Travel

First night in New York

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We flew into La Guardia last night in a small airplane…what my grandma used to call a puddle jumper. It’d been 25 years since I’d flown. My stomach wouldn’t mind if it was another 25 years. The view from the plane was beautiful. I was a little disappointed, though, because I was hoping to see the New York lights when we flew in but there was too much cloud cover. IMG_20130528_205505_482The cab ride from the airport to our hotel was an interesting one. Our cab driver didn’t say a word the whole way and I wasn’t about to strike up a conversation. As fast as he was driving, I figured he needed to concentrate. Besides, the news was on the TV. Yes, TV. I don’t travel much and I’ve never visited NYC before so I had no clue that the taxis had a TV and a credit card machine in the back seat.

We’re staying at The New Yorker on 8th Avenue. It’s within walking distance of a lot of things. More about that tomorrow. Here’s Tommy checking out the view from our room. IMG_20130529_064729_926

Another view from our room:

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New York City, Here We Come!

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New-York-Lights_1920x1080_3057My niece, Meghan, and I are leaving today to go to New York City for the week to go to Book Expo America (BEA). It’s the premier trade event for the North American publishing industry. This will be my first time going to BEA and my first visit to New York City! There’s a lot going on at BEA but we’re going to take time to at least go to a Broadway play, Times Square, the World Trade Center site, and an as yet to be determined museum. And, of course, we have to check out some of the bookstores there. I am usually terrible at remembering to take pictures but I’ll try to take some good ones to share.
Tommy 109Tommy, my traveling terrier, will be joining us  on our trip. He’s so excited to be going! Here he is sitting on the edge of my suitcase anxiously waiting to get on the road.

Review: Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks (Images of America)

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Title: Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks (Images of America)

Author: Joe Sonderman

Genre: History

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Publication Date: 2009

Description: Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks picks up the journey west where its companion book, Route 66 in St. Louis, leaves off. As Bobby Troup’s song says, Route 66 travels “more than 2,000 miles all the way.” But one would be hard-pressed to “Show Me” a more scenic and historic segment than the Missouri Ozarks. The highway is lined with buildings covered with distinctive Ozark rock. It winds through a region of deep forests, sparkling streams, hidden caves, and spectacular bluffs. This book will take the traveler from Crawford County to the Kansas line. Along the way, there are small towns and urban centers, hotels and motels, cafes and souvenir stands. Take the time to explore Missouri’s Route 66–it is waiting at the next exit.

Joe Sonderman is a St. Louis radio personality and traffic reporter. He fell in love with the Ozarks and with Route 66 during childhood vacations to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. His Web site includes over 5,000 vintage images of Route 66. Sonderman has assembled hundreds of postcard views from his collection and archival images, some never before published. Together they show what a journey through the heartland was like when getting there was half the fun.

Review:

Joe Sonderman follows Route 66 from Crawford County to the state line with vintage photos. Each photo has a detailed description, many stating when the photos were taken anywhere from the 1920’s to the 1950’s, when the buildings were built, and some even have when the buildings were demolished. This would be a fun book to take on a trip on Route 66 to see how many of the places are still there. I looked for places I recognized in the Jasper county section and I did see the Route 66 Drive-in which my family still goes to on occasion but many of the other places in that county are long gone.

You can order this new book from Sleepygirl’s Used Books here.

Review: Keeping you On the Mother Road – A Route 66 Travel Guide 2013

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61BiupxByeL._SY380_Title: Keeping You on the Mother Road – A Route 66 Travel Guide 2013

Author:  David E. Emerson

Genre:  Travel

Publisher:  Mother Road LLC

Publication Date:  October 2012

Description: This is a Route 66 travel guide created to give the Route 66 traveler one guide with maps, photos, stories, and history plus a yellow page section for each area and a community white page section at the end. This annual publication is also designed to provide the traveler with great places to stay, great places to eat, and other services needed as you travel the Mother Road.

Review:

I own a couple of book and furniture stores in Joplin, MO, and Baxter Springs, KS, and both of them happen to be on Route 66. When my husband met the author of this book and he offered to sell us a bunch of these books I had to check it out.

This book is full of maps as well as restaurants, museums, photographs, artists, state associations, chambers of commerce, tourism bureaus, and lots of other info. At the back of the book is a community white page section that has an alphabetical listing of businesses listing their phone numbers and addresses. It also contains historical information and some interesting stories by different authors.

This is an informative travel guide and a great resource if you’re going to be traveling on Route 66 this year. You can order your copy from Sleepygirl’s Used Books here. Suggested retail is $19.66, cost on my site is $16.50 plus shipping.

Keeping You on the Mother Road is also available on Amazon for $16.50.