Canon City Colorado Part 1

We've spent a lot of time in Colorado these past few years, and we've visited lots of the popular destinations there. Last year, while we were in Breckenridge, we'd heard about an area of Southern Colorado that we weren't really very familiar with. Mary Ann had learned that a tiny town down there was an apple center. She knows what an apple nut I am. So we decided to head down to Penrose to check it out. We drove southeast, down from the high elevation of Breckenridge, all the way down to the five thousand foot level, and on the way to Penrose we entered the outskirts of Canon City. As we approached the center of town there was a full blown farmers market going on at the beautiful Veterans Park. We stopped and spent an hour or so, and then headed on to Penrose. After buying a small barn's worth of tiny, bittersweet Jonathans, we headed back uphill to Breck (as the locals call it)...but something interesting happened. Maybe it was the town's mayor, who walked up and introduced himself, explaining the much milder weather in the "banana belt" of Colorado, or maybe it was the other friendly folks at that farmers market, or the look of the tall, surrounding mountains, but we both felt we needed to come back and take a closer look at Canon City.
We drove up to Canon (as the locals call it) from Santa Fe, and came in from the west. Straight up US 285 to Alamosa, then starting to go northeast towards US Highway 50 and through the pretty town of Salida. From there we followed the Arkansas River for miles as it winds through beautiful canyons, then drops down and spills into Canyon City. As you approach this town of around 16,000 population, there is an almost European feel. Drive off of the US highway, and make a left one block, and suddenly you're on Main Street, right in the heart of the downtown area. Drive down Main, and there are bars and restaurants on both sides, a pharmacy, little shops of all kinds, galleries, the Skyline theater, with it's wonderful marquee that dates back to the early part of the last century, benches about every hundred feet or so, and a very warm small town America feeling. It really is like going into a time machine....back about fifty years (although most of the buildings in downtown go back to the 1800's!). We ended up spending ten days in Canon (the only American town spelled with a Spanish Ene, only I can't use one here because it's not on our keyboards). We covered just about every nook and cranny, ate at a bunch of the local eateries, and even made a few side trips to Cripple Creek, Pueblo ( a 25 minute drive), and Colorado Springs (or The Springs, as the locals call it), a 40 minute drive. Here is the summary of our time in Canon City.

We figure that the main reason this area has not become more popular with the tourist crowd is the proliferation of..........the jails!!! Yes, the region is home to six or seven penetentiaries! The coolest one is Old Max, the Colorado territorial prison that sits just on the west side of town, right on US 50. It was built back in the 1800's and has quite a storied past! In fact, you can tour the prison museum to peek at the entire history of the place. There are other jails scattered around the county near Canon and Florence, Colorado, another very picturesque village about 10 minutes down the road. The place is crawling with law enforcement types. You can look at it two ways. One, who wants to be near all these prisons??! The other is, it's a real safe place and it keeps out the riff raff and the Aspen-Vail-Breck crowd away. We're guessing from our time there that the locals like it... just the way it is. In fact, we met one fellow who had just moved to Canon from Santa Fe. He was a retired professor from The University of California, and summed it up for us. "This is a real nice, quiet town, that has everything you need."

So what's so cool about Canon? Here is the short list: Natural beauty. It's almost surrounded by the Wet and Sangre DeCristo Mountain ranges. They help protect the area from the typical Colorado winter weather. They get far less snow than the large towns to the east and north, and it's also warmer. So a milder climate, somewhat similar to Albuquerque. Next, for a small town, there is everything you could think of. Good shopping, terrific restaurants, great places to walk or do outdoor sports of all kinds, and very friendly folks! Most of the homes in town are between sixty and a hundred years old...and in good condition. Lots of Victorian architecture. The downtown is a living museum of fabulous Old West buildings. In the Part 2, we'll go into more detail of some great places we found and the attraction that does bring zillions of tourists to town yearly. Stay tuned.....

Santa Fe Part 2

Ok, where'd we leave off? Can't remember...guess I'm Santa Fe'd out! That's a term we use around the house when we're acting ditzy. Our theory is that the thin air up here is the reason for the sometimes irrational behavior of the townfolk (they really drive weird, for example, like other drivers are invisible!). Anyway....I'm back now. If you've never been, it is a place to put high on the list. Once you get here, here are random thoughts of must do's: Do not (how's that for starting out with Do's?) just go to The Plaza and think you've seen the town, like a tourist would. Most of the interest is on some of the side streets downtown. Make sure to walk Lincoln and Marcy Streets, and zig zag the other little ones that surround The Plaza, especially to the north and east. Then make your way southeast from the east side of The Plaza, down towards Paseo De Peralta (or The Loop, according to locals), and turn south to find Canyon Road. Walk up it as far as you can. It's truly unique. Shops, restaurants, galleries; make sure to go off, on to the little side streets again! If you like walking, Santa Fe is your place. You can walk the downtown streets for days and wander up Canyon Road or over towards The Railyard area or other directions out from The Plaza and still stay constantly entertained. There are really too many great (and many of them are actually healthy!!) places to eat in Santa Fe, to even begin to mention any more than we have already, but here are a couple more. There are SO MANY!! Bobcat Bite (always looks like they're giving away the food from the look of the parking lot), a new place called Real Food Nation, which is another very casual eatery/bakery with the emphasis on local organic food. These two are not anywhere near The Plaza. They're way out on Old Las Vegas Highway. All you have to do is follow the cars! Just remember to get with us if you are going, and we'll give a list to start out with. You will find a few favorites of your own along the way. Outdoor sports of all types are available. We love hiking in the ski area during warm months. It's breathtakingly beautiful. 10,000 Waves, the famous Japanese styled spa is most amazing. You can book a private tub for an hour, get a massage, sit in the communal sauna, all while having nothing to look at but mountain vistas and at night, the most fabulous star show you have ever seen...no additional charge!! If you have time, take a one hour drive north to Taos. It's well worth the effort, and you'll have an excuse to dine at one of our all time favorite places...anywhere-The Trading Post. Ok, next stop, the mountaaaains of Colorado!

Santa Fe Part 1

Who said, "You can't go home again." We sold our second home in Santa Fe in 2005, after almost 11 years of monthly trips up to the mountains. We loved Santa Fe, but decided it was time to expand our travels, and the condo, as much as we loved it, was holding us back. We thought if we want to come back and visit, all we have to do...is do it! We never would have guessed then that would come back with our new second home, Harvey, for a good visit. After being here for just a few days, it already feels great and comfortable, since we're so familiar with this place. First, I'll go back to tell you how we got here from Carlsbad.

