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Texas Hill Country

April 18 -20, 2014

The Texas Hill Country, near Johnson City
On the road again April 18, 2014

Pedernales Falls State Park, near Blanco, TX
The drought persists with water levels way below normal.

Marlin, Texas

April 14 -17, 2014

The Battle house

My Uncle Berry is a native son of Texas.  This is the Battle house in downtown Marlin where his mother, Pauline, grew up. My cousin Polly is named after her. About 2 miles out of town is the land his mother left him. It's on farm road 712 which is seen below with Texas bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush. We were here exactly 10 years ago to the week. The same unforgettable sight of Texas wildflowers greeted us then on our way to Houston to attend our friend Wendy's wedding.

Farm Route 712 

Who is this gentleman?

My uncle's land was deeded to the family by Stephen Austin, who led the first settlers to what would become the state of Texas. Although my uncle married a Yankee, he made sure all his children and grandchildren got to know their Texan family -- the great Aunts and 95 cousins.

Here you see we have traded one home for another for these past four days while the black Chevy goes in for a somewhat longer than expected overhaul.

So what's a dog supposed to do with time to kill? 10 years ago, the cows spent a lot more time near the house, something to do with the "cow biscuits" that were available to give them.  Now we hardly see them except funnily once a day around the same time just as the sun begins to get low in the sky. There are 60 animals -- black, russett, white, and dappled gray. 

So we are indeed very grateful to our uncle and our cousins and their wonderful caretakers who gave us shelter from the storm (see below). Marlin is timeless. You walk in and it feels like the family was just here yesterday, if only it were so.  I love the cookbooks, a testament to my aunt who diligently learned to cook southern. The refrigerator is stocked with Coke and Big Red, a drink that tastes like a ready-made Shirley Temple.  So sweet, so smooth, est. 1937.

Driving to Waco on Monday morning to see why the Check Engine light was on!

El Camino Real

April 13, 2014

Driving west on U.S. Route 7 from Natchidoches, it's a straight shot to Marlin, Texas. This is the ultimate back road through rolling farmland interspersed with national forests and logging outposts. 70 mph speed limit!

We almost didn't go to Marlin, but with a possible frost in the forecast, we were glad we did.  More on Marlin, my Uncle Berry, and Texas in our next post.

In which we sample some local delicacies

April 11 - 13, 2014

From Alabama, we travelled on I-20 to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Arriving at dinnertime and always eager to check out the local specialty, I hotfooted it over to Solly's Hot Tamales.  I was pleased to discover that my instincts were right on. The local tamale maker had been a participant at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in 1997. We cooked up some red beans and rice to go with.  

https://www.southernfoodways.org/interview/sollys-hot-tamales/

The next morning we got off to an early start in order to visit the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge near Tallulah in Louisiana, where the last confirmed sighting of the Ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in 1944. The quiet was deafening.

From there it was all back roads to Natchidoches (pronounced NACK-uh-dish), a pretty little town on the Red River with the largest collection of historic buildings outside New Orleans. Taking the advice of my favorite gourmands, Jane and Michael Stern of www.roadfood.com, we tried a traditional meat pie and a crawfish pie for comparison at Lasyone's, a Creole treat. 

Here, Creole refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers of Louisiana, especially those of French, Spanish, and African descent.  Natchidoches got its start as a French trading outpost with the native Caddo Indians and the Spanish in Mexico. It is the oldest permanent settlement within the Louisiana Purchase.

Oakland Plantation, Cane River National Historic Park

Later Creole planters made their money growing cotton along the Cane River, a side channel of the Red River. The National Park Service maintains two of those early plantations for visitors.  Nowadays, this is a rural area where cars are few and far between.  We pulled up to the local convenience store right after a guy riding a horse.

