Texas Post #5: 2 Return Trips

January 3:
10:26 Discovered we'd lost the notebook in which we'd been keeping the trip log
10:30 I 35 north to Austin
11:24 Gouged for H2O by some metrosexual Latino thug
11:41 Fake longhorns
12:33 Sign for "Female Oil Wrestling" (I thought it would be a bad idea to stop so we kept going while we were getting turned around looking for a BK)
12:40 Bond style parking lot move
12:42 Found BK
1:22 Cross eyed kid spazzing out in the BK parking lot
1:27 Seat belt debacle & curb issue
1:57 Learned about Waco, TX while researching the Branch Davidians (I had thought they were named after David Koresh, but he in fact named himself after the group)
2:05 Learned about Heaven's Gate (& in turn, Alien Abduction Insurance!)
2:27 Geodesic Dome funeral parlour
2:30 Dee flicked us off
3:26 7/11 stop
3:32 Big dancing frogs
3:43 Saw the Starship Pegasus (a dilapidated flying saucer parked in Italy, TX)
3:56 Hippie geodesic dome church
4:12 City of Dallas w/ a dealership plate cluster
4:20 Sign for Sara's Secret
4:35 Incomprehensible sign about bass & flying saucers
4:37 Roy Huggin's lake
4:45 Lost the pen
4:46 broke out the 2nd string pen
5:02 Ninja grill w/ turtles in cowboy boots
5:39 Andre gave a trucker a taste of Dee's medicine (He gave him the bird... you know, the finger)
6:28 Dee: "I'd like to be unconscious"
7:00 Back in Clarksville w/o stopping @ the one historical marker that we actually wanted to see

January 4
1:33 On the road to Texarkansas
2:00 Coat confusion
2:27 I 30 East
2:45 Texarkansas
2:47 Arkansas State Line
3:05 Debated the Nashville option
3:18 Debated a nap
3:48 Saw a weird thing on a truck
3:49 "Honk if you're rowdy"
3:52 Former cars - current terrariums
4:55 City of Little Rock
4:50 More route debate
5:21 Box of crackers dumped
5:50 Miami Sound Machine interlude w/ gorillas
6:35 Mississippi Riv./Tenn state line/City of Memphis
8:00 Jackson, TN Waffle House
8:45 Days Inn after price debate & a little haggling

January 5
12:15 AM Posted about the trip to San Antonio
8:32 Casey Jones House & Museum
8:38 "The sun is uncool right now"
9:24 Passed a weird tree-picker-upper w/ police protection
9:37 Tenn. Riv/Kentucky Lake
9:45 Loretta Lynn's Country Kitchen Buffet & Store (w/ a light up bison)
10:12 Bucksnort, TN
10:29 Another in a long list of random dudes walking down the highway
10:49 First sighting of ice on roadcuts
10:50 BMW trickster dognoggled us regarding Hawaii
10:52 City of Nashville
10:57 Cumberland Riv.
11:47 Kentucky State Line
1:00 Eastern Time Zone
2:10 Woke up from nap
2:30 Mammoth Cave NP & Dinosaur World
2:47 City of Louisville
4:10 I 75 North
4:14 "Florence Y'All" & a bastard
4:23 Ohio Riv./Ohio State Line/City of Cincinnati
4:29 Traffic Jam
4:45 traffic jam ends
5:29 Awesome sunset
5:55 Simultaneous realization that Wapakenetta needs an "M"
5:58 School bus towing a car
6:11 Decided against mooning the Neil Armstrong Museum in order to save time
7:31 Michigan State Line
8:00 Home again home again jiggety jig

Texas Post #4: More of the Trip Log

28 December 2011 (Continued)
2:25 Picker Stop Antiques w/ wooded ducks
3:02 On the road again
3:17 First flightless wild animal (not sure what it was)
3:27 JESUS billboard
3:29 Little Rock, AR; Occupy Little Rock; Arkansas Riv.; Weird shiny building like a vampire in the sun
4:30 Andre woke up freezing & had missed The Red River
5:25 City of Texarkana
6:15 US 82 West
7:05 Arrived on the prairie

