So much has happened in such a short amount of time I don’t frankly even think they’re real. In my mind I’m still in my boxers somewhere in California about to answer an excited call from an old friend. In my mind the television is on and I don’t want to pick up the phone because I know its Jamal and I don’t feel like talking about the 20 bucks I owe him. In my mind I let it ring.
We’ve been running around New Orleans for a little while now and if I wasn’t too full to move I’d still be running around right now. Who knew crawdads were so filling? And what the heck is a crawdad anyway? The father of a craw?
New Orleans is amazing. Easily the most European-American city I’ve seen, the streets remind me of when I was in Paris and I got lost because someone took my map. And my camera. Baroque railings line the two-story buildings as sherbert-colored flowers peek out between the neon. Streets wind and twist in the manner of the horse and not the horsepower as it’s refreshingly clear they were made for the carriage and not the car. To feel so out of America while feeling so in it is an odd sensation - a mixture of Yankee pride, European indulgence and plain old Earthly awe.
Man we’re In New Orleans during Jazz Fest. It’s like braving a bull in Pamplona, like downing a draft at Ocktoberfest, like spending your savings in Vegas – just something everyone should do once, and I got Vegas checked off already.
The music is so good here. All the music. Walking towards Bourbon street Jamal and I rounded a corner to see a 15 piece brass band playing in perfect unison as children and adults danced in the streets. Eyes closed as if to savor every bite, their limbs wobbled and waved as raspy jubilation spilled all over. You don’t see people in the States just let go very often and It’s cool finding a place where they do. In fact those that don’t let go look out of place. Say what you will about the excess of New Orleans our country needs more places like this. Our country needs more feeling.
Because sometimes we’re just too busy. Sometimes details become mountains and our existence takes so much effort we feel-less to produce-more. Heck, if Jamal hadn’t won this contest I’d be clenching my fists in that restaurant right now, numb to my passions and trying to cope with the afternoon buffet. So when you read this journal please understand that it’s written by someone whose pretty freakin’ grateful. I fully understand that this trip was given to me and aside from getting Benji Anderson not to kick Jamal’s butt in junior-high I have no idea why he asked me to come. (But I’m sure glad I picked up the phone when I did, Jamal said if I didn’t answer he’d promised to bring his older brother Larry – and Larry has a flatulence problem. )
So here I am, pleasantly digesting cajun food in my hotel room, about to see a Voodoo priest about upping our eco-score a little. (Let’s just say Jamal wasn’t as into the efficiency part of this adventure as he could have been and we might need some help from the beyond. Hey, it couldn’t hurt. Would you believe I found him on the nav?)
But voodoo or no I am refusing to accept the possibility that this trip is about to end. It’s too late now. I am an eco-warrior. My friend and I drive from city-to-city spreading the word and that’s the way it’s gonna be, if you try to stop me I’ll speed away in my car and won’t need to stop very often.
And I really don’t wanna leave this car. I really like it. It's called the Insight for a reason, it knows everything I want and it has it ready the second I say - like Kit from Night Rider if it was a hybrid. This car feels like the future. And the future is smooth.
So back home we will go – I know the trip is over soon and I’ll go back to my old job and my old car which doesn’t sound like a pretty 3rd-grade teacher when it doesn't give me directions. But, until that happens, I have one more night in New Orleans, one more shot at blowing all that money I didn't spend on gas.
And finally, the solar-panels shaped like a flower has stayed with me and I wonder about it still. If that array was painted and decorated they'd essentially be flowers, pulling energy from the sun making everything beautiful. And that equation works for me. This car is one step towards that and after going on this trip I'll never take a gallon for granted. There's a lot of factors at play in keeping this planet balanced and it's no coincidence that when something's doing good, it's got a lot of green.
From the heart of cajun country I thank you for coming on this journey. Jamal and Leebo, out.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
AUSTINTATIOUS
And as I drive away, I leave my heart in Texas.
Or rather, as Jamal drives me away I leave my heart in Texas.
Quick Tip – If you’re best friend’s a know-it-all and you’re foot is tired, a quick wikpedia and trivia-challenge will get you everywhere.
But that having been said, I will be returning to Austin.
