#37 PENNSYLVANIA

Pennsylvania is the source for so much American history. It was founded by the peace-loving Quakers yet the first shots of the French and Indian War were fired here and the bloodiest battle of the Civil War was fought at Gettysburg. Philadelphia was the first city in America to guarantee religious freedom, establish a bank, stock exchange, hospital or zoo. Pennsylvania was the first state to abolish slavery,

Perhaps William Penn, the Quaker who established the area would recognize his vision in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. The lifestyle of has changed little since 1681. I am drawn to Amish quilts and am fascinated by the culture that manages to shun modern conveniences and thrive. They set a wonderful example.

This was my first time in Pittsburgh. It’s taken me long enough when one considers that 2008 is the city’s 250th anniversary. Well, better late than never. Pittsburgh has fallen on tough times over the years but is currently undergoing a resurgence. Big Mac’s, Bingo and the Ferris Wheel were all created in Pittsburgh. I was very impressed as I drove into the downtown area. They’ve got tunnels and bridges and tall building and thickly wooded, steep hills. The city is filled with intriguing neighborhoods each with their unique qualities. Is this really the city whose slogan was “Pittsburgh- it’s not as bad as you think!”?

I opted to overnight in Monroeville, just east of Pittsburgh and right of the turnpike. I wanted to be positioned for my pilgrimage to Fallingwater the next day. It’s home of the convention center and has little else to offer that I discovered. But it was late when I arrived so I very well could have missed something terrific. Sadly, this evening presented my very first occasion to dine at an Outback Steakhouse. I have absolutely refused to darken their door in the past and must admit with some chagrin that the Ahi Tuna Chopped Salad was quite tasty. What really clinched the deal was the location of the restaurant adjacent to my hotel. All I had to do was call ahead and take the elevator down to lobby to get my salad. Bad TV and a salad made my evening and I was very content.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater in 1935 as a country home for Pittsburg department owner Edgar Kaufman. The original budget of $40,000 was exceeded by over $110,000 when completed in 1939. But WOW! What a place! National Geographic Traveler magazine named it one of “50 Places of a Lifetime,” Smithsonian magazine includes it among the “28 places people should visit before they die” and I must concur. The US Department of Interior has announced that Fallingwater, among 10 other Wright-designed buildings in now eligible for nomination to the World Heritage List.

Fallingwater is now in the hands of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. I purchased a ticket a few weeks in advance to ensure admittance on the Sunday I would be in the area. Driving the 1 ½ hours from the Pittsburgh area into the thickly wooded Laurel highlands heightened my anticipation.

It was incredible. The cantilevered building is suspended over a waterfall. (Hence the name “falling water.”) I would include dozens of pictures which are the only way to truly explain the structure but the guide was very, very explicit about the their image policy. Visit if you can, or check out their website via the above link.

Two other Wright buildings are in the Laurel Highlands: Kentucky Knob and The Duncan House. Kentucky Knob is open for tours and The Duncan House is available for overnight lodging.

It was impossible to miss how sports crazy every one I encountered was. The Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Cleveland Browns and the anticipation was palpable. Western Pennsylvania is home to sports figures that even I recognized such as Terry Bradshaw, Mike Ditka, Dan Marino & Roberto Clemente. Forgive me if I’ve left off the favorite but there’s a HUGE list. In addition to football mania the Univ. of Pittsburgh Panthers (football), Pittsburgh Penguins (hockey) and Pirates (baseball) were touted with great affection.

If you’re so inclined you can visit the Big Mac Museum Restaurant in North Huntington Township, PA. Despite being able to rattle off “twowholebeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheeseonionspicklesonasesameseedbun” with the best McDonalds is not my cup of tea. I do confess to being curious, though.

My song choice is Billy Joel’s Allentown. It wasn’t an easy choice: I flirted with The Band’s story of a traveler to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, The Weight, but other than a mention of at the beginning of the song there’s no real sense of place. Then there’s Elton John’s Philadelphia Freedom, Bruce Springsteen’s Philadelphia and the Theme from Rocky. My best bet for a reference to the entire state was Pennsylvania 6-5000 but that isn’t about the state, it’s about the train. I do love the Brian Setzer Orchestra’s version, though. Allentown, PA was founded by German settlers. The Liberty Bell and the bells of Christchurch were secretly hidden in Zion’s Church in Allentown after the 1777 Battle of Brandywine. It’s not all bad!

