Heading Back East, and 2 more cafes!

We left Denver a few days after Easter. Our first order of business was to make sure that each morning when we woke, we would be able to find WiFi so Libby could teach. Through a combination of public WiFi (thanks McDonalds!) and an internet hotspot that we had checked out from the Denver Library, we were able to make that happen.

We were able to meet up with Libby’s sister Aly & her husband Parker for lunch in St. Louis at a hipster burger joint called Mac’s Local Eats. Our friends Rob & Katie joined us as well. We even got to see some of the renovation progress at their new house!

After that brief stopover, we headed on to Shelbyville, KY to stay a couple of days. Spark Cafe had opened just a quick drive from there, so it was the perfect opportunity to visit family and check off another community cafe! Nellie, Mark and Caelin joined us for the field trip over to Versailles (pronounced ver-sales). Interesting fact — almost all of the white oak barrels that are used to age bourbon are produced in either Versailles, KY or Versailles, MO. Well, at least I think it was interesting! 😉

Spark was the 40th community cafe that we visited since we left SAME over a year ago. This cafe was started as a result of a high school class project that one of the students just couldn’t let go. As a result of Tristin’s temerity as well as the dedication of Andy, his teacher (both of these folks were working the day we visited without notice), there is finally a place in Versailles that people who are experiencing poverty can dine with dignity.

Upon leaving Shelbyville, we headed further south to Knoxville, TN. We had another “odd job” there that we had committed to — we were babysitting our friend Mary’s 2 year old son for a week! You may remember Emory from such past posts as Take it to the House Mountain or Knoxville a.k.a. Emoryville. Josh and Mary were going on vacation and needed help with their little guy, and since we didn’t have any other obligations, we volunteered. We did our best to keep Emory entertained — we went to story time readalouds, splash pads, the Knoxville Zoo, the Knoxville Art Museum, several parks. We even took a 3 hour road trip to meet our friend Marisa and her kids in Roanoke, VA!

We learned a lot from Emory over that week. Mostly we learned how 2 year olds can be just as set in their ways as the rest of us! After Mary & Josh returned and we had a chance to catch up with them and hear about their trip, it was time to get back on the road. We had the chance to see yet another Cafe that had recently opened, this time in Wytheville, VA.

Wytheville is a smaller town, fewer than 8000 people in all. But like a lot of the small towns in the south, there is a significant number of people who have no idea where their next meal is coming from. Open Door Cafe opened last November in an effort to feed those folks, as well as to offer a healthy meal to anyone who wanted to come inside. They ask for an $8 donation, but will accept any amount. Volunteering is also an option to pay for a meal. While we ate, we visited with the staff there and heard about the experiences that they have had in the months since they opened.

(We have written a more in depth account of our visit to Open Door on our new website — read it here!)

From Wytheville it was a short but beautiful drive south to Boone, NC. We will be spending quite a bit of time there this summer, filling in at F.A.R.M. Cafe so some of their staff members can take some time off. There are certainly worse places to spend time!

Florida and beyond details

We are finally getting around to writing about our time in Florida. The weather was beautiful and we had a bunch of time outside. Our sun kissed skin is grateful for that time. We had many opportunities to play golf, bike ride, doing puzzles, reading books, take the dogs for long walks, and hang out with Libby’s parents and Aunt Patsy and Uncle Carl. We are so grateful to have had their house as our home-base for so long. There were a few trips to Fort Meyers to see Aunt Jane and Uncle Terry. Aly and Parker came down, too! When Aly was with us we took an art class and did lots of yoga! Our 21st wedding anniversary happened during this time, too, so we went deep sea fishing to celebrate, of course! We even got to visit with friends of Brad’s family and his parents while they were visiting Florida, too!

Leo , Gemini, and Brad had a little bit of a scare on a walk right near the end of our stay. Brad was walking the boys and an elderly neighbor opened her front door to check for a package. One of her large dogs snuck by her and ran straight for them. Brad tried to fight off this dog but she managed to do some damage to Leo. We rushed him to the nearest vet where he had a bunch of stitches and had to wear a cone for the whole rest of our trip. The poor little guy. Although traumatized, Brad, Leo and Gemini have all recovered nicely.

