JRadhirsch

Day 37: On The Home Again, I just can't wait to get on the home again

JRadhirsch — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We stopped for breakfast at an amazing truck stop on our way back home to Oakland recommended by a book I bought in Chicago called Roadfood. The book has been hit or miss, but this one was a hit. 24hr restaurant, velvet painting gallery, western store, and fiberglass dinosaur park all in one. Yee Ha! Just before the trip started I was talking to my friend Scott about Monte Cristo sandwiches. Ham, cheese and Turkey separated by three pieces of bread, egg battered, deep fried, and sprinkled with confectioners sugar. Today I had one. For breakfast.

We took I-5 the whole way home. I-5 is by far the most boring road in the country. I would know. There is nothing on that drive but farm after farm and then you get to Cowschwitz. Thousands of cows waiting to be turned into yummy steaks and hamburger. Gross. Yum. Gross. Yum. I can't decide, but am hungry.

We drove all the way to Oakland and decided to stop for dinner at my favorite Laotian restaurant (What ocean? Laotian.)Champa Garden

And then I drove home and stroked Peanut for a good long while.
Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do with my life. Wish me luck.

Day 36: Joshua Tree

JRadhirsch — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We woke up this morning on route 66. My iphone has a bug when it comes to some pictures sometimes screws them up and makes them unusable, but sometimes it does this:

Anyhoo,

We drove through the Colorado and Mojave Deserts on our way to Joshua Tree National Park. Crossing the California State line was fun. I was home, but not really. Northern, Southern and Central California really are different states in mindset, but as I learned on this trip, each state has its different areas and the lines drawn between municipalities are arbitrary. We love to draw the lines for political and monetary reasons, but the lines get really blurry psychologically. We'll fight to the death to defend them, but it seems so silly.

Joshua Tree is an alien landscape. The "trees" blur the lines between tree and plant. Joshua Trees are Yuccas. A Yucca is not a tree, but a Joshua Tree is.

They are alien looking. Add that to the crazy jumble of boulders and rocks and you have the background of a Star Trek episode. We climbed and hiked for a bit, but mostly drove around in awe of our surroundings.

In a weird bit of irony, the camp site we chose turned out to be the same site that Heather and I camped in 8 years ago while on our Honeymoon. I didn't realize it at the time, but hiking around the area suddenly brought on the type of Deja Vu that isn't imaginary. What's the significance of that do you think? I choose too see it positively. Heather and I had 12 years of joy and this was one of those joyous places. Maybe the universe wants to give me a second shot at life long happiness. So far so good.

Here's a ring shot. I couldn't get it to focus, but its at least a visual.

And here's us being cute with our shadows

Day 35: The road home

JRadhirsch — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We're in love. It's true.

We shipped out of Albuquerque unclear of our destination for the day, but very clear about the destination for our lives.

I tried unsuccessfully to find a Couch Surfing host in Flagstaff, AZ, so we drove until we didn't. Catching a highway sign somewhere in New Mexico for an Ice Cave called Fire and Ice, we pulled off and drove 20 Miles down a scenic road to a family run attraction at the base of a volcano.

For 9 dollars, we hiked to the top of a volcano and then hiked down to a collapsed lava tube that had the right conditions to make an ice cave.

I love these volcanic landscapes. You may remember near the start of my trip that I went to another Ice Cave in Idaho. This one was smaller, but its the black volcanic rock and the life that grows there that I love and jumped at the chance to share with Justine.

We drove through New Mexico, into Arizona, and passed Flagstaff to a Route 66 town called Seligman for the night in a nice motel.

Day 34: She Does!

JRadhirsch — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Well, the big day was here at last. What? You didn't know there was a big day? Well, there was, but it was a secret. Two and a half years ago I met this wonderful woman who introduced herself as Sparkle Bottom. I said "I bet you are" I learned quickly that her name was also Justine Smith and she is that too. I was wearing an electric orange fun fur coat, a Fox eared hat, bright orange glasses and ice skates. She was wearing a hot pink psychedelic spandex jumpsuit and was lacing up thigh high white pvc boots. I was also on a date with someone else. We shared a few compliments and realized that we had exchanged emails on tribe.net a few weeks before about an event that I was helping organize. I excused myself as I didn't want to be rude to my date and she found that charming.
A few days later we were chatting online and soon she was on her way down to San Francisco on a regular basis to visit with me. She was just getting out of a long term relationship, graduating from UC Davis and looking forward to moving to San Francisco having reinvented herself as a responsibly hedonistic landscape architect. I helped her move into her apartment, though she wound up staying there rarely and instead slept at my apartment in Oakland, would drive with me into the city every morning and gal around town until it was time for me to drive home.
She eventually moved to Oakland, though not to my apartment and she saw very little of her Oakland apartment as well. She and I officially moved in together in October of last year and have been living an idyllic life ever since.

Justine and I share a passion for passions. She's a geek about plants and living things. I'm a geek about a rotating list of too many things to list here. We feed off of each other's fascinations on a daily basis. She laughs at my jokes no matter how old they get and I love it when she gets crafty.

I am madly in love with this woman. How is it that I have had the great fortune to have had two great loves in my life and that they loved me back with the same force and vigor? My relationship with Justine benefits from having learned valuable lessons from my relationship with Heather. I no longer need someone else to validate me(though it is nice). I no longer need to fix someone else(though I love her). She and I can walk through life as partners, side by side, sharing in each other's passions and sorrows.

