kickstandsandfarmstands.com - Bicycle Trips, Road Trips, Farmers Markets and Lagniappe Along the Way

Time 2020-11-10 14:04:02

Web Name: kickstandsandfarmstands.com - Bicycle Trips, Road Trips, Farmers Markets and Lagniappe Along the Way

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Last weekend my local cycling group rode in an event on the scenic Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.The two-lane, 444-mile Natchez Trace is operated by the National Park Service as a federal recreational parkway and a designated bicycle route. Commercial truck traffic is prohibited, and the speed limit for cars is 50 mph. There are no billboards, and no intersections. The NPS does a great job of keeping the right-of-way pristine, which I appreciated as I sometimes find discarded sofas and vehicle fenders along the rural routes I ride regularly here.When you re bicycling along the Trace you are following an historic path forged centuries ago by Native Americans, who battled the heat without Gatorade rest stops or sag wagons to pick them up if they bonked.Historic marker along the Natchez Trace commemorates a Civil War battle fought in nearby RaymondMy hometown isn t far from the Trace, and we traveled on it regularly. As a child I didn t appreciate its beauty as I missed passing through towns with dairy bars and other possible stops. But when I got my first job and bought my first road cycle in Tupelo, I discovered the joy of bicycling on the Trace.I ve always been interested in people who bicycle the entire parkway from hilly Tennessee just outside Nashville to the flat terminus in Natchez. I will probably never ride that far, but I do suggest that cyclists find a stretch of the Trace to ride. Here are a few options.Natchez Trace Cycling ToursMajor bicycle tour operators such as VBT Bicycling Vacations and Discovery Bicycle Tours offer week-long fully guided tours each October and April. Most of these tours focus on the southern quarter of the Trace from Jackson to Natchez with side trips to Vicksburg and other places. Nights are spent in antebellum inns. Trips typically cost $2,200 to $2,600 for double occupancy and include everything but a few meals.If you are interested in camping (I m not), you can go with a company such as Adventure Cycling, which offers more Trace miles while still guiding the ride and providing luggage transfers. Trips are in the $,1500 range, and hotel options are available at your own expense.Cycling the Trace On Your OwnI m a bit of a free spirit, but I still can t fathom riding the Trace alone or even in a twosome. Even if I were much younger. Still many do, and I like reading about their adventures. Some of the candid journals I ve enjoyed are on crazyguyonabike.com. There also are plenty of youTube videos.The Natchez Trace Parkway official website has a lot of information on cycling. A private site natcheztracetravel.com includes more information on lodging and interesting towns just off the Trace. The site also offers free itinerary planning.Annual Cycling Events If you re like me and would rather experience the Trace in little bites, find a one-day cycling event. My cycling friends rode in the Cyclists Curing Cancer tour in Clinton, Mississippi, the closest Trace point to where we live in Shreveport-Bossier City. I highly recommend this event held each September. It offers routes between 25 and 100 miles, all out and back on the Trace.Rider along the Ridgeland multi-use path near the Natchez Trace Parkway. Cyclists can take this path to avoid heavy traffic on the Trace near Jackson.Here are a few more cycling events along the Trace.*Little Mountain Ride. This ride is in Kosciusko, Mississippi, birthplace of Oprah Winfrey. Like the Clinton ride, it s out and back on The Trace so there are many mileage options, including a hilly one that takes you to the second highest point in Mississippi. (It s only 603 ft. elevation.) This year, it was held in August.*W.C. Handy 3 State Bike Ride. You have to ride 107 miles to touch all three states Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee in this ride based out of Florence, Alabama, birthplace of the blues legend. But shorter distances also go on the Trace and cross the Tennessee River. This ride is in July each year.I m not sure why those are scheduled in hot months, but at least the trees form a beautiful canopy providing shade along much of the Trace.*Natchez Trace Century Ride, based in Ridgeland north of Jackson, is in milder weather each May.  