ROADTRIP ‘04
June 20, 2004
We came into Boston last night after picking Bonnie cousins up from the train station in Philedelphia. We had some Philly Cheese steak sandwiches also. They weren’t amazing, but still pretty good. We also visited the oldest residential street in America. The house have been continuously since 1730’s and are still lived in today.
Anyway, New York was pretty cool. Totally different world,
different pace. Everyone there is always in hurry. No uses cross signals, they
just cross and try to beat the cars before being hit. Driving in the city is insane, using your car horn in like
another language, everyone honks their horn.
Time square is somewhat amazing, but just like many other places we
have seen in the US, not so majestic.
June 16, 2004
Tension level has dropped a bit between Terry and I, and Bonnie has
flown in to join us on our trip.
After New Orleans we drove to
Atlanta Georgia. As soon as we pulled in we the Olympic stadium and place where
they had the Olympic tourch. Atlanta
wasn’t what we quite expected. When we got in the first night we wanted to go
out and see the town. Everyone told us to go to a park of town referred to as
Buckhead. It is the place where all the clubs and hang out places are. We
pulled into a place and saw two clubs
about 100 yards apart. One club called ‘Twist” had about 99% black people in
it, the other club called “Tavern’ was about 95% white people, I saw about
three black people in it. I was floored by how racially separated these places
where. We were going to try to go into ‘Twist’, but we were underdressed, so
instead we found this sports bar and a couple of sandwiches and sweet tea. On
the way back home we got a bit lost and ended up in the ghetto part of town. It
was a bit on the scary side because again we were the only white people we saw
for a while. It’s strange on how much we don’t normally think about what race
we are until we are put into a situation where we are the only ones of that
race and you and everyone notice it.
The next day we went to go check out the Coca-Cola factory. It’s a
cool place that gives the history of coke through out the factory, and at the
end of the tour there is a place to try all drinks that coke makes
domestically. Then the next room is all the drinks Coke makes in the world. In
total there are over 40 different sodas, so we had to try everyone. BIG
MISTAKE…it hurt. Even when having only a sip of each, it felt like so one
punched us in the stomach, oh and we both hadn’t had breakfast yet that day, so
they could have contributed to our feeling of being natious. After about
30minutes all pain had passed. We got back on the road.
Our original plan was to drive to North Carolina and camp then
drive to Washington DC the next day. By the time we got the camp site it was
only 6pm and DC was only four hours away, so being the road warriors we have
become, we drove straight through.
We got into DC around 10pm, and met up with one of our pledge
brothers from the fraternity, Piper.
Piper took us around the parts of DC where she hangs out where
clubs and bars are. There where so many people there, people walk in the
streets because the sidewalks are full. That night was the beginning of our
“walk across DC”. We walked so much while
there.
The next day Piper had to go to work so Terry and I found our way
around the city. We hit up most of the popular sites, the Whitehouse, the
Treasury, Washington Monument, WWII monument, Lincoln Monument and the Capitol
building. While talking with one of the Capitol police, Ted Kennedy and Joe
Liberman walked right past us, that was really cool. Then we enjoyed watching
the Navy band perform in front of the Capitol while we sat on the Capitol steps
and watched the sun set over DC. Piper joined us fro the concert and then we
went back to Pipers.
Bonnie flew in on Tuesday to join Terry and I on the trip for ten
days. She took the Red eye into Dulles airport and got in around 5:30am. We
were all tired so we went back to take a small nap for an hour or so. We woke
up from that nap around 11:30am, so we overslept just a bit and lost part of
our day.
We made it to the Capitol building for a tour we set up with my
congressman. They took us around the Capitol and explained the history of it
and how it has changed over the years. A good place to find information is
AOC.com (architect of the capitol). We
ended our tour by sitting in the galleria of Senate and watching a vote and
debate. We saw all the senators except John Kerry do to campaigning . But we saw
Trent Lott, Hillary Clinton, Mrs. Dole, John Edwards, etc…..
At one point we got separated from Bonnie and Piper, so Terry and I
just started wondering around. We went into an area outside the Capitol we
weren’t suppose to be, we had one of the Capitol police escort us down to an
area where we could be. It started
raining, so we ended our day.
