I should have posted all of this long ago but better late than never.
TL;DR: Marisa and were married in May, honeymooned in New Orleans, then drove from CLT to the Grand Canyon with my stepson Vincent.
May 14, 2011
Saturday
We drove to New Bern, arrived at the Hilton at 4.
We wanted to avoid as much stress as possible so we made our reservations 3 weeks ago and paid at that time. When we tried to check in, they said we didn’t have a reservation and put us in a smaller room overlooking a drained pool that was being repaired. I called Hilton and complained about the room and the lost reservation (on our wedding day!) and eventually got a better room (the same suite we originally reserved) and it was free. They were very nice about it after they realized the problem was on their end. Apparently their web site was broken for a while and prepaid rooms weren’t actually booked or charged; even though confirmation emails were sent. I was pretty angry (and hopped up on caffeine and sinus meds) when talking to them. I tried to stay calm but it was a struggle. I didn’t really succeed at until Archer picked us up at 5:15.
He took us to the Black Beard sailing club where we boarded his dad’s sail boat and sailed for an hour towards New Bern. After we passed under the bridges, we had our ceremony at the front of the boat. We threw some wild flowers into the sea then got down to business.After the ceremony, they dropped us off at the dock of Persimmon’s restaurant, announcing to everyone eating on the patio “I present to you, for the first time, Mr and Mrs Hager” to much applause. We had dinner there and walked the half mile back to the hotel, passing the birthplace of Pepsi on the way.
The photos of the ceremony were taken by Captain Archer Watkins Sr.
May 15, 2011
Sunday
I woke up early at the hotel, my first morning as a married man.
We checked out, drove home, took naps, and packed for New Orleans. The train leaves at 2:45am. Way past my bedtime.
May 16, 2011
Monday
We got on the Amtrak train for New Orleans around 3am. Our room was tiny but had 2 beds, a toilet and a sink. Our meals were free and included breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I love riding the train but wish we had started earlier so I could get more sleep.
As we rode through Alabama, I was amazed at the tornado destruction in Tuscaloosa. It went on for miles and miles. Every roof had a tarp on it, most treed were snapped in half. I’ve never seen that much damage in person.
The last leg of the ride was incredible. The sun was setting ashe train went across Lake Pontchartrain before entering New Orleans.
We checked into the Maison Dupuy in the French Quarter around 8pm. It is nice. There is a cherry picker in the street below our balcony so I guess we’ll hear construction in the morning. We wandered around The French Quarter, ate some food, saw some shops, went home and went to bed. I left our breakfast order tag on the door. This didn’t work the last time I tried it (in Myrtle Beach, where they took the tag but never brought the food). I wonder if it will this time.
Our honeymoon (and thus our marriage) has begun nicely.
May 17, 2011
Tuesday
The cherry picker woke us up a few times, as expected. Room service woke me up next but it was for the room adjacent to ours. When I opened the door, I saw that our breakfast order tag was still on the door. Around 9:45, housekeeping knocked and I asked her about the order. She tried to make excuses but I wasn’t having it and eventually closed the door on her. She must have told room service because they called and asked if I still wanted it. I did. It was good but not really worth the $50 and stress. Plus they forgot our juices.
We wandered around the French Quarter most of the day, eating and shopping. We came back to the room with a small pile of gifts for ourselves and friends.
The oysters we had a dinner were cooked by their 1400 degree shells. Amazing. We ate way too much today, will try to take it easy tomorrow.
May 18, 2011
Wednesday
So much for taking it easy on the food today. We went to Brennan’s restaurant for breafast. They invented the bananas foster so we had that as the 3rd course of our 3-course breakfast. I had Eggs Shannon for my main course, because of the name (of course).
We were going to walk to a Garden District tour but the walk was too far so we wandered around a while instead. We went to a Southern Art museum, Trashy Diva, the River Walk, and some other shopping spots.
Marisa’s back was killing her from the walk so she got a 90-minute massage while I played around on the iPad in the courtyard and drank coffee. We ate a light(ish) dinner at the Bistreaux downstairs then wandered around the Quarter taking photos of live bands. I tried to hit every bar with music. Some of the bands sounds like good karaoke, some sounded like bad karaoke. We actually hear a band playing a live version of The Electric Slide. I was surprised at how lame most of the music was. There were a few good jazz and blues bands but they were in the minority.
