Some parting shots of (and at) the lovely Trapp Family Lodge. You can see our room and balcony on the third floor above our car, right by the lobby

It’s a very large resort, with lots of secondary rental chalets, a “village” where you can build your own dream home in the Austrian style, a deli/bakery and brewery where they make their own Austrian beer. What I didn’t know was that Maria and the Baron are buried on the beautiful and green landscaped grounds, right by the hotel in a little private fenced off area –I imagine just to keep over eager fans from getting too close. That’s Maria on the left.

A final minus — the rustic large cobblestone in the front extended to the steps and double ramps … a seriously bumpy way up for John. Even the bellhops had a time with luggage carts on the slope:

And to end on a high note, a final plus — they had a library room full of lots of lending books and comfy chairs, as well as book-sharing shelves on every floor with plenty of kid friendly offerings:

We were only a few hours away from our destination in Amherst. Along the way there we stopped at the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Waterbury VT. Glad I saw it but it was a zoo crowded with tourists and kids.  It would have been fine but just too chaotic for John to enjoy. Then we had a little shopping spree at the extensive King Arthur Flour store in Norwich VT; we’re set for baked goods through Christmas. We had to wait out our first major rain before leaving; we came totally unprepared for wetness, not even an umbrella in the car!

And one final sentimental stop in Putney VT where John and I had our civil union ceremony on our first cross-country trip in 2000.  Like we did back then, we had to visit Basketville, a wonderland of baskets, baskets and more baskets, plus kitchen and bath and Christmas and other stuff. Think Cost Plus but twice the size and half or more of baskets.

A welcome sign greeted us at the home of our friends Dennis and Elizabeth (long ago of Stanford):

The house is an 75+ year old Cape style  home that has been remodeled and extended but retains many original structural features, e.g., wide board pine floors, lots of moulding and built-in cabinets and shelves … and quirky features like this 15-inch wide door between the kitchen and living room.

Lucky for John there is another way to get through. The house is on three levels and normally we’d be upstairs, but our hosts have graciously given over their master bedroom wing (a new part) with luxurious bath for our stay.

Two more Canadian cultural notes. First, we tried a Tim Horton donut … not bad but basically like any glazed or cake donut but with a distinctive doughy texture I thought. And they offered a number of maple or honey dipped variations. Second, next to the handicapped spots at their freeway service areas

:

After a fine night’s rest in the Canadian Hilton, we took the northern route east across the top of Lake Ontario rather than braving the heavily traffic’d Niagara Falls corridor. That was a lovely drive once past Toronto, and we crossed into the US on the Ogdensburg-Prescott Bridge, an old but impressive two-lane suspension bridge with a metal grate road surface, very little border traffic there (we were alone at the customs gates with a chatty official).

It took us to Stowe via rural upper New York, places like Waddington, “World Carp Capital”, and Vermont. A surprise, not noted in my route warnings, is that it chose a route that required a ferry between New York and Vermont.

Here we are at the very lovely Trapp Family Lodge. It is (now descendants of) the von Trapp family of Sound of Music fame, but the outcome of their serious profession in the hospitality trade once the fame died down. Granted, our room has pictures like these on the walls instead of bland hotel art:

and there are periodic showing of the film and several documentaries. But overall it’s a very nice upscale chalet/Austrian style lodge and resort, a beautiful building in a beautiful setting (apologies for an internet image; I won’t have pictures until morning light)

They started off in trouble with only three handicapped spots, by the lobby, but redeemed themselves by parking the car for us, moving it to a handicapped spot when it became available, and bringing our luggage up to the room. Ahhh, so this is how the rich vacation!

The room is large and appropriately decorated with a private balcony:

Note the high beds … hallmark it seems of luxury bedding; a pain for John to get into from the wheelchair. But quite nice once there!

The bathroom? A tub as advertised, but otherwise a good accessible room:

Note the picture with the toilet. Unlike the Hilton, the towels are placed to the right of instead of above the toilet, allowing use of the towel bar.

