Vagabond travel log

We were particularly uninspired this month so we put off writing about the keys on multiple occasions, then we put off writing about the stuff after the Keys now we're trying to put it off again. It's really something down there though. While it's been cold everywhere else we got sun burnt on Bahai Honda State Beach, got kicked out of a Kmart parking lot in Key West, ate a cheeseburger (in paradise) and had a couple beers at a tiki bar overlooking the the gulf.


Leaving the Key's we went back to Miami where our friend hooked us up with her super sweet aunt Janet who put us up over Christmas and fed us very well. We thought we had gained a little weight but people must think we are starving on the road because they really lay it on with the food. Thank God, because we love food!

We are now in a half-ass hurry to get to Louisiana where we hope to work for a couple weeks on a farm. Hope being the key word, we do not have confirmation at this point...

This almost brings us up to now. While we were having breakfast at a park yesterday before heading out on a bike ride we met this nice old guy that gave us some Redfish he had just caught, he even filleted them for us! We made plans to meet him after our ride and when we got back we were ready to eat so we headed over to his campsite (under a bridge) and we all had some fish, rice, beer and bourbon for dinner. It was a nice vagabond family dinner we had under that bridge.


Today we woke up and had eggs and hash browns at the beach and headed here to blow a few hours surfing the net and catching up on postcards.

We've spent nearly a month in Florida and it's been like driving through the zoo most of the time. We've seen so much wildlife; manatee's, crocodiles (even a baby one), alligators, blue crabs, crabs that look like ticks, fish, armadillo's, big foot, dolphins, roseate spoonbills (also known as a giant pink bird) and even a bald eagle. Our next set destination is New Orleans on January 21. Everything between now and then is up in the air. We're not looking forward to the cold and snow in other states, but are excited to be getting closer to home and to seeing our families and little Frankie dog.

Florida redeemed

Since our last update we headed southward and Florida warmed up a little and then got cold again and then rained and then got warm again...we visited Albert's parents neighbors friends Chuck and Linda, drank, partied, crashed a boat parade on Chuck's party boat that was decked out with Christmas lights and then headed to Fort Lauderdale to scoop up Mom and Reed from the airport.


We stopped by 'Robert is Here' market on our way to the Everglades and got some boiled peanuts, which Marisa thought were odd, but were well liked by everyone else in our party along with some milk shakes, fresh fruit and veggies.


We walked the Anhinga Trail when we got into the everglades and saw a huge alligator right away. Albert tried to get Marisa to lay on the ledge next to it, but she wasn't in the mood to get eaten by an alligator so he took a picture of himself next to it instead. We saw a lot of wildlife on the trail; alligators, a wood stork, egrets, herons (little ones, big ones, green ones, blue ones), black headed vultures, a bird banging a fish on a branch. As soon as we got to the Flamingo Marina we had a manatee sighting.

We camped on land a couple nights in between canoeing the mangroves and the gulf. Only had one run in with an Alligator, it was pretty sweet seeing it swim under our canoe. We didn't see a single shark while camping on Shark Bight Chickee, but we did see a bald eagle and on the 9.5 mile paddle back to the marina we saw plenty of crabs, snails and a few fish.

Canoeing was pretty rough for Marisa--she got pretty frustrated with the zig-zagging and over all lack of control a canoe allows the paddlers. But Albert was patient and we made it through four days of paddling a route that would put a drunken sailor to shame and we had fun despite the frustration.

Turns out we couldn't have gone to Bakersfield for this. Florida has plenty to offer and we are only halfway done here. Especially since Florida is warming up like it should and Bakersfield is flooding right now. We hope everyone is safe and keeping dry back home.

Conversation in Florida

A: Why is Florida cold?

M: This is bull shit!

A: Why do people come to Florida for winter? I could go to bakersfield for this.

M: So much for t-shirt weather.

Georgia on our mind :]

There wasn't much we were interested in doing in Atlanta, just so happened the day we got there was the SEC championship football game, Gamecocks v. Tigers, it was ridiculous downtown! The traffic was horrendous, and the streets beyond the dome were vacant. There were some crazy looking tailgate parties that we probably should have gotten in on, but we know nothing about college football. We hung out all day, just doing stuff to kill time until the drive-in movie theater opened!


M: Ohh man! I was so excited about the drive in! Harry Potter & Due Date, it was going to be awesome! But the day was just dragging on...and there wasn't a whole lot that we could find to do in Atlanta. We were experiencing city burn out, all the city's are sort of becoming the same, shopping, food, spending money...we're getting to the point where we need to get a schtick (bubbles come to mind) and start performing on street corners for hand outs...we don't really have money to blow gallivanting around cities. Anyways, I was bored and excited for the movies, so I sort of took us to the drive-in two hours before the movies actually started....

A: There I was all warm and comfortable in the Barnes and Noble reading books and magazines I had no intention to buy and Marisa says "lets go!" who am I to stomp on her excitement and look at my watch? I just figured it was close to time... Two hours early! we show up and even the guy that works there looks at us funny. We decided it was too far to go back to the book store but the grocery store was close so we looked for entertainment there.

M: Man, I was totally thinking we could tail gate--make dinner at the drive-in! But, it was sort of misting outside and it was cold...luckily it cleared up when we were in the grocery store. Wasted an hour at the market and then we headed to the drive-in! Man, I still can't believe they closed the drive-in in Bakersfield! People LOVE the drive in! $7 double feature, bring your own snacks, sit in the comfort of your own vehicle, what could be better?!

A: By snacks she means a bag of fritos, bean dip, salsa, pickles, chocolate and a bottle of wine for dinner. When we got back to the drive-in it was a little closer to movie time and other people were there.

After the drive-in, we headed to our city camping place of choice; Walmart and on to Savannah the following day.

We've never been in a city with as much character as Savannah. The architecture, the squares and parks, the old oaks dripping with spanish moss, such a charming place to visit. We got out our bikes, but probably should have just walked, to see the squares. We rode for two blocks at a time, square to square and ended up at the water front where we sampled some free candy and made a pit stop before we headed back to the truck.

