(Not)On the Road

  The unsuspecting eagle watcher, Yellowstone National Park

So homeward bound we blasted, through the northern part of the country, I think perhaps the only part of the United States that is feeling winter. Steady temperatures ranging from twenty to well below zero in the states of Montana until around Ohio we froze. Our pillows froze to the sides of the camper in the morning, and we would wake with the sound of our own movement under sleeping bags and a down comforter making a crisp potato chip crinkle sound with every toe twitch and roll over. After leaving Yellowstone (where we had trouble starting our car everyday because it was so cold and diesels get crabby in the cold) we headed farther east. Making the choice to head back home I will not lie and say was easy. While thawing out in our one and only hotel room stay of the whole trip on a cold night in South Dakota we made the choice that it was time. When all of your water is frozen and you can pick up a pan with a fork because the ice froze inside the pan, and when your seven gallon water tank freezes and so does the water pump and drain, inspiration runs thin and wallets open for restaurant food. I don't know exactly how we would have prepared for this differently but I wish we could have. The complete and total absence of any campground being open in South Dakota didn't help as we spent a couple nights in a beautiful National Parks for seven dollars a night (record cheapest, and personally I don't think you should have to pay more than seven for a parking space) and the other nights in some not so scenic parking lots of a certain national chain which has been mentioned before on this blog.
This is a brief snippet of how our morning looked when ten below...

Patrick, waiting for  the second half of the intrepid duo to get on the road

5:30 am
I wake up, a tiny bit of light sneaks under the curtains in the camper but there is so much diesel soot and dirt and salt on the back window of the camper(the bed folds out underneath the window) that it is still pretty dark even in the middle of the day.

6:00 am
Pat wakes up and turns the heater on by reaching a few feet away. We watch our breath rocketing in huge plumes of warm air up to the top of the camper, which has over night gathered on all of the metal rivets and there hang icicles. Oh I have to pull one of my dreads off the wall of the camper as it has iced over (still attached to my head) don't forget the pillows!

6:30 am
The camper is starting to warm up, small droplets start to form and icicles and frost return to their watery state and begin to drip onto our sleeping bags. Quickly stuff away sleeping bags so they don't get wet for the next night. Oh wait the bottom of my sleeping bag is stuck to the side of the camper. Stand for five minutes while holding it over the heater and dry it out. Look for the long johns you've worn for a week. Why do my socks smell so bad? The dishcloth that landed on the floor? A good hockey puck if only we had some ice. I chuck it into the parking lot of the campground to test it's strength hoping it will break just to provide some humor.

7:00 am
It's so cramped in the camper with wet sleeping bags and a curious array of the un needed junk we always keep in the camper with us that we both hurry to put on winter boots and warm socks and put everything that can fall on the floor (food boxes, lanterns and headlamps and water jugs) down there so it at least starts on the floor. I get in the car and look at maps and see where we're going, whether that means we're going hiking or driving. Then in a cloud of cold exhaust we take off, sometimes with the camper attached

My favorite shadow rolling down the road, Badlands National Park South Dakota

Since returning home and I realize I have incurable wanderlust. Is that so bad? Perhaps our lives are meant to pay tribute to our nomadic forbears. How settled we all have become. The highly romanticized version and often repeated truths of traveling youth? Not at all, this is a wish based highly in reality, perhaps not in the reality of western culture but in the reality of my heart. Isn't the point of travel in the first place to fulfill the curious mind, to expand your consciousness so that we can see how we all relate to one another in the world?

 Toward the end of our trip I found this quote in a magazine and copied it onto a paper which I stuck to a wall in the camper so we could read it frequently. I think it stands out as a wonderful mantra for the traveling life.
“If you're really listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonders.”
-Andrew Harvey

Please do keep reading, just because we are home does not mean that we don't have more to share if you're still willing to listen. I'm hoping now that we actually have five minutes to stop and think about all that we've accomplished in the past three months that I'll be able to write more. And we do have adventures all the time you see. Till next time,
Emma 

Slowly East

Beautiful rolling river, these next few pictures are from Olympic National Park in Washington.

 Huge logs on the beach carried there by the sea from area rivers

 Coho salmon swimming up stream very late in the season

 For my honey!

 Clouds rolling on in...

