The Calm After The Storm

So, I never know where to start these blogs.  Especially since it's been a couple days since the last one.  And how much do I tell you?  How much do you really want to know about what time I left the city and what I ate for lunch?  I suppose to cover all of my bases, I'll tell you everything I remember, and I'll start at the beginning!  (Can you tell that I'm very very tired?)

ok so maybe some of the branches irene broke were big

So our dear friend Tropical Storm (Hurricane) Irene graced us with a bit of her presence on Sunday in Boston.  Again, it was just a bit of wind and some light rain.  Nothing dramatic or spectacular.  A few tree branches broke, apparently one fell on Tim's girlfriend's friend's car (yeah....), but to my knowledge, that was the extent of the damage in Boston.  We didn't even lose power.  So we stayed inside for most of the day and watched movies (the cable box had shorted out b/c of a brief power surge we'd received).  Tim and I grabbed a bite to eat before bed, but it was a rather lazy day.

On Monday, Tim had to work, so I was on my own.  BUT, not completely.  See, my brother's brother-in-law and father-in-law were stuck in Boston because of the storm & were there for a couple of extra days.  On Monday we decided to meet up and walk around the city together.  They were staying by Fenway Park which was about 1 1/2 miles from Tim's apartment.  Rather than try to brave the subway/train system of Boston by myself, I just decided to walk it.  It was a gorgeous day.  Blue blue BLUE skies, a bit of clouds, almost no humidity, and 80 degrees.  It was as if the storm had never happened!  The walk was pleasant, I got to the hotel and we set off.  We were going to explore the Freedom Trail.  Basically its a red line that's painted through the city which, if you follow it, will take you to the important historical sites of Boston: Paul Revere's house, the site of the Boston Massacre, the Old North Church, etc.  The entire trail is fairly long, and  Paul & Ben had already walked a good chunk of it, so we started where they hadn't been yet, and walked around. 

paul, ben, & i

We started off in a little park, saw the Boston State House, where we sort of barged in on a tour (that was given by a 15 year old kid in a shirt & tie which almost fit him), but we soon left for some more walking.  On our tour we also stopped in at the King's Church which boasts having a bell which was cast by Paul Revere himself.  We also saw Paul Revere's house which honestly wasn't that exciting except that it had silver pieces which Paul Revere had made on display, which was kinda neat to see.  Also we went to the Old North Church.  I can imagine that I'm one of the only people who actually cared to see this church.  In looks, it was about the same as the King's Chapel, but the Old North Church is where the lanterns were hung so that Paul Revere could ride and let people know that "The British are coming! The British are coming!" When I was in elementary school, Tim's mom (who was my teacher at the time; it's a long story), made us memorize the poem Paul Revere's Ride. So here I am in the actual Old North Church and the only lines of the poem I remember are repeating through my head, "One if by land and two if by sea/ And I on the opposite shore will be/  Ready to ride and send the alarm/ To every middlesex village and far/ For the country folk to be up and to arm."  Over and over and over again.  (If you care, you can read the whole poem here:  http://poetry.eserver.org/paul-revere.html)  

mr. revere gets a statue

old north church inside

old north church outside

Anyway seeing the church was cool not only for that reason, but also because its a slice of American history.  (Ut oh, I'm going there!)  Yeah, it was pretty much just a church, but the pews were the oddest part.  See, they were like little boxes instead of pews.  The reason for this was that since it would get so darn cold in New England, you and your family could squeeze into a box and bring some hot coals in an attempt to stay warm.  But you had to rent the box, and if you were lucky, your name would be printed on the little door to your box.  (Could you imagine churches doing this now??)  I thought that was fascinating.  Especially because I didn't see anything like that when I was in England.  This is only bizarre to me because the old bits of the East Coast are the spitting image of anything in England.  I suppose that makes sense because the people who built those old buildings were, in fact, English, but still.  

pews? boxes? prison?

Moving on!  After our little history lesson, Paul & Ben suggested that I take a tour of Fenway Park.  Let me give you a little background here.  When I found out that I would be staying in Boston for one day and that Tim had to work, I thought that there could be no better way to spend my time than to go watch a Red Sox game!  I grew up playing baseball, my brother is a die hard Red Sox fan, so why not?  Fenway's one of the oldest (or THE oldest) American ballpark, so it would be a really neat experience.  So I check for tickets, and lo and behold, the Monday that I'm there is the *only* day of their homestand that the Red Sox aren't playing.  Laaaaaaame!  So when I found out from Paul & Ben that I could take a tour of the park instead, I jumped all over it.  They had taken the tour a few days before so this was where we parted ways.

The tour was fascinating.  We got to sit in the press box and over look Fenway & the Green Monster.  We got to sit in the oldest seats in Baseball, learn a few little known facts about the team & the park, heard some good anti-Yankees jokes, and got to sit on top of the Green Monster.  Pretty cool stuff.  I love baseball!

fenway

green monster!

After Fenway, I walked back toward's Tim's apartment.  He was going to the gym after work, & I hadn't bothered to get his keys, so I went to a park to read while I waited.  It was a beautiful day and a park is the best place to enjoy that after you've been walking all day.  The park proved to be good people watching & I got two great specimens!  First, there was this guy, about 30, who had two little boys (twins or friends, I couldn't tell) who were about 2, maybe 3, years old.  One of the little boys was kicking a soccer ball with all his might, and the other one wanted to play, but didn't want to leave dad's side.  The budding little soccer player was having the time of his life, but he always wanted to kick the ball from the same place.  So he'd kick it once, walk over and pick it up, bring it back to where he'd started, and kick it again.  This happened several times.  It was adorable!  His poor little friend was terrified to join in, so he had to play all alone.  He didn't seem to mind this at all. 

My second bit of visual candy was a man (or was a it a woman?) who was dressed as fantastically as this little park would allow.  First, he had short purple hair.  Then he was wearing teeny tiny cut off jean booty shorts which (not surprisingly) were very much so allowing that booty to hang out.  On top of that, he was wearing this fantastic leopard print cardigan, buttoned all the way up, over his t-shirt.  Now, you would expect that he'd have a tea cup poodle or something to top it off, right?  Nope, he was just sitting there, hanging out in the park, smoking a cigarette.  It was awesome.  People watching is the best.

But by this time, Tim had made it home.  We went to get some food, and then Tim had to do his fantasy football draft so we went to this coffee shop to snag their internet.  This was the 2nd time I had been in this coffee shop that day.  To make matters worse, you had to get an internet access code from the cashiers which they print on receipt paper.  So I got my coffee & my code and promptly, without even making it back to my computer, threw my code away thinking it was my receipt!  Oh good.  I'm an idiot!  So here I go, walking back to the poor guy at the counter 10 seconds after I'd left that same counter, informing him that I'm not to be trusted with little slips of paper and could I please have another code.  At least he thought it was funny.  I did! 

And then Tim & I were back.  We watched a movie (I watch too many movies) and then it was bed time.  In the morning I had to get my car out of the garage where I had left it for my stay in Boston, and then I told Tim I'd take him to work in the morning before I headed out.  A bit later than anticipated (anyone surprised?), we were off.  I took Tim to work, navigated the one way streets of downtown Boston, and was on the road on my way to Houghton, NY.  Houghton, NY is basically a college with a few houses and various (little) businesses around it in the middle of nowhere in southwestern New York.  But I'll come back to that.  