After mulling over several contenders for my Pennsylvania food choice I’ve settled on the most iconic of all: the Hershey Kiss. Milton S. Hershey had a vision to produce chocolate covered caramels in 1894. Love it or hate it, everyone recognizes Hershey bars and kisses! The company town Hershey, PA was developed when the factory grew and relocated from Lancaster, PA. They’ve had a sometimes rocky labor history but are still going strong. The town of Hershey offers several attractions including a Botanical Garden, Hersheypark (10 roller coasters! That’s right 10!), Hershey Museum and the official visitor center: Hershey’s Chocolate World. I knew I made the right food choice when I talked with Grandma after my trip and she asked how the chocolate was.

I’ve mentioned before that all fifty states produce wine. Pennsylvania has over 100 wineries scattered across the state. PA ranks 4th in the nation in the amount of grapes grown (including juice grapes). They rank 8th in the production of wine. The nation’s first commercial grapevine nursery was in southeastern PA. I went by Glades Pike Winery in the Laurel Highlands but was, regrettably unable to get in for a tasting. Other area wineries are Christian W. Klay Winery and Stone Villa Wine Cellars. Anyone know anything about them?


I’ve decided to include references to hiking and biking in my posts because I feel it’s a perfect way to explore a region, and unfortunately all too many regions offer very poor and sometimes unsafe access to these pursuits. I was super excited to learn that the Great Alleghany Passage, a 335-mile bicycle and hiking trail that connects Pittsburgh to Mount Vernon, VA is completed this fall. I need to know more! Philadelphia is installing 1,400 bike racks around the city this fall to encourage bike riding and clear sidewalks of improperly locked bikes. Perhaps they’re trying to rectify their bike-unfriendly image. The Appalachian Trail runs through Pennsylvania from Maryland to the northern New Jersey state line before entering New York, passing outside of Harrisburg and Reading

And there are more facts:

Punxsutawney Phil first saw his shadow at the official ceremony at Gobbler’s Knob in 1887. Descendants are still carrying his groundhog torch.

Pennsylvania has another reluctant place in history: United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into a Somerset County field Sept. 11, 2001.

The first oil well in the United States was dug in Titusville, PA in 1859.

The Little League Baseball World Series has been held in Williamsport each year since 1946.

www.fallingwater.org
www.kentuckyknob.com
www.polymathpark.com (The Duncan House)
Allentown video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62DdoFoNeg
The Weight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-xQoNDFwlE
Brian Setzer Orchestra’s Pennsylvania 6-5000: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igqlVMNta8w
http://www.pennsylvaniawine.com

#36 NORTH CAROLINA

The Wright Brothers’ achievements forever changed travel. The world would be a much smaller place if on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina the Flyer didn’t make its first successful flight. This monumental event is so much more that just the Tar Heel State’s feat, but it happened in Kitty Hawk, NC and they rightly claim the glory. The two most popular tourist destinations of the Outer Banks are the Wright Brothers National Memorial and Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. They are terrific sites that I enjoyed on my 2002 visit but I didn’t go to either this time around. In fact I didn’t go anywhere. I checked into my hotel changed into my swimsuit and walked straight into the Atlantic. This was going to be all about kicking back and relaxing. No agenda, if only for 12 hours and I thank the Wright Brothers for their part in getting me here.

Barrier Islands like the Outer Banks rim the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. They are precariously perched bodies of sand parallel to the shore. Only about 2% of the world’s coastlines are fronted by barrier islands. Barrier islands act like living things, responding to the flux of nature by continually renewing and redefining themselves. This, of course, doesn’t lend itself to development. Early settlers built on the protected side of the islands but today the ocean-view demands top dollar despite the vicissitudes of the sea. At Nags Head, on the southern end of the Outers Banks, houses that stood third row back from the sea now have their foundations practically dipping on the surf. My hotel seemed too close for comfort. Wonder what it costs to insure or if that’s even possible. I get too practical sometimes.

Here are my random North Carolina tidbits to wow and amaze you all:

The red wolf was reintroduced to the Outer Banks in 1987 from near extinction. Today more than 100 wolves wander refuges and private land. Spotting them is unlikely unless you have local help. There are Wolf treks available through the Red Wolf Coalition, including “Howl Like a Wolf Hikes”.

