Adventures in Mexico: Bus and Motel Edition

After I graduated from college, my mom and I drove from Tennessee all the way to Mexico's Yucatan Pennisula. It took us 5 days of driving to get to Merida. Driving in Mexico was quite an adventure and the source of many fabulous stories. I will share a couple of my favorites in this post.

On the first day in Mexico, a bus passed us on a two lane road and left a beautiful scratch down the driver's side of my card. The bus driver stopped, asked if we had insurance, told us to make a claim, and then got back on the bus without giving us any information. Meanwhile, my mom and I were in shock and just watched the bus drive away. Smart people would had decided to go home; however, as brave adventurers we forged on.

On the second day driving in Mexico, we had another interesting adventure. It was dark and we were looking for a hotel in Veracruz. I see a sign along the highway that says motel. Since it was dark and the motel had a security wall, we pulled in. We tripped an alarm and someone came out to talk us. She asked how long we would be staying. We said until 7 or 8 and then she quoted a a reasonable price. I think it was about $20 dollars. We paid and she directed into open garage which was right beside the room.

We walked in and inspected the room. It seemed rather nice for $20 bucks. There was a big, king sized bed and a tv. The bathroom even had a bidet which I thought was really strange. Wanting to veg out, I climbed on the bed and turned on the tv. Needless to say, I was shocked and embarrassed to see a naked man and woman going at it. Then, everything clicked. I understood why the employee asked how long we were staying. I understood why she never asked for our names. I understood why there was a giant mirror on the wall and a bidet. We were staying at a no tell motel that charged by the hour. Yup, I stayed at a sex motel with my mother.

After we got over the shock, Mom and I had a good laugh about it. The room was nice and a good value since we were only paying for the hours that we needed to sleep. In fact, we started to look for similar motels in other cities later in our trip.

Wigwam Village #2

Okay, so my wife and I have posted all kinds of stuff from places far away:  the UK, Australia, and Mexico, to name a few.  Now, here's one a lot of people from the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio can get to and it's not going to cost you a whole lot of money.  It's the Wigwam Village #2 in Cave City, Kentucky!

Wigwam Village #2 in Cave City, Kentucky...

As you can see from the picture above, each wigwam is a concrete and steel teepee that is large enough to contain a bedroom and a bathroom, just like regular hotel and motel rooms.  However, how many are shaped like teepees?  Unfortunately, there are only 49 that bear the distinction of the Wigwam name across three villages, including the one pictured above.  The remaining two are in Holbrook, Arizona and San Bernardino, California.  But I digress...

Retro, yet cool, indeed...

One of the appeals of the Wigwam is its "throwback" appeal to an earlier, simpler time, where two lane roads were more often traveled to get to places than today.  During the times these Wigwams were popping up, the popularity of traveling along Route 66 was beginning to peak.  The atmosphere inside and outside of the Wigwam we stayed rekindled some fond memories of my late grandparents.  I'm guessing it's probably from the older style of the rooms, which were originally constructed close to the same time as my grandparents' house was built in 1940 (and still stands to this very day).

One of the nice things about each Wigwam is the fact that there is an individual parking space within several steps of the door.  I mean, how often do you ever go to a hotel or motel and have a parking spot right in front of your room for your convenience?  More often than not, you're lugging around your luggage several hundred feet to the door after you find the closest possible spot that hasn't been taken!

Do you still see cool roadside
advertising like this anymore?

So, why in the world should you stay at Wigwam Village #2?  What is there to do, other than play on their playground and grill some burgers or hot dogs on one of their charcoal grills?

Within a half hour of the Wigwam Village, you can go to the following places:

1.  Mammoth Cave National Park:  This is the main tourist attraction that attracted the Wigwam name to the area.  You can take cave tours throughout the day and there is even one available in the early evening hours, too.

2.  Kentucky Down Under:  This is a place where you can go see "all things Aussie," including some of the animals and gadgets from there.  There's even a cave you can walk through.  The only thing you won't get from this place is jet lag.

ROAR!!!

3.  Dinosaur World:  For an adult, it may appear totally cheesy, especially with "Interstate-a-saurus Rex" standing within 100 feet of Interstate 65.  However, it's got some great things for kids to go see and learn there.

4.  Guntown Mountain:  Here, they put on a show with a fully decked out wild west town.  They have a chair lift or a shuttle bus (for those that don't want to take the chair lift) that will take you to the town.  Once there, you will get immersed in the atmosphere, which may include an old-fashioned wild west brawl or, possibly, a shootout!

Note for Teachers:  Some places (mentioned above) have promos that offer free or reduced admission.  Check their respective websites for details...

So, now that there is some justification to sleep in a Wigwam, feel free to take a couple of days off and go!  (Deep down, we know you want to...)  Also, if you go there, please mention our endorsement from our blog to the owners.  We're fairly certain that they would like to know about it (or be reminded of it).

My Original Travel Goal and Inspiration...

