Reflections on a Road Trip

We've been back for a week, but a week in real life has so much more going on. It has given some time to reflect on the summer and look back over things. Overall, this was an amazing summer and fantastic trip. We had a ton of fun, saw SO many people, got to do really cool stuff (paragliding, mystery houses, big cities, and national parks), and spend an incredible amount of time together.

Other than when Mitch was flying, we were together 24/7 for a total of 42 days. Thats a lot of time. And a lot of bad jokes. We laughed, I cried (mostly when my back hurt really badly), we listened to music and podcasts, we had deep conversations, and read a lot of Laffy Taffy jokes. And I couldn't have asked for a better person to do it with. I think Mitch is truly the only person I can spend that much time with and not want to murder at some point. There were a few tense moments, but they were rare and typically centered on traffic and scheduling. Mushy alert: I departed on this trip totally in love with this guy, and I returned even more in love with him.

On another note, here are a few things I learned along the way:

-We didn't camp as much as anticipated because setting up camp takes a long time and its so much quicker to find a cheap motel
- Packing for 6 weeks is hard. I over packed. I did not get invited to tea with the queen, or any other dignitaries for that matter, so packing more than one "nice" outfit was unnecessary.
- Leggings are the best. Ok, I already knew this, but it bears repeating.
- Traffic sucks and is impossible to predict when you're 400 miles away.
- Weather is also tricky when you plan to traverse the majority of the country.
- I overestimate how cold I'll get. I would have been fine with one warm thing and layers. But I fear the cold!
- Car snacks are imperative; hanger is real.
- Fast food is just that- fast. And trying to shop and pack a cooler is way more hassle.
- Friends and family are awesome to visit, but I think for our next trip we'll go it alone.
- We are both incredibly lucky to have so many people who love us enough to let us crash on their couches and spare rooms (hooray for friends with guest rooms!), feed us, let us wash our clothes, entertain us (some of you need to work on your juggling, but we'll let it go this time), and just take time out of their lives to spend some of it with us. So thank you to every!!

No trip would be complete without a "By The Numbers", right?

So here it is:

42 Days on the road
8,290 Miles Driven
267 Hours spent driving
39.5 MPG averaged (thanks Hybrid!)
99 Friends and family members seen
29 Pets, belonging to those friends and family
5 Nights Spent camping
7 Nights spent in hotels (2 in Canada, 1 in Oregon, 1 in Idaho, 1 in Wyoming, 2 in Wisconsin)
3 Hotel nights that were unplanned (not bad!)
14 States visited
3 More states driven though
5 National Parks
4 Time Zones
2 Countries (Hey, Canada!- our first trip together abroad)
3 Roadkills (1 more if a swarm of locusts counts)
2 People who still love each other!

 

Day 1 vs Day 42

Okie Dokie

Our final stop on the road was Oklahoma City. It was a brief stop but we managed to squeeze the last drops of vacation out of it. I have relatives in OKC so Mitch was suggested to more family meetings. He may not have all the names down, but in just over 36 hours he met two aunts (Linda and Sharon), one uncle (Tom), 5 cousins (Meghan, Kiley, Lindy, Cassie, and Blair), two three cousin husbands (David who belongs to Meghan, Paul who belongs to Kylie, and Jody who belongs to Blair), a boyfriend (Ulys who is with Lindy) and four littles (Meghan's cuties Emma and Andy and Blair's cuties Ellie and Remy). And I didn't even provide flash cards. But he got to play with Cassie's darling kitten, Mowgli, so he was ok with it. 

In the afternoon we had to explore, we went to the Oklahoma City bombing memorial and the Centenial Land Run monument (I'd never heard of it either). The bombing memorial is beautifully done- it sits where the federal building once sat and on either side are large square arches that signify the entrance and have the times 9:01 and 9:03 on them. The bombing occurred at 9:02, so the represent the world before and after. There is a serene reflecting pool and simple stone and glass chairs representing each victim and the floor they were on in the building. The chair is engraved with their name and the children's chairs are smaller in size. There are a number of trees that were planted to represent the first responders and an additional patio covered in tiles painted by children from all over the US and sent to the memorial. The entire area feels oddly peaceful for an area that was once the site of a horrific terror attack. The footprint of the building is visible along one side and the neighboring building, which was also damaged, now serves as a museum. It's heartbreaking that such a place has to exist- that so many people lost their lives and are now just memories. 

After we left the memorial we switched gears and went to the land run monument. It was unique to say the least. It was mostly larger than life but incredibly detailed statues of people on horses and in covered wagons. From a distance the statues looked like they'd be life size, but as we got closer, they got larger. And larger. And larger. I think the people were about 8 feet tall and the horses were terrifyingly large. The monument is located near the boathouse district. I didn't not see "boathouse district" coming being in a landlocked state. But they have an Olympic practice rowing course on the river, which Mitch rowed on back in his college days. Oklahoma is just full of surprises. And giant horses. 

