Day Thirteen - Bryson City, NC

Started the day with a fine breakfast at the coffeeshop here at Lakeview. We headed over to a gem mine, to see if we could find a sapphire. Pretty cool. You dig your own dirt, then take it to the flume and wash it all off to hopefully find a stone. We found about 7 small sapphires and hope to have them made into some sort of pendant once we're home. Lots of fun. :)

Then we took a Jeep tour of the waterfalls along the Smokey Mountains and the Nantahala River. Our tour guide, Todd from Vermont (that should give you a good mental image of how he looked...definitely looked like a Todd and for sure, from Vermont), took us around for about 3 hours, showing us various waterfalls, and other interesting nature sites along the route. Went up to 2 lakes in the mountains -- gorgeous views, secluded and some multi-million dollar homes. A nice place to retire!

Part of the Nantahala River where tons of people go rafting and kayaking.


Quiet, peaceful lake...

Along the route, we saw several buildings that were still around from the 1700's and 1800's. Most were made from Hemlock trees and though are a bit run down, they're still standing. This particular one was the original post office for this town. The bars on the window were a USPS standard at that time.

Stopped for some local boiled peanuts on our way back. Must be a local thing, as there are roadside stands all over. Damn tasty. So we ate those on the deck while overlooking sunset on the river, and petting the dog that lives here, Mattie.

And the woman who runs the B&B here brought us some wine and snacks to compliment our peanuts. Pure relaxation... Well, pure relaxation once you include the Ben and Jerry's ice cream for dessert! While still watching sunset, of course. Now that's how you vacation!

And now it's time to upload some pictures and get ready for a long day tomorrow. Stopping at the Beacon (a plentaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay) in South Carolina, then South of the Border, then up to Maryland.

And here's a random photo for you that I forgot to post. It's from Memphis, right next to the SlaveHaven.

Day Twelve - Bryson City, NC

Had a good time in Atlanta. It was nice to relax and catch up on sleep without doing a bunch of crazy excursions! Now we're at an awesome spa in Bryson City, NC. We had the most amazing hot stone massage earlier, then went out for a nice dinner to celebrate the graduation.

Here's the picture of the Georgia sign that I never posted...

Not many pictures were taken in Atlanta, as most of the weekend was spent eating and playing video games. But this is us, pretending to be rockstars. Ok, we are rockstars, no more pretending. At least that's what Guitar Hero told us. :)

And some brother-in-law love, for ya...


And now the North Carolina sign.

This is right down the street from our B&B in North Carolina. We're in the Smokey Mountains and there's the river in the background.

Today we're headed to a gem mine in Bryson City. It's HUGE in this part of town, and people come from all over to check out the mines. When in Rome... After that, we're taking a 4x4 tour of the waterfalls in the mountains. *sigh* Total relaxation. More pictures to follow...

We're in Atlanta...

But I can't get my laptop to connect so I can't upload any pictures from Graceland. Will do it later this weekend... Off to relax in the basement playing Guitar Hero.

Day Nine - Graceland and Memphis

Day Nine -

We knew we wanted to check out Graceland while in Memphis, but I didn't know what else to see. We found a museum online called the SlaveHaven and it's a house built by the Burkel family in the 1800's, to help slaves through the underground railroad. The house looks just like the other houses on the street, but contains a celler underneath, where slaves could hide out. The house was occupied by the Burkel family until the late 1970's, when the secret came out that it was affiliated with the underground railroad. Until then, nobody was aware of the history in this home. Today, it's setup as a museum about slavery and was really, really fascinating. Apparently there was a code within quilts, that allowed slaves to basically speak to each other in a hidden language. Various quilt patterns meant things like "follow the drunken path" -- zig zag your way out, so when the dogs are sent out to hunt your scent, they go east, west, north and south, and the slavemasters think the dogs have lost the scent and stop looking for you. There were several other meanings behind quilt patterns that I can't remember right now, but it was really interesting. Maybe not the happiest way to spend the morning, but eye opening, that's for sure. We toured the house, and saw the trap doors that the Burkel family built, to help slaves into the cellar. Also went down into a room under the house where slaves were believed to stay at one point.

After that, we headed over to Graceland. It's amazing what he had accomplished by the age of 22. Bought a house, had multi-platinum records and was well on his way to stardom. The entire tour was really neat. His home is like being in a time warp. When you first walk in, you see the living room. With a 12 foot white couch and all white furniture, the stained glass and baby grand piano really stand out.

The next room we saw was his dining room. All original furniture -- who knew a man could have such good taste?!


In the basement, he had is TV room with 3 TV's. Apparently, Elvis liked to watch the news of ABC, NBC and CBS all at once, so he had 3 separate TV's. The couch was a royal blue color and sparkly pillows! Very showy and flashy, just like you'd expect to see in his house. Couldn't get it all in 1 shot, so I had to take 2.



