Update

Yes, once again I have been delinquent in posting! I have to post our adventures in Georgia and will do that soon, I promise! In addition, we've spent a couple weeks in Florida, but will you believe it, I didn't take a single pic while I was there?! Well ok I took a couple at Disney World, but other than that, Trent and I both felt that Florida was somewhat of a bust. If I wanted to go to New Jersey, I would've gone there!! And it's true what they say, you can take the person out of NJ, but you can't take the NJ out of the person. How's that for Florida? j/k!

No really it wasn't horrible, but it also was nothing to write home about. Maybe I will post about Disney World. But the weather was iffy- hit 80 maybe once but was overall in the 50-60s and overcast. Visually, they have interesting foliage in FL, but other than that nothing too stimulating. And finally, the overall consensus of the people there = weird. They are odd. There were certainly some normal folk there, but I think that because everyone there is from different places, it makes for an odd melange of individuals.

Am I being too harsh? But honest at least, right? On a good note, Trent saw 2 armadillos today in FL- one alive, one dead, on different locales on the highway. I was jealous because I missed both due to playing on my dumb iPhone. So that redeems FL a little!!

Anyways, for the next few days we are in Mississippi, Gulfport to be exact. And I am in love, it is really remarkable. I should definitely have some photos from here, it's truly cool, just how I envision the true beautiful south. And on Monday we are day-tripping it to New Orleans!! Can I really be this lucky?!

So yea, more to come!

Sweet Home Alabama

Saturn V

We weren't in Huntsville very long, just a couple of days. Which frankly, is enough for me. But, we did make a fun discovery- thanks to my sharp Wikipedia skills, we learned that Huntsville is quite the engineering hub, and has lent many a hand to NASA. In fact, it is currently the home of Space Camp, yes the Space Camp!

Why this even matters, is that Trent's grandpa, Claude, was an engineer for the Saturn V, the first rocket to the moon. He did the heavy hydraulics on it. Well, this said rocket happens to be on display at the Space & Rocket Museum in Huntsville! And even better, it's outside, so even though the museum was closed today (once again, a Tuesday, what's up with not being open Tuesdays, museums of the world?), we managed to snag some shots of it!

Trent said he always wanted to be an astronaut when he was a kid. Then he asked me if I did too, to which I replied, "Oh hellz naw". Ok actually I said "not really". But the whole idea just seems a little freaky to me. I think it takes a lot of guts to want to do something like that. Maybe one day, when it's a common thing to go to the moon, I will consider it. :)

But yea, Alabama was good. Some parts definitely live up to their reputation, but other parts were absolutely breath-taking. And they have 2/3-sized ducks! They're cute and 33% smaller than your average duck. Very cool. Oh and we passed the Alabama fan club and museum- for Alabama the band, which is in Alabama. Hah. Yea it's a pretty awesome state.

PS- Check out this parking lot sign, and tell me what is wrong. I'll give you a hint, the error is on the bottom half. Maybe it's just me, the spelling freak that cares. :)

Nashville Returns!

I know it might seem strange, but I quite enjoy re-visiting certain places in our journey. We returned to Nashville for another round of shows, and while there were able to visit Opry Mills (an outlet mall, akin to Franklin or Potomac or Grapevine, etc. Mills). I kinda wanted to visit this mall again, so I conveniently made sure we stayed close by to make this happen for us. The good news is, the hotel was actually pretty sweet!

We stayed at a Hampton Inn, which usually are like glorified Holiday Inns. However, this one, seeing as though it has to compete with all the fancy schmancy Nashville hotels (and being in close proximity to the Grand Ole Opry), was totally decked out and fun- very my style!

Oh and then we went to Knoxville, where we got snowed in for a couple days, but on the way out of town, the trees were lined with ice, and it was the most beautiful, magical thing! I tried to take some pics, but I don't know if they do it any justice. It was simply gorgeous.

Not too much excitement occurred, but it was fun!

Memphis, TN

"I may not get there with you, but I want you to know that we, as a people, will get to the promised land"- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

Ah yes, Memphis. Well, the original plan was to swing through here on the way to Nashville, so we could see Graceland. Sadly though, upon discovering that a good quality visit to Graceland would set us back $70 a pop, we decided to forgo that and instead, opted for the much-cheaper National Civil Rights Museum. After all, who isn't a fan of civil rights?

