Arrived!!

14 days, 3,583 miles, min elevation -282 (Death Valley), max 12,000 (Loveland Pass), min temp 34 (Loveland Pass), max 104 (Death Valley), 9 friends visited plus 2 children, 2 dogs, 8 cats, and a horse

CA ->NV ->AZ ->UT -> CO ->NE ->IO ->MO ->IN ->IL ->KY ->TN ->VA ->NC ->SC ->GA   (all of 15 min in AZ and TN combined but I'm counting them anyway)

Whew!!  I probably could have made it a lot shorter both in time and distance but I wouldn't change an inch.  I had a great time!

Thank you to my 2001 VW Jetta for making it all possible.

Thank you Alison, Averil, Greg, Karen, Leigh, Elijah, Ginny, Shari, TK, Mary Elizabeth, and Eric for making it fun!

And many many thanks to Greg, Patty, Averil, Eric, and Jimmy for getting me through the drive with presents of music.  Let me know if you ever want me to return the favor :)

Parents house

Atlanta bound

Headin' home!!

Yep, that's the Atlanta traffic I remember

KY->TN->VA->NC

I decided to start the day with a visit to Maker's Mark.  It was neither close nor convenient, but Prudence got us there.  The back way.  The WAAAAAY back way.  I'm talking one lane roads through farms that have probably never seen a CA license plate before.  At least that was the look I was getting from the guy on the tractor.  But she got me there.

Then she took me on the scenic route to Winston-Salem without me even asking!  It was a beautiful day.  I did get tired at one point so I decided to break my no soda no junk food rule for the trip (Twizzlers don't count, they are roadtrip food not junk food).

Made it to Winston about the same time Eric finished his evening class.  Another friend that I haven't seen in more years than I want to count.  We caught up over 5 Guys burgers and drinks at his house.  Good times.

The Broekers

I had yet another rainy morning.  Shari, ME and I went to Harvest for lunch--delicious!  It was delivery day at the house so we did not have as much time to do stuff around town as we wanted.   But that just means I'll have to come back and visit again.

For ME's birthday, Shari made BBQ.  And not just the pork.  She made 7 different sauces to go with it.  While she made sloppy joes for dinner, I set up a BBQ sauce tasting station and did just that.  My favorites were the Carolina Mustard and the Burnt Tomato--YUM!

An then there was the flock of wild turkeys occupying the backyard.  This was only one part of the group.  There were just over a dozen of them.

Bourbon Country

Fought the bridge closing to get to Shari and ME in La Grange, Kentucky.  Shari immediately took me on a bourbon tour so, clearly, she still knows me well.  But since Woodford Reserve only tastes one type so we decided to do our own tasting back at the house. 

We met TK for dinner at Steve-Os for Italian and headed back to the house.

The prep

Add caption

The Begining

The end and the order of great to not so great to doesn't get be called bourbon (R to L)

CAG's house

A few more photos from Ginny's house.

a day in the life of Prof. Virginia Anderson

Today, I followed CAG around on her Monday.  We went to school, went to lunch, went to office hours, went to the barn, and went to dinner mostly in the rain.  And I took a ton of pictures at the barn while Ginny took care of Paddy and took him for a ride.  We met up with Bill the person, not Bill the dog, at La Roserita for dinner and $0.99 margaritas.

Controlled chaos

Note, this picture comes from the passenger side--I was not driving today.

Dirty Harry, Barn Cat Esq.

This is Paddy!

Saphire

Geoffrey

"I think she really captured my essence."--Dirty Harry

Pumpkin

Lulu

Lulu and Pumpkin

Cuz everyone needs a boat in a cornfield

Pumpkin

CAG's hairstylist

Dirty Harry approved

Lulu

Saphire

Paddy

 

Dinner with Bill