funny conversation in diner in PA

Up here you all drink too much soda. Do you know what's in it? Formaldehyde! He's a Harvard graduate. If should know things. They smoke in there. Do you really want to EAT that?

Wawa

This is the coolest convenience store ever! They get a PB (pee break) rating of 9. Clean bathrooms. Non obnoxious music. Lots of choices of good products. Great customer service!

You know you're in PA when you see...

we are in this crazy doll store. this wizard of oz doll set is $3,200!!!

Fog ahead

I don't know if you can see, but there is lots of fog billowing around the car. I'm sure glad I'm not driving! We are driving through(or is it OVER) the Appalachian Mountains. It is very cool but not too cold, and thankfully, it isn't raining right now! We spent the last week in Motels because of the rain. Now we are planning to stop in Lancaster County, PA to have one last touristy experience before going home. I'll take pictures if I can! It is home to the Amish community. who live in a very separate, different way than we do. Google it. They are very interesting!

One scrambled egg and 'taylor ham'

Homeward Bound

This is technically the second sign for home but they were about 50 feet apart.

Silver linings and the like

There's always something good to find in the world. Junky as this weather is, I looked up(I am NOT driving) to see a lovely rainbow in the sky. Can you see it on my picture I took with my camera phone?

Lincoln you say?

yet more

More Interesting Illinois pictures

Guess Where We Are?

cheeeeeeeeeese!

Wisconsin cheese. Need I say more? We stopped at a place to sample stuff but they weren't very friendly(and you couldn't buy less than a pound).

This is at Pioneer Village. Harold Warp collected all the stuff that is there. The theme of the place is Man's Progress. It's really cool. We took two days to see it and didn't get bored, only a little hot and tired. It's certainly a well priced tourist attraction; the 15 dollar campsite came with a free ticket (worth 9.50)!

Wisconsin

This is the capitol building in Madison, WISCONSIN.

Iowa

The pictures I will be posting are in no particular order. Now that I'm in range I want to send some of the pictures that are on my phone! This is in Iowa. I just thought it was cool that it was called Cornhusker Highway!

Randomness #3

Oh, man!! Poor planning on my part!
I thought we'd be in chicago by now so we weren't planning on going to Minneapolis over the weekend. We will be going to the Mall Of America on a SATURDAY! Right before school starts! Well, school started already out here but you get the idea. It's going to be crowded and crazy. I hope it is still fun and not too stressful. Cross your fingers that my cousin in Chicago gets back to me; as we move west things are getting EXPENSIVE! Especially camping and motels and such.
The campground we are at tonight is not so great. It has a pool and wifi and all that but the sites are TINY &crowded together. There is absolutely no privacy. We are RIGHT behind the rear of a huge RV. Blech. &we are tired and cranky &I don't think either of us feels like cooking. Well we could have tuna sandwiches or cereal. Tuna sounds pretty good.

MORE LATER!

Friday august 17

Last night we stayed with a cousin in Ames, Iowa. That was fun. We got to get to know her and her three kids a little. We are headed north, firstly because we are wimping out from the heat, which is a good excuse to go back and spend more time in Minnesota. We decided to go ahead and go to the Mall Of America. Neither of us is big on shopping but it is sure something to see! And they have rides! And a "whimsical fountain" where they do animatronic light and music shows. This will also hopefully give us a chance to hear from family in Chicago. We really want to go there, but camping's difficult in big cities, and motels are going to be expensive. So we hope to stay with family. If we haven't heard from them tmw maybe we will go check out Madison, Wisconsin! Today for lunch we bought corn from a roadside stand and boiled it! It was good but not as good as the ones in nebraska that we
roasted in the fire.

6:30 am Lander Wyoming

Sometimes it's worth getting up early to see a sunrise!

Randomness #2

We stayed in Omaha, NE last night, after spending two days at Pioneer Village in Minden, NE. That was lots of fun. I am meeting family I didn't know existed! We are off to Ames, IA to meet(and stay with) another cousin. It is so cool to find out you have family everywhere! We just stopped at the Iowa Visitors Center which also had a Historical Village. I love these oddball collections of old timey things from arrowheads to old farm equipment to ladies fashion over the years. We had lunch at a place called RUNZA which is a Nebraska tradition, which sells pocket sandwiches made from sourdough bread. Yum. We hope to have some yummy corn products while we're in Iowa, since they seem to be advertising and promoting corn all over the place.
We're still figuring out where to go next, since we decided against our impulse, which was to go north to the mall of america, purely for the A/C and the roller coaster. We'll probably drive towards Chicago.

Random Bits Of thoughts

I have been taking pictures &video and writing lots and sending it all to blogger. Turns out that while I'm in "extended network" I can't send picture or video messages! The same for VZ Navigator, which is the really neat GPS system verizon offers. Neat when it works, of course. So, like I said before, pictures will come later. Ah well. We walked around Independence Rock yesterday and saw the signatures of settlers that came across in wagons a hundred and sixty years ago! Original graffiti artists. We walked around the whole thing! It was a hundred and seven degrees. We were so thirsty we both drank two whole gat*orades when we got back in the car. Now we just left Carhenge. Before that we were at Scott's Bluff. Cool rocks! Now we are on to Minden, NE, to stay at Pioneer Village. We might drive on till it's dark just to escape the heat!

