Day 20/21...Alamogordo/Santa Fe/Denver

So, yesterday was a pretty long day because we had to drive from Alamogordo to Santa Fe...but not before heading over to White Sands one more time!  We woke up late and missed free breakfast, so we headed to a local cafe (because, really, good coffee is the most important part of any road trip), The Olive Branch, for some really good coffee and breakfast sandwiches.  From there, we drove the 20 miles or so to White Sands.  We went into the Visitor's Center to "rent" our used flying saucer sled (you can purchase new or used sleds and the return them when you're done for a partial refund), so we could sleigh ride down the dunes.  We drove out about 8 miles into the park, with the intention of doing a bit of the 4.6 mile hike.  About .3 miles in, we were like, yeah, right...not happening...it was hot, sunny and very windy, so we headed straight to some dunes to try sledding.  Turns out, sand sledding is tough in the off-season because it's so windy and the lack of other visitors means the sand isn't packed down at all...like trying to sled in fresh snow.  We did get going after a little while and it was pretty fun...and there wasn't another soul in sight.  The challenge is trudging back up the dune after you slide down to the bottom...no chair lift.  Unfortunately, the wind just wouldn't give up, so we headed out after about 45 minutes...but it was definitely amazing and worth the trip.

On our way to Santa Fe, we were again reminded of the beauty of a road trip.  While reading our road tripping book, we discovered Truth or Consequences, NM, home of Riverbend Hot Springs Lodge, supposedly the only location where you can hot spring on the bank of the Rio Grande.  So, while waiting for our first oil change at Jiffy Lube, we called up Riverbend and made a 3:00 PM reservation at one of their hot spring baths.  Awesome.  Riverbend is actually pretty much a hostel with a bunch of hot spring pools and it fits in perfectly with this small artist colony town.  Naturally, 4:00 PM arrived quite quickly, so we said goodbye to our relaxing detour and headed onward and northward.  Along the way, we realized we were on old Route 66.

We arrived in Santa Fe around 6:30 and checked into our LQ.  We were starving because all we had was our delicious breakfast at The Olive Tree.  We read about Maria's, home of the best margaritas in Santa Fe, so, of course, we headed there for dinner.  The food was delicious...tacos and blue corn enchiladas...you can even watch their homemade tortillas being made.  They offer probably 100 different margaritas (one that costs $75) and over 100 types of tequila...somehow we wound up with the same one, but it was amazing...and incredibly strong.

This morning we woke up and got ready for our short time in downtown Santa Fe.  The town is full of beautiful adobe buildings and more jewelry and pottery shops than you can imagine.  We headed to Loretto Chapel, home of the Miraculous Staircase.  Neither of us had heard of this before, but the story goes that Loretto was built without a staircase up to the choir chamber.  The Sisters of Loretto prayed for an answer to this problem and finally a mysterious carpenter showed up, built the staircase and left without accepting payment.  Besides the obvious miracle of the last-minute savior, the structure of the staircase itself has baffled experts to this day.  It's a pretty interesting story and more on the stairs can be found here - http://www.lorettochapel.com/staircase.html.

After some shopping and a quick stop at a very tiny, yet delicious, coffee stand, we got back on the road towards Denver.

We arrived in Denver around 6:00 PM and, after checking in, we found a nearby brewery.  Luckily, Denver brews plenty of beer that goes above and beyond Coors.  We are staying pretty close to the Rockies stadium, so we found Breckenridge Brewery, right across the street, and walked over from our hotel.  Not too shabby...and they have samplers, so we will be visiting again tomorrow for some more.  We tried to purchase tickets for a pub crawl for tomorrow, but they were sold out, so we're planning our own.  Should be fun, even though the temperatures are a bit lower than we've been used to (it's about 45 degrees here now...brrr.)