1 January, 2012
We went to Austin & San Antonio. We recorded everything in a brand new notebook because the atlas was falling apart. We then preceded to lose the notebook & all of the notes from that day. That said, I'll sum up since I know you're all anticipating a good overview.
* We saw curious llamas (who lived w/ some ducks) & took some pictures
* We saw a shit-ton of historical markers
* We crossed a really long bridge over a lake
* We decided to take back roads all the way to Austin
* We saw many Donut Palaces
* Andre had a Pimento Cheese sandwich (Kim disapproved)
* Misidentified a fake volcano as a Woolly Mammoth
* We enjoyed the sunset while driving into it & being blinded by it
* We went to Kim & Doug's house in Hutto, TX & assumed they moved there so he could make "Jabba the Hutto" jokes
* Didn't have dinner w/ Kim & Doug @ Chuy's (not the guy from Chelsea Lately, nor Chewie who co-pilots the Millennium Falcon) but saw the nacho car & some weird Elvis stuff!
* Had dinner w/ Kim & Doug @ Mesa Rosa's
* Bid Kim & Doug a fond farewell
* Learned (contrary to Kim's claims) that there are plenty of places to stay between San Marco & san Antonio, but we didn't stay @ any of them because contrary to Kim's other claim, the drive from (Jabba the) Hutto to San Antonio wasn't very long
* We found a fantastic motel room in walking distance from The Alamo & The Riverwalk, but you already knew that because it was discussed in the post about The Alamo & The Riverwalk

Tomorrow I will post the note from the return trip to the prairie & then from the prairie to Jackson, TN this afternoon. Oh, & as it turns out, Jackson, TN is the hometown of Casey Jones!

Texas Post #3: San Antonio (& Graceland)

We left the prairie west of Texarkana around noon heading for The Alamo yesterday. After deciding to take back roads rather than the expressway, we arrived in Hutto around 6:00 to dinner w/ my cousins. A good meal & some nice catching up later, we were back on the road & hit San Antone around 10:00. We found a hotel room in walking distance to The Alamo & The Riverwalk, but the parking situation is pretty weird. We park in a fenced in lot, but there’s no gate, so the fence seems kind of pointless. It’s $5.00 a day, & we just shove 5 bucks in a little slot w/ the # of the parking space on it. I don’t quite know how it works or who collects the money, but it seems to be fine so far. (Check back tomorrow for the continuing saga of the trip log.)

After a good night’s sleep & some acceptable eggs & waffles, we headed across the street to The Alamo. Now, I need to pause here to remind you that I’ve been a Davy Crockett enthusiast since I saw the Fess Parker movie w/ my cousin when I was 3 years old. However, I was given some mixed reviews of The Alamo itself. While some people said it was cool, the general feeling was that it wasn’t worth it. The people who said that were WAY off. It is super cool. I had such a great time. If you get the chance to see it, be sure to do so. The gardens inside the walls are fantastic, the tribute to the people who gave their lives is amazing, & the gift shop has great stuff. I don’t understand why they don’t get state or federal money to operate though. I feel they must have turned it down. It’s run solely on donations & revenue from the gift shop, so I did my part by spending too much money. You should check out the pics on my facebook page too because it’s an awesome place.

Also awesome is The Riverwalk. It’s kind of strange, & a little Venicesque, but it’s cool. Lot’s of bars, restaurants, & little shops down in the river valley but hidden by all the buildings that surround it. We walked around it all afternoon, had lunch & dinner down there, & then enjoyed it @ night all lit up by millions of lights in the trees. We happened upon a few old cathedrals, all of which were oddly locked up, but that didn’t stop us from trying to get in to see the insides. We also happened upon the house of Gen. Cas (the brother-in-law of Santa Anna & the man who may be responsible for making Santa Anna so mad that he marched his men for three months from Mexico to The Alamo in order to kick Texan ass). We even found a dude playing the bagpipes, so that was goo too. Not to mention the Irish pup w/ a real live Irishman singing songs & playing piano. His playing was pretty good, but I didn’t think to request the obvious Elvis tune. Maybe because I can’t decide which one would be the obvious one for him to play. I guess “It’s Alright Mama” would be good, but maybe “A Little Less Conversation” because I really kind of dig that tune. I guess that might not be enough to make it an obvious choice for that guy, but it’s good enough for me.

