David, Lindsey and I
David, Holly and I
A really big waffle.


I left Chicago Friday morning on my way to Pittsburgh. One of my good friends from high school lives out there and teaches at a Pittsburgh University. After driving for 9+ hours I arrived in the city and made my way to a lounge where he was playing music. We saw each other outside and he showed me around to some of the people running the event (it was a fundraiser of some kind with a bike involved). The last band was cool, but once the show ended the bar became a dance hall and that is where the real party started. 70's and 80's dance music got everybody involved and I immediately got my groove on.

After dancing for a few hours David, Holly (the girl running the event, mutual friend of everybody and all-around awesome lady) and I went across the street for some awesome pizza. David's car wouldn't start, so we decided to leave it overnight and tow it in the morning and with that we both left for his house in my explorer, content to finish up the night around 4 am.

David's special friend Lindsey went with us to get it towed (it was actually her car) and we all had a nice chat with the tow-truck driver (apparently he's been around the area a while). We got some breakfast, mused on Burning Man and then I left town around noon headed for New Jersey to stay with my friend Katie. I decided I would spend the rest of October in Jersey and Boston before going to Canada and eventually back to Pittsburgh in November for an extended visit.

Katie and I played some skip-bo, watched the San Francisco Giants win (fuck yeah!!!!!) and talked about sg. I'll be heading into New York a couple times this week to check it all out, so if anyone lives nearby let me know.

I hate toll roads. Stupid roads eating my 80 cents every 20 miles. Frack!

I've been in Chicago since Monday night. My friend Claudine has been extra nice in opening up her apartment with her sisters. Spaghetti, pizza and potatoes are only the beginning to the manly meals I've been feasting upon. And they love Skip-Bo too!

I've managed to make it to a few bars downtown to catch the Giant's games and root my team on from here. Tuesday night I went to one such bar called Cardozo's and watched the Giants whoop that Philly ass. I met and chatted with this nice girl from Kentucky at the bar. Her flight at O'Hare Airport was delayed so she was passing the time at the bar. She had flown in from Winnepeg and was continuing onto Kentucky later that night. We talked about Canada and the treacheries of cross-country travel. She was a bit older and was married, her husband living in Canada. In was a nice little chat with someone I'll probably never see again, but somehow stuck with me.

So far the disc golf has been less than stellar. Two of the parks have been under construction which I didn't know until I got there. And another course was literally on top of a regular golf course which meant every hole was at least 400 feet (what the fuck!) and you had to pay 10 bucks just to play it. Fuck that. Oh well, I snuck onto the back nine for a bit before my arm almost fell off on the par 5s.

Although I didn't get to see a game there, I liked the placement of Wrigley field: very cozy. I could see myself living in the north side of Chicago someday. It has a lot of what I like in an area and a town. The rest of the city has too much damn traffic. I'm leaving tomorrow to stay a night in Pittsburgh for a party and then it'll be a few days in New Jersey.

East Coast here I come.

Chi-town

So I cleaned out some of my pictures I hadn't put on here yet. Lemme get to those.

The 1st picture is of a special kind of Hamm's which I found in a liquor store. When I saw the price tag (10.99 for 30!) I couldn't pass it up. God I'm a sucker for Hamm's.

The 2nd is a 30-rack of beer I bought for hella cheap (9.99!) in Madison called "Beer :30." I could not pass it up.

The 2nd is Kathleen's cats playing in a cardboard fire engine. Meow

The 3rd is a sign I saw posted a couple blocks away from Kristina's house in Seattle. Apparently her neighborhood gets a little shady during the nighttime. Sadly I never came across any pimps or hos in my stay there.

The last one is of Marissa and I outside the highlighter party on frat row in Madison. Marissa, Demetrius and I had a fun time together.

so i got to madison wisconsin thursday night and met up with my cousin daniel. that night i hung out with his rommmate alex and bounced around the area with some other people.

friday morning i woke up and immediately left to walk around the downtown area. it was very pleasant and i spent my afternoon shopping for halloween costumes and looking at all of the wisconsin 'badger' gear. think i got my costume all set. friday night i went to a frat house and spent the night partying with random cool people at a highlighter party. Talked to this cool girl Marissa and the bouncer of the party, Demetrius, outside on the porch for a while.

