Cameron, MO

Our trek to start the Legacy Run began today with a long drive to Cameron, MO. Since Neil planned the route we just followed along without paying too much attention to where we were ending up. It came as quite a surprise to me when I discovered that Cameron is next to Hamilton, the home of Missouri Star Quilt Co. I can't believe I was so close to the quilt shops but was not going to get to stop in.

We all were glad to have that first long day completed without any incidents.

We hung out at the hotel in the evening enjoying some nice cold beer and each other's company.

Marco Island

Here are a few photos from our trip that I haven't talked about.

Sunday on Marco Island

Yesterday we sat at the pool under a grass roofed hut because it was raining. After attempting to wait out the rain we determined that it was not going to stop for a while. So we headed into town and did some shopping. I picked up a souvenir beach towel to take home.

Once the rain stopped, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Quinn’s. It’s a restaurant on the beach attached to a swanky Marriott hotel here on Marco Island.

The view is gorgeous and during dinner we watched this large family have their portraits done. It was quite a gathering.

While enjoying an after dinner cocktail we sat on the beach taking some fun photos.

A dolphin swam by. It was a magnificent sight. I sure wish I could get a photo of them but they moved so quickly it was impossible. When we headed back to our condo we saw one of the cave owls that make these really cool nests on the ground. They are protected so the nests are cordoned off. For a tiny owl it sure had a loud screech. We tried to get a shot of it in the dark but it was as elusive as the dolphin.

We finished the evening with facial masks in our bathing caps then called it a night.

Snook Inn

There's a saying, "I got Snookered at the Snook Inn!" It's on a t-shirt and some of the ladies wanted to get one. We just went there for lunch.

On the menu it stated that you could have the chef cook the fish that you caught. That was something I never heard of before. I chose the red snapper, it was caught out of the waters right by the restaurant.

After we ate we headed to the gift shop to get the t-shirts and then stepped into the bar area. I discovered they had Yuengling on tap. It's one of my very favorite beers. We can't get it in Wisconsin so it's always a treat when I land someplace that serves it.

Before we knew it, we were ordering drinks and chatting with two men from England who were on holiday for two weeks. We were in their company for the bulk of the afternoon enjoying the conversation. It was a good afternoon.

Our First Day on Marco Island

Our plane landed in Florida only for me to find out that my luggage was accidentally routed to Detroit. It would be a while before the airline ended up delivering the luggage to me but they did it.

We immediately got settled and planned a trip to the grocery store. We purchased way too many groceries. But it's vacation so it doesn't matter. We did have fun at the liquor store.

Once we were back at the condo, we walked the beach out in front. It was an incredible view. As the sun was setting Carol shot a few photos.

I took the opportunity to take a few of my own. Stephanie's sister, Jennifer gave each of us these cute tumblers commemorating our trip. What a nice surprise!

I thought I would use my tumbler as a prop to mark the start of my photo journey throughout this trip.

This morning it rained which is pretty common here. Everything is so lush and green from the rain.This morning we woke up to this rainbow.

I had some fun with the coffee mug Stephanie gave us. Aren't they cute? 

I couldn't resist making it look like the rainbow was going into the cup.

Effigy Mounds National Monument

We decided to take an overnight trip to the west side of the state. The plan was to drive west until we were tired of driving although the hope was to get as far as Red Wing, Minnesota. We were taking the back roads all the way there so this was not going to be a quick drive across the state. We wanted scenery.

We stopped for lunch in Sauk City at a place called the Press Box. I thought it was a sports-themed bar however the only thing that really seemed sports related was the outside of the bar where there were busts of sports figures in uniforms that appeared as if they were in a press box at a baseball game. The inside of the place was just a bar. We sat at the bar and ordered beers and sandwiches. My husband ordered a jerk chicken sandwich and I had a smoked turkey sandwich. They were well prepared with fresh ingredients and the prices were downright cheap.

A few hours later we stopped at a quilt shop in Prairie du Chien called the Picket Fence. Inside there was a candy counter as well as lots of gorgeous fabrics. I spent lots of time walking the aisles, which was fine with my husband since it felt good to be standing up instead of riding. I purchased a variety of pretty fabrics while we were there and I wished I could have bought more, but I needed to have some budget constraint in place.

