ME: 8/1/07 Buying shoes

I left my good tennis shoes in Maine when I left back in May. So I had been "making do" in Dallas with a funky pair of Grasshoppers (by Keds) that I had bought several years earlier but had never worn. They were workable and for what I needed to do (pack and purge) they were fine. Until the day I went into the attic…there I sweated so much and crawled around in so much muck that they got pretty icky. I wore them "icky" and all through the estate sale and then put them in the wash Monday morning with the last load of laundry at Marilu. I put them in the back window of the car to dry. Well, what had once fit okay, now fit poorly. I put them on for the hike through Old Stone Fort and they gave me a blister on the side of my foot (what a weird place for a blister). I was not going to be able to wear them the rest of the trip (or probably ever). So I only had 1 pair of casual shoes and they were falling apart.

Since I knew the "good" tennis shoes in Maine weren't exactly the comfiest, I decided this would be a good time to buy new tennis shoes. Betsy was driving up from Atlanta to hang out with us for the day and she wouldn't get there for another hour or so. The girl at the front desk told us about a mall nearby, so we called Betsy and told her to meet us there. We were among the first to get to the mall. Except for mall walkers, the only other people there seemed to be the employees who were opening their stores. We looked at the directory and found 3 possible stores. I decided to let the fates decide on which to pick and we'd go to whichever was closest. Foot Locker was the winner, though it turned out to not be as close as I thought from reading the map. That's okay--it turned out to be the perfect place. I actually got a knowledgeable salesperson that knew shoes and feet and was very honest, letting us know what wasn't exactly the best buy or the best quality. He brought out a selection of shoes, told us about them, and then left us alone while I tried them on. Then he came back to see how it was going and brought out some more. I finally ended up with a pair of Nike's that were very comfortable, much nicer than the "good" ones that I have in Maine. AND they were on sale, which is always a nice feature. AND they are iPod compatible. Of course!! I for sure need the technology-related shoes. ;-) For just $30, I can buy a Nike transmitter that fits in a little place under the liner of the left shoe and a receiver that plugs into the bottom of an iPod. I need to do more research but supposedly, it can match your pace to the pace of the music and it can act as a pedometer. I'm not rushing out to buy the transmitter/receiver technology, but I'm glad to know I'm iPod compatible if I ever decide I want that technology in my life.

Does this foot LOOK happy?? :-)


Inside, it looks like a normal shoe.


But pull back the insole and a tiny compartment is revealed.


Here's more info, if you're really curious about it all:
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/gear.html
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/run.html
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/sync.html

ME: 7/31/07 Gift Bag #3

The next gift bag should've been at trip odometer reading 801. We knew we'd be close to our hotel when we hit it. In focusing on finding the hotel, we lost sight of the trip odometer. When I started posting all these blog entries, once I found the Internet connection, I remembered the gift bag. Marty said, "Shouldn't we wait 'til we're back on the road again?" I said, "No way! We earned that!" So she went out to the car and picked out a bag. It was a write-on/wipe-off Sudoku. How clever is that? Way to go, Julie! Can you tell she's used to finding things that will keep 2 young boys from fighting in the back seat on a road trip? Marty's very excited 'cuz she loves Sudoku.

ME: 7/31/07 Dinner at Davy Crockett's

After our expedition at Old Stone Fort, we were more than ready for dinner. The town of Manchester was very nearby. There were 3 choices: Cracker Barrell, The Oak Family Restaurant, and Davy Crockett's Roadhouse. We had promised ourselves we would eat at Cracker Barrell at some time, but we had seen so many of them so far that we thought we could save that until a time when there were no choices. We drove through the parkig lot of The Oak Family Restaurant, but in looking through the window, it was mostly the silver-haired crowd inside and it looked a little musty. It didn't look bad, but we decided to check out Davy Crockett's before we made a final decision. Davy Crockett's definitely looked more lively and a little "fresher" in appearance, so that won.

