In the interest of brevity

Found a new apartment. My apartment has blue carpeting. I have traveled to Utah and back. I am never sending anything, besides letters, through the US postal service ever again. I was pulled over...again. There are a lot of auto-parts stores in Roseburg, Oregon and also some good thrift stores. All of the thrift stores have copious amounts of cassette tapes, but most of the tapes suck. I did get a sweet Liberace tape though. I think I will be able to post pictures again soon. I got a waffle iron for 50 cents.

California sure is long

Left Berkeley. Got fined $30 for not having $4.00 to cross some bridge, I they really think there going to see that $30, they are sorely mistaken. I got my car referred to as "silver". The cats cried during most of today's drive. Every time I thought I was almost out of California, the state would extend another hundred miles. I made it to Oregon eventually. About 30 miles from my final destination I was pulled over for not moving into the left lane while passing a emergency vehicle on the shoulder, when I was passing him I did think about it but, chose not to for some reason. The officer asked about the dry-wall sculpture on my dashboard. I stayed with Adam, who will be one of my co-workers at the art center. As it so happens, one of Adams roommate's has a pittbull who allegedly once ate a goat, the cats were thus quarantined to Adams room. I had Thai food for dinner, the food was good, the service was bad and I ran into two of the other Americorps VISTA's at the restaurant.

Worst drivers in the country

I picked up the cats from Alison's parents house. I will just note that California drivers are, in fact, the worst in the country, I'm not going to elaborate on this unless specifically asked too, just believe-you-me it's bad.

For my drive I have set up a rule that I am only allowed to listen to any cassette tape once. I have been sticking to this rule except for one exception...The Go-Go's; Beauty and the beat, wow what a great album...

Anyway, I stayed in Berkeley....I'm not really going to elaborate on this one, I'll just say that the houses are pretty cute in Berkeley.

A visit to Los Angeles

Spent some time at my parents house. Looked for my old cassette tapes (mix tapes and otherwise). Tapes are no mas. Did automobile maintenance. The dentist was booked up so I was not able to get my teeth repaired.

Souvenir capitol

After my very cold car sleeping experience I got breakfast at a truck stop and started driving toward Los Angeles. Took a nap in the car. Drove many miles. I think Arizona is the souvenir capital of America. All of the gas stations and gift shops had the magnets with different states on them, but they had all of the states and Canada. I got an awesome Illinois sticker at a gas station in the desert somewhere. (insert picture of Lincoln here). I arrived at my parents house many, many hours later.

Long story short

Decided to spend the day in Denver and leave in the evening. Had lunch with Rachel. Mailed my old license plates back to New York (to prevent having my license suspended). Went to the Denver Art Museum, well worth the trip if you happen to be in Denver. While leaving the museum I had to walk through a park filled with drug addicts and/or teenagers. One of said teenage drug addicts threw a snowball at me. I chose to just scowl at him and move on. I repacked the car in such a way as that I could see out the back window. Went out to Rachel and Andy’s favorite Mexican restaurants. I had the chile’ reieno’s, I was asked if I wanted them soft or crispy, I was unsure how to respond to the question. After much boom box trial and error I finally got on the road. I avoided the Rockies for obvious reasons and headed toward Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have no idea what time I arrived in Albuquerque as the clock in my car gives the wrong time in a non linear fashion. I parked at the end of a side street and went to sleep. Later I was awoken by a police officer, or maybe he was a security guard, he told me I wasn’t supposed to be sleeping here and asked how long I had planned to stay, I think I just mumbled something about leavening in the morning, he told me to go back to sleep. A few hours later the same officer woke me up again and told me I had to leave before the workers started to arrive (?) I parked on a different block and slept there instead.

Denver, not scary, just cold

Had an egg McMuffin for breakfast, I asked for it without bacon and my server asked if I wanted it flat or folded, I had no idea what this meant and just picked one. They forgot to put cheese on it.

I stopped at the Colorado welcome center. The woman working at the welcome center was very friendly and gave me several guides and maps. I had something they called coffee although any similarity between the two beverages was purely coincidental.

Rachel and Andy met me after work, we went to a restaurant where I had a buffalo burger, it was quite meaty.

