The thrilling and heartwarming adventures of Dave and Kathy as they try to figure out how to raise twin daughters.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Wrap-Up Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
So, I thought I'd wrap up this blog by revisiting some of our concerns and expectations going into the trip.
Our number one concern going into the trip was that all the road food was going to cause us to turn into fat tubs of goo. Actually, we ate reasonably well on the road overall, actually managing to completely avoid eating any meals at fast food restaurants during our trip. Note the very careful wording of that sentence. We did have one lunch at a Pizza Hut, which I guess some people might lump into "fast food", but I think that classification is just wrong. Because, damn it, pizza ain't fast. It took us 20 minutes to get our freaking pizza. And we sat at a booth and a waitress took our order, just like a normal restaurant. Nothing fast food about it. Right? Right?
Oh, and we also had a couple Blizzards at Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen, I'll grant you, is fast food, but a Blizzard doesn't qualify as a "fast food meal". We also had lunch at a Togo's sandwich shop, which is a chain, but not really a "fast food" chain.
I don't think I'm over-rationalizing here, do you?
For the record, in the end, Kathy and I gained a total of 5 pounds between us over the 7 weeks. Which ain't great, but if you saw the pile of ribs and fried chicken I put away in Memphis, you'd know, it coulda been a lot worse.
In terms of expectations, I think Kathy and I expected that 7 weeks would be enough time to see everything we wanted to in the U.S. and Canada. But the truth is that the country is mighty huge. Well, we knew that it was huge, but it turned out to be, er, huger than we expected. So, in the interest of time, we missed out on a bunch of stuff that we really wanted to see. Exhibit A being, yes, Carhenge. And we discovered that there wasn't enough time to fully soak in each city that we went to -- there was just enough time to get a flavor of the city and then move on. Which was still pretty darn great, I must say.
I'm not quite sure what my expectations were for this blog, but the whole blog-writing experience was pretty darn fun. For anyone that decides to take a long trip away from home, I would highly recommend the whole blogging thing. It helped us feel in touch with everybody even though we were hundreds or thousands of miles away. It was fun to write about our experiences, and even more fun to read everybody's comments about what we wrote. Thanks to everyone for their comments over the past few weeks -- it kept us from feeling isolated and out of touch.
Feel free to post any comments or questions, but otherwise, I guess that's it. Hope you all enjoyed reading our endless blatherings. Back to reality now. How sad.
So, for those of you keeping score, here's the final map of our trip route:
Yee-haa!
According to our odometer, we drove about 11,500 miles during our 49-day trip. Which was enough to give me a mild case of tendonitis in my wrists, but, hey, it was worth it. Because I'm a geek, I've totaled up our gas receipts and they come out under $600, which was a lot less than we were expecting. Thanks, Honda Civic! For the trip overall, you don't want to know how much we spent -- the damage was pretty high, although we actually ended up not having to dip into our savings, which was nice.
Some answers to the some questions we've been getting about our trip:
What was our... favorite state? Kathy's favorite was Wyoming (home of the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and of course, Thermopolis). I'd have to go with either that or South Dakota (Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Rapid City, Wall Drug, and some excellent roadside scenery).
...Favorite City? I would have to say Charleston, South Carolina. I think Kathy would agree, even with the big bugs.
...Favorite Cheesy Attraction? For me, nobody beats Graceland. Kathy might argue for Dollywood. I think Tennessee gets a special award for outstanding achievement in cheesiness.
...Favorite Overall Attraction? This one is really hard to answer, but I think we overall enjoyed the Grand Teton National Park more than any other attraction.
...Favorite Day of the Trip? Kathy might answer differently, but my favorite day was the one memorialized in Scenes from the Road, Part Deux. Or maybe that day just seems funnier in retrospect.
