We started the day with a short drive into Jamestown, Lucille Ball's hometown. We started by going to visit Lucy's tombstone and childhood home since... uh.. I'm obsessed with her.. and the museum didn't open for a few hours. We grabbed some breakfast and coffee and then explored downtown Jamestown. Most of the stores were closed but we were able to find a couple of murals of my favorite couple.
Next, we visited the museum and playhouse dedicated to Lucy and Desi. The museum had a lot of pictures and personal stories about them. There we learned that after Lucy graduated high school she moved to NYC to attend acting school, but after a year, the school wrote a letter home to her mother that Lucy just didn't have what it took to make it in acting and that she should just save her money.. Lucy is the original "Hey, don't worry man, Michael Jordan didn't make the cut for his high school basketball team" speech! There, we saw home movies, scenes from shows Lucy has been in and I recorded my own Vitameatavegamin commercial.. it's so tasty, too!!
The playhouse had a recreation of the Ricardo's kitchen and living room and it took all my strength to not climb over the barrier, sit on their couch and leaf through the magazine on their coffee table. I left with a smile from ear to ear.
Southern Tier Brewing Company was close by to
Jamestown so we stopped to check it out. It was named best brewery in New York according
to BeerAdvocate.com. Our stop resulted in us sampling every single one of the
beers they had on tap, and of course Larry whipping out his credit card and
crowding the car with more beer ;)
On the way to Buffalo, we stopped in a beautiful
town called Chautauqua located on a lake of the same name. It was not like any
other place we'd seen but reminded us of a little town off route 1 in
California we stopped in. All of the houses were Victorian and huge, but the
streets were really narrow, some only allowing bikes or pedestrians. We stopped
by a little beach and bell tower and found a cache before heading out.
We arrived in Buffalo and after getting a hotel,
our next stop was to try Duff's famous wings. We ordered their medium-mild and
barbecue and loved both, though Larry wished we got the medium. We didn’t know
if we should choose the place that invented buffalo wings (Anchor bar) or the
place that has “the best wings” (Duff’s). We went with Duff’s since it was
close to our hotel and closer to Niagara Falls, which was our next stop.
Niagara Falls was much more than I expected. We’ve
seen all types of waterfalls, but Niagara falls is like no other. Even though
it’s a short waterfall compared to some others we’ve seen (Yosemite Falls), its
power and strength cannot be compared with any other. We spent several hours
walking from viewpoint to viewpoint, getting soaked by the mist, not wanting to leave.
On our way back to our hotel, we decided to stop
by an ice cream place we saw earlier, if they were still open. Not only were
they still open, the parking lot was packed and there were long lines on every
line to order. Larry got one of their custard cones and I got bananas fosters
ice cream... delicious!
Larry and the Family Jules are back on the road. This time we are doing a tour of New York State, excluding the Northern most section. We hit the road at 7a.m. heading towards Ithaca to visit the Finger Lakes and state parks in the area. We originally planned to camp out but due to weather conditions that I'll get to later we decided to push forward later in the day. It was 11:30 when we reached our first destination, Taughannock State Park. We started by taking a walk around the nearby Cayuga Lake and eating some less than mediocre food from a nearby concession stand.
Once satisfied we started our first hike to Taughannock Falls. The trail was easy and straight-forward but what was interesting was the river flow was so low that you could walk in the middle of the river. Upon reaching the end of the 3/4 mile hike we reached the less than impressive waterfall.
We thought with all the rain we've been getting it would of been a bit more intense but it was just a trickle compared to what it could be. We walked through the river on the way back to the car where we realized something. In all of our hikes throughout the country whenever you see another hiker they smile politely and say, "Hello." Not in New York. Although everyone seemed perfectly nice, not one responded to our greetings. Next up was Ithaca Brewing Co. I have to admit, I wasn't very excited about this brewery but I left with a change of heart. The place looked like shack with little to nothing going for it. So what is there to do there? An employee summed it up pretty well, "Taste, buy, leave." We did just that :)
After trying a few samples we made a last minute decision to check out Buttermilk Falls. This would be a cute place to hang out at but there isn't much to see besides the waterfall which is right in the front.
Watkins Glen State Park was definitely the highlight of the day. This was a place that took our breath away. Every turn this canyon made was more impressive and beautiful than the one before. We were in awe throughout the entire hike.
Because of rain warnings we decided not to camp out. We gained a few hours by driving to Jamestown that night. While driving we watched a single cloud produce lightning every few seconds for almost our entire 3 hour drive.
This country is filled with a lot of nothing and a lot of a lot. In what may seem like a blink of an eye you could be driving across sunny flat plains to all of a sudden be zig-zagging through snowy mountains. Jules and I have seen the landscape change before our eyes and have met every type of person imaginable on our trip. It seemed as if we saw so much but on our way back I could still think, “I saw so little.”
