When traveling around the country, do you ever pick up the little pamphlets that say “Homes for Sale” or something similar?  Sometimes, they will be in restaurant lobbies or motel lobbies, and we might pick one up to look at just out of curiosity.  If someone happened to be traveling in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, for example, they might pick up outer banks homes for sale.  It can be interesting to see how much homes sell for in different areas compared to the area we live in.  And it’s fun to see the different styles of homes in different areas.

What an unassuming little cookie!  Just to look at Dad’s Original Oatmeal Cookie, one would never guess how delicious they are.  We first encountered them a year ago when we visited the St. Louis Gateway Arch (the nation’s tallest monument at 630 feet).  Unseen from ground level is an underground mini-mall area complete with an impressive little museum and shops.  We (hubby, me, and our son) went in this cute little 1900-style market.  On the checkout counter stood a cookie jar filled with oatmeal cookies, priced modestly at 3/$1.  We needed a little snack so I bought several cookies.

When eating these cookies later, we were surprised how yummy they were and wished we had bought more.  We were headed to Springfield, Missouri, and figured we might could buy more there but were disappointed to find out the cookies are sold only in the St. Louis area.  Sometime after we got back home, I researched Dad’s Original Scotch Oatmeal Cookies and found out their interesting history. I searched and searched for the recipe but didn’t find one that sounded suitable until one day I found this Whole Grain Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe (minus the walnuts) that sounds like it’s very close to Dad’s cookies.

My dear husband suggested ordering some of the cookies from Dad’s website recently, but I would rather wait since I’m trying to lose weight.   If I need to bake a batch of cookies to take somewhere, though, I just might try the recipe I found online!

Photo courtesy of our son!

The past six weeks have been so hectic with a lot of teacher training for the new state testing system plus seven ARD meetings to prepare for plus just the regular day-to-day stuff that goes with teaching. Add in all the shopping and getting ready for Christmas and I’m ready to go to somewhere like the st lucia resort to recuperate! Remember the old commercial that says “Calgon take me away?” That’s how I feel as well as nearly all the teachers I work with. We’re exhausted and so ready for a break to revitalize!

There are a lot of people who love to travel and pull their travel trailer behind them. They just get a trailer hitch put on back of their truck or vehicle, and then they’re set to go all over the country. We have several older friends and relatives who just love to do that, and they used to make one or two yearly trips and stay gone for weeks. Of course, someone would need to be retired or else have a really long vacation in order to do that. The great thing about it is that when they go to visit relatives, they have their own place to stay.

A couple of years ago, our son went on a trek up a mountain in Colorado with a group from church. They had two experienced guides with them which eased my mind about our youngest child (age 17 at the time) going up to the top of a huge mountain. I don’t know if any of them used Trekking Poles or not, but I know they wore cleated shoes to grip the mountain as they went up steep slopes.

The hikers spent the night in tents and ate campers food (the exact opposite of deli food).  Some parts of the mountain trek were extremely challenging (and sounded almost dangerous to me).  I must say that after hearing from some of the other trekkers, we were very proud of our son and how he carried the gear of weaker hikers who were about to collapse, even though that made his load twice as heavy.  That is a memory of his trek that I will always treasure!

Our son visited Utah year before last when he went with his college roommate to visit his family over Spring Break.  They drove the whole way, from the north Texas area, through Colorado and the southern part of Wyoming, and then on into Salt Lake City.  Our son would take pictures with his iPhone and then we would get to see them via Facebook.  That area of Utah is absolutely beautiful.  It would be a nice place to have a vacation home.

Utah is west of Colorado, and although we visited Colorado many times while I was growing up and on into my adult years, we didn’t travel into Utah except for one brief time when I was little.  So I didn’t realize what breath-taking scenery is in that area.  I can see why people look for real estate there.   There are a lot of hiking and bike trails, ski resorts, water recreation, golf courses, and much more.  All of this is offered in the beautiful mountain surroundings. I can see why the Winter Olympics were held in Park City, Utah, back in 2002.

Just for fun this summer, we visited an RV sales lot and looked through some of the RV homes for sale. I was amazed at some of them! They were just like a miniature home, some of them with a full modern kitchen and stainless steel appliances. One even had a washer/dryer combo, and when I say combo that is exactly what I mean. It was one unit where you simply pushed a button for wash and then dry.  That one unit did it all. Very impressive!

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Now, if someone were traveling and had a breakdown, I guess they would have to get rv towing, but while they were waiting to be towed they could relax on their sofa and watch TV, cook a full meal in their full-size kitchen, take a shower in their full-size shower, wash their laundry, sleep in their queen-size bed, etc. They could do just about everything that they could do in a regular house…except maybe host a family reunion. And I guess that wouldn’t be hard if most people brought their lawn chairs and sat outside.

Great pizza place in Springfield, Missouri, called 417 Pizza.