The weather did not cooperate, as usual, as we moved North and West towards Denver. It was so cold, again! We began thinking maybe the universe was telling us that we didn’t stay South long enough this time. Snow and icy conditions swept across the Midwest. Our path was changed multiple times during our trip to accommodate warmer weather and safer travel plans.

We ended up taking a detour through San Antonio to see some friends. We happened to be in town during the marathon which was a fun bonus. Our stop included helping the San Antonio Mennonite Church create a plan for renovating a space into a commercial kitchen. Jeannie and Mark Birky have been volunteering with this congregation for the winter. We were happy to get to lend a hand and visit with them as well.

We really liked our short time in San Antonio and would like to return to see a little more of the city sometime soon.

While we were in Florida, Libby started teaching for an online company VIPKid. We have a friend who recommended the company. It works out great because she can teach from anywhere as long as we have wifi. Her classes are usually early morning or late at night. She teaches individual Chinese students English in 25 minutes sessions. Although she doesn’t love getting up in the morning, it is clear she is still a good teacher. She puts a lot of time and effort in to these classes. Along the way back, we pulled into various towns and were able to access WiFi so she could complete her classes.

The weather on the way back wasn’t the greatest but Mo (our van) did great. We were not ready to be back in snow but it looks like Denver is not quite ready for Spring.

Heading East!

Our first day after San Diego we drove towards Arizona with the hope of getting some miles under our belts. It’s was a little weird to be back in the van driving after so many days where we were in one place. Luckily, the batteries did just fine with a few days of rest and our fridge was still holding food cold.

We stopped for the night in Yuma, AZ and then continued on to Tucson. We really enjoyed the art scene there. We also enjoyed both the east and west side of Saguaro National Park. We were even able to take a beautiful bike ride through the cacti. The sunsets there were amazing! Libby loved the U of A Center for Creative Photography where many of Ansel Adams photos are on display.

El Paso was our next stop on the journey. Our first night in town we explored Winter Fest which was a fun downtown light display with an ice skating rink. We didn’t go ice skating but we did love seeing the interesting stores on El Paso Street. We were lucky enough to get tamale making lessons from Roman & Adriana while we were in town. These two awesome souls are with One Grub, a vegan focused food project in El Paso that is working on opening a food hub with a pay-what-you-can cafe. Later that night they took us to L & J’s, a famous Texas spot, for an amazing dinner. The next day we walked up the steep incline of Scenic Drive with the dogs. The 1.5 mile long road is closed to traffic every Sunday so pedestrians and cyclists can enjoy it. The dogs were being stalked by some very large hawks so we made it a quick walk.

El Paso has also recently brought back their trolley system. We loved seeing the retro styles touring around the town. That afternoon was spent listening to an El Paso historian talking about the history of the KKK in this area. We wanted to attend this presentation because we had just finished reading Ron Stallworth’s The Black Klansman. At the finale of the presentation, the presenter asked for questions and an audience member introduced the person sitting next to her as “the real Black Klansman”. We were floored that Ron Stallworth just happened to be in the same audience. Brad ran right out to get our copy of the book from the van which he graciously autographed.

The next stop on the adventure was to Carlsbad Caverns. This was a major item on Libby’s bucket list and she was so excited to get to see it. We were 79 stories underground exploring stalagmites and stalactites. Surprisingly, it was warmer underground than it was in Carlsbad!   

After the Caverns we continued the long trek through Texas.  Waco, TX was our next major stop, and it is another cute college town. We walked along the river walk and got coffee at Common Grounds, right by Baylor University. We had to stop at Magnolia – the home furnishing store created by Chip and Joanna Gains from HGTV.  The crowds weren’t too bad while we were there since it was a random weekday, but apparently things can get a little crazy around the weekends.  They have a bakery on-site that sells over 3000 cupcakes every DAY.

Once we made it to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, our first stop was at the pay-what-you-can Taste Project for lunch. It was great to see Jeff again. Taste is located in the Southwest corner of Fort Worth and has been open for just about a year.  They are doing great work in that community. We brought Lib’s sister Katie and had another amazing meal.

