The Final Push

I'm sitting at my laptop in a small one bedroom efficiency overlooking a popular tourist area in the center of Madrid's historic district.  A neighborhood called Huertas.  We're on the 4th floor.  A couple of 8 foot windowed doors give us access to two small balconies that overlook Calle de las Huertas, an apt name for the street.  It is beautiful in every sense of the word.  I think this is what most people imagine Madrid to be like.

We had three weeks to get from Euless, TX (a city sandwiched between Dallas and Fort Worth) to New York. We quickly realized that our preference was to go visit friends and family during that time and site-see if we could.

First stop...Charleston, SC  [read my prior post]

Next stop...Durham, NC

After three days in Charleston, we were off to our next stop.  Home of the mighty Blue Devils.  A childhood friend of Annie's lives in Durham and we planned on spending three days there.  Thank goodness for La Quinta. Traveling with two large dogs and knowing that they (1) accept pets, (2) they don't charge anything extra, and (3) they are relatively cheap made things so much simpler for us than they otherwise would have been.  A theme throughout our blog will likely deal with our two mangy beasts.  Traveling with two large dogs turned out to be much more of a hassle than we anticipated, especially when we got to the bigger urban cities.

I'll say one story about Durham and move on.  Exactly 10 years ago I was in a local Duke bar/grille called Satisfaction watching the Blue Devils beat Arizona for the NCAA national championship.  As it happens, Duke and Arizona played on the 24th while we were there.  I got blamed for Duke's loss since I couldn't make it back to Satisfaction that night.  I take full responsibility.

From Durham, we headed north to Verona, VA, the home of Annie's dad.

There, we would stay for nearly a week.  I doubt anyone reading this has heard of Verona.  You may have heard of a very old town at its doorstep called Staunton, a fairly well-known town that is older than our country.  Apparently it was known for prostitution, a valuable service to our young men during the Civil War.

But before we reached Verona, we stopped at Appomattox C.H., which most history books mark as the end of the Civil War, where Lee signed the surrender to Grant.  Tons of Civil War history to take in as we drove the east coast.

In Verona, we spent some quality family time with Annie's dad and his wife.  Most nights we stayed in.  I was able to put some time into a web design venture I'm pursuing.  Tennis, running, and relaxing.  A nice break from hotels and city-hopping.

Oh...and it snowed :)

In Washington, DC, we spent three days with another of Annie's longtime friends.  This city would be the biggest struggle thus far with our dogs.  We've found that few people actually like being around dogs.  Most people like to pet our boys and smile when they see them, but few want to be around them like we do.  DC was no different.  The back of the Explorer was their home.  Lucky for us there was an abandoned property close to the house where the dogs could pee and poo.

For lunch one day in DC, we went to one of the most famous joints in town.  Obama made a visit shortly after taking office.  Cosby goes there often.  There's a sign above the grill that reads "The Obama family and Bill Cosby always eat here for free."  Ben's Chili Bowl.  It is a slop-shop with everything chili.  And it was mmm taaasty.

 

We spent one of our days there doing touristy stuff around the Mall.  Some trivia for you.  What president aside from Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln have a memorial or monument on the Mall?  I thought it was only those three.  Here's another one for ya.  What other figure will soon be getting a memorial on the Mall?  Note that there is scarcely any space left on the Mall so these had better be very important people.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the answer to the first question.  I thought it was fitting.  I can't imagine what other president would get a monument.  Jackson, Wilson, Kennedy, Reagan possibly?

Martin Luther King Jr. is the answer to the second question.  His memorial will be complete by end of this year.  The centerpiece is 28 foot stone statue with him walking out of a block of stone.  Should be neat.

Whew...we're finally done visiting Annie's friends and family :).  I don't know the name of the city for our next destination.  It is about 45 minutes east of Pittsburgh, PA.  It is the home of Falling Water, one of the most famous homes in the US.  It is the landmark piece by Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect.

To close out our Civil War trek, we drove two hours east to Chambersburg, PA.  What's so significant about Chambersburg you ask?  It is the closest La Quinta to Gettysburg, the real jewel of this stop.  As most of you know, Gettysburg is the site for the most famous battle of the Civil War, a battle that essentially began the downward spiral of the Confederacy.  If you're looking for a great book, pick up Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, one of my favorite book by any author or genre.  It is about the battle.

Our guide was throwing out facts like "more US men died in the 2nd day of fighting than in any other single day in any war this country has ever been in."  Thirty-four square miles.  50,000 casualties.  Three days of fighting.  Pickett's Charge.  Little Round Top.  I got goosebumps.  The visit was incredibly impressive in that I have never seen more monuments in a site before.  Every regiment and army had a monument erected.  The battlefield has been barely touched since 1863.  You look out over Little Round Top and you can actually imagine Pickett's charge and the fighting below in the valley.  Definitely worth a visit.

Annie and I both wanted to see Philadelphia, PA so we spent a night there.  We'd heard so many good things about it.  The only story I'll tell is one that should always be told.  Our cheesesteak experience.  We got a tip of a place near the University of Pennsylvania called Abner's.  We were treated poorly, lard was flying everywhere, we couldn't figure anything out...it was awesome :).

And finally, the end of the road, pun intended.  From Philly, we drove to Brooklyn, New York, NY (I think that's how you officially write it).  We would spend 4 days here visiting a few of my friends (Puja being one for those Shell folks reading this).  Once again, our dogs dictated our home in the city.  The La Quinta in Brooklyn was our best option.  Even with that though, New York has crazy little green space.  We had to walk half a mile to the closest park.  I don't anywhere in Houston there is even a tenth of a mile area without green space.  The dogs were not happy.

The last things on our list were to (1) sell Annie's truck, (2) spend time with friends, (3) get the final documentation on the dogs for their flight and entry into Spain, and (4) get two people, two dogs, and a bunch of luggage to JFK.  Thanks to Puja for being a great hostess and showing us around town and taking care of us.  Bobby for giving me my first experience with a Russian and Turkish bath house.  Some random girl for buying our truck.  The nice vets for giving us their seal of approval on the dogs.  And luck.

All in all a great road trip.  I know we hear it a lot but the US has so much stuff that I have not seen, so much beautiful stuff.  I'm glad we got to do this before heading to Spain.  We kicked it off with a trip to Euless to see my sister on Mar 18 and finished 25 days later flying out of JFK on Iberia with a directly flight to Madrid.

-Sergio