3,000 miles

So on our last bit of the road trip, Heath and I kept a video blog that she just edited together recently. We drove from Portland, OR to Sayville, NY in 3 1/2. The effects of such a schlep are apparent in the video. Hope you enjoy it! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVf5l6HVxm8

Best of Storm Vids

So because I just learned how to upload and watch videos from Heath's camera and because y'all keep buggin' us about posting a new blog, here's some videos from the trip that we never got to post. For full view in HD double click and watch them on youtube.

Worst storm we'd ever driven in up till that point, outside Memphis, TN. Not that you can really tell how bad it was from this video, it just makes me laugh.


This was an intense storm. It was in West Texas there was NOTHING around for miles and we were basically being pelted by golf-ball sized pieces of ice. On our way to Terlingua:


My favorite. Driving through Big Bend National Park in Texas at night on our way to Terlingua. Strong winds, no rain, no thunder and huge (5 miles tall we were told) cumulonimbus clouds full of lightening. There were no street lights (or anything) so it really lit up the sky when it flashed. Iron and Wine was our Terlingua soundtrack.


Much love from Portland!

The Road to Portland

We left Ventura, CA on June 25th and headed off to San Fransisco to party it up for Pride. On the way there we stopped at an avocado, tomato and coconut stand and made some purchases. Mom, I finally got to put that hatchet you bought me to good use.

That's me chopping a coconut.

Upon arriving in San Fransisco we were immediately faced with major parking problems. One of the biggest parking problems being that it is incredibly uncomfortable to sleep in the car at the angle of San Fransisco hills - it's pretty much like standing up. I woke up one morning more or less in the fetal position beneath the steering wheel; another morning I woke up with my knees locked out straight. It was not our most comfortable sleeping situation, I have to say.  But San Fransisco is a beautiful city and has a lot to offer, so it made up for it's lack of parking.

The 26th was Dyke March in Dolores Park which was a BLAST. It's the largest gathering of dykes in the world, I'm told and even I was shocked at how enormous the crowd was. We met a bunch of cool people, heard live music, participated in the march, danced... had ourselves a big ol' party, very fun.

 Dyke March in Dolores Park

Dyke March after party

The next day was Pride but it paled in comparison to the day before so we took it easy. The following day, on our way out of San Fran (we would've stayed longer but the parking was killing us) we checked out the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bride was amazing. Cloudy, windy, beautiful and HUGE. It's hard to pick just a few photos from that because we have so many good ones.

After San Fran we ended up staying one night in Eureka with a really cool guy named Nick who we found via couchsurfing.  We got to take showers and hang out and ate tomato soup with grilled cheese and watched Speedy Gonzales. The next morning we were off to the Redwood National Park. On the way we picked up a hitchhiker named Erin who was heading back to Portland from Santa Barbara. She was from upstate NY originally which was funny. She wasn't with us for long, but she was a fun addition. The Redwood National Park can speak for itself.

After the park we headed to Crater Lake to go camping. 

 

The lake was too expensive though, so we found another equally beautiful campground and stayed for two nights. We cooked hot dogs, veggie dogs, eggs, s'mores and pop corn over the fire and spent a lot of time wrapped up in sleeping bags reading. It was a beautiful area - I feel like I say that so often though it loses it's punch, but it really was.

After a couple days we started moving towards Portland, stopping in Eugene, OR and spending an afternoon and evening at the Farmer's Market.

Now we've arrived in Portland, OR and within 48 hours of being here have found a cheap apartment in which we'll be staying for the next month. We intend on hanging around Portland and working here for a couple months so I think this will be our last blog for awhile. Thanks for reading, stay tuned for the next leg of the adventure!

We had a delightfully warm welcome from Elise and Devon, our hosts in Yuma, Arizona. They have a spacious, very clean house with and had a guest bedroom waiting for us. Having traveled from a beach in Mexico, we treasured every measure of comfort and luxury that was offered to us. Elise was occupied with a play she was meant to perform within the next week, so we didn’t get to spend much time with her. Devon spent a lot of time in his office working as well. He did take whiskey and cigar breaks, like a true writer, on which we spoke with him. Devon is an army man and very passionate towards mathematics and science in his reasoning. We got to have a very interesting exchange on the importance of arts and calculus respectively. It is amazing how people’s brains can be hardwired so differently. I really enjoyed our conversation.


