Monday April 13: We have arrived in California, and it is great!

Today was a great day. I know that each day, we say that, but today has truly been a great day. Yesterday we had a fantastic time with Eaden and Eldrik. They showed us some beautiful sights of the mountains around Flagstaff. I have lived in Ontario for, hmmm, 10 years now, but I grew up in BC, in the mountains. Since leaving that province, I had forgotten how wonderfully beautiful the mountains can be. The time we spent up there brought back some very fond memories of my childhood. /sigh. OK, I am done reminiscing about the past. After our short hike we went to a local casino where Eaden and the Wizard of Oz entertained us in a gut wrenching competition between woman and machine. Not surprising, woman won.

Today we hit the road, destination sunny California. The drive was gorgeous. Uh oh, here I go about the mountains again. They were spectacular. The weather was bright and sunny for the morning and quickly heated up the area. By the time we had descended from Flagstaff the air had heated up to the perfect temperature, and so it was time for the direct sun to disappear behind some light clouds in order to maintain that perfect temperature.

Eventually we hit California, and soon afterwords we were driving through what I think was the outskirts of Los Angeles. We knew this was coming; LA is one of the biggest cities in the country. Pete and I have gotten turned around on some rather insignifcant roads in this trip, have found ourselves on the wrong road far more often than I care to think about. But you know, it was never that big of a deal. We would just repeat our mantra "We are on vacation" and then do what we could to get back to where we were supposed to be. Navigation has been a little bit, uh, lacking as we drove, but we survived.

Knowing how we have been less than perfect in ensuring we are always on the right road, both Pete and I were nervous as we prepared to enter the massive city that we plan to spend the next week in. Turns out, when Pete applies himself and closely studies the map, and I pay extra attention to what lane I am in, and what exits are coming up, we are actually pretty good. We made it all the way to our hotel without taking a single wrong turn... and it isn't because we just followed the same road the whole way there. We zigged and then zagged, and then zigged again as we jumped from one highway to another as we moved through the city. The picture here is just one of many roads we took, nothing special, but you will see there are four different roads crossing over the same point; it was wild.

After arriving and checking into the hotel, we walked across the road to a mall we were told had a good food court. Turns out, the advices was true. Actually, the food court was a little bit lacking, but it had a little restaurant called "Great Steak" where we got a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. It was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately we did not take the camera to the mall, so there is no picture of the sandwich. Despite the lack of photography today, feel rest assured that we will be going back to that restaurant so we will try to get a shot of it then.

So, we have checked in, had supper, and are ready for bed. It might be a little bit early, but we hope to take advantage of ever single moment of sunlight starting tomorrow, and that means getting a good nights rest tonight. Sleep well everyone, and be prepared for us to flood this blog with pictures of all the beautiful Californian, uh, scenery.

Sunday April 12: An Eaden and Eldrik Easter

The day started out really nice and relaxed, and continued in that vein for it's entirety. It being Easter Sunday and all, Eaden and Eldrik understandably had some family time planned with their two sons before they could drive up and meet us. So, for the first time since we began this crazy adventure, Light and I discovered a morning with no plans. We took our time getting going, had a leisurely continental breakfast in the little hotel office, and then made our way to the laundromat.

Laundry isn't something you usually associate with vacationing, but we both packed kinda light for a 3 week trip and, well, it was about that time. And lo and behold, time we had! The laundromat we had gotten directions for wasn't where it was supposed to be, but after some aimless wandering, atrocious navigating on my part, and a whole lot of dumb luck we ended up at The Loggermat. Despite spending countless hours cooped up in a Civic, this really felt like the first "down time" of the trip for me. And it was kinda nice, just chillin on plastic lawn furniture, watching our clothes tumble over and over itself, and listening to Ricky Gervais' podcast. Rejuvenating.

Clean clothes in hand, we returned to the hotel room, watched a little TV and then got in touch with Eaden and Eldrik using Nem's gift of a cell phone. (Thanks again, Nem, it's a godsend!) They let us know they were closing in on Flagstaff, so we headed down to a little micro-brewery on Beaver Street to meet them.

