Final thoughts - 4/8

So I know that this has been a long time in coming, I should have done this last week...I said I would. Oh well, if nothing else, i've gotten some pretty vital perspective (and sleep finally) in the interim so I'll try to talk about what I've experienced and learned in as eloquent a way as possible...I warn you though, rambling is forthcoming.

Things Chris has learned about the US, in no particular order:

• I don't think that people have anywhere near enough appreciation for this country. I didn't. Now before you stamp me as a Toby Keith listening, million bumpersticker having, Bush fanatic, hear me out. I don't mean that we don't have enough appreciation for the current administration or that everything here is perfect. Far from it, but our country itself...the land, the people...are so varied and amazing. Within weeks, or even days sometimes, I'd go from one 'culture' to another 'culture' entirely. All too often, we assume that everything to 'see' is in Europe or some other exotic location. I certainly love Europe and the places around the world that I've been, but I'd argue that there is nothing on this earth quite like Yellowstone or Zion. Even from city to city, go to New Orleans and then Memphis, tell me they don't seem like different countries even though we think of them both as the 'south.'

In a lot of the most spectacular places, it seemed that I'd only run across foreigners or retired folks. I know that at Bryce Canyon, I was the only American under 50 there. That's an amazing shame, because when I'm 50 I don't know that I'd have the stamina to go and 'do,' I was usually the only guy on a lot of the trails. I hope that maybe, a couple of people who've read this might have gotten the itch to see a little more before it's too late to really go hoofin it. As I look back, I feel amazingly fortunate to have seen what I've seen and done all I've done. I'm certainly not 'finished' seeing this country, but I've started. It's just a shame that so often people my age almost look down on seeing America, that a trip is only impressive if it goes out of the country. We have a great backyard, and more people should think about seeing it since the rest of the world, it seems, wants to see it more than we do.

• For all we talk about overcrowding, this country is mostly empty. I've always grown up in the mid-atlantic/upper south - east coast and I guess I couldn't imagine how desolate a place could be until now. Even what we consider the 'country' is always within a few miles of civilization. Everywhere in Virginia is at least near some place that has a name, and a gas station. We don't really know 'country.' That was something that I had to get used to for a lot of this trip and the 'culture' is really different. From D.C. until I left Minneapolis, things were fairly normal as far as population. Most every exit had a few restaurants, motels...I never really had to 'plan' things. When I left MN for South Dakota though, especially through Wyoming, Montana and the Southwest, there are places where people just aren't. I don't mean, that there aren't many, I mean aren't...at all. There were quite a few times that I'd go 50 miles without seeing so much as a mailbox. At times, it was a little creepy and I had to learn to plan my meals, motels and gas stops around it. At other times though, it felt really neat...it made you feel really small, almost like my problems just aren't that big of a deal. When you see no one for miles, you realize that for all the crap that we've done to this planet...it'll be here a long time after we're gone.

I guess the most desolate I saw the whole time, was my drive from Big Bend to Fort Stockton. That was a 2.5 hour drive, and I didn't drive that long because I wanted to get further toward San Antonio...I didn't have a choice. Other than for one gas station, there was NOTHING for those hours. I stopped a few times and saw more stars that I could have imagined before, and yeah...I felt small. Citydwellers, like me before this trip, have a tendency to think of the US in terms of metropolises but the deserted areas are every bit as much America as Times Square or the Mall and if you've never really experienced 'the middle of nowhere' you need to, so that you can understand the balance of this country.

• At once this trip has made me realize that the US is both bigger than I thought and yet smaller too. I know that doesn't make sense, it doesn't to me completely either, but I'll try to explain. I didn't know that I'd actually succeed in this when I set out honestly. Part of me thought that it was such a long distance to the West Coast, that it couldn't be possible to drive all that way. But it was, and each place along the way had its own flavor. Just like putting a puzzle together, i fit each piece where it went and eventually i reached the other side. When we fly, we miss the whole middle so it just seems like a sea of nothingness, but it's definitely not. So in that way, it almost seems smaller. I can rattle off each of the states going west, their roads, their people, the cities you come to, the parks. It feels manageable, and makes sense now, where it was all a jumble before.