We are currently heading to New York. We made a quick stop in
Hersey Pennsylvania and went to the Hersey factory. It was similar to the Coke
factory, but not as many free samples. But the did have a store you could by
almost anything Hersey ever made. New York looks to be exciting.
New Orleans…filthy city…and somewhat disappointing. We rolled in on
Wednesday night, ummmm, not a good night to be in New Orleans, not a damn thing
going on. We stayed at the Château Le Monde’ in the French Quarter, one block
from the famed Bourbon Street. Walking around Bourbon street was not what we
expected. There are many adult establishments along the street, ie. Strip clubs
and places you can watch people have sex, and walk up bars to get a drink for
the road per se’. Terry and I picked up our Hurricanes (the official drink of
New Orleans), they are pretty good, they have 151 in them, you don’t realize
how they hit you until you are on drink number 2 like we were.
Dinner the first night in the Big Easy was at Deana’s Creole
cooking. We split an order of Cajun style BBQ shrimp and Red Fish with an etteuffe sauce. The shrimp was good but nothing to write home about
(oops, just did). The fish was very
well prepared. I would highly suggest anyone eating there to order the fish.
Nothing else really happened the first night, Terry and I got into
a major argument so it killed the vibe. He wanted to go into one of the strip
clubs and I didn’t really care to. He was trying to convince me to try to pick
up on some ladies, but I just wasn’t in the mood to do that.
Thursday Terry went to pick up Binate’s (they are French donuts
with power sugar on them).
Later in the day we went down to the Riverwalk to check out the
sites on the Mississippi. We were looking to get on a boat, but a two hour
cruise was upwards of $60. We decided to go to Harrah’s casino instead. We
brought in $20 to gamble with. Terry walked out with $80 playing mostly Rollet
and Craps. I lost my $20 in Black Jack,
watched Terry play his games, then we decided to drop some money on five cents
slots. I lost my $5 there too. I decided to bust out five more dollars and
waste it in the slots. I ended up hitting a few small jackpots and walked away
with $65. Plus we both got a free twelve pack of Coke for signing up for their
rewards program. We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit and decided to go
grab dinner. We went to Oceana’s, had some really good Crab cakes, some shrimp
gumbo and Gator sausage. El (the lady bartendar) served us these really big
Hurricanes that were really tasty. Drinks were two for $6. We each had two.
After dinner, we walked over the Ritz Carlton a couple blocks from
our hotel. The Concierge at our hotel suggested we go to see the trumpet player
there. It was really nice, we listen to Jazz fro about three hours. When we got
there, our Concierge was there also. She was already drunk. We sat with her at
a table and talked to her a little bit, then she I started flirting with her. (
This lady was 43, but still hot and very bubbly). We bailed out of there around
midnight, jumped into a piano bar about a block away. Chugged a beer, listen to
a the piano players sing a few songs, got over it and went back to the hotel.
Left out of New Orleans in the morning. Dreamland BBQ is where we
experienced some of Alabama’s best BBQ ribs and sweat tea. The waitress really
liked us. She was excited about talking about our cross country trip, we gave
her my website address so she could see the pictures. Then she gave us a gallon
of sweat tea to take with us on our trip.
We are now on our way to Atlanta.
Tension level between Terry and I is moderately high, On a scale of
1 to 10, with 10 being really bad, I would say it’s about a 7. We have had to major
arguments since we left New Orleans today about stupid stuff, but have been big
arguments. Sibling rivalry, we have both noticed how our dynamic has changed.
Terry got a bit worried after hearing a high pitched noise that we
could not describe. I think he saw one to many horror films, he thought
something was going to come out and attack us. I thought it was insects, he
thought it was a 15ft tall insect.
We made it to my moms around 5:30am, we both drove way longer then
we should have. Staying awake was very difficult, we had to do everything to
stay awake. Anyway, my mom woke me up around 2pm, her and I talked for about an
hour, then we woke Terry up.
Our first shower of the trip today.
We figured out what to do. We went to Reunion Tower and had some
drinks. The tower is on the South West part of downtown Dallas. It overlooks
the city, the restaurant itself rotates 360 degrees once and hour.
