Surprise! I’m in Oklahoma City, OK. Why? Let me give some background. In the waning weeks of the fall semester I was recommended to a professor at the University of Arkansas for a research assistantship by one of my professors at BYU. Another student also was recommended for an assistantship. He and I both corresponded with the professor at the University of Arkansas and were both offered an assistantship. Before outright accepting the positions, we both wanted to visit the campus and get a feeling for the school. The best time for a visit was this week, the break between semesters.
So why Oklahoma? The other student, Sean, has a brother-in-law who is a pilot and got discount plane tickets and a brother in Oklahoma City who we could stay with. So we are now at the brother’s house in Oklahoma City.
We flew to Tulsa, OK this afternoon on stand-by tickets. That meant that we could be seated anywhere on the plane. We ended up in the first row in business class. It was so nice to have leg room and a large seat. Not only that, the drinks were served in a real glass, not just a plastic cup. Plus we got the deluxe selection of in-flight snacks including Reeses’ Peanut Butter cups and Sun Chips.
Once we landed in Tulsa, we rented a car and drove about 2 hours to Oklahoma City. Once here we just relaxed and watched the movie Legend of the Gaurdians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Yeah, weird name but it was surprisingly good. After a good nights sleep, were off to Arkansas, only 4 hours away.
Most mornings I wake up in a basement room of my uber-cheap-rent apartment. The mornings I don’t, I am either on a trip or camping (which is a semi-regular occurrence). Since being home from the East Coast, I’ve been trying to wake up earlier to develop better sleep habits because school is approaching (and grades suffer at 2 am). I pack a lunch, eat breakfast and I’m away to school, er, work, which is at school. (Sometimes hygiene is accounted for in the mornings. Just joking.)
I work in the tallest building which is near the top of the tallest staircase on campus. Everyday I sit in the computer lab on the 6th floor and stare at multiple computer monitors as the computers they are tethered to perform queries to the new.familysearch.org APIs and extract family trees based on place and time period. I usually sit in the seat with the brightest monitor in the picture and operate all of the computers within 4 steps of me. As the computers work, I compile the data they are collecting, putting them into spreadsheet-reports which the professor I work for will interpret.
This lab is also where I will live when school starts again. I will be taking classes, performing TA and research responsibilities, and doing homework in this nice big lab. The accordion doors that bifurcate the room are usually open during the semester, so it really is a big lab.
Since I am on the 6th floor, I get to enjoy a good view over campus and the Wasatch front south to Springville. There are some days when the air quality is detrimental to one’s health or a blizzard (also detrimental to my health) settles in which completely obscures the pleasant view, though.
I come home and make dinner (which sometimes baffles my friends who don’t usually make dinner). Then, sometimes I go do an outdoor activity like softball, Frisbee, or volleyball. Other times I just surf the web, read, or watch a movie rented by my roommate (to show off the Blu-ray capabilities of his entertainment system, which I’m ok with). Most days are pretty uneventful, which is why I don’t blog about them.
As I sit in the aisle row of the flight back to my trips’ origin, I am able to watch our progress on the personal tv screen in the seat-back in front of me. An icon of a plane is displayed over a base map of states. Watching how quickly we are passing over the land (Indiana, oop, Illinois, wait, Missouri), I am glad it took me 12 days for this trip.
Yesterday was more exhausting than Saturday, but both (and Sunday, but a little less) had enough walking to keep me satisfied for a month. Maybe it was more tiring because I was on my own. Shea and Meghann had to work. Being on my own, I was able to more freely take time for myself and adjust my schedule to fit what I wanted to do. Even with that benefit, I like being able to share the experience with people more. I slept in a bit, did not hurry through getting ready, and did the dishes of our dinner the night before (I try to be a good house guest). Shea had let me use his SmarTrip Card for riding the metro and buses but we hadn’t taken any buses yet. I was going to have to take a bus to get to King St metro station once I was ready; maybe that’s why I prolonged getting ready. I was somewhat nervous to try it by myself without a guide. The whole public transit thing is completely alien to me. I am happy to report that I successfully navigated the metro system the entire weekend. I feel comfortable to visit again and use it (and hopefully use public transit in other cities other places).
This day was my Smithsonian day, although I should have scheduled a week for all the Smithsonian museums. The Air and Space Museum was the first stop, I mean destination, since one doesn’t really stop in a museum that size. I saw some of the vehicles and technologies I used to fantasize about as a child. Sputnik was in a very low geosynchronous (stationary with respect to earth) orbit directly overhead when I walked in. Mercury and Apollo capsules, encased in plexiglass teetered on edge in the main lobby. Space Ship One dangled askew near the wall looking like it was plucked from its flight trajectory. I knew I was in for a long, mind-filling treat within those first 5 seconds.