We rolled up US 285 on Monday, which cuts right up the center of New Mexico, through UFO town, Roswell, and farther north until the rolling plains and mesas become much more steep, and you start the climb to about 7500 feet to Santa Fe. We're staying at a really nice RV park on the East side of town, actually a few miles from town. Mary Ann wanted to hit the ground running and head for a familiar place for dinner, so we went to venerable old Maria's. This place is more of a locals restaurant in a tourist town and their recipes for Southwest cuisine are basic and straightforward and ALWAYS reliable. No surprises here. To give you an idea, there is a large glassed in area in the dining room where several women are always making tortillas from scratch. Enough said. We spent the rest of the evening walking around The Plaza. If you've never been here, this is where you begin your visit to Santa Fe. It will set the mood for the rest of the trip. We did notice that one of our favorite other eating places, The Plaza Cafe, an ancient real diner, had had a kitchen fire and was closed. We're hoping that it will be open the next time we're here. The next day, we had lunch at one of our all time favorites, Zia Diner. The food is not stellar, but it is really good...and fun. Diner fare; meatloaf, turkey, burgers, etc., all with a Santa Fe twist and all consistantly tasty. The interior (top picture) is worth the trip there too.

So what is it about Santa Fe that makes it so fun to come to? Well....there are too many reasons to love this unique place. The weather. Cool summers and mild winters (cold enough for snow in the ski areas nearby though). The culture. Art of all kinds, film (more movie screens than towns 5 times larger), music, galleries, fashion, you name it. Food. This place is a vortex for foodies. There are literally hundreds of restaurants of all types. Not just New Mexican food. There are terrific Italian, French, American, delis, bakeries, Asian..almost anything you can come up with. The good ones survive, the mediocre don't. There's lots of competition for a small town. Another thing about the food here is that the attention to high quality still prevails. Most places say something on their menu's here about "organic" this or "locally sourced" that. We had lunch today in a new place called Vinaigrette, a predominantly salad menu, where everything on it comes from their own organic gardens in Nambe, a few miles from town. Even their homemade ice cream and desserts are mostly organic. It's hard to find such a variety of places like this almost anywhere. There are 2 Whole Food Stores here, Sunflower Market, a Natural Grocers from Colorado, and other smaller groceries, all catering to people who want higher end food. Again, there aren't that many stores of that type in cities 5 times the size. Even the normal stores carry a much larger selection of "healthy" foods than usual. The other thing that draws us here is the natural beauty. There are gorgeous vistas everywhere you look...and the night sky is like a planetarium! Crystal clear!!

Ok, we mentioned bakeries awhile back. We mean to tell you, you could (and we have!) go wild with them. There are even more here now than when we left a few years back. In fact, this is being written with one hand, while the other is stuffing down a 45 rpm record sized Copenhagen Cinnamon Roll from the Chocolate Maven Bakery and Restaurant! This place is world class. The restaurant has two levels. Make sure to sit downstairs so you can watch the bakers in operation through the large windows. It's awe inspiring! By the way...breakfast is THE meal in Santa Fe. You see, nobody actually works here. It's another one of those unique things. People just get up and go out to breakfast, then at around 10:30 or 11 am they will leave one of the zillions of breakfast places like Chocolate Maven or Santa Fe Baking or Pasquals or Tia Marias,or Tecolote,or..or........., and they go to where they meet somebody else for lunch (which may also serve breakfast all day!). From there, you guessed it, they discuss dinner plans. It's rough, but somebody has to take responsibility, right? What a town. Everyone's either "retired" or living off a trust fund. Stay tuned for part two of our "Coming Back Home Special"....

Carlsbad New Mexico

After heading out from our fun evening in Lamesa, we set sail for Carlsbad, home of the famous caverns. We had a really nice visit with Mary Ann's folks. We brought a lot of good food with us, since we decided the best way to really get a concentrated visit in was to eat at home. Besides, there aren't alot of great choices for dining in town. If we had gone out, out best choice would have been Blake's Lotaburger. Enough said? We did try sneaking out on Saturday night, after the folks had gone home from dinner at our place. We were thinking, "it's Saturday night in the Big City,blah blah..."), and we had spotted a neat looking old hotel called The Trinity that has an Italian restaurant and nice looking bar. Something, we thought, very different for Carlsbad. So we got dressed up in our best jeans and drove on over. We walked in behind another couple and their kids, started for the bar, and were intercepted by the hostess as if we were breaking the line at Studio 54. She sternly looked at Mary Ann and said, "These people were here first. Wait to be seated!" To which Mary Ann replied, "We're here just to look at the bar." I was already eyeing the scene there-two lonely folks who looked like they had permanent seats, and that was it. Not exactly worth gettin' all gussied up fer. The hostess with the mostest kept on about waiting to be seated at the bar....as we were making our getaway. I mean, the rudeness of people today! Crashing the line, just to look at the bar! Well, we drove around town after that little disaster, checked out the mall-sleeping, the other bar-almost asleep, the Wal-Mart parking lot-really busy, but not what we had in mind. We headed back home to Harvey, watched a movie on our Roku Netflix Player, and wondered why we hadn't just decided to do that in the first place. Next stop, our former second home of Santa Fe.....

We're On The Road! Sept 2010

We pulled out of Dallas on Friday, Sept. 24th 2010, and headed West towards Carlsbad, New Mexico, home of John and Virginia Hays, Mary Ann's parents. Our stopover for the first night was Lamesa (pronounced La Meesa), Texas. Why? Well, two reasons really. One, they have FREE motorcoach hookups in their very pretty city park...can't beat that for a one night stopover. And two, they boast one of Texas' last remaining real drive-in movie theaters, The Sky-Vue! Wow, how fun can it get in a small town? What are you going to think next? Marty and Mary Ann are really cheap dates. Next thing, they'll stop over for a good bowling alley! Don't laugh, we might!). Anyway, The Sky-Vue (http://www.skyvuelamesa.com/) has been in operation since 1948, and has been owned by Sam Kirkland for the past 30 years or so. Sam, with whom we had the great pleasure to visit with, takes his theater very seriously, in the best possible way. He is the on site manager of all phases of the place, and it's wonderful to see the results. The BIG attraction is the concession stand. The place is so popular that area folks come for dinner without even so much as thinking about what movie's showing. In fact, Sam has a separate entrance for those who are just coming in to eat! Fresh food is all you get here. Well prepared and delicious. Nothing fancy, unless you're looking down the long menu and stop at The Chihuahua, Sam's original invention. It's basically two tortillas, stuffed with homemade chili meat, pimento cheese, diced sweet onions, and shredded cabbage for extra slaw-like crunch, then topped off with a jalapeno pepper. Never had anything even close to that! Sam told us about it's history...being a Texas State Fair item and that the Dairy Queen people wanted it at one time, but he decided to keep it simple and only offer it at his two drive-ins (the new one's in Midland, Texas). Another unique factoid about this place is that a very young Buddy Holly performed here, just as his star was beginning to rise. he did a show from the roof of the building near the concession stand that Sam pointed out to us. Lamesa's only a short drive down the road (anything less than a hundred miles is considered short out in West Texas!!) from Lubbock, Holly's home town (and home to his pretty amazing museum, by the way). So after chowing down and leaving Sam and the Sky-Vue, we headed back to Harvey and a good night's sleep (Burpppp!!), and ready to head over to Carlsbad...

