Entries Tagged 'Travel Stuffs' ↓

Walking out of the train station I was a just little pissed. I had just found out there would be a 30 some odd minute delay until they would be unloading luggage from the train. Which meant I would have to wait to get my bicycle back. This is why when I travel, I normally never check anything.

I was calling Bobby to change our initial meeting plans when I passed a girl who sounding frustrated as she talked and waved at her cell phone in a language I didn’t catch on my first pass as I walked towards the corner. On my way back I over heard her conversation now with a taxi driver, and found out she and a friend were headed to the youth hostel. Assuming she was a backpacker from Europe and remember how well everyone took care of me when I was over there. I stopped and asked if she needed helped.

It turned out she did. They didn’t know where the youth hostel was, and the taxi driver was attempting to charge them $20 dollars for a half mile rile. Since my plans for the evening were pretty much only meeting up with Bobby who is also a backpacker and going to a bar to complain about women for, I figured we should try and help them out.

We took the girls to their first Wendy’s restaurant for milkshakes and talking about their trip so far before delivering them to the youth hostel. Turns out they just recently gotten out of school in Amsterdam, Holland, and they are taking a train/bus trip all the way around the Untied States. Their pictures can be found here.  The next morning I went with both girls to the Martin Luther King jr. memorial before they caught their next train to Savannah, Georgia.

I have been back in Birmingham for two days. And I have managed to have two seizures. I didn’t have any the entire time I was in California. My head hurts now.

So everyone has been waiting for the blog post from the week with the stupid ass adventure. Well….here it is.

My dad and I were already running a little late for the airport when disaster struck. All four lanes of traffic were shut down right before the exit we needed to get off of for the airport. My flight was scheduled to leave the gate at 12:30, I stepped up to check-in at 12:31. “Oh well,” I sighed before putting a smile and asking a clerk what my other options were.

After a bit of thought, I took the fun one. Phoenix, Az. I wasn’t even away from the desk good before I was on my phone and making phone calls to assemble everyone. After a dozen or so calls, an idea was in play. A small meet-up in the parking lot. Since I wasn’t sure how long my lay-over was it added a since of excitement to the whole thing. After enjoying a 4 hour wait in the Oakland airport I had a fairly short flight over to Phoenix. Then things got really interesting.

My buddy Jake was waiting for me in the terminal of Phoenix Sky Harbor airport and we found out that my layover was for only 20 minutes. Once we decided that really wasn’t enough time to have any real fun, we walked down to the ticket counter to see if I had any other options for flights home. I spent a few moments shamelessly flirting with the girl at the kiosk as she worked the computer to see what she could do for me. She told me I could buy a ticket out for tomorrow for $300 some odd dollars or make my flight out in 20 minutes. I decided Jake was cute, but not that cute. But then she leaned in and said take your time going through security, you may miss your flight, and get to fly out tomorrow instead. So Jake and I rush over to Starbucks. Were we spent the next 20 minutes or so looking at the wall art and shooting the shit before I walked over to the security check point were it actually did take me about 10 minutes to get through (I had to turn my head and cough). Before ambling to the gate to find out I had just missed my flight. I went back down to the ticket counter to give my well practiced sob story to the girl at the counter were I put on a stand-by flight for 11:15 the next day. This actually didn’t go all that smoothly at one point we had 5 people trying to figure out how to work the computer to put me back in the system due to the number of flights I had missed already.
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On the way out of the airport and still riding my high from a small triumph over the system, I started calling other people. I managed to get a hold of Brandon and Windy. Two of my really close friends when I lived in phoenix last. I also chose to call Saebbe, it seemed a bit irresponsible to be in the same state as her and not call. I called a few other people, but everyone else had a good excuse for not hanging out with me, like that fact I had a habit of getting them arrested. We swung by Brandon’s apartment, this place has always been a cave of awesome, but it has just gotten crazier since I left. I only dawned on me in retrospect I should have gotten picture. He has taken to collecting vintage arcade machines has has them setup in his living room. that aside. It was a 20-30 year old guy’s wet dream place to live. We had windy meet up with us at a food place and ate a loud fun dinner. We jumped a fence back into Brandon’s apartment complex because it was the fastest way back in. Then Jake in I made the tough choice.
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It is 11pm. Saebbe and Stryder are in Heber which is 3 hours north of Phoenix. There is snow on the ground between here and there. And Jake had to be at work the next day. After a really tough internal battle, I decided to go see them. Quoting Jake “ He ending up in Az on a accident and stayed on a whim. And decided on a whim to visit an accident. Truer words had not been spoken in some time. So 200 some odd miles, 7000 feet of elevation change, and a 40 degree drop later, we found ourselves in Heber. Myself staring my son and my past in the eyes. We sat and talked about things for a bit, took a few pictures, and got to know each other some. This is one of the longer continuous conversations that Saebbe and I had in some time. Jake was polite enough to pretend to be sleep to make things a little less awkward. Since we had a three hour drive back south ahead of us and Jake had to work we didn’t stay very long. After a painful goodbye. I exited and we made our way back down south to the valley once again.
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Once back in the Valley I ate breakfast with Windy and one of the girls she went to nursing school with before making one more trip to the airport. After countless smooth security checkpoints in countless places. Including the fact I have done this one about 3 times in the past twelve hours. The time after I had just pulled an all nighter. I got bag checked, and the T.S.A completely emptied my bag on a table and swabbed it for explosives. Since it was right before her lunch break. Once my entire world for the past few weeks lay exposed on that table, she ran off. Leaving me in a pile of my belongings, clutching my socks in one hand and my silent rage in the other.
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I did eventually make it onto a plane headed home on stand by. The gate agent gave me the instructions, ”get on hope the don’t call your name your name to get off, and I hope you make it.“ That plane took off and landed twice in Missouri. But eventually I set it foot back in Alabama completely exhausted and in desperate need of a shower.