Reading of the 1774 Edenton Tea Party in Tyrrell County made me chuckle: “51 ladies in solidarity with their anti tax Boston comrades, publically declared they would not conform to the pernicious custom of drinking tea.”

Wilmington, NC has Civil War sites, Southern mansions and an azalea festival and is on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2008 Top 12 Distinctive Destinations list. The US’s largest film studio outside of California, Screen Gems is in Wilmington. This fall’s The Secret Life of Bees and Nights in Rodanthe are just two of the flix filmed here.

Fayetteville is the home of the nation’s first miniature golf course.

On March 7, 1914, in Fayetteville, baseball player Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run.

More sweet potatoes are grown in NC than any other state. My apologies, but my food and beverage choices for North Carolina aren’t even items that I consume. In 1898, Pepsi-Cola was invented in New Bern. Originally called “Brad’s Drink” it constantly breaths down rival Coca- Cola corporate neck in quest of market share. And then there’s Krispy Kreme doughnuts, first made in 1937 Winston-Salem. I prefer sweet potatoes but Krispy Kreme has taken the world by storm.

Virginia Dare, born in 1587 on Roanoke Island, was the first English baby to be born in America. Sportscaster, Howard Cosell; singer Roberta Flack; actress Ava Gardner, Thelonious Monk, jazz musician, Edward R. Murrow and 11th U.S. President, James K. Polk, came along later.

The Appalachian Trail snakes through the far western arm of the state in the Smoky Mountains. North Carolina ranks as the 13th out of 50 most bike-friendly states by the League of American Bicyclists. The Outer Banks are definitely a road bike destination.

The North Carolina song is James Taylor’s Carolina in my Mind.

My North Carolina book choice comes from Book Club Classics: Kaye Gibbons’ Ellen Foster. Ellen Foster was an Oprah selection about 10 years ago and I read it then along with the masses. Re-reading it I was struck by tragedy and optimism of this little girl. Gibbons is from North Carolina and wrote this book while attending University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Here’s a summary of the first few pages from Oprah.com:
Ellen’s first eleven years are a long fight for survival. Her invalid, abused mother commits suicide, leaving Ellen to the mercies of her daddy, a drunken brute who either ignores her or makes sexual threats. Through her intelligence and grit Ellen is able to provide for herself, but her desperate attempts to create an environment of order and decorum within her nightmarish home are repeatedly foiled by her father. After his death, a judge awards Ellen’s custody to her mother’s mother, a bitter and vengeful woman who hated her son-in-law for ruining her own daughter’s life and who hates the child Ellen for her physical resemblance to him.

To quote Book Club Classics: “So, a light frothy beach read this is NOT. “

It’s a terrific, memorable read and I’m looking forward to picking up the sequel, The Life All Around Me.


http://www.nps.gov/wrbr
http://www.hatteras-nc.com/light/
Islands on the Edge by Jennifer Ackerman, National Geographic, August 1997
www.redwolves.com
www.visittyrrellcounty.com
www.visitedenton.com
http://www.bikeleague.org/news/090508bfs.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNjLUPqckWY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi
http://www.krispykreme.com/history.html
http://bookclubclassics.com/Blog/2008/06/13/kaye-gibbons-north-carolina-native/
http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahsbookclub/pastselections/obc_pb_19971027_babout/1

#35 VIRGINIA

Virginia may be known as the Mother of Presidents but it was three famous ships that won the place of honor on the Virginia Quarter. Most of us can readily come up with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria but these are the OTHER three ships. The Discovery, Susan Constant and Godspeed left London on December 20, 1606. Five months later they reached Jamestown, Virginia. For those whose version of this history comes primarily from Disney’s 1995 movie Pocahontas, the truth story of Captain John Smith and the others warrants checking out. Smith quit the colony for good in 1609 leaving only 60 of the 500 ship mates surviving. Tales of their hardships are ripe for Reality TV.

My plans to linger in Virginia Beach and Norfolk for a day and take my time with a tour of the Botanical Gardens were foiled by American Airlines. Due to a delayed flight my DFW layover morphed into an overnight and I didn’t arrive in Norfolk until the next day. Virginia has so much history at every juncture. I would like to visit 4th President, James Madison’s Montpelier and check out the recent restoration but I was going nowhere near Orange, VA on this trip. In fact, I was barely dipping my toe into The Old Dominion. My Virginia visit of 2008 consisted of flying in, renting a car, going to Doumar’s Drive-In_ to get a coffee and driving south across the state line. Doumar’s says that everyday is ice cream day but somehow I just wasn’t feeling it. I’d love to go back though! The next day I repeated in reverse order without the Doumar’s detour. Luckily I’ve been here before and know that I missing a great deal this time around. I’ll return, you can count on it.

