then she appeared

Last night I finally got sick of being cold, whipped out my credit card, and bought some plane tickets. The decision: Austin TX for the week of March 24-31. When Patrick and I drove cross-country a couple of years ago we only grazed Texas, stopping in Amarillo for a couple of hours. I really liked what I saw of the Southwest as we drove through it, so now I'll get the chance to see a lot more of it and take pictures, etc. Psyched!

I'd appreciate any and all advice on what to see and do! I am aware that I'm going the week after SXSW. It's intentional!

( Behind a cut, because their server sucks! )

Well, this year added quite a few states to my "where I've been in the U.S." list. Kind of funny the straight line across the country my route created, but if this showed just the actual route instead of the whole states, it would be ONE ROAD for a huge chunk of it. I probably shouldn't claim Wisconsin, but I spent many hours there — probably more than I've spent in Rhode Island or Delaware, so why not.

Goals for next year: More states! Spend more time in the ones I've already visited.

Part Two of my photos are up -- Arkansas thru Oklahoma. Next up: Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona!

A preview!

If you'd prefer to view the commentary for the pictures, go here.

EDITED TO ADD: Vegas breakfast. Seemed like a great idea to go to another buffet. We decided on the Bellagio, because isn't that what one does? So we did. Except after finally parking and trudging through the gamblers and tossing aside the showgirls and waiting in a too-long-for-breakfast-seriously line, we got to the cashier, said "One for the buffet!" and she replied "That will be $31.50." I gasped, said "For BREAKFAST?!?!" and she snapped "Holiday Brunch!"

Well. 9am on a Saturday morning is brunch? And the holiday is Monday, bitch. So we left. McDonald's will do us just fine, thanks. Which we did. And then drove away very fast. Byebye, Vegas! END EDIT

LA, on the other hand, was fun! Brief, but fun! We rolled in around 2pm from Vegas, and met Derek at Toi, a pretty good Thai place somewhere in the wilds of Los Angeles. We needed Derek's GPS thingie and two cell calls just to get there, but we finally made it and ate ourselves silly. Mmmmm.

After saying bye to Derek and making him give us more directions a la GPS to our potential hotel, we headed off to the Rodeway Inn near LAX. And then we quickly LEFT the Rodeway Inn next to LAX, as the guy pissed us off and we got a "this place is skeezy" vibe. Instead, we drove down the street to Comfort Inn (again!) and were much happier. Patrick: "So, when the choice is 'Comfort Inn or XXX' let's just do the Comfort Inn." Me: "yeah." This blog entry brought to you by Choice Hotels!

We checked in, flopped for a while, then headed out for a quick car tour of West Hollywood and all the famous spots you'd think of. We couldn't really face more food after the stuffing ourselves incident of earlier, so instead we got some convenience store stuff (soda and candy, whoo!) and went back to the hotel. I needed to re-pack for my early am flight, and P was tired anyway. Suzanne called, warning me of the horrors of LAX and advising me to go early early early to get through security. We chatted a while, then P came scratching at my door, wanting to order delivery.

We got a pizza, chatted, and then bid each other goodbye. My plane was at 9am, and there was a shuttle from the hotel that I could take for free, so I didn't need to get P up at dawn (just me!).

I woke up early, of course. [I haven't actually flown in about 10 years. I love planes and flying, but for the last 10 years I was finishing undergrad school, getting a grad degree, and after that I was working my day job and teaching my night job -- no time for plane-type vacations! And no money, thanks to stupid student loans. So...I was pretty excited to get on a plane again.] The elevator was broken at the hotel, so I had to drag my two huge bags down several flights of stairs. The shuttle was there, but the driver wasn't, so as I checked out I asked the idiotic desk clerk (he was talking on two phones to two different friends when I walked in, and made me wait at least two minutes before he'd wait on me. Punk!) to find the driver.

Turns out the guy was just getting breakfast in the next room, so he loaded me into the shuttle and took off -- just me, my own personal shuttle! Took me right to my terminal, carried my bags to the door, and then wished me a good flight and split.