Getting my bearings, I located a gallery and entered. It turned out to be my favorite. Why? It was completely devoted to Remote Sensing, a topic that I have studied in my major. Actually, I have completed all the offered coursework in it. What is it? Aerial and satellite photography. There were displays of things only read about in textbooks and mock-ups of how some of the technology was implemented (such as taking a picture by leaning out of a balloon or airplane). I had to severely limit my time in there.
Next, there was a gallery filled with images of the earth and other planets. Some of the pictures were gorgeous while others were fairly ugly. I heard a man say to his wife, “This gallery is muted now that all these pictures can be found online”. I totally disagree with the point he was professing. Sure, they can be found online, but seeing them reproduced on canvas (or other surface) and at full-scale was worth the 5 minutes spent perusing the hall.
Man and his dog.
There were displays of computing in aeronautics, commercial flight, and a lot of military aircraft history.
I had my fill of the Air and Space Museum, so I made the short walk to the Natural History Museum. It was full of rocks and bones (and sometimes they managed to combine them). I wasn’t too impressed when I first walked in. I guess animal bones don’t activate any “oh, that’s cool” mechanism in me. Human bones do, though. There was a section dedicated to human bones. Some were ancient and some were as recent as 2002, which I thought was weird because there are people who can come see a guy (a college professor) they knew in life, but just his bones. Student: “Hey professor So-and-So, you’re looking a little emaciated!” (Sorry for the irreverence. I am a little irreverent sometimes.)
Big diamond!
The best thing at this museum, though, is the jewel collection. On display were diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, pearls, crystal, and so many other precision cut gems. I saw the Hope Diamond (45.5 carat deep blue), Marie Antoinette’s gigantic diamond earings, diadems, necklaces, and other jewelery that were so ornate. I don’t think I have ever felt true greed and envy until then (but I have decided not to plan a jewelry caper, as I value liberty more).
The next building down was the Museum of American History. It’s big and has a lot of things, almost none of which are related. This makes one’s head throb with pain as it is mercilessly forced to swallow chunks of American history.
It reminds me of the Food Network show Man vs. Food where the host normally leaves the restaurant clutching his gut in gastronomical distress. I clutched my cranium. The following are the generally categories that I saw: technology, transportation, pop culture, money, machines, communication, food, holidays, instruments, and war. Each had a lot of artifacts and exhibits. At the money exhibit there was an old coin labeled “Quarter Dollar”. I overheard this short exchange:
“So that’s a quarter-dollar!”
“Yep that’s 25¢.“
“So that’s how much it is now-a-days! I never knew.”
I almost laughed out loud. If the inquirer had only dropped “dollar” from the label, they would have been too embarrassed to stick around.
The most interesting display to me was a fully automated car that competed in, and won, the DARPA challenge. The challenge was to build a car that would drive itself on a pre-determined course through a town (highly controlled environment), obeying all traffic laws, and avoiding collisions with pedestrians, manned traffic vehicles, and other competitors. It was an amazing competition. I was not expecting it, but it was a welcome surprise.
By the time I left the Museum of American History, it was 5:30 pm. That was unfortunate because the Holocaust Museum closed at 5:30. I’ll have to visit that one next time. Don’t think I’m that ignorant on the subject, I have visited the Simon Wiesenthal Center in LA. It was just on my list.of thing to experience.
From there I walked over to the Jefferson Memorial. It’s a long walk and I don’t recommend it for anyone. Take a bus or drive yourself out there if you want to see it. The pantheon like round structure was impressive from both inside and out. The 25′ Jefferson presiding in the center looked like he was standing watch over the seat of American power, in vigilance to deter corruption or deceit of the people. I sat on a bench in the memorial and recovered from the long walk. This was the last DC attraction that I visited. I reflected on the trip and those who made it possible. I am so very thankful to everyone who helped me. Even those who left comments on the blog.
So now I’m under an hour out from Salt Lake and the official end of this marvelous experience. I’m sad that it is ending, but I am tired (and have a gnarly case of bed head). Just another hour or so and I’ll be able to start a load of laundry and hit the sack for a much-needed nap. Thanks for following my trip. Maybe I’ll be more inspired to write more everyday-life posts, but probably not.
Today is Sunday, a day of rest and worship and remembrance of God. I wouldn’t say that I rested today. I did worship in my chosen way this morning. And I definitely remembered God today. In fact, we planned to do “Sunday appropriate” sightseeing today in order to get more out of our remembrance of God. You’ll understand as you see the places we visited today.
Our plan started with attending the Crystal City Ward sacrament meeting this morning at 8. That meant that we would have to be up early in order for all of us to shower and eat breakfast and drive to church. When I finally attempted to swing my legs out of bed after fighting to sleep a few seconds longer, my feet felt as if they were carved from all the cement and stone we walked on yesterday. Trying to sit up, I was numbly aware that my head was struggling to stay vertical, like a slowing top threatening to topple. We managed to make it to church before the meeting started. The meeting was good, but the AC was broken so the room was pretty warm.
