Philly bucket list

If only I hadn’t gotten so lost in a meandering way, if only I hadn’t stopped to get something to drink, if only I hadn’t swung by Ross to get a replacement pair of cheap flats…I may have gotten to my car 11 minutes earlier and not gotten the $36 parking ticket for the expired meter! Damn Philadelphia, I was liking you but your parking is ridiculous and expensive. The downside of city visiting: gotta pay if you wanna park near & safe. Oh well. Could be worse. Philly is nice. Has a lot going on and tons of museums. I spent all day today just at ONE museum and there was still more I could see. Tomorrow I’ll go to the Mutter and get that Philly cheese steak, and then that is that. I’m staying with Kathryn, one of Celia’s friends. She is out of town for a bit of my stay, but I can still stay here! How nice is that? Very nice. I’ve also met her daughter Clare and her son Eamon. Their house is very nice, with tons of pretty rugs and nice tapestry on the couches and monkey wallpaper in one of the bathrooms. I love seeing all these houses.

It was an easy drive out here from Marietta, though I did have to pay a toll, though not the costliest of tolls. I sat at the house and hung with Clare and Eamon for a while, before heading downtown. I went to Reading Terminal Market, which was a block of food stalls under one roof. Tons of restaurants of all sorts, and the place smelled great. Very hustle and bustle. I eventually decided on artisanal grilled cheese. A brie and pine nut and cranberry grilled cheese. It was so good. And I finished it off with some fudge. I then wandered down to Mostly Books, a used book shop with other used stuff. I rifled through the antique photos. I sweated. And as I mentioned, after all my wandering and shopping I returned to my car just a bit too late.

I didn’t linger in the evening. I just went back to the house and showered and chatted and tucked into bed early. Big day tomorrow!

All day was spent at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was HUGE with a massive collection of essential fine art. I parked in their lot and used my Olympic College ID to get student discount. I peeled off the “fall 2011” sticker first. I have my PNCA ID, but I look younger in that. If I’m going to cheat the system, I might as well use the less obvious cheat. And it worked! Hurray!

I started with the prints and drawings. They had some WPA prints which were lovely, even if their registration wouldn’t have passed my standards. Then I went into the American Art section. I totally missed The Gross Clinic on the first go around, but I returned to it at the end of the day. Yes. The. Gross. Clinic. By Eakins. I’ve seen so much fine art in person now. And some of it was stuff I’ve seen when it was on tour at Portland Art Museum. I saw Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the European Art wing. Saw a bunch of Winslow Homer, who I didn’t know existed till now but damn I love him. In the Modern and Contemporary Art wing I saw a massive Alex Katz, instantly recognizable out of the corner of my eye.

The museum had the mandatory women artists: Alice Neel, Mary Cassat, Judith Leyster, and Berthe Morisot.

Duchamp had his amazing section at the end of the wing. I grabbed a selfie with Nude Descending Staircase. I think Duchamp would approve. There was The Bride Stripped Bare by her Grooms, Even in all its shattered glory. And a recreation of R. Mutt. And just tons of stuff I’ve seen in art books, but there! I didn’t know they had that much in one spot, but damn there it was. And Etant Donnes was there. Duchamp’s final piece. 20 years of work. It’s an installation that you have to approach. There are these bar doors and you peek through a hole in the door and you are looking at a reclining nude woman holding a glass lamp. It’s a sculpture in the scene, though as much as you lean over, you can’t see her face. And the figure is laying on a bed of sticks and the whole scene is painted in the background. It’s a bit pervy, amplified by having to peep at the art. I learned about this piece years ago and knew I’d have to see it one day. Philadelphia has been on my list for ages. Seeing this piece was on my bucket list. Was. I’m accomplishing on this trip things I’ve wanted to accomplish for so long. I’ll have a short bucket list when I’m done. I still can’t believe I’ve seen it, though I was pressed against that door for a good long while, gawking.

There is a Picasso Minotaur print exhibit. That was nice. I do like his line work and intuition. And a photography exhibit devoted to the use of flash in the medium. At the Perelman Building was a Patrick Kelly exhibit with lots of his fashion on display. Utterly delightful! I was starting to flag but getting outside and eating a bagel got a bit of pep in my step for the last leg of it. The museum was open late, but my energy ran out at 5. 6 hours!

But I’m not even done talking about the art that I saw. You see why I’m so tired? I like to take my time and look. There was a kid who powered through the Eakins gallery just snapping a picture of each painting and moving on, not even looking. And there was a cluster of loud German tourists. And a kid that was whining to his mom and wanted to go, even though it was like… noon so the kid couldn’t have been there long. Brat!

Saw an epic Rubens. The galleries have some exhibits that are set up like old rooms. Old Flemish rooms, Dutch rooms, Victorian rooms. So you can see some of the stuff in context instead of behind glass. I saw Frans Hals and a Vermeer, which was authenticated because the canvas came from the same bolt of cloth that another Vermeer was painted on. That is s ome CSI shit right there.

Here is a list of artists I made note of: Antonio Fransconi, Alfred Bendier, Jacob Eichholtz, Winslow Homer, Sir Frederick Leighton, Charlemont, Vuillard, Kay Sage Tanguy, Noel Mahaffey, Kamisaka Sekka, Collin Son(Sun?), and George Stubbs.

I feel like I’m forgetting something. But damn it was an epic wander of art. I got back to the house at 6 absolutely pooped. Now I’m just going to chill. Tomorrow: Mutter & Cheese Steak. And then probably more chilling. And then Sunday will take me to New Jersey. Taking my time. Eight weeks! I keep forgetting to reset my odometer, but I’m not putting on too many miles these past few days, so it shouldn’t throw the next two weeks count all that much.

Pennsylvania

Eight weeks on the road! I'll reset my odometer before I head out this morning, but I think I've been rocking 45mpg this past stretch. I've got less than 2 hours of driving to do today, but it looks like there are some tolls. Boo.

So! Yesterday! Got up at a respectable hour and Wilson took me to the Royal Restaurant, which is a diner that is his usual morning haunt. We talked matters of things that matter and took pictures with our phones and then we returned to the apartment. I packed up my stuff, got a tip on where a free air pump was nearby, and headed off. Wilson gave me the scenic route map, so that I could avoid the tools going up to Pennsylvania (i.e. by not driving through Washington DC).

So I took the scenic route across Maryland towards Gettysburg. I didn't stop at Gettysburg as I wanted to get to Marietta to meet Anne and Terry (Rainbow's parents) and say hi so they knew who I was as I'd be crashing at their place. So I arrived at 3ish and said hello and met Anne. Then I drove on down to the riverfront park and had a nice chat with Ma & Pa. Gotta call the parents every once and a while, ya know? Can't just blog into the void.

I got back to the house and Rainbow arrived soon after and it was awesome to see an old school pal! And I haven't seen her in longer than I have other people, because she graduated in 2009 and has been abroad working. She is the same delightful person though. She treated me to Chipotle and then we went to the park where a free summer concert was happening, the concert in question was 7 Bridges, an Eagles cover band where every member looked like they belonged in a different genre. I bought a funnel cake. There were people dancing in the front and I met Bob and Brooke and... uhh I forget the name of Bob's son, but Bob was a friend of Rainbows. We got a spot in the main seating area (it was pretty full). Unfortunately the concert ended early due to a storm coming in, but they got Hotel California out so that's something.

The thunderstorm coming in was beautiful. One side of the river would be dark, the other light from reflecting the remainder of the sky. Just such punctuating contrast and colors. Really nice.

We both retired to bed pretty early. Well I stayed up on my computer and mooching wifi, but I did get some sleep. Had the porch door open (I was in the guest bedroom which had a porch) to let the air circulate, because it was stuffy and hot. Still hot, but every now and again a breeze would come through. But there was also the lightning and rolling thunder. Very nice.

In the morning, Rainbow, her 7k+ skydiving jumps Dad, Chris, Maddy, and Maddy's mom and I met up for breakfast at Gus's. Maddy is maybe going off to college and got a barrage of advice about life decisions. It really is so complicated how many decisions have to be made at such a young age, and how much debt and stuff is foisted onto kids. It's not right. There should be more time between high school and college and it should be cheaper and accessible and all that.

Yeah.

So now I'm off towards Philadelphia! I've only got about 2 hours of driving, so that's nice.

brutalist architecture

Had a very nice day going about. Being driven in an unfamiliar city is awesome. Had a nice rest. I'll be sleeping under roofs for the next few nights! So awesome! This is the social stretch of my journey, I suppose. Anyway, we had oatmeal for breakfast and Wilson added marshmallow cereal which gave it a nice nudge of texture and sweetness.

From there we went into DC and I am SO GLAD I didn't drive in it! Lots of weird turns that send traffic in odd directions. Parking was expensive in a garage but we managed to find a spot on the street. But uhg, yeah if I had to drive in DC I would just just forked over the 20-something for the first garage I found and legged it from there, and even then I probably would have spent oodles of time in traffic getting agitated. I'd like to visit again, because there was only meter time for one museum and there are so many!

