Interesting tidbit about the Midwest...and actually, the West...and the South...and really, anywhere except New Jersey--people are intrigued and slightly confounded (but excited, usually!) by visitors. When we stop someplace, people want to know where we are from. Sometimes they guess.
For example, one man in Chicago stopped and asked us if we were from Germany. Um?
In California, Dave's family was surprised and I think a little disappointed that I did not have the "Joisey" accent.
In New Orleans, a bunch of guys at a bar were unconvinced that I was not from Texas or some place because of my belt.
I suppose "The East" is as exotic to the rest of the country as it is for those of us in Jersey. Of course, when we say the East, we mean Asia; whereas, they mean us.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Dinner with a Disguntled Sicilian
While we were staying in California with Dave and Jan, we took a weekend trip to the Wine Country and down the California coast to Half Moon Bay. I'll cover that in another post, but I felt that dinner needed its very own post.
It was Dave's mom's birthday, so the four of us met with her, Dave's aunt and uncle, his brother and cousin and all nine of us went to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Now, I have never been to one before and when we got there it was pretty cool. It had an old British phone booth and velvet upholstered chairs in five different colors, a Catholic shrine screen... basically nothing matched and I loved it.
We were told we couldn't make a reservation (apparently, too many large parties had already reserved?) so we waited for a full hour before being seated. This wasn't really a problem because we sat in the cozily dark bar area and nursed some drinks, but by the time the buzzer went off, we were hungry and ready to go.
When the hostess brought us up to our table, though, it was set up in a hallway. No kidding! For some reason, they had put a bunch of tables together in the upstairs hallway, by the stairs. The room on the other end of the hallway was empty through our entire meal, but for some reason, they crammed us into a space barely wide enough for the tables themselves. The waitress couldn't even get to us, we had to hand drinks and food and the like down the table.
Well, Dave's uncle was having none of that. I thought it was very strange and a bit of an inconvenience, but when it comes to customer service issues, I am perhaps a bit too deferential. Uncle Vic is no shrinking violet, though and he complained to the waitress (and made sure to assure the poor girl that it wasn't her fault). She went to get her manager and Uncle Vic told him exactly what he thought of us being stuffed into a hallway.
The manager apologized and then comped the ENTIRE meal. The whole thing! I never would have had the gumption to speak up, but hey. Gets results, man.
Anywhooser,we got a free meal. So, I learned something. Eat with a disgruntled Sicilian and you get your meal free!
Thanks Uncle Vic!
(Also, thanks for letting us stay in your fifth wheel for the night, it was lovely.)
It was Dave's mom's birthday, so the four of us met with her, Dave's aunt and uncle, his brother and cousin and all nine of us went to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Now, I have never been to one before and when we got there it was pretty cool. It had an old British phone booth and velvet upholstered chairs in five different colors, a Catholic shrine screen... basically nothing matched and I loved it.
We were told we couldn't make a reservation (apparently, too many large parties had already reserved?) so we waited for a full hour before being seated. This wasn't really a problem because we sat in the cozily dark bar area and nursed some drinks, but by the time the buzzer went off, we were hungry and ready to go.
When the hostess brought us up to our table, though, it was set up in a hallway. No kidding! For some reason, they had put a bunch of tables together in the upstairs hallway, by the stairs. The room on the other end of the hallway was empty through our entire meal, but for some reason, they crammed us into a space barely wide enough for the tables themselves. The waitress couldn't even get to us, we had to hand drinks and food and the like down the table.
Well, Dave's uncle was having none of that. I thought it was very strange and a bit of an inconvenience, but when it comes to customer service issues, I am perhaps a bit too deferential. Uncle Vic is no shrinking violet, though and he complained to the waitress (and made sure to assure the poor girl that it wasn't her fault). She went to get her manager and Uncle Vic told him exactly what he thought of us being stuffed into a hallway.
The manager apologized and then comped the ENTIRE meal. The whole thing! I never would have had the gumption to speak up, but hey. Gets results, man.
Anywhooser,we got a free meal. So, I learned something. Eat with a disgruntled Sicilian and you get your meal free!
Thanks Uncle Vic!
(Also, thanks for letting us stay in your fifth wheel for the night, it was lovely.)
