Our Tennessee Trip - Sunday & Monday

Our next stop on Sunday 6.12.11 was in lovely Hope, Arkansas which is also the birthplace of our 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton. 

Now Clinton items are not the only thing you'll find in Hope.  The town was actually famous before Clinton for its record breaking watermelons.

The town's visitor center and museum is a great combination of Clinton, railroad artifacts and watermelon memorabilia. 

One of the signs that I saw in there was this one ~

Which therefore reminded me of this one from an awesome bathroom in Van Horn TX inside the Sands Motel & Restaurant ~

We saw some cool stuff while we were there.

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My Dad was a phone man so I always love taking pics of phones.

One thing that always makes me sad is seeing how people were sometimes treated.

I'm in the finance industry and I can't imagine using this

And M is a mailman so of course I had to take a pic of this

And perhaps this should be enforced in public places everywhere

Back on the road again and we saw another water tower

More fun times ahead!

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Our Tennessee Trip

We headed out early on Sunday 6.12.11...

We were looking for a place to stop for breakfast/brunch and so of course I googled it and one of the places we were closest to was The Links. 

Now I'm not sure why it didn't dawn on me but it turns out this place was on a golf course.  I swear the whole time I was thinking of sausage links.  I guess I was hungry.  So we finally made it there after what seemed like forever off of the beaten path and had our brunch at the country club. I can't seem to find the pic of our breakfast which is really odd as you know I am all about food but here's a pic of us.

On the way back to civilization we passed some interesting stuff.

A donkey or possibly a mule.  I don't know how to tell the difference. 

Terror Trails

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As well as some cows standing in water

We saw a Post Office on the way back in Yantis, TX so of course we had to stop to take a pic.

I also like seeing different water towers and was pleased to spot a few on the way. 

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Those of you that know me know that I'm a HUGE fan of RoadsideAmerica.com as they have a ton of offbeat and quirky places to visit.  On their website I found that at the border between Texas and Arkansas runs State Line Avenue in Texarkana.  They city's Federal Building/Courthouse/Post Office was built in the middle of this street and is supposedly the only building in the US that straddles a state line.

They built a photo op complete with a hitching post that proclaims, "You are here" and includes the longitude and latitude.

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I think it was worth stopping for because of the photo op and the fact that it was a Post Office but there's not much else around to look at.  Just saying.

Directions:  I-30 exit 223, then south three miles on State Line Ave.  On the south side of the Post Office.

All in all this was a great start to our Tennessee Trip.

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Crock Pot Lasagna

I love new recipes where I can utilize my crock pot to make a meal.  This one is from Betty Croker and is technically called Slow Cooker Lasagna but I don't call my crock pot that so I have renamed it. :)

Here's what you need:

1 lb bulk Italian sausage (in the above pic I've already browned the sausage)

1 medium onion chopped

3 cans (15 oz each) Italian-style tomato sauce

2 tsp dried basil leaves

1/2 tsp salt

2 c mozzarella cheese (8 oz)

1 container (15 oz) part-skim ricotta cheese

1 c Parmesan cheese

15 uncooked lasagna noodles

 

Here's what you do:

1. Cook sausage and onion in a skillet over medium heat 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sausage is no longer pink; drain.  Stir in tomato sauce, basil and salt.  

2.  Mix 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese and the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses.  (Refrigerate remaining mozzarella cheese while lasagna cooks.)

3.  Spoon 1/4 of the sausage mixture into a 6-quart slow cooker; top with 5 noodles, broken into pieces to fit.  Spread with half of the cheese mixture and 1/4 of the sausage mixture.  Top with 5 noodles, remaining cheese mixture and 1/4 of the sausage mixture.  Top with remaining 5 noodles and remaining sausage mixture. 

4.  Cover and cook on low heat setting 4 to 6 hours or until noodles are tender. 

5.  Sprinkle top of lasagna with remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese.  Cover and let stand about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Cut into pieces. 

This is how it turned out.

 

My reviews - I forgot to top it with the remaining mozzarella cheese.  I would recommend spraying the pot with cooking spray as it seemed that the lasagna was sticking.  M said that the lasagna was a bit dry but that didn't stop him from getting seconds.  :)  Besides tasting just a tad salty (even though I didn't add the salt) I thought it turned out great. 

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Scarborough Faire 2011

We really like going to Scarborough Renaissance Festival  every year and the festival runs for 8 consecutive weekends during April and May.  The reason we like it so much is because there is a wide variety of types of people and things you can see.

You can taste "authentic" renaissance period food.

You can also enjoy the Turtle Races.  This year Jarrett (stage name Jerry) was called up onto the stage to assist.

There was one well endowed woman there that we felt could have used a little more support...just saying.

There are some really fabulous masks for sale.

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We saw one girl that preferred the "natural" look.

Don't see it?  Here's a closer look...

There's one booth that had some cool stuff in it but no pics were allowed so y'all won't get to see that.  Moving right along.

There were tons of folks there that were blessed with an extremely high level of self-confidence.

I guess I was just amazed that they would wear some of the things that they did.  Maybe a bit jealous too.

There are some really cool arts and crafts to enjoy and fun stuff to do while you are there.

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I love looking at these unique items and love taking pics of them.

This one reminds me of our trip to Lincoln City because Cece had shared with us that at a certain time of the year they release all of these glass balls and people collect them.  They are really very pretty!

Whenever I see money on the ground I think of my mom.

Here's a pretty cool water fountain.

Have you heard of planking?  Well here are some fairies planking.

All in all it was another fun trip.  As we were heading to the exit I see this character.

I said, "Oh wait!  I need a group pic of this!!"  And so he obliged.  As you view the pic keep in mind that it was a relatively hot day that day and he was a...shall we say...larger guy and he was sweating.  I thought he was just going to stand there with his mallet but noooo....he put that sweaty armpit right around my girlies.  Anna (who isn't even closest to the guy) cannot hide her feelings.  This seriously was one of the funniest moments of the whole day.

On the way out we passed this lady playing a hammered dulcimer.  It was pretty cool!

This statue is out in front of the entrance.

I'm dying to hear the story behind how this happened.

 

Must have been a really great party.

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