Back upstairs, we saw his jungle room. Complete with green shag carpet on the ceiling and floor, because he said it soundproofed the room better. It's also full of tropical style furniture because of his love for Hawaii. That round chair under the window was Lisa Marie's favorite place to sit, and her teddy bear sits there today. The pictures are dark and not so great because flash photography is prohibited, and you can't use a tripod. So with dim lighting and no flash available, it makes a decent picture hard to come by.

The other side of the jungle room is complete with a cool walnut bar. Very 70's.

The last time Elvis played the piano for friends and family before passing away, was at this piano in his home. The upper level of this split-level room was for recording purposes and the lower level part was where he'd invite friends over to play for them.


Seriously, the amount of awards he won was just insane. There's an entire trophy room that is FILLED with grammys and other awards. This is only a teeny tiny portion of all his plaques and trophys for songs that went platinum, etc.


His grave is quite peaceful. He's buried with his parents and grandmother, but his twin brother (who knew he had a twin??) is buried somewhere else. His brother is never mentioned anywhere else on the tour, except at this point, to say that he's not buried with the rest of the family. But this grave is in the meditation garden and is surrounded by the pool and large green pastures. Not a bad place to be laid to rest! And no, Justin didn't lay down by the grave...I know you were going to ask.


Then we went into the automobile museum. How many cars he owned, I couldn't tell you. Probably 20 or so, and they're all amazing. This was my favorite though. A custom purple Caddilac with white leather interior. He bought the car when it was painted white and had a different interior, but he wanted to stand out and be unique, hence the customization.

Ok, so this picture is wicked blurry, but it's the pink Jeeps that the groundskeepers would roam around the propery in!! I just thought it was fun. Who roams their property in a pink Jeep?! Carrie...maybe you can replace the giant orange box with one like this?!



We flew past the Mississippi sign too fast and I couldn't get a picture. So I snapped a photo of the next best thing. A sign of the Mississippi Mental Health Facility! At least it says Mississippi somewhere on it...


Here's a good sign of Alabama though!

After Graceland, we were going to head to the hotel for an hour or so before dinner and just chill, since we're exhausted, but then decided that was a waste and we should pick up dinner and hit the raod early for Atlanta. So instead of leaving Friday morning for Atlanta, we left Memphis late afternoon and headed down. This way we can relax all day Friday. While the trip has been a blast so far, it's extremely tiring, especially since we're both still a bit sick. Feeling better, especially now that we have some humidity. We thought about going downtown to Memphis for the evening, but neither of us was really up for the bar, loud, congested scene so We stopped at Corkys BBQ on the way out of Memphis to pick up some road food. Holy crap was that delicious! We got a rack of ribs, bread, baked beans, slaw, and a slice of pecan pie. The pie is probably one of the best pecan pies I've ever had. And the ribs. So tender! And flavorful. We got the dry rubbed ones, based on the many reviews I read online. Sooo tasty...I want some more.

Day Eight - Drive to Memphis

Nothing exciting today. We left Texas around 1pm after hitting up Justin's favorite sushi joint from when he lived in Dallas a few years ago. Drove 7.5 hours to Memphis, and now we're exhausted.

Basically our entire view of the ride from TX to Memphis was the ass end of tractor trailers.

The day started off a little hairy, as we saw a news clip that Oklahoma was under a tornado watch and we were concerned that it would be moving east, towards TN. We considered bypassing Memphis altogether, but going south seemed to be a worse route, so we headed to TN. They predicted heavy rains and thunderstorms all day, but it was bright and shiny the entire way. No problems there.


Going to make it an early night tonight, as we'll be spending the entire day at Graceland tomorrow.

Day Seven - Carlsbad Caverns and Texas

Day Seven - LONG day. Carlsbad Caverns was about an hour from our cute B&B so we drove through the town a bit and on into Carlsbad. Artesia is pretty sparse -- mostely farms, rundown businesses, and oil refinery equipment. This was our view for an hour.

Typical "side of the road" view in Artesia. This was on one side of the road, the oil refinery was on the other.

Artesia

The road to Carlsbad, from Artesia. Very straight!

The caverns are nothing short of amazing. Really. We walked down a path that drops 750 feet into the cave. It's along the original trail that Jim White walked when he discovered the caves many years ago. The picture is hard to see, but you can note the winding walkway, that was crazy steep. Walking into the cave, the temperature dropped from about 90 degrees and dry, to a cool 56 and humid! yay for humidity!


The cave extends for a few miles, and all you see are insanely huge stalagtite and stalagmite structures that have been growing forever. There is no temperature shift underground, so nothing is exposed to the elements. After a while, you feel like you're on Mars, by the way the ground looks, and it's almost like looking at clouds -- your mind tries to see figures in all of the organic shapes. It looks sort of rocky and monotone, and it's hard to wrap your mind around the fact that it's all calcite and other minerals that have created everything. Probably one of the coolest national parks we've visited yet. This was really, really fun, and highly recommended.

Self timer shot in the caves...

Where's Waldo?! Or Jamie...

Water in the cave...sort of hard to see, but the water drips from the stalagtites and collects in water pools.

Called "Lion's Tail" because of the formation it made.

Stalagtites...

Can you find Justin?!

