tupelo, Mississippi. Did we have a choice? It was not difficult to find the two-room shotgun shack that Vernon Presley built for his wife and what was to have been twins, but instead was the larger-than-life Elvis. Sadly, two tour busloads of people, some from England, had beat us to the punch, so we opted not to pay money to stand in a single file line to go through the house. We got photos of the actual Assembly of God church where Elvis and his parents attended (it had been moved to the site, complete with an outhouse, which I’m not sure belonged with the church or the house) and where Elvis first discovered gospel music. We saw a modern chapel with brilliant stained glass windows that was built and dedicated to Elvis’s memory after his death, and then we stood around the Fountain of Life, which marked the years Elvis lived in Tupelo. I thought the most interesting exhibit was an outdoor wall which was lined with memories about Elvis from the now-grown children that he went to school with and played with as a boy in Tupelo. They painted a picture of a poor but proud boy who always knew he would be somebody and who had a God-given talent for music. The house looked much better than it probably ever did when Elvis lived in it, and it was encircled by a sidewalk of squares commemorating every year of Elvis’s life (but only telling things about the Tupelo years). Did you know Vernon had been imprisoned when Elvis was young? The family moved to Memphis when Elvis was entering his teen years in hopes of finding a better job for Vernon and a better life for the family.
After a quick Sonic stop for our morning tea, we were back on the Trace, headed for Natchez. The sky was not promising, and the weather reports were grim – RAIN, and lots of it, was predicted for the whole southeast. We were not sure we would be able to avoid it today. The first interesting thing we saw along the parkway was another Indian burial mound site, but we just did a drive-by and didn’t stop to see them. We did stop at French Camp, which turned out to be most enlightening. French Camp was established by Louis LeFleur as a stand (inn) in 1812, and it became a school for boys in 1822. It later had a sister school for girls that served as a finishing school, which burned down long ago. Today French Camp Academy is a private Christian boarding and day school serving area youth. There was a house that’s been restored, a blacksmith shop, an old school building that now serves as a museum, and several other outbuildings, and they make sorghum here in the fall. We spent about an hour just poking around and talking to the museum lady (don’t think she gets much business) who showed us her senior picture (class of 1947) from FCA. The sun was shining brightly, and it felt like you would expect a summer day in Mississippi to feel – a little sticky! While looking at the house, we came across a mother cat and three little kittens – that was about the extent of our excitement.
Our next stop was the town of Kosciusko, which you may have heard of since it is Oprah’s birthplace. It was named for a Polish general who served with Washington in the Revolutionary War. He was an amazing engineer who designed many forts all over the eastern US and who fortified West Point. We had a little picnic at the welcome center here, where the nice folks manning the desk allowed me to charge my laptop while we ate. We sat out on the slightly damp picnic benches and had the pimiento cheese from Glasgow on our leftover rolls from Nashville, the tomatoes we bought in Danville, and some almonds that Kim had brought. It was all good!
The crazy weather continued after we got back on the Parkway – it rained on us while the sun was shining. We were getting so frustrated because we couldn’t find the rainbow that we KNEW had to be there!! This ended up being a theme for the afternoon, as this action was repeated about six times! At one point, we pulled off at a turnoff just to try to find the rainbow, and instead we happened upon the most lovely sight – the Pearl River, covered with lily pads and with several beautiful birds wading in the water. We finally found a couple of rainbows, too!
We pulled into the parking lot of the Cypress Swamp and got out for a little nature hike just as the thunder started in earnest. We didn’t let it scare us and we had a really nice, albeit wet, walk through the swamp. Lots of fungi and other cool nature all around us! It is hard to believe that at one time, ALL of the cypress trees in Louisiana had been harvested. They are so pretty!
We made one other stop before it got too dark, and that was at the “waterfall” at Owens Creek. My oh my, worse than the other waterfall we stopped for, but at least this time we didn’t end up hiking down (and back up) 900 feet to see it! It started raining again, and this time it was getting dark, too, so no rainbows. We did see lots of deer lining the parkway, so Kim did well to avoid hitting them and to drive in the rain with no streetlights. By the time we arrived in Natchez, the rain had stopped.
On the way to our hotel, we passed Fat Mama’s Tamales, which I knew to be the home of “Fat Mama’s Knock You Naked Margaritas”, so we were thrilled to find it was within walking distance of the hotel. Like next door. No need to tell you where we ate dinner!! And boy, were those margaritas good!
It was pouring down rain when we got up, so we just didn’t get moving. We caught up on some computer time and were just avoiding the inevitable when we got a call from the place where our mom lives in Durham. They reported that mom had been found on the floor next to her bed that morning, and that while she seemed okay, could I please come take her to the doctor? Needless to say, that was a no, so they took her to the ER at Duke, where she spent the day but was released in good shape. David and Rex went to visit her last night and said she seemed none the worse for wear and that she apparently just rolled out of the bed in her sleep. We are grateful that it was nothing more!
