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

the buff

hey guys

i know it seems early in the morning, 630 by your time, and 530 by ours, but this is so holyshit that it requires immediate blagging on my part.

so im sound asleep in my bottom bunk, opposite the wall from the nice and comfy arm chair, which i now vacate is i blag this. but anyway, im asleep in my cot, when i hear ricky calling my name in a bordering frantic voice. i was ripped from my dream state, staring up at the metal grid of the top bunk, which i soon realized was occupied by diana, which makes sense because thats where she was when i fell asleep.

again ricky called my name, so i vocalized, giving him my status and, more importantly, as i would soon find out, my location. which, for the record, is firmly in my cot. there seemed to be some confusion about where diana was. he kept calling diana in an escalating tone of alarm, until diana finally responded, above me, also giving ricky her status, and location...

ricky lays back down in bed somewhat satisfied, and then sits up again and says, 'wait, jake, you're in bed, right?'

so i says, 'yeah. why?'

'so who's that?'

i turn.

'o shit.'

its dark in the 530 light, so i cant completely make it out. but eventually, i can see a human figure, furled on the chair against the wall opposite me. ricky stands and looks into mbs bunk.

'is mb there?' says i.

ricky ignores me, and like a fucking man walks over and flips the light on.

from my cot, the room snaps into focus. the yellow walls stretch up to a turquoise ceiling. bags and clothes and flipflops are strewn about the floor. the naked man is sitting in the armchair, legs over one side, and head cocked into the contemplative pose. ricky, who is now standing next to this man, and pulling a shirt on, utters the following words.

dude.

youre in my room.

the man seems nonplussed, and says something which i presume to be a parrot of what ricky has said, but merely seems like the incoherent ramblings of a mind in distress.

fuck this.

and ricky leaves the room, shirt now on.

diana awakes, but clearly still thinks that the naked man is me, and is therefore not looking.

'jake. could you turn the light off?'

'no. hell no. nononononono... not with a naked guy in our room.'

'what?'

'i said "not with a naked man in our room"'

diana understands, finally.

the man is still contemplative until he realizes that the hairy one probably left to get help, and the longhaired one is prepping an iphone for picturing purposes, or perhaps the idea gripped him, or maybe the voice told him to go, but for whatever reason, he got up and left in a hurry, but not before your humble author snapped this picture.

at this point, mb awakes, confused, and ricky returns, with deskguy.

first, we celebrated his daring and his cunning, and congratulate him on being vigilant. then, we berate him on failing to secure the door properly before returning from his midnight romp.

well, its now 6 oclock, so i will say, goodnight.

jake

The much awaited visual effects

So, I know you have all been waiting for pictures desperately. I don't actually have them all at the moment because I emptied my card as it reached 1000 pictures. That wave is saved on Jake's laptop that I am not writing on.

I do have pictures ever since the Botanical Gardens, which were the last thing we saw in DC. But these are the really important/interesting pictures that describe what we have been doing the best.

Hope you enjoy.

... Engage.

(7/3) -- Scenery on the 8 hour drive.

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Fourth of July:

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(7/5) Coca-Cola, Chow Baby, the Dozier's dogs, and the Park

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(7/6) On the way from Atlanta to DeSoto

blag

hey all

it's been a while since ive blagged. a little over one thousand miles, actually. today we had hella good food. ricky took us to clancy's. for a while there was a slight panic on getting there, because the roads were ridiculous. for example, poydras street is the most schizophrenic street in the world. and eventually, we realized we were being tailed by the cicadas from deSoto caverns, which are the size of your fucking head, and wax a flippin' klaxon all night.

ok

if you are ever planning a road trip, do not, for fuck's sake, stay at deSoto caverns. despite the many signs calling the place 'awesome' it shit sucks. we were spitting distance away from a stagnant water pond that spawned all the armies of hell out of it. it was hot, the lights never turned off, and the bugs could cary a man bodily to his death in nearby trees. i myself saw a young albanian boy get swallowed whole by a bullfrog, which call all night to their mates, which do nothing but call back, frustrating everyone, and allowing no one to sleep. the only redeeming feature of the place is that we happened to watch julie and julia in it. that's about it.