Friday, July 15, 2011
A Day of Gods and Men
Last night we arrived in Colorado Springs around midnight and gratefully collapsed into the soft and comfortable guest bed at Tom's cousin Amy's house. Hurray for mooching across America! This morning we woke up and enjoyed breakfast with Amy and Cafall (Cay-fall), their adorable Corgi puppy before heading over to the Garden of the Gods. The original plan was to bike our way around, since the small loop is between 3-4 miles and we thought that was probably do-able, even with the lower levels of oxygen.
Yeah....no. It was 95 degrees out, and just biking up the entrance road was enough to wipe us out. Plus, Tom's bike handles were a bit loose and they flipped upside down on him. We took this as a sign that it was just not to be, and coasted back down the hill, then walked our bikes back to our car in the parking lot. Beaten, but not vanquished, we decided to drive in and do the short little hikes inside the park.
It was a nice drive, and an even nicer walk. The heat was bad, but not bad enough to kill my enjoyment of the place, especially after I spotted a brush jay. Going to these places kind of makes me feel closer to my dad in a way and I wanted to get a picture of the bird, but some boy scouts chased it away. Le sigh.
I love the story of where the name came from, so I am going to share it with you- Back in 1859, two surveyors were scouting the area and, upon finding the rock formations, one of them suggested that it would be a good place to open a beer garden. The other responded, "A beer garden?! Why, this is a place fit to be a garden for the gods!"
The name stuck. =)
The formations really are beautiful, and it is fascinating to see them jutting up out of the ground, completely different from the other rock in the area.
For lunch, Amy made us home-made enchiladas (yummy!) and then when Casey came home from work, we headed to the movie theatre to wait in line to see the end. Yes, I went and waited in line for two hours to ensure that I got a good seat for the last movie of Harry Potter.
I wore my favorite Potter-themed t-shirt from Sam and Fuzzy and got a bunch of compliments.
I was highly anticipating the awesome-ness of Neville and Mrs. Weasley and was not disappointed!
As if that wasn't nerdy enough, on the way to the theatre we stopped so I could pick up the latest George R.R. Martin novel. Squee!
Tomorrow Tom and I are heading 14,000 feet up to the top of Pike's Peak on the Cog Railway.
Yeah....no. It was 95 degrees out, and just biking up the entrance road was enough to wipe us out. Plus, Tom's bike handles were a bit loose and they flipped upside down on him. We took this as a sign that it was just not to be, and coasted back down the hill, then walked our bikes back to our car in the parking lot. Beaten, but not vanquished, we decided to drive in and do the short little hikes inside the park.
I love the story of where the name came from, so I am going to share it with you- Back in 1859, two surveyors were scouting the area and, upon finding the rock formations, one of them suggested that it would be a good place to open a beer garden. The other responded, "A beer garden?! Why, this is a place fit to be a garden for the gods!"
The name stuck. =)
The formations really are beautiful, and it is fascinating to see them jutting up out of the ground, completely different from the other rock in the area.
For lunch, Amy made us home-made enchiladas (yummy!) and then when Casey came home from work, we headed to the movie theatre to wait in line to see the end. Yes, I went and waited in line for two hours to ensure that I got a good seat for the last movie of Harry Potter.
I wore my favorite Potter-themed t-shirt from Sam and Fuzzy and got a bunch of compliments.
As if that wasn't nerdy enough, on the way to the theatre we stopped so I could pick up the latest George R.R. Martin novel. Squee!
Tomorrow Tom and I are heading 14,000 feet up to the top of Pike's Peak on the Cog Railway.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
How the West was.... (Everything I ever wanted from the West!)
Wow, I can't believe we've only been on the road for a week. It feels longer than that, only because we have seen SO MUCH in the past week. America is chock-a-block full of amazing sights.
Today, the morning was dedicated to State Parks and National Memorials. We packed our tent up and headed out to take a scenic drive through Custer State Park's Wildlife Loop. At first, it didn't seem very populated. Lots of beautiful views and amazing scenery, but no Wildlife. We drove past a prairie dog warren, which was cute but we had already fed those little guys up close and personal, so it was kind of eh.
But then. Oh man. We met up with a herd of burros coming the other direction on the road.
The burros were expecting to get fed, so they were super friendly.
No, seriously. Super friendly.