We've had an incredible week and a half since leaving Olympia, our first stop was in Idaho in an un ceremonious parking lot before reaching Montana. We got a large portion of the Rocky Mountains out of the way before getting to the park which was a bit of a relief. After a days drive through Montana we curved down south to Yellowstone National Park. Everyone says it's a beautiful park and amazing and transformative and it really really was. We connected with a great group of folks who were there to witness wolves in what is apparently one of the best places in the world to watch wolves since their re introduction to the parks in the mid nineties. Thanks to the researchers that are there all the time who help to locate wolves, and to the friends we made (especially Dennis and Pam!) that let us look through scopes to see these magnificent animals. We got to see a lone wolf howling at the moon, met film makers from the Frozen Planet movies, watched a wolf eating a buffalo carcass, and on our last day a whole group sleeping and lounging on rocks. It reaffirms so much to know that there are still wild creatures like wolves and bison and elk and eagles that live in one big beautiful environment. It also shows just how domesticated and far we've come as a civilization that we have so few of these creatures left. We don't fully understand everything that happened during our stay there, but we both feel that we've changed in some way.

 

Loving Montana, we checked out the Bozeman Hotsprings and loved our drive through this incredible state. Even with the Rocky Mountains the sky feels so big.

Making their nightly migration up the road, some fifty bison take up the road for a miles, this was one particular big Papa Bison. We were in the car, but you don't really feel that much safer due to their size and height which translates into 2000 pounds and taller than the car.

A Grim warning!

This is the scene that makes you want to move to Montana. This is a few miles outside of the park.

After Yellowstone we checked out Wind Cave National Park, the Crazy Horse Monument and The Badlands National Park, all in South Dakota. Tomorrow we're visiting the homeland of a lifelong inspiration of mine, the one and only Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read her books growing up, From Little House in the big Woods, to Little House on the Prairie, of churning butter, building log cabins and sod homes. Her books taught me so much as a little girl about self sufficiency and a simpler time when people did things themselves. She was one of my favorite people to pretend to be, in my old fashioned dresses I would sit on the bench in our backyard and pretend to drive an oxcart or a buggy and I spent endless hours in my old fashioned dream world! I'm excited to get to see where she roamed around as a little girl on the prairie. Hope all is well, we're making our way eastward in larger stints now,

Till next time

Emma

Head on home!

 Kalaloch Campground Olympic National Park

This will not be a fast retreat, but after a visit to Olympic National Park, Port Townsend Washington, Seattle, Olympia, Nisqually National wildlife refuge, we've headed back east again! Drove from Olympia to Smelterville Idaho yesterday (I wonder what the history of that name is) and then from Idaho to Bozeman Montana yesterday. The past week we've seen hunting bald eagles, temperate rain forest, the Space needle in Seattle, a sculpture garden, beautiful mountains, and snowboarders using kites like kite surfers along the ice and snow
 
Last night we checked out some incredible hot springs in Bozeman Montana, which included seven different pools with varying degrees of temperature, a steam room and a sauna. After a couple of ten degree nights with frozen water and frozen pillows it felt so good to thaw out. We've been staying in a few too many chain stores that allow you to park for free, the place that we shall not name but I'm sure you know where I'm talking about. Not the most picturesque, but to have a free place to sleep when you've been driving all day is just a convenience until we get to the true beauty!

Montana has been absolutely beautiful, I can see why people fall in love with this place and I think we already have. We're headed into the snowy and beautiful landscape of Yellowstone National Park next a short drive away into Wyoming. I have a feeling it's going to be amazing this time of year. Most of the park is closed to non snow vehicles so we'll see what we can see, but we manage to pack a lot in even when conditions aren't optimal!
We've got snow chains and zero degree bags and plenty of winter gear so no worries folks! Wish us luck, three degrees tonight is the forecast with a high of twenty five! Since most of the country isn't having much of a winter we've got to take it where we can get it.
Till next time,
Emma

Lessons

Beatrice in Louisiana

In our travels over the past couple of months there are certain things that come up. Lots of people want to know what our favorite place has been. Others try to hold back expressions of horror that we live in a thirteen foot trailer and how could we possibly still be together! Lots of people are so eager to share their own travel experiences and the best places to check out up the road. These conversations have mostly guided our trip, and we've been able to allow ourselves the fancy of following these suggestions for the best places to eat, hike, sight see, hear music, you name it. Everyone's got their own likes, but we've tried pretty hard to check out the things that people tell us about and it really is true that it's better than whats in the guidebook.

So what have we learned from this trip? What kind of invisible merit badge do we walk away with when this is all over? Are there things that we would have done differently thus far? I'd like to think that we've learned a ton about our country. There are few things that I would have done differently, and those things are all just a matter of attitude and very from person to person. And I have high hopes that we get the merit badges at the end because they would make a beautiful and colorful display to show where we've been. So here are a few things that we've found useful, and if you're thinking about trying this kind of trip out for yourself, maybe some of this will be useful to you too.

