Canada

I woke up Friday morning to eggs, potatoes, bacon, toast and Canadian bacon. Not the Canadian bacon we have in the states, this is a big piece of meat that has corn meal around the outside and is quite delicious. My grandma and I drove around London, with her showing me all of the town attractions, Western Ontario University, Robert Q, where she used to work, many Tim Horton's ( A Canadian donut shop that is as common here as a McDonald's or Starbucks is in America) and to a nursery. The nursery was fun, it was pretty large and there were a lot of canadian's walking around. I think my grandma felt bad that she didn't have anything to show me, but it was fun to just drive around and see and hear other canadian people. I don't think my grandparents have too much of an accent, but many other people do, I heard an “I'm not sure aboot this” and an “eh” which made me happy.

I spent the rest of the day sitting outside reading and talking with my grandparents. For dinner we had Ribs, salad, rice and corn fritters. My mom informed my grandma that I am very picky and that I only eat chicken and rice. This is not true at all, when I am at my own house cooking myself food, I normally eat chicken, rice and veggies, but only because its easy and healthy and can be varied from night to night by altering only the sauce.

Along with the records for my grandpa my mom had a tube of ointment that I was supposed to bring. I hadn't looked at it before I left and gave it to my grandma. Unlike normal ointment that says something like “apply to affected area”, this ointment says “Apply to thumb” and my grandma had no idea why it was there.

My grandparents dogs all eat real suppers, not dog food, they get rice and some kind of meat either pork or chicken. My grandma makes this for them every night. My grandma puts each of their suppers on a plate and in a specific spot on the floor, they all know where their spot is and they sit there and wait for their food. I think they might be the luckiest dogs in the world.

The glass in the beer bottles here is much thicker than at home and people bring them back to be cleaned and reused. They also have a different shape and the first few drink make a “glug, glug glug” sound.

Saturday I woke up at 7:15 am to head out to garage sales with my grandparents. We drove all over looking at different stuff, which was mostly junk, unless you are looking for baby things, which neither my grandparents nor myself have any interest in. The only thing I was looking for was a carry on bag with rolling wheels but the only one we found got bought 30 seconds before we got there! My grandma bought a vinegar holder for $.50 which is like $.42 in America. Great deal!

Then we went and my grandpa rented a large moving truck for a record sale/show on Sunday. He has an enormous record collection, more than most stores probably.

Sunday my grandma and I went to a Bingo in the next town. I haven't played real bingo at a hall probably ever. I used to go with my mom when I was little, but I wasn't legally allowed to play at that time because I wasn't 18. I bought a book of 9 squares per game. It's amazing how good all of the old ladies are, with so many squares, my grandma (not saying that she is an old lady, just saying) had 21 squares and she could check hers and then look at mine before I was done with my lowly 9 squares. They have all kinds of games, single line, double line, sputnik, a 7, an L, a T, and many fill in the entire board. We got a value pack that let us play almost every game with the exception of one game where people from many different bingo halls across the province all play at the same time. The winner of that game was in OUR bingo hall and she won almost $9000!!! The game is mostly luck with a little bit of skill involved, to make sure that you don't miss any number that is called. I would routinely miss squares and my grandma would help me. I never won, I never even came close. If there was a prize for having the least number of numbers called, I probably would have won everytime. My grandma on the other hand came very close to winning several times and did in fact win once.

After that we went and met up with my grandpa at his record sale/show. They were all setup behind a record store and there were a decent number of people selling records there, my grandpa appeared to me to have the most. Maybe I was just delusional but it sure seemed that way to me. It was a beautiful day outside and it seems like he sold a good amount of records. Tomorrow I am heading across town to my Aunt and Uncles house to stay for a few days.

Across the Border

I woke up Thursday morning at 7:15 to pack my stuff up and to get out of Scott's house by 7:30 when he had to leave for work. I decided that I wasn't ready to head out quite yet so I climbed into my car, reclined my seat and took a little nap until around 9am when I was more awake and ready to leave. I have various food items with me in my car to make my trips less expensive and I ate a granola bar with my water that I refill at fast food restaurants at their self serve soda fountains. I only take water, which they offer for free, not soda. I have drink packets that I can then add to the water if I want some flavor and sugar.

