We closed the loop!

One year later, the loop around America, “a year without winter,” is complete! If you’re able to take a road trip across America, do it! And if you can stretch it out over a few weeks or months, even better. A few stats about our trip:

Miles driven: about 17,000
National Parks: 7 (plus numerous national monuments/forests/etc and state parks)
Wildlife sightings: 24
Rocket gardens/space museums: 6
Regrets: 0 (except for maybe that bee sting on the bottom of my foot!)

Keep reading below to travel with us in reverse, or head back to the beginning to start with us in Iowa.

Thanks for following along with us, it’s been an unforgettable year!

A long weekend in Savannah

By now you may have caught on that I love big trees. Perhaps I was heavily influenced by hugging trees at Girl Scout camp when I was little? In any case, the trees in Savannah did not disappoint! They are tall with wide canopies, winding branches, and dripping with Spanish moss, and there are hundreds of them.

We did not walk through all 22 squares, but we saw a few on foot and a bunch more on the trolley ride. River Street was a fun place to stop for a drink and browse the outdoor market. And speaking of the Girl Scouts, we went on a tour of the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Museum, a must-see for any former scout!

Back to trees. Wormsloe State Historic Site is maybe 20 minutes from downtown, and totally worth the trip. There were some nice walking trails, but the drive into the park was the best. Just look at these live oaks!

Senoia, aka Woodbury

Just an hour outside of Atlanta is a little town called Senoia, which fellow fans of The Walking Dead will recognize as the filming location for the Woodbury scenes. !!! They were not filming on the day we visited, but the fake walls around the neighborhood were up, and there were a bunch of signs posted about staying away from the filming areas. I had a great time running down the street pretending to be chased by zombies!

There was a little museum that had props from the show and the Woodbury Shoppe, which had souvenirs.

We had a very memorable lunch at Nic & Norman’s, the restaurant owned by Greg Nicotero (executive producer of TWD) and Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon). Not too long after we sat down, we noticed two men at the bar who looked VERY familiar. Could it be? Was it really the actors who play Rick Grimes and Abraham? I mean, that red hair and mustache are unmistakable! After trying to catch sneaky glances throughout our meal, we finally asked our server, “is that really them?” And she laughed and said, sorry, no, those guys are look-alike actors who host TWD walking tours. They had us fooled!

One week in Atlanta

Next stop: Atlanta! But just for a week as we continue to head east and the close the loop around America.

Since we’ve been here before, I wasn’t concerned about sightseeing; instead I went to a design conference and bonus, my friend Christina flew down to attend also! We had a lovely couple of days together nerding out about paragraph styles and color swatches. K’s parents also came to town so he took them to see the popular sights, like the CNN tour and the Centennial Olympic Park. We also got to see some old friends from Arlington who now live in the area, and we had a nice evening with them at the Ponce City Market — fantastic views from the rooftop min-golf course!

US Space and Rocket Center

The Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL is only a 2.5 hour drive from Nashville. You bet your moon rocks we took a side trip!

If you’ve been living on another planet, you may not be aware that this is the home of Space Camp, every indoor kid’s dream summer getaway. While I never went, I did watch that movie A LOT, so I was excited to be here in person. (And they were even playing the movie inside the museum! “John Glenn winked at me!”)

The museum was excellent, of course. I especially enjoyed the life-size models of the space station modules where you could push buttons, turn knobs, and just generally pretend to be an astronaut. Was it meant for kids? Probably, but who cares?!

Nashville Highlights

We hit all the popular sights in Nashville, from the honky tonks on Broadway to the Parthenon, and everything in between!

Our Airbnb in the Belmont neighborhood was a backyard apartment with a recording studio on the second floor, and it was built by Ben Folds! (As told to us by the current owner, anyways.) It was a great location — within walking distance to the shops and restaurants of 12 South and Hillsboro Village, and just a short drive to downtown.

Pro tips for visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum: don’t miss the songwriter showcase or the tour at Hatch Show Print. We picked up our free tickets to the showcase when we arrived, and got to see a fantastic concert in the museum’s small auditorium, where the performers talked about songwriting and the stories behind their music. At Hatch Show Print, we got to see all the drawers of wooden type and the big blocks used for graphics, and we got to make our own mini poster!

If there’s one thing to do in Music City — it’s go to live shows! We saw a bunch of people play at different spots on Broadway. These shows are full of “up and coming” artists, which may sound like they’re amateurs, but every band/duo we saw perform was amazing. (While most places didn’t have a cover charge, be sure to bring small bills to tip the band!) And of course we visited the famous Grand Ole Opry, too.

Some other popular spots we visited were Centennial Park and the Frist Art Museum. One of our favorite stops was the Nissan factory in Smyrna — no pics allowed, but that tour was really cool! The factory is a mile long inside, and they took us on a tram ride to show all the different steps in building a car. There were so many robots!

An afternoon in Memphis

A few weekends ago we drove from Austin, Texas, to Nashville, Tennessee, and stopped in Memphis for the afternoon.

I’m sure the first thing you think of when you hear Memphis is not “wilderness sporting goods store.” But! When driving to the city from Arkansas, the first thing we noticed across the river was a gigantic pyramid! Then we spotted the Bass Pro Shop logo, and thought maybe they were a sponsor. It turns out the entire pyramid is a store and hotel! The inside looks like a bayou, complete with fishing boats on a river. It’s also home to the “nation’s tallest freestanding glass elevator,” which takes you up to a glass floor observation deck around the top of the pyramid. The skies were overcast, but we had a nice view of the river and downtown Memphis.

