The Journey |
Being a compendium of thoughts as we drive and drive and....
The Journey |
We write this from our funky hotel room – an old motor court spiffed up a bit - in Fredericksburg TX, having just watched The Alpinist, about solo climber Marc-André Leclerc. A haunting story that makes it hard to think about the rest of the day. We started the day with breakfast at our inn, watching the white peacocks Leo and Luna outside the dining room window. Then Laura bought a new pair of hiking socks. It wasn’t the first thing we found we forgot to pack – Cathy mailed Ed’s EpiPens to Austin – and it undoubtedly won’t be the last. Then Pedernales State Park to see the falls and canyon. There was no water running over the falls and the canyon was meh. (Tho the rocks and woods were nice.) And it all took longer than expected. So we regrouped at Fat Boy Burgers in Johnson City and decided against the long drive to Enchanted Rock. Instead we visited the LBJ ranch. It reminded us that he accomplished so much before Vietnam brought down his presidency. We continued onto Fredericksburg, the heart of the Hill Country, settled by German immigrants in the 19th century (as we learned in Spying on the South). A note in our hotel room tells us that the innkeeper’s family came here from Germany over 150 years ago.
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Beautiful weather today. Clear, mostly sunny, high in the 70’s as we transition from the cities of the south to the Texas hill country and then to West Texas. Breakfast at Nate’s Baked, a funky little local bakery. Left Jeffrey’s lovely, if small, wildflower garden and spent the morning at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, wandering through their gardens. In addition to the flora, the garden had art, both real and augmented reality Then lunch at the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, one of the famous BBQ places near Austin. It was very good, but it made us realize that the quality of Q available in Boston has started to approach that of the really well known hotbeds of BBQ.
Our home for the night is a lovely B&B outside Wimberly, where we spent the late afternoon sitting in the sun by the pool. Not a lot of good choices for dinner, but we watched a beautiful sunset from a lovely beer and wine garden overlooking the hillside. Another museum heavy day. After dropping our hosts Jeffrey and Bill at the airport, we headed into the heart of Austin to the Bullock Texas State History Museum. It seemed like exhibits have been redone fairly recently. For a state museum, under the purview of the lieutenant governor, the bilingual labels were pretty brave and balanced. But the Civil War exhibit was not updated. Laura couldn’t help but wonder if something is going on behind the scenes. We then headed to UT’s special collections, the Harry Ransom Center. They had an exhibition about film storyboards, drawn from their amazing collections. Oh, and a Gutenberg Bible and a fine Frieda Kahlo. Eerie how a landmark can bring back memories. We couldn’t pass the tower on the UT campus without recalling the 1966 shooting. Who could have imagined such an act of senseless violence would become commonplace? We were too tired to take on the Blanton but did stop at the Ellsworth Kelly chapel, which is lovely. They are relandscaping around the museum, so it’s a mess, but the cool sculptural sunshades should be welcome when it’s all done.
We started the day in Houston, chatting with our B&B host who will, in fact, be running in the Boston Marathon. She’s competitive in the Para Athletics Division (T13/vision impairment). So with Ruth, we have two runners to follow next week!
Our destination in Houston was the Rothko Chapel, which was actually disappointing. But the Barnet Newman sculpture, Broken Oblelisk, and the contemplative birch grove were the perfect setting. The Menil Collection is closed on Tuesdays so onto Bill and Jeffrey’s in Austin! Enroute we passed a bright purple car. And in their lovely neighborhood, a new meaning of MAGA: Mothers Against Greg Abbott. And we got to do laundry! First, before leaving Louisiana, another must-see spot on the museum-nerd’s list: Whitney Plantation, west of New Orleans, the only plantation dedicated to telling the story of enslavement. We were pleased to see how many people were visiting – it is not an easy place to get to. Laura had read Clint Smith’s chapter on Whitney, so she knew what to expect. And it was a good coda to other stories we’ve encountered on our trip through the south, at times more explicit and at times more measured. Our photos are mainly of the buildings – eerily evocative – and the art pieces throughout the property. The excellent audio guide, narrated by the executive director and director of research, ended with the observation that they hoped visitors did not leave feeling either guilty or angry. Of course, it was easy to feel both emotions. We stopped for our last po’boys and gumbo and crossed over into Texas, where the interstate exits, tied to the mile markers, were in the 800s! On the way we passed a pick up so jacked up, it looked like a 5 year old drew it. Cool bridge outside of Houston. Then the highway passed miles of refineries south of Houston that dwarfed what you see from the NJ Turnpike. Now we are in the Montrose neighborhood, close to the Menil and the Rothko Chapel. We saw our B&B host just as she was heading out for a run, wearing her 2016 Boston Marathon jersey! Ended the day with craft beer, mushroom and duck confit pizza, and peach cobbler.
