Road Trip Finale

Apparently I never posted this... I'm the worst. And now it's kind of the worst too.

Ok so, the last bit of the trip was actually the part I wanted to see most. We were going to Graceland!!! I was very, very (much) excited for this. First we stopped in Mississippi at the petrified forest, mostly out of curiosity. It was a nice walk. There were plenty of petrified logs, but they look like regular logs so... yeah. Neat anyway. This is an ancient log:

Petrified in the Petrified forest?

Next stop Memphis! Beale Street is pretty short, which is a bit surprising given how much it's advertised. There were a bunch of great music spots though and we did hang out for some very good bar shows.

But the main attraction was this place. It was everything I'd hoped it would be. I was prepared for it being small because a number of people had mentioned that, but I wasn't prepared for the all out gloriousness of the 70's time stop. I knew it would be great, but I didn't imagine THIS great.

Creepy monkey statue with mirror ceiling? Check.

Crazy carved wood chairs and carpeted ceiling? Check.  (no flashes allowed, boo.)

And there was more. So much more... folded fabric wallpaper, so many  mirrors.... 

Obviously there were the suits. Ryan and I were planning to get matching jumpsuits, but sadly they didn't have my size.

Best. Trashcans. Ever.

To even out my Elvis tour (which Ryan enjoyed, despite his initial skepticism) we also toured the Gibson factory. Unfortunately it was Sunday so my supply nerd tour loving self couldn't see anyone working, but there was WIP lying around so I pretended. I'm definitely impressed that there's so much manual work still put into making the guitars while maintaining high quality. If the quality is bad they destroy them - I'm imagining people rock star smashing them at lunch. In which case I'd like to apply for a job.

Word.

The remainder of the trip was fine... until Illinois. Of course. There we met intense fog followed by snow in Wisconsin. Uggggghhhhh.  

Grand total: 3,874.8 miles of fun! (and creepy monkey statues)

NOLA

Initial impressions were that "it smells like pee" and "I haven't seen anyone normal yet."

We were staying at the Holiday Inn on King Street which I was a bit disappointed about because 1) I wanted a cute boutique hotel but the Chase points site was being a b**ch about what was available and 2) based on the map I thought it was going to be kind of out of the way. Everything in the French Quarter is really close together though, so concern #2 wasn't an issue. Night 1 we wandered around and of course stumbled onto Bourbon Street. It's hard to miss - loud and people-ful! It was exactly as I was expecting, just a mess of drinking. I can't imagine what a disaster Mardi Gras is... In two off-season days we saw a girl flash for a hot dog, flashing for beads of course, sidewalk peeing of course, a guy get punched out by a bouncer and left on the sidewalk (very near to horse crap too, ick. Note: don't wear open shoes on Bourbon St). One of the best was a police horse freaking out about something and (literally) butting into a guy. He acted like he was going to start something for a second but then decided that "it's cool." Not sure what he thought he was going to do in the first place?? The horse will crush you. All of this is I'm sure completely standard and tame compared to what goes down most of the time.

From this it probably seems like I didn't enjoy New Orleans which is not the case. I really liked it a lot. The people watching is great! The scent gets better after the streets are powerwashed. The thing I really liked, and not in a drunk way, was that you could walk around with drinks at any time. It was nice to get a drink then continue sightseeing without trouble.

During the day we did the standard French Quarter touring as well as drove over to the Garden District to see the historic mansions. People were starting to decorate for Mardi Gras which I really enjoyed. The colors are so much fun! I might start decorating for it myself. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to do - the WWII museum and film were reported to be excellent but the timing was bad - but we will get back eventually. We ate some beignet, muffaletta, gumbo, jambalaya, red beans, crawfish, king cake... I gained like 5 pounds... We went to the Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel where mixed drinks were supposedly invented. Sazeracs aren't really my thing...

Overall it was a great relaxing stay. I think I love NOLA :)

Delicious!

Also delicious! One of our tour guides insisted we get some King Cake as it was now in season.

Misc. French Quarter pic

Masks, beignet mix and stuffed alligators. Apparently all are standard purchases.

I would love a horse to tie to the horse horse-tie-up!

Florida Gulf Coast

Every time I try to start this one I get overwhelmed by picture selection and give up - there are too many! So I pretty much did a mini scan and that's what is here.

