Boulder

June16th

We made it to Boulder! Boulder is the coolest town in the Rockies. I was amazed by the amount of commerce that went on in the middle of the week. It does not look like a recession in Boulder. There were hundreds of great little shops with fabulous art and funky clothes. I found a beautiful deep red intricately patterned peace of cloth at a shop. $10 a yard but I am looking forward to putting it into a quilt, maybe. It I very pretty just the way it is. Perhaps I should not cut it up. We ate at a place that served oysters. I wanted to eat oysters in the Rocky Mountains. I am in awe at the kind of world we live in where we can eat a very perishable ocean food while sitting in a restaurant over a thousand miles away from the ocean and several thousand feet high. The food was so good it made me never want to eat in an Abingdon restaurant again; well maybe we will till eat at Bellas. We slept at a campground just outside Boulder and were warm and comfortable enough.

June 17^th

We toured a little more of Boulder. We went to a great museum with hundreds of statues.

The theme was of course, western but a sculpture is cool even if it is nothing more than a three-dimensional portrait of a famous Native American or a horse. We drove past the celestial seasonings factory but JJ didn’t want to go in. I thought he would love it but we forged on to points west.

out west and toward the within

June 15 2009

Nebraska, our Nebraska experience was boring at first and then VERY intense. We drove and drove and drove. The flat land was occasionally dotted by lines of spiky grey towering windmills.They came in rows and bunches rising off the horizon and passing into view. I was told that they are loud, but we never heard them make any noise. The sky was filled with ominous clouds.

We could see the rain in the distance and JJ excitedly looked for tornadoes. A tornado would be the treat of the vacation for him. JJ has dreamed of tornados since before we first met. He would dream them out a window or he would be standing among them. In his vision they would pick him up and twirl him around. He always felt like those dreams were a token of good fortune. The last 30 years have felt like a whirlwind to me. It went so fast.

No tornadoes tormented us but we were buffeted by a hail storm that stopped traffic with silver dollar sized hail stones for 20 minutes. Some lucky drivers found shelter under a bridge on the interstate. We were lucky to find limited shelter between to 18 wheel trucks. I felt like I was living inside a sinister popcorn popper, “Pop pop poppopopopopopop.” The hail’s vocabulary was limited to onomatopoeia. No one ever taught it nouns and verbs and adjectives. I imagine that a more educated hail would track us down and terrorize us rather than being random as this onslaught was. Perhaps I should be grateful for the restricted lexicon. The hail put at least a thousand dents in our car hood and in our roof. We let the insurance company know about. It will be another of the post vacation tasks we will have.

vacation

June 14, 2009

We have been in Iowa for 2 days. We got to see Zack’s beautiful twins who are just 6 days old. They are small and fabulous dual bundles of hope. The first thing we did was go to Zachs home to see the babies. I walked in the door and Zach handed me a wee one and went to sit down. Is face was filled with relief. Babies are challenging and 2 at a time must be overwhelming. Now I am not a holder of babies. I am way out of practice. What is this wobbling tiny totally dependent gal doing in my arms? I sat down so I couldn’t drop her. I don’t look for grandchildren soon; I am not ready for them.

Last night we ate at Sam’s restaurant. It is called Nana’s. Nana is what I want to be called when I become a grandmother. They have wonderful family style Italian food. The restaurant looked busy which is good for Tanya and Sam.

Here are some pictures of my Great nieces and nephew.

My niece Tanya has 3 children and her oldest, Mia, loves black olives just like I did when I was her age. When I was a child, my mother and father took me to Lakewood Country Club frequently. We walked up a large gilded stair well with plush carpeting. Past the coat checkroom we would wait for Bernie the maître d' to seat us. The piano player noticing our family being led to a table would begin to play Adel vice from the Sound of Music. This was dads’ favorite song. It was like being the hero of the story and having your own theme song. I was the hero’s daughter. It was like being royalty and having your own fanfare. I was a princess by any other name. Then Bernie would get me a small bowl of black olives. They would be presented with a flourish while the waiter took drink orders. I ordered my usual, a Shirley Temple. Of course I still like black olives. Though I am a princess no more, I have my memories of being one.

Today we are having a cookout Iowa style with the whole family. The grilled chicken and burgers were great, but getting to know my nieces and nephews and great nieces and great nephews better, was the best part of the day.