new orleans is hot, humid, and the roads are insane. but are awesome room makes up for all that.

i thoroughly enjoy this city. i will certainly come back here someday.

we had a wunderbar time at the dozier's, and atlanta in general. i liked their dogs the most.

that's all for now from me i guess. stay cool guys.

jake

Something TIme Consuming and Meaningful

Wonderful People!!! I am in New Orleans and am, in the truest sense, extremely happy. I have not blogged as of late but now I feel impelled to because I love this city, especially its food, which I have just had the pleasure of experiencing. We went to Clancy's, a mini Galetoire's with amazing food and a wonderful local atmosphere. Everyone loved it, the experience was religious in nature. I had a veal chop with gnocci and roasted tomatoes in a herb demi-glace, Jake had veal liver, Diana the risotto with lobster, and MayaBea had yellow-tail tuna. For desert we ordered a bunch of dishes and shared them, it was heavenly. Tomorrow we go to Cafe Monet for breakfast. Another thing I noticed about New Orleans which I remember as having always loved is the humidity, it is a very peculiar kind of humid weather that is not oppressive but rather comforting, as well as the smell of the air and the architecture of the houses. Till next I blog,

Ricky

Where are the pictures?!

Sorry sorry sorry. I keep putting off putting up pictures, but to do so (you don't realize) requires so many stars to be perfectly aligned. We have to have enough Wifi to upload pictures to the interwebs, I have to have my camera card, and my SD-Flashdrive device, and the boys have to let me use their computer.

Right now we're all getting ready for dinner, and the camera is sadly in the car. Meaning the SD card is in the car as well. But after dinner, when I get my camera out of the car, I will upload the pictures. As you may have guessed, now that we are in the hostel in New Orleans, we have wifi all the time. So pictures are definitely going to be up later tonight.

Sorry for the wait, I'm working as fast as I can, and pictures should be up soon.

Have a nice day and a pleasant... later.

Day 6: In which the men become girls…

Today was the most chill of all chill days. We woke up at our leisure (I myself was awake and productive an hour before everyone else… see Dad, I do make use of my time not sleeping!) and spent the morning running various errands. We did some laundry, bought some clothes and flowers, watched some Pokémon, and generally relaxed. Diana and I took the opportunity of the free time and safe street parking to unpack and completely reload the car. Odysseus is once again clean inside! (or at least, he was until we set up camp this evening…) By 3:30, we’d said our goodbyes and thank you’s, photographed Phil’s bonsai trees, and were on the road once again.

En Route, we passed a Piggley Wiggley (which made me disproportionately excited), OMG DONUTS!, some crazy Alabama drivers (who go 25 in 35 mph zones, but then hit 85 on the highway), and lots and lots of depressing trees. I don’t know why they were depressing, but Jake says they were depressing, and sure he is an honorable man.

We arrived at DeSoto Caverns Campground, after following the signs way back from “DeSoto Caverns Ahead… 10 Mi- AWESOME!” until we reached the actual site. It is not awesome. I feel lied to.

There are lots of “attractions” here, including a petting zoo and climbing towers to create the most awesome water balloon battle ever, but we are probably not going to be partaking in any of them, because we would rather sleep in the morning and then we have 6 hours of driving. The only other things here are bugs and frogs. And boy, are there bugs and frogs.

Our site is right next to a stagnant pond of water that looks gross and is just an all-around bad idea. It led to lots and lots of flies hovering around our food at dinner, and a giant gazukus (sp??) bug getting inside the car as we were unpacking things. At this point, the men decided to remove the thing from Odysseus’ rear end. They poked and prodded at it with a stick, and with Jake’s iPhone (I have no idea why…) and as it moved jumped back. There may have been some girly shrieking involved as well. The greatest part of it all, though, was almost immediately afterwards, when they were looking at frogs in the so-called pond. After Jake and Richard had been watching one for a while, a 10 year old boy walked up and just went for the frog with his bare hands. He wins.

