World War II Memorial. Each state and US territory are represented around the circle.

View of the Washington Monument (obelisk) from the WWII memorial.

Lincoln Memorial in the distance, looking from the WWII memorial.

The Atlantic end of the WWII memorial. The Pacific is represented 180 degrees around the circle.

Us outside the Lincoln Memorial and standing along the reflecting pool.

The (George) Washington Monument

View of the reflecting pool, gardens and the Washington Monument (obelisk) from the Lincoln Memorial

Abe Lincoln Statue - Amazing detail in the stone carving!

Us at the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial Building

Beautiful autumn colours in the trees around the Lincoln Memorial

The White House - Rear Garden view. I think this may be the oval office on the top floor, but I am not sure.

Garden at the rear of the White House.

The front of the White House - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave at dusk. You can't see him in the picture, but there was a secret service officer standing on the front steps.

At the base of the Lincoln Memorial there was a very striking display of support for President-Elect Obama. Thousands of people around the world had joined together to create billboards offering congratulations and testimonials of hope for the USA and world under the new presidents’ leadership, and thousands more had signed the displays after being erected in Washington. It was quite a sight to see just how much hope Mr. Obama has given to so many people around the world.

One of the more amusing comments left by a visitor

Here is our driving route for today:

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We’re safe and sound in Virginia after driving just over 550 miles today. We were both feeling great today after our day of rest in Nashville and made it a little farther than originally planned, stopping for the night in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

The scenery today driving through Tennessee and Virginia was beautiful, breathtaking even. Right now, autumn is in full swing in the Tennessee hills and the trees are every shade of yellow, red and orange. The colours are even more striking than we are used to seeing in Canada, as here there are very few evergreen trees – nearly every tree has changed colour for the season. As we drove along, the leaves were steadily falling from the trees and drifting into the highway creating whirlwind leaf effects, not unlike driving through a snowstorm except much more colourful! As we moved further north, we passed many small farm towns, which were quite beautiful in their rustic charm.

Here are a few photos taken on our drive Northeast today, I hope they help you appreciate the beautiful scenery:

Downtown Nashville. The historic Ryman Auditorium is the brick a-framed building center-left.

Country Music Hall of Fame. The windows are like the black keys on a piano.

Union Station. A 100+ year old restored train station - now a hotel.

Nashville Music City

Downtown Nashville at Dusk

Hard Rock Cafe Nashville. Notice the acoustic guitar.

Jack's BBQ, where we had a fantastic southern meal

Cowgirl D

Inside the Ryman Auditorium, looking across the balcony. The building is more than 100 years old and a national historic site. The Grand Old Opry started in this building but now only broadcasts from here in the winter months, when tourism slows down so it was a great time to visit and see the show in the historic building.

Inside the Ryman Auditorium. We were seated near the front of the balcony - GREAT seats!!

Onstage at the Grand Ole Opry

Jimmy Dickens. 88 years old, quick with the music and the jokes!

Diamond Rio

Randy Owens (from the band Alabama)

Marty Stuart

Vince Gill performing his new song "Heaven"

View more photos from Tennessee, Nashville and the Grand Old Opry

Our big fun here in Nashville was our evening of exploring what the downtown has to offer. Jamie and I walked Broadway Street in the older part of the downtown where there are some very lovely old buildings  that reside next to modern buildings and museums. We saw (did not tour) the Country Music Hall of Fame and the huge center where the Country Music Awards will be aired from next week. Broadway Street is peppered with little pubs, restaurants, churches and shops. There are cowboy/girl hats and belts and boots for sale all over. I was momentairily tempted by a teal pair of cowgirl boots stitched with other colours of leather in daisy patterns…but I managed to resist. The little bars and pubs we walked passed all had live music and cheap beer specials. There was a different tune coming out of every place reflecting just how diverse “country music” is, from honky tonk, to bluegrass, to more rock infused sounds.

For supper tonight we found a great authentic bbq place called Jack’s. The neon pink pig sign caught our attention as did the long line-up…you know what they say about the place with the long line-up…join it! We were not dissapointed. We got a real taste of southern cooking at its finest. Authentic Tennessee smokehouse bar-b-q is not to be missed! Between us we tried pork shoulder, beef brisket and sides including: corn bread, baked beans, cinnamon apples, mac & cheese and green beans, all paired of course with iced tea. I think a little part of us died and went to southern culinary heaven.

After our good eats it was off to….THE GRAND OLE OPRY!!!! We caught an early show in the historic old Ryman Auditorium, and what a show it was. Neither one of us considers ourselves to be a big fan of country music but are so glad that we went. The lineup included some very big country stars like, Marty Stuart, Vince Gill, Randy Owen (of  band Alabama) and the very charming, 87 year old Jimmy Dickens. The music and entertainment was fantastic and we are so glad to have taken in the show. The Grand Ole Opry has been running shows since 1925 which are performed live and broadcast over the radio for everyone to enjoy.

Now it is time to head off to bed as our day of relaxation has come to an end. It is back on the road for us in the morning with somewhere in Virginia as our destination. More news and pictures to follow.

We have arrived once again safe and sound at our planned destination – Nashville, Tennessee. Despite having a shorter route planned today, our drive took longer than expected due to very heavy rain and traffic through most of Tennessee. We also took a detour off the freeway in Memphis, hoping to at least drive by and get a photo of Elvis’s home in Graceland. Turns out that isn’t possible – Elvis’s home is set well back from the road and well blocked by both a large Elvis “tourist trap” museum/gift shop and a large strategically placed wall of high trees. I guess lots of people wanted to take a free look at Elvis’ home! We did at least get to see the Heartbreak Hotel in Graceland and a few other Elvis-themed sights in the area.

