Item 16.  Traveling next to your best friend for over 43,000 miles is indeed the BEST part of the journey.

So, for the results of our one lap of America 2008 here are the Lists:

10 BEST Experiences (15, really as we are overachievers)

1. The weeklong gathering of the Culver’s, Davis’, Kendall’s and us in Maine.  Having memories of this is priceless.  In years to come we will all remember Peter’s singing into the kitchen faucet.

2. Meeting Jim & Lori Evilsizer in Spragueville, IA, while searching for an out of the way cemetery.  This couple quickly became friends and went out of their way to help perfect strangers just passing by.

3. Freezing in the wind and rain on Mt. Washington, N.H.  Had the weather been perfect it would just have been an event, but add in the elements and it was memorable.  The movie they show at the top of the mountain still brings me chuckles.

4. Big Horn National Park in Wyoming.  We almost missed the entire state in our trip planning except for Nathan’s observation so driving through this park in eastern WY made it doubly good.

5. Hundreds of Buffalo in Teddy Roosevelt National Monument.  Yellowstone may have a few Buffalo, but to really get a feel for the old west you need to travel a little further up the road.

6. Frank Lloyd Wright Houses in IA, IL, & PA.  FLW homes have been a favorite of ours for a long time and this trip gave us the opportunity to see many of his works including his own home/studio in Oak Park, IL and the famous Fallingwater in PA.  We purchased a field guide of all of his works so that we could find more out of the way designs to further expand our inventory.

7. The walking tour of Chicago’s near north side, or as we remember it, the “Foodie” tour.  Strolling along with a guide leading the way to small food purveyors for an afternoon was just right.

8. The Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville, TN.  From a comment by a fellow walker on item #8 above, this country music writers hangout was a most memorable evening of intimate exposure to some very talented folk.

9. An entire week in Washington, DC.  Having a townhouse within easy walking distance to the famous quadrangle gave us opportunities to see parts of this city that would take many trips in a more traditional fashion.  We could set a plan in the morning and change our minds without worry about transportation or lodging.  A subset for me was Ginger’s treat at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant for my birthday.

10. Fresh Shrimp in South Carolina.  About 3 miles from our cottage was the shrimp boat dock and sales shed.  The best shrimp we have ever had moved 20 feet from the boat to us.

11. Going to a play in Chicago’s “Loop”.  Scoring cheap tickets to Jersey Boys only made this experience more enjoyable.  Once in a while it is fun to be urban grown ups and going to the play gave us this opportunity.  Afterwards walking to the car park under the famous “L” tracks among the tall buildings rekindled memories.

12. Traveling the Freedom Route from Montgomery to Selma, AL.  Civil Rights progress is vividly on display in museums and the memorials along this route for a moving experience.

13. A leisurely lunch at an inn in Vermont.  We came across the oldest continuously operating inn in VT by chance and it was a delight.  Sitting in surroundings that other travelers had for over 200 years allows for conjuring stories of old.

14. Eating the famous Maine Lobster Roll.   Red’s Lobster Shack in Wicasset is the place to go for the absolute best in our opinion.  More lobster than should be eaten at one sitting leads to Item #1 of our 5 Things we learned category.

15. Walking on the beach in South Carolina.  After many years and many attempts around the world, we finally got our own private beach.  Someone passing by our window was an event to be noticed and our own walks went a mile each way without people.

6 Things we Learned

1. You can get too much Lobster.  It is hard, but generous portions and friends urgings will take you to the pinnacle of lobster overdose.

2. Just because there are nice cars in front of a cafe doesn’t mean it’s good food.  The Sunrise Cafe in Fulton, IL had this phenomenon.  Potato soup was along the lines of library paste and the salad came from a bag.

3. Boiled Peanuts aren’t all that good if you are a Yankee.  We thought they tasted like soft chick peas.

4. We are not cut out for 2 weeks without TV or Internet access.  Both Wisconsin and South Carolina had barriers to our entertainment “fix” requirements.  We did, however, need to become creative, so it wasn’t a total bust.

5. Interstate roads are in worse shape than backroads.  It looks like the States have repaved the local roads as traffic has shifted to the Interstates and they are really in good shape.

6. Audio books are a must during Interstate travel, preferably good ones.  After the changing scenes of local roads, Interstate travel is boring and a diversion is required.  We also sang to the I-Pod tunes at times.

1 MOST SCARY Thing

1. Being next to the ocean in a storm with a precarious house.  Some natural calamities occur quickly like tornadoes and earthquakes with little warning and a person’s reaction is likely to be short.  The storm we were in took several hours to unfold yet the effects were beginning to look as devastating.  Making the decision to abandon “ship” with water piling up all around was an experience not forgotten.

In summary, we rolled up almost 15,000 miles this time without any car failures, tire failures, dents or dings, or injuries.  We attained our goal of touching every one of the lower 48 states in our journeys, and are still up for more should we get the urge.  We learned a lot of stuff we didn’t know, met a lot of people who were friendly and maybe one grouch.  We laughed, we cried, we pondered the events displayed before us.

