Author: Priya Nayar

Making Kansas that much better was sharing the first part of this state with our Missouri friends Brian and Ami. Our first Kansas stop was at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que (also known as Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue), the small restaurant in a neighbourhood corner gas station that inspired the following review:

“It’s the best BBQ in Kansas City, which makes it the best BBQ in the world.” – Anthony Bourdain, 2011: 13 Places to Eat Before You Die

Well Mr Bourdain, we’re inclined to agree with you. And having sampled copious quantities of barbecue as we have travelled through the South, we feel we have established a firm ground upon which to make such a statement. Sammy had their bestseller, the Z-Man Sandwich, filled with slow-smoked beef brisket, smoked provolone cheese and crispy onion rings and packed with flavour. I had the burnt ends, a cut of brisket that was so well cooked, each morsel literally melted in the mouth.

Aside from the great barbecue, Kansas held highlights for both Sammy and me, albeit slightly different. Mine came first, in the community of Hiawatha. After driving past thousands of miles of farmland on this road trip, my curiosity was piqued and I had queries galore about grain farming and all things related including planting and harvesting, equipment, silos and grain bins, buying seeds and selling crops. I was so excited when Brian offered to take me to his father’s farm in Hiawatha to meet his Dad and have all my questions answered!

I interrogated a very patient Van over a great lunch (thanks Vi!) and we now have a deep appreciation for the risk and and incredibly hard work that goes into running a farm successfully. With heads full of new knowledge about rotating corn and soybean crops, the intricacies of hay bales and the differences between field corn, sweetcorn and popcorn, we headed out onto the frosty farm for a look-around. An enormous thank you to Van for your time, knowledge and insight, all of which made this such an amazing – and unexpected – road trip experience. We loved it!

So from Hiawatha to Cawker City… the landscape of Kansas is exactly as we imagined it would be like: flat and endless with fields for as far as the eye can see. The serenity enveloped us as we decided we enjoy country driving over city driving.

And then we arrived in bustling Cawker City. This seemingly deserted town, with its water tower and a handful of buildings, is home to the leading item on Sammy’s “Things to See in America” list: the world’s largest ball of twine. Started in 1953 by Frank Stoeber, the ball today measures 8,083,640 feet in length with a circumference of 43 feet. The smile on Sammy’s face was almost as big as the ball itself. I have no doubt we will return one year in the future in August when Cawker holds a twine-a-thon and residents and visitors are invited to add twine to the ball.

Our final stop in Kansas was in Victoria. As we approached it, we could see the twin towers of the Basilica of St. Fidelis on the horizon. Also known as the Cathedral of the Plains, it was completed in 1911 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The fact that it has also been named as one of the Eight Wonders of Kansas has not impressed Sammy who wants to know how this basilica has made the list but not the great ball of twine 😂

Thank you Kansas, you’ve been terrific 😊 We now head south to Oklahoma City for a bit of cowboy culture!

P&S

Sammy and I are still grinning from the experience we had yesterday at Arrowhead Stadium. In Kansas City for the weekend, our plan was to see the World War I and Arabia Steamboat museums for our Missouri experience. This plan was happily tossed aside when the Kansas City Chiefs secured a place in the American Football Conference Championship game this weekend and we had the opportunity to attend our first NFL game with our friends Brian and Ami, devoted KC Chiefs fans. We arrived in a Kansas City that was painted in red in preparation for the game against the Tennessee Titans.

Our tailgating experience was off to a sunny but very fresh start as we arrived at the stadium carpark at 8.30am with a temperature of -11°C/12°F. Once we set up our space and had the first mimosa of the day, we took our time wandering around as we met fellow supporters and watched others firing up grills, setting up canopies, and parking their supporter vehicles where they could fit them. We love the time and energy that is poured into the art of tailgating and enjoyed every minute of the day with Brian and Ami.

The aromas of food filled the air, not least from our own grill, as tailgaters cooked everything from burgers and sausages to a pig on a spit and everything in between.