The drive from Boston to Houghton was just under 500 miles.   Tim said that taking 8 hours to drive 500 miles sounded like an awful day, but by this time, the drives don't really even bother me.  I'm used to them.  They are surprisingly relaxing.  And the best part about a 8 hour drive is that it really isn't *that* long anymore.  I'm really liking the road.  I like seeing the changing diversity of the country.  I like seeing the green.  I like passing people who are going too slow.  I like watching other people (who are hauling) pass me, and then I like passing them a few minutes later because a cop pulled them over & they're now on the side of the road getting their ticket.  (That's vindictive, isn't it?)  By the way, so far that's only happened once.  I'm still ticket-less. (Knock on wood.)

And I've settled into a sort of driving routine.  For the first couple of hours, I listen to music.  I rock out.  I snack a little bit. But its mostly just music listening.  (I got my iPod hook up to work again, sort of.)  And then about or 3 hours in I get bored of listening to music and switch to a book on tape.  Then I stop for the one stop: the pee/gas/lunch stop.  Ideally, you want to stop at a gas station directly off the highway which is attached to some sort of eating establishment.   Then its back on the road, and typically about 100 miles from my destination, I get bored of the book on tape and switch back to music for the home stretch.  At some point during the drive you may need a caffeine fix.  On this particular drive, I opted for 2 caffeine fixes.  Both were at McDonald's (mostly b/c typically there are no Starbucks' attached to gas stations, and because there is a very apparent lack of Starbucks in southern NY.  Actually, there's pretty much NOTHING in southern New York, come to think of it, but anyway....).  So in my quest for caffeine, I managed to confuse 4 McDonald's employees at 2 different McDonald's AND I spilled coffee all over my shirt within the first hour of the drive.  At the second McDonald's, I ordered 2 shots of espresso, and after a couple minutes of the employee and manager trying to find a button to use to charge me for just espresso in the computer, she actually decided that the computer was charging me entirely too much, so she gave me a discount!  I now believe that people are not inherently good, but they are at least nice (most of the time). 

Now this particular drive despite my routine, had some quirks.  First off, I had google maps-ed my drive the day before & had discovered that there were 2 routes to get me from Boston to the middle of nowhere.  The first route was (surprise!) chalk full of tolls.  Ew!  I currently have strong feelings against tolls.  It also seemed to be taking me somewhat further out of my way than I wanted to go.  So when I got to Albany, I called my cousin to get her insight on the situation.  She said it didn't really matter which way I went, but that I probably wouldn't have to pay tolls were I to take the southern route, 88, instead of the northern (toll) route, 90.  But as I was driving on 90 just before hitting Albany, I started to see signs saying something along the lines of, "New York Thruway closed at Exit 25A.  Expect Long Delays.  Seek Alternate Route."  Oh joy.  I really hate a sign like that.  So there was my choice, I was taking 88.  Not 90.  I was routed off of 90 at Exit 25A, and put on 88 whether I liked it or not.  Everyone else followed the detour to get back on 90 which was basically a really long line of cars on a one lane highway, and I secretly thought to myself that I was thrilled not to be one of those suckers in that line.  I had sought an alternate route!  So happily, I get on 88 thinking that it would be smooth sailing from there, but NO!  About 10 miles down the road, I find that 88 is closed also.  I get another detour.  On a one lane highway.  Through the country.  For 8 miles.  8 glorious miles of stop & go traffic in which I believe I reached a top speed of 10 mph.  You do the math.  The detour added to my time. 

 

long line of slow moving cars

BUT, the good news is that southern New York is beautiful.  Granted, I'm not too hard to please when it comes to beauty.  I grew up where everything is brown.  Even the green is brown.  So when I see proper green, kept or unkept, grass or trees, I think that it is gorgeous!  But southern New York is different from the rest of the green I've been seeing.  Here the trees are interspersed with farm land.  And hills!  Its not the dense, flat trees of Alabama.  It's much more majestic.  You can see farther.  I quite liked it. 

After my second rerouting, it was smooth sailing.  No more detours.  More of the same gorgeous scenery & clouds, and I then realized that it was only 75 degrees outside.  So for the last 100 miles, I rolled down my windows, blasted my music, and enjoyed the great outdoors from my car!  With my windows down, I had my hand hanging out my window, and I had a bug hit my hand.  Going at 70 mph, that little bugger hurt!  (On a side note, I have murdered a great many bugs with my windshield.  May they rest in peace.)

My cousin & her husband live in the country.  He is the head coach of track at Houghton college, and she assistant coaches with him and also is a (very very good) photographer.  (You can check out her work here: http://www.marydougherty.com/)  They were just finishing up practice when I got there.  I met them at the school & it was awesome to see Mary.  Its been way too long.  Mary & the rest of her family used to drive from Michigan to New Mexico for Christmas when we were kids.  It was always the highlight of the holiday season to see them.  As we got older, we saw each other less and less.  So to be able to visit Mary out in New York is (I'm gonna go over dramatic here) is almost surreal!  It's almost like being a kid again, except that now we're not kids anymore!  

Mary, in addition to being a superb photographer, is also an excellent cook!  She made homemade pesto for dinner & we got to talk while she cooked.  When Matt got home, we all got to enjoy the fruits of her labor, got some excellent corn which Matt had picked up from a farmer on his way home (for that reason alone, I would want to live in the country), and then we talked some more whilst watching the Office.  Mary then decided that she would be making scones for the morning.  I got to help by grating butter (yep, I grated butter) and zesting the lemon.  But then it was bed time. 

I slept like a rock.  Thank God.  Despite sleeping in a different bed every 2 or 3 nights, I'm sleeping better than I thought I would.  Anyway, this morning, Mary baked the scones.   She made them with blueberries & chocolate chips, and not only were they beautiful (like think Food Network beautiful), they were also so so so so tasty.  

After that, I took a shower & Mary got ready for the day.   We were going to go to Houghton to take Matt a couple of scones and Mary had to get a couple things ready for the day.  She's teaching a graphic design class at the college, & she still had a thing or two to do before the class that afternoon.  So we walked around campus, she got to sort some things out, and then it was back to their house for the rest of the preparation, and back to the college for the class!  I almost wanted to sit in on the class and sit at the back just to make her nervous.  But either I'm nicer than that or she wouldn't let me (you decide), so instead I'm sitting in the student center writing this blog.  Being on a college campus for the first week of school is making me (almost) wish I was a college student again.  Maybe I miss school more than I thought I did.  Maybe it's just cause I don't have a job anymore.  Oh well! 

And that's been it.  Fun times are had, and are to be had! Hope you all in New Mexico are doing well.  I'm looking forward to seeing the dry mountains once again, but it won't be for a few more weeks yet.

Hope all is well!!

TALLY:

miles driven: ~4,000 (yikes!)

time spent in my car: 61.5 hours (oh dear.  i'm nearing 3 days)

cities visited: 21

cities slept in: 10

states driven in/through: 17

PS.  On a random side note, my drive from Boston to Houghton should have only taken me through 2 states Massachusetts and New York, but since I took the southern route (US 88) I ended up driving through Pennsylvania for about 30 seconds!  BUT, I did, in fact, cross the state line in to Pennsylvania, albeit for only 30 seconds, so I get to add Pennsylvania to my list of states driven in.  Booyah. 

Is Disaster Following Me?

So so so very much has happened!  Needless to say, much of this trip has been unexpected, but let me assure you first that I am safe and sound.  Hurricane Irene (or rather Tropical Storm Irene) has died down in force and I seem to have stayed well enough ahead of it that I, my car, and my friends, are all safe.  But let me start at the beginning.