But you know me, so the museum we went to was the American Art and Portrait Gallery museum. They had an awesome photo exhibit going on about coolness in America. Just great photos of iconic cool people through the years. A couple Halsmans. A really nice assortment. And there were a couple great Sargents. And those huge majestic landscapes. And oodles of Catlins. Even with the hours spent, it was still just a taste. Could spend several days going around to all the museums. If only I didn't have to drive...

Shake Shack was lunch, with locally sourced food and they pay their employees well and all that good business practices. I had the blondie concrete (like a shake but deluxe or thicker or something) and this hot dog with fried shallots on it. Mmm! Wilson had a burger and a float and confirmed they were also delicious. My treat in reparation for Wilson paying for parking and heck, driving!

Fully fed, we walked around downtown a bit. Saw the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building which is FUGGGLYYYY!

Back at the apartment, a nap was had. Then there was some lounging by the pool and I read Lost for Words. Then in the evening there was an outdoor hang out with some of the people in the neighborhood. Heard Bigfoot stories, and stories of the wheel coming off their Land Rover, and travel suggestions, and it was just overall a nice night to sit and hear about wacky antics. This whole being randomly social is so foreign to me. I love it!

Tomorrow I think will start with a diner visit, and then I'll head north to Pennsylvania.

Anita & Dan & Delaware and Wilson & Marc & Virginia

6/22/2014 7:48 pm Slaughter Beach, Delaware

I'm in Delaware! Number 23! Well 24 if you count Maryland, but I'm not quite counting it just yet, as I just drove straight through. After McDonald's I got in contact with Dan and Anita, who are in Delaware, and so I just was like "yo can I kick it at your place?" and they were like "yeah!". Dan and Anita had me over for Thanksgiving. Anita is Ryan's sister. So four hours, a bit of rain, the sun going down I was in Milford, Delaware! Driving around Washington DC was a trip. Just a ring road skirting it with lots of lanes and cars and everyone not going anywhere near the speed limit. And Maryland's state flag is totally an odd one out.

Anyhoo, I got in at 9:30ish and met them at Abbot's and met their friends and had a pint. It was nice to chill out. After long drives, I always have a bit of energy to come down from, so I'm all jittery when first talking. Jittery or hard to focus. Dan and Anita are spending time between this beach out that is being repaired and Dan's grandma's house (grandma lives in Santa Cruz). So it's two of grandma's properties and stuff. I forget all the specifics, but the point is one house has an eclectic collection and the other is being remodeled and we are split between both of them kinda... sleep at one, shower at the other. So after hanging at the eclectic house, we went to the other to crash for the night. I got the fold out couch and just conked out and it was amazing.

In the morning we went to the Starlight Diner and I got scrabble! And eggs and toast and home fries. Very filling and I did not consume it all, and priced pretty low for all that food. Scrapple. I mean scrapple. That is what I had. Regional food!

Then we caught a matinee of Edge of Tomorrow, which lacked shakey cam. And I didn't know it was going to be the kind of movie that it was. A neat scifi film. Hurray for more original scifi! Well made. Emily Blunt is awesome and Tom Cruise went against casting at the start of the film (played a bit of a coward).

Now we are back at the repairing house. I put my tent out earlier in the day and it was dry upon my return! I've got my tarp out now. So hopefully I'll be able to pack up my car in the old organization system.

Tomorrow I'm meeting my friend Wilson in Alexandria.

6/23/2014 7:55pm Wilson & Marc's apartment

I'm in Alexandria. Which is in Virginia. I can't break free of this state! But today has had awesome weather thus far so yay for that.

So last night in Delaware, we just sat about watching True Blood and eating food and having a good ol' time. Dan and Anita are fun company. We all talked at length about Orange is the New Black. In the morning we went to the Milford house and had our showers, then parted ways. I filled up my tank and went south to Alexandria. Easy drive, just really dense with traffic. Wilson is online friend #4 on this trip, and not a serial killer, just like the others! He is a reenactor and works on a boat and is a photographer and might go to Mongolia in a few years on a language expedition. Basically a cool, well traveled person. And he (and his boyfriend) are letting me crash here tonight and we (Wilson & I) are going to DC tomorrow!! Yaaay!

Wilson took me out for a little drive in his motorcycle. I sat in the sidecar! I've never been in a sidecar before and now I want to go again! We drove down GW Parkway and it was beautiful and perfect and I saw trees and we sat by the river and talked about travel and how to make travel work in different areas and that stuff. I need to get a sidecar so I can have someone drive me around in it. So much fun.

Look how cool I am!

Wilson, Marc, and I got food. Mmm big burger. Now we'll be hanging out and tomorrow Wilson and I are going up to DC!

Shenandoah is nice, but Virginia can suck it

6/21/2014 a rest stop in Virginia

I haven’t written anything since leaving North Carolina! I just ended up doing a lot of car camping, and not taking the time to sit anywhere, and when I would have had the time, circumstances blocked me. But now I have the time. It’s 1pm, I don’t know where I’ll be tonight but I’m near Washington DC. Well near being within a couple hours drive. I need to make calls and get in contact with people. I need to readjust my sense of space. Florida really messed up the way I consider distances.

So. Last day in North Carolina:

I slept in. I set an alarm but I hit snooze many many times. But the epic sausage, beans, bacon, toast, and scrambled eggs breakfast Stephen made was still warm! I swear I’ve never eaten so well. I should be their nanny. Seems like it’d be a good gig. Ha. I packed up. Showered. I also signed up for Couch Surfer. I set up my profile, I haven’t really used it yet, but I like that now I have it as an established option. I did shoot out a message when I thought I’d be going to Charleston WV, but it was too short notice for them (she seemed really nice) and I ended up not going there anyway.

We hugged goodbye and when I got- oh! My car tire. It had lost air, but not much. I’ve been keeping an eye on it and it is losing air slowly. I’ve just been filling it up every other day. Dunno what’s up with it, but I’ll keep an eye on it.

Anyway. I headed west towards Asheville, North Carolina. I got there during sunset and put change in a meter thinking it was 6pm (the time my watch is set at) and not well past the time you need to put change in the meter. I didn’t put too much change in before someone clued me in. Ha. I went to Dobra Tea, at Erin & Stephen’s suggestion. I got a pot of a gentle green tea. Well a daiwan thingy. So a pot of hot water which made about 6 little cups of tea. Mmm. It was tasty. I sat and drank and read Lost for Words. It’s a very funny book thus far. Lots of literary and writer jokes within. I walked around downtown for a bit. Asheville reminded me of Santa Cruz a bit in terms of age of residents, but also the Pearl District of Portland in terms of posh boutiques.

I drove North and stopped just across the Tennessee border (what a long state!) and spent the night at a rest stop. It was a very quiet rest stop. This wasn’t the most busy of interstates. The mountains were full on misty in the morning. A nice site. This day I knocked off two states. I’m still hovering at 22, but soon I’ll get to the halfway point and then it’s go go go!

Hold on a second, my tarp is dry so I need to flip it over. It’s all drying much faster than I expected it to! There is a nice breeze coming through and it’s not insufferably humid. Once it’s all dry, I’ll make myself a sandwich. Still trying to think about what to do today.

Where was I? Oh yes! Virginia! Oh shit. It started to rain so I had to hustle to relocate under a covered picnic table. I got it all under just in time but damn this sucks. Now I’m trapped waiting for the rain to stop. My tent is dry enough. I know that I’ve packed it up wetter, but I don’t want it to get rained on while I’m folding it up. Argh. Come on Virginia, give me a break!

Okay my computer is getting moist, I’m packing it away.

AHHHH!!!! I don’t usually swear here but come the FUCK ON! Are you fucking kidding me! The weather went full on rain storm. And it was going sideways. I got my bags into my car and the important stuff is dry. But my tent got wet! Not saturated like it was but I’ll still need to dry it out. And properly roll it up as I couldn’t do that in time. It’s just shoved in a garbage bag right now. Argghhh come on. But at least now the rain has stopped. I’ll give it a bit (and change my clothes, as just getting to my car and back soaked me).

My attitude right now is one big “fuck this”.

So Virginia. Uhhh. I keep getting waylayed in writing this blog post. I cruised right through Virginia to West Virginia. I went to the New River Gorge National River. I did a little loop walk in the forest. It was nice. Humid but nice. Not a National Park, but they did had stamps. Generally anything National has a stamp. Which is why I went way out of my way to the National Observatory Something Something. Which wasn’t park of the park service as it turns out and doing a tour cost money and I didn’t feel like doing that. It was a nice scenic drive up. Very Olympic Peninsula. But just annoying to drive so far but not have it be what was expected, but still. It ate up time. I got back into Virginia and got food provisions at a Walmart. And then drove to the “sleeping in their car” section of the parking lot, finished the last episode of Orange is the New Black, and went to sleep. I just put on my shoes and left in the morning, and changed clothes at a rest stop.

