The End

Tara and I left NYC on 06/22/09 and returned on 08/30/09. To save everyone time counting on their calenders that is 70 days away from our apartment. We spent 48 days on the road this summer, 16.5 days at her parents in Austin, Texas and 6.5 days at the beach house in North Carolina. We traveled through 24 states in that time, staying in most of them at least one night (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.) We camped 15 nights, stayed at friends 2 nights, a Bed and Breakfast 1 night, 3 nights at a La Quinta Inn, Doubletree Hotel, Garden Cottages Motel and Holiday Inn, 2 nights at a Best Western and Ramada Inn, and 1 night at a Hyatt Regency, Budget Host Inn, Red Lion Hotel, Snider's Rustic Inn, Little America Hotel, Aquarius Inn Motel, America's Best Value Inn, Hilton Inn, and Hotel Preston. We drove at least 11,046 miles as recorded on our GPS unit (Nuvi), though there were a few trips here and there when it was not plugged in and recording the distance.

As the sayings go "All good things must end," and "All endings are just new beginnings." With that in mind, Tara and I decided on the way up to NYC on Sunday to start a new adventure. On Monday, we went to the City Clerks Office to obtain our Marriage License, and in a limo on Friday, September 4th, 2009 (Tara's birthday) at 10:45 AM we returned to take our vows as witnessed by our friends Sonja Robinson and Ryan, Kirsten, and Millie Matyjasik. We were back in our apartment as a wedded couple by noon. We changed and walked to 2nd Ave to eat lunch at Nancy's Pig Heaven before going to Chinatown to spend $15 on two rings that will due until Leon Mege can make our official set. That night we dined at King's Carriage House with Ryan and Kirsten Matyjasik, Tom and Sonja Robinson, and Paul, Annie, and Lily Byerly to celebrate our new beginning.

Thank you to all who followed our adventure.

Beach Week

Sunday to Sunday - August 23rd to August 30th, 2009

Pine Island, NC to New York City, NY

The week at the beach was the perfect way to wind down after all of the traveling this summer. Tara and I only left the house to hit up the food stores, deciding to spend our time at the pool, on the beach or around the house instead of site seeing. My youngest sister Jenny and her boyfriend Pat arrived on Monday, as did Kim's boyfriend Ryan and his daughter Reece to fill out the house. Lots of swimming, tanning, reading, playing of Catchphrase, Scrabble and Monopoly, eating, cooking, drinking and plain old fun ensued for the entire week. Before we could believe it was Saturday. We set up the tent to clean it out and started the packing process for the last time. We left Sunday morning and made it back to NYC in 11 hours. Amazingly, we found a parking spot right across the street from our building, unloaded the car in three trips, and went to Yuka our favorite sushi place, to celebrate our amazing summer.

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Biltmore and the Beach

Saturday and Sunday, August 22nd and 23rd, 2009

Nashville, TN to Asheville, NC to Pine Island, NC

Following a noisy night in Nashville, we piled into the car and made a direct approach to Asheville, NC forgoing the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The reason for our haste was the impressive Biltmore Mansion and their Flower Carpet Garden Evening Event. We arrived in Asheville without a problem, checked into the Ramada Inn, checked out the used book store nearby, and headed to the Mansion. We opted to go to the Winery first and greatly enjoyed the tour and wine tasting, wishing that we knew ahead of time that we could have sampled over 15 wines so that we saved the heavy reds for last. We purchased a couple of bottles of wine in the gift shop and drove the 4 miles to the Mansion for the last two hours of the evening event. The place is enormous. In our two hours we saw the Flower Carpet Garden, the first floor and the basement, leaving the rest of the house for the next morning. That night we greatly enjoyed our dinner at Nova in downtown Asheville, although parking was quite difficult and a bit of an issue.

The next day we were up and out bright and early, scoring a free breakfast at the Ramada and headed back to the Mansion arriving right as it was opening at 9 am. We turned in our tickets for the audio tour and crept up to the second floor. We could not have planned this any better as far as avoiding the crowds on a weekend. The night before allowed us to take our time and the same went for this morning as we traveled through the upper floors of this 285 room Mansion barely disturbed by the other visitors. We finished our tour by 11 am and walked through the Italian Gardens and the Conservatory until noon. With an 8+ hour drive staring us in the face we left the Biltmore Estate, grabbed some Wendy's, and hit the road. Aside from the length, the drive went smoothly and we were greeted at the beach house on Pine Island, NC by my parents, Fred and Rita, my middle sister Kim and her daughter Kai, and the wonderful hamburgers that they grilled.

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Nashville

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Little Rock, AR to Nashville, TN

Munching on granola bars for a quick breakfast, we left the Hilton Inn and whipped by the Capital Building. We opted to take a circuitous route to Nashville, TN that took us through south Memphis, into Mississippi, and up to the Shiloh National Military Park. But first we needed a hearty lunch and stopped at Lenny's Sub Shop. Lenny's is a chain of shops that operate primarily in the southeast and they pile the meat, cheese and goodness onto their subs. Filled, we made it to Shiloh just in time for the last guided tour of the National Cemetery and a telling of the battle. Somehow, Tara and I were the only attendees on the tour. We were humbled by the beauty of the location and chilled by the events that occurred along the idyllic banks of the Tennessee River in April 1862.

The drive north to Nashville took us along windy, tree covered hills, farms and through quaint towns that we wished we had time to explore. We checked into the Hotel Preston and learned the hard way that it was located right in the flight line of the International Airport. For dinner we headed to downtown Nashville and Pearl Fusion Restro which served a blend of Chinese and Japanese favorites including sushi. A tip for future travelers is do not order sushi in Nashville. I don't know what we were thinking, but our waiter sure was proud to state that he rolled the rolls himself. We survived though and walked around downtown, marveling that every other door was a bar and all of them had a band on stage. We returned to our hotel, had a quick drink at the bar (where there was a band on stage) and retired for the night.

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