San Diego, CA (The Journey Ends)

So as most of you know, I'm back home in San Diego! I took Interstate-8 all the way from Phoenix, Arizona, and while driving through the desert and canyon areas, I felt a great appreciation of being back home.

I got into the city around noon and the first thing I did was enjoy an authentic San Diego burrito. I have to say that of all the places I traveled there was no place that can even came close to the quality of the greasy taco stands in San Diego. I remember going to a taco shop in Fargo, North Dakota, and asking for a Carne Asada burrito, but I was only presented with a confused look on the cashier's face. "What's a Car-ne A-sada?" she replied. It was hopeless trying to explain it to her. The lesson I learned in that experience: San Diego has got the most authentic burritos in all of the United States.

After my burrito, I drove to Coronado Island to take a picture with the San Diego skyline. I stood at the bay admiring the city's beauty, and I had began to appreciate a lot that I had taken for granted. I can now see why San Diego is called America's Finest City. It has a bit of everything. There really is no where else that I can see myself living.

Now, the thing most people are going to ask me after following my blog entries for the past two and a half months is what I learned from all this. And when I'm presented with that question, I have to be a little careful with my answer, because what I learned from this trip is absolutely relative to my own experiences and the choices that I made. If you were to take a similar trip of your own, I'm sure that you'd have made different choices and had a completely different experience.

So what I learned doesn't necessarily mean that it's universal for everyone, or that everyone can relate to it. Overall, the trip was a well needed break from the need to having to keep up with the Jones'. Moreover, it was a personal journey for myself, and throughout every experience I learned a little bit more about myself, what I enjoy, and what I don't enjoy, and most importantly, how I choose to live my life.

If you're curious to get more details of my experiences, or a more deeper understanding of what I learned, I suggest you pick up the phone and give me a call; I'd love to tell you all about it. But, I have to admit, that as time passes, I'll have looked back at this trip and have learned something new everyday, so what I may tell you on Monday, may be completely different on Tuesday.

I hope you enjoyed this blog. I tried not to post anything offensive, and if I did, I'll apologize now. But keep in mind that this blog was mostly created to keep my friends and family informed of where I was and what I was doing. Most of all, it was to serve as a personal record for myself, in hopes that twenty years from now I can look back at this and reminisce about the experiences, and so lessons are not forgotten.

Anthem, Arizona (Phoenix)

I arrived in Phoenix, Arizona around 8 o'clock, but I didn't experience much of the city because my friend and old coworker, Harv, lived 30 minutes north in a small unincorporated town called Anthem. Harv, his wife Leslie, and his two sons moved here last year from Escondido. I'd been meaning to come out and visit, so I figured my road trip would be the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

The interesting thing about Anthem is that it's a community developed by Del Webb. Webb was a famous developer, and former Yankee's owner, known for developing communities for ideal active adult lifestyles. Although most of his communities were for seniors 55 and up, Anthem seemed to be available to any age group.

Upon driving to the community from Phoenix, you'd think that there would be nothing to do, or you'd have to commute a long distance just to get your groceries. The surrounding area is nothing but desert, but when you get to the center of the town there's plenty of shopping areas and community facilities to keep you busy the entire day.

The community is pretty self contained. Only a few blocks and you can run into your favorite franchises. Like most suburban communities, Anthem comes fully equipped with a Walmart, Target, HomeDepot, Denny's and anything else an average suburbanite could need. The whole time I was there, I didn't feel the need to visit Phoenix. For some reason my experience here reminded me of the Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes exhibit I experienced at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis.

The best part about Anthem was the activity complex located in the center of the community. Inside the complex was a fully equipped gym, with an aerobics room, full sized basketball court, and rock climbing wall! Outside was an eight lane lap pool with diving boards, and a water park with two snakelike water slides. The best part? It's all free! For home owners of course.

My time in Anthem was more spent in leisure than in exploration. I didn't feel like doing anything other than swim in Harv's pool and soak up the sun. Which is mostly what I did. It was a good break from all the traveling.

Tomorrow I head back home to San Diego to bring this two and a half month journey to an end.

Dallas, Texas

It was a long drive from New Orleans to Texas, about 7 hours. I drove into Longview, which was were my friend Matt lives, a city 2 hours east of Dallas.

In 2005, when I lived in Arlington, Matt and I played in a band together and we've kept in touch ever since. He went to Louisiana State University for his BS in Engineering, and Southern Methodist University for Law. He now works in Longview as a Patent Attorney.

Shortly after I arrived we went on a trip to visit his first ever oil well, which wasn't too far from where he lives. According to Matt, Longview is known for oil investments. I'd never known anyone who'd own an oil well before, so seeing one up close was a first for me. Matt gave me the basics on how oil is pumped from the ground and then refined on the same lot. He also explained some of the real estate basics on how most large oil companies contract and lease land for oil. It was all very interesting, and I wouldn't be opposed to learning a little bit more about the real estate side of it myself.

From the oil well Matt took me to some Texas style barbecue restaurant called the Country Tavern, which, according to the photos of celebrities on the wall, is a famous place in Longview. The food was pretty good. I had a sample of their meats: the brisket, ribs, and sausage with a side of beans, onions, and two slices of bread. I topped it all off with a Shiner Bock, the popular beer of Texas, served in an ice cold goblet. Apparently this is the Texas way.

The next day Matt and I drove to Dallas. From there we split up. Matt had a few things he needed to get done, and I went to meet up with some other friends I hadn't seen in a while. Other than that, there wasn't much else I did while in Dallas. Overall, it was mostly a break from my whole cross country touring venture, and a sign that the whole thing is soon winding down. I'll be in San Diego within a couple of days. So, being that I'd already been to Dallas before, and there was no need for me to be in discovery mode while there, I mostly relaxed and recuperated from all the driving I'd been doing for the past two months.

I left Dallas Saturday morning and almost made it to El Paso, but my car ran out of gas 20 miles outside of Pecos, a small city just west of Odessa. It was 8pm and I was stranded in the middle of no where. I knew my car was running low on gas, but there was no indication of gas available at any of the previous exits, so I kept driving in hopes that there were be something up a head. No such luck.

Luckily I was well prepared for such an instance, and was wise enough to purchase an Apple iPhone specifically for this trip. I tapped on the Google Maps application that comes with the phone, and it located approximately where I was at on the freeway. I then activated the search feature and typed in "gas." It found four gas stations within the vicinity. Unfortunately they were all 20 miles back in the city of Pecos. I tapped on one of the icons and a phone number popped up. I tapped on the number and it automatically dialed it for me. I admit if I didn't have this phone on me, I would have had to ride my bike to the nearest station.

To make a long story short, I eventually got a Texas State Trooper to drive out and assist me in getting some gas. It took four hours for him to finally get to me, and a about two hours for me to get back on the road. By that time it was 1 am. I was pretty tired, but I didn't find a place to sleep for another two hours.

The plus side to the whole thing was that I got to ride in a patrol car and enjoyed some good conversations. The trooper had some crazy stories to share about working in a state prison in Lubbock--in the Psychiatric Ward of all places. It was interesting to hear the crazy things inmates did during his shift.

New Orleans, LA

It was a long drive from Birmingham, Alabama, to New Orleans, and at this point, my body was anxious to get out of the car and stretch.

I got into New Orleans around 6pm, just about time for dinner. From the looks of the areas I drove through the city didn't look as if it suffered a national disaster. I found no signs of flooding, or abandoned homes. Everything looked intact.

I entered the city through the 510 freeway, which apparently was the back route. I took it all the way into the French Quarter, and parked my car along side a pay lot. Parking on the curb was free after 5pm.

I spoke with Matt, my friend in Texas, who's a big fan of the town, and he recommended that I try the food, which I did. I walked around Bourbon Street and its adjacent neighborhoods in search for some authentic Creole, or Cajun food. Oddly enough, I couldn't find anything that captured my attention. After walking in the humid heat for an hour, the dirty smell of the streets in combination of the heat was getting to me, so I decided to head to Landry's Seafood House. It's not authentic to New Orleans, but apparently it is to the south. The food was still good.

I ordered the Grilled Seafood Pasta and Seafood Gumbo, both were pretty good. For dessert I had something that I forgot the name of, but it was two rolled crepes filled with vanilla flavored ice cream, surrounded with whip cream, and topped with slices of banana and chocolate and caramel syrup.













After dinner, I walked up and down Bourbon Street. There was a putrid smell of horse dung and muggy water. Apparently it was trash day and most places had their trash bins out on the curb. It was a Tuesday night and even though there wasn't that many people there the street was still closed off to traffic.

The Bourbon Street is lined with bars, night clubs, restaurants, and a significant amount of adult/exotic dance clubs. At the door of each club were a group of promoters creating a scene by making loud noises and holding large signs that advertised nightly specials. Simple tactics to try and get people to enter their clubs.

There was live music nearly everywhere. At the corner of Bourbon St. and Canal St. there was a group of young musicians playing some form of big band and Dixieland music. A group of people gathered around to watch. Only a few people were dancing. I captured a few seconds of it on video.



I was pretty exhausted from all the driving and walking around; partaking in the nightlife activities was something that I felt would require more energy than my body was willing to endure, so I called it a night around 10:30pm, in hopes of taking in more of the city in the morning. Unfortunately when I woke up the next day it was pouring rain, possibly from the hurricane forming in the Gulf. So I just drove to Longview, Texas, to visit Matt and some old friends.

Atlanta, GA

I arrived in Atlanta late in the evening. I had three couchsurfers lined up, Martha, Dave, and Kim. The only person I could get a hold of was Kim. She was happy to host me. She lives with her cousin who was going to be out of town for a couple of days which made it okay to stay there. However, when I got there, her cousin wasn't out of town. So, Kim called her sister Trinh who was happy to let me stay at her house. Trinh lives a few blocks from the city proper in a one bedroom condo. She graduated from Emory University and studies construction law for a firm in the city.

I only stayed in Atlanta for a day, and Kim was nice enough to give me a few places to check out. So I visited the Martin Luther King Jr. National Museum. There was plenty of monuments and statues of prominent figures that had an influence on civil rights in the United States, like Gandhi and Jimmy Carter.

I also visited the Jimmy Carter Center which was dedicated to the Georgia native. I thought the interesting part of the exhibit was the replication of the Oval Office during Carter's term in office, as well as the exhibit that highlighted Carter's influence on the conflicts of the Middle East.

I left Atlanta Monday night for Birmingham, Alabama, in hopes of shorting the long drive to New Orleans on Tuesday. It was only two hours away.

Greensboro, NC

I met J.J., my cousin, in downtown Greensboro at 9pm. It’s been more than 10 years since I’d seen him. He moved to Greensboro in 1999 to attend the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to study finance, and has been here ever since. The last time I saw him was in Michigan in 1998, when he so adamantly reminds me of the time he shot me between the eyes with a paint ball in the backyard of my cousin Tommy’s house. He snickers with enjoyment every time he hears the story. I figured, since I planned on going through North Carolina, it would be a good idea to at least visit.

Natty Greens is a brewery/restaurant that also houses a full service bar and night club on the second floor. The place was filled with young thirty-something professionals on a Thursday night. My first impression of the night life in Greensboro came here while J.J. and I were sitting in the outside patio enjoying a couple of beers and some ribs, when all of a sudden, a man barged out of the fire exit on the floor above us, tripping the fire alarm. We all looked up to see what the commotion was, and at first I thought the guy was just drunk and accidentally went out the wrong door, but moments later a group of men who were surrounding a heavy object started stumbling out.

Frantically, they directed each other down the steps carefully carrying this object. As they came down the first flight of stairs, it became evident that in their arms was a passed out girl from the bar. They carried her down to the patio and laid her on the ground. As soon as everyone realized that she was only drunk, they calmly returned to their conversations.

The next day, J.J. went to work and I met up with his sister, Vivian, who also moved to North Carolina to attend the same university (with the same major), had been living here since 1998. She married Carl Essa and has four great kids, Marina, Carl Jr., Joseph, and Nicholas. I spent most of the day with her and the kids. We went to the Tumblebees a gymnastics center where kids can run and jump all day.


From Tumblebees, J.J. picked me up, and we went to the gym for what was supposed to be a light workout, and eventually turned into a major heavy set of muscle building exercises. From there we met back up with Vivian at her house for dinner. We played with the kids for a while until it was their bedtime, and then enjoyed the some wine in the backyard.

Vivian and Carl live with their children in a large house on what I would consider to be a plantation size lot. This is an exaggeration of course, but their home has significantly more land surrounding them then what would be typical in Southern California. I enjoyed the scenery. It was nice and calm, a break from the rushing city life of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.

After dinner we enjoyed some wine in the back porch until Carl came home from work. Carl, Vivian’s husband, is 12 years into his business as a developer, selling commercial real estate, and has done well for himself. He has an expensive taste in wine and cigars and has tremendous respect for people with integrity and honesty.

