Imagine a world where you’re surrounded by beautiful beaches on every side. You’re never more than a mile away from the nearest body of drop dead gorgeous ocean views. You can kayak, jet-ski, or simply take in the characters walking around. You can almost hear the roosters in the background…

Wait, what?

Welcome to Key West: Land of wonder, whack-jobs and chickens.

Don’t forget the roosters either. They’ll wake you up at 4am just outside of your car and never let you sleep again… but why were we where we could even hear roosters?

Let me tell you.

Key West: Land of Whack-Jobs

Our one and only bad CouchSurfing experience happened in Key West.

It was our own fault, really, because it was our first time messaging:

• Just a guy (not a woman or couple)
• Someone who didn’t have a really solid profile
• Someone who didn’t have references
• “Meh” pictures barely showing us who the guy was
• Someone who insisted on being called Wolfgang

Rachel and I knew going in that we needed to be extra alert and vigilant so that neither of us disappeared with a one-way ticket to a private torture island off the coast.

But we wanted to be in Key West for more than a few days, and we didn’t want to burden a single CouchSurfer with our presence the whole time — so we went ahead and took the risk by requesting this guy for our first 2 nights.

The night started out okay, but then he kept wanting to go the clothing optional bar.

You know what? I’m not a super judgmental person, and I realize some people are into things like public nudity. But it’s really not for me, and it seems like a very odd thing for a single dude to be trying to convince two girls to go do with him.

He wasn’t necessarily trying to get us naked there, but he did keep telling Rachel she should get her body painted… which involves stripping down and getting well, you know. Your whole body painted. Hashtag weird.

The first time he took us we tried to play it cool. The whole building is 3 stories, each story being a unique bar. On the top is the exhibitionist’s mecca.

“Let’s try the second level bar,” he said. It was a normal bar, and we played a game of pool there — which may have also been my first time winning at pool, by the way.

“Want to go upstairs and check it out for a minute?” he mentioned offhand. Well, he mentioned it offhand like five times, so Rachel and I figured we’d check it out for 30 seconds with our eyes closed and then get out of there just to shut him up.

We managed to make it in and out without much harm done. (It was not exciting, trust me.)

He then took us on a mini tour of the main street all the way up and down Key West. It’s like a mile wide island and it didn’t take more than an hour or so, what with darting in and out of neat looking spots.

Somehow we ended up back near the bar again. “Let’s go back! I have a buddy who is hanging out up there, you can meet him!”

It’s hard to tell someone that you don’t want to meet their buddies, and we were just in a really awkward position between: not wanting to piss him off if he was a psycho, and not wanting to be rude to the person who was offering us a floor to sleep on, yet also not wishing to hang out at the clothing optional bar anymore.

If you’re keeping track, the ratio of logical reasons to go vs. not go was 2:3 and we ended up getting dragged up there again. Awkward does not even begin to describe the situation. I developed a severe bladder issue so that I could drag Rachel to the second floor (where the bathroom was) to discuss our plans every 5 minutes.

We decided that if things didn’t escalate and he just turned out to be a dude with odd tastes we’d let it slide… maybe. If it escalated at all, we were going to get out of there.

After what felt like hours of being subjected to such awkwardness, there were finally two things which finally gave us our answer.

He…

• said: “I just like to watch! It’s fun.”
• took off his shirt not long after that.

As he reached for his shirt to take it off, Rachel and I met wide-eye to wide-eye and knew this is where we drew the line.

I had another moment of bladder difficulty and we whisked down to the second floor one more time to plan our escape route. It turns out I was feeling very sick and we were just going to get a hotel.

Of course, the term “hotel” here really means we found a side street to park on and we just slept in the car.

And that’s how we ended up spending our first two nights in Key West sleeping with roosters.

Key West: Land of Chickens

About those roosters: first of all, the gypsy chickens of Key West are everywhere.

And the roosters are noisy.

The beaches of Key West don’t allow overnight parking, but they do open up at 6am. Turns out that the beach doesn’t sound like a bad place to sleep when the other option is your car.

The other bonus of the beach? Less chickens. For some reason they don’t hang out too close to the beach.

So at 4am when the roosters woke me up from my not so peaceful car slumber, I started to develop a plan. Just as soon as 6am hit, I drove us to the beach.

“I’m going to go sleep on the beach,” I whispered to Rachel, who had somehow managed to still be mostly unconscious at this point. She drearily followed me out to the quiet shoreside.

I spread my towel on the ground, brought out my pillow, cuddled under my jacket and fell asleep with this amazing view:

There are pros in every situation if you look for them, am I right?

Key West: Land of Wonder

CouchSurfing redeemed itself in the following few days, as it led us to meet some of our favorite people in the world, ever.

Meet: Ryan (in the hat), Lane (the only other female), Scott (far left) and Andrew (floating above us).

Ryan and Lane were our hosts, and they have an amazing background story.  You can read more about them and their own crazy adventures on their blog: Living The Dream.

Scott and Andrew were buddies surfing in a tent in the backyard, while Rachel and I slept on the couch inside. The six of us formed what would turn out to be a hilarious, quirky and awesome CouchSurfing family during the following three days.

