If you happen to find yourself in Sacramento with some time on your hands, I highly recommend taking a stroll through the Old City Cemetery. While the thought of touring a cemetery may seem odd, I assure you that this one is worth the detour. We were there on a Sunday and the site was teeming with workers, primarily gardeners. I soon understood why—the place was filled with flowers and plants of all varieties. While famous denizens include John Sutter, Jr. (founder of Sacramento), railroad magnate Mark Hopkins, William Hamilton (youngest son of Alexander Hamilton), and art collector E. B. Crocker, it was mostly the statuary on lesser-known graves that caught my eye. And the flowers, my god, the flowers.
Seriously, I like historic cemeteries in general, but even putting that aside, this is one of the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever been in.
Although I traveled to Cajun Country on the tail end of a road trip to Hot Springs and down the Delta Blues Highway, I think it would make the perfect weekend getaway if you find yourself in New Orleans. Breaux Bridge, where we stayed at the Bayou Cabins, is just two hours upriver from NOLA.
Breaux Bridge is not particularly interesting in and of itself, though the Bayou Cabins provided cheap, friendly accommodations and the town does have a good restaurant in Café Des Amis; however, it serves as an excellent jumping off point for exploring.
Bayou Cabins on Bayou Teche in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.
After arriving late on a Wednesday night, we spent most of Thursday exploring the area south of Lafayette—taking in a quilt exhibit at the tiny Gueydan museum, eating lunch at Dupuy’s Oyster Shop in Abbeville (on the recommendation of two elderly women at the aforementioned museum), visiting the Joseph Jefferson Mansion and Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island, and touring the Mcllhenny Tabasco Factory on Avery Island.
I appreciate the Dupuy’s Oyster Shop shirt, but, no, I did not buy one.
I never would have thought that an actor could get rich by adapting the Rip Van Winkle story for the stage, but that is apparently what Joseph Jefferson did in the 1850s and 60s. Eventually Jefferson used his money to build one of his many homes on a salt dome next to Lake Peigneur. Now known as Jefferson Island, you can tour the house (since no one else was there, we basically had a private tour) and stroll through the Rip Van Winkle Gardens, which feature live oaks, irises, magnolias, hibiscus, camellias, azaleas, and many, many peacocks.
The Joseph Jefferson Mansion on Jefferson Island. Some unusual tableware from the dining room of the Joseph Jefferson Mansion. There were many peacocks in the Rip Van Winkle Gardens. My sister spotted these roseate spoonbills as we were leaving Jefferson Island.
Like Jefferson Island, Avery Island is a salt dome island and home to Tabasco hot sauce. The island is accessed by a $1 toll road that takes you to both the Mcllhenny Company Tabasco Factory & Country Store and the Jungle Gardens bird sanctuary, started by the son of the creator of Tabasco. We skipped the Jungle Gardens since we knew we would be taking our swamp tour later that day. The self-guided factory tour is interesting but bare bones (how much can you say about Tabasco?), but the country store is well stocked with samples of the many spin-off products they now carry. I ended up buying the Buffalo-style Tabasco since it tasted exactly like buffalo wings sauce, which I love. My sister tried a sip of Coke with Tabasco sauce, which I gather is not as foul as you might think. There was apparently also ice cream with hot sauce but we both missed it.
Our last stop of the day was Cajun Country Swamp Tours on Lake Martin where we took a two-hour sunset boat tour. We saw so much wildlife on this tour I was convinced we had spent far more than two hours on the water, but no. Our guide was extremely informative and clearly knew the lake like the back of his hand. In addition to numerous alligators, spiders, and all species of birds (anhingas, cormorants, egrets, herons, ibis, roseate spoonbills), we were privileged to see nesting baby barred owls. Even without the wildlife, wandering through the cypress and tupelo trees draped with Spanish moss is reason enough to take this tour.
This “hibou on the bayou” is not amused. The kids in the boat were counting alligator sightings but once the numbers got into double digits I stopped paying attention. Herons, egrets, and ibis are just some of the birds you can see on Lake Martin. When this anhinga spread its wings I felt like we had gone back to prehistoric times. Baby owl siblings!!!
Double-crested cormorants re-enact The Birds at sunset.