On the Dallas side of things, we also got to catch up with Cam & Kate and introduce these great friends of our to Katie and Rich. They are practically neighbors now that Katie and Rich have moved to Plano.

Lib’s dad happened to be in town this weekend as well and we all got to tour Katie and Rich’s new home that is still in progress.  For a city of over 300,000 people, Plano has a really quaint little downtown area very close to where they are building their house.  We went through the free Interurban Railway Museum and had dinner at an amazing Austrian/German restaurant.  And yes, we definitely had schnitzel with noodles.  🙂

Progress Update

It has been a couple of weeks since our last progress update! We have been so busy having fun that we hadn’t taken the time to break it all down.  We have tacked on another 1800 miles since Shelbyville which means we have driven over 4500 miles since we left Denver. That’s over 100 hours of windshield time!

Other fun numbers: tarantula sightings is still at 2, but we have now seen more dead armadillos than we can count; We have visited 13 states (some more than once!) and most noteably have not stopped for fast food even one time!

Community Cafes we have visited on this trip:

1. Karma Cafe, Albuquerque NM
2. 580 Coffeehouse, Enid OK
3. ComeUnity Cafe, Jackson TN
4. One Acre Cafe, Johnson City TN
5. Rosetta’s Kitchen, Asheville, NC
6. F.A.R.M. Cafe, Boone NC
7. Grace Cafe, Danville, KY
8. The Table, Louisville, KY
9. Take Root, Kirksville MO
10. The Kitchen Table, Rochelle, IL
11. Tricklebee Cafe, Milwaukee, WI

Breweries/Wineries/Distilleries visited:

1. Downtown Brewery, Knoxville TN
2. Appalachian Mountain Brewing, Boone NC
3. Booneshine Brewery, Boone NC
4. Blind Squirrel Brewing, Plumtree NC
5. New Belgium Brewing, Asheville NC
6. Wicked Weed Brewing, Asheville NC
7. Bhramari Brewing, Asheville NC
8. One World Brewing, Asheville NC
9. Angel’s Envy Distillery, Louisville KY
10. Against the Grain Brewing, Louisville KY
11. Maker’s Mark Distillery, Loretto KY
12. Public House Brewery, Rolla MO
13. Great Dane Brewing, Madison WI
14. Fisher King Winery, Madison WI
15. Wisconsin Brewing Company, Madison WI
16. Hop Haus Brewing, Madison WI
17. New Glarus Brewery, Madison WI
18. Grays Tied House (Brewery), Madison WI

Grace & bourbon

Woke up to a rain soaked South.  When asking Alexa what the weather was like in all the cities that we were planning to visit,  she had the same report – rain.  Brad, Emory & I hung out in the kitchen while Mary took a shower.  We had a kitchen jam party.  After filling the water bottles and coffee cups,  we ran to the car with a puppy under each arm and Mary’s raincoat to cover us, to avoid getting soaked to head off for Danville, KY.  We left Mary & Emory in a hurry and discovered we also forgot to lock the back of the camper and we left without our portable Aeropress coffee maker.  Mary is so sweetly going to mail it on ahead so that we didn’t have to go back.

On our drive through the pouring rain, we realized that GPS lies to us a lot.  We are really giving our navigational skills a workout these days.  I am grateful that reading maps is a skill I was taught when I was young.

Arriving at Grace Cafe, we were greeted by Rochelle who gave a tour of their amazing space.  They operate out of an old large home turned restaurant.

The operation and some behind the scenes action was followed by a visit with some cafe regulars.  The art hanging in the space is professional photography of Puerto Rico that is for sale as a fundraiser for PR relief efforts.  This cafe has suggested donations for each menu item and they use a POS system with Square that was really interesting to see in action.

Lunch was delicious once again, highlighting many local farms and producers.  We had a little bit of everything ordering each soup, salad, and sandwich so we could try it all.  The cafe seemed full to us but she said Monday is her slowest day.  We got visit with regular customers and staff.

Rochelle was sweet enough to allow us to use the wifi so we could research the next steps of our trip.  We found out we were less than an hour (according to GPS) from Makers Mark distillery.  They closed in 1.5 hours, so we bolted as fast as we could in order to make it before they closed.