We laughed…

We met drag queens…

We went kayaking…

(Although sadly, Rachel was feeling sick and couldn’t go that day.)

And shared generally fun times and sunsets together.

And I stole Andrew’s hat.

Key West went from being our most traumatic experience to one of our most epic experiences ever.

There’s simply not enough room to talk about everything that happened during our stay, so I’m going to leave you in the knowledge that we survived and came out on the other side for the better.

And our awesome CouchSurfing family is mostly to thank for that. :)

- Anne

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P.S. For anyone who found this article interested in good info for traveling in Key West:

- If you need a shower, the community center will let you shower for free. You just have to check in, and don’t leave a mess. We didn’t find out until it was too late, but I thought others might find it useful.

- The library has free wi-fi and bathrooms. This is very useful if you need either but don’t have anywhere to be.

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Ah, Disney World. That magical kingdom. That special place where dreams come true. That wonderful world of…well lets be honest here: spending money and waiting in lines. Fortunately, we planned ahead a bit with the snacks so we didn’t spend much in the parks and mainly subsisted on mini-apples, granola and canned fruit. (Our utter joy sustained us.)

Super Smiles.

But who am I kidding? We still freaking loved it.

In total, we were in the Disney World area for nine days: six days touring the park, two days resting our weary legs, and one day driving there and playing mini golf at Winter Summerland.

Thanks to Expedia we got a sweet deal for five nights at a local resort for $40 a night, complete with shuttle. Well, complete with really lame, limited-arrival-time shuttle.

And then there were four rather unpleasant nights in our car… 

Those nights became progressively better when we figured out we could cram all of our belongings into the front seats (a thirty minute process) and also when we determined that lying with our feet stretched out toward the front of the car is better for circulation. But still, our lodging was a Ford Focus hatchback.

In case you weren’t aware and aren’t totally obsessed with all-things-Disney, Disney World has a total of four main parks – there’s Epcot, Magic Kindgom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. With a six-day, single-park-a-day pass this left us with some decision making. We ultimately decided to spend our extra two days in Epcot and Magic Kingdom, mainly because Magic Kingdom is so Disney-ish and Epcot is utterly unique. (You should ask Anne about the sushi at the Epcot Japanese restaurant we went to some time. Well, maybe not if you’re hungry.)

We have masses of awesome Disney World pictures, so it’s gonna be hard to decide which ones make the cut. If you feel so inclined you can view each and every one here (the set starts with that picture of Anne wearing the awesome black adventurer hat she bought at the Red Barn in Bradenton…or my hot pink shirt).

Stunt Shows & Super Big Stuff

Hollywood Studios was our first Disney park stop of our Orlando adventure. We loved our second-to-front-row seats at the Indiana Jones show and the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show.

Can YOU see Indiana dodging those axe-wielding statues?

We missed out on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror as so many have pointed out to us. OUCH.

Wait, let me rephrase that.

We (unfortunately) missed out on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster as many people have pointed out to us and successfully avoided boarding the Tower of Terror. (We hate falling rides!)

The Beauty and the Beast show was amusing although there were quite a few moments of unintended hilarity.

But look at all those Barbie-esque dresses!

And It’s a Bug’s Life’s giant playground of huge stuff was just plain awesome.

It's places like this that make me miss my childhood.

Mickey Magic

Our first day in the Magic Kingdom was primarily spent adjusting to the sheer massiveness of the park…and comparing rides to Disneyland (which I might possibly prefer – except for the huge castle).

By the time our second day at the Magic Kingdom rolled around we had mastered Fast Passes and the layout of the park. Plus, TWICE we were handed Fast Pass tickets to awesome rides. Thank you kind strangers of Disney World!

We ended up loving the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and thought the Jungle Cruise was pretty cool. My favorite part of the park was Tom Sawyer Island.

Anne preferred the ice cream.

Probably the most unique thing about the Magic Kingdom was that we rode three different forms of transportation to get from the parking lot to the park, or vice versa. They offer occasional buses, monorail rides, and of course, they went Disney-style with ferry boat rides.

Our first night in Orlando we met up with our friend Ben and his friends for mini-golf at Winter Summerland – a mini-golf course featuring two opposite weather Christmas-themed sections.

We don’t have pictures of that…

But here are pictures of everyone eating at Steak ‘n Shake!

We also met up with them again later at Epcot.

We don’t have pictures of that either…

But here we are again at the Animal Kingdom with Ben!

Keeping Up! with the Animal Kingdom

Speaking of friends, we met my favorite person during our day at the Animal Kingdom…

…Russell!

Best. Day. Ever.

Here are some other things we did at the Animal Kingdom that were not quite as awesome as meeting Russell:

We watched the Festival of the Lion King (okay, it was pretty good.)

We checked out some alligators.

We discovered dinosaurs.

We went on a safari.

We rode Expedition Everest (oh fine, this may have been better).

We found the tree of life.

We rode unicorns over the Disney castle and then stopped for this quick lunch with Aladdin and…okay, just checking to make sure you were paying attention. ;)

It’s Raining in Epcot

I ended up being a little surprised by the layout of Epcot and after all it had been built up to be really expected more rides and shows. But it probably didn’t help that it rained our first day there.