1. Always follow suggestions! People really want you to have a good time in their town, state, National Park etc. Most folks won't lead you astray when it comes to good food, a great campground, or the best route to drive on. Being a lover of travel memoirs and reading guidebooks to countries I'm not even planning on going to in the bookstore, I brought a ton of travel books. Some have been handy and have really saved us some nights, but for the most part just being friendly to people will be your next step and best guide on a long trip.

Starry and cold night in Kings Canyon National Park

2. So after saying that, I would have brought a guide or at least a printed map of state parks in the states we'd be traveling to. Not knowing our route ahead of time made this hard however. When we haven't had internet it's been hard to find our next place to spend the night. The big road atlas has some state parks listed which is helpful, but then you've got to get the right number and reach them during business hours, which is easy enough when your working from a library or home or have a cell phone connection but lots of places don't have any of those to work with. And that's when you want a guidebook! Usually state park entrance areas have a good pamphlet or two about that entire states park system. A few highway welcome centers have this information but usually just a big rack of advertisements for tourist attractions.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park inTexas

 

3. Have a good tool kit and know how to use it! This is the one area where I think it's good to bring the stuff you don't think you'll need. An axe for chopping firewood. Water jugs that are easily refillable as lots of parks don't have safe drinking water, so we try to fill up when it's good. We have a big seven gallon container but that's a big one to carry around if a water source isn't right near by, so we have a few smaller ones too. When we left, we had a pretty good idea that we wouldn't have power in the trainer very often so we're set up for that. Good headlamps and lanterns and a propane heater. So if you were to pursue a different style of trip, the tools necessary would be totally different.

 

4.If your going to buy a used trailer, read up on what repairs you might have to do. What supplies you'll need to work on the trailer. We wound up installing a water holding tank, getting a new pump faucet, and water proofing, Pat did a lot of fiberglass work etc. So know what you're willing to get yourself into, how much money you have and how much time you're willing to spend. We had more time than money so we were lucky and got a good price and put in the time to revamp the trailer a bit and get it ready for a big long winter time trip!

 

There will be more to come I'm sure, but these were a few big ones for us, we could also get way more detailed about where we've gotten parts, what seem to be common issues for these particular trailers and all kinds of things involving this little rolling house of ours!

Hope all is well,

Emma

Here in Portland

Hello all!
Pat and I arrived in Portland! We've been enjoying visiting my family, it's a rare treat getting to visit my west coast relations and have been having so much fun with them. There has been much galavanting around the city and the surrounding area, we've got to really take advantage of the things that Portland has due to getting to stay with family. One of the best parts of traveling has of course been our visits with people close to us, and you always get the inside scoop that can sometimes take a long time to learn on your own.

 Multnomah Falls in a heavy rainstorm

Multnomah falls lies outside Portland by half an hour and is quite the tourist attraction apparently, we went during a heavy downpour day and had the place to ourselves (yet another product of our winter trip) and spent about an hour roaming around and taking pictures.

We've had delicious food at the house here, we've been working in such a small kitchen for the past month and a half that we were so excited to get to use an oven and be able to make whatever we wanted. A warm bed, no condensation dripping on your nose, you get the idea, it's nice to stay in a house and take a break from travel, and in such a cool city too. It suits both of us due to the small towns we grew up in and it's the kind of city that just dosn't feel that big, but has the benefits of a city.

A highlight for me has been taking classes at Yoga Bhoga in the South East quadrant of the city. Up on the second floor of a refurbished industrial building it offers a beautiful view of the city. It is a very fresh and colorful studio and has a very friendly atmosphere.

Some other highlights if you'd like to read about some unique Portland business's check out Rejuvenation a great company (where my uncles happens to work!)that makes reproduction vintage and also new lights and lighting. They have a really creative retail store featuring all kinds lighting, antiques and vintage items. Check out their store online.

 The Lodekka vintage clothing bus and Wanderlust camper two women who have teamed up and sell vintage items and clothing out of a double decker bus and a vintage camper!

Ristretto Roasters. I'm sure it's a big debate in Portland as to who serves the best coffee, but we've had many chances to try these folks out and all I have to say is that they are so so good.

