On Monday morning, Joe, Lucas and I headed out of Arkansas, across the Missouri teabag (look at a map and you'll understand), and into Tennessee. We arrived in Nashville in the early evening, and the boys decided to KGB the best pulled pork sandwich in town. We ended up at Hog Heaven, a little shack behind the parking lot of a McDonald's near Centennial Park.
I've heard many horror stories about being vegan in the south, so although there were several vegetable sides listed on the menu, I was skeptical of their preparation methods. To my surprise, the guy who came to the counter to take our order was a serious vegan punk dude! He managed to scramble together some greens and black eyed peas for me, as well as the most amazing spicy bbq pickles I've ever had. While we were sitting outside eating, we were joined by two drunk hobos named Jerry and Hacksaw. Jerry played us some music on his guitar, including some sweet bic lighter slides, while Hacksaw kissed my hand and told me how beautiful my freckles were. I'd like to think that this was a true Nashville moment.
Because we had scheduled only 4 hours in Nashville, neither Joe nor I had bothered to do any research about what there actually was to see there. I decided to ask the punk vegan Hog Heaven employee for some ideas, and he suggested we go swimming in a salt water pool. When Joe realized this plan would involve trespassing, he decided to go off on his own. So while Joe explored the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Pantheon replica, Lucas and I broke into a Vanderbilt dorm complex and swam in their pool.
That night, we drove on to Knoxville and arrived at my friend Joseph's (not to be confused with my road buddy Joe) around midnight. Joseph was sweaty and shirtless and had just finished chopping wood for a fire. He gave us a tour of the community garden surrounding his house, which included about 15 different kinds of tomatos, each plant at least 6 ft tall. I was completely smitten.
The next morning we went into downtown Knoxville to scope out the scene. Having lived in either New York or Shanghai for most of my life, I am not easily impressed by other cities. However, I was blown away by the fact that everything in Knoxville is either free or dirt cheap. We went up in the World's Fair Sunsphere (free) and checked out the art museum (also totally effing free!). Then we headed back to Joseph's and made an amazing salad and pasta dinner with all of the veggies from the gardens. Later, we all went out to a great microbrewery downtown for $1.50 pint night. I thought I was dreaming.
On Wednesday we headed up to the smokies for some hiking. It was really beautiful, even though we were told that the mountains were way smokier than usual. First we drove up into the mountains and hiked to Andrew's Bald, which was a meadow on the side of a moutain with a beautiful view. Then we drove down to a creek lined with magnolias in full blossum. The water was so clear that we refilled our bottles with it.
The next morning we said goodbye to the south and drove all the way to Baltimore. Baltimore wasn't really a new place for me, but there was a pretty cool art festival going on. My favourite booth featured a man badly singing kareoke with a girl dressed as a turtle by his side. The booth was decorated with fake rocks and seaplants, and there was a banner which read, "Underwater Kareoke Adventure."
This morning, Joe dropped me off at my mom's place in Montclair, and tomorrow it's back to Brooklyn. Our final routing looked more like this:
View Larger Map
Chicago really set us back, but we still covered a lot of ground, and I'm definetely happy with my first southern experience.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Missouri and Arkansas
Joe and I arrived in Baltimore last night. I'm going to write about the last week in several sections, since so much happened and I didn't have any chance to update. Things really picked up in the south. Last Friday we drove to St. Louis where we went up in arch and explored the City Museum. The St. Louis City museum is amazing, it's just a giant 4 story playground for grown ups.
We left late that night and drove about an hour deeper into Missouri. This is where shit started getting pretty real. After passing scores of closed fireworks and adult toy warehouse stores, we exited the highway near Merimac State Park. When we finally found the campsite which Joe's book had recommended, we were greeted by a drunk, shirtless, middle aged southern man who told us that the site has been closed for at least 3 years. He proceded to keep us parked in the entrance area while he explained to us how he had bought a country song from a man in St. Louis for $20,000 and was trying to record it with his friend to play at Branson next year and go platinum together. Clearly this man was going to make a fortune.
