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!
Tag: personal
Nashville Road Trip Days 5 and 6
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.
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.
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.
Nashville Road Trip Day 4
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.
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.
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 nig
ht 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.
Nashville Road Trip Day 3
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.
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.
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!
Nashville Road Trip Day 2
As I wrote last night of yesterday’s man-ventures, as my sister calls them in her blog, I was sweating, itching, and
straining to see the keyboard to make corrections to my numerous typing errors. Nothing could be more opposite tonight. I am sitting in a plush chair behind a lamp-lit desk in an air conditioned hotel room.
We woke to Tims’ phone alarm this morning at 5:30, feeling like it was finally cool enough to go to sleep. We sat puffy eyed in the tent for a minute or two deciding if it was worth potential fungal infections to take showers in the disgustingly humid camp bathroom at the KOA. Sanitation (depending on the view you take of it) prevailed and we all ended up showering before breaking camp and heading to the local McD’s for their breakfast fare.
Soon enough we were back on the I-80 plowing through the cornfields of Nebraska. Field after field, hill after hill, the corn just kept appearing. Every now and again we would come across something that would cause a double take; a bridge over the interstate that didn’t connect any roads (a monument of sorts?), a semi towing a semi that seemed to be driving toward us on the wrong side of the road, and a lot of mist rising from the ground.
I was reminded of my time in Texas as we stopped for gas in Nebraska City. The gas station and its amenities would have been front page news in Utah for the Vodka and other hard liquors on an aisle end-cap and the unmentionable items that one could purchase from the vending machine in the mens bathroom. since we thought so highly of the
establishment we tarried a little while and played a not-so-vigorous game of catch with Adams’ frisbee rings as Rob topped off the white car with an entire quart of motor oil. Then, without much (nay, any) fanfare we were back on the road watching the corn bob up and down as we crested the hill-lets of eastern Nebraska.
We cut through a small chunk of Iowa (with it’s low, partially flooded Interstate) and then moseyed on in to Missouri, where, Rob and I reflected, it was legal for us to be killed on sight just a relatively short time ago. (See Lilburn Boggs’ Extermination Order against Mormons.) After a brief moment’s reflection on the subject,
our minds returned to the Sherlock Holmes mystery we were listening to. Our next stop for the day would be the Historic Liberty Jail of Liberty, MO, a famous piece of Mormon history. As we approached Liberty we were amazed at the abundance of streetlights which all seemed to turn red for us. Liberty itself was much more kind and provided us with pleasant views of a quaint historic downtown. The Liberty jail was really neat to see and experience at least once in my life. The jailis actually a replica of the historic jail built on the original foundation and using many of the original stones and is enclosed in an igloo shaped visitors’ center. The only downside was that the missionary led presentation was a lot longer than we expected.
As we continued across Missouri, it became less corn infested (but still had a lot of corn fields) and more infested with other dangers. Apparently the main industries of Missouri are fireworks and adult themed super stores. Both believe in aggressive advertising, which is understandable because of the fierce competition in and between these industries. (By the way, it’s ironic to call them industries when they both result in a form destruction, but I digress.) Adam had a field day with his comments through the walkie talkies. I believe it culminated with Adam and Tim being dared to run naked through a corn field. It did not happen.
I saw the largest rivers I have ever seen today (bridge picture). We passed over the Missouri and straddled the Mississippi in St. Louis. large rivers are nothing like the creeks and stream I, as a westerner, call rivers. Just past the last time we crossed the Missouri river, we pulled in to the Holiday Inn we would stay at tonight. It’s in a suburb of St. Louis called Earth City, which got it’s name from being built completely on an old landfill. It doesn’t stink, like I thought it might.
We all piled into one car as we went in search of discounted Cardinals v Pirates tickets. Adam and Tim were our ground agents as Rob and I drove around downtown St. Louis trying to avoid pedestrians who had forgotten traffic lights in their excitement to get to the game. Three times Adam and Tim purchased (or almost purchased) tickets only to double check the date and find they were for tomorrow’s game. Each time they were able to quickly get a full refund.
Having given up on the game, we turned our attention to finding a real restaurant from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. We found the Iron Barley which had been featured on Triple D and had received high marks from reviewers. The place touted itself as being famous for unusual American food. It was unusual, but oh, was it good. For example, my meal was a oak roasted pork chop on a bed of barley with sriracha sauce. Tim’s was even more unusual; a plate of sausage in strawberry sauce. All in all it was a great experience.
We headed back to the hotel after the dinner and Rob, Adam, and Tim swam in the pool while I started this post. I lost part of it due to browser error, and now as I finish Tim and Adam are asleep and Rob looks like he’s about to join the call and response of low snores. I guess I’m done with todays’ account, and if not I’ll add anot
her addendum like this morning.
Rocky Mountain Oysters
This is simply an addendum to yesterday. As I lay awake in the suffocating humidity, sticking to the sleeping bag, I realized that last night’s post was probably misleading about Ole’s Rocky Mountain Oysters. When we arrived at our table the waitress took our drink orders and then informed us that there was only one thing that they were completely out of: Rocky Mountain Oysters! The whole reason for going to that restaurant was for them (at least for Adam and Tim)! Adams’ face was the essence of disappointment, which promptly caused myself, Tim, and Rob to burst into laughter. After some grumbling about life not worth living without Rock Mountain Oysters, we got on with our orders and had a pleasant time in the taxidermists heaven of a restaurant.