We really enjoyed exploring Norway, being foodies in Japan and the random shows we ended up finding. And Text Trax is the best ride!

The flower and garden festival also made things a little more interesting with all of the Disney-shaped plants around.

Belle? Is that you?

Epcot, ladies and gentlemen!

But where in the world are these San Diegans now??

What’s coming next:

TEHE.

Until next time,

Rachel

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This is (at least) the fourth time I’ve had to come back to this post. Ay Caramba! (Okay, so I don’t technically know the meaning of that expression…but I’m sure any Spanish-speaking person will tell you that it fits this situation.)

Regardless, Bradenton was fantastic and I’m having trouble capturing it all.

From the good company to the good food and sandy beaches, we were hard-pressed to leave…even though we knew our next stop would be Disney World.

Red Barn. Strawberry Shortcake. Bealls. Let me just start by telling you how we ended up in Bradenton in the first place.

Getting to Bradenton

I’d been excited about Bradenton for some time because it was the next place I’d get to see family (having family or close friend visits is imperative to maintaining sanity on the road). My Uncle Bud and Aunt Jeanette have a vacation home in Florida so it was decided we’d make a stop between Pensacola and Disney World.

I think Anne & I knew it’d be heaven from the moment we felt their air-conditioned apartment and tasted turkey sandwiches.

Extreme heat tends to strip a persons happiness faster than a hungry piranha…and it was hot in Florida.

Ahh, the sweet taste of relaxation. That night we caught up my Aunt and Uncle on all of our road trip adventures and sat down to our first episode of one of my Uncle Bud’s favorite shows, The Good Wife. We also learned that one of Florida’s natural terrors lurked in the lake behind us…that’s right, I’m talking about alligators. And still, we slept soundly that night.

Strawberries & More

The next day we awoke to a hearty breakfast and a hot cup of coffee, then found ourselves whisked away to Parkesdale Farms.

Sittin' in a strawberry.

“What lies in Parkesdale Farms?” you ask.

Strawberry shortcake, that’s what.

Does this tempt you?

EVERYONE loves strawberry shortcake!

My cousins of a sort, Gail, Pat and Carol, met us for strawberry shortcake in Parkesdale and we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of conversation and complete deliciousness!

I, of course, was appointed queen of the strawberry.

Bealls Outlet was our next stop – the store my Uncle Bud had been raving about for its incredible shoe assortment. I tended to favor the clothing selection, although I did get a nice pair of tennis shoes. My first pair in years that weren’t borrowed or Converse – thank you Uncle Bud and Aunt Jeanette!

And if strawberry shortcake and shopping wasn’t enough, we enjoyed a fantastic buffet-style dinner, check out the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and ended the night with another relaxing evening at home.

The Beach

Our third day in Bradenton was a beach day. We drove around checking out the awesome views and crazy expensive houses, then settled under a beach umbrella in the sand.

Plus, we enjoyed some outdoor eats at a restaurant next to the beach.

See how close we are to the beach!

Bye Bye Bradenton

Sigh. Our last day in Bradenton had to come. We started it out right with a Cracker Barrel brunch and shopping at the Red Barn.

My main purchase of the day was a wide assortment of fruits & veggies. Apples, Bell Peppers, Oranges, Kiwis…after all, food doesn’t come with that $200-something Disney World ticket.

The characters of Toy Story look forward to meeting you.

And now back to my West Virginia sunset…

Until next time,

Rachel

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Peach wine — yeah, that sounded good. A free wine tasting is all you need to keep your day strong during a multi-hour ride from Madison, AL to Pensacola, FL.

I pulled out my phone to let Alex know when we’d be getting there. She was so worried about being able to time a meal with our arrival! Little did she realize that we’re really easy to please.

It was going to be the first time we’d seen Alex and Bryan since they got married. In fact, it would only be the third time we’d even met Bryan at all! It wasn’t too long ago that I’d have laughed at you for suggesting I’d actually be in Florida when I saw him next.

He wasn’t at the house when we arrived. In fact, Alex wasn’t there either, much to her dismay! But it was only a few moments before she pulled into the parking spot next to us, back from the grocery store with our dinner in hand.

After our delicious meal of filet mignon wrapped in bacon (Rachel tells me there was salad, but my memories are fondly filled with meat) we gathered Bryan from his place of work and headed straight to a quirky, somewhat Bohemian bar called The Elbow Room. By quirky, I mean nerdy. And by nerdy, I mean filled with Star Trek paraphernalia and references.

We played an intense game of Scrabble in which Rachel totally cheated to win. (Rachel tells me she didn’t cheat, but my memories are fondly filled with the idea that I should have won.) Bryan came a close second, with Alex and I somewhere in the distance yelling “Get back here now, I mean it!”

The Hunger Games was weighing heavily on my mind since I had read the whole first book in the last 24 hours, and when I voiced my preoccupation I learned that Alex was also very interested in seeing it. At first we thought we’d go and see it on Saturday (the next day) but the longer the night went on, the more we realized we had to go see it right then and there.