The new item of note from those clever Austrians (or ingenious Vermonters) … the auto-close door has a magnetic door stop which holds the door open if you open the door all the way. Problem solved!

Our journey continues east from Kalamazoo … we slept late (happily) but had to fly out of there at 11, sans breakfast. Suddenly the ubiquitous Starbucks at exits seemed to disappear, so I was worried about  my morning coffee.  I tried a Bigby Coffee instead, a local chain, and was a very happy driver again.

Luckily it was not a heavy driving day, just a border crossing into Canada at Sarnia to fret about (it was nothing, just a short queue to be asked “what’s in the car?” and “any firearms or weapons?”). Our ATT phone data plan stopped at the border, which I had expected except I hadn’t thought about the impact on using dictation on the iPhone to communicate with John.  We knew we’d have wifi in the evening, but in the meantime I took advantage of short stops to type questions and answers.

So there we are in the lovely country of Canadia, with their metric clocks and Homo Milk , Tim Horton donuts and so-called “dollars”.  They wouldn’t take an American Visa at the pump at the gasbar (aka gas station) so I went inside to pay.  “How much do you want” the nice lady cheerfully asked. “You mean in liters?” I asked.  She must have seen my panicked look before since she quickly said “why don’t you just go fill it up, but be sure to come back and pay!”

Our destination for the night was Hamilton Ontario to see our friends from travels abroad, Richard and Christine. They met Tony and Joy first in Cambodia, then traveled with us all to Turkey, Egypt and China. Here’s what greeted us on arrival:

Some 30 steps up the front, or 10 steep steps down in the back

John, plucky as ever, said he’d rather climb (down steep steps without a rail is not in his comfort zone). And climb he did!

Not shown, the part where we pushed him in the wheelchair up part of the grassy hill, but still an awesome feat in 92 degree weather, sorry, I mean 33˚C!  The proprietors, concerned about the impact of a bad blog rating, urged me to note the generously wide front door into the easy to navigate-to-the-back-patio floorplan.  A couple of Gin and Tonics cooled things off quickly and we had a delicious home made Thai dinner by the pool.  Here’s Christine’s fabulous homemade Pad Thai

Because the house was rather vertical overall, not just the front lawn, we are here tonight in the awesome Hilton Homewood Suites. They let us park right next to the elevator, in a spot seeming not marked for any parking, even meeting us in the garage to show us where. Then we went up to the room

Yes, that’s a full kitchen and large sitting area. The bathroom is the best so far; check out the really big roll-in shower

Hard to fault a place so so very nice, but I did notice one oddity. Notice the towel rack above the toilet, effectively eliminating the usefulness of the towel bar under the shelf. This would not have been so bad but for the lack of any other bath towel bar in the room!  Too bad there was not a convenient blank wall nearby where the rack could have hung instead 🙂

By the way, if you are wondering how John exited Richard and Christine’s, a quick 2-person fireman’s arm carry up the back stair did the trick. Richard and I weren’t the most graceful but we got the job done without dropping John.

A long day of driving awaited us, from Menomonie to Kalamazoo. As we left, John noticed that there seemed to be extra emphasis on non-smoking facilities, remembering how prevalent smoking still was in that area on his visits some years back.

After that I noticed designated smoking areas outside rest stop buildings, generally inhabited, and discard-your-cigarette bins outside gas station convenience stores that of course sold cigarettes.  But maybe I’m just not noticing such things at home.

My original route eastward took us north over Lake Superior, to avoid having to circle Chicago at rush hour.  But an opportunity to see an old friend in Madison took us south instead.

Jean Bonin was the Music Department librarian at the University of Virginia when John, Lynne Sinclair and I were there. We all had jobs in the music library; Jean was our boss, but also a mentor and friend.  She created a welcoming environment for students and faculty together, with a large listening room next to the then vinyl recordings collection. We had a lounge that was a social hub — we were diehard occupants. And she, along with the music department in general fostered an amazing amount of music making for a non-performance department.  It was, after all, the place where John did his PDQ Bach concerts and outdoor Sousa concert, and where I accompanied singers and played piano and percussion in the band and orchestra (on occasion).