Oh my, what a good choice! We had Kendall as our waitress and she was fascinated with who we were, where we were from, and where we were going. She made great recommendations and both of us really liked our dinner. I got catfish and it melted in my mouth. Marty got ribs and she said they were delicious. Our only problem was, we thought we had ordered small enough portions to have room for dessert (peach cobbler was the daily special). . We ordered from the "pick two" menu. For $13.99 you got 2 entrees and 2 sides, and Kendall said we could split it. So we each picked an entrée and a side. But even the small portions were too big and we didn't have room for dessert. But oh, it was good.

ME: 7/31/07 Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park

We looked through the AAA Tour Book for something obscure between Memphis and Chattanooga to break up the monotony of the trip and entertain us. Under "Manchester" we found The Old Stone Fort State Park. It describes it as, "The structure is a 2,000-year-old American Indian ceremonial site. Cliffs and waterfalls of two rivers have set apart a promontory on which American Indians constructed a 1.25-mile perimeter, 50-acre enclosure consisting of long, wall-like mounds. A museum orients visitors to the mound site and its builders. Allow 1 hour minimum."

Perfect! We should get to Manchester five-ish, we can hike for an hour or so, and then get some dinner and go on to Chattanooga. We did arrive around five. The museum closed at 4:30 but there were signs around, so we thought we'd be okay. The museum was a fascinating looking building made of layers of thin rock that juts out of the steep slope that goes down to the river. In fact, there's a lookout on the top of the museum with interpretive signs to explain the history and the geography of the region. Marty and I both read the first sign and then give each other a look that says, "we have no idea what that sign just said." It was the worse description of what we were about to see and a horrible explanation of the history or purpose of the "Old Stone Fort". Even the diagrams gave us more confusion than explanation. But all the information on the sign confirmed what we read in the AAAA book: it's a 1.25-mile hike around an American Indian ceremonial site. We did learn that the moniker "Old Stone Fort" was a misnomer given by early settlers who didn't know what it was.

So we headed out on the trail. We were pretty certain from one of the maps that we saw that the "enclosure" went around the edge of a promontory of land totally surrounded by water on 3 sides, so it shouldn't be too easy to get lost. If you just keep going, you'll end up back where you started.

HA! They had done such a bad job of marking the multiple trails (which were never mentioned in any literature or signage) that it was very hard to guess where you were or where you were going. We did see waterfalls through the trees and very far down. The photos don't do it justice as they just look like white haze in the background of a bunch of trees. Oh well. We got to what we thought must be halfway but weren't sure where it was going, so we decided to go back the way we came. Even that didn't work! It was a good thing we were both intelligent, experienced hikers with Girl Scout training or we might still be at Old Stone Fort wandering around. Two hours after arriving at the parking lot, we finally got back to our car. Fortunately, it was a pleasant hike with nice nature to look at and a good hiking surface on most of the trails. It was an enjoyable time and a nice break from being in the car, but until Tennessee gets better engineers and historical technical writers, we can't recommend going to Old Stone Fort Archaeological State Park to learn anything historic or geologic.



Somewhere behind those trees is a waterfall. We could see it but couldn't get close enough to it to really photograph it well. So how good is your imagination?


Here's another test of your imagination with yet another waterfall:


Guess what this is:


The mushroom on the right had to be at least 12 inches tall! Sorry there's nothing in there to give you a good perspective on size. It was quite amazing.


What looks like a construction site is actually some kind of dig into the famous "wall" that we couldn't see. Hopefully, they're making something like a cutaway so people can see the construction and better understand how the thing was built. It sure wasn't obvious from their description.



More details about the site are at: http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/OldStoneFort/

ME: 7/31/07 the times they are a changin'

At 8:19pm Central Daylight Time we crossed the time zone line and entered Eastern Daylight Time. I had my iPhone turned on and watched the time. Sure enough, in just a few seconds after passing the sign, my iPhone said the time was 9:19pm. How fun is that?? When we got to the hotel in Chattanooga, Marty looked at her phone, but it still showed Central time. She turned her phone off and back on again and then it showed Eastern time.