Now, although I am generally a fantastic party planner, I might have dropped the ball and ignored the fact that the museum is CLOSED on Tuesdays- of all days of the week! I know, I know. It definitely explained why there were no cars in the lot, and how we managed to find parking downtown for a 45-foot motorcoach. But, we still took some photos of the Lorraine Motel, where MLK was assassinated (which is now the museum), and enjoyed a lunch in the Arcade Cafe, the oldest diner in Memphis:

.

It was neat to see the MLK tributes, because let's face it, he was pretty awesome. Trent felt the peace sign was an appropriate symbol of MLK, and I agree. :)

Also, there are tons of old trolleys floating about in the streets. I had fun watching them from the restaurant window, and hoped to get some great photos, but only ended up with a couple pics. They took me back though, to like the mid-20th century, and I could really feel an interesting energy from those trolleys. I wish I could live in the hey-day of these trolleys.

Overall though, Trent and I pretty much decided we weren't very impressed with Memphis. Perhaps it was because our hotel was in the middle of a ghetto? Maybe it's because I saw a dead chipmunk that was standing up? Or could it be the hair I found in my queso at dinner? Who can tell? Though, I honestly wouldn't mind going back and seeing some of the museums, the recording studios and DEFINITELY Beale Street (which we drove past quickly, and it looked awesome- my dad would love it!).

Bonus: On the way from Missouri to Tennessee, I saw the sun rays breaking through these clouds and managed to capture it- on an iPhone too! Actually these iPhone cameras take some decent shots!

Meet me in St.Louis!

So, I was actually pleasantly surprised by St. Louis. I had been there once, long long ago- 10 years ago, to be exact- so it was a nice refresher course in good ol' Saint Louie.

Of course, we wanted to take the coach down to the arch so that it could get its picture taken. I wasn't sure how we were going to do that, imagining hordes of tourists and next to no parking, but great news everyone, there was ample room for a cute bear bus to get its picture taken!

Now, we unfortunately could only stay in the bus pick up/drop off area for 10 minutes, so I let Trent out of the cage so he could explore the arch area a little (can you believe, he has family in Missouri, but has never been to the arch!), and then we took off. It was sweet and simple.

The next day, we had our event at a The Kemp Auto Museum in Chesterfield (St. Louis suburb).

When I first heard it was an auto museum, I was thinking one of those decrepit roadside museums that litter the midwest highways. However, we were pleasantly surprised at what the venue turned out to be- check out some of these sweet, one-of-a-kind cars for yourself:

Cool, right?! There were more where that came from, too. I was not only impressed, but honored that our beautiful motorcoach could (sort of) join the ranks amongst those fancy automobiles, if even just for a short day. :)

Well, that pretty much was the extent of our Missouri adventure. We learned a good lesson about Missouri, though: If you hear the name "Sarah Palin" in a sentence but don't know what they said about her, just tell them you're a fan of hers, too. :) We went to some japanese restaurant, the kind where they have commune tables, and this guy across from us said something about how he was a big fan of Sarah Palin, and Trent, having not understood the man exactly right, replies "Yea, we're not a big fan of hers, either", to which the man says, "What?! What was that?!", as hostile-y as I typed that. I'm not going to lie, I thought he was going to hop over the grill and beat us down. I nudged Trent under the table, and muttered "We are fans of hers, Trent, remember" to which Trent said "Yea we're fans of hers too". The man simmered down and was fine after that. So yea. We learned our lesson. :)

Til next time!

Arkansas

I was excited to get to Arkansas because I've never been there, and I wanted to check it off my list. Here is the only photo I took in Arkansas, and I think it safely sums up my visit there:

I realize it's hard to see what exactly that photo, so I'll tell you- it's a table of clowns. There were five fully decked-out clowns, and two humans, sitting near us in Chili's (naturally the only restaurant within walking distance from our Arkansas hotel). One of the humanoids was once a youth pastor. Yes, I like to eavesdrop, though sadly, they didn't drop any clues about what exactly they were doing dressed up in clowns. I'm guessing they'd just finished up scaring the s%^$# out of a bunch of 5-year-olds.

But based on the sum of the whole of the state, we decided Arkansas' new slogan should be: Arkansas, where everything is just a little bit slower. :) J/K- it is actually a beautiful state, I wish I could've seen more of the Ozarks, and I am putting Hot Springs on my list for next time!