All Across America: Our Travels in the United States 1998 Through 2011

By Karen S. Yezzi

no summary per author

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483608303

Karen S. Yezzi

no bio per author

Book preview

ALABAMA

2009

Day 1, Wednesday, March 4: We flew to New Orleans and rented a car and headed for Gulf Shores. All along the way, we saw the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. We took a side trip to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, where we had been in 2000. The whole town had practically been wiped out. We stopped in a casino for lunch, then we drove to Gulf Shores and checked into the hotel and had dinner before going to bed.

Day 2, Thursday, March 5: We took the Morgan Ferry to Dauphin Island and then drove to Bellingrath Gardens where we spent most of the day. The gardens cover 250 acres on the Fowl River with lots of trees and plants, the main house, and other buildings. The gardens were beautiful, with a tiered waterfall going down the river. We went in the gift shop where there were lots of ceramics, and Dom took a picture of an ivory-billed woodpecker. We also took a ferry ride on the Fowl River and saw pelicans. As we were waiting on the ferry, we read about the gas exploration and saw the gas rigs. We went back to the hotel and out on the beach and then had dinner at the Original Oyster House.

Day 3, Friday, March 6: We took the ferry back to Dauphin Island and then drove back to New Orleans.

2011

Day 1, Saturday, November 12: We drove from Ocala, Florida, to Birmingham on the way home from the Florida Keys. In Dothan, we stopped to see a big sign proclaiming Dothan as the peanut capital of the world. The town was holding its annual peanut festival, and we saw all the floats from the parade. They even held a Miss Peanut contest! We spent the night in Birmingham and then drove home.

ALASKA

2003

Day 1, Tuesday, July 29: We took this trip for our first anniversary. We met in the Seattle airport and flew to Anchorage together.

Day 2, Wednesday, July 30: We quickly learned that there are only two roads, Highways 1 and 3, so we had no need for a map. There were lots of young Russians working there, and they hitchhiked to get around. At the time we were there, the sun was out for eighteen hours a day.

On this first full day in Anchorage, we drove to the Eagle River Nature Center on the Eagle River, about thirty-five miles from Anchorage. It was like a very lush tropical forest. As we hiked around the lake, we passed a Porta-Potty on skis. Our hike took us over a boardwalk that crossed the river to where the trail ended at the river. We saw a moose grazing in the stream there. We walked back to the nature center where lots of animal pelts were on display.

We headed to Thunderbird Falls and hiked up to the falls with its overlook to the Eagle River. It was very cold that day. From there, we drove to the Alaska National Heritage Center to see native performances of music and dance. They also had a village set up to show how the natives lived. We had lunch there and then headed back to Anchorage. We stopped in the Anchorage Museum of History and Culture. The museum had items from ten thousand years ago, including lots of clothing and utensils. We headed back to the hotel and had dinner before going to bed.

Day 3, Thursday, July 31: It was still cold as we headed north on Highway 1 to Seward. We drove along Cook Inlet for a long way and could see snow-covered mountains in the distance. We ran into a lot of construction in Alaska because they had such a short time to build. We arrived in Seward two and a half hours early for our boat trip, so we walked around and went to a hardware store to buy gloves and ear warmers. We walked down to the docks and saw lots of boats and people cleaning the catch from the night before. We got on the boat in Resurrection Bay for our one hundred-mile trip to Aialik Bay, Holgate Glacier, and then through the Chiswell Islands back to Seward. As soon as we left the dock, we began to see glaciers. We thought we saw snowmobile tracks when we looked at them through our binoculars, but it turned out those were 120—to 150-foot cervices. We saw lots of wildlife: otters, puffins, orca whales, humpback whales, seals, and seagulls. We were outside the whole time (except for when we had dinner), looking at the glaciers. We saw lots of pieces of ice floating by and really enjoyed the views. We headed back and arrived at 8:00 PM. We had a long drive back to Anchorage, arriving at 10:30 PM because of road construction.

