Late February and still in Kansas

The days are flying by and it's hard to believe that most of February is already gone.  We're still hanging out in Kansas.  Heinz has been working like a dog in the cold, snow, rain, melting snow, warm weather, cloudy weather, and crazy weather - heck, one would think he was a mailman in a previous life!  It's been anywhere from a high of 15 to a high of 60 during the past few months.  But the maintenance he planned on the rig is about done.  We had quite a bit of rust in the basement that Heinz decided to tackle on his own.  Luckily he has an uncle in Lawrence KS who has an auto repair shop who offered up his tools, side yard, and advice.   We moved in back in late November and Heinz went to work rebuilding the bays behind and just in front of the back wheels.  He got pretty good at using metal saws, sandblasting, grinding, and welding along the way.

Before repairs.

Before repairs.

Battery bay after reconstruction.

In addition he and various relatives (thanks Craig, Carl, and Grady) changed out the ball joints and brakes on the rig.

Ball joint replacement.

Next up was powder-coating the bases of the outside mirrors and we were done in Lawrence.  Heinz’s estimate of a one-month job was a little off, closer to two, but what the heck, the labor was cheap.  While he was busy crawling around in the dirt, I tried to help where I could and stay out of the way where I couldn't.  In that endeavor I took advantage of some of the holiday events in Lawrence. 

First up was the annual Christmas horse parade.  Suzi and I took in the 20^th anniversary of this parade where costumed horses and wagons came from as far as South Dakota to participate.  There were 113 official participants this year, with a total of over 600 horses and 1,000 riders.  This is a parade made up of only horseback riders, horse drawn wagons, horse drawn carts, horse drawn stagecoaches, horse drawn buggies, etc.  You get the idea - horses drawing things everywhere.  It was really pretty cool to watch.  There were some absolutely beautiful animals on display.  If you're interested in checking out more photos, go to: s1004.beta.photobucket.com/user/thuester/library/   Then click on "show albums and stories" on the left side, then Lawrence KS 2012.  

This is my best side, dahling!

All dressed up.

Working boots.

Head high Lester, there's cameras shooting.

Man, is my stylist is GOOD - or what?!

Next up was the Holiday Farmer's Market.  Suzi and I met up with Aunt Annelee and her future daughter-in-law, Jessica to explore all the goodies on display.  We bought some odds and ends and picked up lots of ideas for home projects for holiday decorating.  I also enjoyed picking up some great winter vegetables along the way.  

A couple of miles down the road, a local Methodist church was having their annual Festival of the Nativities - so I walked down.  The parishioners have been collecting Nativity scenes from all over the world for years and have been displaying them for the month of December for quite a few and inviting the community to visit.  There are scenes from Christmas ornament-sized, to life-sized displayed all over the sanctuary and several classrooms throughout the building.  In addition, the congregation has a bake sale and ornament/decorations sale each weekend during the month to fund new acquisitions.

Peru

This one, made of brown paper, was found on the church doorstep, no one has come forward as the maker or donator.

One wall, in one classroom.

Along the way we took some time for cooking (lunch every Monday for the guys in the shop), baking (all those Christmas goodies), exploring Lawrence's downtown area (mostly me), and enjoying being around Heinz's family.

Linzertortes cooling.

Lawrence, all dressed up for the holidays.

Moon gazing thru the treetops.

Decorating the rig.

We pulled out of Lawrence in mid-January, leaving our fabulous gated community behind.  I don't think anyone believed us, but between the propane and space heater we stayed toasty warm even when the temperatures dropped into the single digits and with easy access to both fresh water and a place to dump gray/black water we were set.  On leaving we thanked Uncle Craig for the hospitality and told him we'd be sure to recommend his place for anyone looking for all the amenities:)  Luckily, he laughed! Here's a few shots showing all those luxuries...

The gated community entrance.

Modern outdoor sculpture of found objects.

Sculpture garden in the snow.

More of the sculpture garden.

The woods on the edge of the property.

Murals were everywhere.