So this is a bit of a link heavy post, but they're all worth taking a glance at. Our time here is wrapping up and we're headed for Washington in a couple of days now to hopefully meet up with some folks there as well. We've been gone for over two months now which seems so unbelievable even just writing it. We miss everyone back home. Our stay here has made us a little lonesome for the comforts of home, staying with family and all. During our whole trip I've been trying to keep a mental list of the "things we've learned" practical and otherwise. I try to keep a tally of these things anyway, even when not traveling, but I've been meaning to share them with all of you at some point soon. This is quite the trip, and it's not over yet! I was showing my little cousin some photos of our journey and we've really covered a lot of ground. I showed her a map of the United States so she could see just how far we drove I think she summed it up the best. She asked me to show her on the map where I live, and she said "All that way! That's so far!"

So hello everyone from far away!

till next time

Emma

Humor and Misadventure

Pat doing a mean door repair San Francicsco Streetside!

So all of this travel has certainly been met with a few challenges in the way of car repair or trailer repair. We can just be honest and say that it happens, and sometimes it aint pretty. The camper door flying open as we cruised the suburbs of San Francisco looking for parking was not the ideal time for a door failure but hey. It's a 1978 trailer, made of fiberglass and held together with rivits and hope, so something is going to have to pop out at some point.

There appears to be a strange creature on the top of the Scamp...The Ocean calls in the distance but our fearless repairman has consented to using the sunny day to skylight repair.

We recently watched the movie 180 Degress South when we were visiting in LA about a month ago and the famous climber and adventurer Yvon Chouinard is quoted in the movie "It's not really an adventure until something goes wrong" and we try to remember this saying when things do go "wrong" usually nothing has really gone wrong but when it feels as though all plans have been dashed something really cool is waiting on the other side. Cliche as it might sound, what a lesson it has been in rolling with the punches and remembering that it really will be all right in the end, and thanks to these mishaps we've met lovely people and had quite a few laughs, and that is always worth it.

Till next time,

Emma



Up the coast we go

Seals in Monterey sliding into the water!

Hello all, we're up in Fort Bragg California right now headed up the coast to see some more big Redwoods.

In the past weeks we have....

Made some wonderful new friends thanks to the Kirk Creek Campground in Big Sur, we can't wait to visit with you all, you know who you are! We've gotten invited over for dinner by our generous host Carol in Monterey. Visited with sea lions and dolphins. We've seen elk, and huge waves, and redwood country. Tasted delicious beer from the Russian River Brewing Company(thanks Peter and Rachel for the most excellent suggestions) and visited with friends in San Francisco. We've seen the Golden Gate bridge and had the most delicious mexican food and coffee, and seen huge alleyway murals.

Jellyfish at the Monterey Aquarium

We've met other campers and traveling musicians and the lovely wild sort. I've read way to many maps and descriptions of campgrounds that my brain hurts. We're a little more caught up on the news from some great radio stations in Fort Bragg, and a little more well fed than when we arrived. We've been to Monterey, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and Fort Bragg. Thanks to Sierra and Tom for putting us up in San Francisco, and showing us great food and a good time, and a most fabulous driving tour and bi coastal experience. Thank you to the lovely Annette for showing us around and sharing some great city history and ice cream while we were in town as well. We're having a blast and trying to soak up all our experiences on behalf of those not on this trip with us!

Golden Gate Bridge New Years Eve

 Patrick and Emma at Point Reyes National Seashore

Just to let you all know too, if and when we have the ability, I will be adding pictures to previous posts, so check back sometime if you get the chance to old history, and there might be a little extra something from some of our previous travels. Hope you all had a great holiday time and New Years. We spent Christmas on the sunny cliffs of Big Sur, and New Years checking ou the beautiful seashore of Point Reyes.

Till next time,

Emma

Best wishes to all, and we're back from the hinterlands!

Hello all!
We hope you have all had a wonderful holiday, we've been thinking of everyone at home, and also all of the folks that we've met on the road and hope that you're all healthy and happy! I've been working on a long update post but wanted to share a little something instead of waiting to finish it! We're in San Francisco at the moment, about to experience the wonders of the city and also see some friends. We were in Kings Canyaon National Park for about a week, and then down by the coast in Big Sur! Now onward and upwards to our next adventure. We've met some of the greatest people in the past two weeks, can't wait to share. We've had no internet during this period of time, so we at least have a small excuse for not being in touch!

On a side note, my hopes for adding pictures all of the time has been really difficult to accomplish I'm afraid. Our internet connection, and those of the places where we've stopped to use external internet have made it virtually impossible to get enough umph in the speed of the computer to upload even a single photo. This is a real dissapointment for me, but I do keep trying. Just wanted to say hello and say we haven't forgotten about our little online forum for keeping track of our travels.
Till later on,
Emma

Alert Alert!

