FDR's Walking Sticks

Over the summer I got to visit President Franklin Roosevelt's Georgia home, given the name the Little White House. He built the home in Warm Springs, GA to take advantage of the warm spring water that helped with his polio treatment and it would be the place where the President passed away when he died of a stroke in 1945. The museum that makes up the guest house and the main house has many great FDR artifacts including these wonderful walking sticks which he received from people all across America.

Surprise Corvettes

As you drive through Tennessee...first to Nashville, then Murfreesboro, and ultimately Chattanooga, you are struck by how beautiful the Volunteer State's scenery is as you make your way through the Cumberland Plateau and the southern stretches of the Appalachian Mountains.

The mountain passes are the most picturesque part of the drive and also probably the most dangerous part as semis struggle up the mountain and then descend on the other side like a bat out of hell. There are even some runaway semi lanes full of sand to hopefully stop a truck that has lost its brakes coming down the mountain.

On our last trip over the passes, we came upon an unlikely site of a truck hauling a trailer full of new Corvettes.

And when we passed the trailer, we had a surprise with the vintage car that was hidden underneath.

The White Haze

Winters in the south are just like a really, really long fall that doesn't ever quite get to winter. There are hints that winter might just be around the corner but it just never quite makes it. We didn't have to turn on the heat until December and the air conditioning has been known to be on in March.

Thankfully, we been able to return home to Minnesota/Wisconsin each winter and it hasn't disappointed in giving us a good strong taste of winter and what we were missing. I typically go through a series of emotions from "isn't winter wonderful?" to "SNOW!!!" to "how do people live here?" to when we return home "isn't it nice to be able to wash your car in January?"

During our visit we drove from the Twin Cities to Rochester, MN to visit some friends just after a snowstorm had blown through. This was at the "SNOW!!!" stage of my love of winter and it reminded me how beautifully desolate the Midwest can be and how the early Scandinavian settlers must have felt a little bit at home staring out into the white haze on the ground and in the sky. 

Robert Penn Warren's Birthplace

When we drive home from Minnesota/Wisconsin to Atlanta we like to do a larger chunk of the 16-hour drive on the first day so we can get into Atlanta on the second day before rush hour. Plus, it gives us a chance to possibly get something accomplished when we finally get home...other than collapse on the couch. 

We are also pretty strategic about where we stop for our meals and we try to get something we can't easily enjoy in Atlanta. One of those places is Noodles and Company which is a Dean/Flaten favorite. The last one we can go to on our drive is in Nashville, Tennessee and so we typically grab lunch there on the second day of our return drive. 

During our last drive down we got an early start and so we were going to be past Nashville by the time Noodles and Company was even open. This gave us a great excuse to do some sightseeing and a chance to stop and see one of the sites whose freeway signs had been intriguing me every time we drove past: the Robert Penn Warren's Museum.  

Robert Penn Warren, the author of All the King's Men, and the only winner of the Pulitzer Prize for both fiction and poetry, was born in the little town of Guthrie, Kentucky, right on the border with Tennessee. His birthplace home serves as a little museum to the author but we were there bright and early on a Friday and so, unfortunately, the museum wouldn't be open until noon. 

As we stopped to take some photos around the house, we had few cars stop and slow down as if they wondered what on earth we were doing there.

And while being Robert Penn Warren's birthplace is certainly Guthrie's claim to fame, a close second would have to be their giant pink elephant which was in the parking lot of a gas station on the way into town where, as the small sign says, you can get boiled peanuts. 

Marvel With A Mango: The Pastrami At Hershel's Deli in Philadelphia

On the last day of our trip to Philadelphia a few weeks ago our flight wasn't until 6pm so we got to do some last minute sightseeing including Ben Franklin's grave, a home owned by Dolly Madison, and the Carpenter's Hall which was the meeting place for the 1st Continental Congress. We also stopped by the Reading Terminal Market which has been around in one form or another since 1859.  

There are tons of shops and restaurants selling just about anything you can imagine. The smells were incredible we ended up grabbing a seat at Hershel's Deli. Although we didn't know it beforehand, the deli has amazing reviews and a reputation for amazing sandwiches. 

I went with a pastrami sandwich that ended up being one of the thickest sandwiches I've ever had. The pastrami was so juicy and fell apart so easily...it was just about perfect.  

A famous sandwich at Hershel's is a combination pastrami and corned beef reuben and although I'm not a huge fan of reubens, I'll have to give that sandwich a try if I'm back in Phili again.

The Opposite Side of the Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell, and its famous crack, was one of the things I was most excited to see during our trip to Philadelphia. As you move your way through the exhibit to the famous bell you learn that it probably wasn't rung on July 4th itself and rather rung to call the members to the Pennsylvania State House a.k.a. Independence Hall to debate and vote during the different Continental Congress sessions.  

And here's the famous crack which occurred while trying to repair a smaller crack. How would you have liked to be that smith? 

Without a doubt the image of the cracked Liberty Bell is one of the most iconic in American history. But have you ever seen the opposite side of the Bell? 

Here is reverse side. It is beautiful, complete, and intact!  It reminds me of being a kid and maybe breaking something in the house and thinking maybe if I just put it back and spin it around no one will notice! 

As you'll notice, the other visitors didn't take a look at the other side and so I was probably in all of their photos of the Bell and they are in mine.

The View From My Window #21: Philadelphia

I haven't done one of these in over a year, I'm surprised to find! Today's post comes from 23 floors up in our country's first capital, Philadelphia. We rented an apartment in the Rittenhouse neighborhood in Philadelphia which includes a Rittenhouse Square that was one of the original parks designed by William Penn. 

In the distance in the gap between the two buildings, you can see Citizens Bank Park which is the home of the Philadelphia Phillies.