About a month and a half ago I got word that my divorce was final. I picked up the phone, called my mother and got the ball rolling on asking Justine to marry me. I then called her parents to ask for their daughter's hand in marriage. They were giddy and excited. The plan that eventually developed was to have my mother and sister fly out to Albuquerque (where her parents live) under the guise that they were there for the International Balloon Fiesta, one of Justine's favorite events. While I was in New York, Sandy Mionis, a very dear friend of my mothers, somewhat of an aunt to me and a jeweler selected a handful of antique engagement rings for me to look at. It was a tough process as I wanted something simple and antique looking, but kept coming back to this deco star burst ring which was so radiant that I couldn't pass it up. Sandy had my grandmother's engagement diamond set in it 24 hours later and my mother wore it on her hand on the plane ride to New Mexico.

This morning we all got up around 5 am and dragged ourselves to a parking lot where we boarded a school bus that took us to the fairgrounds where 700 hot air balloons were rolling out and beginning to inflate with air. There is nothing quite like standing in a field with 100,000 other people all weaving their way through miles of multi colored fabric with the sun rising, teams of balloonists preparing their hundred foot tall envelopes of propane fueled air. There were balloons in various stages of ascent all morning long. Long rows of them, 30 or more side by side- some rows beginning life as flapping fabric filling up with cold air from large industrial sized fans, their baskets laying on their side, other rows billowing mounds of ever expanding kaleidoscopes of color. They crowd each other as they grow a hundred feet tall, breathing to life as plumes of fire are shot up deep inside of them until they reach that balance point of air pressure. They float off the ground slightly as the team makes final preparations and then in a cheer each one goes up and up and up, filling the sky with rainbows, castles, stars, Darth Vader helmets, advertising slogans, and cartoon characters. It's intense. For three hours they continue to fill up, lift off and then join in the grand march of hundreds of others down the canyon, getting smaller as they get further away only to be replaced with dozens of other balloons seconds later.

At the peak of the fiesta, at its most intense, I turned to Justine and said "Isn't this Amazing?" looking away at some new balloon getting ready to lift off, she replied "Yeah!" I said "I have something that will make it even more amazing" and pulled out the ring box. She looked at me somewhat puzzled, caught a glimpse of the ring as I said "Will you marry me?" Completely overwhelmed (which is her favorite thing to be,) tears welling up, she mouthed yes. We laughed and cried, our families cried and laughed all crowding into each other creating a moment of intimacy amongst a throng of sensory overload.

The rest of the Balloon fiesta was a blur, but it didn't matter. We were in love and excited for our future. I don't remember much of the rest of the day. We went for breakfast, went home, passed out, woke up later that afternoon, shared a champagne toast, eat some steak, tried to go see the night balloon event, though it was canceled due to rain, watched All of Me, and fell asleep, all giddy and ebullient.

Here, look at these pictures.

Day 33: Tex Mex

JRadhirsch — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

My mother brought bagels from New York and I went out to get lox for them. We ate breakfast around the dining room table all the while making yummy sounds. I had forgotten to get the cream cheese while at the sotre and we learned that fig flavored goat cheese makes an excellent substitute.

Today was a bit o the lazy side as it was more about the getting to know yous than anything else, however we did manage to get in some good local food and quality local artist shopping. When my folks and sister were here 14 years ago they developed a taste for Sopapillas, a fried sweet dough that you serve hot and fill with honey. We looked up on the iphone the best place to go and drove to Garcia's kitchen for some authenic New Mexican food.

Never has a state name told me more about a cuisune than New Mexico. The food was Mexican, but new. There are no such things as sopapillas in Mexico, they also have their own versions of most "traditional" dishes and we all enjoyed each dish that we ordered. Here is my mom, Judy (on the left) and Justine's mom, Elizabeth (on the right) just before we tore into the sweet dough in front of us.

We then drove over to 4th street where I immediately found a hat shop and we all tried on our western versions of hat wear. Justine and I both got hats there, though I thought everyone should have come away with a hat. It was more dress up for them than serious shopping, but all had fun and I got another hat to add to the wall.

Across the street was a wholesale Navajo artisan shop which sparkled, shined and ran away with our money. We each bought something special and played dress up yet again, only this time nearly everyone bought something to adorn themselves or others. They also had a series of Navajo dolls and I took a fancy to a series of the them called Watermelon Clowns. Here's a close up of one of the faces. the rest of the photos I took of them came out too blurry to use here. I need to do more research into the significance of them.

We closed the shop down and then wandered across the street to an art gallery featuring the works of some acquaintances of Elzabeth's and Neil's. Really beautiful work. Here's Neil and I (wearing my new hat)

We leave early tomorrow morning (5am!) to catch the a shuttle over to the Balloon Fiesta. I can't wait. In more than one way ;) Some of you know why, the rest will hopefully find out tomorrow. Stay tuned. It should be exciting.

Day 32: The Texas Pan Handle

JRadhirsch — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The area surrounding Amarillo Texas is pretty sparse. What there is however are a few roadside attractions based around burying vehicles up to their dashboards at a 45 degree angle and letting people spray paint them. The first and most famous of these is called Cadillac Ranch.

There are at least two copycat attractions in the area, though we only got to see one of them- the VW Slug Bug Ranch

There is also one featuring Combine Harvesters, though we missed that one. They are low brow art at their finest. They celebrate what they are burying by featuring them in a different light to draw your attention to them, then they allow you the visitor to partake in the art of them by decorating them however you please. This mostly takes the shape of writing your name and the year you visited, but that's just as valuable to the more "artistic" contributions made for we give greater value to artistic works when someone signs and dates it. It's such a human thing to do- To leave our mark; To say I was here. I opted for some stripes in fluorescent pink from a can left over by some other American artist circa 2008. I'm sure Jon n' Harriet 10/08 will be covering it shortly.