If you re like me and don t think you can ride 100 miles, shorter distances also are offered. Routes vary, but when I rode this in 2018 only 10 miles were actually on the Trace, but it was a scenic 10 miles skirting the Ross Barnett Reservoir.Cycling events have the advantage of rest stops with snacks, drinks and portable bathrooms. Visiting with other cyclists is fun too!Closer to Nashville, the National Park Service closes a short section to cars on two days each year so cyclists have the entire parkway to themselves.And then there are stories like the 80-year-old great grandmother who began riding at age 69. This year she and a group cycled the whole 444 miles to raise money for charity. Read her story here.That makes me want to ride the entire Trace after all. So far I have 56 miles. Only 388 more to go!Our group cycling photo op by the Olde Town Clinton sign.Clinton, Mississippi is promoting itself as a bicycling community with decorated bicycles around town and cruisers for use at a restored train depot. I made an unexpected side trip to a Mennonite community while visiting Missouri a few days ago.Now I m looking for more communities within easy driving distance of me.There are a few Mennonite farmers near where I live but no large-scale Mennonite or Amish settlements in Louisiana. In fact, two thirds of the nation s Amish and Mennonites, similar groups who adhere to varying degrees of strict religious and cultural practices, live in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.My husband and I spent a lovely July afternoon driving the rolling hills of Morgan and Moniteau counties, just north of Lake of the Ozarks. Along the two-lane highway surrounded by lush corn fields, we passed farmhouses, produce stands, garden centers, country markets and occasionally horse-drawn buggies.Looking out window at Zimmerman s Produce onto the farmThe Mennonites began moving into the area during the 1970s, and now operate 100 shops and service businesses. Locals have picked up on the tourism potential and printed handy maps of the area. We stopped at Zimmerman s Produce and found succulent plants in four-inch pots for $1, small watermelons for $1 and $1.50 and baskets of peaches for $2.50 (usually $5 or $6 at regular markets). A whole berry pie in the refrigerator was only $7.50.A little further along we wound up in a country grocery store with large selections of bulk food items for cooking spices, steel-cut oats, lots of gelatins, grits and such.Regrettably, I didn t get a chance to buy any of the large hanging baskets or stop at any of the homemade furniture shops. We were on a time schedule plus there was no room in our car with my bicycle and our Missouri antique finds.Click on any photo to enlarge/launch photo galleryAs much as I liked stopping at the roadside stands, I enjoyed traversing the countryside more. Their farmhouses, austere in design, were beautifully landscaped with petunias and other flowers blooming, churches and one-room schools.  There was a produce auction house for wholesalers (and individuals with large vegetables needs) but it wasn t an auction day when we were driving through.Next time, I ll pay less attention to my watch and wander around a little longer in a land where life is simple and time seems to stand still.Here s a few more Mennonite and Amish communities that I am familiar with in the South.Pontotoc County Mississippi: I ve been to this near my hometown in North Mississippi a couple of times. It s a smaller community than the others, but I ve loved my baskets I purchased there. Read more here.Lawrence County, Tennessee: This is the largest Amish settlement in the South. Located in southern Tennessee about 80 miles south of Nashville, this area includes museums and guided tours of the area. More here.Elsewhere in Missouri: Read more about the Mennonite community I visited here. Missouri also has the 7th largest Amish population in the country. There are several settlements. More here.Sarasota County, Florida: There are even Amish and Mennonite snowbirds in Florida. They ve opened restaurants and shops. More here.Todd County, Kentucky: There are many Amish/Mennonite communities in Kentucky but this one in the southeastern part of the state is the oldest. Read more.Are there other Mennonite/Amish communities in the South? Which ones have you visited? I had consumed three barbecue meals in one day in Memphis but had never eaten barbecue for breakfast.Until Saturday.My husband and I visited Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas. Snow s has twice been  voted the best BBQ in Texas by Texas Monthly magazine. (Name another publication with a barbecue editor). That’s an esteemed rating considering the number of BBQ joints in the state.The breakfast comes in because Snow’s is only open on Saturdays from 8:00 am until the food runs out, usually around noon.We walked up at 7:52 am, guessing there would be about 15 in line. There were already 68 in front of us and many more would follow.The draw, besides the Texas Monthly ranking, is 84-year-old “Tootsie” Tomanetz, the pitmaster who owner Kerry Bexley insisted come work with him before he would even open the place. A semi-finalist for the James Beard Award and a member of the Barbecue Hall of Fame, Tootsie arrives at Snow s each Saturday at 2 a.m. after working during the week as a school custodian. Where is Lexington?, my friends have asked me, and I also wondered before I found it on the map. It is about an hour east of Austin. But I like to say it is closer to the Texas hamlets of Giddings or Dime Box, named for the wooden mail box location once used by the carrier on horseback. Both towns