Vaguely Vagabonds

derek and catherine...

2011-02-01T21:31:00.001-05:00

I love me some handmade. ;)

http://www.derekandcatharineblog.com/

my sister-in-law, Delaney, was just recently featured on this site; that was the first time I learned about this site and I've kinda been in love with it since then. ;)

and Bird 'n Bloke is fantastic. ;)

Thom and Sean

2010-07-03T00:24:00.005-04:00

HELLO!
I have found the writings! So I am here again to finish this long un-fulfilled journey. yay! ;)

first I have to note from the previous post on Amsterdam:
the way they barter at the flea markets is really hilarious.
shopper: "how much is this?"
owner: "CAN'T YOU SEE? it says RIGHT there. put it down! can't you see?"
pretty funny, no? ;)

okie. so we get back into London in the early morning, get through customs, then we're off to sightsee until we meet up with our next couchsurfers, Thom and Sean, around 5.30pm.
we visited the British Museum and ate fish and chips. first time for Andy, second time for me. I really like it, I think it's pretty delicious, but Andy thought it was too greasy. mmmmm. ;)
the British Museum was never quite my favorite. it's HUGE. so much history, it's almost overwhelming. but I think Andy had a really great time seeing everything. so it was still enjoyable.

around 5.30, we were at one of the tube stations, waiting to meet up with Thom and Sean. I was pretty excited. they seemed so friendly online, and I was really looking forward to meeting them. we waited for about 30 minutes inside the station, wondering if we were going to recognize them if we saw them. after waiting for a while, we decided to go outside to see if they were waiting for us outside. and we saw them almost immediately. ;) turns out, Sean had actually walked inside to look for us just a few minutes before and had completely missed us. oh well. so we finally met them! and they were as fantastic as we thought they would be.
Sean works for the government, I'm not sure how...but I believe if I remember correctly, he's worked for them for quite some time. and Thom works for a theatre, which I think is pretty rad.
they had a lovely little apartment in Tooting, filled with Lost, Battlestar Galatica, and random religious memorabilia.
Thom had made us a delicious pork goulash for dinner, and we even had tea before bed!

the next day, Andy and I set out for London again. he ended up playing a $56 poker tournament while I watched the movie, I love you, man. Andy ended up going out pretty early, but I think he was so excited to actually play live, that it all ended up being okie.

alright, well this is a pretty long post, especially after not posting in so long, we don't want to overwhelm you with too much at a time. ;)
I'll let Andy right about our next experience: Counting Crows concert. oh. man. A.mazing. ;)

we have returned! sorta....

2010-05-14T11:41:00.003-04:00

Hello to anyone who might still read this blog, hoping that one day we'll remember it, and finish posting about this trip. ;)

Well, I lost my journal that I had while on the trip. I'm on a search to find it and once I do, I'll finish posting. Until then...we'll go with what I remember. ;)

We arrived back in London around 8 or 9am, and we weren't scheduled to meet up with Thom and Sean until that afternoon, so we had time to kill. and what we did, I don't remember, so this blog entry will be quite short until I find that journal.

I'll be looking.....

My fav amsterdam photos

2009-06-21T02:09:00.003-04:00

here are a few. appropriate or not, this first one happened to have ended up as photo #420 on the camera.

Amsterdam

2009-06-16T01:56:00.002-04:00

it's been a few weeks since an update, and Mary-Beth has been on my case to write for some time. I've been kinda busy but here I am.
we spent the night on the ferry. there was engine noise but really it was quite comfortable. sometime in the morning, (7am or something,) the captain came over the intercom to wake everyone up. 30 minutes from docking or something. so we got up, and departed, and went through customs. I got a stamp on my passport and Mary-Beth did not. she was quite upset, and it caused quite a bit of confusion later on when we went to leave the Netherlands. idk what the first guy was thinking, he just glanced at the passport and handed it back. oh well.
from there was jumped on a train to Rotterdam, and another from there to Amsterdam. I don't remember what time we arrived, sometime before noon though. at this point we had no map, just a vague idea of where our hostel was. also, it was quite cold. very windy. and my jacket's zipper was broken, so I froze. we walked around Amsterdam for some hours, exploring. there are so so so many canals in Amsterdam. quite pretty. as it turns out, our hostel, (took most the day to find, without a map and all,) was very close to the red light district. (read: right in the middle of it.) you know, drunken, high, full-of-ladies-of-the-night type debauchery? yeah, that area. quite nice really. not was wild as your mother wants you to believe. especially not in the day time. just some bored women waiting for work to start. not really that bad at night either. unless you're mormon or something.
we did eat well in Amsterdam, mostly different hamburgers and such from little street shops. some chocolate covered waffles. those are quite tasty. get yourself one. some day.
we went to sleep in our hostel, in our nicely themed Star Wars Room. woke up in the morning and walked the whole of Amsterdam. we went to the outskirts and walked the outer circle, slowing working our way in. we found a windmill. not many of those left IN the city. and we went to a bunch of different street markets, picked up a few things. Mary-Beth get an awesome new hat for her collection. I'll see if I can find a picture.
that night, around 10pm or something, we headed back to Rotterdam, and then the Port of Holland, and back on the ferry for more sleep. and then back to London to meet our next Couchsurfers, Thom and Sean. Mary-Beth will take that assignment.

after-blogging?

2009-05-22T16:14:00.003-04:00

we are back home.
and now it comes to days upon days spent blogging about everything, every detail. no, not really.

hmmm. so. I am going to write about Bath, England today. we arrived there in the evening and checked into our hostel, the White Hart Inn/Pub. it was very nice and not to expensive, either. they had a nice garden...which we would call a...balcony or patio...with grass. :P
we were in a room with a double bed and one bunk, but we actually got the whole room to ourselves for the 2 nights we stayed, because noone else booked the room. that was very nice. ;)

the first night we were there, we didn't do much. we walked around for a little bit, saw an abbey, went to an internet cafe, then went to sleep quite early.
we had to get up very early the next day to catch the tour to Avebury and Stonehenge.

our tour guide's name was Gary and he was quite friendly and amusing.
first we went to Avebury, which is almost like Stonehenge, but there are ALOT more of these stones in a more spread out area. you can also go up to them and touch them and hug them. whereas at Stonehenge, the stones are roped off and you can only see them from afar.
there were alot of sheep at Avebury... and hence, alot of sheep poo. that was fun.

then we drove some more. went to a pub for lunch in Lacock. ate some food called cottage pie. which is pretty much just meat, pastry, mashed potatoes and gravy. it was delicious.
we also saw the abbey in Lacock. the courtyard there was where they had filmed quite a few scenes from the Harry Potter movies...that was really amazing to see.
we also walked around for a bit in...fields of garlic. garlic grew like everywhere all over there. it was crazy.
oh and then. it actually cost like $20 to get into the abbey to see it, but Andy and I found this one place where you could just walk right through and get to see it. of course, at the doors of the abbey, you had to show your ticket, but we didn't go in there...just walked around the grounds a bit...and saw the courtyard. but. when we told our tour guide, Gary, what we had done, he said, "well. you do know that illegal, don't you?" and we were like what? there were no signs, we didn't do anything wrong, we didn't jump any fences or such fun...but apparently. it's illegal regardless. just the thought of being able to see something without paying...that's terrible...

anyway, we got back to Bath that evening around 6pm. or 18:oo. sheesh. I hate how they do their time differently. took me lik 5 minutes to figure out what time it was every single time. lol. but that could just be me.
we did a load of much needed laundry, ate some delicious American bleu cheese burgers, then walked around the city of Bath a bit more. I think the next morning, we went to a park. and then saw this massive building that looked really cool as well. we thought about going to the Roman baths, which the city is known for, but it would have cost a pretty penny. so we did not.

I forgot to mention above our trip to Nottingham. we went from London to Nottingham, saw Andy's friend, met Robin Hood, then we went to Nottingham to Bath...

so leaving Bath...we took the train to London and the train and a bus from London to the port. which is where we took a ferry to Holland. we got there insanely early and had to wait about 6 hours before we boarded. we hadn't gotten tickets yet, so we wanted to be sure to get there early and for sure have a way to get to Holland. so after we purchased our tickets, we used the internet, ate, played a game or two, and then I tried to sleep (there's a picture of me sleeping somewhere on here-not very attractive at all, but Andy insisted).
there were so many Asians in that port waiting with us. it was kinda weird. they were all listening and watching people sing hymns on tv. kinda like a church service. that was weird.

and then we hopped on the ferry and had an amazing trip to Holland...where we took a few hour long trains to get to Amsterdam. but Andy gets to tell you about that. ;)

one photo

2009-05-19T01:26:00.004-04:00

I'm back in Texas, will be blogging soon. right now I want to sleep, as I'm still on London time. first though, you get one picture. the first picture of Stonehenge.

taken at the grounds of Stonehenge. an artist's re-imagining if you like. ;)

...

2009-05-15T06:53:00.001-04:00

I know we're being horrible bloggers, not writing about adventures and such. I've got things to write about, just little time to write them. I'll get caught up when I get home, which I know is less exciting, but it'll have to do.
MB and I went and saw the Counting Crows in concert last night. amazing show, really really enjoyed it. we're currently staying with couchsurfers, Thom and Sean, who are so so awesome. we only have a few days left, and then we're heading home, to get caught up on sleep, on writing, and to get back to work. we have plenty more pictures and such, just nowhere to upload them. probably won't have time to blog again before we get home monday, so after that we'll write up some of what we did. later chaps.

from the other half...

2009-05-13T05:11:00.002-04:00

quick quick update. yay!
check the flickr for pictures! yay!
there's a link on the right side of the screen. yay!

hmmm. that was all actually dictated to me by andrew. now...we arrived back in london this morning. Holland was pretty amazing. had alot of fun there. the weather was gorgeous...and. I don't think I've ever seen so many bicycles in my life. lol.
I got really sick on the ferry last night. that was loads of fun. but andy took good care of me.

I think we're off to the British Museum today. then to meet our second set of couchsurfers, thom and sean. ;) pretty excited about meeting them.

will try to blog again soon.

for now.

no title..that I can think of..

2009-05-10T13:03:00.003-04:00

quick note, don't have much time. been traveling quite a bit, haven't stopped long in one place. my phone, which I was hoping to use to get online and blog won't charge, so not sure what that's about. only time we have to blog or email is paying for internet at internet cafes. right now we're at the Harwich International Port, having arrived a few minutes ago from Bath, England where we spent 2 nights. we showed up here on the bus, not knowing if they'd let us go anywhere. after much debate over whether or not they "have any room left" on a boat the size of a small city, they decided they could sell us a ticket. we're booked to leave in a few hours on an overnight ferry to Holland. there we'll try and find our way to Amsterdam for a couple of nights, and then back to the coast to ferry back here. then back to london for a few days, and then home. currently we don't know anything about where we're going. I know we're going to a port on the coast, we'll have to find our way to amsterdam by train or bus, and then find our hostel. then retrace our steps back. not sure if we'll have time get on the internet at all. hope to write more in a few days.

oh, and I'm hoping to get some pictures online soon. we'll see.
Andy

Gap the Mind

2009-05-06T09:54:00.003-04:00

First blog post from London. what to say, what to say... I don't really know if I have the energy to write a post..but I've been asked for an update, and so I will oblige. I think I can manage a brief rundown of the 3 days so far and perhaps a few pictures...

Mary-Beth and I flew out of houston at 4pm on Sunday. that went ok, although neither of us had slept much in 2 days. we had a 9 hour flight to get to London, upon which we tried to sleep, (no luck,) and watched a few movies. I watched Bedtime Stories with adam sandler, and thought it was a delight. oh and Valkyrie. wow. good movie. surprised I liked it but I did. very enjoyable.
we arrived in London at 8am on monday. London time. in other words, early. we found our hotel, left our luggage there, but obviously we couldn't check in at 8am. so we explored a bit, went to find Platform 9and3/4s from Harry Potter. idk why, just cause I felt like rubbing it in sarah's face that I'd been there...:P

then we went to a lovely place called Covent Garden, which was an outdoor mall/flea market/preformance square. and we walked around and watched ppl. it was fun, even though we were absolutely exhausted. we were falling asleep every time we sat down. eventually we went a took a wee nap in Hyde park, but it was quite cold, so we went back to our hotel. they let us check in early, so we went to our room, and fell straight asleep. and really didn't get up untill 8am the next morning. occasionally we'd be up for a bit, but there wasn't much to do besides watch british telly, which is rubbish, so we slept mostly.
tuesday morning we got up, and explored London more, hit some of the big tourist spots, Big Ben and so on. we were both still tired though, on the wrong time schedule, we hadn't yet met or heard from the person we were supposed to stay with, and we were a bit grouchy. I personally was feeling that London was a fairly unfriendly town, as we'd yet to talk to a single person. of course, I'm sure some of that was in us, not the fine people of London. so, we went and met Maria, our host for a few nights. she's from Greece, though she's lived in London for a few years now. she was very nice. awesome in fact. I can give more details later, but she took us to dinner for amazing jamaican food, and then to a pub to talk. it was a blast. today, we are back on the town, just visiting various sites we wanted to see. in a few days we plan to leave London, and see a few other places in England. I'll try and find time to write more later.

ps. feel free to email, we do check when we get a chance. laters

2009-05-03T04:41:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, or rather today, as its so early, I am flying to London.
I dont feel prepared, Im extremely exhausted. but, Mary-Beth and I are determined to have a good time.
I'll be blogging here as we go.
I'll be writing mostly by phone, so Im sorry for any crowding/poor formatting. enjoy.

On the road again...

2008-10-01T00:58:00.001-04:00

For you that don't know. I moved to California. And am now in Canada for a bit.

Let us recap for a moment... 'us' meaning me. Hmm.. the TV just flashed a strange white light at me. what does this mean? i dont know. moving on...

Got up around 0430 monday. Headed to the airport via Sbux. Realized at the metal detectors that I had retardly packed all my toiletries in my carryon. Why are they called toiletries? My toothpaste has nothing to do with the toilet!

Anyway. So I lost my shaving cream, hair gel, and toothpaste.

But I got to keep my razor.

Hmmmm. Strange rules, these. oh well.

Flight was nice. 1.75 hours. not bad. The lady doing the annoucements inflight was hilarious! I dont think most ppl were paying attention but it was quite funny. Harbuck kind of humor.

I like early morning flights. They're on time. My luggage was already at the baggage claim by the time I got there. sweeeet. I then grabbed a taxi to the Ferry Terminal. I was really hoping for a taxi driver that wasn't middle eastern just so I could say I met one that wasn't. Alas, no luck there.

Made it to the ferry on time. Which was good cuz if i missed it i would have never made it to the final ferry for canada. They even had wireless onboard.

Ferry took about an hour. Then I went looking for the bus. No bus but there were a bunch of people standing around looking bored, so I joined them. Yay, a bus came. Glory be.

Bus #1. not much to tell. At least the driver annouced the stops so I sorta knew were I was... when I could understand him, that is. rode for about 30 min. jumped off. immediately got on next bus.

Bus #2. took about an hour. this driver did not announce ANY stops. So i had no idea where I was. but as it turns out the lady in front of me was going the same place I was... and asked the driver about it. So I found out.

Bus #3. This bus stop was in the middle of nowhere. well not nowhere.. just the middle of backcountry redneckville. I was afraid for my life.

Bus #4. Ah, good times. The man across from me had just gotten out of jail a few minutes before. For beating a man. At this point I was even more afraid for my life. Him and the fellow next to him had a lengthy conversations about their run-ins with the law, time served, and such pleasantries. I attempted to avoid direct eye contact just for good measure. meanwhile, this bus driver also did not announce stops. But luckily the good Lord saw fit to grace me with a keen eye, and I happened to notice the small sign for the black ball ferry line.

Getting on the ferry was quite simple. Guy barely looked at my passport.

I forgot to mention earlier that I was 2 seals in the lake from a bridge we went over earlier. I think thats the first time I'd ever saw a seal. Unless Andy and I saw one on our east coast trip and I've forgotten it.

Anyway. Ferry took about an hour and a half. Now rememeber, that I'm carring a laptop bag, a backpack, and a heavy duffle bag. So anywhere I go, I have to carry all these around. Even the bathroom. I cant set them down and go look around the ferry. I have to lug them around with me. By the end of the day I was quite fatigued. mostly my shoulders. took about 90 minutes to get to Victoria.

Customs.

good times.

Sooo, I showed my passport. answered the man's questions. why i was here, where i was going and such. Of course I can't tell him I'm coming to work. Then he asks how I know the guy im going to see. Which of course I've never even met the guy and i dont know where he lives. So... i make up something. my brains going at the speed of light here trying to make up something that sounds plausible and halfway true if possible and also remember what i'm not suppose to tell him and try to anticipate what's coming next. He just nods and says ok. Hands me back my passport.

Whew. I'm through.

"Sir, you've been randomly selected by the computer for.... blah blah blah"

Translation: little interrogation room

"Randomly selected" my foot.

*le sigh* (to borrow from the master)

So, I get all my bags searched.. guy's asking me about all my stuff. I really should have prepared for something like this. But who cares. Im winging it.

And the questions just start coming rapid fire. about everything. Who I am. Where I come from. What my job is. Where I'm going. Why I'm going. Who Im going to see. I stupidly put down 21 days as my length of visit. Which is a long time to just visit, i guess. Then he asks me how I know the guy i'm going to see. Truthfully, I DON'T know the guy. never met him and only talked like twice on the phone. But of course I can't say that. So I sorta made up something. It was almost the truth... but not really. Close enough I think. And about halfway through my explanation I realize I told the other guy something totally different about how I knew the guy. Crap. Too late to change now. Let's hope they don't talk to each other. Then he starts asking me how much cash I brought. And how much I could get my hands on. What? why does he need to know how much cash I can get my hands on? I sorta made up something there too. I wasnt gonna tell him how much money i had. Then he starts asking about my credit cards.. debit cards.. blah blah.... meanwhile asking me about all the stuff in my bags.

but eventually I got out. I guess I wasn't suspicious enough.

Got out. Met Dave. Went to Red Robins for a burger. DELICIOUS. Left my bags and laptop in the back of his truck to see if anyone would take them. I actually remembered shortly after we went in. And I thought about for at least 10 minutes. And finally I decided not to go back out there. If all my stuff gets stolen.... well then maybe I'm not supposed to have it.

Yes I know its weird. But I was strangely ok with it.

No one stole anything. So I guess I'm supposed to have my stuff for awhile longer.

Drove around the city a bit. sorta took the scenic route to Dave's place. really nice place. tons of people out walking and biking. everywhere.

Got to the house. met the peeps. went to walmart. replaced my toiletries. and pickup up a webcam so i can talk to the folks back home. As using my cell phone up here is like 80cent/minute. Which is RETARDED.

Not much else. Worked today. I'm exhausted.

Canada's cool. I give it a thumbs up. May have to stay if US's economy crashes.

here's to new adventures.

