Day 23: Memphis to Atkins, VA

Today was the second of three days with nothing but driving; so in an attempt to not have you fall asleep, drool, and cause irreparable damage to your keyboard, I've decided to devote today's post to the food we've encountered along our trip.

Food has always been a major attraction on this trip for us, which is why we made a rule very early on to avoid national chain restaurants whenever possible. And the first gastronomical geographic location of note was that of the Windy City, Chicago, home to Chicago style hot dogs and deep dish or "stuffed" pizza. Chicago is a tasty city. Chicago style dogs are not like the New York dogs most of us are used to; rather, they are more of a large vienna sausage on a poppy seed bun piled high with tomatoes, pickles, chilis, onions, relish, and mustard but NEVER ketchup; never ever. Deep dish pizza is actually a thin crust pizza that makes a right angle at the end of the crust, goes up for about 2 inches, and gets filled with tomato sauce, lots of cheese, toppings, and more sauce. BOTH are absolutely delicious! And you know what? It isn't even a matter of which tastes better New York or Chicago styles pizza or dogs; they're just completely different and both good in their own right.

Our next course was in Minnesota, the land of ten thousand lakes... and fried cheese curd. Yes, you read that right, fried cheese curd. I suppose you could liken it to fried mozzarella, but our opinion of its worth was split down the middle of the family, half liking it, the other half not. However, the walleye fish also calls the Upper Midwest home, and that we deemed good eats. (Copyright disclaimer if Alton Brown is reading this. Oh and Alton, if you are reading this, dude, you're awesome!)

But perhaps fried cheese and walleye are not in line with your pallette, may I entice you with a few Rocky Mountain Oysters? Yes, the most infamous of all mountain man cuisine, these deep fried buffalo or bull testicles are a delicasy in the Mountain West, but alas, the shock value was too much for my family and they would not allow me to partake in this regional fare. Shame. But if any of you try it, please tell what I'm missing.

Las Vegas was the buffet. Woohoo. Picture your normal buffet and triple its size; that's the grandeur of a Vegas buffet. I know I'm breezing through the buffet in this blog, but at the time, so did we.

Texas though was some of the best food of the trip. In San Antonio, Lori's and my families ate together at Mi Tierra, a Tex-Mex restaurant in the Mercado section of the city, which is essentially the Mexican cultural center. The margaritas were the best I've even had, the beef for the fajitas were rich with flavor, and the torillas were about as authentic as I think it gets. Should you ever stroll through San Antonio and get a little hungry, I strongly suggest you sit down at Mi Tierra and have a taste of the best Tex-Mex you've ever had. We eventually got to our Texas BBQ in Houston at Pappas BBQ, and boy, was it amazing! The sliced beef was the most tender we've ever had as it practically fell apart while we picked it up with our forks. You could taste the smokey goodness left in the meat after hours of cooking. These are the reasons why one goes to Texas and comes back five pounds heavier.

Lastly, we rode into Memphis. This stop above all others was solely picked for the quality of its food. Seriously, Memphis is out of the way when one is driving between Houston and New Jersey. It is, however, home of Memphis-style BBQ, which as we found out, is some of the most delicious food America has to offer the world. Memphis-style BBQ is one part long, smoking BBQ grilling and two parts delicious, savory, smokey sauce. We had our fill edible Memphis at Jim Neely's Interstate BBQ, consistently ranked as one of the top three BBQ places in the entire United States, and if I had my say, that ranking is probably still a little low- this place is simply the best ribs you will ever have in your life. In fact, my brother commented that now that we had had these ribs, what was the point of living life after it because life was only going to pale in comparison after this. Maybe he was right, but I won't be able to tell until I start cooking again for myself, which would probably kill me anyways. Oh well. Just remember this little maxim I heard once when you go out and try something new or different, "You have to live to eat, not eat to live."

Day 22: Vicksburg, MS to Memphis, TN

Driving Dist/ Time: 251 mi./ 3h 47min.

Sights Seen: Vicksburg National Military Park

Sights Missed: Everything else in northern Mississippi (whatever that was...)