May 19, 2011
Thursday
Took a 3 hour tour of the city from the comfort of a air-conditioned van. The tour guide showed and explained the damage of Katrina (still evident over 5 years after the tragedy), the methods of the above-ground cemeteries, and the beautiful homes of the garden district. I find it sad and amazing that so much of the damaged homes are still standing in the exact same state as the day the flood waters dried up. Rich homes, poor homes, the destruction was everywhere. There was an overpass with a watermark on it. There were beautiful expensive homes on hills with watermarks halfway up their doors. There were 10 foot high street signs with watermarks on them. There were spraypainted markings everywhere showing that the homes had been searched and if there were any bodies inside. New Orleans has more soul than any city I’ve ever seen in America. “They should just move elsewhere” is not an option and I don’t think anyone who has visited New Orleans would say that. This city is a national treasure.
On the way back to the hotel, Marisa bought a beer and was given 3 beers. We had seen the “3 for 1 beer” signs all at several bars around the Quarter but didn’t really take them seriously. They really were giving out 3 beers for the price of 1 at some of these places. If I hadn’t stopped drinking 3 years ago, I probably would not make it out of the French Quarter alive.
For dinner, we had the best meal of the trip (best meal ever?) at Le Meritage, the restaurant downstairs in the hotel. The crab cakes were easily the best I have ever had.
Now we are all packed and ready for bed. We’ll get up at 5, shower, check out and leave New Orleans on a train for Charlotte at 7am.
May 20, 2011
Friday
Up early, on time. Checked out, rode to Amtrak station, lounged in the sleeper car passengers’ lounge (the Magnolia Room) then hopped on the train to leave NOLA.
The food was much better this time, there was some mechanical difficulty on the way down that caused us to get lame breakfast & dinner but great Alabama BBQ chicken lunches. We met a few people because we shared tables at meals. It is 11pm now, Marisa is asleep below me, I am going to try to sleep now. We should get a wake up call/visit from the attendant 20 mins before we hit Charlotte around 3am, I think.
May 21, 2011
Saturday
We made it home around 2 am last night, brought luggage in, started laundry, and went to bed.
We did laundry and packed this morning. Marisa picked up Vincent and some lunch then we left Charlotte around 1:30pm.
We stopped a lot along the way, covering only 400 or 500 miles of the 2000 mile trip.
We tried to get a room in Nashville but things were packed because it was a Saturday with 5 major events going down. Vincent was sleeping but didn’t look comfortable at all so we didn’t drive all night. I would have driven longer but we wanted Vincent to get some good sleep in a bed.
We are now in Loretta Lynn’s hometown. Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow but I know it involves driving further west.
May 22, 2011
Sunday
Vincent woke up early. Marisa had him and herself bathed before I got up. We ate the breakfast and left around 11am. The ride wasn’t very eventful otherwise except for the devastation of the flooded Mississippi River and the storms in Oklahoma (that apparently included deadly tornados in Joplin to the north of us). After the Katrina tours, the Tuscaloosa tornado damage, the floods in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and now the tornados, Marisa joked that this isn’t a honeymoon. It is an escape route.
We are now in Oklahoma City. Tomorrow we’ll go to the zoo and drive a half-day.
May 23, 2011
Monday
We got up and out of the hotel by 9:15. We went to the Oklahoma City Zoo until noon. It was very hot and very humid. We saw some elephants in their very cool new habitat, along with the usual zoo fare.
We stopped for lunch at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, a place Rich and I ate the last time I drove to Los Angeles. The T-bone was just as great as I remembered. An older couple sitting near us paid for our lunch with instructions to not let us know until after they were gone.
