CACTUS! That’s a cactus!! .... So is that!!

The bikers were gone when we woke up the next morning, or at least by the time we left. I may have shared the elevator with one on my way down to breakfast, but that guy could have also been a business man in a do-rag and faded jeans. Who knows? We knew we did not have a ton of driving to do that day (Amarillo to Roswell was only about four hours), so we had no problem getting a later start than usual.

The first stop on our agenda was The Cadillac Ranch. Have you ever heard of it? Have you seen the movie Cars? If so, you have seen the Cadillac Ranch in animated form.



Here’s a little information on the topic. Stanley Marsh 3 (he thinks using the roman numerals III is too pretentious) is a helium millionaire. In 1974 he got together with a San Francisco art collective called The Ant Farm and assembled this roadside art exhibition. Ten Cadillac’s have been planted in the ground just off of I-40 (between exits 60 and 62) nose down. It is said to represent the “Golden Age” of the American Automobile (1949 to 1963). In 1997 the attraction had to be moved two miles west because of encroaching development. If you see pictures of these cars you will see that they have been tagged all to hell. Marsh actually encourages people to graffiti the cars. It’s sort of like an ongoing art project collaborated on by everyone who visits it. Upon reading about the place online I announced to Toto and Josh that we would be stopping and buying spray paint. Toto thought this a hilariously wonderful idea. I ended up with neon orange, Toto got yellow and Josh got metallic gold. We had a blast. Josh wrote PV2 Newberry on EVERYTHING he could get his hands on. He also wrote the Cavalry slogan “If you aint Cav, you aint shit” all over things.



I took a more artistic approach to it. I found a good spot (the underside of a trunk) and borrowed Toto’s yellow. I wrote “PDX OR 2010” in huge yellow letters outlined in neon orange. It looked pretty cool.



Toto marked her turf a few times on different cars as well. I ended up climbing up into the empty trunk of one of the cars and creating a Newberry family crest. Other people’s artistic ventures were evident as well, and out of respect had been left alone.



When we were done at the ranch, we piled in the car and headed south to Roswell. Along the way we stopped at a dairy queen for swirl cones. Guess what? No swirl cones. I swear the ice cream gods HATE me. So we settled for chocolate dipped vanilla cones. I had never had a dipped cone before, and let me tell you, never having one again. I did not enjoy it one bit. The ice cream was all leaky through the chocolate, and the chocolate left a fatty greasy film on the roof of my mouth, it was just a bad experience all around.



Somewhere east of the New Mexico, Texas border there is a small town called Hereford. Most of my childhood we had a Hereford cow named Sis. My dad had her before he had me. So going through the town of Hereford had more significance to the three of us than it would ever have to anyone else. So we stopped and took a picture with the town’s mascot (right in front of the police station, so I refrained from climbing on it).



We crossed the border into New Mexico and with the new state came the most amazing weather of the trip (Shea, this is for you): 80 degrees, sunny with puffy clouds in the sky, and it was DRY HEAT for a change! The open road was ahead of us and we had John Denver going on the stereo. I was in heaven!! After taking a few pictures of me enjoying the amazing weather, I nodded off to sleep (so did Josh) until Toto woke us up with the words “guys, we’re in Roswell.” That got my attention.



Roswell, NM is the site of a rather infamous incident of alleged extraterrestrial activity. For those of you who have known me a while, you probably know that I am a total X-Files nerd. So, Roswell was somewhere I wanted to see. We got there a little too late to see the main attraction downtown, so we went into a bunch of little shops instead.



The first one we went to was a little place called “Gifts from the Angels” or something hoaky like that. The guy behind the counter was a total loony. I bought a shot glass and a post card and he then reported a bunch of “facts” about alien visitations he knew. I feel a clarification coming on: while I am a total X-files nerd, I do not believe in little grey guys with big heads, three fingers, and flying saucers. I don’t think that there is any way that we are the ONLY intelligent life forms in the entire universe, but I don’t buy into the standard depiction of aliens and their space crafts. Anyways! So he tried to talk to us about all this stuff and we’re backing towards the door and I thought I was going to get abducted right then and there. Thankfully Toto has mastered the art of ending unwanted conversations. After that, we wandered down the street and found a few other things in a few other shops. We discovered in one of the shops, that there was actually a beer brewed near by that went with the whole alien theme, so we went in search of it. Did you know Walgreen's in New Mexico has a liquor store inside of it? So Toto bought the beer and I discovered David brand sunflower seeds (not that this is a HUGE discovery, but still it hadn't occurred to me before) and bought them. See, Fox Mulder LOVES to chew on sunflower seeds, and I am pretty sure that David is the brand you see in The X-Files the most. And the actor who plays Fox Mulder is David Duchoveny. So it all went very well together. Then we headed back to the hotel. We ate dinner and I updated the photos on facebook (while channeling Mulder). It was a pretty lazy and relaxing night, which was nice after running ourselves ragged for the previous few days. Nothing profoundly wonderful happened that day.