After sitting with Carl for a while, J.J. took me out on the town where we went to Heaven, a popular night club in the downtown district. I was quite surprised to see that J.J. has made quite a few connections in this town. When we arrived to the night club, there was no need to wait in the long line. J.J. knew the person at the gate who let us in for free. We then took the back entrance to the top of the building where we also met the club’s photographer taking pictures of two girls in erotic poses in the stairwell. When we got to the top there were several people that we ran into who J.J. already knew. They exchanged hand shakes and smiles that secretly acknowledged their acquaintance.

The theme of drunken girls continued at this night club, where we found another girl who had way too much to drink. The sad part of this situation was even though she was stumbling around the dance floor and could barely stand up, she refused to admit that she was embarrassingly drunk. As a result, no one wanted anything to do with her, so most people turned their backs in hopes of avoiding eye contact. This, of course, only made her desperate for finding some sense of dignity, and she tried to cling on to anyone that would give her any attention. She was eventually escorted out of the club. Such a scene and experience is a healthy reminder as to why I don’t enjoy going to such places.

Saturday, J.J. took me to the office building where he works for Carl as an Executive Broker. Carl has established himself well in the Greensboro market by developing mid-sized office complexes. These types of developments, according to J.J., stimulate the local business because they're small enough to attract smaller businesses and boutiques, but large enough to sustain their market value.


After visiting J.J.’s office, we went to the National Monument of the Battle of Guildford Courthouse, which is the site that commemorates the Revolutionary War battle between the American General Nathanial Greene (for whom the city of Greensboro is named) and the British General Lord Cornwallis. The Americans unfortunately lost that battle. After visiting the park, we called it a day, and just relaxed.

Washington, District of Columbia

I got to Washington D.C. in the late evening. The first place I visited, of course, was the U.S. Capital. There was a small concert going on in front of the Capital steps. The U.S. Naval Band (a.k.a. The Commodores) put on a show for the general public. They played mostly big band and some jazz. It was quite entertaining. They played until 9pm.















After the little concert, I walked to the yard in front of the Washington Monument. There was a free outdoor showing of Dr. No. The yard was filled with people with yard chairs and blankets enjoying the show. There were kiosks throughout serving hot dogs, pizza, French fries, and refreshments. I stayed for a while and enjoyed the show. Regardless of the time of night, the town felt like a safe place. There were lots of police patrolling the area, which may have explained why.

The next day I parked my car in a pay lot and rode my bike around the town to check out as many monuments as possible. The first I checked out was the National World War II Memorial. It consisted of a large water fountain surrounded by 56 pillars that represented the states, territories, and District of Columbia during the war, and two arches that represented the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.


From there I then went to the Lincoln Memorial right behind it. Inside is Lincoln on his thrown. To the left is a wall that has his famous Gettysburg address engraved from floor to ceiling, and on the other side, I think was the Emancipation Proclamation.

















From the Lincoln Memorial I went in the other direction, closer to the Capital Building, and saw the Korean War Memorial. This one has statues of a platoon walking through a field. The life like size and expression on some of the faces of the soldiers was interesting. Adjacent to the platoon is a black granite wall with engravings of the images of some of the actual soldiers who died in the war.

I rode my bike to the Washington Monument and got a closer look. If you think by visiting the monument you may experience something interesting or profound don't get your hopes up. To break it down for you, it’s a bunch of marble cinder blocks stacked up really high. That’s about it. It look much nicer in the distance.




In comparison to the other site seeing experiences, like the Oregon Caves, Yellowstone Park, and Mount Rushmore, there was a lot of site seeing experiences in D.C. that were surprisingly free of charge. For example, I went to the Smithsonian Institute, which had several exhibits and it didn’t cost me a dime. I got to the see the Jim Henson Exhibit which was fantastic! There were several of his Muppets on display, including Animal and Kirmit the Frog. There were experimental drawings of his characters and early footage of his Muppets before they were famous.

It was especially enjoying to see a behind the scenes look at Henson in the collaborative process for Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. The original Sesame Street tune played in the background of one of the displays and it brought back some great childhood memories, and a sense of innocence. After seeing so much of Henson’s ideas and collaborative processes, it’s hard to take for granted the man’s brilliance in character and story development. Unfortunately there was no cameras allowed in this exhibit. But I did buy a Cookie Monster doll and an Animal lunch pale out of a nostalgic impulse.

From the Smithsonian I rode across the street to the National Natural History Museum, which was also free of charge. I took a few shots of the dinosaur exhibits, and the main lobby which displayed a large elephant with large tusks. I didn’t stay there long because it was just too crowded for me.



From the museums I finally made it to the Capital Building again in hopes of trying to get in and have a self-guided tour. The guard informed me that I had two options to gain access: 1) I could wait in line at 9am or 3:30pm to get a free ticket or, 2) go across the street and speak with my representative and ask for a ticket. Being that it was already 4:30pm I opted to go speak to my representative.

For those of you who may not know, because my main address is in Escondido, my representative is Brian P. Bilbray. So I went into the first of three buildings looking for him. In the first building I couldn’t find his office. I walked three flights of stairs and found no one familiar. On the fourth floor, I was surprised to find Susan Davis’ office. Next to each door is a bronze plaque that has the U.S. official seal and an inscription that reads “Welcome, Please Come In.” So I did exactly that.

A politician’s office is exactly what you might imagine a politician’s office to look like. Lots of mahogany bookshelves, royal blue curtains, high ceilings, and dark furniture. Mrs. Davis was obviously not in the office, but here administrative staff were nice enough to welcome me and offer me a free tour of the Capital, only it had to be for the next morning, because their interns were out for the day. It felt quite relieving that as a citizen I had the ability to actually walk into my representative’s office and request a meeting or to be heard. Whether they would actually listen, may be a different story.

From Mrs. Davis’ office, I went to the next building over and finally found Bilbray’s office. And of course, he was not there. Of all the Congressmen’s offices I visited, non of them were actually there, or available, so I guess to comment on my last statement, it’s easy to walk into the office, but actually meet my representative was not. It did end up getting a Capital pass from one of Bilbray’s administrators, which grants me access to the House Gallery whenever it is in session. I was pretty excited.

Harv, my old co-worker from San Diego City Schools, hooked me up with his old friend from Chicago, Jon (pronounced "Yon"), who lived only an hour and a half from D.C. Jon is an awesome guy. He lives in King George County in Virginia on a 6 acre plot of land. He’s a contractor and is currently working on a job renovating some military facilities. Jon was happy to meet me and we hit it off pretty well. He’s an extremely intelligent guy and we ended up talking philosophy and politics until 3am.

The next day, I was excited to get back to D.C. for my tour with Mrs. Davis’ intern. Unfortunately, after only getting five hours of sleep, I was pretty tired, so on my way to the Capital I had to stop and sleep in my car for a bit. I ended up missing my appointment, but I didn’t really care, because I still had my House Gallery pass from Mr. Bilbray.

I made it to the Capital building exactly at 3:30pm and squeezed into one of the last tour groups. There was lots of security, as you would imagine. We walked through a small tent area with several metal detectors. There were a lot of young students dressed in suits and looking very ambitious to see some action on the House and Senate floor. The adults, however, were more casual, wearing shorts and t-shirts. It was pretty hot and humid out, and I decided to wear a collard shirt and jeans. It was not very comfortable.

We took the east ramp up to the center of the building where we were greeted by another security guard. He gave us a slip of paper that had the number of people we were touring with. He wrote 1 for me because I was touring by myself. He then directed us where we needed to go. We walked up to the next floor and followed the signs to the House Gallery.

As we were waiting in line to check in our things—we’re not allowed to take in cell phones or cameras (sorry no pictures to show you), there was a man with a small weak voice trying to get passed the ambitious young men in their suites. “Excuse me,” he said softly, his head down and eyes focused on the floor. He wasn’t in awe of the marbled floors or life like statutes, so he didn’t show signs of being apart of the tourists. He seemed to be in a rush. He had gray hair, wore a dark suite and was a little shorter than me. At first glance he reminded me of Ron Paul, the 2008 Presidential Candidate, but it wasn't him because there's no way a person of his stature would be perusing the hallways, mingling with local tourists. But in fact after a second take, it actually was Ron Paul! Apparently, he was on his way to the House floor for a vote which was about to take place. I was pretty excited to actually have seen a politician up so close.

After we turned in our electronic belongings at the counter, we were ushered into the gallery area, which looks down upon the House floor. For two and a half hours I watched and experienced exactly what you can see and experience on CSPAN. It’s really no different, except you don’t have a soft voice over explaining what’s on the agenda. I sat down during a debate between Democrats and Republicans on the use of the word “forthwith” in a legislative bill. The Bill would have some impact on military intelligence. This debate went on for about a half hour, and seemed pretty heated. After watching the entire charade it reminded me of a high school debate where there was more than just the issue being discussed, but people's egos. There was a lot of ego bruising and accusations of partisan favoritism and “politics as usual.” After an hour of this, they finally voted on the bill. It was quite exhausting just watching the process unfold. I watched one more debate having to do with some request to renovate a national preserve in Massachusetts and left to the Senate Gallery.

The Senate Gallery had a totally different feel than the House Gallery. The Senate Gallery is smaller and a lot quieter. It seemed more in order than the House Gallery. There weren’t people talking over one another, instead everyone was listening patiently. I sat in the upper terrace listening to Tom Coburn (R), of Oklahoma arguing why it was economically not feasible to vote on a bill to increase foreign aid ($50M) to Africa for prevention of HIV/AIDS when we’re having troubles in our own country, specifically referencing the housing and financial institution crises and recent layoffs at General Motors.

On the other side of the debate was Senator Harry Reid (D) of Nevada, Chris Dodd (D) of Connecticut, and John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts arguing that because the bill was originally drafted by President Bush and is something the Democrats believe is morally a good cause justifies spending the large amount. They emphasized that they should take advantage of the opportunity while they could in hopes that such measures will also put the U.S. in a better light with other countries in regards to its foreign policy.

They ended up voting on the bill, calling all Senators to the floor—minus Obama and McCain for obvious reasons. Of all the Senators in attendance, the ones I recognized included Hilary Clinton, John Kerry, Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Joseph Lieberman, Robert Byrd, and Mitch McConnell. The vote resulted in 84 yeas and 16 nays.

Once the vote was over most everyone left the room, and a new bill was being argued concerning medical benefits for those laid-off at the age of 57 or older. I didn’t care to listen to it because I had enough of five hours of congress-babel. If you want to know what it feels like, just imagine yourself in a staff meeting for the rest of your life and you might get a pretty good idea.

Overall, my experience was very interesting and educational. I experienced how our government works. I’d say the process is quite organized and brings some form of order to the chaos that is in this world. It was interesting to see the mechanisms in place and the tools and tactics the politicians used to achieve their political agendas. Although it may not be the most accurate or efficient systems out there, I would have to say that it is by far probably the best system out there. I mean, the fact that I have the ability, as a citizen, to actually meet these people in person is a great thing, and that ability alone, I imagine, is not even possible in other forms of government. I imagine that it can be really easy to take for granted the system of government that we have in place. Unfortunately, I feel this type of the bureaucracy is the necessary evil that causes some sense of disenfranchisement for me. That’s just my personal opinion.


This photo was taken in the lobby area of the Capital.

Philadelphia, PA

I arrived in Philadelphia around 11pm. My couch surfing host, Tucker, wasn't home, but he left me a key to his place. He and his four other roommates live in a nice town home in Manayunk, a community of young college students and thirty-something professionals, just outside of downtown.

Tucker emphasized to make myself at home, utilize the laundry if I needed it, and enjoy myself to a few drinks in the fridge. This place was much more comforting than the hotels that I'd been staying at in Boston, and Ohio.

The next day, Darin, Tucker's roommate, and I went out for a bike ride for some coffee. From there, we went our separate ways. I rode my bike down Kelly Drive along side the river and took in the beautiful views. The Philadelphia area is filled with statues and old architecture. The bridges along the river were mostly masonry bridges with several arches.

It only took me a few minutes to make it to the downtown area. The first place I visited was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Outside the museum are more statutes. To the side of the museum is the famous/infamous Rocky Balboa statue with plenty of people waiting to take a picture with it. I asked a lady to take a picture of me next to it. It's been the case lately where when I let other people take a picture for me they somehow don't get the right composition. Notice she cut off the top part of the statue.









The exhibits in the museum were the best I'd seen in a long time. It had collections of European and Asian art spanning from the Medieval to the present day. My favorite display was of the Medieval arms & armor. According to the Museum this is the second largest display of arms & armor in the United States. There were glass displays of muskets and old rifles, as well as displays of the different types of helmets and suites worn by Knights. I enjoyed it.


I spent most of the day in the Museum, but eventually road around the town to take in more statues. I found my favorite one of "The Thinker." For those of you who know me well, you can appreciate the humor in posing with this one.

Today I leave to Washington DC.

