Vandrea Does America: October 2013

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Day 318 (Tuesday 6/4/13)- Congaree National Park

Starting out along the Congaree National Park's boardwalk our greatest fear had been of mosquito's. A Mosquito Meter had listed the threat as "severe" and so we had loaded up on bug spray. Unfortunately we learned an important lesson about bug spray: always apply it after you make lunch. OFF just doesn't belong in a PB & J sandwich.

Though a beautiful area we found the boardwalk slippery and almost falling several times we made the journey very, very carefully. Then it started pouring. This made the boardwalk more dangerous, but the mosquito threat laughable. We managed to wait out the worst of it at the center but still got soaked running to the car.

Now in possession of a new GPS we had hoped for better results. Thankfully we choose not to follow its direction literally or we would have ended up in a forest. Might have to trade this one in for a better model.

Leaves reflecting in the water

The Mosquito Meter

Day 315 & 316 (Sat 6/1/13 - Mon 6/3/13)- Augusta, GA

One of the truly irreplaceable moments on this trip has been getting to meet or reconnect with family. Living on separate coasts all their lives this was Isaiah's first chance to meet his cousins from Augusta.

Before meeting up we made a stop at the Phinzey Nature Center where we happened upon a guided tour. This once in a month occurrence was a nice surprise but slow going with the several children who had come along. We eventually made it out of the man made portion of the swamp (created to help treat waste water) and met up with Isaiah's Cousin Kerry.

The weekend commenced at a fast pace, meeting an incredible amount of family in a short period of time. On Saturday this was Cousin Kerry and Cousin Jimmy who took us on a 6-mile walk along the historic waterfront. It was a beautiful day, the walk enjoyable and dipping our feet in the freezing water at the end felt incredible. Following that Kerry took us to a great pizza place where we got to see real life gypsies and then to see the statue of James Brown.

On Sunday we met Cousin Joann and her husband Joe at the lake and spent the day watching her kids Jackson and Juliet play in the water while all of us preceded to get badly sun burnt. In the evening we had dinner at Joann's and got to meet Aunt Mary and her husband Gene, hear her son Michael sing and play guitar and laugh as her daughter Christina smoked me at Just Dance.

On Monday we played with Jackson and Juliet before hitting the road again. This involved playing never ending games of War, Jackson locking Isaiah up in "jail" and playing with Kerry's daughter Erin and their dogs.

It was an unforgettable weekend and one we will remember for years to come.

Tree frog at Phinzey Nature Center

Posing with James Brown

Days 312 - 314 (Wed 5/29/13 - Fri 5/31/13)- Athens, GA

We broke up a long drive with a stop at the Little River Canyon National Park. We spent a couple hours driving through this lovely setting and wading into the refreshingly cold water. It was a great way to wake us up on the drive to Athens.

Athens is a small but vibrant city with an eclectic group of residents (one guy told me that I should have
"brought some of that good Oregon weed") and the distinction of having been home to a surprisingly vibrant music scene including R.E.M. and the B52's. We also found a lovely art museum on the university campus which just so happened to be showing a documentary film about an art heist (including an invaluable painting by Vermeer) that occurred in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (which Isaiah has been to). The biggest art heist in U.S. history, this crime deeply affected many different lives and made for a fascinating story.

The characters involved were so unique that they seemed to be just that; characters-famed Art Detective Harold Smith (so badly riddled with skin cancer from sun exposing "medical treatments" in his Army days he wore an eye patch and a prosthetic nose); "Turbocharger" (a hyper manic criminal-turned-informant who believes the IRA is involved in the caper...which amazing does seem like a possibility) and a museum docent so deeply in love with Mrs. Gardner's legacy that he wept over her ghost speaking to him as a child that his destiny was to work in the museum. Sadly, Harold Smith did not live to see the outcome and the artwork is still missing with a $5 million dollar reward still promised for it's safe return.

The museum itself was intimate but well put together, featuring mostly unknowns with a few surprises thrown in.

Little River Canyon

Day 310 & 311 (Mon 5/27/13 & Tue 5/28/13)- Chattanooga, TN

After recently finishing the book The Road I have been referring to lots of things as "Apocalyptic hellscapes" but Chattanooga, above all other cities, truly fits the description.

Forced to listen to a dog nearly choking on it's own tongue from howling at its neglectful owners, two guys starting on R.V. repairs at 11p (and as soon as the sun came up in the morning) and, worst of all, a man who was clearly no stranger to violence, screaming to his friend about how he was going to slit some poor woman's throat, made for the worst night's sleep yet. This was a loud and scary Walmart.

Daylight didn't improve the city any as we drove around trying to find something nice. By this point our GPS was completely out of commission and without us phoning a friend to find directions to a McDonald's so we could get WiFi to look up a map, we would have never made it anywhere (Every town has a McDonald's on seemingly every corner, but in Chattanooga the closest one was 8 miles away).