I cruised on up to Shenandoah National Park. Nice to get an early start on a park, and even better when camping is only $15! Shenandoah is highlighted by Skyline Drive, which winds along the ridge. Very high up and scenic with overlooks aplenty. After I got my stamps at the visitors center, I went down to Lewis Mountain and set up tent, not noticing my flat wasn’t closed all the way. The door was, just not the flat which blocks the elements from getting through the mesh.

Looking over the map I made my choices for the day: check out the visitor’s center once again, drive up to the center on the far north part of the road, come back down, take a hike, then go see a ranger program. Driving up north took a considerable amount of time, what with the winding road making for slow going. Still, beautiful. Probably even moreso in the fall when the colors change. I got a guide to tree identification, but I’m still figuring it out. The terminology mostly. What is a “leaflet” and all that. I did identify a Dogwood though, so go me!

I went for the Rose Creek Loop, which is 3ish miles and it goes to the Dark Hollow Falls. I like loops, because it’s all new terrain through the whole thing, but dang once you get past the half way point and you are tired and you don’t know if it’ll be rough uphill or easy downhill…yeah. But the hard part was getting to the falls. Lots of rocks and inclines and uphill uphill uphill. The river was nice. I had three little PB&J sandwiches (little because the bread I bought was little) and an apple and some carrots. The falls were nice, though not as big as I was expecting considering they are called Dark Hollow. The rest of the trail was a fire road, so gentle and easy. There was a cemetery too, with some old graves. Shenandoah used to be populated by settlers who had to booshdonku when the government made it a park.

The ranger talk was at Skyland. There were these twin boys at the talk who were just so precocious. When the ranger said she was from Buffalo New York when they were from New York New York, they said “same state same pride!” and they were so confident in their talking. They’ll be a pain in the ass in 10 years, I can tell. It started to rain at the end of the talk. The fog was heavy on the ride south to the campground, so I took it very slow. Some parts it would open up to just mist trickling across in a very “here there be werewolves” sort of way. It rained moderately on the way back.

And when I got back to my tent, I opened up the door and stepped in a puddle of water. The flap I neglected the shut had leaked. The corner that had the most water lacked any objects in it, and thankfully the only containers of stuff in the tent were plastic. But my mattress pad was still wet. As was my hula girls comforter. And my sleeping bag. My yellow bunny blanket was safe, but my tent was utterly waterlogged and no amount of towels could have mopped it dry (well maybe 100 towels, but I only have four on this trip). So I pulled the half wet stuff out and rearranged my car to accommodate the wet tent in the morning. Everything would have it’s little wet section, and I went to sleep in my car frustrated and upset and pissed off. I like sleeping in my tent! I could sleep in my car anywhere! But at least a campground is quieter.

A camping neighbor, Ray, helped me fold up my tent, and he even gave me a trash bag to put the wet stuff in. I drove out of the park on 33 (thankfully there are a few cross sections on Skyline Drive, it isn’t just North or South entrance). I found a laundromat in Charloteville (or some such place) and got to work. My pillows and sleeping bag dried quick, and my comforter soon followed. The towels I used to mop up a bit of the water took a while, but they in turn got dry. I also did my regular clothes, because why not, I was at a laundromat. It took less time that expected, but I still had the matter of the tent, but then it came to me: I’ll just set it out to dry at a rest stop and boom! Dry!

With a full tank and full tires, I got to a rest stop and it was warm and there was a breeze and it all dried much faster than expected… then at 95% dry…it started to rain. And I think you know how that worked out. So I guess I’ll just try to find somewhere else that is dry…or just roll up the tent as is, and let it dry fully at my next spot. Or I dunno. It’s all up in the air. I’m going to change clothes now. Fish out my umbrella first. Then change.

4:30pm, McDonalds.

Washington DC plans are proving difficult. Person #1 is unable to host me, trying to get in contact with some others. Meanwhile I might go hang out with Anita and Dan in Delaware. Only 4 hours away! That’ll give me some time to rendezvous. And I can just cut back into Maryland. There is backtracking like driving the length of New Mexico to get to Texas after Colorado, and there is driving two hours west to get to DC from Maryland.

So now I’m in a McDonalds trying to coordinate. And eating a burger. And a mocha frappe. Just wanted a regular mocha but I think I ordered it wrong. No biggie.

tired

I finished drawing my east coast map, and in one of my little notebooks I gave each upcoming state its own page. I ordered them in the rough order in which I'll visit. I'll cut across Virginia and do West Virginia, then come back east for the coast once again. Then DC and Maryland and Delaware and New Jersey. New York too, but the coast part. Buffalo and Finger Lakes on the loop back. Some states have nothing on their page, and some have many high lights. Just have to Google and ask around. Tomorrow I head off for Asheville. I'm excited to be heading out again, and to be getting some more locations done. This was a rest rest in North Carolina. Easy driving, good food, company.

I stuck around the house today. Got ice for my car. My rear driver's tire was super low though. Like, 15. No reason why it should be that low. I'll check it in the morning (Stephen helped refill it) and if it is low again...well I guess it has a leak. The back tires are in need of replacement. But still. Whats up with that? Dad, I'll give you a call in the morning.

Erin and I went to Locopop and got yummy popsicles. I got the "mojito madness" which was minty and tasty and hit the spot on the hot day.

Dave, Stephen, and I went to Wimpy's and got burgers for breakfast/lunch. Tasty, tiny place, not elegant burgers. Mmm.

I spent a lot of time sitting doing computer stuff and working on my list. Organizing my contacts.

Dinner was a three course extravaganza. I didn't know it was three courses. But oh wow Stephen knows what is up with cooking. First up was this egg spinach frittata on this slice of eggplant with crumbs. Delicious. Then salad with avocado and celery. Very green and I had several plates, not aware there was a third course (like I said). Which was sort rib that has been marinating and rice with spinach stems sprinkled on top for presentation. Like seriously, damn good! I ate it all with relish.

Now it's late and I have more Orange is the New Black to watch, as well as some prep to do.

Here is hoping my tire is fine!

Beca & Jackie

A day with Beca, 6/15:

Zahri aka Beca aka the third online friend I'm meeting up with on this trip of mine. And thus far I'm three for three for awesome, easy to talk to people! So after breakfast with Erin and Stephen, I headed out west to Greensborough. An hour west of Durham. I got to Beca's before Beca, so I just sat on the stairs and watched Orange is the New Black on my phone. I met Beca's girlfriend Candice who was awesome. A very nice couple, but I can't threaten Candice to be good to Beca because Candice plays rugby so any threat...well I'm not threatening. Still, I waved my finger. I'm protective of my friends. I want all of their lives to be awesome and lovely. And I want to live the good life with all of them. And thus far I've sat back and reflected on how this just really is the good life. I've got food, I've got company, and everything is well in the bubble I am inhabiting for that moment.

Beca, Candice, and I acquired hot dogs and beer (a 12 pack of Yuengling) and went to the pool at this apartment complex Candice had access to. No kids, and yes beer was allowed. So we spent hours swimming and drinking and eating and kicking back and soaking up sun and talking about this and that and Dee (a mutual online friend of Beca and mine). After we had absorbe'd more than enough sun (I'm a bit pink but not burned) we went to Cook Out and I got treated to a burger with cheese and onion and bacon, and a side of slaw and onion rings, and a big thing of sweet tea. Mmmm MMMM! Amazing. Candice returned to the apartment and Beca and I walked around downtown Greensboro. Borough. Boro. Uhh. Whichever. Not much was open on a Sunday, but we got to peep in some windows. But. BUT cheesecake was open. Cheesecake shop. So we splint a slice a cheesecake, my treat, and it was amazing. Like I said, meeting people I'm online friends with has been a good experience. All are people I've met through mutual nerd interests, so we have the baseline of "yeah we are nerds" to bond us all.

Back at the apartment we played Wii Mario Kart and both of us weren't so good, so it was an even game! I was sad to part, but oh what a lovely day!

A day with Jackie, 6/16:

I went to Japan in 2005 as part of a group through Experiments in International Living. Jackie was in my group, and we've kept in touch. She lives in North Carolina. I'm in North Carolina. And she is only 30 minutes east in Carrboro! Easy visit. I met her fiancee Mike briefly, and then we were off! First up was ice cream at this nice little ice cream place. I had the caramel crunch something ice cream and mmm MMM! She works at the Weaver Street Market and they have this special zoning thing where you can drink a beer outside at their little outdoor area. Just one beer. Their outdoor area had tables in the shade and a place for live music, which wasn't happening when we were there but it does happen. Jackie said she often hangs out after work, and that it's a place where everyone knows everyone. Which became evident as the day went on. I had a bottle of Fullsteam Brewery's Carver, which was a sweet potato lager. If you think that sounds delicious, it was.

So we had our beers and sat in the shade and talked about life and relationships and Japan and growing up and change, and all those topics adults talk about when they last saw each other as teenagers.