Street Rider

2008-06-27T13:06:00.005-04:00

A few days ago, someone walked up to me on the street and asked me this question: "What's the sexiest mode of transportation?" I told him and I'll tell you. Scooter. I think I know a little bit about this. In march of this year, I moved back from Austin to Lufkin, and since that time, I've traveled almost exclusively by scooter. sure, every once in a while I borrow a car from Philip or Sam, and run downtown to go to the bank or something. However, it's rare. I work 5-6 days of the week, (still at Blockbuster, just a different store) and I get there and back riding a scooter. Check out me in action.

Try to tell me that's not sexy. actually, don't. if you don't think that scooter is sexy, just stop reading. never come back to this blog. I have logged your IP address, and if you ever come back here I will know. Not only will I know, I will tell other people, so everyone knows, and we will share a hearty laugh at your expense. so yeah... probably best if you didn't come back....
Back to the topic. scooting saves me quite a bit of time. I've walked to work, and scootered to work. scootering gets me there in anywhere from 1/2 to 1/3rd the time it takes to walk. it's quite fast, and that time adds up. I do get stopped on a fairly regular basis by "fans" who want to ask me questions about scootering. often they try to sell me a bicycle. It's my impression these people actually believe that I have never considered a bike before. While it's thoughtful of them to try and help, I have considered a bike. it's impractical for 2 reasons. #1. I don't have a convenient place to keep it at home. I could, in theory, carry it up the stairs every day, and through the apartment, and on to the balcony. however, that reeks of effort. I routinely sling my scooter on my back, and it will fit in the corner of the room and not bother anyone. Reason #2. I have no place to put a bike at work. there's no place to chain it outside, and I'd have to wheel it through the entire store to get it back to the storage room. Reason #3, the bonus reason, is that scootering is just so damn sexy. biking is just nerdy.
Now of course, scootering isn't for everyone. Indeed, it can be quite dangerous at times. in the past 2 weeks, I've had eggs thrown at me, water balloons hit me, run off the road by a car trying to hit me, and pulled over. by the cops. real cops. with uniforms and badges and everything. all of these events happened on the way home from work, scooting at 12:30 am, in the middle of the night. so maybe it's understandable. none of them bothered me too much. the getting pulled over actually amused me quite a bit. the cops were fairly friendly, just stopped the car, and when I went by, got out and asked me to come over. I was worried for a minute, as I'm slightly unsure of which roads I can legally scoot on. Fortunately, this wasn't why they were pulling me over. they said "we see you around this time of night a lot, and we just wanted to make sure you don't have any murder warrants out." I swear, that is an exact quote the senior of the two officers made. murder warrant. as I said, the whole episode was quite amusing to me.
Anyway, I'll leave you with that. if anyone is up to the challenge, borrow some kids scooter and scoot around for the day. let me know how it goes.
When I was looking for a blog title, I googled "street rider", and came across this picture. it's perfect. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohcaptain/2138758011/

WherethehellisMatt?

2008-06-20T15:41:00.002-04:00

hey guys, I know I posted about this here, when it first happened, but I figured I'd do a recap. Here's Matt's new video, which I participated in when he stopped in Santa Monica, CA.

and afterwards, just Matt and I.

final days

2008-01-10T04:51:00.000-05:00

today was my last day at work. and tomorrow is my last day in austin. for a while anyway. here's a summary of my time here.

I arrived in Austin mid-November. Ben W, a friend of the family had offered to let me live with him in his apartment for a few months, and I have a very hard time turning down any place that doesn't charge me rent. :D

my place of residence was North Austin, on Hwy 183. I had/have no transportation.

I've worked at Blockbuster, specifically located at the intersection of 183 and Anderson Mill Rd. it was a great job. very relaxed, and pretty easy. I avoid having jobs because I find I have to spend part of my time at them, instead of out doing what I'd want. maybe you've noticed a similar effect in your job. or maybe it's just me.
this one paid well, and the store manager, Ed, was pretty laid back. the best part of all, it was less then a 5 minute walk from home. I can honestly say right now, if I come back to N Austin, I'll reapply for this job.

speaking of no transportation, I spent some time on the bus system here, and my opinion has slowly changed of it. as far as public transportation goes, I much prefer trains any day. everyone does. trains and subways. often cheaper, always faster, and many times more convenient then buses. Austin does have have a train line starting operations later in 2008, or early 2009, but I don't know if the one line would have been useful to me or not.
back to the bus system, when I first rode it I hated it. I rode it on a crowded weekend, and I wasn't quite sure of where I was going. this was complicated as the Austin bus system does not announce bus stops. (I'm not sure if bus systems usually do or not, my only experience with public transportation before now has always been trains, subways, trolleys and the like.) this proved to be a problem, as I had no idea where I was. with as crowded as the bus was, I couldn't ask the driver either. I ended up getting off the bus 1 stop too late, and walking back. obviously this first trip caused me to dislike taking the bus.
however, there are many cool things going on in Austin, and I wasn't going to give up. so back on the bus I went, this time with my stops written down, and the number of stops between them memorized. this trip went much better, and I now have no problem with the Austin bus system. it's a pretty good way to see the city, especially without a car. my only complaint is often the last bus is around 11, and with Austin, the things you want to do are never over by that time.

things I recommend about Austin:

Kerby Lane Cafe.
Kerby Lane has 4 locations around Austin, so it shouldn't be too hard to find one if you're passing through. it's a 24/7 cafe with pretty good food, and great prices. also it shows you an.... interesting side of Austin. the people working at Kerby Lane are most often pretty odd looking, whether it be the hats, tattoos, piercings, hair styles, clothes, or any number of other factors that are often... different on the staff there. plus they have a bar as well. for those that were wondering.

UT, 4-6pm, on a weekday.
take the bus or drive, and explore Austin. I've done it multiple times, and have usually had a good time. it's kinda fun to be on the UT campus in the evening when everyone gets out of classes.

Alamo Drafthouse Theater.
they have one or two of these in Houston, and maybe one in San Antonio as well, but of course they started in Austin. it's a theater, with tables, and waiters, and pretty good food, tho overpriced of course. even of you're not planning on eating, (not required,) I suggest going to one. I realize many cities have such theaters, but the Alamo Drafthouse has a pretty cool vibe going with it. the only theater I liked as much as the Alamos was the small theater in McMinnville, OR. that one had couches, and a pizza parlor in the lobby.

things I wish I could recommend:

the bats. Austin is well known for its bat population, which swarm out at dusk, and are apparently pretty incredible to see. somehow, I never got around to seeing them, though I am interested in doing it. next time for sure.

as far as my explorations of downtown went, here's how I saw it.
*North-East downtown: UT. the boring side. not much to see in the North-East part of downtown Austin. I walked it, and can't think of anything worth seeing there.

*North-West: the interesting side of UT. this side is the edge of campus, and has interesting bookstores, and shops, and housing projects, etc. right between the North-East and South-East parts of downtown there's a theater, on edge of campus, called the Dobie Theatre, in the Dobie Mall. it's obviously a campus theater, with very small room, holding maybe 50-75 people. if you think about theaters, that's pretty small. the screen is small as well. the tickets aren't cheaper then normal theater tickets, but the awesome part is the movies they show. usually mostly independent films, and fairly interesting ones. this is the theater where I saw "I'm not there" the movie about Bob Dylan. at the time I went, they were also showing "Into the Wild," and "Juno."

back on topic, South-West is an odd part of town, and I don't really have much to say one it. shops, places to eat. a mix.

*South-East: in the day time, this part of town is pretty dead. but at night, this is what everyone talks about. bars, clubs, restaurants, everything.

now that's what I saw downtown, but it's good to remember that many people love the south parts of Austin, and I never crossed the river. I saw downtown, and North Austin, that's all.

anyways, tomorrow I'm off to San Antonio for a few days, and then back home to Lufkin.

shapshots

2007-11-15T15:52:00.000-05:00

I'm going to pick a few of my favorite pictures from the trip. just for those of you that are too lazy to go to flickr. these are just previews, and so pretty bad quality. you can click on them, or go to our flickr for better quality. enjoy.

this one is really dark, but still one of my favorites.

the end

2007-11-09T16:57:00.000-05:00

So here I am...finishing the story of our roadtrip.
As Andy mentioned in our last post, we were heading out of Portland, stopped and saw Multnomah Falls, which was gorgeous. Then...we got pulled over. the maximum speed limit in Portland is 65mph. when you're driving an 8hr. trip to your next stop, you do not want to be going freakin' 65mph. so we didn't. and we got punished for it. The cop said Andy was going 81. she checked out his record and for some reason decided to just give him a warning...which was quite relieving. :) we slowed down after that...for a bit. :P
We had arranged to stay with a guy in SLC, Utah, that night but it turned out that we got into Utah really late...too late for him. So that night Andy drove until he was too tired, then we stopped around 4am and slept in the car. It was the only night we had to sleep in the car, thank God. besides being uncomfortable, it was FREEZING. I think I remember wearing a sweater, Andy's jacket, and a blanket, and I was still cold.
We woke up the next morning to the sunrise and started driving again. That day we drove all the way to Denver, CO. We stayed with my Uncle that night *there was snow on the ground! so exciting since it was the first time I'd really seen snow* and then drove all the way to Dallas the next day to stay with Andy's aunt. We stayed with Janet a couple of nights. She made us a wonderful breakfast the next morning and then took us to go see an art museum...which was AMAZING. :) I'll go to any modern art museum anywhere anytime, but the main reason Janet and Andy wanted to go was to see the Ron Mueck exhibition. It was awesome.
We walked around downtown Fort Worth for a bit that day and went and saw a really cool fountain (pics on flickr). After that, we went and saw Granny Craft, who also lives in FW. she lives in the cutest little house...perfect for just one person. we told her all about our travels, she showed us around the house, and also showed us all the sewing she had been doing lately. she was really sweet...I loved meeting her.
The next morning, we slept in again, and then drove the four hours or so it was to Lufkin. that day, driving was pretty crazy. we got lost quite a bit trying to get out of town and the other drivers were pretty crazy, too. We were really eager to get home and as it seemed like it was taking forever, we passed the time by singing in really high or low voices to the ipod. it was awesome fun.
We arrived in Lufkin and stayed there for a few days. played soccer, slept, ate actual food...:P then I took a bus home to San Antonio. I really hated buses after that trip. my bus was like 5 hours late and it was like a freezer in there. oh well. finally home.
I don't know if I forgot anything or not, so I'll let Andy fill you in on anything important I might have forgotten. :) goodbye.

Portland and Couchsurfers

2007-11-01T16:34:00.000-05:00

so, Mary-Beth wrote about McMinnville. be sure y'all check out the flickr for picture from there. it was my favorite stop on the whole trip. or at least in the top 2. I really enjoyed it.
next stop, Portland.
in Portland we stayed with people I knew from online. Ben, Jenni, and Taylor. they had a 3 bedroom house in North-East Portland, and were very hospitable. we got there thursday evening, after leaving McMinnville. not too long of a drive, which was good, as we left McMinnville around 4. we got to the house, only Taylor was home, he gave us the grand tour, and then Jenni and Ben arrived later. Jenni and Taylor are an awesome couple, and alot of fun to be around. Ben, on the other hand, is crazy. well, maybe not quite. crazyawesomefun maybe. Ben was our main host, he invited us, and gave us some direction on where to go in Portland. before I forget, that night we also met a friend of their's, Brian. he'd be around the whole weekend.
that night we didn't do too much, just ate some dinner with them, and went to sleep. the next day, friday, well.... hmm....I don't quite know. I get my days mixed up.
I think friday we stayed inside most the day. everyone ended up going to work, and we explored some of the area close by, but didn't go downtown or anything.
that night, or another night, who knows, we went to The Kennedy School, which is run by the same company that runs Hotel Oregon. they run quite a few hotels/bars/restaurants/ and they all look awesome. we were going out for fun, but mostly to celebrate Ben's birthday. the celebration lasted all weekend, and huge amounts of fun.
that night at dinner, we met a bunch of Ben's friends, all from the website CouchSurfing. pretty cool website, and pretty cool people. I don't remember all the names, but there are pics of them on our flickr. all very friendly people.
then, we went back home, more partaying.
next day, we went downtown, and visited the famous Powell's City of Books. you could easily get lost in there. pretty dang awesome. books everywhere. yay for books.
then, more partying that night. Ben had a bunch of people come over to make costumes for a party they were going too. so we watched them do that, and watched tv, and talked with Bryan.
then....on monday morning, we headed out, back to texas. (I know, I skipped a day. maybe. I don't remember if there was another day or not. and what we did on it.)
on our way out, we stopped by the cafe Ben runs. nice little place, quiet neighbor hood. the food was a tad too nice for my taste, I would have been fine with eggs and bacon, but instead we were treated to the most delicious crepes I've ever heard. now, I'll be the first to confess, I've never had a crepe before. but this was AMAZING. and best of all, when I say we were treated to them, we were. Ben wouldn't let me pay. yet another thing in a long list of why Ben was a great host.
after we got through with that, we headed east out of Portland, only to stop 30 minutes later, to see Multnomah Falls. very very cool. awesome pictures on flickr.
then, back on the road. only to get pulled over. more on that later. stay tuned.

McMinnville

2007-10-26T01:33:00.000-04:00

McMinnville.

we arrived in McMinnville Wednesday night. pretty small town about an hour outside of Portland. when Andy called to make our reservation at the hotel earlier that day, the lady said that there should be someone to check us in at the desk, but if there wasn't, then we could check in at the pub next door. thought that was pretty weird...until we got there. the hotel was called Hotel Oregon and was very unique. it's not only a hotel, but a restaurant and pub as well. so that explains the weird check-in places. most of the inside, the doors and some of the walls, where all made of heavy wood and some were decorated with writing on the wall. all the writing told stories about wine or famous people in the town, etc, etc.

so we checked in and our room was awesome. we got the room pretty cheap because...it wasn't actually a hotel room. it was more like a hostel in that the bathroom was not inside our room. we had to walk down the hall to use the bathroom. although we did have a sink in our room...which was handy. all of the rooms were named after people and on the walls inside the room was the stories of the people. our room was named Chef Wayne if I remember correctly and inside on the wall it told the story of how he progressed from a singer/entertainer in the hotel to the chef.

that night Andy wanted to see a movie...had been wanting to see Transformers for a while. so we asked if it was playing in any of the theaters in town...and it was. a theater right across the street from the hotel. so we grabbed our jackets and ran over there. the theater was actually *inside a pizzeria. there were tables in front of the chairs in the theater and there were several huge couches, too. so Andy and I got delicious pizza and then sat on the comfy couch in the back and ate. it was so awesome...I'd never seen a theater like that before and I loved it. I wish all theaters were like it.

the next morning, Andy had to get up early and take the car to the shop. thankfully it wasn't too far away because he had to walk back. on the way back, he picked up breakfast at a cafe and brought me breakfast in bed. :) then we explored the town. there were several things going on that day. there was a farmer's market in the middle of town...and homecoming later that day. we walked around the market and got samples of almost everything...it was pretty good. hey, we couldn't be picky. we were broke. :P we also spent a good bit of time in a bookstore and an antique store. oh and we went to an amazing toy store. Andy bought a toy. its basically a propeller on a stick, and when you spin it in between your hands it flies up into the air. I'd never played with one before but it was so much fun. we went into an empty parking lot and had a blast trying to catch it after we spun it up. here's what it looks like:

and again we come back to how awesome the hotel was. even though we had checked out at 11am, we could still go in and do pretty much what we wanted. so we went to the second floor to the balcony there. that's where we watched the homecoming parade. another cool thing was that there were electric outlets there...so we could plug in our computers and get online.
the parade was cool...very small town so not very big but it was fun to watch. and I got this one kid riding by to throw candy up to me. I think he was the only one who saw me. he made one piece of candy up to where I was. the rest fell on the ground. not to worry though, Andy got them later. :P

the trees in McMinnville *and really in Oregon everywhere* were amazing. the most brilliant fall colors I have ever seen. almost every other tree in the town was a bright red, or orange, or a really bright green, or a mixture of them all. it was gorgeous.

later at around 4pm the shop called us and told us the car was ready. so we walked there and picked it up. fairly long walk which only seemed longer because we had alot of our stuff with us, but it was okie. we hopped in the car and headed towards our next stop, Portland.

Brookings - McMinnville

2007-10-24T21:27:00.000-04:00

Alright. so we're in Brookings, OR. without a tire. pulled it off in the freezing rain. cause that's how we roll.
so we go to the Les Schwab, which is a pretty cool company from what I can tell. only in 5 states, all on the west coast/north western area. free coffee and popcorn, which is always handy. a lot of free services if you've bought a tire from them. they'll check a ton of stuff on your car for free. and the same prices whether you're in a small town or the middle of a big city. not bad.
anyway, we replace the tire. or rather, buy a new one. more money out of the budget. oh well. the plan for the day is the drive to Lincoln City, a good 6 hours drive or so. we've wasted a good bit of the day with the tire stuff, but I still want to make it. so we drive, pretty boring really, up the coast. there's various creaks and pops that have been coming from the car for some time, so I plan to get it checked out in Portland. assuming it makes it that far.
we get about 4 hours into it and it's already dark, I'm very tired, but I still want to make it. about 30 minutes before we get to Lincoln City, we hit Newport. I had to stop for gas, and Mary-Beth suggested we check some hotel priced around there, just to see if we shouldn't stay there instead of Lincoln City. normally I'd just keep driving, but I'd started seeing No Vacancy signs for the first time our entire trip. so we stopped at a few places, asked prices. I was gonna keep driving unless I happen to find a place for $35-$50, which is what I was going to pay in Lincoln City, assuming we got a room. so, we came across the Newport Inn, or something like that. the price was good, like $40 or something, tho the clerk was kinda creepy. so I decided to just go with it, I was tired. this was a mistake, tho it didn't turn out horrible. the room ended up being pretty ratty, the furniture was on wheels, the door had some iffy locks. only place we stayed the night the entire trip that I didn't feel good about. but I went with it anyway, tho I did block the door. ;)
anyway, ended up ok, got up in the morning and left, went to Lincoln City, got the guys at Les Schwab there to look at my tire, and make sure it was ok. (after all, the last one didn't really have a reason to explode, so I don't know if there's any rubbing going on.) they said it was fine, but they had to drive it into the garage to check it, and heard all my popping and grinding noises. they said it was my tire end on the front right tire, and the bearings on the front left. the tire end wasn't the end of the world, needed to be fixed, but I could drive on it if I had to. the other had to be fixed right away tho. bad trouble if it went out. so. they didn't have the parts, but I got them to look up the closest store that did, and on my way to Portland. the drive to Portland was only like 2 hours, but about halfway there was McMinnville, which had the parts I needed. so I had to go there to get it fixed. great.
while we were in Lincoln City, we visited several places I had read about and wanted to go. both involved glass. the first was a glass blowing shop, where they blew these globes of glass, and made them different colors and sized, etc etc. it was pretty cool, at least for me. we watched that for quite a while. then on the way out of town we went to Confusion, a glass fusion shop. that's different the glass blowing, glass fusion is just fusing glass. molding sheets of glass into shapes, and joining things together, etc. the lady there gave us a tour of the store, and showed us what she did. we got 2 free glass icicles for a Christmas tree, and got to learn how fuse glass. she didn't actually fuse any while we were there, but explained it all, and showed us everything there. it was pretty cool.
from there we went to McMinnville, where I had reserved a room in Hotel Oregon. it was a chance thing, looked pretty cool on the website, and had cheap rooms. so I chose that over a chain. turned out to be one of the best decisions of the trip. more on that next post.

leaving CA.