On the other hand, knowing how many varied parts there are, makes it seem astounding that it all fits in this one country. The fact that you can have the 'wild west' of South Dakota and Montana, in the same country as the downhome south of Tennessee seems impossible, because they're so different. There is just so much to see and its all so unique, there's more to see than I could have imagined when I left. I'm sure this seems like nonsense, but yeah, its bigger and smaller than I thought at once.

• People are more adaptable than I could have imagined. This country has some of the most difficult terrain and climates in the world. Yet, people have learned to live most everywhere, and they don't even seem to notice. I guess you get used to whatever you live with, but as a kid from a temperate place, its hard to fathom. I mean, in Minneapolis where it gets below freezing constantly people just learn to live indoors for a lot of the year in ways i wouldn't have ever thought of. They seem to thrive on the cold almost. On the other hand, in the desert of Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and New Mexico, they learn to live in the shade for much of the year and deal with so little water. Yet, again, they seem to thrive on it. I guess its the pioneer spirit? I don't know, but its pretty interesting to see how the land shapes the culture of a place

A few things I've learned about myself, again, in no particular order:

• I'm capable of a hell of a lot more than I ever thought possible, especially when I'm not worried about being embarrassed. There were challenges that I'd have never seen coming, things that honestly would have made me never start had I known that I'd face them. I mean, I've gotten lost driving through open desert without even a road in the middle of nowhere during a hailstorm, I injured my foot pretty badly and still walked miles through a hell of a lotta pain, I've hiked miles just to find my way back to a trail that was lost...just a million little things that came up. The funny thing though, was that in a lot of ways, I was only able to succeed because a) I didn't have a choice. and b) I wasn't worried about looking stupid. I realized on this trip how competent I am at adapting and how I can fix most any problem. Fear of embarassment keeps me from some things at home, and I think I'm pretty much over it. I stop myself from taking some risks because I think of how it would look to others, but I realized that I don't have to care and that I have a lot more fun when I just go and do and not worry about what the other people around are doing. I made more friends and had better conversations from singing karaoke in a new place, or being the first guy dancing like an idiot than I ever would have by sitting in the back.

I'm pretty proud of what I can do and I realized that a lot of the embarassment is in my head. People don't look at you nearly as much as you think they do, ever. I guess, to wrap up this point, I learned a really valuable lesson, even though it seems simple: I'm smart enough and capable enough that I can handle most anything and I'm not going to let embarassment stop me from doing what I want to do because I have nothing to be embarassed about; anyone who'd judge me negatively is probably not putting themselves out there anyway, and them, well, I don't care what they think honestly.

• I have a lot more control over my mood than I thought. That's not to say that I don't get a little droopy too but happiness, or at least the road to it, is something you choose. There were dozens of times where things didn't go exactly as I'd hoped or planned, sometimes they were my fault, sometimes not. Throughout though, I learned to control what I could. I knew that this was an amazing experience and if there was a time when I wasn't enjoying something, I'd make sure to sit back and say 'why?' That was the great part about going alone, if there was something that I wasn't enjoying, I went. Just that simple. I know that not everyone has control over everything in their lives, I've certainly haven't been in control of all of my situation for a few months what with the job change and all. That being said, I've really learned that I (and I think most people) have much more control than we think. Changing something that doesn't work for us, is really pretty easy. It's just a question of finding the right direction towards something better and enjoying what IS good. A lot of times, there were episodes that might not have been 'fun' in the normal sense, but there was generally something good in it. That might just be a funny story, or a chance to laugh at myself, but that's pretty good too sometimes.

• Not taking yourself seriously allows for a lot more experiences in life. Seeing the awesomeness of nature helps with that, because honestly, we don't amount to so much in the grand scheme of the universe...it's good to remember.

• Although I still think of myself as a people person...I'm great alone. I'm a complete thought. That might sound like gibberish, but hear me out. The thing that I was most concerned about when I left, was that I wasn't going to have someone else there to validate everything I did. I thought I'd go stir crazy without having someone there all the time. I certainly don't want to live alone, and I definitely missed a lot of people but I really like having some time and memories to myself. Surprisingly enough, I'm pretty interesting to talk to, and I'll own up to talking to myself a lot. I'm doing it right now. This trip gave me a chance to really be alone with myself and it was great, I got to hone my thoughts and opinions, get rid of some 'unknown unknowns' so to speak. People watching is actually a lot of fun, and you can't do it with others around. As long as I have my music, I'm set. Now had there not been a set ending to the trip, I probably would have felt lonely. As it was though, I really feel like I know myself a lot better than most anybody possibly could know themselves and I actually like myself. Sounds corny I know, but theres a lot to be said for a self-check from time to time.

