gimli guts - wes middleton & brandi chalker

We are Wes and Brandi, the newlywed couple taking off across the United States (and hopefully a bit of Canada) in our vegetable-oil-converted school bus named Gimli (son-of-Gloin). We hope to see all 48 states on the mainland, and share our experiences on this site. The website for our route map is: http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_3dE.html so you can see how far we've gone!

Here are some websites we love and think you should visit:

* www.couchsurfing.com a great website for travelers- our name is Weeze if you want to search for us
* www.vegrev.com This is the site for the mechanics who did the vegetable oil conversion on our bus
* www.nosweatapparel.com A good site for non-sweatshop clothing
* www.justiceclothingcompany.com Another non-sweatshop clothing company
* www.littlestarpizza.com Best pizza in San Francisco
* www.akpress.org Revolutionary online infoshop, books, shirts, CD's, etc.
* You can find us both on myspace.com

Restaurants that have given us free oil so far (please give them your business if they're in your area):

*Woody's Grill and Barbecue, Sacramento CA (10 gal.)
*Oka's Japanes restaurant, Oakhurst CA (17 gal)
*Punjab Indian Palace, Riverside CA (15 gal)
*Bahama Breeze, Phoenix AZ (40 gal)
*Wanfu Too, Austin TX (best oil so far!) (45 gal)
*The Galley Seafood Restaurant, Metairie, New Orleans, LA (45 gal)
*Winn Dixie Grocery Store, Orange Park, FL (20 gal)
*Christo's Cafe, Winter Park, FL
*Saikyo Sushi Bar & Grill, Winter Park, FL (20 gal)
*Ole Ole Tapas Bar and Grill, Winter Park, Fl (20 gal)
*Huddle House, somewhere in GA (10 gal)
*Ura San's Sushi Restaurant, Athens, Ga (45 gal)
*The Pho Vietnamese Restaurant, Memphis, TN (20 gal)
*Betty's Bar & Grill, Nashville, TN (20 gal)
*Eddie Spaghetti's, Asheville, NC (20 gal)
*nameless restaurant in NC whose oil we plundered... (45 gal)
*Panda Cafe, D.C. (25 gal)
*Zen Cafe, Morgantown, WV (2 gal)

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Joined on: January 18th 2007
Last Login: July 29th 2008

Blog Entries: 28
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Blogs & Travel Journals

by gimli-guts, order by Date newest first.

By gimli guts
July 12th 2008

alaska 1

North America » United States » Alaska » Ketchikan

sunset
this was taken off our dock. we don't always get sunsets, but we always have this view.

So Brandi & I have spent over a month in Alaska. We got here on time for the longest day of the year, it was a dusky kind of light out until a little after midnight, and we were told it was light again around 3:30 or 4 the next morning, but neither of us could verify that. The weather has been sometimes sunny and beautiful, but mostly gray, and often rainy. It never gets really cold or really hot, which makes sense considering the island of Ketchikan is actually a temperate rain forest. The scenery is amazing. We live right [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
June 7th 2008

the road north

North America » Canada » British Columbia » Prince Rupert

see-saw fun!!!

So we just drove up to Prince Rupert in British Columbia, from Muir Beach in California. It took about five days. We hung out at our friend Tori's cabin, went on a beer hunt (like an easter egg hunt, but with beer) played with a see-saw on the beach, and got in a sea weed fight. The next night we stayed in Eugene, Oregon which was uneventful, just a place to stop. The next day we had lunch with our buddy and fellow couchsurfer, Jason, who we met in Florida, but now lives in Portland. Portland seems like a way cool [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
June 2nd 2008

MORGANTOWN!!!

North America » United States » West Virginia

snow at our house

The road trip came to an end, Brandi and I were running out of cash and looking for a place to stop. It just so happened that our awesome friend Tori, who was originally from Morgantown, West Virginia, but who we knew from SF, was visiting DC. We met her there, and went to Morgantown. It was super cheap, and everybody was friendly. It was summer time, so half the population (the students) were out of town, and it was peaceful. We figured it was as good a place as any, and lucky for us, Ed was looking for a room-mate. [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
June 7th 2007

Morgantown, West Virginia

North America » United States » West Virginia

Hello everyone out there in blog land... So sorry we haven't been keeping this site up to date, but it's often hard to find internet on the road, and to spend time on the computer when there's so much else to see and do. For everyone who hasn't heard yet, we've actually stopped traveling. We made it to Morgantown, West Virginia, and decided we didn't want to leave. So we rented a house with our friend Ed and have been working on the whole getting-a-job thing. Wes got hired last week as a cook at the West Virginia Brewing Company, and [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
April 30th 2007

Atlanta, GA

North America » United States » Georgia » Atlanta

Hooray for explosives!!!
somehow lighting this right next to a bunch of other fireworks didn't seem like a bad idea at the time.

