Summer Time

Whoa.  Seven days, a whole week, has passed and I haven't posted anything, any words, any photos, here.  That seems to be how my summer is shaping up.  Just a lot of down time.  Not that that is a bad thing.  In the slow slow summer days, I am still finding blessings to share for Friday Fave Fives.

1. Summer time gives me opportunity to read and read and read.  The Professor and I are continuing our fascination with the novels of the late great Louis L'Amour.  Lonely cattle and cowboy country.  Brave heroes.  Black hatted villians.  Beautiful strong western women.

2. Summer time also gives us the leisure to search out fun walks in our area.  One day we decided to walk along a bike trail neither of us had ever seen before.  It wasn't a pastoral or mountain hike.  We crossed the Santa Clara River on the overpass which we shared with Highway 101.

Eight lane freeway on one side

(Almost) dry river bed on the other.

Tumbleweeds and nasturtiums by a still small pool of water

3.  Another walk we chose this week was at the beach.  We had never walked along the beach or pier at Port Hueneme (pronounce Wy-NEE-mee).

4.  Summer time is prime smoothie time.  Unfortunately, our blender broke.  Its little motor just couldn't keep up with our green smoothie making.  So, we ordered a new one and used some anniversary present money toward it.  Ordered and delivered.  We're back in smoothie goodness business.

5.  Summer time is Wednesday Night Supper at our church.  Every week it's the same menu.  We love to attend mostly because of the fellowship we enjoy around the large tables.  Usually, we will sit with different people each week so we have an opportunity to meet new (to us) people and also to chat with old (to us) friends.

Oh, I love summer time!

A Week at Home

It seems like when you return home from an extended trip that it takes awhile to recover.  It's like having to rest up after coming home from vacation.  I had planned to be productive and post more photos of our trip, do garden work, clean the bathrooms, scan more photos.  Well not much got done.  And that is where Friday Fave Five with Susanne comes in.  Even during a non-productive week, I can find ways to be grateful.

1. I am thankful that I have the flexibility in my summer schedule to take the time to rest.

2. I am thankful for books to read.  Browsing in the library, I picked up a Louis L'Amour novel partly because we had been talking about how he wrote about the places where we had traveled in the Southwest during our road trip--places like Texas, New Mexico and the Arizona desert.  This week I've revisited those places through the eyes and words of Louis L'Amour's books.  It's not deep meaningful literature but it's perfect for rest and relaxation.

3. I am thankful for the gift card given to me at the end of the school year which provided the opportunity for me to purchase two books.  (Yes, the theme here may be sitting around reading)  I bought another Newbery Award book.  Ginger Pye (1952).  Also, I had read some reviews of a book about eating vegan.  Great recipes.  Good advice.  So I decided to buy it.  I seldom purchase books, especially cookbooks, but this one includes lists of restaurant chains which offer vegan friendly options and several other helpful lists like daily and weekly menus.

4. I am thankful for easy knitting.  My brain just didn't want to work on anything intricate this week. So I found easy 'brain-dead' knitting:  simple dishcloths.

5. Last, but certainly not least, I am thankful for my faithful husband.  On Sunday we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary.  Our wonderful road trip was our gift to each other, so our actual anniversary was rather low key...church, farmers market, lunch, hang out, pleasant walk.  Weren't we cute forty years ago?

How was your week?

I'm Home!

Didja miss me?  Or didn't you notice I was MIA for three weeks?

5,853 miles.  Fifteen states (and four of those states twice).

You can read some of my daily posts below, but today I want to focus on Five Faves from those weeks of travel.

Willow's Three Weeks for Friday's Fave Five (click for the link to Susanne's blog)

1.  Safety.  All those miles and no accidents.  A couple of times I know we were spared at least a fender bender because of The Professor's excellent defensive driving and God's care and protection.

2.  The Professor and I have now visited forty-nine of the fifty states in the United States of America.  The only one we are now missing is---

Alaska.

Plans are fomenting in his big brain.

Maybe a cruise?

My forty-ninth state!

3.  Visiting historical spots.  As history freaks enthusiasts, we loved including points of historical interest in our daily destinations.

Route 66

Click here to see my post about historical places we visited related to Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Natchez Trace Parkway

Also, we visited the River Walk in San Antonio

as well as two Spanish missions

(come back later to see photos)

Yeah, we love history!

4.  Spending time with Our Boy!

You know how it is--you can only take so many photos before the inevitable happens.

5.  At the end, however, no matter how much we love to travel, how much we enjoy visiting fascinating places,

there's no place like home.