This was my first time in the Florida panhandle and their beaches. I was surprised at how white they all are! They feel very nice on the toes, even if the water was very chilly. Like Lake Michigan really, maybe softer. Definitely not shelly like on the Atlantic coast. We stopped at quite a few places along the way; Bald Point State Park, Carabelle, Apalachicola, Panama City, Destin along with some that I don't know the name of. Highway 98 is a really beautiful drive. It actually went faster and was along more water than I was expecting. I definitely recommend it if you have some time!

Of the "Panama City" section Destin was our favorite. The beach was as beautiful as the main drag but was quieter (we're all old and stuff now), didn't have porn outfits in the t-shirt shops and no broken bottles in the walkway up to the beach.

Panama City Beach

And the reason I will never go on season......

We were thinking we'd get a chance to sit and watch the sunset at Bald Point State Park but it was facing the wrong way so we just wandered a bit. If you're in the area Alligator Alley is a fun jaunt from the main road. There are some really cool stilt houses and the road is like driving into the ocean

Shells, but no sunset

Alligator Alley



We were sure we wouldn't find a good sunset spot when this oasis appeared! Not only was it perfect timing, the old school picnic overhangs were amazing! (what are they 50s? 60s? I'm terrible with architecture). An added bit of fun, it was a WWII D-Day training site in the 40s.

I've never seen so much pink before! The sky was pink, the water was pink. The flamingos should consider hanging out here.

Now that the sun was down it was time to stop for the night because what's the point of driving along the Gulf if you can't see it? Crossed a giant bridge and saw this seriously cute hotel (though it was dark at the time) and went no further. Gibson Inn in Apalachicola was built in 1907 and is supposedly haunted. (I saw nothing. I'm sure I'm happy about that.) The room was seriously cute and coffee on the porch in the morning was a great way to start the day!

Say no more! I'm in.

They.Were.Delicious.

Apalachicola oysters are rumored to be the best in the world so obviously I had to eat some. I was not disappointed! I want some right now... Ryan wasn't a fan, but he's crazy and that meant more for me :) This trip also made me a really big fan of Gumbo which I hadn't really enjoyed before. If anyone knows of a good place up here please tell me where!

Not a part of Florida, but we also stopped in Mobile on the way to New Orleans. It was cute though we didn't stay long. Bienville Square has SO MANY squirrels. People feed them so they come right up to you. It's a little freaky - I do not need a squirrel jumping on me because it thinks I have some snacks... 

No snacks here!

This doesn't really do it justice...

 

Roadtrip - Lunch in Louisville

It was originally supposed to be breakfast, which is how I selected Lynn's Paradise Cafe as our destination. (The internet says good things.) Something about the color explosion and giant statue action took all others out of the running no matter what meal of the day was to be had.

I was not disappointed! There was the right amount of bright glitz - not too overwhelming and "everywhere" but still a lot to look at. Plus our table had activities which was amusing enough, but would have been even better with kids. Lunch was good - curry chicken salad and cheesy grit - and the coffees about gave me a heart attack from sugar overload. Delicious!

The rest of Louisville was "eh" which could be accurate or just because it was raining. Hard to tell.

Roadtrip - the beginning

I loaded up my car and was ready to go when wouldn't you know it, my car wouldn't start. A perfect beginning to a week and a half long road trip! Thus, this is the first pic of the trip; the Goodyear at which I had it fixed. It didn't turn out to be anything difficult or serious so it didn't delay us overall. (I was very grateful for that!) Many thanks to Claire for helping me fail at pushing the car from its parking spot to jump it, eventually finding the right neighbor to move their car so we could try and jump it, attempting the jump start though it failed miserably, and hanging out while they fixed it! I hope someone randomly walked by and got a pic of us in the dirt pushing between the car and the restaurant wall. I'll bet it was ridiculously amusing to watch :)

v2.0.2

Yellowstone National Park

Next up on the snowy National Park tour was Yellowstone! The first night we stayed at the Old Faithful Inn which was very cool. We snagged the last available under-$200 room, described as "Old House Room with Shared Bath." Completely accurate. The room was indeed old as it was part of the original building (of which none of my interior pics turned out well, but the internet has a number of good ones if you're curious). While we did have to use a shared bathroom they were very clean and surprisingly not busy for the hotel being full. The room was small but had the same lodge-like character as the main part of the Inn with giant old style locks and window panes, radiator heating and so-on. For those potentially staying there, the room did have a sink at least, and there is a "new" section if you aren't feeling up to sharing a bathroom. You can of course go into all of the hotels to check them out but I really liked staying overnight to really get entrenched in the historical park atmosphere.