So while I was in DC, my aunt mentioned something about a hurricane.  Now where I'm from, this is a completely foreign concept.  A hurricane?  I have no frame of reference.  How big is a hurricane? What exactly do they do? Should I be worried?  But when she told me that a hurricane was heading toward the east coast, I kinda brushed it off.  I figured, I'm too far north for anything to really affect me.  Right? Wrong. I left DC on Thursday morning.  I had decided to leave late morning so that I could miss DC traffic.  I milled around the house a bit, talking with my aunt & uncle, I packed my bags with my clean laundry, my uncle made some fabulous little breakfast burritos with some of their genuine New Mexico green chile, and by about 11:15am, I was on the road.

As expected, I beat DC traffic.  I had no problem getting out of the city except for one thing, RAIN! It was rather bizarre.  There had been no rain the day before while we were walking around the District.  The sky was blue and there were a few clouds, but nothing that looked ominous.  But now, driving through torrential rain I was starting to wonder if this hurricane was something I should actually consider.  When the rain first started, it was so weird because it came out of nowhere.  While I was driving, for a split second, I could see the first few enormous drops falling from the sky, and almost like slow motion, I saw them on their way to hit my windshield.  It was like I was in a John Woo movie for a second or two.  Thank God my windshield wipers work!  The rain eventually let up, but now I kinda knew I was in for it.

So the drive to NYC sucked.  Plain and simple.  It was a 260 mile drive, and without traffic it shouldn't have taken me any more than 5 hours.  BUT NO!  First of all, let me just say that I hate tolls.  I've never had to pay to drive on a road until I came east of New Mexico.  I find it slightly absurd, but I suppose I can appreciate the logic behind it all.  But it seemed like every road between DC and NY was a toll road.  And expensive ones!  Where the tolls in Dallas had been a buck or two, the ones in New Jersey were $5 here, $4 there, a whopping $8 for a bridge somewhere, and by the time I was all finished, I had already dropped nearly $30 in TOLLS!  Grrr!!  To top all of this off, I had to take the New Jersey Turnpike to go across Jersey, and it was packed!  Traffic everywhere, partially because of a wreck, rain, stop and go traffic, big trucks, and amid it all I really really really have to pee!  But I don't want to get off the road because then I'll have to pay the damn toll again.  So I stay on the road, thanking God that serving tables gave me a strong bladder (too much information?  Sorry!), and I braved & conquered the traffic.  I was in New York. With more tolls.  Still having to pee.

By this time, I was just angry.  I was cramping, I couldn't get comfortable in my front seat, my iPod hookup to my car had mysteriously decided that it was now broken (more on that later), so I was stuck listening to the only 5 CD's that I had left in my car before I left Albuquerque & the Adele CD I had snagged from Jessi in Nashville.  Fortunately, that was about 7 hours worth of music, which is how long it too me to get to New York.  So here I was on the bridge to NYC from NJ when I caught my first sight of the city.  Somehow, I didn't care for that split second that I was hurting and tired in my car.  For two glorious seconds I caught a glimpse of a city that's immortalized in my theatre kid mind.  Enormous buildings seemed more imposing shrouded in fog and haze, and here I was on a bridge that quivered slightly with every massive truck that rumbled past.  And then it was stop and go traffic for another hour or two.  Everywhere there were people.  Someone honked, I tried not to take it personally.  Finally, I made it.  Thank you GOD!  7 hours later, no stops, $30 in tolls, and I finally got to pee!

this was my first sight of the city

When I finally got to my aunt & uncle's house, my cousin had made pizza so I got to talk to them for a few minutes and chow down.  It was really cool to see everyone because, again, I hadn't seen them in years!  Had a great time catching up, but as I was so exhausted I went to bed early and got some beauty sleep.  In the morning I woke up rather early to talk to my uncle.  He had to work super late the night before, so I didn't see him before I went to bed.  We got to chat for a couple minutes, but then it was on to the city!

They only live a couple minutes from the train station so I walked.  I was going to take the train in to Penn Station where my friend Tim was supposed to meet me.  Tim lives in Boston, but he has several friends in New York and has lived there for a few summers. He came down for the weekend & stayed with one of his friends to show me around and accompany me in the city.  So I met him at Penn Station and we took the subway to his friend's apartment where I left my bag.  Now we had to talk about the hurricane.  It seemed to be moving closer and closer. The weathermen kept saying that it was going to hit North Carolina and then it was going to head on up the coast.  No one seemed to really know how bad it was going to hit the city, but one thing was for sure, it was definitely coming.

The original plan was that Tim & I would stay in NYC Friday night & Saturday night and then drive to Boston together on Sunday so that Tim could be back at work by Monday.  But Hurricane Irene had different plans. Throughout the day we found out that the mayor had ordered an evacuation for low lying parts of the city and had planned to shut off all mass transit in New York (something completely unprecedented) by noon on Saturday.  So plans changed.  Tim and I would stay that night in New York, and then head to Boston late Saturday morning.  But that didn't mean that we couldn't explore the city on Friday!

So we started walking.  Everywhere!  We walked up and down streets and avenues and buildings and bars and about a hundred Starbucks.  There were people EVERYWHERE.  It's unreal.  Like, you see it in movies, but the last time I had been to New York was when I was about 5, and I didn't remember it at all.  It was overwhelming.  Tim was making fun of me because I kept saying that I would love to live there, and then we'd run in to a ton of people, and I'd change my mind.  This happened several times.  I also thought that at some point we were going to get run over by a cab, or an angry driver (there seemed to be a lot of those), and everyone honks, constantly.

tim & i in central park

Our first stop was Central Park, which by the way, is huge!  I had no idea just how big it was.  And its beautiful!  Trees and grass and ponds and fountains and musicians and people on bikes and artists and everything.  Then we met up with one of his friends for lunch.  More walking after that.  We walked down Wall Street, saw the New York Stock Exchange, Trump Tower, Ground Zero, Rockefeller Center, Tiffany's (yay!), a massive line outside of the Abercrombie & Fitch, live models outside of the Hollister, two H&M's (those were for you, Jessi), and again... about a thousand Starbucks! We also got to ride the Staten Island Ferry, got a super cool view of the skyline (sans Twin Towers....), Hoboken City, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Lady Liberty herself.  It was fantastic!  We then walked to Time's Square & I got me one of those silly "I <3 NY" t-shirts.  So so so super excited.

ny stock exchange

look! its 30 rock!

view from the staten island ferry

Then we met up with a couple of his friends that evening for a drink at this cool little outdoors bar next to a little park.  It was then that I managed to convince Tim to go see a Broadway show with me.  This was the ONE thing that I desperately wanted to do in New York and here I was, buying tickets to Billy Elliot.  But the show didn't start for a little while so Tim & I went to go get some food first.  Then it was off to the theatre.  We get there at 7:41 and the lobby seems strangely deserted.  We go up to the ticket office and the lady looks at us all angry like and informs us that the show started at 7:30.  No!  We were 11 minutes late!  (I swear, at some point on this trip I will do something on time!) I didn't think they were going to let us in, but I suppose since a great many of Broadway's patrons are tourists, they kinda have to let the late ones in.  We only missed the first song so it ended up being ok.  By the way, Billy Elliot was AWESOME.  Absolutely fantastic.  I was loving every minute of it: the dancing, the singing, the acting, the sets, the theatre.  I was in heaven.  Absolutely one of the best things I've ever done. Tim even enjoyed it to!

me in times square

times square at night

After that we met up with some of Tim's friends and ended up staying out & enjoying New York's nightlife for a little bit.  But it was 1 am and it was time to head back to the apartment.  I got to have my ride in a genuine New York City cab, and it was off to sleep.  The next morning we had to get the subway & the train before noon so that we could get out of the city.  We were back to my aunt & uncle's house (where I had left my car) by 12:30 and on the road by 1.  And there was NO traffic.  None!  Apparently everyone who was going to evacuate already did, and everyone else was hunkering down to wait out the storm.

