States? DONE. NEXT

We've been in Ireland just over a week now, but I'm gonna post some things from the end of our road trip first.

Tennessee

Our first stop was in Memphis, we really wanted to go to Beale St. and Graceland. Beale street was cool, but we had to dig a little bit to find a bar that wasn't overrun by tourists and without a cover charge.  Graceland was interesting, somewhat of a modest home by the standards of todays celebrities. The decorating was the pretty eccentric, Elvis loved goblins...and themed rooms. 

Kentucky

At to his point we realized we were running out of time and had to cruise through Kentucky for the most part. We did get to spend most of the day in Mammoth Cave National Park, and also went
to Abe Lincoln's Birthplace and one of the bourbon distilleries.












West Virginia

Nothing to see here, move along. No, West Virginia is pretty, but we had to drive on through it. John Denver's song is WRONG anyways, the Blue Ridge Mountains are in plain ol' VIRGINIA.

Philly!

This is one city I had anticipated visiting for a long time, and it didn't dissapoint. Lots of history and museums. Learned a lot of cool things that I don't have time to talk about. Oh, and we ran up the steps like Rocky.

D.C.

 We spent 3 nights in D.C. visiting a friend of Rachel's from college that she hadn't seen in a number of years. Her friend Ren has been working with politicians in D.C. for awhile, so we got all the insider info, like what kind of cigarettes John Boehner smokes. Had a great visit and even mobbed around the city on our "speedsticks" one day since the weather was so nice. D.C. is one of those cities I can never spend enough time in. Endless free museums, awesome parks and monuments, and a whole lot of history.









The End

The rest of the trip was mostly odds and ends while making our way back to Illinois. Along the way back, I managed to hit the last state that I hadn't been to, Iowa. 50 of 50. Spent a few days in Illinois with Rachel's family and had a real nice visit, and learned a lot of new phrases from Pop to add to my repetoire.

Mardi Gras and Beyond

When I was a kid, "Cops" was one of my favorite tv shows. Every year they would have an episode that would take place in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. The Police Officers would be walking through big crowds of people, sometimes on horses, looking for someone doing something illegal, which seemed nearly impossible in a city and time of year where just about anything goes (at least in the French Quarter). They always managed to find somebody at which time they would approach the person and start screaming in their face, then throw them on the ground and cuff em', and throw them in the back of the meat wagon. I loved this, and knew one day I would have to go to Mardi Gras.

The parades were incredible , the people were entertaining, and I even got to personally view a few of these scenes that excited me so much while watching "Cops" as a kid. The cops acted just like they did on tv, big smokey bear hat, hair cut to the skin, and hair trigger tempers to match. Rachel invited a friend of hers from Mississippi to come meet us up on Fat Tuesday. Out of the 3 of us, only 1 got the privilege of wearing handcuffs. It was alot of fun, but the next time I see Mardi Gras in New Orleans, it will be from the comfort of a living room, with a big nostalgic grin on my face.

After Fat Tuesday, we went to a couple historic sites around the city, and to some of the neighborhoods Rachel had worked in during the gulf recovery project she was involved in in 2007. The city is looking pretty good, so much so it was hard for her to find some of the most recognizable landmarks she had known. Alot of things were unrecognizable to her, as she was accustomed to seeing the city in an early post-Katrina condition. Enough of that though. After Mardi Gras, I had only one thing on my mind...crawfish!!

And boy were they good, ate right in the self proclaimed Crawfish Capitol of the World, Breaux Bridge! But we had bigger crustaceans to fry, and that was getting our butts up to Arkansas.

Arkansas

I've always been drawn to Arkansas, ever since thumbing through old books containing pictures of the Ozark mountain people, tromping around through the brush barefoot, rifle in hand, doing whatever it is that barefoot people with guns do. This stuff was always interesting to me, and I went to Arkansas wanting to see some real crazy stuff. Like deformed people playing banjoes on a porch, or humans that have been isolated from the mainstream population for so long they have become their own race. Well, the hills didn't have eyes. - Tyler

 

Everything is bigger in Texas...

...including my baby brother!! Whom , I just realized, is definately not a baby anymore. After experiencing, what we believe is, everything good that Oklahoma has to offer(maybe Brahms Icecream can wow me someday) we drove down to Dallas, Tx to see my 18 year old brother, Brady Thomas. I havn't seen Brady boy for almost 4 years. Alot changes between 14 and 18. I was actually getting nervous driving into the city, as I wasn't really sure whooo was going to greet me!