Before the path was blasted out, paved and installed with handrails, tourists had to climb down 17 stories of wooden stairs to view the caves. Then they'd rest and climb back up the 17 stories. not fun!! I can't even imagine having to do that. The wooden stairs are still there, I guess to remind guests how lucky they are that there's an elevator to bring you back up 750 feet, so you don't have to climb. Today, you can go down much further, about 75 stories, due to the elevators and paved walking path.

Carlsbad Caverns is also home to the bat flight, every night from mid-May to mid-October. Unfortunately we were a few weeks too early to see this phenomenon. Apparently at dusk, there are thousands of bats that exit the cave and it's supposed to be incredible to watch. Bummed that we missed it.

On our way out of the caverns, we started our long and boring trek through Texas. Holy wind! The dust storms were quite unpleasant and way more powerful than any dust storm should ever be.

Crazy dust storm in Texas

Notice the smile...obviously this was taken before the long, boring drive to Dallas!

We've decided that Texas is too large, too many farms, not enough wildlife, and in the city of Notrees, there were far more trees than in any other city we visited. Go figure...Texas is weird like that. Oh, and when you're bored, I guess it's the little things that get you excited. The odometer hit 43210 -- again, we don't miss a potential photo op!


The oil pumps in Texas are like weeds. Really, you look left, and can probably see 50 or so just in your line of vision. Look right, and hey there, it's another 50 or so oil pumps!



Then we had the unfortunate experience of seeing a truckload of cattle being taken to the slaughterhouse. I took a picture, so we can have a moment of silence for the poor cows. Finally, 6 hours into our drive, and there's HUMIDITY in the air! Hallelujah. I never thought I'd be so happy to sit in humid air, but my god does it feel perfect.



Tomorrow we're driving to Memphis and plan to hit up the all famous Rendezvous BBQ, thanks to a little birdie's suggestion. Can't believe we're already on day 7...it's all gone by too fast!

Day Six - Drive to Artesia

Started the day off by going back to Old Town, Albuquerque. We spotted a really awesome turquoise necklace on Saturday, but wanted to keep shopping to find "the right one." Turns out, our gut instincts were right, and that first one was it. So that was my birthday present, and it's fabulous! Sterling silver, natural turquoise and opal. The pic shows it on a crappy chain, because I need to shorten the one it came with, but for now, crappy chain is better than no chain at all.

My birthday present!

A fun little park in Albuquerque...

I'd been craving a cupcake from Cupcake Fetish in Albuquerque, supposedly the best cupcakery in town. They have great looking treats, awesome sounding flavors and mediocre tasting cupcakes...they were good, but not "oh...my...god delicious." I wasn't overly impressed. Bummer.

Sleepless in Albuquerque on the left (mocha), and Half Baked on the right (cookie dough and choc chips)

A while ago, I read about a museum called Tinkertown that a man started in the 60's as a hobby. He's an artist and hand carves all sorts of sculptures and wooden figurines. He also collects historical "junk" which is amazing. Tons of circus memorabilia, wedding cake toppers dating back to the 20's, the world's largest man's shoes and clothing, all his figurines, a jeep that he mosaic'd (how do you spell that?!) and decked out with random collectibles, etc. Unfortunately he died a few years ago, so his wife now runs the museum to keep his dreams alive. Anyone who visits Albuquerque should definitely spend the 3 bucks to check it out.

Justin's foot against the world's largest man's foot. Size 22 shoe, 8'4, 450 pounds.

Circus carvings -- truly amazing. Pictures don't even begin to show the detail that goes into these hand done pieces of art.

Tinkertown metal sign

hah!

The walls of the museum are all made of glass bottles, wine bottles, beer bottles, etc and mortar. Very bizarre, but really cool at the same time.

Then our 4 hour, most boring drive ever, started. I kid you not, Justin never turned his wheel once. It was a straight road for about 200 miles, no exits, rest stops, gas stations for about 80 miles, just farm land, ranches and cattle. Sooooo boring. Thankfully we have various Jim Gaffigan CD's to keep us occupied, because it's way too easy to get highway hypnosis on these roads otherwise.

We were hoping Roswell, AZ would at least provide a fun roadside attraction. Not so much. What a dull town that is! Every storefront says something about Aliens or UFO's but the town is so tiny, if you blink, you'll miss it. So I took one picture to say we were there, and that was it. :(


Anyway, we're now here in Artesia, New Mexico. What a dingy town this is. It's kept alive by an oil refinery, farming and light retail. I'd say 90% of the 7000 people here work at the refinery. It's just a gross town, but it's only 30 miles from Carlsbad Caverns, which is on the books for tomorrow, so it's convenient. We're staying in a really cool B&B though, totally surprising from the looks of the town. I started to worry we'd be sleeping in a roach motel, but it's actually very cool inside and the innkeeper is very sweet. She assured us that there will be a hot breakfast when we wake up, and that the popcorn by the microwave is free for taking.

That's it for now...time to watch some TV and get to bed. Tomorrow is Carlsbad Caverns and then a 7 hour drive to Dallas for sushi!