We got to hear both songs the other day when we stopped @ Graceland on our way to Texas. Like The Alamo, it’s not to be missed. Unlike The Alamo, it’s campy & ridiculous. We took the tour that also allowed us to see the Elvismobile museum & his plane, The Lisa Marie. I really enjoyed the house & the plane, & I was impressed by the gold alligator roof on his Lincoln, but in general, it’s absurd. It was hard to keep a straight face while 2, count them… 2!!! Unrelated people cried @ his grave. One of them, a woman in her late 40s also prayed to the grave. I didn’t get it. I didn’t laugh @ her, but I didn’t get it.

I also didn’t get the fact that the racquetball &gym building had easier access to the bar than the racquetball court, but @ least I can sympathize w/ the thought process that went into designing it.

I also didn’t get the billiard room draped in weird ass fabric. I didn’t get it, but I kind of want to do it to a room in my house.

I also didn’t get the room w/ 3 televisions built into the wall so as to watch all 3 networks @ the same time. Apparently, he heard that Johnson or Nixon or Ford or someone watched all 3 news broadcasts @ the same time & wanted to do the same. I guess I could understand watching soccer, The Soup & Seinfeld @ the same time, so maybe I do get it after all.

I also didn’t get the year-long pass that allows people to visit Graceland as often as they want throughout a calendar year. Who in their right mind would need to go back multiple times in a year? Maybe the crying/praying lady, I suppose.

All in all, The Alamo rules & I would go that repeatedly, so to each his or her own I guess. San Antonio is a great town, but I’m sure if I lived here, I would skip the Riverwalk like Washtenaw County locals skip the art fair. Visiting here is fantastic though… Do it…& maybe check out Graceland on the way.

Texas Post #2: New Years Eve w/ Spaniels

On Friday evening, we went for a nice drive to watch the sunset. After turning down a nice country road, we found an even nicer one. While listening to A Picture of Nectar, we saw an eight point buck silhouetted against the western sky as the sun set in purples & oranges. It was so beautiful, we thought we’d do it again on New Year’s Eve.

After firing off a few rounds from Sara’s uncle’s Glock (Sara also took some shots with the rifle before it mysteriously failed to fire), we hit the road again looking for a new sunset spot. It was not to be. And the moral of this story will be “Don’t trust the map on the GPS!” It looked as though the small county road would circle around & come back near the house so all seemed fine. We were able to get a couple nice sunset photos w/ Saturn (I think) in the background & a cool tree in the foreground. It was soon afterwards that things took a turn for the worse.
The road ended as the map showed it would. We took a left as the map suggested we should. We were happy & all was right w/ the world. Then, had we been able to listen, I’m sure we would have heard “Dueling Banjos” from behind a tree. The road was paved for a moment which was a surprise, but after it turned back to dirt, things got weird. The road twisted & turned up the hills & down the hollers through mud & sand in ways the map didn’t suggest. It then became a narrow, 2-track road. Things seemed a bit creepy, & the GPS wasn’t finding us on my phone the way it should have, but we kept going since the map showed that the road looped back to the highway. It was wrong.

I could tell Sara was getting a bit scared, so I kept the GPS situation to myself. I figured that if she thought we had a working map, there wouldn’t be a reason to freak out. So while she was outwardly freaking out, I had to keep my freak out in the inside. I don’t think letting on that we were off the map would have done any good.

After we were chased by a pretty big dog, possibly a Doberman, we came upon another turn, which presented us w/ a couple abandoned cars & a pile of old garbage. On the other side of the road, there was a sign that seemed to have been made by a freaky local, rather than the county road people who are in charge of such things. It seemed to say that the road was a dead end, but that didn’t make sense since the map suggested it wasn’t. The other problem was that over the sign, someone had secured a piece of poster board w/ a strange, rambling paragraph about fur trapping & how God doesn’t want us to use animals that way. I prepared to get a closer look @ the sign, but Sara wouldn’t let me get out of the car. I believe her exact words were, “YOUARENOTGETTINGOUTOFTHISCAR!!!”

By this point, the sun had set, so we were most definitely in the dark.
The darkness shouldn’t have been a problem, but w/o the map, w/o clear visibility, & w/o the certainty of not being approached by some weirdo, we had problems. As we maneuvered around the clutter of rusted out vehicles, we were approached by a pack of mangy spaniels. These spaniels seemed to have perhaps been abandoned out there. They were so creepy. And hungry. And maybe possessed by Satan.

Oh, did I mention, of course, that we needed gas the whole time? I didn’t, but if you’ve ever seen an old horror film, it should be obvious by now that our lack of fuel was also an issue.