2007-10-21T05:14:00.000-04:00

so, Mary-Beth explained most of what we did Saturday. minus the part I wanted the write about. that's the Cornfield Maze. it was about 30 minutes away I think. we decided to do it at night, with flashlights. greeeeeeeeeaaaaaaat idea....

this isn't any cornfield maze. this is the 2007 Guinness World Record Cornfield Maze. or so they say. it's 40 acres. so large there are markers in it to make it into a grid, and each group is given a map.
our group is made up of Sam, myself, Mary-Beth, Angie, Jordan, their friend Spencer, and 2 of their other friends, whose names escape me. between us there were 2 maps, sam had one, and one of their friends had the other.

we figured the maps are for pansies, and told sam and the other guy to put them away, and don't use them. now, as soon as we get into the maze, sam waits until we're not looking, then goes the other way. does it by himself. pretty soon we lose their 2 friends too. so now the people with the maps are gone, and it's myself, Mary-Beth, Spencer, Jordan, and Angie. piece of cake eh? no. we spend a couple hours going in circles, find out that their friends, and sam are all finished and waiting for us. we're not even half way. we finally get someone to give us a map, and have to use that and only that to get out. if there had not been a map, it could have been another 4-5 hours at least. it was ridiculously big, and too hard to do entirely without a map. assuming you want to do it in less then 12 hours.

I even asked the staff at the front if they ever have to go in after people and they said no. there's always someone outside the maze, 24/7, but they never got in after someone. people always eventually make it out. that's scary to me, what if I have a heart attack? (of course, if I had a heart condition that puts me in risk of a heart attack, I shouldn't go in a 40 acres maze in the first place.)

anyway, the maze was alot of fun. very interesting, we had a good time. tiring tho. after that we went home and slept. next morning, as Mary-Beth wrote, we went to San Francisco. only think Mary-Beth forgot the mention that I found fun was that there was an air show in San Francisco that day, and so while we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, and around SF, there were Blue Angels flying low over the city, and a couple other types of airplanes too. pretty cool.

then, on Monday, Mary-Beth and I said goodbye, and headed to our next stop. Klamath, CA, in the middle of most of the Redwood Forests. Northern California. very pretty.
I don't have too much to say on that right now. partly because it's 4:30 am. we got to drive through a tree. that's always fun. and it was so amazingly pretty up there. so much green, and other colors that have come with fall. but mostly green there, the rest of the color was mostly in Oregon. anyway, we stopped several times to walk through the redwoods and explore. we spent one night there, in Klamath. then headed out again to go into Oregon. we found a beach right outside Klamath, which was really pretty. cloudy and overcast, but we stopped for a while anyway. that was really cool. good break from driving.
once we got back on the road it was only another hour or so before we crossed the Oregon border. instantly it started raining. not hard, but still, it was rain. that was when our tire blew. our brand new tire, we had purchased less then less then 72 hours before. brand new, and it just exploded. parts went everywhere. I actually had a really tough time getting it off, because the rubber kept getting in my way as I worked. but I eventually put on the spare, and drove back into the last town we had passed, which happened to be Brookings, OR. and that's where I'll leave the story, for tonight. I'll pick it back up in Brookings, without a tire.

as always, there are more pictures up on our Flickr.

EDIT:
AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I forgot one of most important things about San Francisco. while we were at Pier 39 with Jordan and Angie, they took us to see the World Famous Bushman. haven't heard of the Bushman? neither had I...I'm not sure many have. but, anyway, we saw him. on the sidewalk of Pier 39 is the Bushman, and old black homeless man, (I assume homeless,) that sits, with his bucket for change, and some bushes. some leaves and a couple branches. and he holds them in front of him so people can't see him. now there aren't near enough to hide him, and anyway, brush on a sidewalk is out of place. but that doesn't stop him from shocking people. we stood and watched for a few minutes. he waits, with a big smile on his face, hiding behind his few branches until he sees someone walking towards him that is zoned out. meaning not really paying attention. and then when they get close, he shakes the branches or moves or something. he knows how to pick too, cause it always scares them so bad. they jump or scream. pretty funny to watch, cause everyone's standing right there watching him, but one person will walk by that's not paying attention and be scared so bad. I think creative homeless people are a big step ahead of the rest of the homeless population. good stuff.

Sacramento

2007-10-21T04:34:00.000-04:00

In Sacramento, we stayed with the lovely Angie, her boyfriend Jordan and Jordan's parents. we also met Lois, Jordan's mother, the night we got there. and technically they don't live IN Sacramento, but they live about an hour from the city in Rio Vista. they have a great big house and 4 dogs, the big one who stayed outside all the time was Jack. smaller ones who were really hyper and came into the house were Ellie, Yoda, and Widget.

they gave Andy and I their whole trailer/fifth wheel in their backyard for us to stay in. It was so awesome...they had even hooked up the electricty and water for us.

Friday morning, we slept in late before going to the house to hang out with Angie for a while. she was going to take us to Sacramento to see the capitol, but decided it wasn't that big a deal and went to a small town the same distance away called Lodi. it had little shops and such and so we walked around for a while, spent quite a bit of time in a little bookstore. then we decided to see a movie and picked the Brave One with Jodie Foster. fairly decent movie.

Saturday morning, Andy and I had planned to go to San Francisco again to see more of the city. however, when we had driven about a mile down the road, we realized we had a flat tire. so. no San Francisco that day. we went back to the house and made everyone breakfast. then we went with Angie to pick up a new tire, go to WalMart, and pick up Sam...who forgot to get his luggage off the bus. smart sammi. ;)so then we had to drive all the way down to Sacramento to pick UP his luggage. almost hit an idiot who cut RIGHT in front of us on the road downtown. freaked us out a bit.
then we went to....well I'll have to let Andy tell you about the rest of our night. :P

Sunday morning, Angie made us a delicious breakfast, then we all headed out to San Francisco. drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, drove down Lombard Street (supposedly the crookedest street in the world. Jordan drove us down it this time), almost got in a wreck a few times :P, and then drove down Castro Street. finally parked and walked down Pier 39 and walked a while in Ghirardelli Square. little shops, chocolate factory, old mustard factory, most awesome hat store. :) Andy was the only one to buy a hat I think...it looks really good on him...and I've taken to borrowing it as often as I can. :P

when we were walking back on Pier 39, we got to see all the sea lions on the docks. you could hear them from a pretty long ways away. there were alot of them and they were loud. very cool to see.

Monday morning...we said our goodbyes and headed out for Portland, Oregon. Lois gave us a "goingaway gift". a whole bag of matches so that we could "burn our tires for people to find us when we were stranded in the snow". she continually told us NOT TO LEAVE THE CAR. :P

and we were off again. with many more adventures to come.

SF

2007-10-14T19:52:00.000-04:00

evening folks,
the plan was to get into San Francisco pretty late, check into our hostel, sleep, and explore the next day. we got part of that done. we did get into San Francisco pretty late. parking was incredible. downtown parking was $3 - 15 minutes, or $36 max. cheapest parking anywhere downtown. I've parked in Hollywood, LA in general, Santa Monica, Portland, DC, etc etc, and haven't seen it quite that bad. we went to Chicago and NYC of course, but I don't remember trying to park downtown.
so we went to check in at our hostel, and they wouldn't let Mary-Beth check in. hostels have a general rule that you can't stay there unless you're under 18. I knew this. but I wasn't 18 when Sam checked us in to a hostel in NYC, and they saw and copied my ID there, and knew I wasn't 18, and let me stay. same thing in Santa Monica, earlier in this trip. I checked us in, same company every time, they saw Mary-Beth wasn't 18 from her ID, but let her stay without comment. SF was different, they said she couldn't stay. we tried another hostel, but they said the same thing. so, obviously hotels were too expensive there in town, so we drove out of SF, and called Ben, and in the end drove almost an hour away, and found a place to stay that was fairly cheap.
the next morning, we drove to the BART station, the metro-train service, and parked, and rode the train into downtown San Francisco. there we met Mike, who helps people, (tourists mostly,) find where they are and where they want to go. Mike has to make a living of course, and asks for tips, but in my opinion it's worth it, as he's friendly, has free maps of the city on hand, and knows SF pretty well. so he helped us get our bearings, and gave us a map, and of we went. the trolley's looked fun, but were rather expensive, so we ended up walking most the day. we firs hit Union Square, then Chinatown, which was quite large. then the commercial part of downtown, where the Transamerica Pyramid building is. if you've ever looked at the SF skyline you know which one that is. ;)
then we headed to Coit Tower on Knob Hill. at least, that was our planned next stop, but then we came across City Lights Bookstore, and independent bookstore that's semi-famous, and pretty cool. a good bit of history there. I enjoyed it anyway.
after that we continued onwards and upwards, to Coit Tower. it was a hard climb. especially after walking most the day. but it was a pretty cool view from the top of the hill, (it cost to go in the tower, so we skipped that part,) and we saw the first good view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. after that, back down the hill, to Lombard street, San Francisco's Crookedest Street. very touristie, but we decided to see it anyway.
after that it was getting pretty dark, so we started back to the Bart Station, and went back to our car. we then drove to Rio Vista, another hour away. there we met Angie, her boyfriend Jordan, and Jordan's parents. or rather, his mother, I didn't meet his father until a few days later. there's more to tell of them, which will be another post.
be sure to check our Flickr for plenty of pictures. we may be slow uploading at times, but we have plenty of pictures, so it's only a matter of time until they're all up. enjoy!

Santa Monica 2 and more

2007-10-11T23:25:00.000-04:00

hey people, this post is adapted from my personal blog. so it's kinda odd, and not too detailed. deal with it. ;)

So after we came back from Catalina that night, we went to our hostel in Santa Monica (very nice hostel. I liked it alot.) I also had fun listening to our roommates speak Italian.
In the morning we walked down the Promenade and looked at all the shops. then we went to the beach, sat on it and watched the waves, and then walked the pier.
oh we got TONS of Stride gum lol...representatives of Stride were handing it out and so every time we would see one, we'd get some. yay Stride gum! :)
then we headed into Hollywood so Andy could show me the Walk of Fame and Chinese Grauman's Theatre. We saw tons of stars on the Walk of Fame, soo awesome...it was really fun.
After Hollywood, we got pizza and then drove up to the Oaks. it's like smack in the middle of the freakin mountains. like...TINY road for 30 minutes to get there. awesome view on the way up here though. its really cold, but I still love the weather. its like texas in december...its awesome I love it. I've met one person so far...Steve. he met us at the gate and Andy introduced us then. Dan and Andrea and Sam get back from hiking on Sunday so I'll see them all then. until then I'm staying at D&A's place all by myself, and Andy is staying next door at his boss's, Jay's.
/end personal blog.
anyway, after that we stayed at the Oaks for a while, then we headed to our next stop, San Francisco. I'll let Andy tell you that story...its about time he posted something. he was making ME post EVERYTHING. :P

Catalina Island

2007-10-11T00:43:00.000-04:00

Catalina Island.

After staying at Becky's house that night, we got up the next morning and drove out to San Pedro, the dock where the ferry took off for Catalina Island. We had the choice of taking the 2 hour ferry OR we could have taken a 15 minute helicopter ride, but who knows how much that would have cost. The ferry itself was rather expensive.

We arrived first in Two Harbors. TINY little town. hardly anything there. wondered how people got food and gas and such. On the way there, we sat on top of the boat. once we started going fast, the wind was extremely strong. and the ocean was beautiful.
I've noticed...on the train and several times since I've arrived in California that alot of families speak Spanish and English in the same sentences in the same conversations. its just a constant mix. "Hola. Coma es tas? Did you go to the beach today?" "Ay no. Muy bien. we'll go later when its not hot." it just fascinates me. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me when I realized that the children raised in those homes are way smarter than me. Probably alot of children everywhere are smarter than me, actually. Kids are smart.

We arrived at our stop, Avalon. quite bigger than Two Harbors. Not much beach, but a bunch of little shops. we walked the whole town probably in the space of a few hours. we walked, got some rocks from a beach we weren't supposed to be on :P, ate some delicious food, tried to catch some orange goldfish from the ocean with our amazing mind powers, and watched a man play the bagpipes. most interesting but beautiful sound. Andy told me how the playing the bagpipes really worked...I'm rather ashamed that I don't know. miss musical genius me. :P
By the time we took the ferry back, it was dusk already. most beautiful sunset. we were both exhausted and I ended up falling asleep.

2007-10-10T19:03:00.000-04:00

as Mary-Beth and I try and update this on everything, we had the flat tire seen in the picture. then we got it replaced.
only to have it blow 2 days later. not go flat, blow up.
so we had it replaced again.
only to find out the front end of the car is breaking down, and we have to fix it.
so that's what we're working on now. more updates soon.

lady's first post

2007-10-10T19:00:00.000-04:00

hey people, here's my first post.
I came out to California on the train a while back, (like 2 weeks or something,) and met Andy in Los Angeles.
trains are most interesting...the people that ride them are interesting. and they're also very, very long. my train from San Antonio, TX to LA was about 34 hours long. I think I would have liked it alot better had I not been puking the first 5 hours or so. THAT was fun. :P

after Andy picked me up from the train station, we went to Long Beach, where his Aunt Becky lives, ate some delicious tacos, and took her dog, Maui, for a walk around the island. that night we stayed with Becky...her house is awesome, as are the others on the island. there was this one house with a really tall brown door. the door was maybe 3 times the height of a normal door...went all the way up to the roof. we were trying to figure out if there was a seam somewhere in the wood where it would open like a normal door, but we didn't see anything. looked so cool.

that night we went to the Dave Matthews Band concert. awesome concert. Stephen Marley opened for them. great music. we didn't have the most fantastic seats but they were okie.
lots of tailgating, lots of dancing, lots of illegal substances. a couple of times a few people around us called security...it was funny. one guy was SO mad because a girl in front of him was dancing and he couldn't see. and I don't remember what the other guy's issue was, but I found it all quite amusing.

more later, the rest is on my computer, and all I've got right now is andy's.

Today's Update

2007-10-06T17:26:00.001-04:00

Dancing in Santa Monica

2007-10-06T16:05:00.000-04:00

now obviously, because it's me, I'm behind on the blog. a week or two. I'm trying my best to get caught up. this happened when I was still back at the Oaks.

around a year ago I found out about Matt. Matt got famous on Youtube for this video:

doesn't seem like anything to out there does it? somehow, that video and a couple like it made him really famous on youtube. I found his blog on Wherethehellismatt.com and started following his progress. I wanted to meet him cause he was a traveler and he just seemed like an interesting guy.
I found out he was making a new video, this one being more about people then location. he was going to locations and letting people come dance with him. you sign up on his blog, and he'd send out the info for it. I had signed up to meet him in Austin, but by the time he went there, I was here. so I emailed him, asked if he was going to be on the West Coast anyway, and found out he was going to be in Santa Monica. so on Sunday, (or Saturday?) 2 weeks ago, I went down to meet him.

I arrived around noon/early afternoon. the event was scheduled until 6pm, so I had time to explore the beach, and then go into the shopping district there. I spent several hours just walking, then finally went back to wait. when I got back to the spot, around 5 or so, I saw a guy I was pretty sure was him, so I introduced myself. Matt was extremely friendly, and we talked for a bit as he looked for the shot he wanted. by this time there was a good-sized group of people gathering, so we went back to get things started. we had at least an hour to kill waiting for the sun to get in the right position, so everyone got to know each other. Matt had kindly brought bubbles for everyone to keep themselves busy. :P
I met quite a few interesting people, a group from the Lutheran University in the area, a mom and her daughter, and a very friendly individual I'll call Gray. well...that is his name actually. Gray was driving the West Coast in a Volkswagen Van, surfing. I was unbelievably jealous. I think it's be soo cool to own one of those vans, it's the ultimate road tripping vehicle. Gray and I talked for a while, he encouraged me to get my own van. a Buick isn't really the most amazing road-tripping car. especially one that is starting to wear out, and the windows don't open on the driver's side. he also gave me some hostels to visit, some places in Mexico to try, some good websites, etc. Gray was pretty cool, I hope to meet him again one day.
so the it comes time to dance. Matt sets up the camera, gets someone to take over shooting, gets us all bunched together, and gives us our instructions. first of all, tho his normal number of people to dance with is 50-60, we had 108 I believe. or the count was somewhere close to that. and we all had to squeeze into a tiny shot to dance. and then he gave us a count of 3. he obviously has a special dance he does, but everyone else was supposed to do whatever came natural. I'm not sure any dance comes natural to me, but I tried. :P
after a couple takes, Matt said we were good, but then changed his mind and said he wanted one different angle. as we set up to do that shot, behind the camera comes marching some sort of peace march. people carrying large dove shaped things. he was unsure if we should get out of the way or not, but in the end we danced anyway. check link 2 at the bottom of this post for a vid of them. anyway, afterwards, he stuck around for pics and videos. as with past adventures I've had, I come to these things with no plan on where to spend the night, or a time I have to leave. it's the best way to do it. tho, I did figure I'd prolly just drive home when I was done. this left my schedule open for whatever, so while he took pics and videos I just stuck around, helped when I could, and just waited. eventually I got an invite to go to dinner with Matt, a representative from Stride Gum, which pays for his videos, a lady from Google, and a couple of their friends. it's not quite as bad as it sounds, I didn't beg, and I wasn't really planning for anything. but I had no where to go, so I was going to stay on the beach as long as they did, and then I got the invite. we ended up going to a Sushi place that was fairly close by. now I've only had Sushi once, in Alabama with the Crossings people. plus it was expensive, at least for my budget. smallest meal was $10, and that was a tiny meal. $20 for something that would fill my stomach. I was ready to order a bit of food, and then eat at home, but turns out this meal counted as a Stride business expense. so the lady the worked for Stride paid for everyone's meal, which in the end was more then $30 worth of food for me probably. we each ordered some food, and when it came, it was all on one large platter, that almost covered the table. everyone ate as much as they could, and then it was just Matt and I still hungry. between the two of us, we ate all our own food, and all anyone else had left. tons of sushi. quite delicious.
and that was Santa Monica. there are a few pictures on the flickr, and here's a tiny video of Matt and I dancing it up. feel free to make fun of our terrible dancing. ;)

oh, and here's a couple links of the event. someone else's footage.
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3, (with me at the end looking cold.)

interesting day

2007-09-28T12:57:00.000-04:00

it started at 7am or so. Sunday. I woke up, realized I was at least an hour late, forced myself awake, and jumped in the car. I drove about 2 hours south to Cabazon, CA, on I-10, where we had stopped on the way into CA to see the amazing dinosaurs. (see Flickr.) my destination was the Morango Casino and Resort. I was planning to play a poker tournament, which I was late for.