Day 19...Carlsbad/Alamogordo

This morning we woke up pretty early to get ready for our trip to Carlsbad Cavern National Park.  It was only about 25 miles or so from our hotel, but there were rumors of crazy construction and bad tourist traffic.  Unfortunately, our day started with no coffee at hotel breakfast, but we moved along to our destination.  Traffic was pretty much non-existent with the exception of a construction vehicle we got stuck behind.  We arrived in plenty of time...only to find out the coffee maker at the park was broken...strike two with the coffee.  While we waited for our 10:00 AM tour to start, we checked out the small museum, with information about the park's formations and wildlife, and a photography exhibit featuring some Ansel Adams, which was a nice surprise.

Around 9:45, we headed to the crazy elevator that takes you 750 feet below the surface in about 60 seconds.  Finally, our park ranger guides, Joann and Kyle, arrived to give us the orientation for our tour.  It was about an hour and half, through King's Palace Cave, otherwise locked off from the general public.  The caves are unbelievable.  It's generally said to be about 56 degrees constantly in the cave, but it definitely seemed a bit colder (big change from the mid-80's we've been experiencing) and it's naturally complete darkness, however, the park installed well-placed LED lights, that actually do a great job of highlighting the formations, as opposed to feeling like some human went and ruined all of it.  Joann gave us tons of history about the discovery of the cave (by a 16 year old) and how it all came to be what we see today.  We took a ton of pictures and we even experienced total darkness twice, when our rangers turned off the lights in the chamber.  It's amazing to realize you have really never been without any light before.  Of course, this was the time Joann decided to inform us about the crickets, centipedes and beetles that live in the caves...blahhh.  They also have the same Mexican free-tail bats we saw in Austin, but they don't seem to arrive at the caves until mid-May.

After our guided tour, we returned at the entrance to the Big Room - as you would imagine, the biggest of the open spaces.  The expanse of these caves is indescribable and photos just don't do it justice...but we tried.

We were starving after our tour and happened to pass a Subway on the way back through town towards Alamogordo (our next stop), so we picked up yet another turkey sandwich to split on the road.  FYI, turkey is NOT part of the $5 Foot Long promotion in Alamogordo (but they do have guacamole.)  Our drive was about 3.5 hours and was pretty smooth, until we got to some crazy windy, narrow mountain roads.  Eventually, we made it to our Super 8 and checked in.  We relaxed a while before heading out for what we were hoping to be an authentic "New Mexican" dinner...still not quite sure what that is.  Our tripadvisor.com research lead us to La Hacienda, on the other end of town.  It looks a bit rundown, but the food and beer is cheap and pretty good, so we were happy.

Turns out, White Sands National Monument (the purpose of our stop here) was open until 10:00 PM, so we drove about 20 miles to get there after dinner to see the sunset.  This is a place that was not on our original itinerary...neither of us had ever even heard of it.  Thanks to our road trip book, we read about it on the back cover and decided to cut out El Paso and take the trip to Carlsbad and White Sands.  So far, it seems we have definitely made the right decision.  In the 45 minutes or so we spent at White Sands tonight, we were amazed.  We just went out to a short boardwalk area, where you aren't supposed to actually go onto the sand, but can read some short exhibits on the plants and animals of the desert.  We watched the sun set and the moon rise and snuck out onto the sand for a few pictures...awesome.  Can't wait to head back tomorrow for some sand "sledding."

Day 18...Carlsbad, NM

Our alarm didn't go off this morning, so we had a bit of a late start as we left for Carlsbad, expected to be about a 7.5 hour drive.  We weren't really planning to have time to see anything here anyway, so it was a pleasant surprise that the speed limit was 80 for most of the way and we cut about 45 minutes off the total.

Along the route, we saw some beautiful wildflowers...it's amazing how they just grow along the side of a highway all pretty like that when I can barely grow flowers on purpose in our backyard.  (Nothing special about Boerne, TX...just the best photo of the wildflowers.)

The drive was otherwise pretty barren...lots of sand and cactus-y type trees and plants...and the occasional oil rig, which is quite sad to see.  We really wanted to just run into the middle of one of these crazy areas and take photos to try and document how expansive it was, but it appears someone has gone ahead and put fences up along pretty much the entire highway...probably electric.

