Nashville, TN

On the 19th, we arrived in Nashville and finally met up with David as well as my dad who was in town for work. We had an excellent barbecue dinner at the famous Jack's Bar-B-Que restaurant, and then stuck around all night to bar-hop and listen to some good music - and it was a great success!

We visited 6 or 8 bars - some more than once - and heard a wide variety of music. Some artists were just okay, but some were fantastic and talented; highlights included girl-duo Smoke 'n Guns, hearing Johnny Hiland, and watching the Don Kelley Band play with 18-year-old Daniel Donato, who despite his age was one of the top 3 musicians I saw that night (Jenna, however, mostly focused on looking at the Jason Aldean wannabes.) I was mesmerized most places; I love watching great people play, and we were at some of the most historic, famous, and talent-drawing places in the country to watch people play. Many of the bars had some of the rarest and most interesting memorabilia I've seen. The music was great, the places were unique, and the crowd was surprisingly diverse. It was a great experience and so far a top 2 place to return to someday (along with Maine).

The benefit of Nashville stages - up close and personal

Downtown Nashville

We spent the rest of the weekend staying with Jenna and Brett's family friend Kathy outside of Nashville in Murfreesboro, TN. They had a nice house and a roomy place for us to stay (not to mention the ping pong table upstairs), so we spent some time relaxing there.

One weekend highlight (or something) was seeing the world's only life-size replica of the Parthenon. Yes, this is in Nashville, and no, I am not sure why exactly they chose to keep it. Originally built for a world-fair sort of event many decades ago, it was meant to be temporary, but was converted into a permanent concrete structure several years later. I was glad that our bewilderment at its story and existence was shared by people from the area as well.

To finish out our lesson in distilleries, we visited the Jack Daniels distillery in southern Tennessee. It was a neat tour, but it was much more commercialized and crowded than the others were.
 

Much of the process is identical to making bourbon, so the tour was very similar to the others. The exception is that Jack filters their whiskey through charred pieces of sugar maple wood that are burned, processed, and used on-site.

Jack Daniels is still made in the same place it was founded, and they still use the same water source - a tiny spring that (somehow) has been the source of water for every bottle of Jack Daniels and still is today.

I left really pleased with the weekend in Nashville and especially thankful to Kathy and her family for being hosts and letting us have a nice place to stay. We left on the 21st to start our trip into the Deep South to visit friends in Ocean Springs, Mississippi - hitting the campgrounds once again on the way down!

The Road to Music City

We left Cape Cod and drove to Ohio State in Columbus in one day - an 800 mile feat that having 3 capable drivers really helped with. We stayed with Jenna's friend Carolyn there for a night, during which we went out to check out the OSU scene - one that was much bigger and on another level than going to college in a rural Virginia town can prepare you for. Thanks to Carolyn's good friend on the women's basketball team, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the men's and women's basketball facilities the next day, which I really enjoyed and was amazed by. They were equally on the next level compared to any of Virginia Tech's athletic facilities.

After a one-night stop in Cincinnati with more of Jenna's family that live there, we drove through Kentucky to Tennessee, the most interesting part of which was by far the bourbon distilleries there. We stopped and toured two of them (Wild Turkey and Maker's Mark) but there are about 10 in the area. I have little experience with whiskey - just a general knowledge from a wine class I took at Virginia Tech - but learning about the history and processes around Kentucky bourbon was really interesting.

Both tours were good - over an hour long - and we walked through the production all the way from grain delivery to bottling. Wild Turkey is a more widely distributed mass-production spirit, whereas Maker's Mark was a smaller, more high-end operation. The best part was the comparison of the two. Just one example - Wild Turkey uses 27 30,000-gallon stainless steel tanks to ferment in, while Maker's Mark uses just 9 century-old wooden vats.

Wild Turkey fermentation room

Maker's Mark fermentation room

Both brands, like almost all of them, still use charred wooden barrels and old barrelhouses to age in - the last thing you would expect to see at a modern, large-scale operation.