Needless to say, due to my slightly adventurous driving, I arrived in plenty of time. played well, and enjoyed it, but didn't finish in anything that I find worth writing about. so back on the road I go, back to the Oaks. before I get there, I come across an overturned SUV, covering both lanes of the small road I'm on. as I drive up, I'm facing the undercarriage of the vehicle, as it's actually on it's side. there's a policeman, directing people onto the dirt on either side of the road. I passed it, and didn't give much thought until later.
about 5 minutes down the road, 3 policemen sped by me going about 85 or so, and we're still on a very small road. they get a few miles ahead of me, all turn their lights off, do u-turns, and, driving normal speeds, head back the other way.

when I got back to the Oaks, I got a call from Ben, who told me Sam was in need of E-vac. so back on the road, 3 hours north this time, to pick up Sam. after being 6 days in the mountains, he had badly sprained his knee, and wasn't able to keep up the climbing. on the way to pick him up, I once again, find another overturned SUV. this one is on top of an approx 8 foot embankment, how it got up there I don't know. there were no cops or other emergency services there yet. 3 or 4 cards had stopped, and were carrying a woman by her arms, apparently in circles. her SUV was completely on it's top, smashed flat. now that's 2 overturned SUVs, and 1 other incident with cops, all in one day. I'm not sure what to make of it. God's trying to send me a message, I'm just not sure what.
on an odd side note, I've noticed here in CA, the only cops I see are at the scene of an accident, or on the side of the road, giving someone a ticket. I've not seen 1 cop with a radar gun, or just driving. they're always at some important event. this busy schedule of theirs has given me even more of a freedom in my driving then ever before.

Sam was waiting at a Subway, in Independence, CA. he had me carry him to the car, (not really,) and then 3 more ours of driving, and that's the day. not anything amazing, just alot of out-of-the-ordinary experiences. I'm sure I don't remember them all, because I think there were several more that made the day odd. but this is what I have so deal with it.

so no Sam and I are both on the Oaks, tho not for long. more to come shortly.

PS. check out the Flickr. there are pics from the drive to CA, and Sam's hiking pics. more to come soon.

2007-09-25T12:57:00.000-04:00

catching up.

2007-09-22T13:42:00.001-04:00

alright, I'm way behind. some days, I'm just not motivated to write. especially when I have poor Internet. and I worked that day. which describes almost every day for the last 2 weeks or something.

as Sam said, from Lara and Kevin's place in El Paso, we drove to Tuscon, AZ. we have relatives there, cousins I believe. (I get confused, but I THINK it's cousins.) I hope to have pictures of them up soon. they were tons of fun. I'd never met any of them before, but I'm glad I did. very cool people.

then, we drove to my Aunt Becky's house, in Long Beach, CA. on the way there, we did stop at the dinosaurs, as Sam mentioned. supposedly the dinosaurs in Cazabana, CA are the largest in the world. I'm not sure if I believe that. but. they were pretty cool. I'll get pics of those up too, as soon as I can get internet that lets me do it.

then of course, we got into Long Beach. Dad had flown in a few days before, and they were hard at work painting. my Aunt was repainting her house, which is interesting to do, as there are very small spaces between the houses. Dan and Andrea also came in at some point, and after we did more painting, Sam and I followed Dan and Andrea back to the Oaks, where I currently reside. The Oaks is a camp in Lake Hughes, CA, which is a few hours north of LA. I've worked here the last 2 summers, and I'm staying here until my GF, Mary-Beth catches up with us, on the 26th.

Last but not least, Dan dropped Sam off in the mountains on Tuesday I believe it was. Tuesday the 11th. I got a couple pictures of Sam that morning as he was heading out. those coming soon also.

that's all I have for now. we're still out of date, but I'll catch you up the rest of the way soon.

go west young man

2007-09-09T11:03:00.001-04:00

well, i suppose i'll copy this over from xanga. so I can say I contributed something.

Andrew can give a more indepth look into the last few days but here is my summary.

Trip is starting off well.

Hit Austin wednesday night. Ben W's apartment is on the top floor, so we were pretty high. nice views. Went to cheddar and ate supper. tasty.

Thursday night we made it to El Paso. Stayed with Lara and Kevin. charming folk. ate pizza and watched teh Virgin suicides. really weird movie. I got to the end of it, and couldnt really remember what the movie was about or if there had been a point to it. But it was fun. And their apartment is really cool.

Friday we drove over to Tuscon, saw the relatives whom we'd never met before. Nice people. Ate some more food there. watching some tv. did some sleeping.

Saturday we had a long drive to LA. mostly uneventful except for the dinosaur. I sat on its foot. Btw, I had a dream last night about an even bigger dinosaur. somewhere. It was weird.

We got into LA, well actually Long Beach about 5 or so, and immediately starting helping paint my aunt's house. Did that for a few hours, then went and picked up some food from Taco Surf. Basically mexican food... cept you can get it with fish in it if you want. I didn't. cuz that's disgusting. But they do have some amazing beef tacos. crazy good.

Oh, and a side note. There are alot of beautiful women in CA. i like it here.

This will probably be my only post as i will be heading out to the mountains tomorrow. most likely. But I will try to get some updates to andy when i have cell service.

wish me clear skies, light feet, and a trail free of carnivorous animals.

weeeeee

2007-09-07T00:12:00.000-04:00

alright people, lets start this up again. traveling again. and as always, we've started this road with Willie Neslon, On the Road Again.

We left Lufkin yesterday, Wednesday, September 5th. we drove about 4 1/2 hours to Austin, met up with Ben W, our host for the night. had dinner with him and his brother, and then I drove my GF back to home to San Antonio.

We woke up this morning, left about 10, and drove until 7:30, when we arrived in El Paso. we're staying here with Lara and Kevin. just until tomorrow I mean. then we head to Tucson.

as for a quick over all plan, we're driving to CA, and then on monday, I'm dropping off Sam in the wilderness. and he'll hike for months on end. and I'll be around CA for 2 weeks or so, then head around CA, Oregon, Washington, and eventually, (hopefully,) Canada.

anyway, that's all I got right now. check back for more soon!

"not cool" doesn't cover it.

2007-06-22T01:23:00.000-04:00

It's 12:20, and I'm signing off my computer to go to sleep. TGIF tomorrow, but I've still got to get up at 6am for work. so I can't stay up past 12:30 or I'll be really tired. so I was lying on my side, on the computer, and I signed off it, closed it, rolled onto my back, and a scorpion lets itself go on my backside.

THIS:

used it's tail to sting MY TAIL. and it burned. like fire. oh sure, those of you that have had it happen will claim it's no worse then a wasp. but you're liars. all of you.

so now I've been stung by a scorpion, on my butt. what would you do? that's what I did. jump up, start screaming like a girl, and rip my shorts off. at this point many of you are wondering who you should pity more, me or philip who's staring at me from the bed next to where I am. let me assure you, it's STILL ME! so I finally get the scorpion to drop out of my shorts, and phil gets me ice, which I'm now sitting on. and it's been like 25 minutes since this happened, and the pain hasn't gone down any. including sitting on ice. great. my life is amazing.

2007-05-28T15:54:00.000-04:00

hey people. not sure anyone even still reads this blog. but I'm going to keep posting things of interest to me. :P

a few weeks ago a friend and I went to this show in Austin. Micah P Hinson. if you dont' know his music, check it out. he's not for everyone but he's in my top 3 artists.

btw, my friend and I are standing about 5 feet to this guy's left. it was an awesome show.

latest

2007-05-26T18:47:00.000-04:00

so we got back to texas, stayed in dallas a night, then lufkin (home) a week, then to austin. we were staying with Ben W, who only moved to austin a few months ago. he has a very nice 2 bedroom apartment he allowed to to share for a bit. sam stayed for 2 weeks and then headed back to lufkin, and I stayed for 3. sam is now working his construction job back in lufkin for a bit, and I'm living with philip here in Canyon Lake, about an hour north of San Antonio. I be plumbing. for the time being. I don't think sam plans on staying too long there in lufkin, and I know I don't plan on staying too long here. but the money we had could only last so long, so we had to stop for a bit, build it back up.

after a bit, (maybe a few months,) I plan on heading back out on the road. I'm not sure if sam is coming with me or going his seperate way. that's something that's still being discussed. if y'all want to see us, as always, comment, email, whatever, and we'll see about heading your way. at least 2 of the stops on our trip came thru comments on this blog. so don't hesitate.

lastly, I just want to say that if the good Lord leads you to help out 2 brothers in Christ, (and real brothers,) then feel free to donate your life's savings. just pick up your phone and call 1-800-HARBUCK.

short backstep

2007-05-17T00:50:00.000-04:00

Lest you think we forgot...

Something else we did in chicago was go see Melissa P. one evening. I must say it was quite a blast. We went to.... somewhosawhatsaname place for some REAL chicago pizza. dang it was good stuff. quite tasty. and there was a funny little man at the table beside us eating by himself. And he kept watching us. And from what Andy and Melissa tell me, he was quite enjoying my stories, though i didnt see myself.

Then we went to a bowling alley. except we didnt bowl. but we did play pool. and I played some shootemup game with pistols. I love those games. I even got Mel to play with me. She's pretty good at it.

And then.... we took pictures. And she was even in them!!!! crazy i know. she's not a picture person, but she was kind enough to be in some with us. You can find those on our flickr. or just go here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaguelyvagabonds/

Melissa it was a pleasure to meet you. You are even more cool in person than online.

First Day Of My Life

2007-05-14T21:08:00.000-04:00

I'm just recently back from a BrightEyes concert. not my normal cup o' tea, but it's always good to try new things. anyway, reason I mention that is I'm tired of not being able to write about things as they happen. surely y'all have realized by now that we're quite behind on this blog, and all this is in the past. so I'm going to do that right thing, and bring us on back to Texas.

alright, so the lexus' story he mentioned isn't anything much. basically it was a really fun drive cause there were these young guys in 2 black lexus that were keeping an average speed of 80 and great drivers. so I just got in right behind them, and followed their lead. makes an otherwise boring trip interesting.

so now we're in chicago. which is cool. we're staying with Sarah M. and her roommates. when we got in Rachel M. had come down from north chicago to spend the evening with us, and we walked down to a little bar that had some pretty good food. I had some chili dish. it was delish. odd writing that word out. delicious=delish. I wonder if it's spelled like that. the shortened version. who knows?

so we spend a couple days with sarah. didn't leave the apartment too much. as this was the last stop before Texas, we were really getting kinda tired, and ready for a break. but meeting rachel and sarah was a blast, we had a good time in chicago. not much action, but good times anyway.

now we come up on the drive back to texas. it was supposed to be 14 hours from chicago to dallas. sam had put me in charge of the trip home, saying he'd do whatever I decided. so sweet of him....

so we started in the afternoon/evening, around 4 or so. we got out of town alright, starting with 1 hour turns, and working up to 3 hour turns. we stopped in St Louis, MO, and saw the great arch. that was pretty awesome. I would have liked more time there, I think it was about 10 or so when we got there. we took a while there, enjoyed a break. then on the way back to the highway, we were stopped at a red light and I got to witness a guy stealing hubcaps off a car. I didn't actually see him get them off, but there's no way he was just rubbing his hands on them.

then, outside of St Louis, at 11pm, we hit stopandgo traffic. they took a 3lane highway down to 1. we almost died. we were in traffic for quite a long time.

when I finally drove across the texas line, I think it was about 4am. or something like that. we got to my aunt's house in dallas about 8:30. total trip times was aprox. 17 hours on the road. I'm not sure about sam, but I didnt' nod off once. it was easy.

so in dallas, we stayed a night with my aunt, got to see my grandmother, and headed out the next day for home. I forget what day it was we hit lufkin, but all of heaven, and east texas rejoiced.

we stayed 1 week in lufkin, and then came to austin. it was awesome to see the fam, but we can't stay home forever. so, more later. don't worry, y'all are updated all the way to about a week ago. or two. :D

EDIT: also, I've updated the flickr all the way to chicago, and even St Louis on the way home. so now it contains all the pics of the trip all the way back to texas. more pics from texas soon.

... going places that I've never been

2007-05-01T19:17:00.000-04:00

Yes, I did it again. But this time I'm back with a real post.

Eventually we bid farewell to the great state of New York, and headed south to Pittsburgh, to see our long-lost buddy ol' pal Nancy Carlin.

We got into Pittsburgh on Saturday evening around 6 or so, I think. And then a terrible thing happened. Catastrophic, some might say. Nancy made us go swing-dancing with her. And if you know me, I am NOT a dancer. But, with some coercion we went with her. (For some reason I was thinking cohesion. But its coercion.)

So off we went, thru the Roulette of Death(scary place) to Swing City. Luckily before any actual dancing happened there was a little class that went over the basics of swing and a couple line dances, the Cha Cha and the Charleston, I believe. Tis a very good thing they had that class becuase otherwise we would have looked like complete and utter fools, instead of just total idiots.

So we danced. I danced like 15 times with Nancy. The girl has more energy than anyone I know. And then a pretty girl asked me to danced. She was really good. And I'm not. And I looked like a complete retard. But it was fun. And we danced a couple later too. And then, I actually went up and ASKED a girl to dance. scary, i tell you. I swear she didnt say but maybe 3 words the whole time. I kept trying to get her to talk but she was just really quiet. Maybe the beard scared her. Dunno. Andy danced quite a bit as well, although we couldnt get him to do any of the linedances. Which were AWESOME. I loved the linedancing, especially the cha cha. Its really fun.

So then... Sunday morning we got up to go to Mass... after some confusion about whether or not we were actually going. We got off a little late and then hit some traffic, and seeing that it was about 45 min away, we ended up getting to Mass about 25 min after it started.

Then as we walk up to the building... we notice an inordinately large number of people coming out of the building. Not good. It turned out Mass actually started a whole hour earlier than we had thought. So we completely missed it. But we DID get to meet her cousin Ryan. He's cool. He likes old ladies. And soft foods. Long story.

Moving on.

After that we went to Nancy's school so she could study and we hung out in the studen campus ministry place with big couches and big tv and fridge and food and stuff. It was awesome. Oh, and I have to say, Nancy made some AMAZING brownies for us. Freakin AWESOME. we ate them for breakfast lunch and supper. tasty.

On..... Tuesday? We bid our sad farewells and took off for Chicago. The drive wasnt too eventful, except for the 2 lexus'. But I'll let Andy tell that story.

More later. Stay tuned to the Harbuck network.

Jello

2007-04-25T20:40:00.000-04:00

ok, pics of the Jello museum is up. I don't have much to say on that.

in the basement of the jello place was what they called a transportation museum. basically a bunch of buggies and old cars. so those pics are there too. enjoy!

We're on a mission from God...

2007-04-23T01:49:00.000-04:00

the first person to tell me (by way of commenting,) what that quote is from gets a special prize. a prize from the trip.

and you can't use google. I'll know if you cheated. because I know which people might know this, and if my mother claims to know it, I'll know she used google. so, don't try to cheat me.

I guess I'll finish the story from NY. the last site we saw that I didn't cover was the Jello museum in Le Roy, NY. as I said before that was the location of the first jello factory, which still stands, tho they haven't made jello there in quite a while.

since pretty much all of y'all know sam, it's a good bet that most of you know blue jello. sam's a bit obsessed with it. and not really only blue. he's got a thing for all ello. so this made the museum a must-see.

the museum was actually pretty tiny. a lovely elderly lady offered to give us a little "vocal background" on jello. her speech was obviously memorized, but I didn't mind it because otherwise we'd have finished the museum in the first 15 minutes.

not a huge amount to say about the experience girl. sam took a lovely picture as the jello girl. you should prolly check that out.

and then in the basement of that, there was a transportation museum, which was basically a room with some old buggies, a couple ford cars that were ancient, like Model T ancient. and in each car they had hats and umbrella's and sometimes a cane. not quite sure why they needed the props, but it gave us something to do. we took pictures of us in the hats and meg with the umbrellas. I must say, I've always wanted a bowler hat. I think that's what it's called. the little round one. I didn't get a picture in it, but I want to own that hat.

that's the whole museum experience. and I think that covers NY well enough. so on to Pittsburgh. in another post.

by the way, I know we're behind on pictures. we'll get those up. hope to first thing tomorrow morning.

EDIT: the niagara falls pictures are up. I'll work on the rest.

where the buffalo roam..

2007-04-20T14:46:00.001-04:00

Alrighty. quite backed up on post writing...again. sorry.

Easter Vigil was very interesting. 3 hours long. singing. candles. reading. singing. and more. you really would have had to been there..

we spent Easter with Don and Alison again, of course. actually, we picked up James and we drove North, about an hour and a half, to see mountains. not much to do you see. that was cool, much more snow up north. prolly 10 inches or so. we threw some snowballs, I made a b.e.a.utiful snow angel. we took a picture. you should really see it. anyway, we had some spots to see that Don suggested, but when we went to look for the spots, it was kinda confusing, so we didn't hit all of them. actually we ended up just hiking around in 10 inches of snow for a while. kinda hard actually. but it was good to spend time with James. kinda crazy, but good.

my mind is kinda blank, and it skips to leaving New Hampshire. that's my next thought. so I'll just go with that thought and talk about that.

we left. and drove like 8 hours to Buffalo, or rather outside of Buffalo, close to Le Roy, NY. that's where the Conklins live. Megan Conklin was the one that had invited is to visit, and of course, we love to meet ppl that we've never met, so off we went. while our yahoo.com directions almost got us lost, we made it there eventually. they have lots of cats. and a big dog. just thought you'd like to know.

we got there Tuesday night, and Wednesday we went and helped them on an apartment they're remodeling. wasn't too tough.

then on Thursday we went to Niagara Falls. was about 30 minutes away, not that far. and it was cold. it was pretty cool to see, but it was freezing. the wind kinda bites.
they say the falls a better viewed from the Canadian side, which looked to be true, but they say you need a passport, or if not that, they'll let you do it with a birth certificate. sadly, we had neither. we knew we could get into Canada, but didn't want to take the risk of not being able to get back. swimming the river would have been really cold.

so we saw Niagara falls. and there's one place where you can go down to the water's edge, a bit above the falls, and drink the water, or anything else you might want to do. tho they don't exactly like you doing that. but we did it anyway.

so. we finished that up. got in the car. as we pull out of the parking lot we hear a really loud scraping sound. so sam pulls over, and we look under the car, and the exhaust pipe has fallen off. it's still attached at the back, but in the middle it's sitting on the ground. so...yeah. not good. megan suggests something about wiring it back up, so sam gets under there and checks it out. I found a clock in the car, one that I had brought but not really used. so I cut the electrical cord off the clock, and split it down the middle so sam could use that to wire everything back together. which he did. and it worked pretty well. we drove back to the Conklin's and didn't have any trouble.

the next morning, Megan's grandpa came over and welded it back together for us. free of charge. that was awesome. then we headed back to the apartment to work a bit more. sam had knocked out a wall and was installing a door where the wall had been. so he finished that up, and we hit the road to Pittsburgh.

oops. somewhere in there we went to the Jello Museum in Le Roy, NY, home of the first Jello Factory. not sure when. but that's another blog post.

there are pictures of all this on the flickr, which is linked on the right of this page, or in one of the posts below.

message in the mints

2007-04-17T01:26:00.000-04:00

sorry for being scarce lately internet is hard to come by these days. more updates soon, I promise. I just wanted to show y'all something. this is from back when we were in New Hampshire.

