Mariah and I began planning the itinerary for this cross-country adventure many months ago by researching an eclectic range of topics. Unique city-based tours? Check. Presidential libraries? Check. Diners, Drive-ins and Dives? Check. New and notable museums? Check. Unusual landmarks? Regional music? Heritage sites? Local theatre? Unconventional accommodations? Gorgeous art collections? Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. We followed our investigations down any number of rabbit holes. One such path led us into the world of nontraditional day classes. The last time we travelled cross-country we took an amazing Raku […]

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The Silver Palate Cookbook was published in 1982. My well-loved copy has had a place on a shelf in my kitchen everywhere I have lived since. We learned that one of the authors ran a Bed and Breakfast in Saugatuck, Michigan, that was sort of on our cross-country route. Immediately, I planned a pilgrimage, or I should say, made a reservation at her Inn.  It was a beautiful place with, wait for it, incredible food. We left the Wickwood Inn yesterday morning during the first serious rainstorm of our trip. […]

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The National Archives and Records Administration Service maintains thirteen presidential libraries. Today, we visited our third one: the Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was more modest than the Kennedy Library in Boston and the Clinton Library in Little Rock, which seemed fitting given Ford’s modest demeanor. As was the case with the other presidential libraries we have visited, the Ford library provided a fascinating window into a very specific period of American history. The documents, photographs, artifacts and videos were arranged chronologically beginning with […]

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We began our final morning in Detroit at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, which is widely recognized as the oldest auto plant open to the public anywhere in the world. The interior has been restored to look just as it did when Henry Ford and his closest colleagues were designing and producing Model T’s and their precursors. The three-story building houses a comprehensive collection of rare Detroit-built cars from the early 1900s. They were absolutely stunning. We then drove ten miles in our distinctly not stunning Ford rental car and […]

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My grandmother’s words are ringing true. Where does the time go? We have called Mariah our “Millennium Edition” since she was born early in the morning eighteen years ago today. It is hard for me to believe that our youngest little pink bundle is all grown up. The first thing Mariah said when she awakened this morning was “I have to register to vote.”  She makes me proud every day. Tomorrow, she will write about today’s adventures.  I will just share with you that many weeks ago, Mariah selected both of […]

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I didn’t expect the inside of Cleveland’s Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame to live up to the promise made by its exterior.  The building was designed by I. M. Pei who designed the Louvre’s iconic glass pyramid.  The Hall of Fame looks so much like the Louvre, in fact, that I half expected Tom Hanks to round the corner in full Da Vinci Code mode.  He didn’t.  So we went inside. Their collection is entirely unlike like the type of cheesy display that you would encounter at a Hard […]

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Long before my father was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in 2005, he instilled in me a powerful sense of reverence for the United States military.  My dad volunteered as a teenager for the U.S. Army’s Citizens Military Training Camp and served as a member of the 308th horse cavalry unit at Fort Myer, Virginia. When WWII broke out, there was no call for horse cavalry. So after attending infantry camp in Fort Meade, Maryland, he applied for and was accepted to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School […]

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When in Louisville, you hear a lot about baseball, bourbon and betting. The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory has placed the world’s largest baseball bat in front of its lobby doors. This replica of Babe Ruth’s 34-inch wooden bat has been reimagined in steel, weighing 68,000 pounds and towering 120 feet into the sky. We joined their first factory tour of the morning and were shown the entire manufacturing process beginning with the delivery of tree trunks to the shipping of the finished bats. They have thoughtfully designed an interactive […]

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We spent a fascinating day in Petersburg, Kentucky at the Creation Museum.  Hundreds of thousands of visitors who flock there every year believe that evolution is a philosophy masquerading as a science. Everyone with whom we interacted was certain that proponents of evolution are sadly mistaken victims of propaganda. I have a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with a concentration in Primatology, so the dichotomy between what I know to be true and what the other attendees at the Creation Museum know to be true shocked me. When we were leaving […]

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Today was the first full day of our adventure. Midtown Indianapolis looked like a well-run theme park in the minutes before the morning crowds are admitted. Picture-perfect, beautifully organized and virtually empty. This morning we visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, home of the Indy 500, self-proclaimed “Racing Capital of the World.” We were searching for redemption. Three years ago Mariah and I embarrassed ourselves at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. When we arrived they asked both of us the name of our favorite driver. Between the […]

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