Jean also is indirectly responsible for my computing career. She procured funding for a computer catalog of the library’s Early American Imprint Sheet Music connection, based on an idea first pitched to her my me and John Sack (yes, that John Sack; we were roommates back in Virginia) . Under her supervision, I managed a small squad of volunteers transcribing information then key-punching it onto cards in the wee hours of the night.  Of course that included JohnK and Lynne. We produced a very large catalog called EAMCAT on blue-bar computer paper, with I think 11 indexes on things like title, composer, performer, artist, lithographer, publisher, plate number, etc. Fiche copies are still in many libraries and it got my name in the LC Authority file.  I saved the data and many many years later it was converted to MARC — the entries, now with pictures of the covers, can be found in the Virginia online catalog.

It was only long after I came to Stanford that I realized Jean set the pattern of a serious, professional environment that was seamlessly integrated with our personal lives and both a haven and source of great fun, something that I think is echoed in our work environment at Stanford. Here’s a selfie-stick moment:

It was fantastic reminiscing, but our expected 1 hour break turned to 4+ hours and we still had 5 hours on the road. The good part was we avoided rush hour, but the roads were still crowded, heavy with trucks, rough and under lots of construction, and toll roads to boot. ugh. We arrived at the lovely Red Roof Inn in East Kalamazoo Michigan a little after 11. The name Kalamazoo, of course, comes from a Potawatomi word for boiling water  — look it up!

This was a real bargain motel, exterior rooms, no breakfast offering. The reservations were late because of the last minute route change, so I was not expecting much. The room is spare:

So spare in fact that there is no desk or table or chair!  It looks like they made room by removing one of two beds and anything else that might get in the way.  But it has hardwood floor (laminate) for ez rolling, plus a quite suitable sink and toilet. We got into the zen spirit of the place.

They get big bonus points for having a handicapped parking space directly in front of each of their accessible rooms with a path leading directly to the door … the door which is not spring loaded but stays open when you open it.  What a concept!

Yesterday was the big wedding day in Burnsville Minnesota — John’s niece Lynanne, first daughter of sister Carolyn, to her betrothed Keyur. It was a cultural mashup of Hindu and Western wedding traditions, with dancing and music both before the ceremony and after the reception.  The couple and the rest of the wedding party had many roles to play and traditions to navigate, with the officiant chanting in Sanskrit (I believe), explaining what was happening and putting everyone at ease with grace and humor. To my western eyes the Hindu part was eye-catching, colorful and exotic, but all parts were beautifully done. I was worried John would upstage the bride with his twirling orange bowtie, but it fit in perfectly with the festive mood of the day.

The ceremony was in an arts center with floor to ceiling windows behind and to the side of the action, which looked great in person but created impossible backlighting for amateur photography. So we await some official photographs. I offer a group shot of the happy extended family the next day, with the groom and bride on the left:

Today we left Minneapolis to continue east to Menomonie Wisconsin, just a way station on our route east. First a stop in St.Paul to see the state capitol building … good thing we had already seen it on our earlier trip!

Then nearby to see St. Paul Cathedral:

The Menomonie Super 8 Motel, chosen for its nice budget price, had plenty of handicapped parking and a fine bathroom, with a tub/shower (as expected) but the first to include a transfer tub bench for the combo:

We’ve been lucky with the roll-in showers but would try a tub bench if the need arose, so it is something to watch to see if we see one again.

The real surprise was this:

Alas, I could not persuade John to give us a live demo 🙁

Three peaceful days in the Cedar Valley Resort. Sunny but not overly hot days, few bugs but lots of lovely birds and a resident chipmunk, good food, a large field for outdoor games, a nearby river for tubing or canoeing (John and I did not indulge but we did visit the river).

We learned a new outdoor game, Kubb, an old Viking game where you throw sticks (batons) at wooden blocks (kubbs). And we played a new indoor game, Telestrations. It’s like the telephone game with pictures.  One person does a drawing, the second one guesses what it is, the third person draws the guess, the fourth guesses the drawing, etc. Eight people playing at once, and lots of hilarity as drawings and guesses go crazily off track.

