Archives 2007

We have arrived at my dad’s place.  Wow I knew it was in the middle of nowhere but just not HOW in the middle of nowhere it is.  I don’t have the time or energy to go into detail about everything.  This place is very charming, very in touch with nature, very “back to your roots”.  Life seems to be stuck in 1st gear here which is a good thing in many ways.

Seeing the scope of work that dad has planned for this place on top of the massive amount of upkeep required to keep it all running is more than a little scary.  We are enjoying our time away from the “big city”.

 There are all sorts of details I could post but I’m just going to have to rely on my memory to pull them back at a later time.

The only non-smoking rooms they had were two double beds.  Ali and I crammed into one.  I watched The Marine last night.  It wasn’t horrible which I fully expected it to be.  It had some odd humor, and portrayed the latest wrestler turned actor, John Cena as a marine whom is apparently indestructible.  The guy got blown up (twice), beaten up constantly and even took a sledge hammer to the ribs but somehow managed to get through it all just fine and of course, he saves the girl at the end.  B-

I was up late so I slept late, almost till 9 CST which is very late for me.  The nights rest wasn’t great because of the cramped quarters but it was good enough that I don’t feel like a zombie. When I took Nicki outside this morning there actually was a bit of a chill in the air that felt refreshing.  All of the 18 wheelers that were strewn across the parking lot last night had vacated already which was nice. The continental breakfast they served here wasn’t half bad which was a pleasant surprise.  On to dad’s place, whenever we feel like pulling out.  We aren’t rushing.  More pictures are up there, when I get time I will caption some of them to explain what they are.

After this point my internet connectivity, at least from Ali’s laptop will be questionable.  My plans to use my Treo as a wireless modem haven’t planned out well.  Evidently if you are roaming, which I seem to always be, I can’t use the Treo for a data connection.

Oh I forgot to post gas data, the cheapest gas I have seen so far has been $2.46 a gallon in east Texas.  Makes sense I guess, however we also have seen gas for $2.99 a gallon in Texas as well.

Day 3 has been a grind.  After a more or less relaxed evening at the very nice La Quinta in Vidor we hit the road for yet another very long day.  As you drive mile after endless mile you notice repeating patterns of businesses.  It seemed almost every exit off of I-10 had a Whataburger and Waffle House. 

I don’t get Waffle House.  You see them everywhere in the south.  They are always, plain, generic, basically shitty looking buildings.  But that isn’t the strange thing.  You would think with as many as there are, they must do a great business somehow?  Not that I can tell.  I literally never see anyone at these shacks.  It must be a front for the mafia or something.

Another thing I have been surprised with during our 1700 mile journey so far is just how many vehicles wind up on the side of the road with flat tires.  I literally have seen at least a couple dozen, easy.  I am praying the van stays flat free.  I have no idea if the thing even has a spare, a jack or a tire iron, I never bothered to check, my bad.

Our drive today covered about the same distance as yesterday.  Early on we went through the urban areas of Houston and the San Antonio areas.  I wasn’t impressed at all.  Then again I don’t know if I am ever impressed driving through cities.  The overpasses stacked one on top of each other, various run down, visual blight everywhere and the endless crush of strip malls, restaurants and the human beings to frequent them all just is a big turn off for me.

It was interesting as we traveled west, the gradual changes we would witness.  It went from green, mostly flat and boring to green and some hills, to less green and more, bigger hills, to mostly brown with large hills, small mountains and plateaus everywhere you turned.

The speed limit in the middle of Texas on I-10 jumps up to 80 mph.  For a very long time I kept the van at 70 even though I had the green light to push it farther.  Then with about 200 miles to go to our stopping point I decided to push through the 73-76mph shaking region and go up to 80 where things settled back down.  70 was nice, 80 was better.  Going up to 80 knocked 20 minutes of the projected arrival time at our destination, over the span of an entire day, that extra 10 mph would have easily shaved an hour off the days driving.

We got to the motel and I was underwhelmed.  Yea it is clean enough, has internet, takes pets and offers continental breakfast.  But after the near luxury accommodations of the night before, this just seems blah and it is costing me the same.  On top of that, there appears to be a lot of truckers here and I have seen more than a couple individuals walking or in some cases, staggering around that appeared shady.  I’m glad the van is parked under a bright light if you know what I mean.

Nicki still hasn’t eaten a meal since we left Florida.  She has been getting by on dog treats.  She did something similar when we drove up to PA last year.