Sunset in Playa Del Rey

We made it! All the way to Los Angeles California! With a great visit to southern California underway we have had a bonfire on the beach as the planes of LAX flew overhead, walked to the Santa Monica Boardwalk, and visited with our good friends. What a relaxing and pleasant visit we have had. We went on much needed errands, watched surfers and pelicans, and ate wonderfully! Thanks so much to our friends Valen and Joe and some new friends too for making our stay so enjoyable. We're having such a good time we don't want to leave, but we are saying goodbye tomorrow and our friends are moving all the way back across the country to the Northeast again. Thanks to Joe for some pictures, and also his wonderful photography advice and expertise! Our journey from rigt coast to left coast feels as if it has just begun, and we're headed off to an un determined national park next.

Walking in the sunset

The beach in Santa Monica

Joe, Valen, Emma, and Patrick

Mountains to Desert

Right now we are sitting cozily in our faithful scamp in central Arizona at Lost Dutchmen State Park. We have had some adventures in the past week which we have been too busy having for me to write about once again. It feels somewhat inconsistent to have written so little about our adventures and does not really do them the justice that they deserve to merely summarize, but that’s what I will have to do I’m afraid. It’s much more fun to write about what we’re doing now!

We traveled through Texas and stayed at a beautiful state park with amazing views of the Davis mountain range which was a lovely morning surprise to wake up and see mountains glowing orange, and small phantoms of mist rising off of the desert. Complete with a hot spring for swimming, it is a very scenic and beautiful park.

How mountainous this whole area has been from western Texas, up into New Mexico and then over along Route 10 (if you feel like looking at a map) I have never imagined this area to be so full of mountains. We keep joking that every mountain range we see must be the Rockies, every corner we turn we say “That’s them; they’ve GOT to be the Rockies.”

We spent a day and night at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park right on the border of New Mexico which we had literally to ourselves and one other human. The camping area is right at the base of the mountains and we got some killer winds, coyote sounds, photographs and a great walk through the low lying canyon.

After over thirty five hundred our muffler sadly decided to detach itself from our car. This created an epic diesel fog in the cabin of the car, and the surrounding area! I’m laughing so hard as I write this. A mysterious rattle that could not be located resulted in this problem, so we decided not to stay another night in the Guadalupe Mountains and to head north to Roswell New Mexico to get it repaired. We arrived to sleet and an overnight snow that iced the doors shut and iced our pillows to the insides of the camper! We have zero degree sleeping bags so we were warm and fine, but if you had seen us stumbling out the good old Beatrice in the morning to find ice and snow plastered to everything, I’m sure you would have enjoyed it. Our visit included a visit to my Grandfathers grave, some family genealogy tracking, visits to the library, antique and bookstore. The most amazing car junk yard that Pat and I have ever seen lay just on the outskirts of town filled to the brim with incredible old cars in amazing condition. Everyone in Roswell seems to have a fabulous looking old truck from the fifties or sixties that isn’t rusted like our cars back east! Old car lovers we couldn’t get enough. We got a kick of driving around and looking at the southwest style holiday decorations, kids playing in the snow with no winter coats, and the absence of plows! It hasn’t rained in over a year there so this was the first precipitation they’ve seen in a long time. Our car was repaired quickly, we met some very friendly and talkative local folks and met an adventurous and kind woman in our campground (hello if you’re reading this!) who is also traveling across the country from Washington State headed toward the east coast.

Our drive from Roswell to Phoenix Arizona over the past couple of days has been very beautiful. We drove through the Mescalaro Apache Reservation which was one of the prettiest areas on our whole trip, took pictures of mountains while leaning out of car windows in the freezing cold, ate delicious Mexican pastries and marveled at the changing scenery.

Today it has changed so fast to cactus country. We have an incredible guard over our campsite this evening, a tall twenty five foot tall Saguaro cactus! There have been some along the highway that have to be taller than that, absolutely massive incredible plants.

It feels so strange that we can get to all these places on a series of roads, it feels like we should have to work a lot harder to get to these incredible sights, years ago it would have been on foot or horseback as the native peoples of this area would have thousands of years ago. We certainly appreciate the variety of places that we’ve gotten to go, it’s just a big like feeling jet lagged from a long trip. A week ago we were looking at cypress tree’s in Louisiana and now we’re accompanied by cactus and sandy desert. To walk from one place to the next you would really get to see the slow change from environment to environment. Here I am cooking up the walking idea! Watch out!

