Aussie Expats Update – Part 3 of our Roadtrip

Woooop, the end of week 3!

Wow, are we getting around a heap and seeing a lot: we’re 21 days and 4000 miles (6400 km) into the road trip to end all road trips (seriously, after this, we’re pretty sure we’ll never really want to drive again), and are currently on our way to Knoxville.

So, on to the recap! Luckily for us, our Day 14 trip from Savannah to Charleston wasn’t too long (just a little under 2 hours), which meant we had some time to do a bit of training in the morning: my frog hops and transition into handstands are really coming along. [A weird thing to be excited about, perhaps, if you’ve never tried it before, but it’s a fun skill to work on!] We got into Charleston and checked into our hotel before heading out for some exploration. Charleston is, like much of the southern USA, rich in history surrounding both the War of Independence and the Civil War; Fort Sumter  is a Civil War fort island off the coast of Charleston which witnessed (or more accurately, suffered) the first shots fired in the Civil War. We toured through the mainland-based museum after purchasing our tickets—all before having eaten any form of lunch, so please take note of our dedication to the pursuit of historical learning—and had the opportunity to view both the mammoth replica garrison flag of 1860, as well as the carefully preserved original in a specially created element-protective case (which you can see behind the red rope barrier) to the front of it.

After touring through the fascinating civil war displays (the more I learn about these particular aspects of American history, the more repulsed, fascinated I am by it), we caved in to the demands of our stomachs and set off through historic Charleston. The city, at least this area of it, is absolutely stunning; it’s awash in small boutique stores, speciality cafes and delightful architecture which is a feast for souls starved by small-town Oklahoman living. The vista of it is particularly lovely.

Of course we stopped for a very late but tasty lunch at the Brown Dog Deli, then hit the streets again. We have a particular skill (and in all honesty, also the aid of certain technological sources) in finding fun and cool things to do while we’re travelling, which included a visit to, and tour of, the Old Exchange and Provost in Charleston.

The tour through the Provost was guided by a wonderfully-presented and skilfully-portrayed 18th century English gentleman with a brilliant accent and a formidable knowledge of the building, and the town’s, history. Plus, he told some excellent jokes! For any history buffs with a sense of humour, we would definitely recommend splurging out $10 to check this out while in town. We also got the steps up for the day by quickly ducking into the Charleston markets as they were closing and then exploring the picturesque and aptly-named Charleston Waterfront Park… And of course, stopped to take a few selfies of us looking as radiant as the day! It is a beautiful area, delightfully populated with people walking their dogs (yes, I got to pat a small, soft-eared little puppy) and conveniently close to some sweetly kitschy boutique stores and a gelateri.

We also managed to get some decent Thai for dinner, which is no small feat for us, considering there are approximately zero tasty similar options where we live in Oklahoma! (So many successes in the food department on this trip!)

I got my study on to start off Day 15—while James was Superman and went running—which made me feel simultaneously virtuous and a tad nervous about the workload to be handled while on of the road. But it’ll be alright: never surrender! Afterwards, we got on our walking shoes, had a quick bite to eat and strolled from the hotel down to the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, home of the USS Yorktown, aka ‘The Fighting Lady’.

It’s an absolutely incredible piece of American heritage, and we greatly enjoyed our walk through of the USS Yorktown which is complete with informative models and interactive displays (yeah, we’re pretty big history nerds). AND we got to go on a SUBMARINE. I mean, old as time itself perhaps and kinda rusty, but it was awesome to explore it before our ferry trip out to Fort Sumter.

The transit itself was a little windy, and we had some trouble docking the boat when we reached the island, which was both amusing and a tad disconcerting. This is the second American fort we’ve visited since starting this road trip and it’s pretty interesting for us to soak in this aspect of America’s history, but also to see the similarities between them. Also, there are always cannons, and who doesn’t love cannons? [Side note: sorry for the lack of photos of cannons].

Our similarly windy return trip saw what seemed to be a very large pod of dolphins playing in the harbour, as well as brown pelicans executing some magnificent dives in pursuit of lunch. We were a bit puzzled to hear one of the on-boat guides very confidently inform some fellow passengers that brown pelicans eventually go blind as a result of such aerobatic stunts. Sounded a bit suspect to us—surely years of evolution would have eliminated such a foolish & self-destructive trait—so we did some very basic googling. Long story short, not true, but a common myth! So there you go, if anyone ever tells you that brown pelicans blind themselves through years of diving into the salt water, you can direct them to this blog (or just, you know, to Google) and bask in your own brilliance.