I had planned two stops to see attractions along the way, but I didn't end up going to see either. In truth I couldn't find the first one and I missed the turnoff for the second one. I did stop at Michigan State University, to drive around the campus and look at the stadium where they play basketball and the one where they play football. Both were only slightly larger than the ones my college had.

When you cross over into Canada they have toll booth style thing that you drive up to and give them your passport and they ask you questions. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

Customs Agent: Where are you headed?
Me: My Grandma's house
Customs Agent: How long will you be there?
Me: 10 days
Customs Agent: Where does she live?
Me: In London, here is her address (I showed him my Google maps directions)
Customs Agent: How much money are you bringing with you?
Me: I had $2 in my wallet, but I just used that at the toll booth to get over here, I do have some change in my ash tray.
Customs Agent: How do you plan to pay for things while you are here?
Me: I have credit cards and ATM cards.
Customs Agent: What are you bringing with you.
Me: (While looking around my car) Some clothes, some snacks, some books, a tent, my trash from lunch.

He wasn't very friendly, to say the least. Most cars then drive off into Canada, but apparently my answers or my look made him think I was a terrorist so he made me drive to this special place over to the right. Once there I was instructed to get out of my car, walk to the front and pop the trunk. Unfortunately I don't have a “pop” on my trunk, so I had to do it for them, as well as opening all of my doors, since I do not have power locks. Inside my trunk are records that my mom asked me to bring to my grandpa and I had forgotten to tell them about. They inquired how much they were worth, and I told them the truth, that I had no clue, but I couldn't imagine much since they were 1970's pop albums. After the searched the car, inside everything, they made me go inside to talk to another customs official.

The guy inside asked me the same questions the toll booth guy had asked me and this guy didn't have a sense of humor either. He didn't want to hear my stories, but I didn't know how to answer his questions without stories. Eventually they let me go back to my car and continue into Canada, but it certainly wasn't a warm welcome.

I did get my warm welcome once I made it to my grandparents house though. They live in London, with their 5 friendly dogs. We spent the night talking, telling stories and watching TV. I got to watch my basketball in Canada as well, I am quite spoiled. For dinner we had grilled chicken, grilled potatoes, salad and bread, it was all very good.



Customs Booths

Bridge to Canada

Michigan State Football Stadium

Welcome to Michigan

Smiley Face Water Tower

Canada Here I Come!

I left Saint Louis this morning heading toward Saint Louis with plans to stop for the night in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Before leaving I checked out my favorite travel website, Roadside America at http://www.roadsidetamerica.com/ and found some fun places to visit along the way.

My first stop was in Vandalia, Illinois where there is a replica of the Saint Louis Arch only smaller and with advertising for the Travelodge. It is still rather large though, just not as large as the real thing. Also in Vandalia is a Madonna of the Trail. "A recurring piece of public statuary stands in twelve locations from Maryland to California, tracing a historic travel route from "covered wagon days." The statue is the Madonna of the Trail, an 18-ft. tall tribute to the pioneer mothers who traveled west with their crazy husbands." The statue is at the Vandalia capital building. Vandalia used to be the capital of Illinois from 1819 - 1939. Which happens to be the time that Lincoln was in the state legislature and so inside of the capital building they have pictures and plaques of everything that Lincoln wrote or touched during the time that he was there. There was also a bronze statue across the street, that looked a lot like a Ronald Mcdonald statue, I wanted to get my picture sitting with Abe but there wasn't anything around to set my camera on, so Abe didn't get to have his picture taken with me.

Then I drove by the Worlds Largest Cross, and I was going to stop but figured I would get the best possible picture from the highway, so I kept going. In truth I was worried there would be some burly truckers handing out pamphlets.

