I've(We've) Been Everywhere, Man

Daily Mileage=323; Total Trip and Final Mileage=12,130

Well, we made it home on Thursday afternoon and was welcomed by our friends who decorated our house for us in very good style! After reading all the "welcome home" signs we headed off to Woody's to celebrate the completion of our wonderful journey.

Just as we started our trip, we found a parking place and ate some great fried oysters at our own local place. Woody's may not make it's own brew but it great anyway!! We were treated to dinner by Rick & Corrine and their grandchildren (Caroline, Katie and Tommy) and their daughter, Suzie. (Unfortunately, Tim was home working!) It was very neat to see them again at the end of our trip because we had visited them at their home in Colorado early on. Here we all are. (So for all of those complaining about the lack of "Mare" photos, here it is!)

Now today's blog title is a song that was recorded by Johnny Cash but you've probably best know it from a TV commercial for a hotel chain. We've taken some liberties with the words but the song does pretty much sum up our travels. Please excuse the literary sloppiness but you get the gist of it. Here's our rendition.

We’ve been everywhere man,
We’ve been everywhere.
Crossed the deserts bear man,
We’ve breathed the mountain air man,
Of travel, we’ve had our share man,
We’ve been everywhere.

We’ve been to Fargo, Tupelo and the great Colorado!
We’ve been to Minnesota and both Dakotas.
Saw a moose and a caboose but no mongoose.
We’ve been to Coeur d’ Alene and Spokane. Lucky for us no rain!
We’ve been everywhere man,
Of travel, we’ve had our share man,
We’ve been everywhere.

We’ve been to Tacoma and Oklahoma
We’ve been to Nebraska and soon to be Alaska.
Saw some corn and big horn; even where Elvis was born.
We’ve been to Alabama, Louisiana and Montana.
We’ve been everywhere man,
Of travel, we’ve had our share man,
We’ve been everywhere.

We’ve been to Yellowstone without a phone and Glacier with nature?
We’ve been to Kansas City, Salt Lake City and even Sioux City, what a pity!
Saw some lakes and some snakes. Even ate bison steaks!
We’ve been to Idaho saw some snow but didn’t have a potato.
We’ve been everywhere man,
Of travel, we’ve had our share man,
See what we mean,man?
We’ve been everywhere man.

OK enough of the song, I think Johnny Cash did a better version. We do want to give you some final statistics on the trip and our "Top List."

Trip Statistics:
We've made it back to Hilton Head exactly 59 days after we started.

We've traveled to 25 states including: GA, AL, MS, TN, AK, OK, TX, NM, CO, AZ, UT, ID, OR, WA, MT, WY, SD, ND, MN, IA, NE, KS, MO, IL, KY. We drove all these miles without any car trouble at all (actually Rich did all the driving because he wanted to, although I moved the car once but not enough to move the odometer).

We consumed 11 cases of water and only half that much wine!
We did wash 8 times.

The highest temperature was 98degrees in Zion,Utah; Lowest was 23 in Yellowstone, WY.
We slept in 32 different beds.
Best gas mileage was 44 mpg. Best price was $2.78.
Worst gas mileage was 32 mpg. Worst price was $3.58.

We finished/listened to 12 books (Mare actually read 2 more and Rich read about 10 magazines and a newspaper everyday).

We don't have the total cost of the trip but we estimate we spent an average of $200.00 a day for food and lodging. We were gone 60 days, you can do the math but it was well worth it!!

Now, we had so many wonderful experiences and great times that it was very difficult to narrow down our "Top List." Also we decided that we would combine places, experiences, events and even meals into one list. We could have done "top cities" "top views" etc., but we would be writing this blog for the next year so, we narrowed and prioritized the best way we could.

