The Great American Road Trip - JRadhirsch
I'm embarking on the Great American Road Trip. I have 3 weeks to get to Washington DC to pick up Justine from the Airport and we have 2 weeks to get back to California. I'm keeping my schedule and...

Mind Trip
Oakland, United States
CalShakes Sunrise
On August 1st I quit my career. Below is an edited version of the email I sent out to my collegues at ACT on my last day.
I've been working in this business professionally since I
was 10 years old and I've done just about everything there is to do on
both sides of the stage and across most of the performing arts. When
I look back I realize that I've been in tech for most of that time and
frankly 23 years in tech is about all I had in me. The 10 year old
Jared got his wish and was fortunate enough to have worked on and with
some of the most inspiring, beautiful, moving, thought provoking and
life changing experiences this world has to offer, but it's time for
the 33 year old Jared to get to explore his dreams. My long term
strategy is to open a space for the dazzling community of artists in
this town and to subsidize it by selling them booze. I'm going to open
a bar. I don't know when, and I'm not sure how, but it's time to find
out. Somehow in my life people
and places come, go and come back again. When they're gone, it's as if
they were never there, but when they're back it's as if no time had
passed. So many of you have touched my life in ways I can never begin
to understand and I hope that I've done the same for you. This is the
hardest decision I've made in my life and I'm not entirely sure that
it's the right thing to do, but I have to try. After today, you can
email me at jradhirschATsbcglobalDOTnet and call me at 510.290.9726.
until then,
Jared
written by  JRadhirsch on August 30, 2008 from Oakland, United States
from the travel blog: The Great American Road Trip

Landmark
Oakland, United States
The Man
Every year for the last 3, during the last week in August I've gone to Burning Man. If your reading this, you probably know all about it and the place it holds in my heart. At my first burn, my wife and soul mate of 10years Heather and I agreed to separate. At my second Burn, I solidified my relationship with my girlfriend Justine whom I had met 5 months prior. My third burn was anti-climatic, though I did have to rescue a friend who overdosed on something we still aren't sure about while the Man was prematurely burning Monday night via arson. It was during the Burn last year that I decided that I needed to take a year off. Burning Man consumes so much of my life during the year and it drains my vacation and savings account that it leaves me without the ability to do other things. Justine and I planned on taking a trip abroad, but as the year progressed, I came to the decision about my job and with the value of the dollar, I decided to get the most bang out of my buck and embark on the Great American Road Trip. I had driven straight through the middle of the country when Heather and I moved to California, but I've never been to the Great Planes or the South before and I knew this would be my opportunity to do so.
One of the things I learned from my divorce was what it meant to be me. I had never lived by myself before and really didn't know how to make decisions without having to consider someone else. In short I didn't know who I was without someone else. When I decided on the road trip I knew that one of the things I wanted was to have a part of the trip be solo. I wanted to wake up when I felt like it, go where I felt I wanted to go, see what I wanted to see, eat what I wanted to eat, and leave when it was time for me to leave. I also knew that I wanted to do a lot of traveling with Justine and figured the best way to do that was to have her fly out mid trip and we would travel together for the last half. So that's what we are doing. I will take 3 weeks to get to Washington DC and then we will have 2 weeks to get back. We have points along the way, but we're keeping things flexible for now, letting the sun and the muse take us where she wants us to go. I've put $1300 dollars into my car and as a going away present, my friends at ACT presented me with an awesome road trip package full of things like flares, clothespins, a AAA membership and lots of jerky. I'll(we'll) be couchsurfing http://www.couchsurfing.com and camping along the way to save money and to get the insiders view of the great land of ours. I'm really fascinated to learn about new people, places and things to eat, but most importantly, I looking forward to hearing people's stories. I hate this Red State/Blue State nonsense and will do my best to hold space and listen to as many people who view life in a different way than I do. America, here I come.
Rainbow
written by  JRadhirsch on August 30, 2008 from Oakland, United States
from the travel blog: The Great American Road Trip

Day 1
Sacramento, United States
152,674 read my odometer as I pulled out of the gas station near my house in Oakland. $4.05/gallon was the price. 11:42am was the time. I was on my way. There is something momentous about taking your first steps toward an unknown adventure. The theme from 2001 hanging in the air. Chauncy Gardner walking out the door. I beamed. I was also scared. I kept finding things I needed to do before leaving as if delaying a 5 week road trip was truly possible by random 5 minute chores. One of the things I am embracing in this new life of mine is Courage. I have felt the fear and been held back by it. Now I want to feel it and have it help propel me forward. Quitting my job was the first experiment in courage. leaving the house and hitting the road was another.
My plan was to drive half way to Boise today and finish the rest of the drive tomorrow. Winnemucca, NV was a place I had heard about as the place if you get arrested at Burning Man, that's where the county seat is and where you have to go to face the music. Winnemucca is that half way point. About 30 minutes into the trip I placed a call to my sister to chat about life and things and that conversation resulted in my first detour of the trip. Turns out in all of my research and planning I overlooked my own backyard for something to do. Cara tipped me off to the California State Fair in Sacramento. Now I had been looking up other state fairs, but they are all gone by September so i scratched them off my list. I am so grateful to her for that suggestion. The State Fair is amazing. The Cal State Expo grounds for one are really cool with all the pavilions and grand stands, and whatnot.
Horny
The livestock displays were awesome for a city boy such as myself. Cute food, some of it still alive
Pig Pen
and in a pen and the rest of it either on a stick, or deep fried. I had to get a deep fried Twinkie.
Deep Fried Twinkie
I just had to. Disgustingly good. Exactly as it should be. They also had a pretty impressive visual arts pavilion with a wide range of mediums that reflected pretty diverse disciplines.
Starving Artists
But the best part of the California State Fair were the County displays. Not all of the counties were represented (including none of the Bay Area counties,) but the ones that were there ranged from cheesy to cheese fest with a side of slaw.
Big Bird
We're talkin the good kind of bad, not bad bad. Someone had an idea and someone else gave them the money to build it, and someone else pinned an award ribbon it. Seemed like everything there at the fair got a ribbon. What's up with that? There were an awful lot of first place llamas.
Winner
Not to mention 100 different award winning jams, jellies, and preserves because boysenberry and boysenberry/blackberry count as two different categories. What must really suck is if you enter something your proud of and in the face of all those ribbons that you got none. FAIL. State wide FAIL.
I could have spent all day at the fair, but I had a county set in the middle of Nevada to get to, so after 2 hours, a hot dog on a stick, an ear of corn, a lemonade drink and the before mentioned battered and fried Twinkie (with Strawberry sauce) I hit the road.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 1, 2008 from Sacramento, United States
from the travel blog: The Great American Road Trip