Even as we pulled in we could sense that this city had a proud and vibrant spirit. An emo-CEO’s neon-dream, the skyline reflects a hip and thriving city as even during these hard times cranes and pulleys work away. The air is crisp, and dry – walking around with Jamal I mused that it felt like I was being “massaged” by it. He looked at me funny, and I took a picture.
But yeah, this is one rad, rad, radical city. Before this trip I always noticed that people would swoon over Austin whenever they talked about their favorite places in America. Having never been to Texas prior to this trip I always pictured a small college-y town with nice locals and good music. I couldn’t have been more wronger.
Austin is like the best parts of New York, Chicago and LA were like “I’m goin to Texas!” Man everyone is cool here. Babies are cool. And not cool in a "I'm cool" kinda way, cool in a stay-up-all-night-drinkin-and-hunt-you-breakfast-cool. Slide-guitar-and-javascript-cool.
So feeling kinda cool I challenged Jamal’s "supposed" iron stomach to a steak-off at the Hoffbrau House – a meat-and-potatoes joint with a huge steer’s head schilloueted over the entrance. Jamal likes to talk a good game about how much he can eat so I found this place on the nav that advertises that if you can eat their whole 72 OZ lunch, everyone eats for free. What’s more efficient than that?
Well let’s just say that Jamal’s stomach is also a hybrid cause he consumed as little as humanly possible. I don’t wanna say I’m disappointed in my old friend but it’s a good thing I didn’t bet any money cause I would have lost it after 12 OZ of good red meat and a russet. If there’s one thing Jamal isn’t, it’s a power-eater. We split the bill and got the remaining chuck to-go as he limped into the Honda.
Despite feeling like a steer had kicked me in the chops I couldn’t love Austin any more. Walking into the first bar Jamal and I randomly picked I randomly ran into my boy Dario who I used to hang out with in Kentucky. He’s Serbian and he manages focus-groups for big corporations which isn’t really funny until you hear him describe it in his accent. Apparently he came to Austin a year ago for some conference and liked it so much he just stayed. People who can work from a laptop are very, very lucky.
So after a drink, Dario Jamal and I went out for a walk around Austin and had a good old time. Music came from every corner and even places with no customers had someone on a guitar strumming and singing. The mix of people was so diverse I couldn’t really put my finger on what I saw most of but everyone was really good looking in a jeans-add-for-a-pair-you-might-actually-buy kinda way. And me in my Crocs…
After getting a two pound-hot-dog that could rival the 72 OZ of steak that Jamal tried to eat for lunch, we walked to the Congress Bridge and witnessed 1.5 million bats leave to feed at once. Every night at sunset, 1.5 million bats stream out from under the bridge and go somewhere to feed. Exactly where they go remains a mystery which seems odd given that 1.5 million is a lot of bats – a number I did not doubt when the horizon grew black with a shifting storm, of bat. I heard that people in the water under the bats have a great view of the action, and the guano. Let’s just say I’m glad we stayed on the bridge.
And so on we drive – New Orleans isn’t that far ahead. I’ve heard that I10 going into Lousiana is pretty and if the amazing weather we’ve had is any indication we get to see it at it’s best. While my heart may be in Texas I predict it’s stowed away in the back. Under the tinted glass in the Insight hatchback, I’ll bet it found a comfy place to ride.
Big easy here we come.
Or rather, as Jamal drives me away I leave my heart in Texas.
Quick Tip – If you’re best friend’s a know-it-all and you’re foot is tired, a quick wikpedia and trivia-challenge will get you everywhere.
But that having been said, I will be returning to Austin.
Even as we pulled in we could sense that this city had a proud and vibrant spirit. An emo-CEO’s neon-dream, the skyline reflects a hip and thriving city as even during these hard times cranes and pulleys work away. The air is crisp, and dry – walking around with Jamal I mused that it felt like I was being “massaged” by it. He looked at me funny, and I took a picture.
But yeah, this is one rad, rad, radical city. Before this trip I always noticed that people would swoon over Austin whenever they talked about their favorite places in America. Having never been to Texas prior to this trip I always pictured a small college-y town with nice locals and good music. I couldn’t have been more wronger.