My next attraction was the "House of Bells" which is 6 miles from the highway on various back country roads. Its basically someone's house who has collected a lot of large bells. I believe many of them are nautical bells, otherwise I don't know why there would be so many. I suppose they could be from churches as well. There was a sign up saying that "people are monitored and that thefts will not be tolerated". If a theft is tolerated, then is it still a theft or is it you giving that item to someone else? Or do you just think to yourself, maybe I shouldn't have so many bells outside? It was fun though and I can see how people would collect so many of one thing. When I was in highschool, I said I liked goats one day and then everyone thought they were my favorite and that I wanted goat everything. Does a person really need 25 stuffed goats, goat trinkets and a goat painting?!!? Though I do still have the goat painting that Matt made for me, it's quite good and humorous.

My final attraction of the day was a "Gravity Hill". This is where you think one way is up but in fact another way is up, so that gravity appears to wrong. On this hill you can drive your car, put it in neutral and it will seem to roll up hill. The directions say to drive to the end of a road, turn around and drive 1 mile and then find it. Unfortunately after getting lost and lots of slow driving I was not able to have any down hill pull me up or have my car roll up any uphill. Someone who knows where it is needs to provide a better description than, 1 mile from the end of the road.

Tonight I am staying in Fort Wayne, Indiana with a guy that I met on http://www.couchsurfing.org/, where people offer up their couch or floor to sleep on for free. After looking at the expense that staying at a cheap $30 motel adds, I decided to give couchsurfing a try. I'm staying with, Scott a software engineer here in Fort Wayne who seems like a really nice guy. He recently moved here from Chicago and offered to let me sleep on his floor in the living room, he doesn't yet have a couch. We went and grabbed some beer and pizza in downtown Fort Wayne for dinner. It seems like a nice, small, very quiet town.

Tomorrow I cross the border and into the Great White North.

Back to Saint Louis

Tuesday I headed toward Hoover, Alabama, where my cousin on my Dad's side lives. Shortly after crossing out of Florida into Georgia, I passed the $3 bookstore again and this time it was open. I went inside and it was very disorganized. The lady explained that they had just gotten new carpet and had not yet had a chance to unbox all of their books, but if I wanted to help they would pay me 1 book a day. They had a lot of former library hard cover books and a lot of religious books, but I was just browsing and have plenty of books for now, so I just looked around and then left.

I passed the Talledega Speedway, which I wouldn't care about or probably even know about if it weren't for Talledega Nights starring Will Ferral.

I stopped at a Mcdonalds to use their wi-fi and take a break and they are now charging for it at some locations. The rate to use the Wi-fi is $3 for 2 hours which didn't seem too terrible to me, not that I was going to pay it. Then I looked at the Redbox and there a movie can be rented for $1 for 24 hours. If you can rent a whole movie for $1 and keep it for a day, the internet at $3 for 2 hours seems pretty expensive in comparison.

My cousin and his new wife, less than 2 years I believe, have just moved into a new home and it is very nice. They have their bedroom on the main floor along with a workout room, laundry room and kitchen. Upstairs they have a guest bedroom, decorated better than any bedroom was in my condo, and a room for him and one for her. His has video games and movies, hers has painting stuff. The house is different than any house that I have ever lived in because the front of the house doesn't have a driveway, instead there is a street both in front and behind the house and the back street is where the driveway and garage are. We went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant where the waiters wear white tuxedo's that look like they are made from white table cloths. It was very reasonably priced considering they wear tuxs'.

Wednesday as I was leaving Alabama to enter Kentucky I saw a giant Space Rocket on the other side of the road, so I quickly turned off at the exit to check it out. As I was driving I discovered that the only way to get to it was to get back on the highway heading the direction I had come from and to get off at a rest area/welcome center where it was located. Of course I did this and it was a Saturn 1B Rocket that was 224 feet tall.

I'm heading to the Lake of the Ozarks on Friday for Memorial Day Weekend and I will update again at that time.