Back in Texas...Winnsboro

We decided to slow walk our way back to Dallas, after having been on the road for almost two months. Harvey needed another night-on-the-lake venue, so we headed for Lake Bob Sandlin in Northeast Texas, just a ways from Texarkana. The lake is a state park and was the perfect stop for the night. We relaxed and had dinner in, and then the next morning started our final leg into the BIG D. One of the small hamlets we passed through to get ourselves down to old US Highway 80 into Dallas, is Winnsboro. This is a historic town, with several beautiful B & B's (that's one, above), an active little downtown with several good eateries and bakeries too, and a weekly REAL farmers market. We stopped there and bought some local handmade raw cheese and produce. Then we spotted a cool looking little place downtown called cibo-BQ that caught our attention. You guessed it! A barbecue restaurant (duh!). Well! This is not your average little joint-like shack in the boonies. It would thrive in any location, in any town, because of the high quality of the food. We saw a fellow, whom we later got to know, slicing the leanest, most succulent looking brisket, and we automatically opened the door and let ourselves in, following our noses. It turns out that that "fellow" is the owner, Rick Murray, who has put his own sweat and resources into establishing a big city quality operation in a small town. Rick also owns the Italian restaurant ciboVino that brings folks from miles around for the incredible dining experience. We enjoyed visiting with Rick (he wanted to test drive Smarty...and we let him!), and would highly recommend that if you're in that part of the world..or even close, make an effort to get some of his great food. We did! Then we headed back into the hummmmm of Dallas...back from an amazing journey that took us nearly four thousand miles in Harvey (and another three thousand in Smarty!!). Stay tuned for the next adventure on the road.

Memphis, Tennessee

We made the rounds in Memphis like two tourists on Speed! We only had a part of a day and a night to see a town we'd been wanting to visit for years, since one of our close friends, Frank Splann grew up there and we're always talking about going with them to see the sights. Instead, guided by a few phone conversations, we blew around the city in less than 24 hours, hit two of the most iconic eating "dives," saw Graceland, Stax, Sun, Beale Street, The Peabody Hotel, and a few of the neat neighborhoods on the way! Phew. wares me out just thinking about it! Not to even mention the really cool park we stayed in, on the other side of the Mississippi...right ON the river. We sat on a park bench in the morning and waved at the river traffic as it drifted by us. We were so close, we could almost touch some of the big barges. So which dives did our friend Frank recommend? First up was the Blues City Cafe. The BBQ was stellar. The best example of the dark (almost black!), peppery sauce Memphis is famous for. The second, Dyer's Burgers. This place has been in operation since 1912, cooks it's burgers in "secret" GREASE, and is one of the most awesome hamburger experiences I've had to date (and I've had a lot of them too!!). Dyer's is listed in so many top 1o burger lists, it's impossible to count them. It was also listed in Esquire Magazines list of "60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For." Both places are right on Beale Street and well worth the fat grams and calories. Memphis rocks. It's a great town, full of history, especially legendary music history, and is on our list of places to visit again in more depth!

Music City (Nashville, of course)

We literally blew through Nashville and Memphis, so our comments will be as brief as the time we spent in these two Tennessee towns! It's been many years since I was in Nashville on business (I was a music biz guy at one time, in my former life), and when I was there it was...get off the plane, head to some hotel meeting room or someones office, then dinner, or maybe just back to the airport. Done. The only part of town I remembered was around Broadway, where some of the old Honky Tonks are, and Music Row, which looks a lot different these days. Even Country Music has been been hit hard by the economy and the decline of the Record Business. It is still there though, and seems to be about the only category still standing in some form or other. We found the town itself a little on the, well, sort of, uh....ok I'll say it, boringly normal side. Aside from the fact that there's a Trader Joes there (a sort of boringly normal one at that), there was very little we saw that got us going. I'm sure there are some interesting places to eat, but we had a hard time finding something interesting enough to spend our time and $$ on, so we had dinner in our Harvey Kitchen while listening to a live Grand Ole Opry broadcast on WSM radio. Maybe we need to give it another try when we have a bit more time someday....

Surprising Asheville,North Carolina

Asheville takes a prize as one of the most surprising places we've visited. It's a city full of contradictions. It's a summer haven for the wealthy..has been for about a hundred years or more. After all, it is the home of the grandest home in America, The Biltmore. We're not going to spend a lot of time describing it because words, no matter how well written, cannot adequately give a person the overwhelming sense of grandeur this place exudes. It must be experienced with all of your senses. Then, you'll leave the way we did, pretty speechless. To imagine that one person had the fortune and vision to create not only the legendary house , but also an entire village to support it, is staggering. Anyway, go see it if you are ever anywhere nearby, or make a plan to visit. It will not disappoint. Asheville is full of summer tourists. They fill the town and nearby cities too (Highlands and Cashiers and Waynesville and Hendersonville, and on and on). These tourists share their space with a gazillion young (and old!!) Hippies and those we'd call counter culture folks. We saw more tattooed arms, legs, and faces on girls and guys than in Santa Fe or San Francisco combined. Asheville is a mecca for left wing politics (The Obamas had just visited before we got there) and has a very active Republican following. There are lots of start up, capitalistic businesses and lots of people on corners talking about unionizing the massive restaurant worker population. We found the people mostly welcoming, but some locals seem to resent the tourists. As we stated, lots of contradictions.
Asheville itself is a really beautiful town. The Art Deco buildings downtown are like a living outdoor museum. They are so well preserved we thought one of them, The Grove Arcade, was a new building made to look old. Alas, there's a big national register sign on it, declaring it's uniqueness and telling it was dedicated in 1929! Looks like it's brand new. It was July 4th weekend, so we got to experience the place like a local. They have a big dance in the newly renovated Pack Square every Saturday night. Hundreds of people turn out to celebrate the weekend. The next night, Sunday July 4th, seemed like half the town turned out for the big doings. These people really enjoy their wonderful venues, and they should be proud. This is a big city that acts in many ways like a small town. We walked most of the downtown streets, and its like a trip back in time. One of Ashevilles nicknames is "The Paris of the South." It's a fair one. The place has a very European feel.
There are good eating places all over town. We experienced several, and they were all worth the trip. The theme of most of them is LOCAL, Local, local, and more locally grown produce, meat, dairy, and everything else. Again, they are even ahead, in this category, of San Francisco or Santa Fe. Organic is taken for granted. It's the locally sourced food these people are into, and in a big way. Early Girl Eatery, Tupelo Honey, and Sunny Point Cafe are a few of the better examples. There are many many others, but these are the ones we hit, and they were all stellar. One of the reasons for this is the WNC Farmers Market, in the Southern part of town. It's been there for many years, is huge, and is an inspiration for these health conscience restaurants. We spent a few hours there and left with a few choice goodies like some Amish butter and Ginger Gold Apples (one of the first summer varieties from the vast apple orchards here to become available, even though it was still a little early).
Another interesting place we checked out is The Grove Park Inn. Built in 1913, it's another back in time place that Asheville is full of. It was constructed by a St. Louis entrepreneur, and modeled after the great railroad inns of the West. After falling into disrepair in the early 50's, it was resurrected by Dallasite Charles Sammons and his wife, whose company still operates it. It has hosted celebrities and presidents through it's long history. Again, walking in is like a trip in the way back machine. A spectacular place!
All in all, the eight days we spent here have been a totally fun surprise. We got to know the place as if we'd lived there for a year. Didn't see any of the famous residents like Andy McDowell or Billy Graham, but who cares when you can stand on a downtown corner and spot a multi-pierced, totally tattooed from head to toes, dredlocked Rastafarian cross the street in front of a couple driving their convertible Rolls up to the Grove Park Inn! What a country!!!