Life Is Good.

I am sitting in a camp chair and it is dark, with the exception of the campfire. I have eaten two smores(w/70% dark chocolate!) and one bloated, toasty leftover Easter Peep. The wind and the creek are gently rustling and J is writing postcards by a flashlight. I have written some but not sent them. Addresses are in somewheresville. Today was a really excellent day. We hung out @the local cafe w/locals. We relaxed. We were tourists. We did laundry. We ate a great meal cooked over the fire. Tomorrow we head to Independence Rock. That's where all the folks heading to Oregon in wagons in the olden days would stop and etch their names in the rock before heading on. I am learning so much on this trip! From air pressure to how rocks are formed to history of the pioneers. I love this trip.

This is a test post. This is the laundrymat(spelled like that!) where we did clothes and got online. The kids that were all over the place and touching my stuff and asking a million questions got into a car with their mom; 7ish year old holding a baby in the front passenger seat. I wanted to write the license plate down and call someone. I didn't. What would YOU do? All of a sudden the kid's boundary issues didn't seem like suchv a big deal. Now we are waiting bc there's nobody here and we want the $3.80 that is left on this card!! Wasting good daylight hours &will have to cook in the dark. I hate that!

We are in Lander, Wyoming. We've seen lots of pioneer museums and living recreations of history of the Oregon Trail. We watched a cool movie at the museum narrated by a ten year old character who described crossing the country in a covered wagon. Obviously, it was fiction!!!

We are staying at a campground called POPO AGIE CAMPGROUND which is pronounced some odd way that I already forgot. It's at the bottom of a canyon with a creek rushing by our campsite.

We stopped at the local independent bookstore and ended up sitting at the cafe for hours talking to the people that worked there. One of them was a young guy who also works at the Pioneer Museum, so he gave us some local recommendations. He said, "Before I leave, let me show you a magic trick". Turned out he was an AMAZING magician! We ought to have taken pictures. He was brilliant. He gave us his card and I will email him and thank him for the wonderful show. One of those guys that just seems to be brilliant at everything.

Tonight we will be grilling on the fire and doing smores. Wheee!!!!

Now I can post from my phone so hopefully I will be doing it more often. I am right now at a laundromat next to a small child who was watching Spongebob and coming way closer to me and asking me way more questions than I, a New Yorker, am comfortable with!

Oh, great. I thought the Spongebob marathon was bad- somehow the kid got the remote and put on something scary and gory!!! His brother is shouting, CHANGE IT!!! CHANGE IT!!! And I am telling him it's even too scary for ME.

Oh, good. Cartoons again. At least they're just ANNOYING, not inappropriate, and I'm outta here, anyway!

Greetings and Salutations From Wyoming!!!!

first text post

This is my first post from my phone.

Where Do We Go From Here?

We are having a hard time deciding where to go as we leave the West Coast. Do we take 80 through Nevada, which will be fast but ultimately boring, or head for Brice and Zion National parks which will be very beautiful, but HOT...

We stayed last night (and will stay tonight) with friends who took great care of us! They fixed us a lovely meal of roast chicken, vegetables from their garden, and a homemade berry/peach crisp with local vanilla ice cream to go with. We played with their GIGANTIC 8 month old baby, who seems very advanced both motor skills-wise and mentally.

This morning they made us french toast out of cinnamon bread and we had more of that great west coast coffee... Yum....

We may or may not go sightsee San Francisco. We're broke and tired and might just want to get an oil change and rest. I wanted to see a friend today who lives here in the Bay Area and makes these amazing mosaics. Later I will create a link to her website since they are so beautiful. But she does not seem to be answering my text messages.

Thank heaven for cell phones. They've saved us from some jams on this trip!

J finally read the last Harry Potter, so I can talk about it! Yay!

If I don't get to post for the next few days it probably means that we are in an area with limited internet, which is surprisingly, a lot of this country! It's amazing how narrow my view is of the country, living in New York. I think things stay open late (that's been a big shocker!!), I will find a wide variety of products available, which I sometimes do and sometimes don't... It's hard to find a rhyme or reason to that one. The convenience store right outside Yellowstone just happened to be amazingly diverse- all kinds of natural products and organic and everything.

I really thought I'd be getting online ALL THE TIME. Some days it has just been that we've been traveling all day and it just isn't a priority to stop and do email stuff. Sometimes I want to and there's nothing for miles and miles. For that matter, sometimes there isn't even food or GAS for a super long time, so I'm extra grateful for our Bin Of Snacks. Nothing in there is so delicious that I want to gobble it all up in one sitting, with the exception of the freeze dried fruit, so I know there are peanut butter crackers or fig newtons or whatever for when we just want to keep driving instead of stop to eat, or if there's nothing that grabs us.

We've managed to stick to the rule of no national chains. Other than ONE dalliance and Dairy Queen, everything we've eaten has been local, mostly independently owned, and quite often on the west coast, organic. We've been pretty lucky!