We stayed with a really awesome Couch Surfing host named Carl in his house just outside of Amarillo. Carl grew up in the pan handle of Texas and loves to take road trips like the one we are on. We did what we seem to do will every couch surfer we stay with- swap stories. He tipped us off to Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest Canyon in the US, second only to the Grand Canyon which we hit in the morning. Carl has a really sweet Pug mutt named Buddy and Justine and him got some serious bonding in.

Carl was great and I hope he comes to stay with us in Oakland on his next trip. We shoed him some pictures of Burning Man and I think we'll be seeing him on the playa in the near future.

On our way out of Texas we went to the canyon which was beautiful as advertised. We hiked a lovely mile long trail and back and took in some serious pretty.

All through the day we were followed by vintage Jaguars with right side steering wheels and British plates. After stopping our car in a lookout in the canyon, we got to talking with some of the drivers of said foreign vehicles and learned that they were part of a 60 car caravan of British Jaguar enthusiasts who shipped their cars from London to Chicago and were driving Route 66 from Chicago to LA. Brilliant.

We got to Albuquerque and were greeted by Justine's parents whom I adore and love learning from. We had dinner, petted their cat Blacky Browny and then drove to the Airport to pick up my mother and sister. The introductions went very well as assumed and then we all retired for the night.

Day 31: To be, or.....

JRadhirsch — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I woke up early in the cabin with an epiphany about my future and what this whole bar thing really wants to be. I've been wrestling with what shape the bar should take for what I want is not actually a bar, but a creative space for my hedonistic friends to hang out in and the only way I can figure out how to make that financially viable is to sell booze. When talking with The owner of a former bar called The Odeon in San Francisco which is serving as a bit of inspiration for my bar-to-be I asked him why he decided to close it down. He told me that he was tired of watching his friends turn into alcoholics. This is a real issue for me. I myself have a slight allergy to alcohol, never developed the taste for it and have noticed a shortness of patience with drunks. I like my hedonism to be in the responsible category and I think that a lot of people use Alcohol to numb themselves to life instead of using it to free themselves of their mental barriers to creativity. I want a place that sponsors creativity, not numbs it. How then to open a profitable bar that turns away serious drinkers? I realized in my sleep that what I want is not a bar, but a living and breathing creative think tank that includes amongst other things artist studios, industrial arts space, public performance spaces, event spaces, and, oh yes, a bar that serves as town hall, conference room, and gallery. It's sort of crazy, but it hit me that I was thinking too small about what I want my future to look like and that I needed to harness the energies of my friends looking for something new, take advantage of the economic downturn's effects on the commercial real estate market as well as the spate of closings of some of the better known underground artists spaces in the Bay Area. There is so much more to be said, but I have faith and for now that's all I need.

Okay, back to my trip. The one involving my car, Justine and the road.

Oklahoma City looks so so pretty goes the song Take a Trip on Route 66 and it really is a pretty city. Tired of pounds of pork laced in tangy smoky sauce and the fat stewed vegetables that accompany it, we opted instead for Sushi for lunch. In Oklahoma of all places. The trusted knowledge box found us a great place to satisfy our raw fish craving and we were well satisfied. We then took a dime tour through Oklahoma City and found their botanical garden called the crystal bridge which is an I.M. Pei designed tube shaped building that hovers over a man made river side park

complete with minimalist Shakespearean stage

We wandered around the park for a while and then headed for Amarillo, TX

Day 30: I miss Bill

JRadhirsch — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Today began a sort of mad dash across the Southwest. The days of 4 hour dives between cities and of taking 2 lane roads are over and we are on a mission to get to Albuquerque by Thursday night so that we can be there when my mother and sister arrive in prep for the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta Saturday morning. It's the meeting of the mothers and Justine and I want to be there for it.

Our only stop of the day was in Little Rock, Arkansas to visit the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. By act of Congress each President since the 70s must provide a place for the collection of presidential papers, speeches and other supporting documents in a library setting designed for research. Congress won't fund these libraries, but you got to have them, so in order to raise the funds to keep them going, each president has opted to erect a museum to his stay in the White House and the admission fee combined with private donations pay for them.

The Bill Clinton Museum is an open love letter to Slick Willy. I loved Clinton, wished that Gore (and when not him, Kerry) could have replaced him, but this museum was one big cigar in his lovely lady parts. There was no mention of Monika, nor any disparaging comment about his presidency. It was solid propaganda all the way through. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was a little more balanced in my mind. That said, there was plenty of fascinating history, beautiful displays of some of the presidential gifts he received

and a replica of the Oval Office as he had it, complete with the histories and symbolism of his furnishings.

We got to listen to Billy himself give us an audio tour of the museum and there was an impressive yet odd curated display of Chopper style motorcycles that nothing to do with Clinton spread throughout the museum.

After the museum we drove around Little Rock a bit looking for aplace to eat and settled on The Flying Fish, a southern fried fish place with any number of combinations of catfish, shrimps, oysters, mussels or hush puppies deep fried in cornmeal batter.

On the walls were an extensive collection of "Big Mouth Billy Bass" animatronic singing fishes. No doubt if you remember them you are shuttering right now at the thought of one of them crooning Take Me To The River and Don't Worry Be Happy. Thankfully these all had their batteries removed and I think this was to serve as a graveyard for them. Apparently they will give a basket of catfish to anyone who brings in their novelty plaque for display and retirement in the restaurant.

We also visited the Clinton museum store which was next door and bought a few choice items.

Hopping back in the car we drove through the state of Arkansas and stopped for the night in Ten Killer State Park just past he Oklahoma border.

We secured a beautiful cabin in the park, eat a dinner consisting of Tasty Bites and Dolmas, and then passed out for the night.

Day 29: A hunk, a hunk of burning love

JRadhirsch — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Graceland Self Portrait

Elvis Lives!