Charming Charleston

Like Savannah, we'd always heard that the place is "charming." Charleston's more than that. It's unique. It's one of those rare places in our beautiful, yet increasingly homogenized country, that has managed to hold it's qualities in a way that shows it's a one of a kind place. Why is that? Well, we think there are a couple of reasons. The first is the people. Even though Charleston has grown a lot (the traffic here is horrible!), there are families dating back to before the Revolutionary War who still live in their homes built then. That's pretty unique in this country. It's more like Europe or other older societies. Then, there's the amazing architecture. The mostly colonial-era "single and double houses" for which Charleston is so well known. The single houses are always multi-story construction, one room wide, usually with a gabled roof, sideways to the street. Along the southwest face of the house is a full-length columned porch, which is entered by a door on the street, and from the porch a center door leads into the house. This construction was intended to keep the house cool, as prevailing southwest winds would sweep the house end-to-end, while the porch roof would shade windows from the sun. No other city has a collection of homes that quite look like this. They are unique. The "double houses" are more traditional looking. They're built on a double lot and turned so that the front of the house faces the street. The old part of Charleston has another thing going for it...it's clean! We spent an entire evening, just sitting on the pier with locals and visitors, watching the harbor and the ships coming and going. In the distance, you can see historic Fort Sumpter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.
We spent over a week here and really got around a lot. We covered the old town area (even took a carriage ride tour), most of the "islands" (James, John, Sullivan, Folly Beach, and Kiawah Island). Kiawah is a major upscale vacation beach, with a new, small village that reminded us of Celebration or Watercolors in Florida. The night we visited, the whole town turned out for an outdoor movie in the square. Very retro feeling.
We looked really hard for eating places in the more touristy parts of town, mostly the old town area, and didn't find much that satisfied one of our new rules: "We have gourmet food just waiting to be prepared in the kitchen in Harvey. If it isn't real unusual or amazing looking, have fun exploring, maybe have a drink...then GO HOME to eat!" We did go to Jestines, arguably one of the most famous places in town. It's just a little dive on the edge of downtown, famous for their fried chicken. I quote now from Mary Ann, "I think it was an off night because I could have mistaken the chicken for shoe leather. They did have really good sweet tea though." I don't drink much tea but I got addicted to it also. Enough said? (And a reminder of why we came up with eating out rule number 1). The foody highlight had to be The Fat Hen on James Island. This is the place we're searching for and find very elusive. It has all the qualities that make it a double nod YES and a double thumbs up, to go the step beyond entering the doors and looking at the menu. We sat down in the busy bar area and and had a total view of the whole place from our high seats. It was a weeknight, but the place was packed. Familys, couples on dates, young people, older, a total swipe of the local demographics of the area. Affluent, casual but nicely dressed guys with shorts or khakis and shirts actually tucked in. Women in sundresses, made up like they are out for the evening. Now this is a very casual place. Not high end or stuffy. The more upscale restaurants are filled with men in sport jackets and women more elegantly dressed, just like we found in Savannah. The food? Casual French bistro. Steak Frites, clams, a few other meat dishes, salads, and the meanest burger this side of the Mercury in Dallas (my standard for serious and BIG burgers!). We split the burger and perfect fries ( Mary Ann ranked them up there with Easy Street in Park City..our benchmark for fries!), and a glass of and old vine Zinfandel. Does not get any better. This place was another find for us.
We also took a day trip up to Hilton Head Island. This posh resort has always been on the list of cool places to visit. First impression is that it's larger than we expected. You almost need an overnighter to really get the feel for the place. We packed as much in as possible and saw pretty much the whole area, albeit a little more quickly than we'd have liked. Beautiful homes, good zoning again, with no high signs and lots of little nooks and crannys. After a couple of failed attempts at eating places from a list I made that looked like possibilities, we agreed on Roast Fish and Cornbread. Yep, that's it's name. Owned and chefed by a 5th generation Black Hilton Head resident, this place features healthy preparations of Southern specialties like Shrimp and Grits. Wonderful spices add an unusual flair to each bite you take. All dishes are served with their signature pumpkin cornbread. It tastes more like pumkinbread with a sweet cinnamonny finish.Yummy again! A winner again! We ate it for dessert. We returned to our RV park in Charleston that evening with the impression that Hilton Head would make a great one week, total getaway for almost anyone. The beaches are white powder and very wide. There are golf courses all over the place (and tennis courts). Even though the heat was turned way up, the breezes off the Atlantic kept it bearable.

So go ahead and call us TOURISTS! Mary Ann decided we needed to visit a real plantation, so on Saturday we headed a few miles from our base camp in Johns Island to the River Road, where several of the larger intact ones still remain. She picked The Magnolia, which does have a very rich history and huge and beautiful gardens. The most interesting thing to note about most all of the plantations is their location, up the river from the city, by about 15 miles or so. In the old days, if you took the road to town, almost a full day by horse. If you waited for the tide to be in your favor either way, about three hours! What a deal! Like being on a jet airplane!
Charleston is an incredible town, for the kind people (especially the polite children!), the history, the architecture, and the beautiful South Carolina panoramas.
Where could we possibly be off to next, on this our 6th week out? Why North Carolina, of course. Asheville, the home of The Biltmore Estate, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and from what we hear, some good foody possibilities!!

A Bow to Harvey and Smarty!