By 12 o’clock we packed up and headed into the stadium and what a great stadium it is. Home to the Chiefs since 1972, Arrowhead hosts the team’s Hall of Honor which includes a Hall of Fame and tells the Chiefs’ history. To walk through the stadium and absorb the atmosphere with tens of thousands of other fans was something quite unreal. The air was electric as Chiefs fans poured into Arrowhead ready to watch their team bring home the Lamar Hunt Trophy, the coveted prize of the AFC Championship. Named for Lamar Hunt, the founder of the American Football League and the founder and owner of the KC Chiefs from 1959 until his death in 2006, the trophy was last won by the Chiefs 50 years ago and today they had a score to settle.

The game was preceded by the national anthem and a Stealth Bomber flyover which only fueled the fire in the bellies of the Chiefs supporters. In September 2014, the crowd at Arrowhead set a Guinness World Record for the loudest stadium at 142.2 decibels. As we were drawn into the game we literally couldn’t hear ourselves think as the deafening roar of the crowd also drowned out any cheers the Titans supporters may have been offering.

The game was sensational. As the home crowd roared their approval, quarterback Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs to a 35-24 victory over the Titans and reclaimed the Lamar Hunt Trophy. With confetti decorating the stadium, the air of determination was palpable in Arrowhead as the Chiefs now go forward to take on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV on February 2nd, the ultimate NFL championship game.

Brian and Ami, the KC Chiefs and everyone else at Arrowhead, thank you all for making our first NFL game such a brilliant one. We have enjoyed every sporting event we have attended on this journey, but this experience was something else altogether. GO CHIEFS!

S&P

Our first stop in Arkansas was a deeply thought provoking one as we visited Little Rock Central High School, the scene of a historically defining desegregation crisis that took place in September 1957. As a test of the 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were illegal, Thelma Mothershed, Minnijean Brown, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Gloria Ray, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, and Melba Pattillo became the first African American students to attend the school as part of forced desegregation.

The story of the Little Rock Nine, as these students became famously named, is widely known and for those who are unfamiliar with their story, we strongly urge you to read about it.

Today Little Rock Central High School is the only operating high school in the nation to be designated a National Historic Site and deservedly so. Ranger Randy Dotson from the National Park Service gave us superb insight into this disturbing chapter of history which became a stepping stone in the Civil Rights movement. But visiting the school ourselves, standing before it on Park Street where mobs of protesters pushed, screamed at and spat on these nine terrified students, and then climbing the same steps that they did up to the school building, made their story very real and very disturbing.

A warm acknowledgement to Gavin and the staff at The Root Cafe in Little Rock. We stopped here for a quick bite at this great cafe that showcases locally sourced produce. We absolutely recommend The Root Cafe to anyone who is passing by.

Leaving Little Rock we headed north towards the Ozarks and found ourselves in Bentonville. Here we visited the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and experienced the kaleidoscopic Infinity Mirrored Room by Yayoi Kusama. As we walked through the small room, we were surrounded by mirrors and paper lanterns that have dots that change color. The resulting effect makes you feel the dots expand forever into the universe.

The museum also has on display many sculptures and paintings that represent the past and present domain of American art and beyond. The museum is free and the building itself is beautiful to walk through.

Bentonville is also home to the first store to bear the Walton name, after its owner Sam Walton who went on to become the founder of Walmart. The store is now the Walmart Museum, telling the story of Sam and his journey to realise his vision of providing households with goods at the lowest price anytime, anywhere.

Arkansas marks the 40th state on our road trip and we’re now down to our final ten! We now excitedly head to Missouri for a reunion with good friends. See you soon Brian and Ami!

S&P

New Orleans, Louisiana…. wow. The cacophony of Bourbon Street, the aromas and gastronomy of Creole and Cajun cooking, the entertainment on every street corner, the humidity that clings to your skin like cobwebs and the extra close proximity of the other million tourists in the city…. what an assault on all the senses!

By complete chance our stay in the Big Easy coincided with the 2020 College Football National Championship Game being hosted here at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. We spent our time rubbing shoulders with Louisiana State University and Clemson supporters, the purple of LSU rivaling the orange of Clemson no matter which direction we looked. The atmosphere was electric and added to the already multi-faceted culture of New Orleans.

