Day XVII: AZ and CA

July 31, 2008

The drive to San Diego from Phoenix is probably around five or six hours. We waited until Justin came back from his Philosophy exam at eleven before we left. Abe also came by and said goodbye and help us out with directions after Justin left for his second class.

I was really sleepy so I took a nap while Bea drove the first leg. We stopped at a rest stop in the middle of the sand dunes of Southern California. It was horribly hot. I drove the rest of the way, and the ride out of the valley was great. I cruised down in neutral for about 9 miles. I also had an energy drink and was going kind of bonkers. I kept telling Bea how pink and beautiful the sky was, and telling her how excited I was that I was still in neutral. I think we’ve accepted that the driver (who’s usually drinking coffee or an energy drink) is the one talking and rambling on, while the person in the passenger’s seat is usually trying to sleep, or mumbling incoherent comments in response to the driver’s rambling.

We got to San Diego okay, found Mac’s place, and parked. His cute little apartment is a couple blocks from the beach and he lives with a guy named Mike. We got here at around nine at night, and sat down with a couple beers. I was mostly online while Bea and Mac caught up on the old times. Mac and Bea dated for 5 months (?) when she was a freshman and he was a senior in high school.. I think. He’s a cool cat. We played card games when Mike came back after work. For some reason I thought it’d be a good idea if I went outside to their pool (about five steps away from Mac’s front door) and jumped in. I got in my swimsuit first, and convinced Bea to go swimming with me. It was so cold.

We ended up staying up until 4am, with Bea, Mango and I taking over Mike’s bed while he slept on the couch. He insisted, don’t worry J. Rob texted me just as I was going to sleep at 4am, and I called him since it was morning over there. We talked, and then I went back inside and slept. Mango was pretty pooped out by the end of tonight.

-S & M

Day XVI: AZ

July 30, 2008

This darn dog woke me up again and wouldn’t go back to sleep. It happens every morning, but he usually goes back to sleep before 7am. Not this morning. Good thing I got the crate out last night- he had to stay in it while we continued to sleep until 10:30. We went to sleep before we finished watching 40-Year Old Virgin, so (staying on the couches) we finished the rest of the movie. It’s hilarious.

Abe came in as the movie wrapped up. (Justin was still in class.) I showered and we went to the local Tempe Petco for some doggie dog food. Mango was on the last of his big bag of Beneful, and he had torn an arm off of his Diddle-Dude. He has also been chewing on my fingers a lot lately, so I bought him this King Kong chew toy. It has a little hole in the middle of it for treats or peanut butter. I also got some more mini tennis balls since I keep leaving his other ones in homes around the country. I always have such a hard time in pet stores. I love them, but they’re just so distracting and so much is always going on. One side houses rodents, reptiles and birds, the other has the aquariums, the other has doggie beds.. The doggie toy isles are way too long and there are just way too many products. I feel like I just wander the isles without accomplishing anything in particular. Most of the time I’m way too indecisive to be productive.

The dollar store that we went to was intense. I got root beer, Mango got a little kid’s tank top that says “Lift Off” and has a little rocket ship and stars on it. I told myself I would never dress up my dog, but he’s too adorable and I couldn’t help it. Besides, he’s going to get freezing cold this Philadelphia winter. We also got a loofa for the shower and energy drinks for the road.

Abe took Bea, Mango and me back to Justin’s where we said hello to Justin and called up Lauren Kane. She’s also a Graphic Design major at Drexel and wanted to show us a great vegan restaurant in Tempe. We set out to meet Lauren and her girlfriend, but Bea discovered her bike (my bike polo bike) had a horribly bent chain ring. We figured that it was probably bent when backing up into another car from a parallel parking space somewhere in the south. Not good. Anyways, we walked to the nearest bike shop and bought another one. The guys at this bike shop were nice, but there were way too many cruisers for comfort. The place was real big, but most of the floor space was taken up with way too many large and (to me) impractical bicycles. I was like I was in the pet store- walking aimlessly around, picking up stuff and putting it down. I ended up buying a cute pink floral bell, a black water bottle cage, and a sweet teal bike hat. Love it. I also looked at the bike shorts that they had and realized I still need $200 for the MS150 City to Shore benefit bike ride I’m doing in the end of September.

The vegan restaurant that Lauren and Lexi took us to was great! It’s called Greeny (I think), and had a great menu. Too bad I wasn’t hungry. The crab cakes looked good, and the cheese steak sandwich also looked fantastic. I settled for a vegan Tsoynami. It’s a blend of yummy ingredients fashioned sort of like a flurry. I got the Soy Capitan: Vanilla ice cream, fruity Captain Crunch, and strawberries. It was delicious. We left and rode back to Justin’s house to drive to the airport to FLY!

Justin was in flight school and was going to ASU (Arizona State University) to be a pilot for commercial airlines, but realized that he was paying way too much for what it was worth. He switched to a Philosophy major a couple of months ago. On the way home from the airport we had a great philosophical conversation. That sounds so yuppy: “A great philosophical conversation.” Sorry. It was a good, thoughtful conversation. I feel like I should seriously think about minoring in philosophy. I love to think.

Anyways, flying is amazing! We went up in a high-winged four person plane. That’s simple speak, I suppose. We flew for a little over an hour, and oh- I should probably call ma to let her know I’m alive. We left right as the sun set and flew over most of Phoenix and the outlaying areas after the sun went down. The view from the plane was like we were flying over a sea of city lights. It was pretty amazing. Before the sun set we stalled and experienced zero gravity, on purpose. Scared the living #@$% out of me. I hate roller coasters because I hate the feeling of falling. Zero gravity is falling. I held a pen in my hand and when we did the nose dive it rose up in front of my face. So did my phone, my sunglasses, and both of my flip flops. Bea took a video of the whole ordeal, so check out my flickr for it. Everything is organized by city in the Road trip set of the 2008 collection, if you haven’t figured that out by now.

