NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA
Ok so, because I’m so behind on everything I’m going to try to remember the important things and leave the little details behind. I realized that the longer I go without writing this stuff up, the harder it’s going to be to write everything up so bear with me while I work out my baby steps. Haha.
Albuquerque
• We stayed with Dre’s cousins who were really really hospitable and lived in the foothills of the Sandia mountain, overlooking the city and the valley. It was gorgeous and they were so great to us – took us out to dinner, took us out flying one morning in their plane (what???? I know!! When I get batteries in my camera I’ll throw the pictures on Facebook), and most fun – introduced us to Dre’s 21 year old cousin Sean, who guided us through the Duke City nightlife. (Yes apparently Albuquerque is nicknamed Duke City. I feel like they were just trying to make up for the silly original name.)
• We hung out with some kids our age one night, basically a regular college party night, and learned that the elevation can mess with your alcohol tolerance and your car.
• The next night we went around downtown Albuquerque. It was a Wednesday night so nothing really special was going on but we had a good time, went into about 6 places and generally made it a good night.
• The BEST night was when Sean’s friend had his 21st birthday party at the Sandia Casino Resort, which luckily was close to the house we were staying. That was really fun- the casino gave us $20 free for the slots and $20 free chips for whatever we wanted, I assume so that we would keep putting in money and then they would take it all, I won $10 in roulette and got out quick before I lost anything, and $.28 playing slots, which I didn’t bother cashing in. All in all, it was a big party and a good night that lasted until about 5 a.m.
HOWEVER – that really fun late night was not a great thing to have right before we had to drive 9 hours to Phoenix the next day. We didn’t get going until 2 p.m., and then had a gas scare at about 10 p.m. in the middle of 3 Indian reservations. Rolling into the gas station in Globe, AZ in the middle of the night never felt so good! The next day we bummed around Phoenix, where there really wasn’t anything to do or see, and headed out of town to a random lake in the middle of the desert. Interesting but not the cleanest body of water I’ve swam in. I guess when you live in the desert you take what you can get. We stayed with another of Dre’s cousins in Scottsdale and played with her cute dogs, and then headed out to Sedona, which I had heard from lots of people was definitely a place to stop.
And I’m SO glad we stopped there!! It was this great little hippie town high up in the mountains, and apparently the main attractions included annual Phish weekend concerts, energy vortexes, and special crystals. Awesome. Arizona actually had the most varied landscape – on the way to Phoenix we drove through tree-covered mountains that reminded me of West Virginia, we drove through high country desert to get to Sedona, and Sedona was huge red rock mountains and forests. We had expected Arizona to be just desert but it had the best landscape out of anywhere. We got there in the evening and camped for the night, and the next day we managed to find a hike along a creek, which kept us nice and cool. Rather than spending the night again and paying for camping again, we headed straight to Vegas to stay for free with my friend Dave.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Rest of Texas
Alright everyone, here’s the rest of Austin!
After we recovered from our night, we went to the Texas Statehouse and walked around downtown some, and then headed out of town to Mt. Bonnell, which overlooks the city. The statehouse was ok, basically they just opened it up to the public while no one was there working and let us wander around and look at paintings and things. Realized that I had forgotten that George Bush was a Texas governor back in the day, but I was reminded by his portrait up on the wall. Basically we just walked around in the air conditioning during the hottest part of the day and looked at old paintings.
Mt. Bonnell was cool, you drive out of the city and up the base of the mountain, then park on the side of the road and walk up about 100 or so stone steps to the summit, where you can walk around and look down at the Colorado River and a bunch of big fancy houses, and there’s also a great view of the Austin skyline. Not much to do there either, but it was our first day of no rain since we were in Tallahassee so it was satisfying just to be able to walk around outside. (Sidebar – I don’t have any pictures between St. Louis and the Willie Nelson concert because my batteries ran out in Missouri and I didn’t feel a pressing need to buy more until the show. But I have them now!!)