So we got to see the Hunger Games, which was awesome. And frankly, I don’t know if you noticed, but I was pretty awesome as well. (If you can’t see the picture, you won’t understand.)

…no, I am not a nerd. And yes, I read the books because of the movie. And that’s okay.

A warm welcome to Florida beaches.

We tried to start our own version of Hunger Games on the beach, but it didn't go as planned.

Florida beaches are much different than San Diego beaches. First of all, you can actually walk out into the water. We didn’t do that in Pensacola, but we could have.

Secondly, the water is pretty warm. For those of you from the West Coast, that’s just weird right?

Last of all, the water is really calm compared to San Diego beaches. I finally understood why we’re known for our surf back at home — it’s because we have surf.

We happened to be there on a day where there were actually some waves, but for most of what we saw in Florida that was a pretty rare sight.

That day included a drive-thru tour of the college Alex and Bryan attended and met at. We brought the day to a relaxing pace by picking up Hungry Howie’s pizza and watching Orange County for the first time.

We girls felt a little sluggish after that and went for a run. It turns out Alex is in much better jogging shape than either of us.

Bidding farewell to old friends.

Our time in Pensacola felt short as Sunday morning rolled around. After we bade Alex and Bryan adieu,  we picked up some tasty caffeine at a local shop called the Drowsy Poet (we got the Shakespeare and Milton) and were on our way.

If you’re ever in Pensacola, make sure you hit the beach (if only to see the white sand). It’s a beautiful thing, and it was one of my favorite Florida beaches.

Over and out.

Anne

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Before I plunge into this Alabama tale, I’d like to point out just how difficult it’s been for us to exercise on this trip. Not that other states don’t have enough open space to work out it…but unless we awkwardly abandon our hosts in the morning for a run, exercise in their living room, or stop on the side of the road during a drive, exercise is rather inconvenient.

The main problem, I guess, is that I’m not especially eager to exercise in the first place. So if you make the whole process of exercising difficult to arrange, let’s just say I’m not gonna go out of my way to make things happen.

Anyway, I bring all this up because Anne & I actually exercised a few days ago! Impressive, I know. And you know that whole two-days after thing where you just want to tear off your limbs because your muscles are in so much pain? Well, that happened to us yesterday. And based on the incredibly long time it took us to walk up a hill, I think our desire for health and fitness has at last been renewed. Here’s to a new week of movement!

Silly City Folk

The drive into Alabama, much like most of our driving in the South, was beautiful and generally free of people. We headed to Madison, a city near the top of the state, to meet Anne’s family friends the Schultz’s for dinner and real beds.

“We need to buy gas soon,” we said to one another. ”This place up here looks cheap!”

It was cheap for sure, but it also wasn’t automatic, only offered one type of gas and certainly didn’t have “pay at the pump” options.

“So I guess we just go inside?” I said, and inside I walked.

“Uh, Hi! So do I just pay here for gas?” I said to the woman at the counter.

“Hello! Welcome wearied traveler! Yes, you can pay right here!” she told me.

Okay so maybe she didn’t say it exactly like that, but this lady was friendly. 

“Okay great, do you guys take cards? Or is there a charge or something if I use one?”

“Oh yeah, it’s $2.13,” she said.

“$2.13?”

“Yes,” and then she proceeded to tell me what I thought was something about them being a gas station in the middle of no where so of course they have to charge a fee because of expenses and whatever.

“Oh okay, yeah, that makes sense,” I said. “Well uh, I’ll just get $25 in gas then if that works.”

“Okay, $27.13 is your total. I’ll get your bag of ice.”

Ice? Maybe I heard her wrong, I thought. Maybe it’s a Southern thing…Buy a gallon of gas and get a bag of ice FREE! No, that’s ridiculous. Maybe she’s getting a receipt? No…that’s definitely ice. And sure enough…

“Here’s your ice!” she said as she plopped down a large bag of ice on the counter and slid it to me.

I should just take it. I don’t want to be rude, I mean, she’s SO NICE. No, where would we even put the ice?? 

“Um,” I said. “I didn’t, uh, want ice.”

“You didn’t??” she laughed, confused. “I thought you said you wanted ice!”

I laughed with her. “Oh! No, I just wanted to buy some gas!”

I had already paid so we agreed to just apply $27.13 toward gas.

“Okay, thanks!” I said to her, walking out.

“You have to stop it manually at $27.13,” she told me because clearly I was new at this.

I confirmed I heard her and wandered back outside to tell Anne my story while we attempted to figure out the gas pump.

“We have to stop it manually,” I told Anne.

“What? Really? Hmm…” we pondered the gas pump together.

“How do you start it?” I asked Anne. She didn’t know.

After an embarrassingly long amount of time the nice lady at the counter came out to help us.

“Hahaha, you city folk!” she told us and showed us how to pull up the lever and start pumping the gas.

We probably still looked really confused because then an older man who worked there came out to help us.

“You girls need help?” he said in a gruff voice.

“Uh, sure,” we said.

And after another minute of embarrassment as he stood there pumping our gas for us, we were back on the road and laughing at our first true taste of the South.

