North Carolina

A crazy winter storm blew in through the east and we spent the next 5 days running away from it. We spent 2 days in Boone, North Carolina which I'm sure is lovely during the spring, summer, and fall months. However, this time of year it is c r a z y up there. We later found out that it's the only place in North Carolina that receives constant snow the entire winter season. And a LOT of it. We stayed with a nice guy named Ben who lived a few miles out of town on Chigger Mountain. My mom would have died if she saw the driveway we climbed 3 different times. It was snow covered, close to a 60 degree angle, curved sideways with drop offs into a frozen river on both sides. If our Subaru didn't have 4-wheel drive, we would have never made it. I held my breath each time we made the 2 mph venture. The weather was literally freezing, with the high temperature around 9 degrees both days. There were a lot of attractions that caught my attention in Boone, like the meditation mountain trails and the organic grocery stores. The town seemed very likable, but the only way I'll make it back to Boone is if it's late July.

This picture we took of the Smoky Mountains is nothing compared to the view Jake and I enjoyed. There were just layers upon layers of smokey grey and blue ridges... a lot different from the Rockies where you're always looking UP at the mountains. We were looking out across the TOPS and it was breathtaking. Our car on the other hand... I'm pretty sure that's the most salt it's ever encountered. Even Utahns don't use that much salt!

The following night we stayed with some CouchSurfing hosts in the Arts district in Charlotte. They took us out to Revolution Pizza where we ate amazing Chicken Pesto pizza with sauteed mushrooms and artichokes! Really, really delicious. But there was a bigger reason behind going out for pizza that night, it was Trivia Night! Our hosts quickly adopted us as teammates and after three rounds of off-the-wall trivia we came in second place out of 15 teams! We hardly took any pictures in the Carolinas.... and I'm afraid South Carolina is going to be all story and no pictures. That's just what happens when you're having fun!

Kentucky

Sorry these posts are NOT up to date.... They're posted a few weeks later than the said date.

 I loved visiting Kentucky. Often I've heard people refer to the "rolling hills." Well now I understand, and I love the rolling hills. It's beautiful in Kentucky and the people are really nice. We followed the Purple Heart Trail all the way from Memphis to Lexington and it is definitely near the top of my list for breath taking views. We kept seeing signs along the route that said Purple Heart Trail which I had to look up. Here's some quick copywrited information:

The Purple Heart Trail was established in 1992 by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to be a symbolic trail throughout all 50 states to commemorate and honor all men and women who have been wounded or killed in combat while serving in the U.S. armed forces. The Purple Heart Trail originates in Mount Vernon, Va., and traverses the United States to California. More than 20 states have implemented the trail, including Hawaii. The trail has also been implemented in Puerto Rico and Guam.

Cool, right? They picked a gorgeous route for the purple heart trail in these two states. Looking back at the drive now, I have to laugh because Jake and I kept mentioning how cool it was to see cows spread all over the hills. In Utah the cows are spread out on farms too, the difference is that the land is flat. The whole time we thought it was really neat but really it is just different. I wonder if people from Kentucky would think it was neat that our cows are spread out all over flat land.... ANYWAY I ramble sometimes.

On our way through this beautiful state we ran into Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. It was a cute little plot of land in between some rolling hills with a natural source of water. They've built a nice monument with 56 stairs to commemorate his 56 years of life. It was a treat to run into this without even knowing it was there to begin with. This trip has been fun and eye opening. As an American citizen I feel like I should know more U.S. geographical history and details about each of our presidents lives.

We had a wonderful time visiting with my two great aunts Mary & Helen (from whom I always thought my middle name Marielena was derived) but my aunt Mary told me that my grandfather always loved the Jerry Vale song Maria Elena. So I think that may have had some influence on my mom during my name choosing. My aunts are so cute! Their house was decorated beautifully, their little Daschund doggie kept us laughing, they shared great family stories and cooked us some amazing food. Jake decided that he's a big fan of lox on his breakfast bagel.

While we were in Kentucky we visited Fort Boonesborough. Some of you may not know that Jake is related to the ever so famous Daniel Boone. Jake got into character right away. He wasn't posing for any of these pictures- I just caught him standing like this.

And in his spare time in Kentucky, Jake was learning how to crochet. He became so consumed with the stitching that he left his church clothes on all day. I don't think I've ever seen Jake in a tie for longer than 3 hours. Look at the concentration in his brow. He finished this scarf in less than a week!

I have the best husband in the whole wide world. Brag brag brag.

It's true.

Tennessee

We really liked Tennessee, especially since my awesome fake aunt lives there! First we pulled into Memphis where I found myself being the minority. I'm totally cool with this, but not when I'm getting stared at. So I asked a lady at the gas station (who shared my minority) if south Memphis would be a good place for us to sleep tonight. She told me to keep driving at least half an hour more north. Then we received a couch acceptance and had a nice warm place to sleep-- with 2-week old puppies!!! Jake was really cute with the puppies, holding three or four at a time and talking baby talk to them... then looking at me like I shouldn't get any ideas. The puppies made me smile so much, so Jake ran away to the Greyhound Station.

