Our Progress Coast to Coast!

Day 40 - Higginsville, MO to Emporia, KS to Lucas, KS to Silverthorne, CO

The Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas

Hanging out with Megan in Emporia, Kansas

We started out early so that we could get to the carnival where Pete's friend Megan is working in Emporia, Kansas. She gave us a behind the scenes tour, we had lunch at a typical roadside diner, and then walked to a snow-cone stand. It's pretty amazing that she's working with this traveling carnival, but she seems happy for the time being, and it must be one hell of an experience!

We started off on the road again in the afternoon, and then just drove and drove and drove across the entire state of Kansas, and they were right, there were sunflowers. We might a slight detour to see the artist town of Lucas, where a crazy man made all these concrete statues about the Garden of Eden in his front yard, but on the way back we were pretty deterred afterward by the most powerful thunderstorm either of us have ever seen. We couldn't see the road the rain was so thick!

We finally made it to Pete's aunt's house in Silverthorne, Colorado around 2am, only to try the door of the wrong house first! What exhaustion..we collapsed and went to bed immediately in Pam Bent's cabin-y home.

Day 39 - Nashville, TN to Higginsville, MO

Drive drive drive! We listened to "The Help," on audio book, which was a great replacement for not having spent too much time in the South. We stopped in Higginsville only because it had a Walmart and we couldn't drive any further.

Day 38 - Knoxville, TN to Nashville, TN

Views of our hotel in Nashville..
The former dining hall for the college where we were staying in Nashville



Oh waking up in a Walmart never stops feeling trashy... :) But it's so free! Well we finished the drive to Nashville that morning, and found the best place to stay in town over the phone - an old religious college (religous aka gave masters degrees in "gospel") built in the style of Cambridge gothic that is now a renovated conference center. A super cheap room with beautiful surroundings, and we were staying the old dorms! I'm already reminiscent about college, and this made me want to go back to school definitely within the next couple of years.

Before we arrived at the hotel, we stopped at a place called "Prince's Hot Chicken," to get the regional specialty (although we found out later not many people in Nashville actually eat hot chicken...) which consists of fried chicken covered in crazy hot spices. The woman kinda threw us a questioning look when we ordered Medium Hot, which was explained later when we could hardly finish eating it all for being so hot!

We took advantage of doing laundry, getting my hair cut (best $20 haircut I've ever had!), and otherwise cleaned up after having sweat in our car for the past couple of days. We grabbed dinner at a "New York Diner," where Pete had a sandwich entirely fried (as in, the entire sandwich was dipped in the frying oil). We decided the entire middle of the country looks the way it does because there are no vegetables on the menus! Then we walked downtown, which also had the same bright lights as Dollywood, but instead was mostly bars and boot shops. We too were tempted to buy boots, but they were several hundred dollars and way fancier than anything we would wear. Every bar had live music coming from it, and according to my barber, not all of it was country although it sure sounded like it. Not really feeling the need to hang around in a smokey loud bar, we took a cab home and went to bed early.

Day 37 - Asheville, NC to Cherokee, NC to Knoxville, TN

The Titanic building in Dollywood
The upside-down building called "Wonderworks"
The castle place called "MagiQuest"
Me atop the "bald" that we hiked at Great Smokey Mountains
View of the Great Smokey Mountains
The both of us at the Great Smokey Mountains

After waking up in a Walmart parking lot that was excruciatingly hot and humid, we made our way into Asheville, which we only knew to be "really beautiful and liberal." What we found were a bunch of closed shops, and some cool bookstores, as we were there far too early for the normal gift shopper. After putzing around and going to the Visitor Center, we decided to head down the road to the Cherokee Indian Reservation, since it sounded more interesting.

Cherokee, the city, is filled with tons of shops peddling "Indian wares." We took this opportunity to ask one of the local shop owners where we could buy some wholesale leather, to make a version of this really expensive leather-bound journal that Pete saw in New York and which was too expensive to buy. She directed us to the holy land of Indian ware supply stores, and we lavished ourselves by getting two large pieces of excellent leather for $15 (mine is for a potential purse I'm going to design) and some pieces of turquoise for $4! The shop had all the turquoise, cut and uncut, that you can imagine, as well as beads, feathers, fabrics, and everything else that you need to make your very own authentic Indian wares...what a deal for us!