As we left the quilt shop we continued west. Just riding along the Mississippi River was plenty of scenery for me however we did run across a gorgeous National Monument in Harpers Ferry, Iowa. Effigy Mounds National Park is a gorgeous park with beautiful Indian burial grounds that are set on the shore of the Mississippi River. The mounds are the sacred burial grounds and have various animal shapes. They were built by the Indians about 1,400 years ago and it was a wonderful place to stop and reflect on our heritage.

In order to see the mounds, you must hike 2 and a half miles through some hilly paths. Unfortunately since this stop was not planned, we didn't pack any good shoes for hiking. So we walked the paths into the woods for a few blocks in order to see the first set of mounds. It was a quite a beautiful sight. We walked a little further realizing that going back down would be a little treacheros in flip-flops so we stopped. With the right footwear we could have continued on but since the temps were over 90 degrees, we chose to skip hiking any more. Between the heat and the flip-slops it was just not to be. Besides that, we had a plan to get as far as Red Wing and it was getting late in the day.

As we headed northwest, the sun was starting to set and the rain clouds were starting to appear up above. We decided to look for a hotel room in La Crosse. We got off the beaten path and headed to one of the main streets in La Crosse. The street was lined with hotels on both sides and as we passed a Quality Inn we decided that was the one we wanted. So we turned around, pulled into their portico and walked to the desk. They had a room available and we checked in, relaxed for a little while and chose a place for dinner.

We decided to try the HuHot Mongolian barbecue because the idea of stir-fried veggies sounded good and the many billboards we saw along the way was incentive enough. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't the greatest restaurant ever but we were satisfied with our choice and enjoyed eating a variety of vegetables instead of something heavier or boring like a salad.

After dinner we took a swim in the hotel pool then planned our return trip for the next day. We decided to skip going all the way to Red Wing, it was just a whim in the first place so it wasn't like any important destination.

We got home safely and rather quickly as we took the I90-94 route back in order to get some things done around the house. The lesson of this trip was a little like the saying from Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Ikea Day Trip

Jeff has tons of vacation time to use up in the next two months. That happens when 5 months of the year is spent on disability from two rotator cuff surgeries. With this week being a short week, he thought he would take a few extra days of vacation. It's a shorter work week because GE employees get Veterans' Day as a paid holiday and since it falls on a Wednesday, he thought using vacation time on Monday and Tuesday made sense.

So we woke up on Tuesday morning debating whether we were going to see a $5 movie since the Marcus Theaters offer all movies for five bucks every Tuesday. And if so, what movie would we choose? Or what other options do we have for something to do? We love spontaneous day trips and he mentioned Ikea. Without even batting an eye, I said, "let's go!"

We took our time getting ready to go and planned out our day. I grabbed the Ikea catalog but I already had an idea of what I wanted to look at. So off we went. We love Ikea. It's not top quality when it comes to some of the furniture but it sure is a fun place to get ideas and look at the items available for organization and home decorating.

One of the best parts of the trip is our late lunch at Big Bowl. It is one of my very favorite restaurants. I absolutely love the Kung Pao Chicken. It is hot and spicy with its yummy tien-tsin peppers that rate a 60,000 on the Scoville unit scale. Nice. And. Hot. We always always go to Big Bowl after Ikea. I so look forward to it. This trip, I tried an apple sangria which was their special and it paired very well with my Kung Pao. It was slightly sweet and refreshing enough to counteract the peppers. It was a lovely way to spend this day...sure was better than the five-dollar movie.

Trip to Cincinnati

I received an invitation to a baby shower a few weeks ago.  It was for my cousin's son, Adam and his wife, Chris. They are an adorable couple who will make great parents.  The shower was themed as Burgers, Beer and Baby talk and it was for couples, not just women which made it even cooler.  So I instantly told my husband that I was going.  I told him he was also invited and it would be nice if he would come along, but I didn't expect him to if he really didn't want to.  His response was, "so you're telling me you're going, not asking if we should go?" I said yes, that's it exactly. So he was in.  He goes pretty much everywhere I go so I wasn't surprised. 