Graceland is everything you would hope it would be. I'm sort of blogged out at the moment, but I'll say that it's big, gaudy, fabulous, ridiculous, sweet, sincere, and surprisingly authentic. Here are a few shots I took.

It took up most of our day and we were left with no time to do anything else in Memphis except.....that's right......eat more BBQ. Interstate BBQ, famous for it's Pork Shoulder sandwiches and BBQ Spaghetti.

Interstate BBQ

God I love pork. I'm a terrible Jew.

We hopped back in our car and sped our way towards the famous Peabody hotel in downtown Memphis.

Peabody Hotel

Famous for it's daily parade of Ducks. The Duckmaster leads a flock of 6 trained ducks from their penthouse suite, down the elevator and into the fountain in the lobby at 11am and then back again at 5pm. The ducks hang out all day in the fountain and the whole hotel is decorated in Duck fashion including this bug eyed guy in their gift shop

Peabody Hotel Duck

I didn't get a good picture of the actual ducks, so you'll have to use your imagination, or better yet, look it up online. I'm sure there are thousands of photos on the interwebs.

We got back to Matt's place and set about updating our blogs and looking for lodging for the next few days. Tomorrow we head to Oklahoma through Little Rock, Arkansas and are looking for a cabin in a state park to stay in. Following that we will be staying in Amarillo, TX and then on to Justine's parents hours in Albuquerque. The gas shortage seems to have passed and we never got close to running out. Amen. Here's a picture taken moments ago of Eva, the cat at Matt's apartment enjoying the taste of BBQ on my beard.

Eva enjoying BBQ

Peanut will be jealous. Don't show this to her.

Day 28: We're going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee

JRadhirsch — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

One of the ubiquitous signs along the roads in the South is for Waffle House. I've been far more willing to eat in franchise restaurants if I feel that it is part of the local culture and want to immerse myself in that culture. This morning presented the perfect opportunity to do so. We had another 3 hour drive day and could afford to stop for breakfast. Pretty good. Not great, but certainly southern. The waitress was super nice to us and when Justine asked her if they sold their mugs, she shifted her eyes back and forth and asked how much it was worth to us. She packaged one up for us all stealth like and we left her a big tip.

We took more small roads into Memphis playing Elvis songs all the way, but starting out with Paul Simon's Graceland. I actually cried as I passed signs headed for Memphis. When Heather and I drove cross country a decade ago, the one place on her list that she REALLY wanted to see was Graceland. I convinced her that it was too far out of the way and never went. Now I'm headed to the home of Elvis without her and I feel guilty about it, but really excited all the same. We met up with our couchsurfing host Matt in Memphis and even though he had only lived in town for a month, gave us a great tour.We went for ribs at Central BBQ which features a dry rub instead of a wet rub which had been the norm up until that point

They also featured BBQ nachos. I'm going to need to do a cleanse when I get back, either that or get a colonic. maybe both. We ended up going down Beale Street and catching a few live acts, the best of which was a big band rehearsing for a Christmas gig.

The STAX logo was from the now defunct STAX records and displayed in a joint on Beale Street. We also listened to a great cover band that did a lot of Johnny Cash tunes mixed in with other southern songs and walked into Tater Red's Lucky Mojos and Voodoo Healings.

a sort of novelty shop/voodoo shop. A different shop on Beale sold these denture shaped ice cube trays. Brilliant.

Denture Ice Cubes

The same shop sold me a beaded American Flag vest. I can't wait to show it off. It's ridiculous.

Day 27: Wrecked by breakfast followed by a religious experience

JRadhirsch — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We arrived in Nashville last night and had quite the welcome to Nashville experience. Martin, our couch surfing host has a house boat which we had solo use of for the time we spent in Nashville. Our own house boat!

Here's my iphone working its gps magic to show you where on Percy Priest Lake we were

and where specifically on the dock we were

Sweet. We arrived about an hour before we were supposed to meet up with him and were adopted by other residents of the docks. We talked a little bit of politics as the debate was about to start (they are all mostly Republicans,) but then switched the topic to Football. The Titans are a much loved team in Nashville and they are doing really well this year after having the promise of a good team for years and never fulfilling on it. After meeting Martin an hour later, we were introduced to the residents of Dock D around his boat who we would end up partying through the night with. The Marina has a local restaurant and outdoor performance space on a dock and one of the hottest local bands, the Red Neck Yacht Club played for hours.

They are a mixture of Bluegrass and honky tonk and rocked that dock something fierce. Dare I call it a ho-down? oh, I dare. We danced, clapped, and sang through the night, ignoring one apparently homophobic song with the lyrics: "I never gonna go to Brokeback mountain, that shit ain't right" We danced anyway, letting the politics brush pass us enjoying that they were enjoying and experiencing the other half as it were. It's one of the thing I wanted to experience on this road trip and I got to in the most fun way possible. I feel guilty writing about it, but it was an authentic event with authentic people who welcomed us in even knowing our politics.

We woke up the next morning to this view out the starboard window:

We snuggled for a long time in OUR VERY OWN HOUSE BOAT (sorry about that, it still excites me. I mean come on, our very own house boat? Couchsurfing is the best way to travel period. Handsdown. Pass Go, collect 2 hundred dollars. a houseboat.) and then went for breakfast at the famous Pancake Pantry located next to the Vandibilt campus. the ubiquitous line stretch for an hour or so and when we were seated couldn't stop ordering things.