The drive from New York City to Boston is just over 200 miles.  In those 200 miles, we had smooth sailing except for one thing: rain.  And LOTS of it.  Rain everywhere, sometimes really bad, sometimes really light, but it was constant.  I was tremendously thankful that my wipers worked & that I have a decent amount of tread on my tires.  My visibility was quite low also because it was foggy on top of it.  While I was driving, I couldn't help but think just how gorgeous New England was.  But it's all kinda starting to look the same.  Green everywhere, trees everywhere, and now rain everywhere!  I'm actually kinda looking forward to driving through the mid west next.  Another change of scenery should be nice.

this was my view the entire way from ny to boston

The drive itself was fairly uneventful.  Tim and I listened to talk radio about the hurricane almost the entire time.  The reports kept saying that it was going to be bad, but they just weren't really sure how bad.  It was supposed to flood New York, but not too badly, and they didn't really seem to know how badly it was going to hit Boston.  We made great time to Boston, and we made it to Tim's place by 4:30pm.  We then went to go hang out with Tim's girlfriend (who had cooked us dinner!) and her roommates.  The rain still hadn't gotten terrible yet, so we went out for ice cream & goodies from Trader Joe's.  That night we played Taboo and then went out one more time to this cool little college bar that was right across the street.

That night I slept on the couch and it was awesomely comfortable.  When we woke up this morning, there was no widespread damage.  It had rained, and it had been windy, some tree branches had been broken, but nothing horrific.  Nothing to write home about.  Apparently Irene had downgraded to a tropical storm during the night, had flooded parts of Manhattan that morning, and had moved west of Boston through New England and is currently making its way up to Canada where it will eventually dissipate.  Now I've survived the East Coast Earthquake and Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene.  How on earth could I have ever known that this is what I was getting myself in to by going on this road trip!

Today's been a lazy day.  Boston's mass transit is shut down for the day, it's been drizzling all day, and there's not a whole lot to do.  And it's awesome.  Tim & I walked to go get some lunch at this little place that's like Boston's version of the Frontier restaurant.  It was delicious.  Tim also briefly showed me the BU campus.  It's pretty.

Tomorrow, the forecast is sunny.  SUNNY!  Turns out that my brother's father in law & brother in law are in Boston too.  They were here for a few Red Sox games and because of the storm, they couldn't fly home to New Mexico on Sunday as originally planned.  So they're here til Tuesday, and as Tim has to work on Monday, it looks like tomorrow I'll be hanging out with them!  How random is that?  Looking forward to it.  Gonna see what Boston's got to offer.

I'm not gonna lie, the last few days have been chalk full of unexpected events and I'm quite enjoying the excitement that they're bringing.  I didn't plan any of this, but as my car still runs, I'm still alive, & so are my friends, I'm not complaining.  Tuesday takes me to western New York to visit my cousin, and then from there I'm on the massive trek to Los Angeles.  4 more weeks before I'm home!

Peace!

TALLY:
miles driven: ~3,500
time spent in my car: 53 hours
cities visited: 20
cities slept in: 9
states driven through/in: 16

Things You Didn't Appreciate When You Were 14.

First off, let me just say that today was awesome!  And now my feet hurt.  As much as I love my TOMS, it just might be time to retire them as my go-to walking shoes.  (Sorry, TOMS, I love you, but my feet are currently screaming otherwise!)

Alright, so today I woke up a bit late, took a shower, went upstairs to say hi to my aunt & uncle who were doing the crossword puzzle, ate breakfast, did a sudoku, and straightened my hair.  Then, mid morning-ish, my aunt and I headed into the District.  (Sounds like something scary out of The Hunger Games when you say it like that, doesn't it?) So we fought with traffic a bit, it wasn't too bad since it was mid morning, and parked near the Pentagon again to get on the metro.  Let me just say that I love cities with metros.  I feel so official as I walk toward them, figure out which stops I've got to get to on which lines with my shoulder bag slung over my shoulder so that no one nicks my things.  Its awesome.  Maybe its because I come from a small city and I've never had a reason to feel so decidedly urban, but I think I just may have to live in a city with a metro before I get too old, or have a family, or decide I don't like it anymore.  Anyway....

Right, so we get on the metro, and we didn't really have much of a plan for exploring the city except that we were going to start with the Library of Congress and then from there, we'd just walk around and explore whatever we saw or whatever struck our fancy!  My aunt really wanted to see the Library of Congress because, despite that she's lived here for the last 11 years, she's never seen it!  It really is true that you're never a tourist in your own city.  (Which reminds me, when I get home, I'm exploring the living daylights out of  Albuquerque! Anyone want to join me? Super!)

So after getting slightly lost on the metro, we found the Library of Congress.  It, and the White House, and the Smithsonian, and the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol Building are all right around the same basic (rather large) area.  The Mall runs through the middle and is basically these massive chunks of grass and trees: essentially a park.  So so so beautiful.  And right in the heart of the city.  The buildings are massive structures that really look like they've come from the past, but in an imposing sort of grandiose way, not like an ancient oh-dear-you-might-fall-over-at-any-minute way.  I looked like such a dork of a tourist walking around taking pictures of everything and staring up (in awe) at these buildings!  Now apparently I've been to DC before, but I was quite young and I can tell you that I didn't appreciate it at all.  My aunt tells the story that the last time we were in DC, me and my brothers wanted to go to "the mall", when my aunt took us to this beautiful grass monstrosity in the middle of the city, we all (allegedly) said, "This isn't the mall! We meant like a shopping mall!"  Apparently, that (rather bratty) high schooler in me has since been put to rest because every bit of the Mall that I saw today, I loved.

Right, so the Library of Congress is actually two buildings.  We only went in to one, and most of the exhibits were closed (because of the earthquake, I think), but the building itself is beautiful.  There are stone mosaics on the floors and some of the ceilings which are so intricate that they instantly transport you to the past.  They also had a Gutenburg Bible on display which I wasn't supposed to take a picture of, but I did anyway, because it reminded me fiercely of high school!

library of congress

gutenburg bible

From there we walked to the Capitol building.  We couldn't go inside, so we took pictures!  From there we just started walking down the Mall.  At one end is the Capitol Building, at the other end is the Washington Monument, and on either side are the various museums, all of which are free thanks to the dude who donated the money for the Smithsonian Institute (I think.  I learned a lot today, and I'm having trouble keeping it straight!).  We then went into a couple art museums, but didn't stay long because our time was limited.  A cup of coffee later, we were back outside, now walking toward the Washington Monument, which for whatever reason, absolutely fascinated me.  Maybe its because it looks like nothing else around it, whereas most of the other buildings are wide, the Monument is skinny and it seems to reach even higher because of it.  So I took about a million pictures of it.

capitol building

washington monument

Then we walked to the White House.  You can't really get all that close to it, and you can't really see it all that well because the grounds around it are beautifully covered in massive trees and other vegetation.  I guess even the President deserves a little bit of privacy!  Next, we were headed to the Lincoln Memorial, another fine imposing building!  More pictures!  But before we made it there, we had to cross through another beautiful park, which has various war memorials.  The one we stopped at was the Vietnam War Memorial which is a series of polished black stone (?) walls with the names of all the soldiers who died in the war etched onto the stone.  It's a rather somber wall to walk past.  The list of names is massive.

lincoln

vietnam memorial

From there we went to see the newest memorial that Washington had to offer: a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. Apparently this weekend is the grand opening or dedication or whatever, but the memorial is already set up and open to the public.  It's Dr. MLK Jr. carved into stone surrounded by various quotes of his.  Another fine structure.  History can be beautiful.  Who knew?

dr. mlk jr memorial

Now, by this time we had been walking for a few hours.  It was starting to wear on our feet, and we needed to be back by 5 to pick up my cousin, so we started to head back to the metro.  But we had had an absolutely perfect day for walking.  The sun was shining but there was a breeze (which nearly turned into a wind, but not quite), the humidity wasn't unbearable, and the sky was a crisp (almost New Mexico) blue.  Just perfect!