They were everything I expected them to be. Very laid back and comfortable people to be around, the conversation started right away and really didn't stop for the rest of the visit. After enjoying some tasty brews and some delicious stone baked pizza, we all hopped into their vehicle for a tour of the town. It so happened that Eldrik attended the local University, so he was very knowledgeable about the area. And it's so incredibly beautiful here! We saw the campus, the freakish giant lumberjack statue, the football stadium (really cool, a big white dome) and then headed up 4000 feet to the ski resort to take in the view.

10,000 feet above sea level is really high! And the view, quite literally, took my breath away. We spent quite a while up there, not minding the cold or the snow but just taking in the panorama and enjoying each other's company. Like any other time you gather a bunch of WoW players together, the conversation touched for a long time on Warcraft. I really can't think of a more pleasant way to spend an afternoon; being in a beautiful place, with people I enjoy, talking about something I'm passionate about. What a great day!

After a while, we started to notice the chill and decided to head back down the mountain. Eldrik mentioned the possibility of supper, but we were all still pretty full from lunch, so it was decided instead to visit an Indian Casino that was about 45 minutes away. This decision had the added bonus of allowing Chris and I to witness the famous Arizona sunset as we descended from the Plateau area where Flagstaff sits. Absolutely awesome. So much color, stretched across the entirety of the vast horizon, sometimes ducking behind mountains, it's simply indescribable. We tried to document the experience with the camera, but the light at dusk mixed with photographing from a moving vehicle resulted in sub-sub-par pictures. Guess they will just have to do, but feel free to insert substantial amounts of imagination to get the full idea of it all.

The casino was a lot of fun. Neither Chris nor myself are big gamblers, but it was a great experience hanging out with our hosts, rooting for Eaden as she sucked money out of the house (she totally kicked butt!), and getting mesmerized by all the flashing lights and happy noises. There's a lot of psychology that goes into casinos, and we had a grand ol' time speculating on why they did things this way, and why that was placed there, and so on and so forth.

The casino had three different restaurants, a fancy one, a regular one and a burger joint. We settled on the regular one, and once again enjoyed some good food and great conversation. Long after we polished off the last of our food, we lingered at the table just chilling out.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, especially when Eaden has to work the next morning. Luckily, we still had the drive back to the hotel to hang out. And even after they dropped us off, I'm ashamed to say we jealously kept them far into the night, and then they still had a two hour drive home!. So Ea, if you read this tomorrow at work, sorry if you're exhausted. Thank you both so much for a greatly enjoyable and relaxing day. It was just what the doctor ordered.

Now, dear readers, it's off to bed, for tomorrow we shall California. (you can use California as a verb, right?)

Friday April 11: Goodbye to Texas, we shall miss you.

Well, this has been an intense day, and it really should not have been. Today was supposed to be just a simple really long drive... it was supposed to be the most boring, mind numbing part of this leg of the trip. If this has taught us nothing though, it is that no day is a normal day.

It started on one of the biggest downers of the trip, we had to leave Texas. Our time in Lubock will surely go down in my memory books as one of the most intensely enjoyable periods of time I have ever spent. Aly and Ram are two of the best people I have ever been able to call friend. Their kids are some of the nicest and well mannered people I have ever met... freakishly so. I am gonna start a petition to force Aly and Ram to write a book on parenting... I don't know what they are doing, but it clearly works.

I won't go into detail as to our activities, you can read that in Petes previous post, but I just wanted to reiterate what incredibly wonderful people Aly and Ram are. Aly is the exact same sweetheart we have all grown to know and love on Vent. Ram, however is silent on vent most of the time, so he was was a bit of a mystery. He isn't so quite in real life. I had several fantastic and powerful conversations with him over the last 2 days. He is insightful, clever, and thoughtful. As we drove away from Lubock this morning, my mind was full of all the other controversial subjects and deep thoughts that I just didn't have time to pick his brain about. Poor me.

