headquarters

the last few days of my trip with hannah were spent in philaelphia, south jersey and delaware. 

the new frankford hall - great place to hang with friends in philly.

delivery of over 17,000 slides to my parents' house.  boy that sure lightened the load in my van and made for more space too.

bagpipers on the boardwalk

got hannah on a roller coaster.

sunrise at the rocks in north wildwood.

hannah and i drove back to delaware and i dropped her off at the philly airport - thus concluding our fantastic three-and-a-half week southeastern states road trip.

for the next few months i plan to headquarter here in delaware near philadelphia catching up with friends and family.  i hope to find a few small jobs around here as i figure out what my long term situation will be.

via dc

hannah and i made it safely to the philadelphia area.

we enjoyed a few days in pittsburgh.  i stayed with my friends josh and kallie, while hannah stayed with her friend jared.

we drove to dc and met up with my friend christie for the evening.   then we stayed the night with kim and elica, who were so kind as to let us crash in their livingroom even though we'd never met before.  they were friends of friends...   now friends.

for a day we explored dc by foot, having ridden in by subway...   we scouted eastern market.   walked to the library of congress.

explored parts of the capital and somehow ended up walking around restricted hallways where everyone had tags but us.  we found our way out without anyone approaching us.   hannah explored the newseum while i people watched on the mall greens.

hannah taking a photo.

various monument photos

after 10 to 12 miles of walking we took the subway back to the van and drove to my sister's house in delaware.

tent camping

i'm finally getting some use out of my two-person and four-person tents that i've owned since 2009.  i didn't really need them when i was simply sleeping in my van.  but this three-week southeastern states trip with a travel buddy has made for a great series of tent-pitching opportunities.  we camped the first two nights in florida.  the next two nights we stayed at lindsay's house in new orleans.   then we tent camped the next 7 nights: once in louisianna, four nights in tennessee, and twice in west virginia.

florida camp site.

camped on a florida beach!

we visited the little rock in little rock, arkansas.

in western tennessee we set up camp at an innocent pullout area on a small road.   that peaceful night didn't last long because we had a run-in with some crooks who robbed us of all of our cash and a portion of our nerves before speeding off in their pickup truck.  despite crowbars in hand and threats of shooting, we were spared bodily injury or property damage.  we spent the rest of the night describing the event to police and then continued driving east before dawn.  what a way to start off independence day!

we camped the next two nights near chattanooga, tennessee.  one of those nights my friend joel hung out with us at our camp fire and then decided to stay the night with us in our tent.  how fun!  despite a stormy downpour, we stayed dry and joel got a little bit of sleep before leaving for work in the morning.  i loved having a guest at our camp site!

chattanooga fourth of july fireworks.

so far the van has held up pretty well for the trip.   the transmission started to show signs of getting tired from the constant ups and downs of the endless blue ridge parkway -- a scenic view roadway through the smokey mountains in north carolina.  to give the van a break, we wormed our way out to the nearest interstate and then continued north through northeastern tennessee and southwestern virginia, and then into west virginia from the south.

entering west virginia was a kind of climax of our journey:  hannah's 49th state!  it's been an honor and privilege to escort my fellow traveller, hannah to her 48th (arkansas) and 49th state.   she now has been to all of them except hawaii.

we spent two nights in west virginia.  the first was behind the house of anthony and rachael - friends of hannah's friends that allowed us to drop in for a visit.   the second was in a damp but very lovely campground in northern virginia.

we are now in pittsburgh, pennsylvania visiting numerous friends and taking a few days' break from the road.  we've covered about 2700 miles so far in the first two weeks with maybe another 700ish miles ahead for the last week.

check out this sign in downtown pittsburgh made of plants/vines on the side of the building.

gulf coast

driving is one of my favorite activities!   i started a three week road trip on tuesday and i'm so excited to be on the road again.   

i get to share this short southeast adventure with my fellow traveller friend, hannah.  check out hannah's blog.  her posts will get you a passenger seat perspective on our trip.  : )

starting in orlando, we headed north and west driving along the gulf coast through florida, alabama, mississippi, and louisiana.  we are enjoying a two day stay in new orleans right now.

so far the temperatures have been reaching the low-to-upper 90s.  i prefer to travel with windows down, and that doesn't change even when it's hot.  consequently, at rest stops i walk around with a sweat sash across my shirt from the seat belt. 

the two nights we've camped so far have been sticky hot and breezeless.  one night we found a nice state park campsite and the next night we pitched our tent on a national seashore beach near perdido key, fl.  it looks like the heat will stay with us for most of the next week.  for our two nights in new orleans we've had the privilege of staying in a house with air conditioning -- two nights of relief, thanks to lindsay who is letting us stay at her place even though she is out of town.   thank you lindsay!!  what a great friend.

tomorrow we continue on...  roaming through louisiana on saturday, arkansas on sunday, and maybe into tennessee by late monday.

vimeo

this week i created and uploaded a photo/video travelogue of my 2010 trip around north america.  check it out when you get the chance...  but first make some popcorn; it's 20 minutes long.

http://vimeo.com/25598595

enjoy!