Oh yes, there’s Appomattox, Bedford, Fairfax, Culpeper, the Mosby Heritage Area, Portsmouth…all beckoning me.

Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Virginia Beach and the nautical heritage of Norfolk and Newport News have enticed me in the past and call me back.

Next time, next time, next time…..

We have a chance to drink like a Founding Father. George Washington’s Distillery near Mount Vernon, once the largest whiskey distillery in the fledgling US, has been reconstructed on it’s original grounds. You can purchase the spirits at Mount Vernon but I haven’t been able to locate any other outlets to satisfy my curiosity. http://www.virginia.org/site/description.asp?attrID=43790

The iconic Virginia food is Smithfield Ham. This is a beloved American tradition known across both state and international borders. Smithfield Ham is considered by many to be the premier country-cured ham, the Smithfield is said to have been so loved by Queen Victoria, that she had six sent to her household every week. Although these special hams were once produced from hogs raised on a privileged diet of acorns, hickory nuts and peanuts, today's Smithfield hams come from grain-fed hogs.

To be accorded the appellation of "Smithfield," the hams must be cured and processed in the area of Smithfield, Virginia. They are first dry salt cured, spiced, and slowly smoked to perfection using oak, hickory and apple wood and then aged for 6 to 12 months, sometimes up to 2 years. The result is a lean, dark-colored ham with a flavor that's rich, salty and dry. It may be served raw like prosciutto, but it's usually baked or boiled. Before being cooked, Smithfields must be soaked for 12 to 24 hours to remove excess saltiness.

RoadsideAmerica.com lists World's Oldest Edible Cured Ham in Smithfield, VA as a quirky stop.

“The cured ham is also the oldest edible cured ham in the world. It looks gross with green mold on the outside, which we were assured could be scraped off if one wanted to eat the ham. Of course, these type of cured hams have to be soaked in water for at least 24 hours and then slow cooked for hours prior to eating.
This is a neat little museum, they have revolutionary war and civil war items as well as the items from the Smithfield hams industry. The main street of town where the museum is located is worth spending a day exploring. A bronze statue of Ben Franklin sits on a bench outside the local newspaper The Smithfield Times. The Smithfield Bakery has the best muffins, cookies, and sandwiches on homemade bread.
The museum has pictures of the ham biscuit from 2002 at 8 feet in width, 14 inches tall...500 pounds of Smithfield Ham. The Smithfield Ham Biscuit, which was made during last year's 250th Anniversary Celebration, was accepted by Guinness World Records as the World's Largest Ham Biscuit.”

Hey – just thought I throw it out there. RoadsideAmerica.com is great fun to browse, moldy ham aside.

Here are more Virginia facts:

Kentucky and West Virginia are both made up of land that was once part of Virginia.

VA has produced eight US Presidents including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. Other famous Virginians are tennis Player, Arthur Ashe; jazz singers, Pearl Bailey and Ella Fitzgerald; Confederate General, Robert E. Lee; actress, Shirley MacLaine; and educator Booker T. Washington.

More than 2,200 of the 4,000 battles of the Civil War took place in VA

North America’s first permanent English colony was founded at Jamestown, VA in 1607.

The first elected African-American governor was Virginia’s L. Douglas Wilder in 1989.

The American Civil War Center is considering whether to add a bronze statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond. A spokesman for the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said their offer of the life-sized casting is intended to mark the bicentennial of Davis’ birth, not as a response to a statue of Abraham Lincoln dedicated at the site in 2003.

Virginia farmers produced the first peanuts ever grown in the country.

The largest office building in the world is the Pentagon in Arlington, VA

The Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront hotel has the city’s first rooftop bar and infinity pool. (OK that’s not really trivia for everyone but I was going to stay there and check it out but…well you know my sad story.)

My musical choice is Virginia Moon by the Foo Fighters. Check it out on YouTube.