are  17 miles away. To get to Snow s by Saturday morning, we drove over the day before. Since Lexington’s population is only 1,177 with no hotels, we spent the night 50 miles away in Brenham, a cute town with a draw of its own—the Blue Bell Ice cream factory.At 9:20 a.m. we were finally sitting down to, indeed, the best brisket we have ever eaten. The meat, tender with a perfect smoke ring and crispy top, was so moist you didn t need to floss or use a toothpick afterward. You probably didn t even need teeth!My husband and I ordered about seven pounds of meat. Besides the brisket, the pork ribs, pork shoulder, chicken and two types of sausage were all wonderful. My husband got free beans and white bread and  ordered sides of slaw and potato salad, but I stuck to a strictly meat meal. For the record, we did not eat all of that in one sitting. We were still eating barbecue Monday morning for breakfast again.Click on any photo to launch gallery.And the line experience made the anticipation pleasant. You could watch and take pictures of Tootsie tending the meat, play cornhole or  grab a free beer (tips accepted) from a  Yeti cooler (I abstained). Part of the fun was repartee with others in line like trading Texas barbecue lore with two guys from Austin in front, who had independently ridden in on motorcycles, but talked like they were long friends. There was a lady behind us with the British accent who was going to Waco later in the day for more barbecue. Roosters were crowing and cattle trailers rattled along the road beside us. Close to the door, I signed the register and learned we weren’t so impressive driving 276 miles from Shreveport. That day’s entrees included signatures from Sweden and Saudi Arabia.People were anxious to get their cue, but people weren t acting like they were in a hurry. Your number in line was entered into a raffle, and occasionally someone would come out giving away T-shirts, barbecue sauce or 10 percent discounts.After we ate, the pit mastering responsibilities died down and we got to grab photos with Tootsie and the owner, both personable with nobodies like us, even though a film crew was there from the Culinary Institutes of America.For years, it has been hard finding the time to make the long drive over from Shreveport, but now we re trying to figure out how quickly we can return.  It was that good. The only regret was the long drive home on a hot Texas summer day with a heavy barbecue meal still digesting. Last month I went on my first week-long bicycle tour, a leisurely ride in the South Carolina lowcountry the land of Spanish moss and Pat Conroy novels, of Forrest Gump filming sites and Southern Charm.Bicycle tours may conjure up images of cycling with a bicycle weighted down with supplies and then setting up camp after a tiring day. But this was a true glamping trip. After each day s ride, we dined on gourmet food and stayed in historic inns. Our guides were experienced cyclists and well versed in history and regional lore. They even pumped up our tires every day. The company I rode with was Carolina Tailwinds, a small touring company offering bicycle vacations throughout the Eastern United States.I Should Have Done This SoonerThere are reasons I hadn t taken a bicycle tour like this before. Mortgages and school calendars got in the way. And, when our family could grab some free time, there was always the pressure to pack as much sites and parks (national, state and theme) into a week. When I finally decided on a bicycle trip, I had to consider if I could physically handle a week of riding every day at age 61. I ve ridden 40 and 50-mile days but not back to back.  I was also worried I couldn t keep up with the pace and would get dropped. And, there was always unknown roads and navigating traffic.It was all a blast. I ended up riding 157 miles spread out over five days.  Although I was a solo rider with six others (another initial source of trepidation), we all rode at the same pace a mild 12-15 mph, stopping frequently to take photos  and helping each other avoid road debris (much of it Spanish moss).Click on any photo below to enlarge/and launch photo gallery.Our bicycle tour guides said the average age for their tours is mid-60s, and our group fit that demographic. On another of their trips, an 87-year-old woman accompanied her 50-something child and hung in with the rest of them.As for the mileage, the daily plan met my projections, mixing in some stop-and-go tootles as the guides called our leisurely rides around town  with some longer rides. The 30- to 50-mile rides came with catered lunch stops in scenic areas.  There were rest stops every 10-15 miles with Clif bars, sunscreen and a lift in the van if needed.  