Down on the farm.....

Remember the boy next door? The cute kid that used to pick on you? Tease you? Wouldn't give you the time of day? I even remember crawling out my bedroom window to play ball with him and the other kids in the middle of the street after we were all suppose to be asleep. I'm sure our parents knew, but it was summer, hot, no air conditioning in those days, and our little world was so safe and serene. How times have changed...and how that little boy next door grew...and grew!

Meet Ralph.

He who went off to college to study literature and psychology, became a vegetarian, became a cop, married Gretchen (the fabulous artist) and turned into a hunk! How do they do that and we who are so close never notice?!

Over the years, we've ran into each other at class reunions and he has always asked me to 'stop by the farm' if I'm every in the area (southwestern Missouri). Well this trip I was and I emailed for him to get out his Medley (the Danville High School yearbook) that I was taking he and Gretchen (the fabulous artist - see pic)

up on their gracious offer to visit the farm.

Their lovely farm houseis set on a beautiful, rolling 80 acre spread in the Missouri Ozarks where Ralph has planted literally 100's of trees, mostly varieties of all kinds of fruit, but many others as well. He and Gretchen maintain a large garden,

both veggie and herbs, that produces enough produce for them and to sell at the weekly Farmer's Market during the season. Their property, of which I got a tour in the grand ol' pick-up, even has it's own 'river and stream running through it'. It makes for peaceful sleep and tranquil living - when not off doing your regular 9-5 job so you can live on the farm and plant veggies!

Interestingly, this part of Missouri has a large Amish and Mennonite population and horse and buggies carrying bonnet and hat clad members of their faith off to school or shopping is an everyday site. Still something a city-girl enjoys seeing.

After 2 days of catching-up, it was time for me to wheels-up and strike out for the longest part of this trip - Crossing Kansas!

Until next time....remember to keep your oldest and dearest friends near - they are still the best friends!

Catching Up

I'm trying to do a little 'housekeeping' before my next 'real' post. First, you might have noticed that my route map has changed. Because I have SO many stops, the online maps will not lets me create a map with all of them. So I thought I would start with where I am as of today, 8/12/11 (1982 miles away from home!) and continue from there - that worked! As you can see I've added Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Boise and St. Louis and Charlottesville, VA on my 'return' stops.

Also, I found a new RV that I was so bad!! It was sitting alongside the road in Maryville, TN quit near where cousin Mary lives. I begged her to stop - which she did - and we called the owner who came over the hill to open the door and show me the inside -
OH WOW!.

2009 Diesel Mercedes engine, less than 5,000 miles driven, one huge slide, beautiful stainless steel and wood inside, back-up camera, leather seats... Be still my heart! Even had the tow package included. I really think I need to seriously consider selling the house and moving back onto the road full-time until I am no longer capable of driving safely.

Okay - got those 2 things cleared up and now onto the next stop along the way.....

Look! Up in the sky....

It's a bird! It's a plane! No...It's Superman!!!

When you are going to Metropolis, IL you automatically think 'hometown of young Clark Kent' and the town fathers have planted this huge statue right in the middle of the downtown square so that you never forget. Poor Lois Lane has her own much littler and much less colorful rendition a few blocks down the road.

She doesn't take up nearly as much space nor make the splash that the new Harrah's Riverboat and Casino do down at the waterfront.

Since I have a whole gaggle of cousins that live in and around this area, I try to visit every few years. This year was especially rough getting there as while driving into Nashville the skies got completely black and opened up with a downpour that took visability to zero in about 2 minutes. Even though the Jeep has a little top, and if you are moving fast enough, rain water doesn't come in, there are large gaps between the doors and the top and when you slow down, it pours in - which it was doing it large amounts. I managed to pull off the freeway under an overpass and get out of the rain. (I have since learned that is not the safest idea in these type of situations, but I wasn't the only car or motorcyclist there!) While the big trucks and crazy drivers continued to drive past, I stayed put until the rain had stopped enough to actually see where I was going. I'm really glad I did as it took way over an hour to get out of Nashville because of the horrible wrecks this storm had caused. I dodged every type of emergency vehicle while passing 4 cars that had literally flipped up and over and off the freeway - and that was just on my part of the freeway system. It was a mess. I was so glad to get out of the downtown area and off the Interstate just north of there.