Willa Cather is from Virginia but I needed to break away from her. I ventured out from fiction and chose to read The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Is there any more famous Virginian? The book gave me insight into this great man’s psyche. I constantly see references to Jefferson. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post from (Mental Floss ) – “Negative campaigning in America was sired by two lifelong friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Back in 1776, the dynamic duo combined powers to help claim America's independence, and they had nothing but love and respect for one another. But by 1800, party politics had so distanced the pair that, for the first and last time in U.S. history, a president found himself running against his vice president.
Things got ugly fast. Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."
In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."
As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward. Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind."

Politics sure haven’t evolved much in 200 years.


On a lighter note: President Jefferson hated so much going to formal affairs that he would often greet foreign dignitaries while wearing pajamas.

Time for my pajamas…


http://www.virginia.org/site/description.asp?attrID=43790
http://www.montpelier.org/
http://www.doumars.com/
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/22/mf.campaign.slurs.slogans/index.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114148/

Deliciousness! New Peruvian Dining in San Francisco

The following is an email I received two weeks ago. I can't wait to try Limon Rotisseire too! Now we also have La Mar opening opening this weekend. The La Mar in Lima was a true highlight of my Nov. 2006 visit there. What an abundance of terrific Peruvian dining options!

"I send this to you because you love good food, or want to try Peruvian food, or both.

I had a delicious meal tonight! I read in yesterday's Food Section that Limon opened a new place called Limon Rotisserie, a new and separate place from their digs on Valencia. They will be open one week tomorrow. This is not the new place to see or be seen. This is the place for mouth watering deliciousness. Specifically, this is the place for pollo a la brasa, or as we say roe-tis-sir-reeee chicken. Pollo a la brasa is a common dish in Peru. I don't usually order chicken in restaurants, but this isn't chicken breast with a white cream sauce, let me tell you.

You can order a whole, half or quarter chicken. We ordered a whole chicken, which comes with two sides. The chicken was moist and flavorful and literally, finger lickin' good. For side dishes, we ordered yucca frita and tacu tacu. Tacu tacu is a rice and bean fritter -- sort of because it's not deep fried, but like a patty, it's soft and flavorful ... oh, just try it! I also ordered Ensalada Rusa (Russian Salad) which has a creamy sauce smothered over potatoes, beets, avocado and corn (moto) and well, it's tasty.

Everything was really very good. Alfredo said that this was the best Peruvian food he's had in Northern California. (He had to qualify it because his friend owns Mario's in SoCal.) The comparison is important because we just went to Estampas Peruanas in Redwood City last night with his Tia Diane who was in town from LA.

The couple next to us ordered ceviche and green salad and fried calamari but not the chicken or the other typical Peruvian fare and they were equally impressed with their meal. The menu is limited, but it's a place for focused deliciousness.

I topped off my delicious meal with a chirimoya flan and macaroons. All this for a whopping $35, oh and three beers between us. 21st and South Van Ness. Go. Soon.

In case you didn't know: Chirimoya is the heart-shaped, edible fruit with a white flesh and green skin. It is most commonly related to a custard apple for Americans. They are grown in the United States and available during a winter harvest making them available starting in January."

Thanks for the recommendation Clare!

Peaches at Green Bluff

Last weekend my mother & I were in Spokane, WA visiting my grandmother. One of the items on Grandma's agenda was to drive up to Green Bluff to buy a case of peaches for here to put up for the winter. I was happy to oblige because I always enjoy Green Bluff.

Green Bluff Growers is an association of small family farms and food stands located about 15 minutes north of Spokane, nestled at the foothills of Mt. Spokane. It was formed in 1902 to protect local strawberry growers from outside competition and now focuses on agricultural tourism, The bluff is divided into two loops of farms, the East and the West, and offers a wide variety of fruits and vegetables either picked or you can pick them yourselves. There's even an alpaca farm, which intrigued my alpaca raising mother. There are many special events throughout the year such as the Cherry Pickers' Trot and Pit Spit in June. (what???)

Fall weekends are prime time. We had lunch and listened to live music and bought our peaches. My 95 year old grandmother had no trouble climbing in and out of the picnic table and whispered to me that she would dance on the table but it would probably upset my mom. We stayed off of table tops (always interesting, isn't it?) and continued on in search of apples at a few more farms but discovered we were about two weeks too early.

