Ottsworld Travel Experiences » Sherry

Midwestern Round-Up

Sherry — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:00:33 +0000

Midwest Sunset

For the ‘best of’ my summer photography – click here!

I can’t believe it’s been 2 months. This is the longest I’ve spent in the Midwest in a long, long time. To top that off, it’s the longest I’ve stayed with family since I moved out at 18 years old. These two months have been all about reconnecting; reconnecting with a part of the country and the people that molded me and made me what I am today; good or bad.

Like most of my foreign travel, my experiences here were full of variety; fun times, disturbing revelations, ‘first’ experiences, eye opening discoveries, and some things just left me baffled. Many times I wondered if I was in a foreign country as my cell phone rarely worked (don’t let TMobile tell you they have complete coverage in the US, TMobile has NEVER set foot in South Dakota!) I even contracted foreign ailments; a bad case of poison ivy! As with most countries that I spend a significant amount of time in, I decided to treat the Midwest with a recap of my experiences. Even though it is the US, there are things that make the Midwest unique.

Road Shows:
There’s something to be said for variety. As an Aquarius, I love variety and change; so my summer of random traveling road shows was perfect. I had the pleasure of going to a traveling strip show, a circus, and a rodeo. I wish they could have figured out a way to combine these all into one; a traveling circus with rodeo performers that stripped…intriguing. They certainly would have saved money on gas costs if they all could have traveled together! The shows came to us, this small town community of Lutherans, all we had to do was buy a ticket and show up. I think the traveling Male Revue strip show was by far my favorite. Not because the men were hot and the mood sexy; it was far from that. It was the quirkiness of the experience within the setting of a very small Lutheran town. It made me realize that even in small towns; you have all kind of people with all kinds of preferences; there are even single people. Albeit divorced and widowed, but they are still considered single!

Food – or lack of it:
The most stressful part of my time in the Midwest was not the constant severe storms that rolled through on a daily basis; it was grocery shopping. I had multiple melt downs in the Milbank grocery store when produce clerks looked at me as if I were crazy when I asked for fresh basil. The people at the store knew what Dopler Radar was and the intricacies of how it worked, but they had no idea what pine nuts were and why anyone would want them. I love cooking. I especially love cooking Asian food, but the ethnic food aisles were humorous at best and I eventually gave up and stuck to brats, burgers, and pork. However, for fun I started collecting a list of items that I could never find in the small town grocery stores around the Midwest.
Fresh Basil, Fresh mint, Fresh Thyme (I think you get the picture…there are no fresh herbs), goat cheese, buffalo mozzarella cheese, baguettes (or any kind of crusty bread), pine nuts, curry paste, pad thai noodles, rice vinegar, arugala, baby corn, shallots, and Italian sausage.
I think the people in the grocery store came to dislike me after a while. I felt like when they saw me walking into the store, the manager would come over the loud speaker and say…”She’s back….” and everyone would run and hide!

Going for the Gold
Thanks to the copious amounts of food and ice cream I consumed, I had to try to keep up with my expanding waist line (it was a losing battle ultimately), so I would go out and run. As soon as I set out on a mile road (the term for how the Midwestern countryside is carved up into square mile sections with dirt road perimeters), people knew that I wasn’t from around here. I ran on a square mile section that surrounded my parents place; equating to a 4 mile run on the flat, treeless, gravel road. It was 2 weeks before I ever even saw a car pass me. When the car did pass me, I imagined how I would end up as dinner conversation later that night as the farmer told his family about this stranger who was running on county road G. Seeing someone out running on these roads was an oddity, deer were much more common than someone wearing a jog bra and an ipod! I had my share of animal encounters while I was running out in the middle of nowhere; deer, fox, and even a jack rabbit crossed my path. I startled them and they startled me. The highlight of my Midwest running came when my sister convinced me to enter a local small town 10k race. I told her that I wasn’t in shape to run it, but a change of scenery on my run would be nice as this race was in town and not on the animal-filled mile roads. The race field was small, about 200 people and I walked to the start line with the guy carrying the ‘official clock’, a digital timer, and the starting gun was someone saying “on your marks, get set, GO!”. It was refreshing to participate in such a well organized, simple race. But the best thing about small town races is that I am actually above average in a field like this! I walked away with a bronze medal for finishing 3rd in my age division and finished 25th overall. Beijing, here I come! If you want to feel fit, just enter races in small towns, it’s a great ego boost!

The Red, White, and Blue
One of the things that stuck out to me about being back in the Midwest was the patriotism. I don’t think I’ve been exposed to this much patriotism since 1976 – the centennial year when I collected every quarter I could find. It seemed as if every event I attended had an ‘over-the-top’ patriotic tribute. New York City is a patriotic town when it wants to be, but the Midwest has patriotism oozing out of its pores. At the rodeo, we didn’t just sing the national anthem, instead the announcer had a huge speech about what the good ole’ red, white and blue meant to him. At the circus, an array of fit performers from everywhere BUT the United States paraded out to patriotic music and dressed in every gaudy red, white and blue sequin outfit they could find. Finally, the small town parade that I attended had more American themed floats than marching bands.
Click to enlarge images:

Fields of Green
This is the land of the vast fields of wheat, hay, corn, and beans; miles and miles of manicured rows. Across the highway from my parent’s house, I saw the corn grow from water soaked stalks to golden tassels (a sign that I have clearly spent too much time here!). As I drove all over South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska this summer, I watched the crops blow in the strong winds that whipped across the flat prairie unhindered by trees or obstructions. It looked like the ocean to me, waves of wheat undulating in the wind, it was soothing. The Midwest may be landlocked, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t waves. I was lucky enough to actually get up close and personal with some of the crops. In Nebraska, my uncle took me out to a sweet corn field where I met the farmer. I learned about irrigation, sweet corn vs. field corn, raccoons, electric fences, the proper way to shuck an ear of corn, and harvesting. I also learned that when sweet corn is really good and ready, you can actually eat it without cooking it…just right off the cob; which I tried of course! As I drove back to South Dakota that day, I stared at those corn fields. I squinted my eyes a bit causing the image to become a blurry image of green. I imagined little pointy hats out there, in fields of green rice. I started daydreaming about what my life was going to be like in a month when I moved to Vietnam, what adventures and new experiences I may encounter as I change environments and countries once again. I thought to myself that farming is farming – in any part of the world; a comforting feeling as I prepared for change.

As I sit here and write this, my dad is reading the paper and informing me of all of the activities that I will be missing since I am leaving tomorrow. The wedding dance on Aug. 9th (open to all of course), the threshing show and tractor pull on Aug. 16th, the tractor parade and polka dance on Aug. 17th, and the ranch rodeo on Aug. 10th. He just informed me that the ranch rodeo has a wild cow milking contest…now we’re talkin’! I would about consider changing my flight plans to see locals milk wild cows!!! New York night life and sushi vs. wild cow milking…a hard decision.

Ah, but you have to leave sometime, and it is my time to bid the Midwest goodbye. It was a great summer for many reasons, but the best thing about the summer was spending time with my family. It’s hard saying goodbye again for 1 ½ years, but time goes fast and I know I will be back to this foreign land, enjoying everything it has to offer, including the warmth and support of family.
A family montage. I’m only missing a picture of my sister-in-law…else this is it…the Ott clan. Click to enlarge:

Photo: My sister, brother, and I

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Traveling Circus – An Endangered Species

Sherry — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:58:43 +0000

Elephant Raising the Big Top

To view the “best of” South Dakota photography click here!

To view all snapshots of the circus – click here!

As a kid, I never saw a circus. I skipped right from playing circus games/acts with my older brother in our front yard (which landed me in the emergency room), straight to Vegas and seeing Cirque de Soleil performances. I never saw a ‘real’ circus, the kind with a big top, elephants, trapeze families, and clowns…until this summer in the Midwest.

I saw a poster in the Milbank grocery store about a traveling circus that was showing up in my parent’s town in a week. When you are living in a small town (even if it is temporary), you are aching for something interesting to happen. So when I saw the poster, I decided that this was it…entertainment at last! The paper had a story about the traveling circus and I found out that the Carson & Barnes traveling circus was the only one of their kind. The traveling circus is a dieing breed; it should be put on the ‘endangered entertainment list’. The Carson & Barnes circus is one of the last big tops traveling the country. The paper also stated that if anyone wanted to see the big top raised, you could show up at the grounds at 8AM to see the elephants raise the tent. It seemed like a great photo op, so I bought my tickets and cleaned off my lenses.

My dad and I went into town early at 8AM to go watch the activity. Little did we know that we would actually get involved in the activity. As we were watching the circus crew set up everything, a man came over and asked my dad for some assistance in finding a local machine shop as they needed to do a trapeze repair. As my dad ran off to assist, after all the show must go on, (and after all, I couldn’t write a post about the circus without using that line…sorry), I stuck around and photographed the raising of the big top.

It was quite an operation to watch as hundreds of workers plus one elephant raise a tent next to the corn field on the outside of town. This process took over 4 hours in all to go from a flat tent to a functioning big top. I talked to one of the workers and found out that as soon as the show ends tonight, they pull it all down and get on the road again the next day at 5AM to do the exact same thing in another town…day after day. This is a job that took patience for repetitive tasks that I would never have. Note to self…never run away and join the circus; no matter how desperate I am to find a job.

We took my 3 nieces to the circus later that evening; they had never seen a real 3 ring circus either. It was an international affair as all of the performers were from other countries and most had been with the circus for generations. As I watched various families perform death defying acts high above the ground with no nets, I looked around at the small crowd and wondered…how many years does this big top have left?

It was a good show overall and I think the small town of Milbank was thoroughly entertained as well as myself. The performances received plenty of ooh’s and ahh’s. I felt as if I had stepped back in time to a life before cable tv and video games. Early the next morning, the many, many trucks loaded with animals and tents took off leaving no trace and ready to do it all over again a hundred miles down the road.

Corn and Cowboys

Sherry — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:55:53 +0000

Holding on Tightly

To see the ‘best of’ photography from South Dakota – click here!
To see snapshots from the Rodeo, click here!

One day left on my South Dakota family vacation. I survived two days of road tripping with my parents, and so far I concluded that I may need therapy after this. We decided to finish off our South Dakota extravaganza by getting in some exercise, some oddities, and some cowboys.

I convinced my parents to hike to the tallest peak in South Dakota, Harney Peak, standing at 7,242 ft high. Sure, this altitude isn’t anything mind blowing, after all, it is South Dakota, not Colorado. However, I was proud of my parents (both 72 yrs old) for being in shape and still able to do a 4 hour moderately difficult hike. Granted, I think my mom was about ready to kill me by the time we got back to the parking lot, but the important thing is that she made it!

We bid goodbye to the Western edge of South Dakota, land of patriotic stone carvings and buffalo, and took off towards the royalty of the Midwest; the Corn Palace of Mitchell South Dakota! Driving into Mitchell was a bit reminiscent of entering Disneyworld; driving down main street, getting a first glimpse of castle spires with flags blowing in the wind…and thousands upon thousands of pieces of corn. Is this a fairy tale? A bad dream? Or is Johnny Depp going to walk out of the front door in a Willie Wonka meets Edward Scissorhands outfit?

Photo: Look closely – those are really corn cobs!
Yes, there is really such a thing as a corn palace, and yes, it is made primarily of corn. No, it is not in Nebraska. It was erected in 1892 as a tribute to the agricultural heritage of South Dakota. Throughout the century, it has changed a bit and became more of a solid structure/event hall that houses murals and spires made of corn, and it hosts any concerts and sporting events in Mitchell. The original palace was primarily erected from corn and the corn byproducts (stalks, etc). Besides the joy of saying that you went to the Corn Palace, I can’t say that there’s much more to it than that. We went inside and toured the hall which had more corn murals inside, a large gift shop of everything corn (of course), a video of the history, and pictures of every corn palace from 1892 to the present.

Photo: Troy – this is how it’s done…
However, the real reason why I was actually excited to be in Mitchell South Dakota was because the rodeo was in town. Even though I’m a Midwesterner by birth, the closest I ever came to a rodeo was when my brother would chase me down, and flip me over on the ground, pull out a rope and calf tie me (2 legs and one arm), throwing his arms up in the air when he was done as if someone were timing him. There are truly not many things more humiliating than laying there tied up like a cow as your brother walks off to leave you there. The joy of brothers.

This was my chance to be the spectator (as opposed to the spectacle) of a real rodeo, so I was rather excited when we pulled up and there was a sea of cowboy hats. I had bought reserved seats for us as a birthday gift for my parents. The whole scene was fascinating to me. From the fans, to the kids, to the uber patriotic national anthem presentation, to the six packs of beer that they sold still held together by the plastic six pack rings. This is the middle America. This is the plains, where the real cowboys are. Yet cowboys have changed through the years. The man next to me with a cowboy hat, holding a beer with a plastic six pack ring on it, had to take a cell phone call about some cattle that needed to be picked up tomorrow. I had to laugh to myself about the modern cowboy…no guns, just cell phones.

The Mitchell rodeo had it all; good looking cowboys, bucking broncos, barrel racing, bull riding, calf roping, and even a strange acrobatic horse show/intermission. The calf roping was by far my favorite event, I think I was mainly thankful that I wasn’t he one getting roped! My South Dakota Family Vacation had come to an end. As we drove back to Eastern South Dakota the next morning, we were treated to one of my favorite sites on this flat landscape, an storm rolling across the prairie as far as you could see. South Dakota actually surprised me in many ways. Sure, it’s rather desolate, but it had variety in landscapes, variety in wildlife, and plenty of unique experiences!
Photo: Storm in the distance…

Animal Encounters Of The Hoofed Kind

Sherry — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:22:30 +0000

Buffalo lounging in the grass

Photo: Buffalo lounging in the prairie grass

To view the ‘best of’ South Dakota photography – click here!

Click here to see all of the snapshots of our animal encounters, Mt. Rushmore, and hiking.

The signs were everywhere. In Pierre, along the interstate, near Rapid City, in small towns…the silhouette of a buffalo and some scripted writing with an arrow pointing the direction of “Dances with Wolves Filming Site”. I haven’t seen the movie for some time; however I do still remember the Indian name for buffalo, tatanka. It’s probably the only Indian word I know. It seems like the movie Dances With Wolves put South Dakota on the map.

On day two of my family vacation we unknowingly were on a South Dakota Safari. It seemed that our travels kept leading us into the path of wild animals, sometime on purpose, sometimes on accident. Luckily, we survived all of the encounters and so did the animals…yet I believe we probably equally scared each other!

We decided that we would explore the nations 2nd largest state park, Custer State Park. It’s nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota on the western edge of the state. After traveling through the Midwest for a while, it’s always exciting the first time you start to see hills, they look like mountains and your eyes are relieved to get a glimpse of something that isn’t so flat and vast. That’s how I felt when I entered Custer State Park, relieved to know that there is something else other than wheat fields and hay bails as far as the eye can see. My dad navigated the scenic Needles highway through a multitude of curves and turns; I thought about how I’d rather be the driver than the passenger in this situation while wondering what needles had to do with hairpin curves. We came out of the woods and I had my answer, the needles were the rock formations that loomed in front of us jutting up out of the forested hills. We pulled over so that I could take some photos and get some fresh air before car sickness took hold!

As we were walking around the rocky area I heard a weird noise and saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I looked left in the direction of the UMO (Unidentified Moving Object) and I was surprised to see a large white mountain goat jump onto a huge rock about 15 feet above where my dad was standing. I grabbed my camera and started shooting as it continued to jump and make its way down the rocky cliff face and onto the road. As it reached the road, it ran right towards my dad and stopped about 5 ft. from him. The goat looked at him for a few seconds, and then ran around him. I honestly thought that my dad was going to get rammed, but they must have had some sort of meeting of the minds deciding that they were friends and not foes; not to mention too stubborn to move.

After our close encounter butting heads, we went on towards Mt. Rushmore to view the famous heads. This was my main goal in coming to western South Dakota; to get a dose of the ultimate monument in American pride. It’s the one monument that will last longer than any other thanks to it natural, sturdy construction. There is no entry fee for the monument, which makes it my kind of tourist attraction; budget friendly! However, parking was $10 and there’s really no getting around that unless you arrive by bus. I share a birthday with one of the rock heads, but even that didn’t get us free parking.

Mt. Rushmore was pretty much what I expected, impressive and very patriotic. The museum/visitor center was full of footage of the construction as well as history of the famous presidents. As I read the historical information and presidential quotes, it reminded me of just how unique this country is. For all of my disgust with it at times, I have to admit, it is a pretty amazing place with a strong cultural personality; unlike any other country I’ve ever been to.

The remainder of the day we traveled by many more Dances With Wolves signs through the town of Deadwood and winding through Spearfish Canyon. We even made it to Wyoming where the rocky hills oozed out into a vast rolling ‘big country’ of hills and open spaces. This is where we had yet another animal encounter, with Bambi. Bambi was in the middle of the road and we were hurdling towards it trying to quickly decipher which way Bambi was going to turn. Odds were that Bambi would turn; Deer never stand still when you want them to. We slammed on the breaks and veered to Bambi’s right the exact direction which Bambi decided to go of course. I braced myself and cringed knowing that we weren’t going to be the ones hurt in this situation…the Honda outweighed Bambi. I watched out the front window as the little white tail was going to be swallowed by our car, but by some miracle of good brakes, we ended up simply tapping it and saw that it was able to run off and up the hill without any noticeable limp. All was fine in the enchanted forest, but it was one very close encounter…I mean call.

The next day I was ready to see tatanka – not just on a sign announcing Dances with Wolves, but the real thing. Custer Park has herds of buffalo roaming the park in the prairie areas. We took off early in the morning and I strapped all of my cameras around my neck in the hopes of maybe seeing a buffalo. Sure, I had seen the buffalo in Golden Gate Park before, but they are fenced in and not as ‘convincing’ as seeing a large herd out in the grasslands of South Dakota…the motherland of tatanka. We wound along the park road eyes peeled for anything brown that moved. A car in front of us had pulled over ahead, so I knew that there must be something worth stopping for. Sure enough, a huge male buffalo was slowly walking across the grassland! I got out of the car and used my zoom lens to capture it. After watching it lumber along I was pretty satisfied with our sighting – my goal was met. We continued on and went around the corner and to my surprise there was the rest of the herd – about 100 of them roaming freely.
Click to enlarge my bufalo sighting – from one to many!

All of a sudden I was transported back to Kenya on safari. I felt like I was really on an adventure…right here in my home country. I hung out the window shooting the herd on both sides of the road. They were slowly on the move and we, along with a long backup of other cars, were in their way. I’ve never seen anything like it before, we were literally caught up in rush hour traffic, but the traffic had hoofs and was larger than most sedan size cars. This was a test of patience as we sat there for at least 30 minutes stopped or inching along as the herd slowly moved through the road calling/snorting to one another. As I hung out the window taking photos, I couldn’t help but laugh and recall how much this reminded me of India. My parents were getting a bit impatient about the whole buffalo jam, and I just channeled my ‘travel patience’ which I acquired last year around the world and really enjoyed the crazy moment. The buffalo were surrounding out car, walking by so close that I could reach out and touch them…but decided against it as a 2,000 lb buffalo was a bit intimidating to me!

Click to enlarge photos of the traffic jam!

The close encounters of the hoofed kind were exhilarating, and a bit dangerous. Luckily no person, animal, or car was harmed on any of these encounters! The buffalo traffic was by far my favorite experience of the whole trip to the edge of South Dakota. It made me realize how much I have missed traveling and crazy adventures that are truly out of the ordinary; experiences which aren’t contrived and scripted like most of our tourist attractions. I think I’m about ready to leave again…which is good considering I have a one way ticket out of the country on August 26th.

Photo: I couldn’t resist this shot! Maybe I am still 11 yrs old…

Family Vacation

Sherry — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:02:15 +0000

Looks inviting?

Que the song “Holiday Road”, load up the family truckster, and head to Wally World.

To view the ‘best of’ South Dakota photography – click here!

For all snapshots of South Dakota – Bad Lands and Wall Drug click here!