After church we changed into street clothes, packed lunches, and headed for Arlington National Cemetery. The first thing that struck me was that the cemetery is gigantic and beautiful. We saw the popular grave-markers like JFK and Jackie O (and the Eternal Flame), Bobby Kennedy, (new addition) Ted Kennedy, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (and an honor guard change). Some people were finding graves of relatives or friends, but most people were of the tourist variety like us.
Next, we hopped on down to the Lincoln Memorial and saw the giant Abraham Lincoln sitting in majestic authority over all the seemingly ant-sized tourists. The impressive scale of the monuments and buildings here in DC keeps me in awe. President Lincoln sits looking out between thick Doric columns towards the 2000 ft long reflecting pool and the Washington Monument, Capitol building, and Library of Congress in the distance. I stood at the top of the steps and looked out on the view that stone Lincoln has. He’s a lucky piece of marble.
We looped toward the car by walking along the Vietnam War Memorial which is the black wall with all the names of casualties from the Vietnam war. It was different than I thought I would be. I expected a linear wall, uniform in height. The actual wall is cut from the ground in a “V” shape, with 70 panels of names on either side of the point of the “V”. As you walk along it, you start at the park level and gradually slope down to the lowest part at the center and then slowly ascend the other side. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to go, so I got to check that off the list.
Healy Hall, Georgetown University
Shea mentioned suggested to go see Georgetown University, so we did. It has some of the coolest old buildings that I have ever been in. We walked into Healy Hall and toured the beautiful wood-paneled halls ornamented with antique furniture, murals, and displays. The actual assembly hall was all wood-paneled walls with ornate woodworkings and moldings. The entire experience reminded me of a mix of Hogwarts and Beauty and the Beast. Plus, everything I touched creaked, telling me it really was old. Shea later looked up how much it costs to attend per year: $63000!
National Cathedral
On our way out of Georgetown to our next destination, we drove up Massachusetts Avenue along the area of Embassy Row. Our heads were like ping-pong balls being contested by world champion Chinese ping-pongers. Left and right, the flags of Mexico to Iraq, Britain to Romania, and so many more passed by. I think this might have been the closest to foreign soil I have ever been (since the embassies are part of their respective countries). Intermixed with the embassies were houses, churches, and a mosque. Sorry, I didn’t get any good pictures of any of it. (But I think I’m more bummed about that than you will be).
As I shift my position, my joints and muscles audibly voiced their protest of their mistreatment over the past few days. They just have to hang on for one more day.
Darth Vader on the National Cathedral. I don’t blame you if you can’t find it.
The next sight we saw was the National Cathedral and if you’re like me and thought that it was a Catholic cathedral, you my friend are incorrect. It’s an Episcopal cathedral. I learned so much in there; naves, transepts, crossings, rood screens, boss stones, the Glastonbury Cathedra (literally the seat of the Diocese), et cetera. If you are in DC on a Sunday, this is a great stop to make. I highly recommend a guided tour. Without a guided tour it would have been neat, but I learned so much from our docent. The nave is 2 football fields long, there are 200 stained glass windows (one of which has a moon rock embedded in it and another is made of 10500 pieces of glass), 9 chapels, and one Darth Vader grotesque (hard to see because it’s so high).
Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Keeping with the Sunday theme, we then visited the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic church building. We entered on the Crypt level and toured a large chamber with every wall engraved with the names and information of people. Almost every inch of wall was covered. Off to either side of the room, and every room we went in, there were little alcove-chapels with an altar to kneel at and pray to the different saints represented. Each alcove had ornate mosaics covering the walls.
Crypt Church
The most interesting room to me was the Crypt Church. The church (basically just a chapel under the main nave and altar) was dark tile and had an early-Christianity feel to it. Upstairs there was a Mass being conducted. We sat through the blessing of the bread and wine, but were in need of more physically substantial nourishment than that, so we took our leave quickly and as unobtrusively as possible.
After dinner we decided to make one last stop to top off our spiritual tanks for the day with a visit to the Washington Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Maryland.
Washington, DC Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Shea took us the scenic route which consisted of lots of trees and a great view of the river. The temple is off the road a way, shielded by the thick forest that is ubiquitous near there. The temple was beautiful white with shimmering spires reflecting the fading light. We walked around the temple and then toured the Visitor’s Center since the temple was closed (this being Sunday). The main attraction of the Visitor’s Center was a sculpture display that represented the various times of Christ’s life and ministry. All the sculptures were so meticulously and carefully crafted, resulting in each truly being a work of art that conveyed a message.
We returned from our long day and that brings me up to now. I will be going to bed late again tonight because of my desire to keep up the blog each day. I can’t imagine what I’d do if I skipped a day.
