SF to NYC Day 10-15: NO, Oxford, Smokys, DC, NYC

I have not been able to post the last week because I have either been on the road driving or hanging with whom ever I was with in that city.  So I am giving a small excerpt from each place over the past week.

New Orleans:
Steve was one of the best hosts around.  From when we woke up till we passed out he showed all the stops in New Orleans.  We woke up and got Po' Boys at Parkway Tavern which were awesome.  They are humongous.  Neither of us could finish them, so we saved them for later.  After taking Steve's dog on a little park run and sweating so much cause NO is super humid, we went to the Southern Food & Beverage Museum.  We then went to Dryads Market for some chips and afternoon beers.  NO is so awesome, no matter where or what you are in there is a bar at least 30 feet away.  After freshening up we hit the town, went to Bourbon Street and Pat o's and got Hurricanes, and had Chili Dawgs for dinner, then Cats Meow karaoke for a drink before heading to our Ghost tour with this voodoo lady.  She took us all round the French Quarters telling us ghost stories about each place.  It was one of the scariest things ever!  Had to drink extra to get rid of the heebeejeebees.  We went out after that and I have to say Frenchman Street is one of the coolest places ever.  Woke up very hungover and we got Beignets before I left for a struggle drive to Oxford.

Oxford:
Oxford is one of the most unrated towns in the south.  It was so awesome to see Kunhardt again, I haven't been able to hangout with him like old times in forever.  Chris showed me around Ole' Miss campus and around town.  Nice little square.  There is a lot of cool history in Oxford and the school is so old.  We went to Chris' girlfriends, Glennis' place, where we met the 4 cats and 3 dogs they have.  One of them was Chris' named Harry, very cool dog.  We had some tasty cocktails before we got dinner at this asian fusion sushi place that was really good.  I was finally starting to feel human again after a few drinks so we checked out what the square was like.  It was popping off!  Every kid had a polo shirt and khaki shorts on.  Went to a couple places but ended up at Chris' favorite spot called City Grocery, which was an awesome bar in the square that was mostly locals, on a second story building with a balcony.  Next day we checked out William Faulkner's house which was very interesting.  We hung out the rest of in town talking in southern accents (just me) and people watching.  It was sad to leave the next day.

Great Smoky Mountains:
On my way to the mountains the scariest thing ever happened to me.  I stopped outside of Knoxville to get gas.  I went in to pee and the gas station clerk asked me where I was coming from, I said SF, and where I was going, I said NYC.  And then he said, not even making this up, "You're going to Columbia right?  Going to study Medicine?"  My heart dropped and I freaked out a bit.  I peed came back and spoke with him for another 25 minutes.  He wasn't a psychic but said he just knew things.  Hard to explain this while typing so feel free to ask me next time you see me.  Needless to say I was freaked the funk out.  Made it to the Smokys with no cell service and it was pitch black.  And because I thought I was going to get murdered I slept in my car.  Woke up with stiff knees and thought I should try to make the best of it so I went fishing for awhile.  After losing 4 flies to the overhanging branches and still having the willies from that weird guy, and because I was so sick of driving, I decided to head out a day early.

DC:
Schwebel was kind enough to welcome me to DC a day early.  He made me a comfy pull out bed.  We talked about the trip and hung out for a bit.  He is also moving back to NYC in two weeks to leave with his finance that just got a new job.  We got breakfast in the morning and he understood I was sick of being on the road and wanted to head home.

NYC:
I did not go through a toll until my drive from DC to NYC where I went through a MILLION tolls.  Why are there so many tolls on the east coast and before AND after bridges, and to get into and out of cities, where does all this toll money go cause it ain't helping the roads, so much money going through these tolls.  Anyways made it to the big apple, changing the mountains to sky scrapers.  I had officially driven 4433.8 miles.  Damn that's long.  Basically slept and checked out campus since I've been home.

It was an amazing trip and thank you for everyone who put me up and followed along.

On to the next journey, should be a long one.

- Frank

SF to NYC Day 9: BA to NO

Hung out with Chadd a bit in the morning, caught up on some stuff I needed to do then headed to New Orleans. Steve texted me around 12 telling me to come 2 hours earlier cause he wanted to get started. It's a quick 1.5 hours from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Drive is pretty easy and nice, going along the water and bridge. The flood had receded enough where everything was good.

For those who don't know, Steve and I met in Chile when we both did English Opens Doors program. Steve is from Louisiana and has the best accent and he is the man. We would run around Chile and do dumb shit together all be time and become best friends. And he's been yelling at my ass to get down to New Orleans forever. Wish I went sooner.