Shuffleboard with the Schultz’s

Shortly after we arrived in Madison, we were fed an awesome dinner of corn bread, cucumber salad and a shredded beef type of stew. Mmm. Lydia and Bob then gave us the official tour, ending with the awesome game room they have upstairs.

Here we discovered shuffleboard. Well, it’s where Anne discovered it and I actually learned how to play.

Shuffleboard is fantastic and took up much of our time at the Schultz’s home. Anne meticulously re-vamped the wax table and we had some pretty close games. If you haven’t ever played shuffleboard, get on that (because it’s pretty fun).

Unclaimed Baggage & Wine

The next day we decided on visiting the Unclaimed Baggage center Lydia had told us about. It’s a store comprised of everything people leave at airports, purchased sight-unseen by this store and sold to whoever wants it.

There was some pretty awesome stuff there including diamond rings, a TON of clothes, and iPads! My question for you is, who decides it’s too much work to get their DIAMOND RING back? Were they just like, “Oh, whatever. I’ll just spend another $10,000 and get a new one. No biggie.” My conclusion is that they must have died in the wearisome process of baggage claim.

Anyway, we bought some pretty neat stuff there like my new camera bag. I was in dire need of an upgrade from the plastic Target bag I was using.

After we were all shopped-out we headed back to the Schultz’s house and Lydia treated us to a wine tasting where a few of her awesome friends hang out on Thursday’s. Shout out to all of our Madison friends!

Anne and I are pretty sophisticated wine drinkers now – especially after our Vineyard stop on our way out of Alabama where we had another wine tasting and bought the most delicious Peach wine. We even tried chocolate wine with Lydia. Imagine mixing chocolate milk with wine…now you can share with the kids, too! Just kidding. ;)

But before we knew it, our time in Alabama was over and we were headed out on the long drive to Pensacola where Alex and Bryan eagerly awaited our arrival, thinking of nothing else. Well, probably.

Until next time,

Rachel

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My first thoughts entering Georgia were… well, I can’t really share them with you because there wasn’t a whole lot of nice words involved.

Yes, we’ve found a state that rivals Texas in the poor driving department.

(I’ve been warned there’s more to come.)

Other than the other drivers, it wasn’t a bad drive as far as road trips go, a little under four hours from Knoxville to Atlanta.

Ready to have your mind blown?

As soon as we crossed the border from Tennessee to Georgia, I’d started craving a certain onion I’d discovered shortly before we left San Diego. The name of the onion wouldn’t come to me so I finally texted home to figure it out. I learned they were called Vidalia Onions.

Now, I’m not usually of the onion eating persuasion, so with my sudden craving I decided to learn a bit more about my new desire. It started by Googling the very interesting health benefits onions offer. Then I started finding out specific information about Vidalia – and it turns out they’re only grown in Georgia.

To review: Cross the border. Specific craving. For food only available from that state. That I would normally never want.

Bam. Mind blown.

Saying hello to Kacy & Adam.

We felt a little lost but finally managed to pull into the right neighborhood as the sun was beginning to go down.

A small group of women stood near the parking spaces, and Rachel recognized Kacy as we headed over. Shortly after parking, we all greeted each other and moved inside.

We learned that Adam was going to be available to hang out with us, which wasn’t usual for their schedule, but in the meantime we got to know each other. Kacy cooked us a delicious spaghetti dinner and introduced us to the interesting mixture of alfredo sauce with marinera.

Adam got home later in the evening and joined us for wine, TV and conversation in the living room for about an hour before we all started drifting off to our own beds.

That night we got to sleep in a beautiful bedroom on what had to be one of the most comfortable mattresses known to mankind.

Atlanta reintroduces Rachel to sushi.

Compared to a lot of sushi eaters, I’m still new to the game. I’ve enjoyed sushi for a few years now and I’m still stuck on the classics (give me that tuna roll and salmon, please!) — but Rachel mostly hasn’t been into it the way I have. She never craves it.

The next day, after a trip to AutoZone for brake fluid and to check the engine light on the car (minor stuff, really, so don’t be alarmed) we met back up with Adam and Kacy for sushi.

It was my first experience with edamame. Oh, edamame. It turns out I love edamame.

There was a Tuesday special going on at their favorite sushi shop, and Adam usually was still at work, but not that week. So we all went. They’ve both spent a lot of time in Japan and guided Rachel to sushi choices she’d be most likely to enjoy, and they somehow managed to pick all the right things!

Kacy had been craving home-made scones since we’d arrived the night before, and Kroger was right next door to the sushi place, so we made a quick stop over for supplies.

We learned that Kacy has an incredible recipe for scones.

Getting inspired for the next adventure.

I forget when it was originally brought up, but we got to talking to Adam about the travels he’s been on. First of all — he’s already seen all 50 states, as well as having visited Japan about a thousand times and seen many other countries.

During his travels, he met a lot of people who were teaching (or had previously taught) English in foreign countries. He was very excited at the idea of teaching English in Korea, where the programs pay the most relative to the hours, have the most perks, and there is the lowest cost of living.

Long story short, that’s now on my list of “likely maybes” for the upcoming years after this trip.

Our last day: The day of Adam.

After all of our bonding and talking over dinner, Adam was very excited to plan out our last day in Atlanta before we made our way to Alabama. Kacy laughed at him and said he’s never one to make plans, so that made Rachel and I feel pretty special!