This is Sarah-Jane. I beat her in a board game. she was at Easter Vigil with us. a day or so later I discover these pictures.

personally, I think this was quite rude. and no warning. so to get her back I have posted this post, warning all of you about her. and if I had really tried, I probably could have found a better picture of her. but I want that one. because of the message in the mints.

(really tho, charming woman. don't tell her I said so.)

2007-04-15T21:39:00.000-04:00

We are still alive. And fairly well. We apologize for the absence of posting. Eight days is almost unforgivable. Again, we apologize. Due to circumstances out of our control we have been recently unable to keep you up to date on our trip.

Many things have happened lately, and posts will be ensuing very soon. And pictures.

To pique your interest.....

-Exhaust pipes. who needs them?
-Sam's a Jello girl
-Swing dancing and the cha cha
-The shortest Mass in the history of mankind

I think that's enough for now. Be back soon.

i'm back

2007-04-07T16:53:00.000-04:00

yes, i'm back.

I realize i have been quite neglectful in my posting. But I blame that on being sick since Monday. Anyway, here I am. I think the last time I posted we were in DC with Amy. So lets see if we can do a little summarizing up to now.

But before we leave Amy's, I have to say that she has been the ONLY person on this entire trip that has appreciated my 'your mom' jokes. Tis very very sad.

Staying with Liz was quite enjoyable. Got to see all the monuments and memorials and such. The cherry blossom festival was awesome. And Liz is an amazing cook. Liz, we love you. And if you ask us, we might even marry you. Both of us.

The day before we left DC, I woke up really sick. Headache, sore throat, nausea, stomach pain, trouble swallowing, and the like. I was hoping it was just a 24hr bug, but no such luck.

I was still sick the next day, but we headed to NYC anyway. Staying at a hostel was a fun experience. Actually just staying in NYC was a fun experience. CRAZY drivers there. That was not very much fun. I nearly died multiple times. For instance, at one point, I'm driving down a 2-lane one-way road. It dead-ends into another 2-lane one-way road going left. We stop, the light turns green, we go. Slowly. As both roads are jampacked with vehicles. So, in our slow merging, naturally one would think that with both roads having 2 lanes.... there would be 2 cars turning left. Makes sense, right? Ha. no such luck. As I'm halfway through my turn, I realize there are FOUR cars side by side making this turn. And I'm just like, what in the world? How did we go from 2 cars to 4 cars? And now we have to get back to 2 cars again. Cuhrazy. But we survived.

About an hour later, I'm on... another two-lane road I think. One-way, of course. Coming up to a intersection sort of thing, with a fountain in the middle. All the traffic goes around in one direction. So I start making the turn to the right to go around... and to my right is a big huge truck making the turn with me. The big truck is a bit slower than I, so there's a bit of room between us as we merge into our new lanes. Well, if there's EVER any room in traffic in NYC someone is going to try to take it. This bit of room wasnt going to be there long enough though, as the big hunking truck moves back into his lane. But that doesn't stop this crazy little guy on a moped that zooms up and tries to fit between us. ha, uh NO. Neither of us can stop, and he decides to forego such a rash manuevre before he gets squished into little moped burgers.

Anyway enough of that. There were more harrowing adventures but we're still alive. Then we left, and drove up to Concord, NH. As you've seen in the pictures there is a TON of snow. And i'm going to add some pictures here too, just for fun.

Yes that IS R2-D2.

And of course, lots more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaguelyvagabonds/

By thursday I was feeling quite a bit better, except for my throat. But then Friday morning I woke up and it had all come back. I felt just horrible. Sicker than I've been in a long while.

So after some deep brain-things in my head, and consultation with my dear mother, I decided I should go see a doctor. And there I learned some joyful news. I have the stomach flu. And strep throat. Yay! What fun. So now I got me some penicillen so I'm doing better. Sorta.

And that's about all. Just got back from Easter Vigil at Magdalen College. Quite an interesting experience. Good food. Have to write more later about that. Or let Andy.

Now I must sleep.

on the road again

2007-04-06T02:19:00.000-04:00

leaving DC.

It was one of the best stops so far. We got to meet Amy, see the sights, stay a while with Liz, and see the cherry blossom festival. what more could we ask for. oh, and the food. I do believe Liz provided us with the best food so far on the trip. no one knew this but our stops are being rated, and Liz was rated very very high. but those ratings are very secret, so y'all will never know. sorry.

the drive to NY was uneventful, just slow. lots of traffic. and tolls. we spent around $12 driving from DC to NY on tolls. ridiculous. I did the driving, something I dislike doing. but poor Sam was sick. or so he claimed. after 4-5 hours of driving we found our hostel, checked in, grabbed our stuff and hit the beds. both pretty tired. it was cold and rainy. really cold. we were sharing the room with 6 ppl, straggling in at all hours of the night. it was our first time in a hostel, which made it interesting. our room had 4 pairs of bunk beds in it. I only talked to 1 of the people we shared the room with. that was Rick from CA, he said he was a snorer and I should feel free to wake him up if it got loud. what he didn't mention was he's a talker too. he did snore, quite loud, but talked more. all night. didn't keep me up tho, I went to bed about 12:30 and didn't wake up until 7, from 7-10 was on and off sleeping.
in the morning, we got up, checked out, and went to get breakfast, (McDonald's, breakfast of losers.) after that we headed down on the subway, which btw, are far inferior to DC's subway system. DC's is spacious, clean, well lit, fast, etc. NYC's was cramped, dirty, and dark. anyway, we hit the Staten Island Ferry, saw Lady Liberty, came back, saw the former site of the Twin Towers, drove back up here, had our second meal of the day, once again at McDs. then we went and found our other hostel, since the last didn't have any rooms. we didn't originally plan to stay 2 nights, but we couldn't leave for New Hampshire cause of bad weather. anyway, this hostel was cheaper, and had a free breakfast, (which I did not wake up for.) not as nice of rooms, 12 ppl instead of 8, guys and girls this time. but still nice enough compared to the car. and less then 1/4th what you'd would spend for a hotel in NYC.

in the morning we got up, showered, checked out, and walked back to the car to decide what to do. Sam kinda wanted to head to Boston, while I wanted to see more of NYC. I asked him what was in Boston, and he could only name Paul Revere and a Tea Party. that settled it for me, I was gonna see NYC. we drove over to the other side of Central Park, which turned out to be a terrible idea. there was zero parking over there. none. we drove around for a while looking, and finally Sam just dropped me off to go walk Central Park while he kept looking. while I was walking, I found Alice in Wonderland, which was cool. I found Balto, which I got really excited about. I'm not sure why, but I really wanted to see Balto. Balto to me was about the same as seeing Lincoln in DC. as y'all can see in the pictures, Balto's back is rubbed golden because so many people like to climb up on him. I felt this was beneath me, so I did the next best thing. I rubbed his nose for luck. it's a tradition, children have been doing it for ages. or so I hear. it all felt very solemn. I like Balto. he's cool. oh and btw, if you DON'T know who Balto is, think about hurting yourself. slap yourself in the head, fall down some stairs. something. cause you're retarded. at least go watch the Disney movie Balto. not to be confused with Balto 2. that came later. as seen by the 2. which comes after the original. yeah.
anyway, then I went and saw Cleopatra's Needle. it's an obelisk. from Egypt. I learned about it by wikipediaing it. so you can too. :P but it's the oldest monument in Central Park, and some say the Nation. no idea if that's true, but sam said it, so it's prolly not. but then again, seeing as they, (there's more the one, one's in London, one's in Paris, and the last of course, is in NYC,) were originally erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis , around 1450 BC, I'm going to say that they're prolly at least the oldest in the area. :P

after seeing these, I met back up with sam, who had a crazy story of almost dying in Time Square, which he never actually told me. after that we left NYC, and traveled to New Hampshire, to Allison and Don's where we are now. quite a few inches of snow on the ground here. all fell last night. sam tried to make snow angels but it didn't' really work. I did hit him in the head with some snow tho. that's all I got for now. pray that sam will post the next one. if I can ever convince him. see ya.

remember to check out our pictures. there's a link on the right side of the page. or here.

Update directly below

2007-04-03T11:54:00.000-04:00

sorry for lack of updates. I was hoping to guilt sam into writing. didnt' work. so it's up to me.

the last hurrah. we're on our way out of DC. we've spent over 2 weeks here. nice place. you should visit some time.

Saturday was the first day of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival here in DC. all the trees have begun blooming, and everyone comes out to see it. we went and walked by the White House on out way to the Mall where everything was happening. the White House really isn't that big. kinda small really. and it's off-white. look it up. it's true.
around the Washington Monument they were holding the Kite Thingie, (not real name,) where all the millions of kites gather every year to catch up. they were having fun. pretty cool. you can see pics in our flickr, which I'll link at the bottom of the post. some of the kites are so tiny it makes it look like your screen is dirty. ignore this. or try and clean your screen. for the next 3 hours.

then we walked to....somewhere...it'd be cool for me to tell you...quite awesome really. but I can't. cause I don't remember. but on the way we watched some soccer games going on. for the Berry Blossom Cup. fun. soccer. good.

then we came home, dropped a few things off, left again, and went and ate "mexican". I put it in quotation marks cause what they call mexican food is not mexican food. it was good tho. just not mexican. I don't know what it was.

that pretty much wrapped up that day. lots of good pics in the flickr. oh, and we found an R2-D2 mailbox. I just saw them on yahoo's front page a few days ago, and then we found one. nerdy I know. but cool.

last night, my last night in DC, Liz and I went out to Hard Times Cafe. it's at the Clarendon stop on the Metro. right outside the station. go there. it's got chili. really good chili. all sorts. on all things. it was really good.

and it was just Liz and I going cause Sam is sick. was sick yesterday and is sick today. so that's not good.

and now we're leaving. heading to NY. hope to get there by 4. kinda miss rush hour, but doubtful. really we won't. oh well.

PICTURES

they're monsters!

2007-03-27T20:03:00.000-04:00

so many simple things please me. and terrify me. before visiting DC I'd never seen the fearsome "Black Squirrel". that's right people. they look much like ordinary squirrels. but they're black. and fearsome. and ferocious.

here's a brief clip of them.

when I first encountered them I was on Liz's balcony trying to enjoy the sunrise. I noticed across the parking lot an elderly lady out walking. as she walked down the sidewalk one of the black squirrels leaped into her path and confronted her. standing barely a foot in front of her it stared her down. after what seemed like hours it lost interest and moved one. a close call to be sure. the woman was visibly relieved and hurried to get back in the safety of her house. that happened just 2 days ago, and is completely true.

if you come across these monsters DO NOT PROVOKE THEM. I remembered a terrifying story about these black squirrels and lucky for you, found it again. here it is:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4489792.stm

that's all I have. I hear rumor that there might be killer rabbits in the parking lot as well. I think I caught sight of them last night. I'll be leaving in just a few minutes to stake-out the parking lot again. wish me luck.

trying to catch up

2007-03-25T07:25:00.000-04:00

I'm afraid I've gotten so far behind in my writings that I've forgotten what happened. so, instead of more bumbling around, I'm going to bring you up to speed and then we can go from the present.

after the last post, we left Amy's and went to Liz's, where we are now. we had an awesome time with Amy, and I'm very glad we got to meet her. sadly tho, we've got to keep moving. Liz, unlike Amy, does not actually live in DC. she lives in Virginia, outside of DC. any of you stalkers out there, if you'd like her exact address, just send us an email, and we'd be happy to pass that on for ya. back to the story tho, while she lives in Virginia, DC is just a hop, skip and a subway ride away. unless you aren't gay. then you wouldn't hop or skip. you'd just walk to the subway station. your choice, I respect your lifestyle choices.

after a day or two at Liz's place Sam and I finally mustered the courage to face DC yet again. we took the Metro to the Mall. I personally hate that title. the mall makes me think of shopping. but here, if someone says the mall they mean THE mall. which is where all the monuments are. the Capitol building, the Washington Monument, then Lincoln Memorial, a bunch or museums, etc. that's the mall. stupid, I know. that's what I said.

btw, quick side note, I do love the metro. I enjoy it so much more then a car ride. yes yes, I understand it could get to be a hassle. but driving, by yourself, with traffic in a place like DC, and then trying to find a place to park? not fun. where as for just a couple bucks, I can walk down some stairs, get on a train with a bunch of other people that I can stare at and make fun of, and it only takes half the time. I'll take the metro, thank you.

leaving the metro, we stopped once again at the Washington Monument. that thing is a tall one. you're really have to see it. it's quite large. mostly when you're standing next to it. from there we kept on down the mall to the WWII Memorial. we'd already seen both of these at night, but the WWII Memorial wasn't very well lighted when we saw it, so it was definitely worth seeing in the day. the downside to the day was the kids tho. there were SO SO SO many kids out. groups or 30, 50, 100, 462, etc. ridiculous crowds. and all making cheesy poses around the monuments and laughing and carrying on. ok at first, but after a while, so many kids gets annoying. mostly teens too. the worst kind. (get it?...I'm a teen...saying that...nvm...do I HAVE to spell every joke out to y'all?)

from there we hit the Lincoln Memorial. my favorite for sure. Lincoln is impressive. quite big. inside the Memorial there they have the Gettysburg Address on one wall, and his second inaugural address on the other wall. (an interesting note I learned later: Lincoln's second inaugural address was his favorite of all his speeches.) now of course, I've read the Gettysburg Address, and probably the other speech to at some point. but it didn't really hit me until I was there, standing next to the huge statue of the man. he was a really good speech writer. or maybe he didn't write his own speeches. I'm guessing he did, or at least had some part in it, but I know one of you readers will know and won't mind correcting me. anyway, the Gettysburg Address is really some spectacular and powerful writing. and his second inaugural address is just as good writing if not better. I would recommend seeing the Lincoln Memorial to any of you who plan to visit DC. and I haven't even seen it at night yet. I hear it's better at night. we shall see.

after that we walked over to the Vietnam Memorial. and then a long walk to the Jefferson Memorial. that was pretty cool. too many kids but still cool. I didn't even know he was in there. I've seen the building, but he's actually in there. Jefferson himself. or a statue. whatever. don't nitpick.

some more walking, and we found George Mason. I'd tell you who he is, but I'd rather you look him up if you don't know him. hahaha. it's called Google. and yes, I am getting paid to promote them. anyway, he was a fun fellow. sitting down on a bench. quite tall. if he was standing up I'd put him at about 11 feet or so. the greats of our nation are all so big. I never knew.

after that we were getting a bit tired, seeing as at least 4 to 5 hours had lapsed. we called it a day and headed back to the apartment.

from then to now....lets see...we've seen 2 movies with liz, and eaten at some pretty good places. 5 guys against, and Ted's Montana Grill. we had bison there. but actually, I'm going to leave that to another post. see ya.

more sightseeing

2007-03-22T23:16:00.000-04:00

I keep putting of posting. I hate it, but sometimes I just don't feel like writing. I'm a terrible blogger. oh well.

sunday we decided to go out sight seeing. we walked over to Ebenezer's, grabbed some drinks to keep us with energy. if you ever visit the DC area, I recommend the Mocha from Ebenezer's. I'm not a big coffee drinker, I drink plenty of it, but I'm not obsessed with it. and even then I put lots of sugar and cream in it. the Mocha needed neither. it was very good. and if you prefer something cold, the Cookies and Cream Freeze is amazing. awesome, really.

from there we walked another block to Union Station where we could see the Capitol Building. we figured it was a good place to start so we head that way.

little known fact, the statue on the top of the Capitol building is facing the wrong way. while the Capitol building, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial are all in a row, the statue is in fact, facing away from them. when the Capitol building was created they got the statue up there, but by the time they noticed it was backwards it was too late.
small side note, the reason that the previous fact is little known is because sam and I made it up. there's some rumor that the statue actually faces north, but that's stupid, our version is better.

from there we went and found various pieces or art that we fun to look at. some of it can be seen in the photo album sam linked in the last blog.

I know I'm way behind on blogging and I plan to get on it. promise to try and update soon.

Washington, DC

2007-03-19T19:29:00.000-04:00

Amidst torrential downpours we finally made it to DC and Amy Doolittle's on Thursday night. And for the record, Amy gives quite good directions.

The next day, which so happened to be Friday, Amy took off work so she could hang out with us (amazing), and we headed out to see DC. The only, and quite major, damper on the day was the fact that it was raining, and very very cold. And as you can guess, cold and rainy isn't the best of conditions for sight-seeing. Especially when most of the sights require you to get out of the car and walk. Twas sad. But we did get to see a good bit.

We stopped for lunch at Five Guys. AMAZING food, i must say. One of the best bacon cheeseburgers I've ever had. And the fries, too. Not only were they also amazing, they gave us like a million of them.

Being the shiveringly drenched day that it was, the only real options were to either go see a musuem or go back to the apartment. And as neither of us were just incredibly keen on seeing museums that day, we did not. Upon arrival back at her apartment, we decided to entertain ourselves with a movie, which, much to Andy's disgust, happened to be Nacho Libre. The movie just gets better each time you watch it, I tell you. It's hilarious. And then we watched The Emperor's New Groove. I believe Andy skipped that one too. Sad. David Spade is indeed hilarious.

At some point, I think it was Friday night, Amy took us down to see Ebenezer's. The coffeeshop where she works. Very cool place. Good coffee. The Caramel Whip is quite tasty as well.

Ohhh, yes... and Friday night we had SNOW!!! It was amazing. The most snow either of us has ever seen before. Just huge snowflakes, too. It was pretty sweet.

Saturday, Saturday... hmm... hung around the house a bit... That day is kinda fuzzy.... Amy was working most of the day I think, so we decided to meet up with Elizabeth Emery and her brother, who was in town for the week. We walked over towards Chinatown to meet them, turned out to be a much longer walk that I'd thought. Took about half an hour or more.

After we hooked up with them, we decided to find a place to eat, which happened to be Matchbox Pizza. Extremely good pizza. And some delightful conversation, too. We hung out there for quite awhile, then headed over to the movie theater to see what was playing. As it turned out we happened to get there when NOTHING was started for at least an hour and a half or so. So we got tickets for a later show and decided to go see some monuments. Liz was telling us how awesome they are at night. And actually, Amy had mentioned that earlier as well. So off we went.

I got to experience the metro for the first time. Very cool. Nothing new for Andy though as he had ridden quite a few in CA. But for being my first time on the metro, I was the only one who noticed when we got to our stop. I shudder to think what terrible things would have happened if I hadn't been paying attention. Horrors.