I recently watched National Lampoon’s Vacation again. It had been years since I had seen the Griswalds take off for Wally World, still a classic movie that strikes a chord with me thanks to some similar family vacations I took when I was a kid. Our family car was a little 1978 Honda Civic Hatchback; after all there was a gas crisis back then. Sound familiar? We would all squeeze into that car (with my brother sister and I in the cramped back seat fighting constantly), pack in plastic bags (because they were more mold-able in the hatchback), a cooler full of soda and tuna salad sandwiches and take off for some midwestern location about 800 miles away.

Photo: 1978 Honda Civic – yes, 5 of us fit in there…
This week, I find myself reliving this scenario minus my brother and sister. Since I’m in the Midwest during my ‘Summer of Homelessness’, I decided that I might as well get out and see some of the sights that I missed in my childhood. My parents were up for this adventure, so we set our sites on Mt. Rushmore. What could be more American than stone Presidents on land that we stole/took back from the Native Americans!? It’s not Wally World, but Western South Dakota would have to do.

My parents have upgraded to a 4 door Honda Accord now, but my mom still packed a cooler full of drinks and tuna salad sandwiches wrapped in wax paper. Yes – it’s a bit strange to be 38 yrs old and back on a family vacation; I feel like I’m 11 again. It’s all a bit confusing for my brain. As I traveled with my parents it made me realize just how many of my neurosis came from them! Actually, it helps me understand how I have come to see the world and why. Like it or not, we are a product of our parents and how we were raised. I’m not complaining at all, it’s just that when you spend a lot of time with your parents as an adult – you can’t help but need some therapy.

I quickly learned that South Dakota is pretty much like Nebraska…flat…very flat. I also learned that the state domestic product must be hay…because it was everywhere. I never knew it came in so many forms…hay bails, hay bail rolls, hay stacks, hay bail roll stacks…the list goes on. These various forms of hay dotted the flat countryside of South Dakota like sheep in New Zealand. I’m willing to bet that there are more hay formations than people in South Dakota. My dad, being an ex-farmer, was rather helpful in educating me on all of the nuances of hay such as why we need it, what animals eat it, rolls vs. stacks, what its shelf life is, Hay vs. Alfalfa bails, etc. If any of you want to know this info, send me a comment and I’m happy to share. This was the first 4 hours of our 500 mile journey to the west. Pretty similar to my childhood memories.

My next education took place in the capital of South Dakota – Pierre. Here’s a surprise, Pierre South Dakota is not French. Nope, that’s right – don’t get fooled by that French looking name. It is not pronounced pee-air nor do people wear berets there. Instead it’s pronounced like the word beer…’peer’. It took me a while to get used to not correcting people, but their confused look made me realize that I was the stupid one. Another thing that Pierre is not…big. With a population of aprox. 13,000, it’s a very small place for a state capital. In fact – I was positive it was the smallest state capital – until I googled it and realized that once again I know very little about my own country; Montpelier, Vermont is the smallest at aprox. 8500.

Wall Drug Sign – click to enlarge
After a few more hours of driving, another tuna salad sandwich and generic diet coke, I started seeing signs for the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall South Dakota. What’s that, you’ve never heard of the famous Wall Drug Store…neither had I. I will save you a trip to Wikipedia and give you the short history.

During the Depression in the 1930’s, Wall Drug Store was saved from bankruptcy by offering free ice water to the traveling public, advertising this via hundreds of signs along the highways. It has now grown into the largest, most publicized drug store in the world.

Photo: My dad holding his free ice water compliments of Wall Drug
Trust me – there was no possible way to miss Wall Drug. There was a sign for it about every mile and as you got closer – it went to about every ¼ mile. The signs advertised ice water, homemade donuts, 5 cent coffee, cowboy boots, and ice cream. They even advertised free donuts for newlyweds. I waited a long time to see a sign that said “Free ice cream for single women in their 30’s”…no luck. Regardless, the signs worked and we turned off the exit for some free ice water…and some of the best butterscotch ice cream I’ve ever had! The whole town of Wall South Dakota is pretty much the drug store. Busloads of visitors stop there each day; they get 20,000 visitors a day in the summer. See what I mean, it’s impossible not to stop.

After Wall, we drove through the Bad Lands National Park. It reminded me of the Painted Dessert in Arizona that I saw recently on my cross country road trip. It seemed so out of place in South Dakota. Who knew that South Dakota had this amazing land formation that simply rose out of the flat prairie? It was stunning.

Photo: Bad Lands Stripes
After 530 miles, about 5000 hay bails, 4 tuna sandwiches, and 3 ice waters, we made it to our destination, the Black Hills of South Dakota. We pulled a few beers out of the stocked cooler and celebrated. At least on this family vacation, I am old enough to have a beer! I really have no idea how I coped with family vacations before alcohol could be consumed.

Day 1 of my family vacation was quite educational. Sure, there were some times when I wanted to run out of the car screaming, but if now as a grown adult you spent 530 miles in the car with your parents I’m sure you’d want to do the same. All I can say is that even though I found myself on a family vacation again at age 38, it made me how realize how happy I am that I’m not 11 any longer!

Escape from the Lake

Sherry — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:21:41 +0000

Architecture of Walker Art Museum

Photo: Walker Art Museum – Minneapolis

I grew up in the country, however I never really considered myself a ‘country girl’. Instead, I always dreamed of the big cities; that’s where I knew I belonged. The past month I have spent time in the small towns of the midwest living a ‘country’ life. It’s quiet, scenic, and every morning I wake up to cool breezes and birds singing – it’s perfect. Yet this week I reached my breaking point. All of this fresh air and scenic solitude finally got to me. Actually, I think the final straw might have been kids arguing with each other about why they were being treated unfairly yet again.

I realized that I missed my city life a bit, but what I really missed was my solitude. I have lived alone since I was 27, no roommates, no one to be loud unless I decided to play my music loudly, or have friends over. Four weeks of living with others (not just others…but kids) in the solitude of the countryside finally made me reach my breaking point and reach for the mini-van keys. I needed an afternoon off from people and I needed some culture other than the Disney Channel.

I put on my one and only nice outfit, and pointed the mini-van towards Minneapolis…alone. I decided that I would visit a site in Minneapolis that I had never been to before. After living 4 1/2 years in Minneapolis I had never visited the Walker Modern Art Museum. As an modern art enthusiast, I knew that the Walker was the artistic hub of the city; famous for it’s sculpture garden with the backdrop of downtown Minneapolis.

The building itself was a lovely piece of architecture to view. Inside of the galleries the building was stark, and full of texture and angles – one of my favorite things to photograph. I soaked up all of the silence and slowly wandered through the galleries enjoying the thought provoking art.

It was a picture perfect summer day in Minneapolis and so I went for a walk in the sculpture garden. As you are all watching the oh-so-exciting Republican convention held in Minneapolis, you will most certainly see the famous cherry…ahem…sculpture in the Walker Sculpture Garden. The sculpture entitled Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg is one of my favorite images of Minneapolis. I decided to examine it from all photographic angles for some fun.

Click images to enlarge:

I ended my outing by walking to the Uptown area to see some old friends. As I walked through my old neighborhood in Mineapolis, memories of my time there came flooding back; men I had dated, bars I had partied at, restaurants I frequented. It left me pondering the concept of ‘back then would have I ever thought that my life would have went in this direction; that I would live in San Francisco, New York City, travel around the world, and eventually live in Vietnam. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that back then…I didn’t even have a passport then! I finished my field trip by meeting some old friends and catching up over a glass of wine and asian food. A perfect escape from the lake; some art, some photography, some friends, and lots of memories.

Travel vs. Motherhood

Sherry — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:27:32 +0000

Is motherhood for me?

I’m doing a different type of travel these last few weeks. I’m traveling to catch up. Catch up to what you may ask; friends. This summer is about enjoying the cool summers of the northern US, fighting off mosquitoes, and having reunions with old friends. I’m staying with my sister and her kids at a lake cabin near Minneapolis and taking this opportunity to reconnect with my old colleagues and friends; after all, I spent 4 ½ years living in Minneapolis back in my 20’s. This journey through time has really made me think about the choices I have made in my past, as well as the choices I have made for my future. It has also made me think about motherhood since most of the friends that I’ve reconnected with are now mothers of multiple kids at various ages – a foreign concept to me.

When I was a little girl, I had an active imagination and generally figured out ways to entertain myself since my brother and sister were older and I was considered an annoyance. I loved playing house. I loved pretending I had kids to take care of, to cook for, to clean up after, and to tell people what to do. Then I graduated on to Barbies where I had a whole imaginary life of families, homes, relationships, and picking the right outfit to wear for the right fictitious occasion. Then I moved on to playing ‘work’. I would play at my dad’s old desk, make a rol-a-dex from scratch and pretend that I had important meetings to attend, people to see, people to fire, things to staple, and reports to create. At that point, I don’t ever think I thought about playing house again.

However the last few weeks have landed me back in my imaginary world of playing house. I’ve been surrounded by kids and families. I’ve been entertaining kids, cooking for kids, disciplining kids, teaching kids (mostly appropriate things)…and I generally have no idea what I’m doing. I am the youngest in my family, so I never really had any young kids or babies around me. Instead, I was too busy trying to be more grown up so that my sister and brother may be interested in playing with me or at least stop teasing me and beating me up! These last few weeks of being surrounded by kids and families has been fun, yet exhausting. It’s a bit reminiscent of being a middle manager in corporate America, so I’ve had to dust off my managing skills. Motherhood or Management – it’s all the same to me.

These last few weeks I’ve done things that are scarier and more challenging than climbing Kilimanjaro. I found myself driving a minivan full of kids to Wal-Mart to do the grocery shopping. My latest adventure was to take 4 girls to 3 different softball practices in different locations, cheer them on, yell at them to play nice, tell them to stop fighting with each other, and then going for pizza at the local pizza joint. It freaks me out to think that the strangers that look at me think that they are my kids…how can that be when I still feel like I’m 22 and I clearly don’t look like a mother…or do I? God help me. We’ll delve into that in another post when I have a drink within reach.

Photo: Drained lake Delton – all that is left is mud.
I even drove out to meet my best friend from high school, Audra. She lives in Milwaukee so we decided to meet halfway across Wisconsin. She brought her young kids (2 ½ yrs and 14 months) with her for the 2 hour drive, and they watched Dora the Explorer. I on the other hand drove 3 hours and listened to a gruesome book on tape about children soldiers in Sierra Leone in the 90’s. We were worlds apart. Our worlds intermingled in the heart of cheesy American resort towns – Wisconsin Dells. Some of you may have heard of the Dells recently in the news when rains of biblical proportions dumped so much water into Lake Delton that it literally burst its banks. Tens of thousands of gallons of lake water barreled through the woods, taking with it a roadway, several houses, boats, fish and lake bed. It emptied into the nearby Wisconsin River and was gone in hours. Definitely a site to see.

We met at the Copa Cabana Resort and water park so that the kids could be entertained between us trying to catch up on 4 years of not seeing each other. There was no Barry Manilow or Pina Coladas at the Copa Cabana….instead there were pirate ships and kiddy slides. I channeled my motherhood genes that had long ago shriveled up and dried out and played as if I were Captain Hook on the high seas in between talking to Audra about travel, New York, motherhood, her career, and diapers.

As I drove back to the other side of Wisconsin after lunch, I thought about just how challenging and hard motherhood is. I frequently have people tell me how brave I am for doing what I’m doing with my life and travels. But as I watch all of my friends as mothers, I am in awe. That is one challenge that I wouldn’t be able or have the desire to meet. I find it much easier to fly off to strange countries and new cities and try to integrate in foreign places as compared to changing diapers and raising kids. Sure, that makes me a bit unusual, but I’m ok with that. I much prefer being Aunt Sherry than “Mom, (insert name here)’s hitting me!!” Plus – if I were to be a mom, that would necessitate me actually having to find someone to date that I didn’t get annoyed by eventually…and that may just be impossible.

Photo: My 6 nieces – all together for the 4th of July
Thanks to all of my old friends who have come on out to see me – it’s been like a giant summer reunion for me. Sometimes it leaves me a bit baffled, wondering how in the world I have ended up on the small path that I am on and not on the interstate of motherhood and familydome. I guess I just figure that someone has to take the path less traveled.

Family Ties – Singapore

American Culture

Sherry — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:55:42 +0000

Happy Birthday Mom!

I have a new article published on the Indie Travel Podcast. They have a bit more international audience, so this month I decided to write a piece about traveling to/in America and finding the unique Amercian culture here in this big land mass. Somewhat appropriate for the 4th of July I suppose!
You can find the article at
www.indietravelpodcast.com/article/coming-to-america/

Coming to America
In this article, Sherry Ott tells us why we should visit the small towns of America, and not just stick to the big cities.
Click on the link to read about it on The Indie Travel Podcast in the Articles section.
While you are there, check out other great travel tips on the Indie Travel Podcast website!

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Wisconsin – Beer, Cheese, and Women

Sherry — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:22:09 +0000

Photo: Cedar Lake, Wisconsin – the next stop on my Midwestern Family Tour

I have traveled to yet another middle America state. I’m currently in Wisconsin surrounded by beer, cheese and women. This sounds like a dream location if I was a guy…but I digress. On my summer Midwestern Family Tour (not to be confused with the Magical Mystery Tour – far from it!) I left South Dakota last week to go to Duluth Minnesota along Lake Superior. Duluth is kind of like stepping into Pittsburg but everyone has a weird Minnesota accent. Kind of a strange vortex of north meets east. I was in Duluth for one main reason…to see friends and family run in the Duluth Marathon. However, not only does Duluth put on a fabulous marathon, but a little known fact about Duluth is that it holds a special place in my heart since it is where I came up with my (former) cat’s name, Palucci. I will skip the details of that…but you can tuck that little piece of trivia away for use one day when I’m famous…ha.

Photo: Some of my family and friends in Duluth celebrating after the marathon – click to enlarge
The race was great – at least for the spectators. It was a bit warm for the runners. I even jumped in and carried my out-of-shape body along for 4 miles with a friend cheering him on between trying to get air to my lungs; hopefully distracting him from the 26.2 miles of pain that he was going through! My sister and brother-in-law also ran in the race, so it was quite the family affair. All survived and didn’t even lose a toe nail; a bonus when running marathons.

This was also the site of my ‘big switch’; the switch from my small town South Dakota life with my parents to my small town Wisconsin life with my sister. My sister and her family live in Singapore, but in the summer they come back to the US to stock up on western items, see family, be disgusted by large American-sized food portions, and enjoy summer vacation. They have a cabin on a lake in Wisconsin so it seemed like a great place to spend a few weeks helping my sister out with busing the kids around to various activities, doing laundry, and generally helping her keep sane while living with 3 girls on her own.

Once again, I found myself in a weird transition – from bustling New York, to slow and quiet South Dakota, to loud chaotic kids. Kids are like aliens to me, I’m around them so little that when I do get exposed to them it’s always a shock to my system. It takes me a few days to get back in my ’kid’ mode. I am now officially up to date on who the teen idols are, who Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus is (I was always confused about this double identity thing), I’m up to date on my Seventeen Magazine reading, and I have become reacquainted with the word “dude”. I think I’m about up to date on being a cool Aunt again.

Photo: Lake Cabin – my new home for a few weeks
Currently the cabin is full of 6 women (my sister, 3 nieces, a family friend, and myself). Add to that the 2 other young girls having a sleep over – and we are up to our eyeballs in estrogen (and there is one bathroom). This is quite an adjustment from my ‘normal’ NYC life of hanging out with gay men…then again…maybe not. This new kid/female lifestyle I have wandered into isn’t super travel centered, but it does provide me some great time with family before I head off to Vietnam. So I will soak up every moment I can and wash it down with a few Wisconsin beers and cheese curds in order to make it through the chaotic day!

Sex in the City – Small Town Style

Sherry — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:07:42 +0000

Twin Brooks Main Street

Photo: Main Street Twin Brooks, South Dakota…bustling.

When I told my parents that I was coming to stay with them for a month, they seemed excited. Maybe it’s because then they don’t have to talk to each other as much…or maybe I just provide entertainment, who knows. However my mother was particulary excited and started filling up her calendar with things that we could do in and around their small town community. The standard lunches were booked, church clubs, visiting with neighbors, but one of the items on the calendar stuck out. June 15th – Male Revue at Ol’ Gunslinger in Twin Brooks. Yes, that’s right – my mom had booked my calendar with a male strip show…on Father’s Day.

Photo: My mom with tickets and singles in hand.
Granted, I did willingly agree to go, but from a journalistic point of view. The chance to see a traveling male strip show coming to a small town with a population of less than 50 people – how could I pass that up as a blogger. I knew my blogging audience would be interested in Midwestern America – and this was definitely a side of it worth sharing! Seriously – you all would have done the same. When my mom asked me if I was interested – I said “of course!” I told her that if I wanted to see men in underwear, I could just go to a gay club in NYC and watch them dance for free, but this opportunity provided much more than scantily clad men. I wanted to see the women from rural America that were going to this show. Plus, I wanted to see the men that were traveling the rural cities performing…I was intrigued to say the least. I personally think that my mother had come to grips with the fact that I wasn’t going to provide her with a wedding and a son-in-law, so this was her way of getting to go to the bachelorette party that she’d never normally get to do.

On the day of the big ‘show’, my dad and I went for a drive in the country to do some photography. Plus, it was Father’s Day and it was a nice way to spend some time with my dad looking at cows. Yes, I know, many of you went to brunch with your dad…I went to go look at cows…not glamorous, but fun in its own way. We decided to drive through the town of Twin Brooks where the big ‘show’ was that evening. I had never been to Twin Brooks, so I wanted to get a good look at it by day so I could get a feel for the place. I was utterly stunned when I saw it. I’ve been to small towns before…but this place took the cake. Photo: Ol’ Gunslinger in Twin Brooks. Twin Brooks was flanked by railroad tracks that ran through the town and consisted of a post office (that also doubled as the town restaurant), a church that was closing it’s doors forever that afternoon after it’s service, and a bar…the Ol’ Gunslinger. I’m serious…that was it. They had a road called Main street which the post office and Ol’ Gunslinger were located on – it was gravel. In fact, all of the roads in Twin Brooks were gravel. I thought to myself – what traveling ‘revue’ show in their right mind would come here to perform?!

After our more traditional Father’s Day dinner, we cleaned up and my mom and I put on our Manolos and headed out to Twin Brooks. I was hoping it may be a bit livelier at night than what I saw that afternoon. I was also hoping that the permanent closing of the church had nothing to do with the male revue! We armed ourselves with 1 dollar bills, waved goodbye to my dad, and pointed the car towards hedonism.

A sign outside the Gunslinger warned us that it was Ladies Only. I’m sure all of the men in the town were rather disappointed that we had taken over their one and only watering hole, but they weren’t my concern…I was here to see flesh! We walked inside the dimly lit bar and I immediately knew that I wasn’t in NYC any longer. The walls were lined with animal heads…big ones. Neon Bud Light signs were placed between the antelers of Bambi and the juke box was blaring Achy Brakey Heart.

I swear to you that I’m not embellishing.

With our $15 tickets came a free drink – so I decided to forgo what everyone else seemed to be drinking (Bud Light bottles) and provide some class to the place – we went for the good liquor. There were 3 long tables arranged in a horse shoe with a backdrop for the ‘stage’ at the open end of the horseshoe. There were more colored lights than a middle school dance. We looked around in a bit of amazement – not due to the décor, but because we were two of 10 people in the bar. This was going to be a long night. We sat down and surveyed the ‘crowd’. My mom said, “ There are 3 gray haired women, 1 pregnant woman, and 4 fat women.” I was hoping she wasn’t including me in the fat count. It was a rather sorry crew – but we were a part of it – so we really couldn’t judge. My mom was one of the three gray haired women. The other two sat across the horseshoe from us sipping White Zinfandel. I was intrigued with them. Pretty soon a platter of jello shots were passed around. Apparently in addition to one free drink, we also got free jello shots. What exactly were they preparing us for?

Photos of the inside…click to enlarge:

Now I’ve made my share of jello shots. Those of you who have attended my parties are very familiar with my jello themes. However, these were hands down the strongest jello shots I had ever had. One more of those and I was going to get up and strip. Two more women showed up with gave us a whopping total of 14 in the crowd including us – the show was ready to start. I wondered just how desperate these men were who were coming out to strip for 14 women in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I’m sure there is a reality show pilot somewhere in this.

