Fun and Games Dept

So every year around the holidays I have teased Earl a little bit about the fact that he gets so excited about the holidays that when it finally arrives, he finds himself with a little bit of a head cold. It’s like his body breaks down a little bit from all of the excitement.

This morning I woke up with a stuffy nose and some sneezing action. I was so excited about this trip that apparently when the awesomeness ensued, my body relaxed and finally said, “you need a break, bud”.

The only thing on the agenda today was driving.

The plan was originally to take a ride along the northern part of Arkansas through some pretty nifty scenery (and a bunch of Mayberry like towns), but that route was all flooded out from the frivolity of last night’s thunderstorms. So Plan B it was and we ended up driving the entire route via Interstate. (For those keeping Interstate BINGO, we rode Interstates 540, 49, 44, 55, 64, 264 and 65).

Once we hopped onto I-44 in Joplin, Mo., we were retracing a ride we had taken years ago in the first Jeep. In fact, I pointed out to Earl the Hampton Inn that we stayed at in Lebanon, Mo. He said I was crazy. I told him that I am absolutely crazy, but I knew that we had stayed at the Hampton Inn on a foggy night. Then I refrained from saying “neener neener” when I confirmed it via this blog entry.

We did a very small bit of exploring on old US 66 and found ourselves at the Route 66 Diner. They have a clock there that looked very familiar.

Apparently we were near Fort Leonard Wood, as we found ourselves surrounded by men and women in their ACUs. I have to admit, a man in his ACUs will always get my attention.

Since we were at a diner that featured homemade soup, I ordered chicken soup for my soul (but not the book) and to help my sniffles. It was delicious.

We drove quickly through St. Louis (waving to cousin Julie and internet buddy Richard in the process) and then drove across the endless prairies of southern Illinois and Indiana. I finally found a place to use the restroom, where the bathroom doors were only chest high.

People could glance in while one was doing their business. I would just wave back because I didn’t know the proper etiquette of how to respond when you’re sitting on the toilet. Do I stand? Do I shake something? Wipe something? Do I make a territorial “ahem” noise? So many choices.

When all was said and done we were situated in Louisville, Kentucky, where we are just getting back from dinner at an Irish pub that had a darlin’ server named Michelle who was kind enough to remind me what “Irish Baked Beans” were. I had them for breakfast on toast when we were in Ireland a few years ago. She wasn’t there but she said that would be proper.

If the blog entry seems slightly rambly, it’s because I supplemented lots of Airborne chewable tablets and Halls Vitamin C drops with a Guinness. Or two. But not three.

Because three would have just been too much.

I’m going to sleep in in the morning.

Sometimes you just have a feeling that things are going to be awesome on vacation. You know this to be a fact before the event even happens so you don’t really worry about these things, but in the end it’s always good to have a validation that what you know to be true is actually true.

Today was a good day.

Last night we met up with Erik & Robert and Dwayne, and Mark and Ben, who were visiting from Denver. I’ve followed Mark’s blog for a while now and I’ve been following Erik’s blog for a longer amount of time. So when we sat down and had drinks and dinner last night, I started chatting up a storm. I don’t know if this takes some people by surprise, but I’m the type of person that is either going to jump into a conversation and/or experience with both feet or I’m going to just sit back on the sidelines and watch. There’s no halfway for me, I’m all in or I’m all out.

All in was a good thing.

Today we continued sharing some good times with our new friends In Real Life and ended up going to the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. This was very cool. Earl and I are not huge art fans, but we certainly appreciate talent when it is displayed, so we had a good time enjoying the various pieces of art that were on display through this wicked cool complex of buildings.

Can you see why I enjoy this particular painting of a clock shop?

Here we are with Mark and Ben. I let Erik touch my phone. I don’t let just anyone touch the Phone of iMachias.

Mark and Ben needed to head back to Denver, so we said our farewells (and we look forward to our paths crossing again!). Earl mentioned something about Loose Meat, and once I figured out that he was talking about lunch, Erik introduced us to a place near his tattoo shop where we had loose meat and loose talk. I believe the eatery was called Maid-Rite.

This evening we went to Erik and Robert’s house for a visit. We chatted for quite a few hours like we had known each other In Real Life for years and years. There’s something wonderful about that “click” sound that happens when you meet good people. Erik and Robert are doing some fabulous things to their farm and we look forward to visiting again to see how things are progressing.

This has been a fantastic visit with good people. We are looking forward to meeting up with Erik and Robert again soon.

Earl and I are now doing what all crazy Jeep road trip people do. We’re doing laundry.

We woke up in Ankenny, Iowa this morning. When I awoke I had no idea where I was. I thought I was in Wisconsin but Earl wasn’t on a cot so we must have moved to a new hotel.

