Ladd Photos

Of course our road trip would take us through the most extreme heat wave of the summer. But, we pushed through it, spending a few hours walking along OKC’s Bricktown Riverwalk. Some ice cream helped us all cool off before the game.

The OKC Dodgers were having a “Cielo Azul” night, where they wore their alternate uniforms and had Ballet de Folklorico performers in between innings. Our seats were so close, we were practically on the field. Connor ran the bases after OKC crushed the River Cats, 12 to 3.

One of the best public parks in the country must be The Gathering Place, which we spent the first part of the day in Tulsa exploring. They have a cool mirror maze, a sky forest to climb around in, a castle, and lots of amazing play areas.

When we couldn’t stand the heat any longer, we moved on to see downtown Tulsa. We stopped at The Center of the Universe, a spot where if you are standing in it, it echoes back your voice super loud.

Our day started off at the Arkansas State Capitol, where we looked around the grounds before exploring inside the building.

Next, we headed to the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Park. They had an informative museum about the fight to desegregate the high school, and the Little Rock Nine who were so brave to face such horrific racism. It was surreal being in a spot where such an important event in our country’s history happened.

We spent the rest of our day in Little Rock at the Central Arkansas Nature Center, where we learned all about the state’s wildlife.

If you ever find yourself in Memphis, I highly recommend visiting the National Civil Right Museum.

The Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, has been preserved and a museum built on the grounds, covering the entire history of slavery in our country and the Civil Rights Movement.

We all learned so much about such a dark time in our nation’s past and the fight for its future. It felt very solemn looking into the room where MLK spent his last moments, and standing in the spot across the street, where the fatal shot was fired.

The rest of our day was less serious but just as enjoyable. We ran by the giant pyramid that houses a Bass Pro Shop, before heading to Beale Street. We had dinner at Dyers Burgers and walked around the famous street, listening to the blues playing through the air.

The Tennessee State Museum was huge, covering everything from prehistoric times, through the founding of the state, the civil war, and into the present day. We spent all morning and early afternoon exploring its treasures, but we could have spent much more time.

After the museum, we drove around downtown Nashville and then visited the State Capitol, which was smaller than the one in Arkansas and many of the other ones we have visited.

We spent the rest of the day visiting a replica of The Parthenon, which is kinda a weird thing to build in Tennessee. I was disappointed to discover it was made of concrete instead of marble.

Vanderbilt University was practically across the street, so we drove around it some. Gavin wanted to see their baseball stadium, which he managed to do right before a massive thunderstorm started dumping buckets of rain on us.

We spent all day at the US Space & Rocket Center, learning about the creation of the Saturn V rocket and the US Space program. We also tried the Moon Shot, where we got to feel weightless for a bit, and the G-Force Accelerator, where we experienced 3Gs of force.

In the evening, we went to the Trash Panda’s Team store, to get some gear from the Minor League team with the best logo. Then we drove down to Atlanta, passing through Chattanooga, TN on the way.

Today we learned more about Martin Luther King Jr, visiting both his birth house and his tomb. While we were at the King Center, we got stuck in a massive thunderstorm. I ended up having to walk through it to go get the car, so I could pick up everyone else.

We drove by the Georgia State Capitol but it was closed, so we just drove a few loops around the block. Then we drove randomly around the downtown area, and did a pass by the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Truist Park in the suburbs of Atlanta became the 13th MLB stadium we’ve had the pleasure to watch a game in. We viewed all sorts of cool baseball memorabilia while wandering around the stadium. We got to see some players warm up and take batting practice.

The game was a pitching duel, and neither team could get anything going. But, in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Braves walked it off, winning the game 1 to 0. After the game, we made our way down to the field and the boys ran the bases.

The boys running the bases:

Giant spiders everywhere. That is what I’m going to remember forever about Congaree National Park, outside of Columbia. We spent all afternoon walking along the raised boardwalk through the swamp.

The boys had fun doing the Junior Ranger program, and we all learned a lot about the plants and animals of the ecosystem. I tried very hard not to think about golden silk orb-weavers dropping on my head.

On the way to dinner, we drove by of the South Carolina State Capitol, and took a look from the car.

It was crazy humid in Charleston, but luckily we spent a good part of the day on the bay. It was a 30 minute boat ride out to Fort Sumter, where we had an hour to explore.

The ranger gave a great talk about the start for the Civil War, which began with the attack of Fort Sumter. They had a nice museum in the fort as well. I wish we could have stayed much longer than the allowed hour.

Back on shore, we spent an hour in the museum reading about the history leading up to the Civil War. Then we headed to Charleston’s French Quarter, where we wandered around the old town in unbearable heat and humidity.

Mission accomplished! We can finally say we drove across the entire country.

We spent the first part of the day at Tybee Island, outside of Savannah, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. The water was extremely warm, compared to the Pacific Ocean, but the waves were weak. It was a good time, until a lightning storm rolled in, and then Connor got stung by a jellyfish.

It sprinkled on us the rest of the day, as we walked around the historic district of Savannah. It is such a beautiful city, with their squares, fountains, and beautiful old houses.

After spending the night in Jacksonville, it was time to head back to the west coast. We drove around downtown, seeing where the Jaguars play football, before heading west to Tallahassee.

We spent all afternoon in the Museum of Florida History, where we learned a bunch about the history of the state. On the way out of town, we drove by the Florida State Capitol, then continued our voyage west.

I decided to take us to Panama City, which was south of the main interstate, to see the gulf coast. We drove through part of it, but the traffic was horrendous, so we decided to cut back north to get back on the interstate. The road took us through Mobile, AL and on into New Orleans.

The French Quarter was a short walk from our hotel, which is where we spent the entire day exploring.

While wandering the streets, we watched an amazing jazz musician playing her clarinet. It turns out her name is Doreen Ketchens and she is quite famous. I didn’t know that at the time, and I’m not a huge fan of jazz, but she was so good that I had to buy one of her albums she was selling.

We spent some time in St. Louis Cathedral, which was quite beautiful, before heading next door to The Presbytère. In this museum we learned about the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, then the happier topic of Mardi Gras.

After the museum, we hid out from the rain at Cafe Du Monde eating beignets, the famous pastry of the city. For dinner, we feasted on gumbo and shrimp po’boys at The Gumbo Shop.

To finish off the day, we drove along the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge, which is the longest bridge in the world.

During a long haul day on the road, we passed through Baton Rouge to check out the Louisiana State Capitol. We walked the grounds, observing the tallest State Capitol building in the US, before taking a look inside.

For our next destination, we headed up to Jackson to check out the Mississippi State Capitol. It was closed but we braved the heat to take a look at the grounds.

We had a good dinner of southern food in Shreveport before driving the remainder of the way to Dallas, where we were stopping for the night.

Today’s drive took us from Dallas to Las Cruces, NM. The route we took was through the upper part of west Texas, where we stopped in Roswell for dinner.

There were lots of alien statues and murals to be found, but no actual little green men walking around.