There were 3 men and none of them had mullets, thank God. In fact – they were all pretty decent looking. My expectations were already exceeded on their looks – or maybe it was the jello taking hold. They were all big muscle men; they clearly spend hours in the gym. The question was – could they dance…and were they straight? One was really young…looked like they pulled him right off the farm in Iowa, another was older and also served as the MC, and the third was a black guy that they called…take a deep breath…Hot Chocolate.

I swear to you that I’m not embellishing.

I was a bit hung up on the Hot Chocolate name – I wasn’t sure if I should laugh, be offended, or feel badly. Regardless, he was hot. The night was filled with some goofy dance routines, lighting snafus, tons of lap dances, more jello, crazy kama sutra positions (I should have been taking notes), and my mom and I screaming and laughing through it all. A great mother-daughter bonding moment over jello and dancing men. No, photos of the show were not allowed…sorry, no hot chocolate for you.

After the show, we went over and introduced ourselves to the other two gray haired ladies. We found out that my mom and they went to the same church; the joy of small town life. I liked those gray haired, Zinfindel drinking women. They were spunky in their sequin trimed jackets. They were brave and progressive. They were a model of what I wanted to be like when I get old. However, I think my mom impressed me most. After all, she knew how to do a jello shot. Did I mention that my mother is 72?

Photos: Me and my mom enjoying the free drinks and jello shots

The show was pretty much what I expected. For those of you who don’t know me personally – I don’t normally have very high expectations when it comes to men. But it was a great night out; fun to watch and be a part of a once in a lifetime opportunity. A slice of middle America; a far cry from Sex in the City…but just as entertaining.

Dairy Month – Experiencing New Cultures

Sherry — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:36:08 +0000

Photo: South Dakota cows. If you are really in touch with Midwestern culture, you wil note that these aren’t dairy cows…

I’ve had one of those weeks…one where you leave the familiar and go to a foreign place where everything seems so different, amazing, and sometimes strange. You are exposed to new cultural traditions, values, and food. I love that feeling of watching in wonder at something you never expected to see – it’s exhilarating. So when the Dairy Queen of South Dakota, proudly displaying her crown atop her perfectly coifed blonde curls handed me a small carton of milk, I stared in amazement thinking, “what is this strange country?”

When you feel like a foreigner in your own country, it’s a disturbing feeling. Going from a 100 degree heat wave in bustling New York City where sweaty people crowd into the subway as if they are your new love interest, to the cows roaming the wide open prairies of South Dakota; it’s a huge shock to the system. I’ve been in culture shock now for a few days.

The free milk went along with a free cheeseburger. Apparently June is Dairy Month – did you know that? In NYC you are aware of black history month, women’s history month, breast cancer month, Aids awareness month, Native American month, pride week and administrative assistant day…but I can safely say that I had no idea there even was a dairy month. In small town Midwest, they actually give out free dairy products throughout the month! There’s nothing free in NYC, so I was in awe of this concept. To top off the free cheeseburger, chips, and carton of milk – you also were served a rootbeer float. They set up picnic tables by the lake in Milbank, my parents closest and largest town, and the whole town shows up to eat for free. Everyone knows each other and they actually look each other in the eye and ‘visit’. A foreign concept to New Yorkers.

I stopped at the grocery store yesterday where I was equally amazed at the prices and the selection. The prices were half of what I was used to paying in the city, and the selection was also half of what I was used to in the city. I mean really, are fresh mint leaves considered an exotic herb? I didn’t think so, but ask the grocer in Milbank and you’ll get a blank stare. I went down the ‘ethnic’ food aisle to look for Asian ingredients for pad thai; I could only find La Choy Chow Mein….a specialty of many Midwestern cooks. I’m not quite sure that I’m ready to give up fresh mint leaves and the ingredients for Pad Thai, but in some ways it does sound better than being pushed around in a over capacity fire safety risk at Fairway Market on the Upper West Side. That’s a toss up.

Do you know how hard it is to not lock your car door when you’ve been conditioned to lock everything – even your ipod to your handbag in case someone will steal it on the subway. Here in small town Midwest, no locking is necessary. Heck – the keys stay in the car and we even leave the windows down…why not go all the way?!

Photo: My parents house in South Dakota
My first few days back in the middle of the country have been full of contemplating my origins, my present, and my future. I’ve kind of been in a mental funk taking all of this Midwestern-ness in. This is what I grew up with, but having been gone from it now for so long, it feels foreign to me. Sure, I love New York City and San Francisco, but there’s something equally beautiful about watching a huge storm roll across the prairie. You can see it approaching for miles – even the smell of it is familiar to me. In the land-locked Mid-west, the tall grasses in the pastures blow in the wind like waves on the ocean. These days have been about adjustment, and catching up on sleep; beautiful, fitful sleep without garbage trucks waking me up. It’s nice to get back to your roots, but I don’t think I could ever give up the bustle of the city.

I wonder what free food month July is? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for chocolate month!

Want to take a Career Break and Travel?

Sherry — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:48:07 +0000

If you are sitting at your desk, stealing away a few minutes of sanity from meetings, your 4th cup of coffee, emails, the blackberry, and deadlines – then read on…

A few years ago when I started researching my career break, I quickly realized that for a corporate American – I was exploring new territory. There were very few books or websites that addressed how to plan and take a career break. Sure, there were that covered the topic, but they were all written from a British perspective. Now I don’t have anything against a British perspective, in fact I find it rather humorous normally – but the British and American take on careers are different. Brits travel – they use their vacation, they take long trips, their careers aren’t thrown into jeopardy if they take a year off. Americans – well, we don’t have those luxuries..or do we?

When taking a year+ off and traveling long term, I struggled with finding others like me from my culture. I struggled with simply planning the endeavor of long term travel. Yet at the same time, I heard from so many people through my blog that wanted/hoped to do the same type of thing I was doing. They were longing for a career break and had many questions on how to make it happen.

I always believe that life provides the path if you just open your eyes and are open to it. When I met two other Americans with similar backgrounds as mine that had also just completed a 3 month career break, the idea was born…Briefcase to Backpack – a website for corporate Americans who wanted to escape for a while.

My partners and I are working on putting this new travel website together and have a preview site up and running at www.briefcasetobackpack.com. It is a small look into what we intend to provide on Briefcase to Backpack in the future, a background on how it all came together, and a way for you to get on our mailing list to stay up to date on our progress.

I know many of you are contemplating a career break and wondering how to do it – then go check out www.briefcasetobackpack.com, sign up for our email, provide us some feedback on the idea, and save the url as a ‘favorite’! Briefcase to Backpack – the first stop on your escape from Corporate America!

Sherry Has Left The Building

Sherry — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:03:03 +0000

Photo: Shutting the door on my 5 years at 74th and Columbus…

There’s something surreal about seeing your bed wheeled down the streets of NYC on a dolly. Really – a sobering situation.

There I was, walking down the street with friends after dinner seeing my life possessions being carted down the street – God…this isn’t happening…is it?

My friends have been amazing – and have benefited quite a lot from my liquidation of my life. Many of them have taken/borrowed furniture, art, and electronics. This is all great as is means that it’s less stuff to put into storage…however in another weird way it is terribly painful. I realized just how painful it was when I saw my mattress being wheeled down the street past the Museum of Natural History…which may be quite fitting for my mattress!

Photo: Me working my ‘home office’…what’s left of it.
Slowly – every day more is taken away…I’m left with a beach chair – my only piece of furniture to sit on, paper plates, and plastic silverware as I’ve sold all the rest.

Sure, it’s great to have the money from selling things…but it goes so fast. It’s strange thinking that your bed is the same value as a dinner and a nice bottle of wine in NYC.

I’d like to sit here and say that I liquidated my life with ease and confidence, that I was the model of composure; but I can’t lie. There have been a few tears shed about the loss of my possessions. As it gets closer to nothingness, more tears seem to come, but that is more about me wanting this whole process to be over – I’m just tired of it. I’m tired of living like this slowly watching things disappear and crumble around me. The rub is that as bad as it feels – it feel equally good and freeing. Sometimes I think that tears are necessary though…it’s a mourning process that we have to let our bodies go through….and mine has been working overtime.

Photo: My dear friends doing some ‘Sherry Shopping’ – at least I know it goes to a good home!

Seeing my bed on the street…well, that was a whole new level. I was already a bit apprehensive about selling my bed, seeing it on the street made it even harder. Your bed is precious. Just think for a moment…think about your bed….and then think about never sleeping in it again. But not because you are replacing it with a new fluffier bed, instead it is because you are choosing to give up normalcy. From this point forward for the next few years you will be sleeping in multiple beds – some good, some bad. But never the same bed for long; and it’s never YOUR bed. That is the challenge of traveling.

It’s weird to be going through this again – leaving again. I have this ‘here we go again’ feeling as I pack up my suitcase full of rolled clothes – my dresser on wheels. It’s easier since I know what to expect, but harder also because this time it’s for real….there’s nothing but friends and a small storage space in Manhattan to come back to.

Homeless Again

Sherry — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:40:29 +0000

My posessions…no longer…

A friend recently asked me if I ever felt an overwhelming social pressure to get married and have kids.
My answer, “Not really.”
Sure, there’s pressure from a social norm standpoint, but I seldom let it get to me. However, recently I have felt a great deal of social pressure with my current life decision; to not go back to my corporate career and instead sell 90% of what I own to go make slightly over $15000 a year. I am truly going back to square one, the square I was in when I graduated from college.

Today there are an increasing number of women not getting married or having a family. But I don’t know many other people who have decided willingly to go from the making of an extremely comfortable lifestyle with a 6 figure salary to practically nothing. No home, and few possessions. Sure, when I used to have really terrible days at work I’d fantasize about giving it all up and living a simpler life – but deep down I didn’t think it would actually happen.

When I refer to social pressure, I’m not saying that people are specifically putting pressure on me telling me not to do it. In fact my friends and family have been very supportive through my struggles, indecision, and tears. The pressure is coming from myself and what I see around me. Ever since I graduated from college I have been on a quest; a quest to be ‘grown up’ and successful. A quest to own furniture that doesn’t come with assembly instructions.

I still remember the first piece of furniture I ever purchased; a couch from Sears. Then came a bed, some side tables, kitchen appliances, works of art, pottery, clothes, more clothes, handbags, and a shitload of shoes. Some how I moved from my apartment in Omaha, NE, which was furnished with furniture from garage sales and posters that I put in a plastic frames to a beautiful loft in Manhattan with real wood furniture and actual art on my walls. I had a real ‘grown-up’ life I purchased for myself.

Now I look around at all the stuff I have acquired through the years and realize that it’s really my enemy. It’s holding me hostage. But who at 38 yrs old in their right mind gives it all up?

The progression of my disappearance of ’stuff’…from every angle…click on the picture to enlarge.

I had to make this weighty decision while I was away from my stuff – it’s too hard to do while you are sitting on your perfectly good couch that you are deciding whether to give up or not. I’d like to say that my time back in NY since January has been fun and carefree – but it hasn’t. I’ve been weighted down with big decisions – what do I do next, how will I live, how do I avoid corporate America, where will I live, how will I make money to live? This constant bombardment of difficult questions that I submit myself to has been a slow torture. Coupled that with being in NY where you tend to bleed money – it has really sucked.

In order to not lose my mind I’ve had to make some decisions and my first step is to cut free of the shackles of my stuff and rent payments.

Selling my ‘stuff’ off to my family, friends, neighbors, and strangers creates a weird feeling. It’s certainly not a comfortable situation. As I hand over the items that I worked so hard to acquire I try to think of it as if I’m getting rid of a disease and now it’s someone else weighty shackles. They will have to house it for years and be tied down to it. By looking at it as buying my freedom, it doesn’t feel as pathetic.

As I look around my comfortable apartment, I wonder for a moment just how much my stuff defines me. It’s a fact that stuff doesn’t make you happy, so why not cut free? As I watch my things march out of my life I have to change my mindset. My stuff and my apartment doesn’t define me. Instead, it’s my writing and this blog that defines me. I don’t need stuff…I feel lighter already.

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Solo Travel & My New Writing Gig

Sherry — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:08:38 +0000

Going it Solo

I was recently asked to become a regular contributor for one of my favorite travel websites – The Indie Travel Podcast. Their site has a wealth of information and downloadable podcasts for the long term traveler. I utilized many of their podcasts during my travels! Plus, Craig and Linda (the hosts of the podcasts and site) ,are living out my dream of teaching ESL, traveling, and helping others travel through their website/podcasts. They have been a huge help to me in my planning of my next big step of teaching and traveling.

I have agreed to put out one travel article a month to start…so my first one was published this week!
My first article was on Solo Travel – One Isn’t the Loneliest Number – you can read by clicking here!

In this article, Sherry Ott tells us why solo travel is right for her and probably for you – not least because you spend less time waiting for your friends in the toilet.

If you like my writing, and want to see some more as well as check out another great travel website and maybe even download a podcast or two…then check it out!

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I Gladly Accept This Award

Sherry — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:15:35 +0000

Tunnel Light

I had a surprise in my inbox the other day…no, Brad Pitt didn’t send me a love note, but the surprise was equally surprising and good! I was informed that my little blog…Corporate America Runaway…was selected as one of the top 100 travel blogs for a travel website! I didn’t even know that I was ‘nominated’!

I celebrated this great news by dressing up, rolling out a red towel in my furniture-less apartment, and strutting up and down my empty apartment with a bottle of champagne. This red carpet experience certainly rivaled the other red carpet experience tonight in NYC – the Sex in the City premier.

You can check out the article and the other lucky 99 winners here – www.airlinecreditcards.com/travelhacker/100-best-travel-journal-blogs/
I’m located in the solo travel category.

Thanks to all of you out there that read the things I write. I promise that there are lots of great travel stories coming up this summer as I hit the midwest, in addition to my preparation for leaving the country again. Any travel questions…just drop me a comment at the blog and I will get back to you. And of course, if you are Brad Pitt – you can contact me any time you’d like!

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And This is the Artist…

Sherry — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:48:08 +0000

The Landscapes on Exhibition – click photo to enlarge
All are for sale at www.sherryott.smugmug.com

I’m lying awake at 5:30AM, and I should be asleep. I’ve been getting little sleep these days as I prepared for my photography exhibition, and worked on launching new business ventures. But that work is done, and the photography exhibition was last night, so why am I awake now when I should be soaking up every last bit of lovely, uninterrupted, stress –free morsel of sleep?

At 5:50 AM I realized why I was awake. This insomnia wasn’t due to stress, it was due to happiness. My mind is flooded with conversations from last night, faces of friends, meeting strangers, reliving travel memories and stories; an overall basking in happiness. That’s a good reason to be lying awake.

After about 8 months on the road, I started fantasizing about doing a photography exhibition. When you are traveling, everything seems possible, however when I arrived back in New York, I wondered how I would ever make it happen. I was overwhelmed with my desire to do it, and a lack of knowledge on how to organize such a feat. I was a rookie when it came to the business of photography; editing a show, choosing a good printer, framing, photoshop skills. That’s when I started to turn to friends and they helped me fumble my way through it.

All of the work culminated into last night, my first exhibition. For me it was more than an exhibition, it was a celebration of travel and cultures; a party. It was also a chance for me to see old friends, but even more importantly, it was a chance for me to realize just how wonderful my friends and family are.

Cultural Portraits from the Exhibition – click on photo to enlarge!
All are for sale at www.sherryott.smugmug.com

I couldn’t have hoped for a better evening. It was everything that I had imagined as I used to fantasize about it on the road. It’s a positive wave of emotion that I can ride during all of the challenges of change ahead.

There were a number of surprises. I was surprised at how many people show up and how late they stayed. I was surprised when friends showed up from San Francisco that I hadn’t seen for 4 years. I was surprised that I actually sold some pieces. I was surprised with how many people actually kept up with my travels and read my blog. I was surprised that complete strangers showed up. However, the biggest surprise to me was when a group would come up to me to do an introduction and say , “and this is the artist…” What?! I had to fight the urge to turn my head and look behind me searching for the artist they were talking about. My heart would do a flip as I reflected upon that statement and shook the person’s hand.

Cultural Portraits from the Exhibition – click on photo to enlarge!
All are for sale at www.sherryott.smugmug.com

In my former corporate life I sat behind my desk for years emailing, working on budgets and project plans I never could have imagined that I would be in the place I am now. I dreamed about how I could get out of the rat race and do something more creative, unleash the right side of my brain that had shriveled up from staring at a spreadsheets and project plans. I would try to surround myself with creative people and artist-types so that I could soak up that energy. The fact that I was now being introduced as an artist was stunning to me.

Photo: David, Carlye, Miles, Me
For all of you that showed up last night, thank you. Your support was overwhelming to me.

Thanks to the people that purchased some of the pieces from the exhibition!

Thank you to my friend Carlye who organized the drawing and sold tickets for the ‘raffle’. As some of you may know, volunteer work isn’t free and normally has fees associated with it to help administer the program – so the money that was collected (over $300!!) will go towards my volunteer work in Nepal this August/September. Congrats to Deb who was the lucky winner and took home the Sahara piece!

Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law who showed up from Nebraska providing family support!

Thanks to my old photography teacher, Andrew Shapiro, who brilliantly went through the editing process of 11,000 photos to 26 photos. He has a massive right brain!

Finally, thanks to Miles and David…for everything. You both know what you mean to me.

For those of you who could not attend the event, please check out my redesigned photography website where you can purchase prints and photography books! Please check out the site and sign the guest book! Or better yet…buy something!
www.sheryott.smugmug.com

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Join Me For A Journey to Other Countries!

Sherry — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:52:56 +0000

Exhibition Postcard

You are invited to come on a journey and experience the cultures of the world.
Celebrate Sherry’s 16 month, 23 country voyage.

Cultural Landscapes and Portraits – Exhibition by Sherry Ott
May 16, 6:30 – 9:00PM
51 W. 14th St. #2R (btwn 5th & 6th Aves)
New York, NY 10011

Some of you may know that I made a list of things that I wanted to accomplish when I arrived back in the US last January. One of the items on this list was to have a photography exhibition highlighting my global travel and cultural experiences on my memorable journey. With help from MANY friends, I am finally going to make this happen!

If you have followed my travels on Ottsworld and live near NYC, I hope you take this opportunity to join me for this event. If you have friends or family that are interested in other cultures, photography, or simply want a fun evening out in New York meeting new people, then please pass this invite along. Everyone is welcome!

If you aren’t near NYC, but are interested in my photography, I am re-launching my Photography website on May 16th and you will be able to purchase prints online. Please check it out after the 16th!

I will be leaving NYC again soon, so I hope that I have a chance to connect with you at the exhibition in person!

Thanks for all of your support as this journey continues!

Changes in Latitudes; The Future

Sherry — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:39:09 +0000

null

I’ve been in New York City for 5 months now; it’s time for a change.

During this time in NYC I’ve been challenged with many things; reverse culture shock, living on a tight budget, finding my ‘place’ again in the world, taking teaching classes, trying to get business ideas off the ground, finding medical insurance, and starting a freelance career in writing/photography. I’ve went through all of these challenges with one goal in mind, to get back on the road in that everlasting search for happiness. I needed to figure out my next steps that would keep me from re-entering the regular corporate working world, and get me back on the road with a small income.

I’m happy to say – I finally have a plan! Being a former project manager, my feeling is that a plan is like a drug…your miserable when you don’t have it, but when you realize your plan, it’s ecstasy!

Drum roll please….
In the beginning of June I will be moving out of my apartment, selling 80% of my possessions, and heading to the Midwest for the summer months of June/July. I will have the chance to travel to some new places, see family, and have a proper summer vacation.
In August I will come back to New York City for a couple of weeks, soak up every last bit of westernized culture and cleanliness that I can, and then take off on a worldly journey again! My first stop is Nepal where I will be doing volunteer work in villages for 3 weeks. Next stop will be in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, my new home for the next year. Starting in mid September, I have accepted an ESL teaching position with an English Language School in Vietnam. I will teach adults English on a year contract – becoming a true expat and international citizen!

