What happens when you're a thousand miles from home, you have a fender bender, and your seven years' out-of-date insurance card is lost in a double handful of ragged coupons and wallet litter?Which state has the kindest state police?Which is harder-- struggling into a wet suit or mud-wrestling with an alligator?In the northwest, will pumas catch us before we can find Bigfoot?Travels with Ninny and Zander is a humorous, illustrated travelogue recounting family adventures on a 10,000 mile, loosely scheduled road trip. We meandered our way from Port St. John, Florida to northwest Washington and paused for adventures in Devil's Spring, FL, Branson, MO, Leavenworth, KA, Kansas City, MO, Portland, OR, Mt. St. Helens, WA, three WA to CA beaches, Redwood National Forest, Craters of the Moon National Monument in ID, Glacier National Park, MT, Shelby, MT, Minot, ND, St. Ignace and Mackinac Island in the Upper Peninsula of MI, Findlay University, Findlay, OH, and Berea College, Berea, KY. From the beginning, the trip was fraught with humor, narrow escapes, and amazing experiences, beginning with the author's struggles with a wetsuit at Devil's Spring and continuing through to the end with our surprise arrival home and the trouble caused by my eagerness to collect Chico, our dog.Many illustrations and photographs in the book are creations by Zander Kelly, the author's thirteen-year old traveling companion and navigator. (Without him, my husband and I would still be rattling around lost somewhere. )Four days in Branson, MO, enabled us to visit the Presley show (the oldest show in Branson). We rode the now infamous Ducks, amphibious vehicles that wound up in Table Lake. The wax museum was great because we could put on costumes and take pictures with our favorite stars. Several of these pictures are included in the book. Ripley's Believe it or Not offered unique displays. We visited Silver Dollar City, a fantastic theme park, and were undaunted by a fender bender we had near the parking lot when we arrived there. This mishap is well-documented in the book with much humor. Readers will find out what happened when Eugenio, the author's husband, left his wallet with all his money in the hotel and didn't realize it until we were 100 miles from Branson. (Hint: It will restore your faith in humanity.)Four days visiting Kansas City were filled with visits to Union Station and its Science City, the World War I Museum that houses the largest collection of WWI memorabilia in the world, the aquarium, and City Market, an amazing fruit and vegetable market surrounded by international restaurants. Kansas City's free streetcar took us everywhere we wanted to go. The city is "very doable" as a stranger on the subway told me. Ride and chuckle along with this oddball family on our unpredictable, picturesque odyssey. Find out which of the three travelers once lay down under a tree to die, only to wake up alive and wet several hours later.