But it was Brady. It was the same funny and spontaneous boy I've always known...in a mans body. hah. He put us up in his apartment in north Dallas and spent a day taking us around the city! We told him to take us somewhere to eat awesome Texan food. He practically screeeamed "Williams Chicken!". I'm not sure that every Texan or even a majority would choose this as all time Texas grub but Brady loves it and I'd say he gave us a dining experience that we will not soon forget. Corn fritters! Thas whassup! ;)

A short jaunt from the train stop we found The Sixth Floor Museum. The museum chronicles the presidency, assassination and legacy of JFK (our youngest president). It's located in an old 20th century warehouse, formerly known as the Texas School Book Depository. This is the building, from which it is believed, JFK was shot and killed November 22, 1963. His alleged assassin watching the parade, through a scope, from a window on Floor #6.

I thought the exhibit was fantastic!! It was an audio tour filled with photographs, video footage and information that, until now, I had never seen or heard before. I realized how little I actually knew about our 35th president and his family/policies/relationship with the world. I learned alot about the controvercial views of his death and why he'd claimed admiration from a greater part of the USA and world prior to it. We stared down at the street where 2 "X"s mark the position of the bullets and actually felt like a part of the crowd. Then I sat down and watched his funeral and I felt the loss. I saw an awesome strength in Jackie Kennedy who was commited to be a symbol of strength for a grieving nation. The conspiracy theories were very interesting. They actually dug Lee Harvey Oswald out of his grave just to double check that it was truely his dead remains. Some say he was tied to the mob. I never knew he was killed before he was even able to stand a trial. Everything. The whole display really made me think. I believe that JFK was a motivator of people for progress and good. I left The Sixth Floor with a slight sadness for what could have been but also with a sense pride in my nation for how America pulled together afterward and carried on. If you're in Dallas, regardless of political interests, I recommend going!

After the museum we snuck up into a few huge hotel towers to try and catch a view of the city! We did! Dallas actually seems pretty cool. Im glad Brady is there so I have an excuse to go back. We walked around the Art District a little before hopping the train back to Bradys and it was proof that the city has multiple personalities. The town seems to reflect some of the townies in that way. Brady works midnight shifts so we crashed out and caught breakfast at IHOP, where he works, to visit him one last time before heading east. I learned that him and I lead two toootally different lives. He lives in a culture I've only experienced for brief moments. I learned alot about slabs, dub-step, and how little backround checks matter to professionally possess firearms.

I learned that my brother is a man with goals. He is reaching them on his own and I am proud of him. Our worlds are ying and yang and that doesn't matter. I love him so much and I believe that guy can do anything. We had so much fun and he kept us constantly laughing. It was hard to leave but we had too!!!!

After Dallas we went to Austin. We went outside of the city to see the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. The historical timeline specific events of war were interesting but the site mostly took any interest in the Johnsons, that I might have had before, away. I better enjoy the visiting center in "Industrias Buffalo Cherokee Sport National Historic Rocketship" which is what we've named the jeep....and I guess that's all I think about that. We experienced some problems with the jeep and decided, after it started up the next morning, to keep it on the pavement straight to Mississippi. There is no way we were missing Fat Tuesday!!

We spent a night in Ocean Springs, MS with my old Conservation Corps buddy, Matt. We hung out with his kid, Jackson, for the morning and ate some tasty Po-Boys before heading back torwards New Orleans. Then came the beads.....


...MAR...DI....GRAS!!!!

Kansas and Oklahoma

 After our visit with Calvin, we headed south to Kansas, the first new state I visited on the trip. You know all the roadside attractions that people talk about or you think up when you picture a long road trip across the USA, for instance, the World's Largest Ball of Twine? Well, Kansas actually has the World's Largest Ball of Twine, or one of them, and we just had to visit.

This one was started by Frank Stoeber in Cawker City, Kansas as a challenge to an already existing huge ball of twine up in Minnesota. Started in 1953, by 2006, it's size exceeded the one in Minnesota.