...Favorite Meal? This is also a really tough one, but I'd have to say the fried chicken at Gus's Fried Chicken in Downtown Memphis was absolutely legendary. We're talking life-changing spectacular here. I wish I had taken some pictures, because one of my favorite things about it was the sign out front, which said "Gus's World Famous Hot and Spicy Fried Chicken", and then in red type below it said "Today's Special -- Chicken". It was kind of like, uh, Ben and Jerry's having a sign out front saying "Today's Special -- Ice Cream". Or like Supercuts having a sign out front saying "Today's Special -- Haircuts". Or like -- never mind, you probably get the idea. Many many thanks to Christian for recommending this place.
So we're back in San Francisco. And what, you ask, was the last stop on our road trip? That's right, kids:
For the more recent readers of the blog, this picture was taken from Casa de Fruta, the rest stop extraordinaire near Gilroy, California. We thought it was a fairly appropriate last stop since Kathy has been pining after it for so long. Not sure if it quite lived up to Kathy's lofty expectations, but just seeing a sign that says "Casa de Choo-Choo" was reward enough.
Also, within about 45 minutes of getting home, I found my long-lost glasses. For the record, they had fallen into my sock drawer. (Or maybe that's just what Chloe wants us to think. Hm...)
Some final thoughts to come in the next few days. I'll have some time to compose my thoughts because upon returning home, I found a jury summons in my mail. I called into the 800 number, and it turns out that I have to report to jury duty tomorrow at 7:45 am. What a nice welcome home.
I'm a little behind on the blogging, but I wanted to write about this place we visited a couple days ago in New Mexico. There's this place in the New Mexico desert called Acoma Pueblo, also known as "Sky City". Acoma Pueblo is an active Native American village built on top of a 400-foot sandstone mesa in the middle of this beautiful part of New Mexico. It was built sometime around the 10th century, and is supposedly the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States.
The place was breathtakingly beautiful, and the tour we took through the Acoma village was pretty fascinating. There was one weird thing, though.
Driving up to Acoma Pueblo, there were all these signs strictly forbidding taking pictures of the village or any of the Acoma people. That wasn't the weird thing -- I think everybody's heard of Native Americans not wanting their picture taken because they fear the cameras will steal their souls. But when we got to the visitor's center, we found out that if we paid a $10 "camera permit fee", the whole soul-stealing thing wouldn't really bother them so much anymore, and you could take all the pictures you wanted.
The other weird thing is that the whole "no cameras without a permit" rule applies not just to the Acoma Pueblo, but to the whole Acoma reservation, so if they catch you taking a picture anywhere on the reservation and you don't have a permit, they can confiscate your camera. Even if you're just taking a picture of a mesa with no Acoma people in sight.
But the place is freaking beautiful, so we, along with everybody else on our tour, paid the ten bucks. I now present you with three of the pictures we took of Acoma Pueblo and the surrounding reservation. 'Cause dammit, we want to get our money's worth.
So for the past two days we've been following the basic route of Route 66, without following the actual "Route 66". I didn't realize this until I was researching this trip, but "Route 66" technically doesn't exist anymore -- that is, you can't actually get on a highway called Route 66 and continuously drive it from Chicago to LA like you could once upon a time. You can to some extent follow the basic path of the highway formerly known as Route 66, but it involves some seriously difficult navigation, since the route (surprisingly) isn't very well marked in some areas. You've got to turn here, turn there, and the whole exercise is kind of difficult and time-consuming, and with just one week left in our trip and a bunch of stuff we still want to see, we just ain't got the time or patience.
So we've basically been following the interstate with occasional forays on to Route 66. One of the highlights so far has been Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas:
Not quite Carhenge, but a pretty good consolation prize. Cadillac Ranch is a good "Only in America" kind of attraction since it really does seem to serve no other purpose other than just looking weird. It's just in the middle of a big field along the side of the road. There's no admission fee, no gift shop next to it, no explanatory sign or plaque -- it's just a bunch of cars sticking out of the ground for no particular reason. Not that I'm complaining or anything. It's good stuff.
