Our mini American adventure

Since our last post, we attended a 2-day cultural awareness class, had nearly all of our worldly possessions packed up and put into a cargo container on its way through the Panama Canal, got the cats health-certified, sold one of our cars, and put our house on the real estate market....oh yeah, and drove across the country.

Before beginning our great European adventure, we decided to drive across the country to drop off some of our excess possessions and to visit with family and friends. With only one week between our last day in California and our last day in the country, we went on a whirlwind cross-country drive to be able to maximize time visiting with the family and friends.

We traveled across the country in three days, from Saturday morning at 12:45 am PST to Monday evening at 6 pm EST. Our travels took us through ten states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Here are somewhat groggy and bewildered impressions of these great states.

• California is really, really long. In the seemingly interminable state, the two most interesting sites we encountered were the rocky crop of wind turbines dotting the mountain faces near Tehachapi Pass and a white sea of almond blossoms near Bakersfield.
• We were ecstatic to reach our first state border. More high altitude desert was really cool, but it was a bit of a shock to the system to discover that not only does it snow in Arizona, but it snows, a lot! I tend to feel Arizona has been perpetuating a false image of itself. Where the hell were the saguaros? You don't see a snowman on the state license plate; it's a frickin' cactus. Regardless, it was very pretty.
• Quite a bit of New Mexico was traveled in the dark, so we don't have too many comments on it. However, one of the coolest experiences was cresting the hill (mountain?) above Albuquerque and seeing the other-worldly sparkle of the city below. At first, we weren't quite sure what we were looking at. Having just woken up from dozing in the passenger seat by Ken's quiet "oh [boy].", I was slightly worried we were about to be abducted by aliens. (We weren't that far from Roswell...)
• After the impressive geological features of CA, AZ, and NM, Texas was...well...not so impressive. Someone has used this description for other areas, but we think it fits Texas to a T: if you step on a beer can in northern Texas, you can see for 50 miles.
• Oklahoma was pretty much like Texas but much hillier and windier which was not so fun with the loaded Uhaul trailer we were towing.
• Arkansas started hinting at the South that we knew and was considerably wetter than the previous locales that we had driven through. We spent the night in a Days Inn east of Little Rock (our only stop in a hotel on the trip).
• We were in Tennessee for all of an hour. We drove through the outskirts of Memphis..and well, I wouldn't recommend a visit. (On the other hand, Tennessee does have some beautiful places that we've visited on other trips through the state.)
• Mississippi was surprisingly nice. The state gets a bad rap, but we enjoyed the forested area that we drove through....classic Southern driving...highway and pine trees.
• Near Birmingham, we left the interstate and drove through country roads/highways in Alabama on the way to Margaret's grandmother's home (final destination of the majority of our things). On the slightly backwoods drive, we were apprised of the Alabamian fondness for yard sales which included signs for several "indoor yard sales" and one landowner offering yard sale plots for rent.
• Ahhh...finally made it to Georgia. Home, sweet Coca-Cola, home.

In our brief few days in Georgia, we managed to visit with lots of family (primarily Margaret's immediate and extended family) and see friends. We had dinner with Margaret's immediate family, her grandmother, her great uncle, her aunt and her cousin. We went with Margaret's parents and her brother and her brother's fiancee (who had both driven down from Indiana to wish us off) to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The aquarium was very neat. Highlights included several whale sharks, river otters, jellies, sea horses, and (as shown in the left photo) a few intoxicated starfish.

We were also lucky to spend time with Margaret's parents and Ken's dad and his wife who had driven down from Tennessee (the nicer part).

On our last night in the States, we ate with a small group of friends and family at our favorite Bangladeshi restaurant, Panahar, just north of Atlanta. Panahar did not disappoint. We had a four-course feast of delicious food including spicy halim soup, creamy saag paneer, and chicken tikka masala. In addition to the great food and service, we had great conversation.

Today is our last post from the U.S. for quite awhile. The last bit is being typed from the Washington Dulles airport before our flight to Geneva. We'll see you on the other side.