Eureka Springs - Soap Making Class (July 2005)
In July 2005 I attended a soap making class in Eureka Springs, Arkansas learning how to do the cold press method. Hint: You need a large source of old catfish cooking oil!
Santa Fe, New Mexico via Amtrak (July 2006)
I often thought how nice it would be to just drive down the road to San Bernardino and catch the Amtrak train to Santa Fe. So in July 2006 I caught the 9 p.m. train to Santa Fe and spent a very long night and day on the train. The train has smoking stops in Barstow, Needles, Flagstaff, Gallop, Albuquerque and finally arriving in Santa Fe at 5 p.m. the next day! My friend Sunny Nixon met me there and hosted me at her place. We went to the Santa Fe Opera and saw a Mozart opera. I drove one day east to see Truth or Consequences, NM. A town made famous by a small college that is located there. Then back for the long train trip home.
Thanksgiving in New York City (November 2007)
I got to spend Thanksgiving in New York City visiting with Mary’s friend Terri Harker who lived on Central Park South in a Trump building. We saw a Broadway show and the Macy’s Day parade.
Upstate New York (May 2008)
Then it was back to New York to visit Terri again, this time we went upstate to visit the Rockefellar estate and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt estate at Hyde Park in the Hudson River Valley.
A Walk in Tuscany #2 (June 2008)
Then it was back to Tuscany for another Walk Through Tuscany – same tour, same company, this time with Mary & Jon. We only lost Jon once in one of the Tuscan hill towns! The tour took us to the Hotel Minerva Palace in Montecatini where we stayed for a couple days. We had one day in Florence. Then on one of our free days we took the train and went to the Cinque Terre on the Mediterranean coast. Then we started our walks through the Chianti Region visiting Vinci, Monteriggioni and staying in Siena. Then on to San Gimignano and Cortona. We then traveled to Montalcino, Pienza, Montepulciano and Volterra. The tour ended in Rome with a dinner with the tenors and a night time bus ride to the Vatican.
Preserved from Ron’s original collection. The wording and historical recollections are the authors’ own.
Source: /travel-2006-2009/