Now I’m home- Justin’s place. Family Guy just finished and Bea is sleeping on the couch next to me. Mango is lying peacefully on my left shoulder, and Justin is studying 17^th and 18^th century philosophers for his exam tomorrow morning. Mango was so excited to see me after I got back from flying with Justin. He went crazy, and it made me feel loved J

See ya, Arizona.

-S and M

Day XV: AZ

July 29, 2008

Today was spent swimming in rivers and lakes in hot, hot Tempe. Tempe is real close to Phoenix, and just as hot. Justin’s friend Abe was our little tour guide. First we went to a river, realized the car needed a “day pass,” went back into town until we got to the nearest gas station where they sold day passes. Abe was talking to the guy at the counter, and asked him if he thought that we needed a day pass + a boat pass if our car could turn into a boat. The man’s reaction? “Uh, I don’t know.” And then, “I use to have one of those back in the day.” Abe and I burst out laughing as soon as we got to the car. A car-boat, back in the day? What?

The river was great. Semi-chilly, but I enjoyed it. Some wild (?) horses came to have a little refreshing drink on the other side of the river, and they were great fun to watch. Mango came in a couple times to rescue me again, but ended up perched on top of my head (again).

We went back to the house, said goodbye to Justin as he set off for work, and watched another movie. I think Bea and Abe were watching the Family Guy movie while I talked to Rob on the phone for a good hour and a half.. or however long the movie was. When I came back they were both snoozing and the credits were rolling. We figured we’d meet up with Justin at his workplace, the bowling alley. Tonight was $1.26 games, or something like that. I’m really horrible at bowling. I think my final score was 25 points. Horrible! I know. My second game was better, probably because we took a little intermission break and had a couple beers back at Justin’s. Don’t worry though, Abe was the DD. I think my second score was at least 67. It was an improvement, but still a horrible score.

-S and M

Day XIV: NM and AZ

July 28, 2008

We woke up real early this morning. By real early, I mean 6am. Surprisingly, both of us were up and about (as up and about you can be squished in a tiny ’96 Honda civic). We drove through the beautiful canyon to the national park’s tourist center. They didn’t open until 8:30, so we walked around a bit and watched the sunrise.

We hiked up to this small hill to write in our journals and pass the time away. For some reason Bea wore her flip flops, which wasn’t too comfortable walking through cactus spikes and sharp rocks. Poor Mango would get stuck behind a bunch of cacti and instead of turning around and finding a different route to me, he’d stick his front paws up on the cacti and perk his ears up. I had to then walk back and pick him up, pick out all the stickers and spines out of his paws, and continue the journey through the desert. Once we got all settled on our appropriate rocks we realized how horribly pesky the gnats were. They buzzed around our ears, arms, bodies, and ears. It was about 8:20am when we got back to the tourist center where we bought tickets, paid for a kennel, and rented an audio tour guide.

Dogs aren’t allowed into the caverns, and they’ve got these nice little kennels for $5 a day. The kennels were really a bunch of big and small crates in a side room of the tourist center. Mango stayed in there when we went down to the caverns. He wasn’t too happy.

On the way down to the caverns we stopped by and spoke with two people. The first was a guy dressed head to toe in long-sleeves and pants. He was spraying organic pesticides on invasive plant species. He told us that he lived on the national park and was a student nearby. The second person was a lady park ranger who convinced Bea to take a bite out of a cactus fruit. I took a picture of her hilarious face.

The descent down into the caverns was a steep, steep downhill climb. It progressively got colder, which was fine. Above ground it was a mean 115 degrees. The Carlsbad Caverns are incredible. We walked through the route laid out for tourists, oohing and ahhing the entire way through. I tried to snap some pictures, but I don’t hold the camera still enough so they turned out kind of sloppy. I highly recommend if anyone is in the southern New Mexico area to stop by and say hello to the awesome stalactites and stalagmites. It was incredible knowing that we were 750 feet underground and in what seemed to be a whole new world.

When we got back up to the surface we freed the Mango and set off for the journey to Phoenix. It was a long drive- probably along the lines of 10-12 hours. I really have no idea, though. We stopped by this Mexican restaurant and got some burritos. Dinner took place outside on the curb since they wouldn’t let Mango in. I had two cups of coffee so I wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel, and when we arrived in Phoenix I was on a horrible caffeine buzz. Never again.

Justin and his friend Abe were there to meet us, and we pretty much crashed immediately.

-S & M

Day XIII: TX and NM

July 27, 2008

Sunday morning. Jake and his family go to church at 11, and so we figured we’d get going before then. I woke up earlier than everyone else as usual, took a shower, fed the dog. Jake’s mom had to go early for choir so she was up bright and early as well. We stood in the kitchen drinking coffee and talking about our dogs for a good 20 minutes. I like her- she’s nice company and sounds like a compassionate human being.

Soon the rest of the house began waking up and doing their morning things. We said goodbye to Jake, I left a Thank You note on their fridge, and we drove away from good ‘ol Plano. It’s a long drive across Texas. No way would we have wanted to drive all the way to Phoenix in one day. Carlsbad Caverns were about 12 hours away, so we set out with that as our destination. (Carlsbad Caverns is in southern New Mexico.) Texas is so big. It’s big, hot and flat.

I saw some giant dinosaurs on the side of the road and couldn't resist. Turns out it was a Ripley's Believe it or Not shindig:


We stopped for food at this gas station and Winnaburger place. (They’re real popular in the South.) I went to the gas station and got mandarin oranges since there was NOTHING else. Bea got a burger. Oh, we also got gas. I saw a gnarly- looking trucker who was taking his dog out for a walk, and so I brought Mango over to say hello. His dog’s name was Harley and he was part Pomeranian, part sheepdog. I asked him if Harley went everywhere he went and he said, “Yeah. I’d be lost without him.” I awww’d inside. He was eating an ice cream sandwich, our dogs humped for a couple minutes. As I walked away he told me that he liked my tattoos. He also had full sleeve tattoos, but he was so old that they had turned all gray and faded. I liked them, and I told him.