Day 4, Friday, August 1: We were up at 6:00 AM and headed for Denali National Park, driving on Highway 3 all the way. We couldn’t find food along this deserted highway, so we brought a lot of snacks. Our first stop at Denali State Park was hiking at Byers Lake Trail. The trail started out with a suspension bridge. The lushness of the vegetation there was incredible; it was like a Vietnamese jungle. There were also lots of wildflowers there. It seemed like we could see the vegetation growing right in front of us. We passed the remnants of a trapper’s cabin from the 1950s that still had items inside it. We had a picnic lunch overlooking the lake then headed back on the same trail. We headed on to Denali, stopping at South Vantage Point and North Vantage Point. There was again a lot of construction on the highway to Denali—lots of one-lane roads. We finally arrived in the small town of Denali, where the town’s roads were all ripped up. We went to Denali National Park and then came back and checked in at our cabin at Sourdough Cabins. We unloaded our backpacks and then walked across the street to eat before going to bed.

Day 5, Saturday, August 2: We were up at 7:00 AM and picked up our lunch at the deli where we had ordered it the night before. Two girls asked Dom for a ride somewhere. We got to Denali Park and rode a bus at the stop for the Mount Healy Overlook. The trail to Mount Healy was very narrow and ran on the ridge of the mountain. The trail started out as gravel, but as we got higher and higher, we moved from lush trees to skinny, tall alpine trees. After three and a half hours, we reached the top of Mount Healy. The mountain’s total elevation is 3,824, and we had climbed up 1,750 feet from where we started. The views from the top were incredible. There were also lots of flowers on top of the mountain. As we started back down, the rain started pouring a lot harder. Dom stopped under the trees to call his family in Acadia National Park. We had lunch on the way down and finally got back to the park headquarters and got our bus tickets for the next day to Toklat, which is fifty-three miles inside the park. We went back to Denali and checked out the local shops.

We were picked up at 6:30 PM by the aviation company we had hired, and we were taken to the heliport for a helicopter ride to a glacier. We were given thirty seconds of instructions and then suited up for the ride. We sat in the backseat on the way up to the glacier with headsets on, so we heard all the conversations. On the way back, we sat in front. We lifted off, and immediately, there were incredible views. As we were getting closer to the glacier, we could see the openings that were 120-foot deep. Ice was everywhere. We could see the glacier way up on the mountains. We went up higher and looked down on the glacier. The temperature was forty-two degrees on the glacier. We headed back and got great pictures of the glacier where we had landed. We had great views on the way back, and when we landed, we took the shuttle back to Denali and had dinner at a restaurant on the Nenana River.

Day 6, Sunday, August 3: During the night, bears were wrestling at our cabin door. We picked up sandwiches at the deli again and headed to Denali Park for the bus ride to Toklat. It was rainy and cold. Our bus driver was a lady who took roadkill calls in the night and goes out with a chainsaw to cut up the animals and put them in her freezer. There was a lot of construction in the park too. We did see some grizzlies up in the mountains. The driver told us that all the drivers would flash lights when they see animals and then would use hand signals to tell what animal they had seen. We did get out at one stop for a quick hike, but it was cold and rainy. We were on the bus until 3:45 PM. As soon as we got back to the headquarters, we drove straight to our cabin and had lunch with a bottle of wine and changed our clothes. At 8:00 PM, we went out for dinner.

Day 7, Monday, August 4: We were on the road heading back to Anchorage at 7:00 AM. We stopped at the 125-mile marker for a picture of Denali. This part of the state is very remote, with no people and no food except for every fifty miles or so. Next, we stopped for the southern view of Mount McKinley. We stopped again at Talkeetna, the base for those climbing Mount McKinley. We had lunch and then walked around the town. We arrived in Anchorage and checked into our hotel and then drove to Tory Knowles Coastal Trail, stopping first at Earthquake Park and then Kincaid Park to walk on the walkway. We had dinner and then went to bed.