America is beautiful, there is way lots to see and do.  Who knows, the road beckons……

We drove west towards New Mexico in rolling countryside disputing the notion of absolutely flat terrain like further south.  Upon entering New Mexico we were inundated with oil wells pumping.  Literally a forest of pumps greeted us with a large number of new derricks working on wells.  The fields were bustling with workers tending the “crops” of rigs.  It looked like every white pickup truck in the west was working off road.

Once the oil fields ended, we drove into a scenic mountain section near Alamagordo.  Curving along canyons and steep grades we first climbed to over 7200 feet to pass through a ski area and then plunged down some 10% grades to the desert floor.  We didn’t realize these mountains were there and it was a nice surprise.

Our stop for the evening was Las Cruces, NM, and we were fortunate to stay in a brand new Holiday Inn Express for the election eve coverage.  The new Plasma TV, some cocktails and snacks and we were all set for the big event.

Our route was influenced by the need to have lunch at our favorite BBQ joint, Cooper’s.  We first sampled Cooper’s this past Spring during the Great Azaelea hunt and knew that should we get even close to Llano, TX we had to return.  The smoked meats and ambience were as remembered and we not only stuffed ourselves , but we bought some extra for future meals at home.  Our little travel refrigerator is also stuffed now.

We passed through the original Maverick, TX, an apropo item for the current environment.  In the 1800′s a guy named Maverick accumulated ranch land in central Texas and started raising cattle.  Apparently he did not believe in branding his cattle like the other ranchers, so when a cow was spotted wthout a brand it was called a maverick cow.  Isn’t that exciting to know how mavericks came to be known?

Lubbock is in the heart of the oil well country and the wells and pumps are all over here.  Activity is high in the fields even though prices are dropping.  Today we saw $1.92/gal. as an all time low for the trip.

On a brighter note, we took a quick detour to the Blue Bell Ice Cream headquarters.  Spotting a big billboard, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to sample the absolutely freshest ice cream.  For a buck we got 2 scoops of our choice in a cup and I got to try a new flavor called snickerdoodle.  Are you listening here Ben & Jerry’s?  We reflected on our overpriced experience in Vermont one more time.

Our destination of San Marcos, TX is the mecca for outlet malls.   2 huge concerns, Tanger and Prime are competing for the largest number of stores and square footage right next to each other.  With a central location between Austin and San Antonio, the population draw is big.  We wandered around merrily attempting to boost the economy.

First we passed through New Orleans on I-10 to see how the city was doing post Katrina.  It didn’t take long to begin seeing homes that were boarded up, blown apart, or partly gone among other homes that have been rebuilt.  New apartment buildings were everywhere, but dumpsters were still on street corners as were piles of debris.  We thought the damaged homes would have at least been torn down, but that is not the case even after this length of time.

We also passed a large field that must have had thousands of empty FEMA trailers parked in rows upon rows waiting for who knows what.  We began wondering how so many could have been built in such a short time.  Should the Government sell them, we could all have one to pull around.

The last item of note during the driving piece was crossing the bayou country west of Baton Rouge.  I-10 becomes airborne  for over 30 miles on concrete pilings.  Driving and driving along over swamps and open water for this distance makes the road an engineering marvel to me.  

Back to the dining experience in Breau Bridge.  Cafe’ Des Amis is the name of the restaurant we returned to, this time for dinner.  We were not disappointed and the Oysters Rockefeller soup for starters was decadent.  Both of our entree’s had a crawfish etouffe’ sauce as accompaniment.  Being Halloween, our waiter was in costume resembling the character in Beetlejuice.  our carrying on with him was apparently loud enough that we caught the interest of another couple nearby about our travels.  They stepped over to say hello and we had a coffee and probably bored them with tales of our travels.

We bid adieu to seafood extravaganzas as we continue west, and hopefully will long remember them. 

Before the Civil Rights movement, though, there were many other endeavors that laid the foundations for racial equality.  One of them was the integration of the armed forces in WWII.  A small chapter in this activity was the formation of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of pilots, navigators, and repairmen that amassed a stellar record during the war.  The Tuskegee Airmen flew almost 1000 missions in the European Theater.

Begun near the campus of Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, the airmen trained on a small airport on the edge of town.  A couple of hangars and outbuildings remain from the 40′s and form the basis for this new memorial which held its grand opening October 12 and promises to be a large complex in the future.  Right now it is a parking lot and a temporary building showing a movie of the history of the airmen.

In Montgomery, the State Capital, we visited the Memorial to the Civil Rights victims in the heart of the capital complex.  44 individuals, both black and white, that were killed from the onset of the movement in 1955 to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968 are memorialized here.  The outdoor sculptures are done by the same artist that created the Vietnam Veterans Wall in DC using a moving water over granite effect.  The indoor exhibits articulate the circumstances of each of the victims deaths and the events surrounding the times beginning with Rosa Parks defiance on the bus.