I do think he thought I was crazy for wanting to drive 5-plus hours to go to a party and then the next day drive over 5 hours back. But it was important to me.  I knew my aunt and uncle would be there and I want every chance to spend time with them.  We're all getting older, and I worry sometimes about my own mortality, as well as theirs. So I got us a cheap hotel close by and off we went. 

We left very early in the morning and as we drove and calculated our ETA, we realized we forgot to include the time change to Eastern. So we were going to be an hour late. Too bad we took our time when we stopped for breakfast but we thought we had plenty of time built in.  Oh well.

We got there and things were just starting to get rolling.  It was great to see my Aunt Florence, Uncle Ray, cousin Michelle and Chris and her beautiful daughter, Marissa and my cousin Terry and her husband Bob.  They have great kids, their oldest daughter Erika has four adorable children of her own and a really nice husband.  Their son, Adam is so polite and friendly and his new wife is the same. They also have a son, Greg who is really cool to talk to.  The shower went well and after it ended we stayed until the wee hours of the night.  We got back to our hotel after 1 am.  It was a great time and Jeff admitted that even though he balked about all that driving, he was very glad he decided to come along. 

We got up on Sunday and were invited back for breakfast, which again turned into a marathon event where we finally left at 1 pm.  We knew this meant we were not going to get home until after 8 since we were making a few stops along the way.  Our first stop was to the Disney Store at the outlet mall.  I got my granddaughters each a princess dress and a princess doll.  The discount prices were wonderful.  If it weren't for me being unemployed I would have bought much, much more. After we left the outlet mall we headed over to a crazy store called Jungle Jim's.  It was an international grocery store with an amazing selection of everything you never knew existed. We stopped and sampled some olives at the olive bar in the Greek section and stopped at the cheese bar and sampled some cheeses in the deli.  What a store.  We were getting tired so after picking up some cheeses we headed over to the section that we came for....beer!  There was a beer sampling bar.  For a quarter a sample, we tried many beers however, we came for the Yuengling so that's what we got.  We bought a case of the traditional lager and a case of the light lager.  On our way to the checkouts I saw the Grippo's potato chips. Like the Yuengling, we can't get those here in Wisconsin so we got a box of those as well.  One of my coworkers from the south ships them up to our office during the holidays as a treat.  They are so very good. So we paid for our items and started the trek home.


At Catch 22

I drove to Cincinnati and Jeff drove back.  We weren't sure he could drive since he just had hand surgery but he was ok with it.  We stopped within 2 hours of home for some dinner at a cool sports bar & grill called Catch 22 in Merrillville, Indiana.  The food was good and it was good to sit back and relax from the stress (and boredom) of a long drive.  Especially since we had to sit in slow-moving traffic due to an accident in a construction zone.  At least it only slowed us down for 20 minutes, the traffic going in the opposite direction was stopped dead because all the lanes heading south were closed while they cleaned up the crash site-we were just down to one lane.  The food was good and the rest at the bar was definitely a good break for the rest of the ride home. When we got into Chicago it started to rain which made the worst section of the drive that much worse.  We pulled into our driveway at 9:30, so glad to be home. 

The Yuengling will have to wait until morning to be carried into the house.

New York to Ohio to Home

After a busy day being tourists yesterday, we probably weren't going to make many stops today.  We did stop at the Buffalo Harley-Davidson store though.  I loved how they actually had a buffalo in the store.  It was a life-sized statue covered with signatures from people who all stopped in during the Harley 100th Anniversary celebration.  Maybe some of them were on their way to Milwaukee. 

I could think of a few places to see in this town like the Buffalo Bills' stadium, however we were getting tired and were ready to head home.  The only other stop we made was in Sandusky, Ohio where we met the most amazing people.  I learned that Sandusky is the home of the world's best amusement park.  The views of Lake Erie were gorgeous.  It was the kind of town I could stay in for a day or two just to hang out. 

 

Our last day of travel was hot but enjoyable until we hit the Chicago traffic/construction.  It gets a little stressful getting through there even though we expected it.  We were very happy to have an iPass to make the tools easier to deal with.  We pulled into our own driveway before 2 pm, unpacked and laid around the rest of the day.  It felt good to be off the bike and home safe and sound. 

 

 

These are two of my favorite photos of us from the trip.

