I'm in Arkansas

I'm in Arkansas with family.  It's nice, except for the humidity and the mosquitoes.  And in truth, that is a small price to pay for hanging out here in my parents' house with my brothers and sisters that I rarely get to see.

I have a pretty great family.  For the majority of my life so far, I've taken them for granted.  In the last few years, I've realized how good I have had it all my life.  The more people I meet who say things like, "You have my sympathy" or "Ugh, good luck" when I say I'm going to spend a week with my family, the more I realize that most people do not enjoy their families the way I enjoy mine.  It makes me sad for them and even happier for myself.

I picked up the kids from the ex-husband on Friday morning and we hit the road.  Seven-hundred-ten miles on I-40 is too many miles on I-40, or any road for that matter.  Ugh and double-ugh.  We did break up the monotony by stopping at Cadillac Ranch and painting a few cars.  I have photos of that but I will have to post them another time.  We were also chewed up and spit out by hordes of mosquitoes.  Poor Samuel got the worst of it and has been hopped up and/or strung out on Benadryl and Motrin ever since.

We spent Saturday with my Granny and her beau.  He's nice and he really seems to make her happy and seems to like us so it's all good.  I also met my brother's girlfriend of 3 years for the first time.  It's obvious they make each other happy.  That makes me happy.

Yesterday we spent the day hanging out around the house.  The kids divided their time among playing Mario Kart, jumping on the trampoline and 'babysitting' their various dolls.  I explored the attic (which is huge!) and found a box of stuff that I left when I moved out.  My favorite doll from childhood was in there, along with a jar of sand I collected from White Sands, New Mexico when I was 12.  There were some godawful clothes in there, too but we won't talk about that.

Today we went to Chuck E. Cheese for fun and games.  The kids procured cheap plastic crap that will most likely be lost before we leave but we had a good time and got some fun photos.  Lance is arriving here any minute for a week or so himself.

Tomorrow we will go to a water park near here for swimming, sliding and sun.  I'm excited.  It sounds similar to the one I take my kids to at home in Colorado, only a titch bigger.  We'll picnic and spend the whole day there.

On Wednesday my Paw Paw and his wife are coming over to visit.  I haven't seen them in at least a year and a half.  Also, some time during this week, some of us siblings are planning an epic game of Monopoly.  'Twill be much fun!

And on Thursday the kids and I will leave just after lunch time and drive to the western side of Oklahoma City.  We're planning to stay at a nice hotel, swim and then on Friday morning we'll tour a museum that looked interesting on the way over.  I'll drop the kiddos off with the ex-husband on Friday evening and head home myself on Saturday.

Spermatophobia

Did you know that 'germaphobia' is actually not a word? I couldn't find it in the dictionary.  The real word for the fear of germs is 'spermatophobia'.  That's important because that's what this post is about. Not fear of sperm.  Just so we're clear.

Have you seen this? It's the latest weapon in the arsenal of germaphobic Americans every where.  It's the Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap System. I think it's stupid. The tag line is "Never touch a germy soap pump again." What I don't get is why this is so terrible.  I mean, if you're touching the soap pump to get soap on your hands and then you're going to scrub with that soap and some water, you're not touching the soap pump without cleaning yourself afterward. Right? Why is it such a big deal that the soap pump probably has e. coli and salmonella and H1N1 and other icky stuff on it? You're not sucking on it to get daily sustenance or anything. I hate this pre-occupation with germs.  I also really hate this manufacturing of more useless, plastic crap that will jam our landfills and require the use of more petroleum by-products.  And to a lesser degree it bothers me that someone feels the need to use 6 words to describe washing hands.  I've got 2: soap, water. And no, it's not anti-bacterial soap, either.

And as if that weren't enough, there's this:

It's a paper towel system for your bathroom.  It could be used in the kitchen, too, I guess.  Actually, Kleenex probably wants you to use them every where so they can make more money.  They probably want you to buy cases of these to keep in your car and use them when you're out and about running errands and on road trips and stuff.  Please. Yes, I know the CDC says that for the most effective illness prevention  you should dry your hands with a single-use towel, but come on. This is taking it too far.  You have to strike a balance between healthy cleanliness and rationality.

