After a week at Disney World, it was time to start heading home.
I wonder what adventures the road home would bring...
As we drove through Georgia and the Carolinas,
the damage from Hurricane Matthew was still all around us.
This is a rest stop in South Carolina. There were trees like this all round.
At the rest stop I ran into Sam and Lucas, two swimmers on their way to
the State swim competition. They were super nice, and wished me good luck
at my upcoming State meet in Las Vegas.
We made a stop in Newberry, South Carolina. Downtown Newberry is so pretty!
This is the Newberry Opera House.
Newberry is known as "The City of Friendly Folks".
One of those friendly folks is Lyla. She helped me shop for gifts!
It was exciting to finally get into the hills of Appalachia!
Such a beautiful place and the changing leaves were incredible!
We drove through the mountains for about an hour to get to Duff's house.
Who's Duff? He's a friend of my Dad's...and my friend, now!
Duff made us a great dinner with homemade chili!
We made Appalachian-style s'mores for dessert...using Saltine crackers.
They tasted like chocolate-covered pretzels!
After a good night's sleep, Duff made us breakfast, and then...
...he took us on a hike around his property.
It was a steep climb uphill to get to the top.
His land had lots of cool rock formations...
...a spooky cave...
...and very friendly horses.
I wish we could have spent more time with Duff and the Boys...
...but we had to hit the road again.
A few hours down the road we noticed that Duff had left us with a surprise!
Such a funny guy!
Just outside of Nashville, we stopped at Ashland City on our way to Cheatham Dam.
A google search helped me find the area's best BBQ... Whitt's!
Whitt's ribs really hit the spot!
With my belly full, it was time to find our campsite at Cheatham Dam.
We had a great camp spot, right on the Cumberland River!
It turns out that Cheatham isn't just a dam, it's also a lock.
A "lock" is used to help ships pass through by raising or lowering the water level.
The Cumberland's locks are used to move huge barges like this one...
Look how long that thing is...and it's loaded with coal!
Bed time on the Cumberland!
All that water and near-record temperatures meant a sweaty night's sleep.
Plus, I was excited about tomorrow's visit to...
...Graceland! If you don't know, Graceland was the home of Elvis.
Who's Elvis? This is Elvis...
...The King of Rock & Roll!
This is the Graceland Mansion. Looking at the outside, you'd never expect the inside to look...
...like this!
This used to be a racquetball court, but now it has Elvis' gold records and..
...his famous concert outfits!
Elvis died 40 years ago, but Graceland was packed with people.
How important was Elvis...?
:)
Our trip West took us on to Arkansas, where we met Tracy, another of Dad's RUSH friends..
Tracy was super cool...and nice! He gave us a present to remember Arkansas...
...matching camo Razorback hats!
From Arkansas, we drove onto our next camping spot...
...Santa Rosa Lake, New Mexico
After all that driving, I was ready for some exercise!
So we took a hike down to the Santa Rosa lake shoreline.
New Mexico was very different from all the green of the East Coast and Deep South.
But it was just as beautiful!
The cactus...
...the stumps...
...and the rocks.
Another great place to stop, Dad...
...but I'm ready to get home! Still twenty hours away. Can you make it?
With his new favorite hat, Dad was ready to go!
We got up at 2:30 AM and drove all day through New Mexico...
...Arizona...
...and Utah.
Twenty hours is a long time. Enough time for me to learn a new trick...
...blowing bubbles!
After hours of gum-chewing, storytelling, guessing games, and singing along to the radio...
...we arrived in Nevada! There was even a friendly cowboy there to welcome us!
After thirty eight days and 10,536 miles...
...we were home!
I had a great trip touring the United States. Thank you, Dad!
And thanks to all the nice people we met along the way!
The United States is more beautiful than I thought it was,
and it was really cool to see the different cultures and to learn their history.
Thanks for following along on my travels!
I hope you all get to make a trip like this some day...
SEE YOU NEXT TIME...whenever that may be!