So I get to Stevens and let myself in. He was still a work for a sec. I locked myself out on his patio and had to jump the fence to get back in. As soon as Steve got home he immediately picked me up and we went to Brisbe's on the lake had some oysters and beer. Then we came back home picked up his lady, Vanessa, and headed to he original Frankie & Johnnys, 1947, which was awesome. I had fried catfish, which I realized I never had catfish before, Steve got red beans and rice which was awesome, catfish is good too but the beans were better. (I have been eating non stop since I got here and I love it.) We drove around a bit showed me the sights and all the abandon houses Katrina messed up. Crazy thing about New Orleans is everything is a house, Steve is sick of me saying it but it's so cool that everything is a house, there aren't a lot of apartment buildings or high rises besides downtown, everything else is a long awesome southern looking house. AND every place we got to has a bar in it, grocery store-bar in front, museum-bar to the side, po' boys place-bar attached, I love this city.

We went out on Magazine street after dinner just me and Steve, Vanessa had to work tomorrow, and bar hopped all the way down. Bars were awesome big old bars in houses, good bar games and cheap. We proceeded to get Chilean drunk and I lost in air hockey to some girl and I was super mad. Had so much fun catching up and getting our drink on, walked home and passed out on top of the sheets. Steve has a whole day planned for the next day and I am pumped.

New Orleans is the best.

SF to NYC Day 8: Go Tigers!

Y'all staying dry? Let's go Tigers (southern accent.). That's how I imagine all people in Baton Rouge talk, but they don't all have southern accents, I just love southern accents, and Chicago accents for that matter.

So I slept super all after my long drive and Chadd made some tasty eggs for breakfast. We then went to Chadd's new study office where he will be taking classes for his new program. Chadd is also going back to school! He was accepted to the best Landscape Architecture program in the country which is at LSU. Pretty awesome since he wants to take what he learns here and apply it to his family business once he's done. It's a 3 year program and I am sure he will crush it. His studio and building where most of his classes will be is awesome. Chadd already has his desk setup and is already doing homework, a week before any of the other students get there. Always getting after it. LSU campus is awesome. Huge quad and Spanish looking buildings. You know the red tile roofs, is that Spanish? We walked around campus for a while. Made it down frat row which brought us back to shot gunning and strikeouts, I think I convince Chadd to pledge again. Chadd also found a giant wire wheel thing which he wanted as a coffee table so he rolled it around all day, all over campus, many people looked only a few asked. We then walked over to the stadium to check out Mike the LSU mascot. It is an actual live Bengal tiger in a big cage/enclosure. This dude is so freaking big. And you can get really close to him on the fence. And since Chadd had that big wheel he kept following Chadd around creeping up looking like he wanted to eat him. It was awesome.

We got home got cleaned up had some dinner then wanted to go out. But we found out the Baton Rouge had a ten o'clock curfew so all the bars we wanted to go to were closing at like 9. It was nuts, never been in a curfew before. We did get to Barcadia for a bit which had a million games which was fun, and had the Holiber's favorite: punching bag game, my arm is a little sore.

Bought some beers for home, hung out a bit with the neighbors then went to bed. All in all it was great to check out the campus and get the new school feeling. It got me excited to start school in a few weeks! (holy shit)

Next stop New Orleans, party time, excellent.

SF to NYC Day 7: Long Haul Part II

I would like to personally thank Ralph Teetor the inventor of cruise control, and his annoying lawyer:

"Modern cruise control (also known as a speedostat or tempomat) was invented in 1948 by the inventor and mechanical engineer Ralph Teetor. His idea was born out of the frustration of riding in a car driven by his lawyer, who kept speeding up and slowing down as he talked."

Amarillo to Baton Rouge took me 11.5 hours.  I left at 5:30am and got there at 6pm.  It was a very long drive but not the worst.  It was just mentally draining.  You know when you play guitar hero for a really long time and then when you stop and look away from the screen and everything looks like it's still moving, that's how I felt when I finally made it, and when you are in the ocean waves all day and you got to sleep and still feel the waves, when I went to sleep I felt like I was still in a car.  I drove across the pan handle of Texas through Dallas then down Louisiana.  The first 9 hours were pretty much all Texas, flat and farm land very boring.  I was back in the Louis CK and classic rock phase.  I am trying to think about what I thought about in the car during these hours because I had some funny thoughts but my mind is pretty much mush right now.  Maybe the next leg they will come back to me.