Key West Weekend

My knees have really started to feel better, I went for a bike ride while Yvonne ran, and it made me want to run, I don't think they are ready for that but they are definitely getting better. There are still times when they become very sore, but overall they are healing.

The German dancing earlier in the week prompted Yvonne to want to have a German Beer Fest/Barbecue. On Friday while everyone was at work, Nina and I went to the store and bought beers, sangria, brats(sausages, as the German's call them), hot dogs, chicken, pork, veggies to grill up (Yvonne is a vegetarian), 4 loaves of garlic bread(I mention 4 loaves because Yvonne had instructed to get 5 loaves, and there was only supposed to be 10 people at the get-together. I guess she really likes garlic bread, but there was plenty and it is delicious), salad and many more things. They had instructed their friends to come at 8pm and no one got there until around 9pm, I guess its a south Florida thing to do everything so late, but it just made me hungry. I manned the barbecue while the girls prepared the cold food. It is pretty hard to barbecue in the dark, but everything turned out pretty well.

Friday night we went out to where all the clubs are in Fort Lauderdale. I'm not sure if it was because of the weather, because people had heard I was coming, or some other reason, but the bars and clubs were all very empty, so we didn't stay long and made an early night of it. We had big plans for Saturday.

Saturday Yvonne woke Nina and me at 8:30 to get ready to go to Key West. We helped clean up from the night before and Yvonne made left over grilled veggies with eggs. She put Italian seasoning in the eggs, which was different and interesting, I'm pretty sure she carries around a shaker of that stuff with her and puts it on everything.

On the way down to Key West by car one has to drive over many islands and bridges. There were a ton of cars and people everywhere, there was a 100 mile relay going on that day so it was slow moving watching out for people running everywhere. I'm not sure how big the teams were but the people looked to be working very hard and that also looked like a good time. We stopped at Bahia Beach State park and the water there is so pretty and blue and clear and the weather was amazing. I sat in my usual shade chair while the girls laid out and then I laid down on the sand and covered myself with a towel to keep the sun off of me. Everyone always laughs at me but later when they are sore and red and peeling, I get my revenge. We walked around the island shooting pictures and goofing off. Yvonne has a Digital SLR camera and a tripod and a fancy camera bag she carries with her. Looking at her pictures compared to mine, you can definitely tell the difference, makes me want to have a nice camera, but I don't want the extra size of the larger camera and the hassle of the tripod, it is nice though.

In Key West we booked the absolutely cheapest room available $150 for a Motel with 1 twin and 1 double bed. The twin bed reminded me of college, at least this room was large enough that they didn't have to loft the bed. Normally I would think the room was plenty good enough, but that's when I'm paying $30 a night not, $150, but I guess that's what you pay in Key West, especially on a Saturday when the town is full of people. To quickly jump ahead to Monday night, I am staying in a $30 motel that is so cheap, they keep the tv remotes in the office in baskets marked, “Zenith”, “Samsung” etc and they have a list they use to determine which type of tv your room has. There is also no phone or clock and you can see on the wall where they used to have pictures screwed in. I'm okay with this though, save the money and pass on the discount to me. I was going to stay at a campground but it was $22 and for a bed, air conditioning, my own shower, tv and the ease, I think it was $8 well spent.

Back to Saturday and Key West, after checking in we headed to Malory Square where everyone goes to watch the sunset and street performers try to impress. They are all so practiced with their “talents”be it tight rope walking, fire breathing, juggling, or pretending to be a machine. Mostly though their talent comes in the form of talking up their talents and trying to draw people in. It's a game of numbers and the more people you start with, the more people you draw in and the more people that are left at the end to give a donation, they recommend $5 per person is a measly amount for anyone and less than a margarita.

The nightlife in Key West takes place on Duvol Street where there are plenty of clubs, bars, restaurants and shops. We headed down the street popping in and listening to the various types of music playing and settled into a bar that had a guy playing guitar. As soon as we sat down he stopped playing and steel drums were setup. The man who was to play the steel drums looked like he was from Jamaica and I believed that he was until I heard him talk while setting up his drums and you could tell that he was from America. That is until he starts to perform and then he had a great Jamaican accent. He was definitely a showman jumping and singing and having a good time “Mon”.