From there, we went downtown a bit more, to wander up and down the street that happens near any college campus. Restaurants, comic shops, book stores, little hole in the wall music shops. I bought the first three issues of Lumberjanes at Chapel Hill Comics. Lumberjanes is an all lady comic production, and it's been selling super well, so I felt like I should add to thank because viva lady comic makers! It's a hard hustle out there for women in the industry, so we gotta support each other often.

We ran into Jackie's friend Larry, and we all commuted down to Southern Rail aka "The Station" which was a bar that was old train cars and several different bars really. And Ishti, who I met at the porch party, showed up for this open mic that was happening later and he knew Larry. Lots of people knew Larry. Everyone knew everyone it seemed, and they all confirmed that it was the sort of place you can go by yourself and you'll know someone there. The last time I experienced that was Yur's in Portland, Oregon. There needs to be more places like that. Ishti remembered me and gave me a hug and played a song he was working on for Nathan's going away. US won their game, which was evident by after an hour of silence there were loud cheers from the bar area. It was less hot than Florida, so I was doing swell. Still hot and humid, of course. I sketched a bit and Larry and Andi (another of Larry's friends) were pleased to be immortalized in my sketchbook. And the sky was beautiful with perfect hued clouds.

To be somewhere where people are friendly and eager to talk. Where people know one another and remember you. Where comic shops have lady comics and local breweries make damn good beer. I'll be coming back to Durham.

Now Stephen and I are going to head out to a bar for a bit.

on a porch at night in Durham

What a lovely relaxing day. It's nice to be with friends and to hang out. It seems like a nice place, Durham North Carolina.

Slept in a considerable amount and there were pancakes! Love pancakes! And I got to have a full proper shower and all that good stuff.

6/15/2014 11:10 am

I was starting to write but then I got super tired, so I retired to bed, watched a little Orange is the New Black, and fell asleep for 9 glorious hours.

So! Yesterday there were pancakes and morning conversations. Stephen played a guitar duet with the sounds of the washing machine going shugga shugga. He's such a talented musician! But that is known already. I think we met the second night I was in San Francisco, when I moved to look for work and saw Odd Owl play with their new band members. That was April 2012 I think. A lot has happened in two plus years, but there was a lull in the middle where Santa Cruz was getting me down, when I hoped it would be a place for me to be. But now I'm on the road seeing new places and just enjoying my own company and the company of rad cool people.

We met up with four (well five) rad people and drove down to Eno Beach. The other people were two couples ... whose names escape me now in the dawn of morning, but there was a baby in the bunch. Baby Josie was was just a few weeks younger than my journey has been. A well mannered baby that didn't cry and was sung to by Stephen with his ukulele. It was a nice stroll to the watering hole. I swam a bit and sat and drew Erin and soaked up the sun. We took a different route back, flatter but longer, and I talked with Josie's mum, who was very sweet. Everyone I met today was nice!

I rinsed off at home and then we went to a going away party for this guy named Nathan who was road tripping to Vermont in a week! Everyone is on a journey this year. Also at the party was a David a Dave and... more names I've forgotten. I used to be so good at names, I'm not putting forward the effort like I used to. Anyway, we all sat on the back porch and ate pasta salad and drank beer (except Erin of course) and they sang songs and Nathan played the cello and Dave played the violin and Stephen played the guitar and it was amazing! There was singing and improv and just a lovely flow of everything happening. And it's these kinds of nights one yerns for when on the road to anywhere. Random kind people and good times.

The neighborhood was nice. Just rolling hills and plenty of trees and cute houses all a bit different.

We returned not so late but then I got really tired. Today I'm going to meet up with Zahri (another online pal of mine) and we are going to hang out. Should be fun!

Crooked River, Congaree, and the Carolinas

6/13/2014 Congaree National Park, South Carolina

I’ve made it to another National Park! At 8am! So the Visitor’s Center isn’t even open! Ha! I ended up dozing in a Walmart parking lot due to the rest stops having very wordy signs that might as well just state “no overnight parking” but it’s got all this “blah blah for the courtesy of motorists blah” preamble. It’s not courtesy if they can’t have a little nap without worry! But yeah, Walmart actually had less noise than a rest stop (which is by the road and all that) until the weed whacker dude showed up, but rest stops are away from populated areas, so I feel they are safer.

Anyway, Georgia! I departed Florida in the mid afternoon and headed North to Georgia. My goal was Crooked River State Park, which was just across the border on the east side. I didn’t want to roam too far for a campsite. The park was closed but this semi-ranger told me to just set up camp and pay in the morning. Which I did! Grabbed a spot by the woods. It was a nice campground, though barely full. Lots of spots and amenities. It seems that the Pacific Northwest is the odd one out when it comes to paying for showers, because it’s been free at every State Park I’ve been to thus far. So I set up tent and got a good rest in, despite my spot being near an apparent deer thoroughfare.

I paid up in the morning and got a patch. Then I spent a little while scrap booking and properly organizing my car. Decluttering and all that. I’ve absolutely overpacked and could have so much more space. The big tub of art supplies & books & papers is going… very unrifled through. Oh well. I’ve still got a ways to go on this journey, it could come in handy somehow. I should read more that’s for sure.

I took a little amble on a hike in the park. It rained a bit, but I brought an umbrella. There was a bird watching platform but I lack binoculars and Mom’s ability to identify birds.

Atlanta may be a major city, but I didn’t feel like driving 5 hours West just to check it out. Five hours on the interstate is both a lot of driving and gas. So I went to Savannah. I cashed in this Barnes and Noble gift card I’ve had for a few years and got the new Edward St. Aubyn book. Then I went to Jiffy Lube and got the second oil change of this trip. In the previous two weeks of this journey (hit the six week mark) I drove 3937 miles at 42.8 mpg. So better mileage than driving through Texas but more miles due to the five nights I spent across Florida.

So onwards and Northwards! I went to Tybee Island for the sunset and some official Atlantic Ocean toe dipping. There were people fishing off the pier and one guy caught a shark, which I think you have to throw back. I didn’t see if he did, but there were enough witnesses so he oughta. I’m to the Atlantic! Coast to coast! Gulf Coast doesn’t count like the Strait of Juan de Fuca doesn’t count.

Driving into the sunset is very overrated. And blinding. But I made it across the border, got to a rest stop, changed into jammies, noticed the sign, and just went to the nearest Walmart.

So now I’m at Congaree NP waiting for the park to open. I’ll spent the day at the park and then probably continue up to North Carolina. It’s not that far away. Dunno what else to do in this state beyond dousing myself with insect repellant.

6/14/2014 Stephen & Erin’s in Durham, North Carolina

I’m at Erin and Stephen’s in Durham! Stephen of Odd Owl (formerly) and Erin his 8 months pregnant wife who is a writer and is awesome. Basically cool people that I can stay with for a little bit. And it’s been awesome talking with Stephen about life and travel and all that. He’s a smart dude. Well versed in navigating life. I need to sit down and work on my game plan. What order do I visit the next states, what do I want to see in each state, who is in each state, who has the numbers for those people, etc. So I think that’ll be my Durham focus. I’ll slow down a bit and work on that. Plus I have a few friends in the area I wanna see, so yeah. It’s great to see familiar faces and to have full conversations. I’m looking forward to wandering around tomorrow with the two of them. I know some good people in this life of mine.

Congaree National Park was swell! It was a swamp, but not swampy. There was a board walk and well marked flat trails. I did the longer loop, and it was a slow meander. The air smelled really good and the light was just nice that time of morning. It was also a canoe friendly park, so something for Mom to take note of. At noonish I hit the road. I set my sights on Columbia, because it was close. I swung by Walmart to see if they had watch batteries and other cheap staples for the road. I also got some $6 running jersey running shorts because they would be more comfy to wear for longer drives than jean shorts. And I was right! I was so much more comfortable the instant they were on. Comfort is important.

Once I got some pep in my step again, I headed north east outta Columbia and BOOM I was in North Carolina. 20 states down, 28 to go! I arrived at 8ish and was well fed and well conversed by E & S. Such generous hosts! I think I’ll have fun in this state. Glad to be with friends.

soaked safari

Leanne is letting me do my laundry at her place! She is so awesome, and her fiancee Ben is nice as well. I hope to hang out with them again some day in the near future and not far future.

And they have a guest bedroom! And I was able to sleep there and they made breakfast and it's so excellent. And I'm doing my lau-oh I already mentioned that. So yeah, it's great. I'll head off to Georgia in a bit. Find a campsite and camp.

But first: Animal Kingdom! Leanne works for Disney, so she is able to get guests into parks, but she needs to accompany them so it isn't like "oh hey here is a ticket". Still, it's nice to have the option to just swing by a park late in the day and check out a few things and pop back out. No hassle for ticket costs and whatnot. But before we went to the park, I had to get to Orlando. I arrived at 1:30ish and we hung out. A thunderstorm came rolling in, so we delayed going out to lunch till it passed. Leanne and I share the same great grandpa, but it we branch separately out from there. I should make a family tree.