We're here in Charleston,South Carolina, soaking up the Southern Charm. There is almost too much to write about, but we are working on the next chapter now. By early next week, we will have departed for Asheville, North Carolina, Biltmore, and Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Right now though, we'd like to take a moment to bow to our home away from home...Harvey the RV, and his little dinghy, Smarty the Smart Car! Wow, where would we be without them? It's truly amazing to us to go to sleep in our own bed every night, yet be in so many different places. We can cook-in some days, in our own wonderful kitchen, and be eating our own fresh locally bought food, yet we're in a different place every few days. What an experience! To be able to unhook Smarty and go sightseeing or to the store or wherever, gives one a deep sense of freedom. These two "machines" (they're really much more than that to us, hence the personifying names), are due a tremendous accolade to enable us to do what we're doing...on the road!! A big smile backatcha, Smarty!

Savannah and Hilton Head Island

Where to begin!! We rolled in on Thursday and hit the ground running. First, a word about the unbelievably beautiful place we're staying in. Skidaway Island is really it's own destination spot in the Savannah area. People come from near and far to visit. It's an island, separated from the rest of the mainland by a drawbridge. Once over the bridge, you come to an area filled with multi-million dollar gated estates and homes. There is a small town center with a few shops, offices, and a grocery. There are lots of new churches. It's an idealic place really...then there is Skidaway Park. Our travels are not over so we're not making any final judgement, but so far we both agree that this is the most gorgeous yet. It's a large park, filled with tall trees and endless fields of saltgrass. Mary Ann's mesmerized by the raising and lowering of the tides in these fields. So once we leave the park to go exploring, we're in another world- a world of wonderful historic homes and buildings that go back in time farther back than this country has existed. The downtown of Savannah isn't very large. It's easy to walk, and walk we have. The entire main part of the Old Town is dotted with dozens of little parks. About every three or four blocks... and there's a park! They are all distinct, and each has a sign telling of it's significance. It's easy to take yourself on a guided tour by just walking from one park to the next. The most major historic name that pops up here is British General James Ogelthorpe. You can Google him, but in a few words, it was he who pretty much founded this city (and the original colony of Georgia) and even designed it. He did a magnificent job! Highlights? Several operating downtown movie theaters (we saw The Good,The Bad, and The Ugly with a bunch of locals Saturday night in a beautifully restored one). We visited Leopolds Ice Cream Parlor.......TWICE! This place is a one of a kind. A replica of the original 1919 parlor, operated by one of the grandsons of one of the founders, and the Johnny Mercer song "Tutti Frutti" is named after their invention of that flavor. By the way, that name, Johnny Mercer is all over the place here. He grew up here, and made many nearby spots famous from the lyrics of his songs. Possibly the most famous spot is a real river, pictured here, and just a few blocks down from our home away from home, Skidaway Island. Observation: The Old South still exists here. We've noticed people saying things like "thank you," or "pardon me," and they even drive a bit friendlier and will let you into traffic without a fight. The men still wear sport jackets and look more formal. Women seem to dress up a bit more too. Children have manners. It's really astounding that such a place still survives.
Hilton Head Island is just up the road, about a 45 minute drive, and shares the airport with Savannah. It's much bigger than we expected, and the zoning is wonderful...very high-end feeling. There are no large or high signs anywhere. Stores are sort of camouflaged behind foliage. It all has a neat and clean look, unlike most other beach areas we've seen. We stopped at a local restaurant called "Roast Fish and Cornbread." It caught our eyes in a listing that said the food was local and fresh. The chef is a black man, whose family can trace back in the area almost 180 years! The sweet South Carolina shrimp and brown rice were superb, as were the local crabcakes and cheese grits. They were served with sweet potato cornbread that tasted like a sweet poundcake with cinnamon. All in all, these are wonderful places and highly recommended. Next stop is a just 100 mile jog up the road....to Charleston.

Jekyll and St Simon Islands

We really didn't know what we were in for as we approached the area from Jacksonville. Sure, we'd heard of these places, but that was about it, since neither one of us had ever been here. What a total surprise! First, we're actually staying in Blythe Island, near Brunswick,Ga. Just about every place near here is an Island. The park we're in is surrounded by beautiful marshland. There are fishing piers, which are well used by the locals, and they tell us of their catches of shark, rays, and normal fish like trout. They also have a large population of giant bunny rabbits of all colors, roaming the place and looking for a handout! We can't stress enough how gorgeous this place is. St Simon is about 15 minutes away, and is the real center of beach activities. As you drive onto the island, the amazing homes line the road in, and the tree covered streets become more dense with foliage. Some of the older houses are basically covered up with it. The village is very quaint, filled with shops and restaurants, mostly the tourist type of places of course, so we've chosen to eat the local cuisine..at home. We spent an entire morning under a beach umbrella, soaking up the local (with some tourists) color. The accents are so thick from the friendly folks who approach us to say "good mornin'", we can hardly understand them. Jekyll Island is much less populated. There are a few newer hotels, but mostly there are the 100 year old plus houses of the ultra rich who built this place as their private enclave for their winter activities. Names like Goodyear and Crane (plumbing) appear on the house markers. There is the Jekyll Island Club too, where we did stop in to have lunch, with it's croquet lawn, in the front, and big stately front porch. It was the center of activities and still thrives today as a high end resort. The entire place is stunning and the first great surprise on our way up the coast towards Savannah and Charleston. Starting here, we are on uncharted territory.