New York, New York

I arrived in New York city around noon. I came in from the Bronx and parked my car at Battery Park. The park was filled with people wanting to take a fairy to Ellis Island and get shots with the Statue of Liberty. The line was long and I didn't feel like spending most of my day waiting for a fairy ride. Besides, my initial plan was to go straight to Philadelphia; I'd already visited New York six years ago. I figured since I was driving through, I might as well get some pictures that I failed to get in my last visit.

At Battery Park you can't get a good shot with the Statue of Liberty; it's too far away. So I ended up parking my car at a garage and riding my bike around the parameter of Manhattan, roughly 20 miles. I took a bike trail from Battery Park to Riverside Park, where I found one of the first interesting monuments to take a picture of. I'm not sure what it was called but it was to commemorate the firefighters of New York.

When I was setting my camera up for the shot, a local New Yorker, Bill, was walking his dog, and recommended that I take a shot of the other side. From that point we got to talking and I learned he was originally from Boston. I told him I was traveling across the country from San Diego and he was surprised. He was very friendly and nice enough to give me directions to Central Park, and other places that I would find interesting. He was nice enough to let me take a picture of him and his dog, Hermano.



I ended up taking more pictures in Riverside Park, which had beautiful views all along the Hudson River and New Jersey. There was a nice view of the George Washington Bridge that I took a picture with. I eventually rode my bike all the way to Harlem. At that point, I turned into the city and headed towards Central Park. I heard from somewhere that Bon Jovi was giving a free concert there, and so I was hoping to get a chance to experience it.

Central Park is probably the most accurately depicted park in cinema. Almost every movie that I've seen with the park in it has been pretty accurate. There's lots of street peddlers, and lots of people. Most of the Park entrances where closed off due to the concert--although the Bon Jovi concert was free, you still had to have a ticket, and you could only get them at Yankee Stadium. There were only allowing 60,000 people in the area, but that didn't stop other people from dropping a blanket outside the area just to listen. The park was filled.













I read a sign at one point in the park that said there were 60 statues throughout the park. The one I liked the most was of Beethoven. Further down from the Beethoven bust was the Central Park fountain, there were a group of guys break dancing and putting on a show for the people. From the fountain, I started heading back to the car, so I walked out the south side of the park to 5th Ave. On the way out, there where some beautiful landscapes of people playing on the grass with the skyline in the background.




Because New York is filled with so many people, it felt like no one cared or judged anyone for what they looked like, or what they said. I got the sense that people are just too busy to deal with anyone else's problems. So if someone said anything insulting or profound, it didn't seem to phase anyone. I felt that I could express my opinions and, regardless of how far fetched they could be, I'd have no trouble finding at least one person to agree with me. I found that comforting and liberating.





I left the city around 8pm. I took the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey, and when I got through I decided to stop at the Liberty State Park in hopes of getting a better shot of the Statue of Liberty from the Jersey side. Unfortunately, the statue was too far away, and my lens couldn't capture it. But I did end up getting decent shots of the New York skyline at night.

Boston, Massachusetts

Arrived in Massachusetts a little after my blog entry in Albany, NY. It took about another three hours to make it to Boston. I stopped at Springfield for dinner, which I found out is the home of James Naismith, the man who invented Basketball. Springfield is also the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame. I didn't care to visit it. I just wanted to eat and get to Boston.

When I got there it was already too dark to do anything. Driving in Boston at night is pretty tough, because the streets are not as logically engineered as some of the other city streets I've been to. Often there would be two lanes but no stripes to indicate which lane you're in. In the city proper, the streets are narrower, and during the summer there's construction, which makes it even more difficult to figure out where you're at.

I couldn't find any couch surfer to host me in Boston, or a campsite to use, so I checked into another hotel. I didn't do anything the first night. The next day, though, I explored the city. First checking out Harvard Square, home of Harvard University. Last year I considered applying to the Graduate School of Education, and it just so happened to be that I parked my car right next to that school. So I walked in to check it out.

In one of the buildings I met Thelma, the Staff Assistant of the Office of Student Affairs. Surprisingly, Thelma just moved from Temecula, California. Her husband is attending the John F. Kennedy School of Government. We had a great conversation about the Boston area and how much she liked it. She apparently has only been working at Harvard for about two months now and she enjoys it. She says she routinely deals with frustrated students who stress over the difficulty and caliber of the program. She gave me an idea of what it must be like to be a student there.

After visiting the school, I walked around the area. Harvard Square reminds me very much of the Berkeley area. It's culturally diverse, and is filled with people walking the streets, some of them tourists, others students, and peddlers. In one courtyard there was a young guy, probably a student, playing his acoustic guitar in front of a Peete's Coffee & Tea (I was extremely excited that I found a Peete's). The busy part of the area is the Harvard Square Station, the entrance to the underground subway. I would equivocate this area to downtown Berkeley's station.


I walked the other courtyards and took in the sites. There are plenty of New England architecture and statues of the Boston historical figures, as you would expect.



At one point, I was walking in the main courtyard when a Mormon missionary asked me if he could excuse himself for giving me one of his pamphlets. I ended up convincing him to take a picture of me next to the John Bridge statue.








Later, I road my bike to the other parts of Boston, where I convinced another passerby to take a picture of me in front of the Boston skyline. Further down the river, I found the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and took a picture with me in the courtyard. I walked inside to take a look at one of the buildings, and was surprised to actually see students still on campus during the summer. The atmosphere at MIT was entirely different than at Harvard. MIT, being a technical school, didn't seem to have that diverse vibe of people.

Just south of MIT is the Centanni Courtyard where I found the Boom Town Festival going on. There was a group of about a hundred people sitting on the footsteps of a nearby building enjoying some live Jazz. Apparently, from July 7th-18th the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center puts on a festival of arts and music of the people of Boston. Tonight was Stan Strickland Group which was a five piece improvisational jazz group, which I thought sounded great. It was fun to see little kids and their parents dancing carelessly in the courtyard.










Later, I rode my bike to the East Somerville area where I got a pretty good shot of the sun setting behind all the residential houses. I then ended up riding back to the Harvard Square.

During the night, and possibly because it was a Friday night, the area was thriving even more. There were more musicians on the street corners, and other entertainers putting on a show for money. I found several people sitting in front of stores listening to the Red Sox game on their radio, or in front of a flat screen that the store owner's kindly put behind their store window.







At around 11pm I left Boston, and am now in Danbury, Connecticut. I plan on leaving for Philadelphia tomorrow.

Syracuse, NY

I've been driving alone now since I started this trip, and I'm not afraid to say that it's getting to be pretty lonely. There's times when I have to get creative when it comes to entertaining myself on the road. The songs on my iPod have been lacking in their entertainment value, and I'm having a hard time connecting with random strangers anywhere. It's hard to know where to start in a conversation with people. It's hard to know where their coming from, and nearly everything/everyone I've encountered now has had some connection to spending money. If I don't spend money, I don't feel justified to start a conversation with anyone, or have any type of human connectedness. There seems to be something wrong with that.

Going from couch surfing host to host has been getting awkward lately. The conversations are difficult. I don't seem to have much in common with some people. I'm not a big drinker and that tends to be the central theme with most hosts. If I don't drink, then it's even more difficult to engage in conversation.

When I got to Syracuse, I got a phone call from Kat, who found my post on the Syracuse Group page of Couch Surfing. She was nice enough to meet up with me in Syracuse and have coffee. Kat just turned 21 in April, and goes to the State University of New York (SUNY). I forgot which campus she attends. She's studying photography and plans on heading to Hong Kong for the Fall semester. She gave me a little tour of the town, showing me the happening areas of Syracuse. She stopped a few times to take some random photos of things she found interesting, like a dark abandoned street.

After hanging out with Kat, I drove around town to find another hotel room. I'm really not feeling like camping much lately. I've been addicted to the internet and writing in these blogs, so comfortability is playing a larger role in where I've been choosing to sleep.

And speaking of comfortability, I stayed at a Motel 6 last night. Again, I don't know why I picked that place, other than it was cheap. And again, the cheaper these places get, the more I realize how much of a mistake they are to stay at. I payed separately for internet access, and, of course, the service is limited in my room, so I had to come out to the lobby to access it. The night attendant was reluctant to offer any conversation, nor was she willing to offer sympathy toward any of the patron's needs. Her responses were short and rude and she had an apathetic demeanor.

She hung out in the lobby with someone who seemed like her friend but he didn't seem to be renting a room. He was waring a backwards Angels baseball cap, with a white t-shirt, sagging shorts, his socks pulled up to his knees, and his shoe laces untied. He walked with a limp although he didn't seem to have anything wrong with his legs. Occasionally he got up and energetically perused the hallways only to return and chat with the night attendant. For a while he was sitting next to me in the lobby while on his cell phone to, who I imagine was, his girlfriend based on the content of the conversation.

I woke up at four o'clock this morning to the sound of an argument in the room next to me. A lady was banging on the door next to me and yelling at who ever was inside to open the door. It lasted for about twenty minutes. I didn't go to sleep for another hour. My experience from that night, and previous nights at other hotels, has completely changed my willingness to sacrifice quality for value. This will be the last time I will ever sleep at a Motel 6 in my entire life. I know probably sounds like an exaggeration, and it probably is, but I will be more selective in my hotel choices, regardless of the extra costs.

I'm currently at a rest stop in Albany, NY. I think I'm only a few hours away from Boston. I plan on staying there until Saturday, and then head back to San Diego by going south through the eastern coast, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., North Carolina, Georgia, and then across the southern states, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona.

I didn't take pictures in Syracuse, cause there wasn't much to take a pictures of, but when I get to Boston, I'll be sure to have some you.

Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY

I crossed the New York state line shortly after leaving Cleveland. When I got to Buffalo it was already dark out and there wasn't much to see. I didn't bother taking any pictures. There was nothing to take a picture of. It didn't look like much of a vibrant city. Everything was closed, and the city was dark. It seemed desolate.

Little did I know that Niagara Falls was only 20 minutes from Buffalo, so I planned on checking it out the next day. I drove twenty more miles to the Niagara Falls area, and looked for a place to camp. When I got to the Kampgrounds of America site, it seemed pretty full with RVs and tents. The rate was around $50.00 for tents with no electricity, and $60.00 if you wanted electricity. The free internet service was the old dial-up, and I desperately needed access to make some contacts in Syracuse and Boston, (ensuring that I have a place to stay when I get there). Plus, for the price, I was better off paying for a hotel room and have a comfy bed, so I drove a little closer to the Falls area and checked into another hotel.

The poor hotel service theme from Ohio, seemed to continue in Niagara Falls. This time I stayed at a Quality Inn, which really lacked the quality part. Internet access was limited, and I spent most of the night running my computer around the lobby and the hallways just to find a signal. I didn't even feel like complaining about it because it's been quite evident that hotel and lodging in less populated areas lack stellar customer service, so it wouldn't be worth the effort. Plus, I'd have to pay a lot more just to get a little better service. I dealt with what I got, although, I wasn't very happy.

I drove to the Falls the next morning. After traveling now for a month and a half, going to these tourist sites are getting less and less interesting. The costs are adding up. and I'm convinced that their only existence is to make a buck. Parking was $10.00, but the actual looking at the water fall was free--what a relief!




Other than looking at the falls there really wasn't anything else there that I found interesting. There were tours on a boat which takes you near the Falls, and they also offer tours down a cliff side which also takes you near the bottom of the Falls, but I didn't feel like getting wet or paying the money. So I took my pictures and left to Syracuse.



I did get to see a group of Amish people for the first time in my life. That was interesting!

Sandusky/Cleveland, Ohio

From Chicago I went to Sandusky, Ohio, to check out Cedar Point, the largest amusement park in the world (according to Cedar Point). There wasn't a campsite that I could stay at so, I booked a room at the Howard Johnson Express on Milan Rd. So far I have to say you get what you pay for when it comes to hotel rooms.

This particular Howard Johnson was a franchise and the service and environment was one that I didn't care for. There was a young kid at the front desk and he was on his cell phone when I walked in. He seemed reluctant to serve me, and he didn't seem knowledgeable about the hotel he worked at. He lacked much needed customer service skills. In fact, all the cheaper hotels I had been to so far lacked such services.

He put me in a room that had a mildew smell of smoke, and this was supposed to be a non-smoking room. I shared a door with another room and there was little insulation between us, so I could hear my neighbors blasting their television set and breaking ice for their beer so they could sit outside their door and take in the humid night. This was most definitely was not worth the price I paid for.

I asked for my money back and the kid said it was against their policy to refund after a purchase. I asked for proof of the policy, and he paused for a moment. There was an awkward silence. He wasn't sure what to say. I just stared at him until he finally said, "Well, I guess I could ask my manager." He picked up the phone and dialed the manager's number. The conversation was brief. It took no longer than a few seconds. He hung up, apologized, and refunded me my money. I went down the street to the La Quinta. It cost a little more, but the room and service was a little better.