Then we stayed with my fake aunt & uncle in Nashville for a couple weeks. You know, the person you call aunt/uncle/sister/grandpa who has no family relation? My aunt Patty was good friends with my mom when they were teenagers and I'm so glad they kept in touch because Patty is the coolest! We hung out until midnight every night, ate good food, shared good stories, and snuggled with her little poodles-- since there were three dogs, everybody in the house could keep one with them at night and stay warm! We would have liked to take one of those spunky, little guys with us but I don't think they would have enjoyed many of the places on our road trip. Jake even brushed the dogs teeth! A picture worth a thousand words!

We ate a late and delicious Thanksgiving dinner together and it really began to feel like the holidays. Almost every night somebody would get the munchies and before you knew it, John was running to the grocery store for some butterscotch chips and pecans while somebody else fired up the oven to cook up a fancy dessert! We also visited Opryland which was decorated and beautiful! John took us for a boat ride around the hotel and Jake got really sick of posing for pictures but I'm so glad we have them! 

We also did some walking around downtown. It seemed like every bar on the street had it's door open and inside you could hear a local artist playing country music and singing their lungs out. We had a really good time with John & Patty! They are such loving, caring and honest people full of dreams and ambition. I'm proud to call them family :) We'll be back to visit them soon!

Mississippi

We didn't get a whole lot of pictures from EM-EYE-ESS-ESS-EYE-ESS-ESS-EYE-PEE-PEE-EYE. We stayed 2 nights in Jackson with this crazy chain smoker lady with 5 cats and a dog. Most of my memories are hazy. I realized how nice non-smokey areas make me feel. Mississippi was pretty much 2 days of a headache and feeling dirty so hopefully we'll drive back through and stay somewhere different and have a better experience. It also didn't help that we continued to have car problems. We spent 7 days and $600 in Galveston and the car problem returned on our way to Jackson. Ugh. 


It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we were told Highway 61 was a pretty drive so we took it... and ended up in the middle of nowhere with our car making terrible sounds. We drove to the nearest "town" with an Auto Parts store and Jake fiddled around with the car for a while. I went inside and talked with the one employee and said we were on a road trip, just seeing different places and exploring areas we might like to live. He laughed and said, "I don't think you want to live here. There are some neighborhoods...." I asked if it was dangerous and he just said, "well...." I continued to explain our car situation to him and asked if he might know what our car problem could be. He didn't know much at all about cars but he said he had a friend that could take a look at it since all the mechanic shops were closed. He gave us a phone number that belonged to a guy named Larry and some directions to someone's workshop. He said it was down a street that looked like an alley but we could find it because it was actually a street with a name and sign. 


Jake and I didn't know what else to do. We were stuck with a wobbly tire in a tiny town, I think called Greenville, Mississippi. After we pulled up to the abandoned workshop Jake and I started to get a little nervous. Had we been set up? Jake called the phone number and the guy on the other end told us to stay put and he'd be there in a couple minutes. This old, ugly boat of a car with pitch black windows, absurdly expensive rims and bumping music pulls up to us. A big guy gets out of the car and starts crawling under our car. Then he goes back to his car, backs it up close to ours, opens his trunk and starts pulling tools out. He eventually just took a hammer and wrench to our hub and started pounding away. He said he had to get back to work so he called another friend to come help us out, but his phone etiquette/ebonics were so far from any language I can understand that I wasn't sure what to expect next. Anything could happen, really. A second car, with tinted windows and bumping music just as gangster as the first pulls up. Larry's friend, another "mechanic" gets out to take a look at our wheel. The whole situation was both comical and critical all at once. Jake and I were in a completely different realm from anything we were used to, but I was laughing to myself watching these gangsters pound on our car and talk to each other in a kind of code that I couldn't decipher as English.

Jake liked the wrench Larry was using and asked how much one of those might cost. Larry said, "you know what, just take it." Jake said, "no, are you serious? At least let me give you like ten bucks." Larry didn't oppose and took Jake's 10 dollars like it was nothin'. Our wheel had been tightened enough to continue our drive to Tennessee and we made it out of rural Mississippi alive. When I realized that Jake and I would be laughing about this story for a while, I snuck the camera out of the front seat of the car and hid it in my coat pocket, snapping a secret picture when heads were turned away. I hate to wonder how Larry may have reacted if he saw me snapping a picture of him under our car.


Overall, Mississippi is pretty. Big trees with hidden houses all along the highway. We did notice an ongoing theme between Louisiana and Mississippi. Everyone is obsessed with football. Everywhere we looked there was a TV on playing a football game and people yelling about it. And whether we were in the grocery store or the movie theater, it seemed like every 4th person we saw was wearing a football jersey. Along with all the football games came multiple commercials for "Women's Fit" NFL Jerseys. Their catch phrase was something like, "finally, something in your closet he can't take and wear." What a terrible marketing team.


We also noticed billboards all over Louisiana (not really Mississippi) that said "Pull Up Your Pants." On the doors of a lot of convenience stores there were signs that said, "If your pants are sagging pull them up before you come in." I guess Louisiana has a big problem with people "bustin a sag" or "low riding." It's fun to remember 1994.