My daily rides went  like this:Day 1: 20 miles introductory scenic ride around historic Beaufort  and along the Spanish Moss Trail, a rails to trails conversion.Day 2: 32 miles of riding along mostly bucolic Spanish-moss canopied roads and lowcountry marshes to Hunting Island State Park.Day 3: 50 miles, almost all backroads through plantations, including Forrest Gump movie filming sites.Day 4: 15 slow miles through the streets of historic Charleston and around The Citadel campus and our only climb of the week, up the Arthur Ravenel Bridge.Day 5: 40 rural miles starting at the Charleston Tea Plantation and ending at the Firefly Distillery.Click here for more details on the Itinerary.Research and Ride But Don t Sweat the TrainingI looked at a lot of bicycle tour locations and a lot of companies and kept coming back to Carolina Tailwinds. I liked the name. Who wouldn t want a tailwind when you are cycling all week? I searched their beginner rides and also found Colonial Virginia/Williamsburg and Door County, Wisconsin appealing. But, the idea of cycling with little elevation gain above sea level and seeing Charleston and Savannah sealed the deal.Click on any photo below to enlarge/and launch photo gallery. Chapel of Ease, ruins of 18th century Anglican chapel built for planters who couldn t make it into town for worship.At home, I ride two times a week if I m lucky. I usually ride 20-35 miles each time. I made sure that I included a couple of rides on the long side during the month before my trip, including one 42-miler.  That s about all of the training I did.  I knew I would have most of the day to get in my daily miles on the trip.Don t Expect to Lose WeightThis was the shocker. By the most conservative calculators, I burned 6,200 calories cycling 157 miles during the week. Plus, there was a hike to the beach, 167 steps  climbing up a lighthouse and two days of brisk walking in Charleston.Still, I ended up gaining a little weight on this trip.Carolina Tailwinds kept the food and drink coming. Every 10-15 miles or so of cycling, there were van stops with snacks. Plus, there were tasty lunches and happy hours and gourmet meals throughout the week.Click on any photo below to enlarge/and launch photo gallery.When $10 creme brûlée and flourless chocolate tortes are included in your bicycle tour price, who s going to turn those down?I paid my own way on this trip and have not been compensated by Carolina Tailwinds. The six day/five night South Carolina Lowcountry tour I took cost $2295. Included were luxury accommodations, bike rental (save $100 and bring your own), three gourmet dinners, happy hours each night, picnic lunches most days along the bike route, a nice departing lunch, a Charleston carriage ride plus support from the sag wagon and two experienced guides. Who says a Saturday bicycle ride and a day at the outlet mall don t mix?For me, packing my bicycle on a weekend shopping trip is almost as essential as packing my toothbrush. Well, that may be a bit of a stretch, but bicycling in suburban areas can be a nice addition to the weekend shopping trip. I have a couple of suggestions not far from my home in Shreveport, Louisiana.The Woodlands, Texas. About an hour north of Houston, The Woodlands has more than 185 miles of multi-use pathways. That s bicycle riding without competing with cars.What s not to like about pedaling out from your hotel to breakfast at La Madeleine  like we did (before we finally got a La Madeleine in Shreveport). Then, we pointed our cycles toward Sur la Table and Tory Burch for a little shopping. We spent a Saturday morning bicycling around The Woodlands Market Street a few years ago through shopping areas, wooded areas and residential subdivisions  I m looking for an excuse to go again.Market Street in The Woodlands/Photo courtesy The Woodlands Convention Visitors BureauHubby at breakfast at La Madeleine/The WoodlandsThe Woodlands has earned a bronze as a bicycle-friendly community from the League of American Bicyclists.Allen, Texas: We were going to the Allen Premium Outlets, north of Dallas, staying at an adjacent Hampton Inn, when we discovered the Cottonwood Creek Trail, part of a 65-mile network of trails that is forever growing. We passed through parks and bits of suburbia, but occasionally came across an open field like this:This looks more like Kansas, but it s actually an open field in Allen, Texas.Cottonwood Creek Trail is nice and wide.Allen isn t even on the bicycle-friendly list but a lot of Dallas suburbs are Frisco, Plano, Richardson. Those are places where a lot of Shreveporters head for shopping.Ridgeland, Mississippi: You may not think of heading east to Mississippi to the Jackson area to cycle and shop, but why not? The upscale Renaissance at Colony Park lifestyle center in Ridgeland north of Jackson has some nice stores such as Anthropologie and Apple. Even better, Ridgeland is becoming somewhat of a bicycling mecca with its location on the Natchez Trace Parkway, a favorite among cyclists. You may think, like I do, that the Trace traffic is a bit too heavy around Ridgeland. But you ll discover there are many miles of car-free pathways alongside the Trace.Rider along the Ridgeland path near the Natchez Trace Parkway. It appears to be deep in the forest, but is only a few minutes away from Renaissance Center on Interstate 55.Ridgeland also is a bronze bicycle-friendly community. The city hosts some great cycling events such as the