The Envelope Please...

On the drive back to Nashville, Cristy and I decided to put together some best and worst lists from our trip. We had a magnificent time seeing America. Through three time zones, fifteen states, and a thousand cities we were given an incredible perspective into how the country and all its disparate parts flow together. California and Texas and Wyoming and Missouri are all connected, and we proved it.

We had a great time -- thank you to everyone who hosted us, read the blog, and encouraged us along the way. Until next time!

~~~

The Best

Favorite Hotel
1. Hyatt Place -- Scottsdale, AZ
2. The Graciela -- Burbank, CA
3. Metro Inn -- Salt Lake City, UT
3. Casino Queen -- East St. Louis, MO

Best Ballpark
1. Busch Stadium -- Home of the St. Louis Cardinals
2. Kauffman Stadium -- Home of the Kansas City Royals
3. Coors Field -- Home of the Colorado Rockies
3. The Hoover Met -- Home of the SEC Baseball Tournament

Favorite Experience
1. SEC Baseball Tournament -- Hoover, AL
2. Ciudad de Juarez -- Juarez, Mexico
3. Cardinals Game -- St. Louis, MO

Biggest Surprise
1. Sandlot Baseball -- Van Horn, TX
2. Drive through Texas
3. Scottsdale Drive-In -- Scottsdale, AZ

Best Drive
1. Pacific Coast Highway -- CA
2. Tahoe/Truckee -- CA
3. I-10 through Texas
4. I-80 from Salt Lake City to Denver
5. Highway 101 -- CA

Best Tourist Destination
1. Monterey Bay Aquarium -- Monterey, CA
2. Gateway Arch -- Saint Louis, MO
3. Mormon Temple -- Salt Lake City, UT

Best City
1. San Diego, CA
2. Healdsburg, CA
3. Saint Louis, MO
4. Scottsdale, AZ
5. Salt Lake City, UT

The Worst

Least Favorite Hotel
1. Comfort Inn -- Kansas City, MO
2. La Quinta Inn -- San Diego, CA
3. Cannery Inn -- Monterey, CA

Worst Drive
1. Kansas (all of it)
2. Reno to Salt Lake City
3. Phoenix to Los Angeles
3. El Paso to Phoenix

Biggest Disappointment
1. Meteor Crater Museum -- TX
2. Hearst Castle -- CA
3. Coors Field -- CO

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State Rankings
1. California
2. Missouri
3. Texas
4. Arizona
5. Wyoming
6. Mississippi
7. Illinois
8. Utah
9. Alabama
10. Colorado
11. Kansas
12. New Mexico
13. Kentucky
14. Louisiana
15. Nevada

The ...

This morning began with us waking up at our usual time, about 10 a.m., and packing up our bags for the final time. If I had known that check out was at 12 instead of 11 as we had become accustomed to then I would have lobbied for staying in bed a little longer. We checked out at the front desk, arranged our bags in the car, left the car in the lot, and walked over to the metro train just next to the hotel. Our final mission on this trip was to see the sights in Saint Louis, primarily the Gateway Arch.

It was getting up around lunch time so we walked over to historic Union Station. It looked exactly the way I remembered it from the outside. The inside was a different story. Let's just say it's target demographic has changed and leave it at that. Many of the storefronts are bare where a business used to be. There were not very many people there but, what can you expect on a Tuesday afternoon? Mark and I had Einstein Bros. for lunch, walked to the main Union Station building to take in the breathtaking architecture, and then headed back to the metro station to catch the train to the arch. One nice thing about the St. Louis metro is that the main tourist areas operate on a "free ride" time frame in the early afternoon. Although we didn't technically need to buy a ticket we felt the need to support this terrific implementation of public transportation.

The metro dropped us across the street from the park wherein the "Jefferson Expansion National Memorial," otherwise known as the Gateway Arch, is located. Now, I have been to the arch and to the top before. My parents and I visited when I was a senior in high school and was considering attending Washington University. Mark has never been. When I visited, you walked down some steps, down a ramp, and into the lobby beneath the arch where you can buy tickets to go to the top. This time we had to walk through a medical detector and place our "metal items" in bins to go through an x-ray machine as if we were about to board a plane. I cannot express how sad that makes me.

