Making People Crazy Since 1873!

Oh, my feet are killing me.

Today's "R Day", when the new recruits show up. I get to go home early that day but stand around for 4-5 hours telling nervous new prepsters and sometimes equally nervous parents how the English department works. I can do that, but it sure is hard on the feet and knees.

This comes days after I needed to replace a cylinder in my car since it was leaking break fluid. It worked out OK all things being equal, as Toyota even sprung for a rental for me (since they were paying, I went for the Saturn SUV, which, oddly enough for those who've seen me in person, actually had too much leg room). But really, if I call up and say the "BREAK" light is on and all, they probably shouldn't be telling me they can't take a look immediately.

As it is, I'm having Peruvian tonight for dinner with Lovely Carly and her friends, a housewarming barbecue at Meghan's place tomorrow, and somehow I am going to a Cat Expo on Sunday...

Oh, I ended up paying for dinner for a good chunk of the family two weekends ago (me, Carly, my folks, Taylor, Tiny Tim, Big Tim, and Meghan) and according to Carly, Tim's response to me doing so was a simple, "Wow." I love being generous sometimes.

Carly's at her place this week, so I get some quality time by myself. I almost don't know what to do with myself, but figure I can go see the Transformers movie tomorrow.

And we're home.

It was a long drive back, too. My folks told us to go to Williamsburg, saying it was better than Richmond. My GPS took us 40 miles out of the way to go to Williamsburg, then took us back to Richmond as the quickest route home. So, why would Richmond be a bad idea? Traffic, lots of traffic. It was certainly the shortest route, but it also was the slowest at times heading into Washington and a bit beyond to Baltimore.

Sufficient to say, Carly and I were both somewhat peeved about this. A call to my folks had Mom saying that Dad was right...if you take Route 13 like they told us to something like three or four weeks ago before we set off for anywhere amidst all the other directions Dad gave whenever he opened his mouth.

Now, it wasn't all bad. We got a magnificent view of Washington, D.C. There it was, the Washington Monument, Pentagon, Capitol building, and the Jefferson Memorial...and then we hit more traffic. The Beltway doth suck.

Side note: the theme to the first season of The Wire was playing through my head as we went through Baltimore. I really should finish those DVDs.

We got to Carly's house around 7:30 and had some dinner, then back to my place. Some of my mail was delivered, but not all of it. I should have something like three or four more bills, plus all my magazines and two Amazon packages. But, I'm glad to be home, the laundry and grocery shopping is now done, and I can relax a bit before Carly and I need to go to her uncle's birthday party in Brick.

States we passed through: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, the District of Columbia, and Delaware.

This was the first day of the return trip. We are currently in Williamsburg, Virginia. Why? Dad recommended it over Richmond. Richmond, it should be noted, was 40 miles closer and on the route we were taking. I am not sure why this is a better place to stay. If we were going to the park, it would make more sense. We aren't. We need to be home today.

So, we got here just before 9PM. It was a long drive, traffic delays hit us in both Carolinas (road work in the South, accident of some kind in the North), and we had dinner at a small take-out place in North Carolina off the highway. I considered stopping at South of the Border given their many, many, many billboards, no two the same, but dang if that place didn't look like one huge tourist trap.

So, I'm hoping to get out of here a bit sooner today. Carly wants to see her parents. And the cats. Can't forget the cats. She won't let me.

We're starting for home today. We're going to Williamsburg, Virginia, for an overnight. We didn't really do a whole heck of a lot, but here goes.

I got up early and headed into the city solo for a 10:30 Civil War and Slavery walking tour. Carly opted to stay behind and sleep in, also to avoid the heat. We both made the right calls for ourselves. I got to the city early enough to not only get the tour but also make a quick trip on a self-guided tour of the Slavery Museum. That place was sobering and I felt like crying a couple times. They also had a couple recordings of former slaves speaking about their treatment. The recordings were done in the 1930s as part of a New Deal project, and the former slaves were in their 90s at the time. One helped bury John C. Calhoun...and not by choice. He hated the man.