Waking up the next day, Sunday the 4th, was like waking up on Christmas morning!! But almost more exciting. I got up, got food, and got going before Dre had even stirred, which is completely understandable considering it was noon and we definitely hadn’t gotten home before 5 a.m. the previous night. There was a brief crisis when we realized that our host didn’t have a printer so we couldn’t print out our tickets, but fortunately there was an Office Max downtown that was open, even on a Sunday and a holiday, so that worked out absolutely fine. We also had some problems even finding the venue, called the Backyard at Bee Cave, but thanks to the fact my dad was home and by a computer we were able to get there fine. THEN we ran into more problems when the parking there was full and we had to drive to a giant shopping center and get shuttled over by a bus. At this point we had missed 2 of the bands I had really wanted to see, but there were so many more coming that I wasn’t too upset. Also, the fact that we had been able to listen to the concert on the Sirius Radio Willie Nelson station definitely helped.
We finally got there and had our minds absolutely blown. It was a small crowd (only 7,000) but an even smaller venue, and by 5 p.m. it started to get crowded, and only got more so as the night went on. Memorable highlights include Del Castillo (Latin/rock band who won the South by Southwest festival), Kris Kristofferson (who came on without even an announcement; I looked up and was like “Hey, these are some great songs, I like this guy a lot,” and then he started playing Sunday Morning Coming Down and I finally realized who he was), Jack Ingraham (made famous by Love You and Barefoot and Crazy) and Folk Uke, a 3-girl string band with hilarious, hilarious songs. I had been looking forward to David Allen Coe, one of the giants in country music writing, but he played all of his big hits, including the pop ones he wrote for Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, which I already knew and didn’t really need to hear. Oh well.
Willie Nelson finally came on well after midnight and played all of my favorites right in a row at the beginning, which was very convenient for us because we were exhausted, dehydrated, starving and ready to go home. We were starving because the place ran out of most of its food by 7, so we had to settle for fried onions and tomatillo sauce on tortillas. At least it was free. Anyway, we stopped at a great diner on the way home as a special treat for lasting as long as we did and it was probably the most delicious food I’ve ever had in my life. Also, coffee, orange juice, and biscuits and gravy altogether only ran me about $7, so that was nice too. We finally got home around 2:30, fell into bed, and the next day started the first leg of our drive to Albuquerque.
Don’t worry, you’ll all hear about Albuquerque, Arizona, Las Vegas, Zion and Grand Canyons, and LA eventually. It’s coming, I promise!!
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
After we recovered from our night, we went to the Texas Statehouse and walked around downtown some, and then headed out of town to Mt. Bonnell, which overlooks the city. The statehouse was ok, basically they just opened it up to the public while no one was there working and let us wander around and look at paintings and things. Realized that I had forgotten that George Bush was a Texas governor back in the day, but I was reminded by his portrait up on the wall. Basically we just walked around in the air conditioning during the hottest part of the day and looked at old paintings.
Mt. Bonnell was cool, you drive out of the city and up the base of the mountain, then park on the side of the road and walk up about 100 or so stone steps to the summit, where you can walk around and look down at the Colorado River and a bunch of big fancy houses, and there’s also a great view of the Austin skyline. Not much to do there either, but it was our first day of no rain since we were in Tallahassee so it was satisfying just to be able to walk around outside. (Sidebar – I don’t have any pictures between St. Louis and the Willie Nelson concert because my batteries ran out in Missouri and I didn’t feel a pressing need to buy more until the show. But I have them now!!)
Waking up the next day, Sunday the 4th, was like waking up on Christmas morning!! But almost more exciting. I got up, got food, and got going before Dre had even stirred, which is completely understandable considering it was noon and we definitely hadn’t gotten home before 5 a.m. the previous night. There was a brief crisis when we realized that our host didn’t have a printer so we couldn’t print out our tickets, but fortunately there was an Office Max downtown that was open, even on a Sunday and a holiday, so that worked out absolutely fine. We also had some problems even finding the venue, called the Backyard at Bee Cave, but thanks to the fact my dad was home and by a computer we were able to get there fine. THEN we ran into more problems when the parking there was full and we had to drive to a giant shopping center and get shuttled over by a bus. At this point we had missed 2 of the bands I had really wanted to see, but there were so many more coming that I wasn’t too upset. Also, the fact that we had been able to listen to the concert on the Sirius Radio Willie Nelson station definitely helped.
We finally got there and had our minds absolutely blown. It was a small crowd (only 7,000) but an even smaller venue, and by 5 p.m. it started to get crowded, and only got more so as the night went on. Memorable highlights include Del Castillo (Latin/rock band who won the South by Southwest festival), Kris Kristofferson (who came on without even an announcement; I looked up and was like “Hey, these are some great songs, I like this guy a lot,” and then he started playing Sunday Morning Coming Down and I finally realized who he was), Jack Ingraham (made famous by Love You and Barefoot and Crazy) and Folk Uke, a 3-girl string band with hilarious, hilarious songs. I had been looking forward to David Allen Coe, one of the giants in country music writing, but he played all of his big hits, including the pop ones he wrote for Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, which I already knew and didn’t really need to hear. Oh well.
