Cheap and Relaxing Kicks Off 2014

Steven and I have a running joke that it doesn’t take much to amuse us.  We don’t mind splurging on ourselves once in a while, but generally cheap and relaxing is what we look for in activities with the main ingredient just being each other’s company.  I’ve been off the past two weeks – a gift of time when the Catholic University I work for is closed for Christmas/New Year’s and the addition of a few vacation days. 

It took me until I turned 50 to really enjoy sleeping in and taking naps!

It’s been blessedly low-key.  With Steve’s work schedule, we got a lovely mix of days and evenings together.  We slept in and took naps (a past time I’ve only recently come to appreciate in the past year or so); worked on a couple house projects and watched a few movies and TED talks with the new Google Chromecast he got us for Christmas.

It was also a reminder of just how much I enjoy our time in the kitchen.  I wouldn’t call us foodies, but we enjoy sharing our meals and have developed a smooth flow around the kitchen when we cook together.  Steve’s often inspired to combine foods that I would never think to (with delicious results!) and I love to cook a wide range from simple to elaborate meals.  We can easily entertain ourselves with a night of conversation over a good meal. 

Ours looked just like these from the website!

Steve mentioned he’d like to make a bunch of crock pot freezer meals for when I go back to work and our schedules get tight.  And in Team Morgan fashion, it became an adventure.  Friday we looked at the website, Mommy’s Fabulous Finds, reviewed the recipes, shopping list and headed to the store.  Yesterday afternoon we laid everything out on the counter, brought over Steve’s lap top and started the prep work.  In just a few hours, we chopped peppers, onions, garlic and meats, assembled and labeled the ten meals and cleaned up.  We had a ball and are already talking about ideas for the next batch of meals.

Like I said, it really doesn't take much to amuse us.  Long live cheap and relaxing!

Route 66 baby ~ “FROM CHICAGO TO LA ~ IT’S A WRAP!” (A blog series of our two week adventure!)

Thursday, 5/16/13

Still smiling two weeks in!

We started the day just a short distance away from the end of the route at the Santa Monica Pier.  The California traffic however makes for a very SLOW travel day.  Throughout the day we hit our first McDonalds that has a TESLA charging station.  I’ve fallen in love with the Tesla on this trip and am excited we are going to a gallery to see one after the trip is over. 

We hit the smog in San Bernardino and looked to have lunch at a famous Route restaurant, Bono’s, in Fontana, CA, but found it to be another closed icon, fairly recent by the looks of it.  Onward and through Rancho Cucamonga where I spot my first “Mexicatessan” – a new word for me! We picked up Foothill Boulevard here and traveled it through the next 10 cities to Pasadena.  It’s very slow going and the traces of the original Route are far and few between the strip malls, chain restaurants and urban sprawl we pass through. 
 
In Pasadena we followed the Arroyo Seco Parkway to the final section of Rout 66 – Sunset Boulevard.  We turned onto Santa Monica Boulevard at 3:34pm with just a short distance to go through Hollywood, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills before reaching Santa Monica.  And this began our trip in near dead stopped traffic for almost two hours.  Soooooooo close….and yet so far away….

The corner of SM Boulevard and Ocean Avenue

We finally reached the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, at 5:16 pm on a beautiful 65 degree sunny evening, 2,725 miles from our starting point.  After parking the car, we walked to take our final Route 66 pic at the Will Rogers Highway plaque.  Down the road a bit was Palisades Park and the Santa Monica Pier, in full swing.

So this was it.  It was bittersweet to realize we were finished.  Honestly, we could have kept on going.  As vacations go, this was one of our best.  We saw a lot, had some great adventures, met some nice people, a special little smiling French fry and fit in a little unexpected four wheeling!  We ate well, drank copious amounts of coffee and tea, and had some fun with our meals and snacks.  We laughed hard, shared comfortable silences and had awesome conversations.  It was months in the planning and provided more than I ever expected.  It was a journey that provided a bit of history, some truly beautiful landscape and most important, the opportunity to explore it over two leisurely weeks with each other. 
 
There’s a big shout out thank you to add to the end of this series.  The one aspect of the trip I haven’t written about has been the group of family and friends who came a long for the ride in spirit.  We got sent information on the Route, our friends the Stouters travelled it a month before we did and shared highlights, there have been Facebook “likes”, blog “follows” and great comments in both places as well as on the Facebook picture album.  Sharing the trip has been a pleasure and privilege and we thank you for coming along for the ride and adding to the adventure!

Route 66 baby ~ DYNAMICS OF “LIFE IN THE CAR” (A blog series of our two week adventure!)

We love road trips. 

Our "Constant"

We embrace them, often choosing to drive to our vacation destination over flying.  We traveled often with Abram when he was younger – trips that included car games, laughter and good conversations with a noted absence of DVD players or earplugs.  The time together is the point of the drive.  Besides the destination of where we’re headed, the car time is a little separate vacation within a vacation. 