Saturday - i played frisbee golf in the morning with alex and it went well. i didn't lose any discs but the wind definitely took some way out of the way. i took a nap during the day but woke up in time for the start of the college football game. the badgers were taking on the Ohio State buckeyes and i was there in Chris Farley's bar watching as we dismantled the buckeye offense and dethroned them from the top. High fives were going around the bar. I stayed a bit longer after the game ended to watch the Giants win too. Fuck yeah.

Sunday - played some pickup at noon despite my hangover. Water and v8 definitely made it all better. Going to the bar soon to watch some more football games. Btw, ate 'five guys' burger for lunch. Meh. Wasn't that great, I would much rather have a #1 from jack in the box or an in n out cheeseburger, hands down. mmmmmmm

I'm leaving tomorrow night I'm heading east, towards Chicago and Pittsburgh eventually. Hopefully I can stay with some people from SF state who've migrated out this way. And if all goes according to plan I'll be spending Halloween in Canada at a apartment building party.

Went to the zoo today with my friend from San Francisco Leya who recently moved to St. Paul. It was small (but free) and provided a couple hours of walking around to satisfy the day. Afterward, we played trivial pursuit (90s edition) which I lost and took entirely too long! Apparently I wasn't paying enough attention to stuff in the 90s, oh well. We took some pictures above.

Playing ultimate frisbee tomorrow night at a park before I leave town Thursday afternoon. It's been fun. Onto Wisconsin next.

Some state signs and a really cool looking landscape shot outside Cody, WY.

Picture post of yellowstone state park.

Just got into Minnesota

So allow me to update what's happened since I left Gonzaga Monday afternoon. I stopped at a rest stop just on the border of Idaho and Washington. The area was pristine and I used my outdoor stove for the first time to make some chicken ramen. I left full and continued into Montana territory shortly thereafter. Montana was a little chilly but wonderful to view. The mountains and valleys were carved in a grandiose style, leaving something ever more awesome around each bend. Initially, I was going to stay in Missoula right around U. of Montana, but I ended up staying one town closer to Yellowstone (Butte) so I wouldn't have to drive too long the next morning.

Tuesday morning I woke up in the parking lot of a Best Western and snuck in to have some of their continental breakfast. Eggs, orange juice, yogurt and sausage were some of the things which greeted me and I ate them quickly. Stuffing myself wasa good idea because I ended up not eating until I got well out of the park.

I pulled up to the West Entrance of Yellowstone around noon and left around 7. Within minutes of arriving I saw a couple buffalo grazing by the road. This wasn't like the Golden Gate Park buffalo, these two were ginormous. And there was something about the way they felt natural amongst the setting which added to the giddyness of a 'wild' animal. Geysers were around the next few bends. Seeing smoke and gases coming out of the ground was fascinating, especially when I got to see a closer view of the pools and geysers. Brilliant oranges, soft blues and rich greens occured naturaly from the geothermal activity. Old Faithful roared high into the sky right on schedule at 3:02. I drove around for a few more hours (saw a moose! which was pretty fucking rad), spending some extended time at a lookout over Yellowstone Lake which was empty. What a wonderful park.

The drive out of Yellowstone was amazing as well. I left through the east entrance and went down Sylvan Pass into the Shoshone National Forest. This area had lots of rocky formations which evoked the intense Native American spirit which once thrived here. Indeed, the drive to Cody was the most beautiful drive of the trip so far.

I decided I would stay the night in Buffalo, Wyoming, which meant I needed to take a harrowing path over a 9,000 foot pass to get there. This was a terrible idea. I drove around 25 mph the entire way up the mountain due to winding roads, narrow switchbacks and increasing fog. This seemed to go on forever until I finally made it to the top, only to find things had gotten worse. Signs which read "watch for fallen rocks" and "watch for cattle on the road" greeted me along with more fog and pouring rain. The winding path down the mountain was sketchy at many points and I was a little unnnerved to not see any other cars for the past hour. At one point I rolled down my window to look outside and down to see the yellow line because the rain coming down so hard coupled with the fog made visibility impossible. After what seemed like forever I rolled into Buffalo around 11 and quickly found another hotel parking lot to stay the night.