Reno or Re-yes
Reno, United States
Driving through Reno during Labor Day was weird. Normally, I would be covered in Dust and driving home to Oakland after a week at Burning Man. Not this year. I watched all the cars heading the other direction their American Dreams dreamt and spent. I passed Hwy 447 and it's promise of tabula rasa, shed a silent joyful tear and kept on driving.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 1, 2008 from Reno, United States

Lock your love in Lovelock
Winnemucca, United States
The drive to Winnemucca was pretty, but uneventful. I stopped in Lovelock for some gas and cause it looks like they hired a fancy PR firm to design the town banners. Lock your Love in Lovelock.
I got to Winnemucca a little later than planned what with the deep fried detour and so missed the Basque restaurants. Did you know that Winnemucca is home to the largest contingent of Basques in the US? Well, now you do. Instead, I ended up eating at a Casino and had a Casino Monday night special. NY Strip, Fried Shrimps, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and all you can eat salad and soup bar for $18. Not too shabby, pretty good, and I lost about a buck fifty in the slots. Oh well.
Casino Specials
written by  JRadhirsch on September 1, 2008 from Winnemucca, United States

Day 2: Who Da Ho? IDAHO
Boise, United States
153,124 miles on the ole Carolla to start the day.
gas $4.88/gallon
8:49am
My day actually started at 1:30am when the fire alarm in the motel went off. I hurriedly threw on clothes, grabbed my bags, opened the door and smelled nothing burning. I hung in my doorway as people lazily sauntered around looking for the fire. There was no fire. There was a dusty heater that hadn't been turned on in months that set off the alarms. Joy. Back to bed.
The theme for today is Basque. After being denied Basque food last night, I was encouraged to seek out Basque breakfast. Alas, it was not to be. half a cup of bad coffee, or should I say continental breakfast jolted me down the road as I passed the same closed restaurants. Yesterday was Hwy 80. Today was a new one for me Hwy 95. What a beautiful drive.
Hellie in Winnemucca
There are about 3 towns between Winnemucca and Boise, none of them worth mentioning, but the hills, oh the hills. and the wildflowers. And the lone tree every 10 minutes. You gotta wonder how such a lonely tree got there out by itself.
Wildflowers in Oregon
to get from Nevada to Idaho you have to go through Oregon, though looking at a map you would wonder why. Nevada and Idaho share a border. After hundreds of miles cruising at 80mph, Oregon is a different story. 55mph and you better stick to it. So I did.
You know those ear worms you get? One of mine for a number of years has been the B-52s song and theme from the movie Your Own Private Idaho. I haven't actually heard the song in a long time, but during the drive, I played a playlist (a mix tape for those you who are romantic about such things) that Justine put together for me and that song popped on about 20 minutes from the Idaho border. Perfect timing alone on the road to Idaho. Who the ho? I the ho. It's just so much fun to say.
Welcome to IDAHO
Boise is fascinating. the downtown is awesome. A State capitol, a big college town, and Northwest spirit. Great shops, cafes, restaurants, you name it. 5 minutes outside of downtown Boise is SPRAWL with a capitol yuck.
Idaho State House
But let's get back to the theme for the day. Do you remember what that was? That's right: Basque. All through the drive, Basque this and Basque that kept creeping onto signs and names of streets. Someone posted on my blog yesterday that Boise should have some Basque food, so thanks to my handy Knowledge Box (my iphone) i found an AWESOME Basque place for lunch, Gurnika Bar. Lamb stew and these croquettes (they pronounce them croquettas with a long a) that were oh my god good.
Gurnika Bar
After lunch I wandered around downtown and found their park which is about to undergo a centennial facelift. Justine I wish you could have seen it. It looks like it should be really nice. The onle thing that the park already has and I hope they are keeping is a beautiful rose garden. Huge. I was a bit confused by the drano blue fountains (water features, right Justine?) so I grabbed a picture of them. I took a picture of a rose, but only Justine gets to see it, cause it's for her.
Blue Fountain
I'll drive over to the couch surfer's I'm staying with in a little bit and fill you in on what happens with that tomorrow. I was going to stay in Boise tomorrow, but I think I just did the whole town in half a day, so maybe I'll hit the road.
Ha! I went a whole post without mentioning Burning Man. Oh crap. Well, here's a picture of me eating some corn from yesterday
Corn on a stick
written by  JRadhirsch on September 2, 2008 from Boise, United States

Day 3: I lied
Boise, United States
After posting yesterday about how I had done Boise in half a day and how I would probably not be staying another night here as I had planned, I changed my mind. I'm a liar.
I drove to my hosts Abby and Jill's house just outside of downtown and got a chance to hang out with them and another couchsurfer staying with them, Charlie. Talk about awesome people. Friends for life. Charlie had just come back from his first Burning Man (ha ha- It will follow me across the country. Look out America!) and we had much to talk about. Both Abby and Jill were getting off work at 3pm and Charlie and I had the day to pal around. I decided based on all this that it was worth really exploring the other side of this couchsurfing experiment. The social side.
My first Couchsurfing house
Boise has what's known as the greenbelt which is a network of paths, bridges and tunnels around the greater Boise area that connects downtown with the burbs. Charlie had his bike with him and I borrowed a bike from our hosts and took off on a really stunning bike ride towards downtown.
Greenbelt
Downtown Boise as I said yesterday is a state capitol mashed up with a University town. As such, it has great coffee shops . Dawson Taylor would be our home base for the day, sitting on our computers, drinking caffeinated beverages, writing postcards, eating lunch: you know: things you do when you have no job but want to contemplate your place in the world and how progressive you are. Check.
Dawson Taylor Coffee Shop
Charlie's mission for the day was to figure out how to get to Washington State without a car. He had the crazy idea that he could ride his bike clear across Idaho and halfway into Washington. Charlie's the kind of guy who sees only obstacles to overcome, not problems. I find a lot of admiration in that way of living. We ended up riding a few miles out of downtown to the Idaho Department of Transportation building so that he could pick up some bike route maps.
Floor inlay at the Dep't of Transportation
It's the kind of thing that would never have occurred to me: Using a state agency for information about it's intended purpose. I need to get to know my municipalities and its services more. They were so helpful and we wound talking to the security guard and receptionist there for an hour about a variety of topics including what it is like driving through Texas with out of state plates. I can't wait! Charlie took me to some random Pizza joint that he had made friends in the other day and they made us a pretty good pie and charged us very little for it. Did I say how much I liked Charlie? We took the pie back to the house and were greeted by two new Couch surfers form Virginia who were on their way to Portland. Charlie seized on the moment and they repacked their car to fit him in for their ride tomorrow. No need to ride his bike clear across the mountains. I have a feeling that had we not gone to the Dep't of Transportation today that there wouldn't have been a ride waiting for him when we got back.
Surfers
After the getting to know yous the six of us went downtown to a mid week after work summer time music festival,
Alive After Five
had a few beers and then got dinner at a decent pub which featured the best middle aged white women's blues act I've never dreamed possible. She sung her heart out and her backing band never missed a beat. The whole table of us were tapping out the rhythm and bobbing out heads in unison.
Abby and Charlie
After that we drove home and sat here swapping travel stories, sharing travel tips and advice on what things to see where. I love Couch surfing. I'm also about 8 years older than anyone else and have gotten to act the wiser older friend to these upstarts which if you know me is a real treat.
Tomorrow- Idaho>Yellowstone. I'll probably be out of communication for a few days (3?) as i camp and disconnect from civilization. I'll be back though. Miss me. Really. I want tears.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 3, 2008 from Boise, United States

