Road Trip: Nashville, Mammoth Cave, Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati

Hmm…. this blogging my roadtrip thing doesn’t really seem to be working, seeing how I posted something towards the beginning and now here I am near the end of the trip. Here’s the quick summary:

Nashville. Amazing barbeque by Cory and thanks for his hosting generosity. They were the best ribs I’d had so far on the trip. We also took advantage of Morton’s $5 appetizers after 9:30pm, which is one of the best deals at an expensive restaurant.

Mammoth Cave. I had memories of Mammoth Cave National Park from 23 years ago when I went with my great uncle and aunt and it was still awesome today. The only thing that sucked was that our 80 person tour group had 50 or so 5th graders for the four hour trip. Let’s just say that was a little distracting. The cave was great, and I stretched my camera’s low light ability to try to get some shots. No tickets so far.

Lincoln’s birthplace. Mammoth Cave is in Central Time. Lincoln’s birthplace is in Eastern Time. It was closed.

Louisville. We actually stayed in Jeffersonville, Indiana, right on the river. Not much happened there.

Lexington. A fairly quick 90 minute drive east took us to Lexington to visit one of my friends from high school, her husband, and two kids. It was really great to catch up with them and get to know her husband for the first time. I also learned from him why hair like eyebrows only grow a certain length. Doctors are cool. Bernadette and I also went out to dinner in a small town outside Lexington and had some California Cuisine. We just call it cuisine (that never gets old), and had to have the waiter explain to us what that meant. He said French food is kinda the opposite, where it’s heavy and saucy; California Cuisine is usually lighter and uses fresh produce. I guess it makes sense, but that’s pretty vague.

Cincinnati. My great aunt lives outside Cincinnati, and we were able to spend the whole day with her. She’ll be 93 in a few months and lives in a retirement community that’s really cool. There are hundreds of seniors living in a complex that has tons of daily activities, there’s an auditorium, drink hour, card games, food served, shuttles to local businesses… reminded me of college. I haven’t seen my great aunt since that trip 23 years ago, and it was incredible to have her meet Bernadette and catch up. I can only hope and pray that I’m in as good shape as her when I’m her age. Her son is a photographer and jumped ship from Nikon to Canon with the 5D Mark II. He let me play with it. I want.

We’re off to King’s Island now, before heading up to Columbus to fly out tomorrow. The Sharks better f-ing win tonight.

Road trip: St. Louis, Jefferson City, Memphis

So our road trip through the Midwest and a bit of the South has started and is off to a great start.

We kicked things off with a smooth, direct flight from SFO to St. Louis, only to be greeted by our Subaru rental car that only blew hot air through the vents. A short-staffed Budget desk fairly quickly exchanged our one-way rental to a Kia Optima, which I have to admit, is a fairly decent car. The only part that made us a bit sad was that the iPod port couldn’t read any of the four iPods or two iPhones we brought. Oh, well, thankfully, the aux port worked fine. It also turns out that no amount of Febreze will eliminate the smoker odor in a cloth upholstered car.

Also, since I’m on vacation, my doctor said I don’t have to pay attention to what I eat, so I started off the trip with cheese and bacon covered chicken. More on food later.

The drive to Jefferson City was smooth and uneventful, and we had a few nightcaps before hitting the sack.

Central time allowed us to sleep in a bit and we all went out to lunch, where I had the best ribs of the trip, so far. That night was the Lincoln University Presidential Gala, where I tried to win a really nice student sketch for the silent auction, but was outbid several times. The minimum was $25, the “value” was $100, I bid $185 and it sold for over $200 while I was eating. Oh, well, at least it’s good money to the university.

Yesterday, we left Jefferson City at around 9:00 am along with Bernadette’s mom to visit her family in Memphis. We took a kinda funny road, that was mixed between two lane, four lane, twisty, and country where the speed limit was often 65, which seemed kinda fast. Clearly not fast enough, as I zipped past a cop, who flipped around and pulled me over. Hats off to the MIssouri State Troopers for being friendly and letting me off with a non-moving violation. “Cut back on the horsepower,” he says.

As a quick aside, we drove through Arkansas for a short amount of time, and I couldn’t help thinking about the Top Gear episode where they drove from Florida to New Orleans and almost got killed in Arkansas. I’m not in Cupertino anymore.

We eventually pulled into Memphis through some “severe thunderstorms” and heavy winds that made driving a bit tricky, especially with all of the trucks on the road. Bernadette’s aunt’s house was our destination, and family and awesome, awesome food greeted us. So, on the second full day of our trip, I had the best ribs on the trip so far again. The ribs, short ribs, beans, cole slaw and corn were simply amazing and it was really fun to be able to meet so much of Bernadette’s family!

Last night, we headed out to Beale street for a quick drink before frustratingly watching the Sharks game on my computer via Sprint 3G and my Slingbox. All aspects of the game watching experience were horrible, from the quality of the picture to the quality of the game. I really hate the Ducks. Or maybe I hate the way the Sharks are playing in the month of April more.

So, here we are now, we just worked out, and are heading out to some lunch before taking Bernadette’s mom to the airport and then heading out to Nashville. The cruise control will be set to the speed limit and I’ll see if this blogging the trip thing lasts.