All well. The day began with a hearty breakfast of some of the tastiest strawberry pie I have ever had a-la Nem. Wait, does that work? Maybe it should simply read Nems most awesome yummy strawberry masterpiece.Yes , that sounds better. Actually on the subject of food, we found some cookies that we got from Aly too, between these two ladies and their culinary skills, we ate very well today, just not very healthy. Oh well, die happy.

Anyway. This has just been a driving day. Nothing special. We drove from Lubock Texas to Flagstaff Arizona, and yah know what??? It was COLD! Not only was it cold... but it SNOWED!!!! We drove through snow in New Mexico, and it is snowing as I type this here in Arizona! Now, I can sort of understand the Arizona... sort of. We are up really high, spent a lot of the drive between 5000-6000 feel above sea level. I gotta say though, despite the snow, this drive has been one of the most magestic drives we have had. The landscape was in a constant state of flux through New Mexico. The rock formations were mind boggling. Then in Arizona, we are up so high, and the ground is so flat, and the sky so close it felt like you could touch heaven. The sky was so big, and with no civilization around, we lamented not driving through here at night, I bet it has one of the most beautify night skys on the planet. I have included some pictures, but really, this was something that no piece of technology could capture.... the magnitude and freedom of this landscape defied our attempts to squeeze it into this camera to show you all. You must all just come here and see it for yourself.

After arriving in Flagstaff, we checked into the Knights Inn, and went out to find some supper. We ended up at a family restaurant named Granny's Closet. It had good food, but what made it unique was that each booth had it's own TV. It was an experience to be sure, but as the meal progressed, I was reminded why my parents insisted that we eat supper together at the dinner table instead of in front of the TV. Having that box there kills the entire meal as far as human interaction goes.

OK. Today we passed through not one, but two time zones. The local clock says it is approaching 11pm, but for me, it is almost two in the morning. The free continental breakfast ends at 9am local time, so to get our tummies filled tomorrow morning, we gotta be getting up early. So with that, I draw this post to an end, but don't forget to tune in tomorrow. Tomorrow we shall meet Eldrik and Eaden. What wild and bizarre things will happen when we all get together? Stay tuned to find out.

Friday April 10: Aly and Ram and New Experiences

Having just said our goodbyes to Aly and Ram and two of their sons, Sean and Jake, I'm once again struck by how gracious and hospitable and generous our hosts have been on this trip. You guys have really made this trip spectacular for us, and we really appreciate it. Aly and Ram were no exception, bringing forth a host of new experiences for us to try. Let's recap.

New Experience 1: This one was kinda just for me. Knowing that I smoke, Ram thought it would be neat if I were to try tobacco in the Texan fashion. He had bought me a can of dip and a pouch of chew and we had a great time trying both out and making a wonderfully disgusting mess in his spit cup. Not that Ram usually chews tobacco, but he didn't think he'd be a very good host if he let me go it alone. I know this was already covered by Chris, but I thought it a fitting way to begin.

New Experience 2: Rising at about 10am, we hooked up with Aly (Ram got an unexpected call from work and had to disappear for a few hours) and headed out to a local eatery called Josie's to try some authentic breakfast burritos. Chris and I both ordered the same thing, two burritos we've never heard of before. The first was stuffed with a Mexican sausage of some sort and egg. Very tasty, though Ram later joked that we wouldn't have thought so if we knew what was in them. The second we had no idea what was in it, only that it was very good. Later, we found it was stuffed with potato and fried pig skin. What we didn't know didn't hurt us, and was actually very good.

New Experience 3: After breakfast we crossed the street to visit the local Western Wear store so Chris could look into buying his very own cowboy hat. A running joke between us is that I was suckered into buying a "tourist" cowboy hat but he was going to get the "real thing". Well, we had a great time poking around the store, trying on various hats, and likely making fools of ourselves before Chris finally settled on a hat. Though I don't know about it being any more "authentic" than my own, and though it doesn't look nearly as good on him as mine does on me, it's still a very nice cowboy hat. Aly seems to think we'll have all the ladies swooning if we wear them on the beaches in California. We shall see.