Next destination was Chanhassen, our home base for the wedding of John’s niece in nearby Burnsville. But first was a stop in Niagara Cave. John indulged me by napping out in the car while I took the tour.  It was pretty great … a running water carved cave of tall narrow winding channels rather than one dissolved slowly over time into large chambers.  Water still flows through it, and it includes a 60 foot waterfall in a domed room about 120 feet tall. My photos were not good, but here’s one of a formation that shows just how wet and active the cave still is:

Our pre- and post-wedding stop is the lovely Chanhassen Inn near Minneapolis. An older place, cinder block walls and real keys, not cards, but nicely and comfortably done up. Great bathroom, including the shower (the yellow coloring around the sink is an iPhone pano artifact):

One big strike was that there was one and only one handicapped spot, by the lobby. The Inn shares its lot with a small row of stores, so it’s hard to tell who most of the spaces belong to. I got adequately wide spots near another door closer to our room, until the last night that is.  Another minus, shared too widely, is the lack of helpful doors.  Like the rooms themselves mostly everywhere, it’s hold the door with one hand, try pushing or pulling with the other, trying it different ways with left and right, in and out doors, hoping the auto-close is not as strong as you are, but it’s always awkward without someone to hold the door open. Here the lobby had the fun of two such doors because of an airlock configuration. But we always make it through with a little bit of grace I hope!

It was farewell to Council Bluffs and a long haul across Iowa. Our first destination was the Muscatine Art Center in Muscatine, Iowa (“The Pearl Button Capitol of the World”). It occupies the lovely Edwardian Musser family mansion built in 1908.

There is a new wing in the back allowing items in their extensive collection to be displayed in either a modern gallery or in carefully restored and furnished rooms well suited to their American regionalist and other late 19th/early 20th century midwestern art.

Why this little known museum/gallery in a relatively obscure place? Some of you may recognize the picture behind us as one we also have hanging above our fireplace

The director of the Art Center, Virginia Cooper, helped me research why there were two visturally identical paintings by the artist, William Bunn (a student of Grant Wood), dated a few years apart. The hunt took us through his archives at the Smithsonian and contact with descendants who still possess unpublished notebooks from the artist. He indeed repainted it after the original was damaged, but he ended up repairing that painting as well. The Muscatine Art Center has the original; we have the later version.

Little else to report for this day of travel. We just had to get ourselves to the Cedar Valley Resort where gathered the Klemm, Feeney, MacDonald and McCurdy families, all part of John’s immediate family tree — a pre-wedding few days to relax and play together. Internet access is very spotty (hence the delayed posting), and mobile phone service non-existent for AT&T at least. The cabin has flat access from parking into the main floor where our room is (off the great room), and the bathroom, never advertised as accessible, can still fit a wheelchair and give serviceable if awkward access to sink and toilet.

Add to the wonderful company the lovely weather and a perfect sitting porch, and you have an ideal pause in our cross-country tour.

First an addendum to the previous day. I failed to award points to the main entry: three steps up but widely spaced so the chair had three single steps to navigate, the next best thing to actual rampage. That’s ramp-idge not ram-page.

Other pluses — this personal welcome sign lacking in hotels to date, and a group selfie (though I seem to be more focussed on holding the selfie stick while John is delighted by the whole thing)

We had a wonderful morning, sleeping in, getting our laundry done, a fantastic breakfast of fresh baked strawberry muffins, fruit and a brie/apple/bacon frittata!  Then we were sent off with a cooler full of food for the road , the makings of  what I believe the locals call a “pic-a-nic” basket (from the Paiute pique-nique, for “land of many snacks”).

We were assured these blandishments were not an attempt to curry favor after a harsh “day 3” critique.  Quite coincidentally and independently the judges have reviewed their notes and revised the Day 3 rating to a full five stars!