We had thought we might go back to the Loveless Café for breakfast, but Laura had told us about another place we might want to try called Barbara’s Home Cookin’ on Old Hillsboro Road. It was almost 11:30 and still raining by the time we got over there, but boy, was it worth it. We were greeted at the door by a lovely South African woman and a sign that said “Barbara’s Home Cookin’ welcomes all families HOWEVER, unruly children Will Be DEEP FRIED (the secret is in the sauce)” – ya gotta love it! We had the CUTEST server in the world named Matt. We knew we loved him when he brought us a basket of three huge hot rolls with our iced teas. For those of you Clark School kids who remember how you never wanted to miss Thursdays because it was hot roll day in the cafeteria – these were the closest thing to those that I’ve had in years! Heaven in a yeast roll, with a huge bowl of butter, too!
NOTE: Barbara’s Home Cookin’ closed in December 2025 after being in business for almost 30 years.
Matt proceeded to help us order from the giant blackboard right above our table. Kim chose a vegetable plate with cucumber and tomato salad, broccoli cheese casserole, and fried okra, and I had a scoop of the chicken salad on top of a bed of spinach with feta cheese and fresh fruit – strawberries, grapes, and oranges – with a little yummy dressing. Right after we ordered, one of Kim’s college roommates, Debbie, called. She lives just up the road, so she came over and joined us. She got the poppyseed chicken casserole with turnip greens and zucchini and tomato casserole. Dessert proved to be impossible to resist – we were going to share the peach cobbler, until it became either blackberry or blueberry, so I went for the chocolate chip bread pudding with caramel sauce, and Kim had ice cream. Debbie abstained, and she also didn’t eat her basket of rolls, so we took them with us to go with our pimiento cheese. We wanted to take Matt with us, but we didn’t have room in the car…
It was still raining when we left Barbara’s, so Debbie led us to the terminus of the Natchez Trace, which is right next to the Loveless. It was almost two when we started off, and it’s 444 miles of 40 to 50 mph parkway. Yikes! Right away we pulled off to photograph the beautiful Birdsong Hollow bridge, and the rain even let up some. The bridge is 155 feet above the valley below, and its double-arch construction has won design awards.
We considered stopping at the historic Leiper’s Fork, but it was raining too hard to be worth it. The rain was short-lived, though, once we got going on the Trace, and we stopped off at several overlooks, historic sights, and hiking spots along the way. In fact, we stopped so much that after almost three hours, we’d only covered about 50 miles! We hiked down about 900 feet to see a waterfall that we thought would be raging, given the recent rains, but we were wrong. It was better than the Western Australia waterfall, but it was not much! We stopped at an old tobacco barn and were able to drive about a mile down an original section of the Trace, and we hiked down to a place where there was a ferryboat landing, way back in the day. We stopped at Meriwether Lewis’s grave, crossed the bridge spanning the Tennessee River, and saw several ancient Indian burial mounds. For those of you unfamiliar with the Natchez Trace, make plans to drive it someday when you are not in a hurry to get anywhere. It was originally a buffalo trail, then an Indian one, and then it was a postal route from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Now it’s a parkway, similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway, just without the mountains. It’s a beautiful drive!
It was almost dark when we rolled into Tupelo and found our hotel. We got the car unloaded and then went to Harvey’s, a local restaurant. Great food and friendly service! Kim and I both had Blue Moons, then she had a salad and I had the tenderloin kabobs with rice pilaf, vegetables, and a side salad. We split a delicious coconut chess pie for dessert, then headed back to the hotel. We had a long drive ahead of us tomorrow since we still had about 270 miles of Parkway to go before we got to Natchez.
As predicted, the day dawned a bit on the overcast side. We wondered why we had not saved the cave for today, but since it sounded like it was REALLY raining in the area where we would be going, we decided to spend a little more time in Kentucky. After getting clean in our little slanty wigwam shower, we headed out into a little Mother Nature shower, bound for the Cream and Sugar Cafe that we passed yesterday in Cave City. It was a lovely space, with a hardwood floor and cheery yellow walls filled with original art. Our server was a little ray of sunshine on this cloudy day, and our breakfast arrived in a jiffy on darling little cherry plates. Kim had country (not city) ham and eggs with a biscuit, and I got the Highlander omelet – ham, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and cheese – with a biscuit. The perfect way to start the day!
Here’s how nice they are at Cream and Sugar – my friend Anne liked the dishes in this picture so much that she emailed the cafe, and they wrote her right back with info about where to purchase them!
[NOTE: Cream & Sugar Cafe is permanently closed. So sad.]
Our morning’s destination was Kentucky Down Under, an attraction in nearby Horse Cave that boasted a collection of Australian animals, a cave, and several other items of interest. Since I’ve just returned from Australia, I thought it would be funny to have pictures of kangaroos taken in Kentucky! We got there just in time for the 10 AM cave tour, which we weren’t necessarily planning to take, but when we heard it was a short tour and that the cave had lots of formations, we changed our minds. Our tour guide, Shannon, was a local girl whose grandfather had led tours of this same cave. The only other cavers with us were a mom and her four-year-old son, so we got personal attention. This cave is called Mammoth Onyx Cave, as the owners of this land tried to catch tourists before they got to Mammoth Cave (back in the day).