The next day I drove to Cedar Point. There didn't seem to be that many people in the park. I went through the gates and I had a brief moment of nostalgia, but nothing more. The park really didn't connect with me. I saw some of the old rides that I remembered when I was a kid, like the Demon Drop, the Gemini, the Corkscrew, the Ocean Motion, the Wildcat, the Mean Streak, and others, but as I was looking around and watching the other people, it didn't seem that the park brought as much happiness to the guests as I remembered. The atmosphere was more filled with apathetic parents reluctantly baby sitting their kids while they screamed for everything on the food menu. The people at the concession stands seemed unhappy to be there too. Most of them served people with a blank look on their face. I guess all this was because it was in the middle of the week and was considered a slow day.
















I only rode a few rides before it started to drizzle. And when it rains, the park shuts all the major rides down. At that point, I only rode three roller coasters, and I didn't really care to ride any more. Besides, as I was leaving for my car, it began to pour down hard with thunder and lightning rolling in.

I left to Cleveland after Cedar Point, and the storm followed. I wanted to check out the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame but it was only open for another half hour. Other than the museum, I didn't known what there was else to do in the city, and I didn't know anyone who could show me around. So I left to Buffalo, New York.

Chicago, IL

I arrived in Chicago around noon. The first place I visited was Wrigley Field. They were offering tours for $22.00, but I didn't feel like paying that much just to see an empty field. Throughout my visit, it seemed like there was a tour for everything in Chicago. There are tours for food tasting, boat tours along Lake Michigan, double-decker bus tours within the city, and Segway guided tours of the city--those motorized vehicles that people stand on.

I pretty much exhausted myself by trying to see and visit all the landmarks of Chicago. There was just too much for me to see. The entire city is filled with art and sculptures. I could spend days there and still not be able to see a fraction of the city. I did get a chance to visit Soldier Field, home of NFL's Chicago Bears. The stadium is pretty huge. It has a line of Roman columns that guard the north and south entrance areas. If you were to stand in front of one of them you'd feel pretty small. I was reminded of when I visited Rome, although Rome's columns were much larger.













The city's skyline is also pretty nice. You could take a picture from anywhere in the city and have a pretty good shot of the skyline. At dawn I ended up at Millennium Park, which has the Cloud Gate, an elliptical sculpture that looks like a chrome bean, I'm sure you've probably seen it before. You can walk under this thing and see some pretty neat optical illusions. Millennium Park also has the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a wild looking outdoor venue you've probably also seen on television or somewhere else. It kind of looks like a wild space ship. There was a concert going on when I got there, so I stayed for a while to enjoy it. There were a lot of things going on this 4th of July weekend. Too much to write about.


















After the concert, I got a hold of another Couchsurfer, Kent, and met up with him and his friends at Buffalo Wild Wings in Lincoln Park. When I got there I was surprised to see Zhi, another Couchsurfer who noticed my post on a Couchsurfing page and emailed me to comment on my blog.

Zhi (Photo: 2nd from right) is also doing a cross country road trip and is recording it in a blog of his own. You can check it out at:

http://travelswithzhi.blogspot.com/

Zhi started his trip much earlier and has been headed in the opposite direction, going from Maryland to Washington and back. We had a lot to talk about and share from our travels. I was pretty excited to see him. He plans on staying in Chicago until Thursday and then head to Cleveland. There's a good chance I may bump into him there also.

Last night I ended up staying with Kent (Photo: 2nd from left) at his apartment with Abby (3rd from left) and Jesse (far right). He had an extra bed for me to sleep on which was pretty comfortable. Kent is originally from Akron, Ohio and has lived in Chicago for 6 months now. He gave us a little tour of Wicker Park. I enjoyed as much as I could of the area and then had to leave, because the heat was unbearable. I rode my bike back to my car in hopes of blasting the air conditioning for some relief. I nearly past out from exhaustion.

Right now I'm in Lansing, a suburb of Chicago, and I plan on heading to Cleveland or Indianapolis from here. I haven't decided yet. But after talking to Kent about Ohio, he reminded me about Cider Point, and for those of you who don't know, Ceder Point is probably the largest amusement park in the United States, located in Sandusky, Ohio. It also boasts the highest roller coaster, the Magnum 2000, which is over 300ft high (about 30 stories). And Kent has inspired me to go and connect with my childhood past. So, I plan on stopping in Sandusky sometime in the next couple of days.

Milwaukee, WI

I arrived in Milwaukee around 4pm. Hoping to see Stone Temple Pilots perform at the Marcus Amphitheater during the city's annual Summerfest. The event is equivalent to San Diego's Street Scene with a number of stages and bands performing from hip-hop to country to rock.

I got a hold of Mike and Nichole, two couchsurfers willing to host me and show me around the area. I planned on meeting them at the event.

In comparison to Madison, Milwaukee is entirely different. In Madison, the state Capital building absorbs the landscape and seems to be the central architectural piece. In Milwaukee, there is no such architecture that captures the eye, unless you consider Miller Park (where the Brewer's play) to be an aesthetic piece of art.

Milwaukee is clearly a blue collar town. It's home to the Miller Brewing Company, and used to be home to Pabst, Schlitz, and Blatz brewing companies. There's several manufacturing plants and people's attitudes tend to resonate the tough hard working mentality. The maintenance and aesthetics of the streets don't seem to be of top priority to the city. All the roads seemed to be under construction, and were in poor shape.

I sat at a local coffee house downtown when a drunkard came in feeling a pressing need to let the clerks know he was a good person, and that he wasn't drunk. The clerks appeased him for quite a while, and he spent a good portion of his time trying to re-convince everyone that he just came in to use the bathroom. As he walked out the door he intruded on people's conversations so he could apologize for intruding. He made some people so uncomfortable that they had to leave.

I would have thought that my experience at the coffee shop wasn't an accurate indication of what the rest of Milwaukee was like, but as the night went on there was little that I experienced that made me change my mind.

Milwaukee n's don't like people who ride bikes. In fact, bike riders are rare in this city, and i learned this fairly quickly through humiliation. I was riding on Wisconsin Ave. when an angry driver threw his food at me because I was sharing his lane. I walked my bike from that point on. But that didn't make it seem any better, because later that night a girl approached me asking for a light for her cigarette. I told her I didn't smoke, and she sarcasticly replied, "of course you don't, you ride a bike!" And as I was leaving Summerfest there was a man on his cell phone gesturing to me with discontent, telling his friend that he was "tired of this shit," referring to my bike.

Overall, Summerfest didn't resonate with me. The atmosphere seemed angry and filled with tension. The police enforcement was scarce, and big crowds, angry music, and large amounts of alcohol didn't seem like a good combination on the 4th of July.

From my experience, I can tell you that Milwaukee is definitely not a friendly place to live. You would be best to save your curiosities about the city, because there's little to discover. I didn't need to stay in Milwaukee any longer than a few hours. I left Milwaukee around midnight, passing up my couch surfers, and headed toward Chicago. I'm hoping that my experience in Chi-town will be wholly better.

Madison, WI

It didn't take long to arrive in Madison from Minneapolis. I got there sometime in the early afternoon. They city is pretty nice. Downtown is centered around its Capital building. The city is home to the University of Wisconsin who's facilities takes up a lot of the city's landscape.

There was plenty going on Thursday night. The Wisconsin Symphonic Orchestra was hosting a free show for the public in front of the Capital building to commemorate the 4th of July. They played Tchaikovsky's 1812's Overture. They actually had live cannons on top of a neighboring building. It gave off loud explosions to accommodate the piece's finale.

I couldn't find any couchsurfer in time to host me, so I ended up staying at a Motel 6 near downtown. Depending on the situation, I'll probably never do that again. Although the service was descent, the room smelt like urine. Unfortunately it was the only room left and I couldn't change it.

I'm in Milwaukee now. I plan on leaving for Chicago sometime tomorrow.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, Last Day

The day before yesterday I toured St. Paul on my bike checking out Grand Ave. and the downtown area. Throughout the city are small statues of Peanuts characters like Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Lucy, to commemorate the birth place of its creator Charles Schulz.





The Twin Cities has many beautiful cathedrals throughout the city. I took a picture with the St. Paul cathedral, for which the city is name after. After touring St. Paul, Becky and I ran around Lake Calhoun, one of the three popular lakes in the Minneapolis area. This was the first time I ran since last year. It was not as easy as it used to be, and was an indicator of how much I’ve gotten out of shape since I started this trip.





Yesterday I had coffee at the Spyhouse coffee house in Uptown Minneapolis. This was the first time I had a latte that was prepared similar to the way its done in Portland and Seattle, although the flavor wasn’t the same.







After the Spyhouse, I went to the Walker Art Center off of Hennepin and Groveland Ave. Some of the interesting exhibits where from Donald Judd, who utilized the aesthetics of geometrical shapes, and from Richard Prince, who recycles, reflects, and reframes photographs, cartoons, advertisements, and other images that already exist in the public sphere. One of the most interesting pieces of Prince were juxtaposed of photos of Adolf Hitler and Walt Disney in strikingly similar poses.











Another interesting exhibit was the Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes, which “demonstrate how the American suburb has played a catalytic role in the creation of new art.” It was interesting to see how much urban planning goes into making a suburb, and the special interest groups that have a stake in the development of such developments. Some of it was a bit unsettling, such as the impact of Strip Malls and Big Box stores having on the local economy and culture.


Outside the Walker Center is the Sculpture Garden which boasts pieces such as the Spoonbridge and Cherry which is a large sculpture of a spoon and cherry resting on an island strategically placed in front of the city’s skyline. It’s nearly impossible to not get a good photo of this sculpture.




While at Alene Grossman Memorial Arbor and Flower Garden I discovered a new feature on my Canon digital camera that allows me to take photos of small objects, and got a little carried away taking macro photos of the flowers and their insects. I thought I got some really interesting shots.










I left the Minneapolis area this morning around 9am. Becky left to pick up another couch surfer at the airport. She's only picking him up and dropping him of at a friends. She plans on driving to Rapid City for the weekend to visit Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills.

Wisconsin is not that far from Minneapolis. It took around an hour for me to get to the boarder crossing. I missed the Wisconsin sign, so I don’t have a photo to show. I’m currently in Eau Claire which is about 200 miles away from Madison. Depending on whether I can find a couch surfing host, or a camp site, I plan on being in Madison for a day, otherwise I'll just go to Milwaukee or Chicago.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota

My car was ready for pick up at 1:30pm. I dropped off the rental at the collision center, picked up my car (which looks great!), and drove to Hot Topic and Savers to say good bye to Cassie and Annuh. They did a great job of tolerating me for seven days – I know I can be tough.

I arrived in Minneapolis around 6 o’clock. There was a Couch Surfing mixer at the Black Forrest Inn off of 26th and Nicollet Ave. in the Uptown district of Minneapolis. Becky, my couch surfing host, asked if I could meet her there. The Uptown area reminded me of the Uptown district in San Diego. It’s vibrant and consists of eclectic coffee houses, and small independent boutiques.

The Black Forest Inn is an authentic German restaurant. Everything was in German. I had a difficult time pronouncing anything on the menu. The beer menu consisted of things like the Köstritzer and the Gösser. I didn’t even try to pronounce them, I just pointed to what I thought looked interesting.

There were about thirty members from the Minneapolis Couch Surfing group there. They were all interesting and had many stories to tell. One of the most interesting people I met was Nathan who was a couch surfer riding his bike across the country. He already rode from Philadelphia and planned on riding all the way to the west coast. I found this amazing and I had to take a picture of him. From what he told me his diet has consisted of hard boiled eggs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.





I also met Andrew Green, who was couch surfing from Miami. Those of you from the University of California’s EAP trip would be happy to know that Andrew also went to the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. For those of you who don’t know, this was the same university that I went to during my study abroad trip to England in 2001. This was the first time I'd ever met anyone who attended Sussex, so I was pretty excited. Andrew attended Sussex for his undergraduate studies in English, and then attended Cambridge for his Masters. We reminisced about the campus and the English lifestyle, he helped bring back some good memories of my experience there.

I eventually met up with Becky. From what I know about her, she went to the University of Minnesota at Morris and studied Psychology. She plans on attending graduate school for Clinical Psychology. I’m not exactly sure about what she does, but I think it has something to do with research.




Becky lives at the Carleton Place Lofts, a live/work environment that harbors artists who live and work from home. Some of the amenities include a pottery studio, dance studio, music studio, and artist room. The hallways are lined with artwork from all the residents. All the floors are made of concrete slab. When Becky told me that the music room is free and open to all residents, I almost cried. This is exactly the place that I’ve always been looking for but could never find in San Diego. The best part is that the apartments are only available for people who make a certain income.

Because the goal of the building is to promote artistry—and knowing that most artists are not very wealthy—your salary cannot be more than 60% of the area median income. In other words, if you are a single resident and make more than $33,000/yr, you’re NOT eligible to live at the Carleton.

So how much is the rent for a studio here? According to the website it starts at $600/mo. In my personal opinion, THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN SAN DIEGO! And until the City of San Diego figures this out, its local art scene will struggle.

