The Road Back Home

On the last day of our road trip adventure we drove from my parent’s home in Jacksonville, FL to Austin; for a total of over 1,040 miles and around 17 hours. We got on the road around 8 AM and initially looked like we were going to do good timing, but soon it became our own “Odyssey” home