I talked to Rob on the phone and met Bea in the burger place. Mango pooped outside and we continued the drive to Carlsbad. Carlsbad Caverns aren’t exactly in the town of Carlsbad; they’re a little south west. We mistakenly drove into town, realized we weren’t at the caverns, and stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. The two women at the food mart were Mexican, and at first looked wary. Who wouldn’t look strangely at two girls wearing bikinis and shorts carrying an oversized Chihuahua? Bea goes pee while Mango and I chase cockroaches. This place was full of them. Gross, but entertaining. So the women give us directions, but their directions are a shortcut- I guess? She drew it on receipt paper, too small at first. “Oh- this is too small!” Then redraws it the same size, but this time labeled all the stop signs and streets in chicken scratch. She then retold us how to get there about 7 times in a really broken/confusing manner. We went back to the car and Bea says, “She could easily name given us directions in a minute.” I think we were there at least seven.

So we get back on the road. We have an atlas, so we just went off that and completely disregarded the nonsense those helpful ladies were trying to tell us. I figured I’d just retrace my steps until we found the route we were looking for.

We find it successfully and drive down through what seems to contain no houses or human life. There’s a bunch of cattle guarding jack rabbits. I almost ran over a couple and slowed down to 35 mph while Bea made fun of me: “Don’t worry, they’re just little rabbits, not deer. They won’t hurt the car.” Me: “Bea, it’s not the car I’m worried about, it’s the bunnies!” And then we went into ta whole discussion about rabbit families, rabbit fathers and how they have/don’t have feelings. I see a skunk point its butt at me on the side of the road.

I turn my high beams on WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN we see a human figure walking towards us in the darkness. (Keep in mind we haven’t seen signs of a home in the last 10 minutes.) He was dressed in a white button-up, white jeans and cowboy boots, and wearing a white cowboy hat. He was carrying a white cup and was walking towards us on the opposite side of the road. So freaky. I immediately double checked to see if the doors were locked and both Bea and I started screaming about how we saw an apparition. That’s not it. I drove a couple more miles before coming to a complete stop in front of a petrified looking raccoon lying in the middle of the road. Oh yes, we were both screaming for no reason at this point. It was great.

There isn’t any camping allowed in Carlsbad Caverns, so we parked in front of a nice looking motel and slept there. It was a little struggle getting both of us happy and comfortable, but we managed.

-S and M

Day XII: TX

July 26, 2008

The good ‘ol Mango alarm woke us up bright and early. I showered; we packed up the car, and in doing so found a sweet little note on our car saying that we didn’t check in. I guess the camping permit for the bungalow was $24 a night. $30 a night was just too good to be true. Still, $30 for a safe and comfortable night in the beautiful woods is a steal. Last night the sky was clear, and if you found a hole in the forest canopy the stars would have taken your breath away. Sometimes, living in Philly I forget that skies chock full of stars still exist. Oh light pollution.

After we paid the monies, the park ranger gave us a map and showed us where to go swimming. It was still early, so we went to the lake in the middle of the park and jumped in. Of course it took a little pretend drowning to get Mango in the water, but once he was in, he was in.

I swam out pretty far with Mango, to the point where I was a good five strokes from being where I could reach the bottom. He’d get all antsy and climb up my torso until he had perched his body on my shoulder. It was like treading water with a little 10 pound weight on your shoulder. We took videos.

Bea got out and lay down on the grass on a towel, soaking up the sun. I guess she migrated to lying just on the grass. In Texas most of the ground is home to fire ants. 40% of the population are allergic to their bite.. well, allergic to the poison they zap into their system when they bite. Bea started developing a rash and strange parts of her body began swelling up immediately- mainly her earlobes. She called mama bear when we got into the car and took two Benadryl pills. I took the wheel and drove the leg to Plano while she passed out in a Benadryl coma.

We got to Jake’s house in the middle of commercialized suburbia. Bea continued her coma in Jake’s bed. Jake and I caught up for hours while Bea slept. It was great. We hadn’t seen each other for about 3 years (since the Alaskan cruise). He has two Yorkshire terriers. Gabby is about three and tiny, Jellybean is about ten and is allergic to just about everything. She’s pretty big for a Yorkie and has warts all over, the poor thing. Gabby was definitely the spoiled one. Mango of course just wanted to hump. Jake didn’t take too kindly to that. Personally, I enjoyed watching him protect his timid little dog from my horny Mango.

Mango helped me wake up Bea and we all went to dinner in one of the Mexican restaurants in the commercial Plano. Seriously, Plano and most of Dallas are absurdly spread out. The homes are huge since land is so cheap and labor is mostly done by illegal immigrants, as Jake told us. The whole area strikes me as weird. It’s a weird I don’t like. In my opinion, don’t go to Texas unless you’re looking for a corporate haven, suburbia, or wide open plains full of cacti and flash thunderstorms. Our only pluses were seeing Jake and cheap gas. good old Bush knows how to take care of his state. Cheapest gas seen? $3,72 per gallon. I know!

Dinner was pretty good- I had rice and beans and corn tortillas. I love corn tortillas. I love most Mexican foods. The only problem is that their food usually has meats or cheese in them. Oh well, I was satisfied with my simple meal. We sat outside so that Mango could sit with us. The manager kept coming around asking if everything was okay. He also gave Mango some water, so he’s alright in my book. Dinner consisted of a lot of talking and a lot of people-watching. Most of the middle-aged couples tended to dress and look the same. The man usually sports some Dockers shorts and a polo or hideous Hawaiian shirt, and their woman is usually in a cute top with floods and low heels. Her hair, nails, and makeup are most likely immaculate, and she looks real put together. I’m not stereotyping, trust me, I’m just noting my observations.

We drove around a little bit looking at the insanely large mansions of Plano. We watched “Team America” as part of the Texas/America tour. I had never seen it before.. it’s hilarious! Jake’s younger sister- the older of the two- was home when we got back and we convinced her to play board games with us. I had never played Taboo and Bea was really into it, so we played. The first round Bea and I lost horribly (by 40 points). By the second round Bea and I had caught on and kicked butt! I mean, we still lost, but only by one point. I highly recommend buying Taboo for every home. It’s going to be a must in our house in Philly. Most def. After Taboo we played Pictionary- which is essentially the same thing, but your partner ahs to guess the word through pictures and not a verbal description. Bea and I were amazing at Pictionary, btw. After Pictionary was Charades.

