Pig Out Palace

Oklahoma is better known for other things (the parking meter was invented in Oklahoma), but you can get some decent pork barbeque there, particularly at the Pig Out Palace.

Somewhere along I-40, in darkest Oklahoma, this piece of Americana

The buffet

In the gift store

Everything's up to date at Pig Out Palace...

East of the Pecos

On Day 2 we crossed the Arizona Divide (c. 7500 feet), hit snow east of Albuquerque, continued on into Texas, crossed the Pecos and drove  into Canadian River country, through Armadillo, stopping finally in Shamrock, Texas, where we split a great ribeye at Big Vern's Texas Steak House. ("No blood," the cowboy at a table nearby ordered). I had wanted to pair it with a 2004 Pinot de Pecos, but it was a dry county. Seriously. 

A favorite panhandle landmark, east of 
Armadillo, before Pampa, the Leaning Tower

of Texas

The beautiful old Conoco station at Shamrock, Texas

Gas is still only 34 cents a gallon, but they

ran out a long time ago...

Road Trip! Or, "Continue Onto I-40, Passing Through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma..."

Earlier in the month, Rebecca bought a new Honda Fit, and Rachel decided to buy Rebecca's 2001 Mazda truck; and Vicki and Mark volunteered to drive the truck from Menlo Park to DC (we really do like road trips), taking the opportunity to visit friends and family along the way. We left early Monday morning, drove south to aromatic Gilroy, crossed the beautiful green mountains to the central valley (always makes me hungry), then crossed the Mojave (always makes me thirsty), and on into Arizona, stopping at Flagstaff, still in winter with snow all around. I-40 straddles Route 66, visible in lots of places along the way.

Rebecca and her new Fit

About to depart Menlo Park

California, Part 1

At Cirque du Soleil in San Jose

Inside, just before they made the no pix announcement;

a great show nonetheless

Me at Avatar (Dances with Blue Indians

with Tails and USB Sockets); it seemed like

such a long movie, and it was, too

The Chair in Rebecca's classroom at Castilleja

In her classroom

Dean Sherouse's office

United Airlines transported us from Orlando to San Francisco, where Jeremy picked us up at the airport. We spent 4 fun-filled days with Rebecca and Jeremy, lots of entertainment and lots of good food, ranging from In and Out Burger (love the protein double-burger) to Jeremy's crustacean feast Sunday night. Incredible lobster and Alaskan crab. Also an Indian restaurant in Santa Clara, The Mynt, actually a sub-continent fusion bistro that was superb. The entertainment included Cirque du Soleil in San Jose, episodes of Planet Earth on the big screen (loved the cockroaches on the cave mountain of guano), and Avatar (didn't love).

Old South Barbeque

Between St. Cloud and Weston we traveled route 27. It was

a bit of nostaliga--although much improved nowadays--we

drove it a lot in our years in Tallahassee, in the late 60s.

One of the things now missing is the Old South BarBQ in

Clewiston. It closed in 1998 or so. But I did find this one

remaining sign just south of Clewiston. The road used to be

littered with them and their Barbasol-type adages. Sic transit

gloria mundi.

At the Weston Morris

Monday Carole and Vicki and I spent the day driving down Amnesia Lane, visiting old sites (what few there are; what few we recognize or remember, etc.) in Dade County, more generally appreciating Miami's colossal growth and change over the past half century; and the consequent Dade Diaspora, of which we are, I guess, a part. Yes, we did have wonderful Cuban coffee and pastelitas.

We started with a place we'd never been before,

way down by Kendall, Scully's, a restaurant/bar

we'd seen on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives"; it was

excellent

After Miracle Mile and Coral Way, the

customary cemetery and house visits, we

drove via Brickell Avenue to downtown

Miami, Bayfront Park, etc; you used to be able

to see Biscayne Bay from Biscayne Boulevard...



Piece of the downtown skyline

And then across the Bay to South Beach

Lots of Art Deco, nouveau Art Deco, pseudo

Art Deco, etc.

And back over the dune, South Beach beach; Collins Ave.

was nearly grid-locked, as usual

Dinner was at Shorty's, capping a week of culinary excess. It was wonderful, Carole and Jim, and not least the bottle of Bombay waiting for me....  Thanks. We'll be remembering the culinary excess for weeks, or months, to come. (Where's my pedometer?!)

Water Matters

At the "Water Matters" show at Tree Tops Park, Broward

County; sort of an enviro thing

Sister Carole at the South Florida Water Management

District booth

"Making pets out of worms since 1995"; it's a Florida thing;

I guess

Good tourist that I am, after visiting all the

"Water Matters" exhibits, I hit the park's

visitor center and

Nature trail; I think the bird is an egret or a crane, or

possibly a rare albino flamingo

The park is of special interest in that a) its "ridge" was a set of small islands 100,000 years ago, in the sea off the (then) Florida coast, and b) it was one of the major redoubts of Sam Jones, aka Abiaka, Indian leader in the 2nd and 3rd Seminole Wars, who bested no less that Zachary Taylor (look him up), among others, and guaranteed the permanent Seminole presence in Florida; I just hope the Hard Rock Cafe/Hotel/Casinos give him due credit.

Personal Best at the JO

So Saturday we're at the Junior Olympics

meet in Broward; niece Lexi swims for

her school's swim club

On your mark, get set (Lexi in the yellow cap)

Gone

En route to a personal best

At the finish

A few pointers from Coach

Disney Princess Half-Marathon; or, Do They Do a 1/512th Marathon?

 

At Rodent World, of course

I got there quite early, though not as early as the runners,

who had to be on their busses by 4 AM; still, I felt like I

should have been assigned to the Sleepy parking lot, or

even Goofy...