We capped our visit with dinner with the previously mentioned family members. Then got some sleep. The next morning we packed up, got in the car, and drove. And drove. And drove some more. Then drove more. For what seemed like forever but was actually about 16 hours. But at a little after 11pm we pulled into our drive way and had officially made it home! 

 

 

 

 

 

Spray painted on the wall by a first responder while they looked for survivors. 

 

 

 

 

Mitch have this poor guys high five as he fell on his horse. 

 

Music City

The best part of road tripping is the ability to change your plans at the last minute. Which is how we ended up in Nashville! 

Friend, and former coworker of mine, Louise has been bugging me to come to Nashville for years. Literally. So I finally decided to do it! Mitch had never been there and it seemed like a cool place to check out and added a minimal amount of extra time and mileage. It meant taking the short sides of a triangle rather than the hypotenuse. Worth it. 

Nashville is a cool place, like I was promised. It is also very hot and humid. But it's the south, so I guess that's par for the course. We got in Saturday evening and decided to hit the town. We headed down to Broadway, the main stretch of bars, clubs, etc. It is a sight to see. So much neon! I did not expect that. 

Our first stop was BBQ. It was an excellent decision. I do love southern BBQ. And Mac and cheese! I could go without the sweet tea everywhere though. I'm by no means a sugar hater, but sweet tea is too much. But back to Nashville... After we were throughly satiated, we walked along Broadway. There truly is live music everywhere. Every single bar has a stage and tons of buskers line the streets. Luckily Louise is a Nashville pro, and married to a musician, so she guided us well. We took on one of her favorite bands at a little bar that wasn't horribly crowded. And they were excellent! They sang a mix of their original music and classic country covers. I'll admit, I didn't know all the covers, but I liked them anyway. I even convinced Midxh to dance, albeit quite briefly, while they played. He was much more interested in watching their stand up bassist- who was incredible. 

We wandered a bit more, saw where the Opry used to be, and counted well over 20 different bachelorette parties with various matching tank tops, dresses, and sashes. Apparently Nashville is the place to go if you are getting married. 

The next day we met up with my cousin Chelsea who is finishing her degree as a nurse practitioner at Vanderbilt. We explored some more of the town; got amazing ice cream floats at The Parlor- mine was cream soda and moose tracks ice cream. Then we saw the Parthenon. Because there is one of those in Nashville- the reason is some sort of fair that happened a long time ago, but the important part is that there is a Parthenon in Tennessee. We saw the giant golden Athena inside, holding a small Nike. And the park it's all located it in was also a Poke Stop. Chelsea has been a Pokemon fan for decades so she was happy to catch a few and I marveled at the mass of people looking for them. Mitch was happy because he got the largest cotton candy anyone has ever seen. 

After that we decided to cool off in the air conditioning of the Opry Land hotel. It's huge! It was once the largest non-gaming hotel in America. It has a river complete with a boat in it, dozens of restaurants, a color coded map, convention center, and hotel rooms that over look it all (inside). It was impressive to wander around and a good way to conclude our very quick Nashville trip. 

We made a new friend.  

 

 

Sometimes you match your soda straw... Love at first sip! 

Selfie with Chelsea 

That is a giant gold woman. 

 

 

 

A giant ball of sugar!

 

Poke hunters

 

This is indoors at the Opryland hotel. I repeat, this is inside!

Following the Whiskey Trail

We left Indiana and started our journey south: through Kentucky. Neither of us had been to Kentucky before. Turns out it's really pretty! And also really humid. We definitely hit the south.  

Our actual destination was Nashville but Kentucky is between Indiana and Nashville for those of you who aren't up on your southern geography. Kentucky is also the home of bourbon, which means they have a ton of distilleries in the state. Something in the 30 range- that's a lot of booze. And while stopping at all of them sounds great, we opted for just one this trip: Makers Mark. 

Our criteria for deciding which distillery to stop at were pretty complex: do they do a tour? How close to "on the way" is it? Makers Mark does tours and is relatively close to the freeway, so it was the winner. And it turned out to be an excellent choice and one I recommend the next time you find yourself traversing Kentucky and in search of bourbon. 