Dinner today included kosher hot dogs and kosher chicken soup. I was happy.

(The twice-baked potatos that Mary Ann gave us did not last all the way to dinner… we ate them within the first hour on the road!)

Safely in our bug-less tent, we watched Julie & Julia on Ricky’s computer. Now Diana and I are keeping him awake by writing this, so I suppose I’ll end here. I don’t really have any more to say anyhow.

(7/5) In which we drink too much

It was a glorious day! “Why?” do you ask? Well, I gladly inform you that we slept late. And as late as we pleased. In real beds, I would like to add. That is all it takes to make a glorious day.

We drove to Atlanta on the 5^th. Figured we would spend our time seeing the sights and whatnot! So our first stop, was….

Drumroll please….

A Parking lot! Well you don’t suppose we walked all the way there did you?

I was having trouble with my ankle, because I had twisted it at Rose Creek, and then slipped down the stairs at the Doziers, only making my ankle worse. So I wrapped it and off we went on our way to the Wonderful World of Disn… I mean Coca-Cola.

On our way (taking our time, I might add) we stopped at the Olympic Centennial Park. Mayabea wanted to frolic and play in the sprinklers, (as she did at age four) but Jake, Ricky and I maliciously held her back! Her tears did not sway our iron hearts.

We stood in line. A very long line, and got cokes in the nice, classic, glass bottles, but you’re not allowed to bring Glass into the Coca-Cola works. Oh well. They were left in the cold, red-tinted chamber of the recycling bin.

I would like to say that I thought the entire factory was really cheesy. Mayabea on the other hand, enjoyed it, because she is fond (overly fond) of cheesy things. Most of our readers already know that.

(Boy this is going to be a long post. Just what all our parents are craving right now… Other than cheese. Cheese and Coke.)

The part that I think all of us enjoyed, was the FLAVOR TASTING! Now, kiddies, Coca-Cola produces much more than Classic Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet (Zero) Cherry Coke, caffeine free Diet Coke, Vanilla Coke, (No Diet Vanilla Coke), Diet Coke with Lime, and Coca-Cola ZERo. Oh no. If you thought that was all, you are terribly mistaken.

We drank all 64 flavors of soda produced by Coca-Cola. And just so you know our pain, we drank the following:

Bibo Pine Apple, Sunfill Strawberry, Bibo Kiwi Mango, Spar-berry, Sunfill Mint, Krest Ginger Ale, Stoney Tangawizi, Fanta Exotic, Nestea Peche Blanche, Fanta Pineapple, Nestea Lemon, Kinley Bitter Lemon, Sweetened Raspberry Iced Tea Nestea (Mayabea’s favorite), Fanta Magic, Mezzo Mix, Beverly, Powerade Fruit Punch, Minute Maid Lemonade, Fanta Strawberry, Pibb Xtra, Fresca Sparking Citrus, Vault, Fanta Orange, Sprite, HiC Apple, Vegitabetta, Crush Lemon, Fanta Apple Kiwi, Nestea Ice Rush, Smart Watermellon, Thirst Quencher! Ice, Smart Apple, Nestea Mango, Delaware Punch (ppftt, Delaware), Ciel Aquarius, Simba Guarana, Nestea Light Peach, Fanta Kolita, Manzana Lift Roja, Inca Kola, and all of the mentioned (*cough* NORMAL *cough*) flavors above.

As you can imagine, by the time we got to plain old Classic Coca-Cola, we felt as if we had never tasted anything better.

And as you can imagine, we plan on drinking water for the rest of the trip.

From the Coca-Cola factory, we went to Dinner. We had found this cute place in Atlanta that reminded us of the old restaurant that used to be in town: J.P. Lees. It was called “Chow Baby.” And if you forgive my language, Hot Damn it was good.