Willie Nelson finally came on well after midnight and played all of my favorites right in a row at the beginning, which was very convenient for us because we were exhausted, dehydrated, starving and ready to go home. We were starving because the place ran out of most of its food by 7, so we had to settle for fried onions and tomatillo sauce on tortillas. At least it was free. Anyway, we stopped at a great diner on the way home as a special treat for lasting as long as we did and it was probably the most delicious food I’ve ever had in my life. Also, coffee, orange juice, and biscuits and gravy altogether only ran me about $7, so that was nice too. We finally got home around 2:30, fell into bed, and the next day started the first leg of our drive to Albuquerque.
Don’t worry, you’ll all hear about Albuquerque, Arizona, Las Vegas, Zion and Grand Canyons, and LA eventually. It’s coming, I promise!!
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Houston - Beginning of Austin
Alright everyone, so I know I have been a huge slacker/procrastinator and that is ending NOW!! Well that's a lie, but basically I'm going to start catching you all up on everything since New Orleans. That was such a long time ago that it's going to take me a while but we're looking at baby steps here, people. Ok so this is the post that I wrote right when we got to Austin but never put up. Also, look for lots of pictures from Austin and the Southwest on my Facebook group page!
Enjoy!
Greetings from the Live Music Capital of the World!
So unfortunately it’s been raining I think since we left Tallahassee, which has definitely ruined our motivation for going outside or doing anything anywhere. We pulled into Houston around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday (in the rain, of course) and didn’t leave Rice’s campus until we headed out for Austin on Friday around 3:30. This means that my impressions of Texas so far are based solely on one night out in Austin, all of the music we’ve been listening to on the Outlaw Country station, and things we drove past on the way to Austin. But today it’s actually sunny (for now at least) so I’m hoping we can get out and actually see some of the cities we’ve been staying in!
It was great to see Lauren in Houston, and we managed to be relatively comfortable when staying in her dorm because we basically requisitioned a common room and turned it into our room. Rive University apparently hates visitors and has not a single overnight visitor parking space on the entire campus, so we had to park on the street across from campus and wait in fear of being towed while Lauren was at work. Luckily the First Christian Church allows “operable vehicles only”… good thing my truck is operable I guess? At any rate, no towing occurred, we played some really fun beach volleyball in the rain with Teach For America Rio Grande Valley people and stopped by the campus bar for a few 95 cent beers. A nice evening considering everyone except us had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. the next day. Teachers, man.
So now we’re in Austin recovering from a crazy fun night last night! The girl we’re couch surfing with took us out for a night on the town near 6th Street and we had an absolute blast! We had one drink per bar in a bunch of different bars, and the night included an 80s dance party, dancing on this ridiculous floor that was clear so you could see the people below you, and – wait for it – checking off the only thing on my “make sure you do this on your trip” list… riding a mechanical bull!!!! I’ve been wanting to do it since I saw it in Cancun but couldn’t because I was wearing a dress (I’ve never been so mad at my classiness haha), and specifically wore shorts out last night so I would be prepared for any opportunity. It was so so SO fun and I stayed on for a long time!! So happy and excited, definitely a high point in our time since New Orleans.
All right well it’s sunny out now for the first time in a week, so I’m getting going to do something fun and outside! (Despite the fact it’s going to be hot and humid and miserable… but apparently you can’t have it all.) Next update will include the Willie Nelson 4th of July concert!!!!
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
Enjoy!
Greetings from the Live Music Capital of the World!
So unfortunately it’s been raining I think since we left Tallahassee, which has definitely ruined our motivation for going outside or doing anything anywhere. We pulled into Houston around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday (in the rain, of course) and didn’t leave Rice’s campus until we headed out for Austin on Friday around 3:30. This means that my impressions of Texas so far are based solely on one night out in Austin, all of the music we’ve been listening to on the Outlaw Country station, and things we drove past on the way to Austin. But today it’s actually sunny (for now at least) so I’m hoping we can get out and actually see some of the cities we’ve been staying in!