As an aside, if you are wondering about how the title ties in with this day of blog, it happened between the glorious weather and the nap. We were trucking along the highway, and all of a sudden I realized that there were cacti all over the side of the road. So I yelled "CACTUS!! That's a cactus!!" then there was a slight pause, and then I yelled, "SO IS THAT!!" It was funny because these cacti had been along the road for at least a half an hour, or so Josh says.

Playlist
John Denver
Garth Brooks

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Another Day

Well when I got out of bed the other day (Monday), I was totally alright with getting the fink out of Little Rock. That hotel room sucked! It was small and dated and it was a Holiday Inn, not a Holiday Inn Express so there was no free breakfast.

Because we were hungry, Toto was online looking for somewhere neat to eat in Little Rock, that might bring her near to a cotton field. She found a neat place. The 42nd President of our great United States, Bill Clinton is from Little Rock, Arkansas. One place that he likes to eat when he is at home is Cotham’s. They are famous (at least in Little Rock) for being the home of the “Hub Cap Burger.” Apparently at the original Cotham’s, which was out in the boonies on stilts over a swamp, there were hub caps all over the walls, and they served the burger on something bigger than a dinner plate as they boasted it was bigger than said dinner plate. Well we went searching for Cotham’s, and low and behold, where the GPS on my Storm said it would be, it was not. There was a whole lot of nothing there, so we GPSed the downtown location (which is the one that President Clinton frequents). We found it pretty easily. And yes, the burger was quite large (and yummy): one pound of hamburger, plus all the fixins, and fries on the side. AND we started with fried dill pickles because we had liked them so much in Nashville. I was only able to eat one quarter of my burger. Josh boasted early on that he would eat the whole thing. He managed to down just over half of it before declaring that he would throw up if he ate any more. Toto ate a quarter of hers as well. We joked that we would be eating them for the next two days (at least Toto and I would be, if ¼ was one meal, then we had three left).





Ever since we got to the south, she has wanted to see cotton fields and tobacco fields. She has been thwarted every time. The original Cotham’s is where the cotton farmers used to go for food. Hence why we went up there looking for it, because she wanted to see the blasted cotton fields.

After eating we caught a glimpse of the capital building, so we went to take a picture of it. It seems that Toto is doing with capital buildings what I am doing with state line signs: taking pictures of every one she comes across. This one looked much the same as many others do: big marble building, big dome roof in the center of it. Wow. Cool. Another capital building. Moving on.



We got on the road and headed west towards Oklahoma. Just outside of Little Rock Josh decided he had to pee really badly. We didn’t realize how serious he was until we got to the next rest stop. Josh jumps out of the car; I am sitting in the front seat messing with my computer; I glance up for no particular reason and part of my brain observes Josh going into the rest room; about two seconds later the rest of my brain recognizes what just happened: in Josh’s hurry to get into the bathroom, he entered the women’s rest room! I yelled, or gasped, or squealed or all three at the same time, I’m not sure, but it got Toto’s attention. “WHAT?!” She exclaims. “JOSH JUST WENT IN THE WOMEN’S!!!! I SWEAR!!!” I proclaimed. I then threw my laptop (and when I say threw, I mean set down) onto the dashboard, rolled my window down, grabbed the camera, hoisted myself onto the sill of the window and poised the camera in ready position for when he came busting out of there. He did not come busting out of there. I thought for sure that there would be a lady in there that would call attention to his error, but I was wrong. Toto thought that the lack of urinals should give him a clue. Nope. A few minutes later (apparently he really had needed to pee) he comes strolling out of there, hears the click of the camera, sees me fall into the car laughing, and says “What?” I yell “YOU WERE IN THE LADIES!!” This is where I messed up. I was too busy dying of laughter and Toto was not able to get the camera to capture his moment of shock that rapidly turned into horror and embarrassment. He whirled around, stared for half a second at the bright blue “Women” with the little lady in the dress, his face contorted into a silent scream, and he whipped around again and bolted for the car, jumped in, and threw himself down on the seat in case anyone had seen what had just transpired. Keep in mind this whole thing (from him walking out to jumping in the car) took place in about four seconds. It was hilarious. I think I cried for two minutes I was laughing so hard.



The next few hours paled in comparison to that.

A little after three that afternoon, ok so more like three thirty, we drove past a sign that said “Checotah 5”. I casually mentioned (as I grabbed for the camera and snapped like four pictures of the sign) that Carrie Underwood is from Checotah, Oklahoma. Toto looked at the gas gauge and decided that we needed gas, so why not fill up in Carrie’s hometown? So we exited the freeway “Where 69 meets 40” and we drove up the “single stop light town.” We got gas, and took 69 down to the 40 and headed west some more.