Our friends have been such awesome hosts. I confess that I've started rating them for things like Best Sleeping Accommodations or Best Food or in the case of the place we're at now- Cutest Baby. I think this place takes the ribbon in SEVERAL categories.

The car is getting hard to manage with all th junk we're accumulating. I've gotten a lot of hand me downs, including four pairs of shoes and a few shirts! I suggested mailing stuff home but that just seemed to get complicated.

So, on we go. We'd really like to see Carhenge (google it) but we'd also like to see Pioneer Village, which is on the other side of the state. I'd like to eat a really great steak. Thoughts? Where would YOU go from herE?

In Which We Plan To Leave Portland And Travel Once More

We are planning on driving down the coast of Oregon, along the beach for a couple of days. I've never spent so much time on the beach! It's going to be so much fun. We might even sleep on a beach! I hope there's seafood involved.

I did get to have freshly caught salmon, twice! My brother in law caught it himself. I wish I could go fishing again. The first time was kind of cheating. It was a fish FARM, and I had help!!!

But I had lots of local treats while I was here, including BURGERVILLE, which is a local chain here in Oregon and Washington. Everything's bought locally, like the produce and organic, grass fed beef. Their milkshakes are THE BEST!!!! My favorite is the Mocha Perk, with real ice cream and espresso, but they also have a vanilla ice cream and WHOLE fresh local raspberries.

We stayed with friends who have their own gardens. The place we are at now even has their own chickens! Apparently chickens are very fond of CHEESE! I had no idea. I wish I could have chickens- my friend says she doesn't feel guilty about wasting food anymore- she just gives all the leftovers to the chickens. We fed them handfuls of raspberries we picked right there. We also fed them macaroni and cheese, which I have to say was one of the weirder experiences of my life.

We ate salads that were entirely made from stuff they grew. I am so envious of that. Not that you can't do that in New York- I have a friend who lives in Queens that does the very same thing. And in fact, sometimes she brings them over to share! But the chickens are definitely a unique portland thing.

It is a little bit sad that we had to go to a funeral while we were here. We visited my friend's grandmother in a nursing home and she died while we were there. But it is a little good as well, since she was very very old and sick, and it was kind of a beautiful moment to be part of. We were singing songs like This Little Light Of Mine and Amazing Grace and she relaxed and then she just went... I felt privileged to have been there.

We also went to a wedding and that was lots of fun. We got some window markers (that I am saving for my classroom, of course!) and we drew all over her car! It was in a park and afterwards everybody put on shorts and stuff. It was really funny.

I really like Portland. EVERYBODY recycles, and uses bicycles, and has the same kind of politics I have, and there's GREAT local food! I wouldn't want to leave New York(they have virtually NO arts programs, and they pay their teachers bupkis) but I'd definitely consider spending my summers here.

So On To California!!! I can't wait to go to Ghiradelli Square! That's where they make the famous chocolate! And I think there are crazy pigeons there too. There are pictures somewhere of me and my sister with pigeons landing all over us. I don't think I was more than five.

I am also looking forward to seeing my friend's baby. I haven't met him yet and I think he's more than a year old!

Monday, 7/9/07

So far, this was the best place. De Smet, South Dakota is where Laura lived and wrote Little Town On The Prairie, where her parents would live the rest of their lives. We got to see several houses that they had lived in, which have been preserved as museums, with some of their real belongings and the rest just items from that time or made to look like they were from that time.

We started at the Surveyor's House, where Pa was offered a job and the chance to take care of the house while the real Surveyor was gone. We had a tour guide who really knew her stuff! You could tell she cared about the facts in the book and history and being ACCURATE! This is important to me!

We then went to the house that Pa built for them to live after Laura got married and moved. That house was pretty cool too.

After that we went to the homestead that Ma and Pa lived on. I will try and explain homesteading in another post, although if anybody wants to in a Comment, that'd be cool. We were excited because we found out you could actually camp right there!

We found out something wonderful as we were browsing in Loftus Store, the actual store that Laura shopped in and wrote about!!! The man at the store said,

"Oh, you're camping at the Ingalls Homestead? Are you staying in one of the covered wagons?"

Now, you have to understand, one of my things I wanted to do at SOME POINT on this trip was to sleep in a covered wagon. In the olden days before cars, people traveled in wooden wagons that had a stretched canvas roof over them. They had to choose really carefully when they moved since wagons were small and they would have to pick the most IMPORTANT items to take with them.

We got to the campground just in time! There was ONE covered wagon left for sleeping in. It wasn't too expensive, either! Cheaper than most motel rooms.

So we slept in a sort of covered wagon. It actually had walls in the front and the back, and the canvas was reinforced, ok, there was also electricity, but we didn't USE it. That would have been WRONG!!!!! DID PIONEERS HAVE ELECTRICITY???

When Ma cooked over a fire, she used something called a "spider". Today we would call it a dutch oven. It's a big pot with a heavy lid that you can lift up and set in the coals for cooking. We have one. We made a stew with some beef, carrots, onions, potatoes, flour, a bit of bacon and some vinegar. It was sooo good, and we cooked it over a fire, just like Ma would have. She probably would have also made biscuits, but well, we did our best.