My hope is to take my 30 days of vacation I receive while teaching and do more traveling around the area into SE China, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Mongolia. I will also re-visit some places such as Singapore, Bali, Borneo, Cambodia, and of course travel through Vietnam.

I will also use this time to continue freelance travel writing/photography, blogging, and working on the Briefcase-to-Backpack startup (more to come on that)! No rest for the weary!

Over the next few weeks – check back on the blog as I will go into more detail about some of this stuff – and most importantly – I will be writing about my experiences of liquidating my life in search of a dream to be free form a desk and cubicle!

Feline Visitation Rights

Sherry — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:56:43 +0000

sniff, sniff...

Photo: Since I’m in the process of selling off all of my posessions, my friend Linda sent this photo to me as a joke!

I used to say that my cat, Palucci, had love for only one person; that person used to be me. However, when I decided to do my long term travel last year I knew I had to come up with a new home for her. This task was not as easy as one might think. Sure, she’s cute, well kept, soft, playful, loving, cuddly…but only to me; everyone else she hates. Not only hates, but uses her good looks and fuzziness to lure people in and then bite them. I keep the Neosporin on hand as blood has been drawn many times. Her feisty attitude never really bothered me, in fact I kind of liked the fact that I was the only one in the world that she loved. She protected me…from everyone. She hated men that I dated, kids, friends; except she did have a bit of a soft spot for my mom, but who doesn’t?

I had an equal amount of love for her, I had her since she was a kitten 9 years ago. After 7 years, I became allergic to her; but even then I opted to take a myriad of allergy medicine every day instead of getting rid of her.

My good friend Linda was witness to my emotional melt down two years ago; no one could take my cat while I traveled and I was completely distraught trying to figure out what to do with Palucci. I was leaving in 3 months for my journey and needed a solution. I couldn’t just leave Palucci behind; she was my family. Linda took pity on me saying “I’ll take your cat if you want; I was going to get one anyway. I wanted a nice cat, but that’s ok, it’s only for a year.” Problem solved!

I took Palucci to Linda’s home in Storrs, Connecticut a few weeks before I left the country. It was a tearful parting, but I knew she was in good hands…Linda that is. I knew that my cat only had love for one person and soon she would forget me, and start loving Linda. She’d be adorable, cuddly, talkative, playful…all for the sole attention of Linda.

Photo: Linda and Palucci
Sure enough, I was right. As I traveled the world (allergy pill free), I had updates from Linda. She and the cat were getting along amazingly well. Linda loved the cat, the cat loved Linda…a perfect match. So when I came back to the US after 16 months of traveling, I had a big decision to make yet again. Do I take my cat back?

I knew what the answer had to be…it could be nothing else than “no”. I was still deathly allergic to her, I had no idea how long I was staying in the US, nor where I was going to live; and the cat was perfectly happy. I had to give her up for ‘adoption’ to Linda. She was Linda’s cat now. However, I had lifetime visitation rights.

When I arrived in Storrs, it had been 20 months since I had seen Palucci. I wondered if her little pea brain would remember me, but mostly I wondered if she would hate me. When Linda and I walked in her door, Palucci was there, just like old times, purring and looking for attention. Yet after the normal minute of rolling around she stopped, stared, and ran away to hide. I got my answer, she definitely remembered me. In the past when she would run and hide it was because she was scared; normally associated with me moving her across the country to a new apartment. She would go find a little nook and stay there for hours until she realized that we weren’t leaving this new place.

I believe she was definitely scared when she heard my voice and smelled my scent, she ran and hid because she thought I was going to take her away again. Eventually she came out of her hiding place, and slowly checked me out more. I think the whole experience confused her. This cat that had love for one person, now had a dilemma. She would come to me and cautiously check me out and let me pet her, then she would go run to Linda. Eventually, as we sat on the couch, she came and sat between us not really able to resolve who her loyalty should go to; the past or the present.

After two days at Linda’s playing with Palucci and hanging out, I was able to steal away a few precious moments and memories. I was relieved that she didn’t treat me like other people, she didn’t bite me, she wasn’t bitchy, she didn’t hiss. Instead she fell into old habits with me, cuddling, playing, and sleeping with me. I was also able to see how much Palucci loved her new owner and home; Linda provided her more attention and love that I ever could have. I was also able to realize just how allergic I still was to Palucci as I wheezed with asthma and my eyes watered. In the end, it was clear that she (and Linda!) had been very happy with the last 20 months, and that they would continue to be going forward. I was thrilled that everything had worked out so well. I was also thrilled that Palucci remembered me; she not only remembered me, but she still had saved a little unconditional love for me – the person that gave her away. I had been wrong; she was able to love more than one person.

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 18; The Final Chapter

Sherry — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:24:37 +0000

Fourteen days, twelve states, and approximately 4,100 miles. Coast to Coast…what a fun voyage! There were so many things that I enjoyed about the overall voyage – a chance to see the diverse cultures within my own country, to challenge some of my perceptions, and to eat copious amounts of fried food…what more can you ask for?!

I looked at the trip as if it were a movie preview; it gave me a small taste of what it was all about and I could decide if I wanted to go back and see the whole thing sometime. With just two weeks time, you aren’t really able to get in depth into any one area. The trip helped me see an area, get familiar with the activities there, and take a mental note on how I would want to spend more time in the area in the future. One of the ‘previews’ that I loved was the Grand Canyon and all of the Utah National Parks. We actually were able to see many of the sites; however, we didn’t really get to experience them. I was longing to put on my hiking boots, backpack and get dirty and sweaty; or sign up for a week long rafting trip…but there was no time for that…it was just a preview. The full movie would have to be seen at a later date.

I feel lucky that I was able to do this trip with Kathleen, it provided us a chance to reconnect since we’ve both been out of the country for a long time. It’s not often that you get to spend 14 days with a friend in a car; thank God that we got along! Granted – we did have some fights – mainly over directions at a time when our blood sugar was low; but we persevered, got on the right track and made it to a Sonic burger diverting a full blown screaming argument!

Some of the most fun we had was going into gas stations and picking out junk food for the trip; items that we hadn’t eaten since we were teenagers. But if you’ve ever been on a road trip, then you understand the need to munch. We had a never ending array of munchies and bad food consisting of HoHo’s, beef jerkey, M&Ms, fruit pies, chips, cheetos, fig newtons, chex mix and fruit loops. This may be why our complexions were all of a sudden back to looking like a pimply 14 year old by the time we arrived in California.

The most expensive part of this trip was the cost of fuel – especially since we were driving an SUV. Since rising gas prices seem to always be in the news, I decided to conduct my own research. Every time we stopped for gas, I recorded our price so that we could determine the cheapest and the most expensive state for gas:
Washington DC – $3.53/gal
Virginia – $3.21/gal
West Virginia – $3.43/gal
Kentucky – $3.25/gal
Tennessee – $3.09/gal ****Cheapest!
Oklahoma – $3.25/gal
Texas – $3.29/gal
New Mexico – $3.35/gal
Arizona – $3.25/gal
Utah – $3.47/gal
Nevada – $3.59/gal
California – $3.99/gal *****Most Expensive!

You spend a lot of time looking out of windows when you are driving hundreds of miles a day. You have a lot of time to think while looking out those windows. I used this trip to make some big life decisions; decisions that I couldn’t seem to make while I was sitting in my apartment. Somehow, sitting in the car for hours provided me a change of scenery, and a chance to map out a plan for my near future. I saw many strange sites out the window, including 23 Walmarts. I also saw signs; some funny, some bewildering, and some that I used as ‘sign therapy’. They were the signs that actually put a few things in perspective on my path to making life decisions and prompted me to act.
Sign in Tennessee: “ You can’t plow a field just turning it over in your mind.”
Sign in Utah: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, then build a door.”

The one sign that we seemed to see most frequently was the road crossing signs. You know the ones, _(fill in the blank)_ Crossing – warning you of what may be crossing your path ahead. Up until now, I was very familiar with the Deer Crossing signs; however, this cross country journey opened my eyes beyond leaping deer in our path. We saw crossing signs for all kinds of animals: elk, cows, pigs, donkeys, steers, and even tractors. The things that actually did cross our path were only deer, cows, and dogs. However we both screamed when we were driving along a desolate highway in Utah and all of a sudden a huge vulture that was on the side of the road happily munching away at road kill was startled by our car. It started to fly away with the LARGE piece of road kill in it’s claws, The road kill was too heavy for it, and it dropped to the ground next to our car as we sped past. The vulture just about dropped it on our car! Luckily it was a failed bombing attempt!

Overall the trip was great. Sure, we were able to accomplish our goal; moving Kathleen’s car to the west coast; however it was much more than that. I was able to see places I’ve only heard about, and determine where I wanted to come back to. I was able to drive again (woohoo…it was fun being back behind the wheel)! I tried new foods, and gained a few pounds and pimples. I went to states that I had never visited before. I was able to spend time with a good friend, and I was able to make new friends. Finally, I was able to put my life in perspective again. These are the things that make a trip successful.

Thanks Kathleen!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 17

Sherry — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:02:47 +0000

Photo: Pacific Ocean along Highway 1

Happy Cows Come from California

When I lived in California there was a commercial that ran frequently for the dairy association. It had cows in beautiful green pastures with rolling hills; the tag line was “Happy cows come from California”. I had never really given much thought to it – until we entered the rolling green hills of California.

We decided that our last day of travel should be a memorable one. As we looked at the map we had two options – taking interstate 101 up to San Francisco (about 4 hours of driving) or taking scenic and famous Highway 1 up the coastline to San Francisco (about 6 hours of driving). I’m sure you can guess what we chose. We felt that a fitting way to end the 2 week trip was to enjoy our surroundings, take our time, and simply soak it all up. Plus, surprisingly neither one of us had ever been on Hwy 1 south of Big Sur, so it was a chance for us to see something new.

As we took off from our interstate hotel and drove into the California countryside it was as if I went from a Lawrence of Arabia into the Sound of Music. There was a notable change in our surroundings as we sped towards the Pacific Ocean; there was moisture in the air! Over a week ago when we left Oklahoma and entered into Texas Kathleen said, “This is the last time we have moisture until we hit California.” From that point on we were applying Chap Stick, eye drops and nose drops as the desert landscapes sucked the moisture out of us and left us looking and feeling like raisins. As we were driving through the flat, stark desert lands, we would have gripping conversations to pass the time such as “Do you prefer tropical-humid-heat to desert-dry-heat?” Personally I think they both suck, one is terrible for my hair and the other for my sinuses – you really can’t win. However, today it was nice to simply change from one to the other – especially at this time of year. California is pleasant at this time of year – green, fragrant, and in bloom.

We drove through the rolling green hills and we were both rather speechless staring out at the picture-perfect countryside. Cows dotted the hills standing out against the vibrant green meadows. I kept thinking about the Happy Cow commercial – I felt that it was definitely ‘truth in advertising’. Hell, those cows looked so happy to be grazing in the green hillsides that I wanted to be want of them! They looked as if they didn’t have a care in the world; the warm ocean breeze blowing through their ummm….hair? They were taking their time munching on grass which I thought to be similar to humans having a wheat grass shot at Jamba Juice. Life seemed pretty good for them.

As we drove further West, pretty soon, we could go no further; we had arrived. We stopped the car and stared out at the Pacific Ocean before us. This was a powerful moment. The skies were blue, the sun shining, the temperature perfect, the ocean breeze lightly blowing; it was one of those overwhelming moments of perfection. I thought to myself ‘I can’t believe that we just drove from across the whole country’. There was something very meaningful about it; my reaction actually surprised me. I have looked at the map of the United States a million times, but it was no longer just a piece of paper, now it had meaning to me.

We saw signs for the Hearst Castle and neither of us had ever been there before so we decided to stop for one last roadside attraction. William Randolph Hearst built this amazing 90,000 sq. ft castle/house (a testament to someone with too much money) along highway 1 near San Simeon. We drove into the visitors center and it felt as if I had entered Disney Land. A huge parking lot, shuttle buses, beautifully manicured lawns; no, there wasn’t some dollar bill mascot. Unfortunately the prices were like Disneyland too – $20 for an adult ticket. Now I had a dilemma. For someone with no job you start to evaluate and make decisions on things in terms of value…such as – do I really want to see the house of a rich man for $20 or do I want to have a nice lunch on the coastal highway with a glass of wine?

Photo: Our lunch view…much better than the Hearst Tour!
Kathleen and I visited the gift shop and the museum – but passed on the tour of the house – opting for lunch instead! We hopped back in the car and drove north on highway 1 stopping to photograph some of the vistas and smell the wildflowers. We found a cute, picture-perfect place to stop for lunch. It was charming; a little restaurant and bar perched on the cliffs over the ocean. We took our time soaking up the sun and enjoying California wine (thank god as I was getting a bit tired of Bud Light) and healthy salads. We reminisced how we had survived the fried food of the South and how nice it was to be back in a state where the only salad wasn’t Iceberg lettuce and a tomato!
Click to enlarge all of the California wildflowers!

We drove into San Francisco and there it was…the wall of fog that defines San Francisco. The fog in San Francisco creeps over the hills like an eerie, slender hand grasping your shoulder, giving you chills literally. When I lived there, I was one of the strange people that loved the fog, it was different yet dependable…every day at 4PM in the summer, it came rolling in. It was so different from where I grew up in the Midwest. Driving out of the perfect California, sunny day into the grey fog bank of San Francisco seemed like a fitting way to end the trip.

We made it!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 16

Sherry — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:46:28 +0000

Death Valley Salt Flats

View Map of our Route

For all Photos of Death Valley – click here!

500 Miles Through the Valley of Death

We bid Vegas farewell with a drive down Las Vegas Blvd. It’s not often that someone from the Midwest and the East Coast get to drive their car down Las Vegas Blvd…so we thought we better do it while we had a chance. Sure, it would have been better in a convertible with a scarf tied around my head like Jackie O…but our Jeep Cheroke and my baseball hat would have to do.

We made a big decision today; one that would cost us time and miles. A decision that made us sweat. Instead of heading straight towards San Francisco, we decided to head to a destination below sea level, Death Valley. In order to make it to Death Valley, we had to drive about 200 miles out of our way which basically meant that it would take us one day longer to get back to San Francisco. Even after 2 weeks of cross country travel, I wasn’t hating the car and driving yet, so the thought of seeing Death Valley seemed like an opportunity we should seize.

So – instead of following the mass exodus out of Vegas towards LA, we went north instead, deeper into the desert, deeper into the heat. I woke up this day with a terrible sore throat, it had bothered me for days, but today I couldn’t ignore it, I was sick. I’m sure Kathleen was really happy to be stuck with me in a car for 500 miles as I was hot, sick, grumpy, and hacking…but she had no choice!

We drove to the small town of Beatty, outside of the entrance into Death Valley and picked up supplies. It honestly felt as if we were going into this vortex for days and never going to come out. We made sure we had a full tank of gas, we bought numerous bottles of water, sandwiches, chips, M&M’s (you never know when you are going to need chocolate), and we washed our windows…we were ready to enter the Valley of Death…it sounded incredibly ominous as if I were a kid again entering a haunted house. The road was narrow and like a roller coaster – little dips that put your stomach in your throat. I imagined that the road had actually melted and that’s why it ended up all warped…hmmm…maybe I actually had a fever with my cold. Death Valley is actually a National Park, so I got out my Annual Park Pass, ready to flash it to the person taking money at the ‘gate’, but there was no gate. There wasn’t even a person. There was simply a vending kiosk that requested you to pay your fee. I was actually a bit freaked out that this park was so brutal that they didn’t even have a welcome gate and employee/ranger. For a moment I did wonder if we were driving straight into hell. We took a look at the map and plotted our course through the valley, rolled down our windows, cracked open our waters, started munching nervously on M&M’s, and entered the park.

Here are the facts; Death Valley is the lowest, driest and hottest valley in the US. It is the location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 ft below sea level. It holds the record highest temperature in Western hemisphere and world’s second highest temperature overall at 134 degrees. It certainly makes you want to put on sun screen – which of course I forgot to pack.

It was a desolate drive. You could see the heat rays coming up from the ground making everything in the distance seem a bit fuzzy. We both wondered in amazement what crazy settlers would have ever stopped here and decided to try farming. There weren’t many that did it – but there were some that tried. There was a small oasis with a campground (ewwww…who would camp here?!) an actual visitors center where rangers dished out helpful info about how to get around and reminded everyone to drink a lot of water. They pointed out some good things to go see that required a bit of off roading; once again, thank goodness we had a Jeep.

Our first off-roading stop was the Devil’s Golf Course. A short drive off the main road into what appears to be a dried up field of coral. When you looked closely – it was all salt formations. I went to go tee off, but wondered how I would ever find my ball in this sea of white! Actually – I have no idea why they called it the Devil’s Golf Course – since it obviously wasn’t a golf course…but it was definitely worth the off-roading stop.

The valley is surrounded by canyons, but since we were watching time, we skipped the canyon viewing since we had already seen the ‘grandest’ of them all. Instead we went to the salt flats….which is pretty much how it sounds. A perfectly flat part of the park that was dusted in salt, making the whole valley floor appear bright white. This was also the lowest point. Years ago this area was actually full of water, however the water dried up, and the salt remains. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon. We walked onto the flats where I felt like I was literally cooking – at least I was seasoned…salt…duh. Bad joke I know. However – my curiosity did get the better of me and I tried to find a little ‘clean’ part of the salt that I could break off and taste. I still feel like I have an iron stomach from traveling India and Africa…so a little salt off the ground couldn’t hurt me! I have to say that it didn’t really taste like salt to me…maybe it just needed a little margarita mix.

We saw all the sites we had time to do and drove a long route out of the valley. The sun was beating down on me and I wasn’t doing well. Poor Kathleen was stuck with all of the boring driving, so when we arrived back in civilization, we stopped for Dairy Queen and I took over the wheel. At this point we had to haul ass to make some mileage. Granted – I’m not the person to put in the drivers seat when you have to haul ass, so this should be a good indication of how tired Kathleen really was! We lumbered along on the hi-way and eventually took some scenic routes to try to avoid going into LA. The route took us along side Edwards Air Force Base. Of course being girls, we had no idea what they did at Edwards – but after much discussion we determined that it had some association with space shuttle landings. I know more about shoes than I do about rockets. We googled it and learned that it was the home of the US Air Force Test Pilot School. Too bad we couldn’t stay around this area for the night, we finally could have met some eligible men on this trip!

The sun was going down but we decided to continue pushing past Mojave towards Bakersville where we would stop for the night. As we were driving a lovely back road enjoying the scenery, we all of a sudden noticed a beautiful carpet of orange. Kathleen looked in one of our guide books and realized that this carpet of orange was actually poppy fields in bloom! The orange flowers basked in the sunset were an amazing site. It made the drive all that more scenic.

We finally pulled into Bakersfield around 8PM, checked into a Motel 6, picked up some Wendy’s, and some Bud Light – and celebrated our 500 mile day. Only one more day to go before we hit our destination of San Francisco. I was a bit sad that it was coming to an end, but happy we survived DeathValley!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 15

Sherry — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:14:25 +0000

Light it up!

Un-glitzy Vegas….

When Kathleen and I decided to make a one night stop in Vegas, we started reminiscing about past trips we’ve taken there. Wild times – dancing, skimpy dresses, gambling, clubbing, parties, shows, and many drinks. Las Vegas is the glitzy desert paradise, where people come to see and be seen. I just love Vegas.

We discussed how we had never really done the ‘older’ Vegas. We had not visited the old relics; the casinos of old Vegas before their sad demise to dynamite and the glitzy new Vegas. We had never done cheap, gaudy vegas…the kind where you eat at a buffet, gamble at the old casinos and went to topless shows. Well, this was our chance…considering we were already on a budget, the Bellagio wasn’t really within our means on this trip; therefore, we decided to see the side of Vegas that we hadn’t really seen much of…Vegas on the cheap.

The sad part is that we were so cheap that we couldn’t even afford to stay at the cheap hotels (which aren’t very cheap any longer!). Luckily Kathleen opted to use her Hilton points to ensure that we had a bed for the night! We stayed at the Hilton on the strip. What’s that, you’ve never heard of it? That’s for good reason…because it’s banished down at the end of the strip nestled between Circus Circus and the Sahara – two old relics that are hanging on. Plus, the Hilton on the strip was really the Hilton Family Vacation Hotel. Yes, that’s right, family. There were kids in the hotel and no casino which seems rather anti-Vegas in every way possible.