We got to see the Washington Monument. Its quite tall. Yup, tall it is. I mean you could stood Liz and her brother on top of each other and it was STILL taller. Crazy, I know. Then we headed over to the WWII memorial. Very cool. We thought about heading to see Lincoln but it was too far and we didn't have too much time until our movie started and we had a ways to go.

On the way back to the metro, Daniel and I decided to race down the path til it turned a couple hundred yards ahead. Liz and Andy were too chicken, so they walked. Let me tell you, going from a standstill to a dead sprint and for that long is quite tiring. But it was enjoyable.

We made it back to the movie theater just in time for the previews. We went to see Breach, by the way. It looked quite promising. Boy, was I wrong. It was one of the worst movies I've seen in quite some time. The story needed help. Lots of help. I kept waiting for the big ending... and it never came. It just... died off. The dialogue needed help, too. Normally I'm not overly critical of movies but this one was bad. If at all possible, do NOT see this movie.

Maybe if I had seen the first 10 minutes of the movie it would have been better. I doubt it thought. Yeah, I was at the concession stand in search of something to ease my parched mouth. I was about 8th in line when I got there. I kid you not, 20 minutes later (I counted), there were still 2 people in front me. Let's see, that's.... 4 minutes a person. At a theater consession stand. FOUR MINUTES PER PERSON. That's a looooong time.

After the movie, we headed down to the metro, and after a few shouted insults across the tracks, and a few pantomined ones, we headed our seperate ways into the darkness.

Now, before y'all get more annoyed than you already are, we DO have pictures. I decided to get a Flickr account instead of posting them all on here. And we've got quite a few from DC up there already. Oh, right, the link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaguelyvagabonds

Enjoy.

talk on the road

2007-03-18T12:23:00.000-04:00

now we come to the underground video. this video made it's way to the internet under suspicious circumstances, and spread to all corners without our knowledge. when we finally realized what had happened it was too late.
so since some of you have seen it, we figured all of you deserve too. this is what goes on when you've been on the road a while. and yah, it was mostly just for fun.

and now you know...

2007-03-16T19:59:00.000-04:00

alrighty, now as much as I'd like to leave y'all to wonder on that nice cliffhanger sam left you on, I think I'd better finish it.

so we're in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, pushing the car until it was too hard. so then we just sat around and let the car cool for a while. we decided no to call Ronny, and instead to just drive it home. we were really close, and it had cooled for quite a while. so sam got in, kept the lights off, turned the radio and AC off, and used a flashlight to light the road. he had some theory about keeping everything off to lessen the chances of over-heating. so he drove it home no problem. he tried to turn off the car at the top of the driveway but claimed that the brakes stopped working so he turned it back on. I had decided to walk home so I wasn't in the car. I can't confirm nor deny. sounds suspicious tho.

in the morning, the car looked and sounded fine. we obviously wanted it looked at anyway tho, and luckily Ronny knew a good mechanic that would do it for cheap. so we drove about 10 miles away to where this guy had a shop in his backyard. this was a sunday mind, so the fact we could do that was impressive. and he said he'd take a look at it, but wouldn't be able to actually work on it that day. so he stares at it, and we explain where we saw water gushing out...and he gets down in the engine and points at one side and says "about this area?" as he says this, his finger brushes a tube that FALLS OFF. well, it was connected on one end, but where it went into the engine just fell off. he didn't push it or anything, he barely touched it.

so he explained it wasn't a big problem, but he'd have to take half the engine off to get to it. this obviously sounds expensive so I asked him if he had any approximate figure. he said he'd be able to get to it the very next morning and it would be about $125. quite shocking to me. the shops I know of would charge that just to start. and sure enough, next day he called and had it all fixed. pretty cool fellow. wish I could remember his name. I'll work on that.

so with that near disaster successfully avoided we decided to leave the next day, on tuesday. and here I paid the story to step outside. I'm writing this in a coffee shop in DC, and I've just noticed the rain that's been falling all day has turned to snow. not very heavy but I'm gonna take a few minutes to look at it. brb.

interestingly enough, it can't have been 5 minutes and there's already a pretty big layer of snow on everything. living in texas, I've had no experience with snow. the little I've seen hasn't stuck on the ground or anything. it's odd to be here and see a pretty thick snow that's covered the ground in 5 minutes. a whole new experience. which is what this trip is about of course. I feel like a kid again. oh wait...I am a kid. nvm.

anyway, so...we left tuesday. Sara and Ronny drove with us about 30 minutes to some little town that I don't remember. maybe madison. it was supposed to have a KFC that had an all-you-can-eat-buffet. it turned out that while it did have it, it was only serving on wednesdays. so we headed to a hole-in-the-wall southern diner called Adrian's Place. some pretty good food there, and great sweet tea too. I recommend it. course, you don't know how to get there as I'm not 100% sure of the town name. bwuhaha, it's part of my plan.

from there we got on I-20, considered turning around and taking it all the way back to Longview, TX, but decided not too. we drove across the rest of GA, all of SC, and most of NC. we came into Wilmington, North Carolina about 6pm I think. there we met Maureen Carlin, who lives and attends then University of North Carolina at Wilmington. it was really good to see her, I always enjoy time spent with her. she's a blast. we hung out with her and her friends on tuesday night, and were supposed to stay with her in her dorm that night. supposed to. of course we didn't. they forgot that they couldn't sign in guests after 12 and we didn't try before then. so we ended up sleeping in our car. the next morning we hung around in coffee shops and such. Maureen was busy with school, (as a matter of fact we didn't see her anymore while we were there,) so we were on our own. after lunch we headed down to the beach, even tho it was overcast and NOT a beach day. it was a nice beach. the sand was white and squeaked. not like Galveston. hah! we had a pretty good time there, took some pictures, watched the locals. Wilmington is an impressive town, I wouldn't mind visiting more in the future. here are a few pictures of that.

after staying at the beach a good while we went and hung out some more in a random coffee shop. eventually sam decided we wouldn't be sleeping in the car again, and we went and got a room at a motel 6 somewhere. cheap rooms, which was nice, and they can do seeing as they don't offer internet. how are we supposed to keep y'all informed without internet? :P

next morning was fairly routine as far as mornings go. woke up...ate breakfast... showered..you know, morning stuff. we had 7 hours to drive to DC so we headed out about noon. we got here, saw many monuments as we drove in, (while trying to remember the name of the Washington Memorial, (the tall one as we called it,) we also discovered sam thinks the Statue of Liberty is in DC. poor guy..) we eventually got where we were going and met Amy Doolittle, one of our oh-so-many DC connections.

I should note that sam complains often that all my posts abuse him, and that I should be nice. but he says alot of things, most of which I ignore.

so now we're here, in DC, our fair capitol, and it's cold, and rained all day, and snowed this evening. as always, we'll keep you updated.

danielsville, ga

2007-03-14T12:46:00.000-04:00

move into the country... gonna eat alot o' peaches...

sadly, no peaches. i think we came in the wrong season for that.

Lets see, we hit this part of Georgia on... Thursday evening, I believe. Hanging out with Sara and Ronnie is quite enjoyable. Some very interesting conversations we've had. Ronnie has an insane number of books, something like 13,000+. Craaazy. And piles and piles of records. Which I have a picture of and will upload eventually.

Yes, we do have a camera now. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but due to unforeseen circumstances.... well.... anyway we have a camera now. Pictures will commence henceforth. And we apologize for the infrequent nature of our posts. Our internet access has been quite scarce lately. But we'll do what we can.

When the night has come.. and the land is dark... and the moon is the only light we'll see... no I WON'T ... be AFRAID....

sorry. radio. anyway....

Ok, I'm really having trouble remember the order of events in which we did things, so i'll just list them and let you decide how you would like to chronologically arrange them yourselves.

Friday morning I slept. I think Andy went with them to a booksale. Or so they said. Later I went with them into Ila to run a few errands. We stopped at Tractor Supply for a few... non-tractor related supplies. While Sara was shopping, Ronnie and I had a interesting converstion about how big alot of homeschool families are. Actually we had ALOT of interesting converstions with him. Then we went to look for a refridgerator, and kinda got sidetracked by some books.

Sara and I worked on the fence she's building for her goats later that afternoon. Oh, we at lunch at the Ila Restuarant. Good food. Good tea. Hmm... while we were fencing... no wisecracks about my use of the word fencing... Andy and Ronnie went to move a sofa over to the new house. And at some point we moved a piano. Not so fun.

The piano moving was QUITE an adventure. Getting it out of the house it was in was a job in and of itself. After removing a plethora of equestrian memorabilia from atop the piano we moved it to the front door and decided to back the truck up all the way too the door and just load it straight on. Which went without too much of a hitch.

Ill be your crying shoulder.. i'll be loves suicide... i’ll be badder when i’m older... i'll be the greatest fan of your life

I'm just going to through these songs in as i feel like it. Deal with it. Hey, you know what? YOUR MOM. yeah.

So, now we're driving down the road. Andy and I are in the back of the truck holding onto the piano for dear life. I notice a cop car pass in by us... a minute later I see him behind us... closer.. closer... we come up to a stop sign... and then the blue and red lights of doom began flashing. We're all going to die. But he pulls past us, and we notice a wreck on the road a ways ahead of us. And way out here in the country a wreck on a two-lane road is a big deal. Especially at an intersection. I have a picture of two of this, but they will have to come later.

Finally we get home with the piano. And now we have to get it up the wooden stairs onto the porch. Which looks to be a very daunting task, for the piano is quite heavy. After a bit of discussion, its decided that I get to be a carpenter for a day. After a couple minutes, I've successfully removed a section of the railing from the porch and we back the truck right up to the porch, which turns out to be ALOT easier than the stairs.

And this post is getting LONG. must wrap things up. Ah, alritey, so we went into Athens that nite. Coffee shop, internet, blah blah, we went and saw Wild Hogs. do NOT see this movie. it is NOT worth the money. For such a great cast, it was horrible. The whole theater thought it was hilarious, though. I personally wanted my money back. It just wasnt funny.

Went home, blah, slept late, blah, back to Athens the next day. i think....

That day must not have been to eventful, because I don't remember too much. We headed home about midnight or a little after. We're not even out of Athens yet, when I start smelling something burning, and the temperature light comes on. We pull over as smoke is billowing out from under the hood. By the beard of Zeus!

After a bit of looking and pretending like we know about cars... it seems like we just need a bit of liquid in the radiator, since there is none. at all. Luckily we had a couple 2liters of water with us, and dump those in, and decide to try to make it home, as we don't really want to end up on the side of the road in teh wee hours of the morning.

We make it almost home, when we start to notice steam coming out from the hood. I drive for a bit longer trying to decide whether or not we can make it home, but not wanting to really mess up the engine. We pull over on the side of the road not too far from the house. We hope. But I dont really want drive anymore as the engine is really hot.

So. Its like 1:30am or so. I know Sara and Ronnie aren't up, as they usually turn in early, and we don't want to wake them if we don't have to. So we decide to push the car. Unfortunately, it's mostly all uphill. We put the car in neutral anyway, and start pushing, using a flashlight to see where we're going. We push and push.... going uphill is no piece of cake. Finally the incline gets too steep, and we just can't keep any forward momentum going. We just happened to stop right in front of this house that seems to have a large number of dogs dwelling there. Thankfully they're chained, or so we assume, as we are not attacked. They just bark and bark and bark.

Suddenly from out of the dark in the direction of the house.... "SHUT UP DOGS!!!!!!!" Somebody's awake. We hope they don't decide to come find out what the dogs are barking at. And if they do, hopefully they're not armed. A minute or so later we hear again... "YOU STUPID DOGS!!!! SHUT UUUUUP!!!!!!!"

We figure we should probly leave. But we can't push the car. And we can't drive it. And we're like in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. Our options are somewhat limited.

But I'm getting a headache, and I need to go find something for it. So I'll have to finish this later.

The road goes ever on and on...

2007-03-12T20:13:00.000-04:00

A last memorable moment in Birmingham...

Before we left The Grill or whatever it was called, Brack and I went over to play a bit of pool. As we were racking up the balls, a couple approached us and asked if they could play against us. We glanced at each other, and were like, sure, why not. After a few close calls we ended up beating them, but I still wasn't sure if they were trying to hustle us or not. They were bothing missings shots but then were making some very nice shots with seemingly little effort. But my fears were put to rest as we thrashed them quite handily in the second game.

The group was getting ready to leave about this time, but we had time for one more game. This time the guy asked to play just me. So we racked them up and, I have to say, I went to town. I was crushing him. Then to my everlasting chagrine, I missed THREE shots in a row, two of which were on the 8 ball. *sigh* And he won. Ah well, it was still quite enjoyable.

We made it back to Atlanta around 2am or so. I don't recall much of the drive home, which I suppose I should as I was driving. However, I DO remember singing country at the top of my lungs, much to Josh and Andy's not-so-vaguely-displayed disapproval.

The next day or so were mostly uneventful. Until Monday afternoon, that is.

About 2pm I entered a poker tournament online with approximately 2500 people in it. About 7 or 8 grueling hours later, we were down to the final table, and soon thereafter the final four of the tournament, where we decided to make an even 4-way split of the winnings. We played out the rest of the tournament for formality's sake and also leaderboard points. After a few brief hands I took 1st.

WOOHOO. quite exhilarating.

Hmm... after that.... Ah yes.

Sadly, we were unable to see Leslie before we left Atlanta. Many sorrows. Hopefully we will make it through GA again and be able to rectify that.

Thursday afternoon we left Knicely's. His last words as we were leaving: "Hey, wait, I have A5 suited with about 5x the big blind, should I go allin?" I think we created a monster. No, actually he did say bye after that.

We're hot.

Rush hour traffic in Atlanta is HORRIBLE. yeah, Josh, i know, you told us that. Now we really know. it was crazy.

Our current place of residence? with Sara D and Ronnie at their new house. But more on that will have to come later, for my limbs grow weary and my attention wanes.

Dos vedanya.

sounds of praise

2007-03-10T17:12:00.000-05:00

here's a little tasty morsel to tide you over until we post something of substance.

Alabama 2

2007-03-09T16:29:00.000-05:00

Alrighty then. since Sam told the first part of the story it's up to me to tell the second. tho I don't use all the flowery language he does, it's the same info so deal with it. :P

Saturday morning, 11am. I wake up to Sam telling us it's a few minutes after 11 and that checkout ended at 11. we get out of there in about 2 minutes flat without any trouble. there's supposed to be a lunch group meeting at Silvertron. I think. it was something like that. it was an interesting place. our poor server had first 8 of us, and then steadily more until there were like 25 ppl trying to sit at one table. and then 2. I had rob sitting across from me, and beside him there was a young lady that I hadn't been introduced to yet. (later found out her name was Emily.) of course with so many people there are conversations going on all over the place so my attention is wandering. and then from across the table I hear "goulet". now if you don't know what that is then go get yourself educated. start with "Ferrell" and work from there. anyway, I did a double-take of course. not only do I never hear anyone outside my family say that, it was also Emily that said it, and I don't know one woman that is willing to use that term. needless to say, I was very impressed.

from there we headed over to the church even tho we still had a few hours to go. it was an pretty cool ceremony, short and sweet. wasn't quite my type as the pastor liked to add a bit of preaching into the service. and I hate that. if you go to marry people then marry them. preaching can be done on later dates. and those of you who disagree can take it up with me another time.

downstairs was there reception. they had approximately 26 cakes down there. tho I didn't count to be sure. simply amazing. we also noticed a suspiciously shaped gift for the bride and groom. I think it was a broomstick...I think it's best not to ask..let's just say I've never seen that side of Katy.

and there were delightful conversations and happenings that followed, too numerous to describe. there were some particularly interesting discussions with Toni, Barry, Emily, and Knicely. it was that or watch the dances so easy choice. :P then we all went outside to see them off. they left in a little grey Mini Cooper, (Rob's I believe,) and SOMEONE threw a handful of grapes through the open sunroof. we won't say who. but y'all can guess. it wasn't me.

at some point during the reception there was a decision made to go to an unspecified place downtown at an unspecified time with an unspecified number of people. that's literally all I know about it. ever so slightly confusing. so we drove back downtown where we went on Friday night and someone suggested we go to The Grape. bad choice. maybe it would have worked for a small group of people, and maybe if those people had actually wanted to drink wine, then MAYBE that would have been a good choice. but we had a lot of people, and not many wanted wine. and while they did have food, it was mostly cheeses and breads and things to compliment the wine. so lasted about 30 minutes and then left to go across the street to something something Grill. it was Brack and Julie, Josh, Sam, Leslie(female Will Ferrell,) and her daughter Kelsey, and myself. and of course, over the evening this group grew as well. we had a much better time here cause we could be rowdy and not feel bad. for example, at some point during the night Rob and Kat had a Walk-Off. ya know, Zoolander Style. I'm not actually sure who won that, they were both pretty good. Rob had it easier though because by the time he finished everyone from the surrounding tables was watching. so when Kat went she had half the restaurant watching.

and that's about all that happened. that I can remember. it's kinda blurry. the rest of the stuff is not stuff I can really say. after all, anyone can read this blog. oh and before I forget, a special thanks to Daniel Snyder. he knows why.

to finish this up we have a movie made by a guest director, Kelsey Jackson. she was a delight to be around and I'm glad Leslie brought her. (y'all excuse the way I act in this video, I tend to dumb myself down a bit around small children. and no jokes about my intelligence anyway. :P )

2007-03-07T16:14:00.000-05:00

What a delight it is

When I blow away the ash,

To watch the crimson

Of the glowing fire

And hear the water boil.

Tachibana Akemi

alabama 1

2007-03-06T14:04:00.000-05:00

Currently I do not recall what we did last friday, at least not early in the day. We decided to leave about 4pm or so for Mark and Katy's wedding in Alabama.

Of course, Josh wanted to take some shortcut or something over to I-20 through the backwoods. Skeptical as I was, and knowing full well we could get lost in the backwoods forever, we took the shortcut. And to his credit, we only made one or two wrong turns, and it did save us quite a bit of travel time.

After a fairly uneventful drive to Birmingham, well, if you don't count the accident which backed up traffic miles and miles on I20, and the semi-flat tire we had, and maniac that tried to run us over, we made it to the church where the rehearsal dinne/reception was being held. An hour to two early I might add.

There wasn't anyone there yet that we knew, besides Mr. Knicely (and im actualy referring to mr knicely here) that is, with whom we socialized out for some time discussing the finer points of appearing social without socializing, and also the joys just being plain anti-social.

Eventually people started arriving, and I was once again astounded at how many people Josh actually knows. Then more familiar faces began to straggle in. Adrian Cole, Mark and Katy, Liz, Brack and Julie, Emily, Rob.... David and Tiffany showed up fashionably late, Rebekah Palmer, then a few new faces.... Leslie Jackson, Daniel Snyder, and off the top of my head I cannot remember anymore. At least of those who were there Friday night.