So we got to the metro, no trouble there.  Drove out of the District, picked up some Chipotle for dinner, and picked up my cousin.  Chipotle is still awesome, btw.  I will never tire of those burritos, so c'mon ABQ, get a move on!  After dinner, my aunt & I got to talk some more.  She told me all about how she & my uncle met.  Great story, by the way.  It's fun to be able to connect with your aunts and uncles in a more mature way.  I'm not a kid anymore, and that means that (to some extent) we get to be adults together.  I dunno.  Maybe I'm the only one who sees it like that.  But the point is that I really enjoyed talking to her.  And then we watched Field of Dreams, which I hadn't seen in forever.  That movie is still awesome.

And now, I'm off to bed.  I slept so poorly last night that I'm hoping tonight will make up for it.  Tomorrow, is goodbye to DC and hello to NYC.  Tomorrow's a nice short drive, only 250 miles.  (Take that, 680!)  I'm scared to death for NYC traffic but I'm considering it a rite of passage.

Expect to hear from me again soon!

PS. Here's a link to my other pictures from DC.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150415842414972.448728.545464971&l=98438394bb&type=1

OH! PS. I got word from a few of you that you were unable to comment on my blog.  I think I have fixed the situation so that you don't have to be signed in to your google account (or even have a google account, anymore) to comment.  So, please, if you'd like to comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you ALL so much for reading!!!

11 Hours Alone In A Car & An Earthquake.

So much has happened!  I'm just gonna dive right in.

Right, so after I finally finished writing my last blog, it was 1am, and my alarm was set for 6am.  5 hours of sleep.  What was I thinking?  I had a (nearly) 700 mile drive the next day, the longest drive on the entire trip, and I was planning on doing it on 5 hours of sleep.  Apparently I thought I was still in high school, because my body did not agree with me the next morning at 6am when my phone woke me up.  I had talked to my Aunt Karla the day before and told her that I was going to try to leave by 7am from Nashville to drive to her house just outside of Washington, D.C.   She joked with me that, according to this blog, I wasn't so great at leaving on time, (and she's very right!) but I was determined to leave when I intended to!  So I get out of bed at 6:30am (ut oh, strike one) and I check my email to find that my credit card has been declined for my gym payment!  (strike two) My gym payment?  I haven't been to the gym in 6 months!  And then I remember something... I signed a year long gym contract exactly 11 months ago.  When did my credit card expire? Before my last payment.  Curses!  So that ate up another chunk of time in the morning trying to sort that nonsense out, and I was on the road by 7:30.  Not bad, all things considered.

Getting out of Nashville wasn't bad.  I had planned on making 2 stops in the 700 miles, but right from the get go, I knew that this was going to be a LONG day.  11 hours in a car is bad enough on a full night of sleep, but on half of one it's a challenge.  I figured I'd get some caffeine and I'd be good to go, but there didn't seem to be many (or any!) Starbucks on the way.  But I didn't want to pull off and look for one, so on I went.

And on... and on.... and on.....  This was turning out to be a tremendously boring drive.  With no caffeine, and a breakfast of nuts and a Cliff bar, I was doing little else but paying attention to the road.  I sang a little bit along with my iPod (I must look like an idiot on this trip because I'm proper rocking out to my music while I'm driving), and that seemed to wake me up, but even that got boring after a while.  So I started listening to my Harry Potter book on tape (I'm half way thru Chamber of Secrets.)

To make matters worse, the scenery wasn't all that impressive.  Eastern Tennessee isn't too dissimilar to the rest of Tennessee (sans Starbucks), but by lunch time I had made it to Bristol which is right on the border of Tennessee and Virginia.  So here I decided to make my first stop.  I was lured off of the highway by a sign for Chick-fil-A.  I thought that sounded far more appetizing than McDonald's or something like that.  So I turn into this town, and I get a little deeper into town and I don't seen any Chick-fil-A, or really anything to eat!  Well this is upsetting, so here I am driving thru some town, and I start to get lost.  Lame sauce.  Meantime Matilda is constantly telling me, "Recalculating!  Recalculating!" because I've veered off of the highway.  So I finally decide to follow her incessant (and rather loud) directions back to the highway thinking that surely between here and there I will find both a gas station and a food source.  Bingo: Subway and a Gas-N-Go.  I think to myself that here's as good as any, and about 15 minutes later both me and my car are full.

Back to the highway it is, and I realize within minutes that I forgot to buy something with caffeine in it.  So I determined that the next time I see a sign for a Starbucks I'm gonna turn off and treat myself to something with 4 lovely shots of espresso in it.  100 miles later, there's my sign.  But it doesn't tell me where to exit! So I pick the 2nd one (because the first looked like it was going to lead me into the woods and leave me there), and like the phantom Chick-fil-A, I see no Starbucks.  Well now I'm just frustrated.  So I pull off into a parking lot of a church & ask Matilda where the Starbucks is.  It's 3 miles BEHIND ME.  What? Why?! How did I pass it?  But I don't care anymore.  I don't even want caffeine!  I just want to get to Virginia!  And yet again, I find myself back on the highway.

The next stop was for gas.  I stopped in some town, I couldn't even tell you where, to fill up one more time.  I determined that if I were to get stuck in traffic in the D.C. area, I would do it with at least half a tank of gas.  So as I'm filling up, this middle aged guy looks over at me and asks me where my license plate is from.  He says he's never seen that one before.  I say New Mexico, and he asks me what on earth I'm doing out this far.  I tell him I'm road tripping.  He finds this very interesting, and as he's driving away he gives me a friendly wave.  It was kinda cute.  He reminded me of all of my friends' dads rolled into one.  So after that, I walk into the gas station determined now to get something to keep me awake.  I settle on a 5 Hour Energy shot.  Now THAT did the trick.

Now that I had slightly more energy, I began to notice a few things.  1.) Harry Potter is awesome.  Awesome, awesome, awesome.  2.) Virginia's scenery is actually very very beautiful.  The vegetation is varied a lot more than it is in Tennessee.  Where TN had just a massive wall of green, VA has hills, and grass, and trees, and other plants, and quite a bit more variety.  It's gorgeous. 3.) Cops. Are. Everywhere. (Still no speeding ticket for me though. Knock on wood.) 4.) People don't know how to drive on the highway.  The left lane is for PASSING, PEOPLE.  Not for sitting next to a semi truck with a line of cars sitting behind you while you go the SAME SPEED as said semi.  Seriously.  Who gave you a driver's licence? 5.) Adele's record "21" is awesome.  Girl can SING.  and 6.) 680 miles is the longest I ever want to be alone in a car again.