The detour into Memphis cost us a considerable amount of time; Memphis seems to be a very large maze of freeway interchanges and getting around is a quite a process. It took us 40 minutes just to find a coffee! We arrived in Nashville after dark and immediately headed for something to eat. We found a great southern buffet restaurant called Ryans. I remember visiting this restaurant as a teenager during one of my last trips to Florida with my family and was thrilled to see it again (and yes mom the bread rolls are as good as you remember – sorry I can’t bring them home!). The food was great and we left very happy and full. Upon arriving at our hotel, we were quite amused to find out that we had actually already checked in around 4:30pm this afternoon, which was quite interesting because at that time we were probably still in Memphis looking for coffee!! The clerk didn’t actually clarify how that was possible, but as there was now someone staying in our reserved room, we were given a room upgrade to a suite on the top floor of the hotel! It is quite comfortable, with a separate living room, bedroom and bath, and a mini kitchenette. Now we’d really like to know how to check in early again at the next hotel!

After 3-4 days of very steady driving and a week on the road we have to admit we’re getting tired. Nashville intrigued us and so we have decided rather than hit the road again tomorrow, we’re going to take a day off from driving and see the sights in Nashville. Thankfully we had a 1 day buffer built into our schedule so we should still be able to get to Newfoundland without being ‘late’. We were even lucky enough to be able to keep our nice hotel room for another night. We’re not entirely sure what we are going to do or see tomorrow, but we’re sure it will be fun and a nice break before we get back on the road. We’ll certainly fill you in when we can!

Here is our estimated map for today:

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The morning got off to a great start after a good night of sleep and a yummy complimentary breakfast which included waffles shaped like the state of Texas!! They do everything bigger and better in Texas including “the biggest cross in the western hemisphere”!

The hotel lobby had a sign in it inviting anyone to take this challenge: get chauffeured in a limo to a steakhouse and eat a 72oz steak for free if you could finish it in an hour!!
The weather was bright and sunny as we pulled away from Amarillo and headed east. We have noticed that gas is cheaper (in some cases $1.20/gal less), there is an abundance of country and gospel music on the radio, there are 3 pickup trucks to every car and there are bbq restaurants and waffle houses all along the side of the freeway. Amarillo left us with a great impression of Texas and the hospitality they are known for in this part of the country.

In between the gospel and country stations we found plenty of talk radio full of buzz about the election last night. People were calling in from all over the country with plenty of opinions and lots of praise for Barack Obama and his victory. We stayed up last night longer than we had intended watching the coverage on the news and the making of history. We both wish the best to this country that has hosted us and treated us well for the past two years. Now that we are on the road we can truly appreciate how vast and beautiful it really is here and that at the end of the day we are not so very different.

We crossed into Oklahoma around noon and noticed an immediate and drastic difference in the landscape. Western Oklahoma is GREEN! Farms and farms and more farms…oh…and some cattle and  hay bales too. We drove past Oklahoma City (surprisingly big city) and then noticed again that the landscape changed into hardwood trees turning to beautiful fall colours.

At this point I took the wheel to give Jamie a break. Somewhere about 2/3 of the way across Oklahoma I was clipping along to a very upbeat country song when I came over the top of a hill, saw a police cruiser lying in wait and I was busted!! 80 in a 70 zone. The cruiser pulled up behind me with his lights flashing and so I pulled over. Up to the window came officer ” hunk” who thankfully gave me a warning after checking out my license and insurance. I have been driving for 12 years and that was the first time I have been stopped!

Arkansas looks pretty and like a farming state. Much of the landscape was not visible to us on the way as it gets dark so early now. We’ll get a better idea tomorrow when we leave and start heading into the eastern part of the state. Our route tomorrow will take us across another state line and into Tennessee with a likely stop in Memphis before stopping for the night in Nashville.

More news and pictures tomorrow, keep visiting and LEAVE SOME COMMENTS (please).

Western Oklahoma

Eastern Oklahoma

Here is our planned route:

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It was an interesting day to be in the US, as it was election day. Even though we’ve mostly been on the highway, we did manage to see a few interesting aspects of the election both over the past few days as well as today. As we stopped in rural Utah for lunch a few days ago we ran into a full group of McCain/Palin party organizers in a local Subway restaurant. We got more than a few ‘funny looks’ from those folks when they saw our California license plates on the car (California of course by far being Democrats). Today we saw something both cute and inspiring: a group of four school-age boys, no more than 13 years old standing on a street corner near the freeway exit in Albuquerque with a handmade sign reading “HONK for Obama – NOT for McCain!”. They were there by themselves, no parents around, jumping up and down and very excited about the support they were getting from the motorists passing by. Personally I don’t even remember knowing what an election was at that age, let alone publicly supporting one candidate or another. One other nice thing today – Starbucks was giving away free coffee on election day, we didn’t even know it until we stopped in for a caffeine break mid-afternoon.

Our Votes: The Best We Could Do!

   

The temperature has really started to change as we travel away from the West Coast. Despite being so far south, it was COLD – just a little above freezing temperatures – when we left Arizona this morning. It probably doesn’t help that we are almost 5000 ft feet up as we travel across this area. This afternoon it did warm up to very comfortable temperatures – and it is warmer this evening in Texas. Thankfully we have still not lost the continual sunshine that we are so used to from California! Also BTW, we passed through another timezone today; we are now on Central Time – 2 hours ahead of California and 2.5 hours behind Newfoundland.