Championing the makers, artists, and wanderers in all of us.
There are lots of reasons you might be visiting Madison County, Indiana. For me, the biggest reason is family. However, if you don’t have family there (or maybe because you have family there), you can stay at the Best Western Plus in Anderson.
No one will wake you up in the morning by pounding on your door before your travel-weary, west-coast-time-zone bones are ready to stir and shouting “You’re not here for very long, you don’t want to sleep all day!” (You know, the Staying with Family Standard Room Rate.)
But there will be a hot breakfast waiting for you.
I’d get my eggs or yogurt or waffle from the buffet, refill my coffee (after making the first cup with the Keurig in our room), and have breakfast with the birds. They would be outside flapping around one of the feeders, looking for their favorite seeds while I sat inside at a table by a window.
My aunt, uncle, and cousin Allison were in town for the same reunion we were and had chosen the same hotel. Most mornings they’d join us at breakfast, with Allison and her mom teasing my uncle about his snoring. I offered her the foldout couch in the front room of our suite. Even though she didn’t take us up on it (instead opting to kick her dad out of the room entirely and send him to stay with a relative that lives in the area), the point is that an extra couch/bed in your room can come in handy.
So can a microwave and mini fridge. I tend to travel well-supplied with snacks, but you might also want to keep farmers’ market finds cool or heat up an Amish donut.
The hotel is conveniently located right off the freeway and Scatterfield Road, my reference route for getting around Anderson. It was an easy drive to Mounds State Park or downtown.
If you have relatives in the area, chances are, they’re close too. But not as close as Best Western’s indoor pool, twice weekly happy hour, and totally optional wake up calls.
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P.S. Did you spot Mr. Cheeseface?
Thank you to Anderson Madison County Visitor and Convention Bureau! We were their guests at the Best Western Plus Anderson.
Here’s a travel story for you [from my dad, Marty, during a day trip last fall. –S]:
We were cruising through Prescott, looking for a dinner place and found a family diner called SueAnn’s Apple Pan.
It usually closes at 2pm, but we just happened to hit PJs and Eggs night, which is a charity event supported by Hickman’s Family Farms. All the staff and most of the customers were dressed in jammies, and they were serving breakfast only.
We felt like we crashed a happy, boisterous family meal. Very cool. Might need to put this on calendar for next year!
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Photo credits: 1. Marty 2. The American Egg Board
In Arizona, we plan outdoor events during most of the year with reckless abandon. Organizers bet on clear skies, because the odds are just too good to pass up.
Of course, sometimes they bet wrong.
Like when the Ballet Under the Stars performance we usually attend in Tempe had to be canceled last year due unseasonably late and unusually heavy rains.
We decided to drive an hour south to the Casa Grande performance at the Paul Mason Sports Complex a few days later. The rain had stopped, and it was a beautiful drive with the golden hour sun dropping below the clouds.
While there was still a great turnout, it was a much smaller crowd with even more of a community vibe and much more convenient parking.
We had packed a simple picnic of cheese, crackers, hummus, fruit, and chocolate. We spread out our blanket as the dancers warmed up and the sky erupted into increasingly spectacular shades of pink and orange.
It was a beautiful show.
