Today’s fruit with granola was pineapple and coconut!
My fried egg.
After Steve and the rest of the anglers and guides took off in the helicopter I was going to try to go for a ride. Last time I rode was in New Mexico where the elevation was 9000 feet and I got very tired. Here the the elevation is 2250 so I hope to do better.
This field is where cattle wintered over. Turnips are planted and the cows feed on them all winter. First they eat the greens and then they eat the turnips.
These are our horses for the ride. I had Shelby, the dark horse.
This is where we stopped for lunch. Dismounting was quite inelegant as my hips got stuck on the back of the saddle. When my guide helped me lifted my leg up I fell right to the ground! I landed with a quick soft thud! I can be quite the klutz at times! Years ago when Sally took dance classes I took a summer class with her. We were supposed to dance across the room doing jetés across the room. I couldn’t stop and ended up crashing into the wall! We all had a good laugh at that!
We remounted after lunch and I was able to walk, trot and canter on the ride back.
Dismounting at the end of the ride was a lot easer as there was a mounting block!
After my ride I asked to check out the wine cellar, which was in the building I showed you yesterday.
It was gorgeous.
There was a bottle from 1967 that I wanted to google a price for but couldn’t find it on line. Not sure if it is vinegar now or superb. It’s not mine, so who cares?
Steve’s fishing locations are all pretty much inaccessible unless you chopper in. It would take days of hiking to get to where he goes via the helicopter. Yes, this is an extra fee, but if Steve doesn’t fly to the spots where the water is fishable, he can’t catch fish! Here are some pictures from his trip today.
I went to town with one of the other guests here who is a non fishing spouse. She needed to mail a package at the post office.
Lake Taupo. A former caldera like Lake Tahoe. It is the largest lake in the Southern Hemisphere. In Taupo I bought three pairs of pants as I thought that I had left a pack with seven pairs of pants on the bed at home! Three weeks vacation with one pair of jeans and two dress pants wasn’t going to cut it for me!
A beautiful fish that Steve caught! This fish was 8.25 pounds! The fish was 26 inches long with a girth of 16 inches. This was Steve’s personal record to date, so I would consider the trip a success so far!He fished the Rangatikei and caught five fish for the day. This stream was bigger, but easily crossable at the tails of pools and wider riffles.
The helicopter approach for Steve’s pickup at the end of his days fishing.
This is where it landed!
The view on the way back.
Appetizers after fishing was beef on a bun.
Chicken pate (not raw).
This I never really figured out what it was!
Nor this one!
Beautiful flowers in the lodge.
Romaine hearts with a chorizo creamy dressing.
Roast pork with twice baked mashed potatoes.
A vegetable medley.
Flan for dessert.
How many pairs of black pants do you own?
How much clothing do you bring on vacation?
Steve’s beard looks a lot less white today. Do you think he packed some Grecian Formula to darken it up? Just asking for a friend.
Today it is supposed to be sunny and 69 F! Since we are in the Southern Hemisphere, that means we are in late spring!
The beautiful spread of fresh juices, coffee and granola.
The sandwiches for the guides and fly fishers!
Delicious banana apple muffins.
Cantaloupe with raspberries.
Omelette for Steve.
Fried eggs for me.
After breakfast we met Duncan, Steve’s guide, and I checked out where the helicopter would land.
Steve with Duncan his guide.
Flyagra for flies that sink instead of float.
Steve’s gear ready to go.
Waiting for the helicopter to arrive.
The helicopter lands outside the lodge. Helicopter flights are an extra charge. A very expensive extra charge, but if you don’t fly out, you won’t find fish!
Loading up and they are off!
Over the stream that ran behind our cabin I wandered. If it hadn’t have rained so much in the past few days Steve might have been able to fish here.
I found an outdoor pavilion where barbecues were probably held.
Then I wave Hi to the horses, I was planning on riding the next day.
I thought I finally found my perfect spot. Sofas, lots of natural light and a beautiful trophy specimen on the wall. I think that it was a 16 pointer! Although the room was pretty, the chairs all faced inside and not toward the view. Plus there were so many flies buzzing in the room I couldn’t stand it any longer!
