Our Bucket List Road Trip

After 43 days and over 10,000 miles, we drove the final leg of our adventure, arriving back in Massapequa, NY, today, but not before stopping in Queens, NY, to wish our son Michael a Happy Birthday. We interrupted his busy work day just long enough to have a celebratory lunch with him and his wife, Katie. It was great to see them again! Birthday Celebration at Gemmeli's What an amazing adventure we have had! It has been the trip of a lifetime. The United States is such a beautiful, diverse country with vast open spaces between the east and west coasts. We are happy and blessed for this very special time and we are happy we were able to share it with our family and friends. Thanks for following our adventures along the way. Glad to be home! (And really glad we didn't have to use the tent!!) So long, family and friends! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!

We drove from Woodstock, VA to Malvern, PA to visit Phil’s cousin, Jimmy Keenan. Unfortunately we missed his sweet wife, Catherine, who was away on business. But we did get to meet his son Nick and his wife Daniella and their adorable children Sophia, Aidan, and Liam. Jimmy cooked dinner for all of us: a delicious sweet and sour pork over noodles. He is a great cook! We wish we had taken a picture with all kids and grandkids, But we were having such a good time sharing lots of stories that we forgot. Tomorrow we will be home!

We left Loudon, TN this morning and drove through to Woodstock, VA. It’s a pretty little town! No pics today. We stayed in the hotel tonight and watched a movie for a change! We are looking forward to being home the day after tomorrow.

While we have been in Nashville, people have told us the Johnny Cash museum is a must see. We decided to see it this morning before we left Nashville. It was interesting, although we wouldn’t have put it on a “must see” list. Right after lunch we set out for Loudon, TN, where we had a fun night with Dave and Perry Flanagan, parents of our daughter-in-law Katie. Our gracious hosts welcomed us with a delicious home cooked dinner 😋 and we played a few rounds of Kelly Pool, a friendly “competitive” pool. Dave is a shark, but didn’t mind teaching us newbies a few moves.

We drove through the Music Row area of Nashville as we headed Downtown. Music Row is the home to Nashville's record label offices, radio stations, and recording studios. Many of them are converted houses. Jason Aldean recoding studio Big Yellow Dog recording studio It is the heart of Nashville's country music industry, and is located just outside of the bustling downtown and near Vanderbilt University. It's where all the artists do their recordings including names like Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton.  We found a nice restaurant in the Music Row area where we had lunch before heading downtown to find a Hop On/Off tour bus. We enjoyed listening to the driver as he provided us with a lot of history and pointed out some interesting places that we never would have found on our own, such as the Station Inn.  Jam session at the Station Inn After the bus tour we found our way back to the Station Inn, located in the Gulch section of town, and waited 2 hours for the doors to open (we ...

Now that we are settled into Nashville we just had to explore Broadway, between 1st and 5th avenues, this afternoon. It's a wild place! Live music in almost every restaurant or bar and on multiple levels. It's a high energy place with fun vibes. This area seems to be the go-to place for bachelor and bachorette parties.  Live music on 3 levels of this place Memphis was nothing like this! Mellow Mushroom was anything BUT mellow. The cello player put on quite a show! The famous Bluebird Cafe is less than a mile from our hotel room. We were hoping to go there for a quieter and more intimate venue for dinner and a show tonight, but the line waiting to get in was  impossible. We ended up at Cabana Taps, a place recommended by a guest in the hotel. Aspiring musicians get about 20 minutes to perform and the bar/dinner crowd is constantly changing. The scene reminded us of the show "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel". We saw one good performer, Brooks Hatley, but the rest were so-so t...

We arrived in Nashville this afternoon. After checking into our hotel we headed over to the Grand Ole Opry. This is our first time in Nashville and we are newbies to the Opry. We were able to get tickets for tonight's show. We saw some amazing performers, including Jacob Bryant with his Grand Ole Opry debut and Tony Jackson, who made his debut in 2019 and has an amazing, unforgetable voice and Mark Wills, who performed the touching last song of the evening with a young girl guest performer who signed while he sang "Don't Laugh At Me". What a great way to end the evening! In front of the Grand Ole Opry We arrived early and the usher took our picture with the view from our seats The program for the night

Today was our first washout, literally. It was rainy and windy with thunderstorm and tornado warnings. However, the weather was not as bad as predicted and we made the most of the day. In front of the mansion We went to Graceland for a tour of Elvis' home in the morning. There were hardly any people there, so we got right in and we were able to spend as much time as we wanted.  The mansion from the back yard Then we checked out the famous Bass Pro Shop pyramid for lunch. The pyramid has an interesting outdoorsy concept inside with restaurants and bowling and an overnight lodge blending into the retail footprint. There is a glass elevator that goes to the top where there is a restaurant with a view of the Mississippi River. It was raining so hard when we were there that we couldn't even see the river or the bridge, so we opted to eat downstairs at the Wahlburger. It wasn't so great but it satisfied our hunger. The rain subsided after lunch and we took a walk on the famous Be...

The bath house was an interesting experience. The Buckstaff Bathhouse is truly an authentic experience, right down to the antique bath fixtures! It was therapeutic. It's a good thing Sandy started the day so relaxed. Right after she got into the Tacoma, where Phil was parked across the street, a 17 year old girl sideswiped the Tacoma, breaking off our driver's side mirror. Phil caught up with the girl a couple of blocks down the road. No one was physically hurt, and we duck-tapped the side view mirror back onto the truck, but the girl who hit us was an unlicensed driver and the vehicle was uninsured.  We had planned to visit the gangster museum but, once we got all the paperwork resolved with the police, we taped up the mirror and continued on to Nashville. The weather doesn't look good for tomorrow, but we hope to visit Elvis' Graceland.

