Coffee up the East Coast

A fuchia rose, beautiful but starting to crinkle and lose its petals.

And just like that, we’re heading home! As we finish up the first leg of our journey, we’re reflecting on all the ups and downs of this amazing experience. We both have learned so much about being flexible, appreciating the moment, and feel stronger than ever in our relationship. The past few weeks have included a lot of driving, but we’ve been able to squeeze in some family visits, which have filled us up with all the warm fuzzy feelings, and gotten us excited for more family time!

Me sitting in a coffee shop, sipping a mug that's covering my mouth, holding onto a biscuit in the other hand.

While we haven’t stayed in a campsite since Kansas, and we haven’t spent nearly as much time outside as we would have liked, we’ve enjoyed checking out some cool cities! In Kansas City we saw some sunshine and walked around a beautiful park that had a rose garden (with some roses still hanging on!) and saw a crazy huge bird which reminded me that I really want binoculars! In the evening we went to a plant-based restaurant called Café Gratitude where the dishes were named things like “I am thriving” and “I am gentle” so you had to order it like that, which was pretty funny. They also gave you a conversation topic to discuss at your table, I think ours was “What are you creating?” which is probably what Corey and I would be talking about anyway. I could see some people thinking this place was a little too far out, but it was a cool idea and the food was delicious! While we were in KC, Corey also dragged me to a rock climbing gym that was underground (I love rock climbing, but am definitely not in the mood to do it as often as Corey!). We pulled up to an empty parking lot that had a lone elevator shaft in the middle of it, and when we got out of the elevator we were in something like an office building but underground, with dated carpet and rough rock walls. It was empty and very creepy, but an appropriate place for a rock climbing gym. There was a waiting room for one of the offices that Corey and I decided was purgatory, and someone had placed a photograph portrait of someone from maybe the 1960s in a crack between the wall and ceiling—creepy. We wrapped up our weekend at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which is a beautiful piece of architecture and has an amazing collection of art with some of my favorite contemporary artists represented. And it’s free!

The hallway to purgatory. 

A graduation portrait of some random person in a crack between the wall and ceiling.

After seeing Kansas city and checking off Kansas and Missouri from our 50 states list, we headed south to Arkansas in hopes of getting some warm weather before heading north. We woke up the next morning to freezing rain and snow. We were in Bentonville, AR and we did what we do in any cute town, which is to find a cute coffee shop. We went to Onyx Coffee Lab which definitely met our cute standards. Since walking around downtown Bentonville wasn’t really in the cards due to the weather, we went to Crystal Bridges Art Museum which is another free art museum, and the perfect thing to do on a yucky day! The architecture of the building was so cool, as it was basically four buildings crossing from one side of the river to the other, so kind of like enclosed bridges, but in an ultra modern way. There was a Yayoi Kusama exhibit happening when we were there, and an absolutely amazing permanent collection—I was in heaven. Like, ready to move to Bentonville because of the art museum heaven. There was also a Frank Lloyd Wright house on the property that was free to check out. Side note: if you like The Dollop pod cast, listen to the Frank Lloyd Wright episode. He was a real A-hole. Love his architecture though.

After Bentonville, we stopped in Fayetteville, AR, another cute town that’s home to the University of Arkansas. I have never seen fancier sorority and fraternity buildings in my life and can’t believe college students get to live in them. I can just imagine them swinging from the chandeliers and sliding down the banisters of these beautiful historic buildings. We went to another cute coffee shop, did our Planet Fitness routine, and made our way to Memphis, TN. Speaking of coffee shops, we had the WORST experience in Memphis. We were already struggling because I had had a doctor appointment cancelled on me that I had a hard time getting, and we were approaching 10 am with no coffee in our systems. We tried to find parking at one coffee shop and we couldn’t, so we headed to another one that had good reviews. I asked if they had drip coffee, and the barista said yes, we have pour-over. So the fact that they only had $5.00 pour-over should have been a red flag. Don’t get me wrong, I love pour-over, but I just wanted my freaking coffee and didn’t want to wait ten minutes. So I finally get my boiling hot coffee in a glass mason jar with a flimsy rubber coozie/handle thing. I look around for the cream and sugar station, and when I don’t see it, I ask them if they have milk (they had lattes on the menu after all). They said they don’t serve milk with the dark roast. As in, they had milk behind the counter, but would not allow me to put it in my coffee. I was no longer able to be a functioning human in society at this point, so I had to have Corey go up and talk to them. They explained to him that they will only put milk in the medium roast, and made me a medium roast with milk for free since I hadn’t known their tyrannical hipster coffee policy. After waiting for my second coffee, I found out that they are morally opposed to sugar and do not have any at their establishment. I choked down my coffee and turned into a moderately reasonable person, and then we went to a new coffee shop. Poor Corey, after dealing with me patiently like the saint that he is, closed the car door on four of his fingers and it latched completely. He ended up with a very swollen middle finger but no broken bones luckily. Needless to say, we did not enjoy our time in Memphis.

Our next stop was Nashville, a MUCH better experience. When we got into the city, we went right to a trendy restaurant called Hathorne that had delicious food and a really friendly staff. We have loved being in places where people are so friendly! After that we went to a Santa’s, a karaoke bar rated one of the best dive bars in America (thanks Nicole for the recommendation!). I would never be caught dead doing Karaoke, but we enjoyed watching people drunkenly butcher songs. The next morning we went to yet another cute coffee shop (I’m starting to think I should write a separate blog just about the coffee shops) where in true Nashville style they were spinning vinyl records. Then we went to Jack White’s record company, “Third Man Records,” and got one of the few tour tickets they offer on the weekends! It was a VERY cool experience and we felt like we really got an inside look at this quirky place that so many famous people have recorded at. I obviously had to have hot chicken and even though I was wise in ordering the mild, I just about died while eating it because it was so spicy. That night we met up with my Aunt Cheryl and her dad in Franklin, TN and had a really nice dinner and walked around the charming town center. I loved the look and feel of the town, and decided I wanted to move there. We found some live music in Franklin, and when it was a local Grateful Dead cover band, I had made it official that we’d move there. (Not really, but I’m just extreme about things and really loved it!)

On Sunday we (Corey) drove all day to get to my Grammy’s house, and arrived at about 10 pm. The next day we visited with my Aunt Ann and talked about exciting wedding plans and our shared interest of fiber arts, and then later my Uncle Richard came by and we talked about our shared interest of trailers! My sister, Jessica, was in town for a conference so she came by too—all in all a warm and fuzzy way to wrap up this last leg of our journey! Before saying bye to Grammy today, she and I went thrift shopping (more shared interests!) and found lots of pretty bud vases for wedding center-pieces. As I write this we’re in a coffee shop in Frederick, MD. Corey is working and we’re getting ready to drive all the way back to Boston tonight. I’m thinking about the fact that we are so lucky to have the freedom to travel, but we are even luckier to have such loving families.