She’d never given me such a direct order before, so I figured I better heed the words, as it were. We kept on going through more mud & twisting hills until we came to a fork in the road, or more specifically, a sort of multi-pronged rake. There were no signs, & we were more than uncertain as to which way to go. We chose the center path, but as we skirted around a few more abandoned cars & a couple old RVs which were missing their front-ends, we turned around. Taking a different route seemed rather perilous because we didn’t want to forget from which way we’d come.
From there, we headed back to from whence we came, & presently had to deal w/ all of the previous perils a second time. Of all of our labors, the second coming of those Satanic Spaniels seemed the worst. They were dark in the road so we couldn’t see them but for the head lights reflecting in their eyes. The dogs didn’t seem to want to get out of our way. Maybe they wanted us to play w/ them, but I wasn’t going to find out. In fact, I considered suggesting that she just stepping on it & plow over the dogs. (I should say right now that she didn’t. In fact, as far as I know, all the dogs survived the ordeal.) We finally got around them, & I let on that the GPS hadn’t been working (we had a good laugh). After our little laugh, we headed home.

Home to blow shit up. That’s right folks, after this ridiculous adventure, we were able to light off a shit-ton of fireworks that we’d acquired @ Boomland just east of Sykesville, MO. At Boomland, I also scored a shot glass for my collection & a coon skin cap for Isaiah. A coon skin cap seemed apropos since we’ll be visiting The Alamo this week. Of course, had we met our doom this evening, there would have been no one to remember us the way we remember the Alamo. In fact, there was a moment when I feared a fate worse than the folks @ the Alamo. What I would have given for 188 compatriots volunteering to go down w/ us. They who faced down the guns of Santa Anna have nothing on we who faced down the spaniels of Hell!

The Trip to Texas Post #1

I know you've all been waiting so patiently for the updates from the road. Well, wait no longer! I'm coming to you live from a bookstore in Paris, Texas. A store that has a wifi connection, no less. It's been a great trip so far, & if you stay ntuned, you'll soon get to read about the side trips to Graceland & The Alamo... & me shooting guns & looking @ awesome wildlife (but not shooting guns @ the awesome wildlife). Now w/o further ado, the 1st section of the trip log detailing the drive from Ypsilanti to Texas:

27 December 2011
7:26 – Hit the road: 210 on the tripometer
7:30 – route debate: settled on Toledo to get south of the snow
7:33 - Realized we’d forgotten the trip log notebook
7:35 – Stopped for ice
7:45 – On the road again w/ the Queen/Tom Petty/Randy Newman mix
7:51 – Southbound on US 23
8:10 – Lost the pen
8:13 – Found the pen & desweatered
8:33 – Maumee River
9:30 – Sara woke up but didn’t want to go to the plastic outlet store
9:39 – Got around a boat
9:55 – Stopped for Dee to take pills & wondered if our shifts ever got covered @ Nicola’s
10:00 – Broke out the cookies & starte3d following the Arsenal v Wolves match
10:10 – Learned Gervinio scored… WOOOO!!!
10:54 – Gas in Findlay, OH: $38.00/ 10 gallons; learned Wolves scored… booo
10:56 – Valdalia, OH: I 70 West
11:22 – Inexplicable traffic jam
11:30 – Sara accidently reset the tripometer (it was @ 420)
11:50 – Learned that Arsenal drew 1-1 w/ Wolves
11:51 - Indiana Stateline
11:52 – Traffic jam explained: a semi tipped over in the median; traffic jam ends; rain picks up
11:53 – Rain turns to snow
12:00 – Sara ponders pretzels
12:22 – Crossed the Big Blue River
12:41 – Starbucks mint mocha
12:57 – On the road again
1:17 – Sara talks about quiet moments w/ Bill
1:27 –Big blue colt s. of Indianapolis
1:44 – Looked up Graceland hours & prices
1:53 – Seat belt buckle battle debacle
2:27 – Crossed the Wabash River & said it was flooded & saw it was flooded & it was flooded
2:31 – Illinois state line; Central Time Zone
1:37 – Rest area
2:30 – I57 South
3:36 – Gas @ Circle K: $40.00, 12 gallons, 286.7 miles
5:00 – Adventure in Dognoggle & vicinity
5:22 – Crossed the mighty Mississip… Missouri state line
5:32 – Boomland fireworks store
6:16 – On the road again after cruisin’ the lot for license plates
7:20 – Arkansas state line
7:25 – El Acapulco Mexican Restarasunt in Blytehville, Arkansas
7:40 – Nacho confusion
8:30 – cruising Blytheville looking for a cheap motel
8:35 – Walmart confusion
8:45 – Check in @ Super 8 (rooms were way too hot & didn’t cool down very well)