Every summer (until 2007), I would go to my grandparents' place at least one time.  One of the things I would remember was their refrigerator door.  It was adorned with various magnets--mostly in the shapes of U.S. states.  As soon as I learned the map of the U.S., I would move the various magnets into their appropriate position.  I would find that most of the states could easily fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, but others, say Rhode Island, turned out to be bigger than Indiana, creating all kinds of logistical issues.  Then there was the location of Hawaii.  The door was wide enough for the Lower 48, which pretty much required for Hawaii to be somewhere on their dishwasher about 15 feet away (since that was the closest metallic surface available in the kitchen).  I'm fairly certain that after I left, my grandparents would ask each other, "What happened to Hawaii?"  But I digress...

One of the things that made this magnet map special was that they bought each magnet as they visited each state!  However, the magnet map was not the main reason for continuing to visit them into my early 30's...  They themselves were the reason!

Looking back on my relationship with them, I never felt like I was spoiled by them nor bribed for their affection.  They were truly interested in my sister, my six cousins, and myself.  Grandma and Grandpa wanted to know we were happy with how our lives were turning out to be.  They would become concerned if something wasn't right--whether it was my early struggles after graduating college or my early frustrations of recovering after knee surgery.

Then there were the times they drove countless hours to celebrate achievements in my life.  When I became the first in the family to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, they were there (along with my great-grandmother).  When I graduated high school and college, they were there.  When I bought my first house, they made sure to come see it.  When they heard about Heather and I getting engaged, we got their congratulatory phone call via speakerphone...within an hour of calling my parents (who in turn notified them)!

So, feeling that I mattered so much to them, I became inspired to do something as I started to see more and more of the U.S.  I wanted to follow in their footsteps and visit all 50 states!  I was able to see 38 of them before they both passed away in 2008.  I even made a small binder for Grandpa's 90th birthday (which was five years ago today) that would show 8x10 pictures from our travels on one side and a short story in 24 point Arial on the other.  By this point, sadly, Grandpa was seriously suffering from Alzheimers, so I felt the need to do my part to keep his memory strong.

Sadly, Grandma and Grandpa both passed away in 2008 after living very full lives.  They had four children (all girls), eight grandchildren (5 boys, 3 girls), five great grandchildren (3 boys, 2 girls), a step great grandson, and another great granddaughter on the way at the time they each passed away.  Since then, there have been five more great grandchildren (2 boy, 3 girls) with the most recent one being a boy born this morning.

I'm certain that someone in this group of great grandchildren in addition to Lily (my eight-month-old daughter) will become inspired--maybe by us--to carry Grandma and Grandpa's travelling "torch!"  (metaphorically writing, of course)

Oh, I don't know about the state-shaped magnets.  So, if you happen to come across a group, would you kindly rearrange it for me?  I'm fairly certain my grandparents would really appreciate it.


In Memory:  Grandma (1919 - 2008) and Grandpa (1917 - 2008).  Miss you both.

Project Gotham Racing 2

With the title, you are probably wondering, "Has Dave lost his mind?" or perhaps, "Is this still a travel blog?"  Rest assured, folks, because (1) we are not changing blog formats and (2) this definitely ties into travel.


One day at work, during the Summer of 2005, I finally broke down and bought an original X-box gaming console.  My previous gaming system was an 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System that I received on Christmas Day 1988, which still works to this day.


Okay, enough on that and onto my motivation for buying an X-box.  After getting pummeled at Halo by my younger cousin, Jonathan, I needed to step up my game so I could give him a good "beat down" as brothers or male cousins would.  One weekend, I decided to stop at the nearby Hollywood Video and chose to rent a couple of games.


The first one was a 007 action game that was very difficult to play.  After about 15 minutes of frustration, I ejected the thing and put it back in its case, never to grace the innards of my X-box ever again...


Next up?  Project Gotham Racing 2, a street racing game with real cars that takes place in the following places:  Chicago, Washington DC, Edinburgh, Stockholm, Florence, Nurburgring (the longest and fastest track, located in Germany), Moscow, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Yokohama!  Now, this was months before I met Heather, so (1) I wasn't exactly inspired to go anywhere internationally and (2) I wasn't sure if the city scenes were realistic or just a bunch of fluff.  Regardless, it was a very fun game.


Later that year, I was playing it while waiting for Heather to arrive.  The doorbell rang, I paused the game, and let her in.  I was about to turn off the console when she expressed an interest.  So, I mentioned that Hong Kong was in the game.  Then, she wanted to see it.


We got the "Welcome to Hong Kong" skyline roll and she was identifying all the major landmarks.  In other words, everything in the game appears to be real!


Roughly four years later in 2009, we arrived in Sydney.  I started walking by places I had seen before in the game, which was awesome, because those places I were blazing by at 230 MPH in a Ferrari F50?  They're real!

  

Fast forward to 2010, where we took a day trip to Florence on our last day in Italy...

Fast forward to 2011, where we stopped in Washington DC before leaving for Europe via Baltimore...

So, I have technically been to Chicago multiple times, but haven't been in the downtown area in roughly a decade.  Perhaps one day, we'll go back and get game shots from there...

So, for now...  Three sites down and seven to go!  The trickiest of them all should be Nurburgring, but perhaps I can knock all of these out when Lily's old enough...