After we ran into the first herd of burros, it became an animal extravaganza! More burros on the road, including some super-friendly types that decided they wanted to come for a ride with us in the car; pronghorn herds that meandered across the road, waiting on the word from the alpha male to move along so that we could continue our drive; and of course last (and abso-positively not least) the bison!
We were about to leave the park without having encountered a single American buffalo, when we decided to stop at the Visitor's Center to get some postcards. Inside, a very friendly and genteel employee was informing folks that the entire herd was just over the hill and if we took the dirt trail across the way, we could see them lounging and grazing in the sun.
He was completely right. It was a breath-taking sight to come over the rise and see the massive herd of bison spread out beneath us. It was evocative of when herds of these giant animals roamed the American prairie, and I had a little pang that those days are gone, and this is the closest I will ever come to seeing something like that.
But this was everything I had hoped my first up-close view of the American buffalo would be. The majority of the parks 1300 buffalo seemed to be gathered on the big sunny field below us and little family groups were ambling back and forth across the road we were driving on.
We got some truly amazing shots, both of the herd and up close. Take a gander!
I love South Dakota. I kind of wish we had stayed longer and explored the parks more, but we had set kind of a time schedule for ourselves. Next time, though. Next time.
After the park, we swung back north to take in Mount Rushmore, which was just as large and presidential as I had hoped it would be. Not much to say about the monument, honestly. It was just as it is always pictured, and I get the feeling that it would be far more impressive if I could have seen it up close in order to truly appreciate the magnitude.
But, we got our obligatory tourist shot, bought some nifty souvenirs and then headed out again because we had a seven hour drive through Wyoming and Colorado to look forward to. We did have a little time to kill, so we decided to go a little bit farther north to Rapid City.
Rapid City is known as the city of presidents. Not only is it about a half hour from Rushmore, but they have almost life-size statues of 42 Presidents on their street corners. They are missing Barack Obama and someone else, but since they have George W, Bill, Bush Senior and the other more recent ones that I know, it must be someone farther back in the annals of history that I can't remember because he didn't do anything noteworthy enough to receive a highlight in 8th grade Social Studies.
It's going to bother me until I puzzle it out, though, so once I have done my homework, I'll let you know.
After meeting with (almost) all the Presidents, we started the drive south toward Colorado Springs and Tom's cousin Amy's house. I wanted one more stop, though, at the Cosmos Mystery Area. It is one of those silly Roadside America attractions where the gravity of the Earth is supposedly skewed and the physics that govern our universe are all a-tangle.
Tom cynically proclaimed it all an optical illusion built upon a ferrite hill that is just slightly more gravitationally significant than the surrounding landscape, thus creating some oddities in the vegetation, but to that I say PFAH! I believe in magic, and weird gravity wells and I refuse to let his craaaaazy science talk convince me otherwise!
Either way, it is a diverting and amusing little attraction.
After I had dragged Tom through another one of my silly side-trips, we began the long trek through Wyoming.
There is nothing there. No, seriously. Wyoming is empty. It is fields and sky for as far as the eye can see, broken by the occasional herd of cows. Moo.
At one point we drove into the leading edge of a prairie storm and we raced to try and get ahead of it. Scary, but also fodder for some really amazing photos.
We decided that we would stop in Cheyenne, the capital, in order to bathroom break, eat, and trade drivers since Tom had been going through all of Wyoming and needed a break. Folks, Cheyenne is not a city. Do not let its status as a "capital city" fool you. It is a very large town. The population of Cheyenne is lower than its altitude. It is barely 4 miles across. But it had a Subway that was open and a gas station and so I thank you Cheyenne, for... you know... existing.
I drove the rest of the way through Colorado to Amy's house, through wet, dark highways, trying not to be killed by the people doing 90 because the speed limit is 75.
Wyoming: Despite the fact that there is nothing in you, I love you. You are beautiful and I promise that I will come and visit again someday for something more than a long-ass drive down a back highway somewhere.
But for now, there is Colorado. I can't wait to see what you have in store for us!
(George Dubya approves this message)
Today, the morning was dedicated to State Parks and National Memorials. We packed our tent up and headed out to take a scenic drive through Custer State Park's Wildlife Loop. At first, it didn't seem very populated. Lots of beautiful views and amazing scenery, but no Wildlife. We drove past a prairie dog warren, which was cute but we had already fed those little guys up close and personal, so it was kind of eh.