But! the awesome thing about driving 680 miles today is that I have hit 3000 miles on this trip!  Here are pictures of said event:

you can't really see it, but my odometer says  36975

this was my view at the 3000th mile

excitement? fatigue? both?

Note that my hair is going crazy.  For the last 50 or so miles, I realized that it was a balmy 80 degrees outside and that I simply had to drive with my windows down and my music blaring.  So I did.  It was awesome.

At 7:15pm Eastern Time, I pulled into my aunt & uncle's driveway.  Just shy of 11 hours.  I was so happy to have arrived! I hadn't seen my aunt, uncle, and cousin in years, and I have never been to their house before, so this whole bit of the trip is quite the treat!  They live in a gorgeous little bit of suburbia outside of D.C. Now my aunt is from New Mexico, and she had made green chile chicken enchiladas!  Hooray!  Apparently you can take the girl out of the southwest but you can't take the southwest out of the girl.  The enchiladas were delicious.  We had fun talking over dinner, but I was exhausted from the day and I fully intended to call it a night, until I got caught up talking on the phone with one of my friends from home!  Almost 2 hours later, I was in bed.  But I quite enjoyed my unexpected talk with home.

This morning I slept in.  I took a shower and strolled upstairs.  My aunt had just gotten home from work, and my uncle awesomely took my car to get an oil change for me!  (The first oil change.... scary.  I'm far from home!)  Now today, the agenda was to go see the Pentagon.  One of my friends from El Paso currently works at the Pentagon and I had completely spaced that she lived in DC!  She got in touch with me yesterday and she even offered to take me and my aunt on a tour of the Pentagon.  How awesome is that??  So my aunt and I drive into DC, got stuck in traffic, and (with the help of Matilda) found the parking structure, got on the metro, and arrived at the Pentagon.  2 forms of ID, a security check, and a visitor's badge later, we were in the Pentagon.  Inside it.  What??  Who does this??  Awesome.

Sam took us around and showed us a little bit of the building.  Turns out the side of the Pentagon that she works in was the one that got hit on 9/11.  (Incidentally, that was 10 years ago this September.  Doesn't seem like it's been that long, does it?)  She was just showing us the little memorial for 9/11 that's in that wing when it happened.  The walls started shaking.  And the ground. For about 5 or 10 seconds.  Nothing too terribly big, but certainly more than a door slamming or something.  We all looked at each other.  What was that?   Construction on the floor above us, maybe?  But then we started to notice that people were walking outside, through the emergency exits.  Then more people.  Then everyone.  But no one seemed in a panic.  So we ambled outside with everyone else to see what was going on when someone said, "There was an earthquake, 90 miles away.  5.9."  I thought they were joking.  But no.  Now I can say that I was evacuated from the Pentagon because of an earthquake!  After standing outside for about 10 minutes, we were let back in the building.  We got a bit of food in the food court and watched Fox News' coverage of the quake.  Apparently it was felt as far north as Canada, and as far south as Georgia.  Geez.  Who'd have thought?

After lunch, we said goodbye to Sam and headed back to the car.  We figured traffic would be nightmareish so we got out of DC as quickly as possible (again with Matilda's help!) and surprisingly we made it back to the house rather quickly!  While we were driving all around today, my aunt would explain the things we were driving around and past.  It was fascinating!  There's so much here that's different from the quaint little desert of New Mexico.  It is a very diverse country that we live in, and my eyes are being opened wider and wider with every stop on this trip.

Anyway, back at the house my aunt and I got to talk a bit, then my uncle & cousin came home, and we decided to head to dinner at the Dogfish Head Alehouse.  It's a microbrewery/pub that served us some delicious food and drink!  Pleasantly stuffed, we were back to the house where it was on to a game or two of pool with my cousin, Jack.  (Quite nice, although I'm a rubbish pool player.  Rubbish, I tell you!)

Thus, the D.C. part of my journey has so far been smashing!  Enchiladas, oil change, comfy bed, earthquake, pentagon, and craft beer, and pool.  Very, very good day!

But again, I must sleep.  For some reason I'm still staying up way later than I intend! But alas, I guess I'll sleep when I get home.

Tomorrow, we are to explore DC: Library of Congress, White House, Washington Monument, etc. Should have lots of pictures.  I'm quite looking forward to it!

TALLY:
miles driven: 3,000+
time spent in my car: 41 hours
cities visited: 17
cities slept in: 6
states driven through/in: 8

I Ain't Never Liked Country... Til I Came To Nashville.

Let me just start by saying that this (Nashville) is the first stop of my trip where I thought, "I could actually see myself living here." Now don't go cryin' that I ain't comin' back.  I'm just sayin'.  Hypothetically. Y'know.  That said, I have stories!

So, I believe I left you the last time saying that I was going to experience Nashville that day with Jessi, so that would have been Saturday.  Before Jessi & I could do any real damage, the first stop of the afternoon was the dropping off of a brilliant cake which Jessi had both baked and decorated.  It looked like this:

right??

Yes, she did all the work.  Yes, it is terribly impressive!  Yes, if you need a cake in the Nashville area, she's your go-to gal.  Yes, I can give you her number.  The cake itself was for one of their friends' 30th birthday parties, which incidentally was a prom!  Like, highschool prom.  DJ, dancing, big reception hall rented out, punch, decorations, and formal wear!  And the cake was the crowning glory.  All in all, I'm sure the night was fun.  BUT, for Jessi & I and our Nashville adventures, it was only 4:30 in the afternoon!

So off we went to explore the Nashville area.  We drove down Music Row briefly.  It's just a bunch of recording studios, some of which are converted houses.  Altogether unimpressive from the outside, despite the magic that goes on inside.  We then drove around to this park which actually has a replica of the Greek Parthenon right in the middle of it:

yep.  this is in the heart of nashville.

After that we went to Hillsborough Village.  This was hipster central.  I was loving it.  TOMS! RayBans! V-necks! snooty coffee! plaid! skinny jeans! We went into this coffee shop called Fido which was probably where I'd spend all my money if I lived there.  The red brick and wooden tables were all that I could ever want in a coffee shop.  Jessi & I got "Local Lattes" and sat down to drink espresso, milk, honey, & cinnamon.  Delightful!

coffee is so pretty!

After that we walked around and explored the shops. We went in to little boutiques, found this gem:

Then it was on to used clothing stores, overpriced weird furniture stores, and the like!  But just walking around was the joy of it.  We also found this cool bookstore which looked like it, despite their best efforts, had little rhyme or reason.  It did, however, have a teeny tiny little room which looked like it had once been a closet which was stuffed with their "drama" section.  I was ecstatic.  An entire (albeit tiny) room devoted to plays!  Hurray!

this is what theatre geek heaven looks like

From there, we decided that a movie (I think I need to add to the TALLY:  movies watched thus far) was next on the agenda.  But dinner came first.  We went to Chipotle!  I love me some Chipotle and it was everything I remembered it being.  I cannot wait until Albuquerque gets one of these!  Something about cilantro-lime rice is just the best thing on this planet to put in a burrito.

mmm, mmm, good.