Living out of my backpack and sleeping on foreign (and often makeshift) beds has become real to me. When I started the blog, I had a romanticized version of what it would be like. I don’t know which version is better, but I am precariously close to tipping to the real, experienced version. It doesn’t much matter because I like it either way. Especially when staying with such great friends and family. Warning: This is the start to another long post. Continue at your own risk.
Shea and Meghann have been so much fun already. I made them hike all over the National Mall (something they have done a lot since living here) and they were great about it. I tried to help them out by picking places to visit that they weren’t sick of. The places that they are sick of I plan on visiting Monday.
The first building we went to today is the Masonic Temple which is just down the street from their hobbit-hole apartment. It lookes like an expandable pyramid which is stuck halfway compressed and towers over everything around it. We walked up the grand staircase and between the pillars to the front door and entered through the over-sized vestibule. One thing which is striking about D.C. is that all the buildings look over-built, have a billion stairs, and interesting architecture which usually incorporates a portico, vestibule, or antechamber. I’m guessing that all the stairs are symbolic of ascending to a higher plane of government, the US being a new democracy. Anyway, once we made it into the temple, we were informed that we could freely wander the first 2 levels unaccompanied. It was really amazing. There were GIANT murals on either side of a GIANT George Washington in masonic regalia in the first floor lobby. We then took to the side rooms and exhibits.
We went through simple looking rooms which led to large performance rooms where the ceremonies are conducted. Symbolism was everywhere. Literally; floors, windows, ceilings, walls, clothing, books, displays, et cetera. We figured out what some of the symbols were, but some left us scratching holes our heads. Two displays really stick with me from this visit: a simple display case arranged with a mason’s tools, rough hewn cube, and a polished cube, and the other was a concave vertical display case that contained a bunch of Shriners Fezzes.
Next we planned on riding the metro from King St to the Capitol South station. The anticipation and excitement of riding the metro was way more than I thought it would be. I was the total tourist and took pictures on the platform, but refrained while in the train. I loved the side to side sway of the train and the “public transit” aspect. I would probably hated the metro ride had I grown up where public transportation was the norm. Oddly enough, riding the metro/subway has been one of the experiences that I felt had been missing in my life. I filled another life goal of mine today as well, but I’ll get to that in it’s due time.
We exited the metro and ascended the escalator. Since Shea and Meghann are old hands at the whole DC thing, they taught me that when riding an escalator, the right is reserved for standing and the left is for walking. Perhaps that’s common knowledge, but it’s new to me so i thought I’d pass it on. As soon as I got to the top I looked around and was sorely disappointed because all of the iconic buildings and monuments were obscured by other buildings that, although might be more vital to the running of the nation, were not iconic in the least bit.
US Supreme Court
After a very short walk, I spotted the Library of Congress and was spectacularly stoked to know that I was in DC, the capitol of the nation! We decided to go into the building and view the exhibits. Unfortunately for many of the buildings we went in, no photography was allowed. I’ll do my best on descriptions to convey the experiences. Two things from the Library of Congress that were most memorable for me were, 1) Thomas Jefferson’s personal library collection and 2) the viewing balcony of the reading room.
Thomas Jefferson’s personal library was inspiring! Nearly 6500 books were contained in spiral shaped climate-controlled bookshelves. Each book looked ancient and important. Without the internet, t.v., or other modern time-consuming activities, books were the mode of entertainment and learning. What a noble effort, to acquire knowledge from all over the world through reading. The viewing balcony of the reading room was memorable because, in opposition to the virtue of collecting knowledge through books, it if featured in many pop-culture movies and books. Looking down on the concentric desks focused on a central information desk was like looking in on a movie set, waiting for the protagonist to bolt through a door, dash to the central desk, escape into a secret corridor just seconds before the antagonist breaks into the chamber in pursuit of his quarry.
US Capitol
Our next stop, albeit a short one, was the US Supreme Court. This is where I get to talk about my second life goal that was completed today: to visit the 3 seats of government in the US, the Supreme Court, Capitol with the House of Representatives and Senate, and the White House. We didn’t try too hard to get into the Supreme Court, but it was great to stand on its steps and marvel at the historical building. I came to find out later this evening that Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan was sworn in today at the Supreme Court. Lucky me to have been there (but did not see it).
Next we walked around to the back of the US Capitol building and briefly (very briefly) listened to a guy on a megaphone extolling the virtues of Barack Obama. He’s already elected, why demonstrate on the Capitol lawn? Anyways, this is where I really started hearing a bunch of different languages being spoken and styles of dress worn. We couldn’t go in the Capitol because we had nice water bottles that weren’t allowed. I might go in on Monday, but I think I’ll need the water bottle then as much as I needed it today. We’ll see.