annual Natchez Trace Century Ride in May and other rides specifically for tandems and recumbents.I m sure these suburban bicycle trails were designed mainly to benefit local residents. However, I have certainly enjoyed them, and I think you might too.The League of American Bicyclists website is a great resource for finding bicycling-friendly states, communities, universities and businesses. FYI, Louisiana currently ranks #29 on the bicycle-friendly list. The list names New Orleans and Baton Rouge as bicycle-friendly cities. Shreveport s Great Raft Brewery is the only bicycle-friendly business listed in the entire state. Bicycling along the Ridgeland multi-use path I m a regular at farmers markets and garden centers but have little need for feed and seed stores.We have no farm animals, not even a dog now. I don t think I ve ever even been in a Tractor Supply, though family members tell me it s a great store.So I  surprised my Hubby the other day when these were my two stops in Texarkana:  Sullivan s Egg House: Eggs, Beer Feed and Three Chicks Feed, Seed Cafe.These aren t your grandpa s feed and seeds. Well, I guess they could have been. Sullivan s has been around since 1950. The old Genoa Feed-N-Store had been around a long time too before three women bought it out seven years ago and changed the name to Three Chicks.The Three Chicks are Angie Watson, Dee Dee Rogers and Julie Miller, whose bond was forged working together at Texarkana Country Club. Each brings a unique skill set to the business, and they ve added a few things their own line of poultry and livestock feed and a cafe, for example. In the cafe, you ll find cowgirl creations such as fried bologna sandwiches and frito pies alongside salads no doubt inspired by their ladies lunch at the country club days.Click on any photo below to enlarge and/or launch photo gallery. You can get this shirt any time, but in the spring you can buy some live baby chicks there. The peach tree out back was loaded the day I was there. Three Chicks also grows some of its own vegetables to use in the cafe.More of their inspiring story can be found on the Three Chicks website, where one customer says Three Chicks may be the only place in the United States where  I can get Eggs Benedict, my feed and a plumbing part in the same store. I had a delightful time there even though I didn t need feed or a plumbing part and couldn t stay long enough for lunch. I bought a scarf (there s a small boutique) and some of Bennie s Fire Ice Pickles (voted best office snack in Texarkana) and helped myself to a couple of peaches from a tree behind the store.The store has the feel of being at your grandparents house in the country with a  front porch, swing and animals roaming around. There s a garden out back. Some of the produce is used in the cafe.I made a quick stop at Sullivan s Egg House after reading about it online. Its merchandise mix is intriguing eggs, animal feed beer. According to the article, the store has a grandfather clause in its picnic permit that allows customers to browse in the store while drinking a beer. It is believed to be the only store in Arkansas with the permit, the owners said in the Texarkana Gazette article.I was there at 8:45 am, so I didn t see anybody drinking beer but the coolers were full for later. There was plenty of feed and seed, Arkansas food products and watermelons from East Texas. And, oh yes, farm fresh eggs that the store gets from its supplier in Dodson, Louisiana.Click on any photo below to enlarge and/or launch photo gallery. Sullivan s has a good selection of Arkansas products, including these Old South jarred items.Sullivan s is located at 2719 E. 9th Street, about six minutes away from Three Chicks. Both stores are on the Arkansas side. I found myself on Tennessee Road for a bit after leaving Three Chicks, which is actually in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood on the southeast outskirts of town.I want to go back and see more of Texarkana. I hear there s at least one more interesting feed and seed store in town. I ve heard Hopkins Icehouse  downtown is a good place to eat too. And wouldn t you know it it used to be a feed and seed. I love small towns.I grew up in a real one, and I love many of the ones  on TV. Pawnee, Indiana (Parks and Recreation). Cabot Cove, Maine (Murder, She Wrote).  And, of course, Mayberry.That was one of the reasons I was interested in seeing Stars Hollow at Warner Brothers Studios on a recent trip to Los Angeles. For those of you who didn t watch Gilmore Girls, Stars Hollow is the fictitious name for a town in  Connecticut where Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) live.There s Luke s Diner where the coffee is always pouring. A gazebo on the town square where the community gathers for fall festivals and picnics. There s an iconic white church with a steeple.A few favorites from Gilmore Girls. Click on any image to enlarge.Stars Hollow is on the portion of the Warner Brothers lot known as Midwest Business District, one of the favorite attractions on the three- hour Studio Tour, which I highly recommend not only for Gilmore Girls fans but anyone interested in how a major studio operates. Midwest District is just a catchall term for Small Town USA. The town center has been around since the late 1930s and has been the scene of small movie small towns, perhaps most notably River City, Iowa in The Music Man. A Midwest residential district with homes, porches and picket fences was added in 1940 for the Ronald Reagan film Kings Row and has been a fixture ever since.Stars Hollow is in New England,  but Midwest District has been the setting for Southern towns too such as Bluebell, Alabama in Hart of Dixie.  