High above the city's hellishness, however, was a different story. The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park sites both have their unique charms, with the Chattanooga Park perched at the top of Lookout Mountain, commemorating the Civil War battle that was fought there. Point Park, as it is now called, is a lovely little park offering an incredible panoramic view of the city below. From this idyllic height even Hades looked nice.

We also had the chance to drive through Chickamauga Park, which has miles of memorial statutes along a lovely scenic drive. In both of these battles the Union and Confederate forces alike lost a staggering amount of lives, second only to the Battle of Gettysburg and this certainly weighed on our minds as we drove.

The most recent battle over these grounds was fighting to make the area as a National Park. Doing so was an important way to remember those who were lost and brought healing to survivors from both sides of the war. It was also the first ever National Military Park.

Days 304 - 309 (Tue 5/21/13 - Sun 5/26/13)- Nashville, TN

Our week in the home of country music entailed many great experiences, but mostly it was just nice to take some time off from the road.

During the week we walked around Broadway (where most of the honky tonks are), drove Music row (where most of the recording studios and publishing houses are), visited the Tennessee State Museum, saw several beautiful historic buildings (though sadly the Ryman aka the original Grand Ole Opry wasn't pretty enough for a picture), visited the Belmont University campus, drove many times around town (though mostly because we got lost...bad timing for our GPS to crap out) and attended a festival where we were treated to some good local country music.

This week of downtime included some much needed R&R, a shower, time to do laundry and to research the next leg of the trip. We loved everything about Nashville especially the friendly people, the beauty all around us and getting to watch hours of Comedy Central thanks to a free Wifi connection at the Walmart where we stayed.

Belmont University campus

Downtown Nashville

Broadway Street

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Day 303 (Monday 5/20/13)- Mammoth Cave, KY

Having just learned about a free concert in Nashville we attempted the impossible...and somehow managed to make it work.

Starting off in Bardstown, KY we took the first tour of the day at the Barton 1792 distillery. The property is historic (the buildings haven't been updated since the 30's) and deserves some bragging and the hour and a half long tour proceeded to do so, describing the Bourbon distilling process in excruciating detail. Since Isaiah and I had already gotten a good overview on previous tours and time was in short supply, it was almost painful.

The Kentucky heat and unusual outdoor fermentation tanks meant that the distillery was already shut down for the season but we did get to see the bottling process in all its glory, which set this tour apart from the others. Even though Barton itself is on hold until cooler weather re-appears they still bottle for many different companies year round.

After finishing the tour with samples of Bourbon in both liquid and chocolate form we then hurried over to the Oscar Getz Whiskey Museum. Comprised of a dozen or so small rooms, this collection of bottles, posters and miscellaneous artifacts followed the history of Whiskey through its humble beginnings when Father Elijah Craig (yep, that kind of Father) stored it in charred barrels which were supposedly struck by lightening thereby turning it into Bourbon, to when Carry Nation rallied those in Congress to support Prohibition after losing her first husband to the bottle. (she lost the second for being a killjoy)

At Mammoth Cave we were thrilled to learn we had traveled back in time...to the Central time zone. We subsequently gained a precious hour which we certainly needed to tour the world's longest cave. Earning this title in 2012, the 300 plus mile long cave is still hiding many surprises, including potentially 600 more miles. Descending down 14 different narrow shafts with water raining from above, it was not an easy journey. The majority of the cave we visited was made of shale which is almost immune to the force of water, so it wasn't until the last 300 feet when we entered the limestone section where the true treasures revealed themselves. As we descended we saw cave "bacon," "popcorn," and "draperies" lining the ceiling. It was all incredibly beautiful.

We at last pulled into Nashville, took a bus downtown and arrived at the Music City Center grand opening party just as the music began. Starting the evening was the Fisk Jubilee singers, a group of very talented spiritual singers who sang a few gospel numbers to kick things off. Next was the Time Jumpers who had a very special guest playing with them...Vince Gill. Unbelievably Vince was unannounced and sat quietly playing accompaniment until the last song, when he finally took center stage and rocked out in full. Mikkey Eko was next and though every hot topic teen girl's fantasy he was a little too dramatic for our tastes (like more dramatic than Jeff Buckley, with a little bit of Jim Morrison smoldering, without any of the danger). He also took the Eko a bit too literal, with every song involving looping his vocals and harmonizing with himself until he sounded like a choir of broody monks. Though he did have some nice, big choruses.

His band was a sight. The drummer had a flat top and a Pompadour (I know you're thinking "but that's impossible!" yet I assure you it was real) and the D.J. was wearing what I affectionately dubbed a "Where's Waldo outfit" while being so intensely turning nobs and staring at his computer monitor that you couldn't help but smile. And last by certainly not least was the headliner...Sheryl Crow. Still as fantastic looking as always, Sheryl treated us to her older hits inter spliced with some of her new country songs and it was excellent.

For most of her career, I've thought I was too cool for pop music, but listening to all her hits back to back it makes me think she's the best pop/rocker since Tom Petty. I really can't think of any of her contemporaries, female or otherwise, that has consistently had hits for as long as she has. She doesn't hide her influences well, but its not like Tom Petty invented southern rock either. It was a fun show.