Sunday we went to the famous “Most Southern Point in the United States”, accompanied by the “Most southern house in the United States”, “Bar”, “Hotel” and anything else that could play off that idea. The only problem is that on all of the maps of Key West that we saw it didn't appear to be the furthest south point, but who am I to argue with a giant painted concrete thing. We walked around some more, found some fun shops, had some drinks and then headed back towards Fort Lauderdale.

As we were driving back we decided to wait to eat dinner until the sun was close to setting so we could see the sunset while we ate. I have no idea how these girls do it but they only eat 2 times a day. I walk around with a backpack full of snacks that I'm constantly munching on! We found a restaurant on the Gulf and had some amazing views.

Monday morning, I said goodbye to Yvonne and her roomates for a great week in South Florida, and then went back to bed. They had to leave for work at 7am and I had no intentions of going anywhere at that time! I'm currently heading back to the Saint Louis area for Memorial Day weekend.

I have decided that I want to learn to ride a motorcycle, skateboard, wind surf, hang glide and make a good faith effort to learn a language other than english.

At the Beach Part 2

I went back to the beach on Wednesday to another beach to meet up with a Swiss girl who was in Florida for 10 weeks taking English classes and is now spending one week relaxing in Florida before she has to go back to Switzerland. Nina (another friend of Yvonne's, visiting from Germany) and I went to the beach and parked in the middle of the beach to try and find the Swiss girl. She didn't know exactly where she was, just near a volleyball net. I asked where a net was and was told it's a 15 minute walk down the beach so Nina and I set out with our backpacks, large cooler and my sun chair. We weren't sure we were going the right way so we kept backtracking and it ended up taking us around 40 minutes but we finally found her being burnt badly by the sun. She had been out there with no shade since 9am, I imagine she is very sore today. I know my forehead is very red from walking for 40 minutes without the cover of my shade chair even with 50 spf.

The Swiss girl told us that when she was at the beach earlier in the week there had been two women swimming in the ocean and then a shark fin popped up and they sprinted out of the water screaming. Her friend took a picture of the terrified women and posted the picture on Facebook. Unfortunetly I have been unable to locate this picture online.

When we got back to Yvonne's she was already home from work and was making us "Yvonne's Pasta" it was very very good, it had pasta, zucchini, pumpkin seeds, and other stuff I'm not really sure but it was delicious. Then we went off and took a Salsa Dancing class. To my suprise it was very fun and I had a really good time. The way this place is setup is very clever. They have many different levels and the first week everyone is level 1 and then most people go to level 2 where you would learn 5-10 more moves. Then to level 3 and so on and the classes are always the same, so if you miss a few weeks you are never behind, you simply relearn the moves you forgot until you know them well again and can move on to the next level.

We spent the rest of the night listening to Spanish to German Translations and Yvonne then translated the German to English for me.

Something that I think is very strange is that in America we call Germany, Germany but the German people call it Deutschland. It is like this everywhere, the people of China do not call their country China, they call it something else. I think this is strange becasue I do not call Yvonne, Mary in English, because it's not her name, so why would I call Deutschland Germany?!?!

At the Beach

I spent all of Tuesday laying at the beach drinking beer and reading, it was very relaxing and beautiful. You have to pay to park in the beach parking lot and it is $1.75 per hour at a machine. As I was going to put my only $4 into a machine, a guy drove up behind me and told me he would sell me time for the rest of the day for $5. I showed and told him that I only had $4 left and he said never mind, so I turned around to put my money in the machine and he stopped me again and said $4 would be enough. Apparently he is a resident of Fort Lauderdale and pays a yearly flat fee and then can purchase as much time as he wants and was looking to make some quick money. It worked out for both of us and I unknowingly bartered him down to $4.

