Travel: Wigwam Village #2

By now you should be familiar with my fondness for weird roadside attractions. While planning my annual roadtrip to Michigan to visit family, I knew that I wanted to stop mid-way for a rest (my younger days of driving 14 hours straight through are officially over!). So I fiddled around on Roadside America and discovered that the Wigwam Village #2 wasn't too far from my route. 

I have to add that I'd seen where Kaylah of The Dainty Squid has stayed at all three Wigwam Villages. I'm pretty sure this is how I discovered the awesomeness of these unique attractions.

I mean, how could you pass up staying in one of these?!?

From their website: Wigwam Village Inn #2 is the most unique motel in all of Kentucky. It celebrated 60 years of colorful history in 1997, and staying there will be an experience you will never forget.

We spent the previous day driving through nasty rain so I was glad to see a bright sun and clear skies the next morning. 

From Wikipedia: The diameter at the base of each tipi is 14 feet (4.3 m), and they are 32 feet (9.8 m) in height. Behind the main room of each unit is a small bathroom with sink, toilet, and shower. In 2008, the rooms contain the original restored hickory furniture and a window-mounted air conditioner. There are no telephones to maintain the original atmosphere of the motel, but the rooms do have cable TV and internet access.

Wigwam Village #2 is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Thank goodness for the wi-fi! I could not figure out how to get the cable tv working, so we at least had the internet to keep us entertained. The room itself was very drafty, especially around the door and window AC unit. It was an extremely windy night due to a cold front barreling through. There was a small space heater in the wigwam that kept us at a comfortable temperature. That thing was a champ!

Staying in Cave City was a treat! We visited Onyx Cave for a short, inexpensive tour. Our tour guide was obviously excited about the cave and science in general, which makes an already interesting experience ten times better. Dinner at El Mazatlan was HUGE and very satisfying after a solid 7 hours driving. 

After telling my husband of all the fun things we did (and all the fun things still left to do!) we decided that we should definitely try to go back to Cave City, Kentucky.

& I have to tell you about our visit to Dino World!

Travel: Blue Ridge Parkway with a Side of Asheville

Visiting Asheville, North Carolina has been on my to-do list for a very long time. Looking back at some email correspondence between me and a friend, it looks as though I've been thinking about going to Asheville for a solid five years! 

Amber and I finally made plans to make the drive over the weekend. "Fawne does not go anywhere in a straight line!" says Amber. So of course, I decided to do some adventuring along the way and looked for some interesting sights. 

There are plenty of neat things to see in North Georgia/North Carolina area but we only had a small window of time for exploring. I saw that the Blue Ridge Parkway lead directly to Asheville and determined that it would be our best bet.

After entering the Parkway we saw a sign that said Asheville - 53 miles. We can make that drive in NO TIME! ...or so we thought.

We stopped at the first few overlooks, super excited to see the beautiful scenery.

Five miles into the Blue Ridge Parkway. Looking at Steestachee Bald. 

And then we decided that if we continued to stop at every lookout point, we'd never make it to Asheville.

We continued to climb in elevation. Ears popping galore!

But we made it to the top! The highest point in all the Parkway!

It's about 12 miles into the Parkway, if you enter from Hwy 74. We were not prepared for how cold it was going to be! My phone said it was 43 degrees but with the wind it felt much colder.

Hello! The usual touristy photo op.

Then we had to make the decision to not stop at any more overlooks for the rest of the ride. If my calculations are correct, then the Blue Ridge Parkway added about two hours of travel time to an otherwise 5 hour drive. Still, with these kinds of views, we consider it time well spent! Well worth it!

As for Asheville...I took a total of ZERO photos. What? We mostly hung out with friends we hadn't seen for a long, long time. Amber and I agreed to return with the intent of doing more tourist-y exploring. 

We did get the chance to try out some AWESOME food! We had tapas at Zambra, drinks at Asheville Yacht Club, then breakfast at Sunny Point Cafe. 

Wicked Weed and The Black Bird get a shout out because our friends work there. (Adding these two places to our to-do list for next time!)

Asheville, we'll be seeing you again real soon! This time, with a specific to-see list. And more time to explore!

