Road Trip Rule #23: Don't leave folks hanging.

Alright folks. I should be doing something much more productive. Like finding something to wear for a wedding this weekend, or continuing on the Massive Project we have underway around here, or figuring out how to pay for the ridiculously expensive textbooks I need for the coming semester. I'd rather do this though; play a little catch up on the good old blog-a-roo. There's a gaping hole in the road trip story and some of you have alluded to this. I do apologise, and will try to not let it happen again. Though how I can follow through on such a promise is beyond me. See, the problem was two fold - we got to Nebraska and had such a good time relaxing that there was a decreased desire to blog (yup, my personal laziness strikes again) then once I had gotten behind the task of catching up was overwhelming. Fear not though, I am pretty sure the upcoming weeks will provide plenty of fodder for blog magic. And there's plenty still from the road trip to illuminate this corner of cyberspace. I know y'all are excited.

So, onward!

First, some Nauvoo highlights. I love the Lucy Mack Smith house. I've always been impressed by her - sometimes I wonder what that would have be like to have your fourteen year old announce he had seen a vision. It also had really nice flowers outside and I'm sort of a sucker for such things.

I have also just noticed that the front of the house was not symmetrical. This would have driven me crazy. I'm a big lover of symmetry.

The inside of the house was so compact. The stairs were practically a vertical slope. I really liked a pair of lace gloves they had on display so I took a picture then decided that they were freakishly small so I liked them even better. Lucy only lived in the house for a very short time and then moved in with the rest of her family as I recall.

We did see other places in Nauvoo including the Brigham Young home, John Taylor home, and the Post Office. It was interesting to see pictures of Nauvoo at the time and realise that there were so many more buildings than there are now. The way it is now you could be forgiven for thinking there were only a handful of people in a little village by the Mississippi. Not so my friends, not so. This was quite the bustling little town apparently. Big enough to justify this temple at least!

I've actually visited the temple before so we did not spend a lot of time there. I wanted to visit as many of the homes and buildings that are around the town as possible. Then of course someone mentioned the pageant and I had to go to that. I've never been to any of the LDS pageants so it was high time.

Singing, dancing and story telling. Also a random Scottish family who wore kilts/tartan throughout and spoke in passable accents (I can pronounce such a thing being as I am Scottish and all and despite losing my own accent. Yes, I recognise the hypocrisy). Enjoyable.

No one took holding their seats as seriously as we did as you can see from the picture, we are the only ones physically holding our seats. This may actually have more to do with the fact that other people had brought printed name tags, tape, twine and blankets to reserve there seats. Serious business this. Still, our early seat holding allowed for plenty of interaction with the and the opportunity to snack on delicious, freshly purchased fudge. Can't argue with that.

Oh! One more Nauvoo thing. I took this picture with one of you in mind. Can you see what it is? Anyone? Anyone?

Yup. A Hair wreath. Full on made of hair. All for you Ms. Hansen. All for you.

Road Trip Rule #22: See some public art

Thumbs up Denver, well done on your public art. There are statues and sculptures and installations all over downtown. Highly enjoyable. Future posts will also feature some very fine public art seen by the crew in NE. Denver also has pianos. Yup. Wildly painted pianos in a pedestrian area known as 16th st mall. Just sitting around waiting for your playing pleasure. The 16th street mall also features a free bus that runs the mile of shops and eateries. Also a plus. On top of all this goodness there is also the fact that Denver is the type of place where people put spoilers on vans. Picture evidence of pianos and spoilers included.  Denver and I got along much better than Nashville and I. Some of you smart folks out there may have predicted this. Good job team. We are headed for the mountains!

Road Trip Rule #21: Eat More Food

So, I think it is becoming clear how much we love food. We are at another triple D location in Denver. Yum! Native American version of Chipotle. We're both eating shredded bison. It is ridiculous. Delish.

Road Trip Rule #20: Tour State Capitols

We had an unsuccessful bid to follow this rule in TN (thwarted by rude state employees and dehydration) a successful trip to the NE capitol in Lincoln with Sarah and crew (it's gorgeous folks) and another success story today in Denver. The Denver State Capitol is the only place in the world where you can see pink onyx (they exhausted the quarry and it isn't found anywhere else as far as we know) they also have civil war canon balls as decoration and you can rub them for luck. I rubbed a lot of them. Lots of luck headed our way (actually just after we left there we got a call that we may have sold the car - score!).
State capitols = good times.