We were still in Oklahoma but nearing TX when I heard a thumping on my door. I looked in the side mirror and saw the black plastic plate that runs the height of the driver’s window (and houses the keyless entry touchpad) was dangling by the wires, slightly flapping in the wind. I stopped, pushed it back on and drove another few miles on I-40 before seeing that it was going to fall off again. I pulled exited the interrate and pulled into a RV Service parking lot. Marisa and I were looking at ways to tape it on with some medical tape when local guy pulled over and helped us. He had some badass black electric tape that we used to seal it all together. I think it will hold until we get back to Charlotte. I like Oklahoma. The people are nice.
We stopped in Amarillo for dinner at The Big Texan. I’ve been there a few times before. This was the first time I have seen someone successfully finish the 72 oz steak dinner in an hour. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone attempt it before. The lady sitting beside us said he brother did it twice in one day once so they made a “once per day” rule afterwards.
We are in Tucumcari, NM now. We have around 580 miles to go so we should be able to finish the drive tomorrow. We don’t really know exactly where we’re going so it could be shorter or longer. Luckily, I am always ready for adventure.
May 24, 2011
Tuesday
Days are starting to get confusing. Is it really only Tuesday?
We did the usual continental breakfast and hit the road. The winds were bad (to us but not to the locals) in NM. 20-30 mph with 60 mph gusts.
We stopped and let Vincent run more often than usual so he could play in the wind. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Old Town Albuquerque. It had a bricked floor and several dining rooms, most of which were on slightly different elevations. Some of the rooms were built in the first decade of the 1700s, according to our hostess. 1707? 1709? I can’t remember the exact year.
We had dinner in Holbrook, AZ and stayed in a Drury Inn in Flagstaff. It has an indoor pool for Vincent. There were more devastating tornados in OK, including over the I-40 area. More are forecast for tomorrow.
May 25, 2011
Wednesday
We had breakfast in the hotel and set off for the Grand Canyon. First stop: Williams AZ for lunch. It is an old town that has a lot of themed shops and restaurants and even runs a train up to the Canyon.
We stopped at a drive-through zoo called Bearizona.
We made it to the Grand Canyon, finally, and got out for a hike. Vincent wasn’t digging it at all so we didn’t walk far. I think the Canyon may have been overwhelming for him, he didn’t seem to want to look in that direction at all.
We booked a room near the rim of the canyon, unpacked, and had dinner.We decided to book the room an additional night so we could just relax for a full day but it was already booked for the next night. We would have to pack up and move downstairs to another room. If we have to pack up our stuff, we may as well put it in the car and go elsewhere so we probably won’t stay here tomorrow night.
May 26, 2011
Thursday
Vincent woke up at 4 am. That was the same time I needed to get up if I were to take photos of the sun rising in the Grand Canyon but there was no way I was getting out of bed that early. We eventually all got up, checked it of the room, got breakfast, and walked to the Canyon. We walked a little over a mile of the trail, getting great photos (maybe?) and carrying Vincent some of the way.
We drove down to Tusayan and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant.
We checked on room prices for Sedona on the hotels.com app and reserved a room for 2 nights. This will be the first time we have stayed 2 nights in the same city since New Orleans. This will be nice.
We drove back up to the Grand Canyon and along the rim to the east entrance then back, stopping at almost every lookout point for photos. The views were always amazing, always overwhelming, always breath-taking. We took photos and video but there is no way to capture all of that beauty in a photo. I want to go back some day and hike down into the Canyon.
Marisa was as impressed with the drive from Flagstaff to Sedona as I was. It was as beautiful as I remembered it. Probably better.
We are now in our hotel room waiting for Vincent to go to sleep. When he does, we will watch this week’s episode of Game of Thrones thanks to HBO GO.
This hotel is cool, it looks like a pueblo village. I can’t tell what the view is like because it is so dark. I look forward to finding out in the morning.
May 27, 2011
Friday
I woke up before Vincent for the first time on this trip. I was up before 6. The sun rises directly behind an amazing rock cliff structure directly out our hotel door. Wow.
Vinnie and Marisa slept until 8:30. We had the continental breakfast from the hotel then drove around Sedona a while. We ate lunch uptown then went to Slide Rock State Park to play in the water. I assumed it would be too cold for us because I went to Sliding Rock in NC when I was a kid and it was too cold for me to enjoy. Slide Rock was just as cold so Vincent didn’t want to do much more than put his feet in and play with his bucket, dumping water for an hour or so.