On the road again

April 6 - 10, 2014
On Sunday, we left Trails End heading west on U.S. 49 to Charlotte, NC where we caught I-85 south to Greenville, SC and on towards Clemson, SC, home of Clemson University.  Clemson, along with Georgia Tech in Atlanta and ITT (the Institute of Textile Technology) in Charlottesville, were the big southern schools for textile studies.

With heavy rain forecasted, we holed up in a lakeside cabin on Lake Hartwell near Townville, SC.  Not wanting to venture out at ALL on Monday, I finished sewing half of a quilt top with my old Singer featherweight machine.

On Tuesday, the sun broke through and I visited the Cooper Library at Clemson where I was able to catch up on some journal articles and market research in the apparel and textile field.

Wednesday morning, we made tracks again in a southwestly direction towards Dallas.  We passed right through downtown Atlanta where I-85 south connects with I-20 west.

Crossing into Alabama, we changed over to the Central time zone and by late afternoon, we found ourselves in Tuscaloosa, home of Pete Wesselhoeft, a long-time Barnstable summer resident.  Pete died in 2011, but his obituary makes good reading. He had an entrepreneurial spirit, to say the least, and was a great friend of my Aunt Frances.  

Taking a break from the road, we decided to stay two nights at Deerlick Creek Park, an impressive campground built by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Many of the sites are built on stilts cantilevered out of over a steep hillside that goes down to a muddy, not too impressive, man-made lake.

Postscript: Lunch at the Pottery Road Cafe & Grille

Saturday, April 5, 2014

I forgot to mention that we stopped for lunch at the Pottery Road Cafe & Grille on Hwy. 220 on the way to Seagrove from Trails End Family Campground.  There we partook of pulled pork sandwiches served with red cole slaw and a vinegary barbecue sauce that so perfectly brought out the flavor of the pork that I will cherish the memory for as long as I live.

Seagrove, North Carolina

April 5, 2014

Seagrove is the home of Jugtown, where my good friend Nancy Sweezy, lived and worked in the 1970's before moving back to Massachusetts.  She and I met and together founded Refugee Arts Group in 1985 or so. Jugtown is one of the best-loved and highly regarded potteries in the area, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Due to the prominence of it and other traditional potteries where the craft of making functional earthenware has been handed down from generation to generation, art students and others moved to the area, establishing their own potteries.  Now home to over 100 working potteries, the Seagrove area (with neighboring towns) can and does lay claim to being the "handmade pottery capital of the United States."

 The gift shop at Jugtown:  this large salt-glaze
 pot  was formed by Vernon Owens.

Lions and tigers and bears (and elephants)

April 4 -6, 2014

Trails End Campground about an hour south of Winston-Salem was our home for 3 nights.  With the forecast calling for daytime temperatures in the seventies and nightime temps in the fifties, we decided to finally give Ivan his first night in the camper.

And with this brochure description, how could anyone resist?

"Trails End Campground is right across the road from the NC zoo; campers awake each morning to the sounds of elephants trumpeting, lions roaring, animals grunting and growling;  all sorts of wild noises that cannot be heard at any other North Carolina campsite."

With great anticipation, I listened the next morning and almost convinced myself that I heard them. An elephant's trumpet is easily confused with the honking of Canada geese it seems.

The wild animal's paws you see here are Ivan's, proof that the dirt really is red down here.  Next stop: Seagrove, North Carolina, where you can find redware pottery made from local red clay, along with the traditional salt-glazed stoneware prized by collectors.

The Old and New South: Winston-Salem, North Carolina

April 3, 2014

For us northerners, the South is an unknowable place of old and new ideas. We think we know it if we stick to stereotypes.  This mini-van conveys pretty neatly some of those.






Winston-Salem is the home of R.J. Reynolds.  We visited the Village of Reynolda and toured the R.J. Reynolds home built in 1917. This is a fabulous museum with original furnishings.  We learned that the mauve, orange, and green decor in the reception hall was all the rage at the time, inspired by the Diaghilev ballet the Firebird. The Philadelphia designer hired by Mrs. Reynolds to decorate the house also gave her the latest Wiener Werkstatte inspired breakfast porch.  Of all the breakfast porches I have known, this is my absolute favorite!

