Month: July 2016

After our longest day of driving, we arrive in Nashville around 8pm to be greeted by the friendly staff of the Hunton Hotel.  We are offered a vodka lemonade for the human guests and a gift bag for Zena. We retreat  to our “guests with pets floor” to watch the DNC.  A beautiful room greeted us!    We were able to check all of our boxes in Nashville.  After the beautiful vistas of the west, Nashville is a different more urban experience  Many tourists taking in the music in the “district”  which echoes from every bar up and down the street.   I doubt there is another place where so many talented musicians come together in such a unique way.   We walk the Vanderbilt campus (beautiful) and Centinnial park with it’s full scale replica of the Parthenon (odd).   Zena is picked up by the hotel staff for her day at the spa to be bathed and groomed and we depart for lunch and the district.   The Nashville hot chicken is the famous dish with the purported origin to have been a spurned wife who spiced up the chicken only to have her husband love it.  The chicken is very tasty.   We make our way to the district and listen to some great music at Tootsie’s.  Fun times in Nashville. Headed for a quick stop in Asheville and then home

Oh for joy – we are settled in at the Kansas City downtown Westin with their heavenly beds, full service restaurants, spa and gym.   The hotel is built into a hill and we have a 6th floor lanai room that opens out to a patio on a grassy knoll.   It is just the break that both Zena and I need!  John is just happy that we have both stopped complaining.   It is all up hill from here as our final stop in Nashville offers the Hutton Hotel – a treat I slyly booked for us that offers pet floors with home made treats, pet walking, pet bathing and all around spoiling while their owners explore the sites!   Zena is going to be booked for all.   We explored several historical sites in Kansas City  This is a typical large Midwest city where people commute to work, live in the suburbs and take no interest in the poverty that surrounds the city where they work.   I saw this first hand living in downtown Hartford.   Such a contrast of white and people of color.  Kansas City offers a beautiful train station that has been meticulously restored.   It is a combo of active train station and museum.   I captured a nice picture that includes John and Zena after they were asked to leave -ha ha.

Zena is quite happy with our accommodations 

 

We arrive for our baseball game at the Royals stadium which is co-located with the Kansas City Chiefs football stadium.  Both stadiums are quite old.  The access in to them is a horrible bottleneck in a crumbling neighborhood. Another example of greed where none of the fruits of the league are invested in the area that surrounds them.   We arrive with our paid parking pass in hand, wait in the long car line and eagerly hand our pass to the attendant.  Oops!    We have purchased tickets for Tuesday not Monday!!  We park anyway as there is no way to exit at this point paying for parking in cash with no tickets.   I am uncharacteristically silent while John is chatting about how we can buy tickets at the gate and it will all work out.  As part of my road trip reflection, I am practicing saying less! Hmmmmm!  We already bought tickets and once is enough to see a few innings and eat a hot dog is what I say with my inside voice.  I am pretty sure my inside voice is written all over my face because John keeps asking why I am so angry.  I am not! At the ticket window, the polite women says she has no tickets in the section we wanted but she has free tickets, FREE tickets in a close by section.  Someone turned them in because they decided not to attend.  WHAT??   I think that Crazy Horse took pity on us after we made a stop to his memorial.  I forgot to mention that we felt compelled to stop and view his sculpture and museum while in the Badlands.   It is close to Mt Rushmore but privately funded and not nearly as visited.   It is a project that includes the sculpture, a museum and a University dedicated to Native American Studies.   We paid it forward by donating our tickets to the hotel for a staff member.

We ended our evening watching the DNC speeches.  Given our journeys and the reflections we have had on the great spirit of our early settlers of our County, it was fitting to end the evening witnessing the amazing Michelle Obama.

 

Our stop in Sioux Falls as half way point on our journey to Kansas City offered another smelly damp hotel thanks to Zena and our need to find pet friendly hotels!  Of course Zena also recognizes the state of our sleeping arrangements by refusing to eat or move anywhere in the room except the bed.   We had a hike on the Big Sioux river the following morning which offered nice views of wildlife, ducks and flora.  The heat broke and moved east so it was a nice morning.  We sought out “Ole the Viking” the mascot of Augustana University.   Eric Olson suggested this as a must see and we were not disappointed.  Eric graduated from Augustana and is Ole Olson Jr. in our family.   It reminds me that I need to find a book of Ole and Lena jokes.    We lunched at the Falls before our 6 hour drive to Kansas City.

 

Now the fun begins. . . .  Another day listening to podcasts, arguing about appropriateness of using cruise control in heavy traffic (me!!) and tracking rest stops.  Missouri rest stops rival South Dakota for the bottom quartile with Indiana still in the bottom slot.  We have especially enjoyed the podcast Fake The Nation.