Anyway, after disembarking the ferry, we hoofed it up the hotel to get in the car and made it into the historic district to have another look through the markets and find ourselves some dinner.

No one will be surprised to hear that we are also rather skilled at finding dessert bars, and honestly gastronomical delights of all kinds—so of course, we ended up at Carmella’s for an ice cream sandwich and a sundae before rolling ourselves home again. I think, thus far amongst our travels, Charleston is definitely one of the prettiest and all-round loveliest cities we’ve visited.

Every so often, we like to include a bit of a slow day in our travels: otherwise, I’m pretty sure we’d collapse from exhaustion or go absolutely stir-fry crazy! On Sunday for Day 16, we crossed the border into NC and after checking into our absolutely beautiful Airbnb (seriously, using Airbnb for this road trip instead of staying in hotels the whole time has been a wonderful choice… thus far), lay on the bed to read and nap, and basically while away the afternoon.

On Monday, Day 17 saw us lace up those walking shoes again to stroll into the city from our lodgings—via a nearby bakery which had a convenient and very tasty 2-for-1 Monday muffin deal. One of the greatest advantages of doing a road trip is also one of the greatest advantages in exploring a city on foot rather than by car, which is seeing all the things you otherwise wouldn’t (and also getting some exercise when you haven’t been getting much in). James and I also love the opportunity to do things that might be said to be predominantly reserved for inquisitive children (rather than the more adult pub crawls one might expect!) and this led us to Charlotte’s Discovery Place. I mean, it’s advertised as a STEM museum for all ages, but we were roughly 20 years older than most of the other people enthusiastically participating in the different interactive displays… Luckily, we’re not ageist! The rainforest area had some stunningly coloured birds, an ancient and grumpy looking macaw, a stingray in a rock pool and a tortoise with a cracked shell called Tank (see? What’s not to love?).

There were also BEARS. I mean, not real bears, but a trio of taxidermied bears. And a bear outside on the street… So in the space of about 2 days, I got the chance to spend a bunch of time with my kin, and get my bear on in a variety of ways. Hurray!

We went walking through Charlotte afterwards and chanced through Romare Bearden Park to play some different forms of xylophones, as well as detouring through a small plaza which sold some delectable cupcakes. Seriously, we ate them that afternoon on the couch and they were probably the best cupcakes I’ve ever had. On the subject of food, dinner that night featured sausage rolls at a local pub, which were really pretty damn good. Maybe not as good as mine (my assessment, not James’s), but pretty good, and if you find decent sausage rolls somewhere in the USA, you’re doing pretty damn well.

Day 18 saw us farewell Charlotte and buckle up to head to Atlanta. James did all the driving to allow me to listen to about 2 hours of lectures—my American Odyssey subject which looks at the development, and communication, of American identity and other core themes in American literature, which is incredibly interesting and seems somewhat fitting!!—and made me feel slightly (only slightly) more on top of uni. Enough that after checking into our sweet little basement Airbnb (told you I was firmly on this bandwagon) we went out and explored the Krog Street Market nearby for some snacks. The food outside of Lawton and Fort Sill is mind-boggling.

Day 19 heralded the middle of the week and an epic day for adventuring in Atlanta! We apparently had some wonderful foresight in buying so many tasty pastries the afternoon prior, as breakfast was well and truly taken care of—and incredibly delicious, if not overly nutritious. Getting out and about in Atlanta featured both some awesome parts and some less-than-awesome parts. In Pemberton Place, we hit up the Coca-Cola factory first, which perhaps wasn’t really a great choice anyway, since we’re not big soft drink consumers, and James hates coke (why did we go? Good question, still not quite sure). It didn’t start too badly, though the whole set-up smacks of overly-emotive marketing designed to play on people’s heartstrings: apparently all good moments in our lives are concomitant with Coca-Cola… Who knew? Anyway, it took a turn for the worse when we decided to try out the 4D Coke adventure. It was like an unscheduled visit to the chiropractor. The jolts of the seat were so violent, and involved a sharp stab in the back by our chairs (I mean who expects to be betrayed by their chair?!) that we left the whole experience a little less than impressed–James was pretty cranky.