We woke up to the amazing smells of sausage gravy and biscuits hot in the kitchen, and before long we were feasting for breakfast. Adam managed to lure Kacy out of bed with breakfast and before long we were on our way to see Stone Mountain Park.

We arrived at a very theme-park-esque area before getting into the park. It felt a lot like walking into Knotts Berry Farm, only with less promise of roller coasters.

Kacy & Adam hadn’t been for a while and were shocked to see the amount of construction once we got inside. Every year they have a special lights show on the mountain, and it seemed they were building stadium seating for the event.

Adam had packed bocci ball set so we hunted around to find a grassy area that wasn’t fenced off for the construction. Thankfully, we found one, and Rachel and I got our first lessons in bocci ball!

Only too soon did we realize it was time to be off. We said our farewells and drove off West to Alabama.

Over and out.

Anne

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As you may remember reading here, we stayed with our friends Jenna & Adam in Knoxville, Tennessee.

But before we begin…intros!

Jenna (and little Owen)!

Adam!

Night Numero Uno in Knoxville

Everything we ate in Knoxville tasted like it had been whipped up by the finest chefs in heaven.

I know, I know…we’re talking about food AGAIN?

Yes, yes we are.

It’s like they think they’re the Jim Gaffigan’s of blogging or something…

Anyway, after we met up with Jenna and Adam and were introduced to their two adorable kitties, Jenna took us out to her favorite BBQ place. It’s been awesome staying with locals because they tell you about all the best places to visit, like this one: Sweet P’s Barbeque.

Now, both Anne & I are already huge fans of pulled pork but this place took things to another level. Not only did we get some pretty generous servings of BBQ pulled pork, but Sweet P’s had four other varieties of BBQ sauce to choose from and add to your pork. AND they gave us macaroni (yum) and green beans. Thank you Jenna & Adam!

Afterward, we picked up some DVDs and called it a night.

That brings us to day two.

Relaxation & Noms.

Day two at Adam and Jenna’s was much more laid back, something we were in dire need of after our constant location changes. (Sometimes it feels like even 72 hours of sleep won’t cut it.)

Saturday morning we awoke to the smell of a breakfast feast. Bacon? Yes. Ham & Egg Casserole? Yes. Perfect deliciousness? Yes.

We checked out Super Target for the very first time in Knoxville. The best way I can describe my excitement in going here is to say that if I were a cat, this would be like visiting a three story climbing tower (complete with catnip pillows) for the first time.

That night Adam’s sister’s family came over for a dinner of chili and corn bread (also DELICIOUS) and we spent our 2012 St. Patrick’s Day in pleasant conversation.

Our Mini-Hike

Our last full day in Knoxville started out with a church service and a tasty meal at Adam’s favorite Italian restaurant.

Then we headed off to the city we’d heard so much about…Gatlinburg!

First stop: the Smokey Mountains.

National Park Stop #2.

We’d decided to do some hiking while we were in the Smokey Mountains since checking out a placed preserved for it’s natural beauty from the inside of our car just seemed wrong…

“Which hike should we go on?” we asked ourselves.

But before we could decide on a trail we ran into something even more blasphemous than viewing a national park from your car window – Bible thumping. Yes, at the entrance to the beautiful Smokey Mountains stood a man on a bench shouting at everyone in sight about the woes of hell and probably the horrors of hiking in national parks…but don’t quote me on that second part.

After accidentally stealing a $0.50 park map, we were off to Cataract Falls.

Follow me...

It had rained a few days before we began our hike to the falls which made our journey that much more interesting.

Luckily, we’re adventurous.

In the end, it turned out to be a worth-while hike because the falls were beautiful.

It seems we just can’t shake that San Diego side of us though, because we brought a towel with us in hopes of some nice relaxation by the water. FYI: Waterfalls are not at all like beaches – there are bugs, dirt and more bugs. Things didn’t work out with the towel.

Sigh.

Adventures in Fantasy Golf

Visiting Gatlinburg and the nearby city of Pigeon Forge was like visiting Las Vegas after a recent collision with Disney World. It was chaos and over-the-top styled buildings, complete with flashing lights.

We played Fantasy Golf while we were there and toured the free magic museum part of the upside-down Wonderworks building.

Our extended stint of mini-golf behind two hillbillies…

See the hillbillies in the background looking confused?

We had lots of extra time to take amusing pictures.

To end our adventurous day out, Anne and I headed out with Jenna for some late-night ice cream at Bruster’s. I recommend the Coffee Cake Streusel…mmm.

And that ends the tale of Knoxville – lucky number 13.

In other news, my taxes are finally finished – here’s to hoping that none of us get audited! ;)

Until next time,

Rachel

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Tennessee… the Bible Belt. The hot dog state.

The "I can't think of anymore weird nicknames" state.

Remember how I said that Carla’s roommate Ryan helped us out? Well, if you don’t, you should know that he helped us out in Memphis. (That’s how this all ties in.)

He wasn’t actually in Memphis while we were there, but he definitely helped us find a place to stay. Let’s move on with this story now.

