Monday, October 23, 2006

Sempre Avanti!

Ever forward! I left Cincinatti behind me and continued on my way west today. The weekend with Mark and Val was really cool. We spent a whole bunch of time talking, and just hanging out. Had Lunch Saturday at a wonderful little hilltop spot called City Tavern. Out on the balcony with a view of the river and much of downtown Cincinatti laid out before us, we had some great burgers, a bit of liquid and plenty of good conversation.

From there we wandered down to the Kentucky side of the river. We walked along the river, and then stuck our heads into Hooters of all places. Mark and Val split a pitcher of draft, and I got a pitcher of Sangria, and we all shared several orders of fried pickles. Now I like pickles, and be they cold, cooked into a japanese stir fry, or whatever, I really enjoy them. Lightly batter dipped and fried up like tempura however was a whole new experience and I really, really, enjoyed them! Sometimes you just have to say the heck with the diet, and today was certainly one of them!

Sunday we went over to Donatto's Pizza for link, where they make the most wonderful, fresh French Bread pizza! I'm talking real, honest to goodness bread dough, they load up with your choices of toppings and then put into a pizza oven! Very cool and not the most expensive stuff in the world. I mean for "fast food" this is worth eating and filling.

More just hanging out and talking which seemed to be the theme for the visit and then Mark had to head back up to his house for work at "oh dark ick" in the morning. I stayed at Val's sunday and we wound up up talking until late while Val made cookies. White and regular chocolate chip cookies and tea set off the day nicely.

Morning came, as it does, too soon and I got myself ready for the next legs of my drive. Coolest thing happened as we wer walking out of the house, it started to flurry! First snow flakes of the season to user me west, I was one happy girl as I drove out to the highway and headed west.

So I made a new friend, since Val is perfectly awesome, and reconnected with a dear old one who'd not seen me since the bulk of my changes. From my perspective, everything went well, and I had a great deal of fun. Mark and Val are still talking to me, so I don't think it went all that bad!

I made it as far as Salina Kansas, which is more than halfway, and puts me in great shape to get to Denver tomorrow. I stopped for the night, well really the morning, in the Day's in right off of I70 in Salina. The service was excellent, the room quiet and clean, and the sleep MUCH better than in the days of my youth when I might have slept in the car in a rest stop. More to follow . . .

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