Day 4- Failed attempts to cross Idaho
Twin Falls, United States
The plan as you may remember was to drive to Yellowstone. Well, that didn't happen exactly, and it's a good thing cause I saw a lot more of what I came on this trip to find. More on that later. My failed attempt to cross Idaho was eerily predicted by a person much braver than me at my first stop at Twin Falls Idaho: The site of the late, great Evil Kinevil's failed attempt to cross the Snake River via rocket.
The lovely guide at the Information booth kindly explained that his parachute deployed earlier than expected, but that he was unhurt. Along with this washed out drawing of what they hoped his rocket would look like as he arced his way across the Canyon, there is a lovely walk along the Canyon wall where I took this picture of the bridge that successfully does what Evil could not.
As it is America that we are in the view 180 degrees behind me taking this picture was of a strip of Box stores.
. The Canyon hike actually crossed through the parking lot. Also was this nice sculpture of The Twins in Twin Falls
written by  JRadhirsch on September 4, 2008 from Twin Falls, United States

It's cold in this barren wasteland
Shoshone, United States
I wanted to see the Crater's of The Moon National Park before hedding into Yellowstone and the half way point along two lane highways was The Shoshone Ice Cave.
most of this section of Idaho are "active" lava flows. Active as in there could still be an eruption from the volcanos that made them, but haven't done so in 2000 years. The Shoshone Ice Cave is a great road side attraction in that the attraction is truly stop worthy and it combines it with that great American need to sell something. Anything. As if descending into a cave filled with ice (even during summer!) isn't enough, they have the ubiquitous cement dinosaur
and gift shop selling rocks, Indian arts and crafts and this little piece of kitchy Americana
. After waiting 45 minutes for the tour the group of 4 of us were led over barren fields of volcanic rock, down cement reinforced steps to a creeky wooden door. It got cold really fast as the wind from the caves dropped the temp about 30 degrees in as many feet. The guide told us that the early settlers in the area knew about the caves and mined the ice to sell in local taverns as the only cold drink west of the rockies. The gov't got their hands on it in 1937, "ruined" the place and sold it to some guy in the 50s who restored it. What remains is a large cavern with a 20' thick ice floor. I tried taking pictures, but they didn't come out. I bet you can find some on the interwebs if you look. Okay fine I'll do the hard task of searching for it for you here:
written by  JRadhirsch on September 4, 2008 from Shoshone, United States

Courage defined
Arco, United States
The clock was ticking and I was still at least 4 hours away from yellowstone. After consulting with Justine via phone, I decided to camp instead at the Crater's of the Moon National Park. 3 "active" volcanoes (remember what I said active meant in the last post) and their lava flows is the main reason this is a National Park. I set up camp and took of on their featured hike visiting all three of them. The is where courage kicked in. Many of you know that I have an irrational relationship with exercise of any sort. It has dogged me since as a child I was picked last for every team sport. I tried in my twenties to thwart this by enrolling with Heather in Team In Training and training to run a marathon. It worked gloriously for her, but I quit and burned that psyche scar all the deeper. Yet again I was a failure and would never be good enough to be feel confident in physical activity of any sort. After taking a three day seminar course called the Landmark Forum (you can ask me about it privately if you wish) I resolved to walk through my fears with courage. It was here in Idaho that I walked through that fire (get it?). The hike was about 4 Miles round trip and most of it was vertical. (Beautiful by the way and educational to boot. I highly recommend doing it if your ever in Eastern Idaho.) After the first breathless mile I was ready to turn around. I keep trying to justify why I should go back. The sun was dropping, I might get hurt, I was out of breath, etc. instead, I paused, thought about courage and kept on going. It was hard, both physically and mentally, but I made it.
I was sore the next day, but it was worth it. I walked through my fear, was rewarded with breathtaking vistas and got to tell you all about it here.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 4, 2008 from Arco, United States

Day's 5 and 6- Yellowstone
West Yellowstone, United States
Yellowstone is one of those places that is impossible to explain to someone who hasn't been there. Oh sure you hear all about how amazing it is, but until you actually go, no description will do it justice. Here's my cliff notes version. First off it's HUGE. It takes the better part of the day to drive around in it without stopping. Every five to ten Miles offers a drastically different yet equally amazing Vista. And every twenty Miles or so is a hotel with a supporting village of campgrounds, restaurants, gift shops and gas stations only to turn into wilderness again a few hundred feet away. Throughout the park there are natural oddities like the famous geysers, steam vents, bubbling mud pits, and cascading terraces of sulfuric acid eroded limestone. Here's a smattering of pictures I took:
bison meandering down the road
vast hillsides filled with downed pines from the 1988 fires
The laundry room where I did laundry
waterfalls
cascading terraces of eroded limestone and the Hot Springs that did the eroding
my tent. How I love my yellow tent
and me cold and tired in the campground bathroom at 8 in the morning.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 6, 2008 from West Yellowstone, United States

Day 7: Grand Tetons? What Grand Tetons?
Jackson, United States
By the time I left Yellowstone I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't take any more beautiful scenery. I was spent. I knew I needed to see the Grand Tetons just south of the park, so I headed that way, but really couldn't appreciate it. I ended up just driving straight through, didn't take any pictures, and have nothing to say except that I'll be back.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 7, 2008 from Jackson, United States

Thermopolis is so much fun to say
Thermopolis, United States
A twelve hour drive through Wyoming was what my mind needed to snap out of its beauty coma. First on the list was Thermopolis. How could I not stop in a town that ended in opolis. I was hoping for some lunch when I got there, but alas, It was Sunday in Wyoming. The church parking lots were full, the streets and stores closed and empty. i did however find a mini golf place which had a burger stand that was open
. It was too cold to play golf, but I did get a cheeseburger and a Marshmallow flavored malt. Fitting as i love malt and I was just roasting marshmallows the night before while smelling like a mixture of campfire and rotten eggs( the rotten eggs smell was from the sulfur steam billowing out of every crack in Yellowstone)
written by  JRadhirsch on September 7, 2008 from Thermopolis, United States

blizzard
Buffalo, United States
Self
The rest of the drive through Wyoming I will sum up here. There's a beautiful section of the Wind river that passes through a Canyon where I drove through a mountain.
Big Horn State park which at the top of was a full on blizzard. It started as a few flurries somewhere halfway up the mountain range and at grew in intensity until I couldn't see 100 feet in front of me.
Pretty red cliffs in Shoshoni.
Shoshoni
and that mashed potato mountain in Close Encounters: Devil's Tower.
Devil's Tower
12 hours of Wyoming in five minutes. I arrived in South Dakota at 9pm and am staying with this really amazing couchsurfer named Chris who is a youth leader at a Lutheran church. He and his neighbor who also hosts couch surfers are taking me mountain climbing later this afternoon in the Black hills I'll report back when I have access
written by  JRadhirsch on September 7, 2008 from Buffalo, United States