We couldn't pass up a frozen take and bake huckleberry-peach pie at our final stop, Walter's. The pie would be for tomorrow but when Grandma insisted on huckleberry ice cream cone we couldn't let here eat alone. The ice cream was fabulous and the pie out of this world! If I could finagle it I would fill my suitcase with frozen pies for home. It was all so good we had to return for lunch two days later and bought a huckleberry pie for Grandma's freezer.

Green Bluff is the type of place I love to visit. It's a destination for locals and well worth searching out as a tourist. You get a real sense of what the area is all about now and historically.

http://www.greenbluffgrowers.com/

Happy to Fly

http://happytofly.com/

I was amazed to see an ad for a product called Happy to Fly.

Here’s the copy: “Let’s face it. Travel today is a real hassle. Whether you are just fearful of the idea of flying – or stressed to the max because of delayed and canceled flights, lost luggage, and standing in long security lines with your shoes in a plastic tray.

Travel may not get better. But you can feel better about it. The drug-free formula in Happy to Fly gel-caps helps calm your nerves and reduce anxiety. Natural ingredients. Non-habit forming. It puts a little joy back into the joys of travel!”

Visits to three drugstores did not find the product, but I suspect it’s out there. If it makes you feel better about the whole air travel experience than go right ahead and spend your money, I'm more of a glass of wine, take a deep breath type of person, myself. What ever works, right? You’ve got to commend someone for coming up with the whole concept to make a buck.

Altered States

The only letter of the alphabet that does not appear in any of the U.S. territory or state’s name is “Q”.

Those great minds at Mental Floss offer this Quiz. It's not as easy as you might think!http://www.mentalfloss.com/quiz/quiz.php?q=359

#33 COLORADO

Last week the eyes of the world were on the Kennedy, Clinton & Obama show in Denver, CO. I was grateful that I was safely out of there the week prior to the Democratic Convention & Circus. I can’t help hoping that the very nice women who greeted us at the Antonito visitor center had a fabulous time. She was exactly the visitor center personae that I enjoy: knowledgeable, helpful, proud of her state and willing to let me make my own travel decisions, even if she didn’t agree. She mentioned that she was excited to be traveling to Denver for the Convention, even though she was certain it would be a zoo. Sometimes the zoo is a very nice place to visit.


Driving down I 25 with the Rockies soaring above you to the west and the plains sweeping out to the east one gets a feeling for how vast our country is. We were miles and miles from everything.

The Santa Fe Trail swings through southeast Colorado making a significant bend at Trinidad. My exposure to this old west town was brief before we headed over the Raton Pass into New Mexico. Mission at the Bell was our lunch stop. Trinidad is a historic small town with brick streets that looked more like a movie set than real life. The restaurant was in the cool of the basement but the enchilada sauce was spicy enough to raise anyone’s temp. It’s odd that I preferred La Mesa in Council Bluffs, IA to here. You would expect southeastern Colorado Mexican food to surpass that found in the middle of the country but that will teach me to make assumptions. Aside from our waiter who reminded us of a highland cow with his forelock sweeping down over half of his face it appeared to be a conservative, working class town. I was quite surprised to learn that Trinidad is known as the “Sex Change Capital of the World” due to a pioneering doctor, Dr. Stanley Biber. Ah, wrong with those pesky assumptions again.

Our trip north took us a bit to the west into the San Luis Valley. Our first stop was at the visitor center in Antonito. The town was founded by the railroad in 1880 and is know for the the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Narrow Gauge Railroad. Antonito also holds the title of “Perlite Capitol of the World” Perlite is used in making insulation , horticultural producers, plaster and plaster board, and used to filter medicine and liquor.

Several movies were filmed along the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad Line:
1968 The Good Guts and the Bad Guys
1970 Shootout
1972 El Savaje
1974 The Fortune
1975 Bite the Bullet and Missouri Breaks
1978 Butch and the Sundance Years
1980 Legend of the Lone Ranger
1981 Ballad of Gregorio Cotrtez
1988 Where the Hell;s that Gold?
1989 Indiana Jones and Last Crusade, Indy’s Childhood Home is at 5th and front street, Antonito
1991 Brotherhood of the Gun


Our next meal in the state was also Mexican but this time we got it right. Mrs. Rivera’s Kitchen in Alamosa is a large family run establishment. The Friday special is menudo and John couldn’t resist. I opted for the tacos a la parilla con pico de gallo. It was all really good and a good value. Judging from the large lunch crowd it’s popular with the locals.