Ford’s Theater
We then walked west to the National Archives which houses the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and other historical documents. The Magna Carta looked old, really, really, really old. It is really old; its from 1297! Looking at the other documents, I was able to imagine them on their respective authorship tables being drawn up and a queue of statesmen ready to sign their name to the various causes. The rest of the archives were a smattering of various historical documents and exhibits which were mostly interesting, but the main attraction was the rotunda with the original Declaration of Independence and other documents.
Next up was Ford’s Theater where President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. It was a good experience, but probably not as profound as it should have been. A sitting President was assassinated there, but I didn’t really feel the full weight of what I was supposed to feel, I guess.
Our legs were getting tired and our stomachs were feeling a little empty by this time so we decided to walk up to the White House and then back to the Old Post Office for dinner. I was again really excited to see the White House and complete the 3 seats of government goal. Unfortunately, as we approached, we saw that it was covered with a gigantic bug tent! No, not really. That would have been ridiculous. We walked past the treasury and turned onto an empty Pennsylvania Avenue. We were on the front of the building. I tend to imagine the back of the White House from pictures I’ve seen, so seeing the front first was a real treat and beauty. We walked around the building and saw the back and the many guards ready to pounce on you if your camera looked suspicious. I avoided being pounced on by stealthily sneaking past the guards while they let their dogs relieve themselves.
We ate at the Old Post Office, rode the elevator up the tower, and gathered in the beautiful panoramic view of DC. Once we got down, we were feeling really tired, so we decided to walk over to the Washington Monument, Gaze wearily at it for a few long seconds, and then turn and trudge toward the Federal Triangle metro station and the promise of foot and leg relief in the seats of the metro.
We had planned on heading to old town Alexandria this evening, but I feel like a car that we saw while on the metro ride home. The tree it was parked under had sheared from its base and landed exactly in the middle of the car, smashing it longways. I am highly surprised that I was even able to make it though today’s post without passing out from tiredness. Maybe, when I read through it again, I’ll realize just how tired I am right now. But right now I don’t care. Sleep is beckoning to me with irresistible offerings of rest for body and mind.
This is still my “Nashville road trip” even though I am now writing this post from my friends’ apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. In between the hustle and bustle of Nashville and the metropolitan D.C. area, I passed though beautiful, historic country today. Right now I don’t know which is better: city traffic or being sucked dry by mosquitoes and then itching the remaining flesh for days. Ok, it’s not that bad, but I do enjoy the perception of ease of life in the country. Also note that this post seems really long because of the lack of pictures from yesterday and the fact that it is very long. I wanted to post it as a sort of diary entry for future reference. I will not give refunds to those who sleep through it.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures from yesterday. That being said, I didn’t do a lot yesterday. And that which I did do, I pulled from the previous days’ itinerary. The most notable variation was that Amanda, Grace, and I went to the Tennessee State Museum. The museum seemed like it would be a quick, fun outing that we would be able to enjoy and complete fairly quickly. As we drove up to the address which we plugged into the GPS, our thoughts seemed to be confirmed because the museum is apparently housed in the same building as a convention center and performance hall. That doesn’t leave too much room for a large, multilevel museum, does it? It absolutely does.
My phone GPS setup that got me from Nashville to DC. And yes, I was doing 80 most of the way.
The museum started one floor into the basement and continued down to 3 floors into the basement! These aren’t just like small basement rooms. We’re talking convention center sized floors. There were so many interesting things to see and read that I’m sure Rob and Amanda will be back multiple times (if Amanda thought it was interesting enough). The exhibits spanned from pre-colonial native peoples to the first half of the 20th century. The most interesting artifact that I saw was a piece of tree recovered from a civil war battlefield. In this one 3 foot section there were 2 large pieces of shrapnel and one plum sized iron ball. It really gave me a sense of what the soldiers faced when ordered to thrust themselves into battle.
Later that evening we ate again at SATCo and had dessert at Sweet CeCe’s. I told you that it was good. I hope any doubters now believe me when I say, “It’s GOOD!” We finished the day with another episode of shark week on Discovery, Amanda taking pictures of Grace sleeping in her “big girl bed” and lamenting my imminent departure. I set my alarm to get up in time to pick up the rental and be on the road before too late and went to sleep. I woke up at 4 am to a great thud and crying from Grace (who i was sharing a room with). I knew immediately that she had encountered he first (probably of many) tumble from her bed. I picked her up and put her back in bed and tucked her in. She was asleep before I was able to get back to my bed.
In the morning I said goodbye to Amanda and Gracie. Rob was kind enough to drive me to the airport to pick up the rental car. I said farewell to Rob and inspected the shiny new car that they were ok with letting me use all by myself.
It was raining this morning when I left Nashville. It got worse as I drove toward Knoxville. I don’t know exactly what the countryside looks like between those two cities. If I did, it would have been an up close and personal encounter like that of some motorists who ended up spun-out in the median. There were some intense instances of being sandwiched between semi trucks which squirt an amazing volume of water from their wheels to the exact height of my windshield. When I was able to see, the trip was great. (Just kidding. The intenseness lasted about 10 seconds, which was 10 seconds too long in my opinion.)