Preconceived notions
Rapid City, United States
I don't know that I had ever thought about what Rapid city, SD would be like, but it wasn't this.
I just assumed anyplace named Dakota would be sleepy and devoid of people. not at all. Downtown is thriving with a cool art scene and beautifully maintained old west architecture. Rapid City is also known as the President's City due to it's close proximity to a certain mountain carving of four of our presidents. One of my favorite things about this city is that on every street corner there are life sized bronze statues of presidents. I lost count of how many but at four corners per intersection they add up right quick. After hanging out with Couchsurfing host Chris and his neighbor Scott the night before, again swapping stories which is what couchsurfers do, I hit the streets looking for caffeine. When I got to my car there was a parking ticket on it. For $5. Never mind that the stated violation was for being parked over 72 hrs downtown (ummm, no I wasn't) for $5 it isn't worth fighting. Rapid City provided me with well over five bucks worth of value. I walked around downtown and discovered a coffee shop called Alternative Fuel. Digging the name and assuming some sort of liberal vibe I went in. Inside it looked like a really hip place with comfy leather couches, high cafe tables, a stage for local bands and a nice refrigerator case filled with yummy things. I ordered a latte and a slice of their tomato spinach quiche and started looking at the community boards. Curiously, there were a lot of posters for events promoting "Life" concerts looking like any poster you would see for a cool local band in say any small city USA. Then I started listening to the music being pipped in and the lyrics were referencing faith and Jesus. Holy crap! This was a christian youth coffee house. The alternative fuel was Jesus. mmmmm. Jesus.
So much for my preconceived notions. This place was hip AND faithful. Good for them. I think it's nice that people have recognized that many churches are out of touch to the younger folk in this country that they are working to fix that and that said youth are responsive to it. Now, I didn't tell them that I was a secular Jew, but the quiche was excellent. I also got a phone call while enjoying my born again coffee from my friend Joan and got to share my shocking revelation with her. It was great talking with her. One of my final acts at ACT was to hire her and one of the downsides about leaving was not getting to work with her. I think she brings a great energy for the job and is just an all around cool person. We'll hang out more when I'm back.
Chris was due back from work around 3pm and we were going to go climbing near Mount Rushmore so I headed out into the Black hills to do some more exploring before that happened. This section of Rapid City has taken the notion of Tourist trap and filled with with tourist attractions that actually sounded genuinely fun. I counted 4 mini golf places(one of them offering indoor blacklight golf), 2 go kart establishments, something called "The maze" which looked like a giant labyrinth, paint ball, 2 Christmas Villages (okay not genuinely interesting, but kitschy interesting) and a water park. Also near here is Sturgis which you may know as the home to the largest motorcycle rally in the world. This is Harley Davidson country. The thing I was most excited to see was the Crazy Horse Memorial. If you don't know, The Dakota tribe, pissed off about the building of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills (promised to them by some president or other and in typical USA/Indian relations never delivered) hired the assistant of the Ruchmore sculpter to build a monument of their own. This white, Polish artist moved into the black hills and set about to build a memorial to Crazy Horse who refused to sign any treaty and was stabbed in the back by a US soldier under a banner of truce. This memorial when completed (dude died in 1988 and his family continues his legacy) will be 16 times the size of Rushmore.
I seem to have a fascination with large scale projects that their designers know they will never see finished. Something about undertaking a project larger than they are that will be conitnued by generations to come. See Gaudi for more on this.
Having had preconceived notions of Mount Rushmore, now made even more acute by my visit to Crazy Horse, I took off to do a one eyed drive by and then hook up with Chris. Preconceived notion smashed again. I loved the memorial.
The whole set up, the piped in patriotic music the beautiful scenery, the decision to add Roosevelt and the thinking into which versions of the presidents to use, the whole thing was great. The snack bar was particularly wonderful. They sold President soda and I got to drink a bottle of Jimmy Carter Cream Soda. My favorite modern president and my favorite flavored beverage in one.
Chris and I hooked up and went for a really tough hike through the black hills that made my volcano hike look easy. Good thing I walked through that the other day, or I would chickened out on this one. We climbed to the top of this beautiful granite outcropping called Little Devil's Tower and was rewarded with breathtaking vistas.
. I also got to use the GPS feature on my knowledge box and took this screen cap.
and this one
After our hike we met up with another Couch surfer coming in from Minnesota at a local family restaurant and had some rhubarb pie ala mode
Today I'm off to see the rest of South Dakota and will try to make it North Dakota tonight. We'll see.
Justine, this is for you
written by  JRadhirsch on September 8, 2008 from Rapid City, United States

Day 9: Across South Dakota
Interior, United States
Day nine started with me writing that really long blog post this morning. It put me behind schedule and as is becoming common on this trip, I didn't make it to my intended destination. I had planned on visiting North Dakota and stopping tonight in Fargo, but I only made it as far as Sioux Falls, SD and will probably skip North Dakota all together. I have a couch lined up in Minneapolis tomorrow night and if I go to ND, then it's a 10 hr drive and I don't get to see much except the freeway. If I go straight from here, it's 4 hours and I get to see a whole bunch more. It's okay. Someday I need to come back and see North Dakota and more than the five Miles of Montana that I crossed through getting into Yellowstone. Can't do it all.
My route across South Dakota took me near the Badlands National Park and since I bought a National Parks pass at Yellowstone, I knew it wouldn't cost me anything to get in, so instead of hitting hwy 90, I drove on a lovely 2 lane road called Hwy 44 and turned into the park. Yet again, Teddy Roosevelt proves why he is on Mount Rushmore. The antiquities act that he invoked to start up the parks service and preserve unique areas of the country was an amazing achievement and has left a great legacy that I for one am enjoying immensely and you all should as well. Thanks Teddy. I owe you one. Here's a crappy picture I took to give you an idea of the terrain, but it doesn't do it justice and I didn't stay long enough in the park to really feel like I absorbed it.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 9, 2008 from Interior, United States