We do the Civil War, and we do it often. We've done an entire family vacation in Virginia, a major portion of which was dedicated to the "Lee's Retreat" trail between Petersburg and Appomattox Court House; so the idea of doing an entire vacation without seeing something related to the American Civil War is kind of alien to us. Well, we remedied that today by visiting one of the most crucial victories for the Union during the War - the siege of Vicksburg. The story of the siege is actually quite straightforward. General Ulysses S. Grant led his Army of the Tennessee down through northern Louisiana to capture the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, MS, which was the last remaining stronghold along the Mississippi River that had not fallen into Union hands. While standing, Vicksburg allowed the Confederate troops to remain supplied as its port and rail connections led deep into the heart of Rebel lands. After Union frontal attacks on the town prooved fruitless, Grant established a siegeline outside of the city until the Confederate troops surrendered on July 3, 1863, 47 days after the siege had first been ordered.

In the many years since the siege, many monuments, memorials, placemarkers, etc... have been been erected to remember those on both sides who fought and died. Two of the most striking monuments were perhaps those from Missouri and Kentucky. The state of Missouri, while a Union state, also fielded a number of Confederate reigments; during the siege, there was one point were both Missouri Union and Confederate regiments directly faced and fought each other. To remember the soldiers from Missouri on both sides, Missouri established a monument to remember this one event. The state of Kentucky erected a monument in honor of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the presidents on both sides of the war, both being born in the state of Kentucky. Perhaps a big fluke in the annals of American history, these two men were born less than 100 miles away from each other, about a year apart, yet led competing sides in a war of ideologies that tore a nation apart. To commemorate both of these men for the honor and courage to stand by their convictions, Kentucky erected its monument.

They say that the Civil War put brother against brother and father against son; nowhere did this seem more clear and evident than today at Vicksburg National Military Park.

States visited to date: 19

National Park Passport cancellations to date: 23

Days 20 and 21: San Antonio to Houston to Vicksburg, MS

Again, we have combined a number of days. If you remember the beginning of our trip, we made a "mad dash" for the Mississippi River; we have essentially done the same thing but in reverse.

We set out from San Antonio and headed for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Upon arriving, I have to admit my utter shock and dismay at what I saw; the majority of Visitor's Center was occupied by a giant ball pit and small ropes course called "Daredevil Island." This "attraction" had absolutely nothing to do with space or NASA, and to be honest, I was appalled that the Space Center was wasting space on this crap. Either way, they did have a tram tour of Mission Control, the Astronaut Training Facility, and the rocket garden at JSC, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Following JSC, we enjoyed some local Texas BBQ at Pappas BBQ and prepared for our first of three long-haul drives.

Which occurred today. Houston to Vicksburg was a loooooooong day. We drove through Southern Louisiana through the cities of Lake Charles, Lafayette, and Baton Rouge. We hit traffic in two of those cities and in a third place where a truck and caught on fire and brought the Interstate to a halt for over an hour. While the conversations that took place between us and the other drivers along the bayou was a nice way to kill the time until the traffice started to move again, I think we still would have preferred to have been continuing on our journey. Let's face it, traffic can occur absolutely anywhere and can be completely unexpected, and in reality, you just have to suck it up and deal with it because outside of the Northeast, the highway you're on is in all likelihood the only one that'll get you yo where you want to go. Just one more McNugget of wisdom for you to munch on. ;)

Day 19: San Antonio

You may notice that there's no Day 18. You may notice that there's no mileage or sights seen for the mysterious, missing Day 18. Day was boring. We drove, a lot. You missed nothing. We went from Pecos, TX to San Antonio and saw nothing; seriously, even the Texans we know here asked us why we stayed in Pecos- we don't really have a good reason for it other than it got us closer to San Antonio.

So now, Day 19, as presented by guess writer, JeanneMarie McNamara:

"Well today, July 26th, your faithful blog composer decided to take a vacation from the vacation and is leaving the writing to his olde mom. After arriving in San Antonio [two nights ago] we decided to visit the one place everyone thinks of when they think of here - no, not the Lone Star Brewery but a place better known in history- the Alamo. While Deaglan for to visit the Japanese Gardens in Breckenridge Park with his girlfriend, [Lori], the rest of the Band on the trip traveled down the Missions Trail. In almost 3 hours we managed to visit 3 of the 5 original missions along the San Antonio River- starting in the hear of the city and the crowds at the Alamo, the site where the battle for Texas began. We then rushed off to Mission Concepcion and then to the best restored mission, San Jose y San Miguel.