The rest of the trip was A-MAZE-ING. I loved seeing the country. I drove past sign after sign of “Davey Crockett This” or “Historic Battle Field That“. The mountains of the east are different than those of the west. The ground out here is covered in foliage; I couldn’t see rock or dirt unless there was a cliff without vines on it. I guess technically what I’m trying to describe is Appalachia. Slowly the brick buildings turned to wood, the forests to fields, and the sun crested it’s zenith.
Eventually I entered the Shenandoah Valley. My impression is that it is possibly the most peaceful-looking places that I have ever been. I was struck by the beauty of almost all that I saw. It seemed to incorporate the beautiful facets of each of the places that I have yet visited on this trip; mountains from the West, corn fields (in less vast proportions) and farm houses from the Midwest, little rivers from Illinois and Tennessee, and country lanes from Nashville, but at a lower humidity level. The song “Oh, Shenandoah” came to mind as I traveled past family farm houses and farm buildings that the whole of the environment seemed to polish and improve instead of deteriorate. The old structures that were no longer occupied seemed not to be crumbling, but simply shifting from one state to another, neither one better or more beautiful.
I was sad to enter the city suburbs and lose the scene. I already want to go back. I made it to Shea and Meghann’s apartment in Alexandria just about 9 pm. They live in a basement apartment just a few miles from D.C. which is one of the smallest apartments that I have been in. I am very thankful for them to be willing to put me up for a few days.
Well, I’m off to DC. I’ve been bugging Rob for an entire week now; and Amanda and Gracie for a few less days. This post is especially for them. They have been so great to me. Although they may say that I was here to “help” them move, to me it was more that they were moving to help me fulfill some travel wishes. This trip was made possible by them, as I wouldn’t have driven across the country by myself. I am sorry to leave because that means saying good-bye for a while. I’ll miss having them around the corner (relatively) to visit, share family dinner with, and, when needed, escape from Provo. Good luck, Rob, Amanda, and Gracie, in figuring out the South. See you in Skype!
I’ve learned that I can’t really focus on any kind of creative writing while watching Shark Week shows from the Discovery Channel. Ultimate Air Jaws is presently competing for my attention. With impressive aerial super-slow-motion Great White shark strikes flickering before my eyes, my blog writing is about to apply for the little-league mercy rule.
9 A.M.1:30 P.M.
I skipped yesterday’s trip report in favor of sleep. It was a long day of unpacking and trips to the store for move-in supplies. It was fun to be part of Rob and Amanda’s little family and chronicle the transformation of their new little house. The majority of the midday was spent solving the giant a puzzle: how to arrange the furniture in the living room. Many possibilities were tried, but only one was picked (thankfully). I’ve included the photos of transformation.
Noon
After the jigsaw puzzle, we did the shopping. Amanda will love living so close to Target, Costco, Ross, Marshalls, Best Buy, Lowes, and pretty much any other kind of place that sells anything to anyone. Well, maybe not anyone. While we were in Ross we heard yelling and horrible profanities coming from the other side of the store. A lady was being escorted to the front of the store by the Ross “Loss Prevention” personnel. I REALLY hope Gracie never says a single word that came from her mouth, especially since I’ve noticed her parroting everything I say. As we walked the 100 ft necessary to get from Ross to Marshalls to Best Buy, grace picked up a cigarette butt which resulted in her first drug talk. I feel privileged to have witnessed the historic moment. Besides just an “ew, gross” she received a lesson on the health effects of smoking. It was quite a good lecture, but it wasn’t at the AMA level which Gracie would obviously be able to master.
After shopping, the next order of business was. . .more unpacking. This continued, with a prolonged break to sleep, until late this afternoon (thus, the rest of this post will be about today, not yesterday). We all needed a break from unpacking, and some food, so we headed over to SATCo, which is an unusually odd sounding abbreviation for the San Antonio Taco Company. There was nothing odd about their food, though. I am not over-exaggerating, forgetting another restaurant, or luring anyone into a bait and switch when I say that their steak fajita is the best I have ever had. It is my new favorite. This is a place that Guy really needs to visit next time he is in Nashville. SATCo is directly across the street from the business building at Vanderbilt where Rob will be spending the next 2 years mastering business administration (in theory). Because of the proximity to campus, Rob was concerned that SATCo wouldn’t be family friendly, but there were many children enjoying their food (I guess they don’t age discriminate).
