Road Trip Afterthoughts and Highlights in the South

I’m back in Washington DC since a few days and I’m still processing all the impressions that I have from our road trip. I look through my photos over and over again, trying to remember the sentiment I got from each particular place. Swedish Monika said that I seemed to have had really high expectations before the trip and she asked me if it had met my expectations. The answer is both yes and no. Some places were better or more impressive than I had expected, and some places did not meet my expectations at all. I think I thought we would see more small towns where life goes on at its own pace. But instead, it was so empty everywhere, with places just abandoned or, frankly, quite dead. Also, after we left Savannah, it was like the U.S.’s brand symbols gradually disappeared. We no longer saw the typical fast food chains and retailers. They where probably there, but not everywhere in the way they are in other parts of the U.S. It was in fact a bit difficult at times to find a place to eat, and we could drive for hours before we came across a diner that was open. (In Alabama, the diner where we had lunch was combined with the local gas station.) And it wasn’t because there were no people and just nature, like when we drove through the West last year, we did drive through communities but there simply was very little going on there in terms of commerce. Instead, there were churches in abundance, sometimes lined up one after the other, and with enormous parking lots in front of them.

Another interesting thing that struck me was the celebration of the Confederacy. Everywhere we went, the main tourist attractions would be linked to the Confederate Government, Confederate leader Jefferson Davis (or President Davis in the South), Confederate General Lee, or another important figure in the fight against the North. In Natchez, the Union (North’s) Army’s stationing in the town was referred to as the occupation. And even in Montgomery, there was little nuanced celebration of the Confederate monuments, even though famous locations for the  Civil Rights Movement were also pointed out with equal pride. But in most places, there didn’t seem to be any Civil Rights events to point to, only monuments from the Confederacy. Maybe it symbolizes something else down in the South, but for an outsider, the Confederacy’s stance on slavery overshadows everything that might have been a source of pride.

 
Since we stayed and ate in so many different places, I thought I’d post a list of all the places I could recommend for someone who’d do a similar trip. The rest, you have to explore yourself!
 
Beaches: 
Outer Banks, North Carolina
Tybee Island, Georgia
 
Towns and Cities:
Beaufort
Charleston
New Orleans
 
Hotels: 
The Cedar’s Inn, Beaufort, North Carolina
Thyme Away B&B, LaGrange, Georgia
Grand Hotel, Natchez, Mississippi
Bluegreen La Pension, New Orleans, Louisiana
 
Eating and Drinking: 
Tautogs Restaurant, Virginia Beach, Virginia
The Provision Company, Southport, South Carolina
Toucan Cafe, Savannah’s outskirts Georgia
The Rookery, Macon, Georgia
Walnut Hills, Vicksburg, Mississippi
The Donut Hole Breakfast Deli, La Place, Louisiana
French 75, New Orleans, Louisiana
Arnaud’s, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Camellia Grill, New Orleans, Louisiana
Café Giovanni, New Orleans, Louisiana
Stanley, New Orleans, Louisiana
 
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Stanley in New Orleans, where I had one of my best burgers ever. 

Sunny California

The day after our camping adventure in Yosemite, we finally reached the coast in California! We stayed for one night in a chilly Monterey (i.e. no beach), and had a lovely seafood dinner out on the pier. Even though we missed the famous aquarium, we did have a chance to walk around in the marina and in the city center, and Monterey seemed like a very nice city. I wouldn’t mind coming back!

The next day, we drove down the breathtakingly beautiful part of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, or Highway 1) between Monterey and Morro Bay, and then continued south on the 101 freeway. Our goal was to spend the next day at the beach in Santa Barbara. However, last minute deals on hotels proved to be scares, so we decided to stay a bit outside instead, in Santa Ynez Valley. We booked a room on hotel.com, at a Holliday Inn Solvang. On our way up from the garage, we shared the lift with two other Swedes and one of them pointed out that running into other Swedes wasn’t so strange given where we were. I thought he meant California, since we Swedes always go where the sun is, but when Jonas and I left the hotel in search of dinner, we realized that we had ended up in Little Denmark. Solvang is apparently the Danish Capital in the U.S. The town was cute and weird at the same time, a little like Disneyland but with people actually living there. As always with immigrant communities, it was a positively skewed replica of the reality in the country a century ago. It didn’t exactly look like today’s Denmark, but Solvang did have its own brewery, which I can highly recommend a visit to!

The Monterey marina and people fishing from the pier

Along PCH

Jonas in Solvang, CA

An Almost Adventure in Yosemite

Again, we didn’t plan our road trip very well and at one point we almost paid for it. The lack of planning meant that we didn’t make hotel reservations in advance, but instead had the idea that we would stop for the night where we wanted to. Which turned out to be a mistake around Yosemite National Park. We drove from town to town only to be met by the message that every hotel, motell, and inn in town were fully booked. We drove deeper and deeper into the forest without finding anything, and eventually we decided to just sleep in the car. The jeep the rental care dealer had convinced us to upgrade to a few days earlier was all of a sudden very useful. Sleeping bags and some food could have been nice, but it was wonderful to look up at the stars through the windows and to smell the forest while falling asleep in complete silence. So camping out in the woods turned out to be a lot better than staying at a hotel! In the morning, we watched the sun rise over the treetops before we found a place (The River Restaurant and Lounge) that served breakfast on a terrace right next to a mountain stream. We did, however, book all our hotels in advance after that.

Finally Off (Though Not Very Organized)

So Jonas and I are finally at BWI (the low-cost flight airport outside Baltimore), waiting for our flight to Phoenix. This trip is not my most organized. The more I travel, the more lax I get about my travel plans. I got these flight tickets Sunday, and today, we got the train tickets for the airport, the rental car in Phoenix, and a hotel room for tonight. We haven’t even gotten the tickets for our return flight from LA yet, mainly because we haven’t decided exactly what day we will fly back. Past traveling has taught me that things normally work out, even without booked tickets and accommodation, and the U.S. is not exactly the most challenging country I have traveled in. Besides, it’s a very nice feeling not to have everything planned when on vacation, especially not on a road trip. Am very excited about these next days – can’t believe I will finally get to see the Grand Canyon tomorrow!!

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