I was driving after we left Checotah. Toto settled in to do some work on her computer, I put my headphones on and was listening to my audio book (that I haven’t heard much of since we left), and Josh was sleeping in the back seat when all of a sudden the heavens opened up and dumped a million gallons of water on us. If you watched the news on Monday afternoon or night, you probably saw the weather guy on your favorite channel talk about the crazy storm in Oklahoma. Yeah. We were in that. SO when I talk about the nice weather wherever we are now and you Oregon people tell me it’s raining and I should miss it, nope. Not happening. I actually had to pull over and wait until I could see again. Then I drove with the hazard lights on for a few miles. It was kind of scary. When the clouds thinned out just before OKC (Oklahoma City) I was much relieved. We saw four cars between the eastern and western outskirts of OKC that had crashed and been left, I assumed it was from the rain storm. See? Scary.

On April 19, 1995 the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed by Timothy McVeigh. Toto used to work for Leatherman Tool Group. She had been there about 4 months when the bombing happened. Leatherman actually sent a large number of one of their tools, The PST (Pocket Survival Tool) to the rescue effort. We went to the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial. It was a beautiful place, but it was very sobering. The park encompasses where the Murrah Building was, where two buildings were across fifth street from the Murrah Building, and where fifth street was itself. It is an impressive place. Two huge gateways lead you into the park. These gates each have an inscription on the outside, and on the inside each has a time. The east gate has the time 9:01 on it, representing the moment and innocence before the explosion. The west gate represents the moment after the bomb went off, the moment that everyone was changed forever: 9:03. There is a huge reflecting pool in between the two representing the moment that it all went down. On the south side of the pool is a lawn with 168 empty metal chairs, one for each person killed in the bombing. Nineteen of these chairs are smaller than the rest. These represent the 19 children that were killed in the daycare center of the Murrah Building. There are five chairs that stand at the western most end of the Field of Empty Chairs; these are for the five people who were killed outside of the building, just walking by on the street. There is a large American Elm tree across the pool from the Field, this is the Survivor Tree. Before the bombing, this tree stood exactly where it stands today. A new orchard has been planted around it, consisting of three different types of trees. Each of these has a different meaning, and its placement has meaning as well. They represent the people who flocked to the rescue of OKC. There is a chain link fence on the North West side of the park that is part of the original fence that was erected during the demolition. Almost as soon as it came into existence, it became a site for tokens of love and sadness and remembrance for people who came to grieve and leave things. The designers of the memorial park incorporated a chunk of this fence into the design, so that people can still leave mementos. People leave so many things that they have to be removed frequently, but everything is saved and preserved in the archives of the museum they have there on the site. There is also a space devoted to all the children that reacted after the tragedy. Millions of children from all over the world sent little things to OKC. Someone organized a ceramic tile event where these children painted a ceramic tile and sent it. A bunch of these have been made into a wall in this children’s area. It is very quiet in the middle of the city in this park. As I said before, it was very sobering. I encourage all to go and see this place if you are ever in OKC.








If you want to see more pictures of the park, go to my facebook: www.facebook.com/sean.newberry or go to the website for the memorial: http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/

As we left OKC, we had blue skies, for a little while. It started to rain again a little while later, but thankfully it wasn’t as bad as before. It was more of the misty half rain that we Oregonians are super used to. The only bad part about this is that it’s really hard to pass a semi truck on a two laner when you can’t tell if they just turned on their left turn signal or if it is a trick of the light through the misty rain. I panicked a few times and gunned it to get past them. I am not a fan of those things, especially in close quarters like two lane freeways with construction. No bueno!

Our goal was to make it to Amarillo, TX that night. Toto kept asking me if I was still ok to drive. I kept nodding and saying, “Yes Toto, I am fine.” I don’t get super tired when I am listening to my book. I get too into it to get sleepy. It’s not like when you are actually reading and your eyes get tired from the back and forth motion. We made it to Amarillo around half past midnight. Then we were confronted with a new problem: parking. A biker gang had taken up residence under the portico at the hotel so we couldn’t pull in to unload. They were just hanging out there drinking beer and carrying on. And apparently they didn’t ride their bikes there from wherever they came from. They had trucked them in, so all their trucks and trailers were taking up the entire lot. Toto went in to check us in, and on the way back one of them asked her to hang out and have a beer with them. I think Josh was jealous because they didn’t think he looked cool enough to ask to hang out with them. I told him it was because Toto is in their generation and we’re not. That didn’t help. Josh and I went right to bed when we got up to our room. We were beat. I don’t know what his excuse was; he had slept half the day in the back seat. I guess the whole being kept in a constant state of exhaustion for four months and having a cold has really been knocking him on his butt. Toto did have a beer or two that night, but in our hotel room with her two sleeping children and her lap top. No bikers involved.