It was great to see Lauren in Houston, and we managed to be relatively comfortable when staying in her dorm because we basically requisitioned a common room and turned it into our room. Rive University apparently hates visitors and has not a single overnight visitor parking space on the entire campus, so we had to park on the street across from campus and wait in fear of being towed while Lauren was at work. Luckily the First Christian Church allows “operable vehicles only”… good thing my truck is operable I guess? At any rate, no towing occurred, we played some really fun beach volleyball in the rain with Teach For America Rio Grande Valley people and stopped by the campus bar for a few 95 cent beers. A nice evening considering everyone except us had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. the next day. Teachers, man.
So now we’re in Austin recovering from a crazy fun night last night! The girl we’re couch surfing with took us out for a night on the town near 6th Street and we had an absolute blast! We had one drink per bar in a bunch of different bars, and the night included an 80s dance party, dancing on this ridiculous floor that was clear so you could see the people below you, and – wait for it – checking off the only thing on my “make sure you do this on your trip” list… riding a mechanical bull!!!! I’ve been wanting to do it since I saw it in Cancun but couldn’t because I was wearing a dress (I’ve never been so mad at my classiness haha), and specifically wore shorts out last night so I would be prepared for any opportunity. It was so so SO fun and I stayed on for a long time!! So happy and excited, definitely a high point in our time since New Orleans.
All right well it’s sunny out now for the first time in a week, so I’m getting going to do something fun and outside! (Despite the fact it’s going to be hot and humid and miserable… but apparently you can’t have it all.) Next update will include the Willie Nelson 4th of July concert!!!!
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The Big Easy: Where you can drink outside and smoke inside!!
To sum up my time in New Orleans: Rainy. Bad roads. BEST TIME EVER!!!!!
Seriously, this has been my favorite place by far up until now. Let's see if I can summarize what we did and why I am seriously considering moving here.
After we moved in with our couch surfing hosts (who were AWESOME, by the way!) we basically hung out long enough until it was time to go out. We went with our hosts to a local dive bar called Lucky's, a 24-hour bar, grill, game room, and laundromat where you can get things notarized and where you can bring your dog. WHAT?!?! First hint that this is the city for me. Haha. While it as fun, we were a little tired and wanted to find somewhere a little more hopping so that we would wake up a little. Cue our hosts hooking us up with one of our friends, who was out on Frenchmen St., which I think is north of the quarter and basically a small strip of jazz clubs. We got there, met up with her friend, and proceeded to see 3 different jazz bands in different clubs in quick succession. Let me just say that the blues are still going strong and definitely still relevant in New Orleans. It was like watching country bands in Nashville but a little more authentic and personal... hard to describe but great. Fun Fact- while walking back from Frenchmen to head closer to home, we saw the lead singer from the first band on the street, so we shook his hand and he gave me a CD!! The band is called Dumaine (named after one of the streets in the Quarter), and I'm so excited to listen to it!! Yet another reason to love this place.
Around 3 (I think?) We went from that strip to another 24-hour bar called Miss Mae's, where well drinks were $1, calls were $2 and premiums were $3. Yes, that means that you could get Johnny Walker Black or Knobb Creek for $3. Another hint that I love this city. haha. We met lots of awesome people there, had a great time, and went home around 4:30...ish...not really sure but some late time that did not feel nearly as late as it was.
Unfortunately, because of the rain and thunderstorms we didn't motivate enough to walk around much or get very far from the Quarter and the Garden District. Guess that just means I'll have to come back some day! We did manage to get ourselves to Parasol's for a po'boy, it was really good although there were lots of big bugs on the floor. But hey, it's New Orleans and they weren't bothering us, so we just let it be an enjoyed our po'boy. Delicious.
That night we spent the whole night at another local dive called The Saint, with our hosts, their neighbors, and some of the friends we had made the night before. Started the night with 1/2 priced drinks, continued with karaoke, and ended with me being very proud of my (apparently newly acquired) skill at maintaining myself by drinking booze slowly and water quickly. Definitely a useful thing to be able to do... glad it took me this long... haha. That bar wasn't a 24-hour one but last call was at 6a.m., yet another reason to love New Orleans.
We got home, slept for a few hours, thanked our hosts (and their dog) over and over and headed out for Houston around 2. It was a long, rainy drive to get here, and seemed even longer because of the weather and the fact that a 2004 Ford Ranger packed to the roof with backpacks, guitars, food, and beer is not the most comfortable place to try to sleep. But we made it, and subsequently had a long battle with Rice University over where the hell you are allowed to park overnight. Apparently nowhere. Agh.