Mare & Rich's Top List from their cross country trip:
1. Yellowstone National Park, WY (EVERYTHING) for the variety offered
2. Grand Teton National Park, WY (the Teton Peaks, Inspiration Point, Chapel)

3.Bryce Canyon National Park, UT (the amphitheatre hoodos)
4. Glacier National Park, MT (McDonald & Many Lakes)
5. Zion National Park, UT (riding bus & looking at the mtns thru the top windows on bus)
6. Messa Verde NP, CO (the cliff dwelling tours)
7. Lake Powell, Paige AZ (the lake and canyons)
8. The prairie dog towns scattered out west
9. The mama elk at Yellowstone (who lost her calf to the bears)
10. The moose in Teton and Yellowstone (especially mom & 2 calves at Lake Many, Glacier)
11. Portland, OR (the rose garden)
12. The Seastacks on the WA coast beaches (rock formations)
13. AK and ID surprises (both states are more beautiful than you expect)
14. Best meal of trip at the Spotted Dog (outside of Zion NP, UT)
15. OK City National Monument (for the FBI bombing victims)
16. Lodge on Detroit Lake, MN (great lodge and lake etc.,)
17. St. Louis, MO (the Arch)
18. Nashville, TN (Grand Ole Opry radio show & CW Hall of Fame Museum)
19. Crater Lake, OR
20. Badlands NP, SD (hike to overview)
21. Mt. Rushmore, SD (and the new underconstruction Crazy Horse Monument, SD)
22. Red Rocks , CO
23. Sea Lion Cave, OR
24. Hoh Rainforest, WA
25. Seafood in Seattle, WA
26. Chasing Golden Tail Ale, Salt Lake City, UT (honorable mention: Moose Drool, (Snot) Glacier NP)

So that's it. We could probably have a top 50 list because just about everyday we saw something wonderful. We are so blessed and thankful to have had the opportunity to explore our great country. We will definitely go back to some of these places but know that there are at least another 2 months worth of sights to see.
Hope you enjoyed the journey with us. We wish you well and hope that you can make it to some of these great locations or find some new ones on your own.

Love&Joy, Mare&Rich

PS We have now traveled to 49 states. We will be doing Alaska, our 50th August 1st. So check the blog for the final chapter.

Country Road Take Me/Us Home

Daily Mileage= 349;Trip Total=11,807

We left Nashville this morning and stopped at Lynchburg,TN to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery. This distillery has been around for over 150 years and is the oldest distillery in the United States. It was really neat but no samples of Jack because the distillery is in a dry county. In fact there are several dry counties in the area so you can't buy it really anywhere near the place.

However, the tour was quite informative and we loved the fact that you can buy your own barrel and get a special "one barrel" whiskey for about $3,000 plus taxes. (maybe for Christmas!)

We stopped at Lynchburg "downtown" which is right out of Mayberry. We ate at the "Red Caboose" had a pulled pork sandwich and moved onto Atlanta. Here's Rich in a heavy game of checkers! I think the other guy won!!

We ended our final night away with a wonderful home cooked dinner at Brian & Andrea's home in Atlanta. This is the way we started out so it seems fitting that we should wind down this way. We are now getting as excited about coming home as we were going to all the wonderful places we've been to. And of course, we are looking forward to sleeping in our own bed!

Here they are with their very cute house!!!

Tomorrow's blog will sum up our trip with our Top 10 List. See you on the blog. Good night, Love&Joy, Mare&Rich

Grand Ole Opry Song

Daily Mileage= 40; Total Trip=11,498

Today we went out of town to the home of Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States. The Hermitage was his home from 1804 when it was simple quarters until his death at home in 1845. His land grew from 425 acres to 1,000 and the mansion is about 7,500 square feet. The chief cash crop was cotton, but the farm was also self-sufficient, growing it's own food. They also had pigs which provided the main meat for Jackson and their slaves (about 140), sheep for wool, a dairy herd and a herd of cattle for the occasional beef dinner. He and his wife, Rachel, were childless but adopted her nephew who with his wife and children also lived in the mansion on the plantation. Unfortunately, his wife died right before he was to move into the While House for his first term as president. The tour of the house is done by costumed tour guides and the remainder of the plantation, which has some wonderful original buildings and archaeological finds, is done on your own. By the way, it was about 98 degrees at one point in the afternoon! (And I thought HHI was humid!!!)

This is the back of the house which looks as good as the front. The wallpaper inside is over 150 years old and looks beautiful. The preservation of this property has taken place since 1889 due to the Ladies' Hermitage Association which still runs the site today. When the family couldn't maintain the estate any longer, this non-profit organization took it over and slowly restored the property. They have done an amazing job. It was a delightful visit and the property is beautiful.