Quality control is, of course, also still done the old-fashioned way, no matter where you go.

Maker's Mark included a very educational tasting at the end. It was familiar territory since I learned so much about wine tasting this past year; we discussed flavors, where they hit on your tongue, and why they are expressed they way they are - similar to wine, but a little (or a lot?) too strong to be the same kind of enjoyable.

Maker's Mark tasting

After the long day of winding through Kentucky's tobacco fields, we arrived in downtown Nashville in time to meet my dad for dinner and check out the famed music scene - a whole story on its own!

Jenna and Brett... riding the wild turkeys?

Cape Cod, MA

On the same Friday we left Maine and hiked at Camden Hills, we went all the way down the coast and on to Cape Cod. The Cape is a very old-style vacation spot - small roads, small shops, and very large estates with a lot of old money. We stayed in a moderate-sized house about a 10 minute walk from the beach. Our 3 day stay included a lot of relaxing; we went on two short beach trips to see the sand flats and stones that cover the beaches and make it unlike any beach I had seen.

We did spend one of the days traveling to Provincetown at the very tip of the Cape. I did not learn this until I showed up there (silly me), but it's more or less a gay mecca for the East Coast (they were even celebrating the annual "Bear Week"... yes, I had to look that one up.) This, along with the very historical docks and shops, give it a charm, character, and culture that I really could not have pictured beforehand.

Downtown Provincetown

An old wharf

I enjoyed walking around and having lunch there - it was a great place to see and experience. My favorite part was the intense concentration of design shops and artists there; they are lined up downtown with different interior pieces, innovative furniture, scrap metal art, and more.

A design shop's Provincetown logo

It was also good to see some familiar faces - Jenna's mom and brother were also staying in Cape Cod. We even picked up an unexpected traveler; her brother Brett is joining us on the road for 2 weeks!

I know I'm behind, but I'm catching up on writing quickly - soon I'll have posts about the journey to and time in Music City!

Moosehead Lake, ME

After a string of damp camping days, we finally arrived at our Maine destination - Jenna's family friends have a cabin on the southwest shore of Moosehead Lake just outside of Greenville. We called the cabin home for three and a half days, and I loved it!

Our Maine home

Maine has a distinct feel - to its people, its towns, and its nature. The townies are resourceful, chatty, conservation-minded, and intellectual. It is a persona that I recognized from my mom's extended family, which is largely from southern Maine. Everything is farther apart than you'd imagine - part of the wonder of Maine is that the wilderness is so vast; that every scenic creek and lake is probably repeated one hundred times over throughout the state. And true to my aunt's one warning about Maine, the roads were frequently gravel rather than paved (even half and half in some places). There are some very scenic places in New York up through New Hampshire, but the rest of the Northeast is put to shame by Maine!

We arrived in the evening the day before the family crowd arrived, so we took advantage of finally having a kitchen and shower by cooking dinner and cleaning up well. The following day, we kayaked out on the lake for about 3 hours, and this gave me my first "beyond a picture" moment of the trip. The lake had 360-degree views of mountains covered in green pine forests, and the water had a cold, crisp, almost black quality to it. It was truly an incredible place and feeling.

The rest of our time included a hike along Gulf Hagas, dubbed the "Grand Canyon of Maine" (though this is a slight exaggeration.) The hike was very isolated from any kind of civilization, and the forest was as interesting as the canyon - swamps were common; inches-thick moss covered the rocks; 4-foot-tall ferns bordered the trail.

A smaller section of Gulf Hagas

We explored the town of Greenville, which naturally did not take very long. Besides a few gift shops and restaurants, there's not too much there, although I did get to eat my first (delicious) Maine lobster roll.

The majority of Greenville... in one picture!