Let me tell you about something called Country Ham. It's Bacon, but better. I don't know the anatomy of where it comes from, but it's a thick slice of meaty bacon with a healthy strip of fat down one side and salty good. Justine had 5 of the fluffiest blueberry pancakes (topped with homemade blueberry compote) and I had sweet potato pancakes with warm cinnamon syrup. We also ordered hash browns and grits to which prompted the table next to us to ask where we were from as I poured syrup on my grits. I "offended" his southern upbringing by using something other than butter and salt on them. I didn't care (he didn't really either) and ate them making yummy sounds. An hour later we were Wrecked by Breakfast (tm, Justine Smith, 2008) unable to move or motivate to do anything besides lay down in the park. Luckily for us, the second park we landed in had one of the symbols of Nashville: a full sized replica of the Parthenon.

once we had digested most of our breakfast, we decided to find the Grand Ole Opry. Wow. I had no idea. The owner closed Opryland theme park a decade ago to open the Opry Mills shopping Mall in its place and we were stunned by commerce. Inside the Mall is a Gibson guitar store and factory. Dad, this picture was taken for you of one of the work benches in the fiddle plant:

The opry was in performance that night, but we didn't have tickets. Next time I'm getting tickets. We instead opted for the gift shop and avoided spending hundreds of dollars on gaudy western wear and cowboy hats. Following that we found the Opry Museum and were awed by its history, prominence, and contributions to American culture (even if it wasn't my own culture) The get ups these guys sported rivaled Elvis and I can't believe that they weren't immediately kicked out for dressing so flamboyantly.

Later that night we got lost and then found the crunkest fish in town,East Side Fish.

We got there as they were closing and were only able to taste their fish sandwiched which were hand battered in cornmeal batter and deep friedn to a golden yum. While eating in our car we were approached by a black gentlemen evangelizing. I told him that we were Jewish which stopped him in his tracks and he then retreated only to return with a woman five minutes later with a question to ask: What did that mean, to be Jewish? The four of us then spent about half an hour talking about the finer points of Judaism and Christianity and the difference between the religions. They were fascinated and I in them. It was really beautiful and moving. Here we were at 10pm in a parking lot in the "wrong side" of town discussing spirituality. Us from California, them from Tennessee peering into each other's ideas of faith. They called our meeting heaven sent, I called it serendipity. It amounted to the same thing and they were able to appreciate where I came from and I them.

ah road trips. I love them so much

Day 26: Lost Luggage

JRadhirsch — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Today was going to be a short(er) drive of 3 hours so we opted to take the more scenic route and avoid the interstate all together. We drove through beautiful redneck country into northeastern Alabama to a small town called Scottsboro and stopped for the most amazing Fried Chicken at a local place called Liberty Restaurant.

The sweet potatoes, turnip greens, and string beans must have all been cooked with some form of pork fat and were delicious. It was here that we also had our first piece of Lemon Ice Box Pie- a less sweet Lemon Meringue minus the meringue. The locals at the restaurant gave us a few glances sideways, but the waitress and owner were really nice to us, having noticed our California license plate and wanting to insure we had a decent time in their little town. Decent it was. Better than decent. Only a on a cross country trip would I ever have the excuse to drive through rural Alabama. This is one of the many joys of the trip so far- seeing bits of the country I would never see otherwise. I've learned some of the local customs, tasted local cuisine, and slowly adopted the dialects and accents of the hills and valleys around me. I have loved stopping every two hundred miles or so and hearing the accents morph from town to town. The scenery has been pretty much the same for the last few days, but the sounds change.

The "real" reason we were in Scottsboro was to go shopping at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

Every piece of lost luggage from the nation's airlines ends up here to be sold off for a song. Imagine a department store full of used items and an unusual amount of luggage and that's what it's like. They had a little bit of everything and sometimes a lot of everything. Electronics, clothes, sporting equipment, jewelry, toys, etc.They advertise 7,000 new items a day and recommend stopping in multiple times to see what's new. We had a couple of hours and that was enough for me, though if I lived here (I won't be) I'd be there every day. I found an awesome bejeweled white Fez ($6) and a sweet pair of designer jeans ($20.) Justine got some jeans herself, a tie, a hat and a big white belt. I seriously toyed with getting a used Raiders Bowling Ball, but thought the better of it given that I probably won't use it and that it would only add weight to the car for the remainder of the trip. They also had a myriad of iPods for dirt cheap, but as we already own 3 between the two of us, didn't need to buy another one. There was a beautiful sadness to the place mixed with shoppers joy in finding great deals on someone else's lost luggage. They also had a "museum" of lost items they found including ancient Egyptian artifacts that they auctioned off at Christie's and puppet/props from the Henson/ILM movie Labyrinth.

How can you lose Hoggle? I guess losing things is common in a labyrinth so it was only fitting.

After Scottsboro, we drove across the Tennessee border and stopped in Lynchburg, TN at the Jack Daniels distillery.

Sadly, they were closing so we missed out on a tour, but the grounds were beautiful. With a bit of Irony we learned that Lynchburg is a dry town in a dry county in Tennessee dating back to pre-prohibition, but they drafted an exemption for Jack Daniels.

America, Fuck Yeah!

Day 25: Revolution and Reconciliation

JRadhirsch — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Today was our first full day in Birmingham. We arrived last night and was greeted by Lois Whitten, Justine's father's oldest friend. Justine and Lois had never met before, but had heard all about each other through stories from Neil. Lois has lived in Birmingham her entire life and is a self professed Southern Belle (I knew she was half kidding when she told us that she was forced to learn how to pump her own gas a few years before) Lois has lived in the same house for the last 40 years and may be moving into a flat should the housing market turn favorable. Her husband Bob passed away some time ago and she keeps his ashes in an urn next to an extremely life like bust he commissioned of himself in his late thirties. She likes to pat his head when speaking of him as if he's still here, just frozen and bronze. It's very endearing. Lois had a spread all laid out for us when we arrived in typical southern hospitality fashion. She's a very generous and kind hearted person who has a lot of great stories to tell and a real passion for justice and equality. She saw to it that we had a great time in Birmingham and whatever we wanted to do was just fine by her. She took us out for dinner last night and then drove us around town today.

