Home Again + Statistics

We came home today to a busy city.  Hello, Atlanta!  Hello, traffic!


We ate lunch at Ponce City Market and bought gifts for our house sitter, Ben.


The Atlanta Beltline is always a cheery sight.


We unloaded our car onto the front walk.


Smokey says, "Where have you been?"


George and Smokey greet each other.

It feels strange and luxurious to be home. So much space for us. We had a wonderful adventure.

We had never driven across the country, so this was our chance to see the land and the people who live with us in these United States.  We feel awed by the size and diversity of our country.  The crops, the trees and flowers, the lakes and rivers.  This is a country full of kind people who welcomed us to their cities and towns and homes.

Here are some numbers that describe our trip:

9000 miles
1 driver
61 days
1 Honda Civic
3 hours/average driving per day
17 states plus Georgia
8 National Park visits
14 visits with family and friends, 3 of whom were loopers
0 cancellations of reservations
17 nights in airbnb apartments

One adventure completed.

New Orleans - Day 2

Today we walked to the World War II Museum.  It is really well designed and thorough.  There are five buildings, each with a different focus.  I have toured lots of museums with kids, and it is always hard to slow them down, so they look at and read the displays.  The WWII Museum attacked this problem by assigning each visitor a soldier to follow through the war. There were lots of experiences in which we could immerse ourselves.

For example, we started by boarding a train just as recruits did.

George and I participated in a reenactment of the final day of the USS Tang, a sub that sank 33 ships.
She was built and launched in 1943. We were given identities of the submariners aboard the Tang as we entered a mock up.  My job was Research Periscope.  It was dark in the sub; the floor vibrated when we fired a torpedo; we could hear the commander's voice. We could see the battle on screens surrounding us, giving the feel, sights, and sounds of battle. In our last engagement in October 1944, we sank several ships.  Then the final torpedo turned around and hit us.  The ship went dark and filled with smoke. Silence. Seventy-eight men died, and nine survived.



After touring the war in Europe and the Pacific and having lunch at American Sector, we went home for a major nap.  Both days here we have taken super naps, sleeping deeply.  We watched the evening news and then headed out to visit Jackson Square, the Mississippi River,  and buy coffee and pralines to take home.


Jackson Square


Sunset at the Mississippi River


One of my favorite things in the French Quarter is shop signage.






This is a pharmaceutical museum

We have had a great time in New Orleans.  We parked the car in a lot a mile away and enjoyed
the city on foot.  Tomorrow we are driving to Auburn, Alabama, to visit my brother and sister-in-law, John and Melanie.  Almost home!

New Orleans

We are staying in the French Quarter in an airbnb apartment on Iberville Street. Chartres crosses Iberville, and Bourbon Street is two blocks away.  We walked a lot today.  First, when we arrived and then again at sunset.  Here are some photos from the day.


You know you're in NOLA, when you see this design.


We ate lunch at Stanley.


Fun brassy chandelier at W Hotel.


Café du Monde never closes.


Joan of Arc statue, a gift from France.


The music on the street is exciting.

We get to stay here two days. Woohoo!

Houston, TX, and Lafayette, LA

I enjoyed Houston so much.  Maybe too much.  After drinking margaritas and then watching the debate on Sunday night, I went to bed, and I forgot all about the blog.  So here's the scoop from Houston and Lafayette.





We drove into Houston on Sunday afternoon and entered right beside Memorial Park, which contains the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center.  This was a great find! We had our picnic lunch and then walked for a couple of hours.  There are 150 acres and many trails in the arboretum.  There were so many families out enjoying the mild weather.  We saw a birthday party and a Cub Scout troup.  It was a great way to kill some time and get exercise.  Then we checked into our airbnb apartment.  For dinner we took a recommendation from Road Food and ate at La Mexicana.  Delicious! Fresh ingredients and great service.  Then we went home and watched the debate.



I have been to Houston before, but this was a more fun trip.  All of our stops were close together, so the town felt easy to maneuver.  They have a prize in the nature center and park.

This morning we drove to Lafayette, Louisiana. We completed 925 miles, crossing Texas. It feels good to be in Louisiana. This town is Cajun country. We entered town near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and ate our picnic at Girard Park downtown. We spotted the college marching band practicing as we approached the park. George and I were in the marching band in high school, the Dixie Irish Band.  In fact, that's how we met. Summer Band was steamy in more ways than one. So we have a soft spot for kids playing instruments and marching around a football field. However,  by the time we had eaten lunch, they were finished.


These oaks are wide and beautiful.

We walked around downtown and saw some fun art on light poles. The shop with local artists was not open on Monday.