So in this land of dry earth and a thousand shades of brown, and a perpetual blue sky we spend the night. It is clear outside and stars dot the sky despite the city lights of Phoenix nearby. After following the train tracks all day and watching the relics of lost desert towns we landed here and we are glad of it. It is a strange land filled with yellow planes scanning the borders of Mexico and flying over the highways, to the perpetual barbed wire fence that seems to stretch from Tennessee to the ranches here, it is a different culture but still connected to everything that came before it. I feel like we are in a constantly moving painting stretching out in front of us to a never ending skyline and mountains that fool us into believing that we exist on the top of the world.
Tomorrow it is off to Los Angeles to see our very good friend and to meet new ones too. To the big city these to country kids go. Hopefully the crazy winds will allow us into the fair city to a barbecue at the beach that has been promised on our arrival!

Cypress Rythm

Where the alligators float in Louisiana...

A big papa cypress spared from logging long ago, one of the bigggest in the Jean Lafitte National Park

We’re leaving New Orleans Louisiana and going through central Texas now, through San Antonio. Yes we went to LA and then we went. Went and went as I say. Straight from Memphis and through the night through a dark and rainy Mississippi we drove. To land ourselves in what will remain an unnamed RV park that we passed by at twelve AM in our quest for sleep.

Cypress in the Jean Lafitte National Park

Louisiana was everything and more than we thought it might be, a landscape dotted with cypress trees and homes nestled in among the swamps and bayous. The only way out by small boats, hidden in among the moss covered trees that drip down onto the edges of the bayou banks. I regret not writing while we were there, but as usual our running was faster than typing hands could keep up with. So many new colors and sounds and birds and plants it was overwhelmingly beautiful.

We visited the magnificent French Quarter in downtown New Orleans creatively built homes inspired by Spanish, French, West Indian, and African influence. Stucco painted in every color, but muted with age. Iron railings, shutters a story tall, and old stone streets meshed with new sidewalks slowly being upturned by tree roots and old age.

The French Quarter in New Orleans

We got to pay a visit to the New Orleans favorite music hall, Preservation Hall. A small room packed with history and legendary players, literally preserved for the players that are still performing the music that was born in New Orleans. Where the confluence of so many cultures from around the world blended to create a new sound that still lives on today thanks to the musicians keeping it alive.  We got to sit on pillows on the floor to hear the Joint Chief’s of Jazz play to us, and I felt like I was a little kid sitting underneath a Christmas tree. Paintings of the people that made music famous in the city line the walls and the light moves very softly throughout the room. A block over on the infamous Bourbon Street there are long lines of bars playing modern music, and the fact that Preservation Hall is still packed on a Wednesday night shows the enduring legacy to the music played there. I wish there had been more of it!

Jean Lafitte National Park, hey everybody!

Old street history

We got a great tip from our park ranger where we were staying on a great restaurant called Coops Place. Best Ever. Two words, that’s it. We also visited the Jean Lafitte National park and walked through the Cypress swamp and marshland areas. There in the downtown our feet stood on the promenade dotted with paint from the sidewalk portrait painters. Voodoo shops with charms and beads and masks, fortune tellers with candlelit tables lined the park in the center of the city at night, and music emanates from alleyways and shop fronts and sidewalk players. Our visit lasted for three days and we really enjoyed the friendliness of the people we met, and relaxed attitude and is our favorite place we’ve visited so far. If you get to pay a visit we’d highly recommend it, and the friendly folks at Bayou Segnette state park in Westwego Louisiana. A fitting name for the journey we’re on, and today we’re doing just that, heading west again across the great big state of Texas.

Till later on,

Emma

Nashville to Memphis

Friday Night in Nashville is a fun place. Occupying a handful of city blocks in downtown Nashville, the old fashioned bar and music filled area or your imagination is brightly light and crowded. It reminded Pat and I a lot of Hartford, a lot of big businesses empty at night, with just a few blocks of bars and clubs colorfully displayed for the choosing.

We arrived at a campground outside of the city by about ten miles and were greeted by a Christmas light show in full nighttime regalia just next door, and entertaining holiday surprise. The camper culture we’re learning is an eclectic one. People walk their cats on leashes, and have very elaborate set ups. We’ve seen some interesting inventions thus far, including tow behind waste water tanks that are basically like glorified children’s wagons that you tow to what we’ve learned is a “dump station”. Also things like huge white globes that people use to watch their dish TV’s, and some folks bring along an entire holiday decoration setup complete with light up animals.