Road Trip Rule #19: Look for Mountains

We just came over a hill and can now see the outline of the rockies in the distance. We are very excited. Husband may or may not have clapped his hands with glee.

Road Trip Rule #18: Sleep In

I am still in bed. For those who know me this is surely no surprise. Lala in bed at 9 in the morning? I think I will lay down and die from not surprise. It's a highly recommended road trip rule though. We are in Nebraska for the next couple of days. Today we are going to visit the state capitol, hopefully the experience is far better than the TN state capitol though the bar is not high... We are enjoying some relaxing time with family. This is the best thing we planned into our road trip! Well done road rip planing committee, well done.

Road Trip Rule #17: Don't go to Nashville

Ok, ok. So Nashville wasn't all bad, but I probably will be ok if I never go back there again. I think the biggest mistake here may have been going to Nashville when I'm not really a fan of country music. Everyone can say your collective 'doh' right now if you so desire.

We rolled into town pretty late at night on Thursday. My first mistake being our hotel. We ended up in a smoking room. I didn't even know that hotels had smoking rooms anymore. Other than that, the hotel wasn't so bad. I just can't believe that I didn't check whatever box is required in order to get a non-smoking room. Be warned all. There are still smoking rooms out there and you could end up in one.

Our first order of business was the tire. We found ourselves a nice local mechanic and dropped the car off.

Luckily said mechanic was not far from our food destination for the day - Arnold's Kitchen. It was walking distance to the food so we went and got ourselves some lunch. Best Decision of the Day.We found it through the flavortownusa website that Sarah gave to us.

Arnold's was cafeteria style southern food. We had catfish, hush puppies, greens, mac and cheese, rolls, green beans and fried green tomatoes. I was so excited about the fried green tomatoes and I was not disappointed at all. They were stellar. Of course, I had nothing to compare it to, but they were simply scrumptious even without a comparison.

This is me outside the door, I couldn't leave the roll so I am eating it on the go. Yes, they were that good.

We walked back to the car, and noticed the neighborhood a little more on the way back. It seemed kind of sketchy but later in the day we decided that is just the way Nashville looks/feels. So maybe the area Arnold's is in isn't actually bad at all. Anyway, we went back to the mechanic and picked up the car. This is where we learned a new word: mugly. As far as we can tell, a combo of muggy and ugly, which was a very accurate description of the weather in Nashville.

Our next stop was the Parthenon. Did you know that Nashville has a full size replica of the Parthenon? I had no idea. It's a big ole full-on replica people. Such a thing needs to be documented.

Yup. A full on replica of the Parthenon folks. Apparently they built a temporary Parthenon for a celebration at one point and it was so popular they decide to make it permanent.

Next we checked out downtown Nashville after a failed attempt to visit the state capitol. The parking situation was prohibitive at the state capitol. Actually, a state employee was so rude to us about the parking situation that we left with a bad taste in our mouths. He was very rude.

So then we went downtown where gems such as the one below are available. That's a belt folks. I thought it was awesome enough to deserve a picture.

Now you too can wear a crucifix on your belt made of sparkly iridescent plastic. No better way to declare your devotion.

Our next stop on Broadway was the Hatch Print Shop. It was awesome. It was an awesome little old school print shop where they make posters and have done so for eons for all sorts of famous people who've played in Nashville. There was a gentleman working the letter press while we were standing in the store. They also had a humongous cat. And a terrier. Highly enjoyable store.

The cat was sleeping. As cats do.

Then we continued our little tour of Broadway where folks are playing music at every turn. Every turn. These gentlemen were playing on a street corner and I tried to be surreptitious in my picture taking hence the random part of husband in the corner. Not that you can ever have too many pictures of the husband. I may be the only one who thinks that I realise but that is not the point. Not at all.

The highlight of Broadway for me was the shop that sold me these earrings. I have enjoyed them on three different days already. And they feature trees, no big surprises there.

After Broadway there was severe dehydration going on. We got back in the car and drove to gas station where I inhaled an entire 32oz powerade and a 20oz water. Nashville looked much better after that. Everything did. It's amazing how a little fluids in your system will make your entire day look better. I was seriously ornery directly before that. Then we returned to our stinky hotel room to regroup and plan the evening. The second half of our day was much better. We visited the farmers market where we bought delicious produce, drove past the state capitol and took pictures, then headed out to the Grand Ole Opry.

The Grand Old Opry is surrounded by a mall. A dead one. It's kind of creepy. It's a huge mall and the entire thing is deserted and fenced off except for the Bass Pro Shop. Of course. We had to stop in there. Adam wielded a huge frying pan. Nashville is definitely good at big things.