So now we're up, doing computer things, and hopefully we'll make it out to explore the city a little before the storm really hits. Hurricane Alex can do nothing to weaken my resolve to drink and meet people. I'll keep you posted!
Once again,
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
Seriously, this has been my favorite place by far up until now. Let's see if I can summarize what we did and why I am seriously considering moving here.
After we moved in with our couch surfing hosts (who were AWESOME, by the way!) we basically hung out long enough until it was time to go out. We went with our hosts to a local dive bar called Lucky's, a 24-hour bar, grill, game room, and laundromat where you can get things notarized and where you can bring your dog. WHAT?!?! First hint that this is the city for me. Haha. While it as fun, we were a little tired and wanted to find somewhere a little more hopping so that we would wake up a little. Cue our hosts hooking us up with one of our friends, who was out on Frenchmen St., which I think is north of the quarter and basically a small strip of jazz clubs. We got there, met up with her friend, and proceeded to see 3 different jazz bands in different clubs in quick succession. Let me just say that the blues are still going strong and definitely still relevant in New Orleans. It was like watching country bands in Nashville but a little more authentic and personal... hard to describe but great. Fun Fact- while walking back from Frenchmen to head closer to home, we saw the lead singer from the first band on the street, so we shook his hand and he gave me a CD!! The band is called Dumaine (named after one of the streets in the Quarter), and I'm so excited to listen to it!! Yet another reason to love this place.
Around 3 (I think?) We went from that strip to another 24-hour bar called Miss Mae's, where well drinks were $1, calls were $2 and premiums were $3. Yes, that means that you could get Johnny Walker Black or Knobb Creek for $3. Another hint that I love this city. haha. We met lots of awesome people there, had a great time, and went home around 4:30...ish...not really sure but some late time that did not feel nearly as late as it was.
Unfortunately, because of the rain and thunderstorms we didn't motivate enough to walk around much or get very far from the Quarter and the Garden District. Guess that just means I'll have to come back some day! We did manage to get ourselves to Parasol's for a po'boy, it was really good although there were lots of big bugs on the floor. But hey, it's New Orleans and they weren't bothering us, so we just let it be an enjoyed our po'boy. Delicious.
That night we spent the whole night at another local dive called The Saint, with our hosts, their neighbors, and some of the friends we had made the night before. Started the night with 1/2 priced drinks, continued with karaoke, and ended with me being very proud of my (apparently newly acquired) skill at maintaining myself by drinking booze slowly and water quickly. Definitely a useful thing to be able to do... glad it took me this long... haha. That bar wasn't a 24-hour one but last call was at 6a.m., yet another reason to love New Orleans.
We got home, slept for a few hours, thanked our hosts (and their dog) over and over and headed out for Houston around 2. It was a long, rainy drive to get here, and seemed even longer because of the weather and the fact that a 2004 Ford Ranger packed to the roof with backpacks, guitars, food, and beer is not the most comfortable place to try to sleep. But we made it, and subsequently had a long battle with Rice University over where the hell you are allowed to park overnight. Apparently nowhere. Agh.
So now we're up, doing computer things, and hopefully we'll make it out to explore the city a little before the storm really hits. Hurricane Alex can do nothing to weaken my resolve to drink and meet people. I'll keep you posted!
Once again,
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
Monday, June 28, 2010
...I don't think we're in Florida anymore...
Finally, we are out of the state of Florida. It feels like we were there forever, although I just realized it was only actually 6 days. The weirdest juxtaposition of this trip so far has been spending 6 days in one state, and then being in 4 states the next day. The U.S., England, and Mexico are all out of the World Cup running, so now all we have is Ghana to root for before all of our teams are out. (By "our" teams, I mean I get to root for Ghana because Dre went there once. I think we're becoming the smae person so that's probably ok.)
Tallahassee was an interesting place, we met some fun people at the pub (which was SO RIDICULOUSLY CROWDED) and ended up staying the night with an old hippie. Coolest house ever - I've never seen so many knick knacks all in one place!! We went out for a little bit that night, just trying to see the town, but there were only about 4 bars, and they were all like nasty college frat bars. Which can definitely be fun (clearly... who am I again?) but not really what we were in the mood for. No worries though, we went home, watched a movie and went to sleep!