Wall Drugged
Wall, United States
The road out of the Badlands leads straight to Wall, South Dakota the home of world famous Wall Drug. Way in the way back of time the wife of the owner of a tiny trading post in Wall suggested to her husband that he put up a sign on the main road offering free ice water and thus began a trend across these United States of luring passersby into small towns with offers of free stuff or some sort of novelty. He also invented viral marketing by giving out free bumper stickers and signs Not to mention the art of advertising anywhere in the world simply to build brand identity. How many signs have you seen no where near South Dakota advertising it? There's on in Antarctica for Peet's sake. Wall Drug is in actuality a glorified gift shop. They've expanded it over time to include other things, but at its heart it is just a brand selling itself. It is a good thing however that I am on a tight bidget on this trip because I would have easily dropped $400-$600. They have the first true Western Shop I have seen on this trip and I wanted these boots really badly.
They also had the most amazing collection of Western cut, floral print snap shirts. If you look into my closet you will find more of those kinds of shirts than anything else and I have a really hard time finding affordable ones in San Francisco. These were $50 a shirt. Half the price of the shops back home, but still too much for me to spend on this trip. (I wear a L or XL btw, hint, hint.) Okay. a few other things at Wall that I deemed photo worthy:
reminds me of a few friends I have.
Jackalopes are very popular in South Dakota. I don't really get it, but okay.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 9, 2008 from Wall, United States

Paint by corn
Mitchell, United States
Several hours later down hwy 90 you come to Mitchell home of the Corn advisory board or some such organization and their Corn palace redecorated each year with a new theme in actual corn. It looks like they are in the middle of switching out this years facade as it said both 2008 and 2009 and there were sections that were still missing corn. The stage hand in me loved how they used a paint by numbers technique to lay out which variety of corn to apply. Hey look: The Golden Gate Bridge!
This is a close up so you can see the actual corn
Not pictured here is the corn version of Mount Rushmore which brings up an interesting thing about South Dakota. The only thing anyone advertized for in South Dakota is Mount Rushmore. Here I am clear across the state and it all over the place. In fact, every where I stopped in this state had brochures, posters, bric a brac, travel packages and everything else you can imagine for one damn piece of carved rock. Is it possible that there is nothing else to do in SD? I seem to have proven that wrong, but I guess the tourism board puts all of its money in one basket. It would help explain why Rapid City was so cool and why the rest of the state has yet to glisten to me. oops. no self portraits today.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 9, 2008 from Mitchell, United States

Day 10: World's Third Largest
Darwin, United States
It's been two days since I last had a wireless connection for my computer yet so much has happened. Up until I hit Minnesota I had 2 nights and a day in each place I hit. From here until Toronto on the 13th I only have a night and half a day in each stop, so I've had to choose more selectively what to see. I'm choosing to spend my morning in Madison catching you all up on what's be going on, mostly so I don't forget ,but also so that I have a record of it when I want to look back years from now. By the way, I would like to really thank everyone for their encouraging comments. It's been great reading your replies and and getting your messages. This trip has really been fantastic and I'm so glad that I have this forum to reflect on how special it all is. I feel very blessed to have the ability to do this. Are any of you having a hard time following the order of the trip, and if so, does it matter? I liked blogabond because of the may they provide of the trip, but I'm finding the order things get listed awkward. I'm not sure what to do about it, but I think I'm going to list the day on each entry and see f that helps. Let me know.
Now on to my trip through Minnesota.
One of my favorite resources for this trip has been the website www.roadsideamerica.com They offer up many of the oddball and interesting places I've seen or visited. I had been looking for "The World's Largest......." sorts of things, but it wasn't until my sister forwarded me the link to Minnesota that I came upon
For my money, I think the more qualifiers a town places on their roadside attraction the better. This is an 8' tall ball of twine rolled by the son of a former Senator from the county. The ball itself wasn't rolled in Darwin, but in the county and Darwin was willing to put up the money to build the glassed in gazebo it currently lives in. The glare from the glass was really bad, but here's the best shot if it I could get.
There are two larger balls of twine in the US, but they were either machine rolled, or group rolled. The really funny thing is that neither of the other balls live in the tows that they were rolled in either. One is clear across several states in fact. I love that a town can buy its way to kitchy glory. My favorite self portrait of the day is my reflection in the glass.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 10, 2008 from Darwin, United States

Day 10, part 2: Relections of Minneapolis
Minneapolis, United States
I raced to Minneapolis trying to get there before the Walker Art Museum closed at 5pm. I got there at 4:15, sort of raced through the museum and then realized that their sculpture garden is open to the public all day. What a magnificent garden. The center piece is this larger than life cherry on a spoon fountain (oops, water feature) in the middle
Inside a greenhouse lives an early Frank Gehry fish, which if you know his architecture helps explain the influence of fish on his work.
My favorite part though was the plaque under it.
Here's another view from inside the greenhouse.
The Walker sculpture garden had just finished it's 20th anniversary celebration over the summer and they had installed an artists designed Miniture Golf course. Now, as it was The second week of September I didn't get to see it, but I did get to see the remains of it as they were tearing it up. I loved the contrast of the dead grass that had been under the fake greens as if it was the ghost of miniature golf.
I had so such good luck hooking up with my couchsurfing host Andrew until 9pm so had to fend for myself in the city (totally fine by me btw) for dinner. thanks to Yelp and my knowledge box I found out about a restaurant called the Red Stag. I looked up directions, drove to the block and couldn't find it. The address simply didn't exist. I checked back with my iphone, saw there were like 20 reviews for this place at that address, but still no restaurant. I called them and they repeated the address, but I still couldn't find it. I was getting frustrated. 1st Avenue and 5th Street seems like a pretty easy place to find, I was there and no restaurant. Then it dawned on me. Minneapolis is one of those cities that has quadrants. I was in NW and the restaurant was in NE. If your designing a city, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if your going to have quadrants, stay clear of using numbered streets and avenues. It is confusing enough to have to keep track of 1st street from 1st avenue let alone having to know that It's 1st Street NE. Okay, I'm done venting about that. It was well worth the frustration. The restaurant had the MOST AMAZING PORK CHOP I'VE EVER EATEN. I've eaten a lot of pork chops in my life, but this one, oh my god. Before that arrived, I had their Watermellon Gazpacho. also delicious. It was too dark to get a good shot of the chop, but here's one of the soup. yummm.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 10, 2008 from Minneapolis, United States

Day 11: Pie
Osseo, United States
Wisconsin. Land of Norse and cows. How I love both. I started out my trip across Wisconsin in the tiny town of Osseo thanks to a sign on the freeway talking up Norkse Nooks, a restaurant and bakery. Norske is a multiple blue ribbon award winner for it's pies at the National Pie competition.
I had some Norwegian pancakes for breakfast with Lingonberries and they were yumm.
I followed it up with a slice of Sour Cream Raspberry pie which was also very yum. Horray for the Norske.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 11, 2008 from Osseo, United States

