Arkansas

We had a brief but very nice time in Arkansas.

Hot Springs National Park is probably one of the only parks that is a row of houses on one side of the street in a town.  In fact, you could argue that it is the oldest national park period since it was claimed as a reservation by the government in 1832 forty years before Yellowstone.  It wasn't renamed as a national park until 1922 though.  It is also the smallest national park by area in the country and a fun place to spend an afternoon.  There are seven old bathhouses still standing that were used to treat any and all ailments with the natural hot water that is 143 degrees Fahrenheit at the source.  Famous people and gangsters regularly came to relax.  Baseball players often came and the tradition of spring training is claimed to have started in Hot Springs.

How would you like to poke your head through one of these and steam?  This is in the Fordyce bathhouse that is preserved as a museum.  There is one that is still a working bathhouse (basically now a spa), one that is a gift shop, and one that was turned into a brewpub.

Hot springs!

Of course Christiana earned her junior ranger badge and I am the proud husband.

The Old Mill (featured in Gone with the Wind).

Special thanks to Andrea and Tony (and Carolina and Macy) for hosting us.  It was great to see you.

Do I Really Feel The Way I Feel?

We did some walking in Memphis and it's a cool city.

This gate at the entrance was actually the coolest thing at the metal museum.

There's a nice Triple A ballpark right downtown and we decided to catch a game (plus it was one dollar hot dog night).

Of course it was also Cinco de Mayo so Pancho (who apparently has a cheese dip) threw out the first pitch.

He was not too important, however, to pause for a photo op with Chrissy.

The best was the sombrero all the players got to wear on the Jumbotron.  It fits a little more on Rafael Ortega than it did on Donnie Murphy.

The cheap tickets are just grass sections down both of the baselines.  We brought a blanket and enjoyed the beautiful night.

Historic Beale Street at night.  Blues was basically invented here and Memphis has a long and fascinating musical history (and some neat museums to tell it).  There is always music coming out of the clubs and restaurants and we popped into BB Kings to listen to some tunes.  

Memphis is one of the places Gibson manufactures guitars and the factory tour is really interesting.  Here they make their hollow and semi-hollow body electrics and a large part of it is still done by hand.  You can walk right through the factory and see it all being done.

Clearly Chrissy would have to sign up with the captain.

This giant pyramid used to be an arena but it wasn't good enough for the Memphis Grizzlies and I believe ended up sitting empty for a number of years.  Why someone decided to build a giant pyramid in Memphis I have no idea.  Bass Pro Shops leased it and made it into a giant store that actually just opened last week.

Of course after our visit to Memphis it was time to cross the Mississippi into Arkansas.  We did not see the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue or follow him to Graceland.

Adventures in Kentucky

From TN into KY for a day or so.

This is a road trip, so why not spend a little more time in the car, here we are at the drive in movie theater in Franklin KY. Avengers, Age of Ultron.

We primarily bounced into KY to visit Mammoth Cave. With over 400 miles of mapped cave system, it's the largest in the world. This was our awesome tour guide. For 2 hours and 2 miles, he led us through cathedrals and narrow passage ways like...

Fat Man's Misery, a keyhole shaped passageway where our group had to walk single file, and basically sideways.  No flash is allowed in the cave to keep from disrupting the natural eco system (bats), so this is about all you'll see underground.

Insert Plato emerging from the cave joke here

The park is actually much bigger than the cave underground,  82 plus square miles. We had a chance to explore some of the above ground trails too. Lots of wild life can be found. This frog, a snake, and a momma owl finding food for babbies.

Looking at the River Styx, this water flows out of the cave.

Jim climbing the trail

Junior Park Ranger badge number 2!

Then on to Bowling Green, KY for a visit to the National Corvette Museum. Here Jim poses with the last remaining Corvette from the year of his birth, 1983.

The museum houses innumerable Vettes, many of which are displayed in this entry gallery, as a temporary solution to the display space that was lost in the sink hole you may remember hearing about in the news, February 2014. Many of the cars recovered from the sink hole are on display, though hardly recognizable. I didn't take their pictures, it was too sad.

Detour

We were originally going to head towards New Orleans from Savannah, but it turns out the time we would have been there was the tail end of the New Orleans Jazz Festival.  Since that makes things twice as expensive and crowded we made the tough decision to pass on New Orleans and headed north to Chattanooga, Tennessee because we read about what sounded like some cool things there.

First, however, we stopped in Macon, Georgia at the Ocmulgee National Monument.  Those mounds behind us were created by ancient Native Americans and were used for a variety of things.  The ranger there was very nice and gave us some suggestions for our trip into Tennessee.

This is Ruby Falls.  It is a 145 foot waterfall that is about 1120 feet underground in Lookout Mountain next to Chattanooga.  Fun fact: Lookout Mountain is the southern most mountain of the Appalachians.  It's a total tourist trap but our guide was really fun and the waterfall is really cool to see.  The man who discovered it in 1928 supposedly crawled for 7 hours before being able to stand up and discover the chamber with the waterfall.  He then brought his wife to show her and named the falls after her.  Our guide joked convincing the wife to crawl through the cave was a bigger feat than actually discovering the falls.