Ali and I are getting burned out on “travel food”.  We have hit Subway three or four times, a Quiznos, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.  Getting out of my normal eating routine never makes me feel good.  

 So we have about 380 miles to go.  I called Dad and let him know we would be rolling in later in the day tomorrow.  We are in no rush to get out of here tomorrow.  It’s funny how sitting on your ass all day in a vehicle makes you tired.   

Yesterday was a looong driving day, we covered 650 miles and stopped at Vidor, Texas which is just inside the eastern Texas border.  We drove through New Orleans yesterday but didn’t stop.  We saw enough from the van.  The place is an absolute mess, abandoned, damaged buildings as far as you can see.  It looked like the hurricane happened two weeks ago, not two years ago.

Driving all day is tolerable in the party van but not exactly “fun”.  By the end of the day I felt like I had a dull haze all over me.  Even though it was almost 9pm in our native EST zone, Ali and I went to the small, minimal fitness room the hotel has and did some cardio and a few other things just to get some rust off.

Speaking of the hotel, this LaQuinta is almost brand new and it is awesome.  Everything is new and clean.  The LQ in Tallahassee was fine, this place is great!  I stayed up late watching Rounders last night (A) and slept through the night except for a brief episode where Nicki was growling and grexxing at imaginary threats again.  The only problem was Nicki didn’t realize we had jumped time zones and got me up at 5:30 CST. I’m a bit tired.

For a few periods yesterday I pushed the party van past the 73 mph vibration point up to near 80 where the ride smoothed out somewhat again.  However the van felt like it was really working hard to maintain that speed so I didn’t maintain it for very long. 

Texas is very wide, nearly 900 miles where we are crossing.  We are in no rush to leave this nice hotel but the longer we wait, the longer the day will become.

I have an online web album of the pictures we are taking started here.

Watched the 1986 animated Transformers movie.  Much darker than I remember the tv series being.  Transformers actually die in this, a lot.  The word “shit” was even in the dialogue.  It was ok. B

Last night was not very restful.  Ali found what she thought was a dead brown recluse behind the chair.  I later removed a live small toad from next to the tub.  This morning there was another live small frog under the sink. 

It took awhile to fall asleep as Nicki was barking and growling at every little noise.  Nicki is all disoriented by the new surroundings and is acting very skittish.  She only ate a few bites of her food.

After finally falling asleep I was awakened at midnight by the alarm on the clock radio that I didn’t realize was turned on.  Shortly after that I woke up when Ali got up to take off Nicki’s jingling collar that we forgot to remove before bed. Then at 2:30 Nicki woke me up to go outside and pee.  After that it again took me a long time to fall back asleep.  Nicki had no concerns for my light sleep when she woke me up at 7am to start the day. Yawn…..

We will hopefully be back on the road within a half hour or so.

Left a little before 10, only got to Tallahassee, covered roughly 450 miles.  Northern Florida looks like Pennsylvania.

 Party van ran fine as long as I kept it under 71 mph, after that things get a little rough.

 Staying at LaQuinta, they accept pets, free internet, can’t beat that!

We are in the final countdown for our departure out west.  Last night we began preparations in earnest.  I wanted to leave the pool cleaner running while we were gone however there is an issue.  When the pool cleaner runs around it inevitably gets hung up on one of the two floor drains. (hence the reason for the drain blocking invention I talked about awhile back)  Well I decided to create a crude version of my vision.  I grabbed two empty pots from the shed along with 4 cinder blocks.  I threw on my swimsuit and goggles and jumped in the pool, placing one pot over each drain and two blocks on top of each pot.  I hooked up the pool cleaner and will let it run all day today to see if my redneck looking contraption will perform it’s intended purpose.

After the work in the pool I walked around and weeded the property.  I pulled out the rake and fluffed the mulch in the orchard in an attempt to further retard weed growth while we are gone.  After Ali got home we did more prep like gathering up electronics that are coming along, getting together stuff for Nicki’s meals and putting sheets on the “bed” in the van.  Just before I was going to get ready for bed we remembered we wanted to wash Nicki last night so I scooped her up, threw her in the tub and we gave her a quick scrub down. 

Today will be very crazy.  I am leaving work early this afternoon so I can go home and continue the trip prep.  I literally have double digit things on my mental list that I want to address before leaving which should keep me going pretty much non-stop until I hit the pillow.  I plan on pulling out sometime tomorrow morning.  Ideally I would like to leave early, but realistically I know the possibilities of that are slim to none.