(thank you, hannah. before yesterday, believe it or not i did not know the term "travelogue"  : )

another road trip...

last week i flew up to new jersey to surprise my parents with an unexpected visit.  it was quite successful. : )...

my season in florida has been great - lots of time with relatives, lots of work, and lots of sunshine.

next week i start on another road trip.  i plan to take three weeks to travel from florida to new jersey, detouring as far west as arkansas on the way.   and guess what... this adventure will be shared with a travel companion.  my friend hannah is flying to florida and we're going to hit the road together.   looks like i'll have to prepare my van to accommodate my first long term guest!

shuttle endeavor's final launch

i got to view the final launch of nasa's shuttle endeavor!  it was pretty cool.  my cousin eli and his cousin butch secured a location along the river for a decent view toward the launch pad on cape canaveral, florida.  in fact, butch spent the night in his jeep to reserve the spot.

my hope was to get a good up-side-down photo with endeavor ascending in the background.  i didn't get the photo i wanted.  my camera's timer shut itself off without me knowing, so instead this picture was the accidental result when i hit the shutter.

when i realized the timer didn't go, i had to reset it and retake the shot.  in those few seconds, endeavor had snuck into the clouds.

unfortunately, the rare morning cloud cover combined with the technical difficulties with the timer foiled my plans for a fun up side down shuttle photo.  but hey, it was still fun!

nasa's final shuttle launch is atlantis in july.  not sure if i'll be here for that or not...  but if i am, it'll be one more crazy photo opportunity.

book thoughts

during the course of my journey, a lot of people expressed that they admired what i was doing and a number of people said i should write a book about my experiences.  i agreed that that would be a neat idea, but knowing it would take a lot of effort i purposefully left it as a post-trip possibility and purposefully didn't burden myself with having to take book-specific notes or photos.  whatever i happened to have at the end of the journey is what i'd have to work with.

as i look back over the amazing time i've had on the road, i now have a few book ideas and have been trying to organize them to start making a book become a reality.  i'd like to make at least one of them as a photo collection.  despite the smudges on most of my photos due to stubborn dust on the unreachable inside of the my camera lens, i have a decent number of lovely pictures that i'd like to make available in book form.

my experience with polishing and publishers is little-to-none.  so unless someone can clue me in to a better approach, i plan to submit my book(s) to an online publishing site.  from there anyone could buy a copy to be printed and bound and mailed.  unfortunately, the books won't be cheap even if i don't make any money off of them.  the color photo books could be roughly $30-$45 (for 50-100 pages), about twice the cost of a black and white print.  that leaves me wondering if it's worth it at all.  i still think it is.  i just want people to be able to enjoy the book(s) without having to sell all of their clothing to afford one.

pulling everything together to make a nice publication will take some time.  but the more i get feedback and hear about people's interest in books about my journey, the faster i'll work on it.

in the mean time i'm still lovin' the warmth of florida.

gotta love this bike

i've been doing some side jobs with my cousin eli.  one of the people we are doing work for built this homemade hunting bike and he let us enjoy testing it out!

i would love to ride this bike up to a stop light next to a semi tractor trailer only to have the truck driver have to gaze UP to see me. : )

eli coming up the hill...

plants and gardens

i've been enjoying my time in florida.   i tend to prefer climates where palm trees grow.

my uncle's garden.

my uncle and aunt have been warmly hosting me and helping me find good things to do while i'm here.  being with them and getting to know them better and spending time with my cousins in the area has been a huge blessing.

on the weekends i've been working for my uncle at his nursery.  it's been fun learning about the various kinds of plants and trees that he sells and helping walk-in customers find the kind of plants they are looking for.

on mondays and tuesdays i've been working on a small local farm that is focussed on organic growing methods, community building, and providing fresh foods locally.  it's still a new farm just getting off the ground.  i'm enjoying getting my hands dirty and my brow sweaty as we figure things out.

planting corn

among some other random things i've been up to includes preparation to be part of an upcoming flash-mob dance.  the one i'm participating in is nothing particularly impressive, but i've always wanted to be a part of one.  i've never made a list of things to do by a certain age, but if i had, being in a flash-mob would have been a fun thing to include on it.  i guess instead of writing a list of things to do, i'm just doing things and then maybe listing them later if i get the chance...

meanwhile, i'm still sorting out my short-term and long-term plans.  being in a beautiful climate certainly helps me while i meditate on ideas for what's next.  : )

keep driving east - louisiana to florida

continuing east, i detoured from I-10 in mississippi and alabama so i could see their short gulf coasts.  this is a beach in mississippi.

i snagged more upside down photos for my collection.  gulfport, mississippi.

mobile, alabama.

gulf state park, perdido beach, alabama.

oh, how i love beaches!

florida

once into florida i still had another 9 hours of driving to get to my relative's house east of orlando.  good thing i love to drive!