St Augustine and Jacksonville...and Amelia Island too

St. Augustine has lots of similarities to Santa Fe! Sounds weird, but trust us, it's true! First, they're both tourist towns. Then, there's the whole Spanish thing with lots of walking venues and little nooks and crannies. Art galleries, all sorts of shops and boutiques, little plazas with more shops and restaurants, and historical sights are there to see everywhere. They are both ancient cities, especially by our standards, and can trace their roots to the early Spanish explorers. The big difference though is St. Augustine was "discovered" by Henry Flagler, a partner with John D. Rockefeller in Standard oil, and Santa Fe had no such pedigree. It just grew from it's roots in the Southwest and the natural beauty people saw there in the land and the sky. Flagler saw his own beauty in St. Augustine, and on his honeymoon back in the late 1800's to his second wife, he decided that if you build it....they will come. And come they did, from all over the Northeast especially, the wealthy class flocked to St. Augustine after Flagler built lavish hotels to accommodate them. The most famous, and still very much standing, is now the Flagler College. You can walk in to what was the lobby and totally imagine what the scene there was like all those years ago. It's very impressive. We were given all sorts of S.A. eating tips from friends, but true to our M.O. we stumbled on a place that appealed to our senses, and our instincts didn't steer us wrong. Opus 39 has three different establishments. A very serious restaurant which has won lots of awards, a casual bakery/cafe which took up most of our attention, and a casual tapas place down the street from the first two. The sweet concoctions from pastry chef Kelly Mears had us from the first few minutes we walked in. I ordered a coconut white chocolate canoli. Mary Ann had a chocolate chip cookie. No ordinary cookie mind you. A great restaurant to us is one where you order something like chicken noodle soup at the Trading Post in Taos, NM (one of our all time top 3 places...anywhere!!) and it becomes the soup of any ilk that you measure ALL soups by. Likewise the chocolate chip cookie is now the new standard of ALL cookies. We went back again the next day for lunch and the Santa Fe connection chimed in again. We both thought the place reminded us a lot of Sage Bakehouse in Santa Fe, near The Plaza. Sage was started by ex Dallasite Andree Falls, who begat Parigi on Oak Lawn Ave. Amazing, not normal soups, sandwiches, and salads are on the little menu which looks like it changes at whim. The breads are artisan all the way, the ingredients are very fresh, and those sweets! We ended that visit with a little not normal (at all) apple tart which had a slight ginger flavor. The place is a total winner.
We drove all around Jacksonville on Saturday, after landing at the Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park which is right on the beach! Jacksonville looks a bit like the recession has hit hard. Downtown shows signs of life but it's not what we'd call vibrant. The old San Marco area is our favorite in town. Lots of older homes, some very well preserved from early in the last century. A nice little old shopping center too...with a still operating movie theater...one screen! Very cool and nostalgic indeed. We must have missed most of the areas with good eating places because almost all we've seen is one chain after the other.
On Sunday we drove from home base in the park up to Amelia Island, which sits almost on the Florida/Georgia border. Our first stop after taking the ferry boat to cross highway A1A was the Amelia Island Plantation, a planned community made up of a famous golf course surrounded by high end shops and restaurants and the resort. Simply beautiful. Adirondack chairs everywhere, just inviting you to sit awhile..and we did. We finally got up and drove further to what we thought was the town of Amelia Island,, but there is no such place. The town we were looking for is actually Fernandina. Never heard of it, but that is the old village near Amelia where everything's happening. We found a place called 29 South. It's a Slow Food restaurant. A what? You never heard of Slow Food? Slow Food is a movement to simply provide diners with the very freshest food possible. Without going into all the details (you can Google it later), most Slow Food restaurants will serve only items they can source locally, much of it organic if possible. The first one we ever encountered is in Brownwood, Tx of all places, called The Turtle. The food at 29 South was excellent. It was Sunday brunch and things like stuffed French Toast and shrimp and cheese grits with a giant biscuit were on the menu. Didn't taste or look like health food, but it was! The town is pretty large and a good walking venue too, with dozens of eateries and shops of all kinds. We did a few of the streets and the heat got the best of us so we headed back to the park to relax. On the way to the ferry, earlier in the day, we passed a little town called Mayport. It was founded in 1562, is a fishing village, home to the Coast Guard and Navy bases, and also a couple of awesome seafood places. The large one is actually just a retail outlet for the large fishing and shrimping fleet, and the other, called Singletons, is smaller and has it's own boats too. We ate dinner at Singletons, and it is not to be missed if you ever pass this way. The place is a total hole-in-the-wall. The food is some of the freshest we've ever tasted...right off the boat! Mary Ann had fresh boiled shrimp, and I tried a catch of the day, something called Sheepshead. It tasted like really good quality Cod. Prepared simply... grilled and served with some great sides like mustard greens, slaw, and amazing cornbread hush puppies. It turns out that both places are locally legendary, and people come from miles and even other states to eat there. After dinner we headed back to base camp and headed over to the beach to watch the sun go down. What a day! On to Georgia next....

The O in Orlando

The O in Orlando
It's been a few days since our last entry so let's play a little catch-up. We had a great time with Ed and Pat in Miami. One more restaurant to enter into the log...California Bistro, on the edge of downtown Miami, is a little of a dichotomy. It's a little bit Italian and a little bit Mexican, and some other Latin flavors and spices thrown in too. The sauces are the thing here. On arrival, a really good bruscetta is served with some good Cuban bread. The Chicken Marsala was delicious, the tacos were good too. Lots of mixed up tastes, all with success. We'll be back! The day we left Miami, Ed and Pat took us down, almost to Homestead, to the every Saturday fresh market. We bought little finger bananas, fresh limes, pineapple, a real wierd looking fruit called Indian Bitter Melon (which Mary Ann's not sure what to do with yet!)...and some fresh Grouper which we had for two fabulous meals in Orlando.......
So we rolled up to Orlando by way of Lake Okeedokee (That's what I call it!). Real name? Okeechobee. Seminole for..really big lake. Those Indians were pretty literal, weren't they? Anyway, the drive took us through lots of small central Florida towns, most notable of which is Sebering. The famous race track is still there of course, and from the short time we spent there, much of the local townfolk must think they're actually on the track. They seem to all have some kind of muscle car or something. Loud mufflers. Peeling in and out of the gas station. Maybe they're just watching too much Nascar on the telly. We finally got up to the Orlando area late Saturday afternoon. We drove to our new home away from home, The Bill Frederick Park, in the posh Northwest side of town. We're guessing this is close to where Tiger Woods and other notable figures live, and on a rating scale for RV places to stay, it's way up on the notches. Aside from the fact fact that we have a beautiful lake spot to park Harvey, the proximity to all things Orlando can't be beat! We have not done much eating out since arriving because A: We've been here a million times and seem to struggle to find cool places to eat (too many tourist choices) and B: We've been living in the Disney and Universal parks for the past two days. Comment on park food: Disney/Yeccch. Like bad cafeteria food at a very high prices. Almost no healthy choices. The only revelation was that if you have to eat at one of the Disney parks, choose Epcot because they at least do have some edible choices and more variety. Universal is a different story. We don't feel as had inside. Why? Easy, there are more good choices, the prices are (slightly) more reasonable, and C: if you can't find anything good, you can walk out the gates, eat at Emerils, Margaritaville Cafe, or a dozen other independent restaurants in City Walk, then return to the park for one more round on the Simpsons ride (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJGHCQXFlnM). Fun!! We used to have a favorite in Disneys planned community that looks perfect like the rest of Disneyworld... Celebration. It's actually an old fashion style diner called The Celebration Cafe. Well, the last time we visited several years ago, the server waited until everyone's food was served, then informed me they were "out of turkey." This time, they literally burned Mary Ann's eggs and did the favor of taking twenty percent off the bill when we showed them the charred wreckage they'd served us. The server apologized, we left her a tip, and left, this time for good. It's rough out there in the eating out world folks. I'm writing this on Wednesday at one of the local Whole Foods Cafes. We're trying hard to keep on the organic road while we travel, play, and right now, work! (They have free wifi here). We may brave it up and try one more eat out experience before we leave Orlando and head up to St. Augustine. Stay tuned....