We drove around the area for a while, but had no luck finding a campsite. We settled for a motel near the park which the shirtless man had described as "...pretty dirty, but surely they must have cleaned it up by now..." They hadn't. I was under the impression that this type of motel only existed in movies, but then again I'd never been to Missouri before. We cut a deal with the woman at the front desk and paid $35 for a room with 2 beds. She suggested that we not use the bed closer to the door, because it might be damp, since the bed was just shampooed. When Joe asked, "Can we smoke in the room?" her response was, "Oh, y'all can do anything you want in this room."
The room smelled like cigarettes, garbage, and sex, and every surface had a thin layer of sticky dust. The draw next to our bed contained a bible and some sticky blue puddles. The bathroom had no toilet paper. The woman who had checked us in stopped by to drop off towels. She assured us that she had just washed them, and not to worry about the huge brown stains all over them. We slept in our sleeping bags on top of the beds.
The next morning we got in touch with Lucas, who was now in Arkansas at his friend Jesse's lake house. We checked out as fast as we could, stopped by the Jesse James wax museum next door, and hauled ass down to Little Rock. Never in my life have I seen so many confederate flags and gun stores in such a short period of time. Within 30 minutes of arriving, we each took 2 shots of Jack Daniel's and jumped in the lake naked. Jesse's family was very friendly, but, not surprisingly, the idea of veganism didn't really click for them, and I only consumed corn on the cob and beer for the 24 hours we stayed there.
The next morning we went with Jesse's family to a rodeo where her brother was participating in the novice bull riding. Their father had been a champion bull rider in the 80's, so they were all quite proud to see him following in his father's footsteps. I also had no idea that bull riding meant tying a rope around a bulls enourmous scrotum and tightening it until he bucked his rider off. After 10 minutes of prayers and the national anthem, the ball squeezing, I mean bull riding began. The highlight of the rodeo was definetely the "mutton busting" section, where 4-8 year-olds tryed their luck on sheep. Each kid was thrown off within several seconds, then stood up and looked around and started bawling. "The embarrassment is terrible." explained Jesse's stepfather.
We left the rodeo early and drove into the night until we reached a campsite in northwestern Arkansas. At this point Lucas had decided to just join us on the road so that he could get a ride back to Jersey. We got our of the car and the air was literally thick with mosquitos in a way which I had never experienced before. We scrambled to get the tent up and passed out around 1am. I was woken up twice in the morning. The first time was at 7:30am by Joe. It was pouring rain outside and he was screaming, "Quick, pack up, we have to go NOW!" Annoyed and disoriented, I watched Joe and Lucas scrambling to pack up for several minutes before deciding adamently against waking up. Joe finally agreed that it might make more sense to wait out the rain after all, and we all passed out again. 2 hours later I was woken up by a cow mooing 20 feet from my head. At this point we decided to check out and get back on the road toward Tennessee.
We left late that night and drove about an hour deeper into Missouri. This is where shit started getting pretty real. After passing scores of closed fireworks and adult toy warehouse stores, we exited the highway near Merimac State Park. When we finally found the campsite which Joe's book had recommended, we were greeted by a drunk, shirtless, middle aged southern man who told us that the site has been closed for at least 3 years. He proceded to keep us parked in the entrance area while he explained to us how he had bought a country song from a man in St. Louis for $20,000 and was trying to record it with his friend to play at Branson next year and go platinum together. Clearly this man was going to make a fortune.
We drove around the area for a while, but had no luck finding a campsite. We settled for a motel near the park which the shirtless man had described as "...pretty dirty, but surely they must have cleaned it up by now..." They hadn't. I was under the impression that this type of motel only existed in movies, but then again I'd never been to Missouri before. We cut a deal with the woman at the front desk and paid $35 for a room with 2 beds. She suggested that we not use the bed closer to the door, because it might be damp, since the bed was just shampooed. When Joe asked, "Can we smoke in the room?" her response was, "Oh, y'all can do anything you want in this room."
The room smelled like cigarettes, garbage, and sex, and every surface had a thin layer of sticky dust. The draw next to our bed contained a bible and some sticky blue puddles. The bathroom had no toilet paper. The woman who had checked us in stopped by to drop off towels. She assured us that she had just washed them, and not to worry about the huge brown stains all over them. We slept in our sleeping bags on top of the beds.
