Category: Cross Country Trip 2016

Day 39 (8/6) Chapel Hill, UNC -> Outer Banks! (Lin) It’s hard to believe that we have reached the last major destination of this trip: the Outer Banks, North Carolina. My family (most of it) meets here every two years in a huge ocean-side rental house. We’ve been doing this for almost a decade, and given that some of us live in different parts of the country, it is a cherished time to hang out with siblings and to have our kids get to know their cousins better.

This morning we slept in again (large sleep debt from the trip as a whole, I fear!), had a nice breakfast, and headed to Chapel Hill, nearby Carrboro, and the UNC campus. The first stop was at Rise Biscuits and Donuts in Carrboro for some amazing donuts and biscuit sandwiches. We then spent a little bit of time with Brandon looking at the recently renamed religious studies building (Carolina Hall), visiting the student center bookstore, walking the main green, and taking a picture in front of the UNC Old Well.

We were also delighted to meet up briefly with an old friend, Kwame, from Providence who is finishing up dental school at UNC.

We eventually hit the road and had a straight shot to the Outer Banks. The kids were beside themselves with excitement. We are all looking forward to a week to hang with family, relax, and more fully process this amazing cross country trip. I’ll post again on our way back to RI, but I think this pretty much ends the formal cross country trip blog. Thanks for joining us on our journey!

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Day 38 (8/5) Stone Mountain, GA; driving to Chapel Hill, NC. (Lin) Can I just say that Jo is an amazing driver? She has silently been the driving machine for 90% of this entire trip. We hit 10,000 miles today for this trip in eastern North Carolina, which means Jo has easily logged in 9,000 or so of those 10k miles. She actually drives most of the time on all of our trips. It started because she gets motion sick if she tries to read or work on her computer, and I don’t. So she graciously drives and lets me get stuff done. (We sometimes joke about which is harder with a van full of kids – driving or siting in the passenger’s seat and fielding the never-ending stream of requests for water, wipes, music, food, chargers, etc. etc.) Still, we all are so grateful for her excellent driving this entire trip.

Lazy morning at the Stantons’ – up late and were treated to a lovely warm breakfast of muffins, eggs, sausage, and coffee. The kids enjoyed ziplining in the backyard a bit and messing around the kids.

We pulled out a bit later than expected and decided to swing by Stone Mountain on the way to Chapel Hill. What a weird place. It is the southern version of Mt. Rushmore in many ways, with the three main leaders of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War (Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson) carved into shallow relief on the side of a huge granite mountain. It is also the site of the founding of the Second Ku Klux Klan in the early 20^th c. On the large lawn in front of the stone facade, each state which joined the confederacy (or even had sympathizers within it, like Missouri and Kansas) are memorialized. If you want to understand the ongoing controversy regarding the Confederate flag, this is a good place to start.

Traffic was heavy from Atlanta to our next destination, Chapel Hill, NC. Perhaps because it was a Friday afternoon, but we hit a lot of smaller and then a few larger slowdowns. It totally made me miss the wide open, mostly empty roads out west. We drove through massive rainstorm and saw a rainbow later. We hit 10,000 miles for this trip in western NC!

In Chapel Hill we are staying with our good friends the Baynes. I’ve been here before, but not Jo and the kids, so it is nice to get our full families together finally. We gorged ourselves on a marvelous feast of southern BBQ ribs, brisket, beans, etc., at The Q Shack in Durham. Afterward we came back to the house and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, including part of the parade of nations. Good times.

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Day 37 (8/4) New Orleans –> Moundville, AL –> Atlanta. (Lin) Woke up to a super muggy morning in New Orleans (even in our hotel room – air conditioned, but still damp). Got on the road and enjoyed driving across part of Lake Pontchartrain (smaller section, not the N-S long bridge). It was also fascinating to realize that the wide open terrain and roads we had enjoyed in much of Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas had completely disappeared. Instead, the highway in Mississippi and Alabama is tightly closed by trees on either side – pretty much like highways in New England. Although it felt familiar, honestly, we missed the wide open space and the never-ending view.