GPS took us on the craziest back roads that were pretty much single lane.  Due to the gray weather and road conditions we were starting to have flashbacks to our creepy mountain drive the other day.  We pulled in to the parking lot, found the first available spot, and bee lined it for the tour office.  We bought our tickets and found out there was a bonus Chihuly glass exhibit!!  The walking tour was leaving in 5 mins and the rain had just stopped! Talk about perfect timing!

Tour lasted about an hour and took us all around the beautiful property.   The all black barn buildings with red shutters made the property stand out from the rest  of the surrounding farm country and rolling hills.  We saw 7 Chihuly glass sculptures spread out throughout the tour, the last of which is a permanent exhibit leading to the gift shop.  Although we didn’t get to see the production line hand dipping bottles, we got to dip our own!

 

After we finished the tour we headed an hour north to Shelbyville, KY where we will be visiting and staying with the Grin clan for a few days. Gizmo is doing great adjusting to her dog cousins visiting.  

Jeepers Creepers the A.T. at last!

We started the day off at F.A.R.M. Cafe and finding rockstar parking.  Boone is a popular place and parking can be a bitch.  We were greeted by Courtney, a young lady with Down syndrome, who has been a volunteer there for four years.  We had catfish, grits, sautéed greens, salad, clam chowder and peanut butter pie!!!  We have no pictures of food because we ate it all so fast!  This by far has been the best food of our trip! We even got to throw an apron on and help for a bit!

(This photo is from the other day but I couldn’t get it to upload on that day’s post)

We hopped in the car and made a pitstop at Lowes Food for groceries (we are making dinner tonight for our host) and headed up to Damascus to bike the Creeper Trail and possibly find the Appalachian Trail.  We don’t have a lot of cell phone coverage in this part of the world so before we leave wifi we always check out the maps and take screen shots of directions.  This particular trip, google decided to send us on a dirt/gravel mountain pass for four miles.  We were SURE we were lost and going to run out of gas.  We eventually came over Rich Mountain and found ourselves suddenly in Tennessee.  We found a gas station and were feeling much better about the rest of our trip.  We followed signs for Damascus.  

This little town is adorable.  It is based around the Creeper Trail, which was a train route for logging that they have converted to a bike path.  There are multiple businesses in town that will rent bikes and shuttle you to the top of a nearby hill so you can just creep on back down to Damascus.  

Since we brought our own bikes and we aren’t scared of a little incline, we decided we just needed a place to park.  Upon entering town, we saw the sign for the AT and decided to hike first to wear the dogs out and then bike.  

The trail was all that we hoped for and more!  It is totally rugged and pretty much a single path through overgrown trees that reminded me of the rubber tree that my mom had in a large pot in the living room growing up.  There were tons of spiderwebs and insect galore.  The trail is marked by a small white rectangle usually painted on a tree about 6′ off the ground.  This part of the AT was mostly straight up.  By the time we decided to turned around,  we hadn’t seen a single soul but we did see this cooler!  Hilarious – we didn’t open the lid because we were afraid to let out the magic.   There were lots of rocks steps and downed trees and beautiful forest at which to look.  We made our way back down some the same crazy steps we walked up and decided we had enough energy to try biking the Creeper Trail.  

Leo & Gemi had loved the hike, again showing off their hiking skills.  However, biking was a little less successful.  Leo was on Brad’s back in the pack and Gem on mine.  We felt confident heading out although this is only their 4th time in the packs.  About 1/4 mile into the journey, Brad started to holler at me.  When I stopped my bike and pulled over, I discovered that Leo had figured out a way to climb out of his pack and was riding bareback.  After a bit of panic, I helped Brad get him back in the pack and we continued on.  Leo and Brad had to lead.  As long as they were leading Leo stayed put in his pack.  It was a stressful ride and not exactly what we were aiming for but it was an adventure for sure.

While heading back to Kim’s house, after stopping and finding a 6 pack to pull a Tom Whalen, we realized we had been in three different states today.  Our dinner was Libby’s chicken enchiladas with rice and beans and cilantro.  Rene and Kim were awesome company.  We just love these people and hate the thought of leaving tomorrow.  

