Seeing Stuff

Santa Fe: expensive, pretty mountains in the distance, met cool people, it snowed

Taos: less expensive, bought a necklace, loved the Rio Grande Gorge, right under/in previously distant mountains, it snowed

Flagstaff: random stop, stayed the night, a bit warmer, hippie mountain town by day, where did they go at night?

Grand Canyon: there's a town up there?, one canyon - two rims, too icy to hike, it snowed on us, coldest camping yet

Sedona: just stopped for coffee, absolutely beautiful scenery, vortexes, changed from 4 layers into just one

Santa Barbara: shorts and bathing suits! amazing beaches, the hike was really pretty and hard, tidepooling, held a little octopus, tot-chos, Bekkah is awesome

San Luis Obispo: St. Patricks day, stopped for coffee, everyone was drunk, less touristy, mountains, beaches, college town, gotta go back

San Francisco: went to tiny dark bars to hide from trashy St. Patty's day partiers, walked a lot, saw uncle Tom, who knows what tonight has in store for us

tomorrow: Berkeley then Sacramento to see Darwin! Then farming in Northern Cali, then farming in Portland, OR, then driving back home, then Panamaaa! I might update.. sometime.

Doin' Stff

I'm still alive. Very much so. I've been away from the internet for quite a while, which has been great.

Austin, TX was a lot of fun. Driving from Austin to the Guadalupe Mountains was really funny and weird. Backpacking on the Guadalupe Mountains was the hardest thing I have ever done but so worth it. Sante Fe is expensive but I love the mountains and native art. I'm looking forward to Taos.

I'm at the public library in Sante Fe now, which is why I have to be brief and now my time is almost up. If we get free internet in Taos I'll update more and add pictures. If not, it'll have to wait til Santa Barbara, after the Grand Canyon.

Out of the Woods, into New Orleans

We hiked and slept in the Alabama woods and survived! I know we all had our doubts but Caitlin and I have proven ourselves on the Pinhoti trail as capable mountain men. We got to Cheaha State Park at 9:30 pm, which is much, much later than we wanted to be there. We had to hike in the dark to find a place to camp on the trail. Packing our bags and bundling up in the howling wind on top of the pitch black mountain was a lot scarier than the actual hike. We found a free spot not even 10 minutes into the trail and we sang "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha to scare off any bears. But it was sooooo cold at night and our tent was on a slant so we kept sliding to the bottom of the tent.

The hike the next day was gorgeous and made the incredibly uncomfortable night totally worth it. We found a great site to camp along the way and that night we brought 3 blankets and wore many more layers. We made a fire and heated up a can of soup on the Pocket Rocket. It was still cold that night but much more comfortable.... cozy, even. We actually slept for 13 hours.

Now we are in New Orleans! We're staying with Lizz, Erika, Dov, Dom, and other room mates and visitors. We went to Lizz's friends' house last night where we ate delicious homemade vegan curry and watched an enthralling game of Dungeons and Dragons. Tonight I think we will experience the better known side of New Orleans.

Its hard to fit all the things you want and need to do into only one full day in each destination. We're in New Orleans for two full days (til Thursday), which is a nice change from the other places we've been and will be. Maybe I'll actually get my pictures on a website for all of you to see. For now, just be content with these teasers.

Southern Hospitality

Nashville, TN! We've made it south and its niiiiiice. No snow on the ground, finally.

We're in the Nashville Public Library after a day of exploring the city by foot. Our first stop was the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. Instead of paying to actually go in and see things we just went to the gift shop. Then we walked to Centennial Park to see an exact replica of the Parthenon. Very cool from the outside but, again, we didn't pay to go in. On the way back we did pay for a big bottle of vodka because we know what's important.

The drive from Pittsburgh to Nashville was long and I lost a couple of my marbles. We've been eating very well but still decided that we deserved meat and cheese. So we bought lunch meat from Target in Columbus and it tasted really weird. I guess that's what we get for not eating our granola bars.

We're staying with Walker and Cara about 10 minutes outside of downtown Nashville and they have shown us more southern hospitality than I've ever seen. Tonight we're going out with them to celebrate their friend getting a book published. Cara said last time she went to this bar she saw Jack White! I'm trying not to get my hopes up... but after John Waters came to our going away party I feel like he should know what's up.

Tomorrow morning we drive to Alabama to hike/camp/backpack? the Pinhoti Trail. We still don't have an address or a real plan but I'm excited for our first hike. And scared to be in Alabama during hog hunting season!

The library is about to close but I'll upload pictures...

This is when the library turned off the internet. Now Saturday and we're at the library near Walker and Cara's house, about to leave for Alabama. Quite exciting!

Pittsburgh

We're about to leave Pittsburgh, our first stop.

We got here Tuesday night at 9:45... about 5 hours after we wanted to get here because we didn't get going until 5 instead of noon. Typical. I also got lost on the way from Baltimore City to Glen Burnie. These things made for an appropriate start to our road trip.

Pittsburgh has been a lot of fun. We're staying with Joe and Alisa (happy birthday, Alisa!) and have also gotten to see a lot of Meredith and Trevor because they live nearby. Lil' Saint is wonderful and crazy, of course. He wanted to play all night while I was trying to sleep.

Yesterday Joe, Caitlin, Butters, and I explored downtown. Lots of crazy architecture. Future past!

On to Walker in Nasvhille, TN now.

Oh you a Kitten Face

I am so freaking excited to see this guy! I get to see him (Lil' Saint), Joe, and Alisa on our first stop - Pittsburgh, PA. Too bad Chris can't come and make it like old times in the Fortress.

I'm leaving on a road trip, don't know when I'll be back again

The time is almost here. On February 23rd Caitlin and I are embarking on our roadtrip across the country and in May we'll go to Panama until the end of September.

So this is where I'll update all of you on what we're doing.

5 days!! AH!