Day 11 part 2: CHEESE
Baraboo, United States
If you thought the moon was made of cheese, you'd be wrong. Wisconsin is made of cheese. I visited a cheese factory in Mauston Wisconsin and bought a 4 year old cheddar, a wedge of Sheep's milk Truffle cheese and the ultimate in Wisconsin cheese: Cheese curds. Also known as Squeeky Cheese for the sound it makes when you bite into it. Imagine the sound of two balloons rubbing up against each other and that's what it sounds like. Salty, queeky and yummy. I love cheese curds. I found out that you need to eat them within 24 hours of their being made or it loses its freshness and squeek. The fresher, the squeekier.
Those other two places were discovered by impulse. My real destination was Baraboo Wisconsin. Baraboo is where the Barnum and Bailey Circus started and wintered for many decades before being bought by the Feld family and moving to Sarasota, Florida. They have a museum called Circus World. It is also home to the fantastical scrap sculpture garden called Doctor Evermore's Forevertron.
I'll talk about the Forevertron first as it was my priority and the first place I visited today. Finding the forevertron is difficult. My directions listed the following: "On Hwy 12 between Baraboo and West Freedom, behind the salvage yard and across the highway from the munitions plant." There are no signs for it, just a few steel sculptures near the side of the road that hint at it's existence. I pulled into the drive way only to be met with a locked gate. There was a small washed out sign that told me to call Elenore. So I called her and she told me she was halfway to Madison, but that I could pull into the surplus yard next door, walk through their back lot and into the garden, but that I shouldn't climb on anything. She wasn't kidding. I walked through all this refuse and caught a glimpse of a very tall fantastical looking sculpture looking like something out of an apocalyptic disney land hiden amongst what looked like wild forest. Once I hiked through overgrown vegetation, I came upon 2 acres of rusted steel menageries and whimsical welded Jules Verne-esque futurist machinery. There was a little planning on its layout, but pretty much stuff was everywhere. with little thought to its placement. The whole grounds were overgrown and I'm sure there were many more pieces that I couldn't see hidden under brush and tall grass. My pictures do not do it justice. Go look it up and see someone else's attempt to document it. Here's a selection of the best of what I took.This represents about 1% of what is there. The forevertron alone made this trip worth it. please, come see this place. You won't believe it.
Also in the yard (and an excellent segue to the Circus World Museum) was this awesome Clown Car. Read the back inscription. Priceless.
Across Baraboo I found the awesome Circus World.
As it was a Wednesday in September at 3pm I had the whole place to myself. It was very creepy. Lots of circus music being piped in with no one to hear it. The museum was great though. Amazing displays of floats, costumes, clowns, animals and the world's largest collection of circus wagons.
Fuck Yeah!
They have 2 whole buildings dedicated to the restoration and display of hundreds of beautifully carved and painted circus wagons, most of which had the full life history of each explaining which circus and when they were used and what act or animal it was used to display. I didn't take enough pictures. oh well. They also had life masks of some famous clowns who then painted their own faces.
Later that night I met up with my couchsurfing hosts Rachel and Nick who were awesome. I so love couchsurfers. They just moved here and were as excited to see Madison as I was. We didn't get to see much as I wasn't able to stay that long, but we went out to dinner at a very Wisconsin restaurant where I had Mac and Cheese with grilled rings of bologna. Oh, and a can of Schlitz. i wish I had more time in Madison. I very much want to come back.
Today head to Chicago to visit my friend Joy who moved there to work for the Goodman Theater. I don;t think I'll get to see much Chicago, but then I'm off to Toronto to see my Burning Man campmates KGD, June, and who know who else. I should drive through Buffalo on my way down to New York on the 16th (?) and then finally see pick up Justine who I miss terribly on the 20th in DC.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 11, 2008 from Baraboo, United States

Day 12: Illinois
Chicago, United States
I can't see everything in this trip and the past few days have pointed that out to me even more clearly. My original plan was to go North from Sioux Falls, SD into North Dakota, and then through Winnipeg, Canada on my way to my friends in Toronto, but the more I kept looking at the map, the more The US midwest kept calling me and the less the northern coast of Lake Superior. Thing is, I knew I wasn't going to have enough time to hang around and smell the roses as it were. I'm really glad I did come through as I got to go to Baraboo and see the Forevertron and eat Cheese Curds, but it meant that I was only with my hosts a night each. I left Madison for a full day's drive through rainy Illinois.
The only thing I took pictures of on my drive was this silo with Pumpkin
I got to Chicago and sat in as much traffic as it took to get to Chicago. 2 hours to get to Chicago and 2 hours sitting in Traffic (at 1pm on a Thursday no less.) I met up with my friend Joy
whom I used to work with at CalShakes in Berkeley. Joy is an amazing person. She's super smart and really enjoys the ridiculous. She's also very political and is on a one woman mission to save animals from cruelty. She rescued this awesomely sweet pit bull named Rosetta Cheese when we first met and it was just as nice to spend time with Rosetta. Such a good dog. Joy gave me a tour of the Theater company she's working for, Steppenwolf and while there I ran in to a Jim Ingalls, a Lighting Designer whom I have the utmost respect for. I most recently worked with Jim at ACT on a movement based piece last year, but for years admired his work while a student at Emerson and then working for various theater and dance companies. He's the best of the best and one of the nicest and most considerate people out there. What a treat to hang out with people I know, love and haven't seen in a while on this trip. Later that night Joy and I went out for Ethiopian food and I got the dime tour of Chicago. It was the first city I had been to that reminded me of Downtown Manhattan. I got a little home sick for New York and understood why Chicago was such a beloved town. After dinner we caught a showing of the new Coen brother's film Burn After Reading which I loved, though not as much as some of their other films.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 12, 2008 from Chicago, United States

Day 13: Rain Rain Rain
Toronto, Canada
The iphone told me that it would take me 8 hours to reach Toronto. FAIL. 12 hours. and all of it soggy, overcast, and down right wet. I walked to my car outside Joy's apartment to find it nearly flooded.
Some of the upholstery like the floor mats were soaked and luckily I didn't have anything valuable in the floor of the car. I dried it out some and kept the air conditioning on for the remainder of the day to act as dehumidifier. The rain had dine a number on the roads as well, with this poor sports car stuck in the flooded out freeway
The rest of the drive as I said was long and rainy. I stopped at a fast food place called Culver's for luch as I had never heard of them before, kept seeing them all through the midwest and their featured burger was called the butterburger. It was okay. I don't know why I felt the need to eat fast food, but it seemed very midwest to me and so, when in Rome..... One thing they featured on the mune was deep fried Cheese Curds. I needed to find out more. not so good. no squeak and really heavy. too heavy. Cheese Curd=yum, Deep Fried Cheese Curds=gross. I had a lovely "chat" with the customs agent at the border who let me through wishing me good fortunes on my trip and sailed in to Canada. This is now officially the Great (North) American Road Trip. The rain continued and I proceeded to get turned around outside Toronto. Very confusing highway system up here in the north. I finally found my way to my destination, the Gravity Center, a circus performance space converted out of an old Vaudeville house via warehouse space. My friend and fellow Lost Penguin (the name of our Burning Man camp) Kitchen God Dave (KGD for short, or just Dave) co hosts a monthly cabaret called the Lunacy Cabaret in Toronto and I got there for the second half and then after party. I felt like I was at home. no really.
This was thew wall in one of the performer's rooms. He also had an amazing collection of creepy clowns
and we spent the night hanging out with lost Penguins old and new. Some who had just been to the burn for their first time and were on their way back to Australia, some of whom I had camped with a few years back from Toronto, and some I had never met before, but knew who they were via camp lore. It was really great. One a Penguin always a Penguin. Ark Ark.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 13, 2008 from Toronto, Canada