Vermont and New York



As we headed back towards Milwaukee, we knew there were many places we wanted to stop along the way.  The first on the list was Quechee Gorge in Vermont.  The views here are incredible and with all the pine trees, the smells were heavenly.  It was like being surrounded by Christmas trees. After we gazed and wandered the area we prepped for some serious riding towards New York State.  

Quechee Gorge

The ride through New York took us to Cooperstown, the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  I think Jeff was in heaven.  All the plaques of his favorite players, the larger-than-life displays, the baseball art, even the old lockers and memorabilia from each team in the league were all on display.  There was so much to see we spent the whole afternoon there. 



National Baseball Hall of Fame

I was surprised by the location itself.  The building is tucked away in a little strip of shops and restaurants.  It was not a building that stood out at all.  And Cooperstown itself embraced the baseball theme with a amusement park and baseball complex for Little Leaguers and the like to play in tournaments.  This was a city geared for kids and their love of all things baseball.  It was a great place to hang out on a beautiful day. 

The trip would not be complete without a photo of Jeff in his umpire pose.  It was so fun to be here!

National Baseball Hall of Fame Courtyard

New Hampshire and Maine

Laconia

Today is touristy day for us. We are ignoring the rally and heading out to see it sights.  It is very hilly and so lush and green here. The air is so fresh. We took a ride through the hills and headed towards the east coast.
There are lots of little organic farms in the area.  I love how old some of the buildings are. It's amazing that some have been standing for centuries. Some you can tell have been updated but some look like they stood the test of time. Unfortunately, we didn't stop to get any photos of them.  If I did that, we wouldn't have gotten very far, there are too many cool old buildings everywhere you look, it's a nice reminder that we are near the colony states that started it all. 

We passed Lake Winnipesaukee which is the lake where Mitt Romney and his family spend their time in their fancy boat.  That's about all I know about that.

Lake Winnipesaukee

As we rode towards the coast I was amazed at all the quaint little towns.  Some were picture perfect.  Of course the down side of that is that they are also tourist attractions so we rode straight through.  It was a day of solitude away from the crowds so we just took it all in from a distance.


Old Orchard

We stopped at Old Orchard Beach, a small town in Maine right on the Atlantic Ocean.  The people were friendly and the town looked just like you see in movies, big porches on houses with clapboard siding all along the shore. The sign on the post was a reminder of all the bad things we do to ourselves and our world. 
After we walked the beach we rode over to Joseph's by the Sea, a wonderful restaurant in Old Orchard Beach right on the water.  The views were incredible.  Unfortunately it was too windy and as the sun was setting, getting too chilly to sit outside for dinner.  The ocean breeze is a little too strong to enjoy.

As we headed back to Laconia I realized that I just rode all these miles on a motorcycle and stepped in the Atlantic Ocean, a far cry from Milwaukee. What an incredible journey!



Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

New Hampshire - Day 2

We had breakfast at the hotel and took our time getting out the door.  We rode to Weirs Beach/Lobster Pound to attend the bike rally.  We parked our bike among the hundreds of other bikes there for the rally.  Since it was still before noon, it wasn't terribly busy.  There were vendor booths lined up along the lake as well as along the road.  We took our time walking from vendor to vendor looking at all the familiar things that were for sale.  After attending a few bike rallies, it seems that the items for sale are all pretty much the same, the only thing that changes is their names. 

We like to collect patches from events like this. One can only own so many t-shirts and the patches are easier to deal with so we bought some Laconia Bike Rally 2012 patches from the first vendor we saw that had them. Usually I will find a piece of costume jewelry to buy but I wasn't much for shopping today so I skipped it, or maybe nothing appealed to me, or maybe a combination of the two. We took our time working through the crowd along the water, then along the main road.  We saved the Harley area for last since Jen would be there.

One of the people who was at the Harley tent was a man who works with fibers. His company created a fiber coating that wicked away water and didn't leave behind the stinky smell that most fabrics like this did (like Under Armour, for example).  He was interesting to talk to.