After SATCo, I persuaded Rob and Amanda to take a trip down to Franklin, where the Nashville LDS Temple is nestled next to a Stake Center and nice ranch style homes. The suburbs of Nashville are gorgeous, but it was a wonderful change of scenery to see the grey-white granite of the temple. Downtown Franklin was the quintessential main street USA. Franklin’s ancient churches with white tipped spires, brick and stone storefronts, civil war and historic placards, and throngs of smiling families would have fit right in to Disneyland’s Main Street USA.
On one of the street corners is a tasty little shop called Sweet CeCe’s which sells frozen yogurt by weight. You pick up a cup at the beginning of the line, serve yourself the amount of frozen treat suited to your appetite, budget, or sweet tooth (my sweet tooth made the decisions for me), and then you add whatever toppings you want, be it fresh fruit, sugary breakfast cereal, traditional candy, cookie dough, or pour-able sugar based commodities like hot fudge or caramel. I think the way Amanda characterized our meal and dessert tonight as being “gastronomically superb” was spot on.
We tried to visit some historic Civil War sites, but fading light and fading toddler hampered all chances of having a great experience. To whet the historical appetite, we did stop at the Carter house, site of a USA/CSA battle, and walked around the building. It was too dark and uncomfortable to whet anything but my shirt in the humidity. (For those use-the-correct-form-of-the-word-when-writing-in-public folks out there, please note that I was going for the phonetic pun and forgive this knowing offender.)
I don’t know if I will post tomorrow, as unpacking is fairly uneventful. I could expound on the nuances of box structure and labeling or couch placement or paint application, but I fear that there will be less readers of my blog than before this trip, which would mean that WordPress would be asking for it’s space back.
Rob and Amanda have a wonderfully comfortable La-Z-Boy recliner from which I am writing this post. It will be miraculous if I don’t doze half a dozen times as I try to recount todays events. I feel funny calling them events because there was no major event, or series of events; just a continuum of related circumstances.
We all slept on similar low-cushioned beds.
Consciousness started for me at 6 this morning but made a quick departure and stayed away for another hour or so. The reason I was woken so early was that Adam and Tim had to catch their flight back to Salt Lake City with Rob acting as chauffeur. I was awake long enough to lift a hand in a wave and mumble a groggy, “It’s been fun, have a good flight”. Right after the door shut behind them I closed my eyes and was returning quickly to dream-land when I realized that the inflatable camp mattress and pillow that Adam had used were now free to be commandeered. That made my last hour of sleep a little less hard.
You can almost see the humidity in the air. You can definitely see it on Rob and Amanda’s faces!
After we all got up and Amanda had made a run to the store for cereal, the ABF Freight delivery driver arrived to bring us our back-breaking work for the day. He unloaded 3 5x6x7 moving pods from his tractor trailer truck. I remembered 2 Saturdays ago filling each as full as we could possibly get them. If they had been x-rayed on the way over from Utah, the x-ray scanner operator probably would have seen an impenetrable and indistinguishable mass in each. Perhaps he would consider the possibility that they were filled with sand, water, or other substance which could shape itself into and fill any container.
After the Freight man left, the Comcast technician arrived to install the internet. He, like the delivery driver was very nice. Both of them had strong southern accents, and I heard Amanda say at least once to each of them, “What?”. She and Rob will have a wonderful time getting used to the southern drawl and unusual cadence of speech. I loved hearing the locals speak because it reminded me of Texas and the people I met while on my mission.
The afternoon was spent unloading the pods with the help of one of the members their new ward. We were able to get almost all of the stuff out of the pods. The only things that didn’t come in the house yet were large furniture items like couches and desks. We need to put away the boxes and small items first. In the early afternoon, Grace was trying her hardest to help by wiping windows, sweeping porches, giving orders to us, et cetera. She had a steady decline in mental fortitude and at one point turned the Windex nozzle toward her mouth. I think Amanda caught her before the squirt was accomplished, but the seizure and confiscation of the bottle was too much for Gracie’s mental state. She became inconsolable, so naturally (when I come across an inconsolable soul), I started taking pictures of her. She didn’t cooperate with my demands for smiles right away, but soon enough she was hamming-it-up for the camera.
My entire night was usurped in the activity of assembling a new dresser for Amanda and Rob’s room. This endeavor was dubbed “Man vs IKEA” by Rob. At various points IKEA seemed to have the upper hand; hiding the assembly instructions in mounds of packaging, a formidable hodgepodge of hardware, and the mystery of the wrong-sided drawers. In the end I emerged in slightly worse shape than the dresser, which is a good thing because that means the dresser turned out somewhere near OK.
Tonight finds me writing this post at our final destination; Rob and Amanda’s new home in Nashville, Tennessee. Rob, Adam, Tim, and I are sitting on the hard wood floors of the darkened front room watching the movie 2012 via streaming Netflix video and my 3G connection. We aren’t sure how long it will remain good quality, but it’s a good way to relax, kinda.