In Alabama, we stopped at Moundville Archaeological Park, a serene and lovely field in which a dozen or so large grass covered mounds can be viewed. The mounds date back 600 – 1,000 years ago and were built by southeastern Native nations as part of a concentrated living area / mini urban area. The mounds were usually used by royalty and religious leaders, who lived on top of them. Although the largest mound is only 60 feet high, it is still impressive to ponder the volume of dirt that had to be displaced to build it. Clusters of mounds like this exist all over the southeast, reaching up to Ohio. It was super wicked hot and humid, so only Harrison and Eden joined me in climbing the 100 stairs to the top of Chieftan’s Mound.

After a quick tour of the museum and some of the displays and artifacts on display (and some ice cream to cool down), we hit the road again. We had been hoping to stop in Tuscaloosa to see some friends, but we had to keep moving for time’s sake, which was unfortunate.

Atlanta traffic was slow, but it was slightly past the peak when we arrived. We drove to the northern section of the Atlanta, to Alpharetta, to stay with our friends the Stantons from our Gordon-Conwell days.

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Day 36 ( 8/3) New Orleans. (Lin) Another lovely late start to the day. It was raining when we woke up, so we felt no rush to get out and sightsee. When the weather cleared up around 11 am, we headed outside to explore the French Quarter. Our hotel is half a block off of Bourbon Street (ahem), so the kids got a quick but tame 11 am introduction to that. We stopped at the St. Louis Cathedral at the edge of Jackson Square – which claims to be the oldest Catholic cathedral in North America (1720).

From there it was to Cafe du Monde, of course, for several orders of their amazing beignets—French rectangular donuts smothered in powdered sugar. Nom nom!

From there it was a meandering route through some touristy stores, the French Market (an amazing stretch of food places and street vendors, where we bought yummy cheese and a baguette sandwich), and the National Park Services Historical Park – dedicated to New Orleans and jazz. Harrison and Helena completed the Junior Ranger program (#10!) while we watched a live jazz group from Denver, CO, tear it up.

Having learned a bit about New Orleans and jazz, we headed to the banks of the Mississippi, which we had first seen far to the north, in Minneapolis. If you’ve been to New Orleans, you know that when you stand on the banks of the Mississippi on the French Quarter side, you expect the river to flow left to right, but in fact it flows right to left, due to some crazy bends and curves ins the river. Anyway, it is really wide here, and of course super dirty, having traversed much of the midwest before arriving here.

We left the river, walked up Canal St., and caught a trolley to the Garden District, where we spent a hot, sweaty, hour viewing some of the largest and most beautiful houses there – often with ornate vegetation and gardens. Really beautiful and lush. The kids also loved all the different kinds of lizards we kept seeing – they are everywhere! I wonder how many show up in houses.

After a trolley ride back to the French Quarter, we walked to our hotel and had a lovely relaxing evening swimming and eating poolside.

And then: date night! Woot. Put the kids to bed and headed out to Lafitte’s on Bourbon St. – the oldest continuous pub in America, supposedly. Good times.

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Day 35 (8/2) San Antonio and driving to New Orleans. (Lin) For the first time this whole trip, I believe, I didn’t set an alarm for all of us in the hotel room. Sleeping in until 8:30 was good for all of us. We eventually packed up, ate the huge breakfast at the hotel, and headed outside to explore a small section of San Antonio.

We started by going into a huge mall next to our hotel, descending a level, and entering the River Walk. Although it was super humid, Elliot loved the River Walk for all the birds he saw, and Helena was in flower heaven and went to town taking close-ups of all the many colorful varieties.

After walking a section of the River Walk, we climbed the stairs to the street level and meandered our way to the Alamo, where in 1836 the Mexican army laid siege to a group of American men and women as part of the so-called Texas Revolution. It was interesting to see how the Alamo is curated as a “shrine” – part religious and part American historical, perhaps. The kids were all like “eh” – it’s getting harder and harder to impress them. Perhaps we need to watch The Alamo on our next long drive.