After the bayou, we had planned to head into New Orleans for a fancy lunch before my sister’s flight, but we decided instead to make a detour to the Great River Road to see Oak Alley Plantation. Although crowded with tourists, this detour was certainly worth it as the setting is beautiful and our tour guide for the house was extremely informative. He explained many historical details and placed great emphasis on telling both sides of the story, that of the owners and that of the enslaved. The slave quarters are located right next to the house and have their own self-guided exhibits. This was a welcome change after our more “nostalgic” tours in Natchez.
The aptly named Oak Alley Plantation on the Great River Road. The slave quarters at Oak Alley Plantation
Finally, most of my brief time in New Orleans was spent hanging out with friends or wandering the Irish Channel and Garden District so I won’t go into details here (although we did manage to take in a delicious dinner at Purloo). However, if you know how much I love going to cemeteries in Paris, you won’t be surprised to learn that a highlight of my stay was seeing some of my friend’s restoration work in Lafayette Cemetery No. 1.
An example of La Belle Verte’s restoration work (on right) in Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. Mardi Gras beads are a common sight on the porch railings of NOLA residents. The spirit of the festivities lives on throughout the year.
As I wrote in my post about Hot Springs, when I realized I needed to meet a friend from Dallas in New Orleans on Easter weekend (and then drive back together to Dallas), I immediately began to think about what road trips I might tack on to the journey. I ended up making a loop from Dallas through Arkansas to Memphis, then down the Mississippi River Valley to Cajun Country and finally New Orleans. My sister joined me for most of the trip, meeting me in Dallas and flying out of New Orleans.
While adding Hot Springs and Cajun Country was somewhat unusual, it turns out that the Memphis-Clarksdale-Vicksburg-Natchez-New Orleans route is pretty standard for travelers. The landscape is rather uninspiring, but we met many interesting locals along the way and there is lots to see and do. In fact, although I always feel I could have used more time, in this case I really could have used at least two more days (we arrived in Memphis on a Saturday afternoon and in New Orleans the following Friday) because both Memphis and Vicksburg/Natchez felt rushed.
The first part of our Mississippi River journey was focused on music, mostly the blues. We started in Memphis, Tennessee, then drove down the Delta Blues Highway (Route 61) to Helena, Arkansas; Clarksdale, Mississippi; and Dockery Farms, before heading out to Rosedale to follow the Great River Road (Route 1) to Vicksburg.
Dockery Plantation, the birthplace of the Delta blues. Residents included Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, and David “Honeyboy” Edwards.
Because we were in Memphis for only one night, we splurged and stayed in the Peabody Hotel, home of the famous Peabody Ducks, who live upstairs on the roof and march into the lobby fountain every day at 11am and out again at 5pm. In addition to providing this entertaining spectacle, the Peabody is conveniently located right downtown near Beale Street. It’s a perfectly nice hotel, but pricey. Still, it saved a lot of time being able to walk to most things we wanted to see.
The Peabody Duckmaster instructing his latest charge. Get there early for a seat.
Since time was short, we bypassed both Sun Studios and the Stax Museum to focus on Beale Street and the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, which evolved out of a traveling Smithsonian exhibition and tells the broader story of Memphis music history, from gospel and blues to rockabilly, rock ‘n’ roll, and soul. The path through the exhibits isn’t always intuitive, but in addition to the basic audio tour, there is an incredible amount of additional musical content to listen to as you go. I discovered many songs that I later added to my collection.
On our way south out of town, we made the de rigueur pilgrimage to Graceland. Graceland attracts about 600,000 visitors a year and you certainly feel them on the tour. Although we didn’t have to wait too long (and I was able to grab a delicious grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich at Rockabilly’s Burger Shop while waiting), you are really rushed through the house. Still, the décor is interesting—to say the least—and I’m glad I saw it.
I loved these stained-glass windows leading into the music room at Graceland.“A pretty little thing, waiting for the king, down in the jungle room…”
Besides discovering the wonder of a grilled PB&B (seriously, that was tasty), we did pretty well food-wise in Memphis, eating dry-rubbed ribs at the famed Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous (good, but I prefer sauce myself) and sweet potato pancakes at the Arcade Restaurant, the “oldest restaurant in Memphis” and set of Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train. Really this whole section of the city looks like a timeless movie set.
The old-fashioned signage of the Arcade Restaurant in the South Main district.The 1950s Lorraine Motel, where MLK Jr was assassinated in 1968, has been preserved as part of the National Civil Rights Museum.