Mid-January found us back in Kansas City with plans of leaving within a couple of weeks.  But I ended up with a bad back and we stayed for me to have physical therapy for a month.  (I'm MUCH better now.)  So while we hung out, Heinz installed a couple of new TV's, exchanging out our old (very old) units for HD and a new self-seeking satellite receiver on the roof.  Sure is nice to see all that detail again!  I also got a wild hair to get the curtains in the front window cleaned, probably the first time since they were hung.  After finding out that it would be around $150 per curtain I reined in that wild hair and made a new set instead.

New curtains with the new TV installation.

But the delay in leaving town didn't leave us with only work to fill our time.  We took advantage of hanging out with Suzi and Carl and checked out some of the entertainment opportunities.  We checked out the Mid-Plains RV Show, Cirque de Soleil's Quidam, the Science of Rock & Roll and miniature railroad exhibits at Union Station, and spent several nights talking smack while playing Sorry!

Planning out strategy.

Grieving after losing 4 straight games of Sorry.

  

Poster at the Science of Rock & Roll.

Miniature railroad display.

We haven't quite gotten the hang of the whole snowbird mentality however.  We hung out in Kansas City just a bit too long.  The plan was to leave today, but yesterday, as you may have heard on the news, Kansas City encountered the biggest one day snowfall in its history: 12 inches in less than 24 hours.  So this morning was spent digging out.  The new plan is to pull out first thing in the morning and actually start heading to warmer climates.  Especially since more snow is predicted for Monday. 

We knew we'd stayed too long when the car was this deep by noon!

Home sweet home, all snowed in.

Digging us out.

The neighbors came to check out the action.

So tomorrow we plan to hit the road and I plan to make my postings a little more regularly than over the past few months.  Of course, any posting will be more regular.  Thanks for your tolerance and stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's our friends of the day.

Sammy enjoys a belly rub.

Frankie shows off his new scarf.

Is it dignified to walk a pig on a leash?  For the pig?

Trying to find a warm spot in the trees.

Drifting with the winds...

Ouch, just hopped on the site and realized that it's been a month since I posted.  Where did the time go??

Our last entry had us leaving San Antonio and heading west.  We took three days to get to Santa Fe via Las Cruces and Hatch NM.  Ahh, Las Cruces... home of La Posta restaurant.  This has become one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and it's always worth going 200+ miles out of your way to eat some enchiladas and sip on a margarita :)  While there, we also took a drive out to Hatch NM, home of the best peppers grown by humans.  Hatch chiles have become very popular, but are limited in distribution outside of New Mexico, although our daughter has spotted them in Los Angeles and Suzi has spotted a VERY small amount in Kansas City in the past year or two.  I have also heard that there are places advertising Hatch chiles that are not actually grown in that region - GASP!  Your grocer should be able to name the town of origin if they are truly Hatches.  The real deal are grown in an area along the Mesilla Valley stretching on both sides of the Rio Grande river from Arrey, NM in the north to Tonuco Mountain just south of Hatch, NM.  The chiles are not one variety, but several that range in heat from very mild to very spicy, collectively known as Hatch chiles.  We usually pick up some of the medium.  We didn't make it to town this year in time to pick up any fresh chiles to roast on our own, so instead I picked up 6 pounds of already roasted and frozen at one of the chile stands in town (you can order them on line if you so desire).   Warning, if you see small cans of green chiles in the Mexican section of your local grocery store labeled "Hatch Chiles" be aware that this product is actually from a company in Brunswick, Georgia.  They are good chiles, excellent when you can't get the real thing, but NOT true Hatch chiles.  The company simply bought the rights to the name and use peppers from all over the southwest.

This year's ristras drying.

Chile Willie's, best home-made salsa in Hatch.

Chiles drying on the rooftops.

We finally made it to Santa Fe and pulled into the KOA on the edge of town.  This was a very nice campground and not crowded at all as it was off-season.  In fact, the camp closed for the winter a couple of days after we pulled out.  The night we arrived, the temperature dropped to 27 degrees.  Somehow, we have failed to grasp the concept of traveling south with the weather!