Me and Rachel headed for the Capsule. I played what I thought was a good show, to a small yet enthusiastic audience. After the show I did a Q&A, I'm not sure how articulate I was. I believe there is a pod-cast of the performance and Q&A.

Nebraska has closed all of it's rest areas

Me, Laura and Julia went to the Bongo Room for breakfast. The waitress spilled coffee on Laura. Julia gave me a car sculpture. I went back to Village Thrift and bought a boom-box for $8.00, said boom-box takes eight D batteries. The gas station didn't have enough batteries so I had to stop at a corner store.

I drove through the Illinois countryside, this was for the most part uneventful. Stopped at a truck stop in Des Moines, Iowa and had a "spicy" chicken sandwich. Called Rachel to let her know I would be getting to Denver later than expected. All of the rest areas in Iowa are clean, well lit, offer free wireless internet access and provide machines for vending coffee with lightener (I had the hot chocolate), what I'm trying to say here is that Iowa's many, many rest areas are great and other states should really take a rest area lesson from Iowa.

At some point I enter Nebraska. I will note that Nebraska's rest areas, witch there are NOT many, don't hold a candle to Iowas rest areas and most of them are closed for some reason. My plan had been to drive until I could drive no more and then sleep at a rest area. After passing many closed rest areas I finally decided to stop and find a place to sleep. I pulled off the highway and wondered why there were giant piles of sand everywhere. I guess I hadn't realized that there was snow in this part of the world. I slept in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

My kind of town

Me and Julia had breakfast at some mediocre breakfast place across from D&D, mostly because Leo's had closed and the other place that was supposed to be good had a line (actually two lines, one to order your food and one to wait for a seat, I will ressist the urge to mention how stupid a system I think this is). Julia went to work as the prop person for a play, she was slightly disappointed to find that her "props" would not be the main focus of said play. I met up with Laura and we walked to Village Thrift. Laura had just broken up with Jim (the guy who's place I had dropped her at yesterday). I pointed out various things along our tour. Village Thrift was still great, although they didn't have that many cassette tapes, the ones they did have were $0.25. Laura got new clothes for her new job. Julia met us at Village Thrift, because she needed to get some props.

That evening we went to Arazu, witch was still quite tasty but, I thought I remembered there being carrots in the burritos. We all went to the Gold Star which hadn't really changed. Kumar and his lady friend showed up. We also went to a place called the Happy Farmer or something like that, it was Julia's local bar.

My awesome road trip or I hate Indiana

Short version: After much trial and error we get a new car. The new car runs out of gas somewhere in Indiana. We arrive in Chicago very late at night.

Long version: We call Sean in the morning, he is waiting to hear back from the notary. I mentioned that I would be fine with just switching the plates off of the old car, but no, we have to do things legally. Blah, Blah, Blah, trial and error with the bank, borrow money, check out of hotel again, hide cat, wait around at the gas station for several hours, play cards. Eventually Sean picks us up, we check out the car, a 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity with 60,000 miles on it, the car runs considerably better than the 1990 Volvo 240 with 150,000 miles on it. We drive several counties over to the notary to get a temporary registration. Again we run into issues regarding what address to put on various legal documents. In the end we list the address on my drivers license and decide that if I am pulled over I will just tell the officer I was confused about how to get to Oregon.

Me And Laura move everything from the old car into the new one. During this, Sean is on eBay looking for more cars to buy. Up until today we have had mixed feelings about Sean, today however, another side came through... It was a snug fit but we got everything into the new car. Sean seems overly excited to crush the Volvo.

Finally, we start toward Chicago. It is raining out. A truck without mud flaps blinds us. The tape player doesn't work. The fuel gage also doesn't work. Despite these minor issues the new car runs and handles considerably better than the Volvo. We try and fill up the tank somewhere in Ohio or Indiana, the car only takes a few gallons and then automatically shuts off. We decide the car might be magical, but, we attempt to fill it at the next gas station anyway, it only takes 30 cents worth of gas. We run out of gas a half hour later on the Indiana turnpike. Just moments prior to running out of gas I had been saying to Laura how crappy a state Indiana was and we remembered that just prior to the other car breaking down I had been saying how all the towns in Pennsylvania had stupid names, a valuable lesson was learned, and I will try and remember to never travel to Montana or Virginia. We called the number on the the toll card, I told the operator that we had just passed a rest stop that was trucks only, to which she said "So, you could be anywhere." A woman who worked for the highway stopped and told us where we were, a truck came and gave us gas, the truck escorted us to the gas station, we filled up, had some(more) of the worlds worst coffee, and we were back on our way.