After Memphis, we headed down the Delta Blues Highway to Helena, Arkansas. This once-thriving mill town, thirty miles north of Clarksdale but on the other side of the Mississippi River, is home to the King Biscuit Time live radio show, which broadcasts out of the Delta Cultural Center. King Biscuit has been on the air since 1941 and is the longest-running daily blues show; Sonny Payne has been hosting it since 1951. There’s not much else in town, but if you find yourself in the area around 12:15pm, do stop in to watch the broadcast. Sonny is an absolute delight at eighty-nine years young. Luckily, our host at the beautiful Edwardian Inn had warned us that he is quite deaf, otherwise I think we would have been even further unprepared when he surprised us with an impromptu on-air chat (check us out around minutes 14 and 27 as we try to keep it together, communicate, and plug the sponsor despite Payne’s poor hearing and even poorer jokes).
The Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Arkansas, home of the King Biscuit Time radio show and my not-quite-fifteen minutes of fame.This spring, the Delta Cultural Center featured an exhibit on photographers Hugo and Gayne Preller, who cruised the Mississippi in their floating studio.The Confederate Cemetery in Helena, Arkansas, resting place of General Patrick Cleburne, “the Stonewall Jackson of the West” and namesake of our lovely room at the Edwardian Inn.
As mentioned on the above radio show, in Clarksdale we stayed at the Shack Up Inn, a unique, laid-back place to soak up blues culture. Clarksdale is the hub of Delta blues and even on the slow days of the week it offers up incredible musical performances. The folks at the Shack Up will let you know where to go each night. The Monday we were there we took in the Iceman Blues Review and Watermelon Slim at the Bluesberry Café. We had actually come across Slim earlier in the day picking at his guitar on the street outside of Cat Head. At the Delta Blues Museum, housed in the former train depot, we encountered Josh “Razorblade” Stewart, a wizened old local featured in one of the exhibits, who told us story upon story about performing the blues, Morgan Freeman, and whatever else he could come up with. I gave him $10 for his troubles and a CD, which turned out to be rather good, much to my surprise.
The grounds of the Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale, Mississippi. That’s the bar back there.Our very own shack (#482) at the Shack Up Inn. Beers on the porch at sunset = heaven.
While the music was great, it is still often all about the food, and we ate our third barbecue in five days at Abe’s BBQ at “The Crossroads” (the intersection of Hwy 61 and Hwy 49). I think these were my favorite ribs of the trip (for those keeping score, McClard’s in Hot Springs had the best slaw, Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous had the best beans). Unfortunately, the nearby Delta Donuts, which I had also read about beforehand, burned down not that long ago. If you need to walk off some barbecue, Clarkdale’s downtown is worth a meander. In addition to the museum, check out Cat Head (and talk to Roger if you’re interested in history), Hambone (a music space/gallery with art by Stan Street), and Miss Del’s General Store.
My favorite sign of the trip, spotted in Miss Del’s General Store in Clarksdale.
After a day spent mostly on the backroads of Mississippi, we arrived in Vicksburg very late in the afternoon. Located on a 300-foot-high bluff on the Mississippi River, this town is best known for being the last Confederate stronghold on the river, surrendering on July 4, 1863, after a siege lasting forty-seven days. Upon arrival, we headed straight to our main goal, the expansive Vicksburg National Military Park. Good thing we arrived when we did because we really had to hightail it to complete the battlefield drive in the hour or so remaining to us. This park hadn’t been very high on my sightseeing list, but I must admit it is quite impressive. The full drive around the park is sixteen miles and scattered over the former Civil War battlefield are 1330 monuments and markers, including trench markers for the Union and Confederate sides. It really helps one get a sense of how the battle played out. As we exited, it was clear that the park is also a popular after-hours spot for local runners and walkers.
Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi.The USS Cairo, a restored ironclad Union gunboat sunk in 1862.