Stars Hollow High School, which Rory attended for a while, was Hazzard County Courthouse, the former stomping ground of Boss Hogg in Georgia-set The Dukes of Hazard. It was also Jefferson County Courthouse (Walton s Mountain, Virginia) in The Waltons and is now Rosewood (Pennysylvania) High School in Pretty Little Liars. The white steepled church across from the gazebo was in most of those shows too.  I don t watch Pretty Little Liars, but our tour guide said the church is the scene of a lot of funerals in that show.Near the Midwest  Business District, which isn t nearly as big as it is depicted on TV,  there is Midwest Residential District. It is the setting for even more TV magic. Lorelai and Rory s house, is what our tour guide referred to as a two-for-one..  The facade is definitely recognizable from the show, but you walk through it and the back is actually the front of Sookie s (Melissa McCarthy) house.  Most of the interiors in the show were actually filmed inside a Warner Brothers soundstage. Lorelai s house is currently Spencer Hastings house on Pretty Little Liars.Click on any image to enlarge and launch gallery We toured Stage 25 and the set of The Big Bang Theory. Stage 25 has been used for many movie classics, including Casablanca, Bonnie Clyde, The Shootist (John Wayne s last movie) and most of the Batman movies.We covered a lot more ground than the small towns of Midwest Business District during the tour. There was New York Street (you can t imagine how small Central Park is), French Street and the last known remaining set from Warner Brothers classic Casablanca.Warner Brothers is sprawling 110 acres and is actually in Burbank, just outside Hollywood. (As we were touring I kept humming to myself the opening theme to WB Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes.) Warner Brothers is a Big Six major film studio; its reputation skyrocketed with the 1927 production of The Jazz Singer, the first talking picture.Here are a few highlights on our tour:Soundstage Tours:  We saw the sets for The Big Bang Theory and Fuller House. We couldn t take pictures (fear of spoiling anything in the upcoming season). But  we got to see the live sets up close, including the Tanners iconic blue and white checkered couch, which had been preserved since the original Full House (1987-1995).Super Hero  Wizards: Our tour stopped at exhibits showing props and costumes from Batman, Wonder Woman, Justice League and all 17 years of  Harry Potter films and the spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. You can get sorted into one of the four magical Hogwarts houses. I got Hufflepuf. My daughter Mary Grace got Gryffindor.Under the Sorting HatBatmobiles: We got up close to the original Batmobile from the 1989 movie as well as more vehicles from subsequent Batman and The Dark Knight Trilogy movies. Costumes worn by Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis and othersStudio 48 Central Perk:  There really is a lot of movie memorabilia in this section. I would have liked to have taken longer viewing scripts and casting, including audition reels of stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio. But, like most visitors, my focus was seeing the authentic Central Perk set from Friends and getting my picture made on the sofa.Most popular photo op Central Perk sofaOur tram driver/tour guide, Curtis, was energetic and knowledgeable and could rattle off TV episodes as fast as Sheldon can solve a physics equation in The Big Bang Theory. As we were standing inside Mrs. Kim s antique shop from Gilmore Girls, he was on the stairs telling us it was the exact same spot where Monica and Ross Gellar came down dressed for prom in a classic Friends episode flashback.I wonder if there is a tour guide test after orientation?The only complaint is he was talking so fast it was a bit hard for me to take notes. I guess he learned that from watching Loralai and Rory on Gilmore Girls.We had time for only one studio tour during a recent visit to Los Angeles. After a lot of research, I concluded that Warner Brothers was the best and produced some of my favorite shows.  