But then. Oh man. We met up with a herd of burros coming the other direction on the road.
After we ran into the first herd of burros, it became an animal extravaganza! More burros on the road, including some super-friendly types that decided they wanted to come for a ride with us in the car; pronghorn herds that meandered across the road, waiting on the word from the alpha male to move along so that we could continue our drive; and of course last (and abso-positively not least) the bison!
We were about to leave the park without having encountered a single American buffalo, when we decided to stop at the Visitor's Center to get some postcards. Inside, a very friendly and genteel employee was informing folks that the entire herd was just over the hill and if we took the dirt trail across the way, we could see them lounging and grazing in the sun.
He was completely right. It was a breath-taking sight to come over the rise and see the massive herd of bison spread out beneath us. It was evocative of when herds of these giant animals roamed the American prairie, and I had a little pang that those days are gone, and this is the closest I will ever come to seeing something like that.
But this was everything I had hoped my first up-close view of the American buffalo would be. The majority of the parks 1300 buffalo seemed to be gathered on the big sunny field below us and little family groups were ambling back and forth across the road we were driving on.
We got some truly amazing shots, both of the herd and up close. Take a gander!
I love South Dakota. I kind of wish we had stayed longer and explored the parks more, but we had set kind of a time schedule for ourselves. Next time, though. Next time.
But, we got our obligatory tourist shot, bought some nifty souvenirs and then headed out again because we had a seven hour drive through Wyoming and Colorado to look forward to. We did have a little time to kill, so we decided to go a little bit farther north to Rapid City.
It's going to bother me until I puzzle it out, though, so once I have done my homework, I'll let you know.
After meeting with (almost) all the Presidents, we started the drive south toward Colorado Springs and Tom's cousin Amy's house. I wanted one more stop, though, at the Cosmos Mystery Area. It is one of those silly Roadside America attractions where the gravity of the Earth is supposedly skewed and the physics that govern our universe are all a-tangle.
Tom cynically proclaimed it all an optical illusion built upon a ferrite hill that is just slightly more gravitationally significant than the surrounding landscape, thus creating some oddities in the vegetation, but to that I say PFAH! I believe in magic, and weird gravity wells and I refuse to let his craaaaazy science talk convince me otherwise!
Either way, it is a diverting and amusing little attraction.
After I had dragged Tom through another one of my silly side-trips, we began the long trek through Wyoming.
There is nothing there. No, seriously. Wyoming is empty. It is fields and sky for as far as the eye can see, broken by the occasional herd of cows. Moo.
At one point we drove into the leading edge of a prairie storm and we raced to try and get ahead of it. Scary, but also fodder for some really amazing photos.
We decided that we would stop in Cheyenne, the capital, in order to bathroom break, eat, and trade drivers since Tom had been going through all of Wyoming and needed a break. Folks, Cheyenne is not a city. Do not let its status as a "capital city" fool you. It is a very large town. The population of Cheyenne is lower than its altitude. It is barely 4 miles across. But it had a Subway that was open and a gas station and so I thank you Cheyenne, for... you know... existing.
I drove the rest of the way through Colorado to Amy's house, through wet, dark highways, trying not to be killed by the people doing 90 because the speed limit is 75.
Wyoming: Despite the fact that there is nothing in you, I love you. You are beautiful and I promise that I will come and visit again someday for something more than a long-ass drive down a back highway somewhere.
But for now, there is Colorado. I can't wait to see what you have in store for us!
(George Dubya approves this message)
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Gangsters, Rivers, Prairie Dogs and Photo Shoots: South Dakota!
South Dakota is awesome you guys. Like, so awesome and there is so much here! We didn't get to do nearly the amount of things we could have done or that I wanted to do! I will need to come back here someday for sure.
We woke up early and re-stoked our campfire so that we could cook breakfast before our first stop of the day at Devil's Gulch. One needs a hearty breakfast if one is going to be following the footsteps (or hoofprints) of the one of the country's most famous gangsters!
The legend goes that Jesse James urged his horse to leap the 20 feet from one side to the other of Devil's Gulch to escape the lawman's posse that was after him. Twenty feet doesn't sound like a lot, but when you are standing on the creaky, rusty bridge they have going over the spot where he jumped, you truly appreciate the magnitude of that jump.