So, when we finally made it to New Mexico we were happy to get out of the car and take photos.

We checked into our motel in Carlsbad, just over the border of NM and set out to find dinner.  We actually gained an extra hour on our drive, but we were starving, so we headed into "town."  Andy had read great reviews about a place called Trinity Hotel and their restaurant, so we decided to check it out.  It was mostly Italian, but had great steak.

Our road trip book listed a drive-in movie theater in town, which was super exciting since we haven't had one on Long Island in way too long...and it just so happens that Monday is one of the few days a week they are open!  Three different movies are screened each night and Monday is $3 per person...and candy at the concession stand cost us $2.75...$8.75 for two movie tickets, Junior Mints and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and the comfort of your car.  Incredible.  Of course, slim pickins on the movies left us watching The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which RottenTomatoes.com gave much better reviews than our other options (The Bounty Hunter and Why Did I Get Married, Too?)  At least it was fairly short, being a kid's movie.  Good times all around.  The one baffling part is how people flock towards each other at movies, whether in a theater or in a car.  We were the first ones parked in a wide open field and within 15 minutes, we were surrounded.

Anyway, we have a big day ahead of us, so it's off to bed.

Day 16/17...Austin/San Antonio

Little behind on the blogging, so two days in one today:

We made it to Austin late Friday, so we didn't get to see anything, but we were up early Saturday.  We stayed with Kristi (and Isaar and Mish Mish, her dog and cat) at her apartment in Austin and she was lovely enough to be a great hostess and tour guide.  She works at the University of Texas campus there, so that was our first stop.  The campus is huge and has a lot of pretty buildings, fountains and statues.  It seems Austin is all about their university and, most of all, their Longhorns.  One of the nice things about the campus is that they have a few different museums open to the public.  We went to the Lyndon B. Johnson museum after walking around for a while.  It was free and had a huge of collection of pieces from his life.  Interesting to head there after recently visiting the 6th Floor Museum, like moving right along the timeline of history.  The only disappointment was that they claimed to have an animatronic LBJ that told jokes and it was nowhere to be found (perhaps someone found it inappropriate...who knows.)

It was our little friend Eve's birthday and we wanted to get her a cool postcard birthday card, so we went to the U of T Co-op (school store) and picked one up (no, it hasn't been mailed yet) and checked out the incredible variety of burnt orange items you can buy, from standard t-shirts, to Tiffany lamps to sundresses and even prom dresses...insane.  My school did  not have that kind of spirit (go JWU!)

Anyway, after that, we were getting hungry, so Kristi took us to a nice little bakery/cafe, Mozart, on the river, where we had amazing desserty items and iced coffees.  Of course, they have outdoor seating, so we were able to relax in the sun on the edge of the river...lovely day.

We decided to head back to her apartment to take care of the pets and relax a little before meeting Jeremy and Kim for dinner.  So, around 6:00, we left to head back into town to find parking and walked over to Iron Works BBQ (more BBQ...heaven), another place where they tell you what sides you'll have with your BBQ'ed meat...that's how you know it's good.  We had some Texas beer, ribs and brisket, again, outside along a creek.

We learned about Austin being "batty," so we headed to the Congress Street Bridge, where Mexican free-wing bats sleep all day long and fly out at sundown to find dinner.  So, the whole sidewalk along the bridge was lined with people waiting and then, like clockwork, thousands and thousands of tiny bats flew out in a stream...it must have gone on for 15 minutes, that's how many bats their were.  Creepy as it may sound, it was actually really cool to see against the backdrop of the sunset on the river.  If you look closely at that top photo with the deep blue sky, you can see the faint parade of bats.

After the bats, we walked a loop from one side of the river bank to the other to see the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue...yes, that's a thing.  We actually got a kind of cool picture in the dark because there were some people lighting him up for a photo shoot for some reason.  From there, we headed back to the car to head "home."