Drive to Yuma



Dog friends

We had only planed on staying in Yuma for a night before continuing on to California, but our hosts invited us to stay another night and since we didn’t have any plans in San Diego we gladly accepted. We had a big cozy bed and a clean shower and kitchen at our disposal. It was a welcome respite from our usual compromises for comfort and cleanliness.





Driving our last leg west was a strange one. An unexpected aspect of this trip is finding my knowledge in geology insufficient. We drive by these impossible landscapes and both Meg and I find ourselves utterly dumbfounded on how they cam to be. We went from desert to mountains to cool and breezy seashore, which was a mind-boggling 70 degrees. Here we were with our desert skin all accustom to the dry heat and it’s 70 with a sea breeze. We put on pants and jackets before taking a stroll around the city.

We found the climate of San Diego positively livable. It had a lot of the neat and bizarre vegetation we saw in the desert along with green plants and northern-looking growth. Walking through Balboa Park there are so many good smells. Flowers. I had forgotten about those.








We spent a couple of days in the city. It’s always a little strange and static when we stay somewhere without a host. On our third day there we were in a salvation army and Meg had a brilliant idea, which led to the impulse buy of skateboards. We spent the rest of the day cruising around on our wicked sweat salvo buys. Although they’re not of the best quality they have been an immense part of our Californian experience.

After sending out many requests we got a positive reply and went north to Huntington Beach. We stayed there with Anesa, who is originally from Bosnia. We met her and two of her friends at a coffee shop around the corner from her place. They were all very nice and interested in our travels. We shared stories and had some laughs, and Meg and I were glad to be connecting with people again. Later that evening we went out to an arts theater and saw a viewing of Dusk Till Dawn, which included a trivia portion and prizes. All 6 people in the theater got a movie poster as a prize. The next day we had a delightful brunch at Anise’s and then went to a German bar to watch the Brazil vs. Ivory Coast game. We met a rather dedicated fan that had been at the bar since 4 am. He was an older man from the Czech Republic. He explained some of the proceedings and more obscure rules to us and thought it very odd we didn’t already know them.

After the game we went to Laguna Beach with Anesa and her friend whose name is also Heather. We soon got hungry and went to this great little joint for lunch we all got tofu burgers and they were amazing. Meg realized she had left her ring on the beach so we went back to look for it. Laguna beach is a rich white area and the towns around it have strip malls and seem impersonal for the most part. But when we went back to look for Meg’s ring the people on the beach were so nice. Everyone came to help, there were several of us on our hands and knees searching in the sand. One guy even phoned his buddy and had him meet up with us with his metal detector. It was a good hard search before we came to the conclusion that the sea ate it.






It was time to move on before we knew it. Anesa had work the following morning and we wanted to give her space, so we said goodbye. A couple of hours later I got a phone call from one of the WWOOF farms. He was just up the shore at Ventura and said we were welcome to come stay.

We spent the night in a hotel parking lot and after a continental breakfast we decided we’d do Los Angeles. I thought back to the drive near San Diego, which was horrible traffic at 1pm for no reason, and was not looking forward to the commute. To my surprise it was lovely. Every thing about LA was better than I had thought it would be. There were beautiful mountains, quiet sections just outside downtown, and cafés. The only thing that kept us from staying longer was parking.


Smog is a big problem in LA









Once we got to Ventura we met Mike, the farmer/guy we’d be staying with. He is very chill and has a minor in Women’s studies oddly enough. He wakes up at 4 am everyday to surf before work where he is a lawyer in LA. He’s got a neat garden throughout the front and back yard. There’s a big avocado tree in the front. Along with a few smaller fruit trees there are many beds of vegetables squeezed into a small amount of space. This is what everyone’s yard should look like. We did some weeding, but other than that there’s not all that much to be done. It’s a pretty well maintained garden. Both Main Street and the beach are a short walk down the road. There are two other WWOOFers here, they got here just hours before we did. Natalie and Kim are from Austin, TX where they too have a farm. In the evening we all hang out and enjoy each others company.

