{"id":71,"date":"2019-11-30T11:34:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T17:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/?p=71"},"modified":"2019-11-30T11:34:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T17:34:47","slug":"and-so-it-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/and-so-it-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"And so it begins!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

November 25 & 26, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I leave the house just\nafter 7 pm on Monday night but it is almost another hour by the time I left\nKalamazoo. Between stopping at Aldi for road food, dropping off a package and stopping\nfor gas it was 8 o\u2019clock. As I got on the highway and started to get up to\nspeed, I hear this rattle I haven\u2019t heard before so I stop at 8th Street to see\nif can figure it out. Nope, nothing seems to be awry. I decide it is the loose\nquarter panel at the front of the car that the wind on Hatteras (the last trip\nI took) loosened. I adjust it a bit, so it fits together better. Get back on\nthe road. Nope! Still vibrating. Stop at the Mattawan exit. Look under the hood\nand under the car itself. Nothing. I decide that I will drive to Chicago anyway.\nSee if it gets worse. I can always get it checked out along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got to King Spa<\/a> about 9:00 pm. Time enough to have a good soak and grab a bite to eat before the kitchen closes. I love this place. there is something about soaking in hot water and hot rooms that does so much good for the body. I alternate between the hot and cold pools, soaking in the heat and feeling my body relax into the delicious heat and finish with a sit in the steam sauna before an ice cold shower to cool down a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My body really needed this\nstop. I spent that last week getting the kitchen addition on my house framed and\na temporary roof on it. I had plenty of help from friends and would not have\nbeen able to get it done without their support. It was important to get it as\nfar as I did, before the snow flies. Now I will be able to work on it more.\nonce I get back from this trip! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I head to the restaurant\nand order the chicken stew. It\u2019s not really a stew, but a whole little capon stuffed\nwith rice and cooked in a garlic infused broth. Served with a variety of kimchi\nand Korean condiments. Exactly what I need. Simple, hot and delicious. I head\nback to the pools to soak some more and go to the car to check on Leila, who is\ncurled up on the \u201cupper bunk\u201d sleeping until I return. Nap for an hour, another\nsoak before the pools close for the night and then sleep until about 4:30 on\none of the loungers made for just such activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I get up at 4:30, wishing\nthe pools opened prior to 6 am, so that I could have another soak. I am anxious\nto get on the road. It is an 11 hour drive to Hot Springs, Arkansas and I am\nhoping to get there in time to set up camp. Teeth brush and dressed in street\nclothes again. I take Leila for a quick walk and then get back on the road. But\nno coffee before getting on the road. Not even a Starbucks on the route as I\nwind my way out of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s not long before I am\non the highway. A quick stop at a plaza for that Starbucks I really need now. I\ndecide to treat myself. A latte with 3 long shots AND 3 raw sugar! The city was\nquiet but the highway is busier than I expected, although it is not long before\nI am actually out of metro area and in farm country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The sun begins to rise over,\nred and warming. The land it covered in fog, layers of it, big and small, thick\nand thin. It’s a beautiful morning and reminds me so much of Manitoba and the prairie\nthere. Thoughts of the land where I grew up dance in my head, as I make my further\nand further south. There is nothing quite like a prairie sky, where the land\nseems to disappear and the heavens open to a universe that is so much greater\nthan this little rock revolving around its star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The rest of the drive is uneventful\nand beautiful. It is why I wanted to make this trip. Watching the landscape\nchange as I move from prairie to river valley and back to prairie again.\nCrossing the Mississippi, entering Missouri and on. I stop regularly; more coffee,\n3 tanks of gas, walking the dog, and moving. I am trying to be more intentional\nabout stopping. This is long trip and I can feel that my body will need the\ntime not sitting as much as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      The miles pass and it\nstarts to rain. Hmm, time to think about that camp site. I think it might be better\nto stop in Memphis, as it will still be light for me to set up. I call the\nlocal KOA and try to book a site. The lovely gentleman on the phone doesn\u2019t recommend\ntent camping. Major storms are predicted to roll through and into the night,\nwith plenty of rain, wind, and thunder. He can offer me a cabin for $75. I say\nI will call him back and try to decide what to do. I choose to use some hotel\npoints and get all the way to Hot Springs, AR. That way I can be there in the\nmorning and get into the hot spring pools sooner rather than later and make my\nway to Joan\u2019s earlier in the day, since it is only a 5 hour drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        I book a room at a Home 2\nSuites. It looks like it is on a big lake. It will be dark by the time I get\nthere, so I won\u2019t get to appreciate that very much. More driving, rush hour in\nLittle Rock. How is it that when you are on a big trip, you seem to hit a big\ncity right at rush hour? I don\u2019t get to see much as I wind my way into the\nmountains and Hot Springs. But I imagine it is a beautiful drive in the day light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        I make it to the hotel at\n6pm. The hotel is shiny and new, which is always a bonus.  Ahh, time to relax. I order some food, pick it\nup and settle in for the night. I only got about 5 hours of sleep the night\nbefore, with the time change and all. A long hot shower, some foam rolling, muscle\nrub, some bad TV and I am in bed by 9 pm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Day 1 done!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        November 25 & 26, 2019 I leave the house just after 7 pm on Monday night but it is almost another hour by the time I left Kalamazoo. Between stopping at Aldi for road food, dropping off a package and stopping for gas it was 8 o\u2019clock. As I got on the highway and started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrsheldon.net\/mrsheldon.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}