Erin at Large: January 2006

Atlantic Ho!

I thought the Atlantic coast was just like the Oregon coast. Cold, grey, windy and wet. Lots of room to walk for miles if you want, and atrociously expensive houses booming everywhere. North Carolina coast, however, closes down in the winter. I guess no one can handle the grey weather here, and there wasn't even a coffee to be had. Now I know exactly where to go if I ever get homesick though. There's even a little beach called Oregon Point or Cape or something like that.

The Proof: my feet in the Atlantic. They were numb about 20 min. later.

Brodie Lighthouse, approx. 1000 meters from the ocean.

Me holding the camera. This is shot 5.

At last, a nice, traditional beach photo.

El Piso Mio!

Firstly, I apoligize for the weird text and photo formatting that blogger seems to want to do. Secondly, I invite you on a tour of my apartment! I had wanted to put the photos in a different order, but the internet is so damn slow here that it didn't seem worth starting over when it didn't turn out right. It's too bad that we'll only be here on the weekends, although the bathroom, contrary to the rest of the apartment, is very tiny. The shower is on par with the emergency chemical wash stations at labs, so maybe it's for the better.

View of my bedroom, which I measured at approx. 13' x 20' with a desk (not pictured) that is about 3.5' x 7'

My "dressing room" which is about 7.5' x 20'

The view from my bedroom windows.

Left: A view of my door from the street. We live in the ulitmate party building. It's also a nationally registered historic building.

Middle Right: Up the crooked stairs that will kill me if I dare come home drunk...

Bottom Left and Right: The supper addorable kitchen, from 2 angles to better appreciate the checkerboard floor.

Elvis, not looking unlike our current drunken victorious double-vision.

NORTH CAROLINA!!! Ash almost killed us stopping in the middle of the road -

That is not true! (this is ash) I pulled over so she could take a picture. There was no one behind us. It was perfectly safe. And see, we got a good picture out of it!

Whatever dude, it was a dark and stormy night on a curvy mountain road!

Anyway. As you may be able to tell, we've gone to the bar and had our victory drinks for having reached Raleigh in four days. Many miles. Many many miles!

HIghlights:

--Ash being totally smitten with the green-eyed blonde haired waitress with a "beautiful, breathy southern accent" at the Waffle House restaurant in Tennessee whose boss had been extremely inconsiderate to her...we gave her a huge tip.

--my wallet still hasn't been stolen, I just keep leaving it in the deli section and other clever places.

--The fantastic billboard that said JOIN US in huge letters...it may have had something to do with a labor union, but it was hilarious. Too bad we didn't get a photo.

--We stopped at a fantastic coffee shop in Knoxville for an hour. It was really the only relaxing break we've had the whole trip. It wasn't site-seeing, but it was such a relief.

--There is a disproportionate amount of roadkill in Arkansas...make of it what you will. We had a disproportionate fondness for Oklahoma, posssibly because it was the first state after Texas, but you never know.

Oklahoma City to Nashville: 677.5 miles, 2 pre-packaged starbucks vanilla frapps, and 3 cups at the truck stop

Nashville to Raleigh: 525.6 miles, 2 cups at breakfast, 2 lattes at the fantastic cafe/bakery, and 1 pre-packaged starbucks frapp. It is obvious I'm reaching the end of my endurance. The lattes in Knoxville were superb. We both fantisized about being U. Tennessee students and spending long hours studying in that cafe.

Nashville

New Mexico: one of the rare beautiful, non-freaky-flat parts.

Co-pilot, looking no more identifiable than some random street dude, by the Mississippi River.

The joygasmic Snowflake in Flagstaff.

Dashboard Confessionals: an artistic installation by Ashton Saylor.

Oklahoma City

Miles travelled: 855.0

Hours travelled: 13, not counting time zones

Coffees: 3

Cafe Espress will always have the best coffees in the whole damn country. I save a special little joygasm just for them. This morning's delicacy was a Snowflake; creamy espresso with irish cream, whipped cream and white ghiradeli powdered chocolate. Heavenly and it made me feel less like death warmed over.

I have to give a thumbs up to the Toot'n'Totem gas station store in Texas, for having 6 flavors of button machine espresso. I recommend their irish cream, but not their scratch-it tickets.

We drove through 4 states today, which is crazy. We also managed to never see Texas in the light of day, which, in my opinion, means that I have not really been to Texas and am therefore still pure. We did, however, drive past the infamous Porno Barn there (too fast to grab a pic, sorry) and were stunned by the psychoness of their driving rules. There is a very large sign upon entering the state, with about a paragraph of small print about speed limit laws. There are also signs that say in black-on-white '7o mph' but below that in white-on-black '65 mph at night' Insane. Who ever heard of that? Having for-warning, we set the cruise control to 65 and let every other car pass us. That was fine, because they got pulled over.

Best/worst sights of the day: a giant paper mache stegasaurus eating a person, and a huge billboard for microsurgical vasectomy reversals....directly next to a restaurant named 'Knife City' all in the middle of freakin' no where.

The supreme flatness of eastern New Mexico gave us the willies. Thankfully the sun went down soon afterwards.

The noble steed

The first detour: Ash sees his new 'investment property' in Merced for the first time.

Amusing cow mural in Flagstaff

The best and worst sign in Flagstaff. I've heard stories that this store only sells guns, porn and cigarettes. The owner is a cranky old redneck asshole.

Pilot standing on a corner down in Winslow, Arizona/Seven fellas on her mind.

Flagstaff

I have no photos for today, mostly because the camera is down in the car, and it's too fucking cold out to go get it. Yes, we have changed climate zones. We are in the fabulous Days Inn in fabulous Flagstaff, with free wireless. Huzzah! It is almost midnight and I'm fucking exhausted. The cootie count is high and I've bene popping vitamin C a lot.

Miles traveled: 757.4
Hours traveled: a bazillion
Coffee stops: 1 coffee, 1 hot chocolate. Review: the coffee was the reliable gas station standard--the bottled starbucks frapp. It was sunny when we started out and I was feeling so perky and excited that more was not necessary. Just take the head ache away, please. The hot chocolate was in the scary town of Barstow, deep in the ugliest part of serial killer California. Not Chevron, and therefor not as delicious as it could have been. Ash proved to be someone lacking in trucker skillz and managed to not take his hand off the button in time, and spill hot chocolate everywhere. I mocked him ;-)

Worst lines of the day: While almost taking the wrong exit onto I-5 south---"Oh, sorry, I saw Fresno and got all excited" Me
Ash, upon seeing our fabulous sea-foam tiled bathroom--"Wow, it's like a horror movie! You could kill someone and just clean up all the blood" I will definately post a photo of the bathroom--it is too silly to be believed.

Um.
That was freaky.