New Experience 4: Next, it was time to meet up with Ram at the Buddy Holley statue for a photo op. The statue is surrounded by plaques to honor Lubbock's contribution to the areas of music, art and entertainment. Besides Buddy Holly, Lubbock also gave us Roy Orbison and many others. As it said on one plaque, " An area's culture is described by the activities it's citizens embrace in the pursuit of entertainment". I thought that was a pretty neat way to look at it. Ram brought out his own Fender Stratocaster (a guitar that Buddy Holley is known for) and we all took turns posing by the statue and being all rock star. It was great.

New Experience 5: We loaded the guitar back into Ram's van and then Aly, Chris and I headed out of the city to a local winery. It was a really cool experience, as I've never been taste testing before, despite having grown up so close to Ontario's wine country. The folks at the winery took us on a tour of their facilities and explained how a winery even came to exist on the Texas Panhandle Plains (not exactly where you'd think of when you think of grape vines, eh?). Then we picked out several wines we wanted to try out and had a great time sampling. So much fun!

New Experience 6: Meeting up with Ram again, we all went down to a local park to have a picnic lunch. What was on the menu, you ask? Well, it was a big spread, let me tell you, all picked up at local restaurants and diners so that we could have a taste of Texas that we weren't familiar with. The new foods we tried out included tamales, Mesquite smoked beef, and the kicker, deep fried chicken gizzards. I loved the tamales and roast, and enjoyed the gizzards though the texture of those did put me off a little. Ram had also brought along his acoustic guitar, and first he and then I serenaded the group with a little music. It was a perfect lunch, in my opinion.

New Experience 7: Next came the highlight of the day, and probably one of the coolest experiences of my life. We went to the range! (And no, I'm not talking about where the deer and antelope play). We went to the firing range! Honestly, we're in Texas, we have cowboy hats, it's only a matter of time before someone sticks a gun in our hands, right? On the way, Ram explained gun safety to us as Chris and I are woefully ignorant of such things, and then were were there and unloading the van. And unloading. And unloading, until we'd assembled enough firearms to field a small army. Having been a member of the shooting range for some time now, Ram had amassed quite an impressive collection of rifles and pistols for us to try out.

Guns we shot: AK-47, M-16, M1A, 12-gauge Shotgun, Winchester Lever-Action rifle, Ruger Blackhawk .357 single action revolver, U.S.Army Colt .45 Automatic, Glock 9mm (and .40) and a Smith and Wesson .38 revolver. All told, 4 rifles, 1 shotgun and and 5 hand guns.

It was absolutely amazing. And Chris and I didn't do half bad considering it was all mostly new to us. (we'd both shot .22 rifles once or twice before but nothing like this!) My favorites were the M1A and the Glock, but probably just because they were the only ones I seemed to be comfortable enough with to actually knock some targets over with. It was all a little surreal, and I'm not sure I'd believe my memory of events tomorrow if I didn't have the pictures to back it up with. As Ram said, "many notches in your belt today". Was it ever!

New Experience 8: And even then, they weren't done showing us a good time. We loaded up the van once more and headed back to the city for supper at a place called Bryon's Steaks. Once again, I had food stuffed into me until I thought I was going to burst. It's an interestingly set up restaurant, where you all line up at a cafeteria style counter, pick up your drinks, order your steak, pay for the meal, then collect a little number thing to stick on your table. Then, you head up to the salad bar (which includes many hot side dishes), fill up on what you want to snack on while waiting for your main course to arrive. Now, I've had the benefit of having some pretty good steaks in my life, but I don't think any of those compared to the rib eye steak we had at Bryon's. So tasty. Added to that, we ordered a Chicken Fried Steak for us all to try. It's basically a breaded, fried steak smothered in Southern White Gravy. Also, very, very good. I swear, I'm going to be about 200lbs bigger by the time I get back to Ontario.