Nashville Road Trip Day 1
I am now sitting in the Gothenburg, Nebraska KOA tent site #9 being devoured by mosquitoes who find the taste of Californian blood too appealing to pass up. I have killed at least 20 in the 10 minutes that I have been here, receiving at least 50 bites. To accompany the smörgåsbord of various parts of our bodies, there is a cacophony of cicadas serenading the mosquitoes. But on with the account of the first day.
We left Salt Lake between 7:30 and 8 this morning. I don’t know exactly because we stopped at a JiffyLube to check on a phantom oil leak in the green car that Adam and Tim were driving in. Because there wasn’t a problem, we were on our way quickly. Soon we passed through Park City and out of Utah. If you have never made this drive before, there is not much to see for a lot of the trip. One of the early interesting things was that we passed Bret Michaels’ tour buses. For those who don’t know, he is a rock star of the ’80s’ band Poison fame. (Sorry, no picture.) Another interesting thing was that there were things like railroad crossing arms on the side of the freeway so that the freeway could be closed at any time. I had never seen anything like that before. But the star of the first part of Wyoming was the “highest point on I-80” at the Lincoln memorial. I didn’t know I’d get to see 2 Lincoln memorials on this trip, but just my luck there was a giant head of President Lincoln on top of a giant rock pedestal.
Close by the Lincoln monument there was a smaller plaque that, perhaps had some magical ability to bring luck that we did not know about. Why else would people throw perfectly good change at its’ base?
Adam had talked about how he wanted to eat at places like Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and the place we stopped for lunch would have fit in to his shows’ eclectic mix of restaurants easily! Our stomachs were rumbling as we pulled in to Rawlins, Wyo. at a highly reviewed mexican food place called Roses’ Lariat. The entire restaurant consisted of a low diner bar and a single table inside. It was so full, I don’t know if they just didn’t notice us for the first 5 minutes we were in there or were too busy to care about more customers. We found out they had some tables out back for the “to-go” meals only, so we opted for an outdoor lunch. As we waited for our orders, Adam played Guy Fieri and took a video of the establishment.
We were (not so soon) on our way. Our lunch had taken about an hour and we were ready to keep moving. Once on the road I realized that Roses’ was a whole lot more fun than watching nothing but sagebrush and rocks zoom by the window. To help pass the time Rob and I listened to a Patrick F. McManus mystery novel on CD. McManus is a outdoor humor writer who has just recently tackled mystery. . .and the novel format. His usual “books” are just compilations of stories of his childhood and outdoor (mis)adventures. I was thoroughly impressed with his new material. The fact that we were passing through towns of similar description, namely podunk, helped us get into the book even more.
The Nebraska border greeted us with a large “Nebraska. . .the good life” sign and a statue of the Virgin Mary in Christus-like pose and whiteness. Contrary to popular belief, it takes a while for all the corn to start to dominate the landscape. But slowly, the fields became more green and the terrain more flat. I saw more corn fields today than the rest of my life combined. It was a completely new landscape for me.
Adam received a text from Shannon, his wife, that sealed our fate for dinner. The text stated that she had found a restaurant that served Rock Mountain Oysters. Adam was stoked and tried to commit us all to trying them. The only person who did not acquiesce was Rob. The joint was called Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse and was opened the day after prohibition was abolished. Rob read a few reviews out loud and I, fearing that I can not do it proper justice will repeat the best one here.
“This place is straight out of some book that should have been called “Dining With Every Dead African Animal, Back When Killing Every Animal Was Legal.”
“I’ve heard stories, I’ve heard rumors, I then witnessed the stories told and shared and handed down through the generations like a game of telephone. Want to know what the craziest part was? Nothing was lost in translation. It was exactly how everyone explained it to be. Wild and untamed.
“Image yourself driving down Interstate 80 [that sure is not hard to do] in an old safari Land Rover covered in dry African dust. You pull out your trusty side kick Mr. Rifle after a long wild game pursuit. You set your site, slowly squeeze the trigger and BLAM!!! Nabbing that prized beast and adding it to your world travels collection of other rare and exotic stuffed rarities.
“That is what is hanging on the walls of this famed establishment while you eat your chicken fried steak. Heavy and deep history of taxidermy upon more taxidermy at its finest staring at you while you sip your Diet Coke and chew your buffalo burger.
“The food is good, but the themed interior is something to be seen. I’m sure the locals think nothing of it. I personally am glad I took that right at Exit 145 off of Interstate 80 to Paxton Nebraska.” – Andrew W, Denver, CO
That pretty much sums up what I experienced as I ate my Buffalo burger with a Jaguar snarling at me over my right shoulder.
Again, it took us a little while to get back on the freeway. I guess these little towns of 6oo people just don’t see the need to rush anything. The late afternoon sun seemed to me to majestically highlight the countryside with gorgeous pastels and tones of gold. There were many picturesque farmhouses and barns nestled into luscious green groves of trees that we passed on the last leg of the day. I’ll leave you with an inadequate picture of the scene.
Finally, A Trip!
So I started this blog about 2 years ago in hopes of doing more travel. I was hoping to document and share my experiences along the way. I have documented some short trips that I have taken in the ensuing 2 years, but nothing along the grandiose scale that I had originally planned. . .until now!
Friday morning I start a trip worthy of this blog. I have volunteered to help Rob and Amanda drive one of their cars to Nashville, TN. We’ll be on the road for 3 days on the trip from Salt Lake to Nashville. I’ll stay in Nashville, helping unpack their stuff and get them situated and then I’m renting a car and driving to DC! This will be my first ever trip to that part of the country. I am especially excited to see DC! In all the trip will be 12 days long and 2000+ mi of driving.
AZ Strip Offroading Trip
Bribunk 