The cave was allegedly discovered by a young girl in 1799, who stumbled upon the entrance (a 30 foot deep sinkhole) while she was playing in the woods. When the owners first began exploiting the cave as a tourist attraction, visitors climbed down (and back up) a wooden ladder through this hole. Imagine the clothes women wore back in the early 19th century and picture that! Since this small cave is open to the surface and is not protected by a sandstone layer like Mammoth Cave is, it is a wet cave and therefore has lots of wonderful formations. It was slippery going in the cave, and some of the passages were quite narrow, but the formations were pretty cool. My favorite one looked like a chocolate fountain! The colors ranged from a light brownish yellow to deep red-orange to chocolate brown. Early visitors to the cave were allowed to break off pieces of stalactites to take home as souvenirs, but today more care is taken to protect the cave.
There was a small pond in the cave that used to be a home to eyeless fish and crawfish, but they are no longer living due to the number of pennies that were thrown into the pond by sightseers (over $20,000 worth!) One of the fun things they always do in caves is turn out all of the lights so that you can experience utter darkness – it is always a surprise to me how very BLACK it is with no light, and how even one little light can illuminate so much! On the way back up the stairs and out of the cave we spotted several small (two or three inch long) salamanders, which is a good sign for the health of the cave. Thankfully, even though it had been overcast and much rain was predicted for the day, we didn’t get flooded down in the cave. Shannon told us she had given tours ankle deep in water!
Back out in the heat and the light (did I mention the humidity?), we went to our first Down Under exhibit, which was about bringing non-native plants and animals to the continent of Australia. I found it interesting that there was no mention of bringing non-native animals (like kangaroos) to the US, but maybe that’s just me. The presenter of this exhibit, Jesse, did a great job. He talked about seemingly non-threatening animals that the British introduced that have since caused much harm, chief among them being rabbits. The Australians had even built a LONG ‘vermin-proof’ fence in Western Australia just to keep rabbits out of the many sheep stations there. Of course, the rabbits just burrowed under it. Other animals he talked about were dogs, sheep, goats, and camels. The camel turned out to be a good thing, as it was good for traversing the desert which occupies so much of the interior of Australia. We met Camelia (original name, huh?) and then we were on to our next stop – the kangaroos!
The exhibit here had three kinds of kangaroos – the reds, the Eastern grays, and the smaller wallabies. We were able to pet a couple of them, but most of the kangas were just lying around being lazy. They were cute, though, and it sure was funny to see them in Kentucky! Also in the enclosure were black swans and emus. We got to pet an emu, too, and feel how thick its feathers are. No wonder it can’t fly – they were heavy! From the kangaroo pen, we walked over to the lorikeets. These birds were by far my favorite Australian birds – they are so colorful! Green, blue, red, and yellow – just like a rainbow of birds. These guys knew it was feeding time, and they could hardly wait until we got in the pen. One landed on Kim’s shoulder and stayed there the whole time! Another stopped on her head for a little while, but it was really funny to see the birds on the heads of the bald men!
We had missed the border collie shepherding event, but we got to feed some lambs and see several different kinds of rams. I didn’t realize that some rams do not have horns, and I surely didn’t know that one variety of ram can have up to twenty horns!! The little boy who had been on our cave tour also got to milk this GIANT cow. From here, we went through the exhibit that had lots of different bird cages. The birds are so exotic and pretty! We had missed the morning digeridoo recital, and we chose not to wait for the 3:00 show, so after a quick stop at the dingo pen, we were on our way. This was a nice little park and one I would recommend if you find yourself in the area for a few hours.
Since we were trying to let the southern torrential rains work their way east before we went south, we decided to take the Cordell Hull Scenic Byway down to Tompkinsville, KY instead of going straight to Nashville. This route took us through the metropolis of Glasgow, where we got hungry for some lunch. Even though we had our Road Food book with us, it was of no use in this part of the state. As much as I’ve liked most of the places I’ve eaten on the Sterns’ recommendation, my biggest gripe about their books is that often, you need to stay in one area for many meals, and then you might go hungry before you find your next good place to eat! You’ve probably realized that our trips are as much about food as anything, and we’ve learned to sniff out the local eateries pretty well. Now with Garmins and iphones, in addition to AAA and books like Road Food, it’s even easier. And so we found ourselves navigating the streets of Glasgow, circling the town square and landing in the parking lot of the Li’l Country Diner, a very non-descript looking building with a large, mostly empty, gravel parking lot. Given that it was about 2:00, this didn’t dissuade us. Good thing, ‘cause there were some good eats inside! We got the meat and two, for which both of us chose roast beef and gravy, mashed potatoes (and gravy), and green beans. I also succumbed to the pull of a freshly made deviled egg, and of course we each had a roll and a huge glass of iced tea with lemon. The pie of the day was butterscotch, but for once we were able to control ourselves. We did have the foresight to take a half-pint of homemade pimiento cheese with us, and you can’t beat the prices here – both of our lunches, plus the cheese, cost under $15…
[NOTE: I think this place is closed, too.]