Dinner was quite tasty. Chicken, potato salad, baked beans, grits, and cornbread muffiny thingies. With banana pudding for dessert. I heard rumor of some spiked banana pudding, but I'm unsure whether or not there is any truth to that.

We ate with Liz, and a couple other people who's names I dont remember... they were farther down the table. Across from us was Bonnie, and her sister whose name I do not remember. I only remember Bonnie's cuz I saw it in the program the next day. They were quite interesting folk. I dont think they were quite sure what to make of us three.

And then there was a movie all about Mark and Katy, and it was all nice and cute and sweet and thoughtful.... but in my humble opinion is was just a little too long. I kinda started getting bored. Im sorry, but its the truth. Then people got up and talked and cried and talked some more. Then they stopped.

After the festivities were over, tehGroup hung around for awhile chatting waiting for someone to make a decision. Now for the record, I have tried making decisions, but I have discovered through past experiences that my voice doesn't really carry much weight in that group so I have ceased such futile endeavours. Eventually they closed the church so we were forced to leave.

We decided to head back up into Birmingham to Five Points South or some such place. Not be confused with Little Five Points in Atlanta. And SOMEONE wanted sushi, so we ended up at some Japanese restuarant. Nothing on the menu really looked edible, so I orded the Ice Cream Trio. And the lady never asked me which flavors i wanted, something I neglected to realize, so I suppose she just guessed. I ended up with Vanilla, Ginger and Green Tea. Quite a diverse bunch of flavors. I ate them with chopsticks. Because on the chopsticks package it says you can pick up ANYTHING. So i was determined to use them for everything. It worked quite well actually.

I also tried some of Josh's sake. It wasnt bad. I didn't realize sake is served warm. It was quite interesting. But good.

And then it happened.

The sushi.

I DIDN'T ORDER IT.

But Andy and Josh were having some, and they put a piece of my plate. I didn't particularly WANT to partake but I figured I had to try it at least once.

So i picked it up with my chopsticks and proceeded to munch on my sushi, which incidentally was a Californa roll, supposedly a very americanized form of sushi and not TOO extremely flavorful. So I put it in my mouth and started chewing. Then I stopped chewing. And desperately tried to stop myself from throwing up all over the table. It was revolting. VILE. After a few moments, and some water, I managed to force it down.

I'm sorry, but sushi is disgusting. The taste not so much, although it wasn't too great. It was the texture! Absolutely gross.

After eating, we kinda disbanded for the night, and josh, andy, and I decided to find a cheap hotel room for the night rather than drive all the way back to atlanta. It took quite awhile too. We went to at least seven hotels before we found one with a vacancy. We found out later there were like 200 soccer teams in Birmingham over the weekend, so that could have been part of the problem. But we did find one finally.

We dropped Andy off, as he wanted to sleep, and Josh and I headed out to find a Waffle House. Which was not as easy as it sounds. We found one a few minutes later, but it was on the other side of the internet, so we took the exit there, which turned out NOT to lead to the waffle house. So we got to explore a few back roads near there and finally made it there. It was about 3 am now, and the Waffle House was overrun with ethnic not-so-minority minorities, but we didn't really care. As long as we came back out alive, who cares. Those waffles were tasty but they WERE filling.

I think I finally got to sleep around 6am or so, forgetting completely about the fact that you're supposed to leave BEFORE checkout time rather than after, and so the time I had set my alarm to wake up was exactly at checkout time. But that's another story for another day.

In the words of the great Tour Guide Barbie: Bye now!

Atlanta

2007-03-05T17:02:00.000-05:00

alright, we got a few days behind here, so I'm gonna try and start getting caught up.

thursday we drove down to atlanta to find something to do. we left pretty late in the afternoon so we were getting there well into the evening. about the time we got into the actual mid-town atlanta area the bottom dropped out of the sky. it was ridiculous, barely drivable. and it rained on and off for the rest of the night. we got into the area and then decided what we wanted to do. (kinda backwards, I know.) food sounded good, specifically pizza, so Knicely said Fellini's was good. at the time we're in Little Five Points, which is a town inside of Atlanta. everyone and their dog had said we had to go there, so we did. problem is, the Fellini's that Knicely remembers isn't here. so off we go in the rain, following Knicely's directions. (you'd think we would have learned. but no.) at this point I'm driving and I narrowly kill us lots and lots of times. sam and knicely are not happy. so we finally get there, and the pizza is pretty good, I think it was worth it.

after we ate same decided to take over driving. the plan was to go back to Little Five Points and get coffee and maybe go to a bookstore. so we had back, it's still raining on and off and we're still following Knicely's direction. and after all the complaining about my driving, now we see sam's not any better. at one point Knicely tells sam to turn left, and sam does, and we have 4 lanes of traffic coming at us on a 1-way road. thing is, sam didn't even realize it at first. then when the cars in our lane started flashing their lights at us, that's when he realized what was going on. eventually tho, we get back to Little Five only to find the coffee shop is closed. so off to the bookstore we go, to find it's closed too. so we just walked around and looked at the graffiti. which was pretty impressive, sadly I had left my camera in the car. I know, stupid. but if yall are ever in the atlanta area then check out Little Five Points. there wasn't much for us to do because at night all the fun is at places I can't get into, and we arne't active enough in the day to get there in time. but perhaps another time we'll see it in the day time.

something's brewing in gainesville

2007-03-01T05:15:00.000-05:00

Andy and I headed over to Gainesville to meet Sara D earlier today. Well, technically it was yesterday, now.

After another interesting set of directions from Josh, we finally made it to the Brenau University Campus around 3pm. The Trustee Library to be precise. We met a few of Sara's classmates and then she took us on a tour around the campus. Which, i must say, has some interesting art. As does the library for that matter. Imagine 2 human flamingo's making out. Yeah, thats what one of them looked like.

Following the tour of campus we headed downtown to casually scour the sights. There was statue of Old Joe. Very friendly fellow. In a ... quiet, immovable kind of way. We checked out a few shops around the square, and got some coffee at Cafe & Crepes. It might have been Coffee & Crepes. Or something. I'm sure about the crepes part of it though. And after some time, we came back there and actually ate some crepes. A first for me. I enjoyed the Aculpuco. or however the heck you say it. I'm too tired to go look it up. Anyway. It was tasty. Andy and Sara partook of the Southern... um... the Southern.... well, it was something southern. They partook seperately, of course.

Shortly after eating, we traversed back to the library, and from there made our way home. Following a shorter and much easier route than the one we came on.

Its thundering. I wonder if that means its going to rain. That would be delightful. Its been awhile since I saw a good thunderstorm.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, a couple of videos we made on the way to Gainesville shot by yours truly. Andy doesnt think so, but I think they're less shaky than his.

2007-02-26T01:43:00.000-05:00

I was out walking through the neighborhood earlier this evening, as I have done the past few evenings. The time was approaching 10:30, if I recall correctly. Quite dark.

The mutli-street jaunt was going quite well, the evening rather quiet. As I neared the bottom of a hill before ascending the other side... the street around me was suddenly lit with a bluish-white light. My first thought was that a car was coming down the hill behind me, so I moved to the side of the road to stay out of the way, and I happened to look up at the sky as I did.

I saw something bright moving across the sky through the trees. A plane. The thought that followed on the heels of that one was that it was far too bright to be the lights on a plane, and the light was too close and moving FAR too rapidly for it to be a plane. And there was no sound. My next thought was that its movements resembled a bird more than a plane. But most birds are not equipped with very bright lights. Or if they were, they surely would not have been able to move that fast so burdened down.

Hmm, I thought. Maybe I just imagined it. Light reflecting off something. Who knows.

Hmm, I thought again. But the light was not from a car, for there WAS no car behind me. And for a car to illuminate the road where I was it would have had to be coming DOWN the hill towards me. And no car was, nor had been, nor was there any place for such a vehicle to turn off. The sound of a such a vehicle was absent as well.

Now that my brain was firing on a few more cylinders than normally required for just a walk, I realized there was something odd about the light that up until now I had assumed was from a car, and conjured up again the image of the light on the ground which I had just seen scarcely a few moments ago.

There had been shadows of branches in the light cast upon the road.

Therefore logically the light HAD come from the sky.

Knights of Columbus!

What HAD I seen? I am sure it was no plane. Nor a shooting star. A shooting star could possibly account for what I saw in the sky but NOT the light on the ground. Whatever it was, it was quite bright and moved quite fast.

I leave the drawing of conclusions to you, dear readers.

For L and MB.... later homes. (physical representation of said greeting ensues)....... ( oww, now my chest hurts)

circle in the square

2007-02-25T18:13:00.000-05:00

I love this place. downtown marietta. it's amazing, and I'm going to miss it. the people here are awesome. I've never felt so welcome by complete strangers. and I say it's downtown marietta, but it's really the coffee shop, and the square behind it. inside and out, it's one my favorite places on earth. that I've come across so far. I don't want to leave. but before long I'll have too. I do hope to come back tho.

today I woke up late, again. it's a habit now. get to get rid of it. I showered, and decided to come back here. I was hoping to find the circle. that's what I've taken to calling it. the circle in the square. I love it. it's the circle of people that makes this place what it is. it's specifically the group at the far left table, in the square out back. justin, brian, tom, megan, nicole, stephen, patrick, and so many others. too many to count. I can't remember their name. they make up the circle tho. and that's what I came looking for today.

I hadn't been here 20 minutes when justin walked in. I was inside, but he forgave me. see, the circle doesn't come inside. they might walk thru for coffee, but they're separate from the inside ppl. justin said it was ok that I was inside tho, cause I'm not from around here. I'll learn. ;)

I head outside with him, grabbing coffee on the way out. the wind is a bit chilly and I want something to warm me up a bit. they've got a chess board and brian and some dude who's name I never learned are finishing up a game. justin and tom are next. apparently this is a tradition that's lasted all year at least, countless games between tom and justin. and I must say, it was a pretty exciting game. but in the end, tom took it down. not that y'all care. but I do.

at some point during the game, I meet megan. she's pretty cool, she hears my name, and that I'm from texas and asks me if I'm the film dude. apparently I'm famous. already. I feel all warm and fuzzy. :P
yeah, I'm the film dude. Andy the movie maker. hah! if she had seen the clips I've filmed she prolly wouldn't call me that.

as the evening progresses the circle shrinks. it's down to 4. then justin leaves, and then brian and man who's name escapes me head out. I feel guilty but I head inside to write this up. the wind is a bit too cold, the chairs too hard, to be out there without company. but I'm not too guilty, cause I know that no matter how many times I do this, the circle won't hold it against me.

working man...not really.

2007-02-23T20:40:00.000-05:00

today was a fun day. since yesterday I had explored downtown, today I went back with some thoughts on a little project I wanted to do. my plan was to go to businesses in the downtown square, and volunteer for the day. I would walk in, ask to speak to a manager, and then explain what I was doing. it's a project I'm working on, I'm a volunteer for the day. I'm going around and asking for work, so if you've got work for 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours. whatever. I'll take out trash, I'll clean bathrooms. whatever you have for me to do.

I got downtown about 1pm or so. it was interesting seeing the different reactions. I went to about 15 places, after that I got to where I could tell if someone was a definite no, or possibly might listen. most of the people I talked to didn't listen. almost before I stopped talking they'd say no thanks. almost like I was a used car salesman. but the few people that DID listen, and heard what I was saying were amazing. one of those conversations would go like this:

me explain what I'm doing.
them: so you're volunteering?
me: yes.
them:why?
me:because no one else does.
them:how many of you are there?
me:just me.
them:what cause are you doing this for?
me:I'm not doing it for any cause.
them:why would you do that tho?
me:cause no one does it. so I want to.
them:that's amazing. I've never heard of anything like this. this is incredible.

it was fun. out of the 15 places or so I went, only 3 of them were open to what I was doing. and only 1 let me work. the first place I went, Marietta Pizza Co, had a very nice manager who listened to all I said, but then took it to the owner who said they didn't have anything for me. at the second place, Blimpie's Subs and Salads, I talked to the owner, Bernie. after it taking forever to explain what I was doing, and for him to get over his amazement, he put me the to work. the only person to do it. he had me clean his windows, which were filthy. after a while, I had the semi-clean, and he was getting really busy so I left and told him i might come back later. he said he'd have more for me if I did.

the rest of the places said no, I did come across one fairly nice place where I explained everything and the lady got really excited, said it was really cool, and I was her savior. she said she had lots I could do. then she went into the back to explain it to the manager, and she came back and said by law, they couldn't let me work there. I'm not sure what law that is, or how it works. but she said she was sorry she couldn't use me. oh well.

after walking around for a few hours, it was getting near 4 probably. so I headed back to the car, drove around, went to a cemetery for soldiers, got some interested pictures there. and then I decided I wanted to film this coffee shop I had been to several times, Cool Beans. so I headed back there, walked thru it filming, and outside to where some tables are. then I walked around for a bit more, just looking around again.

about this time there was a group of 5 ppl sitting around a table outside the coffee shop. there always seemed to be groups like that, whenever I went. anyway, as I walked by the group, they noticed my camera, and a guy asked me if I needed something to film. he invited me to sit down, introduced me to the group, and offered me a cigarette. as much as I appreciated the gesture, I did turn him down on that. ;)

I found out his name is Justin, and his friends are Nicole, Stephen, Brian, and Patrick. and they hang outside the back of the coffee shop almost everyday. they were all smoking, and offering them to anyone that walked up. Justin seemed to know every other person walking by, seemed like he had been around a long time. so we talked about random and assorted subjects for quite sometime, just going on about everything and nothing. after a while Stephen left, and then Patrick. they then decided to show me "The Hole" which was this cement..hole.. in the middle of the square. it held like a generator or something, and there was shrubs all around it so you wouldn't notice. seemed like a cool place to hang out. and then they remembered a tree that was famous, and I HAD to see. it's a tree shaped like a rather inappropriate part of the male anatomy. it was a few minutes away by car, so we hopped in Nicole's car, and went to visit it. it was rather...graphic.. but I had a good time with them. after that they went back to the coffee shop, and I headed back here.I do hope to go back and see them more in the future. they're pretty cool people.

so that's my day. in short. tho it's not ended yet. who knows what could happen now. but I'm satisfied with what happened. can't ask for a much better day this that.

here's a tiny vid. the group of ppl, and a clip of the cement hole. the sound wouldn't load for the last part tho. oh well.

yeah.....

2007-02-23T02:31:00.000-05:00

Knicely is crazy.

walking

2007-02-22T19:25:00.000-05:00

today I went to go meet a manager from the local starbucks but once again, he wasn't there. so i went and walked downtown. awesome day outside. I forget the name of the city. starts with an M. anyway, walked around for a few hours. spent some time in the coffee shop we visited a while back. Cool Beans. still like that place. anyway, hope to go back tomorrow. we'll see. y'all know you'll hear about it.

permeations of yellow

2007-02-21T23:57:00.000-05:00

Andy already covered most of whats been going on lately quite well. Except for the big lady in lime green at Bailey's. But we won't talk about that.

The weather has been quite nice for the last couple days. I took a walk around the neighborhood earlier. It was dark so there's wasn't too much to see. Now, I don't know about y'all but sometimes even the little things can make me hungry. Like getting the mail, for instance. You wouldn't think that walking out to the mailbox could make someone hungry but I think it can. So me being the thoughtful guy that I am, I left a suprise for one house in the form of a peanut butter cracker in their mailbox. Hope they're hungry.

late night GA

2007-02-21T18:19:00.000-05:00

yesterday. was too tired to write this last night. now got to remember it all. it starts around 7:30pm, where the fun start. the rest of the day was ho-hum, the everyday stuff that you can read about on other blogs. we don't write about that stuff here. not that what we do is amazing, just that if you want to read what we ate for breakfast you can go to myspace. there are thousands of people there writing on just that topic.

so here we are, it's 7:30. josh and sam are playing pool. the air smells like smoke because it IS smoke. we're in bailey's bar and pub, which to me should be the same thing, but I don't get to choose the name. 2 middle aged men play at the pool table next to us, smoking cigars larger then hotdogs. the waitress is friendly, later I'll find out that they all are. bailey's has got a good staff there.

we're hear for one of our favorite vices. not drinking, nor smoking, nor pool. not even women. we're here for poker. of course. why else would we leave the sanctuary of josh's room, the welcoming fumes which come billowing out when you open the door. home for now. we've left there because there's a poker game going on, and we want in.

at 8 we're seated, there's barely enough room for the approximately 130 people sitting to play poker. there's no room to move, not that you need to. focus on the table that's all. from time to time I look for the others, josh is sitting at a table over my right shoulder, looking very serious. I can't find sam, tho I late spot him 2 tables to my right. can't see how he's doing yet. I start off fine, build up some chips, feeling good. good, but too excited. my 2nd time to play live, I can't stop my knee from bouncing. I hope the table can't see it. the young lady to my left often looks to her husband for help. she seems nice, if a bit too timid for the game. her husband annoys me, tho I shouldn't let it bother me. he's non-stop talking, saying he knows what I have, and when I have it. sometimes he guesses right, sometimes not. I know he doesn't know, but I can't seem to block his ramble out. doesn't bother me too much tho.

I'm out now. it's been probably 30 minutes. maybe 45. I lost track. I can't remember when we started. or what time it is now. I was the first out of the 3. my play wasn't' what it should have been. I'll learn and won't do it next time. sam and josh are still playing. I'm going for a walk, and to get some food out of the car.

we're down to 2 tables. I've been back and watching for about an hour. only 3 people get paid. not money tho, just bar money for baileys. we're not playing for the prize, just the win.
sam's out. 15th. his AK vs T8. the girl hit a straight. that burns a bit.
josh is out a bit later. 12th. forget what he had. good showing by both of them tho.

we're heading to a diner. a classic one, like you see in pictures. inside we go to the far left side, and our waiter comes. I have water, sam and josh get coffee. we order, just a milkshake for me tho. he repeats my order to me, a milkshake right? yes. 10 minutes later the food comes for josh and sam. our waiter confirms I wanted a chocolate milkshake. I say yes. another 5 minutes, he brings me water, and them coffee. assures me that the milkshake is on the way. finally it comes out, over flowing. it's his first one. he's new. taste pretty good tho. sam trying to hide laughter. I look behind me to see why. and regret it. there's a woman that's the better half of a african elephant. the back half, if you were wondering. I'd say she was walking away from us, but I'm not sure you can call it walking. I look away before she sits down, I can't stand to see what the will happen to the chair.
we order dessert. it's cheesecake. I love cheesecake. chocolate moose. :P I know, it's not moose. but if I want to call it moose, it's my right to misspell words on my own blog. we asked the waiter how big the pieces were and he shows us with his hands. only he keeps making it bigger. apparently the piece grows while we eat it. it comes and he was right. it's 4 inches tall. well, maybe not that big but close. quite huge. I eat as much as I can, but can't take much at all. sam eats most of it, not sure how tho. we're all full.
I ate too much. the food earlier, while I was waiting for sam and josh, plus my appox. 14 glasses of water, plus my milkshake, plus a quarter of sams cheeseburger, plus a few fries, plus some of the cheesecake. I walk to the door, and almost throw up. stupid me. another day. more new experiences.