On our way to New Orleans yesterday we stopped near Eglin Air Force Base to go to the beach, and ended up finding tar balls while swimming in the ocean. Really sad, the beach wasn't messy yet but just to know that it will be soon was depressing, especially because it was so so beautiful. Stopped at a few more places on the Gulf to try to see some oily beaches (half from rubbernecking, half because...how could we not?) but didn't see much. We finally made it into our campground very near New Orleans around 6, after a 8 hour total trip. Bayou Segnett State Park was so so nice, and if we hadn't found an awesome couch surfer to stay with for the rest of the time we would be totally happy to have stayed there. We made some Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice for dinner in honor of the occasion and the location, and then headed out on the town!
Another advantage of the campground was that it was only about a 15 minute drive to Bourbon St. However, we spent longer than that trying to find a place to park in the French Quarter. In the scheme of things though, that was the only problem we had, so the night was definitely a success! We went to a bar called Krazy Korner (I think?) and had a great time chatting with the upstairs bartender. We made a great friend who's really into traveling and couch surfing, and what more do you need when traveling than 3-for-1 drink deals (what?!?!?!) and new friends? Nothing.
Today has been mostly trying to sleep while the sun streams in the truck window at 7 a.m., and then dealing with rain. Go figure. But on the plus side, we got to our couch surfing location around 1 and it's been great to have air conditioning, a fridge, and wireless! And possibly a delicious Twix to help also. haha
For the rest of the night, I think we're going to look for free red beans and rice (apparently that's a common Monday thing... awesome!!) and then we'll head wherever the night takes us! I'm sure it will be fun, I decided that I'm totally in love with New Orleans and now that we know where to go for locals bars I'm excited to explore!
Alright, now that I"m all caught up it's time to get off my computer and go do stuff!
Thanks for reading everyone!
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
Tallahassee was an interesting place, we met some fun people at the pub (which was SO RIDICULOUSLY CROWDED) and ended up staying the night with an old hippie. Coolest house ever - I've never seen so many knick knacks all in one place!! We went out for a little bit that night, just trying to see the town, but there were only about 4 bars, and they were all like nasty college frat bars. Which can definitely be fun (clearly... who am I again?) but not really what we were in the mood for. No worries though, we went home, watched a movie and went to sleep!
On our way to New Orleans yesterday we stopped near Eglin Air Force Base to go to the beach, and ended up finding tar balls while swimming in the ocean. Really sad, the beach wasn't messy yet but just to know that it will be soon was depressing, especially because it was so so beautiful. Stopped at a few more places on the Gulf to try to see some oily beaches (half from rubbernecking, half because...how could we not?) but didn't see much. We finally made it into our campground very near New Orleans around 6, after a 8 hour total trip. Bayou Segnett State Park was so so nice, and if we hadn't found an awesome couch surfer to stay with for the rest of the time we would be totally happy to have stayed there. We made some Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice for dinner in honor of the occasion and the location, and then headed out on the town!
Another advantage of the campground was that it was only about a 15 minute drive to Bourbon St. However, we spent longer than that trying to find a place to park in the French Quarter. In the scheme of things though, that was the only problem we had, so the night was definitely a success! We went to a bar called Krazy Korner (I think?) and had a great time chatting with the upstairs bartender. We made a great friend who's really into traveling and couch surfing, and what more do you need when traveling than 3-for-1 drink deals (what?!?!?!) and new friends? Nothing.
Today has been mostly trying to sleep while the sun streams in the truck window at 7 a.m., and then dealing with rain. Go figure. But on the plus side, we got to our couch surfing location around 1 and it's been great to have air conditioning, a fridge, and wireless! And possibly a delicious Twix to help also. haha
For the rest of the night, I think we're going to look for free red beans and rice (apparently that's a common Monday thing... awesome!!) and then we'll head wherever the night takes us! I'm sure it will be fun, I decided that I'm totally in love with New Orleans and now that we know where to go for locals bars I'm excited to explore!
Alright, now that I"m all caught up it's time to get off my computer and go do stuff!
Thanks for reading everyone!
