Washington DC is an absolute geeks playground. You are in the land of The White House, FBI HQ, Arlington cemetery, The Pentagon, free museums covering every cultural, historical and artistic interest known to man. And all of that before you've even considered the astronomical National Mall and Tidal Basin area! If you have any interest at all in any American political TV dramas you will feel instantly at home when arriving in DC as it's all so amazingly familiar. The only thing that may cause you a problem is how to navigate it all effectively and do justice to the political, social and historical grandeur of this epic city. We only had a few days there and so we had to plan carefully. We had chosen not to take the car into the city as driving and parking in the centre was reputed to be a complete nightmare. Instead, while staying in the AirBnB ($91.30 AUD/69.41 USD) in Arlington, VA we got on the bus every morning into the city. This was by far our easiest and cheapest option and meant that twice a day we bused through the Pentagon as this also doubles up as a bus terminal. We didn't actually do the tour of the Pentagon but do know that there is an option to do a one hour tour taken by a trained volunteer. Luckily with our timeframe we found an amazing walking tour company in DC called 'DC on Foot' which catered to us perfectly for our first full day. They do a range of different free walking tours, all of which can be researched and booked on line through their website. The most conclusive of these tours when it comes to covering ground in the heart of DC is their 4-hour National Mall and Tidal Basin walk. This takes you right from the Washington Monument all the way to Jefferson Memorial via the whole of the National Mall and including all of the memorials and monuments along the way (The White House, National World War II Memorial, Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Vets Memorial, MLK Jr. Memorial, FDR Memorial). Four hours does sound pretty heavy but there is a break in the middle at the Lincoln Memorial (after about two hours) and honestly at no point did we feel at all tired or overwhelmed with information...just a little hot considering on the day we did it it was about 35degrees. The guide was a trained historian who was amazingly knowledgable and also entertaining which only added to how brilliant this walk was. And the amount of information she provided was exactly what you would want from a tour like this. Enough for you to feel well informed without feeling overwhelmed. Honestly I cannot recommend this tour company enough. After we completed the tour we even had a little left over energy and so decided to visit the very moving US Holocaust Museum. On our second day in DC my darling wife indulged me in all the little geeky bits of DC that hadn't been covered on the walk that I wanted to explore. Like I said, DC has such a plethora of attractions covering such a range of interests that you would either have to spend months there seeing and doing them all or you need to do you research and be selective. I had carefully scoured the Internet and travel guides for all of my must-sees! We went to the U.S. Capitol building, both Sculpture Gardens, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Folger Shakespeare Library and Globe Theater and walked around Capitol Hill (the closest city suburb). We did A LOT of walking while we were in DC. I was a geek in paradise. One of the best things about DC from a backpacker's point of view is the fact that almost everything is free. Visiting almost all of the museums or taking in the monuments and memorials is all free. One thing that I absolutely loved about DC was just walking around and looking at all the different architecture. DC is one of only four totally preplanned and constructed capital cities in the world (bonus points if you can name the other three J) and the continuity and organisation with which is has been done is wonderful to see. What really blew my mind was that in spite of this preplanned, regimented organisation, it doesn't look boring or sterile at all! And that was my short but very very sweet DC. Ideally we would have stayed longer but by this stage we were right at the end of the road trip and had to get the car back. That's certainly not to say we won't be back. I've scratched the surface but there's a whole other level of geekdom I could reach given the time and the opportunity!