We also ate cold stew for breakfast, along with some coffee.

We toured the homestead before we left, visiting the school Laura would have taught at (we took a covered wagon ride to get there), the "Little House" where a lady was showing us how to make pioneer toys and crafts, petted a calf in the barn, pumped some water from the well PA DUG HIMSELF, and admired the cottonwood trees he planted as a wind break.

It was SO COOL. You could tell that the people there in De Smet really love what they do. It isn't just about tourists. They love the history and the people and the animals and everything. The staff even had a dog named Jack, and it was a total coincidence. It was so funny. At one point Jack got out, and he wasn't supposed to. You could see him running and romping across the prairie, stalking and chasing badgers or r... r... some animal that starts with R that I can't remember the name of right now. If he had a thought bubble it would have been, "I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"

We drove from De Smet, SD to Wall, SD. Wall is purely a tourist destination. It started because a store owner and his wife started putting signs on the highway for free ice water. The signs got bigger and sillier and they added silly attractions to entertain tourists as they drove through.

Now it's like an amusement park! It is so weird. I will just have to show pictures. I can't even describe it.

We priced motels since we have a long drive tmw so we didn't want the whole tent deal to slow us down. Also we need an oil change in the car. We didn't like any of the prices, and it turned out that THIS WEEK is the 100th birthday of Wall, SD so that's why all the motels were pricy and full. So we continued on and drove through THE BADLANDS.

The Badlands, I had heard, were some cool rocks. As we were driving towards it, I said to my friend,
"So what's the big deal about the badlands anyway?" She basically said, You'll see.

I was in the middle of saying something when she turned a corner in the Badlands National Park and I literally dropped what I was holding and gasped out loud.

I can NOT describe how amazing this place was. It wasn't just a bunch of rocks. It was...

It was color and light and the amazing power of nature and proof that no matter what we build, nature can build something cooler.

Again, I'll just have to show pictures.

We drove another 80 miles to Rapid City SD where we are staying for the night in a motel. I got to take a BATH!!!! I love baths! I am sleeping in a BED! And my friend will get up early and let me sleep late and she will go get the oil changed. And of course, the best part of staying in a motel is that there is internet, and I was able to post.

There are so many more things I want to say. I've been writing in my travel journal/scrapbook a lot, and if it doesn't fall apart, I'll have a lot to share and show when I get back!

We have been pretty careful about not buying crummy souvenirs, and I think the ones we've got are pretty cool. I was VERY tempted by a charm bracelet at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead- it had a violin and a sewing machine and a book and a horse. Oh well. There will be other cool things.

We've also been pretty lucky about our detours. Seneca Falls was a whimsical detour. So was The Harkin Store. Several other moments that were unplanned ended up being some of the best, like the Eau Galle Cheese Factory. Remind me to show you my souvenir from THERE!

I will try and post more frequently, but hey! If it's only my dad and grandma reading this, I can talk to them on the phone or something! If my students are reading this, SPEAK UP! I want to know that you're out there! I'm lonely!

Saturday, July 7

7/7/07!

It didn't start off too well. My cell phone got stolen or destroyed or something. I left it charging in the bathroom over night. We were right next to the bathroom, but that didn't matter. The parks guy helped me look and found the charger, stuffed high up in the rafters, the big wooden planks that made up the roof of the bathroom building. It was definitely a prank.

My cell phone company said they wouldn't replace it without a police report, so I called and a police officer came out right away. That was kind of exciting, I guess...

I haven't gotten a new phone yet, mostly because I feel ashamed and embarrassed that I did something so dumb.

We decided to take an unplanned detour when we saw a sign for HARKIN STORE, a historically accurate General Store on the way to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. We were so glad we did!!!

The place was an original store from the time that Laura Ingalls was alive. The man who ran it showed us all the items that were in it and how they would have been used, like slates and slate pencils, which students used instead of notebooks. They looked like small blackboards but you scratched them instead of using chalk. he showed us how to grind coffee by hand in a coffee mill. We tried on old fashioned hats and examined all kinds of things that they would have sold in a general store back then. He was really cool and had a station wagon with radical political bumper stickers all over it and gave us free water. We liked him.

Then we got to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. That isn't actually so important to the real Laura story, but when they made it a TV show in the 70's that's where the story took place.

We decided not to see the Sod House because they were charging too much for admission. That turned out alright because we saw lots and lots and lots of Laura stuff!

We went to the actual site that they lived in a dugout, which is a house dug into the side of a hill. They are cool and easy and inexpensive, but Laura's Ma did not want to live in one. She wanted to live in a REAL house so they didn't stay there. I have a piece of wheat or grass or something in my scrapbook from there.

My scrapbook is falling apart. I bought it because it says Wendy on it, but the pages are perforated. That wasn't so smart. Oh well. Maybe I will staple it all together when I am done.

