roadtrip finale

i'm on the I-40 driving westbound wrapping up a month long road trip across the country. i left the writing off in st. louis, which has now become the new benchmark on which everything that is shitty will now be compared to. i never EVER would like to visit st. louis again(except if it were solely on the basis of going to pappy's bb-q).

during the last night, while we started our breakdown, a freak electrical storm crept up. the sky lit up, thunder clapped directly on top of us. it was a great sight to see and all except that we had to take down big metal trusses.

from there we headed to dallas, texas which went smooth, then drove to virginia beach, virginia. from there we drove to the artscape event in baltimore, maryland. yesterday the team and i began our drive through virginia; i was left speechless.
the countryside gradually became more wooded as we approached the smoky mountains. plooms of smoke eerily hovered across the treetops as the sun descended below the mountains. the sun's rays struggled, but they made it through some of the thin strips of haze. i swerved off the road for a second but i couldn't stop staring at the rugged beauty of it all.

something about that that glow though...it's special. a few moments later, the sky morphed from a pale blue, into a blood pink...again, speechless. we stayed in asheville, north carolina for the night. today we woke up and took a much needed morning white water adventure down the pigeon river. we're staying in memphis tonight, always a chill place.

sweaty balls

the sun was down yet it was still 101 degree. what is wrong with this city!
not exactly home plate but good enough.

go dodgers!

4 days 5 states and 27 years of age

i had a good time in flagstaff. spent most of the night talking to brian, a 60-year old retired computer engineer and hopeful novel writer.

the next day i turned 27 years; snap. i keep hearing that a person's best work comes at 27...we'll see about that. i had breakfast with the gang and was given a birthday bowl of watermelon with a banner on top saying "happy bday customer dude" a huge smile followed.


we continued driving through the arizona and new mexican desert till we finally we got to las vegas!
new mexico...
unlike it's brighter sibling, this new mexican town has shops filled with antiques and vacant stores. it's inhabitants are a strange mix; a cross between locals and nomads. a place for people who do not want to be found.


i had my birthday outing at a community charity event being held at the las vegas town hall. a "los lonely boys" type band was playing corrido jams along with some tex-mex.
two ladies starting throwing fists at each others' face because a charity event wouldn't be complete without a good fight. well, that was our cue to leave, but not until the fight was over. 

walked to the local bar with the filter crew and partook in some birthday libations. the place was filled some sketchy ass humans. mac-10, westside connection, and random 80's songs blared from above. to my right, a man who had just been released from prison was throwing his pitch to my friend mikey to push drugs across the country. and to my left, i don't know what was said but two mid 40 year old women wanted to jump me. after 45 tense minutes, we called it a night.

the rest of the drive was a blur, we stopped in florence, co for a night. stayed at really cool bed and breakfast...haunted.

we white river rafted down the the arkansas river flowing right below the royal gorge bridge; it was intense. i jumped off a 25ft. cliff and lost my oakley sunglasses in the murkyness. the raft that i was in got flipped over once over some rocks. struck my shin on something, thought i broke something; luckily i didn't.

the next day we kept driving, stayed in whichita, ks for the night...nothing much to say about that place. don't go

st. louis welcomed us with sweltering triple digit heat and rainforest humidity. the next day we all had to set-up and in the course of 10 hours, i must have drank at least a dozen bottles of water. as the sun dragged it's fiery fat ass down the sky, i expected a slight cool down or maybe a kiss from a nice breeze. negative

at the end of the day, i became 3 shades darker and was completely mummified with salt. the cold shower made my nagging body happy. 4th of july was the big day. the toyota event went well, and the fireworks show was incredible. now it's the 5th of july, and it is our day off. the filter owners got us all home plate tickets for the cardianls vs. rockies game, which is nice. but what i am really excited about is checking out the anheuser-busch brewery. i heard it's intense; well it should be a chill day.