Playlist
One Republic
Colbie Caillat
Bobby Darin

And in Other News, Conflicts in the Middle East Have Recently Been Linked to Elvis Presley…

Sunday began a little bittersweet as I had grown rather fond of Nashville, despite the crazy heat there. I didn’t really want to leave, but I knew we had to be on our way so that we could get to the rest of our destinations and get Josh home to his unit. We had our breakfast and showered and got on the road by about 10:45am, and headed West. It was a little strange getting on the Westward on ramps, after spending the last week and a half going East.

We didn’t have a ton of driving to do, but we weren’t sure where we were going to end up that evening. We planned on stopping in Memphis to see Graceland, but had been told by several people (including a police officer) to avoid staying in Memphis at all costs. Apparently it’s turned into a rough neighborhood. I think Toto wanted to see how far we could get yesterday too.

The Newberry’s are not huge Elvis fans. We don’t have anything against him, we just never got obsessed about him like so many people have gotten. But we figured that since we would be in that area, we may as well stop and see Graceland. We assumed it would be kind of hoakie. $34 a person for six different parts of the place. Elvis had two airplanes, the mansion, there is a car museum, a fashion show bit, and some other stuff. We bought the Platinum Tour package, which included pretty much everything, except for a few things, it was by far the best deal. If you ever go, get that one. Toto got the greatest news ever on the shuttle from the parking lot, pictures can be taken wherever you feel like taking them, indoors and out. The only stipulation was that flash photography was not allowed as it can degrade and fade the artifacts. This wasn’t a problem for us, as Toto is a pro and knows how to use her camera: she can make the shutter speed and aperture setting make it seem like there was no need for a flash. We went and saw the mansion first (and by the mansion, I mean the grounds of Graceland Estate). While in the mansion, you get to see the downstairs of the mansion as well as the basement, the racketball building, the “shooting range” and the building Vernon (Elvis’ father) used as an office, as well as a building that I believe was the pool house when Elvis lived there that has been converted into a trophy room with an exhibit hall.


You do not get to see the upstairs. The tour guides said that visitors rarely saw upstairs as it was Elvis’ private family area and they keep it private to respect his wishes. We were wrong about this little excursion being a cheesy outing. I learned more about Elvis than I ever thought there was to know about him. Now I have a completely different impression of the man they called “Elvis the Pelvis”. I never knew how much of a humanitarian the man was. I knew some stuff, like that he did a stint in the military and that he dated Priscilla for a while before marrying her, and that they claimed to have behaved themselves until after she was 18. What I didn’t know was that he did a benefit concert in 1961 and raised $67,000 (that’s 1961 dollars remember) for the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. He also used to pay off peoples’ mortgages and medical bills simply because he could and they couldn’t. He was extremely active in numerous charities, and seems like an overall great guy. I never thought of him as a great guy before. I knew he was beautiful and was one of the (if not THE) best performing artists of the 20th century, but I didn’t know any of the good things he had done. A random piece of trivia: he did not name Graceland. The previous owners had received the land from the woman’s Aunt Grace as a wedding present, and they called it Graceland in tribute to that aunt. When Elvis bought it he liked the name, so he kept it.









An interesting bit of information we discovered was that in 1957 Iran banned rock and roll in their country to protect their culture. They actually launched a “Hate Elvis” campaign! Hence the title to this blog.



We toured the car museum and the airplanes as well. He had some pretty sweet rides, and even a John Deere tractor which Josh loved and an MG A that Dad would have drooled over. There was also a custom Harley Davidson.

We wrote on the wall outside the estate as millions of people have done over the years. As Toto said, it pretty much makes al other roadside memorials look awfully wimpy. We now have a totally new respect for the man. Toto cried a little and I started to as well. Grandma Emma and Linda loved Elvis, like ADORED him.





I didn’t have any Elvis on my iPod, so I had to buy some from iTunes and we listened to it the rest of the night. After we listend to Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis about twenty times. It was a fun day and there was a little sad in there too. It was weird to stand at the grave of The King of Rock and Roll. On one level I didn’t really think it was a huge deal because I had never been a huge Elvis fan, but then there was another level that realized the significance of where I was what I was doing. That level slowly took over. We got a glimpse at a man we never knew, but we felt like we had gotten to know him, which made us wish that he hadn’t died.

Since Graceland is only about four or five miles from the Mississippi border, we drove down Elvis Presley Blvd until we crossed the state line. There was no Welcome to Mississippi sign for me to take a picture of, so we went and got on the freeway and went back and forth until I found one. We also FINALLY went to Cracker Barrel to eat (in Southaven, Miss). When the whole family had gone to Louisville for family day in April, we saw the signs for Cracker Barrel EVERYWHERE but never got a chance to eat there. It was AMAZING in a traditional down home country cooking sort of way. Kind of like going to your grandma’s house for dinner back in the day. As my friend John Vinson said to me “Now you have lived.” After dinner Josh and I played giant checkers on the “porch” in rocking chairs. I kicked his tush.