• I have a lot of people who care about me, and a great family, both blood related and not. There wasn't a single day that I didn't talk to someone somewhere who wanted to know where I was or what I was doing. One thing about this trip, I did feel like a scout...I can't wait to bring people back to some of these places. It might sound silly, but the fact that so many people read this, just astounded me. I honestly expected my folks to read this, and thats about it. Turns out that lots of people were right there with me, shocked me. I can't say how much it made me smile to know that people actually were interested in this cockamamie idea and were rooting for me too.

That being said, I have to say thanks to my folks. You guys have no idea how much help they were along the way, with recommendations, advice and just as sounding boards. They were more excited know that I was seeing these things than to see them themselves. It was a great part of my day to check in and hear my mom or dad's voice, you just about hear their eyes light up, especially as I reached the west. But to everybody who went along with me, I never felt really alone, thanks guys.

• Finally, I think I learned that sometimes you just have to take life by the neck and get what you want. Before I left, I did feel a little stuck in time (Slaughterhouse 5 reference, read it on the way). I wanted to start this marvelous career, it just seemed to take forever for everything to be in order and the house was kinda tense. Some things can't really be controlled. I guess in college and before, I was never stuck, always working towards something. But yeah, I was kinda stuck before i headed out. Now I start this career that I couldn't be more proud about (especially now), I have a lot better situation at home, I have all of these amazing experiences and I realize...I can fix most anything that I put my mind to. Not that I'll always be right, but I don't want to get stuck again. Life's way too short to not do what you need to do, this trip was something that I had to do and I'll never regret it. If you feel stuck, if you're life isn't what you want it to be, FIX IT. Don't live for someone else or for what you think you should be for other people, its your life and honestly worrying about what everyone else thinks and wants, is like a job. If people really care about you, then they'll want you to be happy however that means, and I have a lot of people who care about me. Who'd a thunk??

Best Cities: (this is hard)

• San Francisco
• San Antonio
• Chicago
• Memphis
• Nashville
• Vegas

Least Favorite cities (still glad to see them though):

• Houston
• Minneapolis

Moments that are burned in memory: (the most vivid, too many to mention)

• seeing wild herds of elk and bison in Yellowstone
• watching sunset over Yosemite Valley on my own cliff
• PUTTING MY FEET IN THE PACIFIC (Ocean Beach, CA)
• getting dressy for a night out in Las Vegas
• Dangling my feet over the Grand Canyon
• Hiking to my own pool in Zion
• watching a thunderstorm over Monument Valley
• Spelunking into the darkness in Carlsbad
• sitting on my own hill for the sunset in Big Bend
• drinking and dancing in the street in New Orleans
• listening to the reincarnation of Aretha in Memphis
• seeing Jake Owen by accident in Nashville

Final Mileage:

10,531.6

Thanks guys. This has been the best thing I've ever done, and now, I feel like I'm really at exactly where I want to be.

Day 30 & 31 - Nashville, TN - Gatlinburg, TN - Richmond, VA

So the trip has basically ended, it's sunday night and I'm back home. Sorry about not being able to post everybody, my last hotel in Gatlinburg didn't have working internet it seemed and when I went home to see the folks I really didn't have time. My new job starts tomorrow morning and I'm really excited to be getting on with a real career that I never dreamed I'd have. It's sounds amazingly corny, I know, but after seeing so much of this country you can't imagine how proud I am to be working for it. I'm sure that my greenness (greeness?) will fade soon but for right now I'm grinning ear to ear. I'll save a lot of the final wrapping up thoughts for a post tomorrow, just an overall lessons etc. kinda thing, so I'll keep this post to the last couple of days of my trip.

