“The path to paradise begins in hell.”--Dante Alighieri “I’ll take the hot,” I casually reply to the woman behind the counter. She stares back at me with a look of wonderment meets stupidity. “Have you been here before?” she asks. I quickly assure her that I can handle a little heat. In fact, I don’t mind spicy food. My husband smartly asks for his chicken to merely be in the medium range. I, on the other hand, am no chicken. As we passed through Nashville on our way to Louisville that day, I realized lunchtime would be set perfectly in Music City. After a little searching, I discovered Continue Reading
The Gas Station Queue for Kansas City Barbecue
A man nudges me aside to pay for his cigarettes. A woman plows through to pay for her full tank. Shelves are stocked with snack foods and sugary drinks. I’m waiting in line at a gas station, but this ordinary setting is not quite normal. An abnormal amount of barbecue sauce is up for sale and roughly a 100 of us are just standing in a makeshift line snaking around the store. The woman in front of me jokes, “Is this the line to pay for gas?” Her predictable line isn’t funny to a grumbling stomach. I smile through my hunger and resolve to wait as I would for a Michelin starred restaurant. It Continue Reading
A Colorado Ghost Town Survivor: Silver, Spooks and St. Elmo
It always seems to take longer going to a place than coming away from it. Roughly three hours from Denver, we made the turn west in between two mountain peaks. Stuck between a rock and hard place, we continue up a road that turns from pavement to rock to dirt. With each twist and turn, we question whether we have missed the very place we seek. When you set out in search of a ghost town, it isn’t surprising to wonder if it has vanished from the road. After nearly turning around, we finally receive affirmation that the ghost town is still up ahead. St. Elmo sits in Chaffee County, close to Continue Reading
Pikes Peak Wishes You Were Here
When Zebulon Pike first set out to climb what he deemed the “Great Peak” in 1806, he was eventually forced to retreat due to a blizzard. Perhaps to make himself feel better, he speculated that it would never be surmounted. Despite not being the first to climb such great heights, Pike would have the last laugh with the lasting name. I have just passed the tollgate to enter the Pikes Peak Highway, a 19-mile journey to the top of the most visited mountain in North America and the second most visited mountain in the world. Over a half a million people each year make the journey by foot, bike, car Continue Reading
Oklahoma Wishes You Were Here
It is my favorite time of day heading south from the Oklahoma Panhandle, the western most part of the state that looks just like its name describes, the handle of a pan. The sun is beginning to take on its most magical light, the light that dances across the land and makes any stretch look appealing. I left for Oklahoma at perhaps the worst time to do so, during tornado season. A week prior, the widest tornado in the history of the United States roared through these now very peaceful lands. Largely forgotten from any traveler’s itinerary, Oklahoma fascinates me with its survivor mentality. Continue Reading
Conquering Castles in Eastern Colorado
The wind howls as though fall is dancing into winter. It is just over 50 degrees as I cover the last stretch of the trail. A covered wagon would sure come in handy right about now. My fellow travelers and I battle the winds and the cold to reach shelter just up ahead. It has been a long journey, one filled with unknowns and danger, but at long last, we have reached neutral ground. I am out in Eastern Colorado, a part of the state few come to see, but back in the 1830s and 1840s, this was the “Castle in the Plains”. Bent’s Old Fort sits just 8 miles east of La Junta, Colorado, off of a Continue Reading
Chicago, Illinois Wishes You Were Here
It’s lunchtime on Chicago’s Friday afternoon. I’m at Al’s Beef with those in business suits, laptop computers and hardhats. In any other big city environment, one might feel out of place and drenched in attitude. However, it’s hard to have much attitude when you are standing two feet from your meal, bottom out and elbows resting on the counter. Like deep dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches are a Chicago tradition. I join the over 70 years of Italian beef making history at Al’s Beef. Al Ferreri, his sister and brother-in-law started an Italian beef stand back in 1938. During the Depression, Continue Reading