Most people go to Vermont to watch the leaves change colors in the fall but I like it in the spring when the leaves on the trees are green, 67 colors of green, so that the bonnets of the trees look like a jigsaw puzzle and the tulips are in bloom and the geraniums and the cherry blossom trees – there’s nothing fancy about Vermont, it’s all straight up plain flowers plainly blooming everywhere, as if the earth is starting fresh again after winter and toward the end of May it hits an optimum equilibrium even if it does rain every other day which if you’re only there for a day and a half isn’t very good odds, at least not of skipping the rain. But people in Vermont don’t mind, they just take out their umbrellas and keep on truckin’….
“And why are we going to Vermont in May, Mom? I don’t get it. Why are we going to Vermont, at all???”
“You’ll see, Anna.”
Have you ever tasted Limburger cheese? So you think you're eating a pair of regular socks. Then you realize you're eating your brother's socks. 
I grew up in the deep south, a small town called Hawkinsville, GA, population 3500. Probably the best thing I have ever eaten in my life is the BBQ we had on special occasions on our farm. I know, you can get BBQ everyday. Yes, I have been to those famous BBQ joints in Memphis and those in North Carolina. Not impressed; it's all about the sauce and good BBQ needs little sauce. My dad employed an old man named Clayton since I was a child until he died a few years ago. Great BBQ is an art, like the glass blowers in Murano, Italy or a small farmer in France making cheese. There is no recipe, just talent and experience.
Right up front let’s just say Death Valley is not a destination trip for foodies. Don’t fool yourself for a minute on that score. Death Valley is where you go to see extraordinary beauty, hike mind blowing rock formations, find God or ingest mushrooms (not particularly in that order), but one does not go for culinary arousal. Not that you can’t eat well and enjoy some surprisingly good meals but as my illustrious travel companion (i.e. foodie daughter) pointed out, that is because we weren’t expecting much.
My best friend Kim swears my favorite movie is 'The Blue Lagoon.'
Ok, I admit, it's true that I have watched it a half a dozen times or
more over the years. But when you're 15 years old and the same age as
Brooke Shields and she's frolicking on a tropical beach with a cute boy
and I am stuck in a small town, on a farm in Georgia with boys who look
nothing like Christopher Atkins, one can understand my emotional
attachment. Kim would also tell you I am a huge fan of 'Far and Away'
and yes, I have also watched that movie more times than I can count. I
am sure that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman would prefer that movie be
removed from their list of credentials on IMDB because as many times as
I have seen it, I still couldn't tell you what's going on in that
movie.