Miami!

We rolled into to town late on Sunday afternoon, and after being greeted by Pat and Ed at our next home away from home, the Thompson Park, which is adjacent to the Miami Zoo, we almost immediately took off for Versailles. No, we're not crossing the big pond with Harvey and Smarty to end up at the French palace. This time, it's the iconic restaurant on Miami's Calle Ocho (8th St in Little Havana), which typifies Cuban cuisine for us (and a lot of other people!). It's become a tradition for our first meal when visiting to be here. Kinda sets the tone, if you know what we mean. My favorite Cuban dish is the traditional Arroz con Pollo, Chicken and Yellow Rice, and Mary Ann alternates between that and Ropa Vieja, which is like a Cuban pot roast. We always savor one item that comes on most plates...the fried plantains...total YUM, and no meal is complete there without a Cafe con Leche, strong Cuban coffee with steamed milk...Double YUM!! Are you asking yet when we're getting back to the healthy eating? Answer, not sure. Versailles is a great way to break yourself into the pace of Miami. It's like going back in time to the 60's. The pace is fast, the place is always busy and buzzing, but the food! That's the best reason to head there. It's all fun.

We also visited an eatery in Miami's Mary Brickell Village, next to downtown, that's worth a mention too. It's a Japanese Pan Latin Sushi restaurant called Abokado. A smart looking space, with thumping ambient or discoey music and really interesting food. Mary Ann ordered a Temptation, shrimp/avocado/cucumber roll, topped with spicy tuna and tempura flakes. I had Udon noodles with a teriyaki sauce.Many Latin flavors and spices are combined with Japanese food, and interesting combination indeed. More to come as experienced in Mi-am-i!

Touring Tampa's Tasty Temptations

Touring Tampa on Day 9 of our trip revealed some really interesting stuff to us.
After spending most of Friday driving a couple of hundred miles all over the area, we knew where we wanted to zoom in to. We decided to spend at least part of the day on our shared passion...food and nutrition. So where do we head first? A fast food place called EVOS! Fast food..WHY? 'Cause it's healthy fast food...well, as we soon discovered, sort of. The deal is these folks seem to be offering a "healthy" alternative to Micky D's, etc, when in fact, it's really only a sort of less bad alternative. They definitely are targeting the Whole Foods crowd, but if you start asking specific questions about ingredients the Boogie Man pops up. The menu's pretty straight forward, Burgers (from the menu, "naturally raised beef""hormone/anti-biotic free"), fries (air baked), shakes (again from the menu, "low fat organic milkshakes"), and other fast food stuff like chicken strips, wraps, and salads. Sounds good and healthy, right? Ok, here's the lowdown. The shakes, except for vanilla, all contain the, by now, infamous and dreaded HFCS, high fructose corn syrup. We have yet to see HFCS listed as an organic ingredient in anything calling itself "organic." They have a ketchup bar, filled with lots of neat flavors...all using HFCS too. They serve coke (HFCS) products, which is really ok, since they also offered, as an alternative, organic soft drinks from our Santa Fe friends at Blue Sky Sodas. We find all this a bit inconsistent. Why don't they offer organic ketchup and other condiments and charge a little more. We think many people wouldn't mind paying the upcharge. So who are these people trying to please. We guess the same people who shop at Whole Foods and trust everything they're buying is "healthy." The difference is Whole Foods doesn't claim that something they sell is "organic" when it contains obviously non organic ingredients. The food was tasty, but nowhere in the restaurant could we find a list of ingredients. We don't know how much fat we ate, how much sodium, or other not so healthy things were in our food. If you say you're "healthy" the question becomes, what does that word really mean? Nice try, but these folks have a way to go before we'll want to visit again! On a lighter note, we also visited a total of four heath food stores, and found all of them to be well stocked and fun places to shop...and they were ALL busy! Tampa's a health nut town. There were two most interesting surprises in the grocery store category too. The first was the Publix Greenwise store, near downtown. It's been opened since 2008 and is a cross between a Whole Foods store and a Texas Central Market (for those of you who know what that means). This place rocks! Gourmet cheeses, wines, produce, fish, meats, all displayed beautifully, and bountifully. What a concept! There are only three of them so far, Tampa, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach, but we guess there will be more soon.The second was a store we 'd never heard of called GFS Marketplace. Seems this chain is based in Michigan and offers an interesting mix of bulk type groceries at low prices and restaurant supply type items. It's a little hard to explain. You just have to be there to see it for yourself. Another very cool discovery in South Tampa is Pane Rustica on Macdill Avenue. By day, this tasty looking place is a casual bakery style restaurant and take out. All breads and pastries are made in house and the oven is the size of a bedroom. Amazing breads!! At night, it turns into an upscale eatery, featuring dishes like (again from the menu), "Red wine, porcini, and potato bisque with chive cream" or "Fennel seared salmon, toasted Israeli cous cous, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, olives, arugula, blood orange butter sauce." This place rocks too. In fact, Tampa rocks! We have enjoyed the people and places here alot, and now we look forward to heading to Miami and visiting with brother Eddie and sister (in-law) Pat....

Three great state parks

Since we left Biloxi, we've driven the roads between there and the Tampa Bay area. The first night out of Biloxi we made it as far as Niceville (it really is!), Florida. Niceville is where the Gannon State Park is located, is about fifteen minutes from Destin and the beaches near there, and is a wonderfully kept wildlife area, full of birds of all kinds. The next day we pushed further around the Big Bend of the Florida Panhandle and stopped for the night at another state park. This one is magnificent and one of the jewels of the Florida Park System, Manatee Springs. This place should be more famous than it is. The park is centered around one of Florida's largest freshwater springs, where you can swim with Manatees if you're there at the right time of the year (mostly winter). We stood on a pier where the spring empties into the Suwannee River (makes me want to start singin' like Al Jolson every time I say that!!) and watched Mullets jump about three feet out of the water (nobody's sure exactly why the hell they do that) and Sturgeon that might be about five feet long, but did not see one alligator......yet. The third state park we stopped at is Little Manatee, right outside of Tampa. We're spending three nights in the area, and on the first one, Thursday, we drove in, hooked Harvey up, unhooked Smarty, and within a few minutes were headed in to take in some of Tampa's nightlife. We drove straight to one of the towns most well known and oldest eateries, The Columbia, because we've eaten at their sister restaurant in Celebration (Orlando) several times and it's been good every time. This time was no exception. Seafood Paella is one of the house house specialties, and it was worth the half hour wait for it to be prepared properly. Friday we started out in the morning and drove about 150 miles from south of St.Petersburg up to Clearwater and the beaches there, then over to Tampa again and dinner again in Ybor City, a hip area which is actually one of the oldest parts of town. The Columbia is there and so is Carmines, an Italian/Cuban place with great food. What was on the menu? Nothing fancy. Just some really good and aldente Spaghetti Marinara...yum! The Cuban part of the meal was a dessert of cafe con leche, traditional dark Cuban coffee, lots of sugar, and lots of steamed milk...yum yum!