Winston-Salem (and North Carolina in general)  has a vibrant arts and cultural scene.  We loved the area around Trade and 6th Streets -- the Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery, the Fiber Company, and Sweet Potatoes Restaurant were 3 stops we made.  True to its name, almost everything on the menu features North Carolina sweet potatoes.  Their motto is "Not Soul Food, but food that's good for the soul."





Finally, we took a walk with Ivan through Old Salem, now a living history museum, first settled in 1766 by members of the Moravian church, a Protestant denomination that expanded southward from Pennsylvania.  You can see the influence of the Moravian architecture today in many modern developments.

Gertie's Country Store, Vesuvius, Virginia

April 2, 2014

Ask anyone who the most famous person in
Vesuvius VA is and they'll tell you, Gertie McPherson. I read about Gertie's Country Store in an old issue of the Blue Ridge Times that someone left in our cabin at Montebello Fishing and Camping Resort.  Luckily, Gertie's was right on our way back to I-81. Round noon-time, the small one-room store with two tables was filled with regulars.  Waiting for our pulled pork sandwiches, I passed the time with a friendly mother and daughter waiting for theirs. They pointed out the ceiling and walls covered with the names and well wishes left by the hoards of long-distance cyclists and others who have passed this way before.  Those switchbacks on Route 56 I mentioned earlier.  Cyclists love 'em.

The sandwiches didn't disappoint.  The portion size was decent on a soft bun with a sweet and not too tangy barbecue sauce.  Yum!

On the Road Again

April 1, 2014

After taking the first garden tour of the season at Monticello and then visiting the remarkable first floor interior, we were on the road again heading southwest along the Blue Ridge Parkway,

The Parkway itself is a lovely winding road with some beautiful views, but getting on and off the parkway involves some pretty hair-raising switch-backs.

With temperatures still in the thirties at night, we opted to stay in Mountain View Cabin at Montebello Fishing and Camping Resort, located on Crabtree Falls Hwy.  It had the perfect frisbee lawn for Ivan.  He was indeed a happy camper.

Michael hiked halfway up Crabree Falls and took this selfie, but having read that four people died this year hiking up to the top, he decided he'd gone far enough.

The University of Virginia Time Warp

Monday, March 31st

The Pavilions interspersed with student rooms 

on the Lawn at UVA

On her way to the showers in back of her dorm

At UVA, the 21st century warps with the 19th century in very interesting ways.  Between 1814 and 1821, Thomas Jefferson planned the buildings where faculty and students were to live and study as an "academical village" to encourage interaction.  






Today, undergrads still live on the Lawn and faculty still live in the large two story Pavilions.  Being chosen to live on the Lawn is one of the University's highest honors, despite the fact that showers are in separate buildings located down a garden pathway in back. 

Charlottesville, VA

The place that some think gave the Hogwaller its name: the Charlottesville Livestock Market.
Photo courtesy of the now defunct local Charlottesville weekly, the Hook.

Sunday, March 30th -  Tuesday, April 1st

Tucked between urban downtown and the base of Monticello Mountain, Hogwaller is situated on the lower side of Belmont, a gentrifying neighborhood of Charlottesville with a rural feel.  We stayed for two nights at the home of David Slezak, retired latin teacher, former boy scout leader, and now farmer.  We met David through airbnb.com, a great alternative source of lodging to generic highway motels, because you get to stay in REAL neighborhoods. His place is on Franklin St. at the very bottom of Belmont, right across from the swamp that IS the Hogwaller.  We thoroughly enjoyed our stay despite my having a cold.  We visited the University of Virginia, the downtown mall, and Monticello.