Speaking of Chattanooga, we had a horrible time finding our hotel. Of all the maps we had, the one that helped us the most was a printout from Mapquest that Marty had made. But it worked and we checked in, had a nice visit with the clerk, and were settled in our room by 10:30 Eastern time, 9:30 Central time.

ME: 7/31/07, odometer: 20411

in Nashville, 10 gallons at $2.76 gal = 33.5 mpg

I rarely get mileage this high. Yes, it's all highway mileage, but in Dallas, almost all of my driving is highway. But wait, I'm carrying a L O T of extra weight. Isn't that supposed to make your mileage worse? Marty said it was "consistent" highway driving. I bet that's the key. I don't have cruise control and I don't drive at consistent speeds, even when the highways are pretty empty. And according to people that ride with me (ask my Girl Scout troop girls) or drive behind me (I'm not allowed to drive in caravans with the Church Chums or on any choir trips), I slow down whenever I'm telling a story. I guess that makes a difference in gas mileage, huh? But Marty's driving, she drives consistently, and we're getting great gas mileage!

ME: 7/31/07 Goodie Bag #2

Mileage: 619.4 oh my goodness! We missed the 534 mile mark for our next Julie gift! As soon as Martty thought of it, I reached back behind my seat where the bag of goodies is sitting and said, "Whatever I touch first is the right one." The bag had a box of Nestle Sno-Caps, a.k.a. nonpareils—basically semi-sweet chocolate chips coated in tiny white pearls of sugar. Yea! We got the melty one! It wasn't too bad. There was one big clump, but as soon as we pinched the box, the clump broke into its appropriate pieces, so all is well. We called Julie to thank her and tell her that we found the melty one but she told us there's one more that might've melted. I hope it's next! I asked if we should open the next one at 534+267 and stay on schedule or 619+267 to keep the time between gifts equal. She said we should average the distance, take the square root, and look it up in a logarithm table to calculate when we get to open the next one.

ME: 7/31/07 odometer 20076 9.8 gallons at $2.79 / gal. = 30mpg

just outside of Memphis

ME: 7/31/07, 9:15am, odometer: 20046

leave Little Rock

Nothing to add . . . just giving the details for those who want to know about things like this.

ME: 7/31/07 Finding Food Items

It's always interesting to try to find items in a new grocery store. We stopped at Kroger on our way out of town to get water and the makings for trail mix. So our shopping list included bottled water, M&M's, peanuts, and cashews. This was going to be my first time to have that particular combination for a trail mix but it sounded yummy to try.

These are just two of the signs in the aisles of the Little Rock Kroger. Is there you would've looked? You have to wonder what the logic was behind arranging the items in the store in this configuration. It wasn't alphabetical order, it certainly wasn't food items that go together or are of a similar nature. Asparagus and M&Ms on the same aisle . . . I'm still pondering that one.

ME: 7/31/07 Mark's Bed and Breakfast

Oh my goodness! Bacon, fresh cantaloupe, biscuits and homemade apple butter--what a fabulous way to wake up in the morning! Mark usually goes into the office around 7, but this morning, he stayed until 8 and we got to chat and tell more stories before he had to leave. Not too long after that, Marty and I finished packing up the car and we head out to the local Kroger for some roadtrip food, a thank you card, and some thank you doggie treats for Yoyo.




Later today I received the following email from Mark:

"It was great to visit with you.
Enjoyed meeting Marty!
I enjoyed the goodies you left---a bit chewy for me so I let Yo-Yo have them……LOL
Hope you have a safe and fun trip.
Let me know you many miles total you traveled…….
Tell all the family HI and don’t forget to send me directions on how to Blog….
Have fun!!!!!!!!!!
Z"

ME: 7/31/07 Cookie Easter Eggs

You have to first know that hiding Easter Eggs (empty plastic ones, fortunately) is a favorite pastime of choir friends. I think more have been hidden in my house than any of the other houses combined, but we do spread the wealth. I unearthed many Easter eggs during the "Pack and Purge" . . . under a dresser, behind a piece of artwork on the wall, inside a potpourri pot, behind some books on a bookcase, etc. There were some that I suspect were recently put there . . . as in Dr. Mari stopped by to see how I was doing and hid some new ones . . . but I have no proof of that. It's always fun to find an Easter Egg. Sometimes it's a reminder of the lack of attention to detail in my housekeeping skills but usually it's a reminder of what fun friends I have.