I brought my sun shielding beach chair with me, that was met with the usual stairs and smirks because I'm seemingly the only one out there hiding in the shade, covering my legs with a towel for extra safety. I felt the water and it was warm, so I decided to go in. On my way to the water, I saw a couple taking pictures of each other and I offered to take a picture of them together. They allowed me to but suggested that I go back in the shade, because I'm so white. The water was nice and swimming didn't hurt me knees at all and it felt good to do a little exercise.

I am starting to feel fat, very fat. Before I left for my trip I gained a little weight because I was worried of losing too much and then during my hike I ate a lot and as often as possible to keep my weight up. Since I left after only 3 weeks I never had a chance to start losing weight and my inactivity since returning has only increased the problem. I'm starting to look like a white Buddha.

I spent the rest of the night at Yvonne's house watching her and her friend Nina dance to many German beerfest songs, all of which they said were nonsense and all of which had special dance moves everyone does.

And the Rocket Takes Flight

The space shuttle was scheduled to leave at 2:01pm East Coast time. The information I gathered suggested to arrive an hour early, but I left my hotel in time to get to Space View Park (The closest a person can get without a press pass, tickets, or a boat) by noon. I got to the area and was following the directions for a back way to get to the park that I found online, unfortunately it appeared as if I wasn't the only one with these same directions, so I turned off the route and found a nearby place to park. As I was walking toward the park, I found a field near the water that was nearly half full of people sitting in chairs waiting already. This was NOT Space View park, but it was close and it was filling up, I was worried that if I went to Space View park it would already be very full and then by the time I got back to this spot it would already be full itself, so I settled in under the shade of my folding chair with a built in canopy, for whitey white people like me.

There were lots of people with Big fancy camera's with 300x and above zooms. My camera has a 3x zoom, a drastic difference. I sat there and read and ate some Subway I had picked up while people filed in. The day was perfect, sunny and warm. There was some confusion amongst people as to which was the actual tower to watch. There are currently three towers, two had shuttles in them and there was a third tower that was blinking. The blinking tower is currently under construction. The other two towers both had shuttles in them because if the shuttle that takes off today had any problems, the other shuttle will have to quickly launch to rescue the people aboard the first shuttle. I believe they will run out of oxygen in around 20 days if they are unable to make it back to earth in time.

Several people had radios on broadcasting the announcement of the launch countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then there was an immense light from where the shuttle was, actually 2 lights right next to one another. There was not a sound, just the rising light from the engines and the white smoke following. People were pointing and snapping pictures like crazy. The shuttle kept going up, up, up and then it was gone. Then after that, it must have been 30-60 seconds, the sound hit us "grumble grumble grumble" That was pretty exciting to see the difference in speed between light and sound, it's not often that evident. Then the Nasa announcer proclaimed that the shuttle had disengaged the fuel canister (the most dangerous part) and was free and clear and everyone cheered. Then it was over, two hours of waiting and its over in less than a minute. It was very exciting and worth it though.

From what I have read since then, the astrounats are currently inspecting their shuttle for damage and have found none, a good sign.

After that I headed down to Fort Lauderdale, where I have a friend Yvonne who is working during the summer and has nicely offered to let me spend a few days on her couch enjoying the beach. She is from Germany and is here working for a boat company that helps out German students get jobs in america. There are currently three student/employees living in the fully furnished house.

Off to the beach now for me!


All the people in this one random spot

Fancy Cameras

Launch

Higher

Higher


Oww, Ahh


And its gone


BOOM!

Happy Mother's Day

I spent today like any good boy should away from his mom(s). I drove from Nashville, TN to Jacksonville, FL a nine hour drive that was made longer by a time change and my aimless side road driving. I first got off the highway when I saw a sign for a Jack Daniels Distillery. I doubted that anyone would be there or even thinking about it at 9:30 am on Mother's Day. After driving for 15 minutes I saw another sign on the side road saying it was another 22 miles ahead, so I decided to turn around and not head to the distillery, maybe if it was Captain, but I'm not that into Jack.