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
The Happiest Place on Earth... for Muggles
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS ORLANDO
Basically we went there for the sole purpose of going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The line just to get into that part of the park was 2 hours long at 11 a.m. so we held off and went to some other areas of the park until the line cleared out around 2. And let me just say, every single minute I spent waiting in line to get into rides, shops, bathrooms, whatever – TOTALLY WORTH IT!! Hogsmeade was adorable and all of the shops were a great mix of attraction and retail. The wait for the Dragon Challenge rollercoaster was only 10 minutes the whole time, and of course was made much easier by the fact that the line wound through dungeons and the Champions’ Tent on the way to the ride. There was a cute little family-friendly rollercoaster based on Hagrid teaching you how to train hippogriffs, and that was a nice way for me to warm up to the bigger rides. By far the best of all though was the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” ride. We had a 90 minute wait, and most of that time was standing in a line that wound back and forth outside the castle and in fact was diverted out of the Wizarding World section of the park in order to make the line longer. However, once we got into Hogwarts Castle it was so cool to hear and see the portraits talking to each other, standing in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom watching a hologram of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and feeling some kind of fake snow that “Hermione” made fall. (That was like the coolest thing ever – it was just like snow but I don’t think they can make fake snow in Orlando in July so I have no idea how they did it.) Finally we got to the ride, which was a kind of simulator, where you are strapped into your seat and moved through the castle while all around you TV screens show you flying around the castle avoiding a dragon, complete with having head blasted at you when the dragon breathes fire in your direction. Terrifying and awesome and worth it in every way. The food was good, the rides were good, and everything was pretty accurate – no complaints from me! The lines of course were long but to be fair it’s Universal Studios in the summer time, and the park had only been open for a week.
So that was my day of Harry Potter nerd paradise. I highly recommend it and I’m looking forward to going back in the off-season in a few years when there aren’t any lines.
So after that we stayed in a Knights Inn whore-tel near the Café Risque (“We Bare It All”) in Williston, FL because the campground we tried was creepy and totally deserted. Headed out around 11 this morning and now we just got off the highway in Tallahassee! We’re going to a pub to watch the U.S.-Ghana World Cup game – I’m taking bets on who Dre will be rooting for. Haha.
Well we’re about 3 miles from the bar so I’m going to sign off for now and start getting pumped for the game!
Sorry I didn’t post for a while – lots of things to do and enjoy and not as much driving as usual. I’ll be better about it for the next few days since we’re doing more driving, although I’m not totally sure when we’ll have wireless again. But never fear, I’m still here! And feel free to Facebook me or text me if you find yourself going through Katie withdrawal (I know it’s a common problem, maybe I can get you a prescription for methadone or something haha.)
GO USA!!
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
Basically we went there for the sole purpose of going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The line just to get into that part of the park was 2 hours long at 11 a.m. so we held off and went to some other areas of the park until the line cleared out around 2. And let me just say, every single minute I spent waiting in line to get into rides, shops, bathrooms, whatever – TOTALLY WORTH IT!! Hogsmeade was adorable and all of the shops were a great mix of attraction and retail. The wait for the Dragon Challenge rollercoaster was only 10 minutes the whole time, and of course was made much easier by the fact that the line wound through dungeons and the Champions’ Tent on the way to the ride. There was a cute little family-friendly rollercoaster based on Hagrid teaching you how to train hippogriffs, and that was a nice way for me to warm up to the bigger rides. By far the best of all though was the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” ride. We had a 90 minute wait, and most of that time was standing in a line that wound back and forth outside the castle and in fact was diverted out of the Wizarding World section of the park in order to make the line longer. However, once we got into Hogwarts Castle it was so cool to hear and see the portraits talking to each other, standing in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom watching a hologram of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and feeling some kind of fake snow that “Hermione” made fall. (That was like the coolest thing ever – it was just like snow but I don’t think they can make fake snow in Orlando in July so I have no idea how they did it.) Finally we got to the ride, which was a kind of simulator, where you are strapped into your seat and moved through the castle while all around you TV screens show you flying around the castle avoiding a dragon, complete with having head blasted at you when the dragon breathes fire in your direction. Terrifying and awesome and worth it in every way. The food was good, the rides were good, and everything was pretty accurate – no complaints from me! The lines of course were long but to be fair it’s Universal Studios in the summer time, and the park had only been open for a week.
So that was my day of Harry Potter nerd paradise. I highly recommend it and I’m looking forward to going back in the off-season in a few years when there aren’t any lines.