After pulling out of San Antonio, we had a 8 hour drive to New Orleans. We drove through downtown Houston en route, meaning that the kids have now been in or seen (from the car) the four largest cities in the US in the past two months (NYC, LA, Chicago, and Houston). Really fun. We all agreed that Chicago has a more impressive skyline (although we are not a neutral party…).

After crossing into Louisiana, we hit several long sections where the highway is on a bridge over the bayou, with vast stretches of water broken up by trees.

We made a somewhat last minute stop in Baton Rouge to visit one of my academic buddies, Mike Pasquier–super great to hang a bit. We also got to sample some local cuisine in the form of Po’ Boys (sandwiches of a local variety), catfish pies, and fried pickles. Yummy, but greasy. I had to eat an apple to detox.

On the road again, we pulled into New Orleans around 11 pm. I’ve been here twice before for conferences, so it is great to have the family here this time. Our hotel is in the middle of the French Quarter, so we look forward to exploring the area tomorrow. Only two of our four kids had been born in 2005 when Katrina hit New Orleans, and neither of the older two remember it, so that will be part of what we talk about more tomorrow, I’m sure, even if we don’t actually get to the Ninth Ward.

It is hot here, although in an oppressive, super humid way. I have to say, the higher, dryer temps of the southwest are stronger in some ways, but so much more bearable in others ways.

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Day 34 (8/1) Santa Fe and driving to San Antonio. (Lin) Today was our longest driving day yet: 11 hours. Texas is yuuuge, yuge, I tell you. And New Mexico is not small, either.

We all had a hard time getting up this morning. Travel fatigue is definitely kicking in. Fortunately, there was nothing urgent. We finally got around to loading up and walking around downtown Santa Fe, where our hotel was located. That place is cute! Totally manufactured and carefully cultivated, of course, with the low-level mud-plaster adobe style construction everywhere. Basically, everything looks like centuries-old Spanish mission buildings. Still, super cute and touristy. We walked around the plaza, went to the old Governor’s Palace (now a history museum with an open craft market out front), and got—perhaps oddly, given that it is a place rich in Spanish history—delicious crepes and French bread at a local creperie.

We also walked a short distance to two churches. The first was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and I was fascinated to find a statue to Kateri Tekakwitha out front (who was a Mohawk from Montreal, died in the 17^th c., and was made a saint recently – the first such one in North America). The second church was San Miguel, which bills itself as the oldest church building in America (early 17^th c.). It was small, cute, and ornate in the inside.

We got on the road and steered our GPS to San Antonio. The original plan (in the spring, when we planned the trip) was to sleep in Dallas overnight, but so many of you suggested that we drive the extra distance to Austin or San Antonio. I’ve been to both cities, and I like San Antonio especially, so it didn’t take too much convincing to change our plans. I especially want to show the kids the Riverwalk and the Alamo.

Almost immediately after leaving behind the impressive and beautiful mountains outside of Albuquerque, the NM landscape turned pretty flat, and it stayed that way through south/central Texas. Although we had lovely blue skies for most of the day (along with some totally fun cloud formations and combinations), as we crossed into Texas we could see a huge storm cell ahead, and the wind picked up somewhat ferociously. We could even see a small dust storm on the horizon to the north. We kept an eye on the weather and radar, and ended up driving through what was really only a heavy and windy downpour. Still, for a half hour or so, we felt like we were in an episode of storm chasers, which excited the kids quite a bit.

There’s really no major highway from Santa Fe to San Antonio; 85% of our driving today was on secondary roads, but in this part of the country that means extremely straight and high quality roads that have 75 mph speed limits (except through the occasional town). We also drove through a 60 mile long wind farm, with windmills as far as you could see.

At dusk we hit the town of Eden, billed as the center of Texas. We had to stop and take a picture of our Eden in Eden!

We had an 11 hour driving day (with stops), but with the loss of one hour coming across the time zone, it meant we were in the van from 11:30 am – 11:30 pm. The kids handled it well overall. I think we all felt it was a nice change of pace after pushing so hard for the past week and a half.