That was my first time in a Bass Pro Shop. We ended up buying only a Moon Pie. Yummy, but not what I expected to be buying at Bass Pro.

Then the Grand Ole Opry which was going to be just a stop turned into a show for us! I thoroughly enjoyed some parts of the show but I still have a lot to learn about country music. Everybody was really enjoying "Elvira" and I had no idea what was going on. Apparently it's a classic.

Road Trip Rule #16 : Check your oil

We are heading out of Nauvoo - this was an excellent detour folks, most excellent. Our campground even had a shower. What more could a girl ask for? We are pretty sure our car was visited by racoons in the night as there were cute little pawprints all over it this morning.
As we were fueling up this morning, I did an excellent job as navigator and reminded the driver to check the oil, tires and topper. There was very little oil left so we are topping that up as well as our gas. Handsome Hero Fix It Husband picture included. (I can't decide what order those adjectives should go in so I just left them) Today promises to be a quiet Sunday drive albeit a 6 hour one......

Road Trip Rule #15: Listen to Good Music

We are in Nauvoo, sitting and waiting for the pagaent to start and our seats just happen to be in front of the Nauvoo Brass Band who are playing their hearts out while almost no one is here to hear them. Also, across the field there are bagpipes playing, in their correct venue even. Bagpipes indoors= bad plan. Bagpipes outdoors= much better plan.
I have fudge for my show snack and have discussed my choice in fudge flavours with the band between numbers. They have validated my choices (from their personal experience) so I will eat with a happy heart. Let's be honest and admit that there's only a small chance I would not have eaten with a happy heart. They are both chocolate type fudge. Say no more, say no more.

Road Trip Rule #14: Avoid Long Lines

We made it to the arch! The lines were far too long to justify going up or visiting the museum. Now we are off to Nauvoo. Thank you St Louis.

Road Trip Rule # 13 :Be Flexible

Nashville. Hmmmmmmmm.

I have a lot to say about that.

Impromptu trip adjustment! Hence why I am writing at 4am here in Nashville. We are going to stop by Nauvoo today. In order to do that you have to wake up at the crack of dawn (actually I think the dawn technically has not happened yet....) and drive your little heart out. Or have your husband drive his heart out. (Road Trip secret - I have yet to sit behind the wheel of our toiling beast of a car. Today may be the day that ends)

Anyway, I wanted to tell you all about our Nashville adventures, which will probably be quite the post but I can't summon the strength of mind this early, or the time to do before we leave very shortly. Instead I will leave you with a picture and promise to write all about what we did yesterday as well as updates from today.

St Louis here we come! (Briefly)

Husband Interrupts #1 - Enjoy the Local Culture

Just thought you'd like to know that we are sitting in the grand ol' opry house watching the radio show.  And believe it or not it was the Wife's idea.  It's pretty fun. Bad jokes and bluegrass.  Sorry for the bad picture,  it's haed to get a good shot in the dark.

Road Trip Rule #12: Eat Good Food

Courtesy of Sarah and the Diners Drive-ins and Dives folks we are chowing down on some delish victuals. Most excellent.

Road Trip Rule # 11: Avoid driving over sharp objects

Or be prepared to buy the pictured item. We just finished dinner at Red Lobster (those cheese biscuits, need I say more?) and stopped to buy the pictured item. There's a nail in one of our tires. Yet another opportunity for Road Trip Hero Husband to show his amazing fix it skills. Wish us luck.

Road Trip Rule #10: Charge Your Phone

The highest point in the Great Smokies. You are going to want a camera for that. If you forget your camera you are going to be so glad you have that fancy smart phone with the camera built in. Unless the charge is so low you can't take picture.
Yep.
We drove to the top, hiked the strenuous (and I mean strenuous here folks - like Harpers Ferry) last half mile and there at 6643 feet we realise the phone doesn't have enough charge for a picture. I am consoling myself with the fact that you couldn't really see anything anyway, it was very smoky up there.
On the way down a nice old man with bandy legs told.us we look like we should be hiking the Appalacian Trail. We had a nice little conversation as we walked down the rest of the way with him - he was the perfect speed for my short legs, a little slow for Husband. I am going to believe that when he said we looked like we should be on the AT he was referring to our speed and gear not the fact that we are smelly, sweaty and generally unkempt like AT hikers tend to be. The old man has actually done 1500 of the 2100 miles, not all before he got so old either. There's hope folks, we may yet succeed.