One of the most fun things to do at the rally was under the Harley tent. They had an area set up where you could take a part off of a motorcycle and if you did it in less than two minutes you got a $15 Harley gift card.  Jen said she did it in a lot less than two minutes and it was a really easy way to get $15. So we watched two people give it a shot. One guy did it in less that two and a woman went over the two minutes so she was disqualified.  Jeff went next and easily took the part off with time to spare.  Both Jen and Jeff were trying to convince me to do it.  I was apprehensive - I didn't want to be embarrassed by getting beat by the clock.  After much debate I determined that we weren't leaving this area until I did it.  So surprisingly, I took the saddle bag off (just three bolts to remove!) in just over 1 minute.  It was pretty entertaining and easy money. 

After that, Jen took her lunch break and we all went over to the Lobster Pound where Jeff got the lobster roll.  It was a little better than average rally food, but nothing we would recommend which was no real surprise.  Like I said, rally food.

New Hampshire - Day 1

The hotel room Jen has is a 2-bedroom suite.  It is basically an apartment with plenty of room for all three of us although none of us plan on spending much time there.  With Jen working all day every day, we are on our own until after 6pm. It's in Gilford, not far from Laconia, yet far enough that the traffic shouldn't be too horrible.

We decided that we would not go to any of the rally events until tomorrow assuming that local people who were attending would be at work so it could possibly be less busy.  So we will explore the area like a tourist should. On our way out of town, we stopped at the Laconia Harley dealer and bought Jeff a souvenir t-shirt. Not surprisingly, the place was packed so we had to park in the overflow lot across the street from the dealer.  Busy or not, we are glad to have that checked off of our to-do list.

Laconia, NH Area

Gilford, Meredith, Franklin, Alton are all towns around Laconia. Then there's Lake Winnipesaukee, Lake Winnisquam, Paugus Bay and Opechee Bay.  The city is surrounded by water and is full of rolling hills as a result of the White Mountains.  It is pretty here and all the little towns are quaint and the buildings are aged but well kept.  It reminds me of our visits to Door County, Galena and Cedarburg.  In order to make the most of this trip, as always, a stop at a quilt shop was on the agenda.  Amazingly, Keepsake Quilting which is considered a quilter's mecca is located in Center Harbor, just 20 miles away.  KQ is a world renown catalog with a retail store as well.  This is where I like to spend my tourism money. Lucky for me, Jen has a suitcase that is only half-full and I can fill up the other half with my souvenirs so I bought a fat quarter sampler with 80 different fabrics! (as well as a few other things). Which is something I could never do if I had to take it back on the bike.

Keepsake Quilting Center Harbor, NH

After shopping we asked the sales clerks if they could recommend a place to get lunch.  They suggested we head to Canoe.  It was about a block and a half away so we chose to walk.  With close to 1,200 miles under our belts this trip, a walk would do us some good. The place was perfect.  We ordered a selection of white wines and enjoyed a fantastic variety of seafood dishes.  Jeff had a seafood chowder and I had a fish sandwich then we shared a dish of vanilla ice cream made by a local shop that used local, organic milk.  It was all delicious.  We enjoyed the walk back to the bike to work off some of the great lunch. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon riding to Portsmouth, NH.  It is a costal town where we assumed we could step into the Atlantic Ocean. We rode Highway 1 into town and took a turn on Market Street.  It was definitely a tourist spot loaded with restaurants and shops. As it turned out, the town is really located on the Piscataqua River which opens into the Atlantic Ocean.  From this vantage point, we could see the Naval Shipyard across the river and the Atlantic Ocean behind it, but we weren't going to get close enough to walk in the water.  

Naval Shipyard

We took a walk through the area. There was so much history here. We stumbled upon a building that was constructed in 1716. 

Before heading back towards Laconia, we thought we would stop and have a cocktail somewhere.  We walked into a brewpub appropriately named Portsmouth Brewery.  It was there that we talked with a local man who had a lot to say about the area.  We learned all about the Smuttynose Ale we were drinking as well as the city.  We got back on the bike to be back at the hotel just in time to meet up with Jen and her Harley co-workers for a really nice dinner at the Lyons Den in Golford. 

By the end of the evening, I felt like I had accomplished an entire vacation full of experiences. I left Jeff outside of the hotel where a bunch of Harley employees were enjoying old fashioneds.  He and Jen joined in and hung out quite late after I went to bed.