Yep, It’s a Big Hole in the Gound: a Tribute to my Father

I discovered the other morning that Albuquerque (“I’ll-be-quirky”) is really a very pretty place. The view from our hotel room wasn’t all that amazing in the fact that we were right at the junction of I-40 and I-25, and there were other hotels and odd little buildings all around us, but it was a great view because of how “I’ll-be-quirky” is geographically. I could see so much from our fourth floor room. While I could not see downtown, it was a little too far south; I could see west way beyond the city. On the west side of “I’ll-be-quirky” there is a tiny rise. I could see the freeway go up and disappear over the top of it where the cars just sparkling little dots in the morning sun. I don’t know why I was so enthralled by the view (most people really wouldn’t consider it all that great of one) but I was. Josh came and sat next to me and stared out the window for a while too while we waited on Toto to finish packing up her stuff. She wanted to be out the door by nine, and at this point it was a quarter to nine. We had just enough time to go down and grab a quick bite to eat and then throw our stuff in the car and take off.

Our first stop was to get gas. Josh was very adamant about needing to use the facilities at the gas station and I only had half a tank, so I figured we might as well. Plus this gas station happened to be situated right on top of the third continental divide we have crossed this trip, so this break in the drive would give Toto something to take a picture of that wasn’t through a bug splattered windshield.



Interstate 40 replaced part of the old Route 66. Old Route 66 went from Chicago to Santa Barbara. I-40 meets it in Oklahoma east of OKC. So while we were on I-40 we were on Route 66, which is fun. “Get your kicks on Route 66” right? We do!!

The first REAL stop on Toto’s list was the petrified forest just outside of Holbrook, AZ. Like the White Sands assumption we made, Josh and I assumed that this was not going to be one of the most exciting excursions we had ever been on. This time we were closer to being right. I have seen petrified forests before. When I was like 12. Didn’t overly enjoy them then, still don’t. I mean sure, the process of wood turning into rock is slightly interesting, but looking at pieced of this wood-rock on the ground in the middle of the desert is not really on top of my list of things to do on vacation. But Toto wanted to do it, so we did it and we didn’t really complain much. The petrified forest offers a 28 mile long drive through their park that has different viewpoints and little spots to see some neat stuff. At one point, there was a rock pit with a bunch of petroglyphs on them. Over 650 petroglyphs. It was pretty sick (the good kind of sick). There were a few other stops in the petrified forest, but we pretty much booked it out of there as we had a few other stops to make and it was already pushing four in the afternoon.



One good thing about going to the petrified forest, was that on the way back we passed through Holbrook, AZ instead of bypassing it on the freeway (the exit to the forest is on state highway 180, not on the freeway) we had to travel through the town. While on our way back to the freeway we discovered something: a wigwam hotel with teepees you can stay in. It looked just like the cone hotel in Cars that Sally runs. Toto jumped out of the car (I was driving) and took a ton of pictures for Zack.



If you get of I-40 Westbound at the very first exit for Winslow, AZ the first thing you will see is a memorial for the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. That is what welcomes you into their town. The metal “sculpture” in this little garden is actually two pieces of twisted and rested metal from the World Trade Center itself. It was dedicated exactly one year after the attacks, and boasts the motto “United we stand”. The garden is not very big, but it is powerful just to drive by.



Other than that, Winslow is a very small and lighthearted town. If you like The Eagles, then you have probably heard the song “Take it Easy” sung by Glenn Fry. If not, the second verse goes something like this: “Well I was standin’ on a corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see, it’s a girl my lord in a flatbed ford slowing down to take a look at me, come on baby, don’t say maybe, I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me, we may lose and we may win but we will never be here again, so open up I’m climbin’ in, take it easy.” Well you can imagine that a tiny little town in the middle of the desert in Arizona on a dried up stretch of old Route 66 could probably appreciate the publicity that a song by a major group like The Eagles could give them. Ten years ago when Josh and I were little (ok he was 10 and I was 13) we did a big loop in the South West. One of our stops was Flagstaff, so we decided to drive over to Winslow because of the song. We expected it to be tiny and dusty and not a lot to do there but we were going to go stand on a corner there just for bragging rights. Well when we got there, we discovered that the “city” had built a little corner up with a bronze musician with his guitar (he looked nothing like Glenn Fry, though I have heard someone say that it is supposed to be Don Henley and I veto that because it looks nothing like him either), and on the wall of the building behind him is a painting of windows with the reflection of a girl in a flatbed ford, it was AWESOME!! We had a blast. I have ALWAYS been a big Eagles fan, so even at 13 it was super sweet to go there and see that. Well since we were going to drive right past Winslow, we knew we had to stop. We were surprised again. They actually have a flatbed ford now sitting next to the corner with the statue! I was so excited. I was going to get to be the “girl in the flat bed ford” from the song for a minute or two! Well, not exactly, the cab to the truck was locked, but I got to stand in the back of it. So I was still TECHNICALLY in the ford. We, of course, had to buy souvenirs here. I had been eye-balling a Route 66 sweatshirt at the petrified forest gift shop, but thought I could find something better in Winslow, and boy did I! I got a shot glass, a sweatshirt (that says both “Take it Easy” and Route 66 on it), a t-shirt, a window decal for my car, and a couple of post cards. I made out like a bandit. I think I spent less than $75. We had a blast, again.