When I arrived in Metropolis, I thought I would see more visible damage caused by the massive flooding of the Mississippi earlier this summer. The town was almost destroyed, along with nearby Cairo, when the the river flooded. My cousin Robbie's house was saved by lots of sandbags, but her yard had 3 feet of water surrounding it - and she is miles from the river. She said what saved them from complete destruction was the blowing of the levee a few miles down the river in Missouri.

But enough about water. Here is a picture of just some of my relatives - now don't you wish you were related to these folks?!

My family, ever since I was a little girl, has loved to play card games. We all gather around a huge table and play for hours on end, stopping only to eat delicious, homemade food, talk, eat, talk and laugh. This is exactly what we did for 2 straight days. On Sunday, we took a break for a trip into Paducah to attend church, have lunch and see some of cousin Gae's husband, Scott Morris, latest paintings displayed at one of the local galleries. He only gets better and better with time.

Sitting outside the gallery was this really weird car! Everyone walking by grabbed their cameras or cell phones and were snapping pictures. Once you see the picture, you'll understand why. Then try and read a few of the 'sayings' that are on this glittering piece of "art" work!

I loaded my car on Monday morning, which included a huge picnic lunch filled with Robbie's yummy homemade chicken salad, and hit the road. More storms and interesting side-stops, but that will have to wait....

Until next time.....

Off the Grid

Since I left Burnsville, NC I have not had access to WiFi. How weird when you live your life with a computer attached at the hip to not be able to 'connect' to the outside world. I have my smartphone so have been able to receive and send short email responses, but writing here has not been possible.

So, what exactly have you been doing since you left North Carolina, you might be asking? For most of the time, I have been visiting relatives, eating fabulous, home-cooked meals, playing lots of card games, laughing, sharing stories about our childhood.

I crossed over the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Asheville and hopped on US 411 to Maryville, TN where my cousin Mary

lives. This lovely lady used to lock me in the corn crib and throw rotten eggs in my direction whenever I visited her family farm.

Mary and I had a great visit and spent a day in Knoxville shopping and taking in a matinee showing of Crazy, Stupid Love - one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long, long time. Would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys an intelligent, adult comedy!

On the way to her house, I found my first really interesting 'must stop' place. On Hwy 411, between I-40 and Maryville, just outside of Sieverville I came upon the home of Bush's Best Beans!

Sitting in the middle of a big curve in the road is the Bush's Beans Visitor Center. I slammed on my brakes and pulled in their huge parking lot.

This place is so big - lots and lots of beans and merchandise. Even a family cafe.

I was surprised at all of the things, besides beans, that Bush's cans. I just didn't see the need to buy and lug cans of beans with me to California and back and even passed up the opportunity to buy a t-shirt with Jay and the Bush dog on the front.

I left Mary's on a bright, very hot, sunny Saturday morning and headed up the road toward Metropolis, IL - my next stop with lots more cousins. Will tell you all about it...

Next time......

WHEELS-UP!

I packed the back, filled up the tank (at Costco - $3.50 gal) and have headed out on my grand summer adventure!

First stop - Charlotte and a very short visit with oldest and dearest friends, Sandy & Rich. Normally spend time with them and their entire family the week they are at the beach, but since that's next week and I will be over the mountain and heading West, we took my stopover to catch up and dine and drink a few of Rich's specialty - a Perfect Manhattan.

Up and going early the next morning, after at stop for more gas (Costco - $3.59 gal). As you might have guessed already, the Jeep gets terrible gas mileage (15 mpg) for a trip like this, but it's so much fun to drive. I love the wind in my hair and the grit in my teeth!

Next stop - Burnsville, NC, high atop the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two days to enjoy with good friends Karen & Don and staying in their beautifully furnished and elegant guest house while seeing old friends and enjoying the much cooler weather.

The best 'car guy' in the entire world lives and works in Bakersville (Geouge Automotive.) He worked on all my cars while I lived here and said no way was he going to allow me to continue across the country without him giving his okay to the Jeep reliability. While living here I got to know his entire family, including the matriarch (who informed me he was celebrating his 82nd year in great health!).