I’m being very factual in my description of tonight’s festivities, but it was a night full of laughter and good, wholesome fun. See kids? You don’t need to go consume unreal amounts of alcohol and narcotics to have a great time. J Board games are the new fad in my book. I’m not even that competitive anymore; I really just enjoy guessing/describing/teamwork oriented games. Kind of. Anyways, we went to sleep on the L couch where we were playing board games. I slept great.

-S and M

Day XI: LA and TX

July 25, 2008

Today was a long drive. Bea triumphantly told me that she had (and I quote) “Just broke into my own car!” I had left the passenger’s side window down a crack and I guess while I was in the shower she had found a clothes hanger and used it to unlock the door from the outside of the car. Good work Bea! She was really excited and explained the entire process of how exactly she figured out how to open the latch. Bea’s great when she’s super excited about something. Overall, I think I enjoy being easily excited over mediocre things.

For example, on the drive to Texas today through Louisiana I drove over this ENORMOUS bridge that seemed to last forever. Seriously, we were on it for at least 15-20 minutes. The bridge stood over the Louisiana marshland. As far as the eye can see there were trees and brush, water and water and more trees. I was in awe, but Bea didn’t really share in my excitement I guess. To me it was incredible! I couldn’t believe I was easily driving over the marshiest of marshes; the bayous of Louisiana; the wetlands of the south. Isn’t that amazing? I’d say, whew!

The drive from Slidell to Texas is a long one. Specifically Plano, TX which is just northeast of Dallas. We drove all day (leaving at 2pm) until we couldn’t drive any longer (which ended up being about 2 am). The drive was soooooo long. Louisiana is a tall state if you didn’t know.

I didn’t feel like driving all the way to Plano just to get there at 4 in the morning and sleep in our car outside of Jake’s house. We looked up campgrounds in the area and found one in Tyler State park, which is on the way to Dallas. We turned off on an exit too early and ended up in the boondocks. It was pretty freaky, especially when Bea reminded us that the Texas Chain Massacre took place in TEXAS. Yeah, we were freaking ourselves out and laughing about it.. growing silent.. and then quickly making a U-turn, aka “flippin’ a bitch.”

We got to Tyler State park successfully. When I say successfully I mean alive. There was a sign at the deserted ranger station saying $3 per person for overnight camping. “Woohoo’s” and high 5’s all around. We pile back into the car and drive into Tyler State park. We aren’t driving for long until we come across this group of 7 adolescent guys walking along the side of the road. They kindly directed us to a campsite where we find cute little bungalows nestled around a community restroom. We park, get all our stuff out: blankets, pillows, the laptop, the dog.

The light bulb in our little one-room cabin was out, so I swapped bulbs with an empty neighbor cabinJ. We slept on an afghan on a slab of cement, which was surprisingly comfortable. When we woke up we were both mosquito bite free too! What a bonus! What a night!

-S & M

Day X: LA

July 24, 2008

Mango woke us up at around 10am again. Sharon was all ready to go into New Orleans after we were done with breakfast. Bea loves her Frosted Mini Wheats, and I love fruit.

Sharon drove us to the French Quarter in New Orleans- called “the Quarter” by locals, I was told. On the way there we talked about Katrina. I still can’t believe that it’s been 3 years since Katrina hit. It was really interesting to hear Bet’s mom talk about the hurricane. It seems like everyone who stayed in New Orleans stayed there by choice. She said that even Amtrak was offering to evacuate people out of the city. The hurricane didn’t even hit New Orleans- it was the flooding that was so devastating. Sharon said that 57 tornados hit Slidell, which is just north over the bridge from New Orleans. One of the bridges was torn to pieces by the hurricanes, and the other was guarded by state troopers after the storm. Thank goodness, said Sharon, or else the looters would have crossed over and spread even more mayhem.

Another big problem that I had no idea existed was the New Orleans’ prison evacuation. Actually, it was more of a “free for all.” They just let everyone out into the streets. Really? And the higher-ups complain about rampant crime and complete madness on the streets? It only takes a few to get the ball rolling. Also, the New Orleans police department and the state government are known to be some of the most corrupt in the country. I guess no one wants to work together. Oh politics. Looking out the window was so surreal. There were brand new homes sitting on their brand new stilts perched like flamingos along the river’s edge. Their neighbors were (I’m guessing) their old homes left in ruins. Roofs were caved in, moss was taking over, and trees stood crooked and twisted along the bayou. So surreal.

We got into New Orleans, talking politics and Katrina the whole way there. I kept thinking about Mango the entire time. Sharon took us out to lunch at the original House of Blues. It’s difficult to be vegan in the South, lemme tell ya. Most people in the south don’t even know what being vegan consists of, and why people would chose to live that kind of lifestyle. I don’t blame them, but still. Knowledge is power in my eyes.

I feel like most vegans are pretty aware of what’s going on and won’t stand for it. I say most because you do have those who are vegan for the wrong reasons. Personally, I’m began because #1- I don’t feel like we should be eating half the things we’re eating: i.e. lard, corn-fed cows (cows are supposed to eat GRASS), and milk (we’re the only animal who drinks it after we’ve matured- AND we’re the only animal who drinks anther animal’s milk. GROSS). That’s among lots of other things. #2- Yes, I believe us humans are naturally “supposed” to eat meat- we have partly carnivorous teeth for a reason- but I absolutely hate the way we’ve abused and manipulated our meat, poultry and dairy sources. I disagree with so much concerning the food industry. Please ask if you’re interested in what I have to say, and I’ll gladly talk your ears off. Also, the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” is a fantastic read. I’ve only gotten through the first quarter of it before someone stole it from me at work. Imagine that.