So we bought tickets to ride in the "Austin Powers" capsules 630 feet up to the top of the arch. As we waited for our turn to board we were held in a mini-museum about the arch and the system of capsules that transport visitors to the top. If you are claustrophobic I do not recommend that you attempt this trip. Each capsule holds 5 people and is extremely hot. Apparently in the 1960's no one thought to put a fan in the capsule to at least circulate the air. If you are not looking out the little window it is very easy to become sick as the capsule rises. Now some of you may be thinking, "Do you eventually turn sideways? 'Cuz the arch is an arch not a straight up and down monument." The response to this is yes and no. At times you feel that the capsule is tilting but before this feeling has time to take full effect the capsule rights itself and all is well.

Once at the top you have the opportunity to look through plate glass "port holes" at the city of Saint Louis below. It's a beautiful city from above. We could see Busch Stadium, the Edward Jones Dome, our hotel -- the Casino Queen, and the old courthouse where the Dred Scott decision was handed down. It was a great experience that you cannot leave Saint Louis without having done.

Having had enough of the height, Mark and I made our descent down the other side of the arch. The trip going down is much faster than the trip up. We exited our capsule and visited the Museum of Westward Expansion and saw the evolution of the peace medal. This was originally given to Indians who cooperated peacefully with the settlers/Americans. Eventually it was given as a reward for complete assimilation. It was interesting to me to see how subsequent generations viewed a certain group of people. This isn't the first time this trip that this topic had crossed my mind. I will add more about this when I wrap up my reflections on the journey in the next couple of days.

After the museum we visited the gift shop and then headed back to the metro station and our car. Thus began the final drive of our road trip -- down I-64 (Illinois) to I-57 and then the home stretch along I - 24 / I -65 (Kentucky / Tennessee). We were both sad to see it end but, knew it had to end at some point and it's better that we finish the trip still wanting more than finish it sick to death of traveling.

And so it ends...our adventurers return from whence they began. To cross into Tennessee was a little bittersweet for both of us but, we must return to real life sometime right? We will each be posting a reflection on what the trip meant to us as well as posting some rankings that we came up with as the trip progressed.

Thank you for sharing this trip with us. Being able to write for you has allowed us to relive the events each day and thereby imprinting it even stronger in our memories. Stay tuned for final thoughts and reflections.

P.S. On the way home we stopped in Metropolis, Illinois -- home of none other than Superman himself. Now I'm not sure if there are other Metropoli in this great nation of ours but this one had a big 'ole statue of the Man o' Steel right in front of the courthouse. Gotta love the U.S.A!

The Red Birds

It's real late (after 1:00 AM) so I'm going to be quick:

- We left our crummy hotel in KC this morning and crossed Missouri bound for St. Louis. We're staying at the Casino Queen -- "home to the loosest slots in the Midwest." It's a great deal -- a good price, a good room, and just on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River from St. Louis. There's also a metro stop connected to the casino that dropped us off right in front of Busch Stadium for tonight's game. On today's trip, we crossed the Mississippi River at the third place -- Vicksburg, Memphis, and now St. Louis -- and finally got a decent picture of 'big river.'

- Before heading in to the game, I had to drag Cristy to the Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum. It was incredible -- there was a plethora of fascinating Cardinals memorabilia. My favorites: (a) three of the Cards' World Series trophies, including the 2006, (b) the National League champion trophy from 2004, (c) the actual jersey Grover Cleveland Alexander wore in Game 7 of the 1926 World Series and that famous strikeout of Tony Lazzeri to preserve a one run lead, (d) Enos Slaughter's glove from Game 7, the game of his "mad dash." The picture below is me with the 2006 World Series trophy. Everything was great, but it did make me a little sorrowful -- Granddad would have loved to talk about all this, especially the St. Louis Browns exhibit.

- We headed into Busch Stadium and were blown away. It's an absolute gem, with great food, great design, and stunning vistas at every turn. As far as feel, it reminded me of Cincinnati -- except done well. The second picture is me with a statue of 'the Rajah' Rogers Hornsby, the greatest right handed hitter of all-time (before Pujols and A-Rod at least).