Fargo, North Dakota (Update)

I had no idea that a torn tire in the middle of the road could do so much damage. The collision center called today and informed me that they had replaced the engine on my car, but then found that some of the air conditioning parts and rear tire barrings need to be replaced. Apparently they were only able to know this after they replaced the engine. So as a result, I'll be in Fargo until Monday, the 30th.

Since I've been here everyone's been nice enough to entertain me, and I can't thank them enough. Wednesday I went to a local venue with Molly and Stephanie to watch Langhorne Slim a three piece folk rock band. The music was great.

Yesterday Cassie, Annuh, Janna, and I all drove to their home town of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, to float the river. It was the first time I floated a river. We rented tubes, tied them to a cooler filled with drinks and floated down a few miles. There were about a hundred people floating, most of them drunk. I suppose that's the point of floating the river. After, we went to Godfather's Pizza and enjoyed a large pizza with some cheese bread and some type of frosted cinnamon bread for dessert. I had a good time.


Don't know what I have planned for this weekend, but I don't plan on staying up too late. The past couple of days have been pretty hard on my body, staying up until 3am. But I can't blame anyone but myself for that. The locals consider Fargo to be a college town, so there's a lot of students doing what students do best. This experience is helping me to realize that I'm getting older and my body is just not capable of doing what it used to.

Also, I've decided on attending the Fullerton MBA program, and so I'll have to cut my trip short in order to make it to the mandatory orientation and workshop on July 29th. I'll also need enough time to deal with some of the administrative processes, like funding and finding housing in the Fullerton area. So I'll be skipping some cities, mostly the Midwestern places like Indianapolis, Cleveland and Columbus.

My goal is to attempt to make it to Boston and Washington D.C., the two cities that I have the most interest in visiting. If I can make it to Boston by July 10th, I think I'll be okay. But there's a lot of things that can happen between now and then. Who knows, I could hit another tire on the road.

Fargo, North Dakota

I arrived in North Dakota sometime around 2pm. There’s only two interstates that cross through the entire state, the 90, which heads East/West, and the 29, which heads North/South. They don’t exceed anymore than two lanes in both directions. I was about 55 miles south of Fargo when a semi truck’s tire exploded and I was forced to run over it.

The tire damaged my front grill as well as the radiator, causing it to leak; thus, causing my engine to overheat, which eventually damaged three of my cylinders. I had a tow truck bring me to a Toyota repair center, which informed me that I'll need an entirely new engine. It will take about one week to repair the car, hopefully by Friday the 27th, but that's not a guarantee.

Cassie, my couch surfing host has been extremely friendly, and was understanding about my situation and will let me stay at her place until the car is finished. So far I’m having a good time here. Cassie’s apartment is the focal hang out for her and her friends, and they’ve been doing a good job of keeping me entertained.


One thing I should clear up about Fargo before I continue, is that its people are nothing like those characterized in the Cohen brother’s film Fargo. The locals will be sure to clarify this for you if they learn that you’re not from around here.

Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota with a population of about 100,000 people. It shares the metropolitan area with Moorhead, Minnesota, and is home to three major universities: North Dakota State University, University of Minnesota—Moorhead, and Concordia College. Fargo and Moorhead are divided by the Red River which runs between the two cities. They are walking distance from each other.

Yesterday Cassie and I had dinner at the Granite City Food & Brewery, where we randomly met two other Fargonians, Buffy and Melissa. It started with a simple question, and ended up with the two of them joining us at our table for the rest of the night. We were later joined by Cassie's friend Jamie, who was visiting , and home for the summer from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. We discussed how Fargo and the Midwest was such a great place to live.

Rapid City, South Dakota

I crossed the boarder into South Dakota around 10pm. I didn’t arrive into Rapid City for another hour and a half. I got a little lost trying to find my next couch surfing host, Arik Krantz, but I eventually found it. When I got there Arik was nice enough to introduce me to his friends, Gai, Ray, and Al, who were all staying the night. Everyone stayed up drinking and enjoying themselves in the backyard, but I went straight to bed because I was pretty tired from the drive. It was unfortunate that I didn't get to have an in-depth conversation with anyone. They all seemed very interesting. Gai just flew in from Australia just to see a Sioux Indian ceremony being held near Rapid City.











The next morning I went straight to Mt. Rushmore, and as expected there were a lot of people there from all across the country. For some reason there were a large number of Marines there too. I took my picture and checked out a small information session describing efforts involved in the building of the monument. According to the docent, the people who worked on the sculpting of the mountain were paid $0.25 to $0.50 an hour. The monument wasn’t complete until 1941, and no more funds were available to finally complete the architect's full vision due to United State’s involvement in the second world war. The other interesting fact was that the original design of the monument had Jefferson to the left of Washington, but technical difficulties required the construction crew to move him to Washington’s right side.









After the monument, I didn’t feel like touring the city. So I took off to Fargo. I got as far as Sioux Falls, four hours south of Fargo, before it got too late, and I had to camp out at the local KOA. The theme so far at the last two KOA’s has been lack of sleep. Apparently at this KOA they had planned some construction to their site early in the morning which woke me up. Right out side my tent was a small crew with a track loader and excavator tearing up the land next to my car. Had I known this was going to wake me up this morning, I would have moved my tent at the far side of the camp site, but there was no indication of this happening. Apparently, there seems to be a lack of communication on the quality of the camping environment to the customers at some KOAs.


A little side note: After driving about 4,000 miles, I can't believe how many bugs I ran into. My whole entire front grill is caked with bugs. I have to severely wash my windshield every time I stop to fill gas. My bike, which is locked to the top of the cab is also caked with bugs. I'm going to have to give it a good clean before I ride it again.



I should be in Fargo, North Dakota, in a couple of hours.

Billings, Montana

Leaving the state of Wyoming was actually more beautiful than Yellowstone park. I left through the northeast entrance of Yellowstone and drove up through Cooke City on the U.S. 212 and then through Red Lodge. The scenery was the best I’d seen in a long time, with snowcapped mountains all around. It was like driving through winter in the summer time, very quiet and serene.

As I drove past a small town called Top of the World (a fitting name), I saw locals in the snow valleys snowmobiling, snowshoeing, and snowboarding the sides of the mountain. There was a whole group of these people throughout the drive. I had to stop at one point just to take a picture of a group that was snowboarding down a 70% grade and then using a snowmobile as a ride back to the top. This was amazing, watching people riding the side of a mountain with breathtaking views of Wyoming and Montana.

















When I got to Billings, Doug, my couch surfing host, was at his friend Jacob’s with a group of other friends and family putting siding up. They were all extremely friendly, and were happy to invite me for dinner. The weather was nice and warm, so we sat in the backyard around a picnic table eating chili and pie. I took in the conversations.



Doug and his friends, John, Andy and Jacob, all went to Rocky Mountain College in Billings. Doug, John and Andy majored in Computer Science, and Jacob majored in English/Literature. At the dinner table, regardless of his technical background, Andy enjoyed throwing out scholarly words for debate as to their meaning and usefulness. The discussion would go on for a little while. It became quite entertaining. My favorite word for the day was pedantic.

According to some online research, Billings has a population slightly over 100,000, and is considered the 60th fasted growing city in the country. It is the largest city in Montana.

On Monday, I drove around the city and had a difficult time finding things to do. Rock climbing, and rafting is a popular activity, which I tried to do, but had no luck finding anyone offering lessons or directions as to where and when things were going on. So instead, I spend most of my day at the local coffee shop, Rock Creek Coffee Roasters, doing some online research.

At five o’clock, Doug invited me out for a drink at Carter’s Brewing on Montana Ave. John and Andy were also there as well; they were studying Chinese for their upcoming trip to Beijing. Apparently Andy is planning to study for his Masters in Computer Science in China, so he and John were taking up the language. I was quite impressed with their capacity to learn so much.

According to Doug and his friends, the microbreweries in Montana are not allowed to serve you no more than three pints of beer. This apparently is state law and only applies to microbreweries. So after a pint, we left Carter's and toured some of the other major microbreweries in town, which included, The Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co., and the Montana Brewing Co.

Eventually, Andy left for his online Chinese class, and Doug and I went next door for a glass of wine at the Bin 119. While there Doug and I enjoyed discussing business ideas and differences between work ethics between the Gen-X's and the Baby Boomer's. We had a pretty good time.















A little while after we got to the wine bar, Doug’s friend’s, Clover and Michi, showed up and we all decided to go out dancing. Unfortunately, it was a Monday night and there wasn’t much dancing going on around town, so we ended up going to Montana Chad’s and sang some karaoke.

Overall the night was fun. Doug proved to be a good host, and I got to know some local people in town. I look forward to hanging out with Doug again. Hopefully he’ll come down to San Diego and I can show him around town.













I’m leaving Montana today, and I’m thinking about taking another detour from Fargo, and head to Rapid City, South Dakota, to check out Mt. Rushmore.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

I arrived in Yellowstone around 9pm. The park has plenty of things to see: beautiful views of waterfalls, wild animals, and geysers all around. Even though the park is known for its natural beauty (which it truly has), by no means is this park not a tourist trap. If you could get away from the thousands of tourists, crying babies, and numerous gift shops, Yellowstone really was a beautiful place.

I couldn’t help but to take lots of pictures of the wild Bison that were grazing alongside the road. There were plenty of them in the whole park, and unfortunately it caused a lot of drivers to stop and take pictures creating lots of traffic.

There are a total of 17 campsites in the entire park. I stayed one night at the Madison site and the other at the Canyon Village site. Overall, and especially after experiencing the free love and peace atmosphere of the Rainbow Gathering, Yellowstone seemed very corporate. There’s a $20 fee for entering the park, and $20 per night to campout at any of the sites, $6.00 for firewood, $3.50 to use the showers, and $200.00 a night to stay at a lodge. There were at least a few thousand people there and several stores that offered lots of things to buy. I surely didn’t feel alone and intimate with nature, but the views were pleasant, and when I got to my campsite, it was quiet and comforting, minus the screaming little kids throwing snow.











At least I got to see Old Faithful.

Rainbow Gathering, Wyoming

Daniel Junction, Wyoming. I pulled into another small town called Daniel Junction, Wyoming, to get some gas at the local foodmart. I had another 90 miles to get to Jackson, which was the nearest city south of Yellowstone, so I figured gas would be a good decision at this point.





At the entrance to the station hung a sign that read, “!Cowboys! Scrape Shit From Boot Before Entering.” This is how I knew I was in Cowboy country.






At the station a girl with square glasses holding a sign that read “Pinedale” approached me asking if I could give her and her girlfriend a ride into town. Although it was only 10 miles in the opposite direction, figured that I needed the company. So I gave them a ride. They were extremely happy.

Shevon and Sonny, where coming from Seattle, Washington, planning on attending the yearly Rainbow Gathering in Wyoming. The Gathering, according to Shevon is a hippie gathering that’s all about peace, love, and happiness. According to Wikipedia, “Rainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities, typically held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media.” Wow! This sounded like something I would be interested in.

Even though they needed a ride to Pinedale, I decided to take them all the way to where they needed to go, which was 50 miles into the middle of nowhere, but being in Wyoming, I guess you could say that anywhere was in the middle of nowhere.

The Gathering was pretty interesting. Apparently, the peak of the event doesn’t occur until the 4th of July, so we were pretty early, and there where only a few hundred people there. Thousands more were projected by the 4th. I didn’t take very many pictures because I felt it would go against all ideals that the event stood for (non-consumerism and mass media), but there really wasn't many picture to take. It was mostly a bunch of hippies hanging out around a camp fire drinking coffee, singing songs, and smoking joints until the sun rose. When I dropped the girls off, it was too late for me to head to Yellowstone, so I camped out and met a few interesting people.

Everyone had unique names like Seven, Freedom, Bong, and Casper. I imagine these weren’t they’re birth names, but the names that described their best characteristics. Everyone was very friendly, and whenever anyone arrived from the “outside,” the whole community welcomed them with a cry of “welcome family,” and “loving you.” The best part of the night was just listening to the original music played at the camp fire. Non of it sounded mainstream. Most of it was anti-corporatism, which was a great break from all the music I’ve been hearing on the radio lately.

I didn't go to sleep until 3am. The next morning, I found everyone still at the campfire singing songs and being marry. I packed my things, and as I was leaving, Shevon and Sonny thanked me for the ride, and Shevon asked if she could call me Determined, because I was so determined to get them there--I guess this is the characteristic that shines the brightest in me. I didn’t mind if this was the name that would best describe me, besides, I felt this great determination to complete my road trip.

Wyoming

I arrived in Wyoming around 11am. Wyoming has plenty enough open space. If you think there’s not enough land in your backyard, and you're in desperate need of some, you can pretty much get some from Wyoming. I’m sure they won’t miss it. Wyoming is also a state that doesn't work well with cell phones and internet access, this explains why it took me so long to publish this blog.





One of the major cities I drove through was Kemmerer, with a population of 2651. One of the things it boasts is the home of the first J.C. Penny Store. Apparently this is where it all began.
