We do like taking Route 66 at night because the towns along Route 66 are totally frozen in time -- hotels and restuarants with cheesy neon signs right out of the 1950s, buildings of old businesses that look like they haven't been operating for 25 years, that kinda thing. Here's the restaurant where we ate last night in New Mexico:
And then there have been some pretty good road signs, like this one near Amarillo, Texas:
That's right, you can get a free 72-ounce steak at Big Texan Ranch in Amarillo, Texas! All you have to do is, uh, finish a 72-ounce steak. I was kind of obsessed after seeing this sign so I looked it up on the Internet after we got to our hotel room. The most interesting stat I learned is that about 20% of the men who try to finish the big-ass steak succeed (about 200 out of 1,000 per year), while about 50% of the women succeed (about 2 out of 4 per year).
Basic moral of the story: men are macho idiots.
I also would give anything to have somehow seen the 69-year-old grandmother who reportedly did the deed...
Being on the road for almost 6 weeks has generally been pretty great. I was worried initially that we would get tired of travelling and would just want to rush home, but, if anything, the time has kind of flown by and we're sad that the trip is start to wind down. I do have one complaint about all the travelling, however.
You know how at home when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you can sort of navigate your way to the bathroom in the dark without waking yourself up too much? Well, when you've been in a different room every night for the past 40 nights, that "bathroom radar" goes kind of haywire. Pretty much every night for the past 40 nights, I've woken up to go to the bathroom, then taken about 10 steps toward where I think the bathroom should be, then suddenly realized there's a wall where I thought the bathroom was going to be. Then I stand there dumbfounded for about 30 seconds as I try to reconstruct which hotel room I'm in, and correspondingly where the bathroom should be. Only then do I finally start walking in the correct direction, at which point I usually stub my toe on my luggage.
I hate that.
My other thought of the day: Arkansas is boring. Today we drove across Arkansas after spending the morning at the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. The Civil Rights Museum was interesting, but we came across absolutely nothing of interest in Arkansas. And we gave it a good college try too, driving around Little Rock aimlessly for a good 45 minutes. I'm afraid Arkansas is the current winner of the Most Boring State of the Trip contest. Or, uh, loser, I guess.
Now, excuse me as I try to memorize the path to our new hotel bathroom.
So, I'm happy to report that fall foliage has officially hit the upper elevations of western North Carolina. Today, Kathy and I left the 87 degree weather of Savannah and drove northwest through South Carolina and into North Carolina. In North Carolina, we drove on the stunning Blue Ridge Parkway, which is just full of cool views like this one. We would basically drive for a couple minutes, then pull over to the side of the road to gawk, then drive for a couple minutes, then pull over and gawk, etc. This sort of hampered our forward progress for awhile, but hey, what can you do.
We stopped for the night here in Cherokee, North Carolina, which is part of a big Indian reservation (specifically the, um, Cherokee Indians). This town is just outside of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which we plan to explore tomorrow. Interestingly enough, the main draw of this area seems to be not the Great Smoky Mountains, nor the Blue Ridge Parkway, but the humungoid Harrah's Casino. All the hotels and billboards here refer to the casino even though the National Park is just a few miles away. "Quality Inn -- just two blocks from the Casino!" "Holiday Inn Express -- within walking distance of the Casino!" Our hotel has a regular shuttle that goes to and from the casino, but if you want a ride into the park, you're outta luck.
I'm slightly embarassed to report that we did spend about an hour in the casino tonight. It was huge, and totally packed to the gills. We lost a chunk of money, but we prefer to think of it as a donation to the Native American people. Cherokees, you're welcome.
I know that this is a cliche beyond belief, but, boy, the South sure is hot. I guess I sort of thought we'd be spared the Southern heat by traveling to Charleston and Savannah in early October. But nope, still pretty freaking hot.
The temperature in Savannah today was 87 degrees, with 100 percent humidity. To a native Georgian this is probably considered a very pleasant autumn day, but to us wimpy San Franciscans, this was some seriously brutal weather, the kind where you randomly jump into stores that you have absolutely no interest in just so you can enjoy 90 seconds of air conditioning and feel human again.
