The Best of Blog

Aloha all,

we had 3 fabulous days in San Diego, touring the historic aircraft carrier USS Midway and the active USS San Diego which was open for tours thanks to the “Fleet Week” festivities. . One night we went to a dueling piano bar called ‘The Shout House’ which was an awesome non-stop show for over 4 hours. We also got to see our friend Kelli Moore, which was long overdue. Then we spent three days on Oahu, reconnecting with our Oahu Ohana. And now, after 6 months of travel, we are glad to be back home on Maui with our friends & family here!

It’s time for a game Sandra and I often play during hikes: We name a category and try to come up with our favorite road trip experience. We can do that for hours and it’s a good way to remind us of all the fun things we got to do and appreciate how full life on the road is. And just in case you did not read all 14 long blog posts since we left in May, you can use it as a cheat sheet to catch up just on the highlights. So let’s get right to it:

Best experience overall:

You would think this would be a hard category, because how can you compare a great hike in a National Park with an interesting tour through a historical place or floating down a river or meeting new friends? But this year, our overall favorite experience was easy to pick, because it combined all of that and more: There is no question: The week rafting in the Grand Canyon was our favorite. So much so, that with any other category, we started to ask: “What was your favorite ‘except the Grand Canyon’?”. Tommy, Greg, Bern, Jill, Steve and Jeanette probably know why the Grand Canyon trip was an experience in its own class. For all others I can only refer back to my post from July, even though no words and no pictures do the trip any justice:

https://www.bestofbothworldsroadtrip.com/2019/07/grand-indeed.html 

Best crew, best people, best weather, best canyon...kind of hard to beat.

Best Hike

We were pretty active specially during the first half of the trip and for a while did at least a little hike every day, so there are plenty of great hikes to choose from. Overall, the ‘Angel’s Landing’ trail in Zion National Park beats our climb up Emory Peak, the tallest Mountain in Big Bend National Park in Texas. Both had spectacular views and gave us a sense of accomplishment, but after all the warnings about how dangerous the Angel’s Landing trail is, we also enjoyed the fact that we survived as an extra little bonus.

Angel's Landing trail in Zion National Park

Best Hot Springs

We went to a few hot springs, but this is an easy choice. We had hesitated to stay at the Riverbend Hot Springs RV Park because it was the most expensive campground we ever stayed in. But it came with the admission to the hot springs along the Rio Grande and after just a few minutes there, Sandra and I both decided that we needed to extend for a second night. What a serene place! The free three mile float trip on the Rio Grande was just an extra bonus.

Riverbend Hot Springs in Truth or Consequencs, New Mexico

Best Dinner

this was a very hard decision. There are five serious contenders for the best dinner of the last 6 months: 

1. The dinner on the first night at the ‘Alpage’, the little family run hotel in the Jura region of France, where we went with my parents 

2. The dinner on the second night at the ‘Alpage’ 

3. The dinner on the third night at the ‘Alpage’ 

4. The dinner on the fourth night at the ‘Alpage’ and 

5. The dinner on the fifth night at the ‘Alpage’. 

Yes, we think it’s that good, we are not even going to mention any of the other fun and fabulous dinners we had.

'Alpage', my favorite restaurant in the world!

Best Lunch

It’s a close call between two very different restaurants: The lunch buffet at Vast on the 49th floor of the very modern Devon Tower overlooking Oklahoma City and “The Alsatian” in a very charming historical building in Castroville, Texas. Both were delicious meals and fun experiences with very personal service, but the Alsatian restaurant wins because it was so exotic to discover something from so close to my home town in the most unexpected place.

The Alsatian Restaurant in Castroville, TX

Best Breakfast

Even though we usually ate breakfast at home in Joy, we did go out for a few fun breakfasts, including five times at a spectacular breakfast buffet at the Hotel Seehaus in Kressbronn on the Lake of Constance where we stayed with Sandra’s mom and sister. But our favorite experience was again in Castroville, TX. Not necessarily because the eggs are bigger or the bacon crispier, but because we felt so welcomed. We had just arrived in town the day before and it felt like we were going out with three long time friends. We also don’t usually make the local newspaper just by having breakfast.

This picture was taken at the breakfast with our new old friends in Castroville 

Best Concert

We are giving 1st place to Def Leppard, because the concert in Las Vegas was super fun and also in recognition of how awesome it is that they are still rocking it after 42(!) years on stage. Compared to that, Guns ’n Roses with only 34 years are the new kids on the block. They were awesome, too, but surprisingly, my 2nd and 3rd place for concerts on this trip both go to piano bars. The one and only Doug Montgomery in Santa Fe and the hilarious, nonstop dueling piano action at “The Shout House” in San Diego deserve at least an honorable mention and I think they’d be proud to have beaten out Guns n’ Roses.