From Bourbon Street’s gaiety to NOLA’s music, art and food, this city’s vibrancy and heady atmosphere is best portrayed through our photos and I’m afraid I took A LOT of them 😂 PS: Well done to LSU on their 42-25 win over Clemson.

With the Mississippi River beside us, we waved goodbye to New Orleans and headed to the more genteel surroundings of Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, St James Parish. Building of the house was completed in 1839 but the trees that form the oak alley for which the plantation is named have been in place since the 18th century. Once a thriving antebellum sugarcane plantation with over 200 slaves, the property is today on the National Historic Landmark Register and allows visitors to explore the living conditions of all who lived and worked here. While the house is impressive, the real beauty of this plantation lies with the magnificent trees that adorn the grounds.

Bye bye Louisiana! You have been all kinds of interesting, crazy and amusing and we won’t ever forget you. Arkansas, we will be with you soon! 😊

P&S

From Miami we set off with Mary to the Florida Keys. Our first stop was in Key Largo where we sat and watched the pelicans as we caught up on the past couple of years. As soon as we arrived in the Keys we could feel a change in atmosphere – it was immediately several degrees more laid back and carefree, even more so than the rest of Florida which we already thought was fairly relaxed.

An image that is always conjured up when we think of the Florida keys is of the bridges that connect one key to another, in particular the famous Seven Mile Bridge, so we were pretty excited to spot it in the distance and then make the drive over it. The original bridge was an engineering feat spearheaded by businessman Henry Flagler in 1912. Flagler, who had already founded the Florida East Coast Railway, was determined to find a way for his trains to make the journey to Key West. In 1935 the great Labor Day Hurricane damaged the bridge and when it was rebuilt, it was only for the use of automobiles. The new bridge was opened in 1982.

So over the bridge Pearl took us and onto Key West. Key West is located at the southernmost end of US Route 1, the longest north–south road in America. It is also the southernmost city in the continental USA and on a clear day you can see Cuba from its shores. We loved Key West. The palm trees, the water, the hospitality and the shells and coconuts on sale on every street corner lend a very tropical air that does not take long to get used to. And the roaming roosters and chickens give the town an unexpected character unique to Key West.

We came across the Schooner America 2.0 in Conch Harbor Marina and jumped on for a two hour sunset sail around Key West. It was so pretty and we absolutely recommend this cruise to anyone who finds themselves in the south Florida Keys.

Our three days in the Keys was fantastic – thank you Mary for exploring with us and we can’t wait for the next time. Saying farewell to Mary we headed towards Everglades City on the southwest coast of Florida for a turn at alligator spotting.

Boarding an airboat we toured the Everglades marshland ecosystem covered in mangroves and grass. Flying at high speeds over the water was amazing and hats off to our captains James and Carl who expertly navigated their way through the mangroves and kept us in the boat at all times as we found our alligators.

Florida, we have enjoyed you so much, thank you! From St Augustine to the Everglades, we have enjoyed every second. We’ll be back one day but in the meantime, it’s off to New Orleans we go!

P&S

As we headed south from St Augustine, our first stop along the east coast of Florida was Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral. Staying in our Airbnb in Cocoa Beach just 20 minutes away, we set off for KSC, arriving a little after 10am and leaving at 6.30pm. There is so much to see and do here! Between the behind the scenes bus tour, space shuttle launch simulation, rocket garden, IMAX screenings and plenty of space history to explore, we simply ran out of time.

Our Cocoa Beach Airbnb was a ninety second walk to the beach where we watched the sunrise before driving to West Palm.

In West Palm we had a reunion with our friends Rosalie and Mary, both ex-Doha survivors and finally met Rosalie’s parents. What an amazing lunch! We were treated to an authentic Italian meal and we had a great afternoon filled with laughter, reminiscing and fine dining. Thank you so much for the wonderful catch up and it was so nice to meet you Nick and Nicolina 😊

Stealing Mary away with us, we headed from West Palm to Miami Beach via Hollywood where we caught a glimpse of the guitar-shaped Seminole Hard Rock Hotel. At 450ft/137m, it strikingly towers above the horizon.

