Traveling

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Juniper wonders about the wildlife at our cabin near French Village
This and the one above were taken in the wee hours of morning, during a most fantastic lightning storm!
persimmon!
We’ve never seen so many off road vehicles zooming about!
sunset
sunrise

After the rush of cars and people in the big cities, with Juniper wildly panting, and our lips, hands, and legs slick with moisture, we were happy for a bit of country respite.

Everywhere: leaf, needle, and blade, all along the spectrum of GREEN.

Our resting place was tucked down a hill and distant enough from the road to obscure nearly every human sound. Only occasionally did we hear a plane, quite a few times a gun (it was the Ozarks, after all), the rustle of gray squirrel from on high in the trees, and silent, but ever present, the flitting of more swallowtails and dragonflies than we’ve ever witnessed.

On our one full day at the cabin, the heat was mercifully diminished by a night of storms and whipping wind, all to the wink of fireflies and flash of lightning. And so we loitered: on the deck, mostly daydreaming, hammock napping, often reading, and sometimes walking loops about the property. Juniper kept her nose high, catching every scent, with us admiring a meringue fluff of clouds while a surprisingly cool breeze brushed our cheeks. In a word: MAGICAL!

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St. Charles is on the way to St. Louis, sitting along the banks of the Big Muddy itself. Fantastic structures line the historic old town and have been lovingly transformed into charming shops and restaurants of every description. The wooden building was Missouri’s original State Capitol.

We made the Benton Park neighborhood our home this leg of the trip, with gorgeous, mansard topped brick buildings galore, however absent from this photo. The subtle glow of lights emanates from tasty Peacemaker. Top notch cocktails and seafood, stellar hush puppies, too!

This is the old Falstaff Brewery, just around the corner from our digs. It is HUGE and for sale! If you have millions and millions, do please consider making something wonderful with it.

St. Agnes Church – for you, Aunt Mary

How about this to mark your address? The coolest in St. Louis!

steel origami

The Missouri Botanical Garden is probably the largest I’ve visited, and, as one would expect, pretty darn magical! A heaven-scented oasis.

If you’re a peanut lover, as I am, please give a hearty nod of appreciation to George Washington Carver, who, besides Jimmy Carter – maybe, did more for the precious legume than anybody. He was also a thoughtful human being and ahead of his time. He is the genius behind the advent of crop rotation!

the stumpery
Chihuly, of course
More Chihuly

We enjoyed a fabulous lunch at Salt + Smoke BBQ after our botanical wander. Good golly was it great!

Mansard roof & classic bicycle. It’s like someone knew I wanted a photo.

The Gateway Arch is every bit as gorgeous and majestic as I hoped it would be. At 640 feet, it’s a long way up, too! Additionally, the city mandates no structure can rise above it. Very apropos.

Old Courthouse
The 19th Century Eads Bridge – the first Steel Truss in the world, and the Martin Luther King just beyond.

At Cahokia Mounds – a long abandoned Native American City, estimated to have 40-50,000 inhabitants (between 1100 – 1350), and structural marvel, where millions of tons of earth was dug to create more than 50 earthen mounds. The view of St. Louis is from Monk’s Mound, the largest in the complex and the largest mound north of Mexico.

I love thinking on what this place looked like and how the people lived. What rich history can be found just about anywhere!

A slice of summer at Russell’s. Sweet perfection.

The world is your gym, peeps!

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Good early morning outside Limon, Colorado! I love how each squiggle has a near identical shape; light is such a wonder. The first day of our trip had the longest drive, so we arose at 4:00 in hopes of arriving in Kansas City by the early afternoon.

Sunrise over the clouds!

Breakfast in Hays, Kansas, carefully observed by the neighborhood Mississippi Kite. A first sighting for us!

West Plaza, our Kansas City neighborhood, had a robot mural and Donutology, who had goodness of every stripe and a treat for our favorite four-legger! Walk up and enjoy. There was also Nature’s Own, a fab grocery, where I spied someone who looked an awful lot like one of our favorite produce guys at New Seasons in Portland. And whaddya know, it WAS him. We shared a laugh and an it’s a small world moment before learning he left Portland the same year we did. Good to see you, David!

Kansas City, as you well know, is shared by two states, and West Plaza lies just over the very fluid border. Here I am, taking full advantage on State Line Road, feet firmly planted in Kansas AND Missouri! Just up the road lies the launching point for both the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. How cool is that?!

Kansas City has a wealth of fabulous murals!

Country Club Plaza is a dazzle of Spanish Inspired architecture, with many a great shop, including Made in KC, where we bought t-shirts, hats, Reunion Rye Whiskey, BBQ sauce, even honey. Such fun!

Roxy Paine, Ferment
framed by
Henry Moore, Large Torso Arch
Ursula von Rydingsvard, Three Bowls

My faithful companions and I enjoyed a crotch-pot cooking hot stroll about the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park. Westerners accustomed to the high desert, we expected some mid-west discomfort in Missouri, but there was a heat wave, and 97 degrees with 65% humidity was, even for locals, a LOT. This gives you a hint at my anxiety about traveling in a tornado prone place. August is traditionally the quietest month for them. Thank the maker for air conditioning, yessir.