I awoke early the next morning knowing I had a 12 hour drive from Buffalo, Wyoming to Minneapolis, Minnesota ahead of me. That meant driving across all of South Dakota. Which I did. Before the trip I thought Wyoming would be boring to drive across, but nothing compares to South Dakota. 6 1/2 hours end to end of pairies, rolling hills and small towns. Granted, I never pulled off to see the 2 big cities or Mount Rushmore, but I didn't feel like I was missing much and got through the state as quickly as possible. The drive through Minnesot went quite well and I eventually arrived at my destination around midnight central time (13 hour drive day). My aunt greeted me with enormous hospitality and a grilled cheese sandwich to die for (warm shwoered helped and was probably necessary). I'm not sure how long I'll be in town as there are quite a few things to do here.

I'll post some pictures from the last few days next time, until then...

First off, a big thank you to Rachael & Charles, Kristina and Kathleen for hanging out and showing me the wonderful hospitality of Seattle. You people are awesome!. Before I left Seattle I visited the Gum Wall. Left my mark, of course. Kathleen took me to visit the Troll (sickness!) and the Gas Works Park on Saturday which was awesome. Later on that day we went to a computer science potluck (Kathleen is a grad student) where I proceeded to drink lots of beer while trying all of the dishes people so graciously brought. It was the best eating night of the trip I've had so far. The after party went well too and it was a perfect last night in town.

I took 90 over Snoqualmie Pass, a beautiful passage full of green trees and gorgeous vistas. The mountains were enormous and enveloped me while I continued eastward. Once I left the mountains I was confronted with the endless plains of eastern Washington. Bushes and wind turbines dotted the horizon, turning the landscape an eerie yellow.

I came across a galloping horse sculpture near a river which offered a spectacular view. I climbed the hill and took some horsey pictures. Shortly after my stop I got off US - 90 to go to Soap Lake: a lake so-named for its natural concentration of minerals and nutrient deposits. I arrived, rubed some mud on my face (had to) and got back in the car. I decided to go north and meetup with old highway 2 which took me east to Spokane.

I got into Spokane last night around 6 and drove around looking for some landmarks. I found Gonzaga University (I never actually knew where it was located, now I'm walking on hallowed Adam Morrison territory). A few blocks from campus I parked my car and listened to the football game while making the backseat and trunk area into a bed. It was raining so I didn't go out on foot and ended up just laying in my backseat reading a scary book until I dozed off.

Currently I'm in the Gonzaga student services building using their internet and enjoying the many students passing by rushing to their next class. I'll be here for a few hours and then it's off to Missoula, Montana to stay for the night. Yellowstone will hopefully be on my list tomorrow!

The plethora of conservative/religious/country radio stations has made it convenient for me to enjoy the silent (beyond the Wendell's rattling) breeze greeting me over every hill. At one point I woke up around 2 am in my car and sat up. I had some time to think. I felt like I was the only person awake in the world. Unknown darkness around me, unknown destinations in front of me. Am I running from something? Am I running toward something? Becoming comfortable alone...

So I've had a fun couple of days here in Seattle. Currently I'm staying with my burning man buddy, Kristina Bock, who I met in '07. She has an awesome little house with lots of artsy things going and lots of animal love. Her dogs are adorable and very well-trained.

I went to University of Washington today and walked around the campus and surrounding stores.streets. The area was nice and I got a little sad over the college atmosphere and spirit going on (damn SF State for not having a football team!) all around me.

To finish the day I went and saw a play based on the movie Cannibal: the Musical. If you haven't seen the movie already you are severely missing out. It's Trey Parker and Matt Stone's early genius at work. It was a very funny show and a great little find to finish out my stay here in Seattle.

I'm meeting up with my friend from high school, Kathleen Tuite, in the Fremont district to see some hidden gems in the area and then I'm driving to Spokane and eventually Yellowstone Park. Looking forward to seeing everybody east of the rockies.