Dinosaurs on the pole near the Science Museum.





This is our Cajun Cabin, our airbnb spot for tonight. It's a
small house behind a bigger one.  There is a kitchen and bathroom, not shown.

We went to the grocery and cooked tonight - spinach and ham quiche.  We plan to
go to the movies and see Bridget Jones Baby. Happy Monday!

Austin, Texas

We had a great time in Austin today. We met Becca Saxon and her husband Alex for drinks at Irene's on 6th Street downtown.  I taught Becca when she was in 5th grade.  Now she is an assistant principal for a KIPP School here in Austin.  She is also the daughter of out good friends, Judy Schwarz and Hugh Saxon.  It was so fun to visit with her and Alex.  They are a sharp and interesting couple and have lived here for three years.  We talked about family, Austin, teaching, politics, and our trip.



After we left them, we walked a mile down 6th street to Red River, so we could eat barbecue at
Stubb's.  Stubb's is an Austin institution, and we have eaten there many times.  It hasn't changed a bit. I was happy to see that they had a good crowd of diners at 9:00 pm.



Although Stubb's seems the same, 6th Street is even more popular and packed with bars than it was 20 years ago.  It has a party feel with hundreds of young people walking along and hawkers trying to lure drinkers into their establishments.  It seemed as if the main food offered was pizza, but the drinking places were numerous.  I like seeing so many folks out at night. It felt safe and cheery.





As we crossed Congress, I took a photo of the state capitol. You can just make it out at the end of the street. Although the festivities were just revving up on 6th street, George and I found our car and came home.  We are happy to be back in our hotel and off our feet.

Grand Prairie, Texas

Last night in Lubbock we went looking for music and found the Depot District, which has bars, music venues, restaurants, and the Buddy Holley memorial.  It's hard for us to stay out late enough for night life to get going, but we did find a fun bar, Triple J, with good musicians.



This morning we drove to Grand Prairie, a suburb of Ft. Worth and Dallas.  We passed hundreds of windmills on the mesas.  When we got close to Ft. Worth, trees started to show up and the land became rolling.



 We came to see our niece Amanda and her two adorable children.  Amanda and her husband Adam have been in Grand Prairie for a couple of months.  They have made lots of adjustments - new job, new home, new friends, new state and town.  Amanda is staying home with her two toddlers, Luke (almost 3 years old) and Livie (almost 1) while Adam is tackling a new, demanding job.  Adam works out of town, so we didn't get to see him today.



We had a jolly dinner. The kids were great eaters, and we were so glad to see them and Amanda.
Happy Friday!  One week from today we will be home in Atlanta.

Lubbock, Texas

It helps to have an interest in agriculture and geology when one drives across this huge country.  Today we crossed into Texas, our 17th state, and we saw cotton and sorghum fields and oil wells.  The land has flattened, and the weather is hot.


We ate a delicious breakfast at Cowboy Café in Roswell.


Two derricks pumping away as we passed.

There was not a lot happening otherwise in eastern New Mexico and western Texas.  We drove through two small towns that had fanciful iron signs to welcome us.






Every street in Tatum, TX, had an original metal sign.

We are staying at an airbnb near Texas Tech in Lubbock.  This is a roomy, older apartment created from a garage.  We are the first guests for this host.  They have provided everything we could need.
They even have chips on the counter and drinks in the fridge. We plan to go out tonight and hear music or listen in at an open mike night.


I appreciate this painting on a wooden pallet in our front yard.

Roswell, New Mexico

We spent the morning in Santa Fe because we really hadn't seen all of downtown.  Santa Fe is one of my favorite towns. I'd love to visit here again.  The architecture is soothing, the art is interesting, and the people are friendly.

 
The outside entrance to our casita.


Santa Fe Plaza


I bought silver earrings from Geraldine Garcia at the Palace of the Governors.


We stopped in at Wells Fargo to get some cash, and a banker told us the aspens
were in color. She said to drive up the mountain to the ski area.


We were surrounded by gold. This is the top of the mountain.


Once we left Santa Fe, our drive looked like this.

Then we saw these two statues in the middle of nowhere:














I don't know why these giant cowboys were on US 285 in New Mexico, but I'm glad they were.


















When we arrived in Roswell, we took a walk downtown and visited the UFO Museum.
It was full of photographs and diagrams and handwritten notes and timelines typed on a typewriter
in the 1950s.


This was the final exhibit.

We are now in our airbnb apartment for the night.  It's a guest suite behind a spa. The place is full of gold trim and large mirrors.  Happy Wednesday!