We spent a quick night in Little Rock on the way to Louisiana, where were lucky enough to crash a delectable dinner party at the home of Will’s Uncle Peter and Aunt Dale. We took another brief respite in Baton Rouge, where Will’s Uncle David gave us a tour of Louisiana State University, whose health center he manages in highly stylish suspenders. Thanks to all the Southern Rousmanieres for hosting these wayward travellers! It was great to see you!

New Orleans, Louisiana
The Halloween Scene: Leather or Latex?

If you’ve ever entertained thoughts of going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, we say go for Halloween instead! The crowds were just tame enough to allow us to stroll the French quarter markets and get a table at Café Du Monde for coffee and beignets, but just crazy enough to make our Halloween a real scream. We skipped Anne Rice’s leather or latex party, and instead spent the night people-watching on Bourbon Street, where we parked ourselves next to the blood fountain and watched the street parades full of skeletons on stilts; grotesque brides; Tina Turner look-alikes; blood-covered Carries; tuba-playing Spidermen; and Little Bo Peeps, whose skirts were just short enough to let their behinds peep out. Perhaps our late-night drinking buddy Elton John described this city’s scene best: "New Orleans is like a fine lady with dirty fingernails." We left New Orleans with a boatload of beads and a firm resolve to return next Halloween with some outrageous costumes and some equally outrageous friends in tow.

Fayetteville, Arkansas
Where Willy Wonka Meets Colonel Sanders
[Or – Our First Experience with Hair Nets (Not Our Last)]

We spent a fun, relaxing week in Arkansas with our friends Seth & Katie Kaufman, where Seth has gotten into the chicken biz, in a big way with Simmons Foods – a competitor of Tyson’s Chicken. Seth took us on a whirlwind tour of the chicken business, where we saw everything from the cook plants to the kill plants. This was an incredibly fascinating experience, and the level of automation is breathtaking — churning out hot wings for pizza hut, chicken tenders for KFC, and frozen breasts for Sam’s club at the hundreds per minute. But hanging out in a kill plant is not for the weak of heart.

Later that week, we took a road trip to Branson, Missouri, the Las Vegas of the Bible Belt. We toured "the strip," which was lit up with theatres belonging to "well vintaged" celebs like the Osmonds, Yakov Smirnov, and Bobby Vinton. That, combined with a trip to the mammoth Bass Pro Shops and views of the strip-mall Target-sized churches, gave us a view of Americana that we won’t soon forget. Some very exciting news from Seth & Katie: they’re expecting their first child in March, and we can hardly wait!

Houston, Texas
Oil and Refinery

We spent a glorious week in Houston, Texas, with Will’s "Unca Joe," Aunt Silk, and Cousin Louie, where we were pampered & fed just like we had gone home to mom & dad! We added to the waistlines we’d grown in Louisiana with Joe’s amazing homemade lasagna, Silk’s bottomless supply of snacks, and their introduction to Chinatown’s Chinese-style lobster (Houston has the third-largest Chinese population in the US). Will played Soccer with the Houston Travel Team that Unca Joe coaches, and couldn’t walk for three days afterwards. Touring ran the gamut from beautiful butterfly gardens to the aftermath of the Enron scandal (on election day, a couple days after Andy Fastow was indicted, Joe walked into the Polls, spied Fastow’s lawyer, and belted out "So are you gonna put a new wing on the house or what?" much to the chagrin of the lawyer.) Uncle Joe, a veritable expert in the lube oil biz, took us on a tour of the oil refineries that surround the city.

White Sands, New Mexico
The Arctic Tundra of the Desert

White Sands has been another surprise of our trip. We went there on a whim and, in the space of 10 minutes, we felt as if we’d stepped right from the desert into an Artic Tundra. White Sands is 300 square miles of white gypsum sand dunes, which make any viewer feel like he is Lawrence first seeing Arabia. The sand is a soft, powder-white, and looks so much like snow that we felt compelled to lay down in it and make snow angels. Just as the sun was about to set, Will got the bright idea that we should camp overnight in the dunes. The park ranger agreed to his plan, if we dropped everything and raced to the campsite immediately, before the sun went down. With about 45 minutes ‘til dark, we loaded up on "rations" at the park’s gift shop, whipped out our tent, and set out for the 1.5 mile hike over the dunes with our packs on our backs. Setting up that tent may have been the biggest challenge of our trip (and our marriage!) so far. It was freezing cold, it was getting dark, the wind was whipping, the sand was blasting, and the tent was blowing over every time we had it half-way put together. We were alone in the middle of the desert, there were coyotes howling in the distance. We hardly slept a wink that night, which made it that much easier to enjoy the beautiful desert sky, lit up by a million stars bathed in the light of the full moon. To anyone else travelling through New Mexico, we’d recommend camping in White Sands in a heartbeat!

Arizona
Sleeping with Saguaros and Hiking ‘til it Hurt

After our night camping in the desert, we were relieved to land at the beautiful home of Bruce Coules and Pat Krainz, high above Tucson, Arizona. Bruce and Pat built a house into a saguaro-covered hillside, where you can stand on the deck and see clear to Mexico, sixty miles away. Their fine company, gorgeous views, and hot-tub-in-the-hillside were just the pampering we needed to continue "roughing it" across the country, and to help wash the sand out of our ears and other crevasses.

After a quick stop to see the Red Rocks of Sedona, we landed at the Grand Canyon just in time for sunset to just stay the night. It’s become a cliché that everything ever written about the Grand Canyon has become a cliché, so we won’t even begin to describe this truly amazing national treasure. However, one look at the sun setting over the canyon and you realize immediately that one night is not enough.

Needless to say, we extended our stay in order to spend a day hiking down into the canyon. We rose at sunrise and hiked to Plateau Point, an 8-hour 12-mile roundtrip hike, where ravens soared above the Colorado river and their caws echoed for miles. We couldn’t walk for three days afterwards, but the memories of that day will last a lifetime.

Las Vegas, Nevada
Bright Lights, Big City

We stopped in Las Vegas just long enough to take a quick walk down the strip at night and to scope out a home for our car for the next seven months (thanks, Jurate and Stu!). Afraid to gamble all of our money away before we’d even left the country, we’re saving up for a big night in Las Vegas upon our return to the U.S. next June. Anyone want to meet us?

Los Angeles, California

We made it to the West Coast after seven weeks on the road. We spent a week in Palos Verdes and Northridge, just outside of L.A., washing the desert dust off our faces and out of our lungs with alternating doses of Pacific Dips and Lithuanian Liquers in the gracious hospitality of our friends Meredith and Rick, and Dana’s cousins Stasys and Irene. Meredith and her friend Laura, director of MTV’s the Real World, convinced us that we should go for an Amazing Race casting call when we return to L.A. next June. We’re spending the next seven months of our own personal amazing race mulling the idea over…

Cleveland, Ohio

We had an incredibly relaxing week in Cleveland with Dana’s family, where we spent the Thanksgiving holiday in the company of thirty family and friends. Dana’s mother, Judy, definitely outdid herself with the Thanksgiving dinner! We hope all of your Thanksgivings found you as stuffed, thankful, and surrounded by turkeys as we were. It was just the break we needed to gear up for the international leg of our trip.

Love to All,
Will and Dana

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