Off we went, stopping at the Sonic for our road tea, headed for Tompkinsville, where we didn’t know what we might find. The road was pretty and before too long we were there. We saw signs for the Old Mulkey Meeting House, so we went to see what that was. It was a lovely old log church meeting house, set in the woods next to some old cemeteries. In the afternoon mist it made a great picture. Several of Daniel Boone’s relatives, including his sister, were buried there. Sheila, the lady at the visitor center told us that back in town, Tompkinsville was famous for its Rolley Hole Marble players. She suggested that we stop in at the Monroe County Marble Club Super Dome and watch some marbles being played. She gave us a map and a description of Rolley Hole marbles, so off we went.
Well, I’m not exactly sure what I expected, but this was NOT it!! I’m afraid a written description won’t do it justice, and neither will my photos – you sort of had to be there! To get to the Dome, we hung a left at the IGA and went past the Armory and its many warnings and no trespassing signs, and then we came upon a sort of Quonset hut-like structure, if Quonset huts were made of wood and looked like they could fall down any time. Since we were looking for a dome, we were a little surprised, but since the road ended in the parking lot (I use the term loosely), we figured this was the place. Then we saw the ‘marquee’ that said Monroe County Rolley Hole Marble Dome and we were sure we were in the right place. We were soon greeted by three men who somehow knew we were not regulars there! We were just hoping we weren’t about to become permanent residents. But we needn’t have worried – they were very hospitable and invited us into the inner sanctum.
The arena consisted of a large dirt (special dirt) floor marked off by a wooden wall about 8-10 inches high. The court (?) rink (?) was surrounded by chairs and recliners in all stages of disrepair. Sort of like a LaZBoy hospice. Or cemetery. In the middle of the court were three shallow holes, apparently where you want the marbles to end up. The shooters that the men use are made of flint or granite and can be different sizes. They can make you one, if you forgot yours. The place was even air-conditioned, if you count fans and large open doors as air conditioning. I’m thinking it could get cold in there in the winter!
HERE is a great article about the Rolley Hole Super Dome and the men who play there. Spoiler alert, they are WORLD CHAMPION Rolley Hole players! And if you have a dead recliner, send it to Tompkinsville, KY. They can use it at the Marble Dome!
These were our hosts at the Rolley Hole Super Dome.
On the way out of town, we stopped at the IGA to get supplies for the road – saltines for our pimiento cheese, cold brew tea bags, and ice. We were good to go! We had thought we might take scenic route KY 100 over to Scottsville before heading south to Nashville, but after our recent Close Encounter of the Deliverance Kind, we just went south!
Right past the Tennessee state line, we came face-to-face with a grazing buffalo, and then we started seeing some large horse farms. Soon we were nearing Gallatin and surely we were passing some homes of country music stars – big spreads! Kim’s son’s girlfriend, Laura, works in Gallatin, so we gave her a call and stopped in to see her. We invited her to dinner with us and made arrangements for our room for the night, and then we took off for Franklin via downtown Nashville. Even at 6 PM and leaving about 15 minutes after we did, Laura had time to go to the grocery before Lee (our Garmin mate) had gotten us through the center of town. We did get a good look at the Titans stadium, the Cumberland River, the old Union Station, and the state Capitol though! We drove right through Vanderbilt’s campus and eventually got to our hotel in Brentwood. Laura met us there and we enjoyed being in civilization by getting sushi at Peter’s Sushi in Cool Springs. I got Spicy Catfish (a Thai entrée) and Kim and Laura got sushi rolls. We didn’t see anyone famous except In the photos on the walls.
We were grateful to have made it to Tennessee and to have missed most of the rain, although it was POURING when we got home from dinner. Tomorrow, it’s Natchez Trace time!
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.
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!!
We were up early for the exciting festivities of the day, but it was still later than we wanted it to be by the time we got going. We went back to the area where we were last night, since we had seen a little diner that we were hoping would be open. Sure enough, the “Open” light was glowing in the window of the Backstretch Diner, so we found a booth and settled in. We were glad to see country ham on the menu, so we both ordered it – that is some good eatin’! The diner was not full, but was doing a brisk business – well, not too brisk – we had to wait a pretty long time for our food, but it was tasty.
After breakfast, we stopped at a little bakery across the street and got some cookies for the road – you never know when you might find yourself out in the middle of nowhere… We were so impressed that the young girl behind the counter at the bakery tied our box with string, although it was clear she had grown up there. Her pictures, from birth to present, were covering the walls of this family-owned shop. Any place that you can get freshly baked cookies at 9 AM is all right with me!
From cookies to candy we went – straight to the Rebecca Ruth candy factory, which is housed in a house! There’s a wonderful story here but all you really need to know is that they make the BEST bourbon balls, as they should, since they invented them! It’s hard to believe that all this delicious candy is made in this little factory inside a house on a regular street in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Around the corner we went, and soon we were standing on the front steps of Kentucky’s state capitol. We found it to be one of the most beautiful capitol buildings we’ve seen, and we make it a habit to stop in any capitols we happen on as we travel. We had to laugh though, to realize that even though we spent our first 18 years living in Kentucky, we had never been to our own state capitol. Guess that’s what happens when your parents are from Tennessee! I was most surprised to see that Kentucky honors Jefferson Davis in its rotunda – not that I think they shouldn’t, I was just surprised they did. It has always been interesting to me that both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were from Kentucky, a border state that never went one way or the other during the War Between the States. Of course, we’re still a bit backwards here in Kentucky, since smack in the middle of the First Lady Inaugural Ball Dress exhibit was Martha Layne Collins, and she was the GOVERNOR, not a first lady!!!!! What gives there?
