as you might be able to tell with the bus bouncing on the side of the map and not moving…we have finally made it home. we actually arrived home late monday night. since then dave and i have been extremely busy with relaxing, cleaning, and moving. the road trip was amazing, but at the same time it is quite wonderful to be home again. yet again I want to give a big thank you to everyone who was involved in the roadtrip, from the people who checked the blog daily, to everyone who gave us a place to stay, to everyone who honked and waved at us on the road. it’s all of you who have made this road trip so much fun!! i definately encourage everyone out there to get out there and travel. it always seems too hard to travel, and excuses are so easy to make. the simple truth is that you jsut have to take the first step and get the ball rolling. it’s quite amazing how everything begins to fall into place after the inital effort and dedication to the trip is made. there is so much to learn about people, culture, and the world that can only be learned through travel. so just get out there and do it….you won’t regret it !

dave and i are now going full force into the application process and will hope to land jobs soon.
the dragon is hanging out at dave’s place with dave planning some additional modifications.
this website will be up as long as kelly allows it, so feel free to spread the link further.

here are some totals:

Days gone: 25
Miles Traveled in Bus: 5,080
$ spent on Gas: $1,511.03
$ spent on pete’s food: $255.45
Total states visited: 12
Longest shower-less period: 4 Days
$ spent to paint the bus: $45

new orleans is exactly what everyone tells you it is….disgusting, crazy, dangerous, old, spicy, and of course…FUN!. we basically created a daily program of waking up around noon, going to the french quarter to get some creol/cajin food for lunch for lunch, walking around the french quarter for a bit, going back to the hotel to relax and cool down for a while, then back to the french quarter for more food, then go to a jazz or blues club, then finish the night by walking, drinking, and observing the madness. we were quite happy that we were able to time the trip to be in new orleans for friday and saturday. there ended up being a bunch of conventions in town and tons of people were out every night. we got into town late thursday night and after driving around in the crazy new orleans streets, we ended up finding a hotel only blocks away from bourbon steet that was only $40 a night. mind you our room didn’t have a window…but we aren’t picky. so after tons of great food, tons of hurricanes, some interesting sights, and some even more interesting smells, i would call the visit to new orleans a success. i even had my tarot cards read in a voodoo shop on burbon street. who could want more! (it was a good read, and i actually have a tape of it….so if anyone can find a tape player, they can listen to it).

June 23, 2005

Well, we’re almost to New Orleans and I can’t wait. At the same time, though, it is a shame we had to leave Austin before the weekend. As Pete said, the downtown/music scene was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday and Wednesday night, so I’d like to see what it’s like on the weekend. A nice guy we met at the RV park (he said he lived there) described Austin as an island in the sea of Texas. I’d have to agree; it’s an awesome town. Although my pragmatisim forces me to assume that everyone couldn’t possibly be as friendly as Brian and his wife (thank you very much for your hospitality btw), so far, I have no evidence to support that claim. There is everything you could want from a big city but it still manages to maintain a small town feel. This probably has to do with the fact that somehow, in the infinite possibilities that determine our reality, Austin has become the very liberal capital of one of the U.S.’s most conservative states. I almost bought a “Keep Austin Weird” sticker from Chuy’s (a delicious Tex-Mex place Brian recommended) but decided nobody else would get it. In retrospect, I think I should have bought it anyway, as it would probably be in keeping with the spirit. Austin is like an inside joke the rest of Texas doesn’t get.

In any case, more adventures in Austin are sure to come, but not on this trip. For now, we head to New Orleans, the city of soul (be it righteous or corrupt). We’ll be here until Sunday so it should be good times. This is the third time I’ve been to New Orleans (Pete’s first). Maybe this time I’ll finally get to see a jazz funeral.