Las Vegas
People have asked me what was my favorite part and I usually answer with, “Austin, Texas was fun. California is beautiful but Zion National Park was amazing.” Those granite canyons would of stole my heart if the girl by my side hadn’t done so already. To have so much natural variety in such a small concentration of land is truly a sight to behold. Truthfully every place was great. Even Kansas had its moments. However, one place that stands out to me was Arizona. Truly like no other place. Seeing a Saguaro Cactus in person really blew my mind. All the cities are cool in their own way as well. I got reminded of Manhattan, for one reason or another, in just about every one. When I would see a familiar sight, nostalgia would kick in and I would get sad because I wouldn’t get to see home for so long, and towards the end I would be seeing it too soon! We would be walking down a street in San Francisco and all of a sudden feel like we were walking right down St. Marks Place. It kept making me feels as though so much was LIKE the city, but nothing was the city. Which leads me to say two quotes, “There is no place like home," and, "New York City IS the greatest city in the world.” Yea, I know I haven’t been outside the country, yet, but well tackle that subject in Larry and the Family Jules’ Cross-Europe tour.
Los Angeles
Our trip evolved as we traveled, and we learned more every day. We left with smiles and arrived in tears. I don’t think either of us looks at this country the same way as we did before we left. It changed me in more ways than one. For example, I was excited to meet all the different kinds of people, and I did. I was excited to meet the stereotypes. The California surfer dude, the Southern “hicks” or even another couple of cross-country hippies; just to name a few. I can’t say that these people don’t exist because they most certainty do but when you finally meet them as individuals you realize that people are just people, no matter how many stereotypes they fit. For a while in Texas I forgot that I was in so in far into the south. After time the accent, and obesity, eventually flowed right by me and it wasn’t until we returned that I was reminded from our videos of how differently so many people live. It’s tough to say what I’m getting at so I’ll just get to the point. “People from separate demographics are different but people within those communities are different as well.” Every person is their own being no matter how they were brought up or by whom. Majority of the people we met loved our story and what we had to tell, we loved what they had to tell. From all over people tried to help us if they saw we were lost or confused. I can honestly say that even if we don’t agree with the way people go about doing things we are all trying to get to the same place in the end.
Arizona
So much just “worked out” for Jules and I. When things didn’t we stood by each other’s side and helped to make the best of what were dealt. This led to us having very few bad moments on our trip and many wonderful ones. I can’t imagine what this trip would have been like with anyone else but her. Thank you so much Jules for doing this with me, even when you were uncertain at times. It means more to me than you will ever know. So what else is there… oh yea, would I have done anything differently? Yea, saved some trunk space and bought my fireworks on the way back.
It took us almost a month but we finally finished our "conclusions" of our trip across America. I think the reason it took us so long to finish writing is because it really made us sad to think that it's over. Not only that but it's very hard to sum up the things we saw and the experiences we had in a little blog post.
First off, to answer everyone's main concern and the first question we've been asked about our trip: Yes, Larry and I still like each other! (A lot). Besides Larry getting mad every so often because the iPhone's GPS is backwards and I would ALWAYS guess which way we were going wrong (oops), getting along was the least of our problems. Although, I must say we really didn't have many problems (aside from the occasional bear attack threat).
Before going on the trip, our biggest concern was obviously all of the driving "we" were going to be doing. We thought our body would cramp up or after a while we would just rather jump out of the car while it was in motion than drive any longer. This never really happened. The worst thing that happened was the tornado we drove into on the first day. For the most part though, we just drove until we were too tired to continue. I think the combination of seeing all new places (even if it's just wheat fields in Kansas) and the excitement of arriving somewhere new is what kept us going. There are two and a half hour drives to Albany that I dread more than the thought of being in the car for 13 hours in middle America. It also helps that when you wake up tired and grumpy at 6:30 in the morning, your boyfriend wakes up with a big smile on his face ready to drive, gets you coffee and packs the car while you take twice as long as him to get ready.
I also have to confess that Larry did most of the driving. "Most" is actually the understatement of the century. I'm not sure what the grand total of hours driving were, but we drove about 9,000 miles. Of these 9,000 miles, I drove 16 hours TOTAL. That's a little over 1/9. I promise I kept offering!
My advice for anyone considering going on a cross country trip:
- Go with someone who does all but 16 hours of driving and not only doesn't complain, but encourages you to take naps while they're driving! (Unheard of!) And only makes fun of you a little bit that you growl like a lion when you wake up. But no, really, go with someone who tackles the trip with what can only be described as a Clark Griswold-like attitude.
- Be organized. Don't bring 9 different bags of clothes so that every time you get to a hotel you're shopping in your backseat and trunk for what you're going to wear the next day.
