3 Months on the Road

Saturday, April 21, 2007
Approaching 3 months... Current mood: optimistic Category: Parties and Nightlife
We made it to California today. I can't believe I have been on this trip for almost 3 months and I still have money :) We spent a couple of nights in New Mexico, a couple of nights in Arizona with my high school pal, and, sadly, a couple of nights in Las Vegas :) I think we are both just ready to be home at this point. We had a fun mud-bogging trip in New Mexico. We decided to visit what was labeled a "ghost town" on the map. It had snowed and it was warm and the road to the town was dirt... or rather mud due to the melting snow. We were going along fine until Jody stopped the car so we could talk to some cows standing along the road. They were cute, very friendly, but didn't speak English unfortunately. Once we started back up the road was pulling us all over and Jo was cranking the wheel while we basically slid sideways down the road. He cranked the wheel right and left but to no avail. We REALLY thought we were going to bite it. Many times in fact. Once we were going we didn't want to stop again for fear we would sink. Suddenly Jo noticed something coming down the one-lane mud trail; it looked as if it had pulled out of a driveway... so as we were freaking out wondering what we would do we noticed it bobbing up and down... "is it a horse?" I asked... a minute later we had our answer as a young cow came bounding down the road directly at us. It was hilarious. We honked the horn before it barreled into us and it stopped but that didn't help much. So Jo honked again and it took off into the brush. It was rather amusing.
After spending a couple of days with my friend Joel I think I have decided to head home, gather some goods and head back to Sedona for the summer. He lives in a house with 2 couples, one of which owns the house and they were all very welcoming and chill. They have a rather pleasant communal living arrangement or at least it appears pleasant from a spectators perspective. In any case, Sedona is beautiful. Being there made me feel a bit like I felt on Pollap; it was odd. I don't know if it was Sedona or the people I was with; but life just seemed slow and less serious there. Things that should be irrelavant really felt irrelevant while I was there. So, changed plans again, no surprise there.
Now I am scrambling to see my pals and get Jody home before he kills someone :) He is ready to be home I think. I think I am ready for home for a few days too. Ready to be settled for a spell. Sadly, I missed some PC friends in Texas and I missed some friends of a friend too due to my poor poor planning. We just up and go a lot. I am thankful for those I have been able to connect with though... it's been a grand ride and the best may be yet to come! I love the PACIFIC!!!