This morning we got up and Kristi joined us in San Antonio for the day.  It's only about an hour and a half from Austin, so we were able to get in some sightseeing before we say goodbye to Texas tomorrow.  Luckily for us, we arrived on the last day of Fiesta San Antonio!  It's a crazy 11 day festival that has been happening since the 1800's here...one of the biggest in the country.  The bulk of the festivities seem to be happening right outside our hotel, so it was nice to just leave the car and walk.  Not sure how official it is, but it seems at least during Fiesta, drinking is quite okay on the streets...so, there are happy, drunk people everywhere.  Not to mention the never-ending scent of amazing Mexican and Southwest food being offered from a hundred different booths lining the streets. 

We took our first walk through the festival and went over the The Alamo.  Unfortunately, there isn't much left of the actual structure, but they do have some artifacts in the remaining shrine, as well as a large diorama of the original mission which they have a guide explain, which was nice.  Outside of the shrine, they have some really nice gardens with a path you can follow.

San Antonio has a really nice area called Riverwalk (like many cities, actually), so we went over that way for a bit.  It's a stone walkway on either side of the river running through the city, with stores and restaurants and a boat tour.  We stopped for lunch and relaxed for a while in the shade of the trees...it's below street level, so it's quieter and cooler because of the tall trees lining each side.

We weren't able to get into our room when we first checked in, so we went back to LQ and got our room and unpacked our car and then took another walk through the Fiesta to get some margaritas (for Andy and me) and chocolate-covered strawberries (for Kristi) and then Kristi left us to head back to Austin.

We relaxed in the room for a while, while Fiesta played on and then headed across the street for dinner at Mi Tierra for some delicious and fresh chicken fajitas for two and some homemade lemonade.  Check out the crazy white Christmas situation...yes, that's how it's decorated inside.  Good stuff.  Hopefully we can eventually get to sleep...Fiesta wages on until midnight, though it seems our hotel room neighbors will be more annoying than the party.  On to New Mexico!

Day 15...Dallas

One day late...but we spent yesterday in Dallas.  We got up early and went over to the Cowboys' stadium to purchase tickets for a tour for later in the day.  After that, we headed into downtown Dallas (the stadium is actually in Arlington) and visited the 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.  The museum was very well done and included an audio tour, which always enhances the visit.  It was incredibly sad, but fascinating at the same time.  And now I have to watch JFK, which I have never seen.  After our visit (we spent about 2 hours there), we walked over to the grassy knoll...another beautiful day.

From there, we walked around a bit in the historic district and stopped for lunch at RJ's Mexican Grill...they had some delicious specials and $4 margaritas...not to mention the outdoor patio.  So, we had lunch and relaxed for a while before we had to leave to head into Arlington for our tour.

We got to the stadium around 3:30 and got on the 4:00 tour.  We actually got to see quite a bit of the $1.4 billion monstrosity.  I'm sure it would be lovely if it were the home of the Jets, but because it's the Cowboys', it seems ostentatious.  Everything's bigger in Texas, as they say.  We were able to sit in some cushy seats, visit a suite, check out the Cowboys' locker room AND the cheerleader's locker room and finally went down to the field, which was cool.  They encourage photos on the star, but we passed (again, as Jet fans.)

Luckily, the football stadium is right across the way from the baseball stadium and we had tickets to the Texas Rangers' game.  We were heading to Austin that night, so we planned to stay until around the 5th inning.  We walked all around the stadium and checked out their Hall of Fame, which was nice.  We split a Chicago-style hot dog and headed out.  There were impending thunder storms (and tornadoes to the west), but we were lucky enough to only really experience lightening...rain didn't hit until we were about a half hour away.  Finally, we arrived at Kristi's apartment - our gracious host and informative tour guide!  More later on our first day in Austin.

Day 14...Memphis/Dallas

The majority of our day today was spent on the drive from Memphis to Dallas, but we did do one last touristy thing before we hit the road.

