the ever illusive

greetings

this is a musical blog, so you need to start playing this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUVr26-1OS8

when you read it. quiet.

start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . now.

i blag to you in the motel howard johnson inn motel sitting next to an over chilling air conditioning unit, watching a show on the food network where a bunch of tools cook for an episode of 30 rock, and i music over my brand new ear goggles, catching none of whats said, and little of what is shown.

over our double beds, their are pictures.

in one, geese land in a cool white pond, surrounded by dark and gray-ember fields. pale green trees obscure the horizon, under jutting dark and subdued lavender cloud.

the other one has mallards departing from what seems like the same lake. this is sunnier, yellow rather then lavender, their number is much greater, the flock extends down into the background of the print, and the water is a deep blue juxtaposed to the whites and grays of the former painting.

the clouds in this one are far more conventional; the plumes of white fluff given depth with a scale from white to slightly-less-white-white.

charles e murphy, the man who painted them, is depicting a dark arrival, and a high right departure, exactly the opposite of how most of our arrivals and departures have seemed these past several weeks. i think he failed to catch the essence of our trip, and indeed, most other avian migrations. charlie murphy just doesn't understand us.

i havent much experience in this matter, but nothing quite feels like heading south. its like having your heart lighten. and nothing, not something, quite feels like leaving new jersey. coming back down is one of the worst things ive ever had to do, so maybe charlie is getting this trip on a larger scope.

im not sure how his interpretation of migration applies to my collegiate journey yet.

i wonder if charlie murphy ever thinks about these paintings. i wonder if he's ashamed of them, or if he even remembers them. they aren't on his website. or on the web at all form what i can tell. something he agreed to do in order get some money. i wonder why motels put paintings like these in anyway. one could conduct a fascinating study where they ask people to rate their stay at two identical rooms, one with paintings by charlie murphy, and ones without.

i wonder what little things like that would make a difference to peoples stay. is it worth it to purchase a charlie murphy original for each room? does it actually make for better reviews? what other things do people not notice about motel rooms that are significant in how they experience it, but does not actually effect the functionality of the room? i wonder which colors are most conducive to good reviews. which carpet patterns? how many mirrors? head boards? what kind of wood? how many drawers?

whatever. motels are lame.

all times i think about college. not much more i can say on the matter that you couldn't figure out by yourself.

anyway, live long and prosper i guess

jake

Hey all! Today started off pretty bleakly, we had to get up early, which is something few young people like to do. After getting all packed we headed off to Wilmington, NC, which as luck would have it, was 2 more hours away than we thought (4 hours in total). Besides that it started raining heavily, which made driving difficult :(. Wilmington made up for it though because this place is...adorable, that's a good word for it. We spent time in the Old Market by the harbor and it was full of really cute little shops and restaurants. For dinner we went to a place called Caprice Bistro, which served French cuisine which we all agreed was delicious. We split appetizers and got a pate, fried calamari, a crepe with spinach and a cheese sauce, and a tomato tarte tatin (which didn't really resemble a tarte tatin but it was yummy so I'll forgive them :P). For dinner Jake had Coq au Vin, Diana had Chicken Courdon-Bleu, Maya Bea had a Salad Nicoise (one of my favorite dishes), and I had a Duck Confit. All the food was shared so everyone got to enjoy a little of everything. We looked at dessert (they had tarte tatin :D) but had to decline because there was an ice cream/chocolate store we had passed which exuded the most amazing smell of chocolate and roast nuts, so naturally we had to go there. We looked at the shops bit and then made our way to the ice cream place. I do not know what anyone else had but I had chocolate. Other than the food and the adorable shops, another highlight was when we were accosted by a street side evangelical who was actually very nice.

Another thing I just remembered was our visit to Five Points, this gritty little area with a lot of edgy boutiques. We went to a shirt store called Bang On were you chose a design and they put it on the shirt, but all the shirts they had were too big for me (which was bittersweet since it made me feel skinny, but I couldn't get a shirt my size). Instead I wandered a CD/record/comic book shop called Criminal Records. I couldn't find anything classical but as i was bout to lose hope I found in a used record bin the album Chelsea Girl by Nico which I love. I also found The Dark Side of the Moon and a Solomon Burke CD (I have his version of Diamond in Your Mind and want to hear more of his). I did not get the Solomon Burke but I got the other two, which made me happy.

