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SUPPLEMENT TO McHENRY PLA1NDEALER - PAGE 12 - WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, li77 Retreat in the Rockies To each hi* own special place in the sun... .W Travel is in the eye of its highly individual beholder! SUMMER IN BEAUTIFUL VAIL, COLORADO -- Nestled high in the Colorado Rockies, Yjril Village is easily reached via Interstate 70. The full-service, year-round resort offers an abundance of activities for summer visitors. The lodging community also offers meeting room and banquet facilities for business groups. (Vail photo by Peter Runyon). By CASKIE STINNETT $ Travel writers and editors are forever being asked what are their favorite places, as though the flow of one per­ son's choices will form a rich delta of possibilities for many. The question is flat­ tering to the writer or editor, but it is otherwise meaning­ less. Travel is an intensely per­ sonal sort of thing; my own preferences come about be­ cause of the kind of heart and mind that I possess. If f anyone else shares my pref­ erences, it will be only coincidence. Image of graciousness For example, I think Sa­ vannah, Georgia is one of the most colorful cities in Amer­ ica, yet it is not regarded as such by many people. The cobWestoned streets that run along the waterfront, the tiny parks that dot the city, the stately mansions, the an­ cient cotton factors' build­ ings -- these combine to form the image of a gracious Southern city. The State of Maine is one of the most fascinating parts of this country, in my . opinion, and I have seen it in all of its moods. To walk along the coast of Penobscot Bay in early winter, and breathe the sea air sweetened by the balsam which grows to the water's edge, is a great experience, especially when there is snow stacked in the sky and ready to fall. Coastal mystery Early one morning I rowed a boat to a small off­ shore island in Casco Bay; it was very foggy, but the fog was not so dense that I couldn't make out the dim shape of the island from the shore. When I reached the island, the rock ledges were so ghostly and beautiful that I sat motionless in the boat for a while, feasting myself on SUMMER YARD SATURDAY, AUG. 6th FIBERGLASS SHOWER! DISCONTINUED RANGE HOODS ODD LOT KITCHEN CABINETS MARBLETOPS Great for Laundry Rooms & Garages From 3012 W. RT. 120 McHENRY, ILL. - v v « v i r ' ¥ MANY OTHER SPECIALS- BE THERE! one of the delights of Maine: a foggy day on that strange coastline of islands, reaches, peninsulas, and bays. In New Mexico not far from the Mexican border, is a strange little town called Old Mesilla, which time has passed by and which resem­ bles nothing so much as the background for an early Western motion picture. •Billy* for a beer It is a dusty little town, many of its houses are adobe, and it is laid out around a small central plaza in the manner of Mexican villages. Its chief distinction is that the village was the home of Billy the Kid. One summer day I parked my car under a tree, and walked across the plaza to a small octagonal bandstand, where an elderly man in a tattered felt hat was sitting. "For a beer,*' he said, "I will enact for you the shoot­ ing of the owner of Gower's Bar by Billy the Kid." I accepted the offer and we walked into what had been Gower's bar on the far side of the plaza, where my new acquaintance was hand­ ed a beer. He drank it like water and, with me follow­ ing, he walked out into the middle of the street I gathered he had per­ formed his act many times for stray visitors like myself. As the hapless Gower, he clutched himself at the heart, ' spun around, and toppled motionless in the dust. Ris­ ing, he dusted himself with the felt hat. "I put a lot into that," he said. "Made me thirsty again." _ Mendocino, a small town on the Pacific about four hours north of San Fran­ cisco by car, offers a sort of simple majesty that is almost overwhelming. Set on a high plateau above the sea, it is a stark town, resembling nothing so much as New England. There are a few streets, rows of neat, small cottages, a handful of stores, and a cliff. I first saw Alabama some vears aeo when I went to Mobile to take a freight ship, the 5. S. Yaka of the Waterman Line, for Europe. The Yaka sailed out of Mo­ bile at four o'clock one morning, and the preceding night I spent walking over as much of the city as l could cover. Alabama is still to me a glamorous state, a warm and friendly space made up of starry nights and the musty smell of cotton, of fresh­ water rivers, of hound dogs baying m the moonlight, of beautiful old pillared homes reached by long driveways bordered by magnolia trees, and the Spanish moss hang­ ing from the live oak trees that seemed to grow every­ where the pines didn't. Odd distinctions y There are other places that I could point to which pos­ sess some odd distinction, such as the Platte* River Val­ ley of Nebraska which has been proven by computers to be the healthiest spot in America, or Redwood City, California, which is said to have the most favorable cli­ mate in this country. vvlbe whole Mississippi River is a thing of wonder to me, and I am captivated by ,• the lonesome Louisiana bay­ ou country whidf lies at its