Memphis has a pretty cool exhibit called The Mud Island River Park, which features an exact scale model of the Lower Mississippi River kind of carved into the cement.  It has markers alongside, letting you know which city you would be in and opens into a "Gulf of Mexico" where you could rent a paddle boat (we did not.)  It was quite crowded with kids...seems everywhere we've visited, there is always a school trip...so, we walked down to the Gulf and back.  It's located on an actual island that lies between Memphis and West Memphis, which is in Arkansas, so you can either take a monorail or walk the 1/3 mile each way, which we chose, since we've been enjoying too much BBQ lately.

The trip to Dallas was fairly uneventful...we finally made it around 7:15 and checked into our hotel and promptly located the closest Chili's...we had a gift card...yum.

Day 13...Memphis

Today we woke up early to head over to Sun Studio, where Elvis, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis got their start.  It was a great tour, which included a visit to the small museum they have upstairs (a boarding house at the time when the studio first opened), with fun things like Elvis' social security card and high school diploma, as well as telegrams sent after his first television appearance, plus things from Johnny Cash and B.B. King.  From there, we headed downstairs to the recording studio, which closed for a while, but is once again open for business.  Tons of modern-day artists have cut albums there, and U2 even went there to record three songs from Rattle and Hum.  Sun Studio is also the location of the famous recording between the Million Dollar Quartet.  The best part was that they actually use song recordings to enhance the tour.  They have a mini cafe in the gift shop area and have a free shuttle that goes in a loop between the studio, Beale Street, Heartbreak Hotel (unimpressive, at least from the outside) and Graceland.

So, after our tour, we went down to Beale Street via shuttle and toured the Gibson Guitar Factory.  Unfortunately,  they don't allow photos inside, but the tour itself was really interesting.  You literally get to walk the floors of the factory, seeing everything from the wood as it's received at the factory, through the spray painting of the finished guitar.  As someone who is not a guitar player, it was still amazing to see all the time and effort that goes into making each one.  For anyone that is, you can apparently get insane discounts on guitars by purchasing them at their gift shop, the only one of the Gibson Factories that will sell to the public.

We got back on the Sun Studio shuttle which stopped at Heartbreak Hotel and then went on to Graceland.  We were dropped off at the ticket area, which is actually across the street from the mansion...all on a pretty major road, which was kind of surprising.  We decided against the Graceland tour, which seemed insanely overpriced and thought about going to his automobile museum, which is actually a separate charge from the mansion, but ultimately ended up enjoying some peanut butter and banana sandwiches at one of the local restaurants, while we waited for the shuttle to return.  Delicious.  We also creepily walked across the street to take some pictures of the house from outside the fence...it's actually pretty normal looking from the outside...who knew?

We went back to Sun Studio to pick up Raquel and headed to the hotel for a nap before dinner.  Life on the road can be exhausting!  We headed out to dinner at Rendezvous, a famous barbecue restaurant, around since the 1940's.  It seemed to be a bit of a tourist trap, but it's easy to see why - amazing dry-rub smoked BBQ ribs.  Hard to go wrong with that combination.  It's not about the service (speedy servers trying to get as many people fed as quickly as possible), the decor (appears to be one of the first places to hang random crap on all the walls) or the paper plate/plastic utensil place settings.  It's about the food...everything is served with coleslaw and baked beans...there are really no other options...and they even reference the fact that it's crazy that some people would want something besides ribs on the menu.  So, we went with combo plates - ribs/brisket for me and ribs/chicken for Andy...no complaints here :)

We walked down Beale Street briefly after dinner - I had intentions of a frozen drink in a guitar cup, but by the time we finished eating, it just didn't seem like the wisest decision.  Plus, it seems that it was biker day on Beale because there were tons of  motorcycles lining the streets, making it hard to walk down the crowded sidewalks.  Without the want for drinks, we figured it would be tough to hang out in a bar listening to blues, so we are back at the hotel.  We actually have a pretty decent drive tomorrow as we head to the Big D.