And then to Miami Beach we arrived and it was everything we imagined it was going to be. Blue skies, warm breezes, palm trees, crystal clear ocean and cocktails lining the streets – just like in the movies! 😂 We had lunch at a Cuban restaurant before heading to our next Florida destination: the Keys.

From the frivolity of cocktails in the sun to something that is breaking our hearts as we watch the news unfold and think of our friends and family at home. The Australian wildfires are at the forefront of our thoughts all the time and the messages and thoughts that we have received from friends, and even strangers when they hear where we are from, has been overwhelming. We are thinking of everyone, including all the brave exhausted firefighters putting their lives at risk every day, as we pray for a miracle to end the devastation that is sweeping across the country.

If anyone would like to make a donation towards the bushfires cause, there are many charities and funds that have been set up and they can be found on line but here are a few:

New South Wales: https://quickweb.westpac.com.au/OnlinePaymentServlet?cd_community=NSWRFS&cd_currency=AUD&cd_supplier_business=DONATIONS&action=EnterDetails

South Australia: https://cfsfoundation.org.au/donate

Queensland: https://www.rfbaq.org/donate-to-rfbaq

Victoria: https://www.vic.gov.au/bushfireappeal

Wishing everyone to be safe,

S&P

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had a safe and happy festive season and that your 2020 is superb 😊

First things first: we bid a sad farewell to Ruby who has driven 17,524mi / 28,202km with us from California. Hertz requested us to swap her for a car with lower milage and so we now continue our road trip with Pearl, our new Chevy Equinox.

From New York we flew back to St Augustine, Florida to see the New Year in with our friends Shawn, Mike, Sunshine and Sherman. We have had a relaxing week here soaking up Florida’s warm rays of sun, enjoying the company of good friends and seeing the sights of St Augustine.

St Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States. Originally founded in 1565, the city served as a Spanish military outpost. This Spanish heritage is reflected in the architecture of many historic buildings in the city, making St Augustine one of the prettiest cities we have visited.

We’re dedicating this next portion of the blog to the amazing Southern cuisine we have had while staying with our friends. Mike is a genius in the kitchen and we’re leaving here with a swag of new recipes to bring home. Thank you Mike and Shawn, Sunshine and Sherman for the great week we have had with you, the laughs and your generosity, and the absolute deliciousness you have shared with us.

And so from St Augustine to Disney World which we’re fairly sure needs no introduction to anyone. We were at the Happiest Place On Earth at 7am, raring to go and ready for the day ahead. Three parks, 15 hours and 25,000 steps later, we left Disney World with tired feet, aching legs and happy hearts. Thank you Shawn and Mike for the most brilliant day as you shared your playground with us. And it was a pleasure to meet you Curt! Disney World is now firmly placed on our “places to revisit” list. Mike and Shawn, we promise it won’t be at the same pace we struck today 😂

What an amazing start to our Florida chapter! Off to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral we now head 😊

P&S

Christmas in New York City… we’ve seen it in the movies and we’ve seen it on TV and we wanted to experience it for ourselves. And it was fabulous! The lights and decorations lining the streets and adorning the shops were beautiful and holiday excitement filled the air wherever we turned. Adding to our Christmas joy was spending time with my cousin Anand as he showed us his NYC and took us to amazing restaurants from Empanada Mama to Gramercy Tavern.

In amongst wandering around the streets of New York, we also took the time to take in the Rockettes, Broadway, a basketball game, Central Park and a gospel brunch in Harlem.

Christmas Day dawned clear and while we had been hoping for a sprinkling of snow, we were not about to complain about the the sunny blue skies we got instead. We spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Anand and his close friends Pallavi and Amanda. Thank you to all of you for welcoming us into your homes and sharing the holiday season with us. And Anand, an extra special shout out to you: we cannot thank you enough for the wonderful week we have had in NYC.

One more night here in New York and then we fly back to Florida tomorrow for New Year’s Eve and the continuation of our road trip. We hope all our friends and family had a happy and peaceful Christmas and we wish you a brilliant New Year!