Def Leppard rocked Las Vegas

Best Theater

We saw all kinds of theater, from local plays like “I do. I do. I do.” or “Wait until Dark”, to bigger community events like the traditional “Viva El Paso” musical to multimillion productions like the “Ka” and “Love” Cirque de Soleil shows. We also saw (and loved) “Hamilton” again, but we chose the opera “Rigoletto” on the Lake Stage in Bregenz for first place. The stage and set alone was so spectacular: The 45 foot head of Rigoletto comes alive (and falls apart) during the show, the hand moves (including the middle finger!) and the hot air balloon soars 200 feet (with the singers in it, if they did not fall in the lake first). 

"Rigoletto" on the Lake Stage in Bregenz, Austria

Best Water Activity

We had a lot of fun floating down rivers on this trip, but the 1st place goes to kayaking and stand up paddling with my brother’s family on a lake in Sweden. Beautiful weather, totally uncrowded and yes, the fun company might have had something to do with that choice, too.

Paddling in Sweden with our nieces and nephew

Best Underwater Activity

Scuba Diving at the San Solomon Springs at Balmorhea State Park in the middle of Texas. Our first time diving in fresh water was such a pleasant surprise that we’d probably pick it even if it had not been the only underwater activity on this trip.

Scuba diving at Balmorhea State Park in Texas

Best Museum

We have been to over 30 museums on this trip. We are so notorious for spending ridiculous long hours even in tiny museums that Sandra’s sister made us promise that we would not visit any museums while she joined us on our trip last year. The ironic thing is that we drove 7500 miles through the US and in general, I prefer American museums, but our first choice is a small museum in Alsace, just about 25 miles from my home town. It’s very small, but amongst other things, they have the very first book mentioning the name ‘America’ for the newly discovered continent in writing. But surprisingly, they also had the best virtual reality experience we have ever done. Just sitting in a dark room, we got to travel to ten very different and very interesting libraries around the world. I don’t think Virtual Reality will ever replace actual traveling, but we were all very intrigued how well done this was.

Virtual Reality tour in Selestat, France

Best Disc Golf Course

We played over a dozen different disc golf courses on this trip, but our favorite is on Lappo, an island in the Baltic Sea belonging to Finnland. If my brother is willing to drive from his cottage in Sweden to take a ferry to an island where you have to drive to another port to take another ferry to yet another island where you have to walk or hike to our vacation rental, only because it’s next to a disc golf course, you know that it’s a special place. Of course it’s remote location is part of the appeal. However, the best throw was our nephew’s ace on the home course in Uppsala right after Auntie Sandra asked him to show us how it’s done, while his sister is filming it…on his birthday!

Best Campground

I could write a whole post just about the various campgrounds, RV parks, breweries, road side areas, Walmarts and other places we stayed at. Impossible to name an overall favorite: We loved how often we got to camp on lakes in Oklahoma, we love campgrounds in national parks where we can hike without driving, we love that some breweries let us stay overnight simply for drinking beer (extra bonus points if they start a trivia night as we walk in as the Mancos Brewery outside of Mesa Verde did), we loved the luxury shower facilities at the Kodakchrome State Park, the most scenic camp site was free BLM land where we camped with Annie, but Canyonlands NP wins in the “Campgrounds with the best Hammock to BBQ distance” category:

Camping at its best

Best State Capitol 

This was a very easy category this year since we only visited two state capitols and the one in Oklahoma City was under construction. Santa Fe wins for building a very unique state capitol that is very impressive and representative, but still blends in very nicely with the low rise and low key architecture of this fun town. It also doubles as an art gallery.

New Mexico State Capitol in Santa Fe

Best Wildlife Encounter

It’s hard to compare seeing 100,000’s of bats emerging from a cave to seeing a black bear with three cubs, luckily from a safe distance or donkeys roaming the streets of Oatman, AZ. But the encounter we enjoyed the most was this armadillo at Caddo Lake, TX because after being initially so shy, he eventually ignored us and went about his business right around our feet.

Sandra wanted to see an armadillo...

Best Ranger Program

As usual, we went to as many national parks as we could and attended as many ranger talks, ranger guided hikes and evening campground programs as possible. As usual, the quality of these programs has been spectacular. In my view, National Parks truly are America’s best idea. But one program stood out, despite the consistent quality of all of them: We had been to many cliff dwellings in and around Mesa Verde before, but the hike and tour by Ranger Kevin to “The Long House” in Mesa Verde National Park was the one that really made us imagine about what it might have been like to live there 800 years ago.