Day 8, Tuesday, August 5: We were up early and headed for Hope to look for two letterboxes. We were on Highway 1 again (the road to Seward). All along the waterway, we raced with the bore (a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of an incoming tide creates a wave of water that travels up the river against the current). We stopped at every pullout we could and watched the bore come at us. We took a turn off Highway 1 for a seventeen-mile ride into Kenai Peninsula, a valley off the Seward Highway, and had lunch. We didn’t find the letterbox there. We drove on to the next location, Gull Rock, for a hike to find the next letterbox, and we found it. The weather had gotten considerably warmer there. Out of nowhere, we came upon a rockslide. There was lots of traffic going back, but we made it to the hotel by 6:00 PM and had dinner out on the patio where we had been the night before.

Day 9, Wednesday, August 6: I flew home to Little Rock, and Dom flew back to Connecticut. What a nice trip.

ARIZONA

1998

Day 1, Friday, October 23: This was our first trip together. Dom had a business meeting in Scottsdale, so I flew from Little Rock to Phoenix to meet him, arriving at about 8:00 PM. I had an interesting plane ride on Southwest Airlines with two cowboys. One of them was named Stony. Dom picked me up at the airport, and I remember laughing so hard when he was telling me about being confused about which west airline I was flying on. We were staying at the Phoenician, one of the nicest hotels we ever stayed in. We were there only a couple of days.

Day 2, Saturday, October 24: We were up at 4:30 AM and picked up and taken to the desert for a sunrise trip in a hot air balloon with a champagne breakfast afterward. It was a lot of fun. The basket was full, with about ten people, and we were packed in. The landing was funny because four young guys chased down the ropes to pull us to the ground. Later that day, we toured old town Phoenix. That night, after I took a two-hour nap, we went dancing.

Day 3, Sunday, October 25: We went walking in the lovely cactus garden around our hotel, then we had lunch and were off to the airport.

2004

Day 1, Saturday, February 14: We visited old town Phoenix and a museum.

Day 2, Sunday, February 15: We drove around Phoenix and took a cactus-trail hike on the road heading toward Sedona.

Day 3, Monday, February 16: We headed to Tucson, stopping at the Sabino Canyon Trail. We stayed in the Wyndham Hotel in Tucson.

Day 4, Tuesday, February 17: In Tucson, we took another hike and then drove on to Tombstone. What a tourist trap! We stayed in Globe at Travelodge.

Day 5, Wednesday, February 18: We were heading back toward Sedona and made a stop in the desert.

Day 6, Thursday, February 19: We went to Montezuma Castle to visit the Indian ruins. Afterward, we drove up on the mountains to Jerome.

Day 7, Friday, February 20: We were in Sedona and went hiking among the red rocks in the area. We could see the snow in Flagstaff. We went to a Greek restaurant but could not get in, so we made a reservation for the next night at the first seating. An old lady and her husband ran the place, and she told us that her stuffed grape leaves were the best anywhere, which was true. We went out to the Enchantment Lodge and had a drink, where we discovered prickly pear margaritas. When we got home, Dom called the bartender and asked him how to make the drinks. Dom ordered the syrup, and we made them for a number of years.

Day 8, Saturday, February 21: We went hiking in the Sedona area to see petroglyphs and more red rock formations.

Day 9, Sunday, February 22: We flew home.

2007

Day 1, Thursday, May 31: We flew to Phoenix and drove to the Grand Canyon and stayed at the Yavapai Lodge. It was one of our last business trips. We left Phoenix, heading for the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We stopped at Canyon Lake in Tortilla Flat and took a short walk. Our next stop was at Wupatki National Monument. There were many settlement sites scattered throughout the monument that were built by the ancient Pueblo people. By 1182, about eighty-five to one hundred people lived in Wupatki Pueblo; but by 1225, the site was permanently abandoned. The pueblo had one hundred rooms with a community room and a ball court, making it the largest building for nearly fifty miles. Our next stop was at Sunset Crater Volcano to walk on the Lava Flow Trail.

Days 2-3, Friday and Saturday, June 1 and June 2: We stayed on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We went hiking all the way to Hermit’s Rest to the west and to Desert View to the east. We went all over the park and did lots of hikes. We loved staying right on the rim of the canyon. We saw (but did not take) the Bright Angel Trail. We had great views of the Citadel, the Desert View Watchtower, the El Tovar, the Hermit’s Trail and Hermit’s Rest, the hoodoos, the Orphan Mine Shaft, and the Shoshone Point. One night, we hiked and watched the sunset with a bottle of wine.