So I trudged back to the lodge but by mistake took the upper pasture because I saw the lodge in the distance. Unfortunately I was supposed to take the lower pasture!
So after walking back and forth I finally figured out my mistake and made it back in time for lunch.
A lovely garden salad.
A cheese plate and fresh grated beets.
After Steve was done clambering in the streams Steve had to hike to a meadow to wait for the helicopter to pick him up. Steve told me that I would have divorced him if I would have gone along. He is right. I stroll, I don’t do whatever he was doing!
For appetizers we had bacon wrapped figs, they looked too rare for me to eat!
Curry chicken wings.
Green lipped mussels, which are a Kiwi (New Zealander) favorite! Mine too!
Cheese straws.
Meat with vegetables.
Chocolate lava cake (lava was set and not oozing.)
You are probably wondering what happened to Sunday as we left Poughkeepsie on Saturday. New Zealand is 20 hours ahead of New York time, so it is very confusing! We totally lost Sunday but will get to relive two Sundays on the way back home!
The plane was very small. There were less than 15 people on our flight including the pilot and copilot!
But still big enough to fit Steve’s big beard! He did get it trimmed after our trip West during the month of September!
Outside the airport you can see the large Norfolk Island Pines. When I was in college I had a small Norfolk Island Pine in my dorm room. They grow quite large here.
Poronui is a large hunting and fishing lodge. They also have large Manuka bushes and many hives for bees that produce Manuka honey. Manuka honey is said to have many healthful properties. Here are some dairy cows for that beautiful New Zealand butter.
There are also red stags that are raised here, the Chinese use the horns for medicinal purposes. Think aphrodisiacs!
The living room, with a gas fireplace.
Looking toward the bedroom.
The bedroom. Steve says howdy! I did not make Steve sleep on that little bed. I kept my suitcase on it!
The bathroom with a heated towel rack.
From the bedroom looking toward the deck. What a beautiful place to read or just relax and enjoy the view!
This was the view outside our room.
We had a little fridge with complimentary drinks. Alas, no Champagne!
Lunch was quiche and a lovely salad.
Sunflower seed bread with gorgeous New Zealand butter.
Chocolate cake and chocolate truffles for dessert.
There were also fresh humongous chocolate chip cookies that need more chips!
We gathered in the main lodge for dinner. Here I am checking my messages.
Chicken mousse that Steve and I did not try as we don’t care for innards.
Mushroom soup.
Fried pork bellies.
Deep fried venison chorizo in a fry basket.
Dinner was roast New Zealand Lamb with vegetables.
We also had tomatoes with peppers, and a gorgeous salad of fresh spinach with shelled peas. You have to look pretty hard to see the peas, but they are there!
Dessert was a lemon tart with strawberries, garnished with whipped cream and rhubarb sauce.
Salad greens with butternut squash.
Short ribs.
Gelato with strawberry and chocolate sauce.
Then milk and warm cookies.
Lost Angeles is so pretty at night with all the cars lighting up the road. Side streets look blissfully empty.
This airport has the worst signage. We thought TBIT on the departure board meant To Be Something Something. Instead it meant Tom Bradley International Airport. It was a good thing we asked someone, otherwise we would have missed our plane, and this excellent adventure would never have happened!
Newspapers in so many languages!
The lounge has won awards for nicest airport. I can see why. These are the outdoor fire pits.
Of course I found the chocolate mousse and a decaf cappuccino!
Here is Steve enjoying his little nook on the Air New Zealand plane.
I forgot to turn the flash back on, but the first course was a lovely tomato and mozzarella salad. The lighting on the plane was a calming purple hue. It was very restful.
I chose the parsnip and spinach soup for my entree. When I have a long plane flight I often just have the soup for my entree.
Can’t skip ice cream with fruit for dessert.
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean at sunrise.
Breakfast was a fruit salad.
Croissant and toasted fruit bread with orange marmalade.
Then more carbs with the whole wheat waffle with dried fruit and cream anglaise. No pictures of Steve’s food as we were behind each other. I am sure Steve had the omelette!
Here is a map of our flight.
You can see a close up of the Pacific. This is where the tectonic plates are colliding and one is going under the other.
Anyway, there are certain haircuts on guys that I really like. This is one of them. Steve does not like to wear his hair this long and since it is his head, I let him wear it however he likes to wear it.