Pictures of the view not far from the top of it all. A pretty decent substitute since you can actually see something.

Road Trip Rule #9: Smell the Roses

In our case it was rhododendrons to be smelled. We've just completed our 5 mile hike here in the Great Smokies. What a lush diverse area. As Adam said, this is probably about as far removed a landscape as we could find from our final destination. Thick green underbrush, sticky humid air, intermittent showers, tropical looking plants and dense trees. It's amazing to me how much diversity there is on this planet. The amazing beauty of it all is such a powerful reminder to me of how much there is to be grateful for and makes me wonder how anyone beholding such beauty could doubt the existence of a god of some kind.  We are now off to drive to the highest point in the Smokies. And as far as smelling things goes, we are now mostly smelling ourselves. Stinky hikers!

Road Trip Rule #8: Turn Around for Pictures!

We have just arrived at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Headquarters. There's a huge sign at the entrance and a pull over spot to take pictures of the sign. I needed a picture so we had to turn around. As you can see from the picture we made some friends at the sign. Maybe that should be the rule: make friends to take pictures with. We are going to find a wee hike for ourselves then it's on to Nashville later this afternoon. Yes, I am wearing a dress for hiking. That's how I roll. Notice that this time I am wearing somthing underneath. You only need to shock one aisan lady on a hike before you learn that lesson.

Road Trip Rule #7: Check out dead towns

"This town.
Becoming like a ghost town."

We stopped for gas and witnessed a town slowly dying. At least, that's the way it looks. There's something quite queer and unsettling about it.

Road Trip Rule #7: Bring an audio book

According to the trusty gps we have 225 miles on our current stretch of I-81. It's audio book time here on the still unnamed road trip. We decided that long stretches of freeway are ideal for that undertaking. The Blue Ridge Parkway was too engaging to listen to a book at the same time. We have Hunger Games, In Defence Of Food, and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Since Rise and Fall would require us to drive to Germany and back to finish it, and In Defence has already been voted by us as something better suited to reading than listening, Hunger Games it is.
We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel. Did you know they have a redbook type system for audio books? Of course it doesn't help us because we are one of a dying breed: people who have tape decks. It's a long story but needless to say we won't be part of that clan for long. Cracker Barrel's books are on CD. Like everything else in the universe :-)
Here's a view of our current car situation. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. I love it!

Road Trip Rule #6: Eat

We have left the Blue Ridge Parkway. 120 miles of breathtaking vistas and ridiculously scenic overlooks. Amazing. We are headed to Roanoke. We saw a snake. It's time for lunch!

Road Trip Rule #5: Hotel Room Sweep

Well ladies and gents, we haven't made it very far at all. Though not for lack of effort on our part I might add. (See previous post for evidence)
We are just starting the blue ridge parkway in western Virginia. It's a little overcast and sprinkly but still gorgeous. There are plenty of trees and trees with coats; Laura's personal favourite. There are these trees in Virginia that have the appearance of wearing coats or cloaks of leaves on top of the branches and leaves they already have. It makes for beautiful cascading waves of green. Adam tells me it might be Virginia creeper growing up and around the trees. I say it's fantastic whatever causes it.
Last night we stayed at Day Inn in Mint Springs VA. Isn't that a great name? Mint Springs is right next to Stuart's Draft, another excellent place name. Well done rural Virginia, well done.
Well,  despite the charming names and the above average continental breakfast, we very nearly had a Debacle of Immense Proportions. Said Debacle of Immense Proportions involved two very important items: adam's hand made boy scout basket and, wait for it, Laura's engagement ring.  That's right folks, my engagment ring. If it weren't for the fact that I don't believe in yelling I would type that in all caps. For emphasis I will simply write it again: my engagement ring. The one with the stone from Adam's mission in Brazil and the band I choose myself for my apparently tiny finger (size 4.5). Kind of irreplacable. Valuable mostly for sentiment sake but also because it's irreplacable. Insert gasp of horror because I surely felt it. We checked out, packed up our things and get several miles down the freeway before I realised, as I put my watch on, that my finger was bare. I pointed and asked the car/universe/patient husband "where is it?" to which the reply was "in the change basket." The hand made boy scout basket I love. The car was promptly searched (as best I could while it is moving - difficult proposition on account of all the stuff) we pulled over at the next stopping place and I frantically pulled out our stuff from that morning. No basket, no ring. We hustled back to the hotel ( I was convinced I had brought it out and put it on the car for loading so by this point I was convinced both beloved items were crushed to smithereens) nothing in the car park so I ran up to the hotel room and gazed in the window to behold......the basket on the bed side table. Everybody breathe a sigh of relief.
We have a new family rule: hotel room must be swept by both parties.