We then went to see something called FRAGMENTS OF A DREAM, The Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant. It was a play about the story of her life. Apparently anyone from Walnut Grove can audition and everyone gets at least a walk on role.

The actors were TERRIBLE but the set was amazing and if you love the books you had to love the play just *cause*. It was SO cheesy it was wonderful. And we missed dinner so we bought something there called a "walking taco" which was pretty popular in Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was a bag of nacho chips opened up and tossed with lettuce, ground meat and cheese. I've had that before called a Frito Pie. They're both kept in the bag.

I had to go buy another because I dropped mine on the ground. They were SO nice, they didn't even charge me for another!

The play even had pyrotechnics! They acted out the time in the books when there was a prairie fire. I kind of knew there would be some fire because at intermission, a stage hand came and lit something on the floor and covered it up. I would have been really scared if I hadn't been a little prepared!

After the play I met the cast and asked some of them on video some questions. I even said, "What would you like to tell my drama students back home?" Most of them said "Work hard!!!".

That was a really fun day other than having my cell phone gone.

Friday, July 6

Friday we got up and started doing Laura Ingalls Wilder stuff! We both love the series about the pioneer girl who traveled with her family from Pepin, Wisconsin all the way to Mansfield, Missouri over the course of her lifetime, also living in California and Florida for short periods of time. She only started writing books about her childhood when she was sixty five! Another thing we learned in our touring was that she was only four feet ten inches tall! Her husband was only five two!

We think it was because people didn't eat well back then, and didn't get enough nutrition. So go eat some vegetables!!!!

We started by seeing a reproduction of the house she was born in, since we were in Pepin, Wisconsin. It was pretty cool but a little corny, and there was a LOT of stuff to buy. It felt touristy.

Highway 14 from Wisconsin to South Dakota is called the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historical Highway, because so many of the places she lived are along that route. We took 14 all the way and saw everything!

But HOOOWEEE those farms smell.

I'm sorry if I worried anyone! We've just been having such a great time we haven't wanted to stop to get online!


Did I mention that on the way to Niagara Falls, we stopped in Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the Women's Rights Movement? We went to the Women's National Hall Of Fame and I got a neat bracelet with a quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our ***th president. It says,
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

I just wanted to write about that before I forgot.

Our next stop was Menomonie, Wisconsin. Menomonie is the birthplace of one of my favorite literary characters, Caddie Woodlawn. Carol Ryrie Brink wrote two young adult novels about her grandmother, Caroline Augusta Woodhouse, and changed her name to Woodlawn. Caddie is a pioneer girl with lots of spirit and bravery and has lots of neat adventures with her family in Old Timey Wisconsin. We went to see where she really lived. That was neat. There is a park dedicated to her with the house that she lived in, or maybe it was a fake house built to look just like it. I forget. But there was a well there and I pumped water just like a pioneer girl. It didn't taste too bad!

On the way out of town we passed a cheese factory. Wisconsin is FAMOUS for their cheese, so we HAD to stop! We tasted lots of different kinds of cheese, including gouda, muenster, three kinds of cheddar, manchego, goats milk cheese and one made with chocolate and nuts in it. We bought a chunk of cheddar and some white cheddar with sage in it. That is a green herb that made it very pretty! I have pictures but those will come later when I get some help.

One thing I had no idea about was how farm land smells! We are driving through the country, where we drive for miles and miles and miles just looking at corn fields and some other crop- my friend thinks it is soy beans- and guess what?

THEY SMELL LIKE POOP!!!!!

Not all of them, but lots of times we have to roll up the windows and put on the air conditioning so we don't smell it. Is it manure? I don't know why they smell like that, since so far there weren't any animals.

Another thing we did in Menomonie was fish! There was a place called Bullfrog Fish Farms that you could go to and they'd give you the fishing poles and everything, and you could buy soda (they call it "pop" here) or ice cream and sit out by the pond and fish. There were ducks swimming around too and they made me nervous because I thought I was going to accidentally hook one with my fishing pole and hook.

The man taught us how to fish and helped us each catch one fish. Then we caught another apiece and went back to the campground and cooked them. This was a very healthful meal, since we also made steamed carrots and sugar snap peas.

On the way to the fish farm, I saw a little bunny running around in the grass next to the highway. I just wanted to pick it up and kiss it! It was so cute. We would be seeing lots more "wildlife", but this was the first.

Oh, right! We stayed TWO nights in Menomonie. The first night was the Fourth of July, and we went to see the local fireworks celebration. I bought a roast chicken at the store and spilled chicken grease all over my new pants. Oh well. At least it wasn't hot.

So that was Menomonie. We liked it a whole lot. Their motto is: Traditional, Yet Progressive. There was even a Food Co-op! We both said we would go back there again.

Day Four

Yesterday was my birthday. We didn't do much other than drive, but I got to have TWO local treats that I have been looking forward to trying! The first is called Poutine, and it's a dish famous in Canada, and it's very popular. It is NOT VERY NUTRITOUS, since all it is is french fries with gravy and cheese on top. I thought it was a special kind of cheese called cheese curds, but the one I had didn't have any of those.