Capitol buildings intrigue me, too – some are in small towns like Frankfort, in the middle of a very normal, middle-class neighborhood, while some are in the center of huge cities. Some are surrounded by security and official looking cars and signs, and some you just walk right in without seeing anyone around, but ALL of them are such works of art, built at a time when building was not easy, and I always wonder if buildings like this could even be built today. They are a testament to the power of our government, too – democracy in action, buildings that house the people who we elected to make the laws of our states. Check out your own capitol someday!
We stepped out the back door of the capitol in search of the Floral Clock that Kentucky is famous for. Never heard about it? Here’s what the website says: There are other flower clocks in the world — one in Canada at Niagara Falls, some in Europe, and smaller ones in the United States. Kentucky’s is unique because it keeps time over a pool of water instead of resting on a bank of earth. The face of the giant clock is 34 feet across. The planter that holds it weighs 100 tons. Dedicated in 1961, the floral clock was a project of the Commonwealth and the Garden Club of Kentucky. We had a little trouble finding it, but it’s hard to hide a 34 foot clock made of flowers!
From the stately halls of the capitol, we went in search of a truly Kentucky Saturday afternoon event – the Great Outhouse Blowout, which would be held on the grounds of Penn’s Store in the bustling metropolis of Gravel Switch, Kentucky. I know you think we are making this up, but we’re not. We had hoped to have time to stop in at a few distilleries along the way, but we didn’t want to miss the Privy Parade, so we chose to believe that if you’ve seen one bourbon distillery, you’ve seen them all. I know that’s not true, and we’ll probably stop in at least one more, but we have our priorities.
We had gotten directions from the website, from AAA, and we had the Garmin (Lee did NOT want us to go the way we wanted to go), but it was the Maps app on my iphone that got us there. We were afraid that we would have missed all of the outhouse action since we were running late, but not to worry, so were they!
Once again, we had the experience of driving to some remote location, not seeing any other vehicles headed our way (or even going the other way), and arriving at our destination only to find HUNDREDS of people there!! Where do they come from, and how did they get here? It’s enough to make you believe in Close Encounters of the Third Kind… We paid our entrance fee (for door prizes!) of $3, well under our $5 limit, and parked our car in the huge pasture available for parking. We could see the rolling outhouses across the meadow, so off we went. There is one paved road leading to Penn’s Store, and it was serving as the racetrack. It was turning out to be a really hot day – I was glad we didn’t have an entry into this race! We watched a few heats and talked to a couple whose daughter was running in one. They told us we had missed the near-collision of an outhouse and a loose dog on the track – no injuries, but the privy was damaged when it turned over. Hate that we missed that!
When we’d had enough, we strolled over to the store for a look see. Penn’s Store is the oldest country store in America being run continuously by the same family. It’s been in the Penn family since 1850!! You may have seen it on the Today show. There were about 20 people crammed in the shade of the store, and since that was about 18 too many, we didn’t stay to browse. We paid homage to Penn’s Privy, the outhouse that started it all (reminded us of Girl Scout Camp!) and then got in line at one of the ‘caterers’ outside, hoping for a cold drink, but waiting way too long with nothing happening. Time to get back to real life! We gave up any chance of winning a door prize and headed for the car.
With no particular plan in mind, we decided to wander over to Danville, Kentucky, home of Centre College, and another place we’d never been. It’s a pretty little town and we strolled around an almost deserted campus for a while, then drove down to Constitution Square. Danville was the capital of the Kentucky Territory of Virginia, and the constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky was written here. We stopped at a street vendor’s market along the way and bought some grape tomatoes, which were juicy and tasty. We wandered around the old buildings in Constitution Square – the first post office, a church meeting place, the jail, a tavern, and a schoolhouse – and then we took off for Louisville. You may have wondered what happened to lunch – we did, too! We broke out the cookies to sustain us for the long ride ahead. Yum.
We got to Louisville a little before five, after passing some beautiful horse farms in this lovely bluegrass section of Kentucky. The rolling hills and green (didn’t look blue to me!) grass reminded us of Amish country – it was the perfect day for a ride through the country. Once in Louisville, we checked in to our hotel and then met our friend Mike Dalton for a beer and some reminiscing. And some football! Note to Jonathan Crompton, Tennessee quarterback: The object is to throw the ball TO the guys in the bright orange uniforms. It is not like hunting, when you try NOT to hit the men in orange. I hate UCLA.
We didn’t really eat dinner either, unless you count chips as dinner, which we did. Thanks, Mike – great to see you and we appreciate the hospitality! Back to the hotel we went, where I promptly crashed and Kim watched football. It was a great day, except for Tennessee football. But go, Duke!
Our first thoughts this morning were of this date eight years ago and the lives that were lost in America that day. How much things have changed in America since then! We honor the memories of those who died and we are grateful for the men and women in the armed forces who continue to defend our borders and protect our freedoms.