A 20-mile drive north took us to Rockwood, where there were more breath-taking views across the lake, this time of Mt. Kineo, a local favorite hike, and even a view across the lake to Mt. Katahdin, the highest peak in Maine and an end of the Appalachian Trail.

Mt. Kineo

Looking across Moosehead Lake to Baxter State Park

After our stay at Moosehead, we stopped at Camden Hills State Park on the Maine coast to hike Mt. Megunticook. This mountain climbs 1400' in just over one mile, so the views at the top were again beyond pictures - the Atlantic Ocean stretched out, islands dotted the foreground of the shore, and the small harbor of Camden, full of boats, was also visible. The view embodied everything I had imagined Maine to be.

Our stay in the first of the country's four corner states was exceptionally good, and I believe it will be a highlight of the trip. I definitely want to return, at least to hike up Mt. Katahdin - not to mention, despite our best efforts, I didn't even get to see a moose!

Up to Maine

Leaving Langhorne on July 4 was a big step - it was the start of the "real" trip. Not just staying with people we know, but a trial of driving campsite to campsite to live. We traveled through central Pennsylvania to stay two nights at Sugar Hill State Forest in the Finger Lakes of New York, a region which was exceptionally scenic. Hills border the lakes directly, providing great views over the lakes. There was a lot of patterned farmland, but my favorite part was the extent of the wineries in the region. Grapes and wine are huge around the lakes, and the scale of the vineyards dwarfed everything I'd seen in Virginia.

Central PA on the way to Sugar Hill

Sugar Hill State Forest was a good find - a free campsite with water spigots, plumbed bathrooms, lots of grassy space, and shade trees is hard to come by. A fire tower at the center of the campsite was open to visitors, and climbing to the top offered great views of Keuka and Seneca Lakes as well as the farmland all around. 

We spent most of a day hiking along the Outlet Trail, which parallels the creek that connects smaller Keuka Lake to Seneca Lake. The trail followed defunct railways and roads through old mills that used to operate using the creek's power.

The main falls along the Outlet Trail

One building in an abandoned mill town

Leaving the lakes, we drove through the Adirondacks with a stop in Moose River Plains State Forest. The area was nice, but since this was the Saturday of July 4 weekend, the roads were very crowded. This state forest, however, was not - it covers some 55,000 acres, and we drove 7 miles (on a trying dirt and rock road) into the forest to camp. There are no spectacular views or facilities there, but on the peace and quiet scale, it's a perfect 10.

As we crossed into Vermont the next day, the mountains turned to rolling hills with lots of hay fields and dairy farms. When we stopped south of Burlington for a much-needed meal out and internet work session, we stumbled upon the Magic Hat Brewery right off US 7. Like most things in Vermont, the brewery was weird - but in a psychedelic, feel-good way that made our last-minute decision to stop in and do the tasting and tour worth it.

My favorite sign from the (odd) decor of the Magic Hat Brewery

Our trip through Vermont included an almost obligatory stop at the Ben and Jerry's factory; the tour and tastings there were decidedly less adult-themed and targeted more toward children. We did get to sample an unreleased test flavor (Salted Caramel Brownie) and learned that employees go home with 3 pints (!) of free ice cream every day.

Jenna, in front of a strange Ben and Jerry's vehicle

By this point, we were learning lessons about camping as well: flat ground makes most things easier. The van should be filled up with fuel before hitting E, especially on hills (though this was fortunately only a close call.) Some tent poles are slightly longer than the others, and when assembled correctly, the tent is pretty sturdy, contrary to our first tests. We got better every night!

Our first "rain test" came on camping night #3 in the Adirondacks. Our second rain test came ...the next night. The tent itself proved surprisingly water-resistant, but packing a soaked tent into a full car (twice) is not something we did particularly well. When you add in a cooler mishap that had already leaked water into the back of the van, it was getting pretty wet, unorganized, and unpleasant:

The mess.

