We've been everywhere

We survived the Western Megatrip with no fights, no breakdowns (emotional or car-wise), no bad weather and no illnesses. We saw so much, I can't even remember it all. I will say this, cheesy or not, America is really beautiful. I really enjoyed watching the landscape change and I found that despite seeing more of this country I am still completely enamored with the Pacific Northwest. Besides seeing the country we also got to see family and friends, which was an added bonus. It was a long trip and there were times when we were so exhausted from driving we thought we'd never get to the hotel. We also ate some crappy food and some delicious food and sometimes we ate fast food. The complete photo set is on Flickr but here are a few :

Lincoln Highway in outside of Laramie,Wyoming

Salt Lake City Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah

Oregon Scenic Highway, somewhere in Oregon

Astoria, Oregon

Mt. Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota

Crazy Horse Monument outside Custer, South Dakota

Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota

Places we stopped:

• Springfield, Missouri (had lunch at some brewery-type place downtown)
• Lincoln, Nebraska (spent the night & wandered around near the university)
• Cheyenne, Wyoming (stopped for lunch)
• Salt Lake City, Utah (saw family, Temple Square, beautiful mountains, had dinner at Silver Fork Lodge & breakfast at Finn's)
• Twin Falls, Idaho (saw Snake River Canyon & Shoshone Falls)
• Boise, Idaho (had delicious lunch at Salt Tears)
• Portland, Oregon (spent the night & went to The Meadow, FlavourSpot, Grilled Cheese Grill, a comic shop on Mississippi & Close Knit)
• Seaside, Oregon (saw the end of the Lewis & Clark trail)
• Astoria, Oregon (saw the house from Goonies!, the Oregon Film Museum & Astoria Column)
• Seattle, Washington (saw our Seattle friends, including two sweet babies!! Ate at Oddfellows, Spud's & Ivar's & got cupcake from Cupcake Royale)
• Roslyn, Washington (the "Northern Exposure" town, Doug insisted)
• Missoula, Montana (spent the night & had dinner at Biga Pizza)
• Crow Agency, Montana (saw the Little Big Horn National Battlefield & Monument) 
• Spearfish, South Dakota (spent the night)
• Keystone, South Dakota (saw Mt. Rushmore & the Crazy Horse Monument)
• Deadwood, South Dakota (saw the town, which is less like the HBO series & more like Gatlinburg with gambling. Also saw the graves of Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane)
• Sioux Falls, South Dakota (stopped for lunch at Culver's where I swear I saw someone from Teen Mom)
• Mitchell, South Dakota (visited the Corn Palace)
• Sioux City, Iowa (saw lots of Missouri River flooding)
• Lawrence, Kansas (visited family, saw another cute baby, had some super-delicious ice cream at Sylas & Maddy's, shopped at Astrokitty Comics, the Yarn Barn & Au Marche)

Phew.

We did miss our cats a lot and the hotel sleeping/road food eating did get a little tiring but I am so glad we did it. You just can't see all of America (the good and the bad) from an airplane window.

The Road Trip to End All Road Trips

So here's further proof my husband and I are un-sane. We're leaving tomorrow morning and driving from our home in Memphis to Seattle and back. In ten days. In a compact car.

As one person I told put it "That sounds like a terrible trip". Yeah maybe it does, but it's going to be one hell of a trip. This is our route going:

Memphis to Lincoln, NE

Lincoln, NE to Salt Lake City, UT

Salt Lake City, UT to Portland, OR

Portland, OR to Seattle, WA

Seattle, WA to Missoula, MT

Missoula, MT to Spearfish, SD

Spearfish, SD to Lawrence, KS

Lawrence, KS to HOME

Along the way we're planning on stopping to see a few relatives and friends, visit roadside attractions like the Corn Palace, see a couple of natural wonders, eat a lot of bad diner food and fight for control of the radio. We're pretty excited.

Here's some road songs to get us in the mood:

Daytrip

Saturday we drove up to Nashville to spend the day, just to do something different.

We had lunch at Silly Goose, a little place in East Nashville. I had a couscous dish with olives, bleu cheese, red peppers, basil and balsamic. Highly recommend it.Visited the Sweet 16th Bakery and picked up a couple of things before they closed.

Went vintage clothing shopping at the Hip Zipper.Got slightly freaked out by the huge Billy Graham statue downtown, at least I think it's Billy Graham.Saw an exhibit at the Frist Center. (no pics allowed inside so this is us outside looking dorky)Had a mocha at Crema, which is supposed to be the best in the city.Found two books from one of my favorite authors at Bookman/Bookwoman.Ate biscuits and country fried steak after waiting an hour at the Loveless Cafe.Then we drove home, or rather I drove for about an hour before Doug decided I should not drive as it was raining steadily and I was making him nervous because the 18 wheelers kept passing me and splashing water all over the window shield causing me to freak out.

