Best surprises of 2010 trip

Not a comprehensive list (also not in any special order), but it's a start:

Heading west towards Yellowstone out of Cody, WY. Hillside ranches and houses in a wonderful setting. Plus a huge reservoir (named after Buffalo Bill Cody) that one suddenly finds oneself driving along in an otherwise arid setting.

Prior to that, Route 14 from Ranchester (north of Sheridan) through the Bighorn National Forest was outrageous, clearly for me one of the great drives on the trip. Climbing quickly up to 8,000+ feet, the view looking back was maybe the most sweeping of either trip. Very, very memorable. Note: Route 14 splits into two options in the middle of the Forest, both designed as Route 14. We were told that the northern option had grades so steep, one could burn out one's brakes before reaching the bottom. It looks amazing and reminiscent of the Moki Dugway (see below) on Google Maps. I regret somewhat not going that way, but the southern option was gorgeous and goes through Shell Falls, a very neat place with a nice visitors center ... and black noisy clackety grasshoppers. The town of Shell has about 50 people. The next town, according to its sign, has 10 ... but I couldn't find it on Google Maps later.

The Moki Dugway in between the Natural Bridges National Park and Mexican Hat: totally awesome and completely frightening. I posted a video and have written about it more than a few times. Going south, one starts with an 1,100 foot drop with no guardrail, the tightest switchback turns imaginable, dirt and gravel roadway about two cars wide. I truly believe that in the rain, as we were in, 5 mph is too fast to stay on the road in some of the upper switchbacks. Google Map it. Look at the satellite view.

Bear Lake in SE Idaho/NE Utah was a staggering surprise. A mixture of stunning houses and old camps and small houses on the hills and shores was completely unexpected. The steep and twisty road up from there through the Cache National Forest kept the lake in sight for a long time. This is one of the few places, for reasons I still don't understand, where I felt some jealousy for those that lived there or had second homes there. Never heard of it before and in talking with people afterwards at restaurants and motels, most hadn't been there, although a fair number knew something about it.

I'll add to this list later ... I hope.

Summary, but not last entry

From Monticello, we went to Culpeper, VA, Bowie, MD, New Rochelle, NY, and Hadley, MA ... and finally home to Essex Junction.

Mike and I went into NYC and took the subway to the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. The ferry had airport style security, so we had to remove everything from our pockets and take off our belts, etc.

I never could get our videos to upload onto the blog, so I've begun posting them on YouTube. You can click on the link below to go directly to the Old Faithful video. While there you can look at any of the Tom Cotton (that's me) videos, some from the trip, some not.

YouTube - Old Faithful

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

This is not the place nor the time to sing the praises of Thomas Jefferson. Let JFK's quote suffice. It went something like this:

In front of a White House dinner for all the Nobel Prize winners, President Kennedy said, There has never been a gathering of such intellect in the history of the White House, except possibly when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

Science, history, languages, architecture, agriculture, art ... they were all absorbed by President Jefferson.

He designed every detail of Monticello, his house on a mountain top south of Charlottesville, VA. Later he oversaw the creation of the University of Virginia.

No cameras inside of course, but we toured Monticello and then its grounds and his family burial ground with the relatively new monument to him.

Monticello, from the "backyard"

Monticello has around 45 rooms, half of them underground. This is a kitchen of the latter.

Thomas Jefferson's final resting place

A very protective tree within the cemetery. (I want to believe that it watches carefully through the night ... and heaven help anyone who goes over the fence with malice aforethought.)

An appropriate ending to the day, in Culpeper, VA

airy blueberry?

That didn't get your attention did it?

You try putting together: blue berry mount ridge way park may airy

Anyway, this probably is for the older folks out there. Andy Griffith's Mayberry was Mount Airy near the Blue Ridge Parkway. So much of that long running wonderful TV show came from real people and places in the Mt Airy area. From Floyd the Barber to Sheriff Taylor himself, the roots are showing everywhere.

Here's some pictures and a few words to go with them.

This barber, whose habit of talking way more than cutting (at least sometimes) was incorporated into Floyd the Barber's character, cut Andy's hair in real life in the very same 1929 barber's chair that Mike got his trim in. He is really a terrific man nearing 90 named Russell Hiatt. There are roughly 30,000 photos on his wall of people whose hair he cut or who just walked in to say hello ... as did about a dozen while we were there.

Not one of the police cars from the TV show, but one that we road around in for a tour of Mayberry.

Oops! Make that Mt. Airy.

The house that Andy grew up in. His father was a supervisor at a furniture making factory. You can rent the whole house for $179 a night.

Sheriff Mike at his desk in a recreation of the show's jailhouse.

A section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Last year we saw a lot of it north of Roanoke, VA. This year we covered a lot from Asheville, NC, to Roanoke. It is a lovely drive.

Important note: last year, staying at maybe 60 motels, never did we reach for a motel tissue and find the box empty. This year, it's a running joke between us. Maybe a third of the motels had four tissues or less left in the box. Last night, I grabbed for some. Two popped out together. No more after that.

We think that all the motels in the US are tracking our travels and as shown as we show up and are assigned a room, they send a runner to the room to empty all but a few tissues.

I'm pretty sure this is what's happening.

Biltmore

Dateline: Asheville, NC

America's largest house finished. Party Christmas Eve 1895. Be there or be square.

(A National Forest was created from some of their land.)

No inside pictures. 40+ baths. Renoirs. Winter garden inside. Fabulous gardens outside.

Nashville:Ryman:GOO

Until 1974 The Grand Ole Opry was staged at the Ryman Auditorium. Whether or not you're into country music, it is a very historic place. From Mary Pickford to Bo Jangles to W.C. Fields to Bob Hope to Isadora Duncan to Elvis, everyone pretty much showed up at the Ryman at one time or another. Google it.

Stage costumes from all the stars through the years are there. Flashier and flashier as time marched on.

After that the GOO went to its own new HQ a dozen miles away. This May that whole area flooded deeply and has mostly not recovered, BUT the 85th anniversary of the GOO was Saturday night and there was a huge show with Dolly Parton and many others. We didn't know about this ahead of time. We could have gotten SRO tix, but decided against them.

Minnie Pearl's

Jewel stopped by for a jam session.

June and Johnny's wear.

And an even more famous country star. Just can't remember his name right now.

The new place

Thousands and thousands of people were there. The first concert was only hours away. Mike asked everyone to clear the plaza so he could get a pristine picture of it. Surprisingly, they did.

Oh ... we're back on eastern time.

Belle Meade Plantation

Outside of Nashville, TN. No inside pictures. There's been a lot of that recently.

Interesting to visit one time. Serious history behind it. Many famous visitors.

Those are Civil War bullet holes in the columns.

Nashville