Day 33 (7/31) Four Corners and Chaco Canyon. (Pickles – you know, the trusty Honda Odyssey) Okay, people. Today was the worst day yet. For 33 days straight I’ve been pretty chill about this ridiculous marathon trip my humans are taking. I’ve faithfully chugged straight up steep mountain roads, around wicked hairpin bends (and even pigtail / corkscrew turns in Custer State Park), kept my humans safe down crazy steep 10% grades in the mountains, kept them cool in 125 degree heat in Death Valley, and never once failed to start, stop, and even hit 90 mph on the open road when asked to do so. I’ve eaten more bugs, dirt, and stones than I care to remember. But today, oh, today was the worst.

It didn’t start out that bad. My humans had a nice night (I overheard) at their hotel in Cortez, Colorado, at the base of Mesa Verde (ahem, another steep and winding road I safely carried them on, thank you). We both got to get wet – they in the pool, and I in a massive thunderstorm that moved through late at night. As we were leaving, I was treated to a super cheap meal – gas for $2.07! (My humans are the budget types – they were so happy! Fortunately it didn’t taste too bad, although they always give me the low octane stuff.)

We then drove 45 minutes to Four Corners – a pretty nice and mostly flat drive. Of course, they all got out and took what I later overheard were neat pictures of each of the kid humans standing in four states: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Of course, did anyone ask ME if I wanted to have a wheel in all four states? Nooo. Of course not. Gah.

From there we turned southeast towards Chaco Canyon, which I’ve heard is an important historical site for Native American cultures. On the way there, we passed by Ship Rock, a really cool and huge free-standing rock formation that sticks up 1,500 feet from the earth. Thankfully my humans decided to not take the hour detour back what I’m sure would have been crappy roads to see it up close.

But: out of the frying pan and into the fire. As we neared Chaco Canyon, suddenly the nice paved road I have enjoyed for 99% of the trip disappeared. And that’s when things started going downhill. (Well, not literally, since we were at 8,000 feet and stayed there for a while.) The paved road turned into gravel road. The gravel road, while rough, soon gave way to an actual dirt road, with huge divots, hard packed ruts, and miles and miles of washboard dirt. I felt like every single bolt in my frame was going to come out. My humans were making jokes about the Cars movie, but I didn’t think it was funny. There were even cattle on the road! I greatly preferred the bison on the road in Yellowstone — much more majestic.

After 30 minutes of this torture, we arrived at the visitor’s center, where I sat in the heat while my humans got water and maps. We then drove on a long loop in the canyon floor, looking at multiple remains of great houses built by ancestral puebloan peoples. My humans got out at Pueblo Bonito, the largest great house in the valley, and spent over an hour walking around it. Apparently it was really amazing – much larger than they expected: it covered 3 acres and was 3-4 stories high originally. It was made of thousands and thousands of smaller stones put together with mortar. Each level was supported with logs that were brought from large forests up to 60 miles away (and without the benefit of a sturdy, all purpose vehicle like me, or beasts of burden like horses – all human labor). Pueblo Bonito had over 600 rooms, mostly small storage and living areas, along with several large kivas, or round ceremonial religious spaces (and some smaller kivas as well). (The father human was sort of a know-it-all here, sad to say.)

The ruins were in pretty good shape from what I could see, although in the 1940s a large part of the canyon wall (that Pueblo Bonito is up against) came crashing down and crushed part of the ruins – 30 rooms. The father human wanted to take a hike up to the top of the mesa for a better view, but not everyone else felt like it, so they all piled back in and we returned to the visitor’s center for junior ranger badges for the youngest two humans, and then we were on our way.

Oh, before we left, the father human took time to stick another half dozen stickers on the Thule car top carrier that is strapped to me. There must be 30 stickers up there now. Every time we stop at a national park or city, they are obsessed with buying another sticker and putting it on the Thule. No skin off my back, but seriously folks – I’M the one who is taking you to these places, not the stupid Thule! Then again, it would ruin my bumper image if they stuck them on me directly. So I guess we are cool.