Then it was my walking tour, and then back to Carly for lunch and a trip to the Charleston Aquarium. It had...well, there was a skunk exhibit in something called "Camp Carolina", which was more for kids to see what was in nature if they went camping in the state. Apparently, a show there also featured some possums. And there was a rescued bald eagle outside. You know. Aquarium animals.

We got out around five. I only saw Fort Sumter from a distance since the last ferry was docking about that time. Oh well.

After dinner, we decided to skip our last walking tour, the "Dark Side" tour which showed the city's history of corruption. Probably fascinating, but in Carly's words, we're "vacationed out". We saw and did a lot. Now its time to go home.

Besides, this is the first hotel we stayed at where you can hear planes landing. Even the ones with "airport" in their names didn't have that going on.

And Michael Jackson died. I was never a fan, so I'm not getting nostalgic over this guy like a lot of people.

Right now, we're in Charleston, South Carolina. Its a beautiful city. Much like the more interesting places we've seen thus far (New Orleans, St. Augustine, Savannah), its beautiful in its own way. It reminds me of a small town spread out really far, with colonial-era buildings smack dab in the middle of it.

Anyway, we arrived yesterday around 12:30 and found our room wasn't ready yet, but a different one was. Then we headed into the city. Any future student of mine who says New Jersey is unnavagable is going to hear about Charleston. The main road is being worked on. You can't really park on the street anywhere if you don't live here. Traffic is terrible. And on the outskirts, there are divided roadways where there are two left turn lanes at various traffic lights. One is for turning left, the other is for making a U-turn. They are not labeled.

That said, once we got into town and on our pirate tour, it got a lot better. I found I liked this city too. Carly took to asked if every building we stopped at was haunted. Answer: yes in most cases. Even the parking garage I finally got into. The first place we entered even had ghost photos.

We then had a large, late lunch at Hyman's, a seafood place. This was perhaps the best fried seafood I'd ever had in my life. Apparently, numerous celebrities have eaten here. Our table once hosted actor Adam West and the rock bands The Beach Boys and AC/DC, though probably not at the same time. The fourth plaque may have been for the mayor, but our server didn't recognize the name.

We later went for a nighttime ghost walk. Lots of ghosts around apparently, included a small dog who was a restaurant mascot still looking for table scraps. The dog sounded fine...the old lady who hangs around the women's bathroom disapproving of what was done to her former residence is a different story.

Today I have scheduled a Civil War walk this morning and a "Dark Side" tour tonight. Carly's not feeling too well in the hot weather so I'll probably be taking the first one on my own, and then we'll head to the aquarium this afternoon.

Tomorrow, we start for home.

We're done with Savannah, and tomorrow we need to pack off for Charleston kinda early to get a Pirates walking tour at 1:30. Charleston is actually close by, so this is no big deal.

As it was, we got out late today and telling the office downstairs that we're leaving got us new sheets and towels. Who knew?

So what did we do today?

We went on a Dolphin Sighting cruise. We saw dolphins. I took pictures of what I am sure is largely dolphin-less water.

We went to the downtown, found I owed nothing for the parking lot, had dinner on River Street, got some souvenir t-shirts for our parents and a ton of stuff with Carly's name on it. This would be largely because we have seen very few things with Carly's name on it during our travels.

Then it was back to the hotel to rest for the night. Yes, we got out late today, but it was a good day. I dug Savannah and will try to come back at some point when its not so warm out. In fact, I canceled our Civil War walking tour this afternoon, and the tour company sent me a voucher for a free walk in the future.

Good times, and they end soon. Bummer.

Another day in Savannah. Tomorrow we head off for Charleston, South Carolina, which is actually pretty close by.

Anyway, the weather got a little cooler, but that may not be saying much. The humidity of course makes it worse.

We started the day at the Juliet Gordon Low house. She founded the Girl Scouts, Carly was a Girl Scout for a long time, so it was a no-brainer. There are Girl Scouts all over the city, actually. It was a nice house, and afterwards we walked over to get our first walking tour, the Savannah Stroll.

This turned out to be a special treat since the two of us were the only two on the tour. It was just us and the tour guide, an older man who said he's the longest active guide in the city (37 years). Frankly, this guy looked like a Southern tour guide: wide-brimmed hat, walking stick, shorts, a good drawl. Friendly, too. As we chatted, he was able to point out more stuff of interest to us, such as all the West Point grads the city has had. He also recommended a great place for homemade ice cream.