- PLAN. We did a lot of planning before the trip, but we definitely could have done more. We should have had (on paper!) a top 5 list of things we wanted to do in each city - that would have saved us a lot of time looking it up. Also, since we never knew how far we were going to get each day, we spent a lot of time finding hotels, so I would have done a little more planning on that end.
- Learn how to talk in weird voices. Some states are really boring.
- Leave extra time. Everything always takes longer than you think. Or, you'll fall in love with a place and not wanna leave (this happened a lot).
- It's important to make good time, but it's more important to enjoy every moment of the trip so, make frequent stops! One of our favorite memories of the trip was when we made an impromptu stop at the "Point of Interest" and met Crazy Jeff!
- Stay in a rest stop overnight once in a while.. At first, we thought it was kinda sketchy to sleep in the car and only did when we had no choice. After we did it though, we realized it wasn't that bad and we saved not only money but a lot of time!
-BLOG! Whenever we skipped a day or two we got "IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?!?" texts and calls. It was a lot of fun knowing our family and friends were keeping up with us and I'm so glad we have the blog to look back on our trip.
-Buy a wolf shirt. But that's a given.
One thing I'll take away from this trip is that I'll definitely be less judgmental of people. Like if I see a girl with a full grown mustache in the passenger seat of a car and a bunch of long sticks poking out of the backseat, now I'll know; "Oh, she must have just left Yosemite National Park." Or if I see a couple driving with all the windows up screaming at the top of their lungs.. I'll know that they were just trying to see how loud they could scream. And they were in Ohio.
I also want to say that even though I would probably not go back to any of the places we went on this trip until I went to other new places, there was no place that we absolutely exhausted. 26 days sounds like a lot for a vacation (and it is!), but when you're spending one or two days in each place you're constantly rushing and you find that there are just not enough hours in the day to see (and eat) everything. I'm sure we could go back to each of the places we went to and see two or three other sides we didn't get to see (except for the grand canyon.. for me twice is enough!). Even as much as we've bad mouthed Kansas, and how little there is to do there, one of the barbecue places Larry really wanted to go to was there and we didn't get to go. We also forgot to mention in one of our Texas posts that we didn't think everything was bigger in Texas.. except for the people (:/ sorry Texas!).
I also learned that I started to become a real chicken (quite literally!) as the trip went on. Things that have never bothered me in the slightest like, caterpillars, heights and telling the waitress she gave you the wrong ice cream flavor started to make me really nervous. Well, maybe that last one did bother me before..
What I really learned on this trip though, is just how much there is to see right here in our own backyard. You really don't have to go very far before starting to see things you've never seen before. In 26 days, we saw plains, deserts, mountains, beaches and canyons. We saw 6 feet of snow, the biggest tree in the world, sunglasses melting weather, the mighty Mississippi, "the thing" and the Jonas brothers (lol). There aren't very many countries, if any, that can say the same. That Woody Guthrie wasn't kidding.
It really is hard to describe how great this trip was and just how much it means to me. It was the trip of a lifetime and I would recommend it to anyone. I mean when you're ON a trip and you can't stop talking about and planning "the next trip," (and how you're going to do it in a VW van...) you know it's really something. It was the kind of trip where when you meet a white water rafting instructor with blonde dreadlocks, that says "gnarly" and lives out of her car, you envy her. And you wonder.. "Could I do that? I think I wanna do that.." But only for a second before you realize, "no you don't want to instruct people on how to white water raft.. You were the one in the back of the boat that froze up in the middle of a rapid and the guide had to hit you with his paddle so you would start paddling again when that guy fell out of the boat." I digress... I really am amazed by the sights we saw and also the people we met. Maybe it's the New Yorker in me but I was so surprised and delighted by every single person we met. Everyone was so nice and really wanted to (and did!) help us whenever we had a problem. Anyone we told about our trip and where we were going next were not only just as excited as we were about it, but immediately had restaurants and stops to recommend. And if it wasn't for our camping pals, Brad from zion and all of the people from Yosemite, I'm not sure we would have made it through the night!
I also want to thank everyone who stopped by to read our blog. We started it as a way to keep our moms from worrying and our friends posted on our adventures. I'm so glad we took the time to do it because it turned into a great place for Larry and I to document our trip. Every comment, text and email we received about it made our day a little brighter and pushed us to write, even from inside a 17 degree tent in Zion national park!
I leave this trip really excited about how much more there is to see in our country and of the possibility of future explorations. I kept telling Larry that I can't believe I have been to Europe twice but had only seen 3 of our stops prior to this trip. Its so sad to think that the trip we poured our hearts into while planning is over. But as one trip gets committed to memory, another trip moves into the planning stages. Did somebody say Larry and the Family Jules' Cross Europe tour? ;)