Hot chicken!

Our first stop in Nashville was great.  We found a pay lot that could accommodate our trailer (a big worry for us since Memphis).  We had a suggestion from a volunteer before we left Denver (thanks Bev!) that we needed to eat at Biscuit Love.  When we walked to the place with the dogs the line was down the block.  Our plan was to take turns in line while the other person walked the neighborhood with the puppies. As it got closer to our turn, we’d take the dogs back to the car.  Luckily, we have these amazing grates on our car, thanks to Mary Marinac, that allow the back windows to be down and air to come in so even on a warm day the dogs can hang out in the car.  Libby took the first shift and while she was walking the dogs near Vanderbilt University, Brad discovers Biscuit Love has a dog friendly patio out back – total jackpot!  Brad got his hot chicken and he ate most of my sandwich too.  I also had bonuts- biscuit donuts that were out of this world and somehow my Uncle Bill is famous here😜

After lunch we headed to the Southern Festival of Books where we saw some interpretive dancing performances and got to look at lots of interesting books.I then walked through the library which was beautiful and air conditioned (It is finally hot! We’ve been cold pretty much since we left Denver). We had the dogs with us and everyone wanted to pet them.  Someone even took their picture.  We saw 2nd and Broadway, where tons of bars and music venues are, and walked along the waterfront.  We heard live country music out of every bar we passed.  Nashville was a fun stop.  Each time we get in the car we try to do fun things to keep the adventure going-even while driving.  We have spent 38+ hours in the car so far.  We have made A-Z lists of guests from SAME Cafe who have impacted our lives.  We have been typing stories up so we don’t forget them. I have been reading aloud from a book that we got as a gift.  We have been playing “Bingo” – the yellow car game – right now I am winning.  We even figured out how to play Yahtzee in our cup holders.  This is so ridiculously fun! Now – on to Knoxville, TN to see our friends!

Day 3 – more driving than I like!

Last night we went from Santa Rosa State Park where we were originally going to spend the night to Portales to have dinner with Brad’s Aunt Joy and cousin Gay Beth.  We would have enjoyed seeing Steve as well but he was away with work.  Gay Beth made us spaghetti and veggies and chocolate chip cookies.  It was fun to hear all about the great grand baby and have the dogs play with Sam and Chunky.  We parked the camper under the carport at Aunt Joy’s house and snuggled in.

In the morning we got up after a chilly night in NM and showered and packed up.  We drove to the Critter Camp Bark Park in Amarillo which was awesome (and we were the only ones there!)  and then did some “hiking” on the Rock Island Rail Trail with the dogs.  We expected more scenery – it was pretty much a sidewalk on the side of a major road.  We did our first real walk with the backpacks.  My neck hurts but it was fun!

We got back in the car and started toward Enid.  We found the leaning water tower and a rest stop with a small dog park for Leo and Gemini.  Now we are just cruising along and are ready to be out of the car!

This part of OK is much prettier than I expected it to be.  There is tons of trees – evergreens!  And rolling hills.  I had no idea there would be a pretty part to OK.

We just left Five80 Coffee.  It is adorable inside!  They are open until 8:00 at night so we had hot tea and coffee.  They are located in the downtown area and the building is awesome!  Just what you picture when you think of old downtown areas, high ceilings and apartments upstairs.

Balloons!

The launch was awesome!  We met Radar and his mom and dad from Colorado Springs and made lots of friends with other watchers.  We took tons of pictures but these seem to be the best ones.  It was a great morning!

We drove to Santa Rosa, NM hoping to see the Blue Hole and Santa Rosa State Park.  Both were a bit of a disappointment.  The blue hole was COLD and tiny (although it was crystal clear and blue) and Santa Rosa lake was the color of poo.  Glad we changed our plans and decided to keep driving to visit some of Brad’s family. 

Karma cafe!!

We made it!  It was delicious and awesome!!  Malcolm and his wife Susanne met us for a wonderful lunch.  Brad had Christmas enchiladas and I had a Monte Cristo!  yum!