Chopstork

Guess what. We’ve made it to Cville. The long journey is over. Kind of. We still are homeless. And I’m still jobless. But that’s ok.

Guess who the first people to welcome us to Cville were? Jay and Brooke. How about that? We met up for some drinks downtown. They will be crying home tomorrow after Stanford loses to UVA in men’s basketball.

We made it to New Orleans yesterday, thanks to the kind folks in Sulphur. We walked around the French Quarter last night and got dinner, but the storms made it to New Orleans too, so we were soaked. We found a hotel with plans to get dry, get rest, and go find some music later in the night. But instead we just got dry and got rest…until the next morning. A night in New Orleans wasted. Woops. We’ll make up for it tonight. My friend from high school, Amanda (aka Amanduh), is also going to be here so we’ll have more people to play with.

The good news is, I learned at dinner that if you mix horseraddish with ketchup and hot sauce, it makes cocktail sauce. I had no idea.

You know what’s a bad time to get a flat tire? When you’re 5 hours from where you want to be. You know what else is a bad time to get a flat tire? When it’s already pouring and the storm is still just a brewin’. You know what else is a bad time to get a flat tire? When it’s 8:30 pm and all the tire shops are closed. You know what else is a bad time to get a flat tire? When the spare is in the trunk and your trunk is completely full because you’re moving across the country with all your clothes.

Yeah. So tonight we are in a western Louisiana town called Sulphur, which really does smell like sulfur. The intent was originally to get some dinner, but I ran over something (still don’t know what it was) as soon as I got off the freeway and thirty seconds later the tire was gone. So we hung out at the Citgo for three hours figuring out what my roadside assistance covers, looking for a motel, and waiting for the tow truck. The lady at the station was super nice and helped call up people, complete with the Louisiana, “Baby…” and offering suggestions on where to take the car. We decided to get towed to a motel where we can empty out the trunk tomorrow morning after the storm has passed to put the spare on to go to the tire store to get a new tire. It is going to suck. It has already sucked.

Also, we had to give in and eat at a chain for dinner. Walking around for food was not an option. Wendy’s in Sulphur was out of french fries. How does Wendy’s be out of french fries? And they gave me a complimentary upgrade to large drinks because they were out of lids for medium cups. Oh, and they had a bag of regular grocery store flowery-pattern napkins because they were out of Wendy’s napkins. That is a funny Wendy’s.

Yes, you’re right, I haven’t said anything about the last two days. Just haven’t had a chance to write. I’ll get to it eventually.

Got up at dawn Tuesday to take some pictures at Sunset Crater and Wupatki, just outside Flagstaff. Wupatki has several pueblo ruins that are built on top of rock formations so the inhabitants could look over the desert. We got here early enough that no one else was there, so we got to take our time with the self-guided tour.

A picture Laura took in the Sunset Crater park.

Back in Flagstaff, we had lunch and browsed through a lady’s art studio where her and her husband make animals out of silverware. This is the tortoise assembly line with a sea turtle in the forground:

Then we drove across the painted desert to Albuquerque and then to Las Cruces. The desert is not as desolate as I thought it would be. And the views are nice the whole way, with the pink dirt and cliff formations everywhere. Which made me wonder—do kids that grow up around here think dirt is purple? We think the purple and pink dirt is neat. Do they go to other places and get all excited that the dirt is brown?

I discovered that gas is only 86 octane in New Mexico. They don’t have those accordion plastic things over the gas nozzle either, but I do like that the gas pumps way faster than CA.

Laura noticed that there is a lot more Pepsi in the Soutwest than Coke. The gas stations are stocked full of Pepsi, the restaurants serve Pepsi and have Pepsi cups. What the hell does Pepsi mean, anyway?

The desert in NM was covered in snow too. I wish I’d stopped to take some pictures, but I didn’t want to be driving too late. I thought New Mexico was supposed to be hot. It has Mexico in the name.

We left a town before noon for once! Left Kingman for the Grand Canyon around 8:00am yesterday, in fact. We spent the whole afternoon at the Grand Canyon. It’s pretty grand, that Grand Canyon. I was trying to get some nice pictures, but it was hazy all afternoon and the colors never really popped out.

We drove down to Flagstaff to get dinner and spend the night and ended up downtown. All the trees in the little park were lit up. Kids were sledding down the bank next to the park. Someone was walking a cute dog that he had found, asking people if they knew whose it was, and even called the police to file a report before he took him home. And the AmTrack station, which happened to be across the street, was not sketchy. First impression of Flagstaff is pretty good.