Adventure Update

We lost the USB wire to the camera and it took us some time to replace it, but we are alive and well in Arizona this morning and have a lot of updating to cover.

We left Terlingua, TX on May 28th. While we were climbing the Chisos we ran into a man from Austin who told us that there was a nice, spring fed pool to be found in West Texas called Balmorhea ("bell-more-aye"). So we took a slight detour on our way north to El Paso and stopped at the most amazing public pool - or perhaps tied with Barton Springs in Austin - I've been to. It's fed by natural springs so it's the same 70 degree temperature all year round, and it's costantly flowing so it's really clean and clear. It's pretty densely filled with tiny fish and is about 20 feet deep in the middle, but it's surrounded in concrete and looks like any other public pool from a distance. No chlorine! After Texas I'll never be satisfied with ordinary public pools.

We arrived in El Paso, TX that evening and stayed with a really nice family for two nights.

 El Paso, TX

We stayed with a woman, her partner,  her 10 year old son and their 18 month old daughter. They were fun people, really laid back. I was especially entertained by their son Diego - an enthusiastic, attention-seeking actor in the making, he cracked me up. We didn't find much to do in El Paso, but I didn't find the city nearly as terrible or unsafe as everyone made it out to be. People talk about El Paso like it's hell, but I thought it was a nice enough city myself.

After a couple nights in El Paso we headed to Tucson, AZ which we were both fairly excited about as it was the setting for one of our favorite books that we both read before we left (Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver). It was very, very hot and we didn't have a host, but after sitting in a hip little coffee shop for awhile a couchsurfer pulled through for us and agreed to host us for two nights. We met up with them that evening, Ashlee a girl our age, her partner Trevor and they're housemate Lisa who all rent a really nice house. The house had a spiral staircase leading to the roof and everyone slept on it one night (except for me because I was sick, again).


We explored Tucson a bit and really liked it. Cheap rent, liberal with an active activist population and a cozy, established Queer community. I believe it's been added to both of our lists home possibilities, except that it's so, so hot. Our second night there our hosts invited us to a Memorial Day party. It was an unexpectedly wholesome party. We played Jenga, ate strawberry shortcake, learned some Salsa moves and Heath and I smuggled in some sparklers from New Mexico. A few of the people their had never played with sparklers so we got to feel like magical gypsies providing them.

 

After Tucson we moved on to Phoenix, AZ. We had really cool hosts in Tempe, AZ just outside of Phoenix. A woman around our age named Shilo and another young woman named Tiffany. Phoenix itself however did not impress us. Chain after chain after chain, ungodly heat, so hot the streets are basically empty, egregious wastes of water (fountains and watering sod lawns in the middle of the desert). But we had a great time with our hosts and played a weird and fun board game called Quelf one night. The Phoenix Art Museum was a blast. We also discovered our travel food of choice in Phoenix - canned black beans, canned Mexican style stewed tomatoes and canned corn combined either in a salad or on a bagel with cream cheese if we have some. It's just about all we eat now.

After Tempe/Phoenix we passed through Sedona, AZ heading north toward the canyon. Sedona is incredible. Colorful and bizarre. 

Unfortunately it doesn't have the protection of being called a National Park so you'll see these massive, red rocks jutting out of the earth with McDonald's golden arches all but blocking your view. Chains everywhere, huge tourist trap, but still totally worth it. The surrounding area is all streams and forests and mountain climbing. After all the desert Sedona's surrounding area was a much needed oasis for these New Yorkers.

We drover through Sedona and up to Flagstaff, AZ which we was surprisingly impressive. It seemed to me like New York in the fall. It was much cooler (people wearing jean and sweat shirts at night) and looked up to surrounding snow-capped peaks. We met couchsurfers there who couldn't host us but told us a place to camp and how to get into the Grand Canyon for free.  We stayed a couple nights in the woods, in the tent or car and then headed further north to the canyon.

