Traveling Cherrie

Cherrie had a fun time exploring Kansas City, and found most parts of it of it easy to navigate in her wheelchair. She especially liked the Country Club Plaza area, which has a definite Spanish feel to it . Many of the buildings in the plaza area are patterned after those  in Seville Spain; which serves as a sister city to Kansas City.   

Of course we just couldn't leave Kansas City without sampling some of their world famous BBQ, so we had dinner at Jack Stacks on the plaza. It wasn't exactly an original  idea, and there was an hour wait for a table; so we used our time wisely and took a little stroll around the plaza. We were rewarded with a beautiful view of  the J.C Nichols Fountain.  We saw it in the daytime too,  but it was especially stunning in the evening when it was all lit up.

After leaving Nashville, we traveled north through Kentucky and the southern part of Illinois, before turning west in St. Louis and heading to our final destination - Kansas City.

And as luck would have it, we had a chance to meet with Miss Diana, who is in charge of the SATW Traveling Teddies program. She's more affectionately known as the "bear chair" to all of us involved in the program.

There's a reason that Nashville is nicknamed " Music City - there's music everywhere. Literally. In the Honky Tonks, along Music Row and even on the street corners. It's a lively and creative place, where you never know who you'll run into, and where your tour guides and servers are often song writers and performers. It's a great place for anyone who enjoys music --  any kind of music - but Cherrie especially enjoyed it because she's a huge country music fan.

After leaving Maryland we headed south for Tennessee. It was a long drive, but it was also very scenic. The leafs are just starting to change colors, and Cherrie liked that a lot.

After a lovely drive through Maryland and Virginia we arrived at our wheelchair-accessible cabin in Sevierville, Tennessee. The address is a bit deceiving, as it's not exactly in a big city, but on a ridge overlooking Wears Valley. It's very nicely decorated, and Cherrie felt right at home with all of the bear carvings.

After traveling east through Ohio, we spent several days staying with our friend Connie, who lives just outside of Philadelphia. That's one of the great things about traveling -- it gives you a chance to catch up with folks that you haven't seen in while. We also had a chance to have lunch with our other friends, Ann and Mickey. Everyone was happy to meet Cherrie. Here's a photo of us all in the parking lot after our lunch date.

As it so happens, both Ann and Connie are travel agents who specialize in accessible travel, so we also had a chance to talk a little business. Ann wanted me to autograph my latest book, which is why she is holding it up (prominently) in the parking lot photo.

Today we meandered along the back roads of Brown County and visited some local artist's studios. There are a lot of artists to choose from in the area -- from photographers, potters and painters to furniture makers, jewelry makers  and even basket weavers. Most of these folks have their studios in or near their homes, so it's a great opportunity to meet and chat with artists and even see them at work.

After a short drive from Rockford, and a brief pinic stop along the way to enjoy our leftover pizza, we're staying in Indianapolis for a few days. Not only is Indianapolis the capitol of Indiana, but it was also chosen as America's Most Accessible City this year. It's pretty famous for the big Indianapolis 500 race, but it also has a lot of fun cultural attractions, a great downtown area and some very accessible tourist attractions.

Of course Cherrie has a few favorites.

We spent the past few days exploring Rockford, Illinois; which is located about halfway between Chicago and Galena. Can you find it on the map?

And although there are lots of cultural attractions for adults to enjoy in the "Queen City of the Prairie", there are also many fun things for kids to do there. Cherrie had fun exploring them all, and we're pleased to say that even the folks at the historic attractions made things as accessible as possible for wheelchair-users.

There's a reason that Nebraska is known as the Cornhusker State - they grow a lot of corn there. So after driving by mile after mile of cornfields, we decided to hop off the highway and take a closer look. We stopped by a cornfield in back of an old cemetery and let Cherrie wheel around and explore it a bit. It was very level - most of Nebraska is - so she had no problems at all wheeling around.