Day 14 and 15: Toronto
Toronto, Canada
I've gotten to spend quite of bit of time (relatively) in Toronto and have really fallen in love with this city and it's people. This town loves it's arts and supports it. For example, The circus that KGD helps run has quite the healthy audience that keeps coming back even though they don't advertise. There are a ton of performing arts organizations all over town representing a wide variety of styles and they all seem to be doing well. The nightlife seems particularly active outside of theater as well.
KGD, Marc, Hillary and I went on a field trip to Kensington Market which is best described as a more authentic version of NYC's West Village. They had awesome thrift shops and I came away buying a shirt and two pairs of pants. I could have easily spent a lot more money and had to remind myself that I didn't have a job. Everything was reasonable and offered a much wider selection than anything we have back in the Bay Area's second hand shops. The neighborhood was filled cool shops and cafes. There was this car on thew street that acted as a planter box.
And a great raw food cafe that had a true living garden on the roof.
This over priced painting spoke volumes to me.
as did this street poster
While relating my cheese curds fascination to Hillary, she clued me in to Poutine, a local variation on Gravy fries what come with Cheese Curds. As you will remember, I had Cheese Curds in Wisconsin, Deep Fried Cheese Curds in Michigan, and now I needed to complete the Curd Trifecta with Poutine. (pronounced Poo-tin, btw) We hunted the city for the best ones, and came up short, only finding gravy fries with shredded cheese in several places. This one had what is called Montreal Smoked Meat on top. It looks gross, but it was quite delicious.
My second full day here I opted to play tourist and went to the CN Tower, one of the "seven wonders of the modern world" Much like The Empire State Building in NY, you can pay them a bunch of money to ride an elevator to an observation deck, unlike the Empire State Building, there was only one teller, and I wasn't hassled and hustled at every opportunity to buy some other deluxe package or map variation.
one of the nice things about the CN tower is that they have a section that has a glass floor so that you can see all the way down. I loved watching people freak out over their fears of falling while in a very safe environment.
I spent the rest of the afternoon walking the streets of Toronto getting a pretty good feeling for the town. I rode the subway for a spell and then walked back to KGD and June's house. Later that night we went to Dirty Bingo hosted by a Drag Queen who gave out sex toys as prizes. I won an inflatable sheep, but gave it to KGD since I was playing his card at the time. I have always loved Bingo. When in Vegas its my game of choice and it was nice to see another variation on a game that I keep thinking I need to have at my bar on slow nights.
Tomorrow I'm off to Niagra Falls and then to meet Liz Abram, my sister's best friend from High School who lives in Buffalo. While there I'm going to try and see the home Ani DiFranco's label Righteous Babe Records and eat some genuine Buffalo Wings before the long drive to my childhood home in Staten Island. Once ther I will have driven Coast to Coast and will have gone the furthest away from Oakland before turning back and driving home. I see Justine in less than a week and I'm very excited for that. It's about time that I get to share in this adventure with someone I love. I can't wait!
written by  JRadhirsch on September 15, 2008 from Toronto, Canada

Day 16: Niagara Falls into the long arm of the law
Niagara Falls, Canada
I left Toronto bright and shiny and headed towards Niagara Falls. There are two sets of falls: the Canadian Falls, shaped like a horseshoe; and the American Falls in a straight line. The Canadian side offers the best viewing point as you can see both falls clearly. What surprised me the most was how close you can get to the Canadian Falls. The picture above was taken without a zoom. If I had wanted to I could have jumped into a barrel and been submerged in touristy wetness in seconds. It certainly is beautiful to boot. As the USA was only a couple hundred feet away I picked up a cell signal, email, and Twitter from Canada. I called loved ones and marveled in being in two places at once. Having drunk in the beauty, I got back in my car and drove towards Peace Bridge which connects Canada and Buffalo, NY.
Peaceful it was not. Something about my answers to the border guards questions pissed him off. His tone and demeanor changed mid sentence instantly informing me that I was to be further questioned and that my car was going to be searched. I'm still not sure what I said or did, but man he turned into a real jerk. What a difference between Canadian and American Border Guards. Canada was all "Eh", and America was all "Fuck Yeah!, unless we don't like you, in which case, Fuck You!" The intensity of the questioning room was well, intense. There are dozens of well armed, shaved headed, testosterone fueled officers who love to stare you down and intimidate you. One poor kid also pulled over in the room with me asked to go to the bathroom and was denied several times. When they weren't looking, he went anyway and that really got their goat. I was asked a slew of questions, asked for my keys and then told to wait. He came back with my car key, stamped a piece of paper and instructed me to hand it to the officer outside. That officer turned out to be the guy who originally got pissed off at me. He had this dejected/accusatory/shocked look on his face and pointed towards my car. When I got to it I found the passenger door ajar and the contents riffled through. Gee, welcome home. I went on this trip looking for America and found the ugly side right here at its edge. The filling is great, it's just the crust that sucks. The arrogance mixed with machismo in dealing with perceived threats is an ugly stain on this country. There is no reason why I couldn't have been treated with an ounce of respect while still getting the information they needed and preventing Global Thermonuclear War. I would hope that in their job they would see the folly in injecting personal feelings and emotions, but I guess that's what happens when you give guys guns and tell them its their job to protect America at all costs.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 16, 2008 from Niagara Falls, Canada

