And we are off…on Vacation 201109

As I was leaving meeting with my boss, he indicated surprise that we were driving to NYC instead of flying. One primary reason is that I’m tired of giving control of my time to the airlines. Too frequently the flights have been delayed or cancelled…making travel 2 to 3 times longer than originally planned The second more compelling reason to drive is what you find along the way.

We left Dayton Wednesday night about an hour later than planned. John didn’t get out of work when expected and had to take groceries to his mom. It was a beautiful evening. Because we left later than expected, we knew we weren’t going to get close to Pittsburgh in time to have dinner at a decent hour. So John set off in search (via his cellphone) of a place for dinner along our route. Our primary restaurant locator is OpenTable. While OpenTable is great if you know what City you want, it is not as great for locating places along the route you are traveling. We’ve become a fan of YELP. Check out the map, move the map, then search for restaurants in that area. Then you can check out the reviews.

And that is how we ended up at Muddy Misers Cool River Café in Zanesville OH. Do not be discouraged because it looks like a biker bar but definitely ask to be seated on the patio. They had a nice Carr Cabernet and we shared the Walleye Rubin and the onion rings. Definitely not small portions. Lots of other things on the menu looked good as well so this won’t be our last stop at Muddy’s. One other thing about Muddy’s is that as you head out to the highway, go east and you will get to drive on the World Famous Zanesville “Y” Bridge.

We spent the night in Uniontown PA because so that we could visit Kentuck Knob the next day. Kentuck Knob is a Frank Lloyd Wright home near Fallingwater that has recently been opened to the public. We reserved spots for the 8:30am tour and it turned out to be a private tour. Besides the beauty of the house and FLW’s ability to fit a home with its natural surroundings, my favorite part was the original owners. Mr. and Mrs. Hagan (think Hagan-Daz) brought some common sense to Wright’s design. And when they realized that he would never visit the home, they made some very practical adjustments without losing site of Wright’s design. Unfortunately, it was a cold rainy morning so we didn’t get to spend much time on the grounds which are also spectacular including over 30 sculptures around the property.

Kentuck Knob VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After Kentuck Knob, we headed to a little place that we had found on our last trip through the Pennsylvania Turnpike – Out of the Fire Café in Donegal, PA. We each had soup – Mushroom for me and Tomato for John. They had large chunks of vegetables and were delicious. We shared the citrus house-cured smoked salmon sandwich. Definitely worth a visit. If you are coming for dinner, it is BYO wine.

And we would have missed all of this had we flown.