On our way out of Memphis, we stopped at a park on the river near downtown Memphis. We wanted Josh to be able to see the Mississippi River. He wasn’t all that impressed by it. So we were driving down Riverside Drive, and Union Avenue intersected it and I made Toto turn up it because of the Marc Cohn song. “Saw the ghost of Elvis, on Union Avenue; Followed him up to the gates of Graceland, and I watched him walk right through; now security did not see him, they just hovered round his tomb; there’s a pretty little thing, waiting for the king, down in the jungle room!” I have BEEN in that jungle room now AND on Union Avenue. I have also stood at his grave.

Then we drove to Little Rock, AR. That is where we stayed last night. In the WORST hotel room ever. We went from the BEST in Nashville, to the WORST in Little Rock. This one was tiny, with two full beds, and they had told me over the phone we could roll a cot in, and then once we got there we couldn’t. “It’s a fire hazard” the gal said. The problem with this is thus: I don’t sleep well with other people in the bed. I like to sleep alone. I haven’t slept with a person in six months almost, and so it hasn’t been the most restful of sleep I have been having while sharing a bed with Toto. And, since Toto and I sleep on the same side of the bed (she in her room me in mine) she tends to roll into me, and then becomes a little bit of a bed hog (because I took the side of the bed we both prefer). Last night was even more fun on a smaller bed than usual. And to top it all off, Josh and Toto wouldn’t stop giving me crap about my little issue. Not only were the beds small, but the bathroom was tiny. And dated. It was a good thing we only planned to spend one night there.

Sean

License Plates Seen
None (I think we only need Delaware and Rhode Island now)

Playlist
Carrie Underwood
Marc Cohn (1 song, 20 times)
Elvis Presley

…And it is STILL 95 Degrees Out Here

Today started off well. Toto woke me way earlier than I would have liked, but since this was to be our last day in Nashville, we were going to get as much squeezed in as we could. She had gotten up and gotten in the shower and when she came out of the bathroom she says to me, “Sean, call down to the front desk and see if they had any cancellations and maybe we could stay another night.” So, I attempted to get the sleep out of my voice and called the front desk. The gal down there told me that they didn’t show any available rooms for the night, but she would talk to the manager and do some rearranging and call me back in a bit and let me know. So Toto and Josh and I get ready and go downstairs and eat our complimentary breakfast and come back up and are thinking that it is about time to pack all our crap up and check out of the hotel and do the last few things we want to do before heading to Memphis when we get word that we are good to stay another night. We were very happy with this because that way we didn’t have to park our car with all our stuff (two laptops included) somewhere and hope it was all there when we got back. YAY!

We headed into town from Dickson about ten this morning. We had a few places on our agenda, The Hermitage: Home of President Andrew Jackson, Belle Meade Plantation and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, but we hadn’t figured out the exact order yet.

I suggested we go to Belle Meade first because it was on the west side of town and we would go past it on our way in anyway so might as well. Belle Meade means “Beautiful Meadow” in French. It was indeed a beautiful house, but we were not allowed to take any photos inside because they have some very expensive items in there and their insurance company won’t insure the house if people can take photo’s of the spendy stuff. It has a ton of history, to read all about it, go to www.bellemeadeplantaion.com/people/people and you can get a great history on the people and horses that lived there. The plantation was mainly used for the breeding of thoroughbred horses which were then raced and tended to bring in a bit of money. Many presidents and high ranking army officials frequented the estate when it was still being used as a residence. It was a very impressive place to be. After the tour of the mansion, we walked around the grounds. There were slave cabins and things to look at. They also have a winery there, and Toto and Josh and I got to do some wine tasting (the guy there pretended Josh was 21, either that or he couldn’t do math at all). We tried the four wines they make there. They were all good but we bought two bottles of two kinds for ourselves, because they were good enough even Josh loved them.







After Belle Meade we went across town to the Hermitage which was the home of the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson before and after his presidency. It was primarily used for growing cotton, as well as some other stuff. To look into it more check out http://www.thehermitage.com/ and read up on some of the interesting stuff that happened there. It too is a beautiful home, but it is nearer to the Cumberland River so when the recent flooding happened in Nashville, it was affected more than any of the other places we went this week. There were areas of the house which we couldn’t access. Again, no photography was allowed inside, and by this time (this having been the third plantation house we visited in two days) Toto’s “trigger” finger was itching pretty bad.



We headed into downtown after we were done out at The Hermitage. We got to the Country Music Hall of Fame right before they closed, so we decided to not pay the full admissions fee for 20 minutes of walking around. We did however browse through the gift shop and obtain a few souvenirs.