Albert was being all bossy before he headed into the restroom. I was pretty irritated, until I looked down at my phone and saw a series of text messages:

"Ok, I guess it's always this way for ladies, but I just sat down on a very warm toilet seat and thought, 'ooh, someone was just here,' then I thought...'thanks, my butt was colder than I thought..."

and then a minute later:

"Holy shit! The toilet just flushed unexpectedly while I was sitting on it! I just about hit the ceiling. That's scary shit! I would have handled and earth quake better."

Sometimes it takes some shit to loosen people up. We biked back to the truck, well, we almost biked back to the truck. We passed a pub on the way, pulled over a block later--great minds think alike and a look was all it took. Within five minutes we were at a local dive, enjoying a tall boy in the company of a pit bull named Chainsaw, a bartender that was terrible with money and dozens of signed portraits of politicians on the walls. Cash cab was on the small screen and we relaxed in a warm smoky bar after a cold day wandering Savannah.

Ice! Ice!! Ice!!!!

We ended up staying with our friends an extra day after seeing the weather channel anchors freak out over a tornado sweeping across Georgia and headed to the Carolinas. Chrissy demanded we stay another night, saying, "We gotta hunker down!!" Albert was excited, but we were let down, we didn't see any gray funnel clouds or cows getting swept into the air, just listened to the rain come down and the wind push the trees around.

The next day we made it on the road in the late afternoon and headed back to North Carolina to check out The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Definitely smoky, definitely beautiful and definitely icy. We saw a bunch of mounted dead animals in the visitor center and turkey cross the road, but we really want to see the park in the spring or summer to see the Unicorn Beetles, colorful salamanders and plants.


We had decided to do a hike, before we realized how icy it was, and headed towards Chimney Tops hike.

A: We went about halfway and one of us decided that she isn't into hiking anymore and went back to the truck. She left me to fend for myself in the frigid weather and and risk death going to the top with nobody to help if I break a leg or something.

M: We went a little over halfway. I told you that I wasn't hiking to the top, before we even got there. There was icicles everywhere and ice in the middle of the trail! The sign at the beginning of the hike showed the steep rockiness at the top, I imagined it with a layer of ice, and said nope. no health insurance, can not afford to break a leg. not going to the top. I told you that you could hike back with me, but you preferred to be tragic and tell me, "If I'm not back by four, call someone," when you knew perfectly well, there is NO cell phone service out there!

A: in reality the top was the driest part of the trail, just like the old people told us (old people on their way down from the top) It was not the Matterhorn but there was some ice and I fell on my butt once. I didn't expect you to climb the rocks but that's just the last 50 feet.

M: Of course the last 50 feet are the driest of the trail, because the sun has melted the ice! But the part I turned around at was covered in ice. What it comes down to, is that next time, you should go hiking with the old people that have health insurance and can afford to break their hip instead of shaming me for my decision.

A: Pshhhh, old people rule! Health insurance, shmelth insurance. So there is a little woosie-itis associated with new things and being cold. turns out nobody broke a hip and it was nice up there, just like the old folks said.

Now we're in Georgia and are going to head to Atlanta, we're not sure what we're going to do there yet, but Marisa's wanting to get some duck at the Public Market and there's a puppet museum...Then we're off to Savannah, to do what? Again we're not sure, but it'll be cool. We're looking to getting into Florida and not waking up to frost in our sleeping area.

haven't lived on the road for weeks

After leaving Marisa's cousins in North Carolina the truck had a little problem on the way to Graveyard Fields and for the second time we aborted our attempt to hike there. Apparently the truck was angry with us after sitting so long and decided to cry, the water pump sprung a leak. Unsure if we could make it to Albert's Uncle's house in Jedburg, South Carolina, we decided to go for it anyway when he told us he had a mechanic for a neighbor. Once we were there and not worried about a place to stay Albert tore apart the truck with the encouragement of his Uncles and Dad and got the Problem fixed. Had we taken it into the neighbors shop it would have cost a whopping $700 to fix!

At Uncle Stephens place the family time continued, eight of us converged on him and Anglia and filled the house. We checked out downtown Charleston on a carriage ride, walked the slave market, sat around the house and talked a lot. It was good times had by all for nearly a week. Early thanksgiving dinner plus home cooked meals most every other day and candy bowls full to the top added an inch or two to everyone's waistline.

Lucky for us we weren't done with Thanksgiving, all that goodness above happened the week before thanksgiving. We headed a few miles over to Marisa's friends Christina and Steven's place for real Thanksgiving. On that little 25 minute drive the truck reminded us that it is not going to last forever but this time it only requested a break job and tire rotation. There was only four of us for Thanksgiving but that didn't stop us from making a deep fried turkey, a ham plus all the sides and 3 pumpkin pies. Oddly, we don't feel burned out on ham and turkey, I guess months of ramen noodles and oatmeal has burned out our food burnout circuit.

Charleston has a restaurant called Justine's Kitchen and Marisa has been raving about it since she went there a year ago. "The best fried chicken I have ever had" she said, we went there and Albert concurs, that is some damn good chicken! Crisp brown crust and juicy savory meat, this chicken is phenomenal, the sides are good and the dessert is great.

We are also back to our beer sampling ways plus some. Our house and the two neighbors loaded up and drove out to Coast Brewery for some local brews. This is a husband and wife operation based in a warehouse funded by a second mortgage on their house and they are making some good beers, we left with a growler full. Next stop was Firefly Distillery for some sweet tea vodka and more. They also make other infused vodkas, a couple rums, and a sweet tea bourbon that we decided to take a bottle of. Crazy thing, right on the same plantation as the distillery is a vineyard, so we tasted some wine too... We made it out of that place without a bottle of something so no need to worry about us having a "problem." We were only a couple miles from a tea plantation to so we checked it out. It turns out tea grows on hedge with medium sized leaves. It just seems like it would be different for some reason, they trim the top of the hedge, dry those leaves and depending on how long it's dried you get green, oolong or black tea.