You may have noticed that I am wearing the same fleece in pictures from the last three days. That is because I have been wearing the same fleece for the last three days. I have also been wearing the same jeans. Today may be the day I have to dig a bag out of the trunk for new clothes.

Grand Canyon pictures

Written Sunday night.

Damn, didn’t make it as far as planned again. But we did make it out of California. We’re in Kingman, AZ, a couple hours from Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. We started the day off driving through a deserted Cal Poly and then wandering downtown San Luis Obispo in search of breakfast. I pretty much felt like crap all day. Stopped by bubble gum alley and then hit the road. Rt 58 over the hills from SLO to Bakersfield is pretty desolate, but kind of cool. When I stopped to pee on the side of the road, it was so quiet. It was the most peaceful pee I have had in recent memory. Coming over the ridge for the descent into the central valley (?) was surreal. The hills faded away into a sea of clouds with only tips of the mountains on the other side visible. Except these clouds were smog. It was disgusting.

We stopped at a grocery store in Bakersfield to get some fruits to snack on, water in case we get stranded, and TP in case we have to poop in the middle of the desert. Then we stopped in Bakersfield to get an SD card reader because the camera is almost full. Then we stopped in Bakersfield to eat lunch. Then we stopped in Bakersfield to take a picture of me next to the street with my name. No wonder I felt like Bakersfield was a familiar name—Melissa had taken a picture of that street for me when she was there for business a few months ago. And so the crappy little city of Bakersfield sucked up a good two hours of our day.

Day 2 pictures

Written Sunday morning.

Just a warning: over this trip, my posts might be more like those inane pointless blogs—”OMG, I didn’t have my towel in the shower this morning and got the floor wet, LOL! I hope Jimmy asks me to the prom!” Probably won’t have the energy to make it particularly entertaining.

I still had to pack my clothes in the morning. Packing the car took forever after that. When that was done I was hungry. Lunch time. We had one last San Francisco burrito and took off, bright and early at 2pm. Our original plan was to go down Rt 1 to Santa Barbara, but looking at the map SLO seemed a smarter place to turn inland toward the Grand Canyon. Plus, it was two hours closer.

Four hours later, we were only two hours away—still in the Bay Area, if Salinas counts as the Bay Area. Must have been the stops to take pictures. And the backtracking we did after Monterey when it got dark. We figured why take Rt 1 the rest of the way if it was going to be pitch black with no moon.

We’ve decided that we are going to avoid eating at chain restaurants on this trip. Laura says that plan will be tested today and tomorrow when everything is closed for Christmas. I say that plan will be tested when I find the only other Chic-fil-A in Northern California, which supposedly is in SLO.

We had dinner at Splash Cafe. Laura had a Sun Pizza. The murals in Splash Cafe have a bean shaped dude doing all sorts of stuff. What is this dude? A bean? a waffle maker? a butt crack? Cal Poly’s mascot? Someone from SLO, please enlighten us as to this creatures identity.

Laura says:
this trip is not starting off too well. AJ’s back hurt really bad yesterday. He was tough and only complained a little. He woke up this morning with a fever of 100.8. Shit! I am trying to get him to take Tylenol, but Old Man convinced him that Tylenol makes your fever last longer. My theory is that while this may be true, if you take Tylenol, you won’t feel that bad while it is getting better. Hopefully, AJ will continue to be tough and not complain too much. I am not going to lie to you though, this is not usually the case. AJ is a big baby when he is sick.

Day one pictures

Today was the last time we will wake up in San Francisco in our own home. We are sad.

We’re out of our house. Laura and my stuff is packed away in our two U-Pack shipping containers. Not three, or even four (!?) containers like some naysayers were naysaying as we tetrissed our furniture into them. Luke and Old Man are moved into their new place too. Eli has lost his coveted co-MVP title to the Stanford Dudes, who carried Laura’s heavy-ass bedroom furniture and the kitchen island down the stairs. Did they get Old Man’s TV too? And the A.J. Award for Excellence in Loading goes to Kyle and Courtney, who did the tetrissing. And of course thanks to every one that helped us—it really makes moving a lot easier.

Our friends (you) are the best. They offer to help pack without us even asking. But for the big move, I will ask—wanna help us move? (Saturday, 12/16 9am!).