So it was 6:10am (the hotel was very close to LAX), and there was exactly one person ahead of me in line at Midwest. It took about three minutes to check in, then I had to bring my checked luggage to the x-ray. That took about 20 seconds, I cleared, and they checked my bag. I then was directed to the other security area, had to shed my shoes, put my laptop in a bin, and send my camera bag through the scanner. I didn't beep on anything, so by 6:20 I was inside the terminal. I called Mom, had a frappuccino and a scone, drank some water, then boarded my plane about an hour and a half later. We had a delay on the tarmac of about 45 minutes, but we still got into Kansas on time. And that was LA!

Still in Flagstaff this evening. We decided that having a tiny bit of stability would be a good idea, so this morning we told the hotel we'd be staying a second night.

The day started out raining, so we wondered if perhaps we wouldn't go to the Canyon after all, but thankfully it cleared soon after breakfast (MartAnne's, a Mexican breakfast joint. Good food, but very spicy! Seems to have a young, alterna-type clientele).

We headed up to Grand Canyon and got there midday. Spent a few hours looping around the driving part of the park, took tons of pictures. Very beautiful. I would love to travel down in the canyon some day, go along the Colorado -- or maybe ON the Colorado! Anyway, it was pretty swell. The weather was alternately sunny and rainy, so the lighting was sometimes very flat, sometimes very dramatic.

We entered the park at the South Rim Entrance, so we left by the Desert View end. That's the East Entrance, and takes you down rte 64 to rte 89. Much more scenic and very Arizona feeling -- all flat and deserty and red stripey mountains and winding scary road. Lots of other deep holes in the ground to see, too. Definitely the way to go if visiting the park from Flagstaff.

We got back to the hotel, and since it was only 4pm we decided naps were in order. I'm not really good at napping, so I called Mom, called Mary Ellen, sent some more post cards, started getting my photos in order, played around looking for hotels for Vegas, generally puttered. Soon it was dinner time, and then back to puttering.

Part 1 of my photos are now up. Only covers Boston to the beginning of Arkansas, so there's a lot more to post. More tomorrow, unless shiny Vegas distracts me!

I am having weird technology issues this week -- one of my digital cameras was having issues, my phone keeps having issues, and now my laptop won't connect to the wireless internet access at the hotel tonight. Fortunately, Patrick let me use his extra computer so I could check email and update here -- but once again I won't be able to upload my pictures. Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

Today we left OK and drove to Texas, where we had lunch at the Big Texan in Amarillo (very kitschy, but really good prime rib), went to the Cadillac Ranch (muddy, and kind of disappointing), and then hit the road for points west.

Texas is really really wide open. Really! Lots of grass and cows. A few fences. That's it! I liked it, though, unlike Arkansas. Sorry Arkansas!

New Mexico is pretty -- looks like the desert that I've always had in my head. More scrubby and hilly than flat and grassy, and very green, at least where we've been. Looking forward to Arizona and the Painted Desert.

Determined to get my $65 worth (bastards!) of amenities, tonight I took a swim in the hotel indoor pool, a soak in the hotel hot tub (also indoor, alas), and now I'm using the hotel laundry facilities to wash everything I've used so far. Have the AC cranked, charging all my cameras, phone, PC, etc., running the teevee, several lights, using all the towels, everything I can. I am an expensive hotel guest! Tomorrow I will eat more waffles and take some road food, too. Foo on you, Comfort Inn (actually, they're quite nice. I just think this one's overpriced..)

Tomorrow we drive to Arizona, then Thursday we'll see the Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon. Yay!

Turn Here is a pretty cool travel video site that showcases different neighborhoods, including Boston. They seem to be professionally produced shorts, but there is a call for amateur talent on the splash page. Beware, there are some "sponsored" videos (Hi, Redbones!) but they're tidily separated from the others on the "locations" page, and clearly tagged.

Seems to be predominantly U.S. and Canadian cities, but there are some from Brazil, Japan, and Thailand, too. Neat!

Reflecting on our current disaster has me remembering September of 2001. I realized recently that we were actually in New York a few weeks after 9/11 to see a friend's show, and I took a few pictures then. I remember refusing to take disaster-related pictures then, as it seemed too invasive--rude, almost. But I did take a few.

Here we were, riding in a NY cab for the first time. Again, cleverly, I am not actually in the picture...

I went to Provincetown for the day with Patrick, and we saw some stuff. There's a set of photos here.

Flickr is pretty fun if you use tags. I did a search on "Provincetown" and honestly, everyone takes the same five pictures... I almost needn't have bothered. Of course, then there are Patrick's pictures, where we really DID take all the same shots...