So we left Athens, having done little in the way of sight seeing, and much in the way of stressing out over car troubles and sickness. The next stop was Atlanta, Georgia. We knew the bus needed work, but there wasn't a mechanic in Athens who could do it, so we lined up a shop in Atlanta, and that was our first stop. The Mechanics were so nice it was a little creepy. They took us to get food, and were super chatty and hospitable. They replaced our glow plugs and we were ready to go. Now Gimli starts up [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
April 26th 2007

Athens, GA

North America » United States » Georgia » Athens

Turtles at the park

On our way to Athens we ran out of the little amount of veg oil we had left, and we were lucky enough to find a place along the way where we could get oil (after much searching, of course). So it took us quite a while longer than it should have to get to Athens, but we made it by evening. We had everything lined up to stay with Anthony from couchsurfing, and he was a pretty cool host. He even had an entire guest bedroom for us to stay in, which is rare. We were tired from getting [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
April 20th 2007

Savannah, GA

North America » United States » Georgia » Savannah

Gimli and the crew
Joey the couchsurfing host, Goldie who helped us with the bus, and his girlfriend

After leaving Orlando, we headed to Savannah GA because we had heard it was a neat, historic place to check out. We only had a couple days there because we had a hard time finding people on couchsurfing.com to stay with. Wes caught a cold of some sort in Orlando and was really starting to feel sick on our first full day in Savannah, so we rode our bikes into town and walked around a bit. Savannah looks a lot like New Orleans, with the huge trees lining the streets, covered in moss. We went down by the river into [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
April 14th 2007

Orlando, Fl

North America » United States » Florida » Orlando

Wes swimming with a gator
what more needs to be said?

Orlando was surprisingly great. We had next to no interest in amusment parks, thus we were far from the regular Orlando tourists. Our main reason for going there in the first place was because it is an ideal location for day trips around Florida, but we didn't really want anything to do with Orlando itself. Then we met our couchsurfing hosts, Jeff, and Jason. These guys lived in an amazing little neighborhood tucked away in Winter Park where you would never expect it. There was spanish moss hanging from the Oaks covering the brick road. They were right next to [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
April 7th 2007

Gainesville

North America » United States » Florida » Gainesville

Louis, Brandi, and I
it was first thing in the morning so don't judge too harshly

While we were living in San Francisco we hosted people on couchsurfing. One of the people we hosted was a great guy named Louis who was travelling from Florida to see the Pogues (a fantastic irish band) in California. Every day he was at our house he said he'd leave the next day to go explore more of California, and every time he decided to stay, and we were happy to have him. Jump ahead five months, now Brandi and I are the one's on the road, and being hosted by couchsurfers. We were in Florida already, so we decided [View Full Entry]

By gimli guts
April 7th 2007

Sarasota, Fl

North America » United States » Florida » Sarasota

Brandi & Emily
hanging out at Selby Gardens

Wes and I left Gainesville to make it to my Aunt Emily’s house in Sarasota for Easter dinner. She lives there with her husband Michael and daughter Michelle, in a house not far from the gulf coast and Siesta Key. Michael’s family was in town for a family reunion, so we got to meet some of his siblings and had a great Easter dinner with everyone. I hadn’t seen my aunt since our family reunion in 2005, and her daughter has grown so much since then. While we were there, Wes and I rode our bicycles out to Siesta Key [View Full Entry]

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gimli guts - wes middleton & brandi chalker

Blogs & Travel Journals

alaska 1

the road north

MORGANTOWN!!!

Morgantown, West Virginia

Atlanta, GA

Athens, GA

Savannah, GA

Orlando, Fl

Gainesville

Sarasota, Fl