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.)
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! 
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.
I was never so happy to leave any place that we stayed at . (At least that I can remember!)
Here is Steve letting us through the gate to leave.
And our van approaches the gate to leave!
Boom! One set of gates done. More to go!
Good bye Cow Creek! Not sorry to be gone!
Good bye burned out forest!
Onto the dirt road.
Then it was onto a stone road.
Some parts of the road were really bumpy.
Then we got to the narrow section with blind spots ahead.
Where a truck always seemed to be approaching, with poor visibility of the road ahead.
The road was so uneven.
With steep drops offs on one side.
And a truck barreling down the road to look for downed wood in the forest.
After an hour on the dirt/stone road we made it to pavement. Yay!
The car was a real mess from the dust and dirt!
I found this place for breakfast on Yelp. Chocolate? Yes, please!
The bakery looked very promising.
We were told to sit anywhere, I plopped ourselves in front of the window so we could watch the bakers. “You looking at me?”
While we waited for our breakfast to be brought over, we enjoyed watching how some of the pastries were prepared.
Then it is placed on the slab, ready to be cut.
Here the baker is piping chocolate onto the dough.
On the right spinach croissants are being prepared.
Our breakfast were derived. I had the blue corn blueberry pancakes with piñon syrup. I probably should have had the strawberries and cream waffle. These were a bit dense and dry.
Steve had some kind of Mexican slop. If that isn’t a gloppy breakfast I don’t know what is!
We would be staying at The Inn of the Anasazi.
The hotel was right on the courthouse square. We went for a walk. Come along.
We checked out The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
The church was started in 1869 and is designed in the Romanesque Revival style.
It was lovely inside.
Nearby was the famous Loretto Chapel.
Inside is the miraculous staircase.
There is no newel or center pole. The staircase was built without nails. It is held together by pegs and glue. That is why it was called the “Miraculous Staircase.”
The Gothic Revival altar is made of wood painted to look like marble.
Our room was very inviting.
This was the special amenity we were given by the hotel. A handful of potato chips, a handful of popcorn and some nuts. We shared.
I love cornbread, as does Steve.
One of us had a salad.
I am not quite sure what this entree was.
This was definitely salmon!
Dessert was flan, ice cream and chocolate. All three of my favorite food groups!
Good Morning to you! This is a fish caught on the ranch by a prior guest. That is some fish! And it looks like it was caught a long time ago.
The main dining area.
In the next room there were many animal heads.
Some animal skins.
There were plenty of spaces to sit and chat. However, we were the only guests for the week. Cow Creek has since ceased to exist as a public fishing lodge. Which we thought would happen. There was so much fire damage to the hills, that it was an unattractive place to fish or ride.
My scrambled eggs and bacon came out quickly.
Which were soon followed by berry pancakes.
Steve had already gone out to meet with with his guide for his day of fishing.
While Steve was fishing I hung out at the lodge. A bird watching group from Santa Fe came to search for birds. I was invited but had no energy at this elevation.
They were off for four hours, so I think it was a good decision not to go out with them.
The lodge must have been really something back in the day. It was too bad that there had been so many fires in the area.
A beautfiul fish that Steve caught.
Oopsy!
Nice recovery!
Here is a closer view of the pond that Steve fished.
Fish in the net.
Then it was time for dinner. More of the salad from a bag with tomatoes and shredded cheese.
Chicken. It’s whats for dinner! Very dry chicken.
For dessert we had pistachio pudding and that same chocolate cake!
After dinner I followed Steve to the pond.
For more fishing.
No, it is not the same fish!
I wanted him to catch me one of the palomino trout, but they were persnickety.
Steve caught 50 fish today. It would be his last day fishing on this trip. Tomorrow we leave for Santa Fe, New Mexico!
Then it was off to bed.
Here I am at breakfast, reading the literature about the history of Cow Creek.
Please don’t quiz me! This is the view of the dining area from the opposite direction.
Breakfast!
I love my whipped cream on coffee!
After breakfast I wandered down to the horse barn for my scheduled ride.
Can you see the fish in the stream?
Here I am with one of the staff and Lanier one of the owners. This ranch had the first riding waiver that I had to sign that mentioned the possibility of death, I looked at Lanier and asked her how often that happened. I did not relish the thought of being their first casualty!
The creek at Cow Creek was very pretty.
Unfortunately there had been forest fires a few years ago and the hill sides were severely damaged.
This is some damage from a bear that was clawing on the tree!
Look how big the scars are from the bear claws!
My posture looked good, I was happy to be almost done with the ride! At one point in the ride my horse stumbled and I semi fell off it. No worries! I lived to tell the story!
Thank you for the ride Horse!
After my ride I walked back to the room where I rested for the rest of the day. The elevation really got to me and I was exhausted.
This is one of the fish that Steve caught in the morning from one of the lower beats on Cow Creek.
The fish was a real beauty, but Steve prefers less constructed streams. This fish was 21 inches.
So Steve and his guide moved upstream. This was one of the spots where Steve fished later in the day.
Isn’t this a beauty? He preferred the wild trout as opposed to the larger fish in the stocked ponds. This was his first Rio Grande cut throat.
Here is another area where he caught many wild trout.
I tried sitting here to read for a little bit while Steve was fishing. It got a bit too sunny for me so I went back inside.
I could see the horses gather near the gate while I read. You can see all the fire damage here.
This view is of one of the ponds that were created on Cow Creek.
The rooms were in a motel shape arrangement. They had a very bad fire that destroyed much of the landscape here. You can see how close the fire was to the lodge.
We had a somewhat green salad.
Dinner was pot roast. Followed by the cake from the previous night.
There were many hummingbird feeders under the eaves.
Here is a close up of one of the Hummingbirds. Aren’t they cute?