After driving from Niagara Falls, NY to the Canada side, and being a tourist there for a while, we drove to Parry Sound, Ontario. We drove through Toronto, which looks a lot like NYC but we didn't stop in an interesting part. There was a REALLY tall tower that you could take an elevator to the top of but it was more than 20 dollars to go up per person so we decided not to. I got a sausage from a hot dog cart, which also sold VEGGIE dogs! I was really impressed. Pictures to follow.


After stopping at Tim Hortons (which is like Dunkin Donuts, but better donuts and worse coffee) we got on our way.

We camped for the night at a place called Four Mile Creek, and went to put up the tent for the first time. After practicing this amazing new tent a million times before the trip, sure enough, we opened the tent and it was BROKEN!!!!!!!!

We rigged it up the best we could, and went to sleep. The next day we went to The Bad Place, and bought a new, small easy tent. ****art was starting to eat my brain so we had to leave. I think they put secret messages in the music in that store so you feel like a zombie and buy more things.

We stayed that night at a campground called Six Mile Lake. They aren't very creative with their names for campgrounds around here!

The new tent is kinda small and if you don't know, you can't have anything touching the inside of a tent when it rains or all the rain will come through to inside the tent. So that worries me just a little.

The next day was yesterday and that was my birthday. We decided to drive until we couldn't drive any longer!

After we crossed from Canada into Michigan, I was excited for my next Local Treat. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, people call it the U P, or Yoopie. People from there are YOOPERS. A long time ago, people from Cornwall, England settled there, and brought their recipe for PASTYS (pronounced PAST-EEE). They are dough pockets with meat and potatoes and vegetables in them. I had them when I was in England and was looking forward to trying Michigan's version! Also, I had read about them in a book about this area.

The first one I had was AWFUL. I made sure to have another before I left the area and it was everything I hoped it would be. Tender, flaky crust, with tiny cubes of potatoes and carrots and whatever vegetables they were, with bits of ground meat.

Now I am in a place in Eagle River, Wisconsin (Yeahhh!!! We made it as far as Wisconsin!) having a coffee and a cream puff. All the junk food is past me. I am ready for some good VEGETABLES and salad and stuff. Well, maybe a steak when I get to Nebraska.

I didn't expect this place to be as good as it is. It looks very unassuming. But not only was the cream puff AMAZING but they have free WiFi!

Here we go!

Today was my sister's party in Connecticut. We went and stayed there till six o'clock and then we left go to to Albany, New York. We had to drive through a little corner of Massachusetts to get back to NY! When we got hungry we decided to start looking for a place to eat dinner. We saw Burger King, but that wasn't very interesting! You can get BK anywhere! So we kept going, and saw a sign for something that said, "Berkshire Hillbillies". We thought this was pretty funny, so we decided to drive for five miles only, and look for it. If we didn't find it in five minutes, we'd turn around and go back the way we were going.

It turned out to be this really neat country restaurant with home cooking and a bakery and stuff. They were so nice there! My friend got a pork chop and apples, mashed potatoes and candied carrots, and I had a cheeseburger and fries. The burger was on a HOME MADE roll!!! I even stole some of her mashed potatoes, they were so good!

The waitress was super friendly and gave us lots of tips for where to go on our travels. I wrote them down and wrote down her name. If we go to any of those places I think we will send her a postcard. I think she'll like that!

We were too full for dessert but we bought two cinnamon pastries with nuts and icing and a half a dozen home made doughnuts with cinnamon sugar on them to eat for breakfast, 'cause we're visiting my friend, and it's always nice to bring something when you're a guest!

I just ate half a doughnut. BOY are they good. MAD good, as some would say! :)

Leaving that party, it started to rain a little, but it was still sunny. So guess what we saw? A DOUBLE rainbow! It was gorgeous. We got a picture but only one of the rainbows came out in it.

I don't think I'm going to eat anything in Albany because I don't think Albany is famous for any sort of foods. Albany is famous for making laws and having political events. And college.

Tomorrow we are heading out to Niagara Falls. I'll try and post tmw night or the following night.

We are READY!!!

I even helped pack the car.

Everything is fitting neatly in the car, in large bins, looking like a tetris game, with everything in it's own spot. We have snacks and clothes and cooking supplies and toys and games and books and a first aid kid and a million other things.

Tomorrow we will get up early and go have breakfast at my favorite cafe in Brooklyn. Then we will go to my grandma's house in CONNECTICUT for a family party.

From there we will drive to ALBANY, NY and stay at our friend's house. For those of you following this on Google Maps, it should be quite fun!

The next morning we will get up and drive to Niagara Falls, NY. This is going to be a really long drive! I am a little disappointed because near there is where I spent a lot of summers when i was a kid. My mom sent me out of the city most summers, so I stayed with my grandparents, upstate, in a town called Chatauqua. See how close that is to Niagara Falls? Well, we don't really have time to go there. Another year. :)

I hope we go on the Maid Of The Mist. That's the boat that takes you UNDER THE FALLS!!! It is so cool.

I'll try and post more tomorrow!

TWICE! TWICE now I have mapped out our route on Google Maps. I have entered each destination along the way to study the trip and what I might encounter along the way.