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So after an amazing 4 days in NOLA it was time to pack up the car again and head off to Mississippi. This had been another dream of mine (Riv) since my Grandpa had shown me ‘Show Boat’ as a kid. Somewhere that looked like it might live up to ‘Show Boat’ expectations was Natchez, a small town on the Mississippi River with a reputation for being a haven for gay Republicans (oxymoronic we know). We stayed at the Quality Inn for $63.60 USD ($83.68 AUD). It was here that we went to the Under the Hill Saloon (coincidently where ‘Show Boat’ was filmed) and met a group of proud, self-proclaimed rednecks, who were looking forward to an evening of riding tricycles into the Mississippi (we had a very interesting discussion with them, that is talked about further in the LGBT section). Now, despite Natchez being an interesting stop for the Under the Hill Saloon it really is a one-horse town. Of note for those on a road trip, is the Natchez Trace Parkway, which is a beautiful drive from Natchez to Nashville that happened to go through Jackson, Mississippi, which was our next stop. This parkway is parallel to a Native American path that was once a trade route through Mississippi and Tennessee. It is a stunning drive that has a 50-mile an hour speed limit, which allows to you to really take in the scenery and see the wildlife. As we said, our next stop was Jackson. Now this certainly isn’t on anyone’s must visit list, especially on a Sunday when everything is shut. The reason we chose Jackson to break up the journey was it’s recent stance on LGBT rights. We were stopping off for the evening (at the Econolodge $56.68 USD/74.50 AUD) and thought we’d check out Fondren, which is supposed to be Jackson’s alternative suburb…well we can tell you it’s also shut on a Sunday but the FroYo shop opens at midday and is pretty good if you happen to find yourself there. From Jackson we were off to Memphis for some Blues. We stayed with a lovely couple through Air BnB ($70.50 AUD/53.58 USD). Our first stop while we waited for our hosts to get home was the famed Beale Street. We have to be honest here, it was a bit of a let down. I’m sure it picks up speed later but in comparison to NOLA (and also we later discovered, Nashville’s main strip) it was slow and lacklustre. After wandering down to the site where blues is believed to have first been transposed and hitting up the Rock ‘n’ Soul museum ($13.11 USD/17.25 AUD) we decided to check out an unusual Memphis attraction. The Peabody Hotel has an odd display at 11am and 5pm every day. What started off as a joke quite some decades ago has become a daily ritual. At 11am the lounge’s elevator doors open and out waddle the Peabody Ducks, down a carefully placed red carpet and into the fountain. This is done in reverse at 5pm when the ducks retire back to their penthouse accommodation. The next day we visited Sun Studios which is quite magical. When you stand in the studio where some of the greatest musicians of all time have stood it is really something special. We then headed off early for a BBQ feast (for Dani) at Central BBQ, which has deservedly been given the title of Memphis’ best BBQ (see food album for pictures). This set us back $44.71 USD ($58.82 AUD) for a huge plate of meat and sides plus a burger, sides and drinks (and was worth every cent). Another place you have to try in Gus’ World Famous Chicken. Not only do they have amazing fried chicken but they also do the most amazing fried pickle spears (I/Riv am still dreaming about these months later). This was $27 USD/35.52 AUD for a meal and drinks for 2. Now we have to discuss the Civil Rights Museum ($15 USD/19.73 AUD) that is housed in the Lorraine Motel. For those of you who don’t know this is the hotel that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in. This museum is one of the best museums either of us have been to. It documents the struggle for Black Civil Rights from the time of slavery to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement today. Everything in the museum is very detailed and provides a lot of information. Make sure if you’re visiting, that you give it enough time (at least a few hours). This was the highlight of my (Riv) trip to Memphis and was well worth delaying our drive to Nashville for. Just a tip, this museum is closed on Tuesdays so plan around this. Arriving in Nashville it appeared we had finally found everything we had been dreaming of in terms of music. From midday the main street of Nashville comes alive with some of the best Country and Western we’ve ever heard. From the street side buskers to the in-house musicians, everywhere there is wonderful music. All it will cost you is a drink at the bar and a tip for the musicians. We stayed in another Air BnB ($63AUD/47.88USD) and had an awesome breakfast at Fido's. Although all the guides say that this is the best spot for breakfast and coffee