We then rushed back to the hotel mid-afternoon meeting up with Deaglan and Lori and a friend of Kevin and Jeanne's - Anne Huth - a native San Antonian - for ice cream sundaes. Deaglan and Liam had not seen her since they were 6 and 2 respectively.

We then departed at 6pm to meet Lori's mom and Dad, [Irma and Jaime,] who had driven in from Midland, TX to enjoy an evening together at Mi Tierra."

That is all loyal listeners, until tomorrow!

Day 17: Las Cruces, NM to Pecos, TX

Driving Dist/ Time: 193 mi./ 3h 32min. (to Carlsbad Caverns NP); 103 mi./ 1h 52min. (to Pecos)

Sights seen: Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Sights missed: Guadalupe Mountains National Park

It was a border mission. The McNamara family was called on by the Commander-in-Chief himself to personally survey the Texas-New Mexico border between El Paso and Carlsbad; when the Chief calls, you answer! We proceeded from our rally point in Las Cruces toward the population center of El Paso. Following well-marked routes through the city, we followed the directions of our military-grade GPS device, CODEWORD: TOM TOM. We checked in with the US Border Patrol about an hour outside of El Paso only to be held up in traffic due to suspiciously placed road construction an hour later; the Chief would not be pleased by the delay. After the "construction," we learned of an infiltration of illegal immigrants in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, to which we immediately responded. Upon arriving at the Park, we found a makeshift barricade erected at the entrance the park; it seems the Border Patrol had already responded, was going to "neutralize" the threat, and that we were not needed and were allowed to continue on our original mission. Once entering Carlsbad Caverns NP, we immediately obtained the high ground and Mom was sent out to perform a 360 degree recon of the area. Once deemed safe, we assaulted the main bunker with "Visitor's Center" on the front (heh, cheap ruse!) and interrogated the militants inside. Their uniforms very much resembled the US Forest Service's uniforms, but we could also see through this ruse. We ventured further into the bowels of the bunker, which seemed to be connected by a 750ft. tall elevator shaft to enormous underground Caverns with amazing displays of speleothems (stalagmites, stalactites, etc...), and while we were there, people were down here as well, they did not wear the uniforms of the militants above and they seemed more interested by the cave formations than of any malicious plots in the making. After surveying the caverns for approximately 2 to 3 hours (and taking the just recently declassified photographs now in the photo album), we left the Caverns. The TOM TOM sent us down a non-upgraded, dirt road, which did not suit our non-military grade vehicle well and were then forced to find an alternate route. We soon thereafter made camp for the night and filed our report to the Chief.

Well, it may not have happened exactly as stated here, but take out the military charm and find an accurate depiction of the trip (and yes, we were stopped by the US Border Patrol deep within Texas. Seriously though, see the pics; it's the best way to get a feeling for what we saw.

States visited to date: 16

National Park Passport cancellations to date: 20

Day 16: Scottsdale, AZ to Las Cruces, NM

Driving Dist/ Time: 111mi./ 1h 56min. (to Saguaro National Park); 305mi./ 4h 31min. (to Las Cruces)

Sights Seen: Saguaro National Park

My brother found a post card in one of the gift shops earlier in our trip. The picture was of a car driving along a road in the distance with two cacti in the forefront, both with their arms hanging lazily to the side with one cacti saying to the other, "Quick! Put up your arms, the tourists are coming!" At this point, my brother and I became determined to sneak up on a cactus and catch it off guard with its arms drooping. Well, as we learned from Saguaro NP, the ones with arms drooping are in fact either sick, dead, or mutated... oh... that's no fun... But our trip to Saguaro was certainly no wash because we were able to see some truly amazing stuff. Saguaro, name after the Saguaro cactus, is home to many different types of the green, prickly plant including the saguaro, barrel, cholla, and prickly pear cacti. Additionally, the Park contains a variety of other desert flora and fauna including the ocotillo plant (seen in the picture above next to the cactus) and the Lesser Long-Nosed Bat, an endangered species which has made its home in the Park. At many points along the 8-mile driving tour route, the visitor gets an opportunity to see spectacular individual specimens of cacti as well as fields and valleys filled and teeming with cacti as if it were a forest. Perhaps to native Arizonans, this Park is not much to write home about, but for a couple of Northeasterners who never seen anything like it, Saguaro was a unique experience and a bit of desert life not to be missed.