We got up this morning, at 6am and my mom made frenchtoast. We left
by 7:30am.
While leaving Dallas, we were on the road and four cars came up
from behind us. Mercedes SL 500, Lamborgini, C600, Porche 911 carera, all had
racing stickers going about 95mph. Terry asked if we should stick with them, we
started then Terry looked out of the Sunroof and saw the police helicoptor
coming from behind. We are curious what happens. --- It is called Bull Run 2004
---
Damn, it’s hot and humid in Louisiana. 87 and it must be 80%
humidity.
We stopped by the Visitors Center when we got into Louisiana. I
very nice older lady helped us out, gave us maps and told us how to get New
Orleans and places to eat and go.
June 7th
After heading back to the camp site a new story began. The
campground closes their gate at 5:00pm, we get to the gate at 4:59pm, it was
already closed and locked. The park changes the codes into the park everyday,
so we didn’t know how we were going to get in or back out. Our campsite still
has our tent and other things there, our camp site is about 2miles uphill past
the gate. So what are we suppose to do?????
Well we discuss a few options, Terry wanted to use his brain, I
wanted to use my brawn. I thought we could either run or walk to the campsite
and pick up our things and carry it back. Terry wanted to think about the
situation a bit. The code to unlock the gate that day was 1414, the day before
was 2020; Terry figured that the code had to be a double number, and was
willing to try every combination. He convinced me to try to make a few phone
calls to get a hold of someone who could unlock the gate, so he kept me busy
while he started off trying each combination he could…0101, 0202, 0303, etc.
Just as I was able to get someone on the phone, Terry found the combination;
8989. He tried 89 combinations.
We drove to the camp site, loaded up the car and got the hell out
of there, I think we forgot to pay.
We left Northridge on Sunday June 6th, 2004 at 4pm.
Traffic flowed very smoothly on our first leg of our cross country journey.
Driving into Arizona, we watched the blue sky melt into an orange glow, the
cool down into a dark blue and eventually fade to black. Gazing into the night,
we ventured on to the road ahead. It was amazing how much cheaper the gas has
been outside of California. In Northridge they are charging $2.34 for 87 octane
unleaded gas, today we paid $1.83 for 86 octane gas.
The sun seemed to jump into the sky this morning as we pulled into
El Paso. It took us about an hour to find the campsite. I wanted to follow the
map, Terry wanted to follow the signs (Terry won that argument, we found it
after following the signs). We got to sleep around 8:45am and awoke around
12:30pm. It’s about 95 in this desert city, about 105 in our tent.
We decided to eat at a restaurant about 50 feet from the Mexican/US
border. It was strange looking across and seeing the difference of how our side
looked from the side in Mexico. We came to Starbucks to test out my wireless
connection, and it seems to work well. Terry is asleep in these plush purple
chairs. We have decided to head out tonight for Dallas, hoping to get there
early morning tomorrow. Another 11 hours of driving…..
Leave Jun 6th - 4pm
June 7 - Albequere by 10am
June 8 - leave by 6am / Dallas by 8-9pm
June 9 - leave after breakfast / New Orleans 7pm
June 11 - New Orleans / Atlanta 4pm Dinner
June 12 - leave atlanta by 11am/Charleston 4pm/camp out in
Norfolk in Virgina
June 13 - Bonnie flys in to Richmond - we leave to DC by noon
/Pipers by Dinner
June 16 - leave DC / Philly / new york city by 4pm – check into
hotel
June 19 – leave after breakfast -New York /Boston by lunch
June 21 - leave Boston in
morning /Main by lunch in Portland / Concord /dinner in Albany / camp in
Binghamton
June 22 - To Willy’s place
– Indiana Pennsylvania by lunch – spend night
June 23 – leave willy’s after breakfast / Chicago by 9pm in a hotel
June 25 – Bonnie flies home – we leave / des moine camp
June 26 – Mnt Rushmore by dinner
June 27 – Yellowstone by dinner
June 28 – Yellowstone / camp in Kolter Bay
June 29 – Soda Springs – lunch
July 1 – Las Vegas
July 2 - Not quite sure
July 4 – HOME!!!!!!!!!!! Party !!!!!!!!!