We finished the night off by lounging around our hotel while Aly and Ram's sons went swimming, drinking a local beer (Lone Star) and just having relaxed conversation about politics and religion and everything in between.

You can get to know a person very well over the Internet, especially if you have a voice program where you can actually talk instead of type. But I appreciate Aly and Ram so much more now that I've met them in real life. It's been such an enjoyable day, it was really hard to say our farewells. This is always the hardest part. Tomorrow is probably one of the most grueling legs of our trip, as we travel from Lubbock, TX, through the entire state of New Mexico to Flagstaff, AZ. I should probably get some sleep, eh?

Goodnight!

Thursday April 9: The many wonders of Texas

Oh dear reader, today has been a magnificent day. The reason Pete and I took this trip is three fold. Reason one: Meeting friends. Reason two: Sunning in California. Reason three: Seeing new and interesting things. Today, we successful completed both reason three and one.

Thirty seconds after entering the state everything Bugs Bunny taught me about Texas was turned out to be true. We were greeted by two friendly and very stereotypical tumbleweeds as they darted across the highway, it was great. The second thing we noticed, was the wind had picked up. My little car began to be tossed back and forth across the highway as it tried to join the tumbleweeds in their playful dance. Eventually we reached the visitor center for the state, where we were informed of what the locals call "The Grand Canyon of Texas". The night before, we had traveled more distance than we had planned, so we were ahead of schedule for today. We decided to reward ourselves with a trip through the state park of the canyon. I lack the words to describe how beautiful, inspiring, and stunning it is, so I will just post some of the many, many pictures that we took. Some time soon, we are gonna try to get a website up where we can dump more pictures, we had over one hundred of this canyon, it was breath taking.


Eventually, we returned to the highway and continued moving south towards Aly, Ram, and Lubbock. We met up with Ram and he kindly directed us to the Holiday Inn where we would be staying during our time in the city. A few moments later, Aly showed up with some supper, along with two of their sons and one of their sons friends. After introductions we all sat around the pool having one of the best roasts with potatos and veggies I have ever had. Pete and I are very sorry, oh reader, we do not have a picture of this meal. Perhaps it is for the best, drooling on your keyboard is not good for your computer.

After supper, Aly and Ram took us for a bit of a tour of the city. This included a twilight encounter with Buddy Holley at his current home, followed by a drive down to a bright blinking world that appeared to be a mini Vegas just outside the city limits. After this, we stopped in at a local watering hole where we sampled some local apple juice and talked well into the night about all the contraversal subjects that are considered taboo during first meetings. Opps. We were somewhere around the topic of socialism in government when the establishment closed house and the four of us were forced to return to the hotel room, where we continued to talk about nothing and everything. Eventually Ram started to fall asleep and even my incredibly clever banter and witty jokes was unable to keep his attention for long. They have now wandered off, presumably towards home, and left me to write of todays adventures. Tomorrow looks like it shall be another very full day, I am so looking forward to it. It is time for bed now, in the hopes of being able to keep up with all the fantastic activities Aly and Ram sound like they have in store for us.

Oh, one more thing. Ram has introduced Pete to some new culinary wonders that he has never experienced before. Alas, I couldn't participate, but I think Pete liked it.

Wednesday April 8: Sikeston to Elk City

Today was a day of driving.

We rolled out of bed at 8am, loaded up the car and headed off to Dexter, Missouri to meet up with Nem for breakfast at McDonald's. I've been very impressed with all of the Micky Dee's here in the States. They've all seemed to have had a face lift and are much nicer than their Canadian counterparts. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with relaxing conversation and pleasant company but much too soon it was time to bid our farewells and hit the road again. We were determined to put as much distance in today as we could.