Another funny thing I've experienced in the south, at least in Louisiana and Mississippi... Whenever you ask someone for directions they use the term "red light" instead of just light, or stoplight. For example: "Go down to the first red light and take a right. Then go down two red lights and take a left. After that you'll go through four or five red lights and it'll be on your left, you can't miss it." We asked directions many times and got the red light response every time. "Go through the red light." Being on the road makes me laugh a lot. 

Louisiana

Bienvenue en Louisiane! I quickly found out that I cannot pronounce half of the city/street names in Louisiana. There is a lot of French around these parts and I butcher it. Wow, I just realized that my last name is actually french and means Butcher (Boucher.) I kept seeing signs that said Homemade Boudin! I didn't know what it was but I definitely knew that if it was somehting the locals ate, I wanted some. Every time we passed a sign I would read it out loud for Jake to hear because it was a fun word to say and he was watching the road while driving. We stopped and asked a Louisianian about Boudin and they laughed at me because I was saying Bo-Dean and it's pronounced Boo-Dan. Anyway, it's similar to the Musubi found at convenient stores in Hawaii but without the seaweed. It's meat and dirty rice stuffed in a casing.

We were hoping to spend Thanksgiving with family members in Kentucky but our car was having trouble and we only made it to Montigut Louisiana. You should look it up on a map-- we were pretty far down south in the Bayou. We had dinner with a nice Cajun family who cooked amazing food. I tried my first wild duck seasoned with the family recipe and it was gooood. We hung out with some Bayou Kids and had good ol' fashioned fun sitting on the porch and playing catch with the dog. Somehow I missed taking a photo of the sign that said NO SWIMMING and had a picture of an alligator. Jake actually saw a gator while sitting on the porch of our hosts home on Thanksgiving day!

We were able to catch the last little bit of the fall season in Louisiana and it was beautiful. Leaves were changing and families were out fishing. Can you believe the water level gets above 30 feet in some places? Out here there are signs on every major road that lead you to the evacuation route if you need it. It would seem really scary to me to live somewhere that always floods but I guess every area has its ups and downs. The fresh seafood here is to die for and they never worry about the Bayou being too dry and catching on fire. Everyone owns a boat and life is good! 

This is Pierre, our French host in Baton Rouge. Unlike the Cajuns, Pierre is actually from France and he'll be going back after he finishes his University research. He's been in the U.S. for two years and his english is pretty okay. I can't imagine moving to France by myself and trying to communicate in a very foreign language. Wait a minute. I did that. I almost had Korea completely blocked out of my memory. Wow. I want an orange tree in my yard.

The trees down here are different from what we're used to in Utah. They grow bigger and many are covered with beautiful Spanish Moss. They also have a lot of nut trees. I learned how to crack open pecans with my bare hands.













This was our first time to cross the muddy Mississippi River. After we were parked the captain blew the horn and Jake almost jumped out of his seat. It was so LOUD! The man in the car next to us witnessed the whole thing and laughed just as hard as we did.

Jake and I had pulled over to make some sandwiches for lunch and I saw this huge bird up in a tree. It was moving it's head up and down and side to side and from far away I thought it looked like a parrot. I'm smart enough to know that parrots aren't birds you find flying around Louisiana so I figured somebody's pet got loose. When I showed my picture to a local resident they laughed at my parrot picture and told me it was a Falcon... Since then, I've seen a lot of falcons in Louisiana. And a lot of sinking boats. Tons actually. What do you do with a sinking boat???

We also ate our first Po-boys. It's a big hoagie with some kind of meat, lettuce, tomato and mayo. We opted for the shrimp and catfish. YUM. But there's no way I could eat this deep fried food every day. It makes me feel funny but not in a good way.

Finishing up in Texas

Dear family, to tell you the truth... it's very difficult to blog while on the road. There's just too much to remember and too much to post! It's easier to keep a bound paper journal nowadays. Here's the last little bit of our Texas experience-- which I don't think Texas is done with me and Jake. We still have to drive back home and it's going to be hard to avoid this gigantic state. 

This is the beautiful 1850 loft we stayed in with our friend Matty. Jake and I were both afraid to walk across the glass floor for the first couple of days. Later he had a jam session with a couple of other guys in this room because the acoustics were great but my camera was in the car which was in the shop :(

A sign outside of a gas station kept making me laugh. These are the different phrases it flashed:

BEAVER NUGGETS

KOLACHES

TUR-DUC-KEN

PECAN LOGS

BUC-EE'S CAMO

CLEAN RESTROOMS

CAJUN FRYERS

HOG TRAPS

Galveston actually has a gorgeous cemetery. Some of the headstones are dated back to the early 1800's. Many are written in Hebrew and are beautifully carved out of limestone which keep wearing away. It was actually a really nice place to spend the afternoon.

We spent some time on the sea wall and watched birds dive for fish.

Right before we got out of Texas we saw this turtle hanging out on the side of the road. He was cool. He stuck his head out and chilled with us for a while. And that was Texas.