After that we went for a river tour. It was dull, actually.

Then it was back to the hotel to find that no one had cleaned the room for the second day in a row. I don't like to think of myself as a slob, but are fresh sheets too much to ask for?

The day ended with another ghost tour. No weird pictures this time, but a creepy house or two. And yes, the Girl Scout house is haunted, though our tour guide there told us she had a weird experience with a bookcase opening by itself once. We were out late, and when we left the parking garage I was in, well, I didn't see a way to pay anything. So, I figure I should go back there today and find out how much, if anything, I owe the garage.

Today is one last walking tour, a dolphin watch, and then dinner somewhere nice.

As expected, Savannah is a beautiful city. Its also got temperatures in the 90s. Possibly triple digits just before we got here.

So, we had a trolley tour, lunch on Market Street, and then a dinner cruise along the river, all of which were nice. More tours today, including three on foot. I am hoping the heat isn't too much for us, but we'll see. At some point, I want to go to Uncle Bubba's Crab Shack for dinner, and Carly wants to hit another tarot place we saw last night that was closed.

Couldn't really put anything in until now. But here's how it went.

We left New Orleans Friday for the last of the really long drives, and all but the last fifty or so miles were on the same stretch of highway, Interstate 10 going East. As such, we passed through Louisianna, Mississippi, Alabama, and then the Florida panhandle to get to Carly's aunt and uncle's place in St. Augustine. We may have seen Mississippi's only rest stop that way. They sure didn't have any on the way to Houston.

Not much else to say there. Carly's uncle is a quiet retired guy who gets in a good zinger when he can, and her aunt (the only Irish person in the family) took a shine to me and loves to talk. They live in a retirement community, though she still works, and we had a nice place to sleep. They took us out to see the city that night, and again the following day with Carly's cousin and the cousin's new husband. During the day tour, we saw the fort and some really old buildings, I got my first sunburn of the trip, and we stopped for lunch at a place that served Gator Tail for an appetizer.

Around 3:15 or so, we packed the car again for the quick (under 3 hours) trip to Savannah. More like the outskirts of town. We're near the airport. As with all our hotels, they aren't the Ritz, but I mostly booked the cheapest place in Travelosity since we'd be hitting a lot of places.

Now we have one tour today for sure and I think the river cruise dinner buffet. Carly wants to take another ghost tour and grabbed some fliers in the lobby. So, we'll probably be doing some more walking tours here. Wednesday we leave for Charleston; it is probably worth noting Carly's aunt called South Carolina the most Southern state she's ever seen.

Wow. This was an eventful day. Since tomorrow is the last of the long travel days, I'll put this in tonight.

We started off with a walking tour of the French Quarter. And it was hot. Really hot. Humid too.

Lunch was at a small Italian place called Frank's Restaurant. The guy working there sounded like he was from Brooklyn, though I am reading A Confederacy of Dunces right now, and it notes that some New Orleanians speak that way due to common ancestors. Turned out not only did the fellow serving us (possibly Frank himself) fit that bill, but when I mentioned the book, it was one of his favorites.

We then did an unplanned (meaning we opted for it as a spur of the moment thing) bayou tour where we saw (and in the case of a baby one, handled) aligators. That was fun.

After a short trip back to the hotel, we went out for a ghost tour walk. Carly bugged me into taking a photo of the most haunted site in the city, and there does seem to be a small "orb" in the photo. I'm skeptical. Carly and the guide were not.

Also haunted in New Orleans: a house owned by Nicolas Cage.

We finished up the night getting a palm/aura/tarot reading for Carly. Carly asked for the cards how the two of us would end up. The guy said we'd have to try really, really hard to end things and we were probably stuck with each other in a good way. Did he nail our personalities? He said Carly was a long term planner and I was more spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment, and a quick-witted guy who keeps her grounded. And we're good-hearted people. Now, me, I can say that sounds fairly accruate, but at the same time, I can be a skeptic and suggest the guy could be good at reading body language and such. But, Carly seems to believe it, and it sounded OK to me, so I suppose I'm stuck with a woman who makes me very happy. C'est la vie.