Then every barn or billboard for nearly 200 miles was for Ruby Falls and Rock City. I decided to check it out and see if I could see anything for free. When I finally got to the exit for the attractions that exit was hardly marked. I guess they figured the 100 painted barns would have the exit number burned into everyone's mind, but I assumed there would be a sign covering the highway with neon lights indicating the exit, I almost missed it. I drove around to the area where the Ruby Falls was but it was a building that looked very boring and like I would have to pay, so I drove around and looked for a lookout point and found a little spot and some fancy houses with their own individual gates. The road took me through Georgia and Tennessee several times. Georgia, Tennessee, Georgia, Tennessee Georgia, Tennessee Georgia, Tennessee again and again.

I also stopped at a book store that boasted 20,000+ books all under $3. I don't know how anyone could pass that up, so I pulled over but since it was 7pm on a Sunday they were closed. I don't know why people would be anywhere else, but I guess I see things differently than most.

I also passed lots and lots of billboards for motels/hotels along the way and they all try to top the other to get peoples business by showing why they are better than the rest. Here are some examples of what they offer:

Internet, Wireless Internet, Free Wireless Internet, microfridge, manager reception, ice cream, fitness center, pool, sauna, hot tub, breakfast, free breakfast, free hot breakfast, homemade belgian waffles, free newspaper, clean and comfortable rooms, kids stay free, next to Applebees, HBO, 35" TV's and many more!

Tonight I'm staying at a Best Western that I booked on Hotwire for $29.99, it's regularly in the $60 range. Hotwire booked me in a Queen smoking room. When I checked in the lady asked me if I smoked and I told her "No", "Okay, I'll see if there is a non smoking room available for you...Nothing with a Queen...Here's a nonsmoking room with a King, will that work?" Excellent! The hotel is really nice, yes another hotel, I'm so spoiled. The hotel is newer and has free breakfast, a pool and a fitness center.

Playoff basketball today was on during the day while I was driving and I tried to find a station on the radio that had it, but I couldn't find one. Then I tried to get a station on my blackberry, but I couldnt' find one. I decided to find a walmart and "rent" (where I buy something, use it and then return it) a portable TV, becasue the game was on ABC and I should be able to get that station over the air. Apparently though they don't sell them anymore, I'm wondering if its becaue of the digital transition . I don't understand why there aren't radio stations of local television stations, many shows could still be watched, like sports, American Idol or any comedy that doesn't use an excessive amount of physical humor.

Being back this close to the trail and seeing the trees and the mountains makes me want to get back out there. I was actually thinking about what I had in my car and if I could hike with what I had, before I wised up and decided to keep driving. Now that I'm in Florida, I can smell the ocean and it makes me happy, epsecially at night, it is so calming.

Here is an article about the shuttle launch tomorrow:
"In what's expected to be the last time ever, both of NASA's shuttle launch pads are occupied. Atlantis is on one, primed for a flight this coming week to the Hubble Space Telescope. Endeavour sits on the other a mile away for a mission no one wants." Contine reading


Entering Florida













Clouds in the sky, they looked three dimensional( I know they are)












Bridge over a lake













waterfall on the side of the highway













Tennessee













Georgia, one of the many I saw today













The lookout on the side of the road I found
















More of the same view















My middle name has its own Parkway












Nashville sunset

Back on the Road Again

I'm finally done in Saint Louis moving all of my stuff around, that took much longer than I would have liked, I have WAY too much stuff! I even went through it getting rid of lots, but since I don't know if I'm going to be forced to move back into my condo in January when the renters move out, I have to keep a lot of stuff I would otherwise get rid of.

I'm heading down to Florida to see the space shuttle take off on Monday and I had planned to take my time heading down, but since moving my stuff around and cleaning up took so long, I didn't manage to leave town until today. My plans are to be in Nashville Saturday night and Jacksonville on Sunday before the launch.