Day 2

June 12th
I really pushed JJ to visit the St Louis Arch and ride to the top. My sweetie said, “It’s really foggy Honey, we won’t see much.” He added, “The GPS is not finding the arch.” The roads were complicated, taking us one way this way and one way that way. “We’ll have to pay for parking. I wonder how much it will cost to ride to the top.” JJ was full of gentle questions leading to the idea that we should skip the kitschy arch. I was clearly not deterred saying, “Oh there it is I can see it from here.” It was easy to see the towering monument but it was not so easy to find our way through the streets to the parking area. JJ calmly let me lead him to the parking area, the park and to the arch itself. Tickets turned out to be $10 for each of us. We were guided through some museums, our picture was taken. We were directed by the guides to wait in front of door number 2, my favorite number. I hopped from foot to foot in anticipation about going up in the arch. A nice woman and 12 year old son waited with us. Then, a tiny door opened in the wall. When I say tiny I mean the size of a mall cup of tea. This was the door? This was the door to get up to the top of the arch? What kind of drink are they going to give me to make me small enough for that hole in the wall? We were directed to step in to an egg shaped compartment that was not much bigger than the ovoid it resembled. Maybe a rabbit could get in here but not me. JJ wriggled inside and beckoned me to follow him into wonderland. I crouched low and stepped inside the chamber. I quickly stepped out of the chamber. This is officially a cramped space. “Wait a minute, is this umm, where are the windows.” I looked for the guides and they had absconded to places unknown. They were probably sitting in some back room laughing at the monitors showing a crazy middle-aged lady in a purple dress jumping indecisively in and out of the tram ride. I was a hapless citizen who had no idea I would have to ride inside an egg a certain white rabbit would be to hurried to notice. With the Arch employees giggling in another room, questions were useless. I stepped back inside. JJ looked like he wanted to laugh but he was afraid, very afraid to laugh. “I don’t know if I can do this.” I stepped out. “ It is very small. Where is the guide? Are there any windows?” Some poor quiet woman and her son were condemned to ride the tram with a funny looking bearded guy in a skirt and a nervous pigtailed lady hopping in and out of the door. She was looking quite concerned. JJ said, “What do you want to do?” The nice woman said. “I think there are windows.” She paid her 10 bucks and was not too happy about being stuck in the egg with crazy woman. I said, “I teach people how to not be anxious, I can do this.” I squatted in a minuscule seat hunched over next to the door of the tram. Thankfully, there were windows and the ride was only 4 or 5 minutes.
The view from the top was fantastic. JJ got good pictures. One of the park rangers was very helpful and talkative and told us, “If you look out the window and straight down, you can see behind you.” You can! I could almost see back in time. Yes, there she was crazy hopping woman with braids. I hoped no one else saw her. The arch fans out and provides views of the Mississippi river and the National Arches Park. This is part of the Jefferson Nations park system. Which makes sense because; it was Jefferson after all who made the Louisiana Purchase and set Louis and Clark off to investigate the newly acquired land back in 1803.
Our travels continue northward. True to his character, JJ never commented on my moment of discomfort and he only slipped and called me “Alice” once.

Travels to the west and toward the within Day 1

June 11th 2009
We left home early for a long days travel through Tennessee, Kentucky and into Illinois. This was the first day of our 3 weeklong adventure out west to see America and the Grand Canyon. That first day, we drove past many fellow travelers. They were destined for the Bonnaroo Music festival that is held in southern middle Tennessee. It happened to be an event set for this weekend. The police were having a hay day stopping young music fans and finding probable cause to search their cars. There were hapless 20 something standing by the side of the road their belongs strewn about and police rifling through tents and food sacks. The officials in Tennessee take their jobs seriously. I worried that if my longhaired and kilted bearded sweetie were to get stopped, we would also have our belongings riffled through and examined. I wonder what would have happened to all the spices and herbs we were taking camping with us for tea and cooking. I can only assume that the fourth amendment has less pull in Tennessee than say, the second amendment. As we moved on toward the west and into Nashville, the roads became crowded but flowed well. When we turned toward Paduka Kentucky I remembered my friend Karen telling me that Paduca is home to the biggest quilt contest in America. I quickly snatched up my book “the Quilted Travelers” companion and found Paducah. A large ad premiered the American Quilt Museum. JJ and I were on our way. The museum was astonishing. NO cameras allowed of course. There were several quilts that I recognized from some of my quilting books. I was in awe seeing them in person. Many had modern colorful designs that flowed and swirled using techniques that I can’t fathom. There was a lot of appliqué and much of it was traditional but most of it was unique and intricate. My natural tendency to compare left me feeling a bit inadequate. I can’t imagine producing art of that quality. I will still attempt to have my quilt hung at the William King Arts center for the festival.
After the museum, we stopped in quaint town with very little to offer. We found a small bar and had dinner while enjoying the company of a couple of ladies who were hospitable and proud to tell us about their town. Turned out that the little bar and hotel housed a mineral hot springs. I hope we find more good company like that in our travels.