Today has felt like the longest day by far but required the shortest drive. I guess I’ll start at the beginning, like most days start. (It’s an odd thing to experience a day that starts at its end.) Waking up at the Holiday Inn was much more relaxing and enjoyable than the KOA. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I let everyone else get up before me. I finally rolled out of my double-stacked camp mattress at 9. After enjoying hot showers and putting on fresh clothes, we ate a breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel: Malone’s Sports Bar. There was not much to report other than the completely unreasonable price of $2.50 for a glass of orange juice. That would be ok if I was given free refills or a normal sized glass or the juice was really, really good. The picture should more adequately describe my disdain. (The orange juice was included in our buffet meals, though.)
It was 10 by the time our little caravan left the hotel and made for the Illinois border. In order to get to Illinois we had to cross the Mississippi river. As we were crossing, I was struck by the breadth of the river. The nearest parallel experience that I could draw from my life would be crossing the golden gate bridge over the San Fransisco bay, but with a few decided differences. First, the color of the water under the GG bridge is generally blue while the water of the Mississippi is muddy. Secondly, instead of seeing regular boats with peaked bows, when I looked down at the Mississippi I saw an old-fashioned paddle wheel boat. Even though the river was immense, we finally made it to the other side and found ourselves navigating the freeways of Illinois. This shouldn’t have been much to report except that Adam and Tim decided to drive on our left to take some video of our car from theirs. As they accelerated, the gps informed us that we would be taking the next interchange to the right which was coming up really fast on our right. Rob frantically signaled the other guys to take the interchange, which they barely accomplished by crossing over the diverging lane markings in a sharp veer. This gave us all a good laugh when we realized no harm was done.
We continued in Illinois for a little while and gassed up in West Frankfort, IL. There really is nothing to report about this leg of the trip. We passed the time by listening to the Patrick F. McManus book on CD that I mentioned in the Day 1 post. Eventually we crossed the Ohio river, which seemed even wider than the Mississippi. We passed into Kentucky and noticed the landscape being dominated more and more by forests. As we were approaching a seemingly normal overpass Rob pointed out that there was an Amish buggy crossing it. That was my first Amish sighting, and was completely unexpected. Shortly after that we passed into Tennessee. Forests now completely dominated the landscape. There were wild turkeys and ancient barns covered in thick overgrowth. We were soon in the area of Nashville and approaching Rob and Amanda’s new house. We passed by amazing mansions and quaint country homesteads. The house was found with the help of the gps and without any problems. Rob got really excited to see the house as we turned onto the street. We pulled in the driveway and were extremely happy not to have to drive anymore.
The first order of business was to make sure the bathroom worked properly (we each had to test it) and that all the rooms were still on the house as promised. All was in order so we unloaded the cars and moved the first of Rob and Amanda’s stuff into their new home. Once the cars were emptied, we decided to do some sightseeing. We drove by Vanderbilt, the MBA school that brought Rob (and by extension, us) out here in the first place.
Adam filming the naked frolic statue.
We drove down music row, where all the country music recording studios are. As we stopped at a corner for a moment, I noticed a patch of chewed gum stuck to a brick wall. My guess is that it is a famous place to stick your gum to gain some luck before a pitch to a recording studio. Unfortunately, it being a Sunday evening, there were no big wig country music stars in sight, but we did drive past Taylor Swift’s apartment building. At the end of music row there is a large round-about that we circumnavigated a few times due in large part to the statue of humongous naked frolicking people.
Tim and Adam showing an unusually high amount of interest in this establishment.
Then we headed to downtown Nashville. We found a parking spot close to Broadway, “the” downtown street and started walking around. It was unique in so many aspects. As we walked past famous establishments such as The Wild Horse, Coyote Ugly, and Charlie Daniels store, we heard the songs of not-yet-famous talent emanating from the little and big bars and restaurants. Out front of the shops, street performers and peddlers vied for the precious bills of the tourists, hoping they would deposit them in a near empty container at their feet. As we headed back to the car, Rob pointed out an establishment called the Wild Beaver which advertised karaoke. Apparently this is a special kind of karaoke in which participants tackle two fears in one by performing naked.
We headed to a BBQ joint that my cousin Shannon, Adam’s wife, had found for us called Neely’s. As soon as we entered, I knew it was going to be GOOD. The smell, sticky floors, animated staff, and the “thank ‘ya, suga lips” that came from the order taker all pointed to a great, great time. We began to realize that the Neely’s were actually the couple from the Food Network show “Down Home with the Neelys”. Unfortunately, they weren’t in today. As we were leaving, one of the cooks called out to us, “y’all found a good place to come back to”. Amen to that!
We came back to the house after a short stop at Target for a couple supplies. That is where we end up now, sitting in front of a laptop finishing up 2012 and waiting for Grace and Amanda’s flight to arrive so Rob can go get his girls.
*The girls and Rob arrived safely at home about 1:45 am. What a long night!
Bribunk 