We took the basic $65 Studio Tour, but there are more options, including a five-hour, $295 deluxe tour, which includes lunch at Warner Brothers fine dining. Warner Brothers Studio Tours leave every 30 minutes.. What you get to see depends on what day of the week and season of the year you are there. We were there on a quiet Saturday so we didn t see any filming going on. It was also summer hiatus so there wasn t much filming during the week either. However, it allowed us to see a soundstage up close and see more of the backlot. WB recommends reservations.We actually missed our scheduled tour time (Los Angeles traffic snarl), but we were easily accommodated on the next tour. That s All Folks! I ve been on a quest this summer to find a watermelon that rates a 10 out of 10. Like the one I found in southern Arkansas a few years ago.Last week Hubby and I cleared the calendar and headed up to Hope, figuring the watermelons would be ripe for the 42nd annual Hope Watermelon Festival that begins this Thursday.Hope is known as the birthplace of Bill Clinton and also Mike Huckabee, but when it comes to watermelon, all politics are laid aside. Unless, you are participating in the festival s Politically Correct Watermelon-Eating Contest. The great melon we got a few years ago was found near Hope, off the beaten path, even more of a back roads than the two-lane Highway 29 that we usually take. It was a house with about a dozen watermelons in the front yard. A woman sauntered out in her house shoes and sold us the best watermelon we have had in 30 years.Problem is, we didn t note the location and didn t know how good it was going to be until after we got home and cut into it s red juicyness. Last August, we were driving through Hope on a Sunday afternoon hoping to find a watermelon equally as good. One grocery store carried watermelons from Henderson, Texas. Another one had McCurtain County, Oklahoma melons. I m sure they were fine, but they were not Hope melons. We did find a local melon shed, but it was locked up on Sunday.Click to enlarge photos and launch photo gallery Atherlene Reed welcomes guest at the Hope Visitors Center Museum in a restored Missouri Pacific train depot. Margaret Smith of the Hope Visitors Center shows off the replica of a world champion watermelon grown by the Bright family of Hope. The Hope Visitors Center is also a museum showing memorabilia from Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee Tailgaters Burger Companyin an old hotel across from the visitors center welcomes diners with its watermelon painted antique truck. So we planned our recent trip for a busy Friday. I did better research and found a list of 10 local watermelon growers with telephone numbers from the Hope Watermelon Festival website. I called every one of them and took notes. One had a damaged crop this year and another had sold out. Others told me where they were set up in Hope. Most of my calls went to full voicemail boxes. My guess is from callers looking for Hope melons too.But I got through to a few of them before we headed up to Hope. One of the them, Salinas Farms, was selling at the Howard County Farmers Market in Nashville that morning so we drove north another 30 miles. The market is 7 a.m. until sellout each Friday. We sadly learned sellout was before 10:46 a.m. when we got there. A vendor packing up told us to swing by a local produce stand. We did and bought a melon from Bodcaw, a community east of Hope and near where I suspect we found the tasty watermelon of yore.As we headed south to Hope, I realized I forgot my notes and would have to rely on memory from my watermelon calls. Did that farmer with the Jubilee melons say he was set up between AT T and Taco Bell or was it between  Fred s and Farmers Bank Trust? Or by Ivan Smith Furniture? As it turns out, there were at least four watermelons stands on Hervey Street between Interstate 30 and downtown and many more around town. I had a hard time deciding, but we ended up buying one off of a truck set up at a local State Farm office on Hervey. A couple of fellow diners at our restaurant stop gave them a thumbs (or is it a thumps?) up. Plus,  a business with a Like a Good Neighbor slogan wouldn t allow second-rate melons to be sold in its parking lot. Right?I had planned to return with four Hope watermelons, but the ones we got were humongous they will probably last us until late August. I didn t weigh them, but they were at least twice as big as the ones we see in the grocery store and were only $7 and $8 a piece. I had to nix Hubby s attempt to buy one that was clearly 50 pounds.Click to enlarge photos and launch gallery Small stand in Nashville sells watermelons from Bodcaw, close enough to be considered Hope watermelonsHope has been known for its giant watermelons since the early 1900s. With its thriving railroad industry, Hope watermelons were shipped all over the country, even to President Calvin Coolidge and to Hollywood stars. The Chamber of Commerce held the first festival in 1926. The Depression ended the festival run, but it was revived in the 1970s. The Ivan Bright family grew world record watermelons in 1979, 1985 and a 268-pounder in 2005. The Brights still sell seeds and books on growing champions on the website giantwatermelons.com. The current record in the Guinness Book of World Records is a 350 pounder grown in Tennessee.While Hope is known for its giant watermelons, Cave City in north Arkansas claims to have the sweetest watermelons in the state. I ve never had a Cave City melon, but these we bought in Hope were mighty sweet too.Were they 10 watermelons?  