Independence day

To celebrate independence this year, we decided to take a trip. What? you say? Didn’t you just get BACK from a trip?

Well, yes.

But this trip was to celebrate K’s independence and her externship at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC.  We’d never been there before, and it gave us an excuse to take the whole family (even the poor Cabana Boy, who missed the whole Wild West adventure) away for a weekend.

After several weeks looking at mountains, one would think we’d seen it all. But no.  The Great Smoky Mountains are very different from  everything we saw out West.

Forested peaks

Fading into fog

Deciduous trees are liberally mixed with pines and other vegetation, including the landscape-devouring kudzu.

As we crossed through the tip of Tennessee and continued on into the mountains of North Carolina, we started to see once again the smoky layers of blue-gray peaks in the distance. Beautiful.

We arrived about dark on Friday night, just in time to head downtown to the weekly drum circle held in  Pritchard Park:

Anyone with a drum can join in; I left my set of bongos with K so she can become part of the music any time she’d like.

We were astounded that there was so much life downtown even at 11 p.m. We stopped at Kilwin’s for incredible late night ice cream, and then walked around the Grove Arcade, just window shopping and enjoying music on all sides.

Saturday morning we headed out to the  Biltmore Estate. Even more incredible in person than from the pictures I’d seen, the castle itself is huge. K told us much about it, and we walked through the gardens, the large conservatory, saw the petting farm and ate in K’s current restaurant assignment, The Stable:

Inside the Stable

We met her chef, who had nice things to say about her, and we got a look at the loft space where K and her fellow pastry chefs make their magic.

The vistas on all sides held those smoky blue mountain tops. The estate stretches as far as can be seen.  I loved the pergolaed garden walks:

taking a well-deserved rest

The flowers and plants were beautiful:

fantastic…

As the day heated up, so did we and we took an air-conditioned break at the mall before our dinner at Havana in the Grove Arcade, the best Cuban food we’ve had since El Rancho Luna in  Little Havana, Miami. Three thumbs up for ceviche, ropa vieja, empanadas and much more.

Sadly we said good night to K after a wonderful day. She’s got early work tomorrow and we have a long drive. But it was great to explore a whole new area of the country and see how she’s doing in her new grown-up life.

Back to life, back to reality…

It may be a catchy phrase in the musical world, but it’s kinda sad in real life. It has taken several days to find the top of my desk and get re-organized, back to the life of helping people get what they need.

But the final legs of the trip had their moments as well.

We made reservations for an Econolodge  in Wall, South Dakota, intending to see the world-famous drug store (a serious misnomer if I ever heard one) the next day. After enjoying the evening ranger program at Mount Rushmore, with its deeply patriotic overtones, we drove the hour and a half to Wall, watching an amazing red lightning storm off to the east ahead of us.  Little Miss and her brother spent the hour picking out constellations from the star-filled sky of the wide-open spaces.

When we arrived, the office was closed.

Closed. Black. Dark.

Taken aback by this development, we paced around a bit, trying to find someone in charge, until B spotted some envelopes stuck into the key deposit box. Yes. Our keys, left in the open for anyone to take. This put us off considerably, but it was midnight and everyone was tired, so we checked out the rooms, in an underground basement area completely blocked off from the rest of the motel–more like a bomb shelter than a comfortable place to sleep.

At least no one had broken in.

So we crashed, and found that the wireless internet we’d been promised didn’t work in the basement. Sorry, no one to call to ask for help. That disappointment was nothing compared to the discovery that the “continental breakfast” consisted of watered down apple juice and a shelf of powdered sugar donettes. I don’t know what continent that was from, but I really hope we never travel there.

The kids and I ate cereal that we’d brought and took the rest of the morning to visit the pool (the only part of the visit that worked) while B & C headed out for a quick tour of the Badlands. Then we went downtown to the unbelievable Wall Drug.

Without question, the favorite part of the block-wide store was the Backyard, a very kid-friendly place where they had a water fountain courtyard. Ditto Boy got thoroughly soaked:

Taking to water like a carp

Took both kids awhile to get the hang of the jumping water, which flowed in time to the rhythm of the music playing in the background. But it worked.

We were all mesmerized by the smell of fresh-cooked doughnuts, but the lines for food were outrageously long.  Thank heaven for that college degree B worked so hard for!  She finally badgered some poor woman into confessing that there was a doughnut shop in the next room and we didn’t have to wait in line! So we grabbed a box of heaven and went on our way.

Giddyap!

As the mad rush west produced its hurry-hurry mode through the corn states, we did the same returning. Though it was more amusing as B began the game of “I Spy Corn!” of which we were thoroughly enamored for at least five minutes.

We left Sioux City, an interestingly-laid out place, with the intention of making it to Chicago to see my Health Maven sister, but we just got started too late. Instead we just hauled ourselves cross country, heading home–except for one last bit of frivolity.

Seems we’d burned out a headlight somewhere during the trip East. The blinker, too, mutinied somewhere after Iowa. The kind highway patrol in Ohio pulled us over to point this out, and took pity upon our chaotic state, apparently, as we had a Canadian driving, a Pennsylvania owning the car, and a Nevadan with two children camped in the back  in the detritus of a 14-day trip. We got a warning, telling us we “had been observed commiting a criminal offense.”  Kinky.

But then several hours later, 3 a.m, an hour or so from home, B spots a car that suddenly turns around to follow us, its headlights flashing.  We’re a little puzzled, but we figure it’s probably the Pennsylvania State Police. It was. He let us know the headlight was out and checked the warning from Ohio, and we wondered why he hadn’t used his red and blue lights.

They weren’t working.

So he didn’t give us a ticket and we didn’t give him a ticket and all was well.  We were dead to the world for about a day before my young companions went their separate ways, hopefully knowing the extent of my gratitude for their help and the joy of their company. I am blessed.

Why o Why Wyoming?

After the stunning day at Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, we continued the magic, as we pressed east into Wyoming’s Bighorn National Forest. The land was every bit as diverse as the website says:

Then we also saw this interesting pyramid-looking rock called Copman’s Tomb:

No wonder the guy wanted to be buried there–it stands out for miles!

Lost in the center of the forest is a little interpretive place for Shell Falls.  This is a beautiful area where erosion has carved away the top layers of rock, and we found that many of the rocks we saw were 300 million years old–and older! Deep in the middle is a waterfall that seemed to bring the temperature down several degrees as we stood high above the rushing water.

Shell Falls

The children had fun running all along the fenced overlooks after so long in the car:

That's them...WAYYYY over there.

And the big ones, not so much running:

Look! It's not corn!

Wyoming was not what I expected at all:  some forest, some desert, some mountains, some grassy river areas, Devil’s Tower, Old Faithful….all beautiful.

We finished up this day by swinging into South Dakota to visit the presidents at Mount Rushmore. I was so proud to hear Little Miss and Ditto Boy rattle off the names of the presidents carved in the granite. Did I hear someone say it was an educational trip? Perish the thought!