Austin is like the best parts of New York, Chicago and LA were like “I’m goin to Texas!” Man everyone is cool here. Babies are cool. And not cool in a "I'm cool" kinda way, cool in a stay-up-all-night-drinkin-and-hunt-you-breakfast-cool. Slide-guitar-and-javascript-cool.
So feeling kinda cool I challenged Jamal’s "supposed" iron stomach to a steak-off at the Hoffbrau House – a meat-and-potatoes joint with a huge steer’s head schilloueted over the entrance. Jamal likes to talk a good game about how much he can eat so I found this place on the nav that advertises that if you can eat their whole 72 OZ lunch, everyone eats for free. What’s more efficient than that?
Well let’s just say that Jamal’s stomach is also a hybrid cause he consumed as little as humanly possible. I don’t wanna say I’m disappointed in my old friend but it’s a good thing I didn’t bet any money cause I would have lost it after 12 OZ of good red meat and a russet. If there’s one thing Jamal isn’t, it’s a power-eater. We split the bill and got the remaining chuck to-go as he limped into the Honda.
Despite feeling like a steer had kicked me in the chops I couldn’t love Austin any more. Walking into the first bar Jamal and I randomly picked I randomly ran into my boy Dario who I used to hang out with in Kentucky. He’s Serbian and he manages focus-groups for big corporations which isn’t really funny until you hear him describe it in his accent. Apparently he came to Austin a year ago for some conference and liked it so much he just stayed. People who can work from a laptop are very, very lucky.
So after a drink, Dario Jamal and I went out for a walk around Austin and had a good old time. Music came from every corner and even places with no customers had someone on a guitar strumming and singing. The mix of people was so diverse I couldn’t really put my finger on what I saw most of but everyone was really good looking in a jeans-add-for-a-pair-you-might-actually-buy kinda way. And me in my Crocs…
After getting a two pound-hot-dog that could rival the 72 OZ of steak that Jamal tried to eat for lunch, we walked to the Congress Bridge and witnessed 1.5 million bats leave to feed at once. Every night at sunset, 1.5 million bats stream out from under the bridge and go somewhere to feed. Exactly where they go remains a mystery which seems odd given that 1.5 million is a lot of bats – a number I did not doubt when the horizon grew black with a shifting storm, of bat. I heard that people in the water under the bats have a great view of the action, and the guano. Let’s just say I’m glad we stayed on the bridge.
And so on we drive – New Orleans isn’t that far ahead. I’ve heard that I10 going into Lousiana is pretty and if the amazing weather we’ve had is any indication we get to see it at it’s best. While my heart may be in Texas I predict it’s stowed away in the back. Under the tinted glass in the Insight hatchback, I’ll bet it found a comfy place to ride.
Big easy here we come.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Im in a Roswell stae of mind.
We just passed a bank of solar panels shaped like a flower and held up to the sun on a stem-like pole. As we did something hit me. We can change this. We have the power.
Using as little gas as I’ve ever used on a trip we’ve put 1500 miles on this car already. Roswell sits behind us like an odd dream and nothing but open road lies between us and Austin. It’s been an amazing drive. A day before we left a huge storm started sweeping its way from west to east dumping rain on all the states we’ve driven thorough. Perpetually one day behind it we have been blessed with cloudless skies and well-fed earth. As I say again, this has been a special trip.
But let me talk about Roswell, if I may.
Whatever may or may not have happened here so long ago is very much a part of the town’s fabric. The signature black ovular eyes stare out at you from every corner as if to suggest that not only have aliens landed, abduction is imminent. But the lack of context is odd. Expect to shop for furniture with aliens, get gas with aliens, and even do your taxes and loans with aliens, who would be wise to offer low interest rates if you ask me. All the streetlights have aliens on them too, which gives you that creepy feeling well past sunset.
And the Roswell UFO museum is the heart of it all.