Luckily, we were almost to Maine, where we stayed at a cabin with Jenna's family friends and could unload and dry out. We learned some valuable lessons for the next wet encounter! Overall, camping is really positive - I have enjoyed the time to sit down, write, relax, cook dinner, and just be. Besides our rain episodes, everything has worked great.

The journey is particularly well framed by meals - in 24 hours, we went from an organic, gourmet burger and beer dinner in Brooklyn, NY:

to a campside dinner of untoasted white bread, an apple, and tomato-Italian sausage soup!

NYC

On July 3, we headed into New York City - my first ever visit to the city. After an hour on the train, we walked out into uptown Manhattan at Penn Station around 9:30 AM, and I was pretty taken aback. The whole experience was similar to other cities I've been to, but every element was just on the next level. People, buildings, so much stuff everywhere.

We started off going up the Empire State Building to get an aerial view of the whole city, and followed by walking through Times Square and Broadway to Central Park. The morning started off cloudy, but I was still soaking in the views like crazy. In keeping with the theme of the city - more of everything - I was pretty amazed. There's more to take in in Times Square than any picture or movie shows, and Central Park has more stuff - including a children's mini-amusement park! - than I had pictured.

Looking north to Central Park

Looking south to Wall Street and the Freedom Tower

Riding to downtown Manhattan, we got off to look at the Statue of Liberty and walk down Wall Street. I enjoyed that part of the city; the huge, bold, columnar construction of the NYSE and surrounding banks echoes their importance in the financial world. A rain shower cancelled our planned walk to visit Chinatown and Little Italy.

We visited the 9/11 Memorial, which was both strange and well-done. The strange part is the "tourist" component - the entire place was packed; every line, security booth, and even the inside had people packed in. It was odd to have such a mechanical, mass-produced, airport security-like system set up for a memorial of that scale. However, the memorial - two pools into the ground where the towers' footprints were - was neat, and the new all-glass Freedom Tower going up is quite a sight to see as well. Eventually there will be a museum too, but right now the site (except the memorial pools) is under construction.

Looking up the Freedom Tower

One of the Twin Tower memorial pools

For dinner, we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge (a big highlight as far as views of the city), and I ate the best burger I've had in a very long time at the Burger Guru near Williamsburg. This part of town was trendy, green, largely renovated, and overall really nice. It certainly didn't turn me into a city person, but even I could admit that there are some neat aspects of being there!

Post-storm sunset over Brooklyn

Send Off and Philly

Jenna and I packed up and left right on time on the morning of July 1 from Poquoson. Since we were carrying enough to live, camp, and eat while camping for 3 months, the van was pretty full but had enough room to make for a cozy temporary home.

We stood in the driveway with the van for the "before" picture - who knows how different our "after" picture will look!

 

We drove up the Eastern Shore and into the Philadelphia suburb of Langhorne, hitting the states of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania along the way. Most of Maryland and Delaware reminded me of the rural farmlands I'm familiar with on the Northern Neck of Virginia. New Jersey was exactly as I remembered it from driving through once before - swampy, industrial, and not many sights to see.

On July 2, we went into Philadelphia by train and first walked around the area of Independence Hall and the Constitution Center. We went into the Liberty Bell Center to see the original bell. Unbeknownst to us, July 2 is National Hoagie Day, which meant that Wawa had transformed the grassy plaza area into a fair-like atmosphere complete with a performing stage, tents with free giveaways, and free hoagies for everyone at lunchtime.

Independence Hall

We toured the US Mint building as well; this was the most surprisingly good stop of the day. It was a detailed and interesting self-guided tour which involved walking through a window-lined hallway above the coin factory floor - looking down, the whole process is visible as it happens.

The rest of the afternoon included walking down Ben Franklin Parkway, admiring the incredible architecture of the Barnes Museum, and walking the Rocky-famed steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After walking through the Reading Terminal Market, we rode the train back out to Langhorne and spent the evening planning the next day in New York City.