New car = roadtrip

Spending an ungodly amount of time at a car dealership was not how I intended to spend my Saturday but that's what happened. But by 3:00PM I was the proud new owner of a 2007 Ford Fusion. It's an iridescent gray color, the seat lifts up so I can actually see everything around me as I drive and I can hook my iPhone up in it so I'm thrilled.

Sunday we broke in the new car by driving to Little Rock to visit the Clinton Presidential Library. It's a really sleek, modern building and it was very cool to see so many pieces of information and actual 'stuff' from the Clinton Era. They also had an exhibit of gifts that other former Presidents received while in office, gifts from everyday Americans along side gifts from heads of state. I like the craftiness of these handmade items. A massive ball of yarn presented to President Reagana handmade dress presented to President Hoover for his granddaughter, the fabric pattern was inspired by the President's drawingsnewspaper boxes given to President Eisenhower, handsewn

They also had some gowns from former First Ladies on exhibit. I liked Bess Truman's gown best, it was on the end and had a sweetheart neckline and tulle.

After our library visit we went out for dinner in Little Rock. Lynsey gave us some great suggestions for dinner and we ended up at Za Za's in the Heights area of Little Rock. We ordered way too much pizza. I got a prosciutto arugula pizza and Doug got BBQ shrimp. For dessert we had some of their made-from-scratch gelato. I also insisted we drive to this European bakery Lynsey has told me about and brought me cookies from. It's called Silvek's and it's inside a Kroger but it's an independent bakery. I kind of wanted to take home one of everything, it all looked so good.

On the road again...

Here's my way late post about our road trip last weekend. We had planned on going to New Orleans and up until Thursday night while we were watching ER (don't laugh, Doug's the one who watches it) that's where we were going. Then I got a wild hare and suggested we go somewhere else we hadn't been before. So we settled on Asheville, North Carolina, an 8 hour drive from Memphis. I love car trips, I can get a ton of knitting done, at least when I'm the passenger. I drove the leg from Memphis to Nashville and let Doug drive the rest of the trip. He snapped this on the road, apparently I was concentrating really hard on my knitting. It's a long drive, but as you enter Middle and East Tennessee the landscape changes into mountains and plateaus and it's so pretty. We got into Asheville around 8PM or so. We would have been there sooner but we got lost on the way to the hotel. Apparently the difference between Woodfin Avenue and Woodfin Street is a big one.

We stayed in downtown Asheville and it was charming and busy and full of shops and art galleries and restaurants and musicians. Our hotel room was perfect with a big, fluffy bed AND chocolates on our pillows. Chocolate never fails to impresses me.

We ate here:
The Green Sage Cafe
Mellow Mushroom Pizza
Tupelo Honey Cafe
Early Girl Eatery (so good we ate there twice, see pancakes below)

The Dripolater CoffeehouseWe didn't have a bad meal, everything was tasty and everyone was so friendly. There was a used bookstore (Montford Books) that had records and happened to be next door to a fly fishing store (for Doug) so we wandered around there for awhile. I bought some John Updike and Eudora Welty for the library and a couple of records for that collection. Doug was ecstatic to find a KISS album and a promotional Deadwood record.

Of course I found a yarn a store...or two. I tried to limit myself though. I only bought four skeins total. I went to Purl's Yarn Emporium on Wall Street and it was such a nice shop, big store windows with knitted dragons(!) hanging from the ceiling. The yarns were arranged by color and I tried to snap a picture but it turned out all blurry. I got two skeins of Sublime Organic Cotton in a beige-y color for a spring hat. I also went to the Earth Guild which was a few blocks away from Purl's and they sold craft supplies as well yarn. I got two skeins of white SWTC Bamboo there for maybe a shawl or something.

Saturday we visited the North Carolina Arboretum. Even though not a lot was blooming they had a nice bonsai exhibit.

On Sunday we drove down to Chimney Rock State Park, about 45 minutes from Asheville. Again, a gorgeous drive and we had perfect weather. We climbed up to the rock via a set of stairs straight up. It only proved to me how terribly out of shape we both are. But once we got to the top it was a great view and we took the elevator down. There are some falls there too and we took a short walk over to see them. Part of the park was used to film scenes from "The Last of the Mohicans" if that tells you anything. See the top of the rock? That's where we walked to.We didn't have nearly enough time to see everything we wanted to, so we'll have to go back. I was really impressed with how beautiful the landscape was, how walkable the downtown was and how much art there was everywhere. It's teeming with creativity. Another fun car trip, although we're almost always ready to come home by the end. We miss our cats (now you can laugh).