I (Riv) have to say that it’s only the former that is true. I’m sure by American standards this place is excellent but it still tasted like coffee flavoured water to me! From Nashville we took a complete one eighty cultural turn and headed into the mountain town of Asheville. Known for its hippy (we would argue now hipster) population it is a world away from the honky tonks of Nashville. It's a beautiful little town set high up in the Blue Ridge Mountain range. Lush green mountain-scapes surround you and it’s a gorgeous place to unwind. If you’ve got time also head in to the village of Biltmore which is an interesting place to wander around for an afternoon. From Asheville you can either head along the highway or if you are up for a long drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Skyline Drive. We chose the former and decided to break up the journey in Roanoke…we were staying at the Ramada ($68.42AUD/52USD) where we got a good lesson in always reading the reviews first. I (Riv) always do the research into where we’re staying and Dani is in charge of giving me a budget. As we had pre-booked all of the States (not something we usually do) I must have missed the reviews of this one, which documented occasions of 6 year olds being offered crack in the stairwells and police doing drug raids on rooms. This wasn’t exactly the “cheap, but cheerful” we had become used to with our motel stops! On arrival it looked as though all the reviews were correct. When we pulled up we were greeted by an unnerving number of shady looking people in the car park. This led us to the executive decision that for the night we were just going to stay in and leave first thing in the morning. Well, despite the air of crack den that this particular lodge emitted we had the best nights sleep we had had in a while. On that particular night there was absolutely nothing we noticed as being out of the ordinary and it was definitely the best room we had in any of the roadside motels we had checked in to. I guess we may have just been lucky, From the crack den to a stunning national park in less than 2 hours, the Skyline Drive lived up to expectations. The $20 USD/26.31 AUD entrance fee is a 24-hour pass to the park to allow you time to stay overnight as well as hike some of the trails. This drive is a 30mph stretch of road built for scenic viewing of the Shenandoah Valley. It takes about 3 hours from start to finish. There are also multiple short and long hikes you can take, some of which take you along the famous Appalachian Trail. We opted to splash out on accommodation for the night (courtesy of a generous wedding present) at the Big Meadows Lodge ($130.35USD/171.51AUD), which is in the middle of the drive set in a wooded area with beautiful vista views of the mountains from the bedrooms, restaurants and outdoor seating area. There is also a short walk you can do out onto a rocky ledge that gives you an amazing spot for sunset. This is also a good spot to see birds and deer (and bears have been known to visit during summer). From our gorgeous retreat in the mountains to “Our Nation’s capital” we were heading to Dani’s dream geek paradise….Washington, D.C. Dani will give a detailed run down in the next post with a ‘Geek’s Guide to Washington’ so I will skip over it and round off our road trip. We headed from Washington to New Brunswick via Princeton University. Now, even for a non-geek like me (Riv), I have started developing a liking for American university campuses, as they are almost little cities in themselves. Princeton has some beautiful architecture and a unique vibe compared to other universities Dani had dragged me to (at first begrudgingly and then willingly). It is definitely worth visiting if you have the chance to stop. We stopped overnight at a Motel 6 ($67.26USD/88.50AUD) so that we could drop the car off in Newark in the morning. This was our last night on the road trip and we both have to admit we were pretty sad that it was coming to an end even though we had Canada to look forward to. On reflection, neither of us had been expecting much of the U.S. in terms of culture or enriching travel experiences. Our visits to the States in the past to the big cities of Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and New York had led us to an idea of America as a consumerist society that lacked many opportunities for true “travel experiences”. Boy were we wrong! We both left the States planning our next trip back, contemplating changing our route for the 2 year trip to do more and kind of wishing we hadn’t changed our minds and moved Canada on to this section. We are in the midst now of figuring out how and when we can return both to the friends we have made and to the states we haven’t yet had the chance to explore… America we will be back! Budget Time $$: What it actually cost (all figures are given in USD at $0.76USD/1AUD): 31 days = $5,586.17 Car Hire: $1048.08 Accomodation: $1912.98 Food and Drinks: $1539 Souvenirs: $275.54 Entertainment: $269.12 Miscellaneous: $233.24 Transport (tolls and public transport): $230.58 Petrol/Gas: $156.84 Bribes (this was in the form of people bribing us, not the other way around...just to clarify!): $9.87 This worked out to be approximately $90 per person per day. Overall, our spending in the USA was a lot more moderate than we were expecting. A lot of the trip had been prepaid (or at least deposits paid) as we were unsure about how many things would get booked up and how expensive things would become during the peak summer season. Usually we travel with very few formal plans in terms of transport options, routes and accommodations, however, for our 31-day USA road trip we had a planned route, hire car and pre booked accommodation (either AirBnB or motels) in every stop. The booking of the accommodation was the only aspect that in hindsight was unnecessary. There were always plenty of options in every location we stopped in and often we were able to see prices lower than those we had already paid. Having said that our AirBnB choices had been carefully researched and considered to ensure comfortable stays in good locations and almost all proved to be wonderful decisions. Having the car for 31 days and driving 3510miles only cost us $156.84 on petrol which we thought was very cheap but this will vary wildly from state to state. LGBT: Well it may have been my research to try and find the most LGBT friendly places in the Deep South or the advice a friend who has lived in the states gave me, which was that they will be really nice to your face and keep the negative for behind closed doors. Either way we had an amazing time in the South and are so glad we did it. We never encountered any problems, anywhere. Funnily (not so funnily) enough Dani is often mistaken for a boy in a lot of places but in the South this wasn't the case. People would often say "ladies, mam and girls" and not once did Dani get directed to the men's bathroom. We got no sly comments or rude looks and everyone was extremely friendly.
This even extended to the self-proclaimed "rednecks" we met in Mississippi. We met Robert outside the oldest Saloon on the Mississippi and he looked like your stereotypical biker. Him and his wife got chatting to us and after about an hour and a half his wife asked us if we were a couple. It was an awkward moment as a friend of this couple had already shown us he was carrying a gun that night (not joking) but as a psych nurse I felt I had read this couple well. I decided to be honest and say that Dani and I were actually on our honeymoon. Dani told me later that she was getting ready to run, as she was pretty sure we would be alligator food by the morning. Their reaction was warm and heartfelt! They invited us to drink with them that night, stay in their hotel room and were full of warm-hearted congratulations. Although we declined that evenings entertainment of riding tricycles into the Mississippi River at 3 o’clock in the morning and headed back to our motel it was one of the best experiences we had on our road trip. The research I (Riv) did extend to all the Air BnB accommodation we booked. I looked for gay/lesbian/trans friendly signs such as LGBT couples, reviews from LGBT couples that had stayed or specific disclosure of being LGBT friendly. One thing to note is that Air BnB have a strict non-discrimination policy that protects us if we do have a negative experience, however no one wants to face homo/transphobia on holiday, hence the research. I also made it very clear at all points that Dani and I were a gay couple on our honeymoon so that there were no surprises. In planning this trip we had a few moral decisions to make about whether we wanted to support certain states that had recently changed their laws to more freely discriminate against our community as well as states who have always had these laws in place. After an extensive discussion we agreed that although we support the stance of companies like Choice Hotels, Disney, PayPal, Pepsi, Levi Strauss and many others there are still LGBT communities living in these states. By pulling out of these states the companies will also be punishing the communities who most benefit from the companies being there. We decided that with some research we would help support these communities by going, witnessing and putting our money into the pockets of small businesses who support our rights. This also came in the form of not always choosing the cheapest place to stay or eating at the cheapest restaurants. You'll notice that we stayed with the Choice Hotel group throughout the majority of our trip. This is because of their stance against the North Carolina bathroom legislation. We also chose to change our route and go to Jackson, Mississippi because of the mayor’s opposition to the proposed state law. |
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