Long House cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde NP

These are just a few of our favorite things from the last six months. Sandra and I are so lucky that we get to explore this beautiful and diverse country for so long, thanks for coming along for the ride. Now we are back in our favorite state. We got a great welcome back first on Oahu then here on Maui. It was good seeing the friends we missed again. I even got to play Ultimate Frisbee once already. Unfortunately, I am a little sick right now, so no frisbee, no golf, no hugging friends, no swimming and no exploring Maui for a few days. But as soon as I feel better, it’s time to do all that, since even if we have to do some work along the way, we try to live by the motto: “We need a six month vacation twice a year.” And for the next six months, this will be mostly on magical Maui.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

The End of the Road...a hui hou, Joy!

Aloha all,

after about 7,500 miles on the road (plus about 15,000 miles in the air and almost 200 miles on the river) we are almost back to where we started in May. And we are at the end of our road trip!

We have arrived at our final campground just outside of Houston, TX. We have two days to pack, clean, winterize & store Joy. Believe it or not, the cheapest flights home were with three day layovers in San Diego and in Honolulu, so while the road trip is over, the journey is not yet. We are also extremely grateful that we get to go home to beautiful Maui and see our ohana…the other half of the “Best of Both Worlds”.

We spent two more days in Oklahoma City. Sadly, Sandra had to slow down a little. I know she loves reading a good book, but if she had felt better, I know she would have preferred to come to the Thunder NBA basketball game and to the local production of the ‘Sister Act’ musical with me. She recovered just in time for us to enjoy a wonderful lunch on the 49th floor of the new Devon Tower overlooking what we voted as “the most underrated city of America”.

A small part of the huge Land Run Monument in Oklahoma City
 with the Devon Tower in the background

The next four days we spent at the “Chickasaw Nation”. First at the Chickasaw NRA, then a full day at the Chickasaw Cultural Center, at the Historic Chickasaw Capitol & Museum and at the Chickasaw White House. For us, this was very different from visiting other Native American tribes. Too often, the main takeaway from visiting and learning about Native Americans is feeling sorry for the injustice that was done to them. Obviously, that’s part of the Chickasaw experience, too. That’s why they are in Oklahoma, not in their native homelands in the Southeast. But their ‘Trail of Tears’ has somewhat of a triumphant ending. You can’t help but marvel at how they overcame their hardships, how they survived and how they thrived. And it’s the first time I visited a Native American site and instead of feeling sorry, I felt a little envious. 

In fact, it seems like the Chickasaw Nation is doing so well, that they barely know what to do with the money. But we like that they spent money to preserve and present their culture, since those are the sites we visited. Coincidentally, we did not visit the one site that most people visit, where they make most of their money. But you know us, we rather look for the smallest museum than for the largest casino. Yes, the largest casino in the world(!) is just one of many businesses owned by the Chickasaw Nation. With 600,000 sq. ft it’s more than three times larger than the largest casino in Las Vegas! And it makes enough money that most of the sites we visited were free.

Spirit Forest at the Chickasaw Cultural Center

The Chickasaw Cultural Center is a modern, world class education and entertainment center. They have their own movie production company, which has produced some really impressive films about the Chickasaw history that are shown in an IMAX style theater. The museum includes some interactive exhibits about the Chickasaw culture and a ’Spirit Forest’ where you can walk through an indoor forest and learn about the myth and legends. They also had a dance presentation, but my favorite part was talking to the Chickasaw. A lot of them look as white as us, but they have some interesting perspectives. I talked to one lady for about half an hour why it’s totally ok that the words for ‘green’ and ‘blue’ are the same in the Chickasaw language. We spent a whole day at the center, but we will have to come back, because we did not even make it to the recreated village, where they have living history presentations on weekends.

Historic Chickasaw Capitol

The history of the Chickasaw Capitol in Tishomingo is symbolic for the ups and downs of the tribe. Being forced off their homelands, they were determined to build a strong new community in Oklahoma. So after humble beginnings and some early success, they built a pretty impressive capitol building…only to be forced to sell it for pennies on the dollar after statehood in 1907, when very restrictive new laws were passed. They finally regained sovereignty in 1971 and after their recent financial success, they were able to buy back the capitol. They did so just so that we can go visit, not because they needed it: Apparently they have larger and more modern government buildings by now. And after they bought back the Historic Capitol building, they renovate it and pay somebody to be there all day to talk to us. They also moved the log house where the very first council was held in 1856 next to the capitol and built a museum around it. And still, there is enough money left to pay another nice lady to talk to us for another hour or two at this museum, too. The capitol and museum was meant as a quick stop in the morning before heading on, but by the time we were done, all we did was go back to the same campground in Tishomingo.

