Brian's Road Trip 2008

San Diego, CA (The Journey Ends)

2008-08-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-07-30T00:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-25T12:06:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-22T23:10:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-22T23:07:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-17T22:51:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-13T21:18:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-11T23:56:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-04T17:58:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-06-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-19T10:18:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

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.