Albert and Steven were both due for new running shoes and when black Friday rolled around they were inspired to go for an early afternoon shopping trip to get some Vibram five fingers. These shoes aren't shoes as much as they are gloves for your feet and running barefoot apparently uses completely different muscles than with shoes. The next day a leisurely 1.25 mile jog resulted in nearly debilitating calf soreness that lasted four days. The next few days were spent struggling to get up and down the stairs at the house.


The fun and games are over once again, our hosts must get back to work and we must move on. Unfortunately the weather has gone from warm and sunny to cloudy and cold with rain coming. Fingers are crossed that the truck is satisfied with it's repairs and the weather doesn't treat us too bad because soon we'll be homeless and on the road again.

We're not sure exactly where we're headed yet, it's a toss up between back tracking to Great Smoky National Park or moving on to Georgia. Either way we'll be in the Everglades with Marisa's mom and her BF in two weeks.

four days apart

M: So, Albert's back after spending five days away in California for his grandma Elinore's funeral. It could be considered as cheating on the road trip, but I don't think of it that way and I'm glad he was able to fly back and be with his family to celebrate his grandmas life.

Albert drove to Charlotte, NC on 8th, right after I finished cutting his hair. I spent the week at my cousin Joe's house in Hendersonville, North Carolina. For the first couple of hours the house was empty and I was alone for the first time in four months. It was pretty odd. I didn't know what to do. I felt so lost. Where was Albert, Amber...anyone??

It's been fun staying here. Going to the gym with Paula and playing with Abby 8, Emily 6 and Sam 4. The kids are constant free entertainment and there's daily WWF style living room wrestling. Christmas music is already on the radio and there's a chorus in the back seat every trip away from the house. After the kids got to sleep the evenings were pretty much spent making fun of reality tv shows (Top Chef: Just Desserts and Billy the Exterminator). Albert's next haircut just may be inspired by Billy, it could be awesome.

Joe's a Pastor at the nearby SDA church, it was nice going to church today and hearing his sermon on forgiveness. I forgive Albert for not calling me back on Thursday, but instead sending me a text message to call him after he was done having drinks with his friends and in need of a diversion at his aunts house. Keep in mind, it was 10:30 here and I was already down in the basement, cozy in bed, watching House on the interwebz.

A: it was earlier in CA and I haven't seen them in months... the only time I haven't been right next to M for the past few months is when we are pooping.

M: It's ok Albert, I forgive you.
(We spent two hours apart when I wanted to see the Art Museum and he wanted to see the Air and Space museum in DC.)

A: I know you miss me every moment I am not there.

M: With the cost of the flight and everything, we're thinking it's getting pretty close to being time to get into bubble making. Giant bubble making--we will be giant bubble making street performers. It's just too bad that Amber isn't with us anymore to be our plant, you know; the person that puts in the first few bucks to get the giving going.

A:I was thinking about picking pockets but bubbles could work, maybe both would be better. We have to decide if we are gypsies or tramps, there is a difference you know.

The way I seen it there weren't many choices. I was going to Bakersfield and Marisa was staying, so I could either push her out of the truck in front of a women's shelter or have her traveling on the other side of the country by herself. One of those options is no good but thank God there was a third option. Marisa stayed with her new found family just 2 hours from Charlotte ,NC where I flew out of. The luck we have...

So, I cheated on the road trip... but I was happy to see the family and honored to be a pallbearer for my grandma. It cost a little much for my cheap ass taste but hey, I have missed plenty of other family stuff for work or because of distance and usually regretted it. This is important.

The journey began with a last minute hairs cut to tame the fro and a two hour drive to the airport. once there I it was a piece of cake getting through with no checked baggage. The trouble started when I got to LAX.

My cheap ass wont pay 40+ bucks for a cab and I'm a little rusty on the bus riding skills so I missed two buses, waited at multiple stops for hours and managed to catch the last possible bus form the airport to UCLA . Marisa's friends mom works at UCLA and she gave me a ride to Bakersfield in the AM after a night spent sleeping in a hospital chair, she works the night shift there.

In Bakersfield I got to spend all kinds of good time with the family and I was honored to be a pallbearer for Grandma. The service and everything went great. There was hardly a down moment and I spent a lot of time with my Soza family, it was like a booster shot of crazy. I also got to see some good friends, they don't know it but I just hang out with them so they will buy me beer when I'm in town... (readership check)

Traveling back was so easy I got on the wrong parking lot shuttle just for kicks! I am back in N.C. and the journey will continue in a few days. Marisa and I have the house to ourselves for a few days so we will be going on hikes, riding our bikes, hanging out downtown, sitting around watching TV and sleeping indoors out of the cold on real beds.

We are off to a great start and we have been sitting on our butts for hours. Leftovers are calling my name from the fridge so I will say bye for now suckers, don't work too hard.

A Mammoth bike ride and news from home

So all of a sudden we are Giants fans and we have been watching the games when we can. It really started when we were in Philly and the Giants were playing Philly. All of a sudden we have SF pride and whatever, we only went to a hand full of games while we lived in SF and never sat through a whole game on TV.

So, the last game of the world series and we are camping in the Walmart parking lot trying to get the game on the radio and the radio breaks! We cannot say who's fault it is that it broke because that is unresolved...but it stopped working after M found the station it was on then A accidentally changed the station and tried to find it again but couldn't, then M tried to find it and the radio gave out. There was no violence against the radio before or after its demise and the cause and culprit are unknown to this day.

The night of the radio was a cold one and the first one that we slept in the back of the truck for a night that froze. We usually have space between us but we were so cold we were like little puppies trying to stay warm on each other. In the morning we woke up and found that we had a dead battery! A's parents neighbor Dennis had warned against setting out with that battery when he saw how old it was and the how corroded the terminals were. The good news is Walmart had a new one waiting for us just on the other side of the parking lot, how convenient.