The guy changed his clothes before he landed. Perhaps he was meeting someone who liked his hair the way he wore it. Or perhaps his lover would rather he wear his hair shorter like Steve does!
Hmm. Powdered eggs and biscuits. I think this trip needs to be over!
On the way to I-81 just outside of Charlottesville we spied this interesting truck. What was in it?
It’s a truck full of turkeys! Just waiting to be slaughtered for Thanksgiving dinner. 
Back to Dutchess County. We stopped at Adams to get groceries as we haven’t been home in ages!
After having lived at our house for twenty five years we decided that our vacation was a perfect time to get our driveway redone. Our neighbors got their’s done at the same time.
Here is Steve undoing the yellow tape. I think he is going to have to do some repair work on the mailbox. It looks a little shaky to me.
We had a lot of mail while we were away. We used to have the neighbor’s collect our mail. Now I just use the hold my mail option and get the post office to deliver everything when we get home.This was a genius move on my part!
Steve’s home cooked dinner. The last of the season corn.
If there are pancakes and fried eggs, then it must be something that I had for breakfast! 
Steve prefers hash browns and he does like his Moons over MyHammy, so we probably ate at a Denny’s.This looks like their product! Steve and Elliott used to go to Denny’s for breakfast sometimes before they went skiing. Their favorite remembrance was the time they went to a Denny’s on New Year’s Day. They overheard the gentlemen (I use that term loosely-Steve refers to them as losers when he tells the story), had either been working or drinking all night. They were trying to decide what were the best years of their lives. I think that 2020 has not been a very good year for many of us.
Then it was goodbye Kentucky and Hello West Virginia! 
There were lots of hills in West Virginia, many with steep grades. Then it was off to Virginia.
I think we allowed Elliott to pick one bottle from Steve’s Bourbon stash from the liquor store that we went to the night before. Kanna got nothing.
Dinner was at The Local. We had a lovely cheese and fruit appetizer. 
Looks like I had a green drink. 
This must have been a Caesar Salad. 
This could possibly be catfish, or fried mystery meat. 
I have no clue what this was. Steve’s arm is in the picture so he must have ordered it!
We had breakfast at the Huddle House in Kuttawa. Huddle House is very similar to a Waffle House.
Steve was really happy because he had ordered a big breakfast. How big?
Now that is a big breakfast! Notice the circular bone in the ham steak? On many of the nights that I cooked dinner I would make a ham steak and boxed macaroni and cheese. I thought it was hysterical to cut out a piece of ham with the bone in it. I called it “the eye”. I would place the piece of meat (really just a piece of bone) on someone’s plate and say “Have the eye!” Well, I thought it was hysterical. Steve, not so much. He thought it was “stupid”, which it really is! Whenever we have one now, I take a picture of the eye and send it to our son Elliott. He enjoys the joke, our daughter not so much.
No meat for me, but I said “Yes!” To the Grits!
Next stop was Mammoth Cave National Park.
This is a three dimensional model of the cave system.
After our trip to the museum we had our briefing by the forest ranger.
Then we loaded into a bus to take a ten minute ride to the entrance of the cave. Looks like we had a few people who wanted to be photographed with us!
A short stroll through the woods.
I see the door! Almost there!
No, it is not an outhouse, but the entrance to the cave. Notice the park ranger, he will be important!
I turned around to take a picture of the outside in case we didn’t make it back out! Good bye world! Into the cave we go!
Down the stairs we went. Except we had to stop and let someone come back out. She had claustrophobia and needed to leave the tour. That is why there were two park rangers at the start of the tour. One ranger to lead the tour and one ranger to escort the people who didn’t want to go on the tour. It seemed to be pretty common, that people would panic and need to leave the tour.
Steve had to bend down quite a bit as he is so tall.
We saw all sorts of interesting formations, like these pillars.
Many sections we had to crawl over sharp boulders.
Some parts of the cave were very open.
Here you can see the stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites grow from the ceiling down. They stay “tight” to the ceiling. Stalagmites grow from the floor up. They “might” reach the top.
These rock formations are called rock draperies.
The end of the tour was at the place where the original entrance of the cave was discovered.
