Ah… Julia, I admire you even more now that I’ve read your book, My Life in France. This book had me from the get go and even though I found it to be a little disjointed in places, I understand the reason for it because these were Julia’s words as told to her husband, Paul’s, grandnephew, Alex Prud’homme.

I met Kim, online, just a little over a year ago.  We struck up and have maintained an online friendship that has brought us to this point; me interviewing Kim, just as she launches her book, “Life on Fire.”  Kim is the voice behind the blog So Many Places.  Along with her husband, Brian, they are traveling the world and I – like so many others – have been following their journey from the beginning. 

At this point in our trip we had planned to drive the old Santa Fe Loop, which is the section of Route 66 that was used between the years of 1926 and 1937 and it turned out to be an awesome drive.  After this period, Route 66 was constructed near the current interstate.

When you think of the word fall, what comes to mind?  For me, it’s always about the fall season – my absolute favorite time of the year.  For others it might be about the time he/she took a face plant fall or saw a magnificent water fall or …

Fall

I love the coolness that comes with the evening hours.

I love the rich colors of gold, red and orange as the leaves say good-bye to summer and begin to fall from the branches.

As we entered Tucumcari, New Mexico, we knew it was going to be one of those places where we wished we had more time so we could stay a day or two.  I’m looking forward to retracing our drive one day so we can plan accordingly based on the unexpected discoveries of this trip.

Following Route 66 while driving across the Texas panhandle was nothing to write home about.  No offense meant to any Texans out there, but whoa… there’s just nothing out there and it’s just how we saw it.  Until we found the infamous Cadillac Ranch.

Does age really matter?  Is it in fact just a number?  Today, Abi put both feet into his 6th decade of life.  Happy Birthday babe.  When I was a kid, teenager, adolescent, I thought 60’s!  OMG!  That is SO old!  Isn’t it interesting though – now that Abi has arrived (with me following a few years behind) I’m looking at 60 and thinking, eh.  It’s just a number, right?

I’m a sucker for a classic Disney movie and in my book Hayley Mills did them best.  Hayley brought me such classics as The Parent Trap, PollyAnna (for which she won the 1960 Academy Juvenile Award in 1960), The Chalk Garden, Summer Magic and the list goes on… but my favorite has to be The Moon-Spinners, (the 5th out of 6 Disney movies in which she starred) which is when Hayley introduced me to Greece and to windmills.

Leaving Oklahoma City we easily picked up Route 66 and followed it for quite awhile.  We happened upon, of all places, the Fort at El Reno which is on the Chisholm Trail and then we found ourselves in Clinton, Oklahoma.  Both unexpected stops, but both were well-appreciated.