Thanks Jake.
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I haven’t been called “Cowboy” in ages.

Sarah and I hung out yesterday for the first time since I got out the hospital in Oklahoma. She means something special since she was there the entire time I was unconscious.
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Originally we planned on going down to San Fransisco but, since she had been in the car for four hours already that morning and neither of us wanted to be trapped in a city, we chose the Sonoma Valley region instead. The drive out through the wine country up into the winding twisting valley was really nice and relaxing. We talked about her life in So-Cal and my life Al. It was kinda odd to be talking with someone whom I barely remember but feel at ease with.
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When we finally made it out to Sonoma, we walked around the small town and snapped several pictures. Unfortunately I had left the batteries to my slr at home because my Grandmother rushed us out of the house. So we were forced to swap Sarah’s camera back and forth between us. It posed an interesting challenge because her camera is a lot more picky than mine, but in the end It was a lot of fun to have.
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The highlight had to be when I got sick to my stomach and had to find a restroom and the only one we could find was the woman’s restroom on the side of city hall while I was using it. A non-profit attorney came up and introduced her self and started talking to Sarah and I. Told us all about her bed and breakfast and what she did in Sonoma. She seemed just a little too perky for someone I met in a restroom.

The rest of the pictures from Sonoma can be found Sonoma Gallery

Between eating my Grandmother’s cooking everyday. (I am currently eating a pot roast with a spoon.) And hanging out around here. Life has been pretty hard the past couple of days.

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I was told the second day my dad was out of his wheel chair he found the highest hill near the house here and walked up it just to see if he could. Apparently this scared my Grandmother immensely. I found the same hill and walked up it myself. The view from the top was worth the effort completely. From the street to the peak it was about a ten minute climb for me, so I am curious about how long it took him. I shot a panorama from the top, but unfortunately I shot it at the wrong focal length, I have debated going back and reshooting it correctly to see if i could get better results, but this is what I came up with.

Hilltop pano

Today my dad and I got an early start before everyone else woke up. We started by driving past the spot were he was hit while riding his motorcycle. The tire marks are still gouged out of the dirt, and the fence was still destroyed almost a year and a half later. It was easy to understand why he didn’t want to stop the car and look around.

We also drove through the Napa valley region and some of the more rural country side up to the Monticello dam.
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later my dad and I walked along the edge of the dam for a bit and looked down into the valley. The entire area was lush and green. it’s amazing really. I took the time to shoot a panorama of the rocks above the dam you can find the shot here but it was impossible to shot a clear shot of the dam itself. It was fenced off for safety purposes.
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Stay out, and stay alive.

I flew out to Oakland, Ca to see my dad for the first time in nearly 4 years. This is the first time we have spoken to each other face to face since I left home for college back in 2001, and this is my first time seeing him since he spent half the year in the hospital last year.

One of the many perks of having my [tag]memory[/tag] [tag]fried[/tag] is that I tend [tag]forget[/tag] to update my site.

My week has been pretty interesting. I got [tag]published[/tag] again. This week a [tag]picture[/tag] I took and my name appeared in the Dec. 6th-13th issue of the Birmingham Weekly

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I am still feeling pretty rough from my last seizure. I also got suspended from my day job until the beginning of the new year and I decided to bow out of the normal group rides I usually attend, but I will be attending two races in [tag]Atlanta[/tag] on Saturday. The first is Santa’s Little Messenger A benefit race for Toys for Tots in downtown Atl. And the Second is Thrasfh and mash which has a no brakes stipulation. Which is no biggie to me since I ride brakeless anyway, but I have never ridden with a group of brakeless people, and the last person I met who rode without brakes was running a stupid gear ratio.

I intend on taking an Amtrak out to Atl at this point. It will give me a chance to get some writing done and true my rear wheel, and with my luck I will end up with an interesting story to tell.

Lastly, whenever I tell people I work security they always ask me if I have seen the [tag]movie[/tag] roadhouse. I am starting to think I need to rent it.

Not that I have forgotten about [tag]StupidHurts[/tag] lately or anything, but I have been battling with a massive case of writer’s block coupled with a foolishly [tag]busy[/tag] schedule. Most of my time [tag]online[/tag] lately has been doing research and planning for my trip to [tag]Europe[/tag] as well as studying the things I need to know for my job at the bike shop. On a really cool note I recently found out about a discount airline operating out of [tag]Canada[/tag] which might pose and interesting option for crossing the pond really cheaply. Plus it would be an excuse to hang out in [tag]Toronto[/tag] for a few days. I have been a bit curious about the [tag]bicycling[/tag] [tag]culture[/tag] there for some time.

Lastly after four months and lots of people telling me I should give up, I finally finished [tag]Steinbeck[/tag]’s novel “[tag]The Grapes of Wrath[/tag]” I hadn’t realized until the end just how much of an emotional toll that book can take on you. Even if you are an outside and casual observer of the events in the beginning, by the end you feel like you should have been there shovel in hand fighting the flood waters along with everyone else. It isn’t to often you can have a book abuse you and feel better for it afterward.

Oh and my camera finally took its final shit on me, so no new pictures for a bit