S&P xxx

Our time in Alabama got off to a great culinary start with two smashing meals. Dinner the first night was some of the best sushi we’ve ever eaten at a bar called The OK Bicycle Shop. This was followed by our first Cajun steamed crawfish the next day for lunch at Mudbugs At The Loop.

Bracing an Arctic windstorm hitting Mobile, we visited USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. The Park is home to the USS Alabama, nicknamed the “MIghty A”, a battleship which served the nation through World War II and was awarded nine Battle Stars for her meritorious service. Home to 2500 crew members at sea, the USS Alabama measures 680ft/207m and weighs in at 42,500 tons when fully loaded. Today this retired warship is open to hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Battleship Memorial Park is also the resting place of World War II submarine, the Gato-Class USS Drum, as well as a wide array of aircraft, tanks and artillery.

From the seriousness of battleships to the frivolity of Mardi Gras. Which, it turns out, is not such a frivolous business at all. Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday, is a festival that traditionally starts 40 days before Easter and finishes on the last day before Lent commences. Mobile is the original host of Mardi Gras which originated here in 1703 when Mobile was a French colony (before New Orleans was even founded). Our visit to the Mobile Carnival Museum showed us how seriously the city takes its Mardi Gras duties. Not just an opportunity for extravagant parades with elaborate floats, Mardi Gras in Mobile is full of pomp and pageantry and is sponsored by a network of mystic societies made up of secret members. Kings and queens of Mardi Gras are elected by these mystic societies and the money spent on coronation trains, crowns and scepters fit for royalty is astounding. Parades, dinners, balls, costumes with masks and endless parties make for dazzling Carnival seasons for the people of Mobile.

Off to Florida now! We will be leaving Ruby with our friends in St Augustine while we fly to Manhattan to have Christmas in the Big Apple. We’ll be back in St Augustine for New Year’s before we head off to explore the rest of Florida.

Thank you to everyone who has followed us on this amazing journey so far and we look forward to completing it in 2020. We wish our friends and family all over the world a very merry Christmas. May it be filled with love and happy memories 😊😊😊

P&S

Sunday morning in Jackson, Mississippi found me at Mt Helm Baptist Church for their Christmas Celebration service. Established in 1835, Mt Helm is the oldest African-American church in Jackson and began with enslaved members worshipping in the basement of First Baptist Church. Mt Helm became a separate church in 1867 and today this congregation stands proud and welcoming to anyone visiting their church.

We visited the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and became immersed in history as the museum took us right back to the first slaves being brought from Africa to American shores and then led us through a national timeline up until today. The museum itself is constructed very cleverly, in a way that took us through eight galleries covering the different chapters of Mississippi’s freedom struggle. Addressing dark periods of time that included education and health inequalities, lynchings, unfair trials, the presence of the Klu Klux Klan and the loss of countless lives, these stories are supported by an underlying wave of strength, courage, vision and determination as the Civil Rights Movement swelled and flourished despite these barriers. There are tributes to the Freedom Riders, those who carried out sit-ins and the family members who fought for justice following the senseless loss of loved ones.

The galleries are designed around a central gallery called This Little Light Of Mine which features a dramatic light structure and music of the Movement, honouring civil rights activists who gave their lives for the cause. It is a museum that evokes many different reactions; it is confronting, heartbreaking and inspiring and represents a struggle that is beyond our comprehension. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is well worth a visit for anyone visiting Jackson.

In search of Christmas festivity we headed up the road to the town of Canton where the Courthouse Square was lit up with Christmas lights and inundated with children who were super excited at the prospect of Santa arriving. Which was surprisingly charming considering we are not usually charmed by squealing children – it must have been all the bright lights affecting us 😂

Taking heed of our first tornado warnings received over the radio, we headed south to Biloxi. As we stood on the fine white sand of the beach we got our first sight of the Gulf of Mexico. We also had a milestone realisation: we have now stood on all four sides of the country 😊

Mississippi, our stay with you has been short but you have left a lasting impression on us. You have been so friendly and so welcoming and we thank you very much!

S&P