Dropin Pickup frontman Mike Farrell has been described as having the enthusiasm of Robin Williams on cocaine, and fittingly so. After seeing him on stage for the first time, I likened him to “a seizure with a tambourine.” He brings that same enthusiasm to most everything he does, including vacationing. This summer, Farrell and long-time love and fiancé (congrats!) Danielle Natale decided to take a month off to travel the country, complete with a stop at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
Six months of planning went into the breakneck itinerary and no minute was spared. The duo took off May 30 and managed to cover 20 states in 30 days, keeping expenses low by staying with family and friends, or at Airbnb rentals. Using a road trip website and researching tips and tricks for different cities, Farrell and Natale made sure to add everything from kitschy locales to nature spots and everything in between. “We wanted to do some nature stuff and some city stuff, so it balanced out,” said Farrell.
Before leaving Florida, the two stopped at an abandoned treehouse in Brooksville. Local businessman James Walker built the three-story Victorian-style structure for his grandchildren and made sure to include bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. When he passed away in 2003, the property was left abandoned, and has been subjected to looters and vandals over the years.
By the third day they had made it to Bulls Island in South Carolina, sustained mainly by a basket of food Natale’s mother had prepared for them. Mike “If It Has Rungs or Branches I’m Going to Climb it” Farrell made the most of the island’s dead yet statuesque trees and caught a bird’s eye view here and most everywhere they went.
Nature wasn’t always so sweet, however; a jump off a waterfall in Tennessee’s Cummins Falls State Park ended with Farrell nursing a bashed elbow and questionable vertebrate issues. There was also his fall off a log while trying to avoid lines in Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina.
Then came the pouring rain they endured while navigating the Tail of the Dragon — a serpentine road that claims “318 curves in only eleven miles” — also in North Carolina. The site was close to where scenes from The Fugitive film were shot, though the couple didn’t realize it until they were parked pretty much on top of it, in the pitch black night, lost and without access to WiFi. Farrell compared the feeling to “being in space.”
Fun in the sun (or rain) soon turned in to art in the dark as Natale and Farrell headed back south to Atlanta’s famed Krog Street Tunnel, known for its ever-changing landscape of graffiti and posters. It is also the veritable wall to post about all things ATL.
They visited the site of Chief Leatherlips, a tourist attraction in Dublin, Ohio, that commemorates the site of the Wyandot Indian chief. At Bonnaroo, they enjoyed five over-heated days seeing some of the best bands in the world, from the known to the more obscure, while Wisconsin found them eating mouth-squeaking cheese curds. Overall, our love birds managed to cover roughly 9,000 miles in about 30 days.
Because of their extreme dedication, we can all learn from the Farrell/Natale Traveling Words of Wisdom (patent pending):
1) Don’t sleep. Really, do sleep, but don’t sleep past 6 a.m. Ever. There are entirely too many things to see and do. The few occasions that you ignore this rule will make sleep that much more delicious.
2) No matter how viable it seems, don’t plan a seven-mile hike after five days at Bonnaroo.
3) Remember that old friend from high school/college? They might have a spare room that could save you a bundle.
4) You’ll need that bundle to pay for parking in Chicago. Twenty-nine dollars for two hours, no joke.
5) Speakeasies are useless during the day. Do not visit them unless it’s nighttime.
6). Government stuff (i.e. National Parks or Museums) will close at 5pm. Plan accordingly.
7) Remember that friend of your friend that you went to middle school with? Refer to #3.
8) If you do fall and something makes a sound similar to a tire popping, you should probably get that checked out.
9) While there are specific areas marked with signs, you can walk around the area where JFK was shot like it’s no problem.
10) There are so many beautiful things all around the country that are worth exploring. Don’t wait too long to make time; just make time.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2015.