We should have ample entertainment for the many hours we will be spending in the van.  I copied over 5 movies to Ali’s laptop, threw a bunch of DVD’s in a bag and also have a stack of magazines along with the last Dan Brown book for me to read.  Ali is bringing along her Pee Wee Herman show DVD collection she got for Christmas as well. 

As we motor across the country I am hoping to remain pseudo-plugged in via either wifi at hotels or via my Treo acting as a wireless modem for the laptop.  If I manage to get online I will try to drop in a few updates here if time allows.  If I try to rely on my memory to recap two weeks of a road trip all at once there would surely be huge gaps. 

I look forward to two weeks of unstructured new experiences.  We have no strict schedules, no established expectations, just two weeks of taking it as it comes.

Yesterday when I got the mail I was puzzled when I saw there was an envelope from Ford Motor Company.  When I opened it I was even more surprised.  It was a recall notice for the party van, the 14 year old party van.  At first I was puzzled how they even tracked me down as the owner of the van but I guess it really isn’t that hard since vehicle registrations are public information.  Evidently there is an issue with one of the wiring harnesses that could potentially cause an engine fire.  Of course when Ali heard this she was worried and suggested that maybe we should try to get it fixed before leaving.  I however was pretty confident that if we made it through the last 14 years, 2 more weeks will probably be ok.  I will take it in when we return.  I have to admit the language in the letter certainly doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy , it said something like “don’t park the van underneath a structure” (to prevent the structure from catching on fire as well)

So I heard a few sound bites from the senator from Idaho that was arrested for solicting sex acts in the men’s bathroom of an airport, ironically to a plain clothes policeman.  Evidently this guy is a hard line, anti-gay, right winger that just happens to enjoy sex with men.  What a piece of shit hypocrite.  It’s amazing that he almost managed to keep this buried and out of the public eye.  WTF is it with politicians?   It seems that every few months we are treated to story after story demonstrating just how dishonest the politicians we elect to represent us truly are. 

I heard the funny audio clips of Craig proclaiming he wasn’t gay and how he even though he plead guilty he shouldn’t have.  I also read the police report linked above.  Yea, those certainly don’t seem like the actions of a guy looking for sex….  he just has a “wide stance” when going to the bathroom. (read the report)

Last night after work I stopped at the pet store and got some more bird food and also grabbed a new swinging toy for Tuki.  When I got home I wanted to put the new toy in the cage.  Tuki normally doesn’t take kindly to hands reaching inside of his cage so I opened the door of it to let him out.  I then went back to collecting the trash and recycling as well as setting off my dual cleaning Roombas to vacuum.

I came back in from the garage and walked up towards the office to pick up the cardboard/paper recycling.  I noticed that by the front door the small basket that normally hangs over the light switch was on the floor.  I also noticed something else that was knocked over.  Hmm that’s weird.  The only way I could imagine that happening is if the front door is slammed real hard. So I bent over and started picking stuff up.  As I did, a green blur comes into my field of vision and then I realize it is Tuki as he bangs into the front door. (his wings really need to be clipped)  Anyway, I forgot how the Roomba’s freak him out.  Evidently one of them got too close and he flew off his cage, around the house until crash landing by the front door. I’m just lucky Nicki or the cats didn’t go after him.  I picked Tuki up and made sure he was ok.  I put him back inside the cage and closed it.

Last night Ali and I got into an argument over money.  I discovered that we weren’t budgeting for the home owner’s insurance bill.  Ali paid the bill in full when we stopped doing escrow but forgot to budget that yearly amount into our books.  I flipped out about it, more than I should have.  I couldn’t get past the idea that she didn’t think to budget that expense in.  Anyway, I ranted for awhile but then calmed down and apologized, saying the important thing is we caught it now so we can adjust for it.  Yea, the moon is full.

On Saturday night before bed I stumbled upon the final for “America’s got Talent”  man that is an awful show.  I sat through the entire two hours of silliness. I think the end result, crowning a ventriloquist as the best new act is a testament to how dumb the show was.  However there was an event right before the final announcement that was even funnier, David Hasselhoff, one of the three judges, performed.  He sung some ridiculous song about how wonderful the moment was (This is the Moment).  By the way he grandstanded and went over the top in his gesturing and attempts to portray emotion you would think he was singing about something really meaningful and important.  On top of all that his singing was absolutely dreadful. Look (and listen) to this trainwreck yourself…