There’s a reason it can be dangerous to use Hampton Inn in every place you stay. We had a run going for a while: room 334, 335 and then 336. Then we ended up in 106. Tonight we are on the fourth floor. Maybe they added a floor just for us.

Today was all about driving from central Iowa to northwest Arkansas. So we drove.

And we drove

And we drove

And we drove some more

We stopped in at a place called Toot-Toot Cafe in Bethany, Missouri for lunch and it was good, though there was a brief moment of silence when the two gentlemen from New York walked into this family restaurant. Every eye gazed upon us and when they determined that we were good folks, only at that time did normal operations resume.

Upon our arrival in what I have come to think of the Bentonville-Rogers-Pea Ridge, Ark. Metropolitan area, we quickly settled in and met up with Erik, Mark and husbands, husbears and friends for dinner and Tuesday night beveraging.

It is completely awesome meeting these folks in real life and we are looking forward to continuing the visit tomorrow.

After beveraging Earl was in the mood for dessert so we checked out Andy’s Frozen Custard in Rogers, where I had something called a concrete. It was delicious. Earl had pretzels added to his.

And now we are settled in for the night, feeling good and feeling happy.

For my husband, who mentioned earlier today: “I have a conference call tomorrow at 9 a.m., but since we are here it’ll be 10 a.m.”

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Clip #6 Goldie… by RetroCafe

I am feeling footloose and fancy free for a Monday. I’m celebrating by enjoying my lunch hour barefooted today. This is only significant because I am working at the office today and this is one office where I can’t be barefooted.

Even though it is Monday I am in a celebratory mood because it is a short work week for us as we are taking some needed time off at the end of the week. We are in the process of getting the house ready for our vacation (security lights, check, security system, check, house sitter, check, etc) and I have been gazing at maps and the like for the past couple of weeks planning out our spontaneous route.

There are a couple of givens along this trip: we will be stopping in OshKosh, Wis. and also in northwest Arkansas along the way. I’ve insisted to Earl that we drive in Iowa because I love Iowa (he doesn’t even look at me like I’m crazy anymore because that’s just another given). I’ll be sharing photos and details in future blog entries as we go along.

At this moment I am curious as to whether there is some sort of status quarrel going on amongst the seagulls in the parking lot I’m camped out in for the lunch hour. The lightest colored of the seagulls seems quite smug.

It can be bothered to partake in the activity the other gulls are partaking in, namely screaming about abandoned french fries and jumping on one another. They bring the phrase “flying leap” to a whole new level.

Perhaps they are upset that I didn’t share a Chili Lime PopChip with them. I’m mean that way.

We like to travel. I don’t think that’s a secret to anyone. I’ve written enough about our travel adventures to make it blatantly apparent that we enjoy seeing what the world has to offer and we really enjoy discovering both popular and out-of-the-way places as often as we can. This is something that we plan on doing until we are unable to do it anymore.

As we get along in our years we start to look ahead to our retirement years and the like and this is where our age difference figures into the equation. Now I know this sounds crazy, but when Earl retires he actually expects me to keep on working until I am eligible for retirement. While I joke about this sort of thing, the fact of the matter is that I really want to continue working but at the same time I don’t want to detract from Earl enjoying his retirement.

This is where the phrase “Digital Nomad” comes into play.

Because my career is totally dependent on technology, I’m 95% of the way to becoming a Digital Nomad already. Though I didn’t mention on my conference calls this morning, I was already playing Digital Nomad by working from the hotel room I stayed at last night. Using the hotel wifi, with the ability of my iPad to be a hotspot as a backup plan, I was able to be quite productive this morning from the third floor of the classic hotel. Aside from every vending machine being empty (people, I need geek fuel!), it was a pleasant experience and I think the change in scenery actually helped me be more focused than I would have been in my cubicle back at the office.

I’ve played Digital Nomad before during my stints with on-call duties; Earl and I have successfully traveled during on-call and no one ended up any worse off because of it. When you have servers in Fort Wayne, users in Texas and more servers in Upstate New York, it’s not like I need to drive anywhere to actually touch anything to get things going again.

I’ve been reading the adventures of Digital Nomads. Software developers, web designers, writers and the like successfully conduct their business from hotel rooms, coffee shops and other places that offer connectivity. It’s a wicked cool concept to me but there are two important elements that I need to improve on to make this plan a full success: discipline and focus, knowing when it’s play time and when it’s work time and then maintaining a healthy balance between the two.

I like to think that I’m pretty driven when it comes to getting work done. I have a few motivators when it comes to discipline. I’m goal oriented. Give me a timeline and I’ll work to make that timeline a reality.