More stairs? Yuck!
I looked exhausted, and Steve looked normal. Well as normal as he can look! You can tell how tired I was, no sucked in gut and my shoulders are schlumped. Wait a minute, that’s the way I always look!
After we reached the top of the stairs from the cave we had to walk on bio security mats to prevent the spread of white nose syndrome, a fungal disease that affects bats. No, the bats don’t get washed, only human feet. The fungus is in the cave and they don’t want it transported out of the cave via human feet that got wet in some of the puddles in the cave. The sick bats wake up when they should be hibernating. It leaves them weak, decreases their flying ability and they starve when they don’t get food during the winter, as none is available.
That’s a horse barn! There is a lot of money here!
It was a very interesting old hotel, and there was an Pierce Arrow group holding an antique car show going on that weekend. The parking lot was full of very interesting cars.
These are what the cars look like. I was uncomfortable taking pictures of someone’s car. We were wondering if our van was going to get towed or even ticketed! Thankfully it wasn’t!
Since we were in Kentucky, you know that they were going to have a very fine bourbon menu. Here is just a sample of the brands and the prices. No Pappy Van Winkle! Of course back then we had never heard of Pappy Van Winkle!
No bourbon for me, but a nice fruity bourbon drink! It was bourbon, lime, strawberry juice and topped with ginger beer. I don’t normally like my drinks with added fizz but went with the waiter’s selection. It was light and refreshing. 
I had a lovely Hibiscus poached pear and beet salad with Cambozola, walnut vinaigrette, maiche, and fried croissant croutons to start. 
Steve had the vanilla bourbon roasted parsnip soup with candied peanut, fifteen year old balsamic (!), celery leaf and lemon to start.
With the corn bread and rolls we had fresh honey harvested that day from the apiary on the roof, jalapeño jelly and whipped sweet butter. The corn bread and rolls were eaten faster than I could take a picture! 
I had the pan seared duck breast with Calvados apple purée, cheddar Gougeres, pecan crumble blackberry marmalade and apple watercress salad. 
Steve had the pan seared Halibut with saffron cauliflower purée, caramelized cauliflower, chick pea country ham fritter, baby Kale salad and cilantro lime sauce verde.
No dessert for us. I was stuffed, plus I hate paying for a dessert. If I would go back now, I would have picked the smoky chocolate ginger tart. That sounded really good! 
After dinner we hit the Liquor Barn to get some Bourbons for Steve. What else would you buy in Kentucky in a liquor store? 
Steve gets his picture outside the store, I get my picture inside it! 
French Toast with syrup for me for breakfast. Don’t they look like pancakes?
Steve ordered the Ham and Cheese Omelette at The Order in the lobby of The Hotel Vandivort.
This is the view of the modern lobby side view of the hotel. On our way out we told the front desk that they needed additional info in the rooms on how to control the lighted art work, and electric window shades. If you go there let me know if they listened to our constructive criticism!
Here is the dreaded parking lot that Steve had so much difficutly with!
Then it was off to The Promised Land. The Mothership of all fishing stores! Just follow the bass boat!
How could we not go in to this place?
Doesn’t Steve look happy?
Alligators!
Big fish alert! This fish is called a a gar. Steve says they can be six feet long!
Lots of taxidermy.
Steve in a Tracker boat. His boat in Lake George is much prettier! In fact Steve’s boat probably cost as much as my Jaguar!
Steve was so excited! “Oh my God! There are three aisles of soft plastics here!”
Are you in the market for a fancy pistol?
Perhaps a fancy shot gun would be what you are looking for?
Steve loves his fish! There are many types of trout here. The yellow ones are Palomino, They are from the crossing of a Golden Rainbow trout and a rainbow trout. There are rainbow, brown and brook trout here. They had Palomino Trout at Cow Creek. I finally remembered our cook’s name. She was Sofia and specialized in traditional New Mexican cuisine. Too bad I like traditional regular food like that cooked in Upstate New York!
Always a crowd pleaser, the fish feeding show!
There were scuba divers feeding the fish.
The NRA museum. Lots of guns and ammunition here.
There were lots of guns to look at!
This was not a happy outcome. If you don’t want to read the story, the bottom line is that his head popped off when he was hung.