Even after all of our chances to learn the “don’t start the day without eating breakfast” rule last year, we left without eating, which we would soon regret. But, we had lots we wanted to see and do today and time was a wastin’! Our first stop this morning was the Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown, KY, which Kim’s friend Jim told us about. One of his good friends from college is married to the owner, so of course, we dropped by to say hello. Kathy wasn’t in, but we loved the old (1779) place.
The Old Talbott Inn is the oldest inn in Kentucky
Next door was what used to be the old jail and is now another bed and breakfast, complete with stocks our front. We took a few photos and got ready to leave, when a man in a UK cap stopped to talk about John Calipari when he saw Kim’s Memphis Tigers license plate. He ended up telling us about lots to see and do in the area and pointed us in the direction of My Old Kentucky Home. On the way to the Home, we passed the Stephen Foster Story, so we had to stop there first. It’s an open air amphitheater that’s only open during the summer, so we wouldn’t get to see the performance. We were able to look around and go down to the stage, all the while listening to a medley of Stephen Foster songs. We were in the middle of one of Kentucky’s many state parks, most of which have really beautiful golf courses. This one is no exception, and given the nice day, the links were busy!
Just down the road was My Old Kentucky Home, originally known as Federal Hill, which was the private home of the Rowan family. Now there is a lovely visitors’ center, gift shop, meeting facility, and large outdoor rotunda and they give guided tours of the home. History tells us that Stephen Foster was related to the Rowan family and had visited them here, where he was inspired to write “My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night.” The house was HUGE – the three stories were each 13 feet tall and the rooms were big. Renovated just a couple of years ago, the house is decorated in a style befitting a family of such wealth in the 1840’s. The colors were bright and bold, and the look was really quite modern.
We couldn’t take photos inside, but here’s the exterior of My Old Kentucky Home.
The day was heating up and we felt sorry for the women dressed in period costume (well, except for the tennis shoes) who led the tours, but we were getting pretty hungry and were a little afraid we might be having a touch of low blood! Of course, the people in our little tour group kept asking questions that Tammy, our guide, didn’t know the answers to. Like, what did they use for toilet paper on the cushioned chamberpot seat? Seriously. Now we can say we daughters of Kentucky have finally been to the mecca. Weep no more, my ladies!
We couldn’t get back into town soon enough – we were so hungry! We decided to go back to the tavern, and just as we got there, Kathy called and said she’d come over to say hello. Business was booming, and Kathy arrived just as we were being seated, so she joined us at the table and then proceeded to treat us to a most delicious lunch! Thanks, Kathy!! Kim yet again showed remarkable restraint and ordered a salad, while I was lured into trying the Hot Brown. And the fried green tomatoes! Kim and I shared the tomatoes, which were beyond good. My Hot Brown was mighty fine as well. For those of you who don’t know, a Hot Brown consists of a piece of toast topped with ham, turkey, tomatoes, a supremely yummy cheese sauce, and bacon. It’s served hot and in a casserole dish – it’s a Kentucky favorite that was invented at the Brown Hotel in Louisville. Try one if you get a chance.
Cheesy perfection – a Kentucky Hot Brown
After lunch, Kathy showed us around the property – we saw the tavern, which is a hopping and lively place at night, the old pub, and some of the guest rooms at the inn. We decided to walk over to the Tom Moore Distillery to see the world’s largest bourbon barrel, so Kathy came with us. On the way, we passed the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral, which used to be the archdiocese of Kentucky until it moved to Louisville. This particular distillery used to be Barton’s, then it was Constellation Spirits, and it is in the process of becoming the Tom Moore Distillery now. We were too late for a tour, and it turns out you can only see the giant barrel on a tour. Oh well, maybe we walked off half of a fried green tomato!
On the walk back to the Tavern, we passed some fun yard art, old businesses, and great homes, and then we found ourselves at an old cemetery just behind the old jail. Turns out the tavern is supposed to be haunted, so it’s no wonder – with this ancient burial ground just next door, the ghosts don’t have far to go. We told Kathy goodbye and started down the road to Heaven Hill and Maker’s Mark, more stops on the Bourbon Trail.
We really wanted to see Maker’s Mark, where the last tour started at 3:30, so we waved as we passed Heaven Hill and took off for the tiny village of Loretto. Maker’s Mark puts on quite a show! The campus is gorgeous and I recommend taking the tour there. Did you know that if you go to their website you can become an Ambassador? Ask me how I know… That means your name will be put on a plaque (along with 29 others) which is put on a barrel of your very own bourbon. You’ll get updates about the status of your mash (it takes 5 to 7 years to make this liquid gold!) and when it’s ready, you are invited to come fill two bottles and dip them in Maker’s Mark signature red wax. Sign up today!
Our tour guide, Mike, was great and once more we were surprised when we arrived for the tour. We had been driving on back roads in Kentucky all alone – no other vehicles on the road – and we arrive to a full parking lot and about 50 people on our tour. How did they get there and where did they come from??? Shades of Oatman on our Route 66 adventure!