Focus is another issue, but this is something that I have been working on as well. Though I can be distracted by outside noise and the like, I’ve been working this week with my Bose noise-canceling headphones and this has helped immensely. When I’m working at the office, the surrounding areas can be quite noisy, and while I can’t really wear the Bose headphones in that environment (in case someone comes in my cube, etc), I can wear my iPod earbuds and successfully tune out the noise of the office. I also know that when I’m writing serious code or trying to solve a more complex problem, listening to music with lyrics (or anything with words, like a podcast or something), is going to bring my concentration levels down. Outside of using Apple products, I share Jony Ive’s taste in music as so far that I enjoy ambient electronic music like stuff from DJ John Digweed and the like.

I think this Digital Nomad approach is something that I could pull off when Earl retires. Though this is still a few years away, I’m focused on improving myself to make this a reality. After all, my husband should be able to really enjoy himself when he retires. He deserves it.

So on Saturday Earl and I decided to go for a little ride to enjoy the afternoon and perhaps get a bite to eat. We ended up driving a little over 400 miles over the course of 16 hours. Our dinner in Burlington, Vermont was quite lovely.

Our very first date was spent driving in Vermont and as I sat next to my husband I had a hard time believing that it had been over 17 years since we had gone on that life-changing ride together. Where does the time go?

In our travels Earl was tolerant when a geek moment presented itself…

Old-school Kmart! I was very excited to see the red “K” and blue “mart”. Walking inside the store was like doing the time warp again. The woman behind the service desk had a bee-hive hairdo. I didn’t take her picture, though, she was a busy.

We spent much of our time on Church Street in the downtown area of Burlington.

This is the quiet end.

This is the busier end.

We had dinner at a Leunig’s Bistro, which was quite nice. We always enjoy eating on a patio-like area on the street and the weather was perfect for it. Admittedly, we enjoyed the eye candy too.

Afterwards we headed down to Lake Champlain where I took a photo of me with my best friend.

After the trip we drove up and around the northern end of the lake, coming into the northern most eastern corner of New York, where there were important decisions to make.

Though we had our passports and there was no line at several of the crossings we passed (basically one officer in each direction), we just grazed along the border …
… (the Jeep is in the US but the field is in Canada). No fence necessary.

The drive home was long but it passed quickly. Driving through the Adirondacks at midnight can be an interesting experience though. The deer like to play chicken with Jeeps. The Jeep won every time, though. Maybe the deer won, because they’d just run off into the field and laugh a lot.

I’m still basking in the afterglow of a most excellent weekend. Let’s hope the trend continues this week.

So this is what 45 feels like. On Saturday I turned 45 and I have to admit that I don’t feel much different than I did before I was 45. I did make a remark to Earl on my birthday, “I’m almost to my halfway point!”. I have decided that my halfway point will be 51. People get excited when someone lives to be 100. I’m going to really excite them and get to 102. It’s just the way it is, baby.

The birthday was relatively low key and quite frankly it was just the way I liked it. Lunch at a favorite diner in Rochester, The Highland Park Diner. We then made our way to the greater Buffalo-Niagara Falls area by staying pretty close to the Lake Ontario shoreline along the way.

We ended up passing through Niagara Falls (no barrels were available) and spending the night in Buffalo.

The weekend then really became about food, because our hotel was smack dab in the middle of “A Taste of Buffalo”. Billing itself as the largest two-day food festival around, apparently I share a birthday with this annual event.

So we tried some food.

Kale salad.

Beef on weck (one of my favorite sandwiches).

Saturday night we went out for another bite to eat and then for a drink. Though we considered it, we did not go to Anderson’s, because after all, Beef on Weck is now the official sandwich of All Things J.P. I do believe that when we start our road trip in a couple of weeks, we will have to stop and pick up a Beef on Weck on our way through the area.

Beef on weck minus one bite! Horseradish for the win!

All in all, a good birthday celebration and an excellent way to start another ride around the sun.

Enjoying a walk during a work break.

So after four days of being basically off the grid it is Monday, I am back on the daily routine and all is right with the world. Mondays are easier to enjoy when you have a fantastic weekend leading into them. I highly recommend this approach.

Life just keeps getting better. I think that’s the way it’s suppose to work.

OK, it’s obvious from my smile in the pic above that I am really enjoying my PopChips too. They’re not Sonic Tots, which have officially replaced the waffle fries from Chick-Fil-A as my preferred Distance Decadence, but nevertheless Cheddar Potato PopChips are Da Bomb. And relatively healthy, too!

Someday I’m going to get back into the routine of riding my bike again. With the continued flooding, random alternations of sun and downpours and soupy humidity, I have not found the time to ride my bike in a week or so. I’m hoping that someone somewhere will be cooperative and I will be able to ride another long distance ride in the near future.

In the meanwhile I shall continue to enjoy a PopChip or two. After all, PopChips are part of my routine.