In the movie "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey his love interest leads a jogging/photography class and I liked the idea, so I will be shooting pictures of things as I drive, since I'm not jogging anywhere anytime soon, thanks to my knees.

I snapped two pictures of the Arch as I was crossing over the river this morning. The first picture is while on the bridge on the way to Illinois and the second one is of the Cards stadium and the arch.




















While driving I saw a sign for Metropolis, Illinois and a sign for a Giant Superman statue. I don't know how anyone could drive past that sign and not stop, so I drove all the way through the tiny town and got my picture with the big guy. Unfortunately no one else was anywhere around so I had to set my timer and then hurry and climb over two fences to make it in time.



Somehow the guy in tights looks more macho than I do!
















I took a picture of a bridge while entering Kentucky, which is apparently the birthplace of Lincoln, I thought illinois was lincoln land?





















Then I made it to Tennessee without seeing anything else too interesting to stop and see.















Once I made it to Nashville, I drove straight to my hotel (not a motel, the doors are in a hallway, fancy I know) I have only been to Nashville two other times, with the most recent being my trip on the bus 2 weeks back. When we were driving to the bus station, we passed a street with lots of shops/bars and people singing on the street, so I decided to go and check it out. As I walked around I saw a lot of people standing around with guitars, but very few were actually singing and of those singing, the only one who was any good, was a 60 year old man, who I think had down syndrome and was there with his toothless mother. He was very good though and several people were gathered around enjoying his singing and guitar playing. The street is broadway and it intersects the river, where the Titans stadium is and there was a new building is being built. I'm not sure what the new building is, but it looks to be tall and built from glass.




















In a town know for barbecue, I found an irish pub and ordered chili cheese nachos for dinner. I know that isn't healthy, but I did eat Mcdonald's for lunch, so I was at least healthy once during the day. This town likes barbecue so much that they have chips that are not only barbecue flavored, but "baby back ribs" flavored with "finger lickin' rib flavor!"

This is only day 1 of road tripping and I have already traveled more miles than I hiked in three weeks on the AT! On to Jacksonville tomorrow.

Some tentative plans

My knees are still bothering me, sometimes I think they are getting better and sometimes I don’t think they are. They seem to be okay if I sit in bed with my legs straight, without moving, but this doesn’t help me get much done and is unrealistic with the small bladder that I have.

I’m going to be moving all of my stuff out of my Mom’s house on Tuesday and moving it to my stepbrother Joe’s Mom’s house. (I’m pretty sure the last part of the last sentence was highly grammatically incorrect, but why start writing correctly now.) Since my Mom is moving to California she is finally making me take the boxes I left at her house when I left for college, many years ago. Going through some of these boxes is very comical; I found a plastic tub full of Sega Genesis video game boxes, no video games, just a box of empty boxes. There were several tubs full of projects and papers I wrote while in elementary school through high school along with awards and report cards. I also found two tubs full of stuffed animals from when I was little including the cabbage patch doll shown below. His name was Bobby and his head was glued many times to try and fix him. Rather than keeping all of the stuffed animals, I decided to take a picture of them all with the exception of two, a cabbage patch doll (with its head intact) and the snuggle bear my dad gave me.



This past week staying at home and not working has been really great, if anyone knows any rich women who are looking for a stay at home husband, please give them my contact information!

I have made some very vague plans for my future, I’m going to head to Florida for the space shuttle Launch on Monday May 11th, I have always wanted to see one take off. I will probably take my time driving down there and driving home to see some fun stuff both ways. I would also like to spend some time in Florida, while I’m down there. Basically I don’t have anything figured out yet, besides that I want to be in Florida a week from this Monday.

After that I am going to head to London Canada to spend some time with my Mom’s family that lives there. I haven’t been up to Canada since I was in high school, so it will be good to get to see some family and where they live. Maybe I can pretend to be Canadian by saying “ehh” and convince a doctor up there to fix my knees.

Once I start traveling again I will start to blog more consistently on here about what I am up to.