Winslow is about 60 miles from Flagstaff. We hit Flagstaff about an hour and a half before sunset, and Toto was in a right panic about getting up to the Grand Canyon before the sun went down. Here is another memory from my childhood: the same trip that we went to Winslow when we were kinds, we also went to the Grand Canyon. We got there right at sunset. Toto was not super thrilled about this back then (this is before the age of the digital camera, at least the decent ones) so she could not get the kind of pictures she had wanted to take. I was not all that thrilled by it back then, but I think that is because you have to be older to really appreciate it. Dad had always said things to us like “It’s just a big hole in the ground.” Toto HATED it when he did that. Well when we got there, we all went out to the viewpoint, Toto took as many pictures as she possibly could, then we turned around, and Josh was gone. Toto and Dad freaked out. They went nuts looking for him. We finally found him back at the truck, in the bed of it just waiting for us. “It’s just a big hole in the ground” he said to us when questioned why he had left. Toto was furious. So on our way up to the Grand Canyon the other day, Josh and I kept saying things like “I don’t know what the big deal is all about, it’s just a big hole in the ground” just to poke fun at her. We got to the canyon right before sunset, so Toto got some good pictures, though she was irritated that it was the same time of day as last time. She informed us we might be venturing back that way the next day from our lodgings in Page, AZ. We did however lose Josh again. This time, it was because someone had to use the rest room, and the rest of us didn’t feel like going back quite yet. We ended up walking the road back to the parking lot (there is a bunch of construction so you have to walk way out of the way to get to the view points) and wondering where he was. Right as I was reaching for my phone to call him, he called me. I asked him where he was, he informed me he was walking along a road. I told him I was too! A little red car had just passed me, so I told him to be on the look out for one (trying to determine if he was behind us on the road or in front of us). He saw a silver one. I told him to hold the phone away from his head and yell really loudly, and I thought I heard him (not through the phone) when he did. I laughed and said “this is like playing Marco Polo, but with a cell phone.” So, I told him that there was a red Dodge Ram pickup with a canopy and double head lights passing me, and he said he saw it a few moments later. So I yelled “JOSH!!!” really loudly, and I heard him yell “HI!!” back. So we found him (darn it!). Then we piled in the car and headed toward our destination that night (Page, AZ).







Now usually, I do not sleep in the car, but we had gotten up early remember, and we had done a ton of stuff, so I was tired. I ended up dozing in and out in the two plus hours to our hotel in Page. Once we got there, we unloaded, found our room, and crashed. It was nearly one in the morning.

License Plates Seen
Oregon (not our own)

Playlist
Boston
Heart
Jason Aldean
Josh Gracin
Mark Broussard
Taylor Swift
Lonestar

I May Want to Believe, But I am Really a Skeptic

I woke up yesterday to Toto getting ready to work out. Usually I notice when the person in the bed with me gets up, but not this time. I was surprised to find her across the room. I went back to sleep for a little while, until I heard her come back in and she stirred me. Since we had eaten Holiday Inn Express breakfast for way too many days in a row, Josh and I opted for IHOP since it was literally right next to the hotel. During family weekend, all Josh wanted to do was find an IHOP and have their endless pancakes. Well, that promotion ended in February right after he shipped out, so he was forced to get some normal breakfast.

We headed over to the International UFO Museum and Research Center in downtown Roswell after breakfast. This is really the big deal in Roswell, and had been closed the previous night when we got into town. Honestly, I was really disappointed in that place. I mean, I knew it was going to be cheesy, but it was just so simple, it looked like a high school senor project. It wasn’t very clean, things were broken, it was all one big room and it was a lot of the same information over and over and over and over and over. And over. The most exciting part was when I found the X-Files posters on the wall of the museum.



Made me wish I had brought the first season with me. We left Roswell, and I wasn’t all that sad to go. It was great for about twelve hours, but other than that, not a lot to do.

Toto wanted to go to White Sands National Monument which is located near Alamogordo, NM. So we had to head south, and there were no freeways. So we were on this piddly little highway up in some mountains somewhere. It was interesting. While driving through these mountains, Josh yells “I saw an armadillo!” I snorted and asked “You saw an armadillo?” He says “Yes! Turn around!” Toto turned the car around and we went armadillo hunting! Well, Josh’s armadillo turned out to be a rusty metal can up in a draw on top of a rock. Good job Josh. On our way we went.