After our arrival we met with a very helpful bus driver who was taking his rig home for the night to the bus station across the road from us. We were hoping to catch a shuttle to the downtown area that we were told was running (we waited an hour in vain) and he helped get us where we were going with pro directions! He made phone calls for us and even gave us coupons, a very helpful guy from the Grayline Bus Company, we thank you!

We made it to the downtown area thanks to our friend’s expertise, so quiet surrounding the nightlife, to walk downhill to bar owners hawking the “best bands in town” and music coming out of open air bars. We made it to “Roberts Western World” and got to listen to a couple bands, only one of which we got to hear the name of, the Don Kelly Band. We were all packed so deep down the long narrow passageway of the place I couldn’t even see (not surprising as most of you know my height) but the music was top notch. A real country and western band check them out. We roamed the streets trying to decide what band to hear, drank spicy hot chocolate, and talked about the music politics of the town. Both being performing musicians ourselves, we wondered what it must be like playing in such a famous city, a city built on it’s musical reputation and what the “real story” is.  There are such good bands that are playing for tips. Literally. There is much debate that surrounds this topic, and not living here myself I feel hesitant to draw a hasty conclusion, but I feel that musicians deserve a fair wage and that to the general public, a lot of things may go unnoticed. From the amount of work that goes into carrying gear from your house all the way to a crowded bar, to booking and finance, it’s a complicated business, and not everyone always has the musicians best interest in mind.

The creative prize of the night went to a duo playing drums and guitar running their amps off of their car battery, parked in an ally off the main street. Several street players lined the sidewalks playing everything from classical violin and drums while rapping, a very fast but fun sampling of the cities music culture.

 The next morning (this past Saturday now) we woke to temperatures that had to be in the seventies, we packed up our things and headed out for our half days drive to Memphis Tennessee. Our favorite stretch of road this far, central to western TN was beautiful, dotted with several state parks and wildlife preserves, the woodland slowly dissipates to a flatter landscape of open land and farm country. I’d like to go back and visit some of the parks there it seems to be a very beautiful part of the state.

 We arrived in Memphis on Saturday night, and ready for some more music. We’re trying to make it a point of our journey to at least get to hear a small bit of the music scene in each place we visit.

 I had booked a tour to see the Gibson Factory that is in the downtown area of Memphis and we arrived just in time after spending a little while trying to find a place to park with Beatrice. My father played a Gibson as a young person and then played it to me all while growing up. He purchased a really special little Gibson for me as my first guitar when I was ten years old. It sat around for a little while until I felt ready to play and didn’t mind having my fingers bleed to learn a bit. So the instruments have a special spot in my life.

In the Memphis

After our tour was done we headed down to the famous Beale Street, where just like Nashville there were bars and bands and way too much to choose from. It was around five so we didn’t get to see it really hopping. We got to eat some great creole food, and heard a band at B.B. Kings Blues Club. I sadly have no pictures of the factory as your are not allowed to take pictures, and I also have pictures of the street scene or restaurant because it was absolutely pouring rain the whole night, so you will have to imagine in your mind what you want Memphis to look like. Very different from Nashville it’s so funny that only a couple of hundred miles away the culture can be so different.

We went to our campsite, and after I left very little guessing for you all we woke up on Elvis Presley Boulevard the next morning…

Into Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley we went. My unhindered love of Elvis’s music as a kid I have to say still remains till now. His was one of the first albums I ever remember wanting to own, his name in gold letters in the top left hand corner with a black and white picture of him on stage. A fun  thing I've always wanted to get to do, I was glad for the visit.

PS.

On a side note I am unable to download any more pictures right now due to the computer making problems...I guess they'll have to wait,

Thanks for reading, till next time,

Emma

Guess where...

We are now going to play a little game of guess where we are. I'll make it easy on you.

On our way to where we are now, we've seen several images and statues of this gentleman here. This is a ride in Seaside Park NJ.

At a hotdog shop in Williamsburg VA.

Missing his microphone in Nashville TN.

Where to next you wonder.....

Music City here we Come!