States visited to date: 15

National Park Passport cancellations to date: 19

Las Vegas, NV through Scottsdale, AZ

Viva Las Vegas! Well, kinda. You may have noticed that the title for this section is slightly different from other posts. Well, that’s because it is different. This section of the trip predominantly takes place in the area of the home of my Uncle Brian in Scottsdale, AZ. Vegas, despite all of its allure, was only a one night stopover for us. No gambling, no shows- just the buffet. You may say that we cheated ourselves, didn’t really experience all that Vegas has to offer, but you know, we didn’t think so. We needed a place to stay and then move on to Scottsdale; for our purposes, Vegas was everything we wanted it to be.

Leaving Las Vegas, we headed towards Hoover Dam. Word to the wise- if you see Hoover Dam, prepare for pain. Lots of pain and in many forms. First, you will encounter the pain of lots of traffic. You see, the road over Hoover Dam is the most direct route between Las Vegas and Arizona, which doesn’t seem like much until I remind the reader that Nevada and Arizona are the two states with the fastest growing populations. So it does not take much imagination to picture the hordes of cars trying to pass over the two-lane road over the dam and the annoying traffic it causes. Second, you will deal with the most accident prone people that each state has to offer. Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon are probably two of the most iconic American vacation spots and therefore it lures all types of people from all across the States to it like moths to a fly zapper. People will frequently dart in front of traffic to get from one side of the Dam to the other despite the Hummer that is barreling towards them. Survival of the fittest might be a great theme for this section of the trip, but I hear that the Theory of Social Darwinism is generally discouraged these days, so I shall not advocate it either. To be honest, there’s not much else to say about the Dam; it’s big, it holds back a big lake, tons of stupid tourists. Oh, you can always get a tour of inside the Dam, and I’m sure it’s impressive, but we just took our pictures and went on our merry way into the enchanted land of Arizona.

Now this lovely state, part of the extended South (take it Crystal!), is actually nothing like the desert anecdotes you may have heard of in pop culture. Following the most direct route between Vegas and Scottsdale will take you through the heart of Arizona’s Joshua Tree forest, an absolutely stunning land filled with stunted, gnarled trees that can only be described and ugly by itself but amazingly beautiful as part of its surroundings. With the occasional cactus around as well, I think we felt the Joshua Tree forest was an unexpected delight that we perhaps enjoyed even more than Hoover Dam. We soon thereafter arrived at my uncle’s house and just had some genuine good times with family.

The next day (no, this post is not over just yet), we made our way to the Grand Canyon, and let me tell you, the route took us through a part of Arizona that I didn’t know existed in Arizona; did you ever think there would be a pine forest in Arizona? The northern section of the state is much cooler than the desert south, which allows for the evergreens trees to flourish. In fact, when we left Scottsdale at 7:30am., it was 90 degrees and when we got to the Canyon, it was down to 74. But temperatures aside, the Grand Canyon is truly grand! Words like ‘large’ or ‘big’ or even ‘enormous’ do not accurately describe what the Canyon really is because it isn’t just a big hole in the ground, it’s magnificent in size and in beauty. We’ve all seen the pictures of the Canyon, but you really can’t get a feel for the place until you’ve actually been there in person. And yes, once you seen the big hole in the ground and soaked in its wonder for three hours, it really does become just a big hole in the ground, but for those three hours, the journey, entrance fee, and lifelong wait all become worthwhile. There other things to do in the area such as the IMAX video of the Canyon (highly recommended), the Grand Canyon Railroad (also recommended for railroad buffs), plenty of hiking trails and whitewater rafting. In the end, it doesn’t matter what you do do at the Canyon, just don’t miss it! Ever! Go now! Really, I meant it; what are you waiting for?

States visited to date: 14

National Park Passport cancellations to date: 18