The day after we arrived, we drove back down Albuquerque so Heinz could hop on a plane back to Kansas City, for a visit with his dentist, a visit with his sister, a chance to see Joe Bonnamassa in concert yet again (third time in two years, I think the man's a fan), and take care of some other chores.  I, on the other hand, settled into Santa Fe and prepared to enjoy the weeklong Embroiderers' Guild of America's annual national conference.  

The conference was great; 600+ people (mostly women, but a few men) from 48 of the 50 states and 4 foreign countries, all walking, talking, breathing needlework (heavy sigh of contentment).  I took two design classes, both involving fabric painting and surface embroidery - but there were classes on just about any type of embroidery that can be done with a one-eyed needle.  There were also banquets, receptions, a bookstore devoted to the needle arts, and a boutique carrying all sorts of needlework supplies.  There was also the ever popular Trading Post, an evening with 45-50 vendors selling local jewelry, supplies, needlepoint canvases, stitching "gadgets" and just about anything else you might want that could be related to needlework.  It was a great week and passed way too quickly.

Class number one: Transferring a photograph to canvas, painting the fabric, then enhancing the photo with embroidery.

What a variety of fabric painting!

Class number two: playing with paints, bleeding tissue paper, fabric, construction paper, threads; 

multi-media art at it's finest.

My interpretation of the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay at sunset (in needlepoint and paint).

After a week, my conference ended, but there was a bright note as Heinz made it back to Santa Fe.  We stayed put for a few days to explore the area.  Santa Fe is a fascinating city.  It has been occupied since native Indians built the first pueblos around 1400 A.D.  The city is the country's third largest art market after Los Angeles and New York City.  There are 200+ galleries in town, many individual studios, and several major museums - all devoted to art.  In addition there is some great food in Santa Fe.  Several locals mentioned that the best breakfast in town was to be found at Harry's Roadhouse.  Luckily this wonder was located just down the road from the KOA - so we checked it out.  The locals were right, the food was fabulous.  

Santa Fe house and gate

We drove up to Taos to see the Taos Pueblo, a place that's been on our list of "gotta see" for years.  The pueblo is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the U.S. - well over 1,000 years.  The two main structures are called the North House and the South House.  The buildings are many individual homes built side by side and in layers with common walls and no connecting doorways, the original American apartment houses.  The buildings are made of adobe, owned by individual families, and passed down through generations.  Families still live in the buildings, some continuously, others occupy their pueblo homes only during feast days.  There is no electricity or running water in the sacred village.  Water comes from the Red Willow Creek that runs through the village from its source in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, 30 miles away.  The wilderness area that the river runs through is sacred to the Taos Pueblo people and non-tribal members are not allowed to trek into the area, thus the water is crystal clear.   

Taos Pueblo, North House

  

Rio Grande River between Taos and Santa Fe

Cottonwood tree, the golden color was everywhere.

Leaving Santa Fe, we headed east once again and are now back in the Kansas City area.  Heinz has installed a motorcycle lift on the rear and is in seventh heaven as the GSA gets to come along from now on.  While in the area we enjoyed several Veteran's Day offerings by a variety of local businesses including free massages, free donuts, and discounted gasoline.  

Ready for action.

We're currently in Lawrence KS, where Heinz's uncle is coaching him through the repair of some rust damage to the basement and replacing the ball joints.  We'll keep you posted as to when we will be hitting the road again.  In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Our friends of the day are:

Checking out the pueblo.

Chilling out after getting my mohawk groomed.

Tennessee to Texas

You may have noticed a couple of format changes on our blog.  Don't panic.  If you prefer things the way they've been, simply go to the upper left hand side, click on "Flipcard", chose "Classic" from the drop down menu, and you'll be back to the old format.  On the other hand, there are several other options for exploring the blog.  Clicking on "Snapshot" will allow you to view all the photos we've posted since the beginning.  Have fun!

Things have not been very eventful lately, and I have been extremely lazy, but a few people have pointed out that it's hard for them to live vicariously through us when there's no posting going.  So the guilt trips have finally worked and here you go.