From Myspace Blog

Thursday, April 12, 2007
Changes
Current mood: restless Category: Travel and Places
We up and decided to leave Louisana. We worked for the duration of Kentwood's cleaning project and gave the temp agency 2 days and they came up with nothing. So I did some very uncharacteristic sweet talking and got money back from the campground and we packed up and left. It had been rainy our days off, so we spent a lot of time sitting in the car. It had become rather miserable and I am not real sure what the hell we were thinking. We decided it was all Crappy's fault, Jo's friend who was in the fair at Hammond when we originally got there. We went there to see her, got to know the town and said what the heck and just stayed. When we should have ventured out more and searched for other options. Anyway, the minute we decided to go I could feel tension and miserableness leave us both. It was a good decision. Before we left we went exploring the French Quarter in New Orleans and also drove through some of the wreckage from Katrina. It's quite amazing the mess that is still there. I know I went on about this in one of my blogs already, but truly, I can't believe it is still so bad...
Anyway, now we are in Texas. Dallas. Staying with a friend of Jo's. We aren't staying long as I have made plans to visit my pal from high school in Sedona Arizona on Monday. I am really excited to see him and we are both excited to cross New Mexico and Arizona. Today we bummed around and drove through Dallas after nightfall... and wow. The skyline is incredible. I was in awe. I have always loved Chicago's skyline and all I could think was "way cooler than Chicago". All the buildings were outlined in Christmas lights in different ways. One was completely outlined in green, another had blue criss-crossing the building, one had a ball of clear lights on its roof... it was really something.
Enough for now. I need to hit the sheets so we can leave again tomorrow... decidedly, my favorite thing on this trip is leaving :)
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Saturday, April 07, 2007
Work and Weekend Fishing
Current mood: contemplative Category: Travel and Places
I think Jo is going to blog again soon, that's ok, I am going to also. We worked Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at Kentwood Springs Bottled Water plant. We both kind of hate it and both wish we could work on the line or else zip around on the dozen forklifts they have in the warehouse. Friday wasn't so bad though; I didn't do a lick of cleaning but instead made airplane boxes all day. Everything is automated at this plant; it is an amazing process to observe. Cardboard boxes are loaded into a machine and made up automatically. Bottles and caps are also hand loaded. I am not sure where the water comes from, but I do know bottles are filled automatically. Palletization is also automated and forklift drivers must take the pallets as fast as they are produced. It's cool. The people there seem to like us and talk to us a lot. The warehouse guy was telling me that people have changed since Katrina; he says they don't care as much and aren't as friendly. I noticed that while people here are very friendly, they seem preoccupied and not real interested in outsiders. The woman at our campsite told me this state is crooked and all the fema money didn't go to help the people so people are distrustful (sounds like Chuuk!). She doesn't know where it went. I don't know, this is just what she says, so who knows. My only opinion is the above one; ppl are friendly, just rather absent when conversation gets too personal or deep. Maybe I will develop an opinion as to why this is at some point.
So we were/are happy for the weekend; except its FREEZING. Tonight's low is supposed to be 37; makes camping FUN. Today we bought a one day fishing license, donned hats and scarves and went and sat in 58 degree fishing weather. I have to laugh at us in our hats and scarves when I know that 58 at home would bring out the shorts. We are weatherized down here already. We did catch some fish though, but not enough to cook so we threw them back. It was fun though and we are learning a lot about fishing down here. Crickets are big for bait.. but we seem not to be able to get into using them. We bought a bag and drove around with them on the dash. When we went fast they went crazy hopping against the bag. I just sat there, staring at this bag of 25 crickets while Jody laughed. Then when we slowed down they started to sing and stopped jumping around. It was weird. I was like, "ok, our new pets". We ended up trying one and letting the rest go. "Free Jimminy". Whatever. We met a cute puppy today too named like Star Dancer or something. I can't remember... Star something. It was just a pup and so frisky; it was fun. I miss mom's cats :( Off to watch a movie and snuggle in to my sleeping bag. Happy Easter tomorrow ya'all :)

Katrina

We are staying in tents at what used to be a KOA. They have a nice pond, which they call a lake (I am sure Jo mentioned this; as well as the locness monster, which I did also see), great showers, a small kitchen area, and a pool. We also, for a fee, have wireless access. We are about 20 miles north of New Orleans and on our way here we drove through Gulf Port. I was startled by the mess left by Katrina. Stupidly startled. Because the world is strange and while the news often gives us blurbs on how the Katrina area is still a mess its like we don't register it or something. Or at least I don't/didn't. I wasn't in the states during Katrina, but I did hear about it and saw coverage and am still hearing the gripes about it in regards to the Bush administration and their stand up job of running the country. But to really see it... wow. And I didn't even see the worst of it. What we did see was like a ghost town. I was so not thinking that I was concerned we might have been in a not so good neighborhood. It was all so deserted and run down. But then I started to see the heaps of rubble and the still standing buildings with electrical wires hanging down like cobwebs and the debris along the shore and realized we were in Katrina territory.
Back to our campsite... the day we checked in the woman at the desk told us that all the rv's were Katrina related... still and this far away from New Orleans (it is about a 40 minute drive). Yesterday, a different woman told me that only two of the rvs belong to families devasted by Katrina and she said those families are not going back. I wonder where they will go. She said the rest of the rvs belong to insurance claims people and the like, maybe ppl working to build back NO. She said a lot of people left, which would explain why every retailer, restaurant, and fast food place is hiring I guess.
Speaking of which, we worked today through a temp agency. We worked at a bottled water factory. They spent the last 6 months putting in a new line and hired temps to clean. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Jody and I worked in two different areas and both of our "supervisors" discussed hiring on as full time employees. I didn't really enjoy the cleaning, but I loved watching the machinery of the place... it was the most automated plant I have ever been in and I am quite sure I would enjoy the line much more than the cleaning. I think Jo agrees. We go back Thursday for more sweeping and mopping; strange to think someone would want to hire a person to run their equipment based on how well a person sweeps and mops... huh.

Jody and I are blogging together on myspace. If you are on myspace, please add us and subscribe to our blog (I just copied this one from there and I probably always will but you may want to read what he so eloquently has to say). The addy to the blog is http://blog.myspace.com/travelusa