Route 66 was a stand-out.  This was the first time the drive was the focal point of the trip and for two weeks no less.  The dynamics changed a bit when the car became the only constant on the trip.

Coolest McD's on the trip!

First dynamic? Coffee and Tea.  As much as we wanted to stay true to local diners (more about these in another post) this was one necessity we quickly addressed.   Tea for me was no problem - vacation or not, I carry my own 24/7 because I prefer Bigelow Constant Comment.  So, a little hot water and I’m good to go (add a little Sugar in the Raw, which I also carry, and I’m extra happy).  Steve however was at the mercy of the local diner coffee gods – and they weren’t too kind this trip.  Enter…McDonald’s a couple times a day for a good, consistent cup of brew that Steve enjoys.      

We switched on & off driving and the person riding shotgun this trip definitely carried the title of Car Concierge.  From that seat you ran the inner working of the car and believe me, it’s no fluff job.  It’s total control of all zones in the car other than the driver’s seat.  This includes:

• Passenger side foot area –Amy’s purse, various tourist publications for the current state, three ring binder with maps, travel journal and garbage collection bag
• Glove compartment – receipts, snack items, napkins and utensils (getting this all in around that pesky car manual is no easy fete!)
• Center console – keeper of glasses, sunglasses, iPod, and the occasional stray map or two
• Dashboard – useful for heating leftovers, warming cookies to that “just out of the oven softness” and of course on this trip, monitoring Wilson (our Ore-Ida smiley French fry – more about HIM in a later post)
• Back seat - case of water, snacks, picnic/hiking backpack, pillows, and cooler filled with individual packets of peanut butter and jelly, butter and cream cheese from the hotel breakfast bar, leftovers from the previous days lunch or dinner, and the stray candy bar or two.  (Each morning at the hotel we’d fill a couple of gallon Ziploc bags with ice for the cooler.  Worked like a charm!)

More about this meal in another post!

As Car Concierge, you juggle the planning and execution of all beverages, meals and snacks, including dashboard reheats (complete with makeshift foil “oven”), navigational devices, maps, iPod and music stations, glasses and sunglasses,  pictures of passing sights, pillow placements for weary arms and tender elbows  and of course, note taking (I’m a writer – of course there’s always a running travel journal!)

Oldest DQ we could find!

We love to snack and that pastime definitely rose to a whole new level on this trip.  Our McDonald’s stops generally vetted a couple cookies or a pie or two for the glove compartment.  There were stops at Dairy Queen or Sonic, nearly every day.  Not something we do at home, where an ice cream stop is a once a month treat!

Passing thousands of miles through farm and agriculture country each day found each of us casually remarking  “you’ve got cows” and the inevitable “lost your cows” when a grave yard was passed.  We didn’t bother keeping count, it was just enough to know whether you had some or not. A silly road trip game that stuck; even with a couple of 50 year olds.  At times there was a stray horse or two thrown in and one time Steve even got credit for a few Gazelles! 

Gas stops fell into an easy routine of Steve at the pump while I cleaned the window with the squeegee – something I never do at home.  I’m not one to pass up a restroom opportunity, so we generally went into each store and then stocked up on glove compartment and backseat snacks while the opportunity presented itself!  One store had a particularly busy, albeit shady transaction being done in the front row of the parking lot that ended when the plain clothes cop finished his shopping, went over and shooed them off the property. 

The luxury of time, two whole weeks, afforded plenty of long, companionable silences and plenty of great extended conversations. There were no interruptions, no residual irritations about a work issue from earlier in the day, no deadlines of heading out to a meeting or obligation to be somewhere.  I loved that there was a particular stock Steve was watching during the trip and over the course of a few days he taught me about what it means to short a stock, how it works and how it affects the market.   We chatted about family histories, world events, places we’d just visited, Route 66 facts, retiring and writing plots.  Often he had me laughing until I cried.  Some days we made note at the top of the travel journal page of items to look up on the internet that night.   (I’m talking really important stuff like…How long ago did George Carlin die? T. Boone Pickens and his view of windmills and the Ghia automobile.)

When we planned the trip, partially as a 30^th wedding anniversary gift to each other, I honestly hadn’t given much thought to all the car time we were going to have.  It certainly took on a life of its own as we got rolling.  Sure, we could have gotten in and just driven.  But we took it to the next level.  It was fun and adventurous.  Hence, neither of us had a moment where we dreaded having to get back in the car again.  Yes, it was our constant – a source of good food, good conversation and good times.  It’s nice to know that after two weeks in the car, I’m ready to hit the road again with this man for the next thirty years and beyond.

Next up... "Oh, The Places We've Seen!"  Join me, won't you?

