The way home

Our Gadsden, Alabama to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania plan was put aside as we approached Harrisburg. We were too close to home to stop now. MARATHON! 

On we pushed through Pennsylvania and on into New York. 

We pulled up for a 2 a.m. breakfast stop in a diner on the western shore of the Hudson River just off Interstate 84 at the Beacon-Newburgh Bridge. Nice. Hit the spot! Then over the Hudson, east on 84, up Route 22, through Sharon, Connecticut to Route 7 and into Canaan.

Our road trip, trail odyssey and adventures have come full circle.

We saw a great many new places and met some very nice people along the way. Some like the chance occurance of meeting those two young musicians heading for Nashville with their Mom up there on Skyline Drive should have been savored more. I feel that I missed an opportunity for something there. But there it is, and there it goes, that moment. But I think we will all remember.

Our visit in Silver City with friends was wonderful! Laurel and Scott (and Buddy) were so generous with their time and insights.

The City of Rocks was just tremendous! It was like living in a different time when stone monoliths ruled the landscape by shaping the day as the sun rises before them, casting dark shadows, channeling the wind and forming feelings and songs as sun, wind, water and sky pass over them in an endless march through time.

What revelations and changes will come from this journey are yet to be realized. How will we apply what we have experienced? What changes will arise? Maybe that is why we travel so that we might glimpse the shape of our lives and be better prepared to go on.

Happy trails.

Shenandoah National Park: Skyline Drive

We finally got to the park late in the afternoon. Joey had hoped to hike a trail with Misha but she didn't expect a foot or more of snow up here. We were lucky to get onto the Drive at all because the north and south section were still closed due to the snow and ice.

It was an amazingly beautiful drive!

Thanks to two aspiring musicians heading for Nashville (and their Mom) that took this photo!
All the best! Hope the one we took for you came out as good.

Onward into the weather

March 26, 2013: The weather that we were avoiding...

Weather from Alabama into Virginia.

Across Alabama

Alabama started as a blur...

...and we are still there tonight.

If we had time it would have been great to tour all the historic civil rights history in this state too.

Across Mississippi

Into Vicksburg, Mississippi!

Across the Big Muddy.

Vicksburg, Mississippi has a little lovely historic downtown but a great number of the buildings are either for sale or for rent. What gives? There is a casino downtown right on the river but it hasn't helped. Probably because true to form casino visitors hardly ever venture out of the all encompassing casino environment. Throw the gamblers out! Get the artists is in! 

Many streets are brick.

CokaCola has some ties to Vicksburg too as the first city to have bottled the brew outside of Atlanta.

This is the mural project along the river front. Learn more about the murals here.

Back from the historic downtown are many beautiful buildings and homes. Many of which are also for sale. Attention southerners! This city needs you!

We continued our crossing as the sun went down in the west behind us.

No time to stop off in Jackson so we missed some important civil rights history, but here is a link.

Across Louisiana

11:00 am: Crawdaddy's, Shreveport, Louisiana for crawfish poppers that were great! With the red hot dipping sauce that was the best. Best coleslaw too! Catfish great! Onion rings great (take a bite with the pickled green tomatoes! Great! All great! (Margaritas too!). Oh, and my Po-boy fried oyster sandwich GREAT! Great service (thanks Amanda)!

If you want to go to a casino then the Shreveport waterfront is the place for you! We just drove on through. 

 Sorry we didn't see much of Louisiana from Interstate 20... and we don't have time for much else.

Across Texas

Continuing on Route 380 into Texas.

Red dirt country near Plains, Texas.

Cotton fields and oil wells. 

Brownfield, TX wide brick street and the Rialto movie house.

Reddy Vineyards.

Came down into Post, Texas and a more desert landscape. Who said oil is king in Texas?  Someone in Texas is really into wind power! The whole top of the mesa was lined with them. 

We had a fabulous jalapeño burger and onion rings (homemade batter dipped) at this little roadhouse place just east of Post, Texas on Route 84 on the Brazos. Very friendly and cold beer!

Take a good look at any grasshopper pumps you see out here because oil pumping will some day surely be replaced by wind turbines. The economics of the drilling, installing pumping equipment, storage tanks, hauling the crude oil to a refinery, processing and distribution to consumers cannot possibly compete with installing a wind turbine and hooking it up to the power grid and watching the earnings come in as the wind blows and the power is available to consumers anywhere on the grid. 

Into the Fort Worth,  Dallas metro sprawl.

Through Dallas but not through Texas (yet)...