land of the pine

this is almost a follow up to the last blog. once again speaking on NC. i have never felt that nc would be a place to live in my adulthood but i have apparently been selling my state short. i'll probably give a longer more thought out explanation of things later....but as far as cool things go we have a lot there. maybe the mountains arent quite as big, and the lakes are a little smaller, the rivers and beaches elsewhere are just as nice, buuuut you dont have to drive 5-7 hours to get from one to the other in nc. ocean, lake, mountain, etc. are all within at most a couple hour drive. i love it. i now really like my state. just so you know.

starbucks

james and i found our theme song for the return stretch of the trip in seatle, the farthest point on the trip (other than the late night trip to vancouver). apparently the sidewalk in front of the original starbucks in seatle is prime sidewalk singing real estate. a four tops-ish group of guys were belting out when we arrived to see this particularly fragrant piece of american history. the next band was waiting a few stores down the street and we remained skeptical until they took up their guitars and started to jam out. 3 indie looking white guys, you can understand why we didnt think we were in for much, but we were wrong. among the few songs we stayed to hear was "wagon wheel". a song from a newish band, old crow medicine show. check it out if you havent heard of them. kk informed us that the band our guys were covering was in fact covering it from bob dylan, but bob never actually recorded it so kk just knows rediculous things. we listen to it every morning to remember our destination...or mine anyway.

welp its been a while since the last update....which apparently was in la. we've hiked in big sur, spent a few days with a camp buddy and her roomates in san fran, stayed on a houseboat there too, camped in redwoods park(you know the big trees), hung out in portland for a day, camped on the washington coast with a few friends from wake who happened to be biking from vancouver to portland, and now we are in seatle. james' parents put us up in a hotel for two nights due to his birthday on thursday(today). its been fun and we've had an amusing time trying to find places along the way to watch all the world cup we can (ie this morning we went to a british pub in seatle to watch the england game...it was amazing. this place is rated top ten places in the country to watch soccer on the "tele"...so lots of cheering and celebrating at the win) . we're off to lunch now, so until next time,
cheers from the road trippers

ps new pics as soon as i get the cord out of the car to put them on the computer

ok...

a better link to pictures!

ps: yeos! = oh + yes!....a mixed up crazy accidental combination from a guy in OC named adam. just doing my part to spread the word. (pronounced y as in yellow, oh as in oh, s as in spoon, ! as in only use it when youre excited)

the trip

i'll run you through a quick list of places since the welcome center update. instead of heading straight to santa fe, james and i stopped in at white sands. a sweet national park in nm. giant white sand dunes to jump off of. then on to santa fe. an artsy little town in the middle of the desert. cheched out some galleries and then moved toward the canyon. lucky us we got camping spots for the next two nights, rationed up, and headed in. two days later we were on our way up. after hiking from 6am till 2pm we exited and decided that la (ethan's place with a shower and a roof) was the next stop. had a cookout, had a beach trip, hung out with lee norris, smoked the gars and pipes on the beach, etc. so here we have been for 3 days and are headed out tomorrow. up the coast to who knows where...but i'll let you know whenever we hit our next computer or wireless.

veins

here's a thought from a while back. we, americans i suppose, dont ever really leave the paths of our society. driving across the country i feet that the roadways are the veins of the country carrying us from one city to the next. from one place where we will buy, consume, attempt to purchase happiness from the variety of of stores at our disposal along to the next place where we will have every possible item within reach yet again. billboards line the way as if to keep us focused on what we are to desire from life. it seems that to escape beyond the reach of these signs would be to break from the world in which we have lived for the whole of our lives. i long to be outside of these veins as we drive. figuratively only mind you, as to be outside of them literally would put me in some of the most desolate landscapes imaginable. no one really wants to escape the veins into the desert anywhere between central texas and the mountains just before LA. but really, we came close the other day. james and i spent 3 days in the canyon. we hiked to the bottom of the grand canyon. the first night was spent on the more level area about 2/3 of the way to the bottom and it was one of the most amazing places ive ever been. we camped in a use area reserved for only a few people each night. it being a large area we saw no one all evening, and it being past the time of day when others would be hiking by en route to the bottom of the canyon we knew that we would not see another human although we were surrounded by the vast expanse of the canyon. so for our few hours of light we had dinner, we read, james journaled, i did tai chi. in the canyon silence is silence. no bugs, no animals scurrying, no cars, just quiet. so we had a glimpse of what it is like to leave behind the call of all the stuff we create. i'm hoping we get outside of the veins again here before too long. i would like to find more of what is there.

YEOS!!1

Road Trip pictures!...well kind of...apparently mac's dont work with blogger...and thats what i'm on...sooo i cant put a link in here...but i can give you the adress...ugh this is obnoxious for you but if you want to look at the pics cut and paste away:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96585014@N00/sets/72157594156056081/