From the Mouse Monorail, near the end of the marathon

The Princess is famous for its costumery;

more than 10,000 runners; a smaller

marathon, Carole said (she's done eight

now), but a good one

My kid sister, #5290, hardly winded after

a personal best...

Washington, DC

I have visited this town 30-40 times in my life, but still get

goose-bumps seeing the great national sights...

Ditto

Telling it like it is; at the Newseum with

Rachel

The Unabomber's cabin, at the Newseum,

a little Montana home touch

Rachel and Will check out the oysters at the seafood

market; Will shucked, expertly, while Rachel and I

fixed the traditional shellfish bouillebaise; perfect hosts,

they even had a bottle of Bombay waiting for me in the

freezer; Peter is the largest house-cat I have ever seen,

but gentle and very friendly

The Capitol Dome; it's been--what?--days since we have

seen an apotheosis, and so the apotheosis of George

Washington was a particularly welcome sight; seriously,

I have seen my share of museums, galleries, and visitor

centers in the past 18 months, but the new US Capitol

Visitor Center was particularly impressive; damn, I was proud...

At the Hotel Marie Normandy, Saint Cloud

Marie and Norm have again hosted us, from our arrival February 14 to the present. Fortunately, the Hotel Marie Normandy is very large, and they are good company. I hope we are. In any case, they get five stars.

We have spent these three weeks relaxing, getting used to more temperate weather (not nearly temperate enough, yet!), managing photo-files, getting a recalcitrant HD to work (thanks, Rachel), re-organizing, doing tons of paper-work, and...traveling. The first week, we drove to Winter Haven to see high school ('65) friends Harry and Norma Kingsbery and Bob and Judy Deeter, as well as octogenarian moms Marieda Kingsbery and Flo Deeter. A great, great, great treat. Later that week, Vicki and Marie flew to Knoxville to see Stacey and the boys, James and Jason. (Norm and I ate very well that weekend). The next week, I flew to DC, to see Rachel and Will (and Peter) as well as a number of friends at the Federation of State Humanities Councils and NEH--it was "Humanities on the Hill" week and close enough to work for me. But great fun, and friends for whom I have the greatest regard and affection. Saturday we met with fellow travelers Rick and Kathy Howe (http://www.travelin-tortuga.com/), who were just about to depart for Europe for an extended motorhoming tour there. Sunday I drove to Rodent World to see sister Carole compete in the Princess Half-Marathon. I am so impressed; she is so fit. Sunday we did "Arabian Nights" in Kissimmee, a uniquely singular one-of-a-kind once in a lifetime experience right here in Central Florida. So we have been busy.

Tomorrow, Thursday, we drive to Weston for several days' visit with Carole and Jim and Lexi. Then, after a brief stop-over back in Saint Cloud, we're off to CA to see Rebecca and Jeremy in Menlo Park. And, after that...a road trip! From Menlo Park to Capitol Hill. Details to follow.

Norma and Harry, Vicki and me, Judy and Bob; 120 years'

of marital experience, I mean, bliss, here, folks (Vicki and I

 both have gotten haircuts since this shot was taken)

We did watch a bit of the Olympics

Vicki and Marie in the hotel lobby (free wifi), Vicki

posting on eBay, Marie, checking out the latest in space

launches and recoveries; later we went outside to hear

the double sonic boom of the Shuttle's re-entry, which I

found pretty thrilling, actually

Kathy and Rick Howe, two of the gurus of

world motorhome travel

At "Arabian Nights," a renowned (see TripAdvisor*)

dinner/theater presentation in Kissimmee; we were

concerned that one of the horses might grab and eat

one of the trainers; so far from this, however, the three

dozen horses and humans in the cast performed for

more than 30 minutes without leaving a single fecal

deposit on the sawdust floor...I was so impressed;

and the bus-load of Muslim tourists never showed up

*"Worst dining experience of my life" "Worst entertainment experience of my life" "Worst experience of my life"

Intermission

We are back in the States for a while, visiting/mooching off relatives in Florida, then California, then Idaho, with visits to Missoula and friends there. Briefly we'll be in Florida until mid-March, in California until early April, in Idaho from early April until early June, then departing from California back to Europe in mid-June. I'll be doing updates and refinements to this blog from time to time, but for the immediate future, it's intermission time, folks!

Oh, and among the updates and refinements, I am tinkering with the Google Ads thing. Feedback on it, positive or negative, will be appreciated.

Passage From Marseilles

So a few nights ago, to get into the mood, we watched Passage to Marseilles, one of the most colossally-awful movies ever made. It has almost the same cast as Casablanca (except Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid), was made maybe the next year, by a legendary producer and director and composer ...but Bogie is just not all that convincing as a French intellectual/journalist, the story is told through five or six embedded flash-backs, and the rest of the main cast, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, et al., appear embarrassed by the war-propaganda script; which well they should have been. I mention this, anyhow, just to give reference to the title of this blog entry.

We found a campground near Marseille and spent a day or two packing, researching storage possibilities, transportation, etc. The weather had turned awful, but by this time we had already drained the tanks and winterized the camper. Our last couple days were busy but chilly. At length, we got everything arranged and everything done, even found a home (the Guardian) for our houseplants, Rosie and Venus, and, Saturday morning, boarded a plane to Frankfurt, connecting to a flight to Dulles, then to Orlando. We arrived in Mickey Land very early Sunday morning, courtesy of Lufthansa and United (smooth flying, no problems, even got upgraded for the Orlando leg), exhausted, but happy to be back in the US of A for a while. Norm and Marie met us at the airport. I'll detail our immediate plans in the next entry, then probably go to Intermission.

Passage to Marseille, 1944

Passage from Marseille; the Marseille airport, main Halle,

Saturday morning, February 13