We got lunch at a nearby ale house. I got seafood mac n cheese and the days pint special. She got zingers. Hurray for zinger left overs! Then it was park time. Free parking! And with the pass we did the special finger print light activated thingy where it lights up when you hold your pass to it. Very... Big Brother. But by Disney!

Crowds were starting to leave, and the weather wasn't looking good. We got in the short line for the Safari ride and it started to properly rain. The ride was covered, but not on all sides. I sat on the window side, so I got wet. Oh well, it's just water! My shoes got totally soaked through. Those poor shoes. Getting so thrashed.

The Safari ride was fun. Got to see giraffes and zebras and gnu and elephants. Seemed like they had pretty good space to hang out in, and not of them were sitting in a corner looking depressed. Apparently there used to be a "poacher" story arc, but it was taken out. Now the Animal Kingdom park has a Wilderness Explorer activity like from the movie Up. There is a lot of mythology with the parks as it turns out. I knew a bit about it from this podcast I listened to about Disney's Haunted Mansion.

The rain continued, but we were undaunted! We went to the dinosaur ride, which was indoors. A nice little on a track ride with flashing lights and time travel. Fun and fast. So Animal Kingdom celebrates animals of the past, current, and imagination. Which is why there is a Unicorn parking lot (we were parked in Giraffe). It was a damp squelch back the the parking lot trolley pick up. I got a crushed penny tho, so yay! Adding to my collection.

At home pajamas were put on and telly was watched and I met Ben. And I proceeded to have a very nice sleep.

So yeah, Georgia! Going to start knocking the states off.

accio margarita!

The Florida Turnpike has some lush rest stops, I tell you what. I just can't tell if I could have slept at one, instead of at the I95 one, which wasn't bad it just didn't have WiFi. I spent 6 hours of driving to get from Key West to the rest stop, as there were none until after Palm Beach/Springs/Whichever Palm. Saw a bit of Miami, but it was late and I wasn't going to stop. Thankfully the driving was very easy, with the only congestion happening in Key West Proper.

When I left you dear readers, I was heading to the Everglades. It was a nice little bit of driving south from Silvia. Not long, not short. Just right. I took the toll road bit of 75 south that is actually 75 east but they call it south because it's one of those south/north interstates, it just happened to go straight east/west across the Everglades. The sun set in a magnificently beautiful array of colors. There was a double rainbow that arched in full across the road. The sky went from teals and turquoises in front of me, to flaming orange and deep reds behind. Colors that reminded me of Morgaine Faye and no photo could do it justice, especially the duality of view of my mirrors reflecting punches of orange in the blue of the upcoming horizon. Magnificent.

There was a brush fire, and the embers glowed in curves against the matte black of night, with the glow illuminating the smoke. It wasn't an imminent threat. Hope it didn't do too much damage.

The I75 rest stop was nice. Had a little Everglades display and plenty of privacy and security.

In the morning, it was just a mere hour to get to the Everglades. The nice thing about getting the majority of your driving done at night, is you get right to your destination in the morning. I may have done so much driving on Monday, but right now I'm about an hour away from Leanne's, but I'm in no hurry because she works the night shift so I'll let her sleep in while I blog my blog(she has today and the next few days off).

Everglades are really the boaters National Park. There are hikes, but to really see it you have to take a boat tour/canoe path. So very much Mom & Dad. I took a Ranger led hike, though the dude leading it was an Americorps intern who was very charming and it was his 4th time doing the Anhinga Amble. There were birdies and plenty of crocodiles. There was even a croc hanging on the side of the path, but he backed off when we walked past, but not after hissing. We also heard some roars of crocs. That was neat. I walked another little loop after that and drove down to the Flamingo Visitors Center, which wasn't fully open. It's sort of the off season for the park. And Monday isn't exactly the most hoppin' of days.

From there I headed out of the park, and down to Key West. It was 3 hours of driving, but it was a lovely drive. Island to island by bridges. Long bridges, short bridges. A nice journey, but damn so long.

I parked in a garage and walked down to the water front. Officially as far south and east as I can go. It's all north & west from here! Well Maine will be a bit of east, but still.

I got some conch fritters and ate them while watching the the sun go down, then I went in search of a margarita. I arrived at Muse with a minute left on happy hour and I slapped down tree fiddy and got my margarita! It was icy and perfect. I drank it on the roof top patio while the sun went down. I had the space to myself. Why didn't more people want to sit up there? It was great. It was nestled in trees, with strung up lights. It was nice to have that little peaceful space. I worked on post cards and read and just sat and looked at the sky.

What can I write about being on the far coast? It was so physically far from anywhere I've lived, but not so far from what I know. The people I know may be far away, but I'll return to them. I just have to drive on. Monday probably contained the most driving I've done this far in a single day, in terms of hours. Not sure of miles. I'm not watching miles, though I do know I'm coming up at 6 weeks on the road. The 12th I'll rest my odometer. And I'll need another oil change before I leave Florida. Then it's Georgia! And South Carolina and North Carolina. I know a lot of people in NC.

But first: second cousin Leanne who lives near Orlando.

Florida: the early days

6/5/2014 8:22pm Big Lagoon State Park, Pensacola Florida

I’m taking Florida slow. It’s a long state, and I want to go to the tip of it. Why must there be a national park at the tip? Why can’t there just be nothing and then I can continue on? Oh woe. Oh well. It’ll take all of tomorrow to get near St. Petersburg, and even then I’ll probably do the rest stop thing before continuing on. Leah put the word out there so hopefully I can have somewhere to crash.

But I’m getting ahead of myself: Alabama! Easy driving. I gained an hour when I crossed the state lines, and that hour has yet to take itself back. I picked up this pamphlet for this chevre place, but when I finally located which city it was in (the map on the pamphlet was ambiguous and my GPS was being difficult) it was soooo far out of my way. Tip: if you are going to put a pamphlet in a welcome center, include a map of your state with a little star showing just where you are generally located.

So I continued south. Through Birmingham. Lovely skies, but very warm. My friend Alicia didn’t get off work till late, so I had some time to cruise around Montgomery. I got some iced tea and sent off some postcards. I wandered around the Riverfront. I melted from the humidity and had to change my shirt because of it. I don’t know how people can live with this humidity all the time! I guess lots of A/C and not going outdoors. Montgomery was weirdly vacant for a city of its size. Not a lot of traffic or congestion, but it seemed built in a way that there should have been more. I found my way to a mall and enjoyed their a/c for a while. At 8 I returned downtown and met Alicia at the Riverfront Baseball Stadium. She used to work there so she had free vouchers for the game and coupons for food! Yay! The Montgomery minor league baseball team is the Biscuits and their mascot is some “biscuit loving beast” that looks like some weirdo ant eater thing. Very odd. The Biscuits didn’t win, but it was fun anyway! Nice to get a bit of Americana in on this America trip. We wandered around a bit and talked, but she had work in the mornings so we said out goodbyes.

I made my way south, and the second rest stop forbade overnight parking so I backtracked to the first and slept there. Got an 8amish start and 3 hours later I was at the Gulf of Mexico! The Alabama Gulf Shores State Park was full, so I continued East into Florida and Big Lagoon had space! So I got a spot there. Nice to have camp set up early in the day, and to have shower facilities. After I was refreshed, I got my swimsuit on and headed to the beach. And there was a National Park beach which had an entrance fee which my annual pas covered. I’m now two bucks from making it pay for itself. And since there was a fee, the beach wasn’t all that populated. I spent 3 hours alternating swimming and reading my Kindle. I applied sunblock at reasonable intervals. Reasonable to prevent sunburn but still with some allowances for tan. I’ve never been tan, so that is something I’d like to try to achieve on this trip. I want to come back to Washington not looking at all like a Washingtonian.

I went to Sonic for the first time, and got a shake and some onion rings, but only after being trapped in some heinous traffic. Such bad traffic here! And wow the hotels are just massive, one after another along the beach totally obliterating any view the people on the other side of the road would have. Why are they so big? Could they ever be possibly filled up?

So the shake was good. I watched the sunset down at the lagoon and a Heron strut by me. Now I shall retreat into my tent and hopefully I haven’t been bitten by too many mosquitos. Check out is 1, so that is nice. Ample time to sleep in, pack up, and plan. Once I leave it’ll be a lot of driving, so what’s the rush?

I wonder how long Florida will take me? I’ll have to see how long it takes me to get down to Key West and Tortugas National Park.

6/8/2014 10am Silvia’s Place, Sarasota, Florida

To answer how long Florida will take me: a while. But I took the scenic route, so spending the entirety of the 6^th driving was my own doing. I was so excited about the possibility of sleeping in that I forgot about how hot it gets in a tent. My own private sauna. So 8ishamish I got up and quickly packed up my tent before I got too hot. Then began the drive. I took 98east, which curved along the coast of Florida. Very nice, with plenty of pretty Gulf views, bridges, palm trees, and goliath hotel complexes. And it took hours. Hours and hours. It wasn’t a fast road, and it went through many towns so there were lights. But it was good on fuel economy to not go 70mph down an interstate.