Big vats of mash at Maker’s Mark
After the tour, we were ushered into the gift shop for a bourbon tasting. First, we were taught how to smell it (not with your nose – inhale through your open mouth over the glass) and then how to sip it (letting the liquid roll over your whole tongue before swallowing it). Before we sampled the finished product, we tasted “white dog”, which is the uncured pure grain alcohol – pretty raw stuff! Then we got the sweeter amber concoction – so smooth! Kim hated it and thought she was going to die – it took her breath away! I loved it, so I finished hers, too. Nothing I wouldn’t do for my sista!
We had considered going to Louisville this evening and watching a ballgame – the Louisville Bats were playing the Durham Bulls!! – but instead we opted for the capital city, Frankfort. We were beat and just chilled in our hotel room for a while, then we went to a nice little Italian restaurant down next to the old state Capitol building.
The restaurant was Serafini’s – good food! We ate outside right next to the street, where we were surprised to see that a train track ran down the center of Broadway in front of the old Capitol. I had one of my favorite salads – apple, goat cheese, candied pecans, greens, and the risotto of the day, which came with a fish I’ve never heard of and can’t spell and therefore cannot google. The risotto was portabello and leek with a pink peppercorn sauce and asparagus – very nice! Kim had Penne Santini, which had shrimp and a spicy tomato cream sauce with vegetables. We were strong though, and didn’t have dessert, even though they sounded wonderful!
During dinner, we were “serenaded” (although not nearly as nice as the Stephen Foster music) by an amateur guitar player/singer who unfortunately had access to a microphone & PA system across the street at the old Capitol. There had been a 5K run earlier and lots of kids were still milling around and listening. About the time we finished up, so did our troubador…. We took a walk around this area of Frankfort after dinner – lots of small bars and bistros with an eclectic crowd – interesting place! We found a diner we may check out for breakfast, and we look forward to seeing our home state’s Capitol in the light of day.
So that was our day, and you won’t believe your eyes when you see what’s in store for you tomorrow!! Here’s a hint: it involves a parade, but one we bet you’ve NEVER seen or even heard of! Talk to you later!
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!
Our trip may be over, but we still have some accounting to do!
Critter Count 2008
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
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
Congrats to Patty C, who submitted the correct answer! Peppy is with Merlin at Foamhenge, Natural Bridge, VA.
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
Has Peppy flipped his lid?
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
Babs has somehow figured out that Peppy is at the TePee Trading Post in Cherry Valley, NY. Good work!
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
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
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
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
Slow down!
Where’s Peppy? #12
Which way to Canada?
Where’s Peppy? #13
Once again, Babs knew Peppy was in the mood to talk at Moody’s Diner!
Where’s Peppy? #14
Babs knew Peppy was wanting a ride on an old Ford at Owl’s Head!
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
Even me?
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
Good job, Suzanne! Peppy was not in Madison County, but he is in the covered bridge at Kent Falls, CT
Where’s Peppy? #19
Kim Mc knew Peppy was in the press box at Yankee Stadium!
Where’s Peppy? #20
Like talking to a rock!
Where’s Peppy? #21
Rex correctly placed Peppy under the treads of a tank at West Point
Where’s Peppy? #22
That’s right, Suzanne! Peppy’s standing on Lucy’s toes.
Where’s Peppy? #23
Can you spare a quarter for a tune?
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
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 SeeAlong the Way (and who were kind enough to host us!)
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.
We were in no rush to stick around the Atlantic City area, so we grabbed a quick bite of breakfast and were on our way by about 8:30. Did we mention that our hotel had a riverboat docked behind the dumpsters? We’re not sure why, and we did not go investigate, but it looked pretty funny to us. Atlantic City seemed to be a bit seedy to us, and in all fairness, we did not go all the way into the city to check it our for ourselves. Margate City seemed okay enough, and the beach (or shore) was pretty, but we’ll take our North and South Carolina beaches any day!
We did not have a whole lot on our agenda today – a drive-by of Storybook Land, Longwood Gardens, the Charcoal Pit, and a detour to the Haines Shoe House, which we missed in Pennsylvania at the beginning of our trip. Storybook Land was just down the road from our hotel, and it did not open until about 11, so we had to be satisfied with a few photos from the parking lot. Given that it’s an amusement park with a $20 ticket price, that’s probably all we would have done even it if were open! You can read about it at http://www.storybookland.com/ (turn your volume down – it’s loud!) and if you’re in the area with small children (somehow Atlantic City and small children don’t seem to go together…) you may want to visit. It looked really clean and well-maintained, and it’s been family owned since 1955.
On our drive across New Jersey towards Delaware, we saw a few curiosities worth stopping for – we just had to stop and turn around to get a picture of the American flag made out of colored milk jugs in someone’s front yard, and we were a little surprised by a Muffler Man sighting. Before long, we saw the twin spires of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, but not before we stopped for gas (again!) to take advantage of the lower prices and great service in New Jersey.
Our original plan was to have lunch at the Charcoal Pit in Wilmington, DE, on our way to Longwood Gardens, but since it was 10:30, we decided to visit the gardens first and then go back to the Pit. We passed the turnoff for Winterthur, which we had considered visiting, and we drove right through Chadd’s Ford, which is home to another Wyeth museum. So much to do and so little time!! We had voted on Longwood Gardens to honor our mom and grandmother, who both had gorgeous gardens and are/were excellent flower arrangers. We were not disappointed!
