It's been a long time coming, but we've finally gotten around to an update. Ellie and I are currently situated in San Antonio with my wonderful cousin, Renee. She's got a nice home here, a relaxed vibe ideal for some reflection time on the computer.
There's really so much I could say. Today marked our sixteenth day on the open road, and well, both of us agree that it seems much longer. A lot has happened, so I'll promise my best to fit the details snugly into a nutshell. Photos are great, and I know that most of you would prefer such visuals over my babble, so I'll include plenty.
Yep, that's us. This was the first photo taken. Behind us is a splendid mountain creek and in front (and consequently out of
your view) is the Mount Sterling
trailhead in the Great Smokies of NC. We had a one-night stand with
Asheville prior to this during which time we ate
slurpy noodles and watched Carolina roll over Duke with the unexpected and completely awesome company of Anna and Ben (friends from our college days).
This is another photo from our stay in the Smokies. Here I rest atop a radio tower on the peak of Mount Sterling. There's at least one more of such towers in the park, and they're really cool, kind of rickety, slightly freaky to climb, and provide a beautiful bird's-eye view of the surrounding landscape. We stayed out three nights and four days. The weather was perfect, and we spotted some
ferrel pigs, ate well, and bid a fond farewell to the Appalachians for a little while at least.
As some of you probably know, the Parthenon is alive and well in Nashville, and here we stand in front of it. Here's the story. Whenever Nashville hosted the World's Fair, the city constructed a replica of Athens to impress the masses. The fair ended, and when all else was demolished, the Parthenon remained. What you see above is actually a Nashville's second edition complete with all the right specs, although smaller in scale.
Nashville treated us very well, largely due to the person who took this photo. We arrived in the country music capital tired and hungry, and were thus stoked about the fried fish sandwiches delivered at our first stop, an Irish pub. We were also stoked about our waitress, Priscilla, who was so cool and so kind. She hooked us up with a safe and quiet spot to park our car (also our bedroom) for the night, suggested some great music to checkout (Victor Wooten's brothers have a gig in town every Wednesday night), and showed us around the next day (met some nice folks and saw...the Parthenon).
Why a photo of an ostrich? You'll have to ask our GPS (which has proved to be highly useful, thanks Mom and Danielle) about that. Let's just say it directed us along a scenic path while in Arkansas where we went to watch Ellie's brother, Jack, run in the College Indoor Track National Meet.
Here's the crew, minus me, from the trip in the Natural State -- from the left, Aunt Mary, Ellie, Jack, and Debbie. Jack was fast as usual (his distance medley relay team came in third) and we had a lot of fun throughout the weekend.
Once in down south in Austin, we fired up the camp stove for dinner. Potato raviolis in a tomato sauce with squash and onion. We're trying to stay low-budget, and since food is a critical aspect of this goal, we've made most of our meals in this fashion.
This is Gordon, and yes, he is the stuffed monkey atop our dash that looks west. I'm trying to incorporate him into our photo album, as he's become a bit of a friend. This was taken while waiting out a thunderstorm at a park in Austin. We later ventured around, visited a strange museum and a neat botanical garden with dinosaur statues and
koi.
If you're anything like me, then you're wondering, "Where did Ellie get such sweet sunglasses?" They're mine, and they are rad. Kind of large, makes one look as if they are about to enter a 3D movie, and fit conveniently over any corrective lenses.
On Friday night, we had the great pleasure of going out on the Austin town with a mass of Ellie's ultimate frisbee buddies from NC. This was a crazy night with a lot of shenanigans. Everyone was in Texas for a tournament which we witnessed the following day -- there were lots of sweet hucks, bids, layout D's, and skies (I've proved that I can throw around some jargon, now all I need is some game).
So, that provides a well-rounded glimpse into the adventure thus far. I'll leave you in saying that Ellie and I would not be such cool people if we did not have the great fortune of amazing, loving, and supportive family and friends. We always keep you near in our hearts and minds. Feel free to add comments to the blog or write us an email, as we would love to hear from you.
Be happy and well wherever you are, and if you're west of Texas, then hopefully we'll see you soon. More updates to come, so check in here when you think of us.
Matt
After leaving Big Bend, and Texas for that matter, we'll make the drive up to Los Alamos, NM, where Ellie's aunt and uncle await -- greetings Kenny and Ann. And after that, we'll spend a night and a couple of days in Great Sand Dunes National Park (pictured above) before a stay in Denver with our long lost college buddy -- greetings Kate.