We finally went looking for a restaurant (of which there are only, like, two in the entire city of Cherokee) which took foreveeeer and everything was fried. There was a sign disclaiming their slow service, saying, "We are not a fast food establishment. Everything is made to order, and takes a long time."

Next was the Museum of the Cherokee, which Pete remembers having gone to when he was a boy scout. It is a maze of dioramas depicting early Cherokee life, and though educational, seemed to drop off significantly when it came to describing the current situation that most Cherokee live in. We wondered, but enjoyed the history lesson nonetheless.

On the way to our next destination, Nashville, we stopped the Great Smoky Mountains for a hike (and our weekly exercise!) before coming down on the wonder that is Dollywood, or in other terms, Las Vegas without gambling or prostitution. It's a line of crazy stucco buildings depicting the Titanic, a castle, an upside down Caesar's Palace, and a bunch of other entertainments apparently owned by Dolly Parton. It's the manifestation of her popularity, taken form in bright lights, cheap prizes, and really really tacky buildings = tons of money for Dolly. Crazy!

Another Walmart parking lot for the night in Knoxville...somewhat less hot since we bought a battery powered fan at...you guessed it....Walmart :)

Day 36 - Fredericksburg, VA to Asheville, NC

Today was pretty much a driving day. We woke up, repacked the car and got off at noon. We made dinner in a park outside of Asheville after dusk and slept in a Walmart parking lot in Asheville. We've been listening to the Steve Larson books on tape and have finally made it through The Girl Who Played With Fire, and have decided to listen to The Help before we listen to the last one.
-Pete

Day 34-35 - Fredericksburg, VA to Washington DC and back again

Smithsonian Museum of the Native American

Awesome Air and Space Museum!

The capital

So many stairs!

Washington Monument

Elena looking like a dork

The tandem! (I let Elena sit in the front just for this picture... )

The White House!

Our trip to DC was a lot of fun! We ended up taking the train in from Fredericksburg to Union Station. We then walked to our hostel which was a bit grungy but ended up being a fine place to stay with interesting people to meet (in particular a french couple traveling down from Canada). I then grabbed lunch with Alex who came into the city with us, while Elena had a meeting with a friend of a friend of her grandmother's about what it was like to work in the advocacy sector of international development.
Once Elena was done, it was time for Alex to leave to meet up with his cousin and Elena and I sat in Dupont Circle to decide what we wanted to do in DC for the next two days. We ended up walking by the White House (snipers on the roof!) and the Washington Memorial before we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I love Natural History Museums! We saw the hope diamond as well as a bunch of really awesome stuff. We then rented a tandem bike, which was an awesome idea, in order to bike around the Mall and see all the monuments within two hours. We saw the Vietnam Memorial, The Lincoln Monument, the reflecting pool, the Jefferson monument, as some of the highlights, and made a full lap of the Mall. While on the capital end of the Mall we saw an outdoor screen and projector with the lawn in front of it full of people. We returned there after returning the bike and watched 12 Angry Men which is an amazing black and white movie. I really enjoyed it. Shortly after we called it a night and enjoyed meeting and talking with the french couple back at the hostel.
The next day we made a b-line to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which was probably my favorite museum that we saw there. One of the most interesting things we saw there was the air/space craft used for the first commercial flights to space! The space ship was made out of a cloth with glue to make it stiff and in order to slow it down with out burning up on the way back down it folds in half, mid-flight, which creates enough drag that it slows fast enough to avoid burning up in the atmosphere! After that we were early enough to get tickets for the tour of the Department of Printing and Engraving (the money factory)! We then went to the Smithsonian Museum of the Native American for lunch as we were told it was one of the best places to eat in that area. We were not disappointed! We unfortunately then had to run back to the Department of Printing and Engraving before we could look around in the museum in order to make our tour there. The tour was super interesting. We learned that every president has an engraving done of them when they enter the office in order to be able to put them on currency in the future. The engraving of Obama was pretty neat to see. We then returned to check out of our hostel and then headed back to Fredericksburg.
In Fredericksburg we grabbed dinner at 5 guys which is the east coast equivalent of In and Out. I have to say that I'm still a bigger fan of In and Out.. The rest of the night we pretty much just hung out in Jeremy's Apartment and relaxed.
-Pete

