On the road…(pt.1)

On February 29, 2016February 29, 2016 By Mark AndersonIn General Commentary, Travel9 Comments

Last week I wrote about our plans for driving to Florida and then on to Dallas. And I’m happy to report that it has been a wonderful start to all of that.

Leaving last Friday morning, we had a terrific drive to Nashville, stopping by Metropolis, Illinois, enroute, for a quick view of the famed statue of Superman.

Despite very heavy traffic–thanks to Friday rush hour and various road construction–we arrived safe and sound to our hotel right next to the Nashville Airport and were quite pleased with our accommodations.

Nothing like a good cup of hot coffee to soothe the rankled nerves after an eight-hour drive!

Carolyn ready to tour the Carnton House.

Saturday we were up and out early to drive down to Carnton Plantation in nearby Franklin, Tennessee. For anyone who has read Widow of the South, that’s where it all took place.

It was quite impressive, to say the least, and the weather couldn’t have been any better!

That evening, we took in the Grand Ole Opry, something we had enjoyed doing three or four times many years ago. Not only was it relaxing and lots of fun, but it reinforced my belief in the importance of traditions.

And whether or not one is a country music fan (I am), there is no doubt that what the Grand Ole Opry represents is a mighty strong tradition that should be around forever.

On the road once more Sunday morning, we pointed the Chevy Equinox southeast and set off for Saint Augustine, Florida.

As usually happens, though, we were slowed up in the traffic congestion of Atlanta. Patience and a calm attitude were in order, and we finally made it out of that mess without being delayed too much.

Saint Augustine, Florida, offered us better weather than we could have dreamed of. We spent most of the day riding along on the Red Train Tour, one of those hop on-hop off deals.

Not only did we re-learn the historic significance of the oldest city, but we met some very nice people along the way.

Leisurely strolling through the many streets that are chock full of shops of just about every genre, we found the time passed pleasantly and it was a most delightful day.

A canopy of live oaks and Spanish moss near the Fountain of Youth

After we’d had enough of it all by 4:30, we were ready to get in our car and leave the historic Old Town behind and drive over the big bridge out to Vilano Beach and get up close and personal with the Atlantic.

Then, it was a short drive north on A1A for a delicious seafood dinner at an oceanside restaurant called the Reef.

Without a doubt, it offered great food, wonderful ambiance, and a fantastic ocean view well worth the visit.

We wrapped up our first day in Florida with a quick drive over the Bridge of Lions and out to the famous lighthouse.

We were just in time as twilight held off long enough for us to snap a picture of the old structure that’s been standing there since 1857.

By that time, we were ready to call it a day and head back to our hotel and relax and think about the next leg of the trip: a short drive down to Titusville to spend the next night with friends where we used to live.

To be continued…

Road trip…half the fun is getting there!

On February 24, 2016February 24, 2016 By Mark AndersonIn Blogging 101, General Commentary, Travel11 Comments

This time of year has always been special for me. The hardest part of winter is behind us—usually—and thoughts begin to turn to spring and all of the good times that will follow.

Suddenly, I’m struck by the urge to “drive south,” as I did annually for countless years as a rite of spring. Older and wiser (?) now, I still get that restless feeling, as though Florida’s spell once again persists in tugging me to her.

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
-Ernest Hemingway

And so, unable to resist the siren call again, this coming Friday morning, we’ll be setting off early for points south, our ultimate destination being Dallas, Texas–via Florida.

Unlike the “young and foolish” days, when we’d drive straight through to Florida for spring break, we’ll be breaking this year’s sojourn into smaller segments.

We’ll spend Friday and Saturday night in Nashville, a place we’ve visited a few times before and passed through enroute to Florida numerous times.

Since we have the extra time there on Saturday, we plan to make the short drive to Carnton Plantation and the historic site where the Battle of Franklin was waged during the Civil War.

After that, we’ll visit the Grand Ole Opry and see the show that evening. We attended several years ago and had a great time and are looking forward to the fun of attending this year.

It will be an early wakeup on Sunday morning as we’ll hit the road to Saint Augustine, Florida. There will be good, long walks and leisurely browsing and nosing about through the historic sites on Monday. Without a doubt, we’ll be making a concerted effort to lose the lily-white winter complexions, too!

Tuesday’s drive will be much shorter, since we’re only going down as far as Titusville, near the Space Center. We’ll hook up with good friends, Richard and Sandy, who live there, and enjoy dinner out and spending the night at their home.

It will be good to return to our old neighborhood with them for a brief time and reminisce about the year I taught at Astronaut High School before moving back to Illinois following the Challenger disaster.

After what will no doubt be a quick evening, we’ll bid our good friends farewell on Wednesday morning and set sail once more to Naples, over on the other side of the state. There, we’ll meet up with another couple who have recently moved from Illinois and have graciously invited us to spend the night at their new place.

Naples is a place neither of us has been before, so this part of the adventure will be new and exciting. We told our friends we’re not expecting to be “entertained,” only a quick orientation of the area, with a nice walk followed by plenty of poolside sitting!