Situated on the heart of Main St, the UFO museum is the alien-nerve-center of extra-terrestrial research and blurry photo exhibition. Housed largely in a cavernous black room, visitors walk science-fair style learning the ins and outs of the outs who made it in. And while I’d love to say their exhibits massaged away my vocal skepticism, their card-board cutouts and wall of fuzzy UFO pics offered as “photographic evidence” did very little to make me feel any less alone in the universe. I’m all for the majesty of the cosmos but the aliens in the Roswell UFO Museam museum are so old-timey It gives the impression that if an alien was to land again, he’d be from 1950.
But for what it’s worth, I get it. This town needed something like an alien landing to be anything more than just another town on a lonley country highway. To a certain degree they’re lucky that the tipsy local who saw shiny lights would up talking to the exact right reporter who gave a small town in New Mexico a reason to have 2 television series and a Showtime original based on it.
And I guess that makes Roswell special after-all. Kyle McLaughlin is no joke.
So on we drive to Austin. Roswell fades in our rear-view mirror as we drive this spaceship looking car on to the next destination. And for what it’s worth, if and when cars ever take flight and fly around in space they’re going to look a lot like this one. It’s more function than anything else. We can pull up directions by speaking to the car. Suddenly, Picard saying aloud “Computer – Plot a course to Alpha 9” doesn’t seem to outlandish – jeez – I could do the same thing in the Insight and while it’d probably find Alpha 9 Records in downtown Roswell, it’d plot a course and lead me straight on till morning.
I just hope they don’t think the Insight is another UFO landing…
- Leebo
Using as little gas as I’ve ever used on a trip we’ve put 1500 miles on this car already. Roswell sits behind us like an odd dream and nothing but open road lies between us and Austin. It’s been an amazing drive. A day before we left a huge storm started sweeping its way from west to east dumping rain on all the states we’ve driven thorough. Perpetually one day behind it we have been blessed with cloudless skies and well-fed earth. As I say again, this has been a special trip.
But let me talk about Roswell, if I may.
Whatever may or may not have happened here so long ago is very much a part of the town’s fabric. The signature black ovular eyes stare out at you from every corner as if to suggest that not only have aliens landed, abduction is imminent. But the lack of context is odd. Expect to shop for furniture with aliens, get gas with aliens, and even do your taxes and loans with aliens, who would be wise to offer low interest rates if you ask me. All the streetlights have aliens on them too, which gives you that creepy feeling well past sunset.
And the Roswell UFO museum is the heart of it all.
Situated on the heart of Main St, the UFO museum is the alien-nerve-center of extra-terrestrial research and blurry photo exhibition. Housed largely in a cavernous black room, visitors walk science-fair style learning the ins and outs of the outs who made it in. And while I’d love to say their exhibits massaged away my vocal skepticism, their card-board cutouts and wall of fuzzy UFO pics offered as “photographic evidence” did very little to make me feel any less alone in the universe. I’m all for the majesty of the cosmos but the aliens in the Roswell UFO Museam museum are so old-timey It gives the impression that if an alien was to land again, he’d be from 1950.
But for what it’s worth, I get it. This town needed something like an alien landing to be anything more than just another town on a lonley country highway. To a certain degree they’re lucky that the tipsy local who saw shiny lights would up talking to the exact right reporter who gave a small town in New Mexico a reason to have 2 television series and a Showtime original based on it.
And I guess that makes Roswell special after-all. Kyle McLaughlin is no joke.
So on we drive to Austin. Roswell fades in our rear-view mirror as we drive this spaceship looking car on to the next destination. And for what it’s worth, if and when cars ever take flight and fly around in space they’re going to look a lot like this one. It’s more function than anything else. We can pull up directions by speaking to the car. Suddenly, Picard saying aloud “Computer – Plot a course to Alpha 9” doesn’t seem to outlandish – jeez – I could do the same thing in the Insight and while it’d probably find Alpha 9 Records in downtown Roswell, it’d plot a course and lead me straight on till morning.
I just hope they don’t think the Insight is another UFO landing…
- Leebo
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Arizona meet New Mexico
Let me just point out the technology at work here.
Driving across the country in a car powered by electricity and stored in batteries my laptop and my phone charge as I type this. Unworried about our location, a satellite in outer space beams our exact coordinates to a hi-def nav computer ready to speak aloud exact directions to any location we might decide to go. Science fiction is becoming increasingly less fiction, and more science.
