My Vacation Rocked

Ugg Boot

3,540 miles, $220.50 in gasoline, 10 states experienced (not counting Louisiana), and 10 days off. The PT Cruiser is the best traveling vehicle. I wouldn't trade it for any vehicle. During my vacation, I realized a few things. In our technologically advanced society, we've gotten dumber. Just look around you. It's everywhere. Because of the microwave, people have, for the most part, forgotten how to cook. Because of Television, people read less. Because of Wal-Mart, we've closed down our family oriented shops and lost the personal touch in shopping. So many skills that were important since the beginning of man have gotten lost due to technology, yet I sit here typing away at my computer. I'm thankful but sad.


See what I mean? Room to spare. Let me tell you about my vacation. (please click on the links to learn more)

Day 1(Oct. 13): Amy and I got up a few hours before dawn. Dawn usually gets up around 6:30 am. We got on the road heading to Tennessee. Because of our very early start, we arrived in Chattanooga, Tn. at approx. 4 pm. We drove around town and found Lookout Mountain and the Lookout Mountain Inclined Railway. That was just amazing. Amy was nervous on the train ride. Then we went to Rock City at Lookout Mountain. Then on to Ruby Falls. I was most impressed with Rock City. I would love to see that again.


Day 2 (Oct. 14): Lots more driving. We went to Ashville, North Carolina to the Biltmore Estate. Let me start with the bad part first. Two tickets with audio tour cost $109 and you can't take any kind of camera, recording equipment, or sketching materials. That's just crazy. It was well worth it. Four of the most fascinating acres at Biltmore Estate are all under one roof. America's largest home boasts 250 rooms, 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, bowling alley, priceless art and antiques. Biltmore House received its first guests in 1895 on Christmas Eve. After six years of construction, this remarkable house with its four acres of floor space had finally been completed. Simply amazing. More driving. We've gotta get to Williamsburg, Va.


Day 3 (Oct. 15): We spent an amazing day in colonial Williamsburg, Va. Colonial Williamsburg was my favorite part of vacation. Everything is as it was in the 1770's. We toured the Governors Palace(pictured above), Bruton Parish Church, several houses and taverns. There were people dressed in 1770's attire everythwere. There were probably over 150 people in full dress. Horses and carriages everywhere. We ate that night a Chownings Tavern. The menu was full of items from the 1770's. I had Smithfield Ham Biscuits($7.50) and root beer and she had Crock of Cheese with Sippets ($7.95) and root beer. Although the food tasted unlike anything I've ever had, I liked my Tavern food. Amy didn't agree. We were so tired, we could hardly walk.


Day 4 (Oct. 16): Another great day at Williamsburg. We saw Wheelwrights building carriage wheels by hand, carpenters building a harpsichord by hand, leatherworkers, blacksmiths, etc. We took a carriage ride around the town. This carriage was about 9 months old, was hand built, and cost approx. $350,000. It's amazing to watch people building everything so careful by hand. The craftsmenship of goods has definitely declined since then.


Day 5 (Oct. 17): We went to the Jamestown Settlement, first permanent English settlement in America. We saw the Jamestown fort, a glass blowing building which is a replica of the original that sits just a few feet away from the 1600's. Time to get on the road to Philly. Hmmm. Washington D.C. is on the way. What do we do? We went to the White House (sure 'nuff, it's white), the Washington monument, and the Captial. Very impressive. Then we're back on the road to Elkton.




Day 6 (Oct. 18): We begin our day at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, Pa. What did we see there? The plaster cast of the torso of world-famous Siamese Twins, Chang & Eng, and their conjoined livers, Joseph Hyrtl's collection of skulls, Preserved body of the "Soap Lady", Collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people's throats, Cancerous growth removed from President Grover Cleveland, Tallest skeleton on display in North America, as well as many other stomache churning items. Next, we went to Independence Hall. You've heard of this place, haven't you? They signed a piece of paper here called the Constitution(in the room pictured above). We took a tour and saw and heard some strange stories about it:
1. The basement once served as the city's dog pound
2. The second floor was once home to Charles Willson Peale's museum of natural history.
3. Some historians note that Ben Franklin would occasionally trip other delegates from his aisle seat. Gotta love that dude.
4. George Washington, knowing that his opinion would carry undue weight, contributed little to the debate over the Constitution.
5. Even though the days were very hot in the summer of 1787, windows were kept closed so others could not overhear their discussions

We saw the Liberty Bell. Cool. We walked and walked and I finally decided to look at our tourist map. I looked and saw that Benjamin Franklin was buried near the spot where we were. Wait a minute, it should be right across the street. That was neat in itself. We went in and out of small shops while looking for another historic building. There in the middle of a busy street, with no signs marking it, was a home built by Benjamin Franklin that he rented out to make money. This house had probably 6 rentable homes under one roof. If it weren't for my handy dandy tourist map, I never would've known about it. ....


And what's the one thing you have to do in Philly as a tourist? Eat a Philly Cheesteak sandwich. Mmmmm they're good. It tastes a lot better than it looks.



Day 7 (Oct. 19): (looking at the atlas) "Guess what? We're only about 100 miles from New York City. Off we go. Our first stop was Liberty National Park where we hopped a ferry, not a gay man but a boat, and went to Ellis Island, then to the Statue of Liberty. Yep, you read that right. We didn't get to go up in the statue because it was way too full and tickets sell out very quickly. We did get to take as many pictures as we wanted, and we took many. We left the Statue of Liberty via gay man, I mean ferry, and went to New York City. We started our very short tour of New York at Battery Park. We saw a few street performers there and at hot dogs from a street vendor. We walked around Greenwich Village and came to a city block that was fenced off. I looked at my handy dandy tourist map and realized it was the site of the Twin Towers. Very interesting. I really enjoyed walking around NY. I will go back. We stayed in Fredericksburg.



Day 8 (Oct 20): We went to Charlottesville, VA. and ate lunch at the Downtown Mall. This is no ordinary mall. This mall is outside, brick pathways, sidewalk eateries, etc. The weather couldn't have been better. The leaves were beautiful. The food was amazing. Time to go to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. It looks just like it does on the nickel. We toured the grounds and house. We took tons of pictures of the grounds and outside of the house. Guess what? No photography of any kind inside. It was beautiful on the inside. Inspirational. I stopped at a motel to check on a room and he was out of rooms except for Jacuzzi rooms. He made me a great rate so guess what? Jacuzzi room for us that night. Nice.


Day 9 (Oct 21): Today we're driving down to Memphis. We're both almost too tired to move. We go to Beale street, home of the blues. It was a street party. Very cool. Not wanting to walk much more, we decided to see a movie. Man of the Year, the new Robin Williams movie was playing. It was very very good.



Day 10 (Oct 22): We ate at Steak n Shake this morning. Mmmmm good. Drove by Graceland again and visited a gift shop. The pictures I took of Graceland were from the road and you could only see the trees. This picture is borrowed from another collection. I'm tired, let's go home.