- Our seats were in the first row of the second deck near the foul pole. During batting practice, Royals' closer Octavio Dotel was goofing around and throwing balls into the upper deck. He noticed us (I think because of my A's hat, Cristy thought for her Hispanic good looks) and threw a ball in our direction that sailed into the third deck above our heads. A few minutes later he had another ball and Cristy did one of those two finger whistles to get his attention. He threw it right to us on a line! I caught it bare handed while barely moving a step. And I'm not going to lie, I was awfully proud to catch it clean -- I can't imagine the feeling if I had dropped it into the lower deck. My hand stung for about ten minutes, but it was well worth it. The picture below is from our seats to give a sense of how far Dotel threw the ball. Quite impressive.

- The Royals pushed some runs across early and were able to hold on for the win (with a Dotel save!). It kept raining off and on -- it was mostly a drizzle, but enough that I had to hassle and put my scorebook away a few times to keep it dry.

So that's it. Tomorrow we'll be going to the arch and maybe the Budweiser Brewery -- and who knows, I might even talk Cristy into another game at Busch. On second thought, today's was too perfect -- we probably should just head home...

The True Blue Tradition

Viva Kansas City! After a mediocre stay in Denver, Cristy and I had a great time today in Kansas City.

The day started with a trip to Kauffman Stadium, home of your Kansas City Royals. The stadium is about 15 minutes southwest of town in the center of a parking lot. A big parking lot -- one they actually share with the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium. It's interesting -- I hate the Chiefs but I've always been fond of the Royals...

We didn't have tickets, so we purchased two at the stadium box office. They were good seats -- down the line in right, just past the infied, maybe 25 rows from the field. It struck us as soon as we walked in -- Kauffman is a great ballpark. The upper deck has this neat way of sloping down as it reaches the outfield, the giant crown scoreboard was impressive, and the fountains/waterfalls were spectacular. (Cristy loved the watefalls.) The stadium was very cozy -- not too big like Coors was. It's not flashy or expensive -- just a solid Midwestern ballpark and a great place to watch a baseball game. We really enjoyed it.

When we entered I got an embrodiered Royals bathroom case for Father's Day (guys only!). The Royals fans near us were all great fans. They cheered hard for Alex Gordon, despite his struggles, and the only irritating fans were irritating for being /too/ in to the game. This wasn't like the trendy Colorado Rockies crowd -- it was families for Father's Day and genuine baseball fans. It improved the whole experience.

The game itself was a bit closer than the one we saw at Coors. The Royals took the lead early, the Marlins came back to tie, and then Esteban German got the winning hit around the 6th inning. The Marlins had a chance to tie in the 7th before Zach Grienke shut them down. Final score was 5-4 in favor of the home nine.

After the game we went back to our hotel to take showers -- it was only 84 degrees at first pitch, but sitting in the sun (as we did for the second half of the game) felt a lot hotter. A lot hotter. Unfortunately though, our hotel is real crummy -- and we have no Internet! Eleventh hotel of the trip, and the first one where the Internet wasn't functioning. So we hopped in the car in search of Internet and ended up at a Panera Bread in Overland Park. Not the epitome of convenience.

After taking care of some Internet things, we went for an authentic Kansas City BBQ dinner at Hayward's BBQ Pit. It got good reviews online, was near where we were, and was an independent place (not some chain). And let me tell you, the place delivered. I don't know much about what makes Kansas City barbecue so special, but what made this place delicious was the sauce. It wasn't hot or tangy or vinegary -- just a perfect, mild barbecue sauce. Very good.

Tomorrow will be the last day of our trip. We're heading to St. Louis (only 250 miles!) where we'll see the Cardinals and Royals at Busch Stadium tomorrow night. Then on Tuesday, we're going to head back to Nashville to rest, recover, and eat some square meals again.

It's hard to think that after 4,000 miles and so many memories that the trip is almost over. Neither of us want it to end but all trips must. We'll blog about St. Louis tomorrow and then have some wrap-up things in the next few days.

