Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Long Short Trip

My good friend Andy Keizer bought a car from his brother and sister-in-law Matt and Sarah and needed to fly out to Charlotte, NC and drive it back to Arizona. The Honda Accord he’s buying is 17 years old and has 180,000+ miles on it so I thought “hey, sounds like an adventure!” I asked him if I could tag along and he said sure. I promptly booked a flight and made the necessary arrangements.

Our trip started Thursday morning and ended Monday afternoon. The following is a brief summary of our trip:

THURSDAY

I don’t have many pictures from Thursday but here is a brief description of the day. Andy and Rebekah picked me up at 6am and dropped Andy and I off at the airport. Our flight took off at 8am and with a layover in Memphis, we arrived in Charlotte, NC at 4:30pm. Sarah picked us up at the airport. While we waited for Matt and Sarah to finish packing a few things (this was their last night in this house before moving to New York), Andy and I walked around downtown Charlotte. After we got back, Matt and Sarah took us out to dinner (thanks guys). We then went back downtown for some ice cream. I was excited because I got to hold their beautiful little girl Sophie (we bonded)! Then it was off to bed!

IMG_3816
IMG_3830
Lego Man waiting to get on the plane Me on the plane

FRIDAY

Well there seemed to be an issue with the brakes in the Honda so we went to a shop and waited to get that fixed. Next it was off to the exciting DMV to get a temporary license and wait some more. Finally we were officially on our way back to Arizona. We made it to Knoxville, TN and found a hotel.

IMG_3832
IMG_3840
Lego man on his first road trip! We stayed in Knoxville, Tennessee on Friday night.
   
IMG_3842
IMG_3847
Stopped along the way to see part of the Appalachian trail Lego man getting some sleep

SATURDAY

Saturday was the day we did most of our sightseeing. We got up early and traveled to Nashville, TN. We stopped to see downtown Nashville a little before heading on our way. After this, we made a stop in Memphis, TN to see Mud Island on the Mississippi river. We ended the day in Clarksville, Arkansas.

IMG_3857
IMG_3852
Looking downtown from the capitol building Tomb of James K. Polk
   
IMG_3863 IMG_3868
Lego man hanging out downtown The Ryman Auditorium
   
IMG_3898
IMG_3901
Lego man standing on the Mud Island spot on model of the lower half of the Mississippi river Barge on the Mississippi River

 

pan mud Island

Panorama of Memphis from Mud Island

SUNDAY

On Sunday morning we drove through Arkansas in a serious rain storm. Our first stop was Oklahoma City. We hadn’t planned it this way but it turned out we were in Oklahoma on the 14th anniversary of the bombing. Due to the anniversary event, the museum was offering free admission. Andy and I took a quick tour through the museum after taking some pictures of the memorial. We also stopped at Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas to do some sightseeing. Our stopping point for the night was Roswell, NM.

pan Oak Mem

Panorama of the Oklahoma City bombing memorial

 

IMG_3907
IMG_3909
The reflecting pond Map of the site
   
IMG_3923
IMG_3926
Palo Duro Canyon Lego man enjoying a break at the canyon
 
 

MONDAY

The home stretch from Roswell was not all that exciting. We stopped in Springerville, AZ for some lunch, then to Payson and down the beeline highway home.

1 comments:

Jason Addink said...

I haven't seen a picture on either of your blogs of this car that was special enough to warrant a cross country trip. You'd think the the car would have at least made it into one photo!

I should have had you guys pick me up in OKC on Sunday! Could have had a third driver.