Trip home, kitchen catch-up and 1st Craft show

(excuse the blurry header shot - taken while underway). 

We left Rustic the last Friday of September after a fairly leisurely and routine week of packing, cleaning, organizing & storing the lawn furniture & winterizing Rocky. Our usual strategy is to finish up mid afternoon and head for an overnight in Cheyenne, about 85 miles away. We get points at the Choice chain, so the Comfort Inn & Suites was the place for us. We do love their 24hr coffee station and other niceties. The staff was particularly helpful.  I had to include a shot of one of the 'Cheyenne Big Boots' by the front entrance. It's something like 8 ft tall and I guess there are a few in downtown Cheyenne.

After a good night's rest and hot breakfast we got on the road. Luckily we ran into zero problems, no big hold-ups, and no issues all day and made it into Chillicothe, MO late afternoon. Not a bad day at all. The Chillicothe Comfort Inn & Suites was a recipient of a big renovation the prior year and was really tricked-out. Very clean and beautiful. Again, the staff went above and beyond with their helpful and welcoming demeaner after a long day on the road.

Fancy Lodge-like entranceway.

Atrium affect from the 2nd floor

The view from our room - can you say quiet?

So onward the days went. From Chillicothe we took some state highways and avoided chaos that way. You can't beat the better views and lighter traffic although it might be a tad slower than the interstate.

Linda's obsession with hay and winter preps.

Once you've been riding through the heartland 
for a while, you definitely pick up bugs!

 Across the Mississippi and down through the land of the Smokies and other assorted hills & valleys to an overnight in Dickson, TN followed the next day by an overnight in Valdosta, GA, just a hop, skip and jump from home.

Excuse the blurry-factor.

Finally home late morning and super glad we didn't have any trouble. Everything looks great at home and I'm always so glad I took the time to get things clean and tidy before we left. The Boss gets the cars ready, they both get oil changes and one gets prepped for the road while the other gets tanked-up with non-ethanol gas & garaged with a trickle-charger left on it. So-o, now it's time to catch-up the laundry and go for a grocery shop.

Next up, cook some favorites to restock the fridge and freezer. I like to do a bunch of "lazyman" tasks to make scratch cooking easy and fun. That means doing a bunch of chopping and freezing; onions, both sweet and red, bell peppers of all colors. I also clean/cook mushrooms, cook-up sausage crumbles to have handy for scrambled eggs or breakfast burritos. Making grits and bagging them up in 2-person portions as well as cooking and freezing rice to have super quick/handy. A portioned rotisserie chicken is a great start since I can take the carcass and make stock, a staple in our kitchen. Also, a huge batch of spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage crumbles & meatballs plus my add-in veggies - mushrooms, onions, peppers, cubed, sauteed eggplant, and black and green olives.

I also like to cook & mash potatoes and freeze
for use in potato soup or to doll-up with sour cream and
cheese, etc. to make twice baked potatoes

I made it to my 1st craft show of the fall, a small affair with probably around 25+/- vendors. I like the smaller shows as they are much less stressful and chaotic. Sure the sales aren't as good but I'll take a pleasant day outside and middling sales any day. Beautiful weather!

We've got a front yard make-over project in the offing. It'll be work but worth it for sure. We haven't done anything much with our foundational plantings since we moved here in '12. More on that project next time.

Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment if you feel like it. See you next time. 😊