Oh and I just learned to make paper stars. Till next I blog,

Ricky

In which the fevernauts split by interests

Let me first say that last night we camped out in a tent in the rain. It was wet. Water seeped in through the bottom of the tent, nobody slept much, and this morning we jettisoned the tarp before we took off rather than attempt to demuddify it. So we started the three hour drive to Charleston in pretty foul moods, and the decision of what to do in the Capitol of the South was not an easy one. Then we came up with a brilliant idea: split up! Ricky and I dropped off Jake and Diana at the Aquarium, and intended to go see a plantation. However, the impending inclement weather and long distance between the plantations and where we'd left the other two led us to consider another option: Fort Sumter

(I'm no Diana, but I still managed to snap a few pictures on my phone's camera)

Ricky and I spent an hour wandering about the museum exhibits on the ferry terminal, all about Charleston's importance in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. There was a small part of the actual flag that flew over the Fort, and also a life-sized replica (26 by 30 feet, I think!). We saw a Confederate uniform, some cotton, a bugle (bugel?), and an awesome candelabra made from old bayonets. Then we got on the ferry, saw some dolphins, and docked at Fort Sumter.

The fort proudly flew 5 flags: The current American Flag, the flag of South Carolina, the 35-state Union flag, the stars-and-bars Confederate Flag, and the later Confederate Flag.

My favorite thing that I saw in the museum section was this hat. It was regulation, which meant that a lot of soldiers would be wearing it. That idea makes me happy.

A park ranger gave a half hour speech about the history of the island and fort, and like the complete nerd I am, I loved it. My favorite story is as follows:

On April 12, 1861, the Confederate Army began a bombardment of the walls of the fort which lasted for 34 hours. At the end, on April 14th, Major Robert Anderson surrendered, took his flag, accidentally killed a man during the 100-gun-salute, and left the fort. Four years later, the war was won and there was to be a ceremony on April 14th to reraise the same flag that had once been lowered in defeat. Major Anderson was invited out of retirement to attend and raise the flag. President Lincoln was invited as well. His secret service/bodyguards/whoever would not let him go. They felt it would be too dangerous for the President to travel to the South to raise a Union flag at a defeated Confederate fort near a town where everyone hated him.

"Besides, Mr. President," they told him. "You already have theatre tickets for that night."

Don't get eaten alive by sharks!

Keep both feet on deck and keep your fingers away from the line, folks, this post's a biggie!

Yesterday began with a nice early(ish) start because we needed to check out of the hostel by 11. We packed up all our bags, stripped the double bunk beds, and loaded up the car. We then drove once more into the French Quarter for our long-awaited beignets (!!!) and cafe au lait. Diana and I took a long wander through the french market, while the boys lingered behind, stopped somewhere several stalls in, and I don't actually know what they did. Hope yall had fun, though!

As our departure came closer and closer, the rain poured down harder and harder. Like big wusses, the boys sent Diana and myself to get the car and pick them up. We took a moment after reaching the car to pull towels from the back, but we were still soaking wet as we drove along.

Seeing that we had about 80 miles till empty, we decided to stop for gas shortly outside of New Orleans. We pulled up to a Shell station, but the pump didn't like any of us and wouldn't acknowlege our card and was just overall being stubborn and stupid. So we said "f-- you, Shell!" and figured we'd fill up at the next stop.

Little did we realize that we would hit major traffic, stopped up by not one, not two, but THREE major accidents over about 10 miles. There were two different points where we actually put the car in park and turned off the engine for several minutes. After 20 miles and an eight of a tank of gas, we's passed into Mississippi and saw an exit, which we took in attempts to find gas. We set Claudia to take us to the nearest gas station, 7 miles away, and we were off.

We got off the highway, followed her directions, and immediately found ourselves on the exact same highway in the opposite direction.

Surprise! Welcome BACK to Louisiana!