What Santa brought

My trip to Seattle was my Christmas gift but Doug still wanted to buy me something to put under the tree. I asked for books and a new knitting tape measure. Ask and ye shall receive. He replaced my long-lost sheep measuring tape with a new one and got me some Flannery O'Connor and Kurt Vonnegut. I'm hoping they will redeem me from my recent literary indiscretions.

In my stocking I got candy, gum, a tiny bottle of Absolut vodka and some scratch off lottery tickets. I think he was going for a vice theme. There were no cigarettes though.

He was very happy with his gifts, especially the fly box I bought him on Etsy, it even has his initials on it.

We had to leave supa early yesterday morning after we exchanged gifts and grabbed coffee. My mother-in-law and her 'gentleman friend' invited us to his house in Grenada, Mississippi for lunch. It's a two hour drive and Doug drove (Merry Christmas to me) so I finished the ribbing on the hem of my Rusted Root and started on the sleeve ribbing. I also cast on the La-La-Love-You Cowl from PopKnits. I'm using Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Irwyn Green.

Grenada was, well, Grenada. This is my expression upon our exit.

To paraphrase something my mother once said "Our relatives left Mississippi for a reason." While my MIL's friend was nice, I've never seen someone so excited to show you pictures of dead deer. Or the rack of a deer he just shot - with some deer skull still attached. Shudder. We managed to leave about 3:00, so we could get home and relax a little. Doug took an extended nap and I knit and played online. We ended the evening watching Family Guy re-runs and grazing on the various candy/baked goods people have been sending us for the past several days. Good times.

The plan for this weekend is to hibernate. We hope to not leave the house unless we have to. I am forcing myself to finish up the Rusted Root, all I have left is picking up the neckline and the ribbing on the second sleeve. I will not go into 2009 without that thing being off the needles. Also I have to moan and groan about the weather again, it's 72 today. In December. I would adore to be in Minnesota or Michigan or anyplace where's it's at least 35 and frozen. One day, one day...

Mini-Fangirl Tour of DOOOM

I am particularly fond of this definition of a fangirl. I think no. 2 (no. 2 under the first definition that is) is what I apply to my own level of fangirldom.

When I was in Seattle I knew there would be no way I would fly across the country and not drive to Forks. I had to do it. My plan was to drive up on Monday, my last full day in Seattle. I assumed it would be relatively quiet there seeing as how it was a Monday in December, I was counting on the fact that most schools were still in finals mode.

After leaving Seattle I had to take a ferry from Edmonds to Kingston before I could get on the road headed to Port Angeles and Forks. The drive to up was very scenic, the Olympic National Forest surrounds the area and it really is beautiful to look at. It was misty and foggy and almost eerie in some places. There were just trees everywhere and you could see parts of mountains too. The road was very narrow and curvy in some spots and I saw several deer (which isn't too surprising to me, I see them at home a lot too). What did surprise me were the gigantic ferns and the tiny waterfalls I saw in places on the side of the road. Port Angeles was not quiet as quaint as I'd pictured it but it had a great book store - Port News & Books, where I found some fly fishing books for Doug and a few Christmas gifts for my niece. They were lots of Twilight posters and books in the front windows of shops. They have embraced the crazy.After I left Port Angeles I was on the road to Forks. The road really narrowed then, although it was mostly me on the road, save for the few log trucks. But I still had ride the brake almost the entire way.

Once I got to the 'welcome to Forks' sign I had to pull over and take the customary picture in front of it. There was a little plank you could walk up to be right in front of the sign but I skipped that and stayed closer to the ground. If Port Angeles has embraced the crazy Forks married the crazy and had its babies. There was a store on the main street called...

wait for it...

Dazzled by Twilight. Really.

I didn't visit the store but best I could tell it sold all things Twilight and I mean all things. There were signs and posters everywhere publicizing Twilight swag or Twilight themed food or whatever. I went to the Forks Chamber of Commerce to snag Forks t-shirt, a map of Twilight locations and a picture in front of 'Bella's truck' the Chamber purchased. The guy at the Chamber was super nice and gave me the entire spiel with the map and all but I wanted to stop him halfway through and just say "dude, it's okay I just want a t shirt and a picture." But I didn't, I let him give me the speech. I felt bad for him though, I wonder how many times he's given the speech in the last few months. As I was leaving a gaggle of tweens and their mom came in.