Quick Review: Memphis

We got to Memphis with not much to do. Graceland was on the list until we saw the cost to get in. Sorry Elvis – it just wasn’t worth $60+ to go see your house.

We made a short stop at a park near the zoo. After some debate, we decided since we weren’t meeting anyone for a while, we should sit down and work.

For the record: Memphis kind of scared us a bit. There were signs warning of car theft just about everywhere we went. We decided to play it safe (you know, cause we have everything we need with us in the car) and coughed up $5 to park in a legit seeming garage. The story would be way more interesting if something bad happened, but it didn’t.

We Starbucksed it up near the baseball park for a few hours before we decided it was time to head out to Beale Street – tourism center of Memphis.

"Do a thumbs up," she said. "It will look cool," she said.

Run down: Live music? Awesome. Neat little stores? Great. Good BBQ? Sweet.

After it started getting dark, we finally were going to be able to go meet Pete, Ryan’s friend in Memphis.

Pete is not only a really great guy, but also a talented tattoo artist at Inked – which was the cleanest tattoo shop I’ve ever been in, no questions asked. If you’re ever in town, hit him up for any ink you’ve been wanting to get :) and don’t forget to tell him we sent you!

Pete took us out to a restaurant he used to manage called Ubee’s. We spent the rest of the night hanging out, meeting his buddies and pretending we might try karaoke (but Pete definitely sang!).

That night we slept on Pete’s couch before disappearing into the morning on our way to Nashville.

Quick Review: Nashville

To be sure, we couldn’t find anyone to stay with in Nashville, so we used my SPG card again to find a cheap place to stay. We found a hotel just south of Nashville and checked in as soon as we could.

We were pretty tired, so our first line of order was hopping into bed for a nap.

My favorite part of hotels is access to showers and their unlimited hot water, and not needing to worry about taking a long time and being able to really scrub clean. We showered all up, got all settled in with our stuff and… then we looked outside.

There was a ton of lightning, and even more rain.

Curse you, Nashville! So we spent the night in, ordered delicious pizza and spent about 1 1/2 hours trying to stream a single episode of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.

But the best was yet to come.

The following day shall go down into history. Let it be declared that March 16th, 2012 was the day I ate the best burger of my life at National Underground in Nashville, TN.

Please brace yourself as I share this most intimate moment with you.

Before I knew what I was about to bite into.

Digging into my first bite.

Being brought to tears at its perfection.

I've seen heaven.

They had such high quality beef that they are legally allowed to serve rare burgers. It was the sort of melt in your mouth beef that you can’t just find anywhere. The juices from the beef soaked into the bun which held the flavor in. The cheese and sautéed onions rounded the whole thing out with the perfect amount of everything a burger should have.

…ahem. So we also did other things in Nashville since it wasn’t so rainy that day, like walking around and eating ice cream.

Then it was time to go see our friends Jenna and Adam in Knoxville, TN!

Just the beginning: Knoxville

Staying with Jenna and Adam deserves its own post, so I’m only going to talk about a couple of things here.

First of all, Jenna has been expecting and was only a few weeks away from her due date when we got there.

Yesterday, Jenna and Adam became the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy! Meet… Owen Thomas Wilson.

His nose is way cuter than the actor's.

We are SO EXCITED :)

Also, they caught us taking pictures of their cats, so I made a promise that Sven would make it into the blog.

"This is a catastrophe. I paws to wonder why they'd take my picture, even though I'm purfect." - Sven

Over and out!

Anne

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I’d be lying if I said Arkansas was my favorite state, but neither can I say I hated it. We stayed with Anne’s family friends in Little Rock, only a four hour drive from Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Two hours after we started we needed a break, so we stopped by a park to take pictures and a Walmart to relax and buy some much-needed car snacks (you know, for those strenuous couple-hour drives).

The park was beautiful.

This is what I look like in Troll form.

Walmart was basically average so we didn’t take pictures of that. Something notable to mention: Walmarts are like the Starbucks of the West. They have taken over and instead of just boycotting all four corners of an intersection like Starbucks, they just build a huge freaking Supercenter and claim half the city as their parking lot.

The Never-Ending Birthday

Our hosts, the Singleton’s, weren’t getting in until late so we waited things out at Starbucks (which is also where I happen to be right now). Around 11, we got the call to head on over.

“Is yours the crazy mansion?” Anne texted Amber Singleton.

She laughed. “Oh, I’ll show you the real mansions tomorrow!”

And boy, were they big.

The day of our arrival was also the day of Jonathan’s eighth birthday – the youngest of the Singleton’s. And even though he’d already had a birthday dinner that night, it was no surprise it continued for days more!

We met nearly every Singleton during the breakfast for dinner birthday feast we had Sunday night. And we tried grits for the first time!

Awesome-shaped pankcakes

Amber decorating the (pan)cake for the birthday boy

The birthday celebration continued on a few days later when Jonathan’s friends all came over to celebrate. And just like the timeless quality of a breakfast for dinner feast, the sherbet cake that came along with this new celebration was nothing but enjoyable.

“My, aren’t these Singleton’s busy!” we thought. It’s almost like they have nine kids or something (they do).