Longwood was the estate of Pierre du Pont, and it encompasses over a thousand acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows as well as a summer home, a conservatory, and lots of fountains. Visit it at http://www.longwoodgardens.org/ but really plan to see it in person! We strolled through the flower garden, which I loved because of the way the flowers were planted in groups of similar colors – it was like walking through a rainbow! From the flower garden, we went to the Italian Water Garden, where my favorites were the waterfall tumbling down a staircase and the frog fountains. A special display going on this summer was a series of treehouses created especially for the Gardens. The first one that we came to was the Canopy Cathedral, which reminded us of the Gillette Castle because of the way the logs were carved.
From the fountains in the Italian Water Garden, we walked up a long hill past the meadow, and soon we had come to the next treehouse, the Lookout Loft, which was in the shady Forest Walk section. It was a sort of Adirondack-style treehouse. We walked past the duPont house, not sure if we could go in it or not, and then we found ourselves at the final treehouse, the Birdhouse. It was nice to go up in the trees and enjoy a few moments out of the heat of the sun, and Kim and I were reminded of the fantastic treehouse our dad had made us when we were kids. All the neighborhood kids hung out at our house, since in addition to the treehouse (which also had a fireman’s pole) we had a bagswing and a roller coaster that Daddy had made. We had a nice little walk down Memory Lane as we walked through Longwood Gardens!
When we realized you could go in the house, we took that tour, too. It was so interesting! I have loved being in these totally well thought out and well designed homes of people who clearly knew what they wanted and could afford to have it built the way they wanted it! Some favorite things in the house were the built in map case, the hidden library, Mr. du Pont’s office, the towel warming rack in the kitchen, the silver safe, and the fly fan. Even though the air conditioner was allegedly on, it was very hot and humid in the house, so we didn’t linger as long as we might have.
From here, we went to the Conservatory, which was built in 1919 and houses almost 200,000 square feet of plants!! Outside the Conservatory was another fantastic fountain display, the Main Fountain Garden, which covers five acres and has 380 fountains spraying 10,000 gallons of recirculated water. Wow! Next to it was the topiary garden, and from there we went to the Chime Tower and Waterfall. We could have stayed here for a few more hours – there was a lot we didn’t see – but we were wilting and hungry, and we had miles to go…We stopped in at the gift shop and we have to tell you that even the bathrooms were beautiful, complete with flower arrangements and mosaics. What a spectacular place this is!
Like I said, we were hungry and couldn’t wait to eat at the Charcoal Pit, (http://www.charcoalpit.net/) which we had read about in Road Food but we’d also heard from Melanie that we would not be disappointed. We had no problem finding it, and since it was getting close to 2 o’clock, it wasn’t too crowded. On the way in, we noticed some of the awesome ice cream creations and we saw some mighty juicy burgers, so we knew we were in for a treat! Kim had a chocolate soda with her burger and fries, and I opted for the big burger (no fries or onion rings!) and a hot fudge sundae. Heavenly!! Sure wish we lived closer to the Pit!!
Backtracking again, we were soon back in Pennsylvania and before we knew it, we were back in Amish country. We had loved the rolling terrain and green farmland of this part of Pennsylvania when we first started our trip, so it was a treat to get to see it again. We drove through Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand again, and we loved hearing the clip-clop of the horses on the Amish buggies. Why, you may ask, were we not heading south since we were on our way home? Well, one of the things we had really wanted to see on this trip was the Haines Shoe House, which is near York, PA. (http://www.jarrettsville.org/family/shoehouse.htm) You may remember that we had to bypass it on our first pass through PA, or else we would not have gotten to Lititz and Wilbur’s Chocolates before it closed, so we had figured out a way we could get here on the flip side of the trip. It was just a bonus that we got to enjoy Lancaster County again!
We arrived at the Shoe House a little after 4:00 and were there in time for the last tour of the day. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, so you’ll have to be satisfied with seeing the outside and going for yourself to see the inside. I will say it was cool – people could (and have) really live there, and the current owners have decorated it really nicely – lots of shoes of all varieties add to the fun theme. We had no problem turning down the ice cream (there’s a shop there) since we were still on a sugar high from the Charcoal Pit, and now it was time to turn south and head for home.
It’s always hard to realize a trip like this is almost over, but that time was fast approaching! We weren’t sure where we would be spending the night, so we started looking at the map and perusing our Hampton Inn book. Kim made a few phone calls and we decided we could get as far as Leesburg, VA, before it got too late. We traveled down Highway 15 (which goes to Durham, too) and soon our Hampton was there to greet us. Since I’d been craving Chinese food for days, and we were pretty pooped, we took the easy way out and ordered some to be delivered. A couple of cold beers from the car, Chinese on paper plates – it was just what we needed! We got a little blogging done, downloaded pictures, planned our next day’s drive, and watched a little TV. Only one more day…
We 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!
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,
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…
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,
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.
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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!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