Anyways, the House of Blues was pretty good. I had their house salad with avocado and a side of sweet potato fries. Mmm! After lunch we explored the restaurant a little more. The rooms are outrageously colorful and the bars are gorgeous. We left the House of Blues and walked around the rest of the French Quarter for a bit. It’s real cute. The architecture reminds me of Europe, which is appropriate since New Orleans was “owned” by the French, then the Spanish, and then again by the French. The streets are real tight and the hustle and bustle of the stores, bars, and restaurants makes this city feel alive. And I was only there during the daytime!

We went into lots of little touristy stores, had coffee and beignets at the Café du Monde. I waited in line for the restroom for what seemed like forever. This man who was completely spray painted silver stood next to me in line. He had two revolvers on his bullet belt: one was pink and the other was silver and wooden. This silver man sported a cowboy hat and a silver sprayed black tennis shoes. He kept making these weird clicking sounds from his throat at me. It was real flippin’ strange. I just didn’t stare back. Oh, the coffee was really good.

There was another outside covered market sort of like the one in Charleston. There were loads of jewelry, Mardi gras beads, cheap sunglasses, and more jewelry. Beth’s mom told us buying people Mardi gras beads who visit New Orleans is “what she does.” I picked out this awesome blue beaded one with a large shark pendant. I thought it was hilarious. Bea got a yellow and pink beaded one with monkey heads and bananas that felt like stress balls. We walked around a bit more, it poured gallons from the sky, and then headed to the Mississippi river where there was an oil spill yesterday. I guess one of those touristy boat planes crashed into an oil tanker from overseas. It smelled horrible.

Sharon then drove us around Uptown, which is where the Mardi gras parade takes place. The houses that line the main street are gorgeous. They are enormous with wrap around balconies, large front yards, and layers of floors- some four stories tall. In my mind the houses resembled large cakes. The trees and telephone wires lining the street are all covered in Mardi gras beads left over from Fat Tuesday and the months preceding it.

Bethany still had work until about seven or so. We probably got back to the house at around five. Bea and I were still pretty tired from the night before so we napped after I hosed down the slobbery Mango dog.

I had corn for dinner! Yum Yum, I love corn. Beth had mentioned earlier that she was going to take us out to town and out to the Louisiana bars tonight. We were all watching “So you think you can dance” on the tube with her parents during and after dinner. Bea goes out to the car to get a change of clothes for the night and returns looking pissed. “Guess what? I just locked the keys in the trunk.” I looked at her and said, “Bayuhhhhh…” She retorts with a snappy, “Well, I didn’t mean to! You think I’m going to be all jolly and happy? SHIT!” and walks away. Honestly, I wasn’t too happy myself. I more annoyed that she blew up at me. In my opinion, being in a bad mood in a frustrating situation just makes it ten times more miserable for the people involved. I wasn’t mad at her or anything- shit happens, but I really hate getting snapped at if I didn’t do anything wrong. Trust me though; I was over it in a couple minutes.

Beth goes upstairs to get all dressed and purtied up while I sat on my laptop uploading pictures from Savannah and Charleston. She came down and told me that Bea didn’t want to go out tonight because she was getting really bad cramps. I went up and Bea was still in a bad mood, so I let her be and walked out to Beth’s car. Halfway down the driveway Beth asks me if I have my ID with me. “ID? I left my wallet in Philly, and now it’s being mailed to my home in California.”(Insert sheepish grin.) Turns out you need to have an ID saying you’re over 18 to get into bars in Louisiana. Beth called a couple friends to ask if the bar we were planning on going to cards. Yup, they did. So instead of going out and dancing the night away we stayed in and watched a Disney movie with glasses of red wine perched in our hands. It was a good night. I’m sure we started that movie over at least four times because we kept getting carried away with jibber jabber. It was a great night in my opinion.

-S&M

Day IX: LA

July 23, 2008

I’ve been semi looking back at my journal entries and realizing how horrible my writing has become. Seriously dudes and dudettes. I got the English Department’s Senior award and now look at my writing. Great. I’m sorry readers; I’ll try to dictate my adventures in a more enjoyable manner.

We arrived in Slidell, Louisiana and went straight to Beth’s workplace. It was raining, but it was a welcomed change. Rain when it’s unbearably humid is a blessing. Our wet trio stumbled into the Honda Dealership at around 11:45pm. I spotted Beth right away. She looks the same as I remembered, and was donning a cute black button-up dress and heels instead of a bathing suit or jeans that Alaska called for.

Our little reunion was cute, but a little weird at first. We could both feel it. We hadn’t seen each other in a good three years, so I expected a little awkwardness. The dealership wasn’t busy, so we stayed a little bit with the pup and exchanged a few “So what have you been up to-s?” and “How’s the family-s?” Beth is the receptionist and did a fantastic job juggling our reminiscent conversation with answering Honda’s phone line. We arranged to meet up at a coffee shop down the lunch together during her lunch break.

The coffee shop was called “C C’s coffee,” and provided me and Bea with free wifi and comfortable chairs. Mayo was a real well behaved service dog in training while we uploaded, flickr’d, and blogged away. This girl sitting next to us wouldn’t stop staring at us! Granted Bea was on the phone with her doctor discussing her urinary tract infection and the continued symptoms, but still- uninhibited staring for prolonged periods of time makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

Beth met up with us and we headed over to this little place in a strip mall sort of area. It was cute, and not a chain food place.. and I don’t remember the name of it. Bea and I split this salad with avocado, artichokes, tomatoes, mixed greens, and onions in it. She got some grilled chicken on the side. I didn’t. It was good! I really enjoy avocado in my salad. I wonder where the concept of salad came from.. I’ll google that later I suppose.

Anyways, Beth and I caught up a lot. Mango was good and so he got Bea’s leftover chicken. Beth left to go back to work late and Mango got a little obedience training session. We worked on “stay,” “come,” “down,” and “dance.” He’s so bad at laying down on command! Real good at staying, real good at coming on commant.. but can’t lay down when I say “down!” I must have helped him do it at least thirty times with the aid of Bea and leftover pieces of chicken. I feel like he can do it, since he caught on to “come, dance,” and “stay” awful quick. Eh, in time little Chihuahua.