To get there we took a lot of windy back roads through the hilly countryside, hoping we were on the right path. And then we saw it: a huge house and what was clearly the distillery. It is a gorgeous estate: a lovely babbling brook, trees, fields, various buildings all used on the production and bottling. They do everything on site: make the mash, ferment it, distill it, age it in whiskey barrels, bottle it, label it, and hand dip it in their signature red wax. We took a tour, got to taste the fermenting mash (which was actually cold even though it looks like it is boiling- the bubbles are the yeast eating sugars), saw the barrels being aged, saw the bottling line, and learned the history. Most of the credit really belongs to Margie Samuels, the founders wife. She came up with the brand name because the Samuels family had made moonshine that was awful and their name was not terribly well regarded when it came to taste. She also created the brand and did a lot of the early marketing. I love learning about awesome women in history! 

The company is still run by a descendant, the grandson of Margie. At the end of the tour we got to do a tasting (woo hoo!). It was about noon and we hadn't really eaten yet, so even though it was a small amount of whiskey, we felt it. We got to try their "white dog" or moonshine- unaged whiskey. We also tried the classic, Bill Jr's (the recently retired CEO and founders son) creation- 46, and a private label election they've just started. Then they bring you into the giftshop where you can purchase your own bottles and hand dip them into the red wax. Obviously we were all about that- so we got a few bottles and dipped them. The pros can do up to 28 bottle dips per minute. We need more practice. We also became Ambassadors. Which means we signed up to get our names put on a gold plaque that will then be placed on a barrel. In 7 years our barrel will be ready for bottling and we get to go back to Kentucky and buy some of the bottles from our barrel. Sneaky marketing at its finest. But we are already planning our trip back for our barrel baby's graduation. You also get to wear a neat name tag and be recognized by the tour guides and all the staff. So that's a fun perk. 

After we dipped our bottles we continued south- to Mammoth Cave National Park. The drive was again quite a few windy back roads. And then signs declaring "road ends in water". I've never seen a sign declaring this and there wasn't any other way to go, so we kept driving. And saw more signs warning of what seemed like our impending doom. And then, all of a sudden, water. The road literally just goes into a small river. But there is a ferry! We waited in line (part because ferrys are cool and part because there was no other option- road ended in water after all) and then got to drive onto the ferry with the two cars in front of us. The ferry is attached to cables and is a very short ride to cross the river. But it was the first time either of us had ever been on a ferry with our vehicle, let alone while sitting in our vehicle. Certainly an unexpected means of transportation in our quest to the park. We also crossed back into the central time zone somewhere along the windy roads, which was lucky for us because the ferry took a bit longer than I anticipated and we would have missed our tour had we not gained an hour. So thanks arbitrary time zone lines! 

And now the main event: Mammoth Cave.  It is the longest series of connected caves in the world and currently sits at about 400 miles, but is continually being mapped and explored. Most of the 400 miles are only crawlable. But a few miles are walkable so we took a tour of two miles of it. We went through giant rooms, very narrow passages aptly named "fat mans misery" and "tall mans misery". Though if you ask me, tall men would be miserable during a solid 75% of the tour. The more places we go the more I'm grateful for both of our short statures. We are very rarely "too tall" for anything and didn't have to do too much ducking in the caves. Thanks genetics!

We also saw a beautiful and incredibly tall dome, lots of scalloped rock formed by the running water that creates the limestone caves, 1800s candle graffiti made by holding the flame of a candle made of animal fat close to the roof of the cave and creating a black mark. We also learned a good amount of history: the earliest tour guides and cave explorers and miners of Mammoth were slaves. They were so good at their jobs that more slaves were often rented out to explore further and currently a descendant of one of the early slave explorers still works at the park. There is also evidence of human presence in the caves 5000 years ago. It was amazing how one cave system has had such an impact and been shaped by so many people through history. From what it sounded like the slaves who explored the cave worked alone and explored further based primarily on their own curiosity and desire to see what lie ahead in the darkness. It was a worthwhile stop and tour, and the cave was a lovely 54 degrees which was a nice reprieve from the heat and stifling humidity above. 

Next stop: Nashville and another new state! 

 

 
How cute is this?   
 
 Fermentation!   

Not boiling- we literally stuck our fingers in this to taste it. It will be distilled and heated later so the germs will die. 
 
 
 

 

This is what our plaque will look like! Hey there bourbon babies. 
 
 

Tasting time 

 
The before picture
 
Mitch was up first. 
 
The process is dip, twist to distribute evenly, set up right for the drips and to dry. 
 
 
The lovely arm covers, gloves, apron, and eye protection are provided. The wax is 350 degrees.  
 
The after picture. 
 Who knew! 
 
Our turn! 
 
 Beware the water. 

 
Cables to get us across.  
 
Rides over
 
So long ferry! 

 
 
Remnants of 1800s mining. They wanted the nitrate rich soil to make salt petre which was then used to make gun powder
 
This is Giants Coffin
 
Old school tagging
 
They weren't kidding. It was quite a narrow passage.