So after that we stayed in a Knights Inn whore-tel near the Café Risque (“We Bare It All”) in Williston, FL because the campground we tried was creepy and totally deserted. Headed out around 11 this morning and now we just got off the highway in Tallahassee! We’re going to a pub to watch the U.S.-Ghana World Cup game – I’m taking bets on who Dre will be rooting for. Haha.
Well we’re about 3 miles from the bar so I’m going to sign off for now and start getting pumped for the game!
Sorry I didn’t post for a while – lots of things to do and enjoy and not as much driving as usual. I’ll be better about it for the next few days since we’re doing more driving, although I’m not totally sure when we’ll have wireless again. But never fear, I’m still here! And feel free to Facebook me or text me if you find yourself going through Katie withdrawal (I know it’s a common problem, maybe I can get you a prescription for methadone or something haha.)
GO USA!!
Yours in Wandering,
Katie
Actual Post About West Palm and Miami
Alright readers, I’m now sitting in the car about 30 miles from Tallahassee, so I finally have time to fill you in on all the fun happenings from this leg of the trip. We had the awesome opportunity to stay with our friend Josh from A.U., whose parents have a house near West Palm Beach. It was really really great of them to host us for 5 days, and between that, them taking us, Josh, and another visiting friend Christina, out to dinner, insisting that we take snacks with us for the road, and Josh taking us out to see the town and Miami, we are so grateful for the Diamond family’s hospitality.
SO on to the events… when we got to Josh’s, he and Christina welcomed us with cold Coronas, which was like the coolest most perfect way to arrive anywhere ever. That night we went to Clematis St. in downtown West Palm to a rum bar, where we drank what was basically rum jungle juice and listened to a live reggae band. Very chill and relaxing.
The next day was our Miami day, and we ended up getting there around 5:30 or 6 I think. We had some happy hour margaritas at an “Irish pub” named Finnigans (the only Irish thing about it was its name, but it was right on the beach and we sat outside on wicker love seats, so I’m not complaining). We hung out on the beach for a little bit, maybe an hour or so, and then headed BACK to that Irish place for more drinks and a little food. The sun went down and we started the night in earnest, walking down the strip and stopping for drinks at a few places, including one called Wet Willies which basically only served slushies. However, the best place we went, by far, was Mangoes. It’s a little hard to explain but imagine a salsa club mixed with European techno, with a stage with professional dancers performing and sometimes singing, and all the girls basically wearing nothing. I don’t know if that’s a good way to explain it but I had SO much fun, even though their vodka sodas were $11 – their rail was Grey Goose. Bienvenido a Miami. Haha. We went back to the beach as soon as it opened at 5 a.m., went swimming, and fell asleep on the beach until about 6:30, when we left. All in all, a GREAT awesome fun night in Miami.
The rest of the week we went to the pool in Josh’s neighborhood, hung out at his house, went out with him and his friends and Friday morning left at 6 a.m. to go to...
(to be continued...)
SO on to the events… when we got to Josh’s, he and Christina welcomed us with cold Coronas, which was like the coolest most perfect way to arrive anywhere ever. That night we went to Clematis St. in downtown West Palm to a rum bar, where we drank what was basically rum jungle juice and listened to a live reggae band. Very chill and relaxing.
The next day was our Miami day, and we ended up getting there around 5:30 or 6 I think. We had some happy hour margaritas at an “Irish pub” named Finnigans (the only Irish thing about it was its name, but it was right on the beach and we sat outside on wicker love seats, so I’m not complaining). We hung out on the beach for a little bit, maybe an hour or so, and then headed BACK to that Irish place for more drinks and a little food. The sun went down and we started the night in earnest, walking down the strip and stopping for drinks at a few places, including one called Wet Willies which basically only served slushies. However, the best place we went, by far, was Mangoes. It’s a little hard to explain but imagine a salsa club mixed with European techno, with a stage with professional dancers performing and sometimes singing, and all the girls basically wearing nothing. I don’t know if that’s a good way to explain it but I had SO much fun, even though their vodka sodas were $11 – their rail was Grey Goose. Bienvenido a Miami. Haha. We went back to the beach as soon as it opened at 5 a.m., went swimming, and fell asleep on the beach until about 6:30, when we left. All in all, a GREAT awesome fun night in Miami.
The rest of the week we went to the pool in Josh’s neighborhood, hung out at his house, went out with him and his friends and Friday morning left at 6 a.m. to go to...
(to be continued...)
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