Road Trip Rule #4: Say a Prayer

Here we go!
Last stop completed, prayers said, hugs given and tears dried.
Basic stats-
Original planned departure time: 1:30
Second planned departure time: 4:00
Real departure time: 6:40
Yeah. It's not so easy to get outta town it seems.
At least we look good doing it! (If I do say so myself)

Road Trip Rule #3: Get Outta Town

Today's rule is apparently more of a guideline if you are us. Nevertheless, we are determined to get out of here today. Our stops today have included:
1- the rental place we got yard sale tables from (returning them finally)
2- the post office, where we nearly killed a very kind, partially deaf (I'm not even making that up - he told me I couldn't talk to him unless he could see my lips) slightly older gentleman (conicidentally he was also the same post office worker who took wave after wave of wedding invitations from me to be hand stamped). We nearly killed him with all our boxes and their hefty dimensions. We are going to take him some doughnuts. That's how we roll. That may also be why we aren't out of town yet.....
*quick stop at WalGreens for advil. When I say quick, I mean quick. I didn't put money on the meter so I ran my little heart out*
3- Target, to pick up the old fashioned film pictures (from our honeymoon!) that I dropped off last week. It took everything I had not to stop and look through all of them with immediacy
4- the local charity shop to drop off our left over yard sale items
5- quick work out for Laura followed by the World's Best Cupcake. Le sigh
6- Adam ran to work to hand in keys
7- pick up our parking pass from it's temporary home in a friend's car
8- Quick trip to two banks to deposit into one account and close a different account

Which brings us to now. This is a direct result of writing THE LIST. Still, I would have died without said list! We only have 2 things left on THE LIST. Then we will be outta here. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Hold onto your knickers folks!

Road Trip Rule #2: Pick a name

We are ending our time in the DC area by celebrating the fourth of July right in front of the capitol. Picture evidence included. I've never seen so many people in my life!
But, since this is a road trip blog at the moment I do also want to get input for road trip names. Suggestions so far have included:
The Blissful tour of the US
Scot and Yank Do America
The Brit and her Blissful tour
Utah or Bust
Heading to Starving Studentdom
Less Money More Problems Tour
Less Money Less Problems Tour
The YA YA tour (YA stands for Yank and Anglo)
Improving Anglo American Relations Tour
Bliss & Brit tour the colonies
Into the West

Thoughts?

Road Trip Rule #1: Make a Plan

Then lose the plan.
T-2 days until 'Epic Road Trip 2011' (note to self: better name needed. Pronto) and we've lost the plan. Literally. It's gone.
The aprtment is empty, the car is packed and the glee calendar with the daily schedule of epic road trip activities is lost. It is likely now reposing in one of what seemed like a hundred bags of trash.
This is akin (for me at least) to leaving behind your oxgen when going on a space walk. Not that I am in the habit of space walking you understand, but I happen to think that oxygen would be an important component of said undertaking. Correct me if you know otherwise. Then let's talk about how/why you know otherwise.
So, we have to recreate the plan. It's on the list. Sadly I have not written the list yet. Two days left and no list? Sheer madness I tell you. Sheer madness. This is akin to.........I can't think of anything fittingly horrendous for this to be akin to. It is just it's own personal extreme brand of horror.
Well now, let us leave the horror for a moment and move on to announce the first ever Adam Bliss Family road trip blog. For purposes of simplicity, said endeavour (the road trip blog endeavour, not the road trip itself - for obvious reasons) will happen here on our already existing blog. We will be striving to bring you our road trip as it happens. Our success will depend largely on two or three factors including, but not limited to, the following:
1- my (laura) ability to stay awake while not driving. Said ability is usually highly limited. I'm like the screaming baby people put in the car - asleep in seconds. No need to worry here though, the same is not true for while I am driving.
2- our ability to keep the phone charged. The road trip blog is most definitely brought to you via smartphone. The actual computer this family owns is located in the trunk of my 2001 VW Jetta. No one is blogging from the trunk I assure you. If anyone is in that trunk right now they've got bigger problems to worry about.
3- my ability to not spend all the time talking to the husband of the Adam Bliss Family. This one may be impossible. We'll see, we'll see.
4 - other undefined things I have yet to think of. These are things I don't want to think about, the possibilities are endless.

That's it for now. More updates to follow.