Another day, more people.

2007-02-18T03:30:00.000-05:00

today we woke up late. again. we're working on that. headed out to meet Sara Dzimianski.in Athens, about 2 hours away. it's feels like a long drive, most of it's at 80mph. just keeping up with normal traffic tho. nothing abnormal here. the drive is set to Knicely's life soundtrack. he's picked the music since we arrived in Georgia, and I can't complain. lots of jazz and blues. I don't mind at all.

We miss her road. pull into a small roadside diner, and fishtail in the gravel. and old couple in their Sunday best gives us dark looks as the spray of gravel narrowly misses their car. I don't think Knicely or Sam notice.

We pull up in her drive way, there's a gate. and a sign, which reads something about vicious dogs, do not open, honk and wait. it sounds serious. Knicely tells me to open the gate. why me? I'm in the backseat, SAM should be doing it. but no, it's me. they tell me to watch out for the dog, and drive through as soon as I get the gate open, not waiting for me. I walk to the house, there doesn't seem to be any dogs. (later in the day I'll meet the dog. it's actually a small bear. white. I like it.)

we meet Sara D. she's pretty cool. we go see her goats, who stand up to meet us and release their bowels. interesting way of greeting. we also meet the lady she lives with, Linda. more on her later.

we head out to find dinner, but first we stop by her friends house. Bo and Carrie. these 2 ppl are awesome. I am blown away. they're first of all hobbits. this is not meant as an insult in anyway. it has nothing to do with their height. but they're hobbits. their house is Bag End. I love it. it feels safe. and it feels very underground. even tho it's not. and Carrie laughs and smiles, and BO has a library of old books and stories. everything about them reminds me of hobbits. they're human, down-to-earth. Bo's an Episcopalian priest. I really liked him, and wish I could attend one of his sermons. sadly 2 hours is a bit far to drive. but I do hope to meet them again someday.

from there we went to meet Sara's fiancee, Ronald.(or Ronny.) he appears to be a good ol' boy. he has a really strong southern accent. makes you think he's a redneck. but ya can't judge a ship by it's glass walls. or whatever the saying is. Ronald tells us he has over 13,000 books, and Sara later tells me he's read most of them. he's well educated, knowledgable about philosophy, great people skills. a really neat guy. just got to look past first appearance.

after dinner we head downtown, walk around, find a coffee shop, taste the local brand, and decide we're not in the mood for acting big, so we head back to Sara's house. there we meet Linda again. she's making herself peanut butter on graham crackers. she says something about the recall of peanut butter, and how she's taking a risk. as she puts the jar away she suddenly remembers that she has a whole jar of salmonella, and offers us some. I think what's in my peanut butter is enough and decline. I like her sense of humor tho. she's not at all what I expected. she's opinionated and very intelligent. Sara and Sam go watch TV while Knicely and I sit at the table and talk with her. we discuss government, war, Iraq, Vietnam, and several other topics which escape my mind. we move the the porch so she and Knicely can smoke. she talks more, and we learn she was a paramedic, her husband worked for the Department of Defense, and they traveled alot overseas. she talks about the area that she lives in, and it's history. eventually the cold starts to get to us, and we head in to join sara and Sam. after a while we realize it's pretty late, and so we head home. and that's my day. no amazing activities, just incredible people.

Kennesaw - day one

2007-02-16T23:15:00.000-05:00

Slept til about 12 or 1. Got up, met Josh's sister Rebekah. She seems pretty cool. Had some tea, hot chocolate... showers.... (seperately)... all the normal things people do in strange cities with new people.

After a bit, we headed out with Josh to a coffee shop called Cool Beans. Pretty sweet place. Free wifi. Got some coffee, sat out back and discussed many important things such as politics, school, and the purpose of belly-dancers. OK, maybe not the belly-dancer thing. And maybe I didn't talk that much. I mostly listened to Josh and Andy talk. I did throw a few cents in here and there. Then the cold set in and we moved inside. Perused through a copy of Creative Loafing I believe it was called. Quite an interesting bit of reading about all the current happenings around here.

Bit of interest for at least one of you readers... Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were performing this evening, in Atlanta I think. But it was like 4pm by then, and it just wouldnt have been tooo feasible. Gonna try to hit the music scene in the next couple days maybe though.

So then we decided to head over to..... not sure of the name of the park but its where Kennesaw Mountain is. So we went hiking to the top of that. AWESOME views from up there.

But Josh just got back with some Chinese takeout, so I have to finish this later....

Sweet moses. Chinese takeout. crazy. we had rice, sesame chicken, fried dumplings, and beef and broccoli. wow. very interesting food. I'm not much for chinese, but this was pretty good. except that I could NOT get the food to stay on my freaking chopsticks!!! ok, so this WAS my first time using chopsticks, but I didn't realize it was gonna so hard. All I was trying to do was pick up some rice... but NOOOO, my chopsticks start moving out every stinking direction. They were actively working against me. Josh and Andy were on their second helpings, and here I am trying to get my third bite of rice. I finally got the hang of it, though. sorta. not really. But I never resorted to a fork. I should get points for perseverance or something at least.

Ok, where was I?

Ah, yes, Kennesaw Mountain. Pretty sweet I have to say. Where Sherman got destroyed, as Josh informed us. The man seems knowledgeable about a great many things. So we moved on to Little Kennesaw i think it was called, and then Pigeon Hill? Can't remember. Something like that. Scenery was awesome. But what was amazing was how quiet it was there. I mean, we were like in middle of town, granted its a big park, but still, it was cool. No sounds except for planes passing over. Quite relaxing.

Finally, we decided to head back, as the sun was setting, and we had been out long enough to have missed most of rush hour traffic. Took the long way back, around the bottom of the mountain. Got back to the visitor center around 6:45 or so, fairly dark. We figured we'd be the last people out, as the park was probably closing soon.

As we came to find out, the park was ALREADY closed, and everyone, even the employees were gone and all the roads were gated. So we couldn't drive out. And there were no other roads leading out of the park.

Sort of a dilemma we found ourselves in, as you can imagine. Here we are. Daylight's gone, and so are all the people. We have our car, but no way out. The road is closed off by a big iron gate, and there are big wooden fences around the edge of the property.

We searched along the fence near the front gate, trying to see if there was another way to get out. It turns out the fence stopped on one side, near where the woods started, in a deep gully. But whether or not the car could make it up such a steep incline was questionable. And the traffic on the road was pretty heavy.

We considered the option of calling someone to come get us. Or getting out ourselves.

We decided to go for it. Josh and Andy decided to wait there, figuring the less weight in the car the better.

First, I had to jump the curb to get out of the parking lot, and got it into position near the road. All done without the lights so as not to attract unwanted attention. And all the time hoping no cops happened by.

Finally the traffic let up for a bit, I flicked the lights on, drove down the enbankment from the parking lot, slowed as I neared the road, and gunned it up the incline, trying to stay away from the really steep part, and at the same time not hit the fence. I really didn't want to flip the car over on top of the fence.

Thankfully I made it without incident, and pulled back around for Andy and Josh. Definitely made the hike worth it. My retelling doesn't really do it justice, but here's the video Andy shot of it. It was dark on my computer but, for some reason its like totally black on YouTube. It's almost not worth putting on here cuz you cant see anything. oh well.

Now to let the chinese food settle, and to watch the Illusionist. My second time, Josh and Andy's first.

Tennessee to Georgia

2007-02-16T21:36:00.000-05:00

Before heading out of Memphis, we ate lunch with Mr. Trimble and Daniel at the Tasty Buffet. A Mongolian BBQ Sushi Bar. Quite an interesting place. Odd assortment of food. But it WAS tasty. And they had ice cream and jello, too. Can't go wrong with that.

Drove up through Nashville, and down to Chatanooga. I'm really not sure if that's spelled right or not, but i'm too lazy to look it up. And its not really that important to this post.

We stopped at the Lookout Mountain in Chatanooga to check out the view, even though it was like 9pm. Here's a video Andy made:

After that we headed downtown to find a cafe Knicely told us about.

And we looked. and looked. and looked some more. and it wasnt there. (Turns out it was on the other side of the river) So finally we gave up, and parked and walked over to another restaurant he had told us about. It closed like 5 minutes before we got there. So we walked over to ANOTHER restuarant we had seen while looking for the other one. It turned out to be a bar.

So we left, and got Taco Bell on the way to Knicely's. Had about an hour to go.

Now, may I state for the record, that Josh is... well... not the best at giving directions.

So we take the exit, which i'm still not sure is the one we were supposed to take. Because the one I think if we had taken the NEXT one, we would have been on the one Josh meant. Anyway, we finally figured out which road to get on after we turned off I-75. Then I think that was the one we were supposed to follow til it dead-ended. Except that when we got to a red light, the road that kept going straight was a different name than the one we were one. So is this what he meant by dead-ended? I mean, its not a dead-end, the road keeps going obviously, but its a different road.

You get the idea. This went on for at least half an hour. But we DID finally make it. And stayed up half the night talking to Josh. I went to bed about 2 or after. Andy said he didnt go to bed til 6 or something. Anyway. That's all for this post.

random bits.

2007-02-16T21:13:00.000-05:00

Alrighty. finishing up any thoughts on Memphis. it is of course, sam's birthplace. and he made some ridiculous claims to "remember" certain things, tho he was less then a year old when my family left...but whatever makes him feel special...
we stayed with Jim, Marilyn, and their daughter Joy. they were very hospitable, and we might even stop by again, if the opportunity presents itself. we met Keith, their neighbor, and on tuesday, Kimberly, (a young woman from their church,) joined us for dinner. they both were pretty cool. we also got to see the Trimbles' son, Daniel. the city itself didn't amaze me, seemed too much like texas. I didn't feel like we were out of Texas until east Tennessee.

couple of random notes on the drives. on the one between Lufkin - Memphis we drove through a town with an awesome name. Arkidelphia, AR. that's an awesome name for a town.

and between Memphis - Atlanta:

a billboard from Jesus.

I LOVE YOU.
COME TO KNOW ME.
(signed, in cursive,)
Jesus Christ

in georgia, they're always looking for ways to let the common man make some money.
often along the highway we'd come across signs that looked like this:

$1000.00
Throwing
Trash On
Highway

(if you have a magnifying glass, you could see the little writing that talks about the fine.)

and lastly, a billboard advertising an unusual gas station. we came upon the "Adult Food and Fuel Store." that's right folks, x-rated fuel...what is this world coming too.....

small update

2007-02-16T15:43:00.000-05:00

Memphis. Dreary. gloomy as they come. or rather, it's the weather that's made it like this. it's been grey and wet all day. harder to concentrate on my thoughts in the rain. too cold. rain feels like ice, tho it's not. we woke up late. showered, ate, and headed out to find Daniel, the son of the people we're staying with. at a bike shop 2 blocks away there's a shaggy face, an unshaven hippy boy that has hair that goes down and out, mostly out tho. he lets us know there's nothing to do in memphis but working and biking. there's probably more then this, but this is all he has for us so far. we eat a burrito in a shop that's trying to look like mexico. the burrito reminds me of a small landmine, so tightly packed that one bite could result in a small explosion of pulverized chicken and lettuce fragments. delicious tho. we drive him back to work and head to the University of Memphis. there we come across the building being demolished. which is interesting to watch, tho the breeze keeps it a bit too cold to stand still for long. also the crew seemed to be using a ball that was too small. they weren't getting much done. after watching that for a good while, we head out to look for wireless internet, returning about 1 hour or so later without having found any. we had heard a few places that should have it, but none of them did. (if anyone knows any, let us know. we tried starbucks and best buy and neither worked.) back at U of M, we found the library to huddle down in. it's a simply horrid day out. stinging rain and biting wind, and all that. no time to be exploring. I settle down on the 3rd floor to read On The Road by Jack Keroac, Sam's off whoknowswhere looking on other subjects. after that we check the demolition again, but it's slowed down, the wrecking ball no longer at work. we head home for dinner with the Trimbles.

oh, a couple of notes. as far as videos go, I know they make you dizzy. you try filming with a tiny camera in below 30 degrees weather. it's hard. but I'll work on it.

that and some of you may get that these updates are sometimes a few days late. I write them when I can, then post them as soon as possible. sometimes that's not for a day or two. sorry.

Demolition

2007-02-16T13:04:00.000-05:00

Another sight we encountered on the UM campus, an old building being demolished. (here sam leaves to take a shower, and andy takes over the post.) it's the simple things in life, and this was pretty simple. but interesting enough for us to stay and watch.

At that rate of demolition, that building will still be standing in the year 2010. I swear, i don't know if the guy in the crane was an idiot or what, but he was accomplishing nothing. Maybe they needed a bigger wrecking ball or something. Or heck, just implode the dang building.

2007-02-14T16:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we were walking on the University of Memphis campus and we came upon a strange and wonderful machine.

anyone with half a brain can recognize this as a creation of septimus bean. or if you don't know the name, go get the book.

if you've never read Septimus Bean and His Amazing Machine, then pull up your favorite online book store and order it. or maybe check and see if your library has it. however you do it, you should read the book.

a bit more

2007-02-13T23:05:00.000-05:00

memphis. rainy and cold. we were putting off going north cause it's too cold there. what a stupid idea. it's freezing cold here and this is the south! oh well.

our vehicle of choice. buick.

and here's a random rest stop right outside of texarkana, right before we went to AR. it was pretty neat, it had free wireless internet.

First Leg

2007-02-13T11:56:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally managed to get out of lufkin around 1:30, amidst a torrential downpour. But packing the car in such weather ended up with everything just thrown in where it could fit. But at least we didn't forget anything. That we know of yet.

Here's a video we made as we were leaving Lufkin.

So we made it up through the great state of arkansas and into tennessee. The whole trip from Lufkin to Memphis only took about 8 hours. not too bad, considering Yahoo Maps said it would take like 11:10. But what do they know.

Stayed up late talking to Jim and Marilyn, and their next-door neighbor Keith. They're interesting folk. Should be here a day or two, then heading to Atlanta.

NOTE: Andy says to remind all kids not to talk when you're eating. Very rude.

prep work

2007-02-12T01:04:00.000-05:00

packed today. and yesterday. but more today. short notice as we're leaving tomorrow. oh well. sam said we should put the food and ice chest in the back seat so we could eat on the road. I disagree, suggesting if it's in the trunk then we're forced to stop to eat...and seeing as we're in no rush to get anywhere, a reminder to take our time should help. sam thinks about this, and announces he has a better idea. he says we should put the food and ice chest in the trunk, so we'll be forced to stop to eat. I decide to let him get away with this.

as always, I'm writing in the middle of something. we've just stopped for food for a going away party tonight. (somewhat small, I think it's gonna be like 8 people or something.) walmart is especially busy at this time on a sunday. and unusually happy. usually I find walmart kinda depressing. today there are people laughing, and smiles everywhere. but then again, it's not unexpected, it IS the Lord's day today. ;) I almost laughed out loud at a girl that looked to be about 7 years old. she was extremely busy talking on her headset for her cell phone. starting a bit young, but what do I know.

as we're leaving tomorrow, I have been thinking alot about our trip and what we'll need, what we'll do and so on. but while I've had plenty of thoughts, I haven't had so many feelings. for some reason my thoughts and emotions are separate on this issue. could be a good thing tho. not sure. nevertheless, the only feeling that has fought it's way to the outside is a slight sense of apprehension. there's so much unknown I can't help it. but I think that's what life is all about so I'm not put off by it.

got to run now. or rather, knowing me, amble...I never run. there's things to do, food to prepare. people to see. and so on.

here's a quote I've been thinking on. if you have any thoughts on it let me know.

"How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?" -The Motorcycle Diaries

testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.

2007-01-23T20:01:00.000-05:00

Hmm, I shall have to work on this blogging. I should prolly get it done while I'm on the road. or at the very least soon after, while it's fresh in my mind. if I put it off then who knows if I'll do it at all, like this entry.
back to the subject. sam and myself decided to go to San Antonio for the weekend. for 2 reasons. #1, we could see friends. #2, it would work as a trial run for our larger trip, even tho really they're not much alike. but at least we'll be on the road for 2 days, and can see if we see anything major that we'll need to work on or bring.

We left friday, around 10 or 11 I think. I forget, I think we say the time in the video. I think it was about 5 1/2 hours. Sam drove the way, as I shouldn't have to be subject to that sort of silly menial labor. we first met for lunch with philip and his girlfriend alex at a place called Flip.

allow me to talk about Flip for just one second. very interesting place. I liked it tho. very modern feeling, they've got a wall separating the front area from back where the tables are, (tho it's really just 1 big room,) and the wall's just a metal grid with thos big water bottles they put in offices. it looks rather odd, and it kinda funny. and then one wall has all these mirrors at all sorts of angles. it's a really neat decor. and there's a stage in the corner, so it seemed possible they have live music, which is awesome. the food itself wasn't mad either, kinda expensive. hamburgers mostly, fries too, but you have to buy them all separately, and it's rather expensive. but quite good, imo. and then last of all, they have free wireless internet, which is damn cool. not too many places have that. had a great ambiance, and I wouldn't mind going back. the food wasn't overly amazing, but it was good enough, and the rest of the place makes it worth it.

anyway, we hooked up with our friends, Kelci, Lisa, Mary-Beth, and Nikki, and went bowling. I of course had money on the games, and sadly lost. while insisting she's no good, Mary-Beth actually beat everyone both games. and to beat sam at bowling is pretty good if you don't bowl much. he's no pro, but better then the average player. so that was nice to see, tho it cost me a bit.

I have to take a brief break from my narrative to mention 2 things. I'm currently writing this in the lobby of a tire shop, waiting for some repairs on the car to be finished. I have just noticed 2 beautiful hawks circling the gas station outside. I love how hawks look. pretty cool. and also, they have a TV that happens to be set on the cartoon network. everyone else in the room is ignoring it, prolly as it's too childish for them. but I can't believe how good Tom and Jerry is. what classics. this episode has them fighting in a bowling alley. hilarious. everyone should be able to enjoy a good Tom and Jerry.

anyway, after bowling we went to get a bit to eat, then went to bed, next morning met at the mall, strolled a bit, then went to Lisa's place for some games. about 11 pm we headed back home. took I-10 back to houston, then I-45 around to 59 to home. not as pretty as the drive we took on the way there, but way easier. I put it on cruise, started a movie on my laptop in the floorboard, and just phased out. just me and a few 18-wheelers on the road. not bad at all.

so that was our test trip. we didn't see anything too major that needed to be fixed. we need to take more pictures, that's something we didn't think about. we'll have to work harder on the state of our car, because it's quite messy. and also I have the feeling I personally might even need to write down what I'm spending money on. I've never been too terrible at money management, but I have the feeling this trip is gonna be tighter then I'm used to.

here's the vid.

getting closer

2007-01-10T18:53:00.000-05:00

the time is approaching. but with lack of work lately, it's looking tight. but I can handle tight.