Day 4 travel starts around noon and was predictably rather event free.  Given the late start, we had to pass on such roadside attractions as Fort Kearny, the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, and the Golden Spike Tower (an observation tower overlooking the quite impressive North Platte rail yard, the world’s largest).  What we couldn’t miss was the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument and Museum since I-80 runs under it

What we wouldn’t miss was one of our favorite side trips, to see a state capitol – in this case the Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln

The tower was originally meant to house the state library!

OK, so how does the Best Western Crossroads of the Bluffs in Council Bluffs Iowa rate? A bad start when the only handicapped parking was 5 unused spots in front of the lobby, and NONE on the sides or back of the building where the rooms are.  But from there it’s looking up. Not as lavish or large a room as we’ve had elsewhere, but quite adequate (except for that overly fancy office chair that is always in someone’s way). Plus we have a second entry in the hygienic housekeeping category, another germ-free remote.

The best part is the bathroom … easy access toilet and sink, plus roll-in shower with a real bench. This room saved the day for Best Western.

We took a swing by the Utah State Capital building as we exited Salt Lake City

then headed up into the mountains and crossing over to Wyoming.  We moved from the iron rich red rocks of the Colorado Plateau into the Wyoming and Green River basins — more granite greys and whites, evidence of the uplift of deep Permian layers of ancient rock. We passed over the continental divide, though it was barely notable  meandering across the high steppes (just a sign by the freeway), and made a quick stop at the ruins of Fort Fred Steele, an 1888 fort built to protect the builders of the transcontinental railway. Not much to see now but an interesting historical tidbit.

Anyone who has crossed Wyoming on I-80 knowns Little America, a hotel and travel mecca for food, souvenirs, picnic areas, playgrounds. Alas we missed the big Little America, but had a stretch and beverage break at a little Little America on our route:

Tonight we relaxed with a home cooked meal and luxury accommodations with our friends Val and Marcy. Their last name, Pietrasiewicz, comes out in amusing ways with speech recognition, from “pantry shallots” to  “Patricia bitches”. It would be unfair, nay, unkind, to critique their home on accessibility, so here goes!!

All bathroom doors were too narrow for the wheelchair, a mere 27″.  We fortunately had use of the master bath which had a wide arch opening, but the toilet was given its own little room with the same narrow door:

Note lack of grab bars, though in a pinch close walls work nicely for steadying oneself while walking.

The vanity …

… large, lots of storage, back saving height, but alas those fine features don’t go well with a wheechair. John could barely rise and lean over enough to rinse and spit sideways.

Our host tried to convince us with the “roll up to” shower:

and even included a shower stool (but no safety bars). Fortunately John had a good shower the previous night. But I enjoyed the dual shower heads and multiple jet options. Now I look forward to a wonderful nights sleep in a king sized sleepnumber bed, once I stop playing with the controls.

Part 2 = day 2 as our press east continues. Today we got to Salt Lake City — less driving than yesterday and a little more interesting with the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Great Salt Lake to drive by.  Once settled in our hotel we had time to stroll up to Temple Square. Here is the obligatory temple picture plus two of the original Assembly Hall … a charming exterior and interior with an organ that probably sounds great in that space :

We eschewed the pricey downtown eateries and ate at Gracie’s, a funky Pub Gastronomique near our hotel. I sipped my Strawberry Gin Fizz and John enjoyed his Seafood Mac&Cheese while tattooed hipsters vaped in the corner.

Back at the hotel … oh, did I mention there was a Steampunk convention in full force there?

Finally, for the talent portion of our story. The Sheraton offered a spacious room (check out the panorama), with a nicely equipped bath including a roll-in shower  — which, I should mention, is really an invitation to be squirting water all over the bathroom and sopping it up with all the towels they provide.  The generous vanity had a towel bar in the one place you would want free, but nice work overall.

They also cleverly have handicap room doors swing outward, which is convenient for entering the room. But points off for (a) having no handicapped parking on the side where the ramped door closest to our room was, and (b) having no curbcut or ramp up to the sidewalk in front of the generous handicapped parking up front.