28 December 2011
8:02 – On the road again
8:15 – Bad ass hawk
8:21 – Bad ass poofy owl
8:34 – Saw a weird ass decorated X-Mas tree on the side of the freeway
8:56 – Cross the old Mississippi again; entered Tennessee; entered Memphis
9:06 – Saw our first green leaves
9:10 – Got to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis, TN
12:30 – Leaving Graceland after a crappy breakfast @ the Rock n Roll Café
13:35 – 3 Near death experiences & gas @ Citgo: $2.93 per gallon/12 gallons/557 miles
12:54 – Mississippi River again; Arkansas again
1:20 – Restroom break
1:37 – Sara: “That’s a weird place to park a car.”
1:38 – Dee: “That’s a weird place to park a duck”
1:40 – Sara begins hunting hawks & we see them every ¼ mile or so
1:55 – Andre begins transcribing the log on his computer for future blogging
1:35 – Andre prepares to close the computer

Thanksgiving Post (part 4)

The trip was fantastic. We had such a good time. Solstice really seemed to enjoy the time spent w/ Jean & Tiffany which makes me happy because I was afraid she was bored. As far as the drive home is concerned, along w/ the licence plated already listed, we saw the following: Illinois, Alaska, Louisiana, Colorado, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, & Nebraska. All in all, 33 states & 1 province. The music on the way back consisted of a nice collection of rock, country, & classical:
Friday -
Allman Brothers: Fillmore Concerts
Grateful Dead: Reckoning
Rachmaninoff (2 times)
Beatles: One
Violent Femmes
Saturday-
Car Talk
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me
Ryan Adams: Ashes & Fire (2 times)
Ryan Adams: Heartbreaker (2 times)
Ryan Adams: Jacksonville City Nights (2 times)
Whitey Morgan & the 78s (2 times)
Phish: Billy Breathes (2 times)

And now for the final installment of the ship's log... enjoy!
10:18 - Depart from Doolin Inn after breakfast
10:26 - Turn on Bond St.
10:30 - Bought cheese @ Kroger's
10:42 - Burger King fries
10:57 - Questioned the news that the new Mars Rover will only talk 8 1/2 months to get to Mars
11:12 - Cheated death*
11:23 - passed the BP from which we got direction the night before... it's called Ron's Market
11:45 - Arch rock adventure on the side of the road**
11:53 - Cumberland Falls State Park
12:05 - Saw a slew of snails
1:30 - On the road again
1:50 - Barn photos 3 & 4
2:20 - Busted out pie
2:44 - City of Berea
2:46 - Bond St.
3:10 - Barn photos 5&6
3:13 - Fort Boonesboro
4:18 - Back on the road
4:20 - Saw a sweet waterfall***
4:30 - Marveled @ stone fences like the stacked ones in Ireland
4:35 - Barn photo 7
5:20 - Killed the cheese
5:25 - Offroading through a Kentucky field to get a sunset photo
5:49 - Realized that the "Franklin Y'all" water tower is actually the "Florence Y'all" water tower.
6:00 - Ohio
6:36 - 1st sighting of gas under $3:00#
7:15 - Gas @ a BP station. #.02 per gallon, $37.00, 1456.8 Miles
8:05 - City of Wapakoneta: Dinner @ Waffle House
8:20 - Toast allergy confusion##
8:50 - Neil Armstrong Museum%
9:50 - On the road again
10:25 - Michigan
11:09 - Home%%


*Turning off if US 27, Sara: "Oh My God, we're gonna die!!!" She almost missed the turn & then may have overreacted a tad.
** We pulled off into a fire station parking lot to see the arch & a huge dog came out of the woods. There was a lot of noise which suggested another huge dog, but it was actually a tiny lap dog. They were funny friends.
*** After turning around on Redneck Blvd.
# In Franklin (not Florence), OH
## Sara had to explain to the server that she isn't actually alergic to toast, but rather to the gluten
% It was closed but we saw stuff outside. Got a picture of me by the Moon thing, but only later realized that a picture of me mooning it would have been awesome
%% Neighbor's Xmas tree confirmation after the little melei that occured a couple weeks ago