So pretty early I left Nashville, no hangover or anything, I didn't drink that much at the music places even though the beer was a buck. Sometimes if you're having a great time just listening, you don't want anything to dull it, so a buck or not, I only had a couple. Anyway, I knew that I'd have enough time during the day to basically do one Nashville thing really well. I had thought about going to the Country Music Hall of Fame or something like that, but what I ended up choosing was the Jack Daniels Factory which is about an hour southeast. Lynchburg, TN has pretty much nothing else, but it's a big draw - somewhere around 200,000 people take the tour each year. It was a really neat thing to see, apparently JD is the number one whiskey in the world and all of it is made in that 20 acre complex. They took us through the whole process from making the charcoal that its filtered through, distillation, maturation, even bottling. The whole thing took about two hours and you really did get a good appreciation for what goes into making the stuff. Here's an interesting little tidbit too, so a lot of the flavor of JD comes from the barrels and the reason that the wood gives off so much flavor is that they're only used once. One barrel is made for one batch and thats it. Because of that JD is the country's largest barrel maker; about 90% of the barrels you see cut in half and sold at Wal-Mart as planters are JD barrels, as are the barrels that a lot of wineries use and so on. They also showed us the natural spring that the whole plant is built around, its the source of all of the water thats used to make the 140 proof stuff at the end of the distillation process 80 proof. In some ways though, the best part came at the end of the tour, JD ice cream. As bizarre and gross as that may sound, let me assure you, seriously this is the best ice cream I've ever had. Holy crap, you have to taste it some day. If I was a little more of a redneck, I'd have gotten the t-shirts and all...but with the new job I'd rather not advertise myself as an alkie.

Anyway, after that, it was back on the road heading east to the smokies. As a lot of you know, this is about my favorite place on earth. Now I've seen a lot of amazing places in the last month and I want to thank those of you who've been keeping up with me, it's been great to know that I wasn't only writing to myself. That being said, nothing has lessened my love for the Smokies. They're not anywhere near as awe-inspiring as some of the huge Rocky mountains but they're so alive. Everywhere, even at this time of year was green with flowers and streams all over. It's so different than the West that you just cant compare them fairly. I got there fairly late, about 8:30 and had ribs at Calhouns, which has the best ribs in the country I can safely say (ask Alex, he knows). After that, it was off to bed, I knew I'd need to wake up early since I wanted to spend a little time in the park and make it to Richmond before too late.

The next morning, I got up about 8am and headed straight for the park. I knew I was pressed for time, so this visit was just enough to get a sample and head out. Mingus Mill is the hike that I chose, an old time grist mill from the 1880's with a stream that you can walk along for most of a mile. This was about the perfect time of year too, the wildflowers were out in force which meant that the Monarchs were too. Something about the whole area just seems magical to me, which is why I keep taking friends down there. I'll actually be back for Memorial day weekend with my folks, which was another reason that I wasn't but so broken up to leave quickly. I'd be back soon and my mountains would still be there.

Six hours, thats about what it is back to Richmond or D.C. since it's pretty much equidistant. I knew that I wanted to see my folks before I started the big job, they've been a big help throughout the whole trip, especially out West. I got a big welcome of course, and for the first time I was able to go through all my photos (about 900) and do an hour narrative through the whole trip. I won't bore you all with that unless you want me to, but as I was talking through it I really realized how much of an amazing, life changing ride this has been; I do feel like a different person. But I'll save that for tomorrow.

Day 29 - Memphis, TN - Nashville, TN

Let me just say, I love the south. Not that every place doesn't have its own problems, but everything seems so laidback here. Maybe its the southern twang or the fact that everyone is wearing either flip flops or cowboy boots, it's just a really nice vibe.

Pretty early I woke up and got out of the hotel because I wasn't quite done with Memphis yet. I had to go to Graceland. Even though I'm not the biggest Elvis fan, some of his stuff is pretty good, it's as much a part of America as anything on the mall. It was actually pretty fun, its not that big of a house actually. But as much as anything else, it's a museum to 70's style. The jungle room especially is pretty awesome, green shag carpet, faux fur sofas, fake jungle plants and a waterfall wall. After going through the tour and hearing about his life and all he did, his grave was actually pretty moving. Even though he isn't exactly my favorite singer, he certainly changed the world so you have to show your respect.