Down to the Gulf Coast

After literally eating our way through Lafayette, New Iberia, St. Martin, and the rest of the area, we finally pulled up anchor around noon on Monday and headed down the Gulf Coast for Biloxi. Oh, one more special mention for the foodies is T-Coons in Lafayette. This little diner type place totally ROCKS! Great down home Cajun style cooking for breakfast and lunch. Most places in the area take coffee very seriously, but they go a step beyond here. The first thing you see when you walk in is a gigantic commercial type thermos on every table, loaded with the special local coffee, Mello Joy. The food goes uphill from there. A must do place if you visit. Driving in to Biloxi is a little eerie. The strip of casino hotels is pretty much built back up after being flattened by Katrina. It's only after you turn off the coastal highway and go into town where the devastation is still all around. This town was literally wiped away. Almost all of the buildings now standing are new..and there are quite a few. Seems like a real effort is being made, but there are entire neighborhoods where there is nothing but a street, lighting, and foundations of former homes and businesses to remind that there once was a bustling town here. It will take years of additional effort to bring the whole place back. We don't hear or see much about this on tv, only New Orleans.

La Fay Ette!!

We pulled in to Lafayette, Louisiana at about 2pm on Saturday, after a really scenic drive down from Southeast Texas, where we spent the previous night at The Sam Rayburn Reservoir. From very peaceful and quiet to the heart of Cajun Land in one short drive! If you've never been here, it's hard to decribe. Lafayette is a good size town, you know, one of those that has one of everything...one Best Buy, one Macys, one World Market, instead of a gazillion like in Dallas. In that respect it's pretty normal, that is until you start looking a little closer. Kind of like New Orleans. You start hearing the interesting speech patterns "How you do,Dawlin'"), seeing the spellings of the names (Fontenot, Delatte), turning on the radio and hearing KBON 101.1, blasting Zydeco music into the airwaves 24/7, and the food!! Fawgetaboutit! Crawfish Etouffe, Shrimp Creole, all kinds of Gumbo, Grilled Redfish, and that's just the appetizer assortment!! These people live to eat. THAT is why we decided to stop off for more than a day on our journey. There's too much food here for a quick stopover. We tried that about a year and a half ago and vowed to come back for another helping. Here we are. As we crossed the border between Texas and Louisiana, we had our final organic meal in Harvey and kissed the healthy eating regimen goodbye until further notice. Dinner tonight at POOR BOYS RIVERSIDE, so far the definitive Cajun Restaurant for us, started reasonably enough. Grilled Redfish for me, a huge bowl of seafood gumbo for Mary Ann, homemade melt in your mouth scratch dinner rolls, and all the sides. Then came dessert. Sweet Potato Beignets. Doesn't sound too interesting? Just stick your fork in, and you won't come up for air until you've finished one. It turns out these are the creation of our server, Dee Dee's husband, Cleve Sonnier. It turns out that he won first prize for these at the annual Yamboree in Opelousas, La (they grow tons of Yams down here!). The smooth outer dough is filled with a custard like cream of whipped yams, eggs, and flour. Then it's very lightly deep fried and topped with a sauce made with two liquors. Just look at this picture, and you can almost tell that these little fried confections disapperared about as fast as the speed of the camera shutter! I almost ordered another round since I still hadn't finished the deep, dark Community Coffee they serve (very Louisiana indeed), but came to my senses just in time as Dee Dee asked if she could bring anything else.

The BIG day is here!

It's 7:58 am, and we're doing the final check of "what'd we forget!" All that's left to do is hook Harvey and Smarty up (that takes all of about 60 seconds with our amazing Sterling hitch!) and head down US 175 toward Nacogdoches, Tx which has the distinction of being the town where the Marx Brothers act was born. You can Google that for details or copy and paste this:
(http://www.texasescapes.com/ClayCoppedge/Marx-Brothers.htm)
After that, we'll keep heading in a Southerly direction until we reach the Sam Rayburn Reservoir, where we'll set up for the night, on the way down to Lafayette, Louisiana on Saturday. The land of Crawfish, Zydeco, and great, friendly people who sound almost like they're from New York (with an Acadiana twist of course). Food? Well tonight we'll most likely "eat in", since we'll be at the lake. Probably a cook out with hot dogs (yes! we're health nuts but we still eat hot dogs sometimes, especially if they're Heart Brand http://www.heartbrandbeef.com/). It's very similar to Kobe. They have very little saturated fat and most of that is the "healthy" kind, like in olive oil. They still do have a little bit of nitrites...but we'll overlook that because they taste so good!! Unfortunately it isn't yet available everywhere (we are lucky Texans!), but check the website because a lot of restaurants all over the country who care about what they serve are beginning to order it. We'll check in later, from the road.

The Countdown Has Started

The trip starts on Friday, May 21st. Our pantry and refrigerator are stocked with mostly fresh organic foods, and Harvey has a full tank of fuel (75 gallons at appr. 6 miles to the gallon! At those prices, the "term trailer trash" seems somehow outdated and inappropriate.). Smarty's filled up too and ready to ride caboose (he holds a whopping 9 gallons, gets about 35 mpg in the city...but only burns premium gas/93 octane or higher! After all, he Is a little Mercedes!! Guess Harvey and Smarty kind of balance each other. All systems are solid green, and speaking of green, Mary Ann has her Eileen Fisher organic RV wardrobe put neatly away in the bedroom closet. Sure there will be some fashion photo ops coming! Thursday we'll recheck everything and do a final count to liftoff Friday morning. The chef here is one of our RV mascots, Mario. He's pictured here, begging to come along to cook for us! Stay tuned....

Harvey and Smarty

Meet our "land yacht", Harvey and "dinghy", Smarty!!

Getting ready to head out!

It's late Tuesday night (5-18-2010) and we're preparing for our second big trip in our new motorhome. Our first major sojourn was to Northern California last fall to have Thanksgiving with our family. What started out as a two week trip ended up as four plus weeks, winding through the Central Coast, then down to Palm Springs, and finally home to Texas, eating well, drinking good wine, meeting interesting folks, some of whom are doing the same kind of lifestyle we're living. This time, we're heading the other way on I-10 to Florida. Down one side and up the other! Then, who knows where from there. Some of our friends have asked us to write about our travels because they find it interesting that we can mix heading out on the road for so long with our work. That's right, we are not retired like so many of the other RV'ers we encounter. We both still have "full time" jobs, only we don't work for the man, but only for ourselves. Next stop, far Southeast Texas, on the way to Cajun Country!