Our next port of call on Thursday will be a short jaunt to Fort Meyers where we’ll spend the weekend with our daughter Laura. It’s a long and involved story as to the “how” and “why” she lives in Fort Meyers, so I won’t get in to any of that. But we’re eager to see her and to learn the lay of the land of another place we’ve not been previously.

Our plans are to stay at her apartment through Sunday before pointing the Chevy Equinox northwest for a very long day’s drive to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

On this next leg of our grand tour, we’ll eventually meet up with our son’s family who will be flying in to Dallas on Thursday.

Why Dallas?

hockeypuck.goldeninternetmarketingllc.com

Here’s the scoop. For the past few years our son and his wife and our two grandsons have gone to see our favorite hockey team, the Chicago Blackhawks, play at an out-of-town venue.

This year they chose Dallas. Thus, this past Christmas, Santa left game tickets for us all for the Friday, March 11 game there in “Big D.”

Carolyn and I had the crazy idea that we could tie a Florida trip in with the Dallas one, and so our winter travel plans were formed!

After Carolyn and I depart Baton Rouge, we’ll arrive in Dallas a few days ahead of the rest of the folks, and we plan to tour the Kennedy assassination sites and maybe meet some other friends from the Dallas area for lunch.

There will be plenty of time to spend with the grandsons on Saturday before they have to fly home to Illinois, and we have to pack the car again for our drive home as well. It will be fun beyond belief, I’m certain.

On paper this all looks like a piece of cake. Of course, the reality of the many miles between here and there is something else altogether. Nevertheless, I’m eagerly looking forward to getting the whole thing started this Friday morning and clicking off those abundant miles. It’s a good thing I enjoy driving.

Like Hemingway, I always remind anyone traveling with me, that half the fun is getting there.

Let the journey begin!

Another February Adventure…

On March 2, 2015March 3, 2015 By Mark AndersonIn Friends, General Commentary, Travel4 Comments

For the last two years, we’ve taken February vacations to places neither of us has been before. Last February, we journeyed to Stone Mountain, Atlanta, and A.H. Stephens State Park in Georgia. We then visited Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina. We had a wonderful time in each place, despite the unusually cold and stormy weather.

Now, writing this from my home office following this year’s sojourn, I’m giving serious thought to re-thinking our future trips at this time of the year. We are once again back home in white, bright, and cold northern Illinois after a week in Panama City Beach, Florida. We have seen more sun here at home within the past twenty-four hours than we did for most of our time in Florida’s Panhandle location! The wife and I have had some serious discussions regarding maybe taking our little February trips a bit later in the month—or even into March. We shall see.

Regardless, we enjoyed our week down there after driving through some seriously nasty weather south of Nashville.

Our friends, Bill and Barb, belong to a Time Share organization, and they were able to secure a week’s stay for the four of us at Marriott’s Legends Edge. They flew, we drove, and we timed our arrival there so that we could pick them up at the airport.

Arriving by mid-afternoon on Saturday, Carolyn and I located the place, checked in, and had time for a nice lunch of fish tacos at the golf club restaurant before heading to the airport. Our friends’ flight was right on time so we were off for them to check in and then explore the various parts of Panama City Beach.

Although it was cool and overcast, I still persisted in wearing shorts. Such a rebel am I! Monday was perhaps the most “Florida-like” of the week, with sun darting in and out of a gray cloud cover. The temperature was good enough for us to spend several hours poolside, soaking some sunshine into our winterized bodies.

Unfortunately, that was the only day we were able to feel good about any kind of poolside lounging. Of course, there were a couple of days of downright cold temperatures, where the long pants were in order, so I stowed my rebellious ways for the sake of being warm and comfortable.

And my grandiose plans to work on my writing fell by the wayside, as I booted up my MacBook Pro only once during the week. Neither was I in the proper frame of mind to write fiction, nor was there a good place to get away and write in peace and solitude as I prefer. So I made lots of mental notes and reminders of what I had to get going on as soon as I got back home.

On the other hand, I managed to get lots of reading done—The Billionaire’s Vinegar—a story about the world’s most expensive bottle of wine and the mystery surrounding it. Not much of a wine fanatic or devotee, I wasn’t all that enthralled with the book. But it’s for a book club discussion in the near future, so I plodded through it and finished it during those cold days in Florida.

Dinner at Harpoon Harry's-Surf and white sands in the background! — Dinner at Harpoon Harry’s

Whatever else we weren’t able to do during the week, we made up for with our nightly dinners. Seafood was the order of our stay there, and we had some delicious grouper, seafood platters, and scallops, to name a few of our favorites.

In Panama City Beach, there are numerous fine places to get good seafood: Dirty Dicks, Sharkey’s, Harpoon Harry’s, The Front Porch, and The Whale’s Tail over on the beach in Destin. Nothing goes together like a cold bottle of Bud and a blackened grouper sandwich!

Our last night there, we had a wonderful dinner at Captain Anderson’s, a Panama City Beach tradition since 1967. It is one of those classic old-time restaurants, with lots of room and plenty of tables (all filled!) to accommodate hundreds. Our meals were well worth the cost, and it was a wonderful way to wrap up a fun—though chilly—week with friends.

The next morning, we packed up, checked out, and dropped Bill and Barb off at the airport and continued up the road for home, where we hoped to arrive right around midnight. But that is a story for my next post.