After going to the pool, and having a much needed drink, we struck up a conversation with the bartender to find out just how to do Vegas on the cheap. He was full of advice for us; now we had a plan. We dressed up in our best travel clothes that we were rather sick of by now, and went out walking on the strip. It was warm….very warm…a great feeling considering we started our day in Bryce Canyon freezing in the snow!

We went next door for a quick gamble at Slots-A-Fun. You have to love that name. Slots-A-Fun was a casino in front of Circus Circus that offered cheap entertainment – 1 cent slots. Woo hoo…I could play all night! I wondered if I could get free drinks while playing with my pennies. We even splurged and played the 25 cent slots…losing all of the change from our combined wallets…some things never change. We were starving and decided that if we didn’t get out of Slots-A-Fun pretty soon we be chowing down on their half pound hot dog for 99 cents. It was actually starting to smell good…scarey! Worth noting, not only did Slots-A-Fun have mystery meat for 99 cents, but they offered free donuts and coffee to its early morning gamblers!

We went across the street to the Peppermill Diner, a recommendation from our bartender. The Peppermill is an anchor on Las Vegas Blvd – oozing of neon and tackiness…so much so that you really can’t do anything but enjoy it. We sat in a huge round booth and surveyed our surroundings. The place was packed full; bachelorette parties and businessmen. I about choked on my water when out of the blue and pink neon came a cocktail waitress dressing a long black evening gown with a slit up to her…you can use your imagination. Boobs were hanging out as they always seem to do in Vegas, as she asked us for our drink orders. I looked around and had to laugh…this was a diner…just a regular 24 hour diner – what was this cocktail waitress doing here? Oh – that’s right, it’s Vegas – home of boobs, booty, and booze.

The food waitresses were dressed a bit more conservatively, yet not much. The food was your typical diner food; huge, greasy portions. We saw them bring some desserts out to various tables. I willing to bet that there was no dessert that wasn’t as big as my head and less than 2000 calories…it was insane. We passed on dessert and opted for beer instead. We wandered into the Fireside Lounge; the Peppermill’s answer to romance. As we entered into Fireside, we were assaulted by more neon, more slinky waitresses, more round velvety booths, and one giant bubbling fire pit in the middle of the room. The Fireside Lounge is also a Vegas staple. In fact, a few years ago it was voted one of the top 10 bars to make out in across America. Too bad I was with Kathleen…I’m sure she was thinking the same about me.

If I thought the diner was tacky…well then, I was naive. The lounge room was anchored by the fire pit; basically a small, bubbling hot tub with a flame coming out of the water burning eternally. Around the ‘romantic’ bubbling fire pit were lounges that you could slink into and make out with your date apparently. We had a beer and both sat there watching the ‘sites’ while not really saying a word to each other. I think we were in shock; or mesmerized by the mirrored ceilings and neon; or quite possibly the array of fake boobs that were paraded in front of us barely fitting into their plunging necklines. This wasn’t the place to be for an A cup…I think I would have quite a complex if I lived in Vegas.

We left the Fireside in order to check out the Sahara hotel and casino down the street; a place for cheap gambling and more people watching no doubt. I’m used to going to all of the upmarket hotels, casinos, and clubs while in Vegas, so the Sahara was quite a shock. Sure – it was the same loud, bright, party atmosphere as the other more upmarket hotels/casinos, but it had one thing that the others didn’t…quite a unique clientele. The Sahara wasn’t filled with the weekend parties from LA or San Diego – instead, it was filled with the less attractive, less plastic tourists and locals. I had to stop and wonder how we fit into this motley crew…definitely not plastic…the rest, I’m not sure!

We quickly gambled away our allotted money on blackjack and decided to go listen to the lounge band as at least that was free. It was as if I walked into a wedding reception in the Midwest. The band was trying hard to generate some interest and excitement, but the only people out on the dance floor were an older couple (about 60 yrs old), dressed in a suit and the woman was dressed in something that looked like it could have been a prom dress a few decades back. The lovely lady also wore a hat with some fake flowers on it – reminding me of an Easter bonnet. They danced around in a quirky fashion to the band covering U2…a very strange sight indeed.

I wasn’t sure what was more disturbing – this scene or the bountiful fake boobs surrounding me. Yet – at the same time, I loved it all. This is Vegas – quirky, plastic, loud, tacky…and most of all…fun.

If budget Vegas isn’t for you, then try a visit to Vegas in style at Las Vegas Resorts

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 14

Sherry — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:58:20 +0000

Arches National Park, Utah

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks…Utah Parks.

We left Monticello, Utah on yet another snowy morning. We had a late start today, which was a bit concerning since we had intended to try to do the Utah National Park trifecta today….Arches, Bryce, and Zion Parks. Granted, it was pretty poor odds that we would make it to all of them, but we decided we’d try our best to get as far as we could.

We left the snowy high elevation of Monticello and went down to Moab, home of the Arches National Park. However, our first stop was at House in a Rock – a roadside attraction that Kathleen loved so much she had to show me. The red rock dotted the landscape of Utah, sure, it’s beautiful, but who knew that it could also be a family dwelling. Near Moab, carved literally into the Canyonlands, Albert and Gladys Christianson built a completely functioning 5,000 sq. ft. home inside of a rock. They spent 12 years carving it out. Kathleen and I took the cheap, quick tour; it was definitely a hit on the quirky road side attraction list. It actually started as a diner for the miners and Albert and Gladys decided to add on – or maybe I should say ‘add in’. They drilled further into the rock and made a 3 bedroom home complete with fireplace and electricity.

Photo: Delicate Arch
Once we had our daily dose of ‘weird roadside attraction’ aside, we moved on towards Moab, a cute hiking/adventure town, filled with young hikers and kayakers. We stopped at the subway for a quick, healthy lunch. After days of fried, full fat food in the South, we thought we better start to reverse the effects as we were getting closer to California! Unfortunately everyone had the same idea as we waited in a long, long line to get a sandwich. Trying to be healthy cost us valuable time! We took off and made it to the Arches National Park around 2PM. This park was different than Monument valley; it was the home to over 2000 sandstone arches. The most famous one is Delicate Arch. Since we were on a time limit, we did a drive around the park and had to pass up any hiking. The park was beautiful and well worth a stop.

For all photos of Arches National Park – click here!

We decided to stay off the un-scenic interstate and instead take the scenic byways as long as the weather looked good. We were going to be driving through mountain passes, and even though it was April, we still had to keep any eye on an storms.

The drives in this area of Utah were gorgeous. Desert land with amazing rock formations, rivers and colorful canyons. We wove in and out of river valleys and finally arrived at Scenic Byway 12 in Utah. This road led us to Bryce Canyon and through a couple of mountain passes and on the corner of Staircase-Escalante National Park. The weather around the mountain looked grey and dismal. The wind was cold and we wondered if we should be going through the pass, but the visitor center said that it was all clear. They went on to tell us that Scenic Byway 12 was the most beautiful drive that we could take. I chuckled to myself thinking of all of the times we’ve been told a particular route or restaurant or park was the ‘best’. They can’t all be the best, but Americans are proud, and everyone is proud of their area. Sometimes I want to tell these people who make ‘the best’ statements that maybe they should get out a bit more, or simply get a passport. Oops, sorry, I got off track. Regardless, when someone says something is the ‘best’, then we might as well check it out – you never know maybe they are right!

The sun had started to go down, but we took off up the pass. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into.
Click to Enlarge:

It was one of the most beautiful drives of our whole trip. We drove in and out of snow and a storm. Every corner something new; deer, snow, wild turkeys, forests of birch trees, breath-taking vistas, views of mountains, and deep canyons. The road actually took us on a ridge through Staircase-Escalante National Park that felt as if we were driving on a ribbon. On both side were steep drop offs into the colorful canyon, and the road was built on this little ridge of canyon that wound through the landscape – it felt like a cartoon of sorts. The sun was perfect for lighting up the canyon for photography. Thank goodness we got such a late start else we never would have had this amazing light.

We drove all the way to Tropic that night. Tropic is a small town of 508 people located about 10 miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon which we decided to do the next morning. We pulled into Tropic and quickly got a cheap hotel room as I begged the young boy behind the counter to give us the very best deal he could. The guy was dressed rather preppy hip; a bit stunning for a town this size. He luckily took pity on me and after quite a bit of internal moral debate with himself, he decided to throw caution to the wind and give us a Friend and Family discount. Now I clearly wasn’t his family – but I was fast becoming his friend! He looked at me and said, “What the hell, I’m leaving soon anyway. I don’t care if my boss catches it.” I asked him why he was leaving and he said that he went to school/university in Denver and was going back there shortly because he couldn’t stand it here any longer; this is where he grew up. As I listened to him, I looked out the window and noticed the stunning mountains and countryside that surrounded us. I thought, how could anyone hate this? Although, I completely understand where he’s coming from – it is a rather small town. Why is it that we take for granted the things that we grew up around? We always seem to be on some quest for something ‘better’ or bigger. However, every year I get older, I realize that I am slowly trying to get back to where I started in some way…a more simple, quiet life. I find that I appreciate the ‘old’ way of doing things more and more. Aging is really a weird process sometimes. I do hope the kid didn’t get in trouble though!

Photo: Photographer at Bryce Canyon
We received the discount and the key and we sped off to the only restaurant in town that was still open. After all, it was 8PM on a Sunday night in a small town…it was lucky that we found anything open. We went to the pizza place and sat down. When our waiter came by, we asked him for a couple of beers. That’s when we received the oh-so-familiar hesitation and look of pity followed by “I’m so sorry ladies, but we don’t serve beer or alcohol here.” Damn Utah!!!!! How can a place so beautiful be so cruel?! However, our waiter did offer us a solution to our addiction problem…no, not crystal meth…instead he said that we could go to the package store and buy beer and bring it back in to have with our pizza if we drank it in a glass. His theory was that it looked like apple juice. You gotta love the ingenuity. This whole town was about breaking the rules…I love it! Kathleen hopped back in the car to run to the package store and I ordered a pizza. Unfortunately, the package store was closed too…we were doomed in this state. We were left with real apple juice.

The next morning we got an early start as we had to cover both Bryce, Zion, and make our way to Las Vegas for a drink! We drove into Bryce Canyon and I wondered to myself…”how can this park be any different than the other Utah parks we’ve already seen? I mean really…a rock is a rock.” We stopped at the first viewing point inside the park and were surprised when we looked down in a orange, rock canyon filled with pinnacles of rock jutting up from the valley below. Ok – I guess I was wrong…this was yet another different kind of rock formation. What made Bryce even more beautiful was the fact that it was covered with snow and evergreen trees. This provided a palette of dark green, stark white, orange canyon, and blue sky – crisp and breathtaking. With the snow came some of the coldest temperatures we had experienced so far on our Road Trip. We’d get out of the car and run to the overlook, take pictures and run back in to the warm car!
Click to Englarge Photos of Bryce:

We had to keep our visit to Bryce short so that we could move on to Zion National Park. Many say that Zion is their favorite park in Utah, and once again I found myself thinking “What in the world could be so different about this Utah park?” We entered Zion through the ‘back door’ (from the East) and was once again amazed by what we saw; huge rock formation/mountains with evergreens dotting the bare rock. The formations were massive and often carved out in intricate designs by the wind. We stopped and took some time in Zion doing the little free shuttle tour in order to see more of the park. There seems to be some amazing hiking in Zion, yet we did have to forgo that as Vegas was beckoning us.
Click to enlarge photos of Zion:

We drove into Vegas around 7PM. I find that one of the great things to do in your lifetime is to drive into Vegas. Most people fly in and out of Vegas, but there is something nostalgic about driving out of the barren dessert (and barren, non-alcoholic Utah) into the sinful inferno of Vegas. Enticing you to get closer and be naughty. After 4 days in Utah, I fell in love with the landscape, but the lack of booze had taken its toll! We stayed at the far end of the strip utilizing Kathleen’s Hilton points, handed the keys to the valet and went straight to the pool bar for a beer…let he sinning begin!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 13

Sherry — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:10:15 +0000

Monument Vally, Utah

The Beehive-less state

As we traveled across the country we noted some of our favorite state mottos and nicknames.
Some were rather obvious:
Tennessee – The Volunteer State
Kentucky – The Bluegrass State
Texas – The Lone Star State
Arizona – The Grand Canyon State
California – The Golden State

Some were a bit less obvious – you had to use your imagination a bit:
Arkansas – The Natural State
Virginia – Old Dominion
New Mexico – Land of Enchantment

Then there is the one that made absolutely no sense to me at all:
Utah – The Beehive State

We saw many things in Utah worth noting. Utah has some of the most stunning landscapes I’ve ever set eyes on. It had geological rock formations that were mind boggling. As we traveled the backroads and national parks of Utah for 2 days, we personally saw many different types of wildlife such as deer, elk, turkeys, mules, and even ostriches. But not once….never ….did we see a bee, let alone a beehive. Hell, I didn’t even see anyone selling honey. We were utterly baffled as to why Utah’s state motto was ‘The Beehive State’! I personally thought the Utah motto should have been “The non-Alcoholic State”, or it could even be called “The Mormon State”…but bees…that’s absurd. I really didn’t even see any flowers!

The Grand Canyon was stunning, but Utah took my breath away. As we drove over the state line from Arizona to Utah from the south east corner, we immediately entered an area called Monument Valley. It was quite a welcome into Utah as random orange colored rock formations stood tall in the middle of flat desert land. It reminded me of Southern Thailand with huge rock formations jutting out of the water, but instead – this was the desert – something I had never really encountered before. We decided to stop pay to get a closer look. Here’s some trivia, Monument Valley has been the setting for more Western movies than any other site in the United States. The unique sandstone formations, the Navajo Indian Nation and the Four Corners Monument define this vast, open desert region. Monument Valley is not a national park, instead, it is located on a Navajo Indian reservation, however at a cost of $5 a person, the Monument Valley drive was still worth the admission! However, it is not recommended that you eat prior to taking the ‘scenic drive’ around the monuments – else you may need a barf bag. The road is not paved (not really sure what they are doing with that $5 a person – but it’s not going to roads), it’s gravel and not very well maintained. At least we had a Jeep Cheroke, however the people in the 4 door sedan didn’t fare as well – it was really slow going for them. Kathleen of course loved the dirt road as it brought back memories of 4 wheelin’ for her! I decided that the road was really only fun for the driver…not the passenger.

Photo: This is no Bee…
It was a 17 mile drive around the valley and we even spotted mountain goats, sheep, and wild horses…but for the record, no bees were found. The orangish color of the rock formations against the blue sky was beautiful – a great introduction into the beauty of Utah.

Our stop for the night was Monticello, Utah – a small town of 2,000 people at an altitude of 6000+ ft. Why Monticello? It is where Kathleen’s step-mom, Barb, lived…that’s right…time to start mooching off family members for accommodation! When we arrived there it was nice to know that we were staying put for a day. Actually sleeping in the same bed for two nights in a row sounded like heaven. I went with Kathleen and did the relative rounds – meeting her step-family all over town. The town had an amazing view of the mountains, was cozy, and it even had a large horse shoe park. Who needs baseball when you have a horse-shoe pit?

The next morning we woke up to a sight that I wasn’t expecting to see again for months…snow. Yes, snow in mid April. Good thing we had nowhere to be as it ended up snowing and blowing all day. That morning Barb’s mother came over to hold a ‘cooking class’ for Kathleen and me. We had to get up early because Vincente was teaching us how to make eggs with green chilis and homemade tortillas…yum! A good, hearty breakfast for a snowy April morning! Vincente was a breath of fresh air. At 81 yrs she had spunk and creativity like I only hope I can have when I’m her age! She showed up wearing a little apron that said Torres Tortillas.com; a hand-stitched gift from a friend. I don’t think that Vincente has ever even used a website, so it was cute to see her wearing the apron. We sat around in our pajamas watching it snow and eating fresh tortillas and green chilis…all in all, a pretty good morning! The day continued on in a lazy non site-seeing fashion with movies and card games. It was a nice break from being on the road.

Our final push to the coast remained ahead of us. After a day of rest and belly full of tortillas and chilis, we were ready to go experience the rest of the parks in Utah – on a quest to fine those famous Utah bees!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 12

Sherry — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:57:29 +0000

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon or Bust….

For all snapshots of the Grand Canyon – click here!

As we drove closer to the Grand Canyon I had visions of the Brady Bunch heading out in their wood paneled station wagon for their Grand Canyon trip. The Brady’s got ‘locked up’ at a ghost town before they reached the rim of the canyon – so I was paying special attention to our navigation, steering us clear of ghost towns, to ensure that the same wouldn’t happen to Kathleen and me in our Jeep Cheroke. After all, the last thing I wanted was to end up in some jail in a ghost town being held hostage by some crazy man who thought I was stealing his gold…thank goodness we averted that disaster!

The only visions of the Grand Canyon that I really had was from that Brady Bunch episode…it was 3 parts of which one was named “Grand Canyon or Bust”…so I had to give it a nod. However, now I was going to be able to experience it for myself and I was rather excited to see it.

In fact – it was my one demand to Kathleen when we started talking about making the cross country trip. I said I would go if we could stop at the Grand Canyon as I had never seen it before. During my international travels, I became rather sick of people asking me if I had been to the Grand Canyon – I felt rather pathetic for having to say “No, I haven’t visited on of the largest landmarks in my own country.” It was as if I were saying, “I voted for George Bush…I think he’s great!” People looked at me as if I was crazy. I needed to remedy this situation!

We left from Flagstaff in the morning after I introduced Kathleen to a Midwestern restaurant staple that she had never heard of – Village Inn – home of great breakfasts and pies. As a kid it was a special treat if we went there…then again – I was also excited about Denny’s as a kid…so maybe that’s not saying much. After breakfast we treated our trustworthy car to an oil change. After a week of travel and close to 2,000 miles, it was the least we could do.

Finally, we were on the road to the Grand Canyon. I had a hard time imagining how this desolate land that we were driving through was just going to open up into a gigantic canyon. As we came closer to the park entrance you started to see the cracks in the earth…they became bigger and deeper. The Little Colorado River ran through this area outside of the park carving an impressive path through the landscape already. It was hard to believe that there was more to this. Finally we came to the park entrance. This is where my annual park pass really started to pay off…we sped through the $25 entrance fee by flashing our annual park pass, feeling as if we were veteran park go-ers already.

When it comes to the Grand Canyon – the first look is the best look. There’s nothing like it when you first see a spectacle like that – after about an hour in the park though – you start to notice the canyon less – and after a whole day there, you say…”canyon…what canyon?” Our brain adjusts I guess. My first look was magnificent. It was certainly grand…no doubt about that. We visited the South Rim of the Canyon. You learn just how vast it is when you read the brochure and it tells you that the average width of the canyon is 10 miles across to the other side. To simply drive to the other side, it would take about 5+ hours to get to the North Rim by existing roads.

We spent the day in the park taking in the views and hiking along the rim trail. The steep drop-offs were not good for the vertigo challenged, I was a bit amazed at how little railing there was. Normally at National sites they are so worried about people getting hurt that they go overboard with precautions. Yet here it was pretty simple to wander off the edge. In fact, we heard on the news they had pulled the body of a missing man out of the canyon earlier that day. I took precautions near the crumbling parts of the trail! I watched the hikers come up the trails and it was a bit torturous for me. Normally in a situation like this, I would be hiking the canyon, not simply viewing it from above with the other tourists – I would want to experience it. Yet, we did have a time limit here as we had to keep moving along on our route, which meant there was no time to hike down to the bottom, stay overnight and hike back up the next day. So – I considered this first viewing of the Grand Canyon not to be my last. I would come back one day and hike it properly – hopefully before my knees have given out!

The park was actually packed with people everywhere we went due to Spring Break vacations. This is when I started seeing the RV nation called Cruise America (an RV rental company). My first thought was – I wish I had stock in that company. The RV’s were everywhere! I fought the crowds and made it out to the rim to watch the sunset that evening. The wind had picked up and it was whistling through the Canyon with force. I braved the cold and tried to capture some of the colorful canyon light at dusk.