Honestly, I had almost no time to wander around because it took me so long to drive there and back and the airport shuttle was coming to pick me up at 3:55 the next morning. La Push and the beaches was the thing I really wanted to see so I left Forks after snapping a few more pictures and drove towards La Push, which is about 40 minutes from Forks.

First Beach was beautiful, everything was misty and slightly foggy and there was driftwood everywhere. I even caught a rainbow on film.I left First Beach and drove back towards Second and Third Beach. I missed the turn for Second Beach (way to pay attention) and instead of turning around I just turned off at Third Beach. This is where me being an idiot comes into focus. It's a Monday in December, rainy and cold and out here I have no cellphone reception. Besides my rental car there's one other vehicle parked in front of the trail. I'm wearing jeans, a long sleeved cotton t-shirt, sneakers and I have my camera and my non-working cell phone in hand. I briefly glance at the sign telling me the trail is 1.3 miles. I think I can totally walk 2.6 miles, no problem. So I start out walking, the trail starts out even and starts getting steeper and more narrow. Two guys pass me, they are hardcore hikers with huge backpacks and they are dressed for being in rain. I am sure as they pass me they think WTH does that girl think she's doing? Halfway down the trail I start freaking out a little. I am totally alone and I could get eaten by a cougar or there could be a serial killer hiding under a fallen log waiting to chop me up into tiny pieces. And then I thought about how ridiculous it would be to be know as the moron girl who drove to a place where a fiction book was set only to be killed in some terrible and/or most likely stupid way. I trudged on and started to hear the waves crashing on the beach and then the trail got incredibly steep and I had to almost crawl down a few places. At the end of the trail I came to a place where I could not go any further in the clothes/shoes I was wearing. There was a little rushing stream with logs across it I would have to cross in order to get to the actual beach. I tried one log and it started slipping and I realized there was no way I should even attempt this alone with no cell reception. I was still able to get some nice pictures though and as I tried not to dwell too long on how stupid it was of me to traipse all the way down this dark and winding trail alone.The walk back up was much worse than the way down. I realized exactly how out of shape I am as a wheezed and coughed my way back to my car. Can you hear me wheezing through your screen? Cause I am. I was wearing my Koigu cowl too and I got so hot I had to take it off.So I came home with a story and pictures. It was fun and I know it makes me even more of a dorky fangirl but I don't care. The trip was worth it just for the scenery, it really is "so green."

Another Nashville roadtrip

I love road trips, sometimes you just need to flee the city (whatever city it is) for a few hours. Sunday a friend of mine and I drove up to Nashville for the day. It was chilly and overcast but good driving weather. We went to the Nashville Farmer's Market, which wasn't as full of produce as it was in October, but had plenty of sweet potatoes, greens, apples and a few other things. I picked up sweet potatoes and apples for the meal on T-day.

We drove over to Hillsboro Village too, which is the area around Vanderbilt, and had lunch at Fido. It was packed but they had tasty food and pretty baked goods (still kicking myself for not ordering a piece of the Strawberry Balsamic cake!). There's a lot of little shops and restaurants on that strip, we found a great store called Pangaea that has jewelry, bags, clothes, even lamps. They also have a really pretty sign on the front of their building.

I got this awesome bracelet (literally) for $7 and some lip balm from Thistle Farms, which Melissa at Bridgman Pottery, posted about last week. I had to stop myself from buying more than that but I'm trying to save my funds for my Seattle trip.

We stopped in Bookman/Bookwoman, a tiny used book store that is packed to the gills with books. I didn't buy this book but took a picture because the cover called out to me.

Our final stop of the day was the newly open Trader Joe's. I had never been to one but had heard only good things about them. It was super busy, which was to be expected since it's only been open a couple of weeks. I bought some frozen meal type things, some Larabars that I'm slightly obsessed with and some peanut butter cups. I'm already planning a return trip with an extra large cooler, especially if the things I bought taste as good as they look.

Besides my excursion Sunday I spent Saturday morning making my terrariums, volunteering at WEVL's fall pledge drive and watching the Memphis Hustlin' Rollers' last bout of the year (they went undefeated for the season!) I bought these cheeky boy briefs there, how cute are they?

Oh and the Twilight movie was fantastic, it wasn't a word for word adaptation of the book but it was still swoon-worthy. Plus it was so much fun to go with someone who had read the books and 'knew' the story, thanks for being my partner in crime Stacey! They've already announced plans to make the second book, squee!

p.s. I usually don't go to Starbucks that often, I get my morning brew at High Point Coffee. But I happened to stop by Starbucks Saturday and tried their new Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate, OMG so good. Go try it, just don't look at how many calories it has.