We arrived in Chicago around 3 am. I dropped Laura off at Tim's house, up in who-knows-where, I think he might live in Wisconsin. I got to Julia's and managed to misplace her address, I tried calling her but I think she was asleep. eventually I found the address, found the keys, and made it inside.

My Awesome Road Trip or The web of lies begins

Short version: Me, Laura and her cat went to several DMV's. The car IS registered. The car broke down in Clearfield, Pennsylvania (200 or so miles out of New York). The car would cost $1000 dollars to fix and wouldn't be done till Tuesday. I will be buying a used Buick Friday morning.

Long version: Yesterday morning, I picked up Laura in the Bronx, we headed to New Jersey to get a replacement temporary registration. Somehow, we ended up at the least helpful DMV in the universe. The woman working was so un-helpful and so un-friendly. We went back to New York, I tried to get a temporary registration but, in the end I got an actual registration. I had to give them my Brooklyn address, even though I no longer live in New York, or anywhere really, because one cannot register a car in New York unless one lives in New York. A woman, also in line at the NY DMV, said I could use her address.

Several hours later and $250 dollars lighter we started on our 15 hour drive toward Chicago. Driving through Pennsylvania, the "check oil" light went on, we took the next exit at the end of the off-ramp the car stopped and all of the emergency lights came on. Me and Laura sat there for a while with the idea that if we let the car "rest" then all would be ok. blah, blah, blah... Not much further in the future, a guy named Tony came by, it was suspected that our timing belt had broken. Tony had a chain in his truck and towed us over to the Snappy's parking lot. He had to go visit his mother in the hospital, he gave us the number for a mechanic and said he would stop by after his visit to the hospital. Tony kept remarking on how much the people in this town were jerks and how they won't help anyone. Tony said we could stay with him and his wife. The mechanic was closed. One of the women working at Snappy's, managed to get a hold of a mechanic named Sean. So, Sean from Shawns Auto Repair came with a tow truck that already had two recked cars on it and checked out the car. It was in fact the timing belt. While he talked to me he kept getting side tracked by other people passing through the parking lot. Sean made fun of the women working at Snappy's and the made fun of Laura, then he gave her a hug.

It was decided that we would call him in the morning.

Me and Laura walked to the four different hotels near by in search of the cheapest one. We made bet's as to the prices of the different hotels, I think I won once and Laura won twice. We ended up staying at the Super 8 Motel in Clearfield, PA, it was $52 for a double. We lied about not having any pets (Laura's cat is joining us on our trip).

I talked to my mom and said I was in Virginia or maybe Pennsylvania. We had dinner at the Taco Bell/Pizza Hut/KFC. I had KFC, Laura had some side orders and then some nachos.

This morning, we had some continental breakfast, I didn't notice a copy of USA Today, but, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. After Sean came to get the info on the car, me, Laura and the cat walked up the hill to the truck-stop cafe. We had the all you can eat buffet. In the bathroom was this soap dispenser.
Awesome.

Sean came and towed the car to his garage. We re-checked into the Super 8. The same women from last night was working the counter, so Laura did not mention the cat.

We took naps. I woke up when Sean called. He told me that the broken timing belt was the least of my worries. Other parts had been put out of commission, either because of, or the result of the timing belt breaking. Long story short(er) it wouldn't be ready until Tuesday and it would cost $1000 (far exceeding my already dwindling emergency budget). The other option...he had a Buick for sale, the car belonged to an old women and only has 50,000 miles.

Me and Laura went through our options. I borrowed money from my parents. I wept a little. So, as of tomorrow, I will be the "proud" owner of a Buick (I don't know what year or model), I hope all of my stuff fits.

We had Burger King for dinner.