An interesting fact we learned was that the "democratic donkey" was started with Andrew Jackson's presidential campaign. Apparently, he was seen to be as stubborn as a donkey and cartoonist portrayed him as such. He used it to his advantage in the elections. Since he was seen as a democrat (one for the common people) it became the democratic symbol ever since. Pretty neat, don't you think? Now, where did that elephant come from?

We had a late lunch in a neighborhood, Hillsboro Village, at a restaurant called Sunset Grill. It was recommended by Alix, Tom D.'s daughter, who worked in Nashville for several years. The neighborhood is by Vanderbilt which is a rather large/somewhat city campus that looks very interesting. Since it does have a university in the area, you can imagine how the neighborhood is with restaurants, boutiques and coffee shops. It's also near Music Row which has a ton of music things on it including recording studios. The lunch was very good and hit the spot since we were on our way to the Grand Ole Opry at Opryland.

The new theatre is just one of several major entertainment options at Opryland. There is a huge mall, a golf course and a "Disneyland-like" hotel, Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. This hotel has several thousand rooms with a very large and beautiful atrium. The atrium and lobby is broken into numerous sections and is completely enclosed. The rooms look down into the various sections of the atrium. It's a little too "over the top" for us but could be fun for a night if you were going to the Grand Ole Opry (you can walk to it from the hotel). We've tried to show the conservatory with the rooms overlooking it in this photo.

This is what we mean about "over the top with a Disney flare." Hee-Haw!!!

The Grand Ole Opry is now about 10 miles out of the downtown Nashville area. It was moved there back in the 1970's. They do the "Grand" show on Saturdays for the weekly radio show on WSM. Now they also do Friday and Tuesday night shows as well. It was one of the coolest things we've seen in a long time. (I was feeling a little disappointed because I didn't get tickets for the Ryman Auditorium but after tonight, I think we did the right venue!)

The Grand Ole Opry House is done very similarly to the Ryman, only its slightly bigger. So there is still the curved pews, the stage with the radio signs and the same great atmosphere. They make it so friendly. You can eat and drink in the theatre; take all the photos you want. You can even just get up in the middle of the performance, go down by the stage and take photos right up front! It's really great!

Here's the balcony which probably they say has the best seats in the house. We were down stairs but we would say there really aren't any bad seats.

Since it's a two hour live radio show you get them reading the commercials and doing the change overs rather quickly and efficiently. They had eight different singers/groups performing and although we didn't know any of them real well, some of their songs were quite familiar to us. Also, people were cheering them on so obviously, to real country western fans, it was a "star-studded" lineup. (Sorry I don't have the program with me right now so I can't give you these performers names.) However, we liked them all and would definitely recommend doing this if you're in Nashville. It doesn't matter who they are, they're all good. After all they're playing at the Grand Ole Opry! So this is our last night on the road (tomorrow we're still not home but we're at Brian & Andrea's in Atlanta). What a way to spend our last night in "Music City USA." It was awesome! Good night folks, Love&Joy, Mare&Rich

Nashville Skyline Rag

Daily Mileage = 20;Total Trip= 11,458

We started out this morning visiting a plantation in Nashville but not downtown. Belle Meade (beautiful morning) was a plantation founded in 1807 by John Harding and his wife Susannah. The Hardings started out with a small log cabin that is still on the property and grew into the mansion that is there today. The tour was given by a guide in costume and is one of the best "historical house" tours we've been on.

At the height of its success the plantation was 5400 acres and the mansion had grown to only 7,000 square feet. The interesting and different aspect of this plantation is that it didn't do "cash crops" but rather became a premier thoroughbred horse farm. The tour takes you into the mansion which has been restored and holds a number of the original pieces.

We also walked around the grounds (which today are no where near the 5400 acres it was back in the late 1800's although the "town" of Belle Meade is very upscale and lovely). There are slave quarters, a dairy, wonderful stables and a carriage house. (Notice the "surrey with the fringe on the top." Just one of several carriages they have on display.) The plantation stayed in the family for several generations but in the early 1900's, gambling fell out of favor and so did the horse racing industry, this fact plus the patriarch dying placed the business into bankruptcy. In the 1950's the non-family owners sold it to the state who then turned it over to a historical society which now runs it.