Thankfully, our successive venture was far more enjoyable and touching than the first. The Centre for Civil and Human Rights is truly wonderful; if you’re visiting Atlanta for any reason, I highly recommend heading in there and checking out the displays there. They’re well-curated and imaginatively displayed, including both historical content (such as MLK Jnr’s class notes from his time at Morehouse College) and some excellent pieces considering contemporary civil and human rights issues. It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of everyday life and not think to look beyond our own borders, or our own lives; but visiting these kinds of institutions remind us of what sacrifices were made and how much struggle was undergone in order to reach our much more egalitarian contemporary societies… And how much still needs to be done in that respect so all humans can be treated with the respect and decency they deserve. I always leave these kinds of visits feeling pensive and enthused to, in some way, contribute to the ongoing fight for equality and human rights across the globe. If you can leave this place without being both humbled by the struggle of these people, and inspired to be better and do better, I’ll be surprised!

The Georgia Aquarium is rated as the number one attraction to check out while in Atlanta, and I’ve heard it’s also the premier aquarium in the US (which makes me somewhat glad that we didn’t end up paying to go to the aquarium in Charleston): it had everything! We saw belugas, whale sharks, penguins, a Wobbegong (the guide was somewhat miffed at James’s general lack of excitement over an animal that is relatively common in Aus), some massive rays of all different varieties, two albino alligators, sea otters, freshwater otters, jellyfish, dolphins… See? I told you they had everything.

    

We were a little footsore (at least I was!) after tramping around the aquarium, and having seen pretty much all there was to see, and managing to resist the numerous temptations of the epic aquarium gift store. So instead of heading back to the apartment for a nap (which might have been the logical course of action,) we went to check out the Ponce City Markets. It’s a massive historic building which has been repurposed into a vibrant hub for delightful food—we found some stellar coffee and innumerable pastries, hardly surprisingly—and a wide array of different shops, as well as office blocks on the higher levels. The overall effect is an intriguing blend of old and new, complete with unique holes-in-the-wall to appeal to any visitor. It was hard to leave without breaking the bank (though we did find our way to pastry-purchasing). We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening watching Netflix and steadily working our way through all kinds of delightful snacks and the leftover pizza from the night before, which was much better the second-time round. Go figure.

Yesterday was Day 20 of our trip and started with a trip to the pastry shop again (we have a problem: don’t worry, we know) to spend $50 on pastries for breakfast and later snacks. We had a four-hour drive from Atlanta to Huntsville, AL which was thankfully punctuated by numerous pastries to keep us going. And some amazing sights!

Our dead deer roadkill count is now up to seven: a grisly statistic (and not actually part of the aforementioned amazing sights, just to clarify), it’s true, but we need something to keep our eyes peeled for on the long interstate highways. We drove straight to the Space and Rocket Centre to check out some more of America’s truly impressive space history. Turns out that the among the first things to greet you is a banana-covered plinth commemorating Miss Baker, one of the USA’s premier monkeynauts.

Inside, the centre boasts the largest K’nex sculpture in the world, a mammoth T-Rex comprised of over 160 000 pieces, and some unexpected displays, such as the many intricate and fascinating, heavily-bejewelled creations of artist Kathy Chan. They are some of most strange, beautiful and presumably expensive pieces of jewellery I’ve ever seen, and she’s well-worth a Google if you love jewellery or art. 

This is a great place to visit for anyone who’s at all interested in space, especially since it has some great interactive displays: I built my own Mars base, which I’m 99% certain will doubtless be the chosen architectural model for any future settlements on the red planet.

American kids can go on space camp. Do you know what Australian kids get? I guess maybe surf camp (newsflash: neither of us ever did that as kids, so I’m not sure it’s actually a thing, but it does sound wonderful), but it’s not bloody space camp. That stuff looks amazing! I’m a little jealous, but that’s ok. We spent the night camping at a hard-to-find Easter Posey campground on-base at Redstone Arsenal, and had a bit of a rude shock at the plummet in temperatures which Florida really didn’t prepare us for. Now, this post is really getting away from me, and I’m getting hungry: might be time to convince James to stop for some kind of brunch…

This is another weighty blog post, so for those of you not keen to commit the better part of your life to reading this, here’s the long story short—

Day 14: Savannah to Charleston

Day 15: Charleston

Day 16: Charleston to Charlotte

Day 17: Charlotte

Day 18: Charlotte to Atlanta

Day 19: Atlanta

Day 20: Atlanta to Huntsville

Have a great weekend everyone and see you again next week for our update from the cold west!

–Ana.