The last three hours were pretty tough.  It was raining a bit on and off and sometimes hard to see the road but the hardest part was I was getting tired eyed.  So I resorted to my methods of staying focused: 5 hour energy drink, sun flower seeds, LCD Soundsystem.  Thanks Ben for the 5 hour and seeds.  So I was raging the last couple hours, my mouth is still a bit raw from all the salt on the seeds, I usually shove a handful into my mouth, put them in my upper lip and then crack one at a time, got to use the back molars to crack then the front teeth to get the seed.  People who only use their front teeth are amateurs.  I filled an empty Snapple bottle with shells, yum.  

Got off the exit to Chadd's and rolled down there windows, it was actually pretty nice to feel some humidity compared to the dry Vail and desert I was just in.  Baton Rouge is pretty bad but a lot of the water has receded and most of the roads are back open.  You can see there is a lot of debris where the water got really high.  It'll take some time to get everything cleaned but for be most part, at least around LSU, people are in good spirits, welcome to Baton Rouge.  Chadd found me and gave me his Chadd bark yell and hug.  We got some groceries and he cooked some dope ass chicken pasta and veggies, Chadd is a good cook.  Took it easy then went to bed since we were both pretty beat and my mind was a potato.  I slept like a baby.

Y'all!!!!

SF to NYC Day 6: Long Haul Part I

Vail to Amarillo, 8.5 hours: Louis CK radio for 3 hours, classic rock 1 hour, Moon Taxi 1 hour, talk to E 1 hour, techno/house/base to the face last 2 hours. It's nothing but flat farm land the whole way and only one lane, almost all 18 wheelers trying to speed up past them. It was the most boring part of the trip so far. It would've been worse had I not stopped at the Cadillac Ranch once I got to Amarillo. It's several buried Cadillacs that people come to see and spray paint on. Something nice to look at after 8.5 hours of truck butts. Got some steak at the steak house next to my hotel, waiter called me pawtnar, so overall success. Next day is the big one, 12-13 hours to Baton Rouge to see Chadd. My butt's numb.

SF to NYC Day 5: Gone Fishing

If you ever go to Vail get Dan Werney as your fly fishing guide. Call him bonesaw and you'll catch all the fish.

We woke up relatively early, had some bagels, got our stuff together, hit up Dan's shop, then headed to the Eagle River. Dan knew some good spots he wanted us to try. We headed to the first hole with breakfast beers in hand, it was Miller time. We didn't catch too many, Dan caught 5 I think, I caught 2. But my second was the biggest brown trout I ever seen, got it on a dry fly which was the best feeling ever. In the middle some people were floating down the river and threw us some beers. We later saw them all scattered down toward the bottom and one guy way up who popped his tube, his girlfriend looked pissed. Also for some reason I had the worst allergies ever, and I usually never get them. My left eye was all gross and I had snot dripping out my nose the whole day. It got worse and grosser. Danny caught one more on the way out as we finished our beers. We fished for about 5 hours then got some Hawaiian food near by. We ordered way too much but the owner liked us and came out to say what up, he was funny, had that slow Hawaiian accent talk, brah, how did he end up in Colorado?

We were beat again from the whole day in the sun so went to see Suicide Squad, which wasn't great, save your money, then chilled at home and hit the hay.

Love visiting Vail and fishing and hanging with the Danny Bones, it was short but sweet. Wish I could fish all day everyday. Next day I start my two longest driving legs.

"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Don't teach a man to fish…and feed yourself. He's a grown man. And fishing's not that hard"- Ron Swanson

SF to NYC Day 4: Drive to Vail DWerns

It was sad to leave Zion. The valley and cliffs look especially magnificent in the early morning. But have to keep the trip moving. Next stop was Vail to see Danny bones. It was an 7-8 drive but it really wasn't that difficult. In fact it was awesome. Most of the drive was on I-70 which cuts through the whole USA. Went from Zion which is mostly desert to green hills in northern Utah, then east through what must be northern Grand Canyon, then the canyons turn into green bushes and trees and mountains. Very scenic drive, if you ever get a chance do it.

Finally come up through the pass and see the sign for Vail. Dan and some buds were there when I arrived. Got cleaned up and headed to a new wings spot. Immediately started to feel the altitude and pollen but after some beers and hot wings felt right as rain. We went to a couple more spots after that, Friday Afternoon Club where all the cougars hang out. We were pretty beat so headed home for an early wake up the next day for some fly fishing!