Thanksgiving Post (part 3)

Once it became clear that we'd be traveling to Georgia to see Jean & Tiffany, the jump from that to road-tripping through the Smokys to visit Davy Crockett's Birthplace State park became obvious. He was a childhood hero of mine & since then I've always been interested in him. We planned to drive straight north from Jean's, see that, then head up to Kentucky for the night. As it turns out, we got side-tracked by all sorts of other roadside attractions & couldn't make it to the State Park. We also had to nix the drive up US 25W through the 2 mile tunnel that crosses the TN/KY state line @ the Cumberland Gap. It all turned out well though. Here's the log:

8:57 - Departure from Covington, GA*
9:06 - Saw a cop car in an accident w/ a semi
9:13 - passed Booger's Hill Rd
9:15 - Stopped for a photo of a dilapidated old barn for a possible coffee table book of dilapidated old barns. On Rt 81 just before Walnut Grove.
9:15 - Passed McNutts Creek Rd
9:50 - City of Athens**
9:51 - Saw a police escort for some kid carrying a football
10:23 - Gas in Athens: 817.9 miles, $30.00, $3.29 per gallon
10:31 - Unintended adventure via wrong turn (or lack of right turn)
10:39 - Found US 441N after some trial & error
10:50 - Georgia's largest flea market. No one was there. Big let down.***
11:04 - Busted out pie
11:22 - Stopped for 2nd dilapidated barn photo
11:53 - Entering Chattahoochee National Forest
12:00 - Tallulah Point Overlook & hilarious gift shop. We sampled boiled peanuts... gross!
12:40 - Passed huge sign reading "GOATS!"#
12:56 - North Carolina State Line
1:15 - Smoky Mountain Visitors' Center
1:30 - Scottish Tartan Museum in Franklin, NC##
2:35 - city of Cherokee
2:52 - Smoky Mountain National Park
4:07 - Tennessee State Line
4:52 - Hit 1,000 miles (Between Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge)
6:23 - Didn't find a Mexican restaurant
6:45 - Found a Mexican restaurant. Lake City "La Fiesta" exit 129
7:31 - Drove over weird white tarp thing on I75. No damage to the car.###
7:54 - Kentucky State Line
8:05 - Gas in Williamsburg, KY. $3.19 per gallon, $35.00, 1110.3 miles
8:22 - Welcome to Kentucky sign... again???
8:28 - on Rt 90 West towards Cumberland Falls State Park
8:29 - Daniel Boone National Forest
8:53 - Stopped for directions^
9:07 - Mystery animal crossing the road... possible jackalope sighting!
9:20 - City of Somerset
9:30 - Doolin House Inn B&B

* "Smells like Georgia outside"
** A nice looking town, but it lacked a certain musical flair one would expect in the home of REM & Widespread Panic
*** perhaps they were eating leftovers
# "Oh, there's weird shit going on there!"
## Bought a scarf but not Haggis flavored potato chips.
### It may in fact have had something weirder like an animal under it
^ Andre: "This road is really windy & narrow in the dark."
BP Attendant: "Yeah"
Andre: "How far to US 27?
Attendant: "7 miles"
Andre: "Thanks"
Attendant: "Bless your heart"

Thanksgiving Post (part 2)

The holiday went swimmingly. We had a great time; we sat around & did next to nothing all day. I got to kick a ball around for a while w/ Jeanothan for the 1st time in a couple years. We watched WKRP & the Lions game. Good times indeed. And most importantly, after my shower, while wearing my bathrobe, Dan & Elizabeth simultaneously pointed out that I look like Rocky (Cousin Eddie's son in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation). Now, in keeping w/ my archive fever, here's a series of lists referring to get us all up to date.