Voter registration efforts fostered much of the conflicts during this period and Selma, AL turned ugly with a killing.  To protest this occurrence the 45 mile march from Selma to Montgomery was organized along Route 80.  We traveled it in reverse spotting the plaques showing the campgrounds and crossing the bridge where the famous confrontation occurred.  All of this is really timely now, we think.

On to Meridien, MS and finally Laurel, MS where we spend the night.  As we covered these backroads our thoughts were with the fearless volunteers. 

Warm Springs, Georgia is the location of the Little White House built by Franklin Delano Roosevelt just prior to his presidency.  Seeking relief from the polio that paralyzed him, the warm springs and the community of doctors specializing in treating polio made this town ideal for him to visit.  The home and grounds are now owned by the Foundation FDR established to research a cure and rehabilitate polio victims.  This foundation would later become the March of Dimes and they have retained the home in the same state as when FDR lived there including the original furniture and memorabilia.

The first stop was at the visitor’s center where we met a delightful elderly lady guide that had been helped by the foundation as a child beginning in 1932.  She knew FDR firsthand and showed us personal photos of the two of them attending Thanksgiving dinners, an event FDR chose to celebrate in Warm Springs.  The townspeople truly seemed to bond with FDR and the efforts he made in expanding their livelihood.

This is also the place where he died of a massive stroke in 1945, so there is a sadness associated with the home and the unfinished painting he was posing for at the time of his death is hung as a memorial.

Callaway Gardens was our next stop up the road apiece.  Like other philanthropic multi-millionaires, the Callaway’s used their textile money to reconstruct 13,500 acres of worn out Georgia farmland into a massive arboretum.  Fearing the loss of many local plant species, the Callaway’s hired landscape architects, botanists, engineers and thousands of laborers to restore the land and plantings for the public to enjoy.

The gardens and buildings are surrounded by 7 lakes, walking and bike trails, a scenic drive, a golf course, a hotel, and now homes.  We began at the Discovery Center with lunch overlooking the largest lake and the trees in Fall colors.  The featured display there was the recreation of extinct plants by an artist working in copper and oil paints making full sized replicas of these delicate plants.

We then walked through a Holly and Camellia grove over to the butterfly pavilion for an up close experience with hundreds of butterflies floating around us in a large atrium .  It was a picture taking moment.  Final stop was a giant plant pavilion with a waterfall, tropical plants and trees, an indoor/outdoor pond and more photo opportunities.

Closing time forced us to leave the buildings, but we were able to take a scenic drive through the remainder of the park.  In addition to the groomed grounds, we saw the preparations for the Christmas light show which looked to be spectacular.

A return through the FDR State Park with overlooks of Georgia hills in the twilight made for a really great day.

We had seen signs for boiled peanuts for several days running so when a roadside vegetable stand came along doing the same thing we stopped.  Boiled peanuts are just that….boiled in the shell with a little salt added to the water.  The result tastes like a white bean in our opinion.  Plus, getting the mushy nut out of a limp shell is messy to the untrained.

We needed lunch so another heavily advertised establishment was chosen..Sonny’s BBQ.  A chain in GA and FL, Sonny’s offers 4 kinds of sauce for beef, pork, or chicken.  We chose the pulled pork sandwiches with a choice of side and drink for $7.  This BBQ is smoked and the sauces are vinegar based for a tart taste.  It was excellent.  As a going away present they offered us a refill of our iced tea “to go”.  This turned out to be a 32 oz. foam cup; bigger than our cupholders.

Our recurring presidential discoveries next led us to Plains, GA and the home of Jimmy Carter.  At almost 700 people, Plains is easy to get around.  There is his boyhood home, his current home, his high school – now museum, church, and brother Billy’s gas station.  We saw them all, plus learned about peanut growing and harvesting.  The boyhood farm showed how simple his growing up experiences were during the depression.  No running water or electricity until the late 30′s yet a tennis court next to the house.

The downtown Plains stores cater to the tourists, in this case us and one other couple, so we tried fried peanuts, peanut ice cream, and several peanut brittles, too.  The day was fun with very rural images.

Ginger’s Uncle Scott has lived 10 years full time in a golf community in Dunnellon, Fl, and visiting him and his wife, “LC” directed our travel through this part of the state.  We spent a few hours catching up on current events while watching the golfers in the back yard.  It was good to see that they were in fine shape and planning future golf activities themselves.

Small towns along the way catered in the past to auto traffic from the North as the snowbirds migrated back and forth.  With the onset of the Interstate highways, these towns have been bypassed now.  This has led to a large number of defunct motels along the roadsides, many in disrepair.  We note the 50′s and 60′s architecture of V-shaped, low slung buildings, the 40′s with the small boxes like little duplexes.  All now just vacant.