We got down to White Sands and I took one look and knew it was going to be one of those things that Josh and I just had to bear with Toto on. The visitor center was all dated and it looked like it was going to be super boring. We were so wrong. The white sand comes from gypsum crystals drying out and disintegrating. The wind then blows the sand into dunes and as the sand rolls around it scratches the particles around it and that’s how it turns white. It was pretty cool. We drove out into the park on the driving loop they have. It was hot. I think it got up to 105 degrees while we were out there, but since we were in the car most of the time that was alright. When we got to the end of the road, there was a huge parking lot so we got out of the car and started hiking around on the dunes. Toto was snapping pictures all over the place like usual so Josh and I were just being us and dorking around. We got to the top of a tallish dune, and looked down. It was probably twenty five feet tall, so I turned to Josh and said, “Dude, roll down it.” I thought he would argue, but he didn’t. He rolled down the dune, and then just laid there, giving Toto a great photo opp.













We knew it would take him a few minutes to hike back up since sand is a pain in the tush to climb, so we just kept walking. A few minutes later, as Toto and I stood at the top of another dune, I saw Josh pop his head up near where we had been earlier. His head popped up, then disappeared again.



He did this a few times, Toto got a picture, and then he disappeared. I figured he was attempting to be stealthy and sneak up on us (Mr. Army-Man), so I went in search of him. It took me about two minutes to find him. He had climbed back down the dune halfway, and traversed the side of it so that he was directly north of where we were standing. Then he had climbed back up a bit. Had we stayed where we had been, we would not have been able to see him, but since I had walked due north he had gradually come into view. He was just laying there on the side of the dune on his stomach. He had his head turned east and was just lying still. Toto snapped a picture, and at the “click” of the camera, Josh suddenly looked up at us, then put this head back down and with his hand flung sand on the top of his hat.



I laughed, and the process repeated until I was doubled over laughing at the idiotic hilarity. When he thought I was least expecting it (in reality I had been suspecting something like this would happen the whole time) he jumped up and charged up the hill towards me. “If I had to roll down the hill you have to too!” He said as he tackled me to the ground and tried to push me down the side of the dune.



I dug my feet and hands into the sand and he was unsuccessful at forcing me anywhere. There really is no way to explain the goofing we did there. Josh and I, when we are getting along, are the goofiest people I know.

The closest freeway to White Sands is out of Las Cruces, NM which is only twenty miles north of the Texas border. Directly below that is the city of El Paso, and across the Rio Grande from that is Mexico. As we were driving North on I-25 out of Las Cruces, we see a flashing sign that says something like “All vehicles must exit when flashing.” We exchanged confused sounds and then the next sign said “Border Patrol”. Me, being a North West native and being no where near US borders (except that of the Pacific Ocean) have never had a reason to be anywhere near a Border Patrol station so I asked Toto, “Why is there Border Patrol up here?” Then I realized that we were only 25 miles from Mexico. It was way less hassle than we thought. We thought they would at least want to see identification. And if for some reason they felt the need to search our car, we were afraid they might have issues with the illegal fireworks we have stuffed under all our seats. But all the guy did was ask us how far we were traveling, “Home to Oregon.” Toto replied, then he asked us if we were US Citizens, “Yes we are” Toto answered. And we were waived through. I was a little disappointed. I would have at least liked it if he could have asked to see our ID’s. Pooh. So much for homeland security.

The original plan Toto wanted to achieve yesterday was to get to Flagstaff, AZ by the evening. We made it to Albuquerque, NM. I have been calling it “I’ll-be-quirky”. Because Toto detoured us down to White Sands we were three or four hours behind. She thought we could drive to Gallup, NM last night, but I vetoed that idea. As we got to the hotel she warned us that she was waking us up early the next morning, none of this getting up at nine stuff, we were going to be out the door by nine. When we arrived at the hotel, I was pleasantly surprised by the room. While it wasn’t a brand new building, it was updated enough to make it habitable. They didn’t have queen beds though. Not wanting a repeat of the night we spent in Little Rock and being made fun of, I asked about getting a cot in there for Josh. The gal informed me that they didn’t have cots. Right as I was about to be visibly disappointed she said “But there is a sofa bed in the sofa in your room.” We had landed a suite with a living room, kitchenette (without a stove), and two beds. So each of us had our own bed. It was glorious. Even though we got to the hotel at 10:30pm, it was midnight before any of us got to sleep. Unpacking and showering and blogging (of course) can be time consuming!

Playlist
Gary Allen
Good Charlotte
Roy Orbison

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