Despite all this frustration, we managed to fill up the tank with gas and start back off again. However, by the time we'd passed the traffic a second time, it was nearly 5:30. Our overnight plans had been to stay at the Conecuh National Forest, where they didn't accept reservations and gave us very little information online. We decided that it would be foolish to still try to camp there, when we would probably not arrive until nearly 9 at night. Thus began the great debate of "What do we do?"

After debating lots of options, we finally settle for plugging in the next night's campsite into Claudia and setting off, probably driving through the night, and sleeping the entire next day. Of course, all along we agreed that if both Jake and I were too tired to drive, we'd pull into the next motel and stay there.

We made a stop in Mobile, Alabama for dinner. We wanted to go to a restaurant called "Hurricane Brewing" because we'd read about it in our Road Trip book. When we got there, however, we discovered that they had long ago run out of business... it was all boarded/papered up. Much like the majority of the town. Luckily, we found a sports bar (which had really really good food, to my great relief!) and were still able to dine.

We switched drivers and got set for the first of what was expected to be many, many two hour driving stretches. Jake and Ricky up front (Richard's job was simply to keep saying odd things to keep Jake awake and focused), and Diana and I in back (my job was to try as hard as I could to sleep, so that I would be ready to drive next). With Illinois playing softly through the car, the night rushed past and the hours ticked on.

At 10:30, we decided to pull off the highway to a gas station, to fill up and reevaluate our night plan. It was a rather interesting looking place, but this sign made me feel quite safe:

About an hour after we left the gas station, we pulled into the Comfort Suites Inn, got a room for the night, watched some James Bond, and fell asleep.

This morning, we got up at 8 so we could go down and grab some FREE BREAKFAST, which made everyone very happy. Then we went back upstairs to watch parts of a horror movie and a SyFy show (both very strange), and to get some more zzzzz's. Then we checked out promptly at 11, got in the car, and drove onwards.

Looking at all the signs for Atlanta, we made the impromtu decision to return to the city, specifically to Little 5 Points to go to the T-shirt store that was closed last time we went. This made Jake very happy, as he'd been disappointed by our missing it last time. He and Diana got shirts, Ricky got some music from the record store next door, and we all ordered take-out Mexican food before once again filling up the car and driving off into the sunset. And by "sunset," I mean torrential downpour. It was almost frightening driving through it, but by staying well under 65 (and still over "minimum speed: 40") we made it safely past. Now we are at the campsite, tent pitched, cintronella candle ineffectively burning away, and waiting to head out to town (half an hour away) to catch a 9pm movie. Hopefully campfire tonight when we return!

Thank you to anyone who's actually read all the way through this post. Remember, I love you!

~MB

Back to the middle of nowhere

Pro: free wi-fi, free breakfast.

Con: I'm really not sure where we are right now. Somewhere between Mobile and Montgomery Alabama.

I admit, we were very close to driving through the night to arrive at tomorrow night's campground at 4:30 am and just hope we had a place to crash after our long drive. Instead, we are staying in the Comfort Suites Inn right off the highway. More about our adventure getting here tomorrow (probably).

All my hopes and dreams...

Yesterday we went to Preservation hall.

(This is going to be a short blog post)

We went to preservation hall and I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!
At first, we couldn't get legit seats, but by the 2nd set, I could sit down. The rest of the fevernauts graciously waited for me as I was dazled and amazed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Masters.

The trumpet player was good, and I enjoyed the music a lot because I liked his style. I don't really admire trumpets that are flashy and play lots of high notes, and this guy was very calm and low and chill. Which is a lot like how I play.

MB got me a shirt! Yay!

But all together the entire experiance made me really happy. They played songs like What a Wonderful World and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, both songs that I really enjoyed. Though they didn't know how to play My Funny Valentine, so I couldn't request it.

Anyways, so far, to most of you this has been a long blurb about nothing so I shall move on.

After that, the Fevernauts were all hungry so we headed off to The Gumbo Shop. MB and I split some gumbo that was really good. I'm totally loving the food down here.

And then we went off to go home. Our last night in New Orleans was over and done. Now we move on back up the coast.

Till later.
- d.

In which I wait for clothes to spin...

Things here aren't as clear cut and schedualed as things have been so far.

But so far I'm loving this city.