Our final stop in Mississippi was Natchez, once home to more millionaires per capita than any city in the world (back in the 1840s when cotton was king). To get there, we took the Natchez Trace Parkway, which extends almost 450 miles from Natchez on the Mississippi River to just south of Nashville, Tennessee. The parkway follows the long-standing travel corridor established between the traditional homelands of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Natchez and designated by Thomas Jefferson as a national post road. While the Trace could easily serve as the base for its own road trip, we traveled on only the small portion between Vicksburg and Natchez. One reason I wanted to travel the Trace, in addition to its being a lovely drive, was to visit Emerald Mound, the second biggest ceremonial mound in the United States, after Cahokia (which I learned about in the U.S. history textbook I recently edited). It’s not very exciting (just a graded, flat-topped hill really), but I was happy to have a visual frame of reference for what these mounds actually look like in the wild. You could also stop and hike part of the original Trace at mile-marker 41.5 near Port Gibson.
A panel helps you imagine what the Emerald Mound might have looked like in 1250 C.E.
Natchez is the oldest European settlement on the Mississippi River, predating New Orleans by two years. Today, it is best known for the Natchez Pilgrimage: the annual tour of the city’s antebellum mansions. I loved touring Rosalie Mansion, which served as Union headquarters after the city’s surrender (and so was able to keep most of its original furnishings intact), and Stanton Hall; however, the lack of acknowledgement of the role slavery played in building these fine homes was disappointing. For that reason, I’m happy we were also able to visit the William Johnson House, a National Park historic site. Admittedly, we originally chose this destination because it was free, but the house/museum was fascinating. Johnson, a free person of color who apprenticed as a barber after being freed by his presumed father, owned three barber shops in antebellum Natchez. As a businessman, he owned slaves, but through his diaries and the house exhibits, the park service provides more insight than the pilgrimage homes into the city’s less-glamorous past.
The Rosalie Mansion, Union headquarters after Natchez surrendered during the Civil War.The impressive Stanton Hall, a cornerstone of the annual Natchez Pilgrimage.
Speaking of things less than glamorous, our last stop in Natchez was the Under the Hill Saloon. A favorite of Mark Twain back in the day, this riverside watering hole possessed the perfect collection of eccentric locals (drinking in the middle of the day) to cap off our Mississippi tour. My favorite moment was when the drunken flirt next to me heartily recommended Greg Iles when I asked about local authors, but then had to ask the bartender whether he wrote fiction or non-fiction. [Side note: I ended up buying his The Quiet Game in a New Orleans bookstore and would put it in the category of very good airplane reading.]
Sunset over the Yazoo River, Centennial Lake, and the Mighty Mississippi.
But wait! The sun has not yet set on this Mississippi River tour, tune in tomorrow for some time down on the bayou…
When I realized I needed to meet a friend from Dallas in New Orleans on Easter weekend, I naturally started to think of how I could extend the visit into a bigger road trip. Checking Hot Springs National Park off the list seemed like an obvious choice, especially since my original plans to visit the park almost five years ago were thwarted when snow in Dallas resulted in a canceled business trip.*
As the park ranger was quick to inform us, by one standard, Hot Springs is the oldest national park because it was set aside as a special reservation in 1832 by President Andrew Jackson (he of the $20 bill—for now). It became an official national park in 1921. At 5,550 acres, it is the smallest park in the system (which surprised me, as I would have guessed Congaree, but that park is almost five times the size of Hot Springs), followed by American Samoa and the Virgin Islands at approximately 10,000 and 15,000 acres respectively.
The heart of the park is Bathhouse Row on Central Avenue but it spills over into mountains on each side, the appropriately named West Mountain to the southwest, and Hot Springs Mountain and North Mountain to the northeast. The forty-seven mineral water springs flow down from Hot Springs Mountain and, since the mid-nineteenth century, have been diverted into public bathhouses and town fountains. The water is odorless and tasteless. (Side note: Unfortunately the weather was rather grey while we were there so I don’t have any great pictures of the town.)
The Arlington Hotel and Bathhouse Row. Photo by the National Park Service.
The first European to visit the Hot Springs area was Hernando de Soto in 1541, but the heyday of the park was in the 1920s and 1930s, when the likes of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano came to “take the waters” and baseball players came for spring training. The casinos were shut down in the late 1960s and the town seems to have been struggling to find its footing ever since. We were there on a “race weekend” so it was fairly crowded; however, the pedicurist at the spa told me that their business only really picks up during Spring Break and in the summer. In any case, the town/park has a very out-of-time feel.
Looking down from the trail head on Hot Springs Mountain.
