Tag memphis

Merry Christmas, Cube Abandoners!
We hope the year ahead is as stunning, rich, and full as the year behind us soon will be. With warm moments spent with friends and family, and a life that fills full and happy.

2013 was a transition year for ATC. We traveled quite a bit in the USA, our motherland, but only traveled abroad twice, to our northern and southern neighbors. 2013 saw our first trip to Cancun, Mexico, and stunning winter visit to Niagara Falls, Canada. You can find a whole album of trip pics from Cancun in the gallery!

Inside the USA we traveled from Michigan to the east coast, then straight across the nation stopping in Nashville (go country music!) to Memphis (where we met soul singer Al Green) to the Presidential Library in Arkansas, to Oklahoma (where the world’s largest McDonald’s is) and on to Colorado (where the Garden of the Gods was a big attraction) to Utah, Idaho and then Oregon (go ducks!) and on to Washington state, where we were saturated in a light but constant drizzle.

After a few weeks in Washington we did the trip in reverse along the northern route, hitting the long stretch across Montana and the fun sites of South Dakota (Rushmore, Wall Drug and Corn Palace) and then on to visit family in Minnesota, Illinois and then out to the coast again. A full circular tour of the motherland, and a wonderful one.

Michael and Lauren also got married this year in the southern USA. Thank you to all our lovely friends and family who traveled from around the planet to be in, and attend our nuptials. It means the world to us that you came from around the blue planet to be at our humble event.

Now we’re in North Carolina, situated in the Piedmont area between the mountains and the ocean. You’ll find us outside with our daughter or inside, writing this blog and gazing at maps as we plan future adventures.

With the new year dawning, we have some exciting plans for travel within the USA. This massive country has so much to offer, so many amazing national parks, sites and of course splattered across the USA there is one of the largest of everything imaginable, from frying pans to balls of twine…and we want to see them all.

We hope your holidays are full of joy and fun!
Merry Christmas, from Abandon the Cube!

By Al Green we do in fact mean the amazing, talented and smooth creator of “Let’s Stay Together” and “Love and Happiness.” He is one of gospel and soul’s biggest names and he recently went on tour. Sadly, we missed it. But we did hear that he was the reverend at the Tabernacle Church in Memphis, so we got up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and headed for Memphis, leaving lovely Nashville in our rearview mirror.

We drove by Elvis Presley’s Graceland, and were surprised at how rundown the area was, and how kitschy the place looked. I know it’s Graceland and it’s meant to be kitschy but wow! Not far from where tours leave for Graceland you’ll find the Reverend Al Green’s church.

We pulled into the parking lot and saw several people heading inside. We followed them in and opened the doors to the sanctuary to reveal that we were one of about eight white folks in the room. They were already well into the service (which started at 11am) when we arrived at 30 minutes after the hour. We took seats near the back in case our infant started to howl.

The music was amazing! Al Green wasn’t there yet, but his choir and choir leaders were stellar. They sang almost on improve and the live band was equally astonishing. You could tell they loved what they were doing. They sang their prayers.

At noon Al Green came out in white gloves and a black reverend smock. He swayed with the music and received applause and turned all the applause upward. He was very humble and deflecting of attention. His mother led the announcements, and his nephew gave the sermon. Al Green was the greeter, occasional singer and commentator. As we gave tithe he asked us where we were from. Mike said “Chicago” and he started singing “hello Chicago!” as we walked by. Nice guy, and a very friendly congregation. He even made a “Love and Happiness” reference. Nice.

We left Memphis after church. Driving around downtown proved that the city itself has a lot to be desired, especially after the beauty of downtown Nashville.