NOW what am I supposed to do?

  

Is this the holiday weekend? Or is that next week? I haven't heard of any community fireworks being planned. That seems wise. 

I'm thinking about food:

 Does it seem suspicious that Annie chose the sushi to match her outfit?

We're still juicing, but not exclusively (see photos above). We returned our loaner juicer - thanks, Lori! - and bought this one, the Jack LeLanne model.

We've only had it a few days, so no vouching for its longevity yet. However, it's a quiet-running, very efficient machine. We're even getting more juice than before. The cram-it-in chute is big, so not a lot of chopping. So far, so good.

We first bought another brand, but it was pulling a lot more than its nominal draw, and kept tripping our inverter. Thank goodness Amazon has an easy return policy.

Amherst Lake

I've been wanting to say something about Flagstaff and RV-friendliness, but I just don't have hard, cold data. The Walmart in the south of town, off Beulah Ave., has RVs parked in it all day. LOTS of RVs. All kinds of RVs, and lots of vehicles who are obviously (to the trained eye) stealthing. The signs posted say '24 hour parking only.' I don't know if it's a 24-hour Walmart, but the signs pretty much give a wink and a nudge to overnight parking, at least.

We also see RVs parked in the evening at the Walmart off 40, as well as the next-door Cracker Barrel. *mmmm... Cracker Barrel ... * Haven't been in there to parse their signage. 

If this is the holiday weekend, hope you're all having a bang-up, yet safe, time. If it's not the holiday weekend, keep calm and carry on.

Edited 2/20/2014: The Walmart signs that used to say "24 hour parking only" are gone, replaced by signs that say "NO overnight parking." Alas. 

Ithaca? or Flagstaff? Here's a clue.

Hint: look at the sky.

This sign seems vaguely suggestive, but I'm not sure why. "Stop in for our signature $5 Downtowner!"

 

I have been told that this hotel is haunted, specifically the bathroom I used.  There were no unexpected encounters.

I don't have a story.

Historic Flagstaff has free parking for cars. We were incredulous, and so put eight quarters into a paperbox.

Obligatory Route 66 picture. No, I mean Route 66 will take YOUR picture.

This young man is on the cusp of wishful thinking.

The Ithaca Commons used to attract the goth kids. These are definitely cheerleader girls.

I'm crazy for bead shops, and I wasn't disappointed by Animas Beads. 

We agree that Flagstaff feels very comfortable. It's like we could slip right into the groove here, if we had a groove. But, OH! their winters.

Here's a rundown of Ithaca: Rundown of Ithaca

You can run down Flagstaff, too.

Most amusing statistic: 

     Ithaca's annual "chance of sunshine" is 49%. This seems high. Flagstaff's is 78%. This seems low.

Far from the madding crowd.

Little Maddox had his first birthday party last night. I know, right? He didn't like cake, but he did like the talking card his Gigi got him.

A baby and a birthday party, and you thought there'd be no picture? You're getting off easy.

But, enough about the adorable baby. Lori surprised Annie and me with a vegan "cheese"cake for our birthdays. You know how you might try a vegan dessert and think "well, if I were vegan I could eat this and survive"? No. You would BEG to be vegan for this cake. You would go home and pour your dairy milk into the streets for this cake. You would picket Elmer's glue for this cake.

Lori asked when she bought it (New Frontiers) if it was really vegan. They checked with the pastry chef who confirmed. We ate it and our taste buds ruled it "completely full of delicious animal products." Lori went back this morning to be SURE it was really vegan, and they gave her the ingredient list. SCORE!

We braced ourselves for the holiday weekend here in the piney woods, and it happened. Sites filled up with toy haulers. What? Everyone is considerate? The really big group right next to us is utterly silent at night, and even in the morning their generator is almost inaudible. They start riding mid-morning.

This is a good crop of riders, and people (including the small kind) seem to be staying on the road. It may be becoming obvious to everyone that the national forests could institute a charred-earth scenario if damage is not stopped and reversed.

The rarely-seen Piney Woods cactus 

Indiana wants me.

My mom had been within the border of every state before she was twenty-one. In 1952, they were all still contiguous.  Her friends told her she should appear on the TV show "I've Got a Secret."

Annie's family lives in Indiana, and we were last there in 2009 for Thanksgiving.  I loved Indiana farmland the way you love someplace you'll never have to live.  The silence was thick around my ears and squeezed its way in.









Occasionally, I dream that Annie and I have bought a house in the Midwest because prices are good. I try to be happy, but we are always either settling in southern Ohio in my first hometown, or in southern Indiana in hers.

My mother grew up in NYS, and that's where I went when I was eighteen.  There are scads of my relatives there, few of whom I've ever met. If your name is Luce, we are cousins descended from Henry Luce of Martha's Vineyard - the first Luce in the U.S. There are lots of other ways for us to be cousins, but that's the easiest. I don't have any money, so there's no reason you'd want to acknowledge kinship.

I didn't grow up with holiday traditions.  I've shared satisfying holidays with friends and with Annie's family, but this is the first time EVER that I am going to spend Thanksgiving with my relatives in a traditional style.  Woohoo!  Some of us are ultra-liberal, some of us are conservative, and a couple of us are libertarian.  Some are Mormon, some atheist, some agnostic, and some are New Age-y.  Some don't believe in Western medicine, and some believe in nothing else.  I don't see how anything can go wrong.
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We went shopping for a book suitable for a little girl who has just started reading.  [We had to drive an hour to a town with a bookstore.]  We browsed a Disney Princess book, and asked the clerk for something where women don't need to be rescued.  She directed us to a series written by Jamie Lee Curtis;  we chose Today I Feel Silly: and Other Moods That Make My Day.  It made us LOL!  Good call, Books-a-Million clerk!
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Still searching for butt rests.  Took them out for test-rests today.