After the visitor’s center, I had to make the 30 minute hellish ride back over the dirt, washboard, ruts, etc., sometimes crawling along at 10-15 miles per hour. And the vibrations! They never stopped. Just pave the stupid road, humans. I snuck in a selfie with the road at a bad part – check it out below.

After that, we set our course to Santa Fe. I love cities. Smooth roads, parking garages, plentiful gas stations, beautiful cars, etc. Can’t wait! The roads to Santa Fe were lovely – there is so much beauty around here. I heard my humans say today: #beautyiseverywhere. I’m sure they were talking about me. I’ve heard tomorrow will be a long driving day — but all good paved roads, supposedly. You never can tell with these clowns.

(My humans say if you click on the pictures, you’ll see larger versions of them all.)

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Day 31 (7/29) Moab, Rafting on the Colorado River, and Arches National Park. (Eden)

(This is posted late because we stayed at a hotel where there was no wifi. More on that later.)

This morning, we said goodbye to Monument Valley, which made Dad sad. He likes big rocks.

We stopped just outside the park to take the iconic Forrest Gump shot. I saw the movie for the first time last night so I understood what we were doing but my siblings weren’t entirely sure. Eventually after a lot of re-dos, we got the picture. Run, Fishers, run!

After a quick two and a half hour drive , we arrived in Moab, Utah. Dad had arranged a river rafting excursion through a local adventure company. We drove upstream along the Colorado River, put on our breath-restricting life vests, and hopped in a raft with five or so other people. Our guide paddled us downstream to a little beach, where we stopped for lunch. We plopped down and watched as the guides lay out stuff for sandwiches. It was kind of weird, just watching them as they assembled tables and cut up fruits and veggies. We ate and got back on the rafts. Mom and Harrison took a turn on the inflatable kayak.

We continued down the river, through a couple of faster rapids, and stopped to swim and jump off the rafts. At one point, Elliot was sitting on the edge of the raft when I cannon-balled off it, knocking him off with the force of my jump! It was really funny and even he came up laughing. We all had fun jumping.

Through the slower parts of the river, our guide, Jonah (perfect name for his job, right?), entertained us with stories of his extreme hiking trips. He’s a pretty serious hiker and it was really peaceful listening to him as we floated down the Colorado.

When the ride was over, we changed into dry clothes, and instantly realized how hot it was. 105 F. Ugh. We stopped for dinner at a fun local joint called Milt’s, founded in ’54, which made it the oldest restaurant in town. It had yummy burgers and decent shakes, but not as good as In-N-Out!

Next was Arches National Park. It was really pretty, despite some clouds and rapidly approaching sunset. We marveled at the landscape but were disappointed to see only a couple arches.

We hiked (although it was more of a walk) up to a giant arch—a double arch, actually—and scrambled around on the big rocks below it. We had a nice view of the setting sun. We sat around on the rocks and took pictures. (Or, Dad took pictures. And more pictures, and more pictures, and more pictures….)

Unfortunately, it got dark pretty soon after that so we headed to Moab Under Canvas, the best hotel (in my opinion) that we’ve stayed in this whole trip!! It’s essentially glamping; there’s canvas tents with a rug, a king size bed, a dresser, and a wood stove. And the kids got our own separate teepee to sleep in with four cots!! (Dad wasn’t too keen on the non-Native appropriation of teepees, but it was still fun.) We definitely didn’t need the stove because even though the sun had gone down, it was still HOT. The whole thing was awesome and adorable.

(And it was practically in the middle of nowhere, hence the lack of wifi. There was no electricity at all in the tents/teepee.)

We ate a couple s’mores at the community fire, took quick showers in the bathroom trailer, and gazed up at the stars. There were SO many and they were SO bright! As more stars appeared, it became harder to pick out. It was stunning.

And then, we crawled into our beds and cots, and went to sleep. Under Canvas.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them or start a slideshow.)

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And some more I forgot originally:

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