Day 33 - Fredericksburg, VA to Charlottesville, VA and back again

Photos from Monticello


Jefferson's grave

Pete and I on the back porch...called the "Nickel Side"
Cooling down with some colonial root beer
Elena helping Jefferson's neighbors' helper carry stuff
Pete meeting Jefferson's butler


Pete and I decided to take a day trip to see Monticello, Jefferson's residence, just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. The estate is actually not that big, but I guess the total property he owned in his day was pretty substantial. Although it was very informative and interesting, we were kinda disappointed by the lack of..I don't know...national park-style professionalism? It just had a different feel to it, especially since our tour guide side-stepped my only question about Jefferson's illegitimate family and told me to read a book instead. We did do both the house tour and the "Slave Road" tour, so we felt like we got our money's worth. His house did have this really cool pulley system that would bring a new bottle of wine up from the cellar to his fire place, and Pete and I decided such gadgets need to be more present in our future houses. So cool.

We ended up puttering around Charlottesville downtown, which was pretty quiet, so we saw Despicable Me, which was cute but not worth buying a movie ticket. We made it back to Fredericksburg pretty late and just went to bed.

Day 31-32 - Greenwich, CT to Fredericksburg, VA

Another long day of driving. We made it to Fredericksburg in time for a late dinner at Sammy T's in downtown Fredericksburg, and then returned to Jeremy's new little house where he'll be living for his last year at Mary Washington University. Alex and his friend Kyle (also a high school friend of Jeremy from Virginia Beach) made it down about the same time, so we all just hung out and relaxed, that night and the next. Virginia is really starting to be humid, and Pete and I were really appreciate that we could sleep indoors with air conditioning. The next day we mostly just hung around Fredericksburg and went to a used book store, where I found a 1940 textbook on "American Foreign Policy." I'm the only one I'm sure that finds this fascinating! Good reading for when I get back and have no job...

We once again forgot to take any photos of the whole weekend! Good job dumb dumb.

Day 28-30 - Greenwich, CT to New York, NY and back again

Rob dropped us off at the train station early in the morning so that Pete and I could try to get to a box office early for discount Broadway tickets. I was hankering for some musical production (I had The Producers playing in my head non stop) and discovered that Pete had never seen a Broadway show (again, it's a time for firsts!) so we decided to see a show since you can only do it in New York (thank you Greg and Osa!). We ended up not getting tickets that morning because they didn't have any to Avenue Q, our top pick, but we did walk around Wall Street and meet up with Alex to see the Bodies exhibit. If you haven't seen it, it's plasticized humans cut up so you can see all the interesting things on our insides! Totally worth it.

Alex had a dinner with friends that night, so Pete and I went to see Inception on IMAX. OH MY GOD AMAZING! Go see it, it's a great movie. And the IMAX was actually worth it this time. We all met up and decided we were pretty tired, so we headed back to the apartment that Alex was squatting in/house-sitting in East Harlem. It smelled just like Guatemala, that sweet rotting fruit smell with flowers and gas. The neighborhood was really cute though, and the apartment even cuter, decorated and owned by the very chic, fashionable friend of Alex's.

In the morning we woke up extra early (8 am!) to go to the Box Office of Avenue Q to get cheaper tickets (full price ones are still over $100 each), which turned out to be way too early and we were totally the first ones there. After scoring our tickets for that evening, we all went to Central Park to reminisce about college and life before college (as Alex and I tend to do sometimes). Alex was working briefly for a gourmet desert bar as a waiter, but now is anticipating a solo trip to Europe before continuing to work on his writing. I may be able to convince him to move to San Francisco yet! Alex then took Pete and I to a cafe at Columbus Circle, which is apparently owned by the same guy who owns the French Laundry, except for $15/person instead of $500/person. Delicious! Alex went back to take a nap, and Pete and I headed to the local Salvation Army looking for leather scraps to make him a leather journal cover. Instead, Elena just found lots of cheap cool clothes and Pete found nothing (surprised? :) Pete and I went back to Central Park to relax and lie on the grass, then met up with Alex at the theater that night. Great show! Totally raunchy but adorable, catchy and clever, and especially appropriate as it's about a recent college grad meeting the "realities" of life. We could take a lesson I suppose :) And with puppets!