Finally on the road by mid afternoon we made it to Shanandoah National Park for a scenic drive and a short hike. It is a pretty place and we enjoyed the visit but it doesn't have a schtick like other parks do and it couldn't keep us for more than a day, we headed to Kentucky.

Berea College in Kentucky is a regular college BUT it is free. The students work combined with federal funding pays their tuition and the college has a craft program that teaches things like pottery, iron work, broom making, weaving and woodwork. As a result of the craft college the town is overrun with high quality hand crafted things. We found lots of great stuff but decided that our money was best spent on fine, hand crafted pumpkin walnut fudge...

High on the list of national parks with a schtick is Mammoth Cave N.P.! It is beautiful above ground, but the highlight is the worlds longest cave system. Nearly 400 miles of cave! People go on expeditions inside this thing and they still find miles of new cave every year. We opted for the 2 mile, 2 hour historic tour which was pretty cool and took us 300 feet below ground. Back above ground we had a good bike ride through the woods and just barely avoided being out in a hale storm. It was good to be on the bikes again.

We have moved on to Tennessee now and we got a new stereo and spent our morning in starbucks hatching our plan. The call of country music is in the air(they only have country radio stations here).

This morning Albert also learned that his Grandmother Elinore died in her sleep last night. That is by far the best way to go and I am thankful that she is herself again, happy and with the Lord.

A well rounded D.C. experience

It was a full day of travel to get from Boston down to Virginia. We set up camp about 12 miles outside of Washington D.C. in Mclean, VA. with couch surf hosts Paul and Lois. Lois and Paul are super cool people! It was so nice to hang out for the week and enjoy their company and Lois' delicious cooking.

For six days we traveled into D.C. and saw the sights. Paid for parking a few times and parked outside of the city and biked in a couple times.


Washington D.C. has so much to see and do that we don't feel bad at all that we did not see it all, we saw plenty for one visit. The Museums on the Mall are amazing! We saw amazing art, airplanes and a lunar lander, ancient stuff, money being made, the holocaust museum, Kermit the frog, the botanical garden and Julia Child's kitchen.

Thanks to Marisa we got approval from the Gov via our congressman to tour the White House and the Capitol. The White House is something you should definitely see for yourself, its opulent.

We have been known to run a little late from time to time (every time) and that was not a problem at the White House. As long as you have an appointment you get in, the Capitol on the other hand is not that way. Fortunately for us you can just go into the visitors center and get a tour anyway, but the day we went to do that we were not prepared for the rain. There was a 90% chance of rain this day and when we parked the sky was dark, but no rain yet. We left the umbrella in the truck and walked out of the garage and it began to sprinkle, by the time we walked to the capitol building it was pouring. A mad dash back to the parking garage to get the umbrella resulted in complete drenching, there were sheets of water flowing over the sidewalks and our legs were soaked up to the ankles. It felt like there was puddles in our shoes. Naturally our next stop was the closest attraction, not the Capitol but the National Art Museum.

We did get to the Capitol later with a friend and his senate staffer friend. It was a reunion for our friend Mike, Arie, and Vic, who were all former college room mates--it was nice of them to let us tag along. The Capitol was incredible! The walls and ceilings were covered in fresco's, fancy chandeliers, marble statues, intricate iron banisters...and a trolley connecting the senate side of the capitol to it's center.

The library of congress was similar with frescos, mosaics, murals and marble everywhere. The reading room looked amazing! But is apparently only open to the public two or so days a year, otherwise you have to put in a request to use it if you're not satisfied looking at it through the glass of the observation landing.

On Saturday we woke up at 6:30am, got ready, drove to a park outside of the city and biked into the "rally to restore sanity and/or fear." It was awesome, lots of people with amusing and ridiculous signs, lots of people. We were sort of in the front middle section and it looked like there were people all the way to the Washington Memorial. The music guests were pretty random and awesome, the stand up was ridiculous and at the end verged on the serious side, and called for people to be sane and vote.


The rally wound down at three or so and we biked back to the truck and headed back to the house for a post rally nap, which turned into us watching a movie. Lois and Paul got back in the evening and we borrowed a couple of their spare costumes and headed out, a leopard, a caveman, little red riding hood and the big bad wolf in grandma's pajamas. The Halloween party was pretty incredible! Excellent music, great decorations and food and pretty much everyone in costume. We partied and fell asleep in the car on the way back at around 4am or so.

We've spent the last day and a half recovering and are fixing to get on the road and get headed to the Shenandoah mountains, it's been a while, but we're going to try our hand at camping again!

Amber's last days...

Overall this entire trip has been an accidental Ivy League tour, from picking up Amber near Harvard , to a couple days spent around Princeton, NJ and on toward Yale in Connecticut. Look for the flashback post about the Yale Museum of Art in days come. We have come full circle with Amber and are back in Boston.

Our couch surf hosts have been gracious enough to let us stay four nights so that we could see everything that Boston has to offer. Unfortunately we've been sick and lazy. The three of us managed to get out of the house just a couple times but we saw what we felt we needed to and we relaxed and had a great time at the house.

For our first outing we went to Salem, MA. one of the worst historical tourist traps around. Cheap occult souvenirs and store front "museums" were everywhere and we just walked around feeling cold and complaining about how Salem has no reverence for their past (fake witch killin'). When we got "home" Alberto made some paella (chicken and rice is what mom called it...) and Ethan, one of our hosts, attempted to teach us the card game Pitch over drinks.

Day three started unusually early for us. We were out the door by 10am and followed Ethan to the Docks to watch sailboat racing and motor around Boston Harbor. After we had enough time on the water we headed over to the USS Constitution for a tour of the oldest winningest original ship in the US Navy. Some of us were a little under the weather but we rallied to do a part of the Freedom Trail that we missed last time we were in Boston. There is a lot of old stuff in Boston and we saw about as much as we could manage to in two half ass attempts, this leaves something to look forward to next time we pass through.