Inktober! - The First Half

October is my most favorite month! It got even better when I found out about Inktober in time to participate (usually I discover cool group projects after they started). What is Inktober?

Check out this link: http://mrjakeparker.com/inktober

Every October, artists all over the world take on the InkTober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month.

Sounds easy enough, right? It definitely has been. But of course, life gets in the way and I haven't been able to make a drawing every day... just almost everyday. 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I started off with a crystal drawing obsession. And then quickly got tired of them.

Day 5

Day 7

I take that back...there's the crystal drawing popping up again.

Day 8

Then trying to figure out a mermaid drawing for a commission.

Day 10

Day 12

Now it looks like I'm in a under the sea phase. 

As you can see, I haven't been able to draw every day and I'm not sure if I'll be able to make up for those missed days, but I'm drawing more than usual so that's nice. 

So many artists are participating! If you're on Instagram, check out the hashtag #inktober to see a HUGE variety of styles and abilities. It's always fun to see all the creativity being shared and celebrated. 

Here's the next two weeks of drawing!

Commission: Red Tailed Hawk

Being my friend means that if you ask for a piece of art it'll probably take me about six months to complete it. Not because I don't like you, it's because I procrastinate like woah.

I would like to note that a buddy asked me to paint a red tailed hawk in January. I finally sent him a sketched out idea sometime in April...maybe even May.

The sketch was given the thumbs up and so I got started.

Cutting this out took a lot of patience. What a lot of work! 

Coming along. I took this photo to show a size comparison to my feet.


A close up of the face in progress. The final touches include the black lines and the color in the eyes. At this point he's looking more angry than regal. 

The completed piece. It's about 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. Acrylic painted on 3/4" plywood.

Detail of the wingtip.

Another detail shot. I'm loving the colors of this piece!

I also love how I was completely trusted with the outcome of this piece. The official commission was: "Red tailed hawk, your style." And that was it. How awesome is that?! I assure you, this is a responsibility that I don't take for granted.

Art Snacks - September 2015

Subscription boxes are all the rage now, aren't they? I mean, a box of cool stuff showing up on your doorstop every month...yeah! Sign me up! But I know I would quickly go broke buying ALL THE BOXES (for example, I'd love to get Teabox, Mistobox, and/or Ipsy. And my pup would love Barkbox!) so I had to be very, very selective on which subscription I'd choose. When I heard about ArtSnacks, I immediately made up my mind that THIS IS IT!

What is ArtSnacks? ArtSnacks is a monthly subscription service for the best art products around, providing artists all over with top-of-the-line art supplies.

I signed up almost a day before the monthly cutoff date so I didn't have to wait too long for my box to arrive. Thank goodness! I'm so impatient when it comes to stuff I've ordered online. 

When a small box arrived with an ArtSnacks stamp, I quickly tore into it. Everything was carefully wrapped in tissue paper. There were five products inside:

A Swiss Wood Pencil

Winsor & Newton Pigment Markers (Magenta & a White Blender)

A Moo Eraser

& Laffy Taffy!

The magenta marker made me think of tulips so I quickly sketched some. At first I was like, hmm, I dunno...a pencil is a pencil, right? But I found myself thinking, woah, this feels pretty good. I'm used to drawing with whatever crappy pencil I have around, so this was definitely a step up in my usual process. Not to mention, the pencil smells really good! 

The markers are even on the market yet, so ArtSnacks subscribers are some of the first artists to try them out. Neat! I don't have much experience with markers, so I can't tell you how these compare to others, but I did notice a big difference when I went from regular sketchbook paper to the marker paper that ArtSnacks provided. Look at that nice blending! I might just have to get some marker paper and experiment some more. 

In conclusion, this was a neat way to spend twenty bucks. I think I'll keep up the subscription as long as I have the extra funds in my monthly budget. I've read some other reviews about how you can just as easily try stuff out at the art store, but if you're anything like me you'll talk yourself out of any extra purchases while you're there. With ArtSnacks, the decision is already made for you. Just be open to whatever supplies you recieve and have fun with it!


(Disclaimer: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned.)