Day 12...Memphis

So, today we left Nashville...which I think we put up there with one of our favorite visits on this trip so far...Nashville, we will miss you.  On our way to Memphis, we stopped at Shiloh National Military Park and Cemetery in Pittsburg Landing, TN.  We were able to get a stamp for our National Parks Passport (very exciting) and did a self-guided auto tour of the park.  Good stuff.

We actually wound up dipping into Mississippi for a bit...which was unexpected.  Though it was fun to get to type it out here.  Turns out the south has an incredible amount of Subways.  Most of them attached to gas stations.  That's all we have to say about that, I think.

Finally we arrived in Memphis at our lovely, fancy-pants renovated La Quinta...seriously, it's quite swankily decorated...and we noticed that they have TWO waffle makers in the breakfast area...score.

After checking in, we drove to downtown Memphis to the...wait for it...Visitor's Center.  I had my first look at the Mississippi River ever.  At the Visitor's Center, we learned that Memphis seems to be a pretty walkable city, as many of the other places we've gone, which was nice to find out.  We left our car there and walked for a ways until we got to a very non-Memphis restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner at the Kooky Canuck's...certainly not my first choice, but they were a stop on the Man Vs. Food show, so we stopped.  They have a crazy challenge where you can try to eat a four pound burger or even a six pound burger to get your photo on the wall...super.  We did not try the challenge.  But I did get to have some fried green tomatoes!

We headed over to Beale Street after eating and listened to some blues at Silky's.  Of course, you can take your beers to go down there, so we walked a little bit afterward to scope out some other options for music and dinner for tomorrow.  We learned the best place to get barbecue is "the ghetto," so we won't be doing that, but we hear Blues City Cafe is good, so we'll probably just go there and, not unlike Vegas, you can get fancy frozen drinks in fun-shaped cups, so that will also be on the agenda for tomorrow evening.

We have a big day planned for tomorrow, including a visit to Graceland, so we are heading in early tonight.

Day 11...Nashville

Our first stop today was the Grand Old Opry House, with the intention of a tour.  We waited for a while for the ticket office to open, only to realize they were preparing for the Dove Awards, so there weren't going to be any tours today :(  So, we headed to their museum and spent some time learning about some of country music's history.  It was actually really interesting to see how the Grand Ole Opry got its start and to read the stories of all the different acts that had spent their careers trying to get invited into the exclusive membership "club."

From there, we drove back into downtown and parked the car.  We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which had some of the same info as the GOO Museum, but tons more on top of that.  It seemed to be newly renovated and had a lot of song samples, memorabilia and interactive exhibits.  After these two stops, I realized how much I actually liked country music back when Long Island had stations for it.

Naturally, I was hungry by this time, so we walked around town looking for some more BBQ...and somehow we couldn't find any.  So, it was back to Jack's...yes, on this 40-day road trip, we have now eaten at the same place twice, but it was so worth it.  I would be happy to eat their again if I had the chance.

After lunch, we drove to the Parthenon...a very odd Nashville favorite.  It's an actual replica of the Parthenon, to scale, in a park...Centennial Park.  Apparently if you go inside, they have a sculpture of Athena, just like in Greece, said to the be largest sculpture indoors, in the western part of the world.  Of course, it's closed on Mondays, so we just saw the outside.  Nashville thinks they're cool because their Parthenon hasn't crumbled.

We decided today might be a good day to head back to the hotel for a little while to relax, so we weren't half asleep by sundown and could enjoy some more live music after dinner.  So, around 7:00, we drove back in and had dinner at the Big River Brewery and a beer sampler.  After dinner, we went to Legend's for some live country music.  The band playing was great - they had an album, but they also played some covers, which was nice.  And now, here we are, getting ready for another early day as we set out for Memphis tomorrow morning.

Day 10...Nashville

This morning, we headed west to Nashville, with our first stop being Andrew Jackson's house, The Hermitage.  What a beautiful property - and the house is huge at 8000 sq. ft. 