Also, according to the literature in the little photo-copied brochure the nice old man at the tiny visitor's center gave us, the spot beneath the jump is known as the Bottomless Pit. One time, a 600-foot plumb line was dropped into and never hit bottom!
Of course, in reality, Jesse and his horse probably just raced around the Gulch, but the story is better the other way, and I am all about the story.
Fresh from our gangster adventure, we headed to Sioux Falls to see the river that gives the town its name. It was beautiful and rather refreshing to stand in the spray from the falls on a hot day. Once we left the Falls, I convinced Tom to stop at the Mitchell Corn Palace and it was everything I hoped it would be.
Corn and corny jokes and corn-themed souvenirs, oh my! But, honestly, that there, that is America, and it is what I love about America. They proudly proclaim that it is the only Corn Palace in the World! Know why it is the only Corn Palace in the world? Because it is lame! So lame! But that right there is what is so wonderful about it! They're like "Heck yeah, our corn palace is lame, but we love it and we embrace it and we invite you to come and join us in our wonderful quirky lame-ness." And I'm like, "Yes, absolutely, I will join you in your wonderful quirky lame-ness." And I do. And it is excellent.
Moving right along, we made our way to Chamberlain, SD, which is right on the Missouri River. The rest stop had a gorgeous panorama, and some interesting stuff about Lewis and Clark, but we didn't stay long because we wanted to get to our next big destination: The Badlands.
Oh. My. God. The Badlands are simply breathtaking. Each new amazing sight on this trip makes me imagine that I will never see anything so amazing or beautiful again in my life, and then each time I am proved wrong. And I am so very very glad for that.
America the Beautiful indeed.
I can't do the Badlands justice in words, so here are some pictures.
On the way into the Badlands we stopped at a Prairie Dog ranch where we got to feed the prairie dogs and got some of the most adorable pictures and video ever taken, I think. No seriously, look.
Anyway, we ended the day in Custer State Park where we set our tent up in the dark and crashed out.
We woke up early and re-stoked our campfire so that we could cook breakfast before our first stop of the day at Devil's Gulch. One needs a hearty breakfast if one is going to be following the footsteps (or hoofprints) of the one of the country's most famous gangsters!
The legend goes that Jesse James urged his horse to leap the 20 feet from one side to the other of Devil's Gulch to escape the lawman's posse that was after him. Twenty feet doesn't sound like a lot, but when you are standing on the creaky, rusty bridge they have going over the spot where he jumped, you truly appreciate the magnitude of that jump.
Also, according to the literature in the little photo-copied brochure the nice old man at the tiny visitor's center gave us, the spot beneath the jump is known as the Bottomless Pit. One time, a 600-foot plumb line was dropped into and never hit bottom!
Fresh from our gangster adventure, we headed to Sioux Falls to see the river that gives the town its name. It was beautiful and rather refreshing to stand in the spray from the falls on a hot day. Once we left the Falls, I convinced Tom to stop at the Mitchell Corn Palace and it was everything I hoped it would be.
Corn and corny jokes and corn-themed souvenirs, oh my! But, honestly, that there, that is America, and it is what I love about America. They proudly proclaim that it is the only Corn Palace in the World! Know why it is the only Corn Palace in the world? Because it is lame! So lame! But that right there is what is so wonderful about it! They're like "Heck yeah, our corn palace is lame, but we love it and we embrace it and we invite you to come and join us in our wonderful quirky lame-ness." And I'm like, "Yes, absolutely, I will join you in your wonderful quirky lame-ness." And I do. And it is excellent.
Moving right along, we made our way to Chamberlain, SD, which is right on the Missouri River. The rest stop had a gorgeous panorama, and some interesting stuff about Lewis and Clark, but we didn't stay long because we wanted to get to our next big destination: The Badlands.
Oh. My. God. The Badlands are simply breathtaking. Each new amazing sight on this trip makes me imagine that I will never see anything so amazing or beautiful again in my life, and then each time I am proved wrong. And I am so very very glad for that.
America the Beautiful indeed.
I can't do the Badlands justice in words, so here are some pictures.
On the way into the Badlands we stopped at a Prairie Dog ranch where we got to feed the prairie dogs and got some of the most adorable pictures and video ever taken, I think. No seriously, look.
Anyway, we ended the day in Custer State Park where we set our tent up in the dark and crashed out.
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