We went back to the coffee shop to take advantage of their wifi. Bea needed to find a doctor to take a pee sample from her to tell if she still has the bladder infection. I needed to find a pet store to buy some wet dog food to mix with my dry for the anorexic pup.

The pet store we went to was about two minutes away and had the sweetest pups for sale. There were two Dotsons, a Yorkie, two Shiatsus, and a Pomeranian. I fell in love with the black Dotson with soft curly haired ears and Bea fell in love with the shy white Pomeranian with fleas (we found out later). I hate when people buy pups from pet stores when shelters everywhere are overflowing with babes needing homes. Although playing with the pups made me realize how easy it is to fall into the “guilt” trap, as Rob says. They were precious.

We really had nothing to do, so back to the coffee shop we went to internetz. Once Beth got off work we met her and headed to her house. Her parents, her boyfriend and his parents, her dog Bear and her two cats Tinkerbelle and Tigger were home. We all had a delicious dinner of rice pilaf, sourdough bread, and kabobs. I had a veggie kabob. We kids sat at the kiddie table while the adults sat in the dining room. Dinner time discussions were hilarious. Sean/Shawn/Shaun is hilarious. Him and Beth have been together for almost three years now, and they’ve got great chemistry. We talked about LA (Louisiana) slang, including “Como Homo” (how gay), and “I’m Gucci” (I’m good).

Hah! “How are you?” –“Oh- I’m Gucci.” I guess that little town where Sean/Shawn/Shaun lived five hours north of New Orleans uses that phrase quite often. Let me paraphrase what he said:

“They use that term for everything, thinking they’re real cool. Most of them probably don’t even know what Gucci is!? There isn’t a Gucci store for miles and miles. They also think their lives are so gangsta and that they live in the ghetto. What ghetto? the cornfields?”

We busted up laughing. (All this time Mango and Bear were dishing it out to each other in the backyard.) Bear is this enormous yellow lab who’s about two years old and was found in a field by Brook’s (Beth’s older brother who’s in the Air Force right now) ex-girlfriend. Bear is a love dog, but know his own strength. Mango is too small to successfully hump Bear, so they ended up running around like crazies. After dinner I let the dogs in and Mango was SOAKING WET. It was like he jumped into a swimming pool. Turns out it was Bear’s slobber. Gross.

Beth’s dad had just quit his job (or something like that), so we all celebrated with him. Beth popped open the champagne and we toasted to the man and his freedom (or something like that).

We got to talking about my future for some reason, which of course= Bioko. Bioko island is an island off the coast of West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to Bioko to study and research sea turtles with a professor at Drexel, and grad and PhD students for 6 months. The beaches where the turtles lay their eggs are along the southern portion of the island. Malabo, the capital, is on the northern part along with the university and most of the population. I’ll be in a tent in a rainforest a stone’s throw from waterfalls, chameleons, and seven different species of drills and monkeys. I’m so flippin’ excited. My plane leaves on the 6^th of October. No Mango for 6 months L

Anyways.. turns out both Brook and his father have spent a decent amount of time on Bioko Island. I guess Beth’s dad worked/works for Shell and he went to the island to help oversee the construction of a natural gas plant on the northern part of the island. Um.. kind of the opposite of what I’m going there for. Wildlife research versus extracting natural resources. It kind of made me sad that we were both going there, but with completely different aims. Oh well, unfortunately it happens.

He kept telling me how I wasn’t going to like it there- that there are two really scary types of poisonous snakes and lots of humid jungle land everywhere. It was all I could do to hold my tongue. I mean, I love that kind of stuff. I love nature, I love dirt. Whatever. Different strokes for different folks, and I respect that. By the end of the night I have to admit I was feeling a bit beat up.

Oh, there was a little fiery talk about politics, too. Beth’s mom Sharon hates Obama and went on a little rant before Beth muffled her with a hand over her mouth. Get a little champagne in people and inhibitions are lowered. Personally, I enjoyed it. I like listening to people rant about something or someone they feel strongly about. We’re in the South. Personally, I don’t feel like I’m leaning towards anyone in the presidential race right now. I mean, I’ll be in Bioko in November anyways and am probably not going to bother with an absentee vote. This will probably drive my AP Government teacher nuts, but I honestly know jack shit about either of the candidates. Besides, the popular vote doesn’t matter nowadays anyways.

Bea and I retired to Brook’s room/ the guest bedroom before midnight after a hearty “Thanks for dinner” and a “I’ll see you in the morning.” After driving all night I was exhausted.

-S & M

Day VIII: SC and GA

Charleston, SC

"10:10am July 22, 2008

Today was quite eventful, I'd say. Mango woke me up at around 4am with his usual "I'm licking your face so you can wake up and let me out." I grumbled my usual grumble, let him out, and immediately fell back asleep. Bea and I had flipped a gift card (no coins were readily accessible) for the big mattress. She flipped, I won. It was great and spacious for Mango and I. Next time it's Bea's turn to get the big bed.

After Mango's usual middle-of-the-night pee he can't go to sleep right away. He just loves making out with my face and jumping all over my body. I personally enjoy a good night's sleep, so I've developed a tactic to getting him settled down. I grab him and force him to be the little spoon until he stops struggling. Usually he konks out after he's gotten all the wiggles and jitterbugs out. His other internet alarm clock wakes us both up at around 9:30am. Nothing can calm him down after he's up the second time- not even the aforementioned "capture and pin down" method. This is when I shower.. and he watches. He hates not being in the bathroom with me even when I'm in the shower. The door usually gets all scratched up and since I'm not at the liberty to scratch up my host's bathroom door, he gets to join me in the loo. Every couple of minutes or so he sticks his little Chihuahua head into the shower to make sure I'm still there. Crazy dog.