It's lovely to be back.

On The Way Home: Day #4

No new states today.  In fact, we didn't even drive to another city.   Late last night we arrived in San Antonio, Texas, and all day today we spent in San Antonio visiting

The Alamo

 Mission Concepcion

Mission San Jose

 and strolling the San Antonio River Walk.

On The Way Home: Day #3

A momentous occasion:  State #49!

Louisiana!

The state line is actually in the middle of the Mississippi River.  Obviously, we didn't stop for a photo shoot.

And now we return and pass through the last four states on our journey:

On The Way Home: Day #2

Many miles today.  516.  Although we started early (for us), we did not arrive at our night's destination until 7pm.  Our way took us from Kentucky to Alabama  (see photo below), through Tennessee,

 and into Mississippi.

We followed the Natchez Trace Parkway from Fly, Tennessee to Tupelo, Mississippi.  It's beautiful and chock full of history.  The entire parkway runs for 444 miles, but we drove only 160 miles.  Someday we'll return and spend more than a part of a day exploring.

Of interest to me was the burial place of Meriwether Lewis, explorer of Oregon Territory as leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806 since I am an Oregon native and grew up knowing the stories of the expedition such as his fortuitous meeting with Sacajawea and visiting the places mentioned in his travels like Fort Clatsop in Astoria and the Columbia River.

Today, I added two more states to the total number of US states I have been to. 

 #47:  Alabama

#48:  Mississippi.

Tomorrow we will drive through Louisiana and I will add it as #49! (The only state remaining is Alaska.)

On The Way Home Day#1

A quick explanation:  my maiden name, before I was Mrs. Professor, was TRIGG.

 

I knew of the existence of Trigg County, Kentucky but had never visited it.

That's what road trips are for!

Road Trip: Day #6

Two more states.

Indiana

Ohio 

 So.  Here we are.

It is now time to play.

Running in the park.

Reading books.

Building legos.

Back soon.

Road Trip: Days 4 and 5

There is so much to share and last night we had no internet connection.  So tonight I can post for both Day 4 and Day 5.

Day 4

 Night #3 we were camped at a Kansas state park just over the state line from Oklahoma. 

Our breakfast view

the lake

We chose this place because of its proximity to Laura Ingalls' "Little House on the Prairie" home in Independence, Kansas.  Arriving shortly after the stated (on the website) opening time, we discovered that the buildings were in fact NOT open.  Nor did anyone show up to open the buildings during the time we were there.  Oh well.  (The link above will show you much more than we actually saw.)

Then it was on through the southeast corner of Kansas by way of Old US Route 66 to see the Rainbow Bridge, the last remaining Marsh Arch bridge.

Then over the state line to Missouri

and on to points East.

Day 5

Mansfield, Missouri.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's home on Rocky Ridge Farm.  

Although photos are not allowed in the home or the museum so we can't show it all to you, we thoroughly enjoyed this visit.  Both of the guides were well informed and obviously enjoyed sharing what they knew of Laura and Almanzo's life there.  This link to the official website will give you more information.

Laura's favorite view

Did you know that Laura and Almanzo's daughter Rose built another home for them?  They only lived in Rock House down the road one mile from Rocky Ridge Farm for 8 years, but it is significant because it was here that Laura wrote the first four books in her Little House series.

More adventures today:

Driving through the Ozarks.  Beautiful scenery but not easy to photograph from a moving car.  Rolling hills covered with forests, curvy roads, farms and houses of varying perceived prosperity.

Shaw Nature Preserve. Near St. Louis. Walking in the rain.

Lots of little bunnies pretending to hide in the green grass

Finally, another state and another Route 66 bridge.

A horrible photo, but we were on a bridge over the Mississippi River so we couldn't slow down in traffic.  And it was raining.

Old Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi River.  It is possible to walk or bike across the Mississippi on this bridge although we didn't do it.  It was late (7pm) and getting dark.  And it was raining.  (Have you noticed a theme here?)

This is the last part of Route 66 we will follow.

Now we're making a beeline for mid Ohio to see a couple of special someones!

Oh, are you bored yet?  I haven't been bored at all on this trip.  Someone (hi, Caroline!) asked, "Are you knitting?"  Silly question :)  Oh yes.  I packed plenty of projects.  Here are three in various stages of completion.

Handspun alpaca lace shawl.

Every row has 401 stitches.  Size 6 needles.

Pink toddler hat.  I love the simple two stitch cables.

Yes, the variegated yarn really is that bright.  I'm calling these the Circus Clown Socks.

And so to bed...

tomorrow is another day.