Upon returning to the host house we settled in for a quiet night of movies and hot tea but then people started showing up and all of a sudden we were playing drinking games.

Today's obvious highlight was pumpkin carving. The reason that it is obvious is that we did little to nothing else. The day was spent with our butts on the couch eyes staring blankly at a TV screen. Amber's flight leaves at 8am tomorrow and that means we must wake up earlier than we have grown accustomed to. We intended to go to bed early tonight, unfortunately we have not done that yet and it's getting late now. Good night.

Philly

We left New York and paid $11 in tolls to drive two hours to Philadelphia. On our arrival the host house, a three story, six bedroom, nine roommate community in West Philly provided us with a fantastic dinner, drinking, and games!

On our first day in Philly we attended Bloktoberfest, a music and beer block party south of South Street. While drinking, we discovered that the best cheesesteak is a huge point of debate for locals and everyone is friendly, we even made friends with people that lived in a place over looking the fest and went up and had a drink and hung out while Blocktoberfest ran out of beer.

Once the festival ran out of beer and the strangers let us leave, we went on the search for food, a sports bar, and a Giants game. We were warned not to wear Giants gear, as Philly fans have a reputation for being insane. After three hours sitting in a sports bar, quietly cheering, purchasing one too many half priced hot wings, we learned that violent homophobic epithets are the venting method of choice when the Phillys get defeated.

On our second day, we decided to explore the traditional tourist routes. We drove over to the historical part of town, toured Independence Hall, gazed at the liberty bell, and wandered the streets searching for cheap food.

As we were returning home, Amber announced that she saw something fantastic down the street. Turning around, we discovered the magical unicorn castle which may also be known as city hall. We circled city hall and learned that Philadelphia has a grand downtown center consisting of magnificent buildings and beautiful sculptures. This side track also led us to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, better known as the place with the Rocky steps, and the Magical Garden, better known as mosaic art madness/the place where we were too cheap to tour and too lazy to find parking so we just took photos as we drove by.

Our evening ended with an awesome beer bar, watching the Giants lose, and Amber wishing she could make out with our host Jeremy. Nobody made out and we left before the end of the game to watch the extremely graphic cartoon Afro Samurai.

On our last day in Philly, we drove out to the suburbs for the best yelp reviewed Cheese Steak. Our review: Amber-it was bland and boring, canned mushrooms are disgusting. Marisa- It was good it just needs more cheese and peppers. Albert- I don't know what the big deal is about these things. After the cheese steak, we got lost in the ghetto searching for the "great monument"(ghetto sculpture garden). We found the sculpture garden and learned that Philly is a juxtaposition of grandeur and destitution.

A&M&A 2010 Adventures in Brooklyn

After one too many dog farts in Boston, we drove 5 hours to visit the city that never sleeps. After 8 requests, we found Francis a marathon running, french speaking, at one point homeless in San Francisco, just finished writing his memoir, super cool host in Brooklyn.

On our first day, we decided to take a 7.8 mile "hike" through Manhattan as directed by our backpacker magazine. This hike included a walk along the Tribeca boardwalk, a frantic search for coffee and a bathroom, central park and a stroll along Highline Park--a former elevated train track repurposed into an elevated park. At some point between boardwalk and parks we made a stop at Gray's Papaya for some awesome papaya juice and two dogs also known as the "recession special."

After Highline Park we got lazy and stopped for a beer at the nearest bar. We were stoked to discover they offered free food during their 4 PM happy hour. Tipsy, stuffed and happy, we then took the subway to Central Park where we got lost, posed for photos, and found a new method to make money: giant bubbles!

While leaving the park, we found an art auction preview. Despite Amber's fearful attempt to run out the door at the site of such extravagance, Marisa blocked the door and Albert distracted an Auction Dealer with his bright red t-shirt and interest in non auction items.
Marisa enjoyed the free wine, Albert and Amber the fancy cheese plates and we all enjoyed looking at the $30,000 pieces of art for sale--silently wondering when we would be kicked out. Our original intention was just to use the toilet, but the perks kept us there for at least half an hour.

Our day ended with a visit to Amber's friend Chris and Caitlin's place in Brooklyn for dinner, delicious homemade pizza, local beers, and exhaustion.

On our second day, our host gave us a tour of Harlem, Spanish Harlem, the upper east side, and central park. He left us to meet with his editor and we decided to visit the tourists destination. Time Square and Rockefeller Center were lame. Crowded, with neon signs, they felt more like a giant mall than a place to visit. We then wandered through the rain to FAO Swartz where Marisa lusted over Muppets and Amber cringed at the bad music on the giant piano.

As the day turned into the evening we headed to Greenwich Village to see Francis' friend perform. We sat comfortably in a small cafe, drank wine, and watched the performer play a grand piano and belt out songs of broken hearts and men who use women. After the show, we joined Francis and his date at the nearby Thai restaurant for more alcohol and conversation. As Francis and his date decided to head home (those people with jobs go to bed early), we decided to walk the Brooklyn bridge at midnight.

Prior to our arrival there was a"Light the Night, Luekemia Walk" over the bridge and the party favors were balloons with lights in them. Albert noticed that they had all been thrown away and decided that digging in every garbage can on the Brooklyn Bridge is a perfectly good way to come up with 3 dozen slightly used AA batteries. The next day Amber got a message from her friend Chris asking if we left any suspicious packages on the bridge--apparently someone found a box with wires poking out of it and the bridge was shut down due to a bomb scare.

NYC wrapped up with free ferry ride to Staten Island and back, famous Nathan's hotdogs, and a walk along the desolated off-season Coney Island.

Amber, Boston and Honk last week

We cruised on into Boston and found Amber walking the streets talking about Honk. Turns out she is not crazy, there was a Honk Festival going on that weekend. Honk Bands are "activist street bands" that play loud fun music and dress silly. The three of us walked on over to the festival and listened to the music and ate the food. After the festival, walking through a park, we happened upon renegade hoola hoopers! And we hooped until we could hoop no more.

When we arrived in Boston we did not have a place to stay, so we put an emergency Couch surf request and John came through for us at the last minute. He let three stranger stay in his house with 5 hours notice. We did walk his dog, clean his kitchen and do his laundry, but otherwise we had a last minute free place to stay in Boston for two nights.

The Fine Art Museum had a free day on our second day in Boston so we went to check it out because we love free stuff. The museum is huge and full of old old stuff. None of that "modern art," where you can't even tell what it is, this was all the good stuff and some of it was thousands of years old. By the end we did experience museum fatigue and skipped a little of Egypt.

Boston Has a red brick "Freedom Trail" that we started and made it only to stop number 3... There is a lot more to see but after full day at the museum it was dark by the time we got to the cemetery where all the famous old patriots are buried. So we called it a day and headed for beers. We will do the Trail when we go back to Boston, before we send Amber on her way home. She's adapted well to our crazy ways and will miss us dearly.

Before we left Boston, we stopped by Samuel Adams and had some beer. mmm beer. Theirs was the best tour that we have done so far, there has been better beers but the the tour takes the cake.

Tune in soon for the next installment of old news...Brooklyn.

Postdated material...

We covered a lot of ground in the past week and a half and we didn't say much about any of it. The following selection is historical fiction based on our own accounts of what may have happened in early October 2010.

We had to stay just one more day in Vermont to see the Cabot Cheese factory and since we were still in Vermont we had to see a Maple syrup farm and we heard about this Granite quarry too so we had to see that. We didn't eat any real food until around 4pm, we just lived on popcorn, cheese samples and maple syrup product samples. If you ever happen upon any maple syrup candy, get it and put it in your coffee, delicious.

Once we were satisfied that there was nothing else in Vermont that we could sample we got the show on the road and wouldn't you know it, it started raining again. Driving in the rain for hours can really take a toll on morale but we were uplifted when we saw Sunday River Brewing Co. and we got $1.50 pints and a huge basket of sweet potato fries to keep us going. There is a Walmart not too far from Acadia N.P. and that is were we bedded down for the night.

At Acadia National Park we were pleasantly surprised to run into our Walmart friends from Vermont at the visitors center. We drove the Loop Road that goes around the largest part of the park and we did our typical thing and stopped at almost every single turn out or area with a sign describing something next to it. There is a place there called Cadillac Mountain which is the tallest thing on the US east coast and a great place to catch sunrise. On our second day at Acadia we got up early and raced the sun to the top of the mountain and saw our first east coast sunrise there.


We had just a few short days left before meeting up with Amber, so we pressed on to meet up with A's former hotshot buddy Joe and then to Falmouth, ME where our friends parents put us up for the weekend.

It was so nice to stay with Robin and Gordy, such neat people. Robin called it our "feast time" and that it was, lobster dinner feast, lobster omelet breakfast, relaxing on the enclosed porch, going to bed with a view of the stars and waking up to a view of the ocean. Completely relaxing.

Of course we wished we could stay longer but there is just too much to see. We had to keep a moving.


Next installment coming soon: Amber, Boston, Honk, Brooklyn...

It's been a while... again

The US side of Niagra Falls is totally better than the Canadian side because you can get closer and walk up to the edge of them, but from the Canadian side all three falls can be seen in one glimpse, we did both. Since it was raining a little it was like being on the Maid of the Mist boat tour all day, so we didn't feel the need to do the boat tour.

We may have been a little tired, or hungry, or agitated... or all of the above, but either way, due to miscommunication we made the trek across the bridge one too many times because we missed a left turn! The second border agent took a lot longer and and asked a lot more questions before letting back into the US, suspicious characters we are.

We made our way through Buffalo (no, we didn't get buffalo wings). Buffalo had an amazing art deco city hall with an observation deck on the 28th floor. The interior was so beautiful, lots of gold, carvings and murals.

The rain didn't seem to stop for more than 24 hours from the time we left Michigan until October 2. When we were in Albany, the NY Capitol region had flood warnings! Crazy torrential downpours, the likes of which we had never witnessed! We almost gave in and got a motel (we found one for $40), but by the time we made our way there it was midnight and their gas line had just been knocked down. There was emergency vehicles on scene and we got the brushoff from a firefighter. There's no way we were going to pay to stay in a place with no hot water because of a broken gas pipe--defeats the purpose of staying in a hotel. So we sucked it up, drove back to wal-mart and didn't bother with the bikes and the bed, just slept in the front seat of the truck. It got a little cold, but hey, we stayed dry.

We spent two and a half rainy days at the New York State Museum. It was huge! And free! It has an incredible 9/11 section, beautiful birds of NY water paintings, natural history and a whole lot of other stuff.

The rain stopped on the evening of the 1st, our last night in Albany. Where we spent yet another night at Wal-Mart and hung our wet bedding and other stuff in tree and on poles to dry. If only we had remembered to take a picture.

Saratoga Springs, was another picturesque beautiful place with a great farmer's market (nabbed some fresh hamburger & a loaf of bread) and is also the home of Olde Saratoga Brewery, sister brewery to Mendocino Brewing Co--Red Tail Ales. That night A made a delicious dinner at a park on the banks of Lake George.

The next day we pushed on to Ticonderoga, where we checked out the outside of the fort (it was $15 a pop to go inside!) and the old Pell Hotel and gardens. Afterward we caught the ferry across the Connecticut River to Vermont. Fifteen minutes into Vermont we stopped at a farm and picked up a half peck of delicious honey crisp apples--it really is unfortunate that they don't sell them on the west coast. They are by far the best apples we have ever had.

Vermont is beautiful. Everything you hear about the fall foliage is more than true. The houses, for the most part, are all large farm house style and have porches with rocking chairs, adirondack chairs, or hammocks.

We finally made it back to the National forests, after many nights in Wal-Mart parking lots. The Green Mountain National Forest is beautiful but most of the campgrounds were closed, it turns out in Vermont before mud season is construction season. Most of the roads in the national forest have houses on them, it took us at least 45 minutes to find a camp spot.

On the 4th we went to the Vermont Sun health club, to get a work out and a much needed shower, after the gym time we crossed the street to Otter Creek Brewing Company (brewers of Wolaver's beer)--awesome oatmeal stout and pumpkin beer! What better post workout drink than free beers?

This morning, back in the Wal-Mart parking lot, we met a super nice traveling family of 3+2 yorkies. They just started their trip and invited us to their trailer where we shared travel tips and stories over delicious coffee and zucchini bread.

Today, coffee, Ben & Jerry's and possibly Cabot Creamery (Cheese!) if we have time after this post.


Update: we didn't make it to Cabot. Time to search for New England and Philly couches to surf for when we meet up with Amber.

"Eh!"

Having left the comfortable sedentary lifestyle we had with Marisa's new family we quickly set out for beer and long hours on the road(not in that order). The east coast of Michigan is slow going when you are in the rain and trying to stop at as many places as you can to sample fudge. We chose not to spend a rainy day on Mackanac Island even though it was the single most recommended sight seeing destination in Michigan, next time. We did follow Beverly's tip to check out the light houses, the rain meant fewer crowds (perfect).

Unfortunately for us fall arrived in Canada just 24 hours before we did. Word is, the day before we entered the country it was warm, sunny and the trees were green. We left Michigan on a blistery blustery Thursday and it did not stop raining until Saturday evening. Its colder than shit, windy and the trees are starting to turn beautiful fall colors.

The weather did not affect our ability to have a good time at the wedding we went to. It was our crappy attitudes and poor communication that almost sank the wedding reception fun, almost. We had a great time at the reception; we ate, we drank, we danced, we chatted up Canadians, we stole wine, cheese and veggies(yes vegetables) from the reception, and we slept in the wedding hall parking lot. The back of the truck seems to be the way to go after a wedding, this is the third time and it's getting better every time.

It was Marisa's birthday yesterday, eh. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARISA!!!!

Michigonians

Under the cover of darkness we snuck into Michigan and set up camp in a Walmart parking lot and readied ourselves for the onslaught of Marisa's family to follow. Keep in mind that until the 19th Marisa had about 9 family members that she knew... By the 21st she had met about 35 new ones. (That's nearly a 400% increase)

We were blessed to be at the nucleus house of all family activity surrounding Marisa's Great grandma's funeral, who passed away the day before we arrived. Although M never met the Matriarch it was because of her that we met so much of the family that we otherwise may not have. These people were super kind and generous to us and we were welcomed right into the inner circle of the Cruttenden family.

It was a lot like thanksgiving or the SuperBowl for about 5 days straight. We basically sat around, talked to family, played with the kids, had one huge meal a day and snacked the rest of the day.

While we were there we did manage to cut each others hair (A's head shrunk about two sizes and his hat fits again).

It was pretty exciting to meet so many relatives and learn some family history. Hopefully there will be opportunities in the future to hang out with the new found family.

We're now headed for the border, Canadian wedding on Saturday, eh!

On style

Blogger A: So when two people write a blog there are bound to be style issues...

So maybe one has a bachelors degree in journalism(writing) and the other is more of the loading people into a van and driving them around type(took this one 4 tries to spell bachelors right). Who's to say which has the better style? They are just different.

The last post took forever. Maybe we shouldn't both write every post, that could save some time.

Blogger M (just to keep it anonymous): Co-blogging = pain in the neck, bickering, bad attitudes and overall bitchiness for at least two hours. Just because one of us has a baccalaureate and the other specializes in a different field, doesn't mean the person with the B.A. is any better at blogging than the other (the person with the B.A. doesn't even journal or report and tends to triple check spelling). We just have different styles, one hates the word "failed" and the other despises "bitchen." Uuughhhhh! Editing each other is good, but we need to just agree to disagree and manage to get things done without wanting to taze someone.

Blogger A (rebuttal): I am very happy that we do not have a tazer.
(She just vetoed my personal typing space and told me my sentence was invalid...)
This post is merely to vent our frustrations in blogging together before we get kicked out of Starbucks for yelling and pinching one another. In conclusion, My writing is bitchen.

Blogger M (rebuttal to rebuttal): And I was just about to say how I feel this session has been beneficial. But then all of a sudden....! Geeze. "Bitchen"?!?!?! OMG!!!!
ok. I feel better.
And for the record, I told him his sentence was invalid because it didn't have a point or purpose and I was over the subject of spelling.

On to the real post....Marisa's Michigan People!

Chi-town

We went through Chicago about a week ago where we saw the giant shiny bean in Millenium Park, The Museum of Science and Industry, drank some more local beer and walked a bit through Lincoln park.

Chicago's pretty awesome, not too tall of a skyline, not pretentious and it's on Lake Michigan with Chicago River running through downtown.
The subway in Chicago doesn't run ground level, it's like MUNI, but it runs below ground and elevated. We didn't ride it but it looks cool like in movies and Batman and stuff. All the buildings are awesomely old and have a lot of character.

The shiny bean was awesome, actually worth paying $10 for 40 minutes of parking.
(yeah, Chicago's eexpeennnsiiive...)

Of course we had to have some deep dish pizza in Chicago and beer goes great with pizza soooo we looked to local breweries Half Acre and Goose Island to provided the refreshment.

Everything costs an arm and a leg in Chicago so we skimped on the activities but we did shell out for the Museum of Science and Industry. It was pretty awesome except for the farm propaganda exhibit. Its really not so great that soy can be found in nearly every food that comes in a box. As for the rest of the Museum, it's amazing take your kids and show up early!

Before we left we went to a greasy spoon to get some dinner. When we got back to the truck we saw that someone forgot to roll up their window, but we didn't get robbed! Maybe it's because we were in Hyde park area?(where Obama hangs out)

drank the beer, saw the corn and ate a little cheese

Wisconsin is beautiful, rolling hills, trees, randomly placed and irregular shaped corn and soy bean fields, big white farm houses with large porches. And of course the occasional cluster of giant enclosed animal (chicken?) sheds with huge fans at the end. On our way from Madison to New Glarus we drove past a farm with some cows and saw a cluster of six or so clean, brand new looking dog igloos with a fence around and a cow in each igloo (U.S. raised veal maybe?). Sort of weird and disturbing.

New Glarus is a tiny Swiss town with statues of cows wearing clothes scattered throughout, lots of brick buildings and most businesses ending in Haus. The driveway that leads to New Glarus Brewing Company starts at the bottom of a hill and wraps around to the top where you get to a beer estate (made us think of some of the wine estates we've seen in California). The Brewery is pristine with giant copper vats, shiny stainless steel pipes running throughout the building, delicious beer and a beer garden. It's unfortunate that it's only sold in Wisconsin.

Made our way to Milwaukee, didn't get very much cheese tasting in, but we did make it to Miller Brewing Company, Great Lakes Distillery and Milwaukee Brewing Company via bike.
Miller is a huge compound, more than four blocks. With machines that can 2000 beers a minute.
Great Lakes Distillery makes excellent liquor, some of the best Absinthe and Vodka we've had and has only four full time employees. It was a super chill place with nice people that pulled out their air compressor for us to fix a flat.

Now we're in Chicago and need to get out on the bikes and start checking things out since we didn't manage to get Oprah tickets.


Back in Big Sky, MT at a farmers market some hooterites suckered us into buying more eggs than we needed by telling us to just pickle them. They saw us walking up to their booth beers in hand and seized the opportunity to be folksy. These are the same Hooterites that sold us the pickled onions and pickled pickles. We gave it a shot and it's good, we just threw in a fresh batch and they look...''interesting.'' Hooterites are like the Amish but somehow not the same.

***Correction: Don't worry! Veal/Calf dog houses are not to prep the baby cows to be someone's expensive dinner, but actually "hutches," homes for the dairy cows until they are weaned! (thanks to Andrea of Big Sky for educating us!)

Three States in three days.

We made it through South Dakota in 24hrs. So fast we forgot about post cards. We saw Mt. Rushmore, a mountain goat and baby (Marisa was very excited) and the Crazy Horse Monument (from afar, while eating a dinner of Top Ramen and black beans). Crazy Horse is $10 a person to see up close, so if you have the money, go see it close so they can finish it and we can go see it finished from afar!


Next we drove through the night from the south west corner of S. Dakota to Aberdeen in the north east, to see our friend Wonseok (from the ranch in Utah via South Korea). We slept in the next day and got up just in time to meet him for lunch! It was good to see him, Northern State University is a pretty fancy old school.

After South Dakota we stopped in Minneapolis Minnesota where we enjoyed some beer at Town Hall Brewery and went to the first annual Kielbasa Festival where we had more beer, kielbasa's and enjoyed some live music on a rainy night. Good time over all.

The next day, Costco samples and onward to Wisconsin. Now we're scouting for some genuine Wisconsin cheese before we move on to Milwaukee.

Slow down! I think I see a squirrel...

We didn't get rammed! Made it through Yellowstone without any altercations with Bison.
So much steam, sulfur, and gurgling holes in the ground!

Uncle Ernie (actually Cousin Anthony's Uncle, Albert's 2nd cousin) is a super nice guy. We got there the evening we left Andrea's house and enjoyed more delicious home cooking, awesome conversation and neat stories. This guy is definitely in the running for the real life "most interesting man in the world" Look for the book in stores in a few years.

Jackson was a pretty fancy town. Went to the delicious Snake River Brewery and sampled the brewskies and had a delicious sandwich. There is about a million tons worth of bronze statues, a shit pile of antlers and 10 taxidermied animals for every tourist on the street at any time. It was great.

The Grand Titons are big ol' jagged mountains that push up on the edge of the Jackson Hole valley and host a glacier or two. Pretty cool mountains that we had to climb to the top of. Not really, it looked too cold but they are pretty.

We went in and out of Yellowstone three times to get enough and there is still plenty of stuff to go back and see. I have to say there is more terrible driving in Yellowstone than there is in any American city! It's like they are all that minority group that you blame when you see someone doing something stupid on the road. There are animals everywhere and people just slow down or stop right in the road, not to avoid them but to gawk and take ten pictures.

Those roadside animals are amazing though and so are the geysers, hot pools, mud pools, vents and everything else. You gotta see them.

Next up is South Dakota for Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse (& Jewel Cave?). From what I hear after that is the nothingness for a long ways.

Free Willie!

Idaho was a blur. We cruised through this odd little town called Wallace, a still functioning former mining town--it had a functioning boredello until 1982, when it was raided by the FBI.


We made it to Glacier on August 30th. It was cold and rainy and we drove going-to-the-sun road, which is supposed to be one of the most amazing scenic drives in America, which I'm sure it would have been if we could have seen anything beyond the fog. We camped on the Blackfeet Reservation in a turn out just outside an entrance to the park, continuing the free camping streak. Went on a hike to Iceberg Lake, saw some ptarmagin, moose and plenty of canadian squirrels.

When we got into Montana we gave an old friend a call. Hadn't spoken in at least four years, but she still had my number and we made plans to meet in Big Sky before cruising through Yellowstone. Andrea was awesome! She showed us the small town of big sky, got us drunk, baked us amazing breakfast scones, took us on some awesome hikes and a sweet camping trip and topped it off with a free Willie Nelson concert on her birthday!

An unfortunate event happened in California while we were in Montana...we got robbed from 1,100 miles away! Lost nearly everything that was valuable sentimentally and monetarily. Ouch.

Now it's time to make the trip through the west side of Yellowstone and to Ernie's house in Jackson. Should be sweet!