The symbol of Birmingham is a statue of the Roman God Vulcan who was the god of blacksmithing and sits atop Red Mountain on the north side of the city. A few facts about Vulcan: It is the largest cast iron statue in the world; Was build for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904; Can be seen for miles; And has been the source of controversy as he is wearing a loincloth that does not cover his ass. The gift shop sells a deluxe bobble head version of him with an additional spring in his butt to make his badonk-a-donk jiggle. Lois thought her grandson would get a kick out of it as he is always asking her to "shake her booty" so she bought one.

Today's southern prepared meat was lunch at Alabama's famous Dreamland BBQ.

The sauce was tangy and thick, but I found the ribs to be dry without a lot of meat on them. By far my favorite dish there was their Brunswick Stew, a southern dish consisting of a pork stew with diced tomatoes and corn. We had some in Atlanta the other day and I look forward to trying other versions across the south. As a result I am planning on altering one of my favorite recipes to include some secrets I gleaned from Brunswick Stew.

Our stomachs full, we drove around Downtown and Lois related stories to us of when that particular part of town had seen better days. You could still see the outlines of Woolworth's and other now defunct department stories on the marquees of closed up shops. Other areas of Birmingham have prospered, but the downtown could use an infusion of civic pride and money.

We then went to the Civil Rights Museum and its adjoining park with the slogan

There were a few homeless people serving as unofficial tour guides of the park and relating the powerful history of the civil rights movement in Birmingham which was then expounded upon ten fold inside the museum. Wow, what a difference it makes to view someone else's cultural suffering than my own. I was numbed by the Holocaust museum in DC, but vibrated by the Museum here. Perhaps its because this form of racism still continues to this day and many African Americans are still left without prosperity and the American Dream where as we Jews through various reasons have found our way to equality and thrived. What was really fascinating to me was the methodical approach Dr. King and the black congress took to desegregating the south. They worked methodically breaking down individual Jim Crow laws until they amassed enough victories to inspire change in those who thought it fruitless. I could feel the infectious swelling of hope in the face of staggering violence and wanted to join the freedom riders myself.

We retired to Lois' house and entertained her neighbors who had just returned from a trip to Kansas City. They are world travelers themselves and as I have done with adventures through out this trip we sat and traded road stories. They had a few great ones and before we knew it hours had passed by.

We leave tomorrow morning headed to Tennessee, first to Nashville for a few days and then to Memphis. We have couch surfers lined up in both cities including a guy with a house boat in Nashville. I can't wait.

By the by, Justine is also keeping a blog of her trip, though she warns that she isn't keeping it as up to date as mine. The link to that is http://www.blogabond.com/toadfu

Day 24: Southern Cooking

JRadhirsch — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We said goodbye to Stuart this morning and also to Dirty, though via telephone. Today is Dirty's birthday (Happy Birthday John!) and he and Stuart are taking a road trip of their own down south to do some RVing. They like to stay in Gay Campgrounds, which I had no idea even existed. I always thought of trailer parks as being very closed minded places, but apparently our homosexual brethren are reclaiming that mantle, buying up campgrounds and turning them into havens for rainbow covered nomads. I love my country.

We pulled out of their neighborhood and started the hunt for gasoline. It wasn't very hard, but for every 4 gas stations we passed, only one of them had any. The long lines told the full story and I was reminded of what doomed Jimmy Carter back in the 70s. Justine and I are headed into uncharted waters here. Do we continue on our trip knowing that we might run out of gas and miss planned destinations like Memphis to play it safe, or do we fill up on bravery and risk being stuck someplace, missing a whole lot more than just Tennessee. For now, we're taking the risk. Wish us luck.

Our destination today was Birmingham, Alabama and more specifically, the home of Lois Whitten, Neil's (Justine's father) oldest friend. We mostly took the freeways through the South as Birmingham was 6 hours away, but we managed to get in a few food related stops.

We crossed the border into South Carolina and pulled into the visitor's center looking for places selling the official snack of South Carolina: Boiled Peanuts.

I had had these edamame like beans once before when I was a junior in college and went with a Boston based theater company down to the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina for a week. I still remember them to this day and was on a mission to get them again and to share them with Justine. Find them we did, though only after a few tries. Also for sale were many varieties of orchard fruit and the products that one derives from them.

They also sold fireworks like these "Four Fathers"

We stopped in Atlanta for lunch at world famous Fat Matt's BBQ and then drove through Alabama to Lois' house getting there right before dinner time. I love eating my way through the South. I wonder If we'll get to do something else though while we're here.

Day 23: Dirty!

JRadhirsch — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Turns out there is a gas shortage right where we are heading! Uh Oh! Still not sure if it will change our plans, but we may wind up having to spend a few extra days where we aren't planning on staying. I think it's actually exciting, but I REALLY want to be in Albuquerque on Oct 4th as my mother and sister are flying there to experience the International Hot Air Balloon festival with Justine's parent and us. It would really suck to not be there when my mom and her folks meet. Okay, back to the Actual road trip, not the road trip that's yet to be.

We drove through VA and into NC this morning, hitting Charlotte around lunch time and meeting up with John "Dirty Martini" McCray, so named for the daily ritual of Dirty Martinis he serves up at that thing in the desert. I love Dirty. I have since the first day I met him 3 years ago and I continue to do so to this day. It wasn't until today that I learned the irony or his nickname. He's a neat freak. Like OCD neat. He says that Burning Man is his time to relax from all that, but watching the man in action today showed me exactly why he's Dirty in the desert, but no where else. We met up at the first desegregated restaurant in the South- The Coffee Cup and had some serious soul food. Fried Chicken, Collard Greens, Yams, Fried Okra and Mac and Cheese- Fucking Yum.