June 24, 2005

Well, we searched for a hotel for 2 hours last night and finally found one at midnight on Canal St. for $50 a night, which is rediculously good seeing as everywhere else was in the $120 range. Also, surprisingly, this place does not seem to be infested, condemned, or a part time brothel, so I think we lucked out. Today is putzing around the French Quarter, tonight, Burbon St. I’ll let you know how it goes .

i’m in a local coffee shop in austin eating waffles. i love it. since the last time i posted we drove for eons on I-10 in texas. we got wifi at dairy queen…i know..odd. after we got off of I-10 the scenery was much better and we drove through some interesting small towns. I saw a postman with a cowboy hat on, and smiled. we didn’t stop at a few places that had bear skin rugs out front. i kinda think that’s a mistake and we’re stopping at the next one we see!! we made it to austin and stayed at an rv resort that had a complete gift shop with W ketchup. we went downtown to 6th street. Finding parking was interesting with a huge bus, but we did it. we went to a place that was a mexican/seafood place. very interesting and very good. austin is as good of a bar town as everyone says. even on tuesday night there was a fair amount of people out quite early in the night. we were able to bar hop all up and down the street without having to pay cover anywhere and getting good drink deals all night. the next day we met up with brian. he had found our website at the beginning of the trip and has been following it ever since. he took us around town and we went to this amazing restaurant that is high atop a hill looking over lake travis. the restaurant used to have something like 40 decks overlooking the lake, but two weeks ago lightning hit the place and burned down a large portion of it. we were still able to eat on one of the remaining decks right on the edge of the hill. It was a great sight. but since my camera was MIA for two days i have no pictures of it. (I found it later that day…it had fallen down a crack in the bus) brian hooked us up with different rv place that was walking distance to a bunch of cool stuff. we ended up going to barton springs for a nice afternoon swim. i love seeing all of the local people and their kids spending a wonderful summer day at the swimming hole. the water was quite cold as it is spring fed, but it was super refreashing. after tons of great food and fun bars it is now time for us to leave austin and head for nawlins. austin is really a great town…some might say the heart of texas. we’d like to thank brian TONS for all of his wonderful hospitality! we have about 10 hours until we’re in nawlins and then we will stay there until sunday morning when we will try to stop by the awesome place in pensecola and then home sweet home.

-pete

June 20, 2005

Wow, Arizona is hot! I’ll admit, I’ve been told this a million times, but still it came as a surprise. Being from Florida, I’ve experienced my share of hot, but there are subtle differences that nobody can ever fully relate. For instance, it’s really weird when the breeze blowing in the window is hotter than what’s already in the bus. On top of that there’s a weird smell to the desert I can’t quite put my finger on. Put these two together and sticking your face out the window is a lot like being given the world’s longest dutch oven.

We stopped in Globe, AZ for lunch with the thermometer reading 119 degrees. Earlier that morning, we had replaced a few blown fuses and found that (in addition to the gauges) the horn fuse had blown. I don’t know why we didn’t think to check that when we noticed the horn didn’t work. I guess since, as long as we have owned the bus, it has never worked, I figured it was something more serious. That being said, there may have been a reason the fuse was never changed. See, Peter was replacing the air filter when I switched out the fuse, so, naturally I tested it out. Horn honks, Pete yells at me, all is right in the world… or so we think (cue evil music). Turns out, the horn has a bit of a mind of its own. It has an uncanny tendancy to honk rapidly when stopped at stoplights and when taking corners. By the time we stopped in Globe, there were no less than a dozen Arazonites who probably thought we were the biggest bastards ever. The worst (or best) was when we were just about to stop in Globe. Pete was driving and we were stopped behind an elderly woman. Almost exactly as the light turned green, the horn started going like mad. I think I saw one of the local kids give Pete the bird heh. Needless to say, as soon as we stopped, we promptly removed the fuse foregoing the horn in favor of cursing out the window as we had previously been doing.

