Austin, HI hostel on town lake. very quiet, all day wireless $1

the big easy. a few nights of music, booze, and chasing european girls. i'll spare you the details except to say that we did manage to get past all the glitter of bourbon street and into the dirty and gritty of the real new orleans scene. good times~

on our second day there we drove out to a bayou preservation area and took a boardwalk hike out and spotted some gators! we also got a chance to drive around and see some flood and hurricane damage. we got a few personal accounts as well - very heavy stuff. it seems that the whole city is still living in trailers on front lawns. i dropped john at the airport yesterday and drove straight through to houston. not much to report there except that i spotter gas prices as low as $1.99/gallon - of course, i had already foolishly filled up on $2.17. today i knocked out the drive to austin. there's some groovy shops and restaurants in town here and tonight i'll get a look at the music scene.

the mighty modeled mississippi

the king's own velvet elvis

New Orleans, India House Hostel lobby, $1 high life in the vending machine, free wireless.

john's airplane was delayed due to tornado potential around chicago midway on friday. i looped the airport in the dark and cool of a rising storm with my windows down and my music pumpin'. when he did get in we drove downtown through overlapping catching-up conversations back to the Coco Cafe. we ate, drank, and carved out a plan for the evening. i decided that we had 2 probable options:

1. pay higher prices for a motel in downtown nashville / go out and party like it's 1999
2. keep the party in our pants (at least mine anyway) / drive out a little bit and pay more reasonable rates out of town.

then there was the wild card option:

WC: just roll with the vibe and see what happens~ maybe we'll crash on a stranger's couch, maybe we'll spend the wee hours of the morning light attempting to recover in a denny's with no sleep.

we decided to post-pone this decision until we were 3-fingers deep in some honky-tonk down by the river. long story short, we met some hotties out on a birthday party and the wild card option was looking possible until one of the girls started puking on the street.. lame. we ended up in some super 8 out by the highway, had a rough morning at waffle house and hit the road to memphis~

i've been driving in rain, rain, rain - it was coming down in torrents as we approached the gates of graceland. man, what fantastic fun that was - elvis was one wild, eccentric guy! the highlights were his wardrobe, his trophy house, and his jungle room~ what a nut. but he did have a knack for decorating, i'll give him that. we visited his grave - i was hoping to see some crazy women break down in tears, but no such luck.. and you know, the gift shop was so tasteless, it was worth the price of admission itself!

after making our peace with the king we headed out to the subs to visit kami! i hadn't seen her in nearly three years i think - john in at least that long. we rocked up, got caught up, and met kami's bf, david. the 4 of us went downtown for some world-class ribs and then hit beale ave. for big-ass beer and blues on blues on bad-ass blues! i loved it~ great music and some pretty good people watching. day 2 in memphis, we took a long walk down the scale model of the mississippi river on mud island and visited the national civil rights museum at the death place of Dr. Martin Luther King.

all the hits in just over 24 hours - we left memphis and bolted down to new orleans. we got in after midnight, so we just kicked it on the porch of the hostel and talked with the random travelers on the porch. it's a nice place~ lot's of personality. there are pictures on the wall here of the flooding and aftermath of katrina. the water came right up the steps, but not in the door. we're not too far from the french quarter - today we walked all over and got acquainted. tonight we really go out - we're looking for gumbo, jazz, and strong drinks!

PUT SOME SOUTH IN YOUR MOUTH!!

Nashville Tennessee, Coco Cafe. outdoor seating among the hipster and dreadlocked elite, happy hour ($1 ice coffee, $2 pbr), free wireless, blur - boys and girls on the stereo.

i ate a plum-chicken burrito in asheville! it was stella'~ later that night i got some micro-brew and watched a bluegrass jam session at 'jack of the woods'. it still all sounds the damn same to me, but i think i'm beginning to see the appeal. white people still gross me out..

another day of driving brought me into nashville. i gained an hour and had some time to kill before picking up hazen at the airport, so i thought, "what the hell, i'll check out the grand ole' opry." i know, i know.. dumb idea.. all i can say is that i wasn't properly caffeinated and was suffering symptoms. part of me was curious as to what exactly the grand old opry even IS - is it "opera" pronounced all country~? no. it's not - in fact, an opry is a shopping mall, it's a theater, it's a crappy gift shop, and it's country - a living tribute to obesity and inbreeding. country sucks.

but here i am, surrounded by counter-culture and fully recovered from the experience!