We’re cruising down I 81 in Tennessee, blue grey sky watching the starlings migrate. Hawks and horses occupy the highway sides, as do the cows and the Blue Ridge Mountains that frame everything into a beautiful picture fit for a postcard. Good Highway 81 that takes you far south, the road that occupies my mind whenever I think of traveling down here. Where the highway speed turns to seventy, and crosses dot the landscapes and hillsides. About an hour ago we saw a building that had a sign that said “Jesus saves” and below it another sign saying “We buy guns.” The contradictions and cleverness of the south and its people never ceases to entertain and inform. In some ways you know exactly how people think, with confederate flags still flying high in the backs of trucks and highway rest stops, there is pride in their cultural history, and their place in this nation. In other ways there is a subtlety and quietness to the people here, and a generosity and big a heart.

Traveling feels a bit slow while towing the good old Scamp behind us. We're averaging about sixty miles an hour so far... She’s attracted quite a bit of attention in the past couple of days, and were told by some Colonial Williamsburg employees that she was the talk of the town! We’ve gotten some enthusiastic questions about where we got it, and where can other people find one, and how much did it cost. I’m thinking of maybe for fun at some point having a little question and answer session to share with all of you the details of life in the Scamp. We expect that this is not the last of the curiosity; it certainly brings those who have travelling on the mind right out of the woodwork and into the open.

We’ve gotten some questions with regard to posting comments here on the blog. First off we’d love to hear your comments, like little postcards from back home. Stay tuned for a post about how to go about posting!

Thanks for reading today,

Emma and Pat

Cobblestone, brick layed, cedar shakes so old.

Hello All,

So follow up on my last post I’d like to tell you a bit about our excursion into Colonial Williamsburg Virginia. First I have to tell you that I’ve wanted to travel there since I was a little girl. I have always loved old things, whether they are homes or clothing, tools or heirloom vegetables I love them, and they draw me toward them inescapably. So to venture back into time where everything was so beautifully handmade, where horses ruled transportation and so did feet, there is within me still that excited little girl. I was lucky to have a mother who sewed me beautiful colonial style dresses and who found a hoop skirt for me as Christmas present one year. We used to take trips to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, a living history museum complete with buildings and people in period costumes inhabiting them. This appreciation stems from the love of the handmade, from a father who works with his hands to build furniture and homes, and both of my parents together had a vested interest in showing me how the things we use everyday are made.

To start our visit we arrived late in the afternoon and decided to take a look around the City of Williamsburg. You can walk throughout the historic town on public streets, but a ticket is required to enter many of the buildings where exhibits of colonial businesses and homes are taking place. Costumed interpreters in period dress roam the streets making conversation with one another and with visitors. All of the the tradespeople in the shops are practicing their work for real application within the city. For instance the wheel wright makes wheels for the carriages that carry people around the city. The cabinet makers are building furniture for buildings on the site.

We walked around till dusk and decided to go to one of the evenings many events, a ghost walk! Led by candlelight to various buildings throughout the city, we sat within the walls of history and listened to the ghost stories from people portraying actual old characters. It was neat being able to see the city from the inside at night. From a woman who was haunted by the death of her young son and passed away in England thousands of miles away who still haunts the local Matthew Whaley School, to a nurse who could have been the culprit in burning down the Governors Palace, it was a great blend of history and story.

On Wednesday we started our day with another walking tour, this time focusing on slavery in the city of Williamsburg. The one aspect of the city that seems only partially portrayed is that reality of slavery and how large the population of the enslaved really was.. Our guide led us to several buildings, first to the church which was used as a tool to justify the treatment of slaves, to the courthouse to speak of the punishments slaves would receive for hardly any infraction of their station, and finally to stand beneath a large oak to talk about unearthing these injustices so that we can all know the reality of what their lives meant to our culture and history. Pat and I always enjoy the back story behind history and politics and that the truth of our country usually lies within the stories of people that as our guide said “Have been erased out of history.”

We also went to the De Witt Museum that houses several exhibits including colonial era furniture, old coins and money used in the first colonies. Right now there is an exhibit on 18^th century maps from different areas in the world, written and drawn up by different explorers, a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, and a dollhouse that was in the store windows of the F.A.O Schwartz toy store in the nineteen thirties.

During our stay in town we also visited the cooper, the blacksmith, the cabinet maker, and the magazine which housed the weapons and ammunition for the city. My personal favorite was the farm! Complete with pigs horses and working cattle, a smokehouse, a tobacco barn and small dwellings where the slaves would have lived. I think it’s the prettiest part of the whole time, not surprising as I love and have worked on farms and have a big interest in agriculture from a simpler time.

All in all we’re loving our entry into the south, we’ve both been here and like the slower pace and friendliness of the people. It was fun to see the eastern part of Virginia where neither one of us have been to before. Many steps back into the past and now onto who knows what! To follow are some more pictures.

Till next time

Emma