Dirty went back to work and we drove first to an actual NASCAR track, The Lowe's Speedway. That's a lot of asphalt and bleachers. We could hear them racing around inside, but couldn't get up close enough to see them do their thing. We then drove back into town and parked downtown under these massive pissing contests of skyscrapers built for competing banks Wachovia and Bank of America, both of whom are headquartered here. Under one of them is the amazing Mint art and design museum. Who knew that Charlotte was so hip to design?

We walked around town, then drove around some fancy neighborhoods, fantasized about living there, and then drove to Dirty's house that he shares with his lover of 19 years, Stuart. Dirty broke out the martini glasses and the olives and poured us some for old times sake.

. Stuart came home shortly there after with pizza in hand. After dinner, Dirty showed us his mega deluxe 40' RV with telescoping living and bed rooms, washer/dryer, full shower, and Stuart's collections of Mermen

There talking about moving to the Bay Area and I hope they do. Great people with great taste.

Day 22 part 1: Monticello

JRadhirsch — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We got up early yet again and made our way to the US Capitol builing hoping for a tour. We got there at 9:30am and were handed 2 tickets for the 11:30 tour. We really were hoping to be out of DC by noon as we had a 6 hour drive to Charoltte, North Carolina to see yet another Burning Man campmate, Dirty and wanted to stop in Monticello for some good old fashioned Thomas Jefferson action before that. The tour seemed like it was worth the delay, but alas we were wrong. I assumed that a tour of the Capital building would include access to the galleries of the House and Senate. I was in Washington (in the middle of some exciting Senatorial history mind you) and wanted to see some actual government in action. Buyouts! Morgage Crisis! Banking Meltdown! you know: what we pay these people to do for us. Well, it turns out that the "tour" of the Capitol includes three rooms: The rotunda (actually pretty cool), a statue gallery, and the crypt where the gift shop and rudimentary historical displays were set up. At the end of the tour we were told that if we wanted to get into the galleries, we needed to exit the building, go across the street to one of the House office buildings, find our House Representative's office and request a gallery pass from them! Say what? I knew Washington was full of red tape, but come on. really? It was already too late in the day for us and we decided against doing all of that and leaving it for the next time we were back in DC. I did however pass by Nancy Pelosi's office.

We sped our way towards North Carolina and stopped in Charlestown, VA, home of Thomas Jefferson.

That was great. Lots of good history, pretty grounds and we got to play a game I invented called "Did you know that Thomas Jefferson invented _______" where we filled in the most ridiculous items in the blank. For example: Did you know that Thomas Jefferson invented trees? He also invented Ballroom dancing, the internet, fusion, slaves, tea-bagging, and the color white? TJ was the man, btw. my third favorite president.

We left Charlestown latter than expected and stopped in Lynchburg, VA for dinner and eventual bed. The knowledge box helped us to decide on a tapas place called Dish which lived up to the reviews. It was while eating dinner that we decided to stay the night and the oh so helpful waitstaff helped us find a place to stay. We ended up finding a cheaper motel outside of town, but it was so nice of them to help us.

Things about Lynchburg you didn't know, but Wikipedia does: Dr. Fleet invented the Fleet Enema and chap stick (hmmm, what do these two things have in common?) here and the Fleet corporation still has it's headquarters there; During the Civil War, prostitutes from Lynchburg were sent out to service the Union soldiers a few miles away only to provide them with false propaganda about the *ahem* size of the Confederate army stationed there, thus defending the town from invasion from the North; Jerry Falwell's church and the university he founded, Liberty U is located there; AND the Obama campaign has a very well organized office there.

Are you registered to vote? It's too important not to be.

We got very lost looking for the motel, but eventually found it, settled in and spent a few hours catching up on blogging and emails.

Day 21: Reflections

JRadhirsch — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Booster, Justine and I started our day early attempting to get in to the US Capitol building. Turns out, they aren't open on Sundays so we instead walked over to the US Botanical Garden which according to green thumbed Justine is the best in the world. I believe her. It was beautiful, surprising, very educational, and they were doing a lot to promote green initiatives. I'll let her blog go into more detail about it as she knows way more than I do on this particular subject. I'm catching up as our geeky interests ozmoze into each other's, but for now she's the master and I am but a student.

We then walked over to the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum which is famous for having many examples or replicas of actual space ships, satellites, airplanes of historical importance and your choice of freeze dried ice cream.

I had been there when I was fifteen and felt that while some of the vehicles were new (like Space Ship One- very cool) the displays hadn't changed in 20 years. One of the most amazing things about Washington DC is that all of the museums are free. We paid for next to nothing to get into world class exhibits. I fear that the Air and Space museum may be the down side to that policy. A refresher on some of the science displays is in order and I hope they get the funding to do it. There were several of the Smithsonians that were closed for renovation so I'm hoping this one is on the list.

After the celebration of mankind's accomplishments, we went to the flip side: the Holocaust Museum. I have mixed emotions about the subject and its museum treatment. Growing up a secular Jew who attended Hebrew School in my youth, the Holocaust was beaten into my head in place of learning about faith, spirituality, or the bible. Instead of learning about the High Holy days, I learned about all of the ways that my people have been victimized, marginalized, tortured, murdered, and the attempts to drive us from existence. The subject of the genocide attempted by the Nazi regime has left me numb. I visited a concentration camp in Germany a decade ago, cried for a while and then moved on. This isn't the reality of the modern Jew. I don't experience this level of bigotry in my life and while I feel guilty for feeling this way about the subject and trauma inflicted on millions of my people, I'm just tired of it. My brain can't process this stuff anymore. I choose to see the goodness in people and I'm much happier for it.