The Food:Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Corn casserole
Green been casserole
rolls
Cranberries w/ almonds
Cranberry sauce
Cherry Pie
Pecan Pie
Turkey gravy
Mushroom gravy
Portabellas
Wine
Beer

The Music in the car:
Fun Country Mix (skips)
Alt Country Mix
Mother McRee's Uptown Jug Champions
Bob Dylan: Christmas in the Heart
Grateful Dead: American Beauty
Beatles: Abbey Road
Tony Rice: Manzanita
Flying Burrito Brothers: Close Encounters from the West Coast
Miles Davis: Live Evil
Bela Fleck: Perpetual Motion
Glenn Miller: Chattanooga Choo Choo

The Licence Plates:
Michigan
Ohio
Kentucky
Tennessee
Georgia
Florida
Massachusetts
Maine
Indiana
North Carolina
West Virginia
Virginia
California
New York
Pennsylvania
Connecticut
Texas
Mississippi
South Carolina
Oklahoma
Wisconsin
Alabama
New Jersey
Utah

Thanksgiving Post (part 1)

Here's the 1st day's worth of the trip log. We got a small notebook & kept detailed notes of the drive. Enjoy!
6:45 - Leaving Boggs ($3.29 per gallon)*
7:30 - Crossing the Ohio state line
8:40 - McDonalds drive through for breakfast. Sara's eggs were nasty & they screwed up Solstice's coffee.**
10:15 - McDonalds bathroom break*
11:00 - Kentucky state line
11:20 - Franklin, KY water tower: "Franklin Y'all"
12:00 - Lexington, KY Marathon station. 327 miles, $3.25 per gallon*** Sara Takes over driving***
12:30 - crossed the Kentucky River
12:38 - First sighting of a tree that still had leaves on it
12:45 - Mullet confusion
1:35 - looking for a death-defying tunnel. Found the Col. Sander's Cafe & Museum. It has a certain je ne sais quoi
1:55 - Back on I75 via US 25 W
2:15 - got water @ a Shell station on US 25 W
2:29 - Tennessee state line
3:00 - Museum of Appalachia (w/ continuous complaints from Solstice)#
4:00 - Back on I75
4:15 - Constructed chronological list of CDs to which we'd been listening
4:20 - Traffic jam in Knoxville
4:30 - Started eating a block of cheese sans crackers
4:40 - Saw our 1st Georgia licence plate
4:43 - Put away the cheese in order to construct a list of the licence plates we'd seen
5:21 - Traffic jam over
5:29 - Tennessee River in the sunset... beautiful
5:57 - Gas & Dinner @ a BP Station. 20 bucks in the tank. 559.9 miles; $3.19 per gallon. Andre takes over driving again. {{Sara's notes start here}} ("Dinner" seems questionable - "Junk food" is more specific)
6:34 - Chattanooga (w/ scenic overlook we suspect it actually looks nicer after dark w/ the lights of the city & w/o the industrial crap##)
6:46 - Georgia state line
7:27 - Decided against stopping @ Popcorn Haven^
7:33 - Saw sign for peach pie & composed a tongue twister^^
7:45 - Stop @ BP station. Failed experiment w/ a "Dickie's Pecan Roll" (claims of divinity were decidedly exaggerated)
8:25 - Atlanta
9:09 - City of Covington!
9:10 - Discovered Mater juice box under the seat while looking for the pen
9:21 - The Arrival!


* Forgot to get ice
** Conversation @ McDonalds:
Me: "These eggs are undercooked & nasty."
Cashier: "OK. Well remake them & make sure they are well done."
Me: "Just done would be fine. You don't need to go from 1 extreem to another."
*** got ice (& a pen)
# W/ lots of peacocks & chickens
## We apologize for the vulgar language here.
^ 2 nays w/ 1 abstaining
^^ Impecably prepared peaches placed precisely in a perfect peach pie

The Portsmouth Spartans & Other Southern Ohio Oddities

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a little camping trip. I'll be going w/ some old Grad School friends (Brenda, Courtney, & Letitia) to the Shawnee State Park in Portsmouth, OH. I don't know if a pre-trip itinerary is really blog-worthy, but it's been a slim month for Drifting into Deep Water so I'm going w/ it.

I haven't seen Brenda in years. She's coming in w/ her kids from VA later in the afternoon tomorrow. Courtney, who's now living in LA will actually be coming down w/ her kids from Cleveland. Tish & I are both flying solo as it were (w/o kids)so we're riding together. The more direct route is to take US 23 through Columbus & down to the river, but drives don't get much more boring than the one from here to Columbus so we're gonna head down to Cincinnati & then cut east along the river. On the road, we may need to hit the Neil Armstrong Museum in Wapakoneta. You can see it from I75 & I've wanted to stop there for as long as I can remember. How many times have I driven through Wapakoneta? I would guess about 30 times. Other ridiculous tourist traps along the way used to include the giant butter Jesus north of Cincinnati, but I don't think it was ever rebuilt after the untimely lightening strike last year.