After Graceland it was on to Nashville. So I'm actually a fairly big country music fan...but my hatred of Toby Keith sometimes overshadows that. I dunno, something about him just annoys the living crap and since it seems that he's all you hear on the radio, I end up not listening to much country. That being said, I was really excited to reach 'music row' otherwise known as lower Broadway. I really just expected to see a few guys playing and have a beer or two. Turns out it was the night of the monthly listener appreciation concert at the Hard Rock. The whole restaurant had maybe 150 people in it as Jake Owen gave an acoustic concert. For those of you who haven't heard of him (I hadn't.) he's actually pretty famous, his CD is on the billboard top 100 right now already gold. He was just awesome, I watched the whole thing and bought the CD the second they offered it. It's great too when you see an artist who is obviously so happy to be where he is, he stayed to give an autograph to everyone and take pictures. So he has a new fan. After that, I headed across the street and watched these amazing guys play old time bluegrass for two hours. These guys were great too, and all of it was free! (well except for the $1 PBR's)

I got back to the hotel fairly late but I feel pretty confident that I got a great slice of Music City. Now it's on to the mountains and eventually home.

Day 28 - New Orleans, LA - Memphis, TN

So apparently motel 6 of downtown Memphis has been having wireless internet issues, hence me not being able to post yesterday. I had thought about doing it last night right when I got to Nashville, but honestly it was about 6 and I was already burning daylight in a really great place. So I'm going to attempt to post now for both days, becuase holy crap a lot has happened and New Orleans is a long way back (more than 600 miles actually).

After waking up at 10 after the night on Bourbon street (I think thats pretty respectable.) I headed out to go around the French quarter a little bit before heading to Tennessee. When I was touring the city during the day, I did see more of the damage than I had before. Even though for the most part the 'city' wasn't affected as much, if you look a little closer you can pretty quickly see signs of what happened. Randomly I'd notice that every few buildings still had boarded up windows or was abandoned. There are still ravaged homes that obviously just haven't been reclaimed even in the quarter. I struck up a conversation with a local, as I usually try to do and we got to talking about the hurricane. He made a really good point, he was saying that people in New Orleans (at least him) generally disliked the question of whether or not some places would be 'rebuilt.' Something I hadn't really thought of because you always hear of the rebuilding effort, but whats the point of rebuilding a house for someone who doesn't plan on coming back? Most of the affected areas that are still streets of rubble were populated by the lowest economic brackets. Those people, generally have nothing in New Orleans to go back to and many have restarted in Houston or wherever they happened to end up. New Orleans is almost like a kid wearing his dad's shirt, there's way too much city for the amount of people still here. Now that's not to say that there aren't FEMA trailer parks in a lot of places, but 'rebuilding' will only happen at the rate that people come back and therefore give a reason to build at all.

Anyway, after getting my HRC pin I headed on to Memphis. It took most of the afternoon, they're about 350 miles apart. I got there about 7pm, a nice Motel 6 about 15 minutes walk from the entertainment district. This is another place that's just about too much fun. The more southern/western cities I go to, the more I realize how much of an anomaly Houston is. Beale street is almost as hopping as Bourbon street. Tons of bars and restaurants, all with open doors and live music spilling out onto the street. It just so happened too that Wednesday night is Beale Street Bike Night, which meant that at least 1000 motorcycles were parked along the road. I'm not generally a bike head but some of these were pretty awesome customs and Harleys. Anyway, after walking around a while, I settled in the Rum Boogie Cafe and had about the best ribs of my life. The music was great too, this woman on stage was channeling Aretha it seemed. I was there until almost 1am before she was done. I don't know how her voice held out but I could have watched her for hours. Free shows, yee haa.

So thats Wednesday, time to keep heading home, towards Nashville.

Day 27 - Houston, TX - New Orleans, LA

So Houston is definitely an island of boring among a sea of awesome I think. Two hundred miles west, San Antonio and Cowboy Culture, two hundred fifty miles east New Orleans and a constant party. I guess Houston is where everyone goes to work and then goes other places for excitement. Houston is also a place of transition I guess, I mean I know that in San Antonio I was in the 'West' and once you hit the Louisiana border you're definitely in the 'South.' The feeling is entirely different, yet Houston seemed like neither.