Tomorrow, its on to St. Augustine, Florida.

Yesterday was a really fun day, though there was a comedy of errors going on. For starters, when we went out, Carly wanted to go to the Aquarium since I'd prepurchased tickets. No problem...until I miss the turn for the public parking, drive past, and end up on a ferry going across the river to a small island. There's mild panic, but forutnately, we got across and reboarded (for one dollar) to take the ferry back across and get to the Aquarium.

While there, I squatted down to get a good photograph of the white aligator. I had to move inside a bit because of another patron. When I stood up, my back hit the sign for the gator behind me. It smarted a bit but otherwise, everything seemed OK. We went to the gift shop, I got me a pair of T-shirts and one each for Taylor and Tiny Tim, and then we're walking back to my car and Carly notices I ripped the back of my light blue polo shirt. Fortunately, I have two new shirts I can switch to, so I need to decide if the pirate or "Hairy Otter" is more embarrassing for Carly (pirate seemed less so, so I went for that).

Then we exited the parking lot we were in and were momentarily going the wrong way on a one way street.

The walking tour was for 5:45. Carly decided she wanted dinner at a Hard Rock Cafe. She'd never been to one. That seemed reasonable. We even got more souvenir t-shirts (mine was for the 25th anniversary of "Born in the USA", hers was designed by her favorite band leader Bono). We then walk over to the place for the walking tour...and learn its a dinner tour! That's right. We had two dinners and three desserts before the night was over. To be fair, the second dinner was at Tujaque's, the second oldest restaurant in the city, originator of "second breakfast" which became what we call "brunch" today. And since it was gourmet food, there wasn't a whole lot of it. Then we were off to a small jazz bar for some music and a drink, and then another place for dessert and we were done for the night and went back to the hotel.

Today we have another walking tour this morning, and a ghost tour this evening, so we'll probably just spend the afternoon shopping in the French Quarter. I finally got paid (I mistakenly believed I was getting one more payment from my online classes last week...didn't happen), so we'll have some cash for a change. Tomorrow we push on for St. Augustine, Florida, to see some of Carly's family.

OK, we're in New Orleans now. We'll be here until Friday, and we have a night walking tour of the French Quarter tonight, plus a trip to the Aquarium to do.

I made the mistake of actually driving the whole way here myself. The trip took about six hours, though we weren't in the car the whole time. We'd stopped for lunch and the occassional bathroom break, but the last 45 minutes or so, as we were approaching the city, my brain started to get a little fuzzy in the head. We made it though, had a lovely dinner at the restaurant in the hotel next door, and settled in for the night. Yes, our hotel had to move us to another room when the first one's toilet didn't flush, and there were a lot of winged ants in here, but the roads MAKE SENSE and the waiter last night told us you can get from any one point in New Orleans to any other in about fifteen minutes, so already I like this place better than Houston.

I also had the best night's sleep of the trip so far.

Houston was incredibly hot. We're talkin' high 90s, which when you come from Jersey where it is typically about 20 degrees cooler, is noticable. As such, we went to the Space Center, which sounded like a good idea at the time. In reality, not so much, since the museum seemed to be more set up for kids. Lucasfilm had an exhibit taking up the whole middle of the floor for all its movies, but most of the Star Wars stuff I saw when I went to see the Star Wars specific exhibit at the Franklin Institute, and the whole thing looked more like a giant jungle gym.

We did get a tour of the Johnson Space Center, NASA's communication hub. That theoretically might have been nice, but there were a lot of kids on that that wouldn't shut up, except when we got to see the old Mission Control room and the guy giving the talk actually told the parents of a crying baby that they should take it outside if they needed to. A video in the flight simulator building had so much background chatter going on Carly barely heard anything. I could, possibly because my ears were about a foot closer to the nearest TV screen.

So, miserable day in Houston all around. Factor in the GPS never seemed able to find anything and Carly being about ready to murder the machine, and you get the idea.

Then we went to see Becca and the Brothers Mullin and things got a whole lot better. Wats showed up later at a local Tex/Mex restaurant and we all had a good time. I told both the first group and then later Wats that I was looking for a place to possibly send my parents for their 40th wedding anniversary next year. They all said the same thing: "Not Houston."