Had a slow start to the day: a leisurely breakfast and then a stroll along Podras Street to admire the Podras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition, a set of outdoor sculpture in the median. Came back to the hotel via the edge of the French Quarter, which gave us a chance to look for a spoon rest. Found many candidates and picked a deserving addition to the Museum Then over to Kitty’s sister Phoebe’s house for Easter dinner with a small assortment of family, friends, and dogs (3 of them). Much good food (including home made Café Brulot) and conversation for the afternoon. Feeling stuffed, we decided not to overdo it and will leave New Orleans tomorrow without a blow out last night dinner
Today marks two weeks on the road! We started the day with an excellent breakfast with really good andouille sausage in hash and in an omelet. Then off to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art with Kitty. The wonderful thing about a great regional museum is seeing regional art. Laura was excited to see a large Sam Gilliam, one of her favorite artists. There was great work by vernacular artists in all media. And some clearly southern landscapes. We ended the day cruising galleries (and maybe finding a painting to buy, done ironically by a Boston artist) and meeting Aurora, a beautiful husky. Laura finally got a pedicure. And we had roasted oysters, crawfish bisque and catfish in court bouillon for dinner!
We spent the entire day at the National World War II Museum, which has grown steadily in the years since Laura’s last visit (when it was still the D Day Museum). After close to seven hours, the Allies were winning the Battle of the Bulge and heading to Berlin when the museum closed. The exhibitions and videos were excellent but hard to photograph, so we only have a tank, planes and flight jackets to share. It was an interesting lesson in how local circumstances shape one’s perception of big events. Because landing craft were manufactured in New Orleans, D Day and the ground war dominate the interpretation. Move this museum to Seattle (Boeing) or Detroit (Ford) and the focus would be very different. We were also struck by the discussion of the experience of racial and ethnic minorities, particularly Blacks and Japanese Americans. Twenty years ago, this would have been a very different museum. Hey, there were even a scattering of women!
Lovely dinner at Atchafalaya out in the Garden District... more green tomatoes, gumbo and redfish. Light breakfast and off to City Park – home of the Sydney and Besthoff Sculpture Garden, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and the city’s Botanical Garden. Despite the forecast rain, it turned into a lovely day to wander around the park. The sculpture garden is, in fact, a garden, with iris and allium in full bloom. The sculptures are under mature trees, around two lagoons. What fun to see folks kayaking among the art! The New Orleans Museum of Art is a wonderful place with far more than we had time for. An exhibition about the connections between Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club in Nigeria was the main attraction, but when we arrived we found a smaller exhibit of African art gifted by Laura’s colleague Diane Frankel and her husband Chuck! And a photography exhibit with some fabulous work, including two engaging images by Thomas Kellner. And ceramics. And modern art. After the museum, we headed off to Liuzza’s and split oyster and spicy shrimp po’ boys for lunch. Then back to the park to wander through the Botanical Garden. On the way back to the hotel, we drove down Esplanade which had a wonderful array of houses in many styles, including the painted ones in the picture.
Before dinner, we met Kitty’s 10 month old Havanese puppy, Casey. Very cute, but he wants to gnaw on everything in sight. Then on to dinner with a group of eight at Sukeban, a “fast, casual Japanese style izakaya”, with creative sushi hand rolls. We were determined to finish what we started yesterday morning. So we went back to Jacked Up Coffee for monkey bread – apple for Ed, cheese and jalapeno for Laura. Then kayaking on the bayou at the Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Moss Point, MS. Ed loves “simply messing about in boats” (Wind in the Willows) and we had fun The nice folks at the Center sent us to the local pharmacy for lunch (the daily special was a club sandwich for $5.99) and we were on the road again. We decided to try listening to Joanne Freeman and Heather Cox Richardson’s podcast Now and Then and learned all about the complicated relationship between the U. S. and Canada over the last 250 years.
Now we are in New Orleans for five days. Wonderful dinner with Kitty at August. Lots more food and museums in the days ahead. Today, we passed the 2,000 mile mark. Many more to go. |
AuthorLaura and Ed Archives |