Anyway, so this morning I got a little bit of a late start but that was fine, I wasn't really planning on doing anything else in Houston just heading out to New Orleans. It took me almost an hour to get out of the Houston suburbs, even without traffic. A little bit after noon, I reached the Louisiana border. Within ten minutes I saw a sign for 'Crocodile Charlies' a cajun restaurant with a lunch buffet. Now let me say, I'm not generally a fan of buffets but in the case of a type of food that I'm not real familiar with, its great to be able to try so many different things. Holy crap in a bag it was about the best food I'd ever had. Not only that, but I was assured that I had entered the south because my waitress Candice, referred to me as "shug," and "sweetheart." Southern twang like whoa and a pat on the back before I left. Crocodile nuggets, boiled crawfish, jambalaya, gumbo...I really need to learn how to cook this stuff.

The drive was actually pretty cool. I was going on I-10 over the Atchafalaya Basin. I'd never heard of it before about two months ago when there was reference to it in the book World War Z (great book btw). For about thirty miles, the freeway is three stories over rivers and swamps. It's like a neverending bridge but you'd better hope you have gas because obviously there's nowhere to stop. Eventually I reached the outskirts of New Orleans. I'd expected decimation, but instead I just saw a lot of new construction. There were a few boarded up windows still but nothing too bad. It wasn't until I got off of the interstate, about 3 miles from the hotel that I really saw the affected areas. Whole streets where not a single house looked sturdy. Rubble in the streets, every window boarded up. I don't think I was actually driving through the 9th ward but still, it didn't look a lot different than it did a couple of years ago. It was a little eerie too, driving on the I-10 over the city, if you remember thats where thousands of refugees were stuck for days. It was funny though, I'll bet that if you took the right way into the city from the airport, you could probably completely forget that anything ever happened here.

The French quarter was just as vibrant and fun as it ever was, well I assume anyway. Granted it was a Tuesday but still that place was hopping. The whole area is really beautiful in an old ragged way. That might not make much sense, but its the opposite of so many 'clean' places that seem sanitary and dead. This place was kinda dirty, I'll be honest, but it was so alive and had so much character to it. The buildings were covered in wrought iron railings and balconies. Bourbon street is just one ongoing party. No place charges covers and almost all of them have live music. You can just walk from club to bar to club, holding your drink, listening to music and having a good time. I never felt uncomfortable or like I was in a dangerous area, there were certainly enough cops in case anything got too out of hand. I think I was out until about 2am, mostly watching these guys who were putting on a jazz show in 'The Blue Bayou." I had just an awesome time, and I'm very glad that I know my limit very well. Not only is it cheaper to only have three, but watching some of the people at the end of the night, you could almost feel their hangovers in the morning. No thank you.

So tomorrow I'll be doing a few things around here and ending up in Memphis, TN. It's a good thing that I'll have a gym where I'll be working...I don't know how much more Southern food my 32" jeans can take.

Day 26 - San Antonio, TX - Houston, TX

It's amazing how different two cities can be that are so close together. I've had an amazing time in pretty much every place that I've been to, including here of course. Sometimes its because of the activity, and sometimes it's just that I've been able to fill in a puzzle piece of this country. It can be really interesting seeing how the culture of a place can be defined by when it sprung up, its geography or its population. San Antonio is about as vibrant of a place as you can possibly find. Everywhere is the smell of enchiladas and churros and people are constantly out enjoying their city. I spent the morning actually going around 'El Mercado,' a big open flea market selling just about everything. It was a ton of fun, getting to bargain with the vendors and getting a few pretty cool things. Of course, I had lunch before I left, Fajitas. It's a good thing that Gene isn't here, if you're not a Mexican food fanatic, you're kinda SOL. Lucky for me, I can have it pretty much every meal and be as happy as can be.