Not quite, but they are among the best we ve had this summer. They were solid 9s, maybe 9.4s. I guess we ll have to go wandering around some more next summer.This resident along Highway 29 south of Hope enjoys celebrating the Hope Watermelon Festival each year. When I was growing up, cantaloupe was something I ate only if the watermelon was all gone.It was a step away from being old people s food along with prunes and cottage cheese. At least that was my view 50 years ago. Plus, it looked kind of blah with its desert sand-colored skin covered in fishnet.As I grew up, I began to appreciate sweet cantaloupe even though it isn t as fun and photogenic  as watermelon. When s the last time you ve seen a kids T-shirt or a serving tray with a cantaloupe on it?I still think cantaloupe can use some help. I usually only eat it at breakfast, while I could eat watermelon morning, noon and night.But this summer I ve tried cantaloupe with a few new twists. I thought I would share three new ways to add pizzazz to cantaloupe.Cantaloupe Ice CreamCantaloupe ice creamI had this cantaloupe soft serve at Efurd Peach Orchards in Pittsburg, Texas, and it was a first for me.  (I also had another first this year sweet corn ice cream in Phoenix). I thought cantaloupe ice cream would be like sherbet, but it was more creamy than fruity. I m probably behind the times because cantaloupe ice cream recipes are all over the internet. You may want to try this Ben and Jerry s Cantaloupe Ice Cream Recipe or this four-ingredient Cantaloupe Sorbet sweetened with honey.Cantaloupe Prosciuttocantaloupe and prosciuttoWe made a variation of this in a summer salads cooking class I took a few years ago but had never tried it at home until a few days ago. I m all for easy appetizers, and I simply wrapped prosciutto around cantaloupe chunks and called it a day. The salty cured prosciutto pairs well with the sweetness of the cantaloupe. Next time, maybe I ll find my melon baller, add mozzarella and try this recipe.Cantaloupe with TajinCantaloupe with TajinThis is my new favorite way to eat cantaloupe. Travelers to Mexico are probably familiar with Tajin Classico Seasoning, the most popular brand of this seasoning of lime, chili pepper and sea salt. I first tasted it on a fruit cup during a trip to Los Angeles and went looking for Tajin when I came home. I found it at Super 1 in the produce section. It s great on lots of fruit and cucumbers as well, but I think it s particularly good in bringing out the sweetness in cantaloupe.Have you tried Tajin or any other creative ways of eating cantaloupe? I spent a lot of time in the summers of my youth at my grandparents house out in the country in Northeast Mississippi.Some nights we would shell peas and shuck corn out on the front porch serenaded by the bobwhite quail. Other times, we would be inside cooled only by a hassock fan as we worked from the time supper dishes were washed until Petticoat Junction went off. (Or some other CBS show. My grandparents only got one channel).The four most common tasks were shelling peas butter beans, snapping beans and shucking corn. There was a lot more blanching, canning, freezing and other vegetable prep that went on, but I was not invited to be a part of that. Nor did I beg to participate.But as I remember, this is my personal ranking of four post-harvest garden chores.Shelling Peas. I got where I could master working my thumb down the seam, making a clean cut and having all of the peas fall into the Tupperware bowl I was using. The grownups were much faster, shelling peas almost at a rhythm into enamel wash pans. Having a deep purple thumb was cool, like having a purple tongue after eating a grape Popsicle.Shucking Corn. This is second because I actually liked to eat corn (as opposed to butter beans and string beans), but it wasn t as fun as shelling purple hull peas. I wasn t particularly thorough at removing the silks so someone had to clean up behind me. At my house today, we cook corn, husks and all, in the microwave, and the ears slide right out.Shelling Butter Beans. This seemed to take forever because I never could get the technique down. They would split down the side and I would have to dig in with my fingers to retrieve the beans from the pod. Plus, I didn t really like butter beans at the time.Snapping Beans. This was really boring, and I d find myself affixed to the goings on at the Shady Rest Hotel on Petticoat Junction. Or I may quit altogether and volunteer to be the first one to take a bath.My grandparents lived in a huge house, but like the one channel on TV, there was only one bathroom. Thank you for stopping in. I m Jane Allison, a blogger, wife and mother who loves bicycling, traveling, gardening, college football, farmers markets, popcorn, Shark Tank, Jeopardy and Outshine fruit bars. Read More about About Me

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