We took the couchsurfers directions and got into the canyon for free which saved us $25.00. So here we are at the Southern rim of the Grand Canyon:

We didn't do much hiking there. The canyon had a weird effect on us - I think because it's totally accessible in that we could just drive up to it and at the same time mostly untouchable and inaccessible in that there's no way one could get to it all - so we took a lot of leisure time kicking back and reading by a hotel pool. Next to a big picture of the Grand Canyon. I really enjoyed myself.

Then we had to head South again to make it to Mexico for Tent Surf by June 10th, but we took some detours on the way. We got to see Sunrise Crater, a volcano that erupted and covered all the surrounding areas with what appeared to be black top. That was trippy. Everything was black rock. Apparently hundreds of years ago many Indian homes and farms were wiped about by the explosion.

Next we visited ancient "Indian" ruins and got to walk inside them. They were built and utilized by Native "Americans" in 1100-1200 AD. It was mind-blowing walking around in them and seeing what might be one of the only landscapes in America that must look almost exactly the same as it did in 1200 - no buildings, no businesses, no people, and no visible roads. It was amazing.

Then it was back through Flagstaff for another night and after that Phoenix again. Heather had read in a travel magazine in Sayville that Phoenix had the best pizza in the world. So we called up Shilo our former host and we all went to the place recommended in our travel book, Bianco's Pizzeria.  We were impressed to discover that Phoenix does in fact have the best pizza in the world (great crust, great tomato sauce, house-smoked mozzarella and oven roasted onions).

Next day we went to the other non-chain business in Phoenix, "The Sugar Bowl" for sundaes and yet again experienced mind-blowing deliciousness.

The following night was the pre-Tent Surf party at a house in Phoenix. Tent Surf is an event hosted once a year by Couch Surfers like us, where a location is chosen and everyone travels to that location and camps and hangs out for the weekend. This year Tent Surf was planned for Puerto Penasco, Mexico. We had no idea what to expect for the party but it ended up being one of the most fun parties I've ever attended. The house was very creatively designed, from the shape of the doors to every decoration and color choice. Since everyone there was a couch surfer, everyone wanted to talk and make new friends. It was immediately comforting and fun to meet other people who had done or are doing the kind of adventure we are, people who eat out of cans and know what it's like to wash your underwear in the bathroom sink of an ihop.

We talked to as many people as we could and made friends from all over, exchanging information. It was there that we made friends with Efrain who had hitchhiked from Albuquerque, New Mexico. That night about 9 of us crashed at the house (David's house).

Efrain's next ride fell through so he rode with us to Mexico and we had some good laughs along the way. It turned out to be really handy because we had no idea where we were going and he's fluent in Spanish - an obstacle we had somehow not foreseen - and he made our trip there a lot easier. Here's us when we arrived in Mexico:

Me, Efrain and Heath

I can't express how thrilling it was to see water again, let alone the Pacific ocean. We jumped in first thing and then set up our tents.

 

A bunch of tents didn't withstand the first night however; we got hit with an uncommonly harsh wind and sand storm that made our tents lean if they stayed standing at all. Our little, old tent stayed strong the whole weekend though! At one point it was so bad everyone was huddling behind cars because it stung our legs and made it nearly impossible to lift our heads. In the midst of it I walked down to the shore to washout a frying pan and it flew about in the wind like a large bird on a leash and I almost smacked the car with it.

Our leaning tents.

The second night everyone went out to a bar with a pool.

Efrain (New Mexico), Me, Gabriel (Italy) and Mike (Oregon)

One day Heath and I went out on our own and explored the town, exercised our Spanglish and our haggling skills, got some cheap and delicious tacos and burritos and tried on some wrestling masks:

After 4 days and 3 nights we packed up our stuff to move on to Yuma, AZ. We took our final swims in the ocean before heading back to desert.

Now we've made it safely to Yuma and can't wait to get back to the water.