Her is Steve posing in front of a very large gar.
This is Ethel. 27.5 inch long and 24.5 inch girth. She was caught in Lake Fork Texas in November 1986. She was brought to this Bass Pro Shops store and millions of people visited her until she died in 1994. A thousand people attended her funeral!
The results of Steve’s shopping. I think I will have the total cost be one of your guesses at the end of the blog post! Can you believe that he only spent 30 minutes shopping?
Golden Rod along the Missouri highway. Lower Missouri has lots of trees and rolling hills.
First signage for The Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home.
Me in the parking lot. Could you tell? I was so verklempt. (Yiddish for overcome with emotion). I read all of the Little House series of books when I was a young girl. Many times in fact. My kids read the Harry Potter Books, well the Little House Series books were my favorites. I wasn’t crazy about the television show, but still watched it anyway. 
They didn’t allow any pictures inside the house, but I discovered a pamphlet about the house. Here is a picture of what Laura, Rose, Almanzo looked like. Also a picture of the inside of the house!
I could hardly speak to Steve I was so emotional.
Laura and her husband Almanzo were such lovebirds. The house started as a log cabin and gradually more rooms were added and the original log cabin was torn down. The rooms were added on as they had more money. The house was built specifically to Laura’s stature. The counter tops were really low as Laura was a tiny woman.
This is the fancy entry of the house. The lady nearest you is crying. I could hardly talk to Steve at all as I was trying to hold back my tears.
Getting tired near the end of our journey, not too many days left so I am even counting a Walmart as a grocery store! With that big smile on my face I seem to have recovered from the experience at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead.
Here is a picture of a cotton field in Missouri. The Ozarks were very hilly with pine trees and many other trees.
We left Missouri and crossed the Mississippi River and were into Illinois. It was a blue day!
Then we crossed the next bridge and we saw the mighty Ohio River join in.
Here you can see all the barges on the Ohio River. You can see where the rivers join together just past the barges.
Once you cross the Ohio River you are in Kentucky. The Ohio River is much bigger than the Mississippi before they join. The Lower Mississippi begins in Cairo, Illinois where the Upper Mississippi joins the Ohio River. The Lower Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico. You will have to go on your own Excellent Adventure to go to see the Gulf of Mexico!
The highway is built on a levee!
Then we crossed the Tennessee River.
We traveled on through Kentucky to the Land Between the Lakes. The area is a large inland peninsula between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. Steve was quite excited to be here as you can well imagine. Too bad we really couldn’t see anything as it was dark by the time we got here!
We looked for a restaurant on Yelp and Patti’s in Green River was suggested.
The plan was to eat at Patti’s 1880 Restaurant. However they had an hour wait for a table so we ate at the sibling restaurant, “Bill’s” next door! Same menu, same price, but only a ten minute wait to be seated. I still don’t understand!
They are famous for their flower pot bread and strawberry butter. You can make strawberry butter yourself if you want to, by adding strawberry jam to whipped butter! To make flower pot bread you just put the dough in a clean flower pot and then bake!
Steve was so happy to be surrounded by all the glitz!
I had prime rib.
Steve had the 2 inch pork chop. Two inch pork chops are a joke with Steve and myself. I only like the very skinny pork chops that I like Steve to overcook. I love them with applesauce too. If I am making them I cook them at 425 degrees for about an hour. Then they are dry as dust, but super crunchy!I really only like them with Kellogg’s corn flake crumbs on them. Sometimes Steve runs out and uses Italian bread crumbs. I don’t like those at all. Do you think he knew that yet?
We must not have had dessert, as I usually take pictures of the food that we eat. But here is a bonus photo of Steve!
Breakfast in the Homewood Suites at the Waterfront in Wichita was not very exciting.
We never even saw any of the waterfront in Wichita at all. It turns out that the waterfront is a development on Beech Lake, an impoundment.
We made a stop at a grocery store in Kansas before our next stop. We bought some cookies.
8lWhen we were planning our trip, Steve was really excited about making sure that we would stop here. Have I mentioned before how Steve is interested in this type of stuff? Me not so much, but if it makes Steve happy, then I am happy.
Look how big these sunflowers were! Speaking of big, Steve’s beard was quite big by this point. Steve doesn’t have the beard anymore.