But that fuel economy gets less appealing when you’ve been driving for 5 hours and still have 3+ more to go. My goal was Gainsville, which was on 75 and then to go on to a rest stop. The sun was setting at the first rest stop and it was set when I got to the second, where after I paid for an ice cream bar from an ice cream vending machine in nickels, I went to sleep. But oh I forgot to mention: the first Friday of June is National Doughtnut Day, so I procured a free (with beverage purchase) doughnut at Dunkin’ Doughnuts in celebration. Viva doughnuts!

It was a quick drive to St. Petersburg. A relatively quick drive. Hour and a half, tops. Which is the Santa Cruz to San Francisco time.

I arrived at the Dali Museum at 9:30, but it doesn’t open till 10. I paid to park there, with the full intention of leaving my car there while I walked around the city, regardless of if I was in the museum or not. Suck it! Plus with a dude there watching the cars, it was probably a safe spot to leave my car.

The Dali Museum is neat but I kinda feel that if they don’t have a temporary exhibit going, the admission should be cheaper by about five bucks. But audio tours were included, so I got one of those. So I had never ever seen any of Dali’s HUGE paintings before. Like the later year stuff. Massive detailed well painted things. He can paint, he just didn’t. There was a quote of I think Gala’s that once you’ve seen the Melting Clocks, you never forget it. Which is true. Dali tends to fall out of favor with art students once they get to be sophomores. Some sort of shedding of past interests for favor of more nuanced/informed ones I guess. Either way, his stuff that wasn’t the surrealism was really awesome. I don’t mind his surrealism, I just think some of it gets a bit repetitive.

The museum was made to hold these people’s collection of his work, so it was a nice array from his life time. His early work was nice to see in its clumsiness. But damn the later work! I just wish there was some Philippe Halsman. I really love his photographic collaborations with Dali so much. Halsman is one of my favorite photographers, and they didn’t even have any of his postcards! They had a 16 buck card set. And they had the photobook he did with Dali “Dali’s Mustache” but it was priced at $20 but on the display copy you could see it was suggested at 12.95. Rip off!

So I left the museum and pulled up my gps and entered “brewery” and Green Bench Brewing was a mileish away, so I went there. I got diverted into Morean Art Gallery Place Thingy, where they had a free print exhibit. There were three separate shows: a collab between artists and their printer, student prints, and… something else in between. I really liked the Alex Katz prints but they were priced exactly as much as they knew they were worth. That’s why you buy prints from people starting out! I have a nice little print collection, plus the several print portfolios I’ve been in. Anyway, some of the artist that I really liked were Trenton Doyle Hancock, Malcolm Morely, Bradlee Shanks, Eri Holschen Almazan, Jay Wallace, Yuji Hiratsuka, and M. Robyn Wall. The exhibit mostly made me think of how amazing the printmakers are that I know. Robin Milliken, Heather Birdsong, Alyson Provax, Anthony Roberto, BT Livermore… yeah I know some great people.

Green Bench was hoppin’. I got a pretzel and after a couple samples I went with the coffee pot bayou porter. I was the only one who ordered it. Many people favored the Green Bench IPA.

Same place, same date, 2:53 pm

We went to the beach. Lido Beach. I swum a bit and read in the sun. Got some rays on my upper thighs. I have an ombre tan on my legs right now, due to the varying lengths of the shorts I wear. And my pink skin is starting to be less pink. Hurray! After the beach we went to an Indian restaurant which was having a lunch buffet and I had two plates of various curries and rice and a plate of salad and rice pudding. Silvia asked why I ate so much. Well, I don’t know when I’ll get another big meal? Some days I don’t each much on the road. And now I’m good to go for the rest of the day.

But where was I? Oh yes, Green Bench. I had a my beer and snackums and chatted with the bartender. Lots of beards, which surprised me considering how warm it was. And the bartenders were wearing cute shorts that cut off right above their knees. I like those length of shorts on guys, especially when they have nice gams. I should go to more breweries and oogle more bartenders.

It was a nice walk back. I returned to the Dali Museum and gave the exhibits another eye ball before I headed out to Sarasota. I paid the toll on the bridge in more nickels and dimes. I need to get some cash in the advent of more toll roads.

Didn’t take long at all to get to Silvia. She made me an omelette and heated up some left overs and fried plantains. I’ll never need to eat again once I leave Sarasota! In the evening, we went to Ocean Blues and listened to the music. Silvia sweet talked the dancing instructor dude, who was the only other person my age at the bar, to dance with me. Hee hee hee.

But seriously, I was the youngest by 20 years, and that’s being very generous. There was a singles meet up happening and the guys just didn’t try at all! They were wearing tees tucked into jeans while the ladies had nice tops and dresses and skirts, and their makeup was done well. Just generally good looking gals and men who couldn’t be bothered! Tsk tsk.

I got to sleep in a bed again. That was nice. Woke up before 9! I was expecting to sleep in for way too many hours. So now I guess I shall take my leave. It’s been lovely but I must go further south.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

6/2/2014 Cades Cove, Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee

I left Lexington at 2pm, though that time was after getting gas and food at Trader Joe’s. Blessed Trader Joe’s. I’ve missed their familiar foods. It never changes. Apples, celery, cheerios, and cash back for on the road snacks (i.e. ice cream bars). And amazingly the park wasn’t all that far away. Went south on 75 and it was effortless. My car rolled over to 222,222 miles just across the border, and I was in a spot where I could take a picture. It hit 222,111 to 222,333 today. Nice round numbers. I wonder if some day it’ll roll over to 300k. Seems likely. It’s running well and I keep the oil changes regular.

Anyhoo. The national park wasn’t far past Knoxville. There were plenty of spots at Cades Cove, which was unfortunately $20 a night but I still went for it as there were no rest stops/Wal Marts near by (both places where you can relatively safely doze for a while and not worry about being harassed). Just one night’ll be good. I’ll drive to the proper visitor’s center in the morning and do a hike and some sight seeing and get to a rest stop tomorrow night as I head to Alabama. But I had time to do the scenic loop drive, which was VERY scenic and beautiful. Just those picture perfect rolling hills mottled with sunlight, fields of tall grass, deer, and just all that general pretty majestic stuff that makes you feel patriotic for your country.

Got back to my camp site and worked on my scrap book & cleaned out my car. Campsites are perfect for taking a second to collect oneself and ones things. Valet makes it so your car isn’t easy to get through and you have to pull what you think you need. Crashing at someone’s house puts the car far enough away that going back and forth is a bother. Sleeping in your car doesn’t really give you a space to work on things. But setting up a tent at a site, pulling out your bedding, and putting a few things in the tent, it frees up enough space to spread out on a picnic table, work on things, and pull stuff from the car as needed without too much distance for the back ad forth. If I could afford to camp every night, I would.

So yeah, tomorrow I’ll check out the park. Another darn free entrance one! I’m still ten bucks from making my annual pass start to pay for itself. I know it eventually will but come on!

6/4/2014 just on this side of midnight at a rest stop on I75 near Chatanooga & Athens

What a fun day! It was the ideal “I only have a day to check out this park” type day. I got to sleep in, and had no rush to break down my tent. Ate throughout the day. Kept my energy up. Treating myself to those “Snowballs” quick treat. Saw some lovely scenery and the weather was perfect. Glad I haven’t been in a storm in a while.

No bears disturbed me in the night. I thought I heard something, but it was just a campsite neighbor snoring.

First up: I went to the visitor’s center in Townsend and got a stamp. They weren’t the MAIN visitors center (this park has several) so I drove back in, and went left to Gatlinburg instead of right to Cades Cove. It was a long winding road, but all the roads in this park were long and winding with thick tall trees on each side in lush shades of green. A very vibrant park. You can just breathe in all that fresh air. And while warm, it wasn’t unbearably so. I was in shorts and a medium weight hoodie came on and off as needed. The main visitor’s center provided me with a “what to do in 2-3 hours” map, which is where I took my cues from for the day. It also provided me with postcards and later on a patch of the day’s main activity, which I’ll get to in a hot minute, you just hold your horses!

I watched the park video, I got my stamps, I looked at the taxidermy on display. Then I headed to Gatlinburg, which is a small tourist town stuck in the park, or on the side of the park. Either way, it had restaurants and inns and funky museums but not art museums. Just tourism stuff. I took the right on the eighth stoplight and went to do the nature loop drive. Many miles of 10 mph driving through the woods, with plenty of turn outs. And there was the Grotto Falls Hike. I stopped to do the Grotto Falls Hike. 1.4 miles uphill one way. The mist coming off the falls was refreshing. I saw two kids with well over 10 Junior Ranger badges EACH! So many! I only have two. But when you are an adult, they make you do the whole packet and they expect you to do a good job of it. So basically those kids got their badges through ageist loopholes.