Route 66 baby ~ THE OVERVIEW (A blog series of our two week adventure!)

If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that’s the best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

It winds from chicago to la,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.  (Nat King Cole, Route 66, YouTube)

That was us!  We planned to motor west; we were looking for some kicks, so we decided on Route 66. 

We got to Chicago on May 6^th, grabbed our Tahoe rental and headed out.  Our only time commitment stretched 13 days away, at 7 am May 18^th when our flight for home left LAX.  Such freedom!

A few months of prep work got us a three ring binder that held The Route 66 Map Series, a list of Route 66 attractions as well as a few “off-route” ones, and of course an enticing list of “foodie” stops.  It was great fun when we stumbled across Billy Connolly's Route 66, a British documentary television series, consisting of four episodes, shot between April and June 2011.  His unique take on the route and British accent made the episodes (found on YouTube) an entertaining preview of the trip to come.

Other than following the route, we had no agenda and no reservations.  Lucky for us, the past thirty years together have held many road trips, so the prospect of spending the better part of two weeks in a car together didn’t scare us.  We quickly settled into a routine of changing hotels each night and a balance of road time, attraction time and down time. 

It took a bit, but we deciphered the flow and instructions of the maps which were a little quirky and with basically no mileage markers, or lengths of travel but more landmarks and route turns.  It was a mix of constant vigilance and a willingness to miss a turn or two and just keep on going.  We would make a rough plan of the next leg of the journey either the night before in the hotel room or over a leisurely breakfast. 

Somewhere around mid-afternoon we’d decide on our stopping point for the night and call ahead to make a reservation.  Traveling in the off-season made this possible and we didn’t run into any issues until our very last reservation, but we were in LA by then, truly back to civilization and it made for an interesting twist!

So what was the REALITY of spending two weeks together, rolling over two thousand miles in 13 days?  Well, it WAS a lot of time ~ and when all was said and done, on the last night over dinner, I asked Steve if he was ready to go home.  He replied, “I could keep going…” And I could have too.  So, maybe the trip will hold more than memories for us.  It could be an initiation into more cross country trips like it or it could be a glimpse into our retirement lifestyle.  Then again, it may just be another fond memory of the vacation we took for our thirtieth anniversary.  

In any form, it was great and the blog series is where I plan to write and share some of the highlights of the sites and places we visited, meals that ranged from awesome steaks to dashboard reheats, a roadway that seemed to come as go as it pleased (even into a dry riverbed) and a little friend we picked up along the way.  

Join me, won’t you?

UNCLE TOM (A-Z April Blog Challenge)

Uncle Tom wasn’t actually an uncle at all.  He was my godfather.  And he was a part of my life until I was around 5 or 6 years old.  And then he wasn’t but that’s not what this post is about.  It’s about the time that he was there and how cool it was that he was in my life.  And it’s also written and remembered from the perspective of a five year old, so please forgive the self-absorbed indulgent tone….

My father had been an only child, so there was no aunt or uncle for us kids on his side.  My mom had a brother, but they weren’t close (at least not by the time I came a long), so there wasn’t any aunt or uncle there either.  So, it was just Uncle Tom.  And although all my brothers and sisters called him uncle, I knew that he was really there for me, because he was my godfather. And all the special things he did, well, that was because of me too.  And I always felt like a princess around him and for me that was unusual. 

I had three very favorite times with Uncle Tom.  I’m sure it was because they were repeats that I’m able to evoke the memory of them over a single incident or two.  First off, every Christmas morning, miraculously, Santa Claus always had to stop back at the house to drop off just one more present for each of us.  Surely, it was Uncle Tom behind that beard.  But when I believed in Santa Clause, as I did at 5, well, he was the real deal.

It was with Uncle Tom’s family that we vacationed for the two weeks in Alleghany in the summer.  There was not another vacation that I ever took with my family or my parents until I was an adult and planned it myself.  So those times sitting on his lap outside the cabin, or wading down in the stream to look at salamanders, well, they were magical times. And they provided me with the only vacation memories I have as a child with my whole family as well.   

The only pin that remains

And finally, were my birthdays.  Every year, he took me to the Ice Capades.  Just me.  I’d get dressed up and he would pick me up.  We’d travel the 15 minutes into Buffalo – the BIG CITY. It was a magical night at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium – the place was enormous!   The shows were always magnificent, the skaters so incredibly graceful.  Every evening ended with him buying me a skater pin.  In mid turn, her skirt ruffled up around her.  The pin was the same every year, just a different color outfit on the skater, but always in the same pose, white skates and thin metal blades gleaming.  What I wouldn’t give today to have all those pins back.  But those nights, it was the company and the occasion, the feeling of being so special.  That is what I remember the most.  At those times, I was the center of the universe.   He always made me feel that way. 

And for that, I loved him and always will.