Since the CMA Fest was still going strong, we walked around outside for an hour or two. We visited little shops, saw Cowboy Troy singing by the Hard Rock Café on 2nd and Broadway, and tried to not die of heat exhaustion. I spoke to a Metro Police Officer while sitting on a flower pot waiting for a motor home to back into a parking lot (Toto and Josh were on the other side of the street and couldn’t cross because of said motor home) and the officer told me this is the hottest day of the year. Joy. Good timing on our parts. Every time we would be in a bar or shop or in the car, we would get sort of lulled into this false sense of security that it was cooler outside than it really was. Like at home, its 95 degrees one moment and then it is 60 for the rest of the day. Not here. That’s not how it works.



We decided to go back to the car and head back to Dickson because my feet were killing me, and on the way a little bar called the Whiskey Bent Saloon caught our eye. We went in and Toto and I had a couple of frosty beverages while JD had five or six cokes, and we watched a singer/comedian do his thing on the stage. He was rather entertaining. His name was Buck McCoy (http://www.mccoysound.com/buckmccoy/ to check him out, but be warned, he looks a lot like a Tim McGraw copycat). When we left in search of pizza, we didn’t make it a block before running into the two people we know in this town: Jeremy and Becky. So we went to a bar with them and had a few drinks. It was fun. Mom decided she was ready for pizza even more so we went up the street to this bar that was supposed to have great pizza (Legends Corner) and ordered some. While waiting, Josh ordered a few beers and a shot and apparently they couldn’t do the math either. He loves flashing his military ID card. Then we discovered there were five or six guys at the other end of the bar that were all getting deployed to the Middle East next month, and they had on white shirts that said “leaving on a jet plane…” and people had been signing them. One of them bought Josh another shot of Jack, and I went over and shook their hands and signed their shirts. Toto did as well.





Then we got our pizza and headed back to the hotel.

Toto and I sit here on our bed (Josh has one all to himself) typing away on our computers (Toto is doing work and I am blogging obviously) and then Toto has a revelation. “I know why God made our fingers different lengths!” She says to me. “Uh, why?” I ask a little bewildered. “Because if they were all the same length and our knuckles were all the same level, they wouldn’t fit together!” She says rather enthusiastically. “Oh. Ok Toto.” I say. Then I laughed, and she did too.

That was our day. It was a little long, but we had a ton of fun. I can’t wait to come back to Nashville, I think it is somewhere I am going to visit many times in my life, but I will pack more shorts. In Becky’s words, “It is a bad ass town.”

Sean

License Plates Seen
Maine
Vermont

Nashville is Hot!!

Friday started off pretty tame. We went shopping at Target. Yep. That’s just how cool we are. We go on vacation across the country and we go shopping at a chain we have at home. Go us. Well the reason for this silly trip was that Josh had two pairs of jeans with him when he left in February as well as some boots and a Carhartt jacket. Toto and I forced a bunch of shorts and t-shirts and sandals on him so he might be able to stay cool during this crazy heat they have here in Tennessee. It’s scary hot here. 95 to 100 degrees and nearly 20 million percent humidity. Not loving it. It makes me miss the crazy Oregon weather, where at least the sun and the rain and the heat and the cool are tolerable and I do not feel like I am about to melt into a puddle on the sidewalk.

After said shopping trip, we went to a mansion called Belmont Mansion. It is currently on the campus of Belmont University, but was once the summer home (and then permanent residence) of a very headstrong and intelligent woman during the 1800’s. http://belmontmansion.com/ is the website, where you will find some information on it. I enjoyed the tour very much. I have always had a thing for antebellum (antebellum means pre-civil war) mansions, and it was nice to finally get to see one, let alone go into it and tour it. We were not allowed to take pictures inside of it, which made Toto unhappy, but she obeyed the rules.





Later that evening, we had plans to have dinner with Jeremy and his girlfriend Becky who I had heard a great deal about but had not actually met yet. I was excited. We drove around prior to meeting up with them, and discovered the Dukes of Hazzard museum over across from the Opryland Mall (which is closed due to horrible damage to the entire complex from the flooding that the Cumberland River did in April). The great thing about this museum was that it was actually owned by the guy who played Cooter on the original TV show. They had all four of the original cars there (Daisy’s Jeep, The General, Cooter’s tow truck and Roscoe’s patrol car) and for ten dollars you can get your picture taken in them all. The guy who works there cut us a deal. We paid for Josh to get his picture taken because he is the one who likes to sport the rebel flag and be all rebel like, but because it was Toto, Josh, Jer, Becky and I, he let us take pictures of whoever in all the cars. He was pretty nice.





After that little adventure, we went to the restaurant (which was across the parking lot) and ate at Caney Fork Fish Camp where we got to experience some real southern food. For an appetizer we had deep fried dill pickles in a chipotle ranch sauce. Sounds kind of icky right? WRONG. They were fantastic. They were salty and the batter was just crunchy enough, I wish the plate had magically refilled itself a few times. Toto had catfish for dinner, while I had a half rack of ribs and Josh had a steak. Although I did not have southern food for my main course, I had hush puppies on the side, and stole bits of Josh’s fried Okra all night.