All throughout Wyoming are small national monuments such as the Green River, which is also known as the Spanish River, the Rio Verde, and the Seeds Kee Dee Agie (by the Shoshone Indians). Several of these uneventful signs were posted throughout Wyoming. Another one was The Prairie of the Mass, which was nothing more than a glorified tombstone. At this point the only interaction I had from anyone was with a man in his Dodge truck looking for his two dogs.









There are a lot of cows in this state.

Salt Lake City, Utah

I took a slight detour in my travels. When I left Boise my initial plan was to go straight to Butte, Montana. However, when I checked my maps Salt Lake City was only 4 hours away, so I decided to check it out. I got there around 6pm. I drove around the city, going by the University of Utah, which looked like a nice campus; all the facilities seemed state of the art.

Being that Salt Lake was a spur of the moment decision I didn’t coordinate any place to stay, so I went to the nearest coffee house to surf the web and make a few requests on couchsurfing.com. I stayed there until the place closed and had no luck in finding anyone to host me, so I found the nearest KOA, which was only 4 miles away.

This particular KOA was right in the city and after spending the night there, I learned that camping in the city is not the best place to get a good night’s rest. This location was right in between a light industrial building and a large manufacturing plant. The plant had trains coming in and out throughout the night which made it difficult to sleep. I stayed up the entire night. I wasn’t happy.

The sun came up and I decided I didn’t want to stay in Salt Lake anymore, a half a day was all I needed to know that this city was just like any other one. So I did another quick tour around town, taking a picture with the State Capital building, which was really nice, and then I made another last minute decision to drive through Wyoming to get to Yellowstone.

Boise, Idaho

I finally met Breeze's Aunt Deanne. She was very nice. I finally got to thank her for letting me stay at her house for the last couple of days in Seattle. Thanks again Aunt Deanne; your house is awesome!

The whole entire time I was in Seattle it was raining, of course. I drove through the mountains, passing Mt. Ranier, all the way back down through the Northeastern part of Oregon. The scenery changed significantly when I crossed the boarder into Oregon. Not a lot of billboards. In fact, I don't think there were any billboards on the whole Oregon drive.

Again, when I drove through a gas station, I was approached by the station attendant who insisted that he take care of pumping the gas for me. I learned from my friend Charles, who used to live in Oregon, that this type of service is common in the entire state, and it's respected as a means to create more jobs. Had I known this when I was in Salem I would have probably avoided the dirty look from the gas attendant.

Driving through Oregon's Scenic Highway was nice. Oregon boasts this stretch of road as having magnificent views, which I tend to agree. I pulled off the road and took several pictures. It was nice to see a stretch of land that was so calm and visually appealing. There was no sign of corporatism in sight. It looked like the landscape never ended. I could look on for eternity.

I crossed the Oregon/Boise border roughly around 11:00pm and I didn't arrive to Derin & Sharon's, my CouchSurfing hosts, until 12:30am. Devin and Sharon are extremely friendly. They held no judgments on me staying at their place, and they were extremely comfortable with me staying there alone while they were at work.

Devin and Sharon run their own landscaping service. I'm not sure of the details of their work, but if I'm not mistaken they utilize concrete to make decorative art for residential and commercial buildings. Their current job requires them to restore and stain old concrete flooring that was formerly covered with carpet.

For most of the day, I walked around the downtown area and took a picture with the state capital building. It was currently under construction. Boise's downtown has no more than a 5 mile radius. It's filled with commerce, local restaurants, coffee shops, and bars. I mostly checked out the local coffee shops. The coffee was obviously nothing compared to Portland or Seattle, but they were pretty decent for the area.

There wasn't really much else to see. When I drove outside of the city it was nothing more than urban sprawl, no different than any other city. The typical franchises where there. I eventually came back to the house.

Later, I got a call from another CouchSurfer, Lael, who recommended I check out the local Boise Weekly, Boise's local entertainment newspaper. I checked it out and found an open-mic happing that night at the Opa Cocktail Lounge on 8th St.

When I got to the lounge there where only a hand full of people there. The lounge was more like a bar, which the Boise Weekly describes as "Swanky." The open-mic consisted of two acoustic guitarists playing songs like Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," U2's "With or Without You," and Gun's N Rose's "Paradise City." They were fairly good.

It would be wrong for me to say that the music was accompanied by two drummers, because one of them was more interested in the girl he was accosting than the music, recklessly missing every beat on purpose, and the other, I assume, was a good friend doing his best at keeping a straight simple beat. I was tempted to volunteer and play one of the drums myself out of sympathy to the guitarists.

After sitting at the bar for 15 minutes, I was surprised to see Devin and Sharon show up. Apparently they realized that the work they'd have to finish would create a lot of disrupting noise for the rest of the apartment patrons, so they decided to hold off work until morning. They stopped by at the bar to have a drink and to say hi. I'm glad they showed up, because it gave me someone to talk to, and it eventually helped me build enough nerve to get up and play the drum.

I grabbed one of the free drums in the room and played along, hopefully helping to create a solid beat with some decent rhythm. The sign of enjoyment came when the owner, Max, who was wearing a white blazer, joined us. He also grabbed a drum and started playing along. We had a nice jam exchanging solos. Some people started dancing, and the energy in the room became more lively. I had a pretty good time.

I leave for Montana tomorrow.

Stumptown Coffee Tasting

Seattle, Washington.

In the basement of the Stumptown Coffee Roasters on 12th and Pike St. there's a long wooden bar for customers to sit and enjoy their coffee while surrounded by roasting machines, large bags of beans, and other storage material that the coffee house uses to make their business run. Most people drink in this area for some privacy from the upstairs crowd.

It was in the basement where I was updating my blog for you, the reader, when the store manager came down the stairs and began setting up plates and filling them with coffee beans. I had to move my backpack, as these plates were taking up some of my personal space. Eventually I figured I was about to be forced out by some house event, so I packed my things and started to head up the stairs. When I ask him what they were up to, he told me they were about to have some coffee tasting.

Apparently, every Sunday at 3 pm this venue offers a complementary coffee tasting event for customers. The event consists of tasting and smelling the different blends of coffee that Stumptown roasts, and offers beginner to novice coffee drinkers a way to differentiate the tastes between blends, as well as to build an appreciation for quality coffee.

Will, the Manager, invited me to stay. There were four of us total, not including Will. On the counter were six sets of coffee beans and labels that displayed the name of the beans, the location in which they were produced, and the respective flavors they possess. In front of each plate were three additional cups that would eventually hold the grounds.

The types of blends included:

1. Columbia Finca Buenos Aires,
2. Bolivia San Ignacio
3. Rwanda Musasa Horizon
4. Yemen Sharasi
5. Ethiopia Misty Valley,
6. Sumatra Lake Tawar

There where four parts to this tasting process. The first part involved smelling the coffee grounds. Will took a small sample of beans and ran them through the grinder and placing them in their respective cups. We were told the best way to take in the aroma was by holding the cup close to the face and taking a deep breath through the nose and mouth. The smells truly had a difference. Some had a darker bold smell, others were more sweet. Few of them, the Yemen and Ethiopia blends, had a more distinctive flowery smell, due to their natural growth process.

Next, Will poured boiled water into each cup and let the coffee sit for four minutes. This allowed the grounds to fully react with the hot water and release more of their flavors. We walked to each cup and smelled their aroma.

After we let the coffee set, we broke the top layer by taking a spoon and swirling the top portion of the coffee just enough for us to smell the underlying aroma, and to allow the floating grounds to settle. We were careful not stir too deeply, that would disturb the grounds at the bottom and would have an effect on the next step: the sipping process.

Next, Will scooped the layer of froth that accumulated on the top and dumped it into the trash. We then used the same spoons used to swirl the coffee to take a small sample of each cup. We made sure when sipping that we made a slurping sound (I have no idea why slurping was important, but everyone else was doing it...except for me).

After swishing the coffee in our mouths, as if we were sampling wine, we spit it back out into a separate cup, this was so we didn't become highly caffeinated after the whole event (which I didn't have a problem with!). Other reasons, of course, would be that we'd most likely be swallowing pieces of the coffee grounds (which I suppose isn't that good).

An interesting note is that the flavor of each coffee becomes more distinctive when the coffee cools down. I noticed more of a difference from when I first took a sip of the Columbian blend and after ten minutes of the same blend. Of all of the types, I found that the African blends had a darker, more bold, flavor than the Columbian, which seemed to have more of a light citrus flavor.

So that was my experience tasting coffee at the Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Seattle. I'm proud to say that now I've been slightly educated in the flavors of coffee, and now I can pretend to be sophisticated in the art of coffee tasting. So don't be surprised if when I'm invited to drink at a Starbucks I roll my eyes and snub my nose.

Seattle, Washington

I left Portland a little after noon. Before I left I went to drop off some things for Liz at the Portland Saturday Market, and to thank her for her hospitality the last couple of days. The Portland Saturday Market, is an open arts and crafts market held on the streets every Saturday just north of the Burnside bridge.

I walked around, ate lunch, bought a hat, and got a caricature made of me. The artist drawing me, and her friend who was sharing the booth were both from San Diego, and had been living there for seven months now. I can't remember where exactly the artist was from, but her friend lived in Oceanside. They told me that they like Portland's small community, and afford-ability. "Progressive" was the word the girl from Oceanside said.

After the Market, I hit the road. I called Breeze (another University of Sussex friend) for directions to her Aunt's house. At this point, I would like to really thank Breeze for being so helpful for me to find a place to stay in Seattle. And I would like to thank her Aunt Deanne for letting me stay at her place. If I had never went to study abroad in England, I would never have met such a great group of people in my life. Breeze, you are absolutely amazing!


Breeze's Aunt Deanne lives in Federal Way, about 21 miles south of Seattle and a few miles north of Tacoma. The house sits right off of a lake with its own private dock. You can walk out the backyard and sit on the dock and watch the neighbors swimming and riding boats all day long as the sun sets. It's truly a nice place.

When I got there, Aunt Deanne wasn't there, so I waited in the driveway a while, until Breeze said that the whole basement was mine to use and I didn't have to wait for her to show up. The basement has a great view of the lake.

I waited until 9pm waiting for Aunt Deanne to show so I could at least let her know who was staying at her place, but eventually I got too edgy and left to the city. I drove around not knowing where to go, but I eventually went to the Seattle Space Needle. I paid $16.00 to go to the top and get a view of the city at night. I stayed there until about 11pm and then drove back to the house.

Today, I'm at at Stumptown Coffee Roasters on 12th and E. Spring St. The vibe in the coffee house is equivalent to that in Portland's coffee houses. I realize now that I could easily be addicted to good quality coffee, and I wouldn't mind if I lived my life only to drink good coffee and have good conversations.

I have no plans for today. I'll probably walk around this neighborhood for a while and take in the atmosphere.

I plan to leave for Boise sometime tomorrow, or Tuesday.

Thanks again Breeze and Aunt Deanne!

Last Night in Portland

After I left the Albina Press, I walked back to the apartment and passed a venue called Mississippi Studios where I heard a band rehearsing behind a closed door. The sign on the door said it was opened, so I walked in to check it out. The inside is a little hard to explain. To the right of the entrance was the stage. It was roughly a 14’ x 20’ rectangle. On the stage were three guys in their mid thirties or late twenties, a guitarist, bassist, and drummer. They were rehearsing for the night’s performance. Opposite the stage were three or four rows of chairs, and above and behind them were more on a balcony level. I walked up to the ticket booth and spoke guy who told me that the show was free tonight. It would be a Kink’s tribute band.

I left the venue to meet back up with Liz. We drove downtown to return my sleeping bag for a different one. It hadn't been comfortable to sleep in. It was a mummy bag and didn't give enough leg space which made it difficult to sleep at night. When I got there, Liz left to find her friend Sarah, and I stayed at the store getting what I needed.

At the store, one of the saleswomen helped me pick out a bag more geared for my trip. She was young, sarcastic and friendly. Eventually she found out I wasn’t from Portland, but from California, and we started a conversation about how Portland is so great regardless of the weather. Ellie was her name and she used to live in Monterey. She told me she liked Portland more than California and she'd never go back. From my experience so far, I wouldn’t blame her for not doing so.

She also helped me find a cot that would fit in my tent. Sleeping on the floor was becoming a bit uncomfortable for my back. It was just today that my neck tightened up and started to annoy me. I’m assuming it was because of sleeping on the floor for the past couple of days. In either case, I was happy with any cot as long as it did the job. There was a funny moment when she and I were trying to put the thing together and we were having the most difficult time. She was funny because she was determined to get it done, even though I was already sold on buying it. I bought the cot and the sleeping bag both and had a good night's rest last night.

I left REI to meet back up with Liz, but she called and told me that she and Sarah were going back to her apartment and rehearse. They both play violin, and they're performing in a wedding this coming August, so they needed some time to practice. Liz recommended that I check out Powell's Books off of 10th and Burnside St. She said it's the best bookstore in Portland.

