September 20, 2007

Michael and I had an absolutely fantastic time on our road trip! We are so lucky to live in this beautiful country...

The incredible geological formations that make up southern Utah are truly AWESOME! (It's a word I seldom use - something really has to impress me to merit its use, and this scenery fits the bill! I'm so glad that the area is so huge that it all cannot be designated as a National Park. It allows all of us who are "just passin' through" to gape and wonder while on our own journeys...)

We reached the Rockies at twinkly twilight. The mountains were shadowed in shades of purple, blue, and deep green: much different than we last experienced them, on that morning in June, all sunlit and recently capped with snow.

We stopped in Kansas City for our first real taste of the true, K.C. barbeque (found quite by accident via a Food Network show that featured ARTHUR BRYANT'S). The Midwest brought back so many memories of growing up in Illinois: cornfields, thunderstorms, and the smell of fresh rain.

I'll always love Kentucky! Louisville has changed during the 30+ years since I lived there. But once you spend time in Kentucky, it never leaves your heart! Michael claims he had the best cheeseburger of his life at KAELIN'S, which claims to have invented the cheeseburger in 1935!

The sunrise over the West Virginia hills had to be one of the most beautiful I'd ever seen! And driving up through the Shenandoah Valley had my imagination running wild with its Civil War history whizzing by my window.

THE NATIONAL CAPITAL CAT SHOW was one of the best in which we've ever participated! We met wonderful folks and reconnected with people who welcomed my drawings into their homes 9 years ago, the last time we'd been in Virginia. We met wonderous, beautiful, utterly charming cats - Japanese Bobtails, Sphnix, Norwegian Forest Cats, Ocicats, Devons, Cornish Rexes, and a very special Persian, just to name a few!

The Washington Times printed a special pull-out section that was all about the show. They featured a full page article on me and my artwork, complete with pictures! It was distributed in one of its yearly best selling editions: it featured the Redskins as the NFL was readied to kick-off the season on the following Sunday. Cats and football - how cat you beat THAT combination?

As I mentioned in my last writing, the NATIONAL CAPITAL CAT SHOW used my drawing "YANKEE DOODLE DANDY" as the cover art for their program. Many of the exhibitors ask me to autograph their copies!

In the midst of it all, Michael's brother Dan and his family came to the show to see us! I won't bore you with family details, just know we had a blast and that we loved meeting our great-nephews for the first time (ages 7 & 5)! Since we all were on quite different, hectic schedules, the time we got to spend together was short and compacted, and left everyone wanting to spend more time together, NEXT TIME!

We drove to Cleveland and spent a day at THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM, another incredible experience that inspired me in ways I'd never thought it would. To see the poetry of John Lennon and Jim Morrison written in their own handwritings, complete with doodles and stuff scribbled in margins lead me into their repective creative processes. The guitars displayed, both electric and acoustic, were works of art in themselves! The films of rock-and-rollers, past and present gave me goosebumps and lead us both down many "memory lanes".

On to Illinois to spend time with my mom, then to Nebraska for an evening with my sister Trudi and her family. We took off from there and headed straight for home. Even though we had a great time, we found ourselves missing our four furry ones big time! They missed us, too, and have not let us out of their sights since we got home!