The road-trip part of the road-trip has set in and we’re now officially “out”. California lays 800 miles in the other direction as Arizona gives way to New Mexico with barely a wink and slight change in cacti. (Such cacti have wispy sticks at their tops with plumes that look unmistakably Dr. Seussian. Coupled with the Road Runner I almost hit in Palm Springs this trip has so far been a tour of my cartoon childhood in the great, vast, west.)
Road-trips, when they mature past the hectic first day of packing and leaving, sink in like a good tan. To set a destination and “fun” your way to it is divine. If I can boast one thing our European friends do not have it’s the great American road-trip, Paris is nice this time of year but America is sumpin else. And seeing it this efficiently is rad - I’ve never covered so much ground and spent so little on gas.
And we’ve seen some really cool things so far. Yesterday we took a detour into White Sands National Park after a border patrol crossing on the Arizona / New Mexico border. The sand was packed hard and kinda cold but just as gorgeous as any morning-after-snow I’ve ever seen. Jamal wanted some R&B album-cover shots so he put on his blazer and we shot a couple pix that would make Babyface jealous. As we left we saw a bunch of guys with sleds hanging ten down the dunes. If I wasn’t so obviously in Arizona I’d swear I was in Alaska.
Oh and I also had some beef jerkey on a roadside pit-stop that was hands-down the best beef jerkey out there. Pack-up-the-fam-and-move-just-to-be-cloer-good. I will not be the same after.
Looks like we’re headed to Roswell tonight – Jamal wants to go to the UFO museum to prove Aliens do exist, and I want to go to the UFO museum to prove they don’t – you’ll just have to find out tomorrow what we came up with.
So that’s it for now my inter-web friends. Tomorrow is of course another journey and another big day of getting somewhere far without stretching our footprint.
Doesn’t hurt I have a computer who tells me where to go along the way…
- Leebo
Driving across the country in a car powered by electricity and stored in batteries my laptop and my phone charge as I type this. Unworried about our location, a satellite in outer space beams our exact coordinates to a hi-def nav computer ready to speak aloud exact directions to any location we might decide to go. Science fiction is becoming increasingly less fiction, and more science.
The road-trip part of the road-trip has set in and we’re now officially “out”. California lays 800 miles in the other direction as Arizona gives way to New Mexico with barely a wink and slight change in cacti. (Such cacti have wispy sticks at their tops with plumes that look unmistakably Dr. Seussian. Coupled with the Road Runner I almost hit in Palm Springs this trip has so far been a tour of my cartoon childhood in the great, vast, west.)
Road-trips, when they mature past the hectic first day of packing and leaving, sink in like a good tan. To set a destination and “fun” your way to it is divine. If I can boast one thing our European friends do not have it’s the great American road-trip, Paris is nice this time of year but America is sumpin else. And seeing it this efficiently is rad - I’ve never covered so much ground and spent so little on gas.
And we’ve seen some really cool things so far. Yesterday we took a detour into White Sands National Park after a border patrol crossing on the Arizona / New Mexico border. The sand was packed hard and kinda cold but just as gorgeous as any morning-after-snow I’ve ever seen. Jamal wanted some R&B album-cover shots so he put on his blazer and we shot a couple pix that would make Babyface jealous. As we left we saw a bunch of guys with sleds hanging ten down the dunes. If I wasn’t so obviously in Arizona I’d swear I was in Alaska.
Oh and I also had some beef jerkey on a roadside pit-stop that was hands-down the best beef jerkey out there. Pack-up-the-fam-and-move-just-to-be-cloer-good. I will not be the same after.
Looks like we’re headed to Roswell tonight – Jamal wants to go to the UFO museum to prove Aliens do exist, and I want to go to the UFO museum to prove they don’t – you’ll just have to find out tomorrow what we came up with.
So that’s it for now my inter-web friends. Tomorrow is of course another journey and another big day of getting somewhere far without stretching our footprint.
Doesn’t hurt I have a computer who tells me where to go along the way…
- Leebo
Saturday, April 18, 2009
On our way to Area 51 son!