Next it was on to the movie theatre.  But everything we wanted to see was sold out!  No!  So it was on to Opryland instead!  Now, I didn't know this, but it's actually a hotel.  With a massive concert hall.  Next to a mall.  Now when Nashville flooded about 18 months ago, the entirety of this hotel/hall/mall was flooded, and shockingly so.  It's since been reopened (not the mall, but for legal reasons) and it is literally breathtaking.  We couldn't go into the concert hall because there was a show going on, but the hotel was absolutely stunning.  Inside there are 3 atriums, and each looks like a botanical garden.  One even has a makeshift river flowing through it, complete with waterfalls, and this fountain:

yup. that's inside the hotel.

outside the grand ole opry

From there we decided to head to downtown Nashville.  On a Saturday night.  Oh boy!  It was PACKED.  People everywhere, and live music in every single bar.  And *good* music too.  This is, after all, Nashville!  So we picked a packed little honky tonk called The Second Fiddle, got ourselves a drink, and enjoyed some genuine cover country music.  I loved it!  And I don't even like country music!  But something about being in the South, listening to this music live, watching everyone dance in their cowboy boots (not line dancing; that would have been the only thing that would have made this better) was simply too good to be true.

country!

We walked around a bit more.  Went into a shop or two.  Tried on some cowboy boots!  Went into the touristy shops, and found this fantastic postcard that was a recipe for roast beef that had a picture of Elvis on it!  Oh yeah.  I bought one.  Best $0.33 I ever spent!  We then went and walked across this pedestrian bridge  which goes over the river.  It's quite the architectural sight, and we found out that you can actually rent it out for occasions! How cool would that be? To have your wedding reception or 30th birthday party or something on this gorgeous bridge??  I'd move to Nashville just for that!

whaddya think?

By this time it was getting late so Jessi & I headed back to the house.  It had been a tremendously fun night, but church was in the morning, and the two of us needed our beauty sleep.  Church the next morning was quite nice.  It was fun to hear a preacher with a genuine southern accent (we don't get that much in NM, do we?).  During the second service, Jessi & Chris went to go help out with the youth, and I got to make some phone calls, fight with my phone, and read.  Lunch was also nice, we got Chinese food which was tasty.

Now here my trip decided to take a turn that I never saw coming.  Years ago, when I was in middle school/early high school I used to go to a summer camp called Blue Haven.  At Blue Haven I met a ton of people from Texas, and one from Nashville, Tennessee.  It's been 8 or 9 years since I've seen some of these people, and I thought that more or less, I probably wouldn't ever see some of them again.  I had made no effort to meet up with my friend from TN because I didn't think she lived there anymore.  Crazy thing is, I had checked-in on Facebook when I was at that Chipotle the day before, and being friends on facebook, she saw it and said that she lived only a few miles from there!  What are the odds?  So we had made plans to meet up after church on Sunday.  It was absolutely crazy.  I hadn't seen Kim in 4 years.  She has since graduated from Pepperdine, gotten married, and moved back to Nashville.  So I went over to her house and she took me all over Franklin & Nashville, showing me all the obnoxiously large (and obnoxiously gorgeous) houses set in these picturesque countrysides & wooded hills.

But it got better.  Another of our camp mates just happened to have moved to Nashville too!  Andrea I hadn't seen in 8 years.  And Kim decided not to tell her that I was coming with her to say hi.  She was shocked when she opened the door; I wasn't entirely sure she would recognize me!  But we all got to talk for a while, and it was so fantastic to get to catch up.

I'm starting to learn that the unexpected things about my trip, like going to a honky tonk, and seeing old friends, are some of the best moments.  The planning is crucial, but the spontaneity is invaluable!  I wouldn't trade this trip for the world.  2 weeks down, and I'm still loving it.  When I got back to Jessi & Chris' house they had decided to grill, so we had steaks, grilled chicken, grilled pineapple, and grilled corn.  Delicious!  Food and a movie, and it was bed time.

Nashville has been so so very lovely.   I've had an absolute blast & am sad to go, but onward!  Tomorrow I make the longest drive yet (I think), 680 miles.  Spring Hill, TN to Chantilly, VA.  (aka Nashville to D.C.) This is where my driving skills begin being put to the test.  From there I get to brave the streets of NYC and Boston.  Lord help us all!


TALLY:
miles driven: ~2300
time spent in my car: 30.5 hours
cities visited: 15
cities slept in: 5states driven through/in: 7

PS.  Remember Texas Pride? Southern Pride might be worse:

southern pride much?

From Beach To Country

Hello!

I  really really wish I had a good excuse as to why I haven't blogged in a couple of days, but alas, there is none!  I was in Florida up until yesterday, and yesterday I spent driving the entire length of Alabama up to Tennessee. By the way, Alabama is GORGEOUS.  Like, really really gorgeous.  But more on that later.  Let's finish up my stay in Florida first.

Ok.  So my trip to Fort Walton Beach, FL was tremendously relaxing.  Katie & Thomas both had to work during the day while I was there.  So in the mornings I would generally sleep in, lounge around, make some breakfast, do the dishes, watch TV, etc.  (It was lovely!) I probably should have gone to the beach once or twice, but I didn't have a whole lot of interest in going the the beach alone to get my white skin burnt to a crisp.  I've discovered that I like the idea of the beach.  I like looking at it.  I think I could even get on board with playing at it.  But just sitting there?  Tanning?  I think I'm too much of a city girl for that.  So instead, I'd sit on the balcony over looking the water and read.  That's my idea of vacation!

So Tuesday night, when Katie got off work, I went to go meet her at the mall she works at and we went to go  see a movie.  We saw The Help, which is actually a really really good movie.  Heartfelt, sad, touching, funny, all of it.  Well written, and extremely well acted, it was a movie I would gladly see again.  (On a side note, I read somewhere that Emma Stone is what Lindsay Lohan could have been.  And I think they're about right.  Except that Emma Stone's got [way] more talent, and apparently the brain that Lindsay seems to have misplaced just after The Parent Trap.  But I digress.)

After the movie we went to dinner at this place called McGuire's Irish Pub.  Now McGuire's isn't exactly unique.  It's basically a bar/pub like any other except for one thing:  McGuire's has decorated its walls (and ceiling) with one dollar bills.  And not just regular ones.  No, they give any customer who'd like to make a contribution a sharpie to doodle on the bill, and then a staple gun to staple it to the wall.  At first, it looks really tacky, and then you start to read some of the bills.  They're fantastic.  Katie & I contributed to the delinquency with our own bill.  I completely spaced taking a picture of the pub, because I was too taken aback with this:

even with my big mouth, how am i supposed to eat this?

This, my dear friends, is my 3/4 lb Fiery Jalapeno Burger. No, I did not finish it, but I made very good headway!  The table next to us was just as shocked as I was at the size of it.  They asked me if I  could finish it, and to my chagrin I told them I'd try.  They looked more disgusted than impressed.  Fie for shame! (Oh, McGuire's also boasted a Peanut Butter Burger.  Neither Katie or I were brave enough to try it.)

The next day I decided I wasn't going to be a total bum.  Instead, I went to go see Harry Potter in IMAX.  Yes, I'm on this trip and I've already seen more movies than I ever watch at home. That aside, Harry Potter in IMAX was only offered in 3D.  I hate 3D.  But I love Harry Potter.  And we don't have an IMAX theatre that shows regular movies anywhere near Albuquerque.  So I was in a conundrum. I decided that my desire to see Harry Potter in IMAX outweighed my hatred of 3D, so there I was, buying a ticket to a movie alone (this is the first time I've ever seen a movie alone) in the middle of the day.  I was loving it!  So I sit down at 1:09, the movie was to start at 1:10 and I realize that I forgot to wear my contacts to the 3D movie!  So I've got these ridiculously obnoxious 3D glasses on over my regular glasses, and the 3D glasses keep sliding off my head!  Apparently my right ear is not big enough to hold the glasses up.  But only my right on.  Lefty is fine!  Arg.  I'm lopsided.