We stayed in the park that night at one of the lodges. Quiet, cool, clean…perfect. That night Kathleen and I enjoyed watching the exciting NCAA finals at the bar in the park lodge over some beer. We were entering Utah the next day, therefore this was our ‘last drink’ of sorts for a few days. I was happy to celebrate my first trip to the Grand Canyon. I now have an answer for people who ask whether I’ve seen the Grand Canyon or not…mission accomplished. Plus, I didn’t even get lost like Cindy and Bobby Brady!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 11

Sherry — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:42:08 +0000

Painted Desert Arizona

Photo: Painted Desert in Arizona

Santa Fe, NM to Flagstaff, AZ – It’s all about Petrified Wood…

For All photos of the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest – click here!

We had a lazy morning in Santa Fe, enjoying brunch (green chilis of course) and a walk around some of the galleries and shops of old town. One gallery we stopped at was rather inspiring to me. A whole gallery of world photography. As I wandered around the space, I knew so many of the places in the photos because they were all places I had been in my travels around the world. In fact, there were even some of the same shots in Morocco that I took. I was really reminded of my enthusiasm for this type of photography – cultural, global photography. Sure, it’s fun to photograph landscapes, but I really love the candid cultural shots, the ones that tell a story, that evoke a feeling – and that’s what this gallery did for me – provided feeling again. The gallery visit stuck in my head all afternoon, making me think of what I really wanted to do with my life, providing me a little push in the right direction. I needed that.

We had a long highway drive across New Mexico and into Arizona today. Our goal was to make it to Flagstaff where we would stay for the night and conduct our launch for the Grand Canyon the next day. So – it was a pretty standard ‘peddle to the metal’ kind of day. However now since we were in the warmer weather, we happened to run into a lot more construction than what we had previously. But overall, this day was rather tame. Or maybe this was the day that Kathleen and I got sick of each other as I don’t even recall talking about very much in the car. Sure, we talked about the usual – how lame the guy was that we met the night before in the bar…but that’s nothing unusual.

We did plan one stop along the driving into Arizona – the National Petrified Forest and Painted Desert Park. It was a short drive off the hiway, so we thought we might as well take a look. I was excited to flash my new, annual park pass and get out vehicle in for free! This was really the beginning of our adventures in geology that would last for the next 7 days…the whole week of rock formations made me wish I had paid more attention in geology class in high school.

I really didn’t expect much from the painted desert and petrified wood, but it was a great excuse for a break from the interstate and a change of scenery. I was stunned when we drove into the park and took the park’s scenic road (about 27 miles), it was absolutely beautiful. I thought that the colors would most likely be disappointing, but shame on me for being such a pessimist…the colors were stunning. In fact, we had a bright blue sky for a backdrop which made it all the better for photography. This area in Arizona (near Holbrook) used to the home to dinosaurs millions of years ago, it was hard to imagine anything this barren as a fertile, lush jungle at one time.

One of the real draws of the park was the petrified wood. Don’t go there thinking that there will be a forest of petrified trees still standing…or you will be disappointed, instead it’s desert land littered with fragments of petrified wood that now look like marble. The tall, old trees once stood tall…millions of years ago. They were shared space on this earth with dinosaurs…pretty cool stuff. Over millions of years, the trees have been submerged in flooding and volcanic ash, and have eventually become stone…preserved now forever. In their pre-petrified lifetime they fell over at some point and broken into pieces like a tootsie roll. Some of the tree trunks seem completely intact except for the fact that they are lying on the ground as opposed to standing up. In some ways, this Petrified Forest was more impressive to me than some of the ancient sites from around the world. Sure, the Great Pyramids of Egypt were amazing to see…but even they were only 5,000 years old – babies compared to the trees that we saw. The trees are now simply rock formations – but it you look close, you can see the detailed bark, the rings corresponding to years , the coloration and the various textures of the wood.

Click to enlarge

We made a quick stop in Holbrook before getting back on to the interstate. We had heard about a Tepee hotel in Holbrook along Route 66 that was worth stopping to see. Kathleen was rather excited to see the tepees. In fact, she wanted to stay in one of them, but we knew we had to get further that night if we were to make it to the Grand Canyon in the morning. Instead of staying in a tepee, Kathleen talked the owner into letting us at least go look inside one! They weren’t real tepees, instead they were made of stone…no, they were not petrified tepees…yet that would have been pretty cool! The were cute and what made them even more fun was the old cars parked around the parking lot as if you had just stepped back in time when Route 66 was thriving. The owner told us that the cars that we saw parked around the lot were actually the car models that Disney decided to use for the movie Cars. She said that her husbands cars is what inspired Disney to choose the car-characters. I have no way of checking this fact, but I chose to believe it – because all of them were there – the tow truck, the old pickup – it was pretty cool.

I had to tear Kathleen out of the tepee hotel and get back on the road. We made it to Flagstaff and picked the first hotel we found near the interstate, a Howard Johnsons – right near the train tracks….maybe not the best choice! I honestly didn’t think Hojo’s even existed any longer! The train noise didn’t even matter because we were beat from our driving day – full of some surprises.

Off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 10

Sherry — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:03:17 +0000

Amarillo Texas to Santa Fe New Mexico – Leaving Waffle House Country

Today was the day…the day I was finally able to have breakfast at a Waffle House! It’s a good thing too as we were quickly leaving Waffle House country, the South, and entering the Southwest. I had never eaten at a Waffle House before and felt like I was missing out at an essential Southern experience. In addition, I was still craving grits – and this was definitely my last chance for them. We got up and drove to the Waffle House in Amarillo. Before you knew it, we were surrounded by 3 plates of food…EACH. A plate for a waffle, a plate for your meat/sausage/bacon, and a plate for your eggs and toast/hash browns. Granted – I think they could have fit this all onto 2 plates – but I was quickly learning that everything in Texas is oversized…so why not the Waffle House too?

I have to admit – I enjoyed my full fat buttermilk waffle with eggs, bacon, raisin toast and buttery grits. How could you not like a breakfast that was loaded with fat? When we were driving through the South a few days ago we came across a restaurant called Biscuit World. I had to laugh to myself as I thought about having a Waffle House vs. Biscuit World stand-off. Unfortunately I was never able to try what Biscuit World had to offer, but I think the Waffle House would have put up a good fight.

With our bellies full, we had a moderate drive to Santa Fe today and since we had blue skies and more time today, we decided to take a more scenic route to get to Santa Fe. But not before we stopped for one last strange site in Texas. Outside of Amarillo is the Cadillac Ranch. No…not THE Cadillac Ranch…this was truly a ranch that ‘grew’ Cadillacs! Out in this flat, windy field in the middle of nowhere there are about 8 half buried Cadillac’s sticking out of the ground. They’ve turned into a bit of an art project in graffiti, but they are still fun to see…colorful, strange, and …well…very strange. We trekked on out into the middle of the windy field to get a closer look.

Photos of the field of planted Cadillacs – Click to Enlarge

We bid farewell to the panhandle of TX (no, not Panhandle, TX…the panhandle of TX…make sure you get that straight) and welcomed New Mexico…the land of the green chilis! We took a scenic road through the desert lands of New Mexico north towards Las Vegas. That’s right…Las Vegas – New Mexico. This scenic drive was my first introduction to tumbleweeds. Sure enough they were blowing across the road…it was just us, the open road, and tumbleweeds…and an occasional windmill. It was beautiful as we started to climb in altitude and come across some buttes and canyons.

Photo: Scenic Drive – aka the tumbleweed road, New Mexico
We arrived in Santa Fe in the early afternoon found a hotel near the old part of town and set out on a quest to find some of my long lost relatives. Upon hearing that I was going to be in Santa Fe, my mother informed me that I had a 2nd cousin that lived there and ran an art gallery. Now – I’m not very good about keeping in touch with my immediate family let alone 2nd cousins that I didn’t even know I had…but I thought I better make an effort or I would disappoint my mother. Plus, the fact that they were associated with a gallery in town was intriguing to me. Who knew that we had artistic people in our family lineage?! We set out on foot to go find the gallery, however it was Saturday afternoon at 4:30PM, so I knew that we most likely didn’t have much time before they closed. It was a bit of a hike across the old town, but fun to take in the buildings and sites. We stopped to see ‘The Oldest Church in America’…at least that’s what the sign said. As we were within about 200 ft. of the art gallery, they were putting up a closed sign…damn. I went in anyway to try to at least introduce myself. My 2nd cousins weren’t there, however their son, Dustin, was…so I talked to him a bit and we exchanged questions like “So – how are we related and who are you?” After getting through those pleasantries, I asked him what Kathleen and I should do with our one night in Santa Fe. He pointed us in the direction of Maria’s which he professed to have the best margaritas in all of New Mexico! Since he was pointing me to booze, I knew that we must be related somehow!

Photo: Oldest Church in America – Santa Fe, NM
What we thought was a 10 block walk turned out to be a 2 mile walk to Maria’s. We were getting concerned that we were on a death march at 6,000 ft. Finally we saw a little white building, and a sign for Maria’s beckoning us! Sure enough, Dustin was right – the margarita list was impressive and so was the menu for food. We sat in the bar area and had Santa Fe’s specialty – blue corn chicken enchiladas with green chili sauce and green chili stew. The meal and the drinks were worth the walk! However I think my favorite thing about Maria’s is that it wasn’t located in the ‘old town’ touristy area. Instead the place was steadily filling up with locals. I looked around and saw a bottle of honey on each table and wondered what it was for. We noticed that the locals were putting honey on their sopapias…so we gave it a try…Y-U-M!

After dinner we walked back towards our hotel and stopped off at the Cowgirl Bar to watch some basketball, and listen to some live music. Sure, it was sad to leave the South today, but we entered some great new territory – full of brown stucco homes, tumbleweeds, margaritas, and chilis!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 9

Sherry — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:36:11 +0000

Route 66 Signs

Vol 9 – Route 66 and the Big Texan

For all photos of the Arkansas to Texas leg of the trip – click here!

We had an early breakfast with Carol, our B&B host in Ozark and quickly packed up the car to get on the road in order to take in some of the scenic drives around Ozark, Arkansas. We followed advice from the locals to see the Ozark Forest, however this meant that we were going a bit out of our way. When we saw the name of the scenic drive that we were to take, the extra mileage didn’t matter to us – the Pig Trail Scenic Drive called us!

Photo: Hill People dwellings – note the multiple cars and implements in the yard!
The road was just as it sounded – shaped like a pig’s tail – something you needed a barf bag for. Luckily I was able to hold it together while Kathleen drove pig trail as if she were in Nascar. I think I was a bit green because I was concentrating so hard on spotting hill people. We did find some places that certainly looked like hill people dwellings (need to have a minimum of 4 cars and 2 appliances in your yard I figured). When we would spot a qualifying house, Kathleen would pull over and I would take photos. She wouldn’t let me get out of the car for fear of someone coming outside with a shotgun upset that I was taking photos of their house…probably a wise move to stay in the car.

The Pig Trail was great, and it dumped us in Fayetteville – the birthplace of Bill and Hilary Clinton – according to the sign as we entered the city. However, we never saw another sign about it again as we drove through the town. We crossed on over to Oklahoma and it was there were we had planned to pick up the ‘mother road’ – Route 66. I didn’t know much about Route 66 except what Disney had taught me through the movie Cars, and I have to say, it was rather accurate. Route 66 seemed more like a ghost town than anything. I was surprised to find out how much of it is no longer in existence. Disney was correct, it died off with the creation of the interstate highways. What this left was little 5 mile sections that would go through towns and then dump you back on the interstate. There were some sections that simply followed the interstate as if it were a frontage road. Then there were some sections that were simply gravel roads. As we drove through towns they seemed like ghost towns at times. Gas stations and motels were boarded up , weeds in the parking lot, signs falling apart…it was all a bit sad if you ask me.

However, there were some towns that were still keeping Route 66 alive – mainly full of curio shops selling a bunch of memorabilia which was also a bit disturbing to me. I know that tourist gift shops have to exist – but it just felt like they were trying to re-sell a piece of history instead of really trying to be authentic. A gift shop won’t get me to exit off the interstate, but a good diner will. We came across the Rock Café in Stroud, Oklahoma and we stopped in for lunch. The Rock Café has been in existence for 80 years and was still doing a thriving business cooking up the best home-cooked burgers around. The owners were friendly and they had a large guest book full of international visitors driving Route 66.

We had a long 500 mile drive today so we hopped back on I-40, making a few Route 66 photo stops along the way. We tried to go to the Barbed Wire museum along Route 66, but it was closed by the time we got there at 5PM…bummer. So we powered through Oklahoma towards Amarillo Texas. As we entered the panhandle of Texas it looked pretty much as you would think, a few windmills, flat and desolate. We must have been a bit loopy from a long days drive as we both thought that the town of Panhandle, TX was a hilarious name – some goofy ‘Who’s on first’ comedy bit came to mind…

“Where do you live in Texas?”
“Panhandle”
“Great, but where do you live?”…see what I mean?

As the sun was going down we pulled into Amarillo and our highly advertised stop for the night – The Big Texan Hotel. For the last 200 miles we had seen signs about The Big Texan Steak house and hotel. Their claim to fame was a 72 oz. steak…let that sink in for a moment…72 oz is 4.5 pounds. Here’s a way to visually think about it – it would be like 18 Quarter Pounders from McDonalds. If you eat the steak in under an hour, then you get the steak for free – a $50 value. Kathleen and I pondered if $50 free dinner was really worth a quadruple bypass or not. A good question considering the cost of insurance these days!

As we pulled into the big Texan it was pretty much everything you would think it would be…huge and tacky in a silly way. Perfect for after long day of driving! We got a room at the Big Texan hotel…complete with a pool shaped like the state of Texas and a horse hotel…I’m not pulling your leg, there was also a horse hotel/stable out back. Luckily there was vacancy and we didn’t have to stay at the horse hotel, but in our very own Texas themed cowboy room.

The hotel itself was a western town façade, but the room was even better. The room didn’t have curtains; it had wooden barn-door type shutters. The bedspreads were cow hide and the door to the bathroom area was not a door, but saloon doors instead. Finally, the shower curtain was a big Texas flag…I always love a good theme.

We quickly unloaded the car and went straight on over to the Big Texan Steak House to check out what all of the fuss was about. The place was huge and even had a giant cow outside…there was no missin’ this brightly painted place with oversized animals in the parking lot. As we walked in – it was what you would expect…a tourist trap…but in the right state of mind and one cold mug of beer later, it was a ton of fun. As we waited for a table to come available, we sat and had a cold mug of beer and then worked off some steam at a shooting range. Not a real shooting range of course – but a goofy kids game/shooting range. Soon our wait was over and our oversized beeper was lighting up notifying us that a table was ready. We were led into a huge dining room – it must have seated about 300 people at least. In the middle of the dining room on a raised platform sat the Big Texan 72 oz Table and a countdown timer set at 60 minutes…this is where the challenge took place. Not only did you get to clog your arteries, but you got to do it on a stage with everyone watching.

When our waitress came by, we asked her if anyone tried the challenge yet tonight and she said – “Yes, you just missed someone try it, but he didn’t finish it. Would you guys like to give it a go?” I decided not to go into details about my crappy insurance coverage, so I just told her no thanks, not tonight. Kathleen would look over every new person that was seated in the dining room and we’d try to predict if any of the people would be challenge worthy. Unfortunately no one ever tried the 72 oz challenge while we were sitting there eating dinner. I tried to talk Kathleen into it – but she ordered the 6oz steak instead…wimp. I had the Texas sized chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and tons of gravy. We opted out of the chocolate cake for dessert as it was literally a ¼ of a complete cake – as if someone had made a 3 layer cake and cut it into 4’s to serve it…who eats like this?!!!

The food was good, the beer was cold, and the atmosphere was certainly entertaining. A good way to end a long day of driving! Now off to bed in our cattle beds!

Photo: Me and the Big Heffer…I’m the one at the bottom!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 8

Sherry — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:48:40 +0000

Microphone at Sun Studios

Memphis, TN to Ozark, AR – Hunting for Wabbits…

I had planned to do some site-seeing with my free morning in Memphis, but it was off to a wet start…it was pouring outside! I had originally planned to go to Graceland, but after I did more research on it, I decided against it. I know many of you may be mortified that I didn’t do the Graceland tour while I was in Memphis – but before you send me mean emails and comments – hear me out. Sure – I like Elvis – but…

1. I’m not a HUGE fan.
2. It was POURING outside.
3. It cost $30 for the tour – a bit steep for my unemployed budget – especially considering #1.
4. It was POURING outside.

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to really see in Memphis – and I decided that the Sun Studio tour was more my style.

1. The tour had fabulous online reviews.
2. Sun had a free shuttle that took you from Beale St. to the Studio.
3. This not only included information about Elvis, but other singers that I loved such as Johnnie Cash, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, etc.
4. It was only $10….that fit my budget.

Photo: Elvis’s guitar and case
The Sun Studio tour was everything the reviews said it would be; small, but extremely informative and good. You only toured 2 rooms – a memorabilia room and the actually studio where the performers recorded. The guide told great stories of how Sun Studios started, how the various performers (as noted in #3 above) were ‘discovered’, they played clips of various songs and recording sessions, and you could take pictures of everything – including the microphone that Elvis and other greats recorded their hits on. When stepping into the studio – it was as if you were stepping back in time – or onto a movie set. Sure I was excited that Elvis was in this room and this is where he was discovered – but not nearly as excited as the lady in front of me that was about 65 yrs old, wearing a sparkly baseball hat that said ELVIS on it. The thing I enjoyed most was when the guide would play the recorded music and I would stand in back and watch all of the ‘baby boomers’ sing the words and sway to the music. It was fun to see the whole room of people react to the music and re-live their past….a true cultural experience.

For all snapshots of the Sun Studio Tours – click here!

After our Gus’s Fried Chicken (see vol. 7 post) we did go drive by Graceland. I quickly hopped out and took some photos of the outside in the rain – but that was as close as I came to Graceland….sorry.

We had a very late start out of Memphis at 2PM and wanted to get as far as we could into Arkansas that day. The traffic was heavy, the sky was grey and menacing, but we hauled ass the best we could. Since we had been traveling through the South, I noticed a site that I haven’ been exposed to before. Billboard ads for bail bonds. Sure – I saw the first one and was a bit amused by the advertising…however…after I had seen about 5 more that day, I realized that bail bondsman must be quite a lucrative business. I thought it was funny that I had never seen anything like this advertised before along a hiway…and here…in this world they call the South….the signs were as frequent as a Waffle House sign. It wasn’t simply that they were advertising bail bondsman, but it was the way it was advertised. There was one big billboard with a photo of 2 blonde long haired twin women. They were nice looking, wearing tank tops and holding up handcuffs…what criminal wouldn’t want to have these ladies get you out of jail…seriously! One of my other favorite ads was the one that said – “You Call, We’ll Haul….(picture of a donkey with an arrow pointing to his ass)!” Given the two choices for bail bondsmen…I think I would have went with the donkey. The whole thing made me wonder…who are the people driving by these billboards thinking – hmmm – I better write that number down just in case I drink too much tonight.

We decided to push on past Little Rock Arkansas, as I had already been there years ago, plus, it was looking rather menacing in the sky and we decided that we better try to outrun the storm. Little did we know that later that night (only about 2 hours later) tornados would rip through Little Rock leaving a path of destruction.

We decided that we would try to stop in a small town off the interstate and see if we could find any small town local culture. Kathleen hopped on her iphone and started to research the various towns on the map. It didn’t take us long to find out destination for the night – Ozark, Arkansas. Why Ozark you ask? If you google Ozark, Arkansas – you will learn that in 1950 there was a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs vacations in Ozark, Arkansas and encounters two dimwitted hillbillies named Curt and Pumpkinhead Martin. Perfect – I was on the lookout for hillbillies so this seemed perfect. In addition to that great piece of trivia, we also learned that Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton worked at the Sonic Burger in Ozark as part of the show The Simple Life. Granted – this piece of trivia was enough to make us not want to go to Ozark…but the Bugs Bunny trivia won out and we pointed the car towards Ozark.