A still existing item just north of Cincinnati is, of course, the world's largest horseshoe crab in Blanchester. Why it's in OH & not some place near the ocean where horseshoe crabs are more common, I don't know, but I really like horseshoe crabs, in fact, they're 3rd on my list of top-ten crustaceans, so it might be worth seeing.

Central OH also features many other world's largest stuff, so if we take US 23 home, maybe we'll get to see the world's largest corn field* in Dublin, OH, the world's largest pumpkin in Circleville, OH, & the world's largest apple basket in Frazeysburg, OH. There's also the option of seeing the world's largest cheese wheel, cuckoo clock, crystal ball, or loaf of bread in the great state of Ohio too. ironically, I'll be taking the world's largest trouser snake on a tour of Ohio these next fee days, so if you're in the Portsmouth, OH area & would like a peak, let me know. Admission is a bit on the pricey side, but you won't be let down. Unfortunately, it's a sort of Mystery Spotesque attraction based on a lot of smoke & mirrors.

Oh, & of course, the Portsmouth Spartans... the team that after 2 seasons moved to Detroit & became the Detroit Lions. I hope there's some sort of plaque or statue commemorating the team. If not, we might have to settle for the Indian Head Rock in the Portsmouth/Ironton area before it's given back to its rightful owners... the good folks on the other side of the river in KY.

*As a side note, I'm kind of interested in the people who would go to see the world's largest corn field. It seems like it'd be hard to appreciate it just from standing on the side of the road. You wouldn't really be able to see a whole lot & even if you could, I would think that all large corn fields look the same. However, in Dublin, there's a catch. it's actually a field of giant 6' cement ears of corn. That's worth seeing! Unless, like the trouser snake, they're really just 6" w/ a lot of smoke & mirrors. That'd be a big let down.

Dream Journal #1

I think I have more than the common number of strange dreams, & I love talking about them. These 2 points got me thinking that they would make for a nice change of pace on the blog & get us away from the regularly scheduled soccer posts (except for the fact that one of these dreams is oddly soccer related.

To set up the first one, you must understand that we've been talking about moving next spring to save some cash & get a bit of a more rural lifestyle. W/ that in mind, here's dream #1.

I found a cheap apartment in a complex near campus devoted solely to hardcore Arsenal fans. It had a weird floorplan, but had 3 bedrooms & wasn't too expensive. I moved our stuff in & Stephanie & the kids were going to join me the next day. I'd had a hard time meeting the credentials, but we got the apartment none-the-less. It was then that I was laying in bed (right near the front door) w/ Nick Hornby all snuggled under the covers and looking @ old family photos. Arsene Wenger came in & demanded I fill out extra paperwork for the apartment. I was kind of surprised by his close involvement, but Hornby & I accepted it & I filled out the forms. He read them over & flipped out about the fact that I have kids. He said kids weren't allowed in the complex (equal housing codes aside). I explained that we'd already been approved & that he couldn't make me move out. He also seemed rather interested in the homoerotic moment I shared w/ Nick Hornby (which didn't surprise me as much as the news that broke yesterday linking him w/ a 39 year old female French hip-hop artist).

Most of this dream is pretty weird, but Stephanie has a nice little analysis that suggests Hornby is symbolic of Dan, as we were sharing a blanket & looking @ maps while watching a soccer game a few months ago. Not a bad reading of the dream, it must be said.

In dream #2, we find our fearless hero shopping for a bathing suit while preparing to go on a family vacation. Here we go.

I walk into Sun & Snow, the sporting good store next to Nicola's look for some new trunks. All I could find were Speedos, & the salesperson claimed that's all they carried. I was shocked, but the store was totally void of regular bathing suits. He claimed that no one was wearing them anymore & that Speedos were now all the rage. W/o any other options, I started trying them on.

I woke up before I made any purchases, so I don't know if a Speedo purchase was ever really in the cards, but the more I think about it, the more I think getting a Speedo would be pretty sweet. If it happens, you can be sure there will be plenty of pics.