Missouri in Nem's neck of the woods is really flat, with farmland stretching as far as the eye can see. Little towns dot the horizon, but for the most parts it is farms, farms and more farms. We even saw a crop duster, and it was fun to watch it's aerial displays. Our travels took us across the entire southern end of the state, and farmland eventually gave way to rolling hills. I took over driving after lunch, and the road we were travelling, highway 60, was one of the most enjoyable I've ever driven on. All ups and downs and twists and turns. We threw on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and so, passed a very nice afternoon.

All good things must end, however, and for us that ending happened on the Oklahoma state border. All in all, I am not very impressed with Oklahoma; it's not a very tourist friendly state. The first inkling we had of this was when we pulled up to the Tourist Information Center, just on the other side of the state line, and found it locked up tight. We were a little put out by this, as we were hoping to pick up a hotel coupon book which had served us so well in Tennessee. But life doesn't always work out the way one hopes, and we're more than willing to roll with the punches, so we hopped back in the car and zoomed off.

Then, we encountered our first toll of the trip. We had plenty of warning that it was coming, but we're very unfamiliar with the concept and as Illidan would say, we were not prepared. Knowing it was just up ahead, I started to fumble in my wallet only to look up and discover we were in the express transponder lane with no way to get over to the little booths. Yes, folks, we breezed through the toll without paying.

We pulled over to the side of the road and stared at each other for a few minutes in horror, frozen by indecision as to what exactly we could do to rectify our mistake and half expecting police sirens and bull horns. My supervisor, Sean, had warned me before the trip of what they do to people in our current situation. Most unpleasant! We hesitantly got out of the car and made our way back to the little building in the hopes that our plaintive "we're Canadian" excuse might convince them to be lenient with us. Their reactions were actually kind of disappointing. Apparently, they've encountered Canucks before and to them it's just par for course. We paid the toll, were instructed to call a hotline for further instructions (likely to mail in a receipt of our payments to forestall a ticket being sent in the mail), and that's that. Back to driving!

Our recent misadventures set a bad tone for the rest of our day, and driving through Oklahoma City did nothing to lighten the mood. We somehow ended up on the turnpike instead of taking the Interstate through the middle of the town (mostly due to poor, poor navigation on my part... Hitchhiker is a very engrossing story) and had to go through toll station after toll station. It was stressful, and we were very happy to see the other side of the city come and go.

As a side note, we've been very pleased with the quality of the roads we've traveled on so far in this trip. I know from experiences in New York State that upkeep in some states can be a low priority, but Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri all keep an excellent road system. And they somehow manage to do it without sticking a toll booth in every couple miles. Now, in Oklahoma, a state that has all this extra revenue from motorists, I find myself not so impressed with road conditions. One thing I am curious about, however, are the many signs on the side of the Interstate which read "Do Not Drive Through Smoke". I can only imagine what they might mean.

We eventually decided to crash for the night in a little town called Elk City, not too far from the Texas border. We found a hotel called Economy Express, which totally caters to our desire to lodge cheaply. Despite being obviously old, and a little run down, the rooms are spacious and clean, and look very inviting to a pair of weary travelers.

Tomorrow, we can leave this state behind and make our way into Texas. We very excited to meet Aly and Ram in Lubbock. Google Maps clocks the trip from here to there at 5 hours, so we're going to allow ourselves to sleep in a bit before hitting the road.

Goodnight, all! =)

Tuesday April 7: Nem and Chance and more.

Good day everyone. Today began as most of my days at home began; my beauty sleep being intruded upon by some obnoxious music with me flailing about in the general directing of the audible assault in the hopes of making it go away. Consciousness quickly swept away the cobwebs of the early morning brain and the memory of where we were brought me around the rest of the way. We were on holidays.

Nem and Chance wore me out yesterday, what a great day. I know Pete mentioned it on his last post, but if anyone happens by Sikeston MO, be sure to stop in for a bite to eat at Lamburts. Actually, a bite to eat might not be the best way to describe it. I don’t think we need to eat for the rest of the trip.