Ok, now we can get to the hotspots: How about Beale Street, Sun Studio, and Graceland? We hit ’em all! First up was Beale Street for lunch, and yes, the BBQ is as good as the rumors (from my mom and dad, who gave us very specific instructions to find the Elvis statue and then eat at the restaurant diagonally across the street).

Next was a tour at Sun Studio, which includes a visit to the jam-packed exhibit room and the recording studio. It’s a small place, but the guide was enthusiastic and told great stories about the records made there.

We then headed over to Graceland to continue our music history lesson. There’s much more to see there than I expected. Besides the house tour, there are 2 airplanes and a museum with cars, clothing, and other memorabilia. (And pricey ticket packages for each.) We chose the house tour, which begins with a short movie at the welcome center. From the outside, the house looks like a normal, southern home, but the inside is extravagant, to say the least. iPads with self-guided audio tours take you through the rooms and other buildings and tell you about Elvis’ career and family history. Fun fact: Elvis learned that LBJ had 3 tv’s (one each for the major networks), so he had 3 installed in his entertainment room.

Thanks for reading! Or I suppose I should say, “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

Austin

You’ve heard the slogan, right? “Keep Austin weird.” I thought Austin was really fun, but I wouldn’t necessary call it weird. Except for those stuffed animal snakes wrapped around the electric poles on 1st Avenue. And that time a white peacock crossed the street in front of us. But otherwise, it’s a totally normal town!

We were lucky to get expert insider tips from our friends Gina and Ian, who live in Austin, and from our friendly Airbnb hosts. Wildflowers? Check. Live music? Check. Educational day trips? Check. BBQ, donuts, and breakfast tacos? Check, check, and check!

We hit most of the popular spots in Austin: the murals, bat watching at the Congress Street bridge, Blanton art museum, Zilker Park, Sixth Street, the university, and the state history museum.

We went on the free tours at the O. Henry house (very small, but very knowledgeable staff!) and the Texas State Capitol (very large, and also very informative). Fun fact: O. Henry worked at the General Land Office building, which is now the visitor center for the Capitol.

Not too far outside the city is the LBJ Ranch, now a national park. There’s a long winding drive through the ranch with several interpretive signs that describe the history of the land, LBJ’s life, and his beloved cows. We took a guided tour of the Texas White House, which includes the family’s original furnishings from the 60s.

Another fun day trip took us to Waco, Texas, home of Magnolia Market! Fixer Upper is a popular show, but we were really surprised at just how crowded this place was!

And, yes, those cupcakes are worth the wait!

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Space Center Houston

So we’ve seen a lot of rockets this year, and have been to Kennedy several times in the past. But still, a trip to Space Center Houston was in order. (What else do you expect from a girl who has a tattoo of the space shuttle?!) We had such a good time, we went twice. And we were only in Houston for one week!

My first tip: buy a membership online before you go. It’s only about $5 more than regular admission, which you’d end up paying in parking fees anyway. We showed the parking attendant a PDF receipt on the iPhone and it worked just fine. Then at the entrance, you can skip the ticket lines and show that same PDF at the turnstiles inside. Visit the Membership desk to get your membership card, and use that for a discount at the shops and cafe. And now you can visit again and again, all year long!

My second tip: reserve timed tickets for the tram tours, which take you over to Johnson Space Center. We visited on a Sunday and again on a weekday, and both days had long lines for the tours. The timed ticket is like a Disney FastPass and pushes you to the front of the line. You can reserve them online for free! While the exhibits and presentations in the main galleries are fantastic, the tram tours offer a unique connection to the history of JSC and an awesome behind-the-scenes look at modern space missions. Don’t skip the tours, they are amazing! Dare I say it…they are stellar!

We took all 3 tours. One goes to historic mission control, one to modern mission control, and one to an astronaut training center. All three tours conclude with a stop at Rocket Park, which features a Saturn V rocket. A neat thing about visiting the mission control rooms: the galleries you sit in were not built for tourists — these are the same galleries used by astronauts’ families, heads of state, and other VIPs during launches and missions!

Padre Island

Did you know you can drive on the beach in Texas? You can! Well, on Padre Island at least. People just drove right on to the sand, and pulled up to the water. I guess it beats lugging around a bunch of gear!

A ranger talk at Padre Island National Seashore taught us about the Gulf currents and how loads of stuff washes onto the shores there. Not just trash, although sadly there is a ton of it, but also fish bones, and sea beans from the Caribbean and South America. We were very proud to find a hamburger seed and a sea heart bean (it floated all the way from Brazil!). On the way out of the park we passed a controlled burn, which was a little too close to the road in my opinion!

Padre Balli beach was about a 10 minute walk from our Airbnb. It was a quiet and relaxing beach, with a fishing pier at one end. A good spot for pretty sunsets. On one of our walks we watched a Coast Guard drill. Another weekend, the beach hosted the Barefoot Mardi Gras Festival, with a parade on the beach! I think this gave us a small glimpse of how crazy spring break can get (but we left town just before the crowds arrived).