Melissa told me she likes to bake cookies for people leaving on trips, but she didn't have time to do that for this trip. So instead, she was just going to buy some. She asked what flavor and I told her that Vanilla Wafers were always good on a trip. She got all excited because she actually had a box of those in her pantry. They were the miniature ones that seemed even more appropriate somehow for a trip.

Somehow, the box tipped over in the car. Only a few spilled, or so I thought because the box still seemed quite full. But now I keep finding mini Vanilla Wafers in odd spots. This morning I went to get the cord out of my computer bag and there was a handful of cookies in a side pocket. It reminds me of finding Easter Eggs.

ME: 7/30/07 Little Rock Here We Come

When I first emailed Mark that I'd be coming through Little Rock on my big Move to Maine, I asked him to recommend a hotel in Little Rock that was either close to his house or close to the highway and in a safe neighborhood. Instead, he offered his home. He told us to call him when we got to Benton, just outside of Little Rock. It was 8:00 when we got to Benton. If we had left by 2, it might've been 7:00pm instead, a more reasonable time for dinner. He said he had thrown together a chicken pasta salad and made an apple crisp for dessert. Most of Little Rock closes by 8pm and since it was so late, he figured we would only want something light and wouldn't want to have to wait. Wow. What a great host.

We arrive at his house around 8:30 and get to meet Yoyo, his cute miniature dachshund. After a quick tour of his beautiful home, we eat a lovely dinner on his back patio then come inside and enjoy dessert in his cozy living room. What fun to catch up and laugh and tell stories.

ME: 7/30/07 Gifts from Julie

Our friend Julie gave us 2 bottles of water and a collection of little goodies. Each goodie is wrapped, so we can't see what it is. She told us to do the math and figure out how often we would get to open a present so that we spread the packages out evenly. So let's see. It looks like our total mileage is going to be 2,402 miles and there are 9 presents. We'll round to 2,403 miles and that means every 267 miles we get to open a gift. Whooop! What fun! What great friends. ☺.

When the trip odometer hit 250, I started watching it closely. We knew we wanted to pull over for the big occasion. Our choices were a rest stop that would be a few miles early, or an exit that would be a few miles after the magic 267. We opted for the rest stop. Our mileage was 265.9 when we parked. We were warned that one of them would melt, but we couldn't figure out from the wrapping which one that might be. Marty picked a bag and I got to open it. It was a box of tootsie rolls! We thought we had found the one that would melt. But it turns out, it was a box of Tootsie Roll playing cards. I guess we can't play gin while we're driving but I know we'll be able to put these to good use.

Check this out. When the trip odometer was at 265, my regular car odometer was at 19,999 . . . about to turn over 20,000. Kinda fun!

ME: 7/30/07, 4:10 pm, odometer: 19774

Greenville, TX: 5.7 gallons of gas at $2.69/gas

Well, let's see. How many engineers do we know that are reading this blog? Waaaay too many . . . even if we just start with Marty's dad, Marty's husband, and my dad. So for all you readers that really care about this stuff, we'll be tracking mileage, and the price of gas. I'll even do the math for you and calculate the gas mileage.

