I’m laying in my pants on my roll mat on a floor. It’s warm. Warm likes hot afternoon in USA, yet it’s 2am.
Last night alan returned, no problems bar road works, but he brought hiddeous alcahol, horrible so that I had to take an hours walk before considering sleep.
So we escaped the camp, no bill, and woke up to a swim, mmm.
Then a drive through te Everglades to avoid the toll road, narrowly avoiding lawful run in, go mercedes man driving a bit faster.
So now we’re in key west, the southern most point of the USA. Hence the temperature, I don’t feel so bad as some of the other surfers staying here.
Our couch host has 5, yes five, of us couchsurfers staying tonight!
We cooked a nice dinner, nice curry. Host, Penelope, turned from veggie this evening. Then all bar her we went out.
Well nicola, he’s still out, we left him in the strip bar.
So sleep tight, for the mossies are out tonight!
Archive: ‘US road trip autumn 09’
Waves and stars
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009Here I am sat at the waterline. Watching the screen I see nothong but blackness.
I’ve been playing and drinking with alan. It seems that the spellcheck doesn’t work when you are drunk? So it is all down to me.
I don’t ubdrstand why spellcheck wo t work.
So alan and I drank a fair bit, unpleaseant drinks, I’m so bloated that if I could make myself sick, then I’d feel good.
So I came for a walk along the sea shore. Mgmt
. It helps to walk. I’m tired, and aftr our last camping experiences then. Maybe I’m aprehensive!
If only there wasn’t the mosqiyo problem and I could sleep here? But if I did they’d eat me alive, if not the the mermaids would.
Tonight we had the most psycadedic sunset ever, maybe out whole trip
Quipate
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009I hear sirens, so off goes the music. Maybe it’s the firemen can’t be arses to talk room to room so use loud speakers.
We’re 100m from fort myers beach playing a cardgame: shithead and we’re almost out of wine, all of the cider having been drunk down on the beach.
Fill in; today was a boring 400mile drive down Florida.
We arrived here in time to have a swim in the sea while the sun was setting.
Alan is afraid of the sea, even if it is 2ft deep! Creepy crawlies nibble away your extremities?
It is wonderfully warm here, in the sea and out.
We tried having a pic nic dinner on the beach, but due to the serious amount of mosquitos attacking us, we retreated from the water to drink and play cards.
Alan picked the game, won initially, but that didn’t last long.
So i’m sat here with wine, cards, bread and humous while he’s off buying liquor.
I could cheat and change his cards, but is it worth it?
We’re going to sleep in the tent tonight. There are no camp sites, we’re not allowed to sleep on the beach, so upon the recommendation of a local, we will stay in an RV park, and see what happens in the morning, maybe the owner will wake us us and give us trouble, if not, then Bingo! Free night ![]()
Oh and it’s beautiful here by the sea, damn these demon insects.
There always becomes a reason
Sunday, October 11th, 2009Nouvelle Orleans.
It’s interesting to say the least. The experience thus far has been great, almost overwhelming.
So we drove through the back roads, swamps, alligators, needing the toilet like no other day. We drove the most zig zag route into here in search of interest.
Our host is intriguing, involved in politics here, half Jewish, half catholic, half Italian, totally American and gay. I/we haven’t had so many/strong discussions that aren’t bullshit in a long time, well as brothers, ever.
We’ve had a great tour of town, and local beers, and some else.
We watched a football game, on TVs. We had a bar crawl, being that each bar that we went to wasn’t fun enough for supporting the local college team. We met people, well Vincenzo knows everybody in town. We met the bucket man, who sang alan and I a sang inside a bucket!
In the end we came back home, I guess at 11pm ish to cook gumbo, and for me, pasta. The other couchsurfer came back from being musical, and together we chatted away while cooking failed. But we drank the chili wine. We chatted about life and Krishna, and lucid dreaming, and ioraska(maybe I can’t spell that), and katrina, and new Orleans, and now everybody is laying to sleep in the dark but me.
I think it’s time, gone five hours of cooking, eating and chatting to meet the zzzzz’s
fun for all
Saturday, October 10th, 2009an awesome video that emily has been repeatedly sharing with us is awesome music video, check eet:
major lazer – pon de floor
Major Lazer “Pon De Floor” from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.
and then a funny thing i found on youtube
enjoy
Partied out
Saturday, October 10th, 2009Sat on the loo in a dreary motel near lake Charles, a beautiful oil refinary of a town in Louisiana, drained from the last few days.
I have to say the the haunted house that we went to last night was the best haunted house ever. Maybe because I’ve never been to one that you actually walk around, you don’t get those in th UK. It was interesctive to the point of no touching. Basically you walk through a dark, fake smokey, strobey, creepy maze while props jump around, jets of air burst in your face and ghoulish monsters chase and jump out at you. Three girls, three guys together was a great fright out, ah ha!
Then emily, sharleen, alan and I went out for a quick drink down 6th, cheap and busy. I still seem to find partying with so many Americans strange. I definately enjoy it, but guess I don’t feel quite a part of it. The grinding of girls, breakdancing guys just is different than I’m used to. Give me another month and it’ll be like home!
So what to say, we were going to go and chill a while at emily’s. Emily and I got out of the car, alan slammed the door of the car and shirleen squeeled the tyres and they were gone. No need to wonder whether they premeditatively arranged to ditch us, or why.
No complaints from me, I slept in a super comfy bed with the company of a lovely girl.
So today after some pumpkin bread, fresh enough to burn, alan and I set off yo leave Texas. It rained all the way, tired we had a sketchy drive, but made it safe to Louisiana. The radar detector is soo useful, not that we care to drive our beast fast anyway.
So time to get ready for new Orleans tomorrow!
sweatin’ it up in austin baby
Friday, October 9th, 2009it’s pretty humid, got the fan on my legs, and alan’s laptop roasting my legs.
we’re couchsurfing again in texas, and it’s warm. we’re staying with a group of students, of all different ages, but young, and it’s been pretty cool, melissa is the girl that is the organiser, but we’ve been having fun with all.
we came to austin to party, and party we have. we’re even staying a day extra for some reasons. reasons to stay, cheap drinks tonight, and pretty girls asking us to stay, good enough? yes!
so what’s happened, we arrived into austin, and arrived at the house, and i kind of though that melissa’s brother knew we would be coming, but he didn’t so it felt kinda awkward until we explained our invasion. it’s their first time hosting, so their couchsurf virgins, not the first time for us, but i quite like being with people who’ve never hosted for them. that way, not only are we new to a place, but it’s a new situation for them.
so after that, alan and i went for a nice midday run by the river in the afternoon sun, super humidity, almost 40 degrees, owch and swaety that was, fun, but tiring, the first time i have gone for a run since cross country when i was 12. then we headed down to barton spring for a dip in the cool cool creek, and chilled in the sun.
come evening melissa, sharleen, emily alan and i met a couple other guys, had dinner and then almost went to a heavy metal gig. we were aiming for a rock gig, but got lost walking round the block. i think the metal was lively like we would hacve liked, rock being too mellow, no dancing or anything, but it was cool, and we even got some 3d specs! trippy, well the guys beard was when we were wearing them.
afterwards, a little tipsy, some more than other we all went and climbed some old thing and watch the night city with wine.
then for more stupidity and grazes we came back and with beers climbed up a tree house in a field out back. melissa had lotsa trouble and i hacve embaressing photos to prove, but i kind of fell/slid half down the tree, so my arm is looking pretty bad ass.
then most of the guys found some sort of a bed, emily and i lay in the field, no stars, a field in a city, but no cows, was wicked though. i’m finding fields can be one of the funnest places!
so yesterda, i called fed ex to ask where my macbook is, and they were useless, had no record of it, let alone trying to deliver it 7 times and leaving notes at my mate’s office in san francisco, bloody idiots. so i got on to apple customer care, and after several periods on hold, and thirth minutes of a call, she even complained that the line way crap, so i informed her that i was on a iPhone of course, and she found me a lady who know where my computer was being held. it had been returned to apple in Tenessee, great! so now it’s being delivered to ian’s mom in new jersey, so i hope this works better for me and my laptop.
we finally got to town in the end at almost 5pm, and time for cupcakes.
then end.
not.
alan just pointed out to me that my 3000 photos that i’ve taken matches how many miles we’ve done, a picture per mile! but i have no macbook to view them with!
oh yeh i was doing some couchscouting for new orleans and came across this profile, check it now!
There are two requirements if you stay with me:
2) EVERYONE (collaborative efforts are OK) who stays has to draw me a picture in my picture guest book at some point before departure.
I can bake like a motherfucker; it’s science.
I’m still alive. Stand in awe; bask in my glory.
to say the least.
back to yesterday and we saw some crazy shops, but best off found our halloween costumes, but u can find out at halloween!
we had a little bar crawl down to the colorado to see the millions of bats fly out from roost, to go eat the pesky bugs.
out again we went last night, and sonow we’re kinda shattered, thus chilling before we go out again tonight.
i am covered in mosquito bites, it’s a little annoying, but i hope not a sign that it’s going to get bad.
that’s it for real.
Daan saf y’all
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009We ended up spending almost a week in New Mexico, a bit longer than the expected day and a half. We certainly enjoyed our time there.
As you can tell we aren’t in NM any longer but now Texas, so far we drove 60 miles and saw 2 cars until we got to this town for a late mexibrunch.
Albuquerque was pretty cool, and felt like we were there three days, rather than the 1.5 that was reality. It was our first couchsurf of the trip, staying with jessica and cloice near their university. So first off we went out to a greek night held by a church. Nothing religious, but Greek food, dancing, drinking and fun. We even tried dancing, couldn’t get the footwork down but was a laugh. Love for spinaköpita! After we had a bit of a drink with their friends before turning in.
Shame it wasn’t an early night as we had to get up at half four un the morning, which was painful. And so cold that it required dressing for winter. We had to queue for a park and ride, yellow school bus #3, and queue and queue again for the event, toilet, lame breakfast burrito. We spent a good while watching the bizarre spectacular that is known as Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, the worlds largest event of this type. Literally 100,000s of people from all overbthe world come to see around 750 hot air balloons taking off, or for some just attemping, supposedly the worlds most photographed event! It’s was cool, amazing, surreal, cold and we we knackered.
So after another sleep we woke up, feeling like a new day we went into town for a chill, chat and pizza. Later after being locked out, we went out to a blues night, which I’d pretty cool, no way I’d try to dance to that, bit it was enjoyable to sit and watch and drink the night away. I had a minimal sleep being kept up by our host, but we escaped yesterday after an authentic new Mexican meal, not to be tried again!
Yesterday we passed by White sands, where the first atom bomb was tested, they still create misiles and there are the White sands dunes. In the middle of nowhere are some pure brilliant White beautiful sand dunes, great for some fun, photos and alan to get his second run in with the law. Luckily for him he still managed to go Scott free.
Later we arivedbin Carlsbad, a little late, for our next couchsurf experience where we slept from arrival to departure. Oh and barely escaped alive thanks to that mental dready dog. All fingers still attached we went to the the caverns by the same name which was awesome. Not the largest, deepest or longest cave system in the world, maybe the beautifulest. It’s a nice long walk, with lots of geological wonder.
So no more new Mexico, time for the mammoth state of Texas, which doesn’t sound too exciting, going by lonely planet and Lets Go guide books.
It’s about time we made some distance.



Twitter
Flickr
Facebook
Last.fm
Picasa Web Album
YouTube
Amazon Wishlist


