I don’t even know where to begin. It’s only been two days and already we’ve seen prehistoric dinosaurs, bowling Indians, crop fires, spitting camels and even a Zedonk, which is the uninspired name of a zebra crossed with a donkey, which, according to Wikipedia, “Is bred just because it’s funny to look at”.
As I write this Jamal and I are somewhere in Arizona, although I really couldn’t say where. Endless landscapes of mountains and terrain glide past us and while we haven’t seen any waves of grain yet, iiiiil bet they’ll be colored amber. Looks like we’re going to stay in Phoenix tonight as my buttocks need some serious help circulating blood and Insight is telling us we’re only 30 minutes away, which is nice as without the GPS I could honestly say we’d be in Oregon.
And man, this trip is blowing my mind. This country is BIG. I mean, I knew it was big before, but I had no idea of just how big “big” actually means. And what an amazing time of year to do this – when Jamal asked me if I wanted to go on this trip one of the reasons I was so exited is that late-spring early summer is a magical time of year. I always picture life on a farm this time of year – maybe I just watch too much Charlotte’s Web.
And lemme just say, Camels rock. Jamal and I stopped off at a camel farm today that happened to house a whole bunch of other wild animals. We saw some Scillian miniature horses that look as funny as they sound, this real dope Ox-looking thing with horns straight out of the movie Legend, and, of course, the Camels. Camels are kinda tempermental and do this weird thing where they puff out the inside of their cheek to say hello. It looks really funny and looking at the Camel you kinda get the sense they understand this too.
And that’s that for now. We’re gonna hunker down in AZ tonight and then make our way all the way to Roswell.
450 Miles can kiss my gas.
- Leebo
As I write this Jamal and I are somewhere in Arizona, although I really couldn’t say where. Endless landscapes of mountains and terrain glide past us and while we haven’t seen any waves of grain yet, iiiiil bet they’ll be colored amber. Looks like we’re going to stay in Phoenix tonight as my buttocks need some serious help circulating blood and Insight is telling us we’re only 30 minutes away, which is nice as without the GPS I could honestly say we’d be in Oregon.
And man, this trip is blowing my mind. This country is BIG. I mean, I knew it was big before, but I had no idea of just how big “big” actually means. And what an amazing time of year to do this – when Jamal asked me if I wanted to go on this trip one of the reasons I was so exited is that late-spring early summer is a magical time of year. I always picture life on a farm this time of year – maybe I just watch too much Charlotte’s Web.
And lemme just say, Camels rock. Jamal and I stopped off at a camel farm today that happened to house a whole bunch of other wild animals. We saw some Scillian miniature horses that look as funny as they sound, this real dope Ox-looking thing with horns straight out of the movie Legend, and, of course, the Camels. Camels are kinda tempermental and do this weird thing where they puff out the inside of their cheek to say hello. It looks really funny and looking at the Camel you kinda get the sense they understand this too.
And that’s that for now. We’re gonna hunker down in AZ tonight and then make our way all the way to Roswell.
450 Miles can kiss my gas.
- Leebo
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Twas the night before roadtrip...
And all through the flat, not a leebo had packed yet, and he should start it stat...
Hi. I'm Leebo. A little while ago my best friend Jamal won this thing where he gets to drive a brand-new Honda Insight across country as "efficiently" as possible, and, he gets to pick a friend to do it with. Why he picked me is anyone's guess but when your BFF asks if you wanna wagon-train to New Orleans in a pimp new ride, you say YES.
I'm so super psyched. I'm literally bouncing from corner to corner in my room wondering what to bring. I know I need a swim suit, but how many? Do I bring my own shampoo or just use the ones in the hotels (and is THAT efficient?). Do I need to bring lots of CDs or is that USB feature really what they say (that I can control my iPod THROUGH the car - whooooooo).
Whatever, this is a chance of a lifetime and there isn't a better person to do it with then the person you saw get his GI Joe kite stuck in a tree at his sixth birthday party who cried for two streight days - yeeees, this and other fine travel tidbits awat WHOMEVER might be reading this as Jamal and I go PAN USA BABY!
And seriously, you gotta see this car. I don't think I'm going to be able to return it...
-Leebo
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