The next morning we got in touch with Lucas, who was now in Arkansas at his friend Jesse's lake house. We checked out as fast as we could, stopped by the Jesse James wax museum next door, and hauled ass down to Little Rock. Never in my life have I seen so many confederate flags and gun stores in such a short period of time. Within 30 minutes of arriving, we each took 2 shots of Jack Daniel's and jumped in the lake naked. Jesse's family was very friendly, but, not surprisingly, the idea of veganism didn't really click for them, and I only consumed corn on the cob and beer for the 24 hours we stayed there.
The next morning we went with Jesse's family to a rodeo where her brother was participating in the novice bull riding. Their father had been a champion bull rider in the 80's, so they were all quite proud to see him following in his father's footsteps. I also had no idea that bull riding meant tying a rope around a bulls enourmous scrotum and tightening it until he bucked his rider off. After 10 minutes of prayers and the national anthem, the ball squeezing, I mean bull riding began. The highlight of the rodeo was definetely the "mutton busting" section, where 4-8 year-olds tryed their luck on sheep. Each kid was thrown off within several seconds, then stood up and looked around and started bawling. "The embarrassment is terrible." explained Jesse's stepfather.
We left the rodeo early and drove into the night until we reached a campsite in northwestern Arkansas. At this point Lucas had decided to just join us on the road so that he could get a ride back to Jersey. We got our of the car and the air was literally thick with mosquitos in a way which I had never experienced before. We scrambled to get the tent up and passed out around 1am. I was woken up twice in the morning. The first time was at 7:30am by Joe. It was pouring rain outside and he was screaming, "Quick, pack up, we have to go NOW!" Annoyed and disoriented, I watched Joe and Lucas scrambling to pack up for several minutes before deciding adamently against waking up. Joe finally agreed that it might make more sense to wait out the rain after all, and we all passed out again. 2 hours later I was woken up by a cow mooing 20 feet from my head. At this point we decided to check out and get back on the road toward Tennessee.
Friday, July 10, 2009
The mustang is back!
So, after 6 extra days on Lucas's couch, the car is finally fixed! We should be on the road early tomorrow morning (knock on wood/cross you fingers/oh lord please get us out of here already!).
Our itinerary has been drastically adjusted to account for lost time. We are stopping through St Louis tomorrow before heading straight for Knoxville the next day. I'm still excited for the rest of our adventure, although it has sort of morphed from a sweet road trip to a sweet trip to Chicago plus some extra stuff.
And our time here has been quite enjoyable. Today we went for a swim in Lake Michigan. Yesterday I witnessed a violent word exchange between an elderly woman and a teenage mother over who deserved the handicapped bus seat more. The day before I caught a guy in front of me at the public library watching hardcore porn on one of the computers. Chicago is definitely my speed.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Stranded in Chicago!
This morning Joe and I took off St Louis bound. Unfortunately, we only made it about half a block before the car broke down, so we are currently waiting for a tow. The dealership where it's getting fixed isn't open until tomorrow, so we won't know until then what's wrong with the car and how long we will be here. Hey, at least we're in Chicago, there are way worse places to get stranded.
Last night I enjoyed a pretty laid back 4th of July with the boys. Apparently fireworks are basically legal in Chicago on the 4th, so we sat on the roof and watched people setting them off all around us. Also, Joe and I stopped in a huge warehouse fireworks store in Indiana (which is where everyone in Chicago goes to get fireworks, duh!), so we had some of our own, too.
Also, here are some silly photos from the childrens section of the Art Institute.
Last night I enjoyed a pretty laid back 4th of July with the boys. Apparently fireworks are basically legal in Chicago on the 4th, so we sat on the roof and watched people setting them off all around us. Also, Joe and I stopped in a huge warehouse fireworks store in Indiana (which is where everyone in Chicago goes to get fireworks, duh!), so we had some of our own, too.
Also, here are some silly photos from the childrens section of the Art Institute.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Chicagoland
Yesterday was our first day in Chicago. Unfortunately it was drizzling for most of the afternoon, so we didn't make it to too many places. Luckily, I still got the classic tourist photo of myself taking a picture of myself in the bean, which is something I've been looking forward to for weeks (that clump of people around the bicycle is Joe, Lucas, and I).
Chicago is a pretty cool city, and I'm excited to see more of it. It's kind of like a giant Brooklyn, which is good, because Brooklyn is my favorite part of New York.
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