Powell's Books is a four story building that takes up an entire block and is not anything near similar to a Barnes & Nobel, or a Boarders. In fact, those stores would be an insult to this one. One of the major differences, other than the fact that it takes up an entire city block, is that it buys and sells used books. Another unique characteristic is on the third floor where there's a vintage books room that’s completely closed off from the rest of the store. This room carries books that are signed by famous authors, as well as books that are rare first editions. Many of them are relatively old. The oldest I found was dated back to 1914. The sales prices for some of these books ranged from $100 to $500. I assume these books were classics and were, themselves, considered pieces of art.

After Powell’s, I needed some coffee, so I walked around a few blocks to find someplace to get a cup. I stumbled upon a building off of N.W. 10th that had the word "Jazz" on its side. It was called Jimmy Mak’s and it looked like some place worth checking out, unfortunately it was closed.

After walking around a few more blocks I eventually stumbled upon a Stumptown coffee house. This coffee wasn’t as good as the ones I got the day before.

I left the city and met back up with Liz. She and Sarah were rehearsing in her living room. I listened as I began cooking dinner. According to Sarah, she has been playing for nine years now, and would like to branch off into something other than classical. I can’t remember exactly, but I think she wanted to try her hand at bluegrass or fiddle. When I finished cooking, we all ate, and eventually, Liz went to my car to grab my guitar and Djimbe and we all started jamming. We had a good time.

Sarah was nice enough to teach me the proper positioning for holding a violin, and how to play the G scale. She was impressed with my ability to learn quickly. It didn’t seem as hard as I thought it would be. The violin is something I could very easily play more often.

At around 10pm I left to see the Kink’s tribute band. The place was full of people and it was difficult to move anywhere. I stayed for a while and listened to a few songs. The band wasn’t that bad, but it was obvious that they were slightly better than amateurs. The atmosphere was alright, but I didn’t feel completely comfortable there.





I eventually left and decided to go to Jimmy Mak's. When I got there the band was getting ready to play it’s last set, so the cover charge was fairly cheap at $5.00. Inside, the atmosphere was entirely different from Mississippi Studios. This venue was cozy with red satin curtains all around. Everyone was dressed casual and all sitting at tables. The age of the crowd ranged from 30’s to 50’s. On the stage was a grand piano, drum kit, and some amplifiers. The stage was relatively large and had more sophisticated lighting. It was what I imagined a typical jazz club would look like in the 40's.

The artist was Micheal Allen Harrison, a Portland local. After reading his biography online he apparently played for several prominent people such as President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Quincy Jones, and the Dalai Lama. He plays the piano, and was accompanied by several other musicians. The music was fantastic. It consisted of familiar pieces such as Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Inagaddadavida but played in a Jazz style and over extreme solos. I really enjoyed it, and it had been something I'd been looking to find for quite a while—something that just lets the musician’s run wild. It was like a jam session, but with highly seasoned musicians. They played off of each other needing little cues, just a sense of rhythm and timing. The dynamics were excellent. We all enjoyed it , clapping along as the full ensemble took turns “tearing it up” at center stage. It was one of the best shows I’d ever been to.

I leave for Seattle today.

Portland Night Life

When I camped out in Medford a couple of days ago I felt the first symptoms of a cold and it has been getting worse since. My nose is congested and I've been coughing a lot. I'm assuming it's because of the climate change from the dry San Diego weather. I'm not used to the Oregon wilderness and it seems to be triggering allergies for me.

For breakfast, Liz and I went to another local coffee shop a block away from her apartment. I forgot the name of the place, but they make really good biscuits. After, we drove around town in the rain and then stopped at a Lebanese restaurant for lunch. The food was good, and I would recommend it to others. From the restaurant, we went to Eli's, another friend of Byron's, to pay a visit. We coordinated a plan to meet again later than night.

From Eli's, Liz went back to work for a couple of hours, and because my allergies were getting worse, I just stayed at her place to rest.












At 6 o'clock I left to meet up with Eli downtown. We met at the Quality Pictures gallery off of 9th and Hoyt St. There was an exhibit from two photographers, Roger Ballen, and Holly Andres. There, I met with Eli, Colin, and Alex (more friends of Byron). I took in the photos and had a beer. We eventually went to another gallery a few block a way.

During the walk to the next gallery, Eli was kind enough to explain to me that every first Thursday all the local galleries in Portland offer new exhibits free to the public. People walk from gallery to gallery and take in the local art.

Eventually, Colin and Alex went off on their own, and Eli and I rode our bikes to The Maiden restaurant to enjoy some local Jazz. We ordered our food, and after an hour, Liz joined us. Shortly after came Colin and Alex. I wasn't really into the music or the conversations--my cold was getting worse. I eventually had to leave back to the apartment to rest. I woke up this morning feeling a bit better. Hopefully it's reached its peak and will soon be over.

Currently, I'm at the Albina coffee house journaling in this blog. I plan on going out to have some soup for lunch and then maybe tour around the city again.

I plan on heading to Seattle tomorrow. Breeze, my good friend from my study abroad days in England, was nice enough to coordinate a stay at her aunts place in Olympia. Thank you Breeze!

Portland, Oregon

The am/pm gas station off of Market and Childs St. in Salem, Oregon, offers what they call "mini service" fueling. I pulled my car up to the gas pump, got out of the car to fuel expecting to find a debit kiosk similar to the ones I usually find in San Diego, but there were none. The pumps were the older kind with no debit/credit card slots encased in them. I began walking to the store entrance, but I was interrupted by a young man in a reflector jacket who asked me how much I wanted to fill up. I was a little put off, but as I looked around there were more of these guys doing the same to the others and the patrons didn’t seem to mind. I told him I’d like to pay $40.00. He wrote the cost on a small slip of paper, handed me the slip and told me to pay inside while he pumped my car with gas.

I walked into the store waiting behind two women. The lady in the front purchased her things and left. The next one didn't move. She just stood in the same spot. I asked her if she was in line, and she replied, “yes, but I have to wait for my gas to finish pumping.” I thought this was strange. I bypassed her and approached the cashier willing to pay my $40.00.

“$40.00 on pump #24, please,” I said nicely.

The lady informed me that my gas wasn’t finished yet and began restocking her plastic bags as if I wasn't there. By this time more people lined up and waited behind the counter. After a few minutes, the cashier began calling out numbers and people would come up, show their ticket number, pay for their gas and be on their marry way. Eventually, the she called my number, and I paid for my fuel. The felt like I was at the supermarket deli waiting to be served. It was interesting.

I arrived in Portland around noon. The first place I visited was the Lewis & Clark College (the more and more I visit these colleges and universities, the more it reminds me of a high school campus for young adults). The campus was nicely tucked away in the woods in a quite suburban area. I got the sense that it was a Christian school from the multiple chapels that accompanied the campus.

After the college, I drove into downtown Portland. The city atmosphere, being surrounded by water, reminds me of San Diego. I called Liz, a friend I met through Byron, and let her know I was in town and to coordinate any plans she may have had. She was at work and wouldn’t get done until 6pm, so I decided to park my car in a pay garage and ride my bike around town. The city is very bike friendly. In fact, I imagine the rising gas prices will impact more Portlanders to ride more often.

The next place I visited was the Portland Central Library. The library was nice. It had a colonial feel with marble columns and floors. The main lobby housed portraits of what looked like U.S. Presidents. I didn't get a good look it but one of them looked like Theodore Roosevelt. The library was subdivided into separate smaller libraries that included the Literature & Humanities Library, and the Art & Music Library.

After the library I rode around the city to take in the atmosphere. I read The Oregonian (the main Oregon newspaper) and learned that the city is big on microbrewery. Reading some history, apparently this is so due to an initiative pushed by the city that permitted brewers to also sell their products on location. This apparently stimulated the microbrews. The city is sometimes known as “Beervana."

At around 3pm, headed towards Liz’s part of town. When I got there she pointed me to a place called the “Albina Press. According to some reviewers this is by far the best coffee found in Portland. I have to agree. There are a lot of good coffee houses in Portland, and I'm not surprised the city is also known for these quality coffee houses.

I sat in the coffee house and read the Willemette Week, the local community paper. I learned about the happenings in Portland. A major topic seemed to be the mayoral elections about to take place in November. Sam Adams is the Mayoral front runner for the city and the fact that he’s openly gay is a hot topic for some in the media.

After coffee, I walked around town a bit and found that the area in which Liz lives is a highly liberal town that promotes local business. There are several independently owned shops that promote individuality, culture, free speech, and vegan lifestyles. I walked into a small book store that had several books on anarchy, and vegan diets.

When Liz got out of work we went on a bike ride around town. We crossed one of the many bridges in Portland (there are a total of seven that I've counted) that leads to the city. It only takes 10 minutes on bike to get to the downtown area.

We rode our bikes to another local coffee shop, The Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Again, very good coffee. It had a nice vintage atmosphere. The room was dimly lit and large enough to host a live band. I could imagine turning the place into a live Jazz & Coffee venue. After, we rode our bikes to an outer community of town and ate some Vietnamese food.

As we road our bikes back to her apartment we encountered another bicyclist following us. He was extremely friendly. It would be fair for me to say that most of the people I’ve ran into while here have all been outwardly friendly. For instance, as I walked down Mississippi St. a random person smiled, waved and said "hi" for no particular reason other than to say hi. This happened a few times, and as Liz and I were riding our bikes back from the restaurant this bicyclist solidified that behavior. He was happy to talk about the beautiful weather in Portland and the joy of riding bikes at at night. It was a different experience from San Diego, or in any other city I've been to so far. Usually when I'm approached by friendly people they're motivated by some underlying agenda.

Eugene, Oregon

So after leaving the KOA in Medford, I decided to head over to the Oregon Caves. The drive was about an hour on a single lane road. It was difficult to travel any faster than 50mph because the road was a bit curvy.

I arrived at the national monument a little after 12pm. The park offers overnight lodging for guests. If you walk into the lodge they have a nice gift shop, a small deli, a dining area, and a fairly decent sized diner that serves meals throughout the day (the dining area was for dinners only). I ate a sandwich at the diner and took a little nap (all the driving was making me tired).














At about 2:15pm our tour guide arrived and we began our journey into the Oregon Caves. The whole thing was pretty amazing. We walked about 500 stairs total, up and down. Half way through, our guide showed us a bat that was sleeping in one of the caves. It wasn't any bigger than a roll of quarters. I would recommend anyone who has the ability to go see these types of places to do so if theres one near you. It was very educational, and insightful.

After the caves, I drove all the way up to Eugene. The drive was like the rest of Oregon, lots of trees! Again, no one driving more than 65mph because the main freeway was nothing more than two lanes with the slow lanes being shared by truckers.

When I got to Eugene, my couchsurfing host was in Portland until 8:30pm or so. So, I roamed around the town for a bit. The first place I checked out was the University of Oregon.





Little did I know that this was the home of Steve Prefontaine, who is the world's record holder for track and field running. Eugene is also known as Track Town, USA. It's also the place where Nike was born. Apparently the university's cross country coach and one of his students created the company way back when and used the university as a testing ground.








John, my host, didn't arrive until 1am which made it a little inconvenient, because although Eugene is a nice town, there wasn't much for me to do after 9pm. John works for a small publishing company in town. He went to school at Harvey Mudd College, in California, and graduated with a BS in Math. He's looking to get into computer science.

John lives in a two bedroom, one bath, apartment on the 8th floor overlooking the town. The only furniture is a lawn chair in the living room. His rent is fairly cheap compared to San Diego. He only pays $700.00/mo.

So far the town is pretty small, nothing more than 15 blocks of a downtown area. One public library that's pretty busy, and a lot of college students. I might check out the Nike store and museum today, or maybe see some of the towns art.

I plan on leaving to Portland tomorrow morning.

Medford, OREGON

I left yesterday around noon, but I didn't end up leaving San Francisco until 1:30pm. I finally got a picture with the Golden Gate Bridge. I ended up taken the bridge through San Rafael and then the 580 Bridge to Richmond back to the 5 freeway.

Most of the drive was bland up until the Mt. Shasta area. The mountain provided a beautiful landscape. From this point on, green trees began to take over the flat brown valleys that was prevalent from California farmlands.

The drive into Oregon was quick and uneventful. I expected there to be a checkpoint and a state official asking for identification, but there was no such thing. Instead the transition came quick. If I hadn't payed close attention, I would've missed the sign that read, "Welcome to Oregon."

By the time I crossed the boarder it was around 8:30pm, and it was dark. I was planning on going straight to Eugene, but that would've been another 3 1/2 hours on the road, so I decided to camp out at the nearest campground.

Kampgrounds of America, or KOA, is an interesting organization that I've never heard of before. It offers a camping experience with all the conveniences needed for a comfortable stay. You can rent a camp site for an equivalent amount that it would cost for a state park fee, but here you get bathrooms, showers, laundry, water, pool, and other amenities, like a basketball court. It's good to know that these are all over the country. I just may utilize them throughout my road trip.