That said, the museum itself is very well done and I'm glad it's there. The history especially at the beginning of Adolf's rise to power and the day to day events that transpired thereafter are very well illustrated. It is a very fitting tribute to those who lost their lives, homes and villages and really helps us to examine ourselves in it's context. Perhaps the most moving part was the exhibit on modern day genocides, especially what's going on in Darfur right now and I hope that someone in power experiences it the way they intend and does something to stop it. We really haven't seemed to have learned the lessons of the 1940s.

Reflecting on the museum, we drove around town with no particular direction in mind and then found some food after our first choice for soul food was closed.

Ben's Chili Bowl is a DC institution and we got there just as they were locking up. They had a few hot dogs on the grill remaining and we had them prepared house style with mustard, onions, and lots of chili. They were a little dried out as they had been sitting on the grill for a bit before we got there, but the chili was great. The atmosphere was even better and we ate them reclining on the trusty Carolla out front. tired, spent, and full we retired to Booster's house for a good night's sleep.

Days 20: Reunited and it feels so good

JRadhirsch — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

On the long drive the night before I had time to reflect on what I got out of driving 3 weeks cross country on my own. Needless to say, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to do so and am so grateful to Justine for understanding why I wanted to do this and not allowing it to become a wedge between us. It was hard for her and I underestimated by how much. All that is passed now as we are finally together again and will have a chance to create new adventures as a team going forward.

In Washington DC we stayed with our friend Booster whom we camp with at Burning Man. Booster has had some serious adversity thrown his way but he seems to have made gold from it and is always there with an encouraging and optimistic view on life. Booster ends every email with the following: "It's gonna be great!" and it always is, even with it isn't. I learned a lot more about my fellow Lost Penguin on this trip and I'm so glad that he was there in DC for us to share that leg of our trip with.

We met Justine at 5:30 in the morning, kissed for an eternity at the luggage claim at Dulles airport and hit the town straight away taking full advantage of the sunrise.

Pretty much everything in Justine's To-Do list centered around The Mall area of Washington and we walked from The Lincoln Memorial

through the World War II memorial,

around the Washington Monument, back down to the Vietnam Memorial

and then over to the Korean War memorial

before getting breakfast in Virginia near Booster's house in Mclean.

We napped for a few hours, then drove to Arlington Cemetery, walking around and playing junior detective trying to figure out the significance of the various insignia, symbols, stones used and placement of the over 220,000 national heroes buried there. The pomp and circumstance of the Tomb of the Unknown was particularly stunning. Watching the sentinel march his perfectly timed dance in tribute to his fallen man at arms was stunning and highly effective. The ritual surrounding honoring those who's identities will never be known illustrated the loyalty the military has for those who offer to give their life in the name of our country. I was really moved by this piece of propaganda and I doubt it will leave me for a long time to come.

Once the sun set we back into the city to catch the nighttime views of the same places we visited in the morning, this time also hanging out at the Jefferson Memorial.

Booster invited us back to his restaurant and we had a really nice meal there on the house.

Day 19: Old friends, New lives

JRadhirsch — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It's been a few days without internet access so the details of the preceding few days may be a bit fuzzy, or I may choose to make things up to fill in for the dark spots. You'll never know which I made up and which was real, so who cares?

I said good bye to the world's greatest parents and pushed off for New Jersey where I visited with two friends from High School who meant a lot to me, but that I had pretty much lost contact with and both of whom were recent mothers and living in New Jersey.

Jennifer Neiderhoffer (nee Levy) was my best friend in High School. She along with Jenn Baum and I would hang out in her basement watching MTV, or go to the Unicorn Diner for Gravy fries. The friendship the three of us had was the closest I ever got to the average American High School experience. I knew Jenn for many years prior to our closer friendship and I developed somewhat of a crush on her that developed into much much more than that. Years later, something happened after Heather and I broke up that caused me to lose contact with her. I'm still not entirely sure what that was, but it had something to do with rewriting my life and she was a casualty of that. Now that my life is back on track, I endeavor to reconnect with her on a more consistent basis. This is a picture of her beautiful baby girl Samantha and I hanging out on the couch just like her mom and I used to do.

Katie Barrett (nee Travis) was my High School girlfriend. We dated for a very long time and never officially broke up. Katie was the centerpiece of my social life at the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, an amazing opera singer and so full of life and passion. We split up after graduating, had a summer fling one summer thereafter and then I got very serious with Heather and she went to Italy. She's now a mom with another one on the way. This is Casey her infectiously happy boy in the arms of his dad Damien.

We went to dinner in Montclair, NJ at this really cute former Soda fountain where in addition to my shrimp on grits I had a quintessential New York soda fountain drink that you just can't get outside of the influence of Brooklyn Jews: A chocolate egg cream.

I ended up hitting the Road really late and got to DC around 12:30am after driving through as many states as I did hours and paying more than 20 bucks in tolls.

Day 18: Local in a Strange Land

JRadhirsch — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

My mini vacation from my roadtrip continued today and will continue into tomorrow. Or did it? A visit from one of my mother's best friends, who has been an aunt to me form many years was accompanied by a trip to Brooklyn's Chinatown for Dim Sum.

We then meandered down the street passed food vendors with their live fish flopping about in Styrofoam coolers, the dusty air of ginseng sellers, the eggy aroma of pastry shops and many a pirated DVD amidst the hustle of eager shoppers looking for the right ingredient for that night's dinner at the right price.

Did you drink your Happy today?