We were able to do a self-guided audio tour of the grounds and then had a guided tour of the house. 

We then drove to our La Quinta (or LQ as we like to call them, now that we're so friendly) to check in and then went into downtown Nashville to pick up some info at the Visitor's Center.  The guy working there was really friendly and helpful, so we took his advice and walked across the street to Tootsie's for some live country music and some beer.

They have two floors, with different acts on each one.  From the looks of the photo-covered walls, it seems everyone and their brother has played at Tootsie's...including Snoop Dogg, according to the Visitor's Center guy.  No one famous today, but it was a great place to spend the afternoon before heading a few doors down to Jack's Barbecue for early dinner.  This had to be the best meal I've had on this trip so far...we shared the combo plate...three types of BBQed meat (brisket, pork shoulder AND ribs), mac & cheese, apples and corn bread...plus they have seven different sauces...amazing. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the capitol building to visit James Polk's burial site...yes, on the lawn of the capitol. 

Another early night - these driving days are exhausting, no matter how far the trip. 

But we have big plans to actually spend an entire day and evening enjoying Nashville tomorrow.

Day 9...Great Smoky Mountains

We decided to sleep in Saturday morning, since the weather was supposed to be a bit iffy in the morning, but become nicer as the day wore on.  We packed our backpacks with lunch and other hiking necessities and headed back into the park (the redneck bonanza was just starting up again, but traffic wasn't too bad) to Trillium Gap Trail, home of Grotto Falls.  The trail was listed as moderate and fairly short, so we planned to do another short trail after this one, with lunch at a picnic area in between.  As with all the best laid plans, we found ourselves feeling incredibly old and out of shape as we headed up the steep, rugged trail, only made better by the happy, peppy people on their way back down to the base.  What the heck, Trillium Gap??  Finally, after over an hour and half, we heard the falls...Rainbow Falls.   Yeah...not Grotto Falls.  Turns out, we accidentally went in the wrong direction and wound up on a 5.6 round-trip strenuous hike.  And, I hate to say this about any waterfall, but it was kind of just not impressive enough to warrant that hike...but, we took it in stride and high-fived a bunch of times, since we wound up exerting a lot more effort than we had any intention of and we survived.  It was time for the best turkey and cheese sandwiches ever and the much quicker trip back down.  It was our turn to be the happy, peppy people, letting everyone else know they only had a "half hour" left and that it was "so worth it!"  :)

From there, we decided to forgo another trail and instead drove to the point in the park where North Carolina and Tennessee meet...some monuments and a beautiful view.  It was on our way back out of the park, towards that lovely condo, where we encountered trouble...insane traffic crawling slowly along the mountain road...and an almost empty gas tank.  We eeked along until we came upon what looked to be our only option...Gnatty Branch Road from the day before...a road so narrow and windy that you have to honk your horn ever four seconds to avoid getting into a head-on collision...this time it was Andy driving, so I just closed my eyes.  We made it out and naturally traffic was just as terrible in Pigeon Forge, so we headed out of the area to try to find gas as soon as possible...now the gas light was on...this lead to a trip to the Dollywood parking lot and eventually, miraculously, finding gas before it was too late.  I celebrated at the gas station with a Snickers bar.  We finally made it back "home" and spent the rest of the evening relaxing after a crazy day.

Day 8...Great Smoky Mountains

Seems a whopping one person missed our blog over the past few days - we're alive, Laura...not to worry.  Turns out living in the lap of luxury comes with the price of no internet access...but we would trade it all to stay in that condo a few more nights.  More on that later.  We're going to break this post up between the days, to make each one a little shorter.

We arrived at the North Carolinian entrance to the Great Smoky Mountain Park and picked up some trail maps at the Visitor's Center before driving through the crazy, winding roads through the mountain (never again, Gnatty Branch Road.)  We booked a fancy pants condo for a steal and had to pick up our keys in Seveirville, so we did that first (we've gotten into the habit of dropping off our luggage if possible before heading out for the day with our car full of almost everything we own.)  We stayed in Pigeon Forge, TN and not to dwell on it, but this place was ridiculously nice and had a lovely deck with views of the mountain range.  Considering Pigeon Forge is otherwise what Andy likes to call "redneck bonanza" (no offense to anyone?), it was good know we had a nice place to relax in after our hikes. 