We all had cereal for breakfast, went to the store for energy drinks (for the drive to New Orleans- 10 hours), and came back to Eggy the Great Dane, and Weezy the English Bulldog at Dane's ma's house. Eggy is great. He makes me want to adopt a Great Dane. He's just so mild mannered and personable. Weezy is a character. I make a darn good impression of her, hah! We were all kind of afraid she would accidentally hurt Mango since it's in a bulldog's nature to "play" with another dog by going for its throat and not letting go. No harm intended. So we decided to not take that chance and Weezy was either in the backyard, in his bed in the laundry room, or grunting about the house if Mango was in my arms.



Dane's mom Kathy is such a sweetheart. She's a massage therapist and has her own cute little office a couple minutes from her home. And guess what? She scheduled me and Bea for free massages at 1:30 and 2:30pm! I've never gotten a professional massage, but let me tell you- I will be getting more in the future if I can afford it. They're great. Kathy is great. I envy her, too. Imagine having a job where you're your own boss, and your job consists of making your clients feel AWESOME!

In the middle of the session she says "Honey, I'm going to need you to turn over on your stomach now" and I retorted with, "Kathy, will you marry me?" She laughed and said yes. Woohoo. Seriously though, people shell out the big bucks with good reason.

I went first, Bea went second. While Bea was getting her massage Dane and I wandered over to a Starbucks and got iced teas. I swear the barista looked exactly like that one awesome guy in the cake making show on the Food Network. Adorable. Starbucks.. I don't really know waht to make of it. Their drinks are overpriced, they're taking over every block in every city big or small, and they're taking business from independently owned coffee shops. They've pretty much embodied the essence of what any large company or chain strives for: controlled ubiquity.. if that's an appropriate/existing term. It does seem like they're trying to help out the poorer countries and artists by selling their albums. All ways to make more money, but.. ah. Stupid Industrial Revolution.

Anyways, back to the road trip. After Kathy's awesome massages we went to Whole Foods for lunch, and yes they have Whole Foods in the south. Healthy food is so delicious and filling in a good way. I started giggling uncontrollably halfway through the meal when Bea said "http-colon-backslash-backslash" incredibly fast. Trust me, it was hilarious. We wrote thank you cards for the folks, and then it was back to Dane's dad's house to pick up my toothbrush and say goodbye to Luda:

And finally, at around 7pm we started the trek to Savannah, GA.. only about a two hour drive, if that."


Savannah, GA

"Got to Savannah at around 9pm. It's dark. And hard to find. Honestly, we got lost getting into the city center AND getting out of the city center. Once we found the "happenin" area in downtown Savannah we parked and rode around on our bikes. It's cute, and has a nice feel. I'm beginning to think that the main shopping street is the same in all big cities. You have your GAP, your Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, Starbucks x5, Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret.. etc, etc. I found some kids on carriage bikes sitting at a corner (waiting for tourists to taxi around the city), and asked them where we should ride. pretty much everything was closed except for bars. They told us to ride down Bull St. till we got to a fountain and then come back. No stopping, they said, unless we wanted to buy crack. Hah. Bull Street is chocked full of roundabouts with beautiful statues and churches. So we rode. The houses in Savannah are gorgeous! All of the trees beautifully frame the streets and the sky- lichen hanging like jewelry from their branches.

Most of the roads were paved, gave a few cobble-stoned side streets. Churches and mansions are at every corner it seems, and the architecture is like eye candy. Mmmm :). I followed a horse and carriage tour for a little bit and listened to the tour guide ramble and spit out her Savannah knowledge. We found this funny little health foods store/beer store/gas station/tourist store on the way back to the main shopping street. I got two postcards: one for Rob and one for the family. There's an alligator's face on it and it says "Greetings from Georgia." Hah! Oh, there was also a whole walk in refrigerator for customers stocked full of beer. I thought it was an opportune time to whip out the 'ol Captain Morgan stance:

Oh, Mango was in my bag this entire time. Afterwards it was gelato/sorbetto tasting and then back to the car. Ten hours to drive to New Orleans. We agreed to switch off every couple of hours, and Bea drove first. I slept for a couple hours, and then drove for 4 and a half hours. Yeayuhh. Bea got up, but only drove an hour and a half before she said she couldn't keep her eyes open. Not good for driving, soo.. she pulled to the side of the highway to sleep. During this I woke up and was getting freaked out because all the large trucks and semi's passing us on the highway sounded like they were going to hit us. The car was shaking and I just didn't feel like I was safe by any means. I mean, it's good that Bea knows her limits and knows when she shouldn't be driving, but I was also kind of annoyed, not going to lie.

I whipped out the half full energy drink and told Bea she could sleep and I'd drive. I don't know- I feel like I have control over my body to a certain extent. I cranked up Ludacris and whipped out the Oreos and the Atlas. Three hours later we were in Mississippi and it was raining. We rest-stopped it and Bea took over the last couple of hours to Slidell, LA. So really, it took about 10 and a half hours to get there. I mean, I was driving an average of 55mph to save on gas mileage during the nighttime stretch and still, it was a long way.

I called Beth once we got here and we met here at her workplace: the Honda Dealership in Slidell. Bethany Waddell is a friend of mine from a cruise I took to Alaska four years ago. It was an exciting reunion. Um, I guess that's the start of day IV.
So,
OUT- S and M."

Day VII: SC

Charleston, SC

"3:16pm July 21st, 2008

Today was beach day! We all got up around 9:50ish and ate, showered, sat around talking about what we were going to do for the day.. watched Animal Planet. The beach we ended up going to was pretty sweet. The water was so warm! and so was the sand. I had to carry Mango a little bit on the way back- his paws were dancing on the burning sand. We showered, went back to Dane's dad's house, which is only a five minute drive from the SC beach.

It's so humid, and so as soon as we jumped in the car we were talking about jumping into Dane's backyard pool. Mango went swimming with us.

So cute, but doesn't like the water much. Oh well. I love the water and it's not going to kill him, so I figure he can put up with a little swimming. Luda is so big that he'll probably drown if he was thrown in. So much body mass. -S and M


ps- Mango's first beach reaction wasn't as extreme as I had hoped. He just danced around a bit and dug. He also chased birds."