I also saw a kid in a Breaking Bad shirt, and I mean younger than a teen. What’s he doing in a Breaking Bad shirt at that age? A gift? Who is letting this kid watch that show?

On the way down from the falls, I eavesdropped on a Harry Potter conversation and when they said to let me by, I said I was enjoying eavesdropping and I agreed that Harry wasn’t all that smart before I went on ahead.

The loop continued, and as it was a loop I was brought back into Gatlinburg, and I returned to the visitor’s center, and then went south to the….the…hold on I have to check my notes. Newfound Gap! That is the road that goes south out of the park into some states that are not on my itinerary just yet. On the Newfound Gap road is a road that goes off to the Clingman’s Dome hike, which is a half mile one way up hill walk (it’s paved) to this structure that is situated on the highest point in Tennessee. Literally took my breath away, but I started breathing real quick after the initial gander at the landscape. Just gorgeous! You are at level with the clouds, so they roll through the hills, obfuscating the for brief moments and then opening it all up again. I was there late in the day, so the hills were getting that lovely late afternoon sun. Just a wonderful view of so much wilderness.

Downhill is so easy. I stuck my Smoky Mountains sticker on my cooler and then emptied the ice water out of it. I’m putting my stickers on my cooler. Right now it has a Discretion Brewing Santa Cruz sticker, a Zion, Carlsbad Caverns, and Hot Springs sticker, and now a Great Smoky Mountains one! It’s a good thing to put stickers on, as you can put many on it and it fits. Cars have a threshold before it becomes too much.

Can you guess which patch I bought? Was it:

a) Clingman’s Dome

b) Newfound Gap

c) Great Smoky Mountains

d) Grotto Falls

It was a nice descent out of the park. The driving has been really easy lately. Not a lot of traffic, not any aggression from other drivers, just open roads with no horrible weather and while humid it isn’t getting above 85ish so it’s all good. There was a nice expressway which cuddled the bottom of the park lines westward towards Chatanooga. Not a fast road (45-60) but I didn’t end up too far south, which I didn’t want. I’ll save Atlanta for when I’m done with Florida. The place where I had to get onto I75 North was under construction, so I missed the unmarked onramp several times. But I got on it eventually. Why I75 North? Well there was a rest stop near Athens and I didn’t want to drive too much more.

So tomorrow is Alabama. I have a pal in Alabama, though not a supremely close one. Once I find out where they live (they know I’m coming and they work during the day). Now I shall sleep, hopefully well, in my car. Camping is nice, but getting to campsites late and leaving in the morning isn’t fun. I like setting up in the later afternoon, tooling around a bit, and coming back to my site and sleeping from there.

The first leg of my journey would be “getting past how far east I’ve been before, not including Florida” which would be the California to Colorado stretch of the journey. Then the “okay south, show me whatcha got” stretch, which I’d call Texas to Louisiana part. Now I’m finishing up the sort of “across the river, but not to the Atlantic” stretch, which is Mississippi to Alabama. So will Florida to Maine be its own stretch? Or will Florida be its own thing, with the rest of the East coast being something else? Only time and travel can tell.

6/4/2014 10am Dunkin’ Donuts in Athens, Tennessee

Wasn’t going to stop at DD, but I saw they had free wifi so I grabbed some caffeine and doughnuts and now I’m here! My goal today is Montgomery, Alabama. Which is pretty far down into Alabama, so I’m in no major hurry. Especially since my friend won’t be off till the evening. It is looking to be a nice day.

It’s amazing how much self-consciousness gets obliterated when you are shuffling into a rest stop bathroom in your pajamas to change into clothes. Yeah I’m scruff, whatchoo care about? And then fresh clothes and a hair brush and BAM looking like a passable member of society once again.

So now I shall update social media with my photos and head on out! Fun!

The answer was d) Grotto Falls

last day in KY

All right! My Kentucky relaxation has come to an end. It's been nice having many good nights of sleep, and time spent not fueling up my car every day, but if I don't move then I don't go anywhere, so time to get a move on! Southwards back into Tennessee. There is a Trader Joe's in Lexington, so I'll swing by there and get some food stuffs. It look like a minimum of four hours to get to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Not bad! Then I'll zag down to Alabama then do a loop through Florida, then up into Georgia, then the East Coast leg of my journey will be underway. It's all happening so fast!

Anyway. Dee & I spent a lot of time watching movies and snacking and eating. But that's good. Good to get those full meals. Good to get froyo with a pal-ski. Good to watch Temple of Doom and How To Train Your Dragon for the first time. I'll be sad to leave, but I don't want to 1) overstay my welcome and 2) give Dee some time during their weekend to themselves. I know how it can be to spend all your free time with others and want some time to yourself but nope straight back to work!

So yeah, it was a lot of hanging out. Dee doesn't live near downtown and anything downtown would be an apparent fuss to park, so I just rolled with my host.

Next you hear from me, I'll be else where.

Dee's Place

5/30/2014 Dee’s Place

Wonderful to spend time with a friend and to have conversation flow effortlessly. It’s nice to have breaks from being in my head for so many hours on the road. I don’t know when I’ll leave Kentucky. Might be here another night.

Had a good long sleep in. I fell asleep really quickly. Sleeping in a car just doesn’t cut it for well rested sleep. We had our morning tea and then went to a Thai food place for lunch. It was scrumptious and I ended up with left overs. That’s a good deal right there. Lexington has a street named Man o’ War, and it’s set up like a wheel with ring roads and spokes. Pretty nifty layout. Dee took me to Sqecial Media (with a Q) which was a sort of hippie knick knack stationary cool art book shop. A nice little place. Then we got boba tea and played Yahtzee in the tea store. I won the first by 3 points, and Dee won the second by about 20.

There was a quickie Wal Mart trip and I got some more ice as the New Orleans ice I got from the hotel vending machine had melted. At home Terry, Dee’s mum, wanted dinner so she put in an order to a barbecue place and we picked it up. Ribs, Texas toast, mac n cheese, and just… piles of food. So good! We just gorged and it was all so warm and tasty and wonderful. We watched some Netflix (Red Dwarf and The Family) and as Dee has work in the morning, it was called an early night. I’ll go do some stuff in Louisville tomorrow and come back in the afternoon/evening.

6/1/2014 Dee’s Place, still

It’s been nice to sleep all the way in continually. My body is getting some time to heal from whatever imaginary damage all the restless nights of car sleeping might incur. And getting ready for more restless nights. Also it’s great to be with a friend, but I think I’ve already said that.

So I got a late start heading out, due to the sleeping in and being on the Internet and whatnot. Then I set out for Louisville! I parked in a parking structure, and took the ticket, but there was no way to pay the ticket when I left…well no obvious way. And no one was in the vestibule. So hopefully some Louisville fine doesn’t show up in the mail later. Anyway, I went to the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, which wasn’t the full distillery but they had a small batch barrel a day one there. It was a tour that had a video with renactors being Evan Williams and co back in the day. The brand Evan Williams has nothing to do with the man, it’s just taking his name because it’s a good historical name. But the Heaven Hill distillery has been around for years. They are the people that make the stuff. Anyway. There was a video and some history and a breakdown of the process of distilling. Good to learn more about the process. And there was a tasting, and the glasses were in this secret cupboards in the tables, so when you lifted the section of table up, the glasses emerged. Pretty nifty! There were two more aged samples to try. Some dudes in a bachelor party drank all of theirs before they went through the tasting, and they were treated to refills. From the other distillery I went to, I knew there was a way they wanted us to do the tasting. So I was good and didn’t glug glug glug it all. And it was good stuff. Very warming. But not much. Obviously they aren’t going to give whole shots to every member in a 20 person tour. So that was fun. The gift shop had this spicy apple grilling sauce that was REALLY GOOD. I didn’t buy any because then I’d have to tote it with me for months before I could use it. I’ll just have to order it later and have Dad grill me a burger with it.

I wandered around downtown for a little bit. Swung by the Louisville Slugger museum, but entrance was more than I wanted to pay for something that barely fascinates me. But I did get a crushed penny in the museum lobby and snap a picture of the world’s largest bat.

I swung by the Jim Beam Distillery too, but it was closed (by a few minutes). Which was fine, I just wanted a few pictures anyway. Sometimes distilleries do start to look alike, and I had a tasting of the only bourbon that really matters to me. So I headed back to Lexington. And I made the mistake of listening to my GPS when it told me to take backgrounds.

Then my GPS stalled and then it couldn’t get service. Then it was referencing my Atlas time and going East and hoping I’ll find a “this way to Lexington” sign. And I did get back, it just took 30 more minutes than it should have.

I was treated to Steak n Shake for dinner. I had the mint oreo shake with the bacon and horseradish and crispy onion burger. Pretty tasty, and not a huge challenge burger, so it was well eaten. The server called Dee & I darling and sweeties and love and all sorts of things. It bugs Dee but I’m not used to that sort of manner. West Coasties are pretty…well they are nice but not overly friendly in that manner. Properly stuffed we went home and watched TV.