We set out for a short 2-mile hike, since it was already around 3:30 or so.  This was around the time we were introduced to the reality of Pigeon Forge, TN...turns out we were just in time for the Hot Rod Run weekend, where lovely people from all over Tennessee and beyond arrive with their lawn chairs and/or Hot Rod's to ogle at other people doing the same...on that picturesque patch of grass that lies between the sidewalks and curbs...a sight to see, really.  But don't try to see it for yourselves...just trust us.  Needless to say, traffic was a nightmare.  Finally, we arrived at Alum Cave Trail (apparently there are no actual caves on the trail), which was pretty low-key and exactly what we needed after a long drive and an impending sunset.  It was amazing to think we had just been in crowded Atlanta five hours earlier.  And we saw a bear!

Day 7...Atlanta

Our second day in Atlanta proved to be both educational and informative.  We woke up to a pretty decent free breakfast at our Wingate, which was nice because it turned out we were running late for our 10:00 AM Coco-Cola Factory tour.  We were able to get a shuttle from our hotel to the local mall and caught the Cobb County bus to the MARTA subway stop that would take us to the factory.  We handled all that pretty well and got to the factory a few minutes late, but it turned out to be mostly self-guided, so they let us in.  The tour was really, really interesting and had tons of cool memorabilia, a few different films and a 4D movie "experience."  All this was great, but the highlight had to be the Taste Room where you get to try 64 different types of Coca-Cola drinks from all over the world - I would say we had our fair share of at least 50 each.  You even get a free mini glass bottle of Coke to take home with you - nice job, Coca-Cola...nice job.

From there, we were going to get lunch at the Gladys Knight and Ron Winan's Chicken and Waffles, but we were actually full from all the soda, so we decided to take a cab to the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, a newly renovated project that was also really well done.  It was all self-guided and it was huge, with a ton of historical items and interactive exhibits.  I have to admit I wasn't all that well schooled in Jimmy Carter's presidency and I think this was a great way to learn more about him - I know he isn't exactly America's fave, but he really did accomplish a lot and him and his wife are still doing good work around the world.  It must be nice to have a such a nice place dedicated to you while you're still alive to enjoy it. 

We still wanted to make it to see Gladys and get to the Federal Reserve, so we left Jimmy Carter and decided to take the city bus back downtown, since I am a firm believer that we got screwed on our cab ride charge the way there.

Moving on...we got to Gladys' and would you believe it was closed?  No excuse...just a note on the door saying it will be closed until further notice.  Thanks for nothing, Gladys...unless it was Ron's decision...but I don't know who he is, so...Anyway, we wound up stopping in a generically nice bar/grill called Publik, and had some burgers.  Unfortunately, it seems our Atlanta visit will cease with no chicken and waffles (at least on the same plate.)

From there, we walked over to the Federal Reserve - it's free, which is the first plus, and we went on a Thursday at like 3:30 PM, so we were pretty much the only ones there.  It was amazingly just as nice as the other two places we went today.  It was really cool to see all the artifacts relating to the history of money from all over the world and you even get to watch the crazy automated robots that handle all the money that is made each day.  This particular Federal Reserve location (there are 12) shreds some insane amount of money everyday that is defective and gives it out free in little bags...not sure why, but this way quite exciting.  So, we're now the proud owners of two small bottles of Coke and one small bag of shredded money.

As I type, Andy is out hunting down some peach cobbler for us...two goals for Atlanta: that chicken and waffles meal and some peach cobbler.  It has become dire that we at least get the peaches.  We are pretty much done with Atlanta at this point, so we'll be getting up early to head onward and northward to the Great Smoky Mountains!