ME: 7/30/07 Good timing . . . or bad timing

As we were driving north on US 75, I noticed 3 helicopters in the air to the east. That seemed unusual. Then we heard all kinds of sirens on the southbound side of the freeway. Hmmm, they must be related. Then every few minutes another police car would speed by on the southbound side. We knew something big must be happening, so we turned on KRLD. Sure enough, the top news item was continuing coverage of a police chase that had been going on for over an hour. It started in Garland, went north on 75 to McKinney, then south on 75. We heard the live coverage of his exiting near Campbell Road where two police officers threw down tire spkes (or whatever the right name is) that blew out his tire when he drove over them. He eventually stopped his car between Harrigan's and "a law office" (Kondos and Kondos) . . . that's right by my house. That's the exit I take coming home from UNT. Wow. Praise God I left when I did so it wasn't going on when I was still home and that we left late enough that we weren't caught up in it when the guy was northbound on 75. Shwew.

ME: 7/30/07, 3:10pm odometer: 19733

When we planned this trip, I said I wanted to leave Monday after lunch. I wanted the morninig to wait for the Goodwill truck to come pick up the leftovers from the estate sale and some time to close up the house. Well, about the only part of that I got right was the part about leaving after lunch. The estate sale went really well, but I had so much stuff left over that I can have a whole 'nother estate sale. Fortunately, that meant there was no Goodwill truck coming and I didn't have to box everything up for the Goodwill truck. I actually just left everything where it was and will deal with it when I come back in a few weeks. By then, I will figured out with Cathy (who volunteered to take my leftovers to her house for a follow-up garage sale, but she has no idea how much stuff I have left over) how to handle the leftovers. So all I had to focus on between when the estate sale ended at 3:00 and when we were leaving (between 1 and 2 was the raget) was to close up the house and pack the car. I started on the car last night with Matthew. We got 5 crates of books into the car (3 across the back seat and 2 in the far back of the trunk). Then it took the whole morning to finish. I ended up with 2 suitcases filled with clothes in the trunk, plus a printer/scanner and a lot of little stuff to fill in the nooks and crannies (see the entry on Maine Keys for more details). It was 1:00 when I finally finished it all. Then I went back to Melissa's to take another shower before I ran 2 errands and went to Marty's. At straight up 2:00, I got a text message from Mark (our host for tonight) that said, "Left yet? Drive carefully!" Hmmm, I've known Mark since 1970 and he knows to ask if I've actually left. I gues I haven't changed much. I actually got to Marty's at 2:45, so that's pretty good for me. We loaded the car and waited for Frank to get home from work so he could say goodbye. Matthew and Adam just wanted the keys to Marty's car while she was gone. By 3:10 we were off.

ME: 7/30/07 Emergency CDs from Melissa

Melissa, former flutist in our choir and current neighbor who lives across the alley and down 2 houses, let me crash on her couch for the last 8 days while my house was in an uproar getting ready for the estate sale and move. We had estate sale items in both bathrooms and on top of my bed, so there really was no place to sleep. It was very fun for me because we got to spend more time together chatting and laughing. We're both pretty sure that we've spent more time together in the past 8 days than we have in the 10 years that we've known each other.

She made 2 CD compilations for our trip. One is titled "Road Music: Songs about Cars, Roads, Traveling, . . . Plus Some I Just Like." The other is titled "Emergency Music". On that CD cover it says, "Directions: Listen to CD when you just can't keep your eyes open or have nothing to talk about. Warrning: •Beware of mixing with caffeine and sugar. •If you do not sing, bop, or smile, it's time to pull over."

Thanks, Melissa! Hopefully, we won't need it for emergency purposes, but we'll probably just listen to it anyway and enjoy it and think of good friends we are blessed with, like you.

ME: 7/30/07 Keys

I have 2 sets of keys right now to worry about, but it should be 3. I can't find my keychain of keys to things in Maine . . . my house, my office, and 2 other rooms at work. I felt certain it was in the purse that I put on the top shelf in my closet that I dubbed the "Go To Maine" shelf. Now, I've been back in Texas two and a half months and I've touched every item I own once to decide whether to store it in Texas, take it to Maine, or sell it in the Estate Sale. And I still haven't seen the keys. I emptied the closet and re-filled it only with things to go to Maine . . . no keys. I called MRM back in Maine hoping that when I left her the key to my post office box that I had left it on the key ring with all the Maine keys. I knew I hadn't, but I was hoping. But alas, I hadn't. Then I began to wonder where I could've lost them. Were they in the Town Taxi that I used to drive me from Farmington to the airport on that last day? Did they fall out on one of my flights I took to come back to Texas? How much would it cost to replace all my work keys and how much trouble would I be in for losing them? So many questions.