The Geouge garage is the place where you sit around and catch up with all the neighborhood gossip.

After a short stop visiting with friends, shopping and lunching in downtown Burnsville and running into more old friends, it was time to jump in the river! Don and Karen have purchased a lovely piece of waterfront (the Toe River) property. They plan to build sometime in the future, but for now it's the perfect place to cool off on a hot day. Don drove us over the weeds and through the woods in the 'mule.' We put a nice bottle of white wine in the water to cool down and wadded out to the middle and sat on big rock, jumping and splashing in the pools and eddies.

Their 'across the creek' neighbors, Charlie, Lana and dog Zoe joined us and we spent 2 hours just talkin' and sippin' and enjoying life. What a wonderful way to start a vacation!


After a quick stop to take a picture of my favorite fallin' down house which everyone I know would love to have the money to save and restore

it was back the the house for another delicious Karen-cooked dinner before turning in at the end of a perfect day.

Today we are off to Asheville to do a little fabric touching, feeling and perhaps purchasing at House of Fabrics, then some drooling at Bellagio Everyday and lunching at Doc Cheys (Thai noodle shop) I head off to for a slow drive through The Great Smokie Mountains National Park before arriving tonight in Maryville, TN for a visit with my cousin Mary.

Until next time......

My Local Jeep Dealer...

Neuwirth Motors offered to give my Jeep-ster a complete check-over, rotate my tires and change the oil and filter for me - for free!

I had sent the GM all the information about my road trip which he thought was was such a great idea that he forwarded it onto Jeep corporate headquarters, in the hopes that they would like to 'pick-up my blog' as a Jeep advertisement.

I thought that if Jeep said yes, I could do something like Travelocity's Roaming Gnome, only this would be 'The Roaming Jeep - Where in the country I'm parked?' And even though we never heard from corporate, I might just do this as part of the blog anyway. I think it would be fun.

But I did want to say a big, public THANK YOU to NEUWIRTH MOTORS. If you are interested in owning your own Jeep and live anywhere near Wilmington, NC, then this is the dealer to deal with:)

Tune-up is Saturday, wheels-up is getting closer each day! This silver-haired, slightly crazy, 65-year old lady is ready to hit-the-road and see what awaits. Just wish it would cool down a bit before I do!

Until next time.....

PS: When my tune-up was complete, the service manager thought my spare looked a little 'naked' and gave me a brand-new tire cover which says....JEEP and NEUWIRTH MOTORS, WILMINGTON, NC. Such a nice and subtle advertisement:) I said Thank You!

It's Hot!!!

All across the country the temperatures are soaring into the 100's. The humidity is almost as high as the temperature and people are in general miserable. Here on the beach it's too hot to even sit on the beach...the sand will burn your feet.

It's not even refreshing to get in the ocean as water temps just keep getting higher and higher. And listening to the weatherman today, this 'heat bubble' is expected to last at least another week. What will driving across the country in a semi-topless Jeep in these temperatures be like?

I had a test on how this might work on Friday when I had to drive to Jacksonville, NC (68 miles and an hour and a half drive) in 99º temps. Since the Jeep does have A/C I rolled up the door windows, turned the fan to high and drove up Hwy. 17 hoping the cool air coming out of the vents would at least meet the hot air coming in under the bikini top and keep me semi-comfortable for the length of the drive. It worked - sorta - and this is how I will deal with the drive across Kansas! I am so looking forward to getting to the Colorado mountains and spending time in Santa Fe where the evening temps are in the 70's instead of not getting lower than 88º (like here last night!).

I have started making piles of clothes and 'must take stuff' that I will need for my 2 months on the road. Shorts and T's for driving days, mountain hiking, sightseeing, colorful skirts and blouses for nights out in Santa Fe and one 'little black dress' just-in-case.

Camera - √ Phone & charger - √ Laptop & e-reader - √ And the list goes on. Can you tell I'm getting excited? The countdown has started and I can't wait until that actual 'wheels-up' day arrives.

Until that time.....

ReAnn