Brunch was Waffle House. Hitting up all the regional chains in Lexington! No horse burgers though. You’d think horse capital would have horse meat, but nope. Now I think we’ll get froyo or something. Tomorrow I’ll head out once again into the southern yonder.

lucky in kentucky

5/28/2014 a Kentucky rest stop

Shoutout to rest stops that have indoor seating areas with access to power outlets! I’m just going to chill here for a bit, instead of cooping up in my car for hours till I get tired. Due to the fragmented nature of my travel, I’m not doing really any of those lengths of drives where you are on the road for 10 hours and then pass out the instant you stop. I generally stretch my legs every 2 hours and get to where I want to be in a reasonable amount of time. I didn’t feel like finding a camp site tonight, but I know there are grounds around. Generally rest stops aren’t near enough to camp sites, so it ends up being one or the other. The benefit of taking the road more travelled: more amenities. The weather has been awful ever since I left New Orleans. I’ve been driving through thunderstorms for two days! Though today was significantly better than yesterday. But the horrible weather made it so that I really had no desire to stick around in Mississippi or Tennessee. Why set up camp in the rain, and be kept awake by the rain, only to have everything be soggy and not fun at all? Granted both states were beautiful, but damn it’s no fun going through storms. I kept my speed low and I didn’t hydroplane, and I kept more than enough safe distance. I did see two cars off the road, but considering I was getting passed I can only assume they were not being smart drivers. I did get a few nice breaks in the weather and got some eyefuls of marshy vistas and lush foliage. I diverted to Natchez to see some antebellum houses, though that was when the weather started getting really bad so my tour was curbed. BUT I met two really nice people: Fred and his daughter Myrtle, at the Natchez Visitors Center. Fred was a ranger and tour guide and just general local history buff. And we talked for a while about travel and the town. Now that I’ve crossed the Mississippi River, the towns are going to get a lot more historically established. So that’ll be cool to learn more about.

I did do a quick tour of the William Johnson House and got my National Park stamps. I can’t help but think of Mom in some of these gift shops, because I know she’d buy several books at each one. There was a country veterinary anecdote book at Big Bend National Park that I know she would have bought.

The weather thankfully picked up as it got later in the day. Seeing the lighter patches in the clouds in the distance is such a welcome site. I pulled into a Mississippi rest stop and cuddled up for the night. The storms came and went, but the lightning stayed more than 5 Mississippis in the distance.

I got outta the rest stop at just before 8, and rolled into Memphis at 11. I parked and strolled around. It’s a nice town, Memphis. But not exactly an early afternoon city. I checked out Beale Street after I ruled out Graceland due to $10 for parking and $30+ bucks for a ticket. Sorry Elvis, I’m not that big of a fan. I got a couple pennies crushed, and checked out the Gibsons for sale in the Gibson shop. There were factory tours, but I wasn’t planning on sticking around so I didn’t go on one. If Dad were with me, we’d go together for sure. He’d probably make mischief. Can’t take him to Red Lobster without him sticking his hand in the tank!

I tried on some hats to further confirm that I don’t really look good in hats, then I set off.

The road from Memphis to Nashville is SO BORING OH MY GOD. It’s beautiful for about 30 minutes, but then it becomes the same kind of beautiful for 3 more hours. Nice lush plump trees and a road gently curving around and up and down. But just on and on. And since I took the Interstate, I didn’t get to go through any cute little towns. Or any hollow shells of towns. Basically anything of interest. I went through a storm, and pulled into a rest stop to wait a bit for it to pass. Nashville had heinous traffic, and at that point in the day with all the driving I just couldn’t be bothered to navigate it just to walk around downtown for an hour or two, so I grabbed a smoothie and Jamba Juice, sat for a bit, then hit the road. It was a nightmare to get out, just so much poorly orchestrated traffic, but eventually I did and I was into Kentucky in no time at all! 15 states down. I’ll be in Kentucky for a while because: 1) there is a National Park here 2) there is a State Park named Big Bone Lick and 3) my friend Dee lives here and I can crash at their place in Lexington, though they don’t have time off work till Saturday so I’ll do the park thing first, then show up at their place all smelly like.

But yeah, this rest stop is nice. Has a place to sit and wall outlets. I’m charging my camera batteries. There isn’t wifi though, and no cell reception. Oh well, can’t have it all.

Last night, in the stormy nightmare of Mississippi, I was thinking about how big events in my life are only big upon later reflection and contextualization. There are a few “dang this is big” events that I know are big as they are happening, but largely it’s the things that I don’t think much about that come to have meaning later. Such as Carmen telling me about this band she is forming while at Grandma Marilyn’s memorial service. Anyway. Trying to get some shut eye in a car that is being pounded by a thunderstorm is something that could be described at length in sort of that on the road journey type romanticism, but in the moment I was just like, uhg, sleep please. So I don’t really feel like I’m being affected by this journey, but I think once I am done and go on to the next chapter, I’ll see the changes. Myrtle told me that she thought I was brave and that she wouldn’t be able to do it. And Shayla, one of the girls from New Jersey, said she was too high maintenance to sleep in her car like I was. I don’t really consider myself brave, I just think of myself as someone who does stuff that needs to get done. And things need to get done for various reasons. For mental health, for peace of home, for adventure, for whatever.

I remember also when I came back from Japan, I was all about being someone that had been to Japan. Then years later I would mention it, in college say, and people would go, “you’ve been to Japan?” So I wonder how long will I be “hey, I drove across America to all these state” person.

5/29/2014 7:30 am a Subway in Munfordville, Kentucky

One of the rest stop workers, who were always present and I wonder if they have people there on 24/7 shifts, advised me to take a coupon book. I opted to use the buy one get one free Subway sandwich coupon, as that would give me something to eat later in the day. I had a pretty good night sleep, in rest stop sleeping terms. I adjusted the way I sleep back to reclining in my chair. No rain, no storm. It looks like it’ll be a beautiful day. I’m going to try and find a beverage with some pep in it in Munfordville and then continue on to Mammoth Caves Nationa Park! There is a lot to do in Kentucky, and it isn’t a gigantic state. I keep forgetting that the states in my Atlas are not to the same scale, so getting a hang of the different distances within each place is something I need to readjust. I need to factor in a bourbon distillery visit into my planning, but that is just a matter of figuring out which one intersects best with my driving.

All that rain has really cleaned my car.

11:39 pm Dee’s apartment

Wow! Kentucky is not a big state and is pretty easy to pop around. From Subway I went to Mammoth Caves National Park. A free to visit, pay to go on a tour national park. I went for the 9 pm tour, and there were oodles of people. The cave systems were not the beautiful caves of Carlsbad, but more the worn out and mined caves of… well caves. Still, it was fun to walk through the systems. And there were a few tight squeezes. Two hours in total, though I spent about as long in Carlsbad and saw so much more that made me go ooooohh, and I wasn’t even timed on a tour for that. Anyway, it was nice but I’m in no hurry to go back. I drove on to Bardstown and at the Heaven Hill distillery I realized I was in another time zone! One that Mammoth Cave does not pay attention to. So I’ve lost an hour. I went on a mini little tour thingy, which was a video, a little talk, and a little tasting. So I got to taste a smidge of fancy Evan Williams and I got a bourbon chocolate. I’m a fan of bourbon so it’s nice to be in a place where there are oodles of distilleries. It’s even called the “Kentucky Bourbon Trail”. It’s my Napa Valley! I drove on to the Maker’s Mark distillery, which was way out on winding road that several times made me think I’d gone a wrong way. Also the backroads of Kentucky lack pull outs and shoulders and just generally places to stop and check maps (my phone was refusing to find a signal). But I made it there in time to take the freebie mini tour, and we were allowed to stick our fingers in the yeast vats and try the stuff. It wasn’t alcoholic or tasting really like whiskey, it was more just textured yeasty…stuff. Still, the room smelt good as a whole.

I had a helluva time getting back to 61. So many backroads that are ambiguously named and directioned. Did I mention the lack of pull outs and shoulders? But I did get back to 61, and then towards Louisville, which I skipped to head north to Big Bone Lick State Park. Ha, such a funny name! And only an hour and a half from where I finally picked up GPS (in Elizabethtown I believe). But the camp site was $23 a night!! Way too expensive for a tent camper. So I was about to find another rest stop (which were nearby unlike in other states) but then I found out my friend Dee isn’t working tomorrow and I could stay at their apartment in Lexington tonight! YAY! And it was only an hour drive down, so extra booyah. So I headed on down and got their at around 10.

It’s so awesome to have a friend to stay with, and to meet someone in person who has been a pen pal type friend for years! And to have conversation flow perfectly with no awkward like “hey nice to see you in person” type conversation. We traded stickers! And they have tomorrow off from work, so we’ll go do something fun. There is a distillery in Lexington.

Oh! The street signs in Lexington, well some of them, are illuminated! The ones on main streets. It’s so legible. Santa Cruz could learn a thing or two.