North of Alamosa the white glow of the Great Sand Dunes National Park tucked into the western slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains was intriguing. It would have been a fun detour despite the persistent drizzle that leaned towards sleet but I couldn’t pass up visiting the world’s highest suspension bridge and the day was slipping away. This bridge is in an entirely different league than the Kootenai Suspension Bridge I traipsed across in Montana. The Royal Gorge Bridge is strung 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River. It was built in six months in 1929 for $350,000. Its main span is 880 feet, total length is 1,260 feet and width 18 feet. You can drive across, as we did, but most park and walk across (we did that too). The bridge is a park and entry require a hefty admission but it was worth it. They also have the world’s longest single-span aerial tram which crosses the span at 1,178 feet above the Arkansas River. They won’t operate the tram in gusty high winds but we lucked out and were able to ride, even though I couldn’t see a thing out the rain spattered windows. They have, wouldn’t you know, the world’s steepest incline railway, which brought us 1,550 feet down to the river on a 100% grade, in a 45-degree incline. The place is an engineer’s dream! To keep everyone happy there’s a Wildlife park featuring beautiful elk, bison and big-horn sheep. I highly recommend a visit!



























Our evening ended in Colorado Springs in heavy downpour. We awoke to reports of snow. Snow in August? In a less than aestival manner, a cold front came through that brought a chilling rain with hail and thunderstorms across Colorado. Snow fell at higher elevations, really now, isn’t the entire area a higher elevation? I regret I took no pictures but boy was the Weather Channel hyped up (they get so very excited about this stuff!) Snow was clearly visible from our California bound flight.

There were no snowflakes for the Democratic National Convention held the next week, I was so glad to be one my way out of town as everyone was coming in.

A few more interesting Colorado facts to chew on:

• More than 1/3 of the land in Colorado is owned by the US government.
• The longest street in America is Colfax Ave, in Denver.
• If you climb thirteen steps up the state capitol building in Denver, you’ll be exactly one mile above sea level.
• Nuclear explosions have taken place in five U.S. States: New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Alaska, and Mississippi.
• After experiencing the breathtaking view from Pikes Peak, Katherine Lee Bates wrote the song “America the Beautiful”

My song pick is, of course, John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High. Is there really any other contender? Check out the 1974 video on You Tube.

I bypassed James Michener’s Centennial (also from 1974 – spooky!) read Kent Haruf’s Plainsong.

Melanie Jones of the Columbia Spectator wrote:
“Kent Haruf’s book Plainsong is true to its namesake, a “simple and unadorned melody or air” that is tender in its portrayal of three families in Holt, Colo. Tom Guthrie, a local history teacher, must shield his young sons when his wife becomes clinically depressed. Victoria, a pregnant teenager, is evicted by her mother, and the McPheron brothers begin to reconsider their lifelong bachelorhood on their cattle farm. Tying them all together is Maggie Jones, a warm yet pragmatic teacher who is determined to make their lives intersect. Haruf molds his characters without judgment or hyperbole. Victoria, when asked why she had sex with a boy she barely knew, explains, “Once he said I had beautiful eyes.” When Maggie agrees that they are pretty, she replies, “But nobody ever told me.” Haruf manages to blend such achingly honest scenes with an environment both stark and nuanced, painting fall and winter in the Great Plains of Colorado as a land where “corral dust rose in the cold air ... like brown clouds of gnats” and the star-crowded sky looks “hard and pure.” Here, patches of snow sit among blue mounds of sandhill and dead sunflowers drop their loaded heads onto the black-top roads. In this atmosphere we find a land at once modernized and rural, brisk and dusty, where ice clings to the edge of sand-colored mountains.”

I loved Plainsong and I’ve got the Centennial 6-disc set in my Netflix queue to keep the Colorado spirit going.

I’ve been asked to include the URL’s from links in my posts. It’s something I always appreciate when I print an article so I’ll happily oblige:
http://local.yahoo.com/info-19737980-mrs-rivera-s-kitchen-alamosa
http://www.americansouthwest.net/colorado/great_sand_dunes/national_monument.html
http://www.royalgorgebridge.com/
http://50statesin08.blogspot.com/2008/08/27-montana.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwARpaKHx_w
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/30808
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_(novel)