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Published: December 11th 2006
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North Florida
Trees with colors! Ok, I am actually writing this (or copy and pasting it) from the Green Tortoise Hostel in cold and rainy downtown Seattle on 12/10. I am way behind on the blogging thing, but I do have a little voice recorder that I have been recording highlights on, so when I actually get around to writing and uploading pictures, I will not forget stuff. Anyway, I wrote this most of this blog in Austin. God, New Orleans seems like so long ago.
11/30/06
I am on my way back to California with a truck (my recently acquired 2002 Ford Ranger) full of Kelci’s stuff. I packed pretty much everything I could find that belonged to Kelci. She has way too much junk she needs to go through and thin out.
I am a “stop and smell the roses” kind of person, but on this trip I have virtually no time to “smell roses.” I am not sure what I was thinking when I asked for suggestions on myspace for sites to see. So far with 10-12 hours of driving daily, the only sites I’ve seen have been endless roadways, countryside, hostels and the backs of my eyelids. This is definitely a
North Florida
Trees with colors! destination bound venture. I have places to be and dates I have to be there. There is the dental appointment in Nogales, Mexico (yes, a Mexican dentist! I understand they make great wooden dentures for a fraction of the price 😉 and I have to be in Las Vegas to work for MFA (Music For America) at the Death Cab For Cutie show registering voters and signing up people to MFA and enlightening the crowd of fans to issues the band cares about. And by “work”, I mean volunteer. I get to see the show. That is my payment and of course the satisfaction that most of the people I register will vote progressively.
11/28/06
First stop: NOLA (that’s New Orleans Louisiana for those location acronym challenged readers). It has been 2 years since I have been to New Orleans, pre-Katrina, if you will. Being from Florida, I am aware of the damage that hurricanes bring to an area (I saw Homestead after Andrew), but I was not prepared to see, a year and a half after the disaster, such devastation. EVERYWHERE is dirty and trashy. Most areas I saw, except the Quarter, had houses/buildings that were empty
North Florida
Rest stop on I-10 and boarded up or falling totally apart. It was sad. I entered the Garden District’s hostel address into my new Garmin Nuvi gps system (his name is Tom, he is Australian and I love him) and when I arrived at the destination, I was disappointed to find that the hostel was closed and under repair. I wanted to stay in this particular hostel because it was in the area least likely to have a car broken into. My next choice was the Marquette House on St. Charles. They had a bed available and it was $25. After obtaining my linen (hostels have a usual routine of giving out linen and rules when checking in), I walked through the building to the back yard, which was a courtyard, then up some very precarious steps, to my dorm. The layout was shotgun, that is upon opening the front door and entering the room, you can continue to walk straight ahead through a series of doors with rooms off to the side and finally arrive at the back door which is lined up with the front door. You could shoot a shotgun all the way from the front door, out the back door
North Florida
Rest stop on I-10 (I think that is where the term came from..I really don’t know). The first room had a bunk bed and two sinks, the second room had 2 bunk beds, then there was the bathroom, which consist of a non-locking door, a shower stall (dirty and filled with so many peoples toiletries that there was nowhere to put stuff), and a toilet (no sink…remember, the sinks were in the first room…which I am sure the occupants were thrilled with), the third room had 2 bunk beds and lastly there was my room which contained 4 bunk beds and a crazy, sad woman that had been living there for 6 weeks, working day labor and making her meals using a toaster oven and some sort of crock pot thing in the room. She said she was running from her abusers (who I think were old Native American Men that wanted to keep her on a Reservation). Who knows, it’s crazy I tell you, some of these people I meet on the road. Café Du Monde looks to have remained unchanged. The next morning (I skipped taking a shower at the hostel…yuck) I went to Café Du Monde. It is still the same,
Sunset
Heading for New Orleans as with most of the Quarter. I had chicory coffee and beignets. Delicious. It was very early so there weren’t many people out and about. It was nice to sit there and watch the city wake up. On to Austin. It should take about 10 hours to get there and I am staying at the Austin Hostel.
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