Fast forward to today when I was packing the car. I knew what the big pieces were to go in the car (3 crates of books across the backseat, 2 crates in the back of the trunk, 2 suitcases, a garment bag, and a printer in the trunk) and then I would just fill in the nooks and crannies with "little stuff". Shoes in a shoebag were my favorite little thing to tuck in . . . that and stuff wrapped in canvas bags (one can never have enough canvas bags . . . but I was a good girl, I only kept 6 and put 18 in the estate sale). I had pretty much filled in the trunk and had one little spot left. It was perfect for one more pair of shoes. Hmmm, I'm looking in the closet and there are no more shoes. I look high, I look low. What will fit in that little nook? I notice a pair of hiking boots wrapped in a grocery store bag that I had put up on the top shelf pretty early on after getting back from Maine. We had just finished mud season in Maine when I left and I remembered that I wished I had these boots. Well, they were a little too big for my nook but I decided to take them out to the car and try them. And of course, you've already guessed what was under the boots. Shwew! There were the Maine keys. ☺ God is good!

How appropriate that the very last thing I pack for the trip to Maine is my key ring of keys to Maine.

Now the question is, when I get to Maine, where should I put my keys to Texas??

ME: 7/29/07 Getting Ready

Matthew has been helping me pack and purge. He's not only manual labor, he's been a great listener and a very patient young man as I hem and haw and try to decide what we need to do next. He doesn't say much when I must outloud wondering how to tackle this insurmountable challenge of reducing 23 years worth of packratted treasure to what will fit in a 10x12 storage shed in Texas and the back of my car to go to Maine. I try to remember to feed him at the appropriate times.

Sunday afternoon, he came over at 3:00, as scheduled, when the estate sale was over. I almost wish he wasn't so punctual so I could put off what was inevitable, but he was there and I was paying him, so I got to work and put him to work, too. We started by clearing up the estate sale and getting everything into the house that was important and cleaning up the backyard. Then we took everything off a card table and put it somewhere so that we could take down the card tables and return them to their rightful owners. Next, I wanted to start packing the car but decided we should really work on the shed while it was still light. The car is in the front yard where there's a streetlight and a porch light if it came to that, but the shed gets dark pretty fast. We actually came to a good stopping point on the shed and were headed to dinner at Arby's when I saw the estate sale sign in my front yard and remembered that we needed to take down all the signs. So we delayed dinner long enough to go pick up all the signs. When we put them up, Matthew was driving and I was the runner. Now, I was the driver, so Matthew got to be the runner.

At Arby's we were enjoying our sandwiches and discovering that we both preferred our French fries without catsup when we saw the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile pull up in the parking lot. How fun is that?! It really aroused our curiosity. It's such a funny shape with that big back end curving up out of the bun . . . what's inside in that part? The writing was all in Spanish on the side of the Weinermobile that we could see. Was it bilingual and in English on the other side? Did they have Spanish Weinermobiles and English ones? Inquiring minds want to know! After we finished eating, we investigated (BTW, it's English on one side and Spanish on the other) and took photos.

ME: The Maine Expedition

I'm moving to Maine! For 3 years, anyway. I was there last semester but that was just for a 4 semester visiting appointment, so I left my car in Dallas. But now it's for a 3 year visiting professor appointment, so I'm taking my car. My friend Marty, who loves to drive, is going with me and we're turning it into a fabulous trip of sightseeing, visiting old friends, and having fun.

So I'm calling it the Maine Expedition....ME for short...which is also the abbreviation for Maine. So each entry related to this particular trip will start with an ME in the title.

Enjoy!!