That Dam Bridge

We hadn’t really known what to expect of Arkansas so we didn’t make plans before arriving. We talked with Amber about possible Little Rock activities and she directed us to an older hotel downtown and a big bridge nearby. After the three of us went on a long city drive, we knew a little more about what to expect in Little Rock and Anne & I managed not to get completely lost like we’ve been in other cities.

Half of our visit to the Capital Hotel was comprised of finding a parking spot. By itself the hotel might not have been entirely worth it, but we got free lemonade and that made things nicer.

The Capital Hotel, founded in 1873, has the most beautiful stained glass windows and architecture. You just can’t help but stare.

Walking inside, the both of us felt a little outclassed. It felt similar to the experience of walking into a designer store and being politely asked if you can be helped with anything while that same person simultaneously stares you down because you and your sweatpants clearly don’t have enough money to be there.

The bridge, appropriately called the Big Dam Bridge, took us clear across the Arkansas River and is the longest pedestrian bridge in the U.S.

We took more awesome pictures there!

We also had our first taste of Mexican food in the South while we were in Little Rock. And maybe it wasn’t up to San Diego’s standards…but I just can’t help but like that white queso they have! Thanks for treating us Amber!

In other news…that tax due date sure is coming up soon isn’t it? Better get started.

Rock on fellow taxpayers!

Until next time,

Rachel

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It feels like a year and a day ago that we were floating down the Mississippi river, into the great wild yonder.

Alright, so we didn’t actually go out on the Mississippi River, but it sure as hell felt like it from our viewpoint in our house on the bank. (That’s misleading: Obviously it wasn’t our house.)

If that view didn’t just take your breath away, then I don’t know what’s wrong with you.

For the sake of brevity, and catching you up on our trip I’m going to try to keep our adventures in Mississippi brief and easy to digest.

Biloxi: Our first vacation from our vacation.

Goodbye Hope of NOLA! Onto Biloxi, where no one on CouchSurfing replied to us.

Hello Four Points by Sheraton, thanks for rescuing us using through SPG’s great travel rewards. (By the way, if you’d like to help us earn points and are interested in a great travel benefits card, email me and I’ll send you a referral email that earns us 5,000 points if you get one too – in other words, three $40 nights at hotels.)

We got a Gulf view, and didn’t see much of Biloxi because we were too involved enjoying the sweet, sweet amazingness, comfort and privacy of a hotel bed. You don’t realize how much you value privacy until you’re staying on people’s couches for months on end.

Vicksburg: More than we expected (and adorable puppies).

Goodbye Four Points, thank you for truly making us feel like special guests!

Hello, Carla of Vicksburg!

I have to tell you – Carla went above and beyond for us while we were there. First of all, we got our own room (yay!) and second of all… when we got stuck with nowhere to be for 2 extra nights, she put us up until we got our situation figured out.

So… Huge, huge thanks and gratitude goes out to Carla. If you ever meet her, buy her a drink because she rocks.

Also, we got to meet her character filled Cocker Spaniel, Tuko (not sure on spelling, there).

…and we were there when she got her oh my goodness brace yourself cute puppy.

SQUEE!!

…so, yeah. Let’s review our itinerary in Mississippi.

The Retrospective Itinerary

DAY ONE

Pulling up to the house:

“Wow. Is this really the house we’re staying at? OMG YES THIS IS IT.” High fives.

Meeting Carla:

“This chick is pretty neat. And she cooks crazy good food!”

Hanging out with Carla’s friends, Matt and Alex (male & female, respectively):

“Wow, Carla has some very fun friends.”

That first night we met all of the puppies. I held, snuggled, loved and played with every single one of them (I think there were 5).

DAY TWO

Day two started out relatively uneventful. We worked on things at the local coffee shop, but not for too long.

We saw a little Coca Cola museum, but the lady inside was mean and it was more expensive than we were willing to pay for such a tiny exhibit.

That turned into a theme for the day.

Then we drove around looking for fun Vicksburg-y things, like Civil War museums… but they were all in the wrong ratio of “cost” to “worth seeing”.

Which leads us to… meeting up with Carla, Matt & Alex to go listen to some live music at Monsours At The Biscuit Co.

We went out to go see a place called Daiquiri World. Sadly, it turned out to be closed when we got there.

DAY THREE

The day before it had been determined we had nowhere to be until Saturday, and Carla opened up her house to us for the next two nights.

Day three was another relatively uneventful day (except it lasted all day).

I think we did a bit of exercise, and a lot of regular work at the house. Then we made our way into the world for a Kroger run where I fell victim to a tub of Blue Bells Cookies & Cream ice cream.

We also got our first taste of Big Bang Theory while it was on in the background.

DAY FOUR

This was our last full day in Mississippi. We spent the morning working (we took advantage of Mississippi for working time, as you can see.)

That night, we were finally able to hang out with Carla, Matt & Alex… and also Ryan (Carla’s roommate) at Daiquiri World!

Alex & Matt

Ryan, Carla & Matt

Shot Wheel of Terror & Me

…and there’s a little more on how Carla’s roommate helped us hook up with someone in Memphis, but I’ll leave that for the next post.

Over and out.

Anne

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