TWICE now I have accidentally closed the window.

Computers can be very frustrating.

COOL!!!

You can get buttermilk to DRINK in Idaho!!! At the diner! With your burger!


I like buttermilk a lot but I never buy it at the store because I'm the only person I know that likes it, so I can't really drink a whole quart! I love the idea that I can just order a cup of it to go with my meal, like a milkshake! Only more nutritious and less junky! No sugar!

I tried to cut and paste a picture from www.roadfood.com but I don't think it worked.

More from www.roadsideamerica.com:

Mysterious spots pockmark the tourist landscape, promising to show Nature and Physics gone berserk. Mystery Spots offer an amazingly similar menu of wall-walking, seat-balancing, body-shrinking and -growing tricks; most are placed suspiciously near interstate interchanges and bloated tourist meccas.

The drama of the unexplained is best conveyed by an old codger, wise to government coverups and the shifty vagaries of science. Listening to the ravings of the expert at the Mystery Spot Santa Cruz, California, is half the fun. Unfortunately, many mystery spots fail this crucial test, employing 14-year-olds to convince skeptical summer visitors of their spot's veracity. "Scientists think it's caused by the 'igmmeous' rock in the hill, I think. . . " offered one bored, gum-clicking expert.

For our money, America's premier mystery spot is the Oregon Vortex near Gold Hill, Oregon, open to the public since 1930. Tennis balls really do seem to roll uphill here, brooms really do stand on end.

After subjecting many spots to rigorous, very scientific tests, our Mystery Spot Test Kit ™ indicates that the Oregon Vortex is the most disturbed.

What causes the mysterious goings-on here? No one knows.

One theory is that a great beam of "high velocity soft electrons" exits the earth through the vortex. Another claims that a giant underground device produces the weird effects.

Skeptics usually write off the effects observed in Mystery Spots as nothing more than optical illusions manipulated to mysteriously lighten the wallets of tourists. But when was the last time you enjoyed a vacation accompanied by a skeptic?

For the true believers, there's always a new scientific theory on the gift shop shelves, explaining how TIME speeds up and S-S-L-L-O-W-W-W-W-S-S-S down in a vortex, depending on where you stand and when.

A broom stands on end at the Mystery Spot in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

One man who apparently knew the secret of the Oregon Vortex -- John Litster -- studied its effects first-hand for more than forty years. He even corresponded with Einstein on the subject. What he uncovered no one will ever know, for he burned all his notes before his death.

"The world isn't yet ready for what goes on here," he warned.

What on earth is a "gunfighter charity"?

from www.roadsideamerica.com:


Cody, Wyoming - Daily Street Gunfights

The free gunfights occur Monday through Saturday nights (June 1 thru Sept 30) from 6 pm to about 6:30 pm in the street in front of the porch of the Irma Hotel in downtown Cody. Arrive early and get a free seat on the rock wall or picnic tables. Or rent a folding chair for $1 from the Cody Trolley Tours ticket booth on the porch of the Irma. They'll put your name on the chair so you can arrive 1 minute before the show and still get a front row seat. 200-400 people attend nightly and only 150 folding chairs are available. Half the proceeds go to gunfighter charities. [Mike Johnson, 03/25/2006]

Free Camping

Every time I google "free camping" or "Free campgrounds" I get a lot of information about RV campgrounds. We do NOT HAVE AN RV!!! That's a mobile home. A big house on wheels. Not that I don't think that it would be cool, but I don't know how to drive one, and they take a LOTTA GAS!

So one of the websites mentioned that at least in South Dakota, in many city parks, camping is free.

I am looking forward to learning more about that! Less money spent on camping, more money I will have for local treats!

ooh! An Old Faithful Webcam!

Old Faithful is a geyser. A hole in the ground where water suddenly shoots up in the air with great force. I can't wait to see it for real!

http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/oldfaithfulcam.htm

Whoa. Serious stuff!

http://wikitravel.org/en/Tornado_safety

My brain is stuck in Wisconsin!

I just called to make a reservation at a campsite, for July 7th and 8th. In MINNESOTA. I kept saying,

"So how far are you from Menomonie, Wisconsin?"

The lady was very confused. She kept saying,

"ma'am, we're in MINNESOTA."

Finally I got my act together, or as my students say, I got my head in the game. I reserved two nights at this lovely campsite on the lake. I forget what lake.

This is from their website:

If you're into birding, this is the place to be! With 86 acres of prairie seeded with wildflowers, butterflies, meadow birds, bluebirds and hummingbirds abound. Loons and bald eagles are seen as they migrate to and from their winter/summer areas. Raptors are numerous with the meadow and woods nearby and waterbirds from herons to kingfishers are seen. Bring your binoculars and hiking staff because you're in for a real treat.

Um... RAPTORS???

Wall Drug! As corny as South Of The Border!