On Bathhouse Row, you can tour the beautiful Fordyce Bathhouse, which serves as the national park’s Visitor Center, enjoy local brews (including root beer!) made with mineral water at the Superior Bathhouse, and receive spa treatments or have a traditional bath experience at Buckstaff Bathhouse. There are also a number of cute boutiques along Central Avenue.
The Colonial Candy Corner had these unique sour jellied candies that I couldn’t get enough of.
Dominating Central Avenue is the Arlington Hotel, which opened on New Year’s Eve in 1924. It is still the largest hotel in the state and some rooms even have mineral water piped directly into their bathtubs. Unfortunately, while you can’t beat the location of the Arlington (our room looked out over both the park and Bathhouse Row), its old world glamour has been allowed to get somewhat run down. However, it is conveniently located to both the Pancake Shop and the Colonial Pancake & Waffle House, both of which were excellent breakfast places. They do get quite crowded though so go as early as you can.
The other memorable food spot, McClard’s BBQ, was well out of the park area. I enjoyed the ribs, and the coleslaw was great, but I expected more from Bill Clinton’s favorite barbecue joint. Note: We didn’t have tamales, which is apparently a thing at barbecue places throughout the Mississippi Delta. Who knew?
The first of many barbecue joints along the way and the best slaw of the trip.
As for things to do in the park (besides spa treatments), I highly recommend taking a ranger tour of the Fordyce. We had a fantastic guide—her great aunt had worked in the bathhouses and she was full of stories from interviews she had done with former workers. The story of these (mostly) black workers would make an interesting study all on its own, but combined with the intriguing guests, the history is truly fascinating. Even if you don’t have time for a tour, I would still recommend the building itself. All three floors are beautiful.
Close-up of a window in the women’s steam room in the Fordyce bathhouse.The ceiling of the men’s changing area in the Fordyce bathhouse.The music room on the third floor of the Fordyce bathhouse.
Above the bathhouses and the Arlington Hotel are Hot Springs Mountain and North Mountain. While you can drive up to the observation tower at the top, you can also roam over the mountains on a series of short trails climbing up from the Grand Promenade. We did the outer loop, consisting of climbing the Dead Chief Trail to the right (1.4 miles), which then joined the Gulpha Gorge Trail for a bit, eventually connecting to the Goat Rock Trail (1.1 miles). After climbing to the North Mountain Overlook (the view is worth the short climb), we returned via the Upper Dogwood Trail (1 mile). Except for the beginning, which was fairly steep, it was an easy ramble through the woods.
Fun with fungi on the forest trails of Hot Springs Mountain.
Outside of the national park proper, but still in Hot Springs, is Garvan Woodland Gardens. These gardens, donated by Verna Garvan to the University of Arkansas, cover over two hundred acres. We happened to hit right at the peak of the Tulip Extravaganza and I can tell you the name is no joke—apparently there were almost 150,000 tulips. There were also many daffodils still to be seen on the Three Sisters of Amity Daffodil Hill as well as beautiful Japanese magnolia and dogwood trees in the Garden of the Pine Wind. And, remarkable at any time of year, the fare at the on-site eatery—the Chipmunk Café—was quite tasty.
The Bridge of the Full Moon and the koi pond in the Garden of the Pine Wind.What I think is a Japanese magnolia in the Garden of the Pine Wind.Cherry? Dogwood? (Yeah, I’m not good with trees) and daffodils abound at Garvan.The appropriately named Tulip Extravaganza: Tulips upon tulips upon tulips.So many tulips… These deep pink beauties were my favorites.
Finally, about thirty minutes from Hot Springs is Lake Ouachita State Park, located within Ouachita National Forest. Here we took the Caddo Bend Trail, a four-mile trail that loops around the Point 50 Overlook peninsula. This trail was nothing spectacular, but the lake is very pretty so it makes for a nice walk. It climbed a bit more than we anticipated, but didn’t take the close to the three hours that the trail marker indicated. All in all, the lake was a lovely surprise after being rather disappointed by our trip up “scenic” byway Highway 7.
The serene Lake Ouachita from the Point 50 Overlook on the Caddo Bend Trail.
