The Usual Belated Update

Ok so. As usual, I have been horrible at updating. Part of the problem is, though we've been to some cool places lately, I sort of have senioritis. Yes, I am kind of tired of living on the road. It's weird because I get a bit exhausted from traveling from place to place, but at the same time, I get so excited when I think about all the places I've been and the overall experience. It has been truly awesome.

Even this past month has been rad. We left Florida a few weeks ago, headed up to Memphis, then to Michigan (Detroit and Grand Rapids), passed through Chicago, chilled (literally and figuratively) in Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Appleton, Eau Claire), and now we are in...

dun dun dun...

North Dakota!! And yes, it does exist! And is way better than I imagined. Well we are in Fargo, ND this weekend. It is obviously the largest city in ND. I went to Target tonight and they still had the ENTIRE Liberty of London collection available (if you're not familiar, it's a designer collection that has sold out online and in stores everywhere...except ND apparently)! I was stoked to get it all!

But I dunno, we'll see how long it lasts, because later this week we travel to Williston, ND, and there seems to be nothing there. I'm told it's an oil town. Yet somehow the HAL reservation center is there. Random? Yes. And all the motels are sold out (yes I said MOTELS, they don't even have so much as a Hampton or Fairfield Inn!). Half of them didn't even have websites. So we are staying a couple hours out of town and will drive early to the show.

Anyways, I have been impressed by this part of the country. Sometimes I forget the North-Mid-West exists. I have no ties to it at all. But first off, Michigan was warmer than Florida! So that was a good surprise. Wisconsin is pretty rural and there are lots of dairy farms. But I didn't get to try any Wisconsin cheese. And probably my favorite host EVER was in Wisconsin. Her name is Janet and she was super nice and just so freaking awesome. And our BDM Linda was so sweet too!

So yea, that's about it. We haven't done anything crazy, haven't done any touristy stuff, so that's why I have no photos. But it's been fun! So I will keep you guys posted as we wrap up our last couple weeks on the road (will be done entirely as of 4/15). :)

Coca-Cola Museum, Atlanta, GA

Well hullo there! So this post is only 1 1/2 months late, but I can't forego this experience. So, we went to Atlanta back in early February, and I have always heard that a must-see in Atlanta is the Coca-Cola museum, so we trekked to downtown ATL on a brisk afternoon to check it out. It wasn't mind-blowing, but it was fun, and informative.

They had a lot of fun Coca-Cola memorabilia. My favorites were the 30's and 40's ads, they're just so glamourous and good quality.

We saw a 4-D film here where not only is the screen 3-D, but the chairs move around, water sprays, air brushes past you, etc. It was fun but kind of nauseating. :)

So here are some fun memorablia pics:

This scary polar bear was here, you could get your picture taken w/ him but he looked a bit chester molester to me!

Of course, the highlight of any Coca-Cola museum trip is the taste-testing area, where they have 60 Coke products from around the world. Now, what's funny about this, is that, ever since I was little when my dad came home from a trip from ATL, I thought that Coke tasted different in different countries. Like, I figured it was the way they bottled it or whatever, that each had a local flavor, so I fully expected to go there and find Coca-Cola, written in all different languages, each one with a special flavor. However, what it turned out to be, was just different sodas of all flavours, from bitter lemon, to sangria, to orange or lime soda, etc. So while I was surprised, I wasn't necessarily disappointed. There were some odd flavored drinks, but some of them I wish we had in the U.S.

And of course, the gift shop, which they force you to walk through in order to exit. They have pretty much everything Coca-Cola that you can imagine! But my favorite thing was the polar bear! Much cuter than the mascot one in the museum, haha.

I ended up taking one of these home because they were priced at $14.95, which I thought was perfectly reasonable for these cute bears!

Anyways, the overall experience was positive. It's a fun place to check out, maybe not more than once, though. :)

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!