It is now evening and the air outside has finally dropped below body temperature. I think that’s about when the breeze starts to feel nice. Our current plan is to drive in shifts during the night and get as far as we can while the sun is down. Hopefully, then, we can find somewhere to stop and plug in the A/C so we can sleep past sunrise. We’re gonna try and be in Austin, TX by Tuesday night and in New Orleans by Friday afternoon. So long as nothing else goes wrong with the bus (knock on web), there’s no reason why we shouldn’t make it home by Monday or Tuesday, just in time for Pete to move out.

dive bar dive!!!!!
after a long day of sitting in the room and watching tv, only interrupted by a short trip to the pool and swimming next to an old lady in a thong, and a trip to mcd’s with a mcd’s worker with a whopping 5 hicky’s on her neck, we decided to hit up some local bars.

lets see how quickly i can confuse everyone.

we first were going to Bryce’s Casino. so from our hotel we walk a mile to the right(east). we get to the casino….sketch. we decide to go to the bowling alley. the bowling alley was to the left(west) of the hotel. therefore we walk a mile back to the hotel and another mile to the west. we see a k-mart…but not bowling alley. behind the kmart the town ends and desert begins. we do see some neon lights out in the desert, but we don’t think it’s the bowling alley and it’s in the desert…so it’s probably a trap set up by some coyotes. So we walk east. it’s a little over a mile back to our hotel. we decide to try to find the other bars…which we are told are 3 miles east. we recharge at starbucks and head east. we walk a full 3 miles and finally find the bar. DIVE. this bar was the classsssic small town dive joint. we instantly get labeled ‘big show’ and ‘alex baldwin’ by a local drunk. we get our drinks and start talking to the bartender. turns out it was a busy night at another bar and that’s why no one was as this bar. we asked where the other bar was…..’behind kmart’. so in review we were only a short walk away from the busy bar, but we decided to walk three miles in the opposite direction to go to the other bar. oh well…we still had a good time and some free drinks with bartender at our bar…..basically the only thing to do in blythe is to go to the river. and today being father’s day…everyone is at the river. since we do not have a boat, a car, or anything that moves faster than a scorpion, we shall spend our day watching downloaded episodes of robot chicken, buzzkill, wondershowzen, and 321 contact.

Well, we checked with the auto shop this morning and apparently their mechanic didn’t feel like showing up today. Frankly, I can’t blame him. There are plenty of days when I don’t want to show up for work. These, of course, would only be more numerous if I lived in Blythe, CA. That being said, it looks like we get to spend a weekend in sunny Blythe, so we’ve been checking around for things to do. So far this has involved swimming in the hotel swimming pool, learning about 20 states and their capitals, sleeping, watching tv (women’s volleyball, Batman, and infomercials), and speculating as to what horrible fate has befallen the green dragon. All in all, it’s been an exciting night (note sarcasm). Tonight, however, we plan to check out the local bars; this could get interesting. I went into hibernate this morning (according to Pete) taking a nice 4 or 5 hour nap, so I think I’ll be good to stay up late. Being in a no name city with nothing to do for the whole weekend could be really boring or it could be a lot of fun. We’ll see which side the coin lands on. Leave us suggestions for fun activities … preferably those that do not involve killing any bums (thanks anyway Ryan).

well everyone knew it’d happen sooner or later. i think dave and i both were starting to believe that we might actually get back to florida without it happening. but alas…the dragon has came though in the crunch today and broke down. yup…we were crusin along I-10…we were about 30 miles away from arizona. i was taking a little summer siesta in the back. all of a sudden dave pulls over to the shoulder. the bus had downshifted unexpectidly and dave hit the gas and the bus acted like it was in neutral. he pulled over and before he was off the side of the road, the bus shut off. we tried to start it up again and just heard a slight winding noise. no start for us. a cop came by and just looked as us for a while while we tried to figure out what happened. we finally decided to call AAA. after 15 mins on hold we get to talk to the florida office for 3 minutes until they realize we are in california and need to be transfered to a california office…..here’s some high points of the phone call…