3D glasses over normal glasses.  sexy, huh?

So 1:15 rolls around and the movie still hasn't started.  1:20, still nothing.  1:25, nada.  So now I'm getting frustated.  I go talk to an employee to let him know my movie hasn't started and we're going on 15 minutes late.  He looks at me and says, "Have the previews started?"  I'm dumbfounded.  What kind of a question is that?  Surely, if the previews had started I wouldn't be here asking you why my movie hadn't started yet!  So, calmly I look at him and say, "No.  Nothing has started." So he goes to tell the manager, and 25 minutes later, the movie finally starts playing.  Even the 3rd time, Harry Potter is still an awesome movie.  IMAX is pretty cool too, but my feelings about 3D remain the same.  It's ridiculous.  I don't like it.  But I could fill an entire post on why I don't like it, and this isn't the time or place.  I'll spare you that. ;)

So anyway, after Katie got off of work, we went shopping.  Now, keep in mind that for the last year I've been saving nearly every penny I've made so that I can come on this trip.  My spending embargo has been lifted!  And I've got to be careful.  Can't spend all that saved money in one place, especially since I've still got 5 weeks of my trip left, including NYC, Chicago, and LA.  Spending embargo reinforced!  Nah, but we had fun going to stores and looking at all the ugly things people try to sell these days.  Our best find was that Sunglass Hut had a buy one get on free deal, so we each got a pair of sunglasses.  Score!

where am i gonna put it all??

That night Thomas cooked dinner.  We feasted quite spectacularly on Filet Mignon cooked to perfection.  I was informed that my choice of medium to med well, was NOT ok.  I was treated to (and he was right) a med rare/medium steak, corn, and mashed potatoes.  Superb.  Katie & I then walked to the grocery store to get some ice cream, and that finished off the night.  I then managed to stay up super late watching Storage Wars!  My new guilty pleasure.  Ut oh.

Thursday I started to realize that I was leaving the next day.  So I did all my laundry.  All this laundry:

And I was starting to wonder if it was all going to fit in my suitcase. I'm learning that my stuff is expanding.  Fortunately, I have my entire car to fill in the next 6 weeks.  Maybe my gas mileage will go down by the time I'm driving home.  Let's hope not!  So after laundry, I started reading this book that I had brought.  It's Tina Fey's autobiography called Bossypants and it's AWESOME.  If you are a Tina Fey fan, go out and buy this book right now.  Like, seriously. Right now.  Don't even read the rest of my blog.  It's great.  It's got all her dry humor, all her ridiculousness as she makes fun of herself, and very blunt story telling.  I'm loving it.  I managed to read almost half the book in that first sitting.

But books aside, that night, Katie, Tom & I went to go eat dinner, and then we went down to Harborwalk to see some fireworks.  After their late start (what is with me having things start late on this trip??) the short little fireworks show was great.  It was done over the water, so you could see the reflections of the fireworks on the water, and there were all kinds of people watching it from their boats, which looked like fun.  From the balcony that we were situated on, the view was great.  Totally worth it.

fireworks over the harbor

When we got back to the apartment, we watched a little TV, and called it a night.  I would be shooting for a 7:30 am start the next morning, and I still had to pack.  So I set my alarm for 6 am, and dozed off.  6am came a little too fast.  I took a shower and packed my bags, shoving all my shoes into my backpack b/c they wouldn't fit in the regular suitcase (ut oh...), and I got everything loaded into my car.  Katie, while I was doing this, had made a veritable feast of breakfast burritos.  For a girl who never liked green chile, Katie makes a MEAN breakfast burrito, and apparently times have changed, because she likes chile now!  Hurray!  Floiridian green chile burrito down, I was getting gas & on the road by 8:15 am.

Now this drive was from Fort Walton Beach, FL to Nashville, TN.  It's basically a straight shot north through the entire length of Alabama, about 430 miles.  BUT, I decided that once again, I was going to go off the beaten path.  I was taking a detour.  And where was I going?  To the most epic thrift store in the south.  That's right.  A Thrift Store.  But not just any ol' thrift store.  I was going to the Unclaimed Baggage thrift store of Scottsboro, Alabama, about an hour out of my way.  Now, why was I doing this?  I had read online a few months ago about this place.  It turns out when airlines lose your bag, and despite their best efforts are unsuccessful at getting it back to you, your stuff just might get sold (or given?) to this thrift store where it is then sold to some average joe who's getting a good deal.  So its not just a run of the mill thrift store.  First, it's huge.  And it's full of junk, but junk mixed in with treasures.  There were iPads, computers, portable DVD players, cameras of all shapes and sizes, phones, iPhones, a billion DVDs and CDs, and a TON of clothes including wedding dresses, formal wear, underwear, shoes, purses, and everything in between.  I was quite amazed.  I didn't buy much, just a sunglasses case, but I had a blast looking around.

who buys this stuff??

Now Scottsboro, Alabama is about 100 miles away from Birmingham, and is not exactly on the way to Nashville.  The drive took me through the woods, next to lakes and rivers, and was one of the most gorgeous drives I've ever been on.  Through my brown lens polarized sunglasses, the trees were all this vibrant shade of green, and were stunning.  I was enjoying looking at all the greenery, which never gets old because I'm from New Mexico!  The drive though Alabama has been one of my favorites so far.  The roads look like they've been just cut straight through the thick forests (probably because that's exactly what has been done) and you get the sense that you're in the backwoods of some movie, or some piece of history.  I love it.

alabama

I also have discovered that I love driving on bridges over water.  Maybe that's the desert girl in me again, but the sensation of driving over a massive bridge over an even more massive body of water just gives me some sort of indescribable happiness.  That makes me sound totally weird, but it's true.  So I get a little giddy every time I drive over a stream or a river or a lake.  Love it.

alabama

fort walton beach, florida

After my Unclaimed Baggage stop, it was nonstop to Nashville.  2 hrs later, I was in Spring Hill, TN just south of Nashville where my friends Jessi & Chris live with their 3 year old, Aiden.  They live out in the country, and where they live it looks almost exactly like England.  Trees cover the narrow roads and obscure the houses.  The grass is vivid green, and the backyards are forests.  I thought I was lost at one point because my GPS took me down a dirt road that I could have sworn was someone's driveway, but Jessi assured me I was headed in the right direction, and minutes later I had arrived.

spring hill, tn

It was about dinner time, so we headed off to go eat some good southern cooking at a place called Loveless Cafe.  Its an old motel that's been turned into a restaurant that has world famous biscuits, super tasty fried chicken, and general southern goodness!  But we were tired.  We headed home, and I was out like a light by midnight.  Sleeping in til 10 was a nice little treat, and it's on to Nashville-ness today.  More on that later.

So there's your recap.  I'll try to be more consistent in the future with these blogs.  So my apologies.  Hopefully it's just a one time thing!

TALLY:
miles driven: ~2300
time spent in my car: 30.5 hours
cities visited: 13
cities slept in: 5
states driven through/in: 7

PS.  I've already been gone 2 whole weeks!!  5 more to go. Starting to miss home a bit... but not enough to come back!