These sunflowers had really tiny heads.
Long long ago, this was the range of the Prairie. We saw an interesting movie about the prairie.
Prairie as far as you can see!
Here I am, big hat, no cattle!
Beautiful wild flowers.
We walked a little past this “Beware of Bison” sign. There wasn’t a gate here. The bison are afraid of the grate and won’t go past it. As we were not in a vehicle I decided that this should be the end of the trail. Steve unsurprisingly obeyed.
The grass was taller than I am!
Good bye Kansas! Hello Missouri!
A view of Kansas City from Independence Missouri.
We went to the Harry S. Truman visitor center in Independence Missouri. There was a short orientation film but not many exhibits. We really weren’t impressed. I think that maybe we should have gone to the Presidential Library. We did no research about this at all. Next time, we will be better prepared. I think if you paid money you could go for a ride on the mule driven wagon.
This was the Harry Truman house. We did not go in. We would have had to wait too long to get a slot for the tour. So we just did a drive by. This was really Bess’s Mom’s house. Harry never had much money.
We are staying at the Hotel Vandivort in Springfield Missouri. It was a former Masonic Temple. There is no relation to Harry Potter and he who must not be named.
The room was quite pleasant, and very modern. The screen on the wall had different slides of old time Springfield. The room also had hard to figure out blinds. Just not as hard to figure out as the parking lot gate!
Don’t you just love these Do Not Disturb signs for the door?
I wanted to take them all home, but really what do I need with them?
Since Steve was mad and the hotel looked like some kind of Chamber of Commerce Get Together was going on we didn’t eat at the hotel. The restaurant was just off the hotel lobby and there was a lot of noise. By now you should remember that Steve hates NOISE! So we walked down the street to a restaurant that Steve thought looked good.
8The Aviary.
We shared a Caesar Salad.
I had salmon with lots of vegetables and rice.
Steve had steak frites.
There were lots of sorority sisters in the restaurant. Why do all these gals looks so pulled together and pretty? They appeared to be very tanned, had on lots of foundation, mascara, and styled hair, which for most of them in various shades of blonde tones. I wish I had the energy to spend that much time on myself. Steve is laughing because he knows that I am pretending to take a picture of him, but in reality I am taking a picture of the sorority sisters!
Back to the Hotel Vandivort and a good night to all!
Up for breakfast for our last night in New Mexico. No one else was up except for the waiter!
I had the French toast with berries. It was berry good!
Steve had the gloppy omelette. Or maybe it was an enchilada!
Then it was one last shut of the door and out the door we went!
We soon left New Mexico.
Good bye mountains!
With each mile the mountains got further and further away.
Soon we were in Texas and we found a grocery store to stop at in Amarillo Texas!
There were lots of wind turbines in the Texas panhandle.
Steve was fascinated by the signs for clean restrooms at the Sunoco station. I admit that I was so fascinated that I had to take a picture!
Sure enough they had clean restrooms, they just weren’t in working condition.
So the normally family restroom had to be shared. Good thing that they finally put up the sign to tell patrons to lock the door. I am sure there were a few “whoopsies!”
We found a small supermarket in Oklahoma.
They had big logs of ground beef. I am not sure how many hamburgers or meatloaves you could make with that much beef. I found it totally unappetizing and I love meat!
I did find it interesting how small the produce area was compared to the snack area.
I am sure that processed food is much cheaper here than fresh fruits and vegetables as all the crop land if any is for growing animals. I think the other land is for wind turbines and oil wells!
Oklahoma was flat and wet, but beautiful as every where we have seen in the United States.
Oklahoma has the nicest rest areas of any that we have been to. I made sure to tell the ladies at the information desk this. The ladies seemed to be quite happy about this!
Then it was on to Kansas! No, you are not seeing things, the window was a bit smeared because of all the rain, and the photo was enlarged to the state of distortion.
We had dinner at Firebirds which was very near to our hotel.
The Double Black Diamond Martini was so good! After having to lay off the booze while we were at higher elevations it was nice to have a fruity martini again. Of course you know how I like a fruity martini!
A small loaf of bread with butter.
Steak Salad for me.
Salmon for Steve.