Of course we kinda do like to eat, and with that in mind, we packed up, bid farewell to Sikeston and took a short drive down the highway to meet up with Nem one last time over breakfast. We had a great chat over a McDonalds Skillet Burrito with our conversation ranging all over the place. Eventually, we arrived on the topic of Will, and I realized that Pete and I were the only people talking; Nem had shut up. I was scared... she wasn’t talking. In fact, for a moment, I feared she might have been choking; her face was turning red slightly. When I asked if she was ok, she only responded by mumbling something under her breath. I caught the word “Galrunner” but that was all, and she refused to speak more clearly. Ahh well, as the conversation moved onto a different subject she found her voice again, and things were back to normal.

Since breakfast, we have been travelling in a roughly westerly direction. The drive itself is very enjoyable. We are off the interstate, and are driving along highway 60. Oh, hey, we have found something in Missouri that we have never seen before. A lot of their highways or roads are not numbered, they are lettered. We have passed highway AA, Y, R, OO, T, PP, and a lot of others. Maybe there is something special about these lettered highways, but it is funny never the less. This drive has been lovely. There has been a lot of road construction going on, so we are constantly jumping from one side of the highway to the other. Even with all the construction, we have been moving very quickly down to the road due to the lack of traffic, and have been really enjoying this leg of the trip. The roads themselves are fun to drive on, lots of turn, blind hills, and the construction just makes it more interesting. The dirt is redder than any dirt I have ever seen. As they scrap away at the earth in preparation for adding new lanes to the highway, I am filled with the thought, I wonder if that is what the surface of Mars looks like.

This day is looking like it is going to be a long drive. I have a couple of books in my bag waiting to be cracked open, but I feel as though I missed an opportunity to pick up some great American literature that I may not be able to get again. Actually, I was a little bit disappointed in the selection. I was looking for an alliance edition, but we could only find the horde copies. I guess there is always Amazon.

My family will be happy to know that in the last few days my photography skills have grown immensely, or at least, I think so. Part of this development is my new found ability to take a picture of myself and another person without needing a third person to hold the camera. Here is example of a picture I took that illustrates my budding skill in the art of taking pictures. After taking this picture and recognizing the brilliance of it, I decided that this was such a good picture that it should be worth money, and was therefore a “money shot”. My declaration brought our entire procession to a halt as everyone tried to convince me that this was not in fact a “money shot”. Knowing that I am still new to the world of art, I asked what was wrong, but nobody could really find any fault with the picture. Decided that everyone was simply jealous of my skills, I changed the subject, and the issue was forgotten.

Tuesday April 7: Nem and Chance

We did it! We actually got up when we planned to get up, and after loading up the car and enjoying another continental breakfast we saddled up and hit the road. It was kind of a bittersweet farewell as we had such a great time enjoying Cali's delightful company. But I expect we'll have many such partings as our trip continues.

Once on the interstate, we pointed ourselves in the direction of western Kentucky. It continues to amaze us at the variations in landscape from state to state. Kentucky is quite breathtaking, with all of it's rolling hills and lush vegetation. The road is often cut into a hill, so we're passing between sheer rock cliffs with the greenery appearing to be cascading off the sides. Such a lovely trip.

From Kentucky, we crossed the Mississippi River and into Missouri. I tried to get some good photos of the legendary river, but it's really hard to do from a moving car. You'll have to settle for this shot of the bridge leading into Missouri. It was instantly apparent that we had moved into a new state, as Missouri (or at least the part that we could see) is continuously flat farmland. Such a difference from Kentucky!

Amusingly enough, right on the other side of the state line lie two little towns within a mile of each other--Wilson City and Wyatt. It was fun speculating on some long distant feud that caused the towns to grow up so close to each other yet remaining separate.