We found a bed and breakfast called the Lamplighter Inn. It was a huge house on the river that was more like a guest house than a bed and breakfast. Regardless, it was a great place to stay since there was only one other motel in the whole town! After all, the town population was around 3,500 people. Carol, the Lamplighter hostess, sent us off to the best restaurant in town for dinner – a BBQ place. Our 3rd night of BBQ in a row was a bit hard to take, but it was good. However, when we sat down we ordered a beer from the waitress, and she leaned in and whispered – “We don’t serve alcohol here.” Oh no…had we wandered into a dry county? Did our research lead us astray? Did we have to go without a drink for the night? Say it isn’t so!!! Luckily, she went on to say, “If you want to partake in that, then you have to go next door.” Ok – so now we had a plan for after dinner, perfect.

The waitress continued to make small talk with us and when she learned that we were driving across the country, she begged us to take her with us as she had never been out of Arkansas before. She looked to be about 30 years old. This was stunning to think that she had been in this state her whole life – and in the last 5 days we had passed through 5. I asked for a refill on my diet coke (free refills!) and I asked the waitress to only fill it half full because I just wanted a little. She came back with it filled to the brim and said “I went ahead and filled it to the top just in case you may want more.” So now I was realizing why the South served such large portions of food – ‘just in case we may want more’.

After dinner we decided to head into the local bar for one drink. It was a large trailer type building called the Speakeasy. We walked into to a cloud of smoke, Bruce Springsteen playing on the juke box, and a place with 95% men. Kathleen ordered a Bud Light for $1.50 and I had a Jack and Coke for $4…a bargain! We sat at the bar and watched the people start to pour in from the rainy night. I was impressed with all of the people out on a Thursday night in Ozark. We were pretty easy to spot as the ‘visitors’ considering we were the only two people not smoking in the bar, I had ordered a mixed drink, we were the only women without wedding rings, and I was wearing a hat – and it wasn’t a cowboy hat or baseball hat…we kind of stuck out, but that made people all the more curious about who we were and why we were in the Ozark Speak Easy.

We were having fun people watching and discussing important topics such as “Would you ever date a guy with a mullet?” (Kathleen’s answer was yes…need I say more?) We happened to catch the tail end of a conversation that was happening around us; a large, friendly black guy and another white guy talking as if they hadn’t seen each other for a long time. The black guy said “Sir, how are you doin’?” The white guy said with a big smile on his face as if he were meeting an old friend, “I’m great! Now you know that you can’t call me sir. You can call me cracker, but don’t be calling me sir.” At this point Kathleen and I looked at each other with looks on our face that read “Did I hear that correctly – did he just say ‘you can call me cracker?’” I knew I wasn’t in NYC any longer at that point! The white gentleman’s name was Gary and he came up to us and asked us where we were from (obviously we weren’t from Ozark). Gary was great to talk to and was introducing us to other people in the bar. Soon we had other people coming up and asking us which one of us was the one from New York and which one was from California. I can only imagine the attention that Paris and Nicole received when they were here…let alone Bugs Bunny.

As we made friends in the bar, they were eager to provide us advice or where to go around the area. I was impressed with how much they loved their state and how beautiful the felt it was. Ozark was nestled in the Arkansas River Valley and the Ozark National Forest. It was full of scenic drives and sites. Of course we didn’t really know any of this until Gary shared it all with us – and his enthusiasm for the area was infectious, so we decided to change our route the next morning and do a drive through one of the scenic hiways. As we continued to talk to Gary and our new friends, we also learned that bugs bunny steered us in the right direction as the county/town over to the east was a dry county…boy…that would have been a disaster if we had stopped one town earlier. We also learned important things like the politically correct way to refer to hillbillies – Gary called them ‘hill people’. Sure, it sounded nicer, but also a bit scarier in a way. He did tell us that we would most likely see some hill people if we drove around the mountains north of Ozark!

Finally I asked Gary what he did for a living. He said that he was a bail bondsman…I was shocked! Just after I had spent the day laughing about all of the billboards along our trip advertising bail bondsman…now I met one in person! Needless to say, I had a ton of questions for him about his work! He shared stories, bought us a round of drinks, and generally entertained us for the evening until the smoke stung our lungs so badly that we had to leave in order to breath again!

Our stop in Ozark was one of my favorite night on the road trip so far, thanks to Gary and the nice, genuine people we met. Sometimes chasing wabbits can be a hell of a lot of fun!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 7

Sherry — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:50:17 +0000

Photo: Me and my HUGE Chicken Fried Steack with Gravy…mmmmmm

The South – Would you like that Fried?

I feel like this trip may take 10 years off my life – 5 yrs due to eating fried food and 5 yrs due to second hand smoke. The South is not the healthiest of places to be. Granted – I know that I’m making the choices to eat all of the Southern delicacies such as BBQ ribs, pulled pork, buttermilk waffles, biscuits with cream gravy, grits and butter…and then there is the fried food group – fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, chicken fried steak, and fried chicken. However I tell myself- I don’t get here often, so I might as well indulge, yet at the same time I feel my arteries hardening. I used to think that the Scottish were a bit strange for deep frying Snicker bars and hamburger patties, but is that really any different than a fried pickle? I have to confess, I have fallen in love with fried pickles. I think they are the best thing that I’ve tried so far on this eating journey across the American South. A deep fried pickle with a side of buttermilk ranch dressing (no – that’s not low fat ranch) to dip it in….pure heaven! In fact, eating a regular pickle has lost all of it’s enjoyment for me – it’s just not the same…I’m ruined for life.

Let’s just take a survey of my food pyramid diet this past week while traveling through the South:
Meat
We’ve had BBQ for the last 3 nights in a row – I can’t even look at another piece of smothered ribs or pulled pork let alone the side dishes. I have officially OD’d on BBQ. All of it has been good though – yet Kathleen and I both agree that the best was the first night we had it – in Franklin, TN at Puckets restaurant. I’ve also had my share of hamburgers…not the McDonalds type – but the home-cooked type – as if my dad had grilled them up. It’s not just a hamburger, it has the fixings on it, and the bread is butter toasted to a crunchy perfection.

Veggies
We haven’t eaten a vegetable for 3 days, I think my body is going into shock. However we figured that the fried pickles had to count for something- as well as the cole slaw…that’s vegetables – right? Kathleen counted them as veggies, so I decided to go along with it. Besides fried pickles and cole slaw, we do try to get a garden salad whenever possible.

Dairy
Since we stopped in Kentucky for lunch at Kurtz’s, I haven’t had any form of skim or low fat milk. In fact – I don’t even think it’s an option in this part of the country. The other day Kathleen said “This is the best ranch dressing I’ve ever tasted. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that it’s made with whole milk!” Whether its salad dressing, cream based soup or cream gravy…it’s all full fat…and it tastes amazing.

Fruit
My fruit intake is coming in the form of juices and some gummy bears. Ok, I know that gummy bears don’t exactly qualify, but it’s the closest thing I’ve had and is does taste like fruit! I could maybe try to count the Fruit Loops cereal I had for breakfast one morning too. My morning fruit at breakfast has been replaced by biscuits and gravy, pancakes, waffles, and apple butter (also not a fruit technically).

Grains
I’ve had none…oh – wait a minute…do BBQ beans count?

So we haven’t been following the food pyramid too well – but for good, yummy reasons. When we arrived in Memphis I had researched the food scene – and it all pointed towards fried chicken…Gus’s fried chicken. Gus’s Fried Chicken was a local joint, not in the tourist district, and they served one thing…yes, that’s right – fried chicken. I asked the guy at the front desk of our hotel about Gus’s and his reaction was – oh – it’s ok – but it’s really spicy. Hmmm – that wasn’t the luke warm reaction I was hoping to get. However, I have to admit – the guy was a bit geeky looking and white, I’m not sure if he really knew much about fried chicken. So the next morning, I asked the woman who was working at the front desk and received this reaction, “Childddd – that’s good fried chicken, I’m picking some up tonight for dinner!” Ok – that’s what I wanted to hear!

Photo: Gus’s Kitchen – the men did the cooking!
It was a rainy morning, but we drove down Front Street in search of Gus’s. Actually, you didn’t even need an address – just a nose. You could smell it as we got closer. The smell of fried chicken on a damp afternoon…you really can’t beat it. We walked into Gus’s and it was everything I was hoping for. It was packed with people, and none of them looked like tourists. We waited patiently to get seated, yet our stomachs were growling from the aroma. When we did get a seat, we surveyed the menu which was actually pretty sparse – spicy fried chicken…that was definitely the specialty. You could have it with slaw, beans and fries…and that was about it. We ordered some fried pickles for appetizers and fried chicken for lunch.

We had to wait a while, but it was worth it when our plate of chicken arrived….on paper plates of course. In fact, the whole restaurant operated on paper and plastic – paper plates, plastic silverware, plastic cups – that’s the way that fried chicken should be served. The chicken was really the best I’ve ever had. It definitely had a kick to it – but that’s what made it so great. Plus – it made the lemonade that I was washing it down with all the more better. We topped off our fried lunch with Gus’s dessert specialty, chess pie. Basically it was a stick of butter on a crust. Yum!

I may have taken years off of my life by indulging in Southern cuisine but I had the joy of reacquainting myself with butter, whole milk, and fried food. When I travel, I like to take it all in – and eat just like the locals. I tell myself it’s only a temporary thing, yet the fried pickles will stay with me for life!

Road Trippin USA – Vol 6

Sherry — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:13:57 +0000

Platation Views

Franklin, TN to Memphis, TN
Don’t even try to be in a hurry in the South!

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with our B&B hosts Glenn and Ursula at the Old Marshall House Bed and Breakfast. This was really our first introduction into Southern hospitality and southern speed…which kind of reminded me of India speed. No one is ever really in a hurry, and the people are the friendliest around. Our goal today was to get to Memphis and see some of the southern plantations through Tennessee.

We started down the Antebellum trail which is a road filled with historical Civil War battles. Our first stop was at Carnton Plantation where the historic battle of Franklin took place. It was a Confederate bloodbath that took place on the lawn outside the plantation. The plantation served as the makeshift hospital and later the dead were all buried in a cemetery next to the house – confederate and Yankee soldiers were buried in the private cemetery. It’s one of the largest private Civil War cemeteries. We drove down the Antebellum trail and I was a bit surprised and dismayed to see all of the typical strip malls, ugly strip malls full of Lowes, Walmarts, Kmarts, Krogers, etc. Even small towns seemed full of these mammoth, ugly complexes. It made me feel as if we have lost small town America somewhere in our quest to grow and evolve.

Next we stopped and toured the Rippavilla plantation home in Spring Brook, TN. It was a beautiful house that had 4 huge columns reminding me of Gone with the Wind. The house was completely restored back to the early 1900’s. We went in to the gift shop to get some tour information and that’s where I became acquainted with the word ‘dab’…as in ‘the tooer will start around 1 or just a dab past 1.’ Ahhhh – we were in the South now ya’ll. Everywhere we seemed to go we would get further and further behind our schedule due to the talkative southerners. Finally Kathleen and I had to take a good cop/bad cop approach. I would be the accommodating conversationalist and she would hurry us along during the tours. This way the tour guides were not completely appalled by our eastcoast/westcoast ‘hurry-up’ attitudes.

We had a long drive through the backroads of southern Tennessee for the remainder of the afternoon. I spent most of the time searching for hillbillies, but didn’t really find any. I did however see a number of cars parked in yards…so I was close. We arrived in Memphis around 7PM and settled into our hotel a block from Beale Street. You could already hear the music from outside our hotel. Kathleen had to do some work, so I wandered out to Beale Street for a drink to check it out. I quickly realized that Beale Street was actually only about 2 blocks…but the blocks were crammed with bars and live music. It reminded me of New Orleans – but smaller. As I walked down the street looked at all of the neon signs, and souvenir shops I found myself wondering what the original Beale Street looked like before our consumerism took over bringing in the neon signs and obnoxious tshirt shops. Everything in the US is so highly commercialized that you lose what it is that you are trying to preserve somehow. Sure – the music and bars were great, but I couldn’t help but think that this was a Disney-eque type of production – which all of America seems to be turning into. Is there anything real left?

Kathleen met me a bar and we enjoyed watching an extremely lively, and talented band play rock-a-billy and blues music. They were really impressive – and thoroughly entertaining. We decided we should have some variety so we walked down to the corner and went to Rum Boogies to eat some food and listen to some more classic blues.

Memphis is known for its BBQ and blues, but we had just eaten BBQ the night before, so we decided to sample what Memphis had to offer on top of nachos…yes, nachos with BBQ pork on them smothered n Velveeta…about as appetizing as one would think. So – we didn’t really get to experience Memphis BBQ properly, but we did experience the music scene properly. We stayed out until the bands stopped playing and stumbled home to our nearby hotel beds ears buzzing with the sounds of Beale Street.

Photo: Kathleen and I on Beale Street!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 5

Sherry — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:24:20 +0000

Lexington, KY to Franklin, TN Bluegrass Country

For all snapshots of the Horses and the day’s road trip sites – click here!

Today we spent time exploring Bluegrass country. The grass really isn’t blue – but it’s called bluegrass…go figure. I do have an explanation though – in the spring, bluegrass produces a bluish-purple bud that, when seen in large fields, give a blue cast to the grass. Kentucky lies on limestone. This limestone infused grass is said to build stronger equine (horse to you and me) bones. Also, bluegrass makes for a good pasture as it can tolerate a lot of grazing. Hence, Kentucky is the bluegrass state known for its horse racing industry. Ok – that’s your lesson for today.

We pulled into Lexington Kentucky and found an interstate cluster of the typical hotels/motels. Here’s a bit of trivia for you all that Kathleen taught me…what’s the difference between a hotel and a motel? A hotel has doors that open into a hallway, while a motel has doors that open to the outside where your car is inevitably parked. Tomaaaato, Tomate-o…hotel, motel…I use it all interchangeably and I think it drives Kathleen crazy. One of many things I’m sure. We drove around to the cluster of hotels/motels and found the one that would give us the best deal – the Best Western. It was nestled between a Hampton Inn, a McDonalds, a Waffle House, and a Porn shop called Hustler….perfect.

Lexington Kentucky is known for its horses, in fact, it’s the horse capital of the world. It’s the main industry in the town. Kathleen and I decided that we needed to learn more about the horses here and what exactly made the area so good at producing race horses. We made a reservation at Horse Farm Tours for an early morning tour with Margaret, the owner, the next day. Our plan was to learn about horses in the morning, and then move south to Mammoth Cave National Park in the afternoon.

This was the morning I was to eat at my first Waffle House. I was rather excited about the prospect of finally trying a sacred waffle from the southern restaurant chain that has been taunting me along the hi-way. As we went down to the car the next morning to repack our things and head off to breakfast before Margaret showed up, Kathleen said “Did you know that you left the window down?” I immediately became defensive – “No, I didn’t leave the window down in the car.” Sure, I haven’t driven for a while but I’m not a complete idiot I thought to myself. As Kathleen got in and shut the door, the whole driver side window disappeared into the abyss between the door. It was lost…never to be seen again. Now we had a problem. No driver side window that we could roll up meant the rain that was forecasted for today would be a problem. However, the biggest problem was that we couldn’t leave the car for fear of anyone breaking in since we had no window! After all, we were carrying 3 laptops, a digital SLR camera and lenses, 2 ipods, and an iphone…it was a regular treasure chest of electronics. Oh – and did I mention that it was chilly outside? We panicked at first – trying to determine a solution. Eventually we made our way to a garage that said they would look at it and fix it while Kathleen and I went on the horse farm tour. Great – things may actually work out after all – yet this did mean that I missed my Waffle House breakfast.

Margaret was waiting for us as we were returned back to the hotel from the car service garage. She got up and said “Your late!” – we immediately liked her. Margaret was the president and owner of Horse Farm Tours, Inc….and it was clear that she was in charge and it was clear that she loved the horse industry all the way down to her horse earrings. We stepped into her pristine van that said ‘Boss’ along the door. She had a dry sense of humor with a drawl that was irresistible. Margaret was cool – and she knew everything about the horse industry. Perfect. It was a 3 hour tour full of information about the horse industry…racing horses, show horses, breeding, we saw it all. Well – we didn’t SEE the breading…but we saw the ultimate outcome, foals. The tour included a tour of downtown Lexington, a tour of the Keeneland Race Track, and a tour of various horse farms.

Our timing of this tour was despicable. Opening day for Keeneland is April 4th, and of course we were 3 days too early for that. However instead we were able to see the horses during practice – going through their morning drills with the jockeys. The horse industry means big money. The horse farms were built upon rolling hills upwards of 600 acres lined in white fences. Margaret informed us that the white fence actually cost $18,000 per mile of fence. This includes the initial construction, and frequent upkeep of paint, repairs, etc. Now imagine putting fencing around 600 acres – you better hope that you have a triple crown winner to afford that! Lexington loved their horses so much that their prison was even built to resemble a horse farm. It looked like a pristine farm nestled in between the rest of the horse farms…yet this one was fencing in prisoners!

Margaret continued to entertain us with jokes, trivia, and tons of horse facts. She dropped us off at Jiffy Lube 3 hours later. To top it off, she provided us with some great travel tips for our travel south including historic landmarks and restaurants. We headed south down the Bluegrass Parkway and stopped at Kurtz’s restaurant in Bardstown, KY to have a lunch my grandma would have served me; soup, sandwich, and a piece of cream pie with a 3 inch meringue on top! We wanted to stop at the Makers Mark Distillery, but decided that we had to forgo it since we were trying to get to Mammoth Caves before the park closed. Later we came to find out that we had crossed over into the central time zone and gained an hour…damn – we could have been sampling bourbon. With our newly acquired hour, we decided to follow the signs to Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenvile, another recommendation from Margaret. As we pulled up to the huge marble monument – it looked as if it belonged in DC, but it was out in the woods with a majestic set of stairs leading up to it. As we walked up to the structure, I joked that maybe there was a log cabin inside of this structure. Sure enough, we set foot inside and that’s what it was – Abe’s log cabin – encased by a marble monument! I felt honored that we were able to see the original Lincoln Logs; especially since I share a birthday with dear old Abe.

Photo: Kathleen descending into the new entrance!
We moved on south to Mammoth Cave National Park. Neither one of us had ever heard of this park, but Jim from Virginia (Inn at the Crossroads) had recommended that we stop here and see the world’s longest cave system. Who knew that Kentucky housed the longest cave system in the world? It was over 350 miles of caves deep underneath the Kentucky limestone. We stopped off here to take the 2 hour ‘New Entry’ tour. The New Entry was actually discovered in 1925…not really so new, but it was a engineering feet. It was a descent of 250 feet straight down a metal stairway through narrow wet rock formations; definitely not for the claustrophobic! The cave itself was stunning and the tour was good. The park even ran beginning caving/spelunking tours where you learned how to fit through narrow spaces that no human should be able to fit through – especially after eating southern food. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to do that tour, but I put it on my list for a return trip.

We continued into Tennessee and through Nashville into the town of Franklin where we decided to stay for the night. Franklin was the start of our Civil War/Plantation journey, so it was a good place to stay for the night. We found a cute little B&B, the Marshal House, off the beaten path to stay at. Glenn and Ursala welcomed us into their country home and provided us information about the area. After an amazing dinner of BBQ at a local joint in Franklin we settled in for some rest after our eventful day! Horses, presidents, and caves while enjoying some southern cooking – a good trip through Kentucky!

To find more information about the Margaret’s Kentucky Horse Farm Tours – click here! www.horsefarmtours.com

Road Trippin USA – vol 4

Sherry — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:01:41 +0000

Monticello

Surrounded by Fog and New Friends – Charlottesville, Virginia to Lexington, Kentucky

So far it’s been 3 days of traveling for me – and I am reminded of how much I love this.
Traveling, writing, photography, exploring, meeting new people…I have missed this immensely. I feel good again – alive and purposeful.

One of the first things that I was reminded of was how important it is to put yourself out on a limb at times – it generally produces the best experiences. So when my friend Richard gave me a tip about a friend of his that ran a Bed and Breakfast Inn around the Charlottesville, Virginia area, I decided that I should follow up on it since we were traveling close to there. I always find it a bit daunting to simply cold call someone and say – “Hi, I’m a friend of and they told me that while I was traveling through the area that I should give you a call…” However – I dialed the Inn at the Crossroads and hoped for the best once again.