Jeremy and Becky wanted to show us a good time so we went out to a “nightclub” (it was really a honky tonk) that let kids 8 and up in. We had a few drinks (even Josh managed to sneak a few after I had the DJ announce that he had just graduated from AIT and people wanted to buy him drinks). It was a fun night. We got back to the hotel around midnight and all of us crashed pretty hard. We must have been tired or something!



License Plates Seen
None

No Playlist either

Graduation!

Josh graduated from basic and AIT on Thursday. This is the whole reason Toto and I drove across the country. To watch this moment. It was emotional. I am always giving Toto crap because she cries a lot. She has a sappy gene like none other. Yeah, I am my mother’s daughter.

We got up and packed up and loaded the car up and left to hotel about 45 minutes before we needed to be at Ft. Knox. It takes 30 minutes to get there. We managed to arrive late somehow. By the time we found seats, some guys were already on stage reciting their names and where they were from. We were panicked for a moment that we missed Josh until the announcer said something about 2nd Platoon Gladiators and then Josh’s platoon marched out onto the stage. I was a waterfall almost instantly. Without even expecting it or feeling it come on, I just started balling. I managed to recover, but the moment Josh stepped forward and yelled “Private Newberry, Gresham Oregon!” to the auditorium I lost it again and just sobbed like a little baby. I got to be the proud big sister again. I love that feeling.



Springing him from the joint was a lot easier than we thought it would be. He said goodbye to a few friends, and we left. Headed for lunch and then drove down I-65 to Nashville. Josh slept the whole way. In and out though. It was funny I got some good pictures (see below). It wasn’t a very long drive though so it was more like a power nap for him.





This is where the fun part comes in. It is early June, and we were headed into Nashville. Without a hotel room. The CMA Festival is Thursday through Sunday this weekend and since the Opry Mall (and the hotel and everything in the general vicinity) was damaged so badly by the recent flooding; all the people that would have been staying east of downtown got moved to other hotels. This created a problem for us because nearly two million people came to Nashville this weekend for this event. And we didn’t have a chance in hell at getting a place to crash for the next two nights. On our way down, I finally managed to track a room down in Dickson, TN which is about 40 miles west of Nashville. It was the only option. So keeping in mind that we would have to drive almost an hour in and out of town, we booked the room, and drove out there. We were floored when we walked into the room. Best hotel room ever. Not only was there a fridge and a microwave, there was a sink in the main living space as well as in the bathroom. There was also a living room with a couch and a table and chairs and a coffee table. Then there were two beds and a full sized desk with a luxury office chair and an armchair and two night tables and LOTS of plug ins for all our electronics. I mean best hotel room EVER.



We headed into Nashville, TN for the first time after unpacking. On the way into town, i noticed a truck with a cardboard license plate, it was kind of funny so we took a picture. We went in search of food and fun, and found both. We walked around downtown and saw the capital building and some cool fountains and we could hear Alan Jackson’s concert across the river at the big stadium. Then we hit 2nd street and the bars and clubs and Josh and Toto and I went into McFadden’s (I love McFadden’s in Portland, so I thought it would be fun here too). It was such a different feeling here. Not bad at all, just different. We had fun though. Josh loved being in a bar, even if he couldn’t drink. While walking down the street, we encountered some Marines, and Josh struck up a conversation about tanks because they had brought one in for the CMA Fest. Then we went to a brewery and had nachos and Josh flashed his military ID and got beer, and LOVED it. Then we went “home” and crashed.



Sean

License Plates Seen
Hawaii
Maryland
South Dakota
Georgia
West Virginia

Playlist
Brooks & Dunn
Nickelback

Bub, Buffet and Buddies

Well, we certainly did sleep in the next morning. Till noon. Oops. I woke up to Toto saying loudly from the other side of the room “Sean get up its noon!” So we jumped out of bed and got ready really quickly and ran out the door. Toto wanted to drive up to Louisville and take pictures of the pretty houses in Old Louisville and we wanted to run up to the Louisville Slugger factory and see about some souvenirs for the kids of a friend. We knew we had to be in the shower by four that afternoon if we wanted to be on time to the graduation dinner that night at Ft. Knox so we were trying to hustle. We went to the bat factory first since it was the farthest away and that way we could just meander back through town on our way to the freeway. After 30 minutes of shopping, we checked out and there was a small hitch in the transaction. We ended up confusing two of the poor girls who worked there and they had to get a manager up there to take care of it so it took us way longer to do that part of the trip than we had planned. So I drove Toto down to Old Louisville and she walked a few blocks and took her pictures. I stayed in the car and kind of leap frogged her, she’d walk a bit then I would drive up past her and park on the side of the road and she would keep walking and wave and smile as she walked past me and then the process would repeat until she got in the car instead of passing me.