Every single Chickasaw person we talked to also raved about how well the Chickasaw Nation takes care of all their tribal members: Free education, scholarships, help with housing if needed, even free health care. Maybe it’s time we learn something from them about being ‘civilized’.

The Chickasaw White House

Next, we visited the Chickasaw White House, which is the historically restored home of one of their former governors. It might not be as famous as the other White House, but it’s beautiful inside and out. We were surprised to be greeted with: “Are you from Hawaii?”. We instinctively looked at our clothing, but we were not wearing anything to give us away. Turns out, one of the ladies from the other museums had called and told them about us. These are not crowded tourist attractions. Again, we got a long, private tour from a very enthusiastic, welcoming guide. That’s another difference to the other White House: We really liked the people here.

After almost three weeks in Oklahoma, we had already crossed the state line to Texas, but due to a full campground came back to Oklahoma and spent two more days on Lake Texoma. We had spent our first two nights in Oklahoma in campgrounds on lakes, so it was only fitting we spent the last two nights on a lake, too. We were actually grateful they had a two night minimum stay: Sometimes we need to be slowed down a bit. And this gave us enough time to look for RV storage and flights home, including the stops we added in San Diego and Honolulu along the way.

Dwight Eisenhower's Birthplace

Back in Texas, we discovered an unexpected presidential site: Did you know Dwight Eisenhower was born in Denison, TX? Don’t feel bad, apparently he himself did not find out until he was almost adult. We had been to Ike’s home in Gettysburg, including a tour and a ranger talk, but we had no idea, even though I am sure they told us. This shows you why we will never run out of places to visit: We seem to forget things almost as fast as we learn them. I did not even remember that Richard Nixon was his Vice President. Even more surprising trivia: Eisenhower was so revered after the war that President Truman offered him the top of the ticket, with himself as the VP, if Eisenhower had decided to run as a Democrat. 

Canoeing on the Bayou at Caddo Lake State Park

We have seen so much on this trip, but Caddo Lake was something completely different, a real Bayou with thousands of cypress trees growing in the water. Surprisingly, it is also the only lake in Texas that formed naturally. All the other lakes in Texas are man made! First we took a boat tour on the bajous and on the lake, then we rented a canoe, exploring the mystical landscape ourselves. We also went on a short hike with a fun wildlife sighting: Sandra mentioned that she would like to see an Armadillo. As far as I can remember, we have seen an Armadillo only one single time in the wild before. Not even a minute later, I see one in the forest, running away from us before we could get a decent photo, but at least we got to see it. We slowly followed it and surprisingly, it let us approach, and even came closer to us. Not because it wanted to be fed, more because it wanted to dig for food where we were and had decided at that point that we were of no danger. And we got a decent photo after all…

Sandra wants to see an armadillo...

We are not getting tired of touring American historical homes. Some of them might not be older than my grandparents home was, but we are always intrigued by the history and by the dedicated staff or volunteers keeping them alive. The Starr Family Home in Marshall, TX was another prime example. We throughly enjoyed the long, private tour, but I am afraid I will sound like a broken record...

Joy at Camp Tonkawa Springs RV Park north of Nacogdoces, TX

Overall, we feel we traveled slower and more relaxed than on previous road trips, but still got to see just as much. Yesterday was no exception: We were in Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas. Somehow we saw  Stone Fort Museum, the Historic Village at Millard’s Crossing and the Sterne-Hoya House without feeling rushed. The Stone Fort has an interesting history: It’s a 1936 replica using the bricks of the 1776 building, which was the only two story building in all of Texas at the time and was torn down in 1902. Millard’s Crossing is an eclectic collection of historical buildings, started by a lady who had so many antiques that she had to buy antique houses to store them all. We were lucky to get there when they had their living history day for the local schools. I think I was even more impressed how well behaved the over 100 kids were than by the actual buildings or artifacts. 

Living History Day at Millard's Crossing

The Sterne-Hoya House had some extra appeal for us because it was built by a fellow German immigrant. Adolphus Sterne is from Cologne, so from the same river as my home town - but that is where the parallels end: He left Germany by himself when he was only 16 years old! And somehow he became one of the leaders of the Texas revolution just a few years later, enough so that Sam Houston and Davy Crocket came by to visit the Sterne House. At least we made it here, but as much as we enjoy Texas, we are not interested joining a Texas revolution.  

A Hui Hou, Joy!

And that’s the end of the road for us. We are looking forward to coming home to Maui and to our friends there, but we already know that we will be itching to go on another 6 month adventure next year. For us, it truly is the Best of Both Worlds!

Howdy & Aloha,

Chris & Sandra