However, in its heyday, the Belle Meade Plantation owned several of the top stud horses in the world. One of the famous horses was Bonnie Scotland who sired more Kentucky Derby winners than any other horse. Some of the more modern horses who are from his bloodline include: Seabiscuit, Secretariat, Funny Cide, Smarty Jones, Giacomo and Barbarro. Not too bad a bloodline if you ask me!!
This is a doll house that was built for the children to play in (I guess there wasn't enough room in the big mansion!). It was very cute and there are a lot of interpretative activities for children on the grounds as well.

We ended our trip there with a very lovely lunch (southern style) at Martha's at the Plantation. Good eats.

We then headed over to the Ryman Auditorium. It was the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1945 until 1973. The fact that we didn't know until we took the self-guided tour, was that it was originally built as a church in 1892 by a barge owner, Ryman. He decided there should be a church, rather than a tent, for his reverend to give his sermons in. When Ryman died, they decided to rename the church the "Ryman Auditorium." It was supposed to be used for religious purposes but when it was still in a lot of debt a woman became its house manager and began to bring in all sorts of entertainment. She ran it successfully for 50 years in the black! Everyone who is anyone had played (or wished they had played) at the Ryman Auditorium. It's really neat because the seats are actually curved pews and the acoustics are supposed to be as good as the Mormon Tabernacle's auditorium.

In 1973 the Grand Ole Opry shows moved to a new venue so that more people could see the shows. The place stood empty for almost 20 years because no one could or would restore it. Finally, someone did and it's open again for performances. It has been restored beautifully and is now a National Historic Landmark.

Rich is here with Minnie Pearl one of the classics at the Ryman.

We then went to the County Museum Hall of Fame (CMHF). It is a new, huge building that holds not only a museum on country music but also extensive archives and artifacts. The museum has been around for awhile but the new quarters is only a few years old. Our time there was great. It was done very well and whether or not you're a country music fan, it's packed full of information and interest. It is very interactive and we did the audio tour which provided us with more data than we'll ever remember.

The architecture itself was neat. The windows are supposed to be the black keys on a piano. The tower over the rotunda (which houses the Hall of Fame) is a reminder of the diamond-shaped WSM Radio tower, which was instrumental in the growth of country music. From overhead, the building resembles the shape of a bass clef (but you have to get above it to actually see this effect).

The floors are done chronologically with memorabilia displayed within the era they are portraying. They have samples of the music from early gospel, blue grass, tin guitars, early country, cross over music all the way through to the present day. There are also interview videos you can listen to and watch. It just goes on and on. You can spend at least 3 hours there and we almost did. Having just seen the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland this past January, this was so much better. There is really no comparison and it made us feel slightly sad that the Rock and Roll Museum wasn't done more like the Country Music one.

The Hall of Fame Rotunda is also done very nicely and has a bronze plaque for each member. You know all the names such as, Dolly Parton, Whealon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline just to name a few of our favorites. There are many more and of course we had to get a photo of Rich's favorite, Johnny Cash!

We finished the afternoon with drinks listening to some country music at "Tootsies" which is a legend located right on Broadway. A woman called, Tootsie, ran it for years. It is right behind the Ryman Auditorium and when performers had a break in between sets, they would slip out the back and run in for a "fast one or two."

The place looks like a dive but the photos, autographs and memorabilia are great. It's been there for years. It has two bands playing simultaneously one upstairs and one down. It's crazy. By the way, the building is purple and blends into the street but I love the modern skyline in the back. You see this all over Nashville the old and new. Downtown is really not that big but there are many other sections which are sprawled out from it and are still called "Nashville." It's a lot of fun! We may not want to leave.....

Good night. Love&Joy, Mare&Rich

Nashville Cats

Daily Mileage=315; Trip Total= 11,438


Before we left for Nashville today, we decided to drive around some of the other sections of St. Louis. We drove up to the Grand Center and Central West End areas of the city. The Basilica of St. Louis is up in this area and as you can see from the photos it was gorgeous. We even made it for part of the Mass!