We went back to the hotel and made ourselves presentable for the graduation dinner. We weren’t entirely sure what to wear because when we had shown up for Family Day in April people had dressed in all sorts of crazy outfits for that little ceremony (I was a little disappointed that these people didn’t dress up at least a little bit for their soldiers, I had tried to look decent for Josh). I decided on a simple and casual cotton dress and Toto wore a nice top and slacks. We got on the road a little later than we would have liked, and discovered that Elizabethtown was farther away from the post than we had realized. We made it there just in the nick of time. Right before the guys were brought into the room. We saw JD and both of us teared up and then basically jumped on him with hugs. He was being forced to wear his BCGs (Birth Control Glasses) and looked really funny. But I guess the drill sergeants (pronounced sarnt) had threatened them that if they caught them without them on they would get a beating later that night. We got to the food, which as it turns out was DFac (dining facility) food (I personally think that it was appropriate that the families should have a taste of what their soldiers were eating for the last four months) and we had three hours to socialize and meet Josh’s friends and we had a good time. A bunch of his buddies came over and chatted with us, and they all told us lots of stories about fights and drill sergeants.



We got to hear about how there were a few guys in the group that were just complete retards, one of which I had the pleasure of meeting (oh joy). This particular person’s name is Stikeleather. He was at a table in the corner with his parent’s and kept calling Josh over (oh, btw Josh’s new nickname is Newbs, I guess he got called that a lot there) to talk to him. When Newbs came back he said something under his breath and then looked at me and told me that Stikeleather thought I was hot and wanted to meet me. I laughed (the “yeah right” kind of laugh) and went back to talking to the guys Toto and I were hanging out with. A little while later Toto and Josh went to find some of the guys Josh owed money to and Josh says to Torres and Davis (the guys I was chatting with) that they needed to protect me from Stikeleather. Sure enough, five seconds after Josh leaves, Stikeleather gets up and comes over to us. He leans on Torres and says to me “So you’re Newberry’s sister?” “Yes I am.” “I beat him up every day in basic.” He says to me confidently. “oh yeah? I bet he deserved it.” I replied nonplussed, I knew it was a bunch of crap but I didn’t feel that there was any point in calling him on it. “Yeah, he did, the little pussy. So, he tells me your, uh, husband is a Cav Scout too?” Here my brain automatically wanted to correct him and say “No, my ex boyfriend is” but I caught myself instantly and said “Why yes he is. That’s why Josh chose this MOS.” As I did not want to give him any room to hope that I would even consider him for anything more than the butt of a joke. Torres and Davis went along with it (they knew the truth, as they are not idiots and had actually listened when Josh told them). Stikeleather immediately ended the conversation and left. Josh told me later that while in the barracks that night Stikeleather had come up to him and told him “Your sister showed me her [bad word for female parts that starts with a P], the slut. She told me she wanted to take me in the other room and [EXPLETIVE] me right there.” So Josh popped him one right in the face. Stikeleather went running to the DS and said “Newberry hit me!” and the DS said “Did you Newberry?” and Josh says to him “Hell yes I did Drill Sergeant.” “Why Newberry?” “He called my sister a slut.” “Shut up and go away Stikeleather.” The DS said. When I heard about that, I laughed and said, “Oh, thanks. You got to defend my honor!” I thought it was super adorable how protective he got of me.



Towards the end of the night, we had a whole group of guys hanging out around us. One of the drill sergeants (DS Kinnard) came over and made a comment about how I had the attention of half the troop. He motioned at the guys and said “You have a circle of guys around you. Newberry said his sister was pretty.” Apparently Kinnard had told the troop that morning not to bring any of their female loved ones to meet him because they would be “instantly impregnated by his mere presence”. After the comment he made to me Toto had me get surrounded by all the guys and have my picture taken, and one of the guys, Parrish, asked me for my number. I figured it didn’t matter, so I gave it to him.







Then I asked him how old he was. He is 20. Poor kid doesn’t have a chance in hell. He texted me a few times that night, and a few times in the next couple of days but not a lot since. Which is fine. The guys got rounded up and loaded on buses about 9pm. We all waved and took pictures and got a little sobby, but we knew we would see them the next morning.

Toto and I had plans to go out with my friend Jeremy Johnson that night. I think it is cool to drive across the country and be able to go out with friends from high school. My parents are friends with his parents too so they hang out at home. Jeremy is a Cav Scout just like Josh and he is stationed at Ft. Knox right now training people. We went to this little hillbilly bar about 10 minutes from the gates of post and played pool for a couple hours. Then Toto and I went back to the hotel and went to bed.



Sean

We didn't see any license plates

Playlist
Patsy Cline
Seether