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by gimli guts, order by Date newest first.

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We drove to Orange Park, Florida after leaving New Orleans. Due to bad weather and the length of the drive (over 500 miles) we stopped outside of Tallahassee for the night on the way there rather than doing the whole drive in a day. We also lost our dashboard lights a while back, so driving at night requires a flashlight and isn’t too fun... So we made it to Orange Park, where my (Brandi’s) family lives in a beautiful old house, on Monday. My Great Aunt Aggie and her husband, Uncle Jack, live in the big white house on the [View Full Entry]

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681 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 16 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 6th 2007 | 114 Views | [diary=148935]

The house and front lawn
Gimli in the jungle
The full moon

(Wes writing:) We drove into town on March 18th and found our way to our couchsurfing host, Ben, who almost immediately took us out to “the Alamo” (a friends house which looks strikingly like the Alamo) for home-made corned beef and cabbage (it was the day after Saint Patrick’s Day). Ben lives with Walker in a rebuilt shotgun style house on the second floor. The first was still barren from after Katrina. Both Ben and Walker are really great guys. Good hearted people with plenty to talk about. They had a side yard which was unused, and just so happened [View Full Entry]

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905 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 6 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 1st 2007 | 102 Views | [diary=148931]

Ben and Walker
The Mighty Mississippi
Music on the streets

Where do I even start about Austin? Be prepared, this might be a long entry. The night we arrived it was raining buckets, bolt lightning would illuminate the sky every minute or so, and the thunder would clap so crisp and hard car alarms would go off. And in the middle of all of that you could still walk around at night in a t-shirt and shorts! I was enthralled. Our first couch surfing host, Valera, was a super cool person who we could connect with right off the bat. She knew where the radical info-shops were, the good cafes, [View Full Entry]

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804 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 9 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 18th 2007 | 128 Views | [diary=140972]

Wes on Nosy
One of our hosts
My contribution to the art wall

We just figured out how to publish a map of our travel route. It's listed in our "profile"- the first part of the website you read that has all the "about us" info. You can copy the link to the map and open it up on a new page. We'll update it every once in a while, so when you get a new blog entry, link to the map again to see how it's grown! [View Full Entry]

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76 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 15th 2007 | 98 Views | [diary=138612]


We forogt to add some info on Santa Rosa, New Mexico. One important thing- if you go there, please go to Mateo's Restaurant. The owner is Dodie, she is so sweet. By the time we left there, we would order "the regular" for breakfast and she knew what we wanted! The other thing- I cut all my hair off! The dreads got left in Albuquerque, and then in Santa Rosa I had Wes shave it all off, except for some bangs. Looks terrible, but here's some pics. You'll notice in any pics after this, I'm wearing a hat... Brandi [View Full Entry]

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99 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 3 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 15th 2007 | 93 Views | [diary=137629]

the haircut
The shaved head...

After we finally got out of Santa Rosa, we drove down south. Thought we'd check out Roswell, try to find some aliens or something... But the town seemed, well, pretty lame. So we just kept driving. We made it down to Carlsbad and found this really interesting RV park & campground called *surprise* Carlsbad RV Park. I definitely recommend staying there if you're in the area. At the RV park there were these 2 adorable little pigmy horses. One was named Brandi! Also known as Little Fatty. We might have to go back and steal her someday... The campground was pretty [View Full Entry]

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324 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 5 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 15th 2007 | 64 Views | [diary=137618]

Wes in the cavern
cave formations
fancy pants

Hey everybody, Brandi and I are in Santa Rosa, New Mexico (for those of you back home, you'd get a kick out of the fact that it's down the free way from San Rafael, New Mexico). The bus needs a new water pump, so we'll be here for a few days walking up and down the one street in town. If all goes well, we'll be out of here soon and on our way to New Orleans, which will mean lots of long distance driving. We'll keep you posted. Cheers, Wes and Brandi [View Full Entry]

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93 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 2 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 5th 2007 | 77 Views | [diary=135347]

Mateo's Restaurant

We spent one full day at the grand canyon. We would have spent more, but we're trying to get to New Orleans by the 8th. My experience in the canyon made me want to go back when we have more time. I'd love to get all the way to the bottom, then up the other side. I'd never seen it before, Brandi had only been there once, it was amazing. The canyon just goes on and on for days, with all these distinct different colors along the walls. We couldn't even see the bottom from where we were. We hiked down [View Full Entry]

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354 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 6 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 15th 2007 | 86 Views | [diary=135349]

Brandi hugging a warm kettle
Le Grand Canyon
I'll have a Brandi on the Rocks

By gimli guts
February 24th 2007
Phoenix, Az North America » United States » Arizona » Phoenix
We spent a good while in Phoenix, taking full advantage of the couchsurfing network. And I gotta say, the Phoenix couch-surfers are the cream of the crop. They have a tight knit community of hosts who party with each other, and know how to host a guest. We got free maps, meals, and at least one night of debauchery. If I'm not mistaken, every single person we hit up got back to us (though not all could host us). We even had people we didn't write to writting to us just to wish us well! First We stayed with Elaina, and [View Full Entry]

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316 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 3 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 13th 2007 | 74 Views | [diary=135357]

Some ninja stuff...
Wes and his Aunt Margaret

So the hot topic that everybody is asking about on the road is the process of the veg-oil system. We've been happy to explain, hoping that more people will get involved and the sustainable energy movement will grow. Interestingly, it's the senior citizens on the road who are most interested. Anyway, here's a bit about how it works and some of our experiences with it. First we scope out restaurants. The most ritzy restaurants tend to have the best oil. Unfortunatly they also seem a bit less likely to want to give it away. Chain restaurants often have guidelines or regulations [View Full Entry]

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607 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 1 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: February 24th 2007 | 100 Views | [diary=132197]




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