The church construction was started in 1907. Its architecture is Romanesque on the exterior with heavy Byzantine aspects visible on the interior. There are 83,000 square feet of mosaic art created by 20 artists and installed over a 75 year period. It was quite impressive.



The surrounding neighborhood looked like Bronxville or Scarsdale. Very upscale and it even had a few high rise apartment buildings, probably condos. Further up the street, which is wide and looks more like a boulevard, you come upon Forest Park. It was the sight of the 1898 World's Fair in STL. They have placed museums, a boathouse and the zoo inside the park. It resembles Central Park with a skating rink and lots of bike and jogging paths. It is very well maintained and the surrounding streets aptly compare to Central Park South & West as well as well as houses along Fifth Avenue. It was good to see a totally different side from the downtown section of St. Louis.







We drove through some heavy rain but thankfully it was only for a small portion of the trip. We decided that this was the first really bad weather day we had for entire journey.














We arrived at Nashville and the first sight we saw outside our hotel was the Wiener Mobile with the license plate, "Big Bun." Do we only stay at the best places in a town or what? We then strolled down Broadway which is a major street in Nashville and old like one would expect a "Broadway" to be. It has lots of souvenir and cowboy shops and of course restaurants. It has one of the largest Hard Rock Cafes we've ever seen with a cool Gibson guitar painted on the wall. It's right around the corner from the stadium where the Titans play. We stopped at the Big River Brewing Company and of course tried some of the beer. It's originally from Chattanooga and wasn't bad at all.

By the way, here's Rich with Elvis. Now you know what kind of shops we're talking about!!!

Tomorrow we're off to explore the city and will be singing country western music all day long!

Good night. Love&Joy, Mare&Rich

Meet Me in St. Louis, Louie

Daily Mileage=0; Trip Mileage= 11,123

(Yesterday we passed another thousand mark on the trip; today we hoofed it.)

Today we tried to see the Cardinals vs the Phillies game but when the tickets were $70.00 each we decided we didn't want to see the game that badly. The stadium however is great! It has wonderful statues of famous Cardinals outside the stadium. One of them was Stan Musial. They did the stadium over in 2006 and then they proceeded to win the World Series. "Build it and they will win!" Anyway, we got some really nice shots of the stadium even though we didn't go in. Maybe next time.....

So our next stop was the Arch. How could we be in St. Louis and not see the arch? It's actually more than just an arch. It is technically called, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and is under the auspices of the National Park System. It has several movies, a nice museum and of course the Arch trip. You can also take a ride on the Mississippi on a river boat. We decided to do it all. It was very warm and humid here and spending time inside seemed to be OK with us.

It took a little more than 2 years to build the arch and it really is phenomenal. Again, it's one of the sights we wanted to see but really didn't think it would be that great. It was! Not only from an aesthetic view but also from an engineering perspective. The arch was built from 1962 until 1965. No one died during the process which was quite amazing given that these workers were doing things not done before, very high up without any safety lines.

The documentary movie told of how they actually built the arch, which after watching, I was sorry I had a ticket to go to the top! The arch is huge, 630 feet high, but it is an arch and slants up and down. I was having trouble understanding how we were safely going to travel up this structure in a "tram" and stop at the top to look at the view. Here's one of Rich's views of the arch from the bottom.

So we went up to the top and the ride was an interesting one. You are put into a small round enclosure, similar to the ones used on old Ferris wheel rides. It's made for five people but not really. It is small, we both bumped our heads on it. When five people were seated our knees were hitting each other. It was hot and there was only one window looking on the inside of the passageway. If you're claustrophobic, this is not for you (in fact, it probably wasn't for me and I'm not that bad!!) There are eight of these "pods" or as someone put it, "space capsules" that travel at one time.

When you get to the top you exit your pod walk across the top of the arch (inside) but you definitely know you're walking across an arch and can spend as much time as you want in a relative small area. There are 32 small, narrow windows (16 on each side) and you have a tremendous view, if you like that sort of thing. I was ready to go down in about 3 minutes!! The ride up (and down) is only 4 minutes but seemed a lot longer, especially going up.