 

Kansas has a ton of hidden gems, and lots of interesting abandoned buildings along the empty back highways. We stopped in Nicodemus, Kansas. It is a National Park Service Historic Site and had some pretty cool old buildings. It is being preserved by the NPS because it is the only remaining town in the west that was settled by African Americans after the Civil War. The picture above is of a schoolhouse in Nicodemus, it was closed in the late 50's.

Natural beauty isn't exactly the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Kansas, but Monument Rocks is a beautiful and very unique place to this part of the country. Just south of Oakley, it has recently switched owners and is privately owned, but there are no facilites or information in the area. Just a 7 mile dirt road through corn fields leading to this awesome place.

As we strolled into Greensburg, the town looked really strange and alot different than any we had seen in Kansas. Every single building, house or structure in the town was completely new. We had seen seen alot of oil wells and pipelines on the way in, I figured it had been a boom town that had been recently built. Anyways, the real reason we were here was to see the World's Largest Hand Dug Well! As we pulled up, this building was brand new as well, and looked way too nice to be holding something billed as the world's largest anything. Right when when pulled up we noticed it closed at 6, it was 6:01, Rachel decided to ask the lady closing the place down if we would peek inside real quick. Surprisingly, she said yes. This was even more surprising after we realized the admission was $8, and we didn't have to pay it. For only spending 1 full day in Kansas, we had so many interactions with the friendliest people! I love it there. She also informed us that the reason all the buildings in the town were new was because of the tornado in 2007, an EF-5, the largest ever to hit. The well itself was scary deep, 109 down, there was a stairwell you could take almost to the bottom of it.

Oklahoma.......ugh. My friend Tre is from Oklahoma and said to us once he heard this is where we were headed, "don't you know it is a desolate, barren wasteland? Don't go there". He wasn't too far off. Since I try to follow the motto, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all", I'll just post a couple pictures and be done with it. The pictures below are all from the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The quest for 50!

Rachel and I are on a 1 month road trip at the moment, that first began as a trip to see the rest of the states that I hadn't seen (Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Arkansas and Kentucky) and to be in New Orleans for Fat Tuesday (the peak day of the Mardi Gras Festival).

Once the planning for the trip began it began to take on an entirely different angle, and now it seems to be resembling a trip with the mission to re-unite with long lost family members....or something. Our first big stop was in Kearney, Nebraska to meet my Uncle Calvin, and his children Amos and Tessa. I was sort of nervous to meet up, since I had never even spoken to Calvin, and I had only chatted with Amos and Tessa via Facebook. We all decided to meet up for Thai food. Rachel and I were the first there and got a table ready for all 5 of us. After waiting for a few minutes, and glancing out the window everytime a new car pulled in the parking lot, a man walked in. I whispered to Rachel, "oh my god, that guy looks just like my Dad, that must be him". Sure enough, he walked over and introduced himself. The resemblance was uncanny. My Dad hasn't seen his brother in over 30 years, but they both have the exact same haircut and color, dressed the same, even had the same style of eyeglasses. The only noticable difference was Calvin is a couple inches taller and a bit thinner (sorry Dad). We got to chat a few minutes before Tessa and Amos arrived, who's appearances weren't surprising as I had seen pictures of both of them online. The nervousness dissapeared immediately, and it instantly felt like I was sitting at a table with family members that I had know for years. Tessa even somehow knew that I was interested in finishing her food for her.












After we were done eating, Amos and Tessa had to return to work, but Calvin invited us back to his house to visit for a couple hours. That's when the similarities between him and my Father became very apparent. The first obvious thing was the huge record collection that took over an entire wall of his home, the "funnies" that had been clipped out of newspapers and posted over various areas of the house, his entertainment center was the bottom half of a wood stove with a big slab of redwood attached to the top of it, his wood counter tops are actually wood that was salvaged from the floor of a bowling alley, walls with cast iron displayed on them, wind chimes made out of old silverware....I could go on and on. They even shared the same saying's and bits of wisdom, "I always told Tessa to speak her mind, what's the worst anyone is gonna do to you, kill ya?".  My own Father had been telling me that same thing for my entire life. I even caught him once saying "from the get go", which is a phrase my Dad said my Grandpa always used. He also shared some thing's that I had never heard my Dad say such as "it's easier to change a condom than a diaper". I had to laugh at that, but also realized that would of been great advice to a much younger version of myself. All in all, it was a great visit, and if this is the only good experience I have for the whole road trip, it will be well worth it.