We stopped uptown again and we had ice cream. We also found a visitor information center where we got a map and the name of a road to drive down to see the good views of the rocks that surround Sedona. Vincent and Marisa played in the pool for a while then we drove around taking photos until we had exhausted most of the paved roads we could find.
We wanted something different for dinner so we had sushi and Chinese. We will probably leave early in the morning to start the journey home.
My top lip is so chapped, it feels like there is a thin hairline scab along the top of my lip.
May 28, 2011
Saturday
I woke up early, showered, woke up Marisa, and went to get gas and coffee while Marisa showered and got Vincent ready. We had brought in all of our luggage so it took at while to pack everything up. Sedona was just as beautiful on the way out as on the way in.
We were behind a couple in a Scion with “Just Married” painted on the back window. They must have wanted to drive very slow and enjoy the scenery because they pulled off to let us pass.
We ate breakfast at IHOP in Flagstaff then started the long journey home on I40. The couple in the Scion also ate there.
We stopped at the Meteor Crater because I wanted Marisa to see it. Vincent wasn’t that interested in the massive crater (meh… a hole in the ground…) but did enjoy the dangerously strong winds.
I ran out of shirts today so I bought a t-shirt at a convenience store along the way.
We stopped early for the night, in Albuquerque. We wanted to see the UFC 130 PPV but none of the hotels we asked had it. We were going to stay at one of the hotels in the cluster where we first pulled off I40 but I saw a crack/meth whore walk out of one (the first crack whore of the trip!) and that scared me off.
After we checked in, we walked to a diner and had dinner. We passed through a little park and saw a strange collection of homeless people. Old honkies, native Americans, skaters, a little gay black kid, it was somewhat weird and was the first real homeless encounters we have had on the trip. I guess we haven’t really been in a downtown area at all unless you count the French Quarter.
After dinner, I played on the Internet while Marisa and Vincent went to the pool. In addition to being the first hotel where we had zero cellular service in the room, the Hyatt was the first hotel that charged for wifi. I paid it so we could watch the newest episode of Game of Thrones on HBO Go.
May 29, 2011
Sunday
Today we drove from Albuquerque to Oklahoma. We stopped and ate a couple times.
We stopped at a Route 66 themed rest stop in TX that was cool. It had a playground for Vincent and some historical trivia for us adults. Bought another t-shirt so I don’t have to wear a dirty one tomorrow. The temperature reached 103 at one point and never dipped below the high 80s. There were a few dust storms on the road and many of them around us.
I drove until well after midnight to make up for yesterday’s lost time. We ended up in Eufaula, OK at a Best Western after I took an exit going to wrong way and got stuck on a paid turnpike. It was easier to go to Eufaula than to turn around after 10 miles on the turnpike.
It didn’t matter that were we in the room next to the room of party girls who kept loudly entering and their room, we were still asleep immediately.
May 30, 2011
Monday
Continental breakfast at the hotel. Lunch at Weinkeller Restaurant, a Swiss restaurant on the Wiederkehr Vineyard in Altus, Arkansas (population 46). Dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse somewhere in Tennessee.
We drove until midnight. Because we checked in so late, we have our room here at the Best Western until the day after tomorrow if we want it. The GPS says we have 6.5 hours of driving to go, around 350 miles. If we leave by noon, we should be home by 8pm.
May 31, 2011
Tuesday
Marisa and Vincent slept late so I did, too. We slept until after 10am, missing the continental breakfast completely. Marisa took Vincent to the pool while I took a shower. The smoke alarm went off from the shower steam, I had to call the front desk and get the maintenance man to come up and unplug it. I played with Vincent at the pool while Marisa showered then we left. We probably made it out of the hotel around 1pm but we really should have stayed another night and played at the pool all day.
We made it home around 10:30.
By the numbers:
Total miles on this leg of the trip: 4415.4
Highest temperature: 103
Lowest temperature: 42
Highest elevation: 1080 ft.
Time it took me to finally post all this: 5.5 months. DOH.