Hot Springs National Park actually includes the town of Hot Springs as well as the Hot Springs mountain. This was probably a very upscale place to come back in its hey day in the the early 1900s. Now, unfortunately, the town looks tired and shows signs of decline. Businesses are closed and the ones that are open close early in the day or close on Mondays or Tuesdays, even the restaurants. The shopping mall closes at 7 p.m. The bath houses on bath house row are operational and Sandy is going to experience the Buckstaff Bath House tomorrow. Bath House Row Sandy relaxing on the front patio of the Buckstaff Bath House We did a short hike up the Hot Springs mountain today. It is amazing to see and feel hot water flowing down the mountain and even bubbling up from the ground. You can see the steam coming up in the video below. The water flowing here is hotter than bath water! Video of the hot spring Soup of the day - Whiskey! 😄

Happy Valentine's Day! It was great to meet up with old friends, Harley and Melissa Cohen, before we left Dallas this morning. Harley and Melissa have owned and operated the Right at Home of Dallas office for 15 years. We met them early on when we owned and operated the Right at Home North Shore LI office and we've been friends ever since.  We had not orginally planned to visit Hot Springs, Arkansas, but after reading about Hot Springs National Park in our National Parks Guide, we decided to check out the reputed powers of the naturally heated mineral springs. Aparently the hot spring baths relieve stress and aching muscles, leaving you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated!  We arrived too late to check out the hot springs today, but we will let you know tomorrow. The town of Hot Springs looks like a nice place to visit and celebrate Valentine's Day. We are staying at a Doubletree by Hilton, right on the lake. The hotel, the room, and the view are all great. We can't wait ...

The party in NY We got some videos of Main St. as we left Altus, OK to share with Sandy's family when we get back home. We didn't go to Craterville Park. When we Goggled it we found out, unfortunatley, that it was closed in the late 1960's. We arrived in Dallas, TX mid afternoon and went to Saltgrass Steakhouse for an early dinner and to watch the Superbowl. We were rooting for Cinncinati who, unfortunately, lost. It was nice to get a picture from our friends back home whose Superbowl party we missed. The party in Dallas

It has been a very interesting drive on I-40 across the top of New Mexico and the Texas panhandle to arrive in Altus, in the southwest corner of Oklahoma, where we are spending the night. View from our hotel in Altus, OK Here is a piece of trivia that most people don't know about Sandy. She lived in Altus, OK when she was around 3 years old. She doesn't remember any of it and doesn't know where she lived in Altus, but it's kinda cool to be here! Compared to the towns we drove through, Altus is not too bad. Amarillo, TX is the ONLY city was passed along the route. Lots and lots of open land, from Indian reservations to wind mill farms, to miles of cotton fields. There were a few small towns along the way, but many of the shops are abandoned and Hollis, OK looked like a ghost town. It's sad to see that this area of the country appears to be struggling, especially on the Indian reservations.  View of the open road and open fields in the Texas panhandle

 We woke up early to catch the sunrise after spending the night in the village at Grand Canyon in the Thunderbird hotel. It's pretty cold in the morning. Brrr The canyon in the early morning sun Sandy staying warm in early morning as we start out on a hike around the rim to see the sunrise. Taking in the beautiful vista. The temperatures warm up nicely by mid-morning. Bright Angel Trail - Phil's a little close to the edge!!! The beginning of Bright Angel Trail. We only made it to about half way down the part of the trail you see in this picture. After Sandy slipped on the icy trail we abandoned our trek and headed back up to the rim!  It was great to have binoculars to scout out the Colorado river. We were only able to hike down maybe 1/6th of the trail! And there is no way we would ride the donkeys down after hearing how close those donkeys walk on the edge of the trail!!! The trail was icy in places and crampons were recommended. There were no donkeys on the trail anyway. An...

We arrived in Grand Canyon just in time to get a feel for the Bright Angel trail on the south rim. This is the mule trip to the canyon floor. We did not/will not do the mule trip; we would much prefer to keep our feet on the ground! View at sunset from our lodge!!! We didn't have reservations for tonight, but we found a great last minute deal on hotels.com, which was half price at the Thunderbird Lodge, right on the south rim in the park!!! How lucky can you get?? We hiked part way into the Bright Angel Trail to check it out for tomorrow then we did a little of the South Rim trail before dinner. This is the sunset view from  the Thunderbird Lodge: It's another amazing adventure! So many amazing photos!! We will post the best of the best tomorrow.   

We had a full day exploring Zion National Park. We learned the locals pronounce it Zye-Inn. Zion is a beautiful park located in the SW corner of Utah. It offers amazing car rides on the many miles roads that wind all over the park and seemingly right through the surrounding mountains in the heavens! Looking out from the side of the winding roads  up the mountains.  The mountains seem to reach  up to the heavens Sandy leading the way! Getting a bird's eye view! We continued to sight see as we drove further into the park, where we were planning to hike on some of the beautiful trails all over the park. We decided to take on the Valley Overlook Trail and parked on the side of the road at the entrance for the trail. From there we started on our way up a mile long hike that was dramatic and climbed high into the  mountains and lead to an incredible vista at thhe top.  Along the trail to the MountainTop Vista   The hike took us on trails like this! View from the ...