We ended up spending a total of nine days in Memphis, the two we planned on, and an additional seven waiting on the car to be repaired after getting hit.  But as you probably figured out from our last blog entry, we didn't let the time go to waste and continued to enjoy seeing the city.  On our last full day we stopped in at a quirky little museum I found on line...the National Ornamental Metal Museum.  The museum is the only museum in the U.S. devoted exclusively to the art and craft of fine metalwork.  There are rotating exhibitions devoted to master metalwork artists (the jewelry of Eleanor Moty when we visited) along with permanent installations.  In addition, the museum offers consulting services, metalwork classes, internships and artist residencies.  Each year the Museum hosts "Repair Days", a fun-raiser during which volunteer metalsmiths travel to Memphi from all over the world to repair metal items from sculptures to candleholders to raise money to support the Museum.

The museum is located on the grounds of a former US Marine hospital.  The hospital was opened in 1884 and the original executive building now houses the museum's library and permanent collection.  The nurses dormitory houses the rotating exhibitions and gift shop.  The hospital closed in 1965 and the properties were donated to the city of Memphis.  In 1976 the originators of the museum obtained a lease from the city, $1.00 per year in exchange for 3.2 acres, 2 buildings and a killer view of the Mississippi River.  The museum itself opened in 1979 after building renovations were completed.

Brooch by Eleanor Moty

Hanging out in the blacksmith's shop.

View of the Mississippi River from the museum grounds.

Garden installation.

Metal basket.

One of two museum entrance gates - each disc is different.

Gate detail

Gate detail.

We also got in one more great meal before leaving town.  This time we checked out Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken.  Does Gus's really serve the best fried chicken in the world.  I don't know, but this was some of the best we've ever eaten.  The sides were nothing to write home about, the slaw was sweet and the beans seemed like plain old pork and beans straight out of the can and heated up, while the fried green tomatoes had way too much coating.  But, oh that chicken!  Butter, chicken, flour, spices, and a deep fryer full of oil.  Wholesome? Probably not, but worth it if you make it to Memphis.

Gus's, packed at 2:00 in the afternoon.

The morning after retrieving our car from the auto body shop we were up early and heading south.  We had planned on spending a couple of days in Little Rock, Arkansas, but decided that we needed to move on instead.  Next stop: back to Barksdale AFB and a visit with my family.

Barksdale and Shreveport haven't changed much since our last visit.  We visited, ate, visited, ate, and ate and visited.  You know, the thing you always do when you go home.  My sister and I also took some time and checked out the traveling Titanic exhibit.  The exhibit features more than 300 artifacts, stateroom and 3rd class accommodation re-creations, and videos on the submarine explorations of the wreckage site.  As you enter the exhibit, you are given a boarding pass with a short biography of an actual passenger.  My sister was given a card of a young woman running away from England with her married boss and lover.  I was given one for a widow moving to America to train as a missionary.  Another unique feature of the exhibit is the wandering actors playing the roles of actual passengers who interact with exhibit viewers.  On the day we were there we "met" Lucy Cristiana (Lady Duff Gordon),  a haute couture designer,  Madeleine Astor (wife of John Jacob Astor), Carl Asplund (3rd class passenger), and Charles Joughin (Chief Baker).  At the exit of the exhibit there is a listing of all the passengers and crew where you can find the name on your boarding pass (both of ours survived the sinking).

Annette (sister-in-law), Kathy (sister) and me choosing lunch at Copeland's.

Bayou by Barksdale's FamCamp

Cypress trees.

We are now in San Antonio, hanging out, relaxing, and catching up with old friends and some relatives and once again eating some great local food.  This past weekend we took in the annual Chalk It Up!  This is a one day art's festival sponsored by Artpace, a local modern art museum and artist's collective.  The city seals off 4 city blocks downtown and opens it for sidewalk art for everyone from kids to professionals.  There are also food booths and a musician stage.  It was fun watching the kids in action.

We'll be heading west at the end of the week drifting toward Albuquerque and Santa Fe so stay tuned.

Our friends of the day were all hitchhikers:

Memphis, TN

Shreveport, LA

Barksdale AFB

This little guy decided to join Heinz in the shower in Houston.