Day 4, Sunday, June 3: We drove to Scottsdale for Dom’s presentation. On the way, we stopped in Sedona and had lunch at Enchantment F&B then drove down the scenic route to Scottsdale. We stayed at the Hyatt Hotel.

Day 5, Monday, June 4: Dom did his presentation, and we walked around old Scottsdale. We had lunch at California Pizza and had dinner at a nice restaurant on the square in the old town.

Day 6, Tuesday, June 5: We flew home.

ARKANSAS

1998

Day 1, Wednesday, October 28: Dom flew to Little Rock, and I picked him up at the airport. This was his first time in Arkansas, and he was there to do a series of seminars across the state about Y2K. We went to lunch at Cotham’s in Scott, and Dom had a fried pork chop sandwich.

Day 2, Thursday, October 29: We did our Y2K seminar in Little Rock for about two hundred people. We left from there, and Lisa Holliman drove us to Jonesboro where we did the seminar that afternoon and drove back to Little Rock.

Day 3, Friday, October 30: We drove to Fort Smith and did our seminar there in the afternoon, then we drove to Springdale and spent the night. I took Dom to the Venesian Inn. What a hoot! He had never ordered Italian food by number that came with fried chicken.

Day 4, Saturday, October 31: We drove back to Little Rock, and I gave Dom a Halloween present. We went to the Cock of the Walk for dinner, then we went to Bobbisox for dancing.

Day 5, Sunday, November 1: We hiked up to the top of Pinnacle Mountain, and then we went to US Pizza for lunch. What a shock for Dom. This was not pizza like in New York. We went down to Rebsamen Park Road and walked along the riverbank. Dom got burrs all over his socks. I took him to the airport, and he flew home.

1999

Day 1, Thursday, February 11: Dom flew to Little Rock.

Day 2, Friday, February 12: We drove to Fayetteville and had dinner in Springdale with Terry and Mike Lenihan. Terry and I had too many margaritas, and Dom had to put me to bed.

Day 3, Saturday, February 13: We went to a Razorback basketball game in Fayetteville.

Day 4, Sunday, February 14: We drove to Conway and had lunch with Susan then drove on to Little Rock. We drove by some of the houses I was looking at. I took Dom to the airport, and he flew home.

Day 1, Thursday, June 17: Dom flew to Little Rock.

Day 2, Friday, June 18: We were in Sherwood.

Day 3, Saturday, June 19: We drove to Hot Springs for the big party at the agent’s convention.

Day 4, Sunday, June 20: We drove back to Little Rock then to Beebe to have lunch with my family at Huckabee’s Catfish in Searcy; it was Father’s Day. I drove back to Little Rock and took Dom to the airport, and he flew home.

Day 1, Friday, September 3: Dom flew to Little Rock.

Days 2-3, Saturday and Sunday, September 4 and 5: We bought more stuff for my new house. We cooked in the afternoons, drank wine, and danced. We went dancing on Saturday night.

Day 4, Monday, September 6: I took Dom to the airport for his afternoon flight. We went to a bar, and he almost missed his flight.

Day 1, Thursday, October 14: Dom flew to Little Rock.

Day 2, Friday, October 15: We went to the Arkansas State Fair with Melissa. I parked the car in a car-wash booth, ha! We walked around the fairgrounds, and we watched a pig contest. One of the pigs ran between my legs, and Dom and Melissa thought it was hysterical. We went to the rodeo, and Melissa explained rodeoing to Dom. There was a little kid sitting in front of us, and his mother said something to him about a bugger in his eye, and Dom and Melissa got hysterical about it. The cowboys even came over to us on the horse to say we were having too much fun.

Days 3-4, Saturday and Sunday, October 16 and 17: We did more things around my house, and we cooked and had people over.

Day 5, Monday, October 18: Dom flew home.

Day 1, Wednesday, November 24: Dom flew to Little Rock for Thanksgiving.

Day 2, Thursday, November 25: We had Thanksgiving with my family at Peggy Jo’s house.

Day