Day 16, part 2: Upstate
Buffalo, United States
Elizabeth Abram cured my angry American woes. Liz and my sister Cara were best friends in High School. She is in her second year of Medical School in Buffalo, president of her class and just an all around impressive human being. I'm so glad that she emailed me to see if I was coming through Buffalo. I got the grand tour of this former industrial powerhouse from someone who knows how to give a good tour.
We first went for World Famous buffalo wings at Anchor Bar.
I LOVE buffalo wings and often rate a pub based on it's wings. I used to think the secret to true Buffalo wings is the sauce. The official "secret" recipe is this: one part Frank's Red Hot Sauce to one part butter. Want it hotter? less butter. less hot? more butter. Places that didn't use this formula made bad wings in my view. Now I know. While that is still true, it wasn't until I had unfrozen Chicken wings deep fried at Anchor that I had the real deal. Anchor butchers its own chickens. They aren't frozen and the meat is extra juicy because of it.
Following that we went on a tour of Buffalo in her Miata. I used to have one and miss it on a trip like this. Not having a roof is a godsend on a road trip. We zoomed around the city and found our way to Babeville, a converted church that is owned by one of my most favorite Punk/Folk artists Ani Difranco. She and her label, Righteous Babe Records bought the decaying building a few years back as part of the cities reinvestment initiative and have converted it into a performance space and art gallery. Liz is planning her 30th birthday party which gave us a perfect excuse to get a tour of the space and poke around. I could hear Ani in a back room in a meeting, but didn't want to barge in. They did a beautiful job with the church. This is the Righteous Babe logo in Mozaic down in one of the bar spaces.
We tooted around a bunch more and then said our goodbyes as I headed through the rest of "upstate" on my way to the city of New York
written by  JRadhirsch on September 16, 2008 from Buffalo, United States

Day 16, part 3: On my way "home"
Binghamton, United States
New York is a very large state, yet, they insist on calling everything north or west of New York City "upstate." I lived for the first 18 years of my life in this state, but ventured upstate extremely rarely, and had never been to most o fit, including most of what I drove through today. The names of towns were burned into my psyche, but usually with the prefix SUNY. When you live in New York and apply to state schools, names like Buffalo, Binghamton, Oneonta, Purchase, and Utica recall the terror of SAT tests, essay questions and hormones gone rampant. Now I was able to attach visuals to a few of them. Rolling tree covered hills, brick smoke stacks, and blue collar bars now replaced scantron forms and shaded checkboxes.
I stopped for dinner in Binghamton at a place called Sharkey's
who specialized is something called Spiedies, a local delicacy of heavily marinated pork cubes on a skewer. They were delicious, but didn't photograph well. They also had a steamed clam offer of a dozen for 4 bucks. Those were more photogenic.
And also delicious. Well, anything drowning in clarified butter is delicious.
the trip down through New York actually passed through Pennsylvania and New Jersey before crossing back into New York. The trip actually passed within 10 Miles of my parent's summer home in the Pocono mountains and I considered pulling off the highway and spending the night there, but pushed on to Staten Island.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 16, 2008 from Binghamton, United States

Day 16, part 4: Coast to Coast
New York, United States
Oakland to New York City
16 States in 16 Days:
California >
Nevada >
Oregon >
Idaho >
Montana >
Wyoming >
South Dakota >
Minnesota >
Wisconsin >
Illinois >
Indiana >
Michigan >
Ontario >
New York >
Pennsylvania >
New Jersey >
New York (again)
written by  JRadhirsch on September 17, 2008 from New York, United States

Day 17: Vacay from my vacay
New York, United States
Today was a lazy break from my trip. It's the halfway point and I'm in my parents home for a few days, catching up with some friends (I hope) and eating at places from my childhood. First up was Golden's Deli.
. Homemade Knishes, Dr. Browns soda and a black and white cookie. Golden's has a full size subway car in the middle of the restaurant that you can sit and eat in.
We had Costco lunch afterward and I picked up some staples for the trip. To contrast bulk food grazing we went to the GREATEST STEAKHOUSE IN THE WORLD. Peter Luger's in Brooklyn
Holy cow! Followed by angry text and email messages from my sister when she found out where we had gone. Sorry Cara.
By the way, my sister, loveable, adorable, intelligent, sweet, crafty, smart, a little naughty, but not too much, and an all around awesome person is single and needs to find someone deserving of her. She likes boys. Call me and I'll vet you. Seriously.
My Dad, gazing admiringly in my direction
Me and my Mom
written by  JRadhirsch on September 18, 2008 from New York, United States

Day 18: Local in a Strange Land
New York, United States
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?
written by  JRadhirsch on September 18, 2008 from New York, United States

Day 19: Old friends, New lives
Montclair, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 19, 2008 from Montclair, United States

Days 20: Reunited and it feels so good
Washington, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 20, 2008 from Washington, United States

Day 21: Reflections
Washington, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 21, 2008 from Washington, United States

Day 22 part 1: Monticello
Lynchburg, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 22, 2008 from Lynchburg, United States

Day 23: Dirty!
Charlotte, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 23, 2008 from Charlotte, United States

Day 24: Southern Cooking
Atlanta, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 24, 2008 from Atlanta, United States

Day 25: Revolution and Reconciliation
Birmingham, United States
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
written by  JRadhirsch on September 25, 2008 from Birmingham, United States

Day 26: Lost Luggage
Scottsboro, United States
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!
written by  JRadhirsch on September 26, 2008 from Scottsboro, United States

Day 27: Wrecked by breakfast followed by a religious experience
Nashville, United States
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
written by  JRadhirsch on September 27, 2008 from Nashville, United States

Day 28: We're going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee
Memphis, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 28, 2008 from Memphis, United States

Day 29: A hunk, a hunk of burning love
Memphis, United States
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.
Jungle Room
Blue Rainbow
Lisa Marie
PB&B
Aztec
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 29, 2008 from Memphis, United States

Day 30: I miss Bill
Little Rock, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on September 30, 2008 from Little Rock, United States

Day 31: To be, or.....
Oklahoma City, United States
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
written by  JRadhirsch on October 1, 2008 from Oklahoma City, United States

Day 32: The Texas Pan Handle
Amarillo, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on October 2, 2008 from Amarillo, United States

Day 33: Tex Mex
Albuquerque, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on October 3, 2008 from Albuquerque, United States

Day 34: She Does!
Albuquerque, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on October 4, 2008 from Albuquerque, United States

Day 35: The road home
Seligman, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on October 5, 2008 from Seligman, United States

Day 36: Joshua Tree
Twentynine Palms, United States
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
written by  JRadhirsch on October 6, 2008 from Twentynine Palms, United States

Day 37: On The Home Again, I just can't wait to get on the home again
Oakland, United States
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.
written by  JRadhirsch on October 7, 2008 from Oakland, United States

J-Rad at the BYOBW

CalShakes Sunrise

Rainbow

The Man

Black Rock City

Corn on a stick

Big Bird

Pig Pen

Winner

Steel

Starving Artists

Casino Specials

Hellie in Winnemucca

Welcome to IDAHO

Idaho State House

My first Couchsurfing house

Dawson Taylor Coffee Shop

Abby and Charlie

Surfers

Floor inlay at the Dep't of Transportation

Alive After Five

Jill and Mike

Shoshoni

Self

Devil's Tower

Fuck Yeah!

Denture Ice Cubes

Jungle Room

Peabody Hotel