The Flat State

BO-RING!!! I cannot stress how truly this word describes our experience today. We left Denver at about noon and began our easterly journey to Kansas City with continuing service to Saint Louis [it should be read in a flight attendant's voice].

Let me emphasize how much NOTHING there is in Kansas. It's flat, there are amber waves of grain, and it's flat. Did I mention it's flat? 'Cuz it is. REALLY flat...and boring. Unfortunately this was one of our longer drives of the trip. It took approximately 8 or so hours to reach Kansas City, plus we lost an hour crossing into the Central time zone. I'm glad to be back in my accustomed time zone [except when I go home to Florida which is my native time zone]. However, I do miss gaining the hour as we did on our journey west, and playing in Pacific time zone.

I am excited to see Kaufman Stadium and watch the Marlins beat the Royals like they did today. I have heard though that there is a possibility for scattered thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon. We'll see how it works out come game time.

Mark and I are having so much fun on this trip that we are discussing whether or not we should extend the trip to include Chicago and Milwaukee. It may just be time for he and I to head home to Nashville. I realize tonight that we've been gone almost a month. That's insane!!

Pray that there's no rain tomorrow afternoon so we can see the game.

The "Mile-High" City

Today was spent exploring the Mile-High City. It certainly helps to have someone well-versed in the ways of public transportation as Mark is. Using the RTD or "Light-Rail" System we found our way to the 16th Street Mall. It's not your typical mall. It's an outdoor boulevard kind of like a miniature version of Canal Street in New Orleans. 16th Street has what they call "Mall Ride" which are electric/alternative fuel hybrid buses that run east-west along the street and deliver you to your final destination for free along the street.

After having a lovely brunch at Einstein Bros. Bagels we window-shopped along the mall to waste a little time before we headed to the Denver Art Museum. The museum was excellent. We were initially attracted by an exhibition of baseball photography, which we were hoping was an extensive exhibit but, found it was merely 20 photographs, two baseball bats, and 4 rare baseball cards. Now on its own that sounds a little disappointing especially since I haven't told you who the subjects of said photos were. The main "focus" of the photography display were none other than Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The two baseball bats belonged, one to each, to these two behemoths of the diamond. Four of Babe's baseball cards were on display as well. It was incredible to see these images and study the intensity of these players that I think may be lost on today's generation of players. The only thing that made this exhibit a little cooler was the fact that one of the local news stations was filming a Father's Day piece there and interviewing the curator of the display. After the interview the cameraman took some general footage of the visitors viewing the exhibit and he definitely took quite a bit of yours truly [both of us not just me, although if you ask me it was a lot more of me than of Mark]. When I find out what news station it was and when it is set to air I will link it to the blog. I am eager to see how the piece turned out.

We spent approximately two hours at the museum, viewing various other exhibits including some Western art, a small quilt exhibit [mom I will make sure you get all of the quilt pictures but, I'm only posting a couple of them here], some European/American art, and some Spanish Colonial art. There were some very interesting pieces. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of all of my favorites but, I did get some pictures including some that were not necessarily my favorites but all the same sparked my interest in the opposite way: they made me wonder how they possibly qualify as art.

I call this one "Mr. Ed is stuck":

I think I've seen one similar to this elsewhere:

The one on the left was a wooden harp case filled with candles. Albeit not as bad as the gigantic ashtray complete with cigarette butts and packs of cigarettes, but still how is this art?

This one made me think of our recent exploits in Scottsdale:

And for mom:

A moment to share with you all a little known talent that I posses for being able to draw/sketch things from sight. At the museum there is a space for one to create a Denver postcard using as inspiration some original postcards that are displayed on a wall in front of you. They provide the colored pencils and paper, you provide the imagination. I didn't really attempt to stretch mine but, I did manage to pull off a pretty good recreation of a postcard from the wall. [Mark drew a profile portrait of me as I was drawing but, I didn't get a picture of it today. I will post it next time.]

Our day was capped off beautifully by America's pasttime. Mark and I attended a Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field. It marks the fourth major league stadium that Mark and I have experienced together. I don't know why but I've always wanted to visit this particular stadium.