This weather makes me understand why all those movies that take place in the south always feature scenes with women fanning themselves on their shaded porch swings with a pitcher of iced tea by their side. (Don't they? Maybe I'm over-generalizing.) Kathy and I between us drank about 3 gallons of iced tea today, and though the tea was yummy and everything, I don't think that's a normal level of consumption for two humans. It was hot.
End of rant.
Charleston and Savannah are really beautiful and charming. Another cliche, but dammit, it's true. There are some unbelievably charming gardens, squares, and houses. Again, the pictures don't really do these cities justice, but here's one typical picture:
That one was from Charleston. Here's one from Savannah:
It almost makes you want to live in the South. Kathy won't go for it, though -- the bugs are too big.
Being on the road for 4+ weeks, Kathy and I have really lost track of what the heck's going on in the world. We haven't been reading the newspaper or watching much TV, and we've been listening entirely to music radio stations, CDs, and our Ipod in the car, so we're pretty much blissfully unaware of anything that's happened in the world in the past four weeks aside from:
As informed by our waitress in Toronto when Kathy tried to order a spinach omelet, there seems to have been some sort of e coli scare with Californian spinach.
Some congressman named Foley sent some very inappropriate emails to 15 and 16 year old boys and he's in deep doo-doo.
Anna Nicole Smith's kid died somehow.
That was pretty much it, until yesterday. Yesterday, we drove from King of Prussia to Amish Country and spent the day hanging around towns with great names like "Intercourse", "Bird-in-Hand", and "Paradise". We gawked at Amish people wearing their cool hats and bonnets -- the men with their long beards riding their non-motorized scooters and the women riding in horse-drawn buggies. We took our own private horse-drawn buggy tour with a guy who grew up Amish and learned what it's like to live in an Amish household with all their weird rules. It was awesome.
Then at the end of our buggy tour we found out from our driver that just that morning, some assh-le truck driver had walked into an Amish schoolhouse just a couple miles from where we were and shot and killed a bunch of Amish schoolgirls. Having just passed by a similar one-room schoolhouse with all the kids' scooters parked in front, the news hit us a little closer to home than it would have otherwise, and since then we've been scouring the Internet looking for news updates about the conditions of the kids and the motives of the truck driver.
The weird thing is that if our driver hadn't said anything, we really wouldn't have known that anything out of the ordinary had happened. Everybody was going on with their work as they normally do. I'm not sure if that was because the Amish don't typically have phones in their house and hadn't heard the news yet, or if it was some sort of indicator of the privacy of Amish culture, but we didn't see the public displays of anguish that you might expect if this had happened in a "conventional" school.
Anyway, our best wishes go out to all the families. Of course I say that even though the Amish don't have computers or Internet and wouldn't have any way of reading this blog to receive those wishes. Oh well, whatever. Best wishes, anyway.
Greetings from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. "King of Prussia" has to be the best town name of all time, don't you think? We actually had been thinking of driving a little farther tonight, but when we got to King of Prussia, the town name was so darn appealing that we just had to stay here. I think it even beats "Thermopolis".
So, we've driven through a ton of quaint towns in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island over the past few days, complete with the requisite New England covered bridge and/or lighthouse. It's all pretty darn charming:
Unfortunately, somewhere in the middle of Connecticut, Kathy officially reached her Quaint capacity. It happened right around the time we reached the main street in Mystic, Connecticut. Mystic is a very cute small town (and home to the fine mid-80s Julia Roberts movie "Mystic Pizza"), but after driving through ten similarly cute towns over the past few days, the power of the cuteness might have been a tad diminshed. Or, sadly, even a bit tiresome. And thus the first Quaint Town embargo was established. Temporary, of course, but oh so necessary.
Fortunately, New York City came at just the right time in our trip. New York City is a lot of things, but quaint, it ain't. We had a great time in New York City -- eating well (mmm... Shake Shack), drinking a little too much, sleeping not so much, catching up with family and friends. In other words, just what we needed.
Come to think of it, King of Prussia ain't so quaint either. It actually seems to be composed of one really big mall. But we'll forgive that, just because its name is so excellent.