Thursday, we did a lot of wandering around. We went to Hippie Gypsie and looked at the dresses. Jake got a Hackie Sack that he really really likes. Minimalist.
We had lunch at Pierre Maspero's. I really enjoyed that. (But Ricky already wrote about our food schedual)
We saw the Church of St. Louis. It was pretty. We stayed there and marvled at the architecture for a bit.
MB got her fortion told.
We went to get hats, though I was the only one that ended up buying anything.
We got super hot spicey hot sauce, and went to a toy shop.
And other than that, we did a lot of just soaking up the French quarter's vibe.
We decided to save money, and had Kraft Mac'n'Cheese for dinner. A total of 3.79 for the four of us.

Friday was equily as chill. We woke up late, and headed uptown. There we saw Ricky's grandmother's old house, and the park. Then we headed back to the hostel for a bit, then out again to the French Quarter for dinner. We went to Chartre's Cafe. The Girls really enjoyed it, but the boys didn't as much. Then, exhausted, we all went to sleep.
So not a terribly busy day in the long run.

Saturday (today) we're flowing along.
We woke up and headed over to Galatoire's. Very expensive stuff. We all had to be dressy to go there. But the food was very good. It was rainig when we left, which really worried me. This is because on Thursday, I had seen an art vendor that I realllllyyy wanted to buy from, but he was packing up before I could do so. He said he would be back on Saturday, and I wondered if the rain would scare him off.
We headed back over to Jackson Square where we had seen him. And Lucky for me, he was still there! Very happily, I spent some extra money to buy two of his pieces.
Then we headed home.
I guess I'm in charge of Laundry. So that's what I've been doing while everyone else is up to their usual. Jake is listening to music and playing gameboy. Ricky is on his computer. MB is reading a book.
So daddy, you can't say that I never do laundry. Cause here I am, doing laundry and telling you all about it.
Laundry room is very hot and stuffy. :(

Well, the load is almost done. I should get back too it.

More blog to come.

Attack of the Pictures 2

My god, I love Plants. I really really really love plants. So I had a fucking field day when we went to the National Botanical Gardens in Washington D.C. I took more than 600 pictures there alone. Here are some of the better ones.

You can probably tell that the entire thing really excited me. These are the best of the best pictures. I tried to be selective. There are many many more though. Probably will be uploaded to facebook.

Picture Attack Part 1

First attack of the Pictures. Hehe. These pictures are from when we were in D.C. There's a part two, so keep up! These are from when we went to the Library of Congress and the Shakespeare Library.

Engage.

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Justice!! (Jake is really small in the background)


Very Pretty Ceiling. And Jake. Yay.

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MB walking into the Shakespeare Library! She's happy bout that.


Lord what fools these mortals be!!


Romeo, Juliet, and the Maid!


Bottom, Titania, and Rock.


MB and Puck!


MB loves all the Shakespeare that was about!


And MB LOVES Shakespeare!


We played in the trees in front of the Shakespeare Library. Jake hugs Diana and Ricky proposes to heroic-looking Jake.

Red Beans and Rice

I plan on making these blogs for the next few days about the food in New Orleans because one of the things I love about this city is it's food. Today for lunch we went to a place called Pierre Maspero's. We had wanted to go to a different place, Napoleon's House, but it was closed for vacation. I had red beans and rice, which is just what it sounds like and served with andouille sausage. It was kind of amazing. The sausage was a little crunchy on the outside and went really well with the beans and rice. After that we wandered the French Quarter and bought various things that caught our eye, I got a bottle of Dave's Ultimate Insanity, which is apparently this hot sauce that can burn holes through styrofoam cups and a bag of beignet mix, which should make Eugenie and Elisabeth happy. I also bought a scarf to spite the vendor who told me to stop playing with it, which sort of backfired when I realized I had just ended up spitefully giving her 19.00 for something I never planned on wearing, but I guess I can save it for a Pride festival or give it to one of my sisters. The adventure ended with a walk down Bourbon Street, which was just starting to wake up for the night time festivities. We looked into Galetoires, which is this famous restaurant on Bourbon Street, smack dab in the middle of the bars and sex shops. Tonight we are making dinner and plan on having salads. Till next I blog,

Ricky