A wonderful visit with Tom and Andrea at the Farm in Sperryville, Virginia

We arrived at Tom and Andrea's on a Friday afternoon (March 28th) after a four-hour drive from Lancaster via I-81.  A fast track to heaven!  The farm looks like a setting for the Sound of Music, not coincidentally one of Andrea's favorite movies.  Ivan fell in with Mogli and Scout, racing over the hills. The rain held off until we left too soon on Saturday afternoon.

We then visited Montpelier, the home of James Madison, who wrote the Constitution and is one of this country's four founding fathers.  Stop #1 in Michael's prep course for citizenship.  Next stop Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson in nearby Charlottesville, Virginia.

Lancaster PA

Left Jackie and Eben's Thursday in order to give us 2 days before our next stay with friends so we could amble on the scenic route.  A stay in a slightly shabby Motel 6 (but no charge for dogs!) Pottstown PA overnight. Then the scenic though rainy trip through the PA countryside passing several horse drawn buggies with a nice stop in Lancaster to experience the market (fabulous) with many delicious looking local items and friendly faces. Visited the Charles Demuth Museum which sadly had none of his original works due to their very delicate condition. Did see some fantastic artwork though from older school kids which were entries for a National competition. Ivan bored to death but soon to be a very happy camper at our friends Tom and Andrea.
 

ON THE ROAD!!!!

Eban and Jackie's (and Olivia's and Scooter's place) in Westport Connecticut.

We made it, we beat the blizzard and left the Cape around 4pm Tuesday. After a day of frantic packing, stuffing the camper and cleaning up we were on the road. On asking Sarah to check the trailer lights after we had stopped 2 miles down the road we discovered that they were not working other than one turn signal.......panic!.....so.....after a frantic run to my friend at Cape Cod Cap who installed the tow hitch we realized the problem was only a blown bulb which his friend next door had a spare for.
Phew, on the road for true.

So, after another day or two in Conn., relaxing and musing over our incredible freedom we will be on to Sperryville Virginia for  another adventure. Stay tuned!  

Still here!!!

Cornel Wild 'King of the quick getaway'. He made several films in the 50's and 60's in which he both directed and starred. They had very similar plots were he was on the run from society, holed up in a cabin in the woods with some questionable young lady, possibly a hostage. He would keep a jacket (affectionately known as the Cornel Wilde running jacket) hanging on a rusty nail by the back door and in the pockets would be the tools of a quick getaway. Car keys, cigarettes, matches, arthritis medication, a few crumpled dollar bills. And when he would first get wind of the authorities pulling up at the front door he would make a hasty exit out of the back, grabbing the running jacket, moll in tow and would be in the car and off down the dirt road before the cops could shout "c'mon out, the place is surrounded."

Three weeks later and are still holed up at the very generous sister-in-laws tying up all the loose ends. Sarah is working hard completing all the paperwork and packing up a lifetime of memories while also working on the route while I spray lubricant on the camper jacks and cram everything into storage bins.

There is a blizzard planned for Wednesday so we are trying to get out Tuesday. The first destination being the cousins Eban and Jackie in Westport Conn.

Will we make it out before the authorities arrive, will we be trapped in the blizzard with nothing to eat but cigarettes and arthritis tablets........don't miss the next thrilling episode of........

                                                        THE 'TRAVELS WITH IVAN'

March 16 2014

Soon to be on the road after 8 years in interesting Cape Cod and before that 8 years in even more interesting Manhattan. We plan, towing our little home, a pop-up camper named Charlotte. And in the back seat the star of the show Ivan the Schnoodle on an adventure of a lifetime.

We will be taking a southern route aiming for Austin Texas as our first major stop. Ending (unless we find it impossible to leave Austin) in sunny California where Sarah has plans to resume her career in Textiles.

Weather permitting (which has been atrocious) we should be leaving within the next few days, stopping at our cousin’s place in Westport Connecticut.

Please follow us as we wend our way across this great and vast continent!

More to come soon…….