After lunch, I headed on to Houston. To give you and idea of geography, San Antonio is a little bit south of the very center of Texas, Houston is about 200 miles ESE. It's not quite on the water, that's Galveston, but it's pretty close. It's our nations fourth largest city, after Chicago, DC is fifth I believe. Of course that's depending on how you measure population, the 'city of Houston' is kind of like the 'city of Los Angeles' in that it's larger than some states and therefore it's a little unfair to compare it to the 'city of Washington, D.C.' since D.C. is a very small area. Anyway, either way, big city. Certainly the biggest single city in Texas. It shows, Houston kinda starts about 40 miles out. It just keeps going and going. I'm actually staying near 'Reliant Stadium' in a real nice hotel that Priceline got for me. So last night I went out and took their little light rail (there's only one line) downtown. So I'm certainly glad I came but I'm glad that I didn't plan on but so much time here. As it is, I think about one night is good enough. This city is just big, it kinda seems lifeless. Maybe that's in comparison to San Antonio. But walking around downtown there were huge skyscrapers but hardly any people. All of the restaurants and shops were chains and I even looked online at nightspots and they're all in outlying suburbs and randomly assorted. There's no streets like 18th in Adam's Morgan or Market Street in San Francisco, apparently part of that also has to do with a little anomaly in Houston law in that there are no zoning laws. So things get built where they're found necssary. So there's no natural reason for similar businesses to group. Anyway walking around downtown was pretty fun, huge building, and bizarre architecture. I couldn't get a good picture of it before it got too dark, but theres actually a skyscraper with a Mayan temple on top??? Not just looks like one, but is a replica of one...quois? Anyway, I had dinner at the Hard Rock because nothing else really stood out as a 'Houston experience.' I forget that that place actually has really great food. Same everywhere, but really great honestly. I got back to the room about 11 and went to bed.

Now its off to New Orleans or whatever is left of it.

Day 25 - Fort Stockton, TX - San Antonio, TX

o you're probably noticing that this is somewhat late, sorry about that. Unfortunately the hotel last night kinda lied. I can't complain too much since I was staying in more or less downtown San Antonio for $35, but they had said that there was 'high speed internet in the room.' What this actually meant was that there was a computer in my room connected to the internet but SO OLD (seriously like, when I was in middle school kinda old) that it was pretty much impossible to use and since the internet was connected to its IP, no dice. So here I am, about 4pm just checked into my hotel in Houston and I'll post about yesterday and leave my thoughts so far today for the next post.

Anyhow, other than for internet issues, San Antonio has to be one of the coolest cities in the US. I've been finding that each city has a character of its own, San Antonio is just a fun, laidback place. It's big enough that there is a decent sized downtown with lots of restaurants and shops yet not so big as to make driving and negotiating the city stressful. For those of you who haven't been here, the cruz of downtown is known as the riverwalk. Basically, its a canal that runs through downtown from the main artery of the San Antonio river. The sides of the canal are kept like a botanical garden: flowers, trees, sidewalks and waterfalls. In certain areas of the riverwalk (it's about 3 miles all told) there are dozens of restaurants, bars and shops. It's a really neat setting for dinner or drinks and just a fun place to walk around in general. I'm fully aware that I'm here at the best possible time, it apparently gets pretty hot here, but still in the evenings of summer its can't be too bad. The other great things about San Antonio are that it's cheap, and the food is amazing (and cheap, woot).

So you've probably read that I've been eating at a lot of 24 hour diners. Nothing against them, but after a while the food leaves something to be desired. I haven't had a really great meal since Vegas, not that anything was bad just not memorable...fuel so to speak. Well, San Antonio more than made up for it. First, early in the afternoon I sampled a Texas institution, Blue Bell ice cream. Seriously, this is the best stuff ever created by man...especially Birthday Cake ice cream. It's probably a good thing for my waistline that I don't actually live here. So after walking around the riverwalk for a few hours and taking a fun little riverboat tour, I went to the oldest restaurant on the riverwalk, Casa Rio. This place was built in 1946 and still owned by the same family, the guy on the boat told me that it was the best deal in the area. Holy crap he wasn't kidding. Seven dollars bought two enchiladas, a tamale, rice, beans, a beef taco, and half of a plate of cheese nachos. I could eat maybe half of it. Four dollars went to a fifteen ounce Cuervo margarita. Seriously, not only was there a ton of it but it was about the best Mexican I'd ever had. There were actually mariachi's walking around the restuarant too so I got the whole Tex-Mex experience. Pretty great for $13 after tip. I had to laugh though, this riverwalk happens to be what Richmond's canalwalk is based on. You know that ditch on the edge of downtown?? Yeah, that. See San Antonio not only has a very different culture, but also the city got businesses to agree to build before they made the canal as pretty as it is. So instead of just dumping millions into a ditch, they knew that there would be some reason for people to go there. Good job San Antonio, why you so stupid Richmond??

Anyway, on to Houston and eventually the Big Easy.