minnie and cairo
Originally uploaded by sparkypants.
we got lost hiking around in the overgrown woods. well...we didn't really get lost, we just failed to find both the waterfalls and the beaver dam. we stayed at a beautiful old farmhouse. we rode our bikes along the edge of lake champlain. the weather is beautiful (a really hot day is when it reaches 92 degrees). burlington is a cool little town. everything is so green. i like it here.
more pictures
we finally made it to Minnie's house on Thursday night after nearly 3 weeks on the road. my odometer says we traveled 4,226 miles. google maps says it should have been 3,810 miles and 2 days 16 hours of driving. we almost got a divorce on our final day of driving (the New Jersey turnpike and hangovers are not a good combination), but that was really our only spot of trouble (except for the disgusting and sketchy hotel in Cleveland, TN). lots of driving, lots of friends. nothing stolen, nothing broken. it was a good road trip.
we stopped in annapolis, maryland, for a quick visit with Nick and Suzy. while they were working, we rode our bikes into this little touristy boat town for the best greasy breakfast ever at Chick and Ruth's Delly. we got called "gentlemen" as we shopped for books. we saw a house fire. we met up with Nick and Suzy after work for happy hour where both the food and the martinis were free. after a few of those we decided to finish off the night with a few too many mojitos, setting the stage for yet another long day of driving with bad hangovers.
we arrived at jody and erik's downtown DC condo late Friday night, ready for the city life, AKA something to do. saturday we walked through Rock Creek park and stumbled upon a baby panda posing for pictures (at the zoo). we managed to gather all our DC area friends together for drinks at Madam's Organ and ten-pound falafel pitas. they all wanted to meet again the next day for brunch in baltimore.
jody and erik took us on their soon-to-be patented "Monuments by Moonlight" bike tour. we rode our bikes from their condo down to and around the national mall, finishing up at the whitehouse. we took lots of pictures. erik caught a firefly. it was a spectacular way to see the monuments - highly recommended.
other big city activities included: witnessing erik go to the rescue of a pedestrian hit by a car, playing with bunnies, and receiving a parking ticket minutes before our departure.
more pictures
bottomless bloody marys and mimosas at little havana. a perfect prequel to a 5-against-1 game of giant chess at the Visionary Art Museum. 
everyone should have a driftwood tree house in their back yard.
more pictures
the Great Smokys are beautiful, but not very exciting. so we took lots of pictures.
driving from New Orleans to Cleveland, Tennessee, with a very bad hang over is not something I would recommend. we traveled through Mississippi, Alabama, and a sliver of Georgia stopping only at the Welcome Center at each state line and gas stations before arriving in Cleveland, TN, on the outskirts of the Great Smoky Mountains. our first choice in hotels at 1am that Tuesday morning was not the best and we had to leave. the preponderance of very bad odors and strung out hotel residents necessitated a quick getaway. we learned a valuable lesson about hotels advertising $25/night rooms.
we arrived in New Orleans late Saturday night after a day-long drive from Austin. we ate and then passed out. our stay was short and sweet. Sunday we walked around the garden district and shopped on Magazine St. during the day (sweating balls the whole time), cooled off in the hotel pool, and then ventured into the French quarter for the night. a short trip down Bourbon St. quickly showed us that we would have much more fun going to see a band play than doing any of the traditional New Orleans night-life activities. we found One-Eyed Jacks, where the band Vietnam was playing and proceeded to make friends with some locals, get very drunk, see the band play and then stumble back to our hotel. our new friends told us funny stories about the weeks after Hurricane Katrina and then shook their heads at how they could look back on that time so fondly.
we stayed in Austin for a long time because suzy and andrea kept thinking of cool things for us to do (and we liked it there and they were good hostesses). 
some cool things we got to do in Austin: ride in a fire engine, watch tens of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats fly out from under a bridge at dusk, get drunk on texas martinis and eat too much tex-mex food, watch a hot drag queen sing a song about menopause, sweat a lot, AND go toobin' on the Comal River.
as we were floating down the river, enjoying our cocktails - a guy yells out to lindsey from a huge group of rednecks "hey, my cousin thinks you're hot!.....by the way my cousin is a girl....i don't know if your tube floats on that side of the river, but..."
the drive from Las Cruces, NM, to Austin, TX, was surprisingly pleasant with lots of greenery, well-spaced rest stops, an 80 mph speed limit, and a nearly empty freeway. a couple hours west of Austin the rolling hills were covered with oak woodlands, under which herds of goats frollicked in the grass. we stopped and bought some lovely peaches from a roadside stand.
we arrived the same day as electrelane and accompanied suzy and andrea to the show. it was amazing. tender forever opened. she wore lindsey's glasses for part of her show. lindsey bought one of her shirts. it was real cute.
a little biking, a little hiking, a lot of sunburn. i love this place. the campground is lovely, but the lack of shade makes it difficult to stay for longer than a day when you forget to use sunscreen and get burned to a crisp.
we packed up under yet another threatening thunder storm and began the long drive to Austin.
this is me in the badlands of petrified forest national park.
we drove through under a threatening thunder storm on our way to the land of enchantment.
we started driving friday night, heading to sedona for an easy start. a day of gumption fest and hiking.
spent saturday night in flagstaff with good friends. we tried to party but fell asleep at nine o'clock.
© Blogger template 'Photoblog' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008 | Distributed by Blogger Blog Templates
Back to TOP