AAA…”what kind of vehicle do you have”
me…”it’s a 88 short bus that is half green and half yellow”
AAA…”um…ok…just give me the year, model, and make of the vehicle”
me…”it’s an 88 chevy Van 30 that is a retired small school bus”
AAA…”we don’t have Van 30…is it a 2500, 3500, or Astro”
me…”um…i guess a 3500….it’s a short school bus…you should be able to find it”
AAA…”what color is it?”
me…”the bottom half is green, the upper half is yellow”
AAA…”what is the license plate number”
(this is where i wanted to scream ‘if you can’t find a half green, half yellow short school bus in the desert…i don’t want your help’)

anyways…after 2 hours of waiting…a tow truck driver who couldn’t stop laughing about the bus….and finding out that we were actually only a mile away from not just one, but two prisons while on the side of the road, we are now in blythe, ca. AAA said ‘if the mechanic shows up tomorrow…he’ll look at it’…so we nabbed a hotel room and are hoping for the best. if the mechanic doesn’t see it tomorrow we will be here until at least monday. (jumps for joy). we figure it’s either the fuel pump, spark plugs, starter, or transmission that is acting up…if not that it’s possibly the breaks, frame, paintjob, or air freshiner. so the next few days should be interesting. yet again….what road trip in a short bus would be complete without being broken down in the desert!

we are about ready to leave L.A. and head for the desert. it’s been a good time here. we’ve been able to relax, have some great food, and not have to worry about either being too hot or too cold at night. i had my second in-and-out burger experience. i think i’m able to give it my official review now. i really enjoy their burgers…they use fresh veggies and they actually toast their buns….which few are courageous enough to do. as people have said, their burgers just have a flavor that other burgers do not. so overall i think i’d put the burgers right under grossburgers. i’m going to have to keep with grossburgers as the best and my favorite. as for their fries, i am still not happy. they are very plain and dry. i even ordered the fries ‘animal style’ the last time…(cheese and onions on top of the fries)….but i still have had much better fries. we are actually in clarmont, CA and it has been much cooler than i had anticipated. i always thought southern california was almost the same weather as florida except you switch out hurricanes with earthquakes. speaking of…i feel robbed. i did not feel the earthquake. we were at in-and-out burger when it happened. dave said something about feeling the ground shake, but i thought he was just joking about farting. no one really did anything around us. everyone is immune to it i guess. i don’t know how i didn’t feel it…maybe i’ve just been on an indo board too much and my natural balance is that good we did some more fun additions to the bus and the pics will be up soon. the bus is really turning into the living, changing, dragon that we want it to be. we haven’t really bought that many random items on the trip…but the bus in itself is a nice collection of random modifications that have occured on the trip. we finally had our first email from a person who actually saw the bus on the road….here it is:

“Hey whats up? I saw you guy tuesday night. It was on the 101 near Ventura or closer to the 405. I cant remember. It was around 11pm or so. You guys rock!”

i really thought the first comment from someone on the road would be ‘i was stuck behind you going 10 mph on that mountain..i hate you guys’….it’s great that it wasn’t. we love hearing from people who see the bus in action so keep posting on the blog and emailing!

Kelly and his Kelly’s family has been great to us while we’ve been here and I’d like to thank them for all of their hospitality. I actually let kelly’s mom do my laundry which in fact is a compliment since i won’t even let my own mom do my laundry …. so a big thank you goes out to them. Our path now is across the desert and over to some cool stuff in arizona and new mexico on our way to my great aunt and uncle’s place. we just downloaded the lyrics to yakko’s america song from the animaniacs. (the 50 states and their capitals)..we shall know it soon!! i hope everyone is doing well and we will see you all in a week!

pete

Well, it’s Friday morning and we’re about to leave LA. Kelly’s family has been great allowing us to stay here. His mom even helped us add some more custom touches to the bus. Most of them have to be seen to be appreciated (consider this an invitation to all to ride the bus when we get back) but my favorite is the metallic gold rims Pete sprayed on yesterday. I may need to add a security system.

We messed with the AC a bit and I think I know why it’s dripping… of course this provides little more than comprehension as to why we’re being soaked, since I don’t see any easy way to fix it until we get home. It’s not that bad, it drains fine if we don’t park at an angle, but we have to remember to get the water out of the pan before driving or whoever’s in the back gets soaked on the first bug turn.

On a completely unrelated note, according to thesaurus.com, a synonym for the word ‘knowledge’ is ‘poop’.