In 1930's South Dakota, Ted Hustead's wife had an idea to help bring traffic into their declining drug store. Dorothy Hustead came up with a jingle and created a sign attracting drivers from the nearby highways - "Get a soda/Get root beer/Turn next corner/Just as near/To Highway 16 and 14/Free Ice Water/Wall Drug." The sign worked, and Wall Drug has become an expansive tourist attraction of international renown, taking in more than $10 million a year and attracting some two million visitors annually to a remote town whose population has never exceeded 800. The silly signs have become their trademark of sorts, in time Mr. Hustead was spending $300,000 a year on billboard advertising, including Wall Drug signs on London buses and in every train station in Kenya. The little store has been expanded into a 75,000-square-foot sprawl of western kitsch, housing an enclosed mall - selling everything from souvenir T shirts to pricy cowboy boots- a 400-plus- seat restaurant and a range of free attractions. While it's certainly a sight to be seen when traveling in the West, Wall Drug seems to be famous for its fame - as a sign at the Taj Mahal will prove - "only 10,728 miles to Wall Drug."

So we are going there. We've been planning to go there for years. What we DIDN"T KNOW was that this year is the 100th birthday! Festivities will include:

TUESDAY, JULY 10th-

Time Capsule Opening � 5:30pm � City Library Hut
100th Birthday Party- Picnic & Old Fashion Games -6pm-Wall City Park
Wall Celebration Bull Riding showcases the top 30 bullriders against the top 30 bulls. -7pm- Rodeo Grounds
Fireworks Display-weather permitting

Diamond Point, on Lake George

Beautiful campsite. Recommendation!

A question

my name is t ***. my question is, is it going to be snowing in Canada?

My test is on Friday!

Wish me luck, everybody! My road test is on Friday!

Hopefully, by Friday at 3:15 I will have a driver's license!

caniden money

my name is o*** canaidien money looks like a dollar that has a gold sticker and it has people
in sleds that are in the snow

caniden money

Ms. Alexander's Great Loves, #593

These are some of the things I look for when I am traveling:

Cool independent bookstores (That means NOT Barn Of Evil or Bounders)

Frosty Beverages (like Slurpees, or Frappucinos, but strange local treats that I've never had before)

Library Book Sales

rainbows

Miniature Golf

Weird Tourist Attractions like The World's Biggest Ball Of Snot (I don't THINK this exists... YET)

Oh, WOW.

I just started playing around with Google Maps. The Satellite feature is SO SO SO SO SO cool! I went over above Canada, and clicked hybrid, and I got a combination of actual pictures of the bridge that we might cross to get back into the US, and an overlay of map lines and names!

Then I went over to Niagara Falls, and got really close. I saw the water move!

I wonder if I can stand on a mountain somewhere this summer and have someone take a satellite picture of me? Does that work?

I think we have decided that to avoid crowded, crazy campgrounds on Fourth Of July Weekend, we're going up through southwestern Ontario for the first week. Then on through Michigan, etc etc...

Disappointingly, Wikipedia's information on SW Ontario is really boring. Doesn't mention the rich history of the Underground railroad, or foods we can eat there or anything. Sheesh. Feel free to suggest some better resources!

Does anybody know about these? Do they work?

http://www.cheapify.com/Main_topics/Gas.html?gclid=CJmujIaVwYwCFQXGSgodmnveVw

My Other Obsession

The other thing I am sort of obsessed with finding this summer, along with local yummy things, is a Hot Spring. For those of you who don't know what that is- it's like a lake or pool of water that's naturally hot! They're very relaxing and good for people with aches and pains. Apparently there are TONS of them on the west coast of this country! All those red dots are hot springs!

I am also obsessed with things that come from books. We found about a dozen places to go to to see Laura Ingalls Wilder tourist stuff. Yay!

list of things to remember

My fifth grader friends E**** and A**** are helping me type a list of things to remember to pack this summer. It started because A*** asked if I was going to get a "travel bus" to live in over the summer. I think he meant an RV. But it got us talking about what I would need to remember. From her on, A**** is typing.

you will need food, friend ,money, blankets ,pillow ,family ,first aid kit, sell phone, charger, machese (matches) , radio ,

Greetings! Welcome to Local Treats!

LT is the place where I will be writing about my travels throughout this great country of ours, this summer. I will meet new people, see new things, and last but not least, try new foods I haven't ever seen before! Every place has foods that are special to that region, and I think you can learn a lot about people based on what they eat! I also think that it is a big gesture of friendliness to show that you are willing to try things other people like.

This blog is going to be read by my students at PS 153 in Manhattan, NY, so please keep comments and questions APPROPRIATE AT ALL TIMES. That means YOU, fifth graders! (Just kidding. Let's all watch our language.)

I encourage you all to write in with suggestions for places to see, or things to do, if you know the area we're heading in to. Or use this blog as a starting point for an introduction to this great place!

Issue me challenges. For instance:

1. Take a picture with a local police person. Ask them nicely.

2. Find the local library and see if you're allowed to check out a book.

Then if I do those challenges, I'll take pictures or post about it! You can read all about my adventures this summer and it will be like you're right there! In the back seat! Kicking the back of my chair! HEY YOU CUT THAT OUT OR I AM TURNING THIS CAR AROUND AND WE ARE GOING HOME!