After that, we figured we would try and find Little 5 Points, an area of Atlanta that we had been informed of and really wanted to see. By then, it was almost 10, and the surrounding town didn’t seem like the best place to be. So after about 10 minutes of wandering in a tight-knit group, Mayabea clinging to Richard’s arm the entire way, we headed back to the car to go home.

We were greeted by MaryAnn, trying to make sure we had had enough to eat. And my god, we had. This, however, did not stop most of us from eating Ice Cream (It did stop Jake). Then we watched part of a Horror movie, some House, and went off to slip into a glorious food coma in bed.

(7/4) If it looks like a bench, and it quacks like a bench...

(its a bench)

Hey Y'all! (See, now that we're legit in the south, I've decided that we should start speaking like it) Anyways, the Fourth of July was fun! How fun, you ask?

Well, we all got up and went rafting. And by "we all" I mean everyone but me (Diana). I was sleepy and exhausted, so I slept in the car, while Mayabea, Richard and Jake all headed off to Raft. Mayabea fell out of the boat, but I don't know too many details.

Then we headed off to Georgia. All fun stuff. Lots of windey roads, and stops to buy "Boiled Peanuts" though we didn't stop. We got to the Doziers, and met everyone. Luckily for us, they were already planning a big fourth of july party, so we didn't stick out and were hopefully not much of a burden. Amanda and her friends came over, and we all headed out to the local country club for fireworks.

Now, for people in New Jersey, Fireworks and Sparklers aren't illegal in Georgia!! Which is very very exciting! Oh, another exciting thing about Georgia (at least for me) is the fact that there are KROGERS HERE!! (Childhood memory of mine, of a Grocery store). Now, back to the fireworks. First we got to play with sparklers which was really fun, and then we played tag and took pictures to pass the time. And then the fireworks started. The fireworks were really cool and really up close, and really amazing. I pity all of you that are in Jersey. Jeerrrsseeeeyyy.

Anyways, fireworks were cool, and then we went off to Steak and Shake (thanks Amanda for taking us). It was super cool. I enjoy 24/7 restaurants. Then we went back to the Doziers to sleep. Glorious sleep.. More in the next post.

Day 3: In which the boys continue to be Men, and MayaBea relinquishes the wheel

First of all, I'll apologize for the lack of updates. Our campsite in North Carolina had no wi-fi (no big surprise there, though, that place was pretty legit camping) and we've had trouble connecting at the Dozier's house here in Atlanta.

Not very much of interest happened on Day 3- it was just the trek from Richmond, VA to Franklin, NC. After stressful drives both previous days, I relinquished control and gave Jake the wheel. Diana sat shotgun, and I finally got to sleep.

We stopped for lunch at a diner and, though it wasn't quite an NJ diner, it was pretty classic. We decided that Jake's Mr. Pibb was Dr. Pepper's less pretentious, title-less friend, and so we like him better. We made friends with our waiter, saw some girls with interesting curlers in their hair (at least, I think that's what they were!), and taught Ricky the phrase "whinging adolescent," before piling back into the car for another four hours of road time.

Prior to arriving at Rose Creek Campground, we had our first major debate of the road trip. I pose the question to you: In a world where "everything was exactly as it seemed," could there be "a man with something to prove, slightly bored and severely confused," as the lyrics to Sleeping In (by Postal Service) suggest? This debate lasted us all an hour and a half, and led to both Jake (the driver) and Diana (the navigator) missing our exit by 4 miles. Claudia helped us get back on track, though, and we arrived at the campsite with no problems.

For dinner, we had a vaguely mexican themed hodge-podge of foods. We sautee peppers and onions, made black beans and rice, and ate the whole thing all in tortillas with salsa. After that we headed to bed. As I said... not so interesting a day. Pretty fun, though!

Car Games

We declared the license plate game null today, because it was stressing me while I was driving and Claudia was contradicting our printed directions. The results of yellow car and slug buggy are in the shotgun binder, but Ricky's already asleep (or nearly so) and so he will post those results tomorrow.