Alex invited Pete and I to join him in Fredericksburg to visit high school friend Jeremy in the coming days, so Pete and I took off the next day back to Greenwich with promises to see each other soon.

Rob and Marjorie were generous enough to host us another night after Rob picked us up at the train station. They are such kind and energetic people! They took us to dinner at this fusion Mexican restaurant, where they had items such as lobster tacos and served Patron tequila! Not your typical Californian fare, but totally delectable!

Day 27 - Bloomfield, CT to Greenwich, CT

The Mountains are family friends of mine, and were dear friends of my grandfather in Greenwich. We had decided to call them in hopes of leaving our car at their place while we went to visit New York City. Elena and I had such a wonderful time staying with them! Their home is beautiful. I am an especially big fan of their pond behind their house that is full of fish, and dragon flies. Rob also was kind enough to show us their boat, "Upwind", which was a lot of fun. I'm so glad that we were able to spend some time with them before we left for New York City.
-Pete


The Mountain's beautiful home


The pond behind their house.

Day 25-26 - Bloomfield, CT

Grandma was nice enough to let us sleep in, so we didn't even have breakfast until 11 or so. We decided it was so awful hot that we would go to the swimming hole, which of course is what one does in Bloomfield during any visit in the summer time. (Picture #1) It's an old club that my grandparents have been members of for a long time, and the location of many a story relating to my brother and my childish antics. We both remember it as one of the best things to do while visiting Grandma and Grandpa. We all had such a good time lounging around (and Pete and I diving off the platform) that we stayed until 6pm, to our surprise! Then back to the house for dinner and more talking on the porch. What a great invention! The temperature and humidity were almost unbearable, so sitting on the screened porch is really the only relief. Pete and I took the requisite walk around the neighborhood and watched a movie before bed. We both love watching movies so much that it was really a treat to do so, since we had internet and Netflix!

The next day, Grandma took us into town to take a boat cruise down the Connecticut river in Hartford, which afforded a nice view of most of the main buildings of downtown, as well as effects of heat on the many small children on the boat = children slippery as soap and totally disinterested in the boat. Afterward, she drove us to Trinity College to check out the truly majestic buildings (we West-coasters are always awed by the semi-gothic stone structures of Eastern colleges) and the truly amazing chapel (Picture #2).

The night, Pete took us all out to dinner at a local restaurant (quite the gentleman!!!). It was good food, which was even better because of the air-conditioning. After dinner, we watched Forrest Gump because Pete had never seen it (what?!) and we both agreed it's one of our favorite movies.

Day 24 - Buffalo, NY to Niagara Falls, NY to Bloomfield, CT

We woke up early (as per usual in a Walmart parking lot, as the noise of people banging around and cars passing usually starts around 7am) and headed to Niagara Falls. The park is mostly on the US side, which is nice because neither of us brought passports anyway. We walked around the two sides of the falls, but didn't feel like paying the extra money to get totally soaked just before the long car ride to Connecticut. However, the views are definitely satisfactory from the edges of the cliffs.


View of the crazy people who pay to be crushed by the tons of falling water... :)




Then we headed to Buffalo again to test a Lonely Planet recommendation for buffalo wings - it was phenomenal! We didn't have time to eat it but on the road, so we tucked paper towels everywhere and slobbered away on the best chicken wings we've ever had! Not much else to the afternoon except driving, and general frustration with paying tolls (how come the rest of the country doesn't bleed every driver for $.50 every 20 miles?!)

After spotting a feisty black bear running around in a cabbage field somewhere north of Bloomfield, we arrived at my grandmother's house around 8pm just in time for dinner. Gma cooked us delicious fish with cracker crumbs and some of Wade's famous yellow corn! We sat on the porch and listened to the bugs, ready for a couple days of sleeping in beds and relaxation.

