Finally, we arrive at Canyonlands National Park, which is the largest and most remote place we will visit on this trip by far. A couple hours southwest of Moab and Arches, Canyonlands spans an area of more than 300,000 acres. It is not a place that can be seen fully in a single day… but we’re going to do our best. Indeed, this particular trip will be most confined to the northern regions of the park, but I want to underscore that there is a LOT more of this landscape that we won’t see today.
As you will see, Canyonlands is a VAST area of canyons carved by mighty rivers that still flow through them to this day. Thousands of feet above the water, towering mesas look out across seemingly endless canyon-scapes. It offers more than a few STUNNING views.
There are lots of famous rock formations in Arches National Park, but the most famous of them all is called “Delicate Arch”. We wanted to get there early in the day and experience sunrise within the park, which meant that we have to get moving at the butt-crack of dawn. In the gentle early morning light, our rental car carried us out of Moab and up a steep switch-back road into the park. Mind you that Moab is already ~4,025 ft (1,227 m) above sea-level. Arches actually gets as high as ~5,653 ft (~1,723 m) above sea-level, and—despite being only ~5 miles (8 km) away from downtown Moab—is usually 5–10°F (~3-6° C) colder. That being said, both Moab and Arches get HOT in the summer. The record high in Moab was 114°F (~46°C), and summer highs frequently exceed in 100°F (38°C) within Arches. So, heat is a hazard here! Consequently, sunrise/sunset exploration tends to be preferred, with many visitors retreating to Moab for a nice air-conditioned siesta in the middle of the day.
The road you are about to see was an important regional access point long before Moab was ✨M0aB✨—it was (and still is) important for ranching and river access. AND, it was apparently an important area for Uranium mining in the mid-1900s. But the human element of this road is really besides the point; unlike the rigid grid systems you will find in a lot of US infrastructure, this road works with nature, snaking through this canyon, following the river wherever it goes. In this sort of geography, you’d really have no choice but to build this road this way. That’s one of the magical things about traveling out west: the natural features become far too big for humans to tame.
Colorado National Monument isn’t a single landmark, but a large area of landscape, which includes massive rock formations, deep canyons, and rugged plateaus, all of which were carved over millions of years by wind and water. The primary thing to do here is the Rim Rock Drive, which is a 23-mile-long paved road that brings you past a great many breathtaking views over dramatic sheer cliffs and expansive valleys. There are lots of places to stop along the way, many of which have their own hiking trails and camp sites. Today, we’re going to drive the Rim Rock Road.
On our final day we did a dolphin boat tour around the protected waters between Anna Maria and mainland Florida. We did see a bunch of dolphins, which was cool, but what I remember most from that tour was our cruise through a little area that is apparently known locally as the “redneck riviera.” At the very bottom of Anna Maria Island, between the barrier islands and a small interior island called Jewfish Key 🫤 there is a sandbar where the water is shallow enough for a child to walk around. The cool thing is that it’s surrounded on all sides by deep water, so it’s basically only accessible by boat. So there were a number of boats floating nearby, encircling this sandy, teal-water playground, with people walking around in the middle. It was really cool. And of course, the Florida gulf-coast water is as warm as bath water.
East Nashville is the neighborhood that served as home base for me throughout the duration of my time in Nashville, and there was never a moment when I didn’t love this slice of the city. Even at the height of my dissatisfaction with Nashville, I remember saying how much I still loved East Nashville itself. I’d be happy to live in a neighborhood like this one again someday. I just hope it’s not in Tennessee. The casual passerby might not see much past the monstrosity known as Gallatin Pike (which is the main “stroad” of this neighborhood), but once you get off this excruciating wasteland, there is a beautiful neighborhood waiting to be discovered.
I lived in Nashville for many years, pursuing my own musical endeavors. And while it was a great place to make music, I always felt a bit at odds with the larger-than-life, cowboy-hat-wearing, beer-swigging, Trump-voting, bachelorette-party-hosting persona of Nashville’s calling-card genre: country music. At the height of my involvement with Nashville’s music scene, I definitely had a bit of a stick up my butt about country music. The two main reasons for this were, (1) as a non-country musician working the Nashville circuit, I was eager for this city to be more known for music *in general* than for country music specifically, and (2) the novelty of this scene had LONG-since worn off, leaving me annoyed in the way only locals can be in regard to tourist attractions. Therefore, I always refused to cover any of Nashville’s country persona on this website.
Ironically, I actually do like country music.
And now that I am (SPOILER ALERT) leaving Nashville, I thought it’d be prudent to cover the country scene here… you know, for the court record. Afterall, this can make for a super fun trip if you’re visiting from out of town. So without further ado, let’s get country!
Whether or not these kinds of country bars are “your scene,” there is one thing that can be said for certain about Nashville’s Honky Tonks: they are the genuine artifact. Almost anywhere else you would encounter this kind of atmosphere, it would be a rip-off of something else. But THESE bars are the O.G.s. It was here that the “Father of Country Music” Jimmy Rogers started playing at bars almost a century ago in the 1930s. The area has gone through some ups and downs over the past 100 years, but today Broadway is enjoying multiple consecutive decades of economic growth.
Yes, if the articles on the Internet are to be believed, Music City is the place to be! Over the past few years, it has become an oft-recited fun fact that more than ~100 people are moving to Nashville each day. I can guarantee you that almost every single one of these people knows Nashville’s nickname, ‘Music City,’ and will visit Broadway—and maybe even the nearby Country Music Hall of Fame—in the first 6 months of living here.
However, very few of them will have ever heard of the other side of this coin: Jefferson Street.
With a population of only ~25,000, Newport might be better described as a “town” than a “city.” Whatever it is, it’s one of the prettiest New England places I’ve ever seen! It’s like if Boston was only Beacon Hill. Founded all the way back in 1639, it completely embodies the best of this region, with historic buildings, charming local shops, cobblestone streets, and all sorts of plaques and details on each street to remind passersby of its seafaring, colonial past. I think this place becomes quite the tourist destination in the summer, but on this cold spring day, we could walk these city streets in relative anonymity.
Founded all the way back in 1636, Providence is one of the oldest cities in America. It was founded by puritan exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and would ultimately become one of America’s original 13 colonies. So, Providence is one of the O.G.s.
What is Providence like today? Well, it turns out that being the “most populous city” in the smallest state in the US doesn’t mean much in terms of population. Boston, which is less than 2 hours away, absolutely dwarfs Providence, whose population is even less than that of Worcester (“wus-tah”), MA. So, Providence is a relatively small place. However, it still manages to play an active role as a regional hub, boasting 8 major universities, including Brown, RISD, and Johnson & Wales University.