At any rate, we have a roughly five hour drive to New Orleans later today, and we can take our time doing that.

This was another long day behind the wheel. Fortunately, I found I like driving. After a certain point, my one knee may start to ache, but that knee aches for all kinds of reasons. Carly has done some driving too, which helps.

That said, we went through Alabama, Mississippi, Lousianna, and finally got to Texas. If Birmingham was bigger than I suspected, Houston was exactly as big as I suspected, though we haven't really been into the city itself yet. It was a long day, with a quick lunch at a Sonic in Mississippi, and dinner at a TexMex Cafe del Rio in Texas. The hotel was a little tricky to find. The roadway its on is divided down the middle by an elevated freeway. You can't see one side from the other, and the GPS put me on the wrong side of the road, before I stopped and asked for directions at a gas station...then another one when I did get to correct side of the road. And I was running out of gas, but we got here and after a couple phone calls to local friends, more or less collapsed.

I did see a lot of neat stuff in the car (along with the usual tons of cows and one dead armadillo). Alabama's roadways are covered in lush trees. Mississippi's are more sparse, both in trees and covering. That state also lacks actual rest stops in favor of simple "parking stops" where you can pull over for a minute but no facilities of any kind. Lousianna had a lot of rivers, the trees were initially taller, close together, but the leaves didn't spread out as much. And there was a 30 mile bridge over the swamps. We did see the Mississippi river, and will be doubling back that way to go to New Orleans tomorrow. Then we can relax a bit since we'll be staying there a couple days. The trip slows down a bit post Texas.

Day Three was spent largely on the road to Birmingham. We arrived around 3 o'clock local time, unpacked a few things, and then went to see the Briscoes. That was about it. The Briscoes are, of course, lovely people, and Carly is still delightful company.

Tomorrow, another really long trip, this one to Houston.

If the rest of the trip turns out as well as yesterday, we'll be in pretty good shape.

We started off, after a quick breakfast, with a trip to Chimney Rock. Lots of climbing up there, but the scenery was worth it.

That was followed by a trip to the Biltmore Estates. That cost 50 dollars a head. Ouch. That said, it was good for 24 hours, and since we arrived mid-afternoon, we were told we could get back in today. We got the self-guided tour through the beautiful giant house, then the winnery, which included a tasting. Yes, I drank some. I even liked one enough to get my parents a bottle (Carly liked it too and got one for her folks).

A quick dinner at Applebees followed, though we learned then the downtown area is full of hippies from our waiter (he seemed less-than-pleased by that information), but we don't have time to look. Its on to Birmingham today to see taliabriscoe and family. That's a roughly six hour drive according to my GPS, and we'll be leaving as soon as we're both awake and packed.

All in all, Day Two was awesome, especially with the company.

Here I am in Asheville, North Carolina, for the first part of my epic roadtrip vacation with the lovely Carly. Yesterday was the long car ride from New Jersey to here. Google maps said it would be about ten hours. It was closer to 12 according to my GPS and that's if you don't stop at all. We did stop. There was a horrible car accident in Jersey that delayed us a half-hour, and we stopped for breakfast in Pennsylvannia at a Cracker Barrel, to say nothing of driver switching and bathroom breaks. And then there was the heavy rain that hit southern Virginia. I find I don't mind driving so long as we're actually getting somewhere.

Not much else to say about the drive. Lots of gorgeous mountain views and such, but given how long the trip was, we didn't stop to see then. Besides, the weather was cloudy in Jersey and PA. It cleared up in Virginia, then got rainy. Really rainy. Can't see twenty feet in front of you rainy, with a side of lightning.

But, here we are. Depending on the weather, today we go to either Chimney Rock (sunny) or the Biltmore Estates (rain). Tomorrow we push on to Birmingham and see the Briscoes.

States traveled through thus far: New Jersey, Pennsylvannia, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

You know, I'm just not having fun with this one. I think I'm gonna cancel my subscription.

Is it me, or has The Learning Channel become the network showcasing people who, in the past, you were told not to stare at?