Sunday, September 23, 2012

Yellowstone Road Trip - Day 25

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”  Robert Frost

Here we are on Day 25 or our 26 day road trip. This post needs to start off with a big “OOPS!” A day or so ago Linda referred to “the road less traveled” as being Carl Sandburg's words. Then today when the old buzzards were in an antique shop in downtown Sonora there was the whole quote but (oops) it had Robert Frost's name at the end. Linda has always gotten these two authors mixed up and they may not have even been friends. Sorry about that, Robert, and all you English majors. . .

Today was a very relaxing day. We had breakfast in the Gold Lodge dining area with two delightful British fellows from across the pond. They are railroad freaks (enthusiasts) and their wives did not care to come to The States just to stare at a bunch of old trains. One was a twin and entertained us with tales of when he and his brother were both English bobbies on the same force in a small town. They would position themselves at opposite ends of town and confuse the heck out of people.

We had intended to visit Columbia Historic State Park, a delightful historic mining town, but since we have been there so many times John offered to just spend the day in Sonora letting Linda chase her thrift/antique store habit. Fannie Mae made friends with some donkeys when she was on her morning walk.  They were perfectly happy to exchange sniffs with her. Though, it was rather difficult for Fannie to sniff their butts. A ladder was required.

The buzzards made the rounds of some downtown shops in Sonora, mostly antique stores, and found a few treasures. Does anyone remember those canvas water bags that people used to hang on the front their cars in the 40s and 50s? The water would slowly seep through the canvas and evaporate so that when you made a stop you always had some refreshing cool water to drink. No, we didn't buy it but, like lots of things in antique stores, it brought back some old family memories of road trips when the buzzards were just buzzard chicklets.

We ate lunch downtown at a 2-years-new Yo Good Yogurt. Unlike our local Fro-Yo store, they have a salad bar and a serve-yourself yogurt area. The cost is 45 cents per ounce for salad and fixins and 39 cents per ounce for yogurt. And they offer a 10% discount to seniors. Everything was very fresh and delicious. There were 8 flavors of yogurt. John got 3 or 4 and Linda tried a little of everything. Some unusual ones were cake mix, root beer and pomegranate. Others were vanilla, chocolate and raspberry and cheesecake. Yum! Anyone want to open one of these in Morgan Hill for the old buzzards? www.itsyogood.com

Thanks for the nice emails we have been receiving from many of you who have been in the “rumble seat” riding along with us on this road trip. We have even received emails from three much younger couples who tell us that we are an inspiration to them for when they get the chance to travel in their doddering years. It's never been our goal to be an inspiration but it's nice to hear, nevertheless. As of October 1, 2012 we will have been mostly retired for four years and we do love it. When home, we manage to stay just as busy as we want to be with kids, grand kids, volunteer activities for seniors, gardening, photography, book groups, friends, biking, reading, reality TV, unreality TV and then there's always planning our next Road Trip. . .

Dinner tonight was in downtown Sonora at The Diamondback Grill, rated on Trip Advisor as Sonora's number one eatery. We looked for them when we did our initial drive through and thought they were gone but they had just moved across the street to larger quarters since we were here last, six years ago. John got a bacon cheddar burger and a salad. Linda got smoked quail with fig chutney and mustard balsamic vinaigrette. John drank water and Linda drank an Arrogant Bastard ale. Both dinners were excellent. The old buzzards would recommend that you try The Diamondback Grill when you are in Sonora. It's not very expensive. John's burger and salad was $10.95 and Linda's smoked quail was just $9.95.

Only 16 photos in today's gallery. You can (hee-haw) view them by clicking here.

When we got back to the Gold Lodge we made our reservations to come here for four nights over Thanksgiving. Sonora will have the 38th Annual Music and Crafts Festival which is put on by Fire on the Mountain. Check out their website by clicking here. It is held across the street from our motel at the fairgrounds and there is also a downtown Christmas parade during the time we will be here.

Happy Trails!

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