It wasn't quite as cool as I had made it out to be although it was a very nice venue for watching a ballgame. Probably the most unique feature of the ballpark is the "forest" in center field replete with pond and fountains. The fountains did not merely serve to circulate the water in the pond but also as the celebratory display in the event of a home run [we saw the fountains go off twice]. Another unique feature is the ribbon of purple seats along the upper deck that delineates 5,280 feet, or one mile, above sea level. Now, if the stadium bills itself as the only major league stadium that is one mile above sea level shouldn't the field itself be a mile above sea level? It shouldn't be "oh we're really close but here's where one mile really is." I was a bit peeved by the false advertising.

This evening the "Rox" as they are colloquially known soundly defeated the Devil Rays of Tampa Bay by a score of 12-2. Yes, David Price's future team. They really could have used him today. We had incredible infield seats behind home plate [as you can see in the pictures] and from them we rooted for the home team, of course.

The evening ended with a walk to Union Station and a light-rail ride back to our car. It is really nice to be in the same city for two nights. There was no rush or "to do" about where to stay and which bag to unload from the car after the long and exhausting day we had just had. We simply drove back to the hotel and prepared for sleep. It was superb.

In general I must say that I am glad I have visited Denver but, I don't think I would ever want to live here. The way the people comport themselves leaves much to be desired. They just don't compare to the genteel Southerners, festive Cubans, or relaxed Californians that we are each accustomed to.

Tomorrow we further inch [or mile] our way back to our beloved Nashville. Our day will end once we reach Kansas City, Missouri. To get there we must first traverse all of Kansas. I've done parts of it before and I'm looking forward to probably one of the more boring drives of the trip. We shall see how it plays out. Sunday we will think of our fathers fondly while taking in the Royals - Marlins game. Let's go Marlins!!!

The Open Range

It's late Thursday night and Cristy and I just reached Denver. It was another full day of driving driving and driving...

We spent the morning in Salt Lake City learning all about Joseph Smith and the Mormons (see the picture below -- I never realized Smith was so tall). Anyway, we went to the church headquarters, a 32 acre campus right in the heart of SLC -- like Rome in Utah. It was an impressive sight -- from the temple to the grounds, everything was immaculate. Cristy and I went to one of the two visitor centers, the Joseph Smith building, the genealogy library, and the church art museum -- dodging evangelists the whole way. It was all pretty interesting, although a little creepy in a cult-ish way. We did solve the mystery of why Utah is the Beehive State, though -- Mormons used the beehive as a symbol of the Zion they were hoping to build where everyone worked cooperatively for the collective good.

I wonder what Brigham Young would say if he saw Salt Lake City today. It started as this independent Mormon colony and now is a (fairly) normal American city. And I wonder what it was like for the first 'gentiles' who moved to Salt Lake City. Where's their museum?

After the temple, we got out of SLC and went east to Park City, Utah for a great lunch at Red Rock Brewery. Park City was the site of all the skiing and snowboarding events for the Salt Lake Olympics and the place we had lunch had a view of the Olympic ski jump course and Olympic Village apartments. All very new and very nice. After collecting some provisions at Wal-Mart 1,868 (we have a Wal-Mart atlas), we hit the road bound for Wyoming.

And we got a lot of Wyoming -- 350 miles of it, almost due west to east. I was actually really surprised by the Wyoming landscape. It was very diverse -- mountains, deserts, plains, rivers. Nevada was all the same, Utah from the border to SLC was all the same, but Wyoming kept changing around every turn...

One thing Wyoming did not have was people, though. It was us, truckers, and cows for miles and miles -- the open range in every sense of the word. It made Nevada look crowded. There were also miles of wooden fences along the side of the road which I can only guess are designed to control snow somehow...

We stopped briefly in Rawlins, WY for gas and then left I-80 in Cheyenne (after nearly 1,100 miles along 80) , reaching Denver after dark. We're staying a little south of town in a nice Days Inn that's dirt cheap compared to the options we looked at downtown. Don't know what we'll be doing during the day tomorrow, but tomorrow night we will definitely be heading to Coors Field for a Rays Rockies game. I'm psyched -- it's Jamie Shields verse Rodrigo Lopez. And unlike the Salt Lake Bees game, there's no way we're missing this one!