These three pictures are from Rock City which is another tourist trap on Lookout Mountain but nonetheless fun and beautiful if a bit weird.  At the top lookout point they make the dubious claim that you can see seven states.  It was originally created by eccentric rich people.  Basically the owner wanted to create a neighborhood at the top of the mountain.  His wife was really into European folklore and gnome statues (like, really into gnome statues) and turned it into a big rock garden with one section that is all scenes from fairy tales and nursery rhymes.  Fun fact: part of their wealth and ability to finance the gardens was because the owner invented mini golf.  He wanted a golf course but a big one would take too long make, apparently.

This is while we were riding the Incline Railway which goes from Chattanooga up Lookout Mountain.  Towards the top of the mountain the grade is 72.7% which makes it the steepest passenger rail in operation.  A cool fact and the last section is really steep which is an experience but the ride doesn't have the best views compared to Rock City.

The Chattanooga Choo Choo here is at the site of Terminal Station which used to be an important railway station in years past including during the Civil War.  Now the building and old train cars are a hotel.  It's a pretty cool site.  Overall, Chattanooga was a really fun place to visit which is awesome since it was never on our original list.

Savannah

Savannah, Georgia is a delightful place to just wander around and we had beautiful weather to do so.  We were having such a nice time we barely pulled the camera out.

Every few blocks or so in downtown Savannah are these squares that are all small green spaces.  Some have a fountain or a statue and they are all charming.  They're a total of 22 now and they were part of the original design of the city when it was founded in 1733.

This was a really nice fountain in Forsyth Park.  We played some cribbage here too.

Epic delicious sandwich from Zunzi's whose slogan was "Shit yeah!"  Fitting.

On the outskirts of Savannah is the Wormsloe Historic Site which is the site of the old plantation ruins above.  Most of the old house was taken to build a new house down the road that the original family's descendants still live in.

Chrissy by an eastern red cedar (that is neither red nor technically a cedar, it's a juniper).

You can dress up in their little museum .  Obviously these clothes aren't just for little kids as my jacket fits just fine.

The best part of the whole site though, is the entrance and drive down to the visitor center where the live oak covered in Spanish moss (which is also not Spanish or a moss) creates a canopy.

That's Harry the wombat on our dash.  He's from Australia And traveling the States with us.

We went to this place based on a picture at the visitor center (seems like a a good enough reason on a road trip) and it was well worth it.

The first 1800 miles or so

We've  been speeding down the east coast in an effort to get this road trip started. Here are some highlights  from the past 2 weeks and 1800 plus miles:

The realization of a many years old ambition and a one year old promise to get out of bed early and watch the reenactment  of the "Shot Heard Round the World" on then Lexington Battle green at 5:30am on Patriots Day. It was also incredibly heartwarming to see all our awesome friends and family during our quick reboot as we transitioned into road trippers. Special shout  outs to Sarah for driving this early  in the  morning,  to Linda for holding us to our pact, and to Martina  and Payman for hosting us.

Covered Bridge driving tour of Lancaster County, PA

A drive through Christiana, PA, because when you share your name with a town, you have to get out  and take pictures with all the signs. Though  we didn't  actually get to go into the museum, Christiana is actually the site of a historic  skirmish in the days of the Underground Railroad. 

We caught the Red Sox v. Orioles game on April 24th at Camden Yards in Baltimore, MD. The Sox won. The riots started 2 days later.

A rainy, but charming and educational visit  to Jefferson's Monticello near Charlottesville,  VA. The man could read in seven languages, hated wasted space, and torn down and rebuilt the building he designed himself at least twice. He was an avid botanist, and his gardens include finds from the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

Here's a view of the USS North Carolina in the port of Wilmington. Wilmington is a nice, quiet town, good for waterfront  wandering and sunshine enjoying. We also went over to Oak Island and enjoyed some beach cribbage. Many thaks to the Duffy's for hosting us in their beautiful home.

The Battery in historic and colorful Charleston, SC. We went on a great walking tour and learned about slanted piazzas, Carolina gold rice as the source of plantation wealth in the colonial era, and the independent/rebellious spirit of the first state to secede from the Union prompting the war between the states.

We're  far enough south for this deliciousness: sweet tea, fried chicken (pictured here),and also Carolina BBQ, fried green tomatoes and shrimp and grits

The newest Junior Ranger in the National Park Service courtesy  of the program at Fort Sumter. It poured rain the entire  time we were on the man made island fortification, but the junior ranger quiz and park rangers kept us entertained and informed. Fort Sumter of course where the first shots of the war between the states were fired. Most interesting fact learned on this trip, when the war ended, Lincoln was invited to the flag raising ceremony,  but his advisors advised against it,  as SC really didn't  like him very much at the time. Instead, he made alternate plans to visit the theater (ie, instead of seeing the flag raised to signify a united country, he was assasinated! )