Westward, Ho!

Back when we were working and living in Memphis, we would often travel to Nashville and places beyond. Crossing the Tennessee river and heading away always felt good. Conversely, on our return, crossing the river as we headed south was always accompanied by a drop in our spirits. Today, when we got past Knoxville, headed east on highway 25, and we saw the mountains again, I felt a sense of exhilaration. I was expanded. I love living in the mountains of northwest North Carolina.  Thanks for reading and traveling along with us. Even more thanks to my sweet wife for traveling with me  - and being willing (sort of) to take my photo in front of the world's largest things. So where are we going next?

We are finally going to be home today!!! Two days in Jackson, MS to see my mama (thank you, Tricia, for opening your free B&B to us!) and a trip to Quitman, MS to see Dan’s Aunt Rosie yesterday was followed by a night in Birmingham (and a visit to Big Spoon Creamery -  highly recommend if you are in B’ham). We will see the mountains soon. 

I’m not much for museums. I know that makes me lesser than to some people, but I would much rather walk around outside than in. So while Dan cruised inside the museum, I took to the trails, many of which were closed due to damage from a tornado that blew through at the end of May. There were many uprooted trees, which is always sad to see. It was hot and it was humid, but it was nice to walk about in the lushness of hardwoods and perennials, even if they were a little wilted from drought.  Today, Dan drove the long slog from Fayetteville AR through the Delta to Jackson, MS, where we will spend a couple of days with my mother. Then, we will go to Quitman, MS, to see his aunt, and we will drive home on Monday. I cannot wait to be back in our mountains. ❤️

 After hitting the road this morning, our first destination was the world's largest shuttlecock, located in Kansas City. Alas, this was the last of the WLTs. There are so many more to be seen.    From Kansas City, we drove to Bentonville, Arkansas to take in the Crystal Bridges museum. It is a wonderful museum, and I love going there. Of special interest is the Exquisite Creatures exhibit and the works of Christopher Marley.  These creations are stunning.   From Bentonville, we made the long drive to Fayetteville where we met up with a longtime friend, Laura Brewer. We got the grand tour of the town and had a nice dinner. Tomorrow, on to Jackson, Mississippi.

I was so upset by the SCOTUS ruling last nite that I completely forgot to mention that we stopped by the Buffalo Bill Cultural Center in Oakley, KS. There was not much to see, but we stopped because my paternal grandmother's maiden name was Cody, and we used the family name for our younger son Cody, and there is absolutely no genealogical connection between Buffalo Bill and me, unless it's some VERY distant cousin, which is unlikely, but I wanted to stop anyway. And so we did. This is as good as it gets, folks. It was 100 degrees and I was not tromping up that hill. Sorry.  Today was the BIG DAY when we visited the World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things. That's right; in downtown Lucas, Kansas, a local artist has created and displayed her renditions of the smallest versions etc. She visited each of the world's largest things before created her smallest versions. Dan said that he got some great ideas of where...

 Let me just say that yesterday's (Sunday's) travel was a bust. We drove south through Wyoming and it looked like this: I don't know if you can see thi road waaaayyyy in the distance, but that was our path. Sorry, Wyoming, but once you get out of the mountains, there's just not a lot that's pretty. Of course, we ended up on a dirt road for many miles. Here is my PSA: Of Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze, only Waze has a setting to keep you off of unpaved roads.  We did see antelope, but they were not playing - nor were there any deer playing.  We routed through the Arapaho Forest, excited about that scenery, but we say a lot of this: There were way too many miles of this for there to have been a contolled burn. We wanted to go through the Rocky Mountain National Park, but they apparently have a system set up when they have permitted entry - and we didn't have that. So we turned around, hit I-70, and made it to Denver, where Dan went to the aquarium.  Today (Tues...