Claes Oldenburg, Shuttlecock
Robert Morris, Labyrinth

The Art Course, high class putt-putt in and amongst the sculptures! We did not partake (no pups allowed), but it sure looked fun.

Judith Shea, Storage

World War I Memorial – it is a stunner.

Tall, very tall.

Downtown Kansas City is quite good looking.

Our get up and go before the dog dies of heat stroke walk along Brush Creek was quite pretty. Actually, the whole city is lovely. We didn’t expect it to be so much so, to be honest – tree and flower filled and oh so hilly. Dang America, you really are ALL THAT.

Greg gets up close and personal at the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures. I just about lost my marbles when I learned such an institution exists. I mean seriously, the two together!! Oh, and speaking of marbles, they have their own exhibit there. Of course they do.

Just one of the fabulous rooms and my personal favorite because architecture, peeps, architecture. The artistry is simply amazing. Every manner of miniature was on display, including animals, Native American Arts, paintings, dolls, fully electrified chandeliers, and chests of drawers as big as my thumb. Truly awe inspiring!

The toys of my childhood! Eeek….
The giant spinning toy display. Love is not too strong a word. Not at all.

And now, for more adult pursuits. Our time in fabulous Kansas City over, we headed east, with a stop in Hermann, Missouri. There are scads of wineries, but we chose Hermannhof to visit before enjoying a very German lunch at the Wurst House. Fun people, yummy wine, delicious food.

Goodbye Hermann! Off to St. Louis….

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The Huerfano (orphan) namesake of my favorite Colorado County.

On our first road trip, twenty-eight years ago, we came to Taos, enjoying the scent of earth and sage, the look of adobe, mesas, and mountains, our newly in love eyes sharing the mutual feast of New Mexico. I love how, after all these years, it continues to inspire, delight, and restore, a mirror of our own love.

And for a bit of a change (the photos after LAFYOGI), we took a route untraveled, winding east along 64 to Cimarron. We enjoyed a good snoop and delicious lunch (fish & chips and smothered bison burger) at the St. James Hotel (a place famous for ghosts and gangsters and history) before another beautiful drive home, some of it during a massive and much needed rain fall.

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Mt. Maestas

Blanca Peak & Mt. Lindsey

When Greg and I were first together, a woman we knew had a rather curious comic taped on her refrigerator, front and center. It read: “It’s not a vacation if your husband goes with you.” I imagine her snickering while carefully clipping it from the paper. Then, with precision, taping around its border, ensuring it would rest for ages and ages on the freezer door, in the direct gaze of her husband of more than twenty years. How funny it must have been to her. How cruel it always seemed to me.

Our trip to Taos was initially one Juniper and I would take without Greg. His schedule at the time of planning was fluid, unknown. It would be fine, of course. I am an excellent traveler, with or without him, and Juniper is so easy going. But I didn’t really like it. Not because I feel completed by him or “need” him. No, I am my own person, solidly so. Perfectly complemented by him, yes. Two synergistic beings in rotation round the sun. I didn’t like it because I love his company. His wit and wisdom. His kindness. His gentleness and strength. His ability to make me laugh and feel comforted. And, boy howdy, that handsome face. So easy on the eyes.

So when his schedule definitively opened, we jumped on the chance to travel together. And what a marvelous time we had!

The Plaza at Costilla, New Mexico, which lies just over the border from Colorado. My Great-Grandparents (times three), Maria de Jesus (called Jesusita and the source of my Native ancestry) and Aaron Williams, lived here at the time of the 1860 Census. She kept house, and he was a Wagon Driver (note his horse shoe tie pin!). The Plaza is much as it looked when they lived there, the building dating to the 1850s. I continue to feel awed at each layer of history as revealed to me, that they lived and died more than a century ago, yet I feel incredibly close to them. They are in my dreams and on the air, a pulse in my very veins. A marvel, truly.

Oh gosh, how I wish you could see the vivid emerald flush as it appeared to our eyes. We were treated like never before to green on this trip!

This little guy or gal, a cicada, I think? Long since dead, but still clinging to it’s final resting place. Nature really is a wonder.

The Claret Cup Cactus and Opuntias put on quite a show for us.

ponderosa

We hiked to the bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge (a rift zone, actually), 680 feet, and thankfully not straight down!

Good Juniper. Not so great Colleen.

Not so great Juniper. Good Colleen.

We are none of us models!

Greg hides behind a most delicious post-hike burger at Taos Diner. It was well earned!

Manzanita Market – where I, of course, bought another wonderful selection of Dryland Wilds products. The cottonwood bud hand balm is the scent of my childhood springs (!) and super moisturizing.

Chokola never fails.

My people!

Back with more tomorrow…

 

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