After our trip through the Badlands, we can’t imagine that the landscape could so quickly turn green and wooded as the sandstone sculptures give way to granite peaks.   Mt Rushmore is stunning!  The memorial allows you to get very close to the sculptures for viewing and picture takings.   The story of how Mt Rushmore was funded dates back to Calvin Coolidge who spent 3 months vacationing in the black hills during his presidency where he fished and relaxed while the country’s business went on.   He traveled with his wife, 2 dogs and a pet raccoon.   Simpler times for sure!      We stopped at a Scandinavian shop called “All things Scandanavian” where I added to my collection of Norwegian holiday recipes and an authentic wilkommen rug.    The historic towns of Keystone, Deadwood and Custer did not disappoint.   Deadwood was a surprise in that it became a progressive Victorian town post it’s mining shanty.   

Oh my . . . .  The beauty arises out of the flat plateau with no warning.   The drive across the plateau is beautiful in it’s own way with straight highway that extends your views for miles ahead seemingly to the end of the earth.   It really does give you a sense that you will drive off the end of the earth.

We took a 25 mile scenic drive through the Badlands National Forest that offers numerous pull offs for short hikes and scenic look outs.   Our plans for more substantial hiking were thwarted as dogs are not allowed in any of the National Parks on the trails.  Makes sense considering the harm they could do to the native animals and habitat and the harm that could come to them.  Poor planning !!

After a wonderful couple of days in Wisconsin visiting parents and sister, we are on our way to the Badlands. We had a fun afternoon of golf and the best fish fry I have ever had at Carmella’s on Rib Mountain.  The fish fry rivals Paul Bunyon breakfasts in Minnaqua as an all time favorite.  Zena especially enjoyed her trip to Wisconsin where she settled right in with mom and dad including sleeping in their bed.

Our travels from Wisconsin took us through LaCrosse and across the scenic Mississippi.  John was quite surprised at the beautiful topography of the cliffs and bluffs.  Once we crossed into Minnesota, we hit the very flat plains where our attention turned to podcasts and discussion of rest stops.   Minnesota has nice rest stops that are park like.  North Carolina and Tennessee remain in the top 2.   South Dakota rivals Indiana for the bottom spot. Especially love the “beware of snakes” signs posted every 25 yards! Our goal was to make it to Onocoma SD smack in the middle of the state  – about a 9 hour drive from Wisconsin.   We were greeted by 100 degree temperatures, blowing dust and a filthy Quality Inn.  Zena and I are both notorious hotel snobs so slept in my clothes while Zena patrolled the room.   We had dinner at Al’s Oasis where the SD Walleye was shipped frozen from Canada.  Hopefully the badlands and Mt Rushmore don’t disappoint.

We begin our travels to Chicago mid morning on Thursday July 15th.   We have decided to evaluate rest stops along our journey using an app called Rest Stops (ha ha) that is a combo of google maps and Yelp! I am obviously a bit behind in my journal so am able to factually dispute Republican VP nominee Pence’s view of the condition of Indiana.   Hands down the worst interstate condition and worst rest stops ever!!  I posted my view of this on the Rest Stop App – anonymously!  Not much to write about in terms of the topography other than the windmill farms that went on for miles and oh did I mention flat flat miles of corn fields intersected only by miles of bumpy interstate with no shoulders.

Alas, better times as we arrived in Chicago to pick up Tess and Sam from school and enjoy dinner prepared by Nancy.   We continue to be reminded of our blessings and the special times we enjoy with our family.   Friday was the day for Pop (and Mimi) to be Samantha’s mystery guest at her school.   Pop was quite prepared to discuss all of the characteristics of North Carolina including props such as a map, flag, sea shells and a book.   Samantha was so proud to have us and as we lost total control in the first 10 minutes she stepped in and took charge, calling on children and instructing us on how to pass out the shells and prepare the snack.   The pimento cheese was a big hit (thanks to Kate for the suggestion).  We went on to enjoy a birthday dinner on Friday for Tess and her birthday party on Sunday.   We fit in a cubs game on Saturday making sure to try the hotdogs as is our tradition.   I still am a fan of the Fenway dogs as sacrilege as that is in our family.    We always leave Chicago with our hearts filled full from the special time spent with the Dieners but heavy with leaving.   On to Wisconsin . . . .

Cincinnati was a wonderful surprise beginning with our hotel – a Residence Inn downtown.   The hotel was in an historic building and quite beautiful which we did not expect of a Residence Inn.   Our hotels have been selected with our furry passenger in mind!   Zena thus far has been a willing participant in our journey.   We were within blocks of the baseball stadium and the river front.  We were not able to see a game but walked around the stadium (reading all plaques and viewing all statues) The river front is beautiful, lined with restaurants and park areas.   There is a walking bridge across the river called the Purple bridge connecting Cincinnati with Newport Kentucky.   We were able to walk across the bridge and explore Newport on our morning walk along the river.

Of course, our main reason for choosing Cincinnati as a stop was to see the John A Roebling suspension bridge (predecessor to the Brooklyn Bridge).  When passengers first crossed the bridge on Dec. 1, 1866, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.  Roebling went on to design the Brooklyn Bridge in 1888.   Fun day in Cincinnati – on to Chicago!