I showed up at the site around 10:30pm. I set up my tent, made a quick cup of cocoa on my camp stove, and made my bed. I went to sleep at around 12am, and woke up this morning at 7am. After eating breakfast (oatmeal), and a cup of coffee, I took a shower, packed my gear, and washed my clothes. I'm in the laundry facility now writing away at this blog.

Last night I did a little Google search on my iPhone to see what I could see while in Oregon, and I found that there are some interesting things. If I can make it, on my way to Eugene, I'm going to try and go to the Oregon Caves and Creator Lake, two awesome national monuments in the southern parts of Oregon. The sites are located in opposite directions, so I may not be able to make it to both, but I'll hopefully make it to one of them. If I do, I'll be sure to take some pictures.

Last Day in San Francisco

Satyam anticipates moving to South Carolina for a Masters program in Automotive Engineering from Clemson University (Go Satyam!), so Friday I spent all day helping him move from his apartment into Sabina's place. After, we enjoyed ourselves at the San Francisco Creamery, which I must add has pretty good hot fudge sundays.

Saturday, I helped out a little more with the moving, but by noon I left to the city in hopes of getting a picture with the Golden Gate Bridge. I ended up eating lunch with Byron at the Cheeseboard, an interesting pizzaria in Berkeley that's usually so filled with people that customers have to take there food and lay on the road median to enjoy it.

Finally, I made it to the city. I didn't get a chance to take a picture at the bridge (it was too cloudy), so I went to Amit's place to get ready for the night. At around 9pm Satyam, Sabina, Molly, and Angela where there and we all went to a bar called Mr. Smiths in SoMa. The night was fun; lots of dancing and good times with good people. I enjoyed myself, and it was a good way to go out in San Francisco. I always feel good in this city.

I'm hoping to leave to Eugene today, but it's after noon and I think it takes over 8 hours to get there, so I don't know if I'll make it within the day. I may have to stay one more night in San Francisco, or stay at the first campsite in Oregon.

We'll see what happens.

The Bay Area

So here's what's new...

Yesterday, I hung out with Avy (an old University of Sussex buddy). I returned his book he loaned me, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa-Puffs, by Chuck Klosterman (interesting book on popular culture). He showed me around the Berkeley area, which I've been to many times before now. Being that Avy is currently pursuing his Ph.D from Berkeley in Italian Film Studies, it was hard not to discuss anything other than academia. I must say, if you like to talk about academics and philosophical ideas, Avy is the person to do it with. I always find enjoyment in our conversations. He was nice enough to take me to Indian Rock which is up in the Berkeley hills. There where some great views. I like Berkeley's liberal atmosphere.

After that, we met up with Byron at the Jupiter (bar?), and had a couple of beers. Byron looked good, although he was walking on crutches (he sprained his knee while playing basketball). After a while, Avy left and Byron and I went to a local burger joint that claims to make gourmet hamburgers. Apparently there seems to be a surge of these gourmet burger joints popping up in certain areas. I remember eating at one in San Diego, and it was ridiculously priced. So far the best hamburger I had was at Jack's on University Ave. in San Diego. Fairly priced and good quality.

After hanging out with Byron, I went back to Satyam's. I have to admit Satyam has been really good to me for letting me stay at his place while here. I helped him pack some of his stuff (he's moving out at the end of the month).

Today, I woke up at 9am and had coffee with Satyam's girlfriend, Sabina, at Peete's Coffee & Tea, my favorite place for coffee. After that I drove to Stanford University just to see what a prestigious university looks like. The architecture was nice, but I couldn't see myself going to the school, even if I was accepted into it. The vibe just didn't click with me. I don't know, maybe I have to actually attend the school to see what's so good about it.

After Standford, I drove to the Apple Inc. facilities in Cupertino. I asked the lady at the front desk if Apple offers tours of the facilities, unfortunately they don't. The outside of the complex looked like any other facility you might find in a light industrial area. It's hard to tell what the actual work environment is like. By the looks of it, I assume the office environment is like any other job.

I left Apple and decided that while I was close enough I might as well check out UC Santa Cruz while they still let people on campus. So I took state route 17 all the way back to Santa Cruz and drove around the perimeter of the campus. I have to say I am in love with its scenery. All the facilities are hidden amongst the large redwoods. It's like a university in a forest. There's so many hiking trails. I can imagine myself hike the trails between classes. At one point while driving on the campus loop a deer crossed the road. The school offers education in the midst of true nature. That's just Amazing! I haven't seen any other campus like it.

Right now, I'm headed back to Satyam's for dinner. I plan to sleep early tonight so I can do some more site seeing tomorrow. I think I'll check out the Golden Gate Bridge up close, maybe I'll jog across it. Who knows.

The Journey Begins…

I left yesterday at 8am. I said goodbye to everyone and told them I’d be back in a few months. My first stop was in Garden Grove to drop off some stuff for my sister, but after that, it was the open road...until Santa Barbara.

I got accepted into UC Santa Barbara in 1998, but I choose to go to UC San Diego instead. So I stopped at the school to see what I missed. It was interesting. The school is right off the coast. You can see the ocean from several facilities. I can imagine students dazing into the ocean blue while sitting in class. At UCSB everyone rides bike. There were thousands of them; they even have bike traffic! It’s the main way to travel on campus. I’m sure you could get a glimpse of it on YouTube if you type in “UCSB Bikes.”

After Santa Barbara, I veered off the U.S. 101 and onto the Pacific Coast Highway, otherwise known as the PCH or the 1, and I stopped at San Luis Obisbo to check out the CalPoly there. A completely different feel than UCSB. School seems to be geared towards agriculture here. It has it’s own manufacturing plant, an Agricultural Engineering facility, and the campus itself seems to be immersed in a wide open area that resembles what I would consider farmlands.

From CalPoly I stayed on the PCH and saw signs for the Hearst Castle. I heard about this place, its what Orson Welles hinted he was filming about in Citizen Kane, the self made kingdom of one of America's wealthiest men. A palatial estate that some people claimed is a self-contained city. I couldn’t help but see what all the fuss was about. When I got there, I had no idea that the castle was now a national monument and that it offered daily tours to the public. When I got up to the visitors center all tours were closed for the day. If you look up on the hills you can see the roof of the Castle in the far distance. I wasn't disappointed to miss an opportunity to see this extravagant self-contained city. I had a road trip to attend to. It was interesting to see a wealthy man’s home as a tourist attraction though. I left, not too amused with the whole thing. I'm sure if I went on the guided tour, I'd be more amazed with the whole thing.

I left the Castle and stayed on the Pacific Coast Highway, and I must say that the views were breathtaking. The road is right off the coast and the mountain views are vast and just unbelievable. I’ve driven up to the Bay Area before taking other routes, and the PCH route is by far the most beautiful way to get there.

By 6:30pm, I drove through Big Sur. The scenery was just amazing. To the left was the ocean crashing into massive cliffs, and to the the right was a mountainous landscape of mountains on top of mountains with evergreens that grew through thick patches of clouds that were low enough to cover some parts of the mountain tops. It was a beautiful site that could never be fabricated, and I hope never will be. I was tempted to camp out for the night at the nearest camp site, but the cost for camping was $25.00 a night (Cash Only), and unfortunately I didn't have cash on me, so I had to pass. I’m sure I would have loved waking up surrounded by huge redwoods and the sound of a running water stream. It was just too beautiful!

There was a nice bridge on the trip that faced the surf. I couldn’t help but take a picture. The sun was getting to close to setting and many people were on the side of the road waiting to capture the moment. I was tempted to stop and watch too, and I’m glad I didn’t because as deceiving as it was, the sun didn’t set for another hour, and by that time I was in Monterey, which in comparison to Big Sur, doesn’t have the same beautiful views by the cost.

It was a little after 8pm when I left Monterey, and at this point I wasn’t too far from UC Santa Cruz. I figured that I already checked out Santa Barbara and CalPoly, and I should at least check out Santa Cruz. So, I drove in the dark, almost getting lost, but I finally arrived to the security gate where the guard asked if I was a student. I replied with a “no," but I did tell him that I was a UC Alumni. He kindly told me that the campus was closed after 8pm to non-students. I thought this was strange. I’d never been to a public school, or a UC for that matter, where the campus was closed to outsiders. Apparently the campus is open for visitors before 8pm. This makes me wonder why the school would do such a thing unless they thought it would be extremely dangerous not to do so. It was hard for me to tell what the surrounding neighborhood in Santa Cruz was like, but I assume it must be bad enough to have a security guard at the campus entrance stopping people from coming in.

Right after Santa Cruz, I drove through San Jose and took the U.S. 680 all the way up to stay at Satyam’s in Walnut Creek. I arrived at 10pm. In total, the trip took roughly 500 miles, and approximately 12 hours to get there. Of course I could've done it within a shorter time span and with less mileage if I took the 5 freeway, but if I did that, it wouldn’t have been a beautiful drive.

CSUF's Mihaylo College of Business and Economics

I received an email today stating that I've been offered admission to the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University, Fullerton. This is an MBA program which begins August 23rd.

This obviously has an affect on my travel plans. I haven't decided if I'm going to accept the offer yet. If I do, this will impact my trip by a few months. If I leave this Monday, I'll have to be back by August 1st to allow enough time to coordinate all that I need in order to prepare for the school year.

It's weird how these things happen.

I at least want to take advantage of this summer as much as I can and travel. Who knows, if when on the road and I meet some interesting people, or if I get inspired by what I see or who I meet, I may never return. In fact, with the current integrity of this government, I'm debating if I should change my citizenship entirely and just move to Canada.

Delayed

My initial plan was to begin my travels tomorrow. To drive to the Bay Area and live with Satyam for two weeks before I begin the road trip June 1st; however, Satyam's grandfather passed away a few weeks ago and has been overseas for the funeral processions. I don't know when he'll be back, and so I don't have a potential place to stay while up there.

Byron called me up yesterday and showed interest in joining me during parts of my trip, and asked if I would be interested in postponing until June 17th, when he'll done teaching for the school year. Having Byron join would decrease the costs of travel, and we'd be splitting the expenses. I'm sure Byron wouldn't be able to finish the entire trip with me as I'm anticipating the whole thing taking more than two months to complete, and he has to be back to teach by September.

Breeze called me and asked if I was still considering coming up for the Bay-to-Breakers run, but I don't think I'll be able to make that either, besides, Bill (my step-father) passed away two weeks ago, and his funeral procession is May 30th. I can't leave until after the funeral.

Return to San Diego

I'm back from Michigan. The entire trip was decent, however, on Thursday I got a fever and it gave me cold sweats and a throbbing migraine for two nights, so that put me out of commission for most of the trip. It was good to see everyone including my old neighborhood.

It was a little depressing to see that the automotive industry is so deeply ingrained in the city and that most of the people who live in the city have very little choice as to where to work, and are usually subjected to layoffs.

I didn't have the opportunity to document each day because the internet was limited, plus I was sick for a while.

I plan to leave to the Bay Area this weekend for the Bay-to-Breakers run, however, the price of gas is giving me doubts about this whole trip. I find it frustrating that it costs me $65.00 for a full tank of gas. With the rate that it has been increasing in the past couple of years, I won't be surprised if it costs me $100.00/tank. That is just absurd, and it bothers me that I don't see this as a major issue amongst politicians and the media, which leads me to believe that they are both just as corrupt as the general public thinks they are.

Michigan

Tomorrow I fly to Michigan. It's been around eight years since I've visited my hometown of Flint. According to the city's website, the total population is around 124,000 people. The main industry is automotive. The largest businesses are General Motors, Delphi, Citizen's Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and the City of Flint.

The last I remember of the area is the open land, ditches on the side of the road (there are no other ditches like the ones that I remember of Michigan), and lots of trees. I'm flying in for my cousin's wedding. I should arrive tomorrow at 9:50pm in Detroit.

I spoke with my old neighborhood friend, Blair, who's anticipating my arrival. I hope to stay with him for one night. The rest I'll have to coordinate with my relatives. This will be an interesting trip. I don't know what to expect, nor do I expect anything more than to just visit family, and maybe wonder off onto places I've never been before.

Purpose of this Blog

I'm starting a road trip across the U.S. visiting places that I've always wanted to visit. I was recently laid-off, and I see this opportunity as a blessing in disguise. My mission in this journey will be to seek authentic people, people that are real and hospitable. I also plan to use this time to do a little soul searching. I hope to find people who are not robots and who are capable of understanding human interaction. I don't know what I'll find on this trip, which makes parts of it seem scary, but right now I can't think of anything else that I'd rather do.



View Larger Map

The above map outlines the places I plan to visit. I plan to start my trip the first of June. This may change as the time nears. I plan to camp parts of the way, and utilize www.couchsurfing.com for the other parts. Click on the placemark to see the name of the city and the estimated date I'll be in that area. It's going to be a long trip, but that's okay, because lately I've had a lot of time on my hands ; ).

I'll use this site to post photos and videos of places that I'll visit and people that I'll meet. I hope you visit often. Please leave a comment or two.

Thanks for visiting.

Brian