Charleston, SC

"1:29pm July 21st, 2008

Yummy vegan burgers for lunch. We drove into the city (of Charleston) and walked around the little "market" area and down. The "market" is cute- a little channel-thing in between two roads. The channel-thing is under an awning and has a bunch of little stores and stuff in there. It was cute, but seven fifths of the stands were the same touristy things. The other three tenths were great, though. I guess Charleston is quite famous for their basket weaving skills.. or should I say, basket weaver's skills.

aaand then we walked. So so much. Actually, it wasn't so bad. Bea and Dane mostly walked ahead while Mango and I strayed behind a little. At CVS we got a $1.50 dog toy (a stuffed bunny) that squeaks when you squeeze. Then it was a walk through Dane's campus, and then back to zee car.

Came to Dane's mom's house (das where I'm at right now) and watched a show on the Nat Geo channel called "The eight limbed girl." Crazy, I know. I guess her conjoined twin was connected to her at the base of the spine, but upside down and underdeveloped. So we watched that while Dane's mom Kathy went food shopping for dinner. We helped cook the best we could while eating fruit and drinking white wine.

Kathy is so incredibly nice! She made me this lovely tofu and soy sauce, ginger, garlic, mushroom and lettuce wrap. Delicious. Everyone else had shrimp scampi, which I heard was good as well. :) They're all so wonderful and accommodating.

Dinner was so filling that we drifted into a food coma that landed us in the guest bedroom and now I'm about to fall asleep. G'night Charleston!
-S and M"

Dog in pool:
-ps. Look at my flickr for more videos.. this blogger thang takes takes waay too long.

Day VI: NC and SC

Asheville, NC

Last night was good, not great (as Tommy Manson would say). Those three guys that were playing in a band on the streets who the girls were trying to get attend Grace's party never showed up. Thing is, there's no reception at the cabin in the woods.. so we preemptively gave them directions, but.. well, they were a no-show. Oh wells. Seriously, my alcohol tolerance level is weak. I'm a cheap date, as they'd say. Buttt.. that's beyond my point. Parentals will be reading this, so I'll keep party details to a minimum.

There was a cute little Blue Heel puppy mix called Banjo that also attended Grace's party. Mango and him rolled around for a few hours together in the sweet, dark grass. They humped for a while, let's just leave it at that.

And for this morning/afternoon I'll copy an entry from the journal:

"5:22pm July 20, 2008

Headed to Charleston, SC. Warren Wilson was great! Mango loved it lots as well. So many new smells and so much open space.

This morning (surprisingly) we got up real early. Like, 8am. I know! Sara's boyfriend came in and woke her (and us) up for Sara's surprise breakfast. Aw, cutesy. I opened my eyes and said "Oh hi Chris.. I mean, Brian.. I mean.. Bill?" He holds out his palm facing my face and says "I am Thor." We laugh. Mango gets all riled up real quick and so after those two leave we decide to go down to the river for a little walk. Taking our cameras, of course.

We crossed the bridge over the road, I swing on a swing (Mango tried to catch me as I swung by, but to no avail), we took pictures of the farm, and Mango said hello to his friend the goat.

We watched pigs poop and pee, and Mango decided to run into a pig pen after I repeatedly told him not to. I know! He got a little spanking.

We finally made it to the river where Bea and I shed our flip flops and moccasins, respectively. Remember how Mango hated the water? Well, news update: he still hates it. When he saw us wading away he had no choice and followed us in. So cute when he swims:



He got real cold, so I carried him on the way back to shore. It was 10am by then, so we started heading back to Sara's dorm to say bye before she left for work at 11. (Passing through the bamboo "forest" on the way back.)

She wasn't there yet, so Bea took a nap while I talked to Rob on the phone and played with Mango and socialized with some Warren Wilsoners on campus. The campus is beautiful, btw.

So Sara came back, we said our goodbyes, and I started packing. (Bea still wanted to beauty sleep a bit more.)

On the road. On the road. The eye is feeling a little better, so I drove. I drove for about two hours when we filled up for gas. The girl's name who cleans the bathrooms (on the back of the restroom door on the "last cleaned" chart) was Sara Lee. A couple kids and their ma came up to pet Mango and they had true to life Southern accents. My god. I almost cracked up, not gonna lie. Bea got a gross-o cheeseburger hot dog roll, and I got a bag of kettle cooked chips, and we had licorice to share. An under $4 meal for the both of us. Not healthy at all, but.. we'll make up for it with dinner at Danes in Charleston.

Mango is so pooped.
Motorcyclists don't wear helmets down here.
The air smells like pine tree sap.
Everyone is so freaking nice.

-Oh, a funny thing that happened on the road: the maps and driving directions we printed out at Carrie's house were sitting on the passenger's side of the dashboard. Bea's window was rolled all the way down, and right as I said "Bea- watch out for that.." (paper blows away) and we both crack up laughing. An hour later I glance in the rear view mirror at the lower right hand corner and see what appears to be a plastic bag caught on one of the bike wheels. Wrong. It's the page of driving directions that flew out of the window an hour ago! So funny. Turns out we didn't even need those ones.

Mango has a cute under bite, I'm not wearing any pants, and my white shirt is turning brown with Mango's paw prints. I think we may do some laundry tonight.. that's a good thing. I think I'm going to eat some pretzels and rest my eyeball. Peace- s."



Charleston, SC

And now we're here. It's freaking humid, I hate it. So far the south has been nice- we're staying with Bea's way back friend from her American school in Madrid as a kindergarten kid. His name is Dane, and his father played on the Madrid basketball team. Real nice people. They've also got an enormous English Mastiff named Luda (the first letters of Ludacris). He's sweet, and slobbers lots.

We went "grocery shopping" at the Piggly Wiggly (weird name for a grocery store, I know) and got two frozen pizzas, vegan burgers, cereal, and edamame. Tonight we stayed in and watched a movie. Now everyone else is asleep, including Mango.

I'm sleepy. I also miss Rob Biddle, among others.

-S and M


p.s. Dogs eating ice: