Vancouver for a Minute

Vancouver/Abbotsford: April 10-12

Yeah!

Finally to Vancouver! Well, first we spent the night in Abbotsford with friends from college. A young married couple, Dan and Amy, had both traveled with Jake for a semester in South Africa. They have been living in Canada for almost 2 years volunteering through Mennonite Central Committee. The next day we drove the hour to Vancouver and trekked around to see the sites and taste the foods.

Looks like we're all Canucks?

Who doesn't love a totem pole or two?

Stanley Park in the NW corner of Vancouver has a beautiful pathway that follows the seawall around its perimeter. There were a remarkable number of Vancouverites rollerblading on the path; was this 1992?

Had sunshine all day!

Not sure who this is but I like her.

We also checked out the ever touristy Granville Island for a delicious lunch at the market.

View from Granville Island

Well, isn't that a pretty set-up?

This was a very tasty pot-pie stew - be fun to make these at home.

I mean, I guess?

Before heading back to Abbotsford to make some dinner we decided to try and find the ‘free’ suspension bridge as opposed to this really cool one that you had to pay for (maybe next time). After much traipsing around we finally got a tip from mountain biker that we were completely in the wrong place. She directed us to the right location – a few miles away – and off we went in the Subaru. We’re so glad we didn’t give up – a very fun little stop.

Suspension Bridge! The free one.

What a talent.

Look at all that green.

We picked up some smoked salmon for a dinner to thank Dan and Amy for their hospitality. We made up the recipe on the fly and I think it’s worth repeating. We posted it here if you’d like to try it.

Dan and Amy! Our gracious hosts.

Go ahead and make this.

Dan's "Dear America"

We know such a short stay is no way to experience a place so we do hope to return to Vancouver someday – especially to dive into the music/arts scene which is rumored to be great. A Canucks game would also be a good time. We were anxious to get moving though as we had a LONG drive to Alaska – 3,000 miles about? So off we went.

Savory Seattle

April 7-10 (Our apologies for being so behind on this – we are currently in Alaska!)

One our hosts in Seattle, Michael - showing us a good time all weekend long.

We arrived at Michael’s mansion of a house with a great view of the city (We thought Eric and Loren had a big house. This place had 11 people living in it!) to a warm welcome and a list of our potential plans for the weekend. Michael and Kaylee are friends from Goshen who migrated to Seattle in the last few years.

Thursday night, just moments after arriving, Michael and Kaylee whisked us off to Linda’s, a Pike St bar and eatery, where we talked, laughed and plotted late into the night. Two of their friends showed up who, lo and behold, are from Homer, AK (our planned destination)! Brian and Luke gave us some generous information and encouragement to continue north towards the halibut capital of the world.  Walking home at midnight we stopped for pizza with the rest of our hosts’ housemates and then an hour later found ourselves in front of Comet Dogs, home of the delicious Seattle dog, a cream cheese-slathered hot dog decked with grilled onions; Carrie swears by the Seattle dog.

Seattle dog at Comet Dogs

The big yellow house we stayed in.

The next morning, Michael had to get up early for a five am work shift. We took our time seeing the usual tourism spots in Seattle.

Well of course we visited this place.

many many mushroom choices at market

Famous fish.

The original Starbucks. For my brother, Josh, who works at the Park City one in Lancaster, PA - go say hey.

Jake waiting for a coffee in the first Starbucks.

There she is - space needle.

Michael's main stomping ground - great station.

At two pm Michael rushed downtown to KEXP radio where he interns. He took us on a fun tour around the building and we headed back out into the city. Michael was just arriving back at the house around six when we got there, and we all set to preparing some delicious BBQ on the front porch. The neighbors showed up and within a half hour there were another 8 people sitting on the porch steps chatting and reminiscing. Dusk came on and as everyone dispersed, Michael, Carrie and I set out for a Japan relief benefit concert that Michael had heard about. We spent the night listening to good music (six bands including our favorite of the night Grand Hallway) and trying to win swag from the raffle–Michael won a haircut. Some other great music discoveries for us: Kimo Muraki and Arthur and Yu.

Saturday morning Kaylee hooked us up with some free kayaking at a nearby lake. She races on the skinniest kayak we’ve ever seen. Pretty impressive. After we got out of the water we drove around the surrounding towns and stumbled upon two interesting things: a racy drive-thru espresso bar (our server was a lingerie clad young lady) and Jimmi Hendrix’s gravesite.

Jimmi Hendrix grave site (aka: altar) while holding a cup of bikini joe.

Another BBQ was had later that evening with good company. We all decided to get some AMAZING ice cream at Molly Moon’s (reminded us of Carmen and David’s back home in Lancaster) and walked to see the latest film incarnation of Jane Eyre. Go see it. On the way we discovered this interesting game and were sucked in for a bit as curious voyeurs.

The following are iphone photos – please forgive the quality:)

Satisfied customer's of Molly Moon's.

Check out those ice-cream flavors.

Sunday morning we watched Michael play some intense soccer in front of the space needle, grabbed a greasy, tasty and cheap lunch at the infamous Dick’s Drive-In, wrote our really long Oregon blog and then off we went north to Canada.

Michael's "Dear America"

Kaylee's "Dear America"

Sonya (a lovely housemate) and her "Dear America"

Thanks to Michael, Kaylee and the whole house for being such gracious hosts!

Oh Oregon

March 28 – April 7: Brace yourself – this will be a loooong post.

We just couldnt leave

Ten days. Ten whole days in one state. We haven’t done that since Florida back in mid-February. We knew Oregon would lure us in and keep us for more than the 2-3 day average we’ve been doing in most states. We didn’t know we’d set up camp for over a week. It also helps to already have 6 friends living in one gorgeous state. 6 really awesome, hospitable and adventurous friends. Because of these folks we got to experience a bit of Salem, Bend, Canby, Cannon Beach and Portland – all for free. We also got to meet a lot of new people, including 3 wonderful couch surfing Swiss kids on their own long road trip.

First stop: Salem

- Eric, Loren, Julie and Darrin and Audra all live in Salem – friends from highschool/college

Many good brews with old friends.

- A private spontaneous beer tasting at the Gilgamesh barn. Personal favorite is Mamba.

With Loren and Jordan at the Gilgamesh brewery barn

Ample samples for us all.

- Experiencing some of the BEST Mexican food – Loren eats here like 5 times a week – I can understand why. We bought a pinata and some amazing pastries from here for a little potluck party we threw for our hosts in Salem.

Pastries from for our potluck.

Taking turns with the pinata.

Kelsey and Julie (friends from our university) with remnants of the pinata.

- A little visit to Tulip Festival in Woodward.

Tulip Fest

Jake finding his roots in Woodward.

Ahh yes.

- Silver Falls (this was actually a Twilight film location – did you know that?)

Silver Falls

Hiking around.

Feeling small.

- hanging out with a house full of fun and talented people, and good food

Eric is quite the chef.

Julie manning the ultimate grilled cheese station.

- incredible chili, cornbread and wine with one of my old soccer teammates and one of Jake’s South Africa leaders (Audra, and her husband Darrin). Darrin invited us to come work at his family’s farm in Alberta in September – we are definitely considering.

After a delicious meal at Audra and Darrins

Second stop: Bend (and the way there)

- Breighton Bush Hot Springs with our new Swiss Friends (the free springs you can hike too – Eric and Loren tipped us off on these)

We found them!

The Swiss boys braving the icy river by the springs.

The hike to/from the springs.

Our 3 fellow adventurers.

Daniel being daring.

Clear lake - with a petrified forest at the bottom -see that one little tree?

Wishing we could take out one of those boats.

- First Friday in downtown: spoken word, live music, activist art galore

Micah - Bends poetry slam champ

Looks like a project we would have done at Water Street! Homeless exhibit.

Neato.

- A pub bicycle wagon

- Sleeping all over the floor of another house full of great new people (lot’s of Dear America participants)- and getting a big breakfast from our gracious hosts

Fanny and Helias with their Dear America

Right before our Swiss friends car broke down...but they are back on the road now.

Driving back from Bend

These look fake.

Third stop: Canby

We stopped in my friend Kelsey’s hometown of Canby (smack inbetween Salem and Portland) to meet her before we all headed for Cannon Beach. We had a lovely tour of their little farm and even collected eggs for our weekend on the coast. Very beautiful country – no wonder Kelsey turned out so great.

Kelseys animals

Eggs for the weekend - I think I actually only collected one of these:)

Fourth stop: Cannon Beach

Well we lucked out here – Kelsey’s in-laws have a little cabin on the beach that they let us stay in for a few nights!

Thanks to the Sommers!

- We had homemade fish tacos and local wine with Julie and  her boyfriend, Darrick – followed by riveting conversation in a hot tub

- Finding “God’s Finger” a terrifyingly beautiful cliff that my brother had showed me a few years back when I had first visited Cannon Beach

Yikes.

Acting brave.

- Kelsey introduced us to Steidel art – we spent a good half of an afternoon chatting with dear Mr. Steidel while he painted in the corner – he loved that we were on a roadtrip which set him off on many great stories from his own traveling days as a young man. Great little vignettes that sounded like they should be on an audiobook. We also purchased one of his prints after he told us that the flying ship was hauling in it’s own reflection off the water below. CREATIVE guy.

A great set-up. Maybe well follow suit one day:)

With Mr. Steidel

Not only is the ship flying, its stealing its own reflection.

- Running to Haystack Rock at low tide in our barefeet from the cabin. It was much further than we thought, and much colder too. We got the whole way there, stared at some starfish then took our frozen feet back to thaw by a fire. I actually ended up sitting on the kitchen counter with me feet in a sink full of HOT water.

The little wood stove that kept us warm.

Fifth stop: Portland

Jake’s friend Jordan lives here and let us stay for 3 nights – he even gave up his bed for us – how awesome is that?

We enjoyed…

- The food carts! We wish this was happening more back in Lancaster, PA. We talked to one food cart owner here who said regulations are more lax in Portland so it probably wouldn’t be as easy to have these somewhere else. I think we should still try – there were hundreds of carts (exaggeration?) filled with so much unique and tasty food at a good price. They also seemed to create instant community. Watch this video to learn more about them.

Ordering delicious poudine!

- Theatre Pubs! Another trend we’d like to start up if we move back to Lancaster one day. $3 movies on couches and you can order beer and food to go along with the experience.

Impressive movie posters

Ideal seating.

- Live music. Went with our friend Julie to see Canadian Ron Sexsmith (Chris Martin from Coldplay’s cousin) and loved this song. Did you know he wrote this one (instead of Fiest)? Also opener Caitlin Rose was really great – reminded us a bit of June Carter.

Good company

- The tourist traps of Powell’s bookstore and Voodoo Donuts. Powell’s is HUGE and has every book you could dream of. I even found Milepost there – which was a recommended travel companion for the great trek through Canada/Alaska. It was a bit expensive so Jake didn’t think we needed it  (I thought it was worth it while we are out in the middle of nowhere) – now I have that written down so there will be no question when we get to the inevitable “I told you so”.  I did purchase “The Long Way Down”  - I never knew Ewan McGregor did this – i’m behind. Voodoo donuts were crazy. They even had some with Captain Crunch on top. We wanted their classic maple and bacon donuts but of course they were out – still a fun little experience (though dare I say I’d rather have beignets in New Orleans or Fractured Prune from home?)

Largest bookstore of my life.

The famous donut land.

- Getting to spend more time with friends.

Northward

March 25-28: Driving up the California coast

Finally, we return with the much-anticipated story of our losing gamble. Uncle Peter told us hours before we left L.A. that part of the Pacific Coast Highway (Rt 1) was closed due to landslides. We filed the information away for later use as it wouldn’t be for a few hours on the road. A brief hop on the highway took us to Morro Bay, a quaint seaside town full of restaurants and shops; the small harbor was full of sailboats and fishing boats anchored for the evening. Take a Maine fishing village, flip it East to West and you have Morro Bay. Add some of these little creatures too.

Running around Morro Bay, CA

More Morro

Franklin, we adopted him in Morro Bay to take with us to Alaska - currently he lives on the subaru dash.

After some happy hour snacks, I returned my cheeks to the driver’s seat (the cushion is forming to the contours of my behind) with Carrie as my copilot (Carrie is not forming to the contours of my obsessive compulsiveness, definitely for the better) and we got onto Rt 1 and found many interesting beaches all along. Including a monster.

A monster on Moonstone Beach!

Found some rocks to climb

A driftwood castle!

We took a brief stop on the shore to watch a colony of elephant seals belch, fart and flop their way into piles of sleeping blubber before nightfall.

Silly elephant seal pups.

Woah elephant seals, woah.

Enjoying the sunset.

Then came the sign: “Road Closed 37 miles ahead.” This was the obstacle Peter had warned us about. Route One (the Pacific Coast Highway) winds its way along the coast of Northern California, hugging cliffs and skirting canyons as it S-turns its way north. Parallel to Rt. One runs 101, which travels north more directly (no cliffs falling 400 feet to crashing waters) into Oregon. We consulted the map and saw a small road running east to 101; it looked to be 30 miles ahead, just before the supposed road closing. We decided to go for it. Darkness quickly descended and we found ourselves alone on the snake-like Rt. One, our headlights veering left to right as the road followed the coastline.

Long story short, the east-west road was not there and we had to turn around and drive another hour back to the nearest road that would take us east to 101. Here is an odd little video of our hopeful attitude if you are interested.

We spent the night at a rest stop in the back of the Subaru and the next day explored more of the California coastline. Its a beautiful region of small tourist-driven towns with sailboats bobbing just offshore and gulls pooping on everything.

I forgot to mention that we visited San Francisco and on our way out of town stopped at Muir Woods National Park. I encourage everyone to visit Muir Woods once in your life and explore the incredible redwoods. We love redwood trees. We’re planting one in our backyard so that in four or five hundred years Carrie and I will be able to build the best treehouse ever.

San Francisco

Fisherman's Wharf

The iconic view.

Muir woods is INCREDIBLE. Sorry for the blur on this one folks:)

Rt 1 in the day.

Magic.

We liked the redwoods so much that we stopped and saw some more in Northern California. These are best seen while listening to a very specific soundtrack. We caught a lot of rain the further north we got but we allowed ourselves to be drenched multitude times in order to try and take in as much as possible.

The Chimney Tree - Avenue of the Giants

Inside a redwood - Avenue of the Giants.

Some delicious wine tasting along the way.

Many days/nights of this.

Found on Sea Glass Beach

Trekking around in the Redwood National Forest

Moss, moss everywhere, moss, moss in our hair.

A long way to the end.

Fern Gully anyone?

Very, very tall.

Amazing rivers everywhere.

Under-the-bridge-art we stumbled upon.

Making friends.

Get yourself to the Pacific Coast Highway at least once in your life. A lot of life to absorb heading north.

A City of Angels

Crepes from the Farmer's Market at the Grove

lovely roses at The Grove

Los Angeles: March 23-25

Home, sweet, home. Well, not really – but it was great to return to an old stomping ground of mine while I was in a film semester program back in my college days. Check out LAFSC if you want to have a really awesome experience and still graduate on time:) After showing Jake around my old block in West Hollywood we stopped by the Farmer’s Market and the Grove for some delicious (and expensive) crepes. If you can see by the photo we had to keep it pretty simple to not feel ridiculous about the price. We were lucky enough to get a text from our host, Jeff Boodie (good friend from Eastern Mennonite University), who invited us onto the Dreamworks studio lot (where he worked) for lunch. It was quite different from my experience working on the 20th Century Fox lot back in the day. Much smaller but beautiful, friendly and fun. Ping pong in the courtyard and delicious foods all around. After lunch and a tour Jake and I were given a drawn out map to find Boodie’s house in the hills. It was quite an adventure tracking it down but an awesome place. Treehouse like with a great view and immersed in nature.

Our home in Hollywood Hills for a few days - with our buddy Jeff Boodie

The trek to the house

Later that night we visited another one of my old haunts, The Bourgeois Pig on Franklin St. Its still an excellent place to escape and they have even developed their lounge area into a midnight forest, complete with a full moon. If you are living near Hollywood, do yourself a favor and track this place down. Also get the Moroccan Mint Tea. We were lucky to get some coveted sun the next morning and explored Venice Beach and it’s oddities as well as Manhattan Beach and it’s suave little self. It was there, as the rain clouds returned, that we made the rash decision to try and catch a matinee of Battle:LA – since we were in LA. We would not recommend this unless you are desperate on redbox – though it is entertaining and fun to see the blocks that you had just walked. To follow this FAIL we decided to have a winner dinner – In’n'out. Jake’s very first time. He was very passionate about looking up all the different secret orders while we waited for our burgers. Ask him sometime – he loves to tell you about 4×4′s, Flying Dutchmans and Protein-style Burgers.

Venice Beach

Art on the beach - yes.

Skatepark

Always nice to see these.

Jake doing tricks at the skate park - minus the skateboard.

Jake's first time at in-n-out!

We had a great time hanging out with Boodie – some solid conversation (as you can only expect with him) and just great to catch up here on the west side. He even had a “Dear America” to share. This guy is one of the most motivated people we know – you will see him making waves in the near future.

Good words to share J.Boodie

On our final morning we got to have coffee at Peet’s with Jake’s Uncle Peter. He just happened to be in town for work at the same time as us! He gave us some great tips for driving up the coast and warned us about the Rt 1 rock slide – advice we should have paid more attention to….(this will be continued in our next post). Great to see a familiar face before we started to finally head NORTH.

Jake's Uncle Pete was in town!

A Lone Rock and A Sandstorm

March 19-23:

We left Hopi land Sunday afternoon with full bellies and high spirits, heading towards Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon to camp the next two nights. As the car chugged NW the landscape began to change. There were more canyons, red rock and spectacular views.

I imagine the land would taste like this jalapeno popcorn.

We are so small.

We ran into a crew from Reader’s Digest, which has pledged $7.5 million to revitalizing American towns. They’re traveling in this RV and stopping in 100 cities in 100 days. You can follow them here. Their social media guru gave us all sorts of information and was very curious about our blog!

Well, look who it is!

We arrived at the Lone Rock Campground, part of Lake Powell, in the late afternoon and spent forty minutes in awe of such an extraterrestrial landscape. A mirror-smooth lake with enormous Lone Rock rising from the surface. Our beach, devoid of life but for 3 other sets of campers, spread out a good 15 acres in all directions, undisturbed by wind. We couldn’t have been happier. Carrie was inspired to write some music.

So peaceful. No wind at this point.

Lone Rock.

Elegant landing

Next time we're bringing these.

Loving this magic place.

Broader view of Lake Powell

The following morning was a different story. We woke at 4am to the sounds of wind whipping at the tent flaps. We gave it little thought and tried to get some more sleep. Within two hours the gusts had turned into gale-force winds. Our tent poles were bowing under the stress but it was still early enough that we hunkered down and slept for another hour. By the time we got out of our tents the damage had already been done. We threw everything into the car (sand everywhere) and drove up to the nearest information center where our mattress promptly blew away into the sage brush and thorns. It was time to be on our way.

Sleep deprived and dirty we immediately booked a hotel room in Vegas to shower and reorganize ourselves. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was still closed for the season so, having both seen the canyon before, we skipped that stop and drove straight through to Vegas. We did have to make a thirty minute stop when we were pulled over by a Utah Sherif. He asked why I (Jake) had veered from my lane, as if the tornado winds and sail-like cargo carrier on our car weren’t explanation enough. It was an odd experience because he asked me to come sit in his truck while he ran our plates, something I have NEVER heard of. After making awkward small-talk for fifteen minutes has asked me if we had “anything he should be worried about” in the vehicle and then asked specifically about alcohol or marijuana. We had neither, so he let us go without any more hassle. His truck was a K-9 unit so I half hoped he would search our car simply so we could say we had been searched by a K-9 unit on the barren plains of Utah. Overall, a very nice young sheriff.

Driving to Vegas -in the snow

Epic sites

The shiny lure of Vegas

Vegas was a blur of lights and people and sleep. We saw a Cirque du Soleil show and gawked at the assemblage of gamblers. The Venetian had neat hand dryers and fake Italians.

The Venetian

After some tasty gelato

Gondolas on wheels? Motors?

Bustling constantly.

New York, New York

We got back in the car the following morning (Wednesday the 23rd of March) and kept driving towards Los Angeles. We were getting a little car crazy. I have no idea what that noise is that I’m making.

Back to camping! in the COLD.

We spent a very cold night in the San Bernardino National Forest just east of L.A. At around 1am Carrie woke up and made us both move into the car to sleep the rest of the night because it was so cold. The morning sun warmly welcomed us to California after a very bizarre night. I just noticed that San Bernardino has been spelled four different ways on this website. =) P.S. Be sure to click on all the orange text in this blog for some fun little videos.

Beautiful San Bernadino National Forest in California.

Ready for a warm bed in LA.

 

Don’t worry, be Hopi

Hopi Reservation: March 19-20, 2011

The Hopi Mission School

The following two days after our Earthship experience took us into Arizona where we met up with Rebecca Yoder, an EMU friend who now teaches on the Hopi reservation in Arizona. She showed us around her four-teacher, K-5 school, and took us on an informative and eye-opening drive around the village of Kykotsmovi and the surrounding villages. Oraibi, just up the road from Rebecca’s house, is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in all of the United States.

Memorables:

-Navigating through a sea of immense tumbleweeds

Rebecca and Jake conquer the tumbleweeds

- Eating an ashen Hopi traditional food called Piki bread – the process that goes into making it is intriguing

- Going to church on Sunday and singing hymns in Hopi, ending the service in a big circle, holding hands and singing “Bind Us Together” – a very simple but moving experience because of the great cultural diversity in the room.

- Being invited back several times by the local folks

- Ogling the incredible silver and turquoise jewelry made by the Hopi, Navajo and Zuni

- Learning about Kachina dolls and how deeply rooted they are in the culture

- The Korean missionary pastor and the elders of the First Mesa Baptist church doing a “Dear America”

The friendly pastor of First Mesa Baptist Church

- The incredible land surrounding us throughout the Hopi and Navajo Reservations- demanding reverence.

We really enjoyed our time in Hopi land and wouldn’t mind returning again some day to visit again! Next time we hope to get one of these shirts to commemorate our experience: )

PHOTO TAKEN FROM NPR.ORG

Tamales and Earthships

New Mexico (March 16-19)

After spending our very first night in the car at an overly-lit rest stop in West Texas, we finally crossed into New Mexico. We went from UFO-obsessed Roswell north up to the delicious Santa Fe. The streets smelled amazing (seriously, like a balanced blend of incense and tamales). There are over 265 art galleries in this little city of 65,000 people (245.3 people per gallery) complete with a Georgia O’Keefe Museum.

Our first experience sleeping in the car.

Roswell - the alien capital of the states.

Camping outside of Santa Fe on Route 66.

One of 265 amazing art galleries in Santa Fe.

Beautiful buildings all over the place.

More vibrant art.

Tasty tamales.

Old stairs originally built without any supports on the sides and no railing (added since)

We wished we had more time here but we had booked an incredible night in Tres Piedras, 90 minutes north of Santa Fe. This was one of our budgeted luxuries: a night in an earthship. You can follow us on the grand tour in this little video we made. Also be sure to check out www.earthship.org. We learned about these a few years back and have been aching to experience one ever since. It was WELL worth it.

We had to cross the Rio Grande to find our earthship,

Excited to get there...

Our place for the night!

Living room.

Bathroom

The greenhouse hallway

Entrance to the ship.

60 earthships make up the community in Tres Piedres.

One with many levels. Neato.

We got to cook! We miss this.

What happens with the water in the homes.

One of our friendly hosts, Hilary, with her "Dear America"

Messing with Texas

Texas snuck up on us in the dead of night.

We went against the grain and decided to mess with Texas, joining Carrie’s friend Jess Ramos (from the LA days) and her husband Adrian in Dallas for a night. They have a great apartment in an even more impressive apartment building (outdoor pool/hot tub, bar, poker room, dog-friendly). We spent a good half hour on the roof of the building taking in the lights and the breeze and then took to the courtyard where the apartment complex keeps a propane fire burning through the night. Along with three other new acquaintances we talked into the night before returning to the apartment for the women to catch the finale of “The Bachelor.” The Ramos’ were impeccable hosts. They cooked us a great meal, kept pouring us wine and even let us do our laundry. THANK YOU!

Jess!

Dallas by rooftop.

New friends and old.

We were planning to continue across northern Texas the following morning, but Jess and Adrian encouraged us to travel south to see the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin. A three-hour drive brought us into the heart of downtown Austin, a warmly urban setting where cyclists flourish and live music roars from every corner restaurant.

This was a fun find in Austin.

We enjoyed some bold, bright, bar art downtown.

Tasty pulled pork and pineapple tacos with a frozen margarita.

We walked the streets for a few hours, when all of the sudden Facebook told Carrie that Mister Heavenly would be doing a free show just blocks from our location. Mister Heavenly (unbeknownst to me until that moment) is a Supergroup made up of artists from Modest Mouse, Man Man, and The Unicorns. Most interestingly though, their bassist is Michael Cera, the charmingly awkward star of Superbad and Juno. We had a great time watching him awkwardly play the bass, awkwardly talk to other people, and finally he awkwardly made eye contact with me. It was awkward. Their music was nice too.

There he is: Mr. Cera tearing down from the show

The sun, in its usual manner, was preparing to set so we walked to the Congress Ave. bridge, home of the world’s largest urban bat colony. Every day (night?) at dusk, millions of bats stream out from their day-time home underneath the bridge and drift eastward like a column of smoke.

On top of the "bat bridge"

Read all about it.

The rest of Texas was a blur of sagebrush, sand and sweaty brows as we drove the last 600 miles to New Mexico. We’ve been listening to Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” (what inspired that?) on audiobook, so, inspired by his writing, we attempted to describe the plains of West Texas. Here are our attempts:

” Driving the stretch was like riding a lifeline across the skin of an old woman who didn’t know how to stay out of the sun, a woman boldly  wearing the long cracks of this earth like old battle scars and gently reminding us to brace ourselves for the years to come.” – Carrie

” It was like driving on the hide of some giant animal that had been shaved so close to the skin, and occasionally the razor had scraped too close and exposed swathes of raw earth. ” – Jake

P.S. Best gas station coffee so far has been in Texas – we’ve either been given the coffee for free or for $.25. Have not beat those prices yet on this journey.

Houses on stilts and friends on bases

Mr. Jimmy and Treva's house being built on stilts by MDS

March 10-13 we found ourselves on the east side of Louisiana. We spent Thursday night – Sunday in Cameron, which is down on the southern east coast; you can practically see Texas. Jake’s uncle Titus was down there volunteering with Mennonite Disaster Service for the month, helping to build homes for folks who lost everything in Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008. They were gracious enough to let us drop in, set up our tent for a few nights and volunteer all day Friday with a home for Mr. Jimmy and Treva. We enjoyed working with a group of volunteers from (guess where?) Millersville University, as well as some folks from Oregon and Canada.

On Saturday Uncle Titus drove as all around Cameron to participate in one of us his favorite hobbies; birding. We found 23 gators and lots of other interesting little things in the bayou, “Louisiana’s outback”. My favorite was the Roseate Spoonbill. It looked like puffs of cotton candy dropped in the bushes. Saturday night we had a regular old jam session in the dining RV with the staff. Sunday we went to church with the MDSers where we met a handful of folks that still attended this church that had been mostly destroyed by hurricanes. We walked across a giant concrete slab that used to be their sunday school rooms and fellowship hall. For some reason this really hit home for us, a very physical reminder of the deep scars and sadness these hurricanes have left. They were so happy to have finally built their little church back up and have a place to meet together again. After delicious biscuits and gravy Jake and I hit the road to continue our adventure.

we love Uncle Titus!

Dennis, our fearless Site Manager who taught Jake and I how to install soffet while on a 5 foot ladder, 15 feet off the ground

Our tent spot

Alligator bones? Pelican? Wolverine?

A new friend

The great birding/gatoring adventure with Captain Titus

One of 23 that day

The remains of apartment houses near where we camped

We stopped in Leesville, La the following day to meet with Jake’s friend Anthony who serves at the Fort Polk military base. He gave us a fascinating tour of the base and then we joined some of his friends for dinner at the Wagon Master grill. After a few prank-based adventures, we wound up in a Wal-Mart parking lot to say our goodbyes and hit the road. With another two hours of driving under our belts we crossed the Texas border and camped in Angelina National Forest next to a beautiful lake. We woke up to rain but were able to wrap up the tent in record time before it could get wet then roared off into the Texas wild.

Jake and Anthony reenacting their market days (they worked together in Reading, PA last year)

I don't know about you but this parking lot on the base camp looked like tremendous fun.

Some good burgers with Anthony and friends

Kenzie, one of the Leesville folks, with her "Dear America"