We were scheduled to meet Nem and Chance at a famous restaurant in Sikeston called Lambert's (home of the "Throwed Roll"... copied verbatim from their slogan). We kinda got lost, however, and had to stop and ask for directions. ir bad navigator =( . But we eventually made it, and we weren't even late. Nem and Chance had only recently arrived themselves and were outside waiting for us. There was a bit of a line to get in, but we were informed that not only is it usual, it's actually a fairly short line for what they were accustom to. Lambert's is definitely unique in my experience, probably in most peoples experience. Once seated, a girl came around offering deep fried okra (some vegetable) which she then unceremoniously dumped onto a paper towel on the table. It was tasty. Then the famous rolls arrived, which were thrown to us from across the dining room by a very skilled and accurate roll thrower. Very nice hot rolls, if given in an unconventional method. Chris and I ordered a burger and fries, Chance had the liver and onions and Nem ordered a salad. When the food came, I was very glad I didn't follow Nem's example. The salad was ENORMOUS (shown here) and served in a bread bowl. I could barely finish my burger, especially because people kept showing up offering random sides, like fried potatoes, macaroni, or black eyed beans. Not to mention more okras and "throwed rolls". As Chris said, "I eat and eat but the amount of food on my plate keeps growing!" Such a cool experience.

From there, we all piled into Nem's new car and headed downtown in search of a Missouri state flag for Chris. Alas, there was none to be had, though we did get the opportunity to meet Nem and Chance's mom. Finding a state flag is a lot more difficult than you'd imagine. Chris has a hobby of picking up flags of all the places where he stays, and so far we've been lucky. When we first entered Missouri, we saw a sign advertising the Flag Stop. Surely a Flag Stop would have flags for sale, right? Not so! It's just your run of the mill gas station. /humph

After seeing the downtown of Sikeston, we all headed up to a state park to chill out. The park had a Nature Center with a lot of cool exhibits, though oddly enough they didn't allow us to bring in our concealed firearms. Because of my new cowboy hat, everyone agreed that I had to ride the bull (frog). =) They also had a nice trail to follow. It was a nice (if steep) stroll through the woods.

Then, we all headed over to a picnic area and listened to Chance and then myself play a little guitar. They had also brought along a pair of foam Nerf swords, which were quickly put to use as we all dueled each other. I think Chris endured the brunt of it all. /evil grin (as an aside, trying to fit all of the great pictures we're taking into a post is proving to be impossible. As soon as I have a few hours at a hotel room, I'll make the Facebook Album I promised you all so you can see what you've been missing).

Next, it was time to do some shopping! First, the siblings took us to a local mall. We had a chance to see some of the shops, and we hit up an arcade where Chris and I had a Dance, Dance Revolution duel. He won, which should come to no surprise to anyone who knows me. Two left feet, this cowboy has. We also hit up a local Walmart so I could buy some sandals in preparation for our upcoming days in some sunnier, sandier states, and we were taken to a dollar store. But this wasn't like any dollar store I've ever seen before. First of all, everything really was only one dollar. And the amount of stuff they had; it was incredible! Not only did they have your run of the mill dollar store items, but they had a grocery section (well stocked) and pretty much anything else you can think of. If I had one of these near where I live I don't think I'd shop anywhere else.

We finished the day off at a McDonalds, enjoying some coffees and great conversation. At one point we somehow got on the topic of what would happen if the local police were looking for us. "Just look for the nice man in the cowboy hat," said Chance. "Subject is unarmed and very polite. Approach without caution!"

Eventually, however, it was time to bid our adieus. It was great to finally meet Chance and get to know him a little better. Best of luck with the rest of your schooling, man! And as for Nemmy, we're meeting her for breakfast tomorrow before heading on towards Oklahoma. As a parting gift, Nem surprised us with a pre-paid cell phone, "just in case" she said. The generosity and hospitality of our American friends is a little overwhelming sometimes.

We've ended up at a dingy little Super 8 for the night, though not as dingy as I was expecting. Chris crashed right off the bat, and is currently snoring happily away while I write up this post. He has reason to be happy, however--I gave him an award. =)