Old Faithful Inn

As the name implies we were right next to Old Faithful! (The picture below is not of Old Faithful though, it's one of the nearby geysers. Notice the tiny people and how high they go!) The pathways in the pic are pretty much the mode in the entire park which a) was very slippery when we were on the snow/rain on the newer plastic ones so no wearking Keds everyone and b) really took away from the nature feel of the park. I understand why they have to do this of course, a lot of the attractions are boiling hot springs and you can't go wandering around on them, and it protects the park. But still, it feels more like a museum than a park.

Even though I saw it with my own eyes, I feel like this waterfall picture is fake.

Tower Fall

As with Glacier, some of the roads in Yellowstone were partially closed. Disappointing again, but because the roads are all in loops we were actually able to make it to almost everything we wanted to see. The only part missing was Tower-Roosevelt, and that was closed because of a gigantic rock slide not  because of snow so it was best we weren't stuck in that mess. Here's Kelly making new friends and showing off the snow banks:

Buffalo in the street are hilarious! In low season. I can't imagine how insane the park gets in the summer between family vacations and school tours and all that... Horrifying.

The park was much better than Glacier for seeing animals, though it helped that there were crowds everywhere letting you know one was seen. My ability to spot them is terrible! I would make a lousy hunter.

This is what it looked like every time something was spotted. Yay animals! (A bear in this case.) And not being able to drive anywhere at all because no one will move our of the road for a car! The park police do come by shortly after to break everyone up for "harassing the animals" aka scaring the bejeezus out of them by paping them when they're hanging out in a tree (Guilty!)

Yellowstone did have a ton of really fascinating landscapes between geysers and falls and mud pots, but I have to say that Mammoth Hot Springs was my favorite. The ridiculously white calcium depsoit terraces have the most fantastic shapes. They're beautiful as were the colors in the active springs. I loved how they were sneaking down to the town below. Maybe someday they'll be able to open up a souvenir shop of their own.

Overall I'm very glad I went to Yellowstone though don't feel a need to go again. I am extremely happy that it wasn't anywhere near high season. If it had been I'd probably be writing this post from jail because I ran someone off of the road or something...

Glacier National Park

Over Memorial weekend Kelly and I flew to Montana to visit Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. We weren't sure how it was going to go because the area had been getting a lot of spring snow and that tends to be a problem with mountain passes. Maybe Harry Potter World would have been a better choice afterall? It was all green and fine on the drive up from Helena but sure enough when we got into the mountains - bam! White wins.



Avalanche and hungry bear warnings aside, I wish we would have brought snow shoes with us. The trails would have been a lot of fun! 

As it was, things were a bit difficult. There was a tiny bit of snow still on the ground.

Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed between Trail of the Cedars and Siyeh Bend which was disappointing - apparently 20 feet of snow is too much for their plows, weak sauce - but we were still able to see quite a bit of the park.

We stayed at the Village Inn which is directly on Lake McDonald in Apgar. (It's a tiny spec in the picture below.) It's an older building and I could hear our neighbors a bit, but you can't beat the view. I can't speak to high season, but I definitely recommend it for low!

I was obsessed with the colors in the rocks.

Most of the trails aren't paved, but Trail of the Cedars is done up nicely for those who want a stroll without tree root issues. The weather may not have fully cooperated, but the park was not crowded. I'll sacrifice some not-so-perfect conditions to avoid the headache of high-season any day!

On our way down to Yellowstone we drove through the National Bison Range which is a 20 mile self guided drive through one of the first wildlife refuges in the US. There are quite a few types of animals staying home, home on the range (possibly even playing). When I get a front yard I might have to install an Elk Horn bush like the one at the Visitors Center. Property value adder, no?

Overall I really enjoyed Glacier National Park and would definitely recommend it. If you don't enjoy snow though I'd wait until a little later in the year, May just happened to be when we could go. I'm hoping to get back this summer to get to some of the areas that were closed and see what it's like later in the year.