The museum has many exhibits on the western expansion which was undertaken at the orders of Thomas Jefferson, hence the name of the National Park site.
The arch is representative of the "gateway to the west" and to that extent we kind of did this in reverse. We should have started here on our journey West, as did Lewis & Clark. Their expedition is a major part of the museum since they left from this area. We have actually seen several of the sights in person that are talked about here and elsewhere. Now we understand why we kept seeing "Lewis & Clark" trail signs everywhere we went out west. However, the museum and the overall experience was really worthwhile.

We then took the riverboat cruise so that we could say we rode on the Mississippi River in a riverboat (even if it was only an hour). It was starting to rain but we had a nice ride up and down the river. We are still amazed that the Missouri, the Ohio at some point, and the Mississippi all converge into Mississippi (about 20 miles north of here). We saw the Missouri River so far away from here (in Montana) that it's hard to believe it! Today on the cruise they indicated that barges still carry million dollar loads of product up and down. The river may look brown and not so great but it is the lifeline for cities on it!

We then walked around the rest of the downtown area which is has many old beautiful office buildings. Much of the downtown area is being re-done into lofts and condominiums. Some are done already but many are closed up and being worked on. You can see the potential but they are definitely in the middle of a revitalization. It will be fantastic once it is accomplished.

Today is our 23rd anniversary on the 23rd of June! We had "pulled pork" some Tanqueray and tonics and did the wash! It was a great anniversary and we're starting to face the fact with saddness and anticipation that we'll be home next Thursday. We don't want our wonderful adventure to end but we are looking forward to seeing our own homestead and family & friends!

Good night. Love&Joy, Mare&Rich

Lincoln, Lincoln I've Been Thinking......

Daily Mileage=313; Total Trip=11,123

Today we crossed the Mississippi river and drove up into Springfield, Illinois. We went to the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library. (Our friend, Tom Daley said he couldn't believe that we would stop at the Bill Clinton Library/Museum but not the great Abraham Lincoln site. Tom is a consummate Republican however we thought about it and decided to put it into the route.) We stopped at Lincoln's home and took a brief tour then went to the 2 year old museum. The city which is also the capital of Illinois, is a larger city than some of the other western ones we've seen but very well maintained. The buildings, especially those with historic significance, have been restored and are beautiful. However, we left there at 5PM during rush hour and there was still no traffic, where are the people out here?? We also got to travel on the historic and infamous Route 66. (It's not really around anymore, it's become the major interstates, but you do see the reference signs as you travel out west.)

The historic site is really nice and very interesting. Lincoln's home in Springfield is where he and his family lived for a number of years before he became president. It reminds me of some of the Savannah houses. They are restoring the streets in the surrounding area so that there are even gravel streets and wooden curbs. The house was quite substantial however they were not considered "rich" for the time. And Mary Todd Lincoln did do her own cooking on one of the "top of line" stoves for the era. Rich wishes he had one, right!!!

We then went to the Museum which is rather new and very interactive. There is a wonderful library that holds millions of documents and artifacts about Lincoln and his era. It is a research library and not really open to the public. The museum is also quite impressive, although there were times when I felt I was in a Disney World attraction. They have several shows/movies (3D) that are technologically advanced and very entertaining. I think they are well received because most people want to sit down and be fed the information. Many of the other presidential "libraries" have tons of data but it's presented in such a way that you have to read and explore the information on your own. However, I don't want to give the impression that it wasn't worth visiting, it definitely was. We thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot about Lincoln, his family and the political times he served in. One of the best exhibits showed a US map on a screen a map during the Civil War. It showed the Civil War (the movements and the casualties) on a week by week basis. One second equaled one week. They showed 5 years (1860-1865) in 4 minutes. It was quite impressive and shocking (over 1 million causalities).

We then traveled back to Missouri and arrived in St. Louis. We went down to dinner at the old, restored Union Station. It's similar to other cities in which they now have shops and restaurants inside the trail station. There was a Cardinals baseball game going on in their beautiful new stadium (we couldn't get tickets but will try for tomorrow since they are playing the Phillies). The city is a "real" city relative to others. It's large, has many elevated highways, lots of old buildings and of course, the Arch. We are doing that tomorrow.

So Good night. Love&Joy, Mare&Rich