Asheville North Carolina, Bon Paul and Sharkey's Hostel - beds $20/night (or ya' can pitch a tent in the back yard fer 10), kitchen table, free wireless internet~

a long and lovely day of driving from the mansion in Gettysburg to the hostel in Galax, Virginia. it was hard to find the driveway..

Blue Ridge Hwy South Bound, 1-1/8 mi past Fancy Gap, on your right.

luckily, someone had blazed the gate with a reflective marker as they do along the AT. there was a long finding driveway, and eventually a sign. when i got up to the hostel, i was greeted by a dog and a cat on the front porch but no one answered the door. i walked around back and found a guy sitting there reading a book, an english guy on holiday. the view from the back of the hostel was incredible - endless rolling hills and valleys. i took a little walk around and checked out the place - pretty soon an old guy in a floppy green hat came out of the house and pointed at my car and then to me. i nodded as you do. "well if your from michigan, how come you drive this little japanese car?"

he showed me upstairs and wrote my name down in his book. he told me that Galax (pronounced like "Gaelic" in the irish manner, not like "Galaxy" minus the y) was the home of some very famous folk musicians. guitarists, claw-hammer banjo players - that's the old style, and fiddlers. why, just last week they had a children's completion in town and the winners from each group won a hand-made instrument made right there in Galax. everyone in Galax is into wood in one way or another and they just took to making instruments and playing them in the old tyme' style - that is as a band united, never as individuals.


i got some bbq take-away, good, if not identifiable, and a 6 pack of schlitz for $2.50. the old guy popped in to play a cd for me of a local group and then to hear me play a few. then i split the schlitz with the brit and we traded stories. his was a good one. it involved a small surveying business and a failed engagement to a native fijian woman. i was allergic to the moldy-ass bed covers and had very realistic dreams of doing wheelies on my scooter..

this morning i hit the road and took the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Asheville~ it was a beautiful ride and i stopped at heaps of turn-offs for photos of scenic views! now it's into town for some food and then time to pitch my tent in the back yard before dark.

my sexy car on the blue ridge parkway 

view from hostel in Galax 

Gettysburg, PA - the Jagged Edge cafe, free wireless, damn fine organic Sumatra coffee in a MUG. 'ritha on the radio~ whoop!

miles on miles - i'm driving them! i rolled out of michigan monday morning-ish and drove through 5 hours of driving rain (get it?) to niagra falls, canada. i checked into the hostel there and walked into town to see the falls. the weather was quite shit, but those falls rocked on. that evening i hung around with an austrian guy and braved more rain to get a look at the falls all lit up at night. the lights, mega though they were, proved to be somewhat ineffective through the rain and fog, but it looked cool washing out that rain and fog with colored light.

in the morning i bust out of there and put in a good 8 hours, scenic drive to gettysburg. no trouble at the border this time.

him: bringing anything back from canada with you?
me: just this tasty 12" subway sandwich.
him: what's on it?
me: oven-roasted turkey, swiss, honey mustard.
him: veggies?
me: a little bit of everything, really..
him: sounds good - have a nice day~

the roads were nice and scenic, like i said. that was nice. the weather held out ok. i rocked up on this hostel north of town in the Pine Grove Furnace State Park. it was an old converted colonial mansion that was a major stop on the underground railroad. i got to see the hidden rooms under the house where slaves could seek refuge. beautiful old place. there were only 3 other people staying there, so we stuck together. and get this, the hostel is a comfort stop along the Appellation Trail~ too cool! the girl was a through hiker and she had walked there all the way from MAINE!! 2.5 months in at nearly 20 miles a day.. with only 3 months to go before she hits Georgia. my kind of woman.. the other 2 guys were hiking together and only doing the AT in sections and idiot hikers carrying all the wrong gear. i asked loads of questions, the AT is, after all, on my list of to-do's. i peeked at the through-hiker's registry and read about the coolest people who have kicked ass where few others have kicked ass before. i got some sleep but it turns out i'm allergic to colonial mansions that have been converted into hostels.

this morning i talked for a while to the little old lady who works as the care-taker there and made a rough plan for today. i walked around the little town part of gettysburg and then found me some wireless - score! feeling good~ miles a more'a today. peace!

 

hostel? 

is it raining again or is this all falls spray?