Side trip alert: While the focus of our time in Arkansas was Hot Springs, I wish we had had time to see the northwest corner of the state, which looks to be absolutely beautiful. However, one stop we did make on our way to Memphis was Little Rock’s Central High School. As my most recent editorial project was a U.S. history textbook, I was eager to see this infamous civil rights location. The school is still functioning as a high school, but the nearby Visitor Center documents the trials and tribulations of the Little Rock Nine in their efforts to integrate the school in the late 1950s. Kudos to the National Park Service as this is one of the best museum displays I’ve seen—you can glean a brief (but comprehensive) overview of the 1957 events and the civil rights movement from the timeline panels, or linger and watch the numerous video clips containing news footage and personal interviews. Many of the multimedia stands are located in front of plate-glass windows providing a view of the gas station and school across the way. It really makes history come alive.
“If you just don’t say anything, you’re part of the problem and not part of the solution. If all the other teenagers had been like the Little Rock Nine, they could have changed the situation.”—Minnijean Brown Trickey
Little Rock Central High School, site of the 1957 Desegregation Crisis.
Entry to both Hot Springs National Park and the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site is free.
*Note: While Hot Springs is closer to both Little Rock (1 hour) and Memphis (3 hours), the drive from Dallas is quite reasonable (4.5 hours), if boring. But Dallas worked for me logistically and flights there were cheaper than other options.
Thanks to all of you who joined me in revisiting my trip around the Grand Circle in honor of National Parks Week. I’d like to give a special shout-out to my new followers: Welcome! You have inspired me to continue on a more regular schedule here. Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on some of my favorite national parks, including Grand Teton and Yosemite, as well as road trips in the Carolina Low Country, the Scottish Highlands, and West Texas.
When last we left the Grand Circle, I was in Monument Valley. I’m afraid there’s not much more to report after that. The drive from Monument Valley back to Las Vegas via the Grand Canyon can only be described as a whirlwind. With four to five hours of solitary driving each day, there wasn’t much time for sightseeing. I arrived fairly late at the Grand Canyon, and then had to leave very early in the morning. Luckily, I did manage to get a cabin at the Bright Angel Lodge, which meant that I was right on the rim of the canyon and could sneak in a sunrise hike partway down the Bright Angel Trail. It was very quiet at that hour but I was so intent on setting up my tripod for some shots that I didn’t notice that a bighorn sheep had come up behind me and was about to knock my tripod over the cliff! An incredible moment, sadly not captured on film.
Bighorn sheep sneak up on you when you least expect it.
Frankly, I have to say that the Grand Canyon was somewhat of a disappointment after all I’d seen on this trip. Of course, the scale is amazing, but it’s not nearly as pretty as some of the other parks and is a far less intimate experience. But perhaps that is only because I was rushed. This was the second of two abbreviated trips I’ve made to the Grand Canyon and one day I would really like to spend more time there, especially if it involves rafting in the canyon itself and/or a stay at Phantom Ranch.
Mule train down to Phantom Ranch
Of course, I always want more time. While I took ten days for this trip, and it’s very doable in that amount of time, I would suggest a full two weeks to complete the full circle, perhaps adding a few more days if you want to spend any time in Vegas itself. If I had to do it all over again, I would add another night at the Boulder Mountain Lodge, one in Moab in order to properly visit both Arches and Canyonlands, and one at the Grand Canyon.
This is not really because I felt I gave any of these parks short shrift, but rather because the beauty of the Grand Circle is that even outside the main attractions, there are many interesting things to see and do along the way and it’s nice to be able to stop and smell the desert roses. Side trips abound, such as Dead Horse Point State Park, which is most familiar as the scene of Thelma & Louise’s final send-off, and Newspaper Rock, a sandstone wall covered with 1500-year-old petroglyphs (just there by the side of the road on the way to the Needles district of Canyonlands).
Newspaper Rock in black and white (and read all over)
Not to mention the many picturesque diners along the route. I mean, don’t you want to be able to say you’ve tried a “ho-made” pie? Or any pie, really. I can still taste the enormous slice of banana cream pie I had at the Pine Country Restaurant in Williams, Arizona. That thing was a meal unto itself.
The Thunderbird Restaurant, Mount Carmel, UtahBlondie’s in Hanksville, Utah, or, as we called it, “The Scary Diner”
*Note: This trip was back in the days of my much-loved Pentax K1000. As such, most of the pictures in this Grand Circle series are scans of my printed photos.
Wherein I document my quest to visit all U.S. national parks and other travel adventures
Worth the Detour 