Day 23 - Chicago, IL to Buffalo, NY

Long drive, not much happened except that we started to see fireflies alongside the road, and we arrived really late in Buffalo. We found out (the hard way) that not all Walmarts allow overnight parking, and it wasn't until the third one that we were finally able to make our bed in the back. The problem was it was so hot we cracked the windows, and then a thunderstorm in the middle of the night rained on our faces! I guess you get what you pay for...

Day 20-22 - Chicago!

Home of the Grant Park Orchestra


Happy in Chicago at the bean!

I love Chicago and since it was Pete's first time, we tried to do everything that I were my highlights from trips past. So, with the aquarium already checked off, we decided to explore downtown a little bit. First Sasha took us out to this incredible little restaurant called Xoco, which is owned by Rick Bayless, winner of some cooking show I guess. Fantastic and reasonably priced! Then Pete and I took a walk through downtown to Millenium Park, where we saw the giant bean and the amazing ampitheatre where we stumbled upon an open rehearsal of the Grant Park Orchestra. Then we took a bus up to Lincoln Park to see the FREE zoo, which seemed to house more rabbits than exotic animals. Must be a paradise for rabbits in the middle of the city, because almost every exhibit had a rabbit in it. The highlights were the gorillas, which sparked a conversation about how human they are, animal treatment, and the fact that Pete's mom Dede worked with the mother of Coco (remember, the gorilla that learned sign language) during her college years. Very cool and humbling.

We made dinner again that night and I got a chance to try out a Peace corps recipe I picked up when I was in Guatemala - mix tomato paste with cream cheese and it makes an incredible pasta sauce! We added some fresh tomatoes, onion, fresh basil, and to top it off, I learned out to fry basil to add some crunchiness! Quite good if I don't say so myself...

The next day, Pete and I did the architecture tour that Joan took me on the last time I was in Chicago. It was just as good as the first time, and totally worth every penny. Afterward we met up with Sasha for a free concert at Millenium Park ampitheater, this time the real show of the Grant Park Orchestra. It really struck me that if I had to live in Chicago, I think I'd be quite happy. I guess I have only been there when it's beautiful in the summer though...A dinner of salami, cheese, and bread topped off an excellent visit.

-Elena

Day 18-19 - Rapid City, SD to Chicago, IL!

Views from Mars...






Electric eel! I said ooh babe....shock me like an electric eel!


Growing coral, pretty cool. If only we could do it to replace all the crap that BP put in the ocean?


It's a rock, it's a booger..no! It's a toadfish!


Soft-shelled turtle


Apparently Pete took a lot of these ones, perhaps trying to catch me making faces at the wildlife...


Drive drive drive!

On the way out of Rapid City, we hit up Badlands National Park, which is so weird and spacey! We didn't really want to get out and take a hike for fear of being attacked by aliens, but we took plenty of pictures!

We have been enjoying the lovely company of Stieg Larsson in the car while we listen to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, along with the half of the nation that's currently reading it. Really great on audiobook, but basically we drove for two days, and ended up staying in a wonderful Wal-Mart parking lot in Onalaska, Wisconsin. Thank god they allow you to legally sleep there (although we're not convinced that all Wal-marts allow this, we checked for signs and this one did. There were also a bunch of other people doing the same thing as us!). We learned the hard way that it's worth it to blow up the mattress in back rather than be lazy and try to sleep on the seats...We were able to do this by the way because Russell had left us after Yellowstone, so we don't need to get campsites anymore.

We arrived in Chicago on Monday fairly early in the day (around 3pm) and managed to see the Shedd Aquarium, which is supposedly one of the best in the country. Unfortunately, it's really geared toward children and actually not that big, so we both agreed that Monterey Bay is sooo much better :) We made it to Lincoln Park afterward and got to make dinner for my friend Sasha. I know Sasha from studying abroad in Moscow, and she's currently working for BCG in Chicago, being very successful.She was so nice to let us stay in her apartment, and there was even a bed! We didn't do much that night be relax and watch a little bit of, "So you think you can dance!"...such a guilty pleasure to relax and watch TV!