Richard’s friends Jim and Janet had said goodbye to the corporate life in NYC about 6 years ago to come to Virginia to buy, and run a historic Inn, in addition to raising their family. These are my people (minus the kids of course), people who said ‘take this job and shove it’, there has to be something better out there. I love to hear these stories of people escaping corporate life and succeeding – so I was completely intrigued and was hoping to be able to meet them and hear their story. Sure enough Jim welcomed Kathleen and I as if we were old friends.

We arrived at the Inn at the Crossroads late at night in a foggy, cool mist. Luckily there was one restaurant still open nearby that Jim quickly sent us to – after all, it was 8:30PM on a Sunday in a small town, most places close doors by then. It’s always a harsh reminder to me that the rest of the America doesn’t operate on New York City time – dinner at 9PM. Across the street from the Inn was Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. Seriously – that was the name of the joint. We just made it into Dr. Ho’s before they shut down for the night at 9PM…whew…we narrowly avoided one of my ‘lack of food meltdowns’. As we walked in – it was simply a local pizza joint that smelled delicious and had cold beer. I scanned the room and saw no one that looked like a Dr. Ho, no chopsticks – just forks. I’m not sure who Dr. Ho was, but he sure knew how to make huge plates of pasta for cheap. They brought my plate of lasagna that was literally enough to feed a family of 4 in Asia…for 2 nights – and it was $9. How did our brains ever think that we could eat so much food? I blame it on our brains because somehow we’ve trained them to look at a plate of food and think that a brick size piece of lasagna was a normal amount for one sitting for one person. As Americans, we expect the oversized portions. Hell, we expect everything oversized…the bigger the better is the mentality. I digress…let me try to get back on track. We took our huge plates of pasta (which were incredibly delicious – Dr. Ho knew his Italian!), ate half of it, and took the rest ‘to-go’ for dinner the next night.

Photos of the Inn at the Crossroads – click to enlarge

The Inn was delightful. It was full of antiques and tastefully decorated to resemble an old Inn. Kathleen and I had the whole Inn to ourselves that night, thank goodness it wasn’t haunted! The next morning over cherry walnut waffles we sat and talked to Jim about the history of the place. It was built in 1820 and always served as an Inn (with a tavern originally). It’s in the national registrar of historic places thanks to its famous guests. No, not Kathleen and I, yet maybe one day we will make places famous…you never know. Thomas Jefferson’s nephew financed the place and was a frequent visitor, FDR even gave a campaign speech on the front porch, the list of famous people goes on and on…and then of course there is Kathleen and I added to that list now.

Being an computer geek, one of my favorite things about the area was the fact that the county (or this part of the county) had free wireless internet. Yup, that’s right – out in the middle of the country, next to cows and farms, a strong, free wireless internet signal thanks to the county government and the University of Virginia. It makes me wonder why I’m paying $40 a month in NYC for crappy internet. Once again – I digress. Jim gave us a complete tour and told us the story of how he escaped the corporate world (my hero!) back in 2002. He provided us directions for some sites around the area and how to get to Lexington, KY (our next stop).

You can read all about the Inn at – www.crossroadsinn.com
Photo: Jim and I in front of the Inn

We said goodbye to Jim and made our first tourist stop – Monticello – the plantation of Thomas Jefferson. The fog and drizzle had settled into the area like a blanket of cold yet again, so it wasn’t the nicest day to see the grounds, but the house still stood quite beautifully in the hazy mist. Kathleen had actually done a thesis on the art history of Monticello, so this was a ‘must see’ for her. I, being dense when it comes to US History, of course knew nothing about Monticello – so I just tagged along with my camera in tow. It was a good tour, our guide was a bit rehearsed, but all in all we learned and saw a lot.

Photos of Monticello – click to enlarge:

We hopped on the road cutting through the foggy mountains making our way to West Virginia and ultimately Lexington Kentucky. This was the moment…the moment where I was allowed to take the wheel. Woohooo!! Even though it has been 5 years since I’ve driven, I have a license, so I was ready to go! I used to own and drive a Ford Escort…yeah…quite luxurious I know. However as I hopped up in the big Jeep Grand Cherokee after our Arby’s lunch stop, I felt powerful. It had a powerful engine, and I sat up high looking down on small cars like Escorts (ok – I know they don’t really make them any more – but a few still exist!) – I was king of the road! I was ready to go. I drove the leg through West Virginia and all the way to Lexington. It took me a bit to get used to having to pay attention to what everyone else was doing again instead of simply looking out the window lost in my own thoughts – but eventually my brain said…yeah…I remember this…and it fell back into it’s old patterns. Kathleen eventually must have become comfortable with my driving – at least enough to take a nap and not worry about what I was doing or not doing. Funny thing is that when Kathleen and I met 8 years ago in while living in San Francisco, we both had cars – and we both could not have been more opposite drivers. She was aggressive, I wasn’t. She would yell at the other drivers, I would patiently follow the annoying drivers, silently angry at them for driving like idiots, but never really voicing it. I grew up in the Midwest – hell – Midwesterners aren’t aggressive at anything…hence my cautious driving style. Kathleen used to hate to drive with me and I hated driving with her (often I had to keep my eyes closed or look out the side window) . So here we were, driving 4,000 miles across the country. Even though she may have been annoyed by my driving – I did feel honored that she took a nap. Plus – we made it to Lexington in one piece. It was a long day of driving and sites, we settled down into our Best Western room and had the 2nd half of Dr. Ho’s masterful Italian dinner.

Road Trippin USA – vol. 3

Sherry — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:22:41 +0000

DC to Charlottesvile, Virginia – without hitting a single deer…

We are officially on the road. Before the rubber hit the road, we had a celebratory sendoff from Kathleen’s sister in DC! Kathleen recently turned 40…err…I mean 29 in Feb – but she was out of the country at the time. In fact, in a weird twist that I am not going to even try to explain – she was actually with my sister in Singapore for her birthday…long story. Therefore her family took this opportunity to celebrate it with her a month late.

Saturday night Kathleen, her sister and husband, plus a few friends all went out to a concert – straight out of the 80’s. We saw the Hooters in a small venue in Alexandria, Virginia. No – not Hooters the boob restaurant…Hooters the band…popular in the 80’s, famous for several songs such as “Day By Day,” “And We Danced” and “Where Do The Children Go.” They even wrote the song “Time after Time” for Cyndi Lauper. Their hair was a bit smaller these days – and they all sort of looked like someone had yanked them from a cubicle and gave them an instrument – however – they were really fun. As I looked around and surveyed the crowd, realized that for the first time in a VERY long time (maybe ever) I was surrounded by people my age (mid to late 30’s). It felt very strange, being confronted with what the late 30’s/early 40’s look like and act. It made me think that maybe I hang around younger people in order to feel younger – but this was quite an awakening for me. Regardless, we were able to dust off some of our favorite 80’s dance moves while drinking Bud Light…all in all, a super night!

Today we got a late start as Kathleen’s sister had organized a surprise birthday party at a bowling alley – a real American past time. It even included greasy pizza, fried food, pitchers of beer, and cupcakes. When we did hit the road we decided to go a short distance – but take a scenic route, Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park.

I navigated while Kathleen drove. Considering I’m taking a driving trip across America for 2 weeks, and I haven’t driven in 5 years…I thought I better start slow…with the navigation! I”ll work my way behind the wheel again soon… as I know that Kathleen doesn’t want to drive the whole way!

Click to Enlarge
We made our way to Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive, and that’s when the real fun began. First off we decided to invest in a National Park pass – for $80 you can get free entrance into any National Parks for a year. Not bad considering we were planning on hitting about 8 to 10 of them along the way. Now I’m the proud owner of a National Park pass…and I don’t even own a car…a bit unusual I suppose. As we entered the park/drive, we had some foreshadowing of what to expect for the next 3 hours of driving…deer. The deer were out as if they were flies in the early spring. Sure – the drive was beautiful – but hard to fully enjoy as we were dodging deer constantly. As the sun was going down and we were losing daylight – our deer spotting was getting more frequent and more difficult. Luckily we made it off the scenic drive without a scratch to us or any forms of Bambi or his mother…but we were both a bit un-nerved by the situation. Seriously we must have seen at least 85 over 65 miles of driving.

We pulled into Charlottesville late, but our first leg is complete. We found an AMAZING bed and breakfast via a tip from a friend and ottsworld reader (thanks Richard!). I will have more on that in an upcoming post. Once we were settled into our B&B, we focused on getting some dinner at little restaurant called Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie – a wonderful local diner serving gigantic portions and cheap beer! Now – with my belly full of greasy food, beer, and a brick sized piece of lasagna – I must go to bed. It was a long, but fun day of bowling, driving, dodging deer – it took a lot out of us!

Road Trippin USA – vol. 2

Sherry — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:59:47 +0000

On the Road

The journey has begun. I am currently on a bus right now traveling form NY to DC. The bus company is actually called DCtoNY….not very creative on the name – but it’s a great travel deal. The beauty of this bus is that is has wireless internet! Can you believe that? This is ten times better than flying to DC, it only cost $22 (one way) and it was a short subway ride to Penn Station to catch the bus. It’s a far cry from my bus experiences in the rest of the world – no one is puking next to me, there are no animals on the bus (there is one small child…but I guess that doesn’t count), it hasn’t broke down (yet), and the temperature is actually controlled and pleasant. Now i just need my battery to hold out a little longer while I finish this post!

I’ve done it – I escaped from NY – and just in time. Yesterday I was out running in Central Park (trying to prepare my body for grits, greasy BBQ, beef jerky, and traveling junk food). I was at the north end of the park when I passed two people. One that was running and talking on her cell phone. without a hands free device. and another woman who was pushing/running two dogs in a baby stroller – and there was no baby. This place is crazy…it’s definitely time for me to leave Nuff said.

Packing for the trip was fun – I dusted off all of my old travel gear, and put everything back in is proper travel compartment. It was like going through an old photo album, all of the memories came flooding back – it felt good. However – I do feel a bit naked without my passport – but I’m coming to grips with that. My drivers license is packed and that’s all I need here in the US – it feels strange – but less to worry about losing I guess. The one nice thing about this trip is that I’m traveling by car and don’t have to lug my suitcase and bags around for hours, hoisting them into buses, and vans. Therefore, I took advantage of this and packed more than I needed I’m sure! Plus – I’m loaded down with books, which is something I avoid in backpacker travel as they are too heavy. I guess I’m hoping that I will have plenty of time to catch up on reading while driving…not really sure what I was thinking.

I’ve been getting some great travel advice from all of you – thanks! I think I could simply plan a whole trip on viewer advice actually! What a thought – maybe my next trip will be custom built by my blogging audience – kind of like one of those novels where you pick the ending. I’m not sure that I”m ready to take that on yet – but will give it some thought. One of my favorite pieces of advice was from my friend Lynn who told me to act as if I were a foreigner from Asia visiting the US – try to see it through their eyes. I’m up for giving that a shot!

I will meet Kathleen (Thelma) in a couple of hours and we will explore DC a bit. Of course we’ll have a night out on the town with some celebratory drinks and food – we have to start this trip off with a bang. We’ll push off in the morning in a westward direction! Bon Voyage!

Road Trippin USA – Vol. 1

Sherry — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:37:31 +0000

Traveling through the US

Road Trip Route and Details

I can’t take it anymore!! I miss living out of a suitcase and washing my underwear in a hotel sink…I mean really – it can’t get much better than that! That’s right, I’m off on another adventure to a truly exotic, strange place – one country…but many locations – the United States. Ok – so it may not be village life in Vietnam, or sailing in Italy, or camping in the Sahara. However I’m ready to challenge myself – I’m on a quest to see if the US can actually stimulate me like international travel can.

Let me back up a bit. My good friend Kathleen (who you will be hearing about much more in the coming days) is in the process of moving from Sydney to San Francisco. However she has one small problem – her car is in Delaware. She was telling me that she had to drive her car across the US from the east coast to west coast, and all of a sudden my interest was peaked…it sounded like a fun adventure. She asked me if I was interested in coming along. I tried to approach this logically; I did a quick internal survey:

Have you ever driven across the US before? NO
Do you know how to drive? I haven’t even driven regularly for 5 years – but I do have a valid drivers license…so the answer is YES.
Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon? NO…as a side note – this was one of the most frequently asked questions of me when I was traveling and people found out I was from the US. I’ve also never been to Utah or New Mexico!
Do you have the time to take a road trip? YES I have no job – therefore I have tons of ‘vacation time’.
Do you want to take a cross country road trip? YES! I miss traveling so much and I feel like I’m going to lose my mind if I stick around NYC one more minute – I need a fix…I need to get out and explore.

It was decided…I was in for the 4,000+ Thelma and Louis style journey! Granted – we don’t have a convertible, nor a gun, but I’m hoping that we’ll be running into Brad Pitt somewhere in Louisiana. A girl can hope.

The Route:
You can see our route here by clicking on the link:
Road Trippin Route

We will be going through the southern route and have a total of 2 weeks to complete the trip. We will start in DC and will head through Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and into California. The plan is to not have a plan. We have a general route – but will see where our sense of adventure takes us.
However – I have identified some ‘must-do’s’ that we will work in whenever possible:

Eat Grits
See hillbillies (I’m not sure where to find them – but I’m hoping to spot some!)
Wear a cowboy hat
Pay homage to Elvis
Photograph the Grand Canyon
Listen to live music on Beale Street
Have breakfast at a Waffle House
Travel along Route 66
Dance the two-step

I am leaving NYC on March 29th to meet Kathleen in DC. We will be starting our drive on the 30th and plan to arrive in San Francisco on the 12th. I will stay in San Francisco for a week to see friends before flying back to NYC.

Here’s the good news – I will be chronicling the stories/adventures on the website every other day – so be sure to follow along! I’m so excited to write and do photography again I feel like I could burst! Hopefully I still have some people still reading my blog out there. In fact – if you have any good advice on where to go/stop/explore, please leave comments at the website and I will get them! If you are a reader of the blog and live somewhere along our route, let me know where I should go in your town! Or come meet us for a beer!

Let the adventure begin – USA here I come!!

New York State of Mind

Sherry — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:33:28 +0000

Vertical New York City

Sometimes the hardest battles fought are the ones in your head. After three months of being in the US trying to figure out how to carve out a new existence for myself…I feel like I’m starting to lose the battle. New York is a hard place – and even more so when you don’t have money and choose not to have a job. I use the word choose deliberately because I know it is my choice to not go back to the corporate world behind a desk. So please don’t think that this post is a ‘poor me’ post where I blame everyone else for my hardships. I am no idiot – I know what I’m doing and the baggage my choices have brought with it. It’s just that I don’t have many outlets these days to get all of this doubt/insecurity/confusion out of my head and away from me – so I use this medium – writing – to do that. I”ve journaled all of my adult life – it’s my coping mechanism – yet a bit different when all the world can see. But what the hell – here goes…

Sometimes I think the most difficult thing I face is not really having an identity any longer. That was ok and acceptable while I was traveling on the road – however back here – in the city that oozes identity – I feel completely lost without one. This has come to a head recently for a few reasons I think. First – I have been here for close to 4 months now…a long, daunting time to be simply ‘hanging out’. Daunting because I’m not normally someone who simply does nothing. Quite the contrary – I am someone that always has a plan. Second – when I finished my ESL certification, the obvious next step was figuring out my next steps. How long would I stay in NYC, where would I look for a job, when would I look for a job…the list goes on. When I looked up from my grammar book after a month of intense courses, I realized that I didn’t really have a plan. I knew that I enjoyed teaching and was thrilled at this direction, however I didn’t really know what to do next. Everyone was starting to ask me what my plan was now since I had finished the certification. My classmates all had a plan. I just panicked inside not knowing what my plan was. My plan could be so many things – and that was overwhelming to me.

I honestly can’t believe that 4 months have passed by in NYC. I’m sickened by how fast time seems to go and how I can never seem to get ahead of it – which makes me wonder why I keep trying to get ahead of it? I had many plans for when I came back, and I thought that they would all fall quickly into place since I wasn’t working and would have lots of free time on my hands. Yet 4 months later I’m still working on moving my website and my photography exhibition/portfolio.

My friend Miles told me last week that I was the busiest person he knew without a job. I laughed – but it’s true. I am working on about 5 different ‘personal projects’ at once and not making a dime at any…which can be a difficult thing to accept. On top of that – it’s tax season which has kept me busy swimming in dollar signs and confusion eating up my time.

I’ve reached that weird point again where when I think about leaving to go teach abroad, it’s intimidating to me. I’ve reached that point where the though of leaving all of my stuff behind again makes me feel uneasy. I’ve reached the point where the idea of roughing it again seems daunting. This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen – I didn’t want to get comfortable again…shit. Granted – this comfortableness is not what I want – and I won’t let it win out. It’s just that I know that it will be a hard mental hurdle to get over again. It honestly gives me quite push to get out of here again. I feel like every day I’m here I’m losing the person I was when I was traveling. Honestly – I liked that person much better – so I’m ready to have her back.

Ideas are starting to form; I’m trying to put things in motion. Yet more than anything I just want time to slow down a bit. I want time to get the items in order that I intended – and THEN I want to leave. Yet maybe I’m chasing something that really won’t happen. I mean – are we ever really as prepared as we’d like to be for our next steps?

Someone told me today to have hope. So – I will try that on for size….hope…hope that it all works out and that I find some answers. Hope that I will know the right time to leave here before it drives me completely insane and broke. Hope that I can not become too comfortable. Hope that I can hold it together and cry less. Hope.

A Few Feathers Never Hurt Anyone…

Sherry — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:11:29 +0000

Pillow Fight New York City

New York City can be full of the strange and volatile at times. Yet I think yesterday took the cake…I attended a pillow fight yesterday in New York City – it was a battle of massive proportions and millions of feathers. In the middle of Union Square on a Saturday afternoon, the warriors showed up with their pillows of all shapes and sizes. They came from bridges and tunnels, from subways, and in strollers – they poured into the square. Some were New Yorkers trying to get out some aggressions that had built up all week, some were kids that were just thrilled that their parents finally let them have a pillow fight, some were teenagers that felt like it was a better option than going to the mall and cruising, and I believe some were from Bear Stearns workers and investors…trying to heal the wounds and stress that the volatile markets had dished upon them this last week.

Whatever the reason – they came in droves – pouring off the subway armed with pillows. All shapes and sizes were represented – Spider Man, standard white, 500 count, hospital pillows, chair cushions, a fish pillow, neck pillows, and one person even brought a futon pad. A number of people even wore their pajamas to make it more authentic. There were also safety precautions that people took – I saw many people with swim goggles on to protect their eyes and hard hats and bike helmets to protect their heads.

I had decided to participate through my lens – yet I must admit – I feel like sometimes I miss out on things when I simply take pictures – and this was one of those times. Granted, I don’t think my little baby size pillow that has been with me from birth would have made much of an impact in this battle – it was better left at home. Regardless – I was armed with my camera and a copy of the rulebook that said – you cannot hit anyone with a camera! I arrived 10 minutes early as the leader of the battle was getting everyone riled up. He was dressed as Mel Gibson in Braveheart – a younger version with shorter hair. He was on a tower conducting the emotions of the 300+ crowd – encouraging his troops, readying them for battle.

At 3PM – a whistle sounded and chaos ensued! Screaming, laughing, swinging – people everywhere turned into pillow fighting maniacs! Pretty soon the feathers started to fill the Manhattan skies as if it were a spring snow storm. Some warriors got on shoulders and tried to battle from above the crowds. This was sometimes successful, and sometime it ended in bitter defeat. Kids came streaming into the battle ground with their parents – even youngsters that could barely walk participated in any way they could!

The battles moved into the streets at times, as tourists and locals stared in amazement. The aftermath was a park covered in feathers – no to mention me covered in feathers. I kept thinking that some young entrepreneur should have sat around and sold lint brushes for the post battle clean up. Whatever the reason for fighting – it accomplished a very important goals – FUN…a remembrance of what it is like to be young, silly, and carefree. Something that New Yorkers desperately need these days…including this New Yorker.

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