After visiting few friends along the way after Badlands, we drove hotshot to
Acadia National Park. This was our first national park in the East and the park was very different from what I am used to all these years where entering a NP is like entering Jurassic Park – you are in the park when you enter till you exit – while Acadia is a loose collection of interspersed private and public land, and you will be traveling in and out of these NP/non-NP regions; with a slightly complex loop road (one-way in few places, and specific exits/entry points to get in/out of the park), it took us bit to get used to it. Acadia has a good network of chariot roads which is great for leisurely biking, and Maine coastline/lighthouses are beautiful. Its highest point is Cadillac Mound (official name is
Cadillac Mountain, elevation ~1500ft), named after a
French scoundrel -- I suggest you stay away if you are afraid of heights!
Mountains of East coast are older than West and have eroded, so to me most parks East of Dakotas were kinda boring, however since we were visiting friends along the way, it worked out fine. When there is a thick book titled
National Parks of the West and there is no Eastern counterpart, and that itself is a giveaway!
Next stop was NYC and the roads that I had to drive around in NYC were the absolute worst that I encountered in my whole trip, and my bike rack probably got stress tested beyond its design limits, and once we were out of NYC I dismantled/reassembled the whole bike rack. Our family in NYC parked their super expensive car in the street so we could park our jalopy in their garage so its pwecious contents could be safe, and I was relieved that their car was not broken into.
Well, no visit to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania is complete without a picture of this town.
Amish self-reliance and communal living is pretty badass if you discount for their refusal to accept Evolution (so, no science is taught in school), and their obsession with jesus-lovin – well, many need their sunday-sermon-fix to live a disciplined life I suppose.
We visited
Shenandoah National park since it was the gateway to
Blue Ridge parkway DW wanted to spend a week driving the parkway so we did a slow ~80 mile per day drive to see some interesting parts of Appalachia – grist mills, blue grass music history, craft expos, mining history around North Carolina area, a field exhibit on design choices made to build Linn Cove Viaduct. In the fall season trees along the whole 450mile drive display impressive colors that are fun to watch. Supposedly, it’s called Blue Ridge Parkway because of the blue streak that one can be seen along the ridge. You can see it along the most mountain ridges everywhere else too.
End of the Blue Ridge Parkway connects to the
Great Smoky Mountain National Park – the busiest NP in the USA with around 6M visitors per year. The park is beautiful with its mountains almost looking like a bouquet of flowers with all the fall colors. I had always wondered what made this park the busiest in the nation (there is nothing special about this park – unlike Grand Canyon or Yellowstone etc. which are almost one of a kind in the world) and I think I found the answer when I was there. First off, the entry to park is free – State of Tennessee handed over the park road - which was a state highway – to NPS on the condition that no toll should be charged to access it. So, the visitors to this park are predominantly locals and East Coasters unlike other busy parks where people flock from all around the world. Also, the park road is the primary route to surrounding tourist towns like Gatlinburg and amusements like Dollywood. The vehicle and visitor counting is done by an automated system at the park entrance only, so essentially, the park gets the (dubious) distinction of being the busiest!
Mammoth Caves in Kentucky is the longest cave in the world and we took the 4 hour tour where you walk around 3-4 miles and climb up and down 2-3 mountains – and during the whole time you are in the cave! I have seen few caverns before but this was the most impressive!
Many had suggested us to visit Charleston, South Carolina, but we had to cancel it due to floods situation there, and instead we ended up in beautiful Savannah, Georgia. If you happen to be there consider trying
delicious lunchand
decadent dessert
As we were driving towards
Everglades National Park in south Florida, we noticed more highway patrol along I-95 than our entire USA trip combined -- it was either cars being pulled over or swarm cops with speed guns in stealth – either way drivers didn’t seem to give a shit. On top of that, there were these billboards all over that could not wait to smear you with some of their religious passion. One billboard posted a picture of cute baby propounding “my heart beats after 14 days” (if the baby looks that cute after 14 days, I will be all for saving it), another billboard declared “oh, yeah, hell is real” and suggesting to call some 800 number, and yet another one proclaiming “in the beginning the god created” ad nauseam. Not sure what is going on Florida, or if it has anything to do with the previous reign of a Texas chimpanzee – for me it felt like traveling to some crazy part of Middle East.
Everglades, which gets its name from endless grassy fields (glade) on a sheet of water, has spectacular bird and reptile population not normally found in western USA. In midst of this beauty lurk two dangers – first,
black vultures which could chew car wiper blades or worse, the weather strip of vehicles -- so better park your cars away from the trees. And then mosquitoes,
no-see-ums bit us constantly, and insect repellant was of limited use as it got washed away with sweat. We had been camping in all kinds of weather from 120F to 29F since our trip began and after two days in Everglades, we bowed out to these bugs and took refuge in a hotel for the rest of our stay, and it took almost a week to recover from these bites even with cortisone cream. There is even warning at the campground asking to pay for only one-night-at-a-time so you can make an informed decision every morning. Campervan would be a great solution in this area. We really liked the park and the
Key Lime milkshakes nearby.
After few more stops, we landed in New Orleans, and in the history of Louisiana, you will hear the name of Cadillac again as he was the governor here for a while.
Insectarium is pretty cool and we spent the whole day watching all kinds of beetles/moths/butterflies. I learned that fire ants are mighty – in human terms, they can carry the weight of a car for 10 miles and they do it day after day! Insectarium has a Bugcafe where one can try dishes with crickets, waxworms etc – and DW took her revenge on bugs buy trying out all the dishes, and as I am not so adventurous when it comes to food that I was just busy taking pictures of her munching on crickets, waxworms etc.
New Orleans city park is one of the oldest and one of the biggest parks in the country – we spent entire day biking around. It even has a 24 hour café called “Morning Call” and is a great place to chill out.
While walking around in
French quarters, we bumped into Pepper Palace to try two of their hottest offerings –
Death by Salsa and
Flashbang – and we were there the next day for seconds
if you can take the heat and don’t mind signing waivers, it’s a great way to test your limits!
Somewhere along the way, the bike rack was leaning too far back, only to find that its structural integrity had been compromised, and I had to resort to redesigning by cutting a square hole on the gusset plate so it would sit securely on the hitch receiver bar, and few other things so I could make it back home. The company sent me a beefier model for free, even though the rack I had bought had mostly positive reviews. DIY skills came handy to say the least.
After few more stops, it was time to visit family in Texas; along the way we visited
The Alamo while in San Antonio. Here is the Alamo story: Once upon a time not too long ago, Texas was big, barren and ugly land (just like today), and, back then it was part of Mexico; Mexico thought it would be nice to have it inhabited, so they asked American colonists to inhabit the land, and pretty soon it was over populated with colonists, and Mexico felt the Texas was getting too Americanized (not sure what “Americanized” meant in those days – may be it meant too much alcohol, guns and talking super-loud in public places -- just like today), so Mexico closed its borders to prevent further American immigration!! (what a reversal of fortune). That and few other things led colonists of Texas wanting independence from Mexico, which led Mexican army to show up and decimate ~300 of these patriots-for-hire as most these were not even natives of America let alone Texas (I spotted Germany, Ireland among other places where these thrill seekers came from). It was a WTF moment to learn that the major hobby of the British singer Phil Collins was to collect the memorabilia of this trivial BS history.
We chilled out for a few days at South Padre Island, biking, walking along the beach, and catching up on our TBDs. That and family time are the only highlights of our stay in Texas. Bigbend and Balmorea are a OK, but I couldn’t wait to GTF out of TX. We listened to many popular songs about California as we entered CA, and it was an awesome feeling to be back!
I have already spent time exploring and driving around 40+ countries in six continents over last 15 years. Even though I never opted for a package trip, I, like anyone else started my travels as a novice, but started gaining expertise with each trip. The more countries I visited, the more I could connect the dots when it came to history, food, music, and politics. Social interaction is the highlight for my travels and the thing that I most enjoy is uncovering the “undocumented reality” not the “museum version” of history. I wish more countries talk openly about the atrocities that they have descended upon many. For all the marketing that western Europe does to make one think how “cultured” they are, I hope they spend a fraction of time in educating how for a long time they have fucked over Roma people, Jews, running “extortion society” – UK, France, and Netherlands were first rate thieves stealing shit from around the world, while Spain and Portugal were probably the worst – not just stealing shit, but mass converting the whole region to yet another stupid religion. Same story with Aboriginals/Maori in AU/NZ and rest of the world. Even some of the paintings are laughable
Mr. Blownapart and his mom.
I have enjoyed many science/technology museums in Europe, USA, however, for me, the best travels are related to nature. There is not a thing comparable to what nature puts out, and I am glad we did the USA tripping. All said and done, it was 20k miles, 4+ months, and mostly camping! Highly recommended!
Even with mostly highlights, this journal entry is already too long -- I am happy to have gotten it out of the way, so I can take rest of the year off from updating this journal.
Good luck and cya in December!