I am disappointed.

Colorado National Monument

Breath-taking. Spellbinding. Mesmerizing. Magical.

Palisade, Colorado

Oh, what a weekend! There aren't words for most everything we did and saw and ate and drank. So I'll post photographs with some brief explanations. Keep in mind that the pictures can't possibly do any of the subjects justice. It was magical.

The bed and breakfast where we stayed --
 a charming Victorian that has been stunningly renovated and is run by the sweetest couple.  We had fabulous breakfasts every morning and relaxed in the heavenly hot tub in the evenings.  We can't wait to go back.

The view from the backyard.

Our room and bathroom. Told you it was stunning.

The winery across the street.  We had a personal tour with the winemaker and his wife.  That man is a viniculture genius.  He really knows his stuff.  I learned a lot about wine and how to better appreciate different varietals. They liked us, too because they invited us back that evening for an Independence Day celebration with some of the best food I've ever had.  We're talking roasted pork rib quesadillas with cherry jalapeno salsa, green salad with mandarin oranges and white wine dressing.  Oh, man.  It was tremendous.

The town is small so we did a lot of walking.  The railroad tracks run right through the middle of town so we had to wait on a train.  In case you didn't know, it's rather loud.

We saw some interesting signs.

And some interesting plants.  I still have no idea what this was.  It almost looks like a fungus that has overtaken the the tree but I can't be sure.

One of our favorite places to eat, ever.  They serve the best Greek gyro I've ever had.  I might change my mind if I have a real gyro in Greece some day but since that's not happening any time soon I'll keep going back here.

This particular day, however, I had a garden veggie sandwich with sweet potato fries.  It was so good I'm still thinking about it.

We toured another winery.  This one wasn't as interesting because the tour was given by an employee of the vineyard.  I know it's not possible to tour with winemakers all the time, but it does add a nice personal touch when we can.

Scrap metal sculptures outside another winery.

Awards won by our favorite winery.  I loved every single wine I tasted at this place.  It's called Garfield Estates and they are fabulous.  Paul joined their membership club and I won a free bottle of wine when I entered their drawing.  Yay!

We also ate at the Palisade Brewing Company.  They're an interesting place.

The brew delicious beer and serve delectable French dip sandwiches.

On the way home we stopped at Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs for lunch.

I had a veggie burger that was To. Die. For.  And, of course, more sweet potato fries.  For the record, Palisade Cafe and Grill makes better fries.

We lunched on the patio by this fountain.  The weather was perfect.

After lunch we walked around town a bit before getting back in the car for more driving.  Glenwood Springs is a great place to vacation.  This pool is fed by natural hot springs.  I'm dying to go there and get in it some day.

There are both Hotel Colorado and Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs.  I don't think that should be allowed.   It's too confusing.

I'll give them a pass though, because Hotel Denver is attached to Glenwood Brewpub that makes more good beer.

More sights in Glenwood Springs.

  And then we got back on the road for the rest of the drive home.  We saw thousands of dead trees like these.  They're being killed off by the bark beetle.  It's a sad but necessary part of natural forest life.

The Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel.  Did you know that it's 1.7 miles long?  It feels like it, too.  Funny tidbit -- that car in front of us has a license plate that reads HRVRDMAN and the plate is inside a frame that says 'Harvard Alumni' on it.  Um, you think?

On the other side of the tunnel we hit this.  Record-breaking holiday traffic.  We sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 2 hours.  It was bad.  It was maddening.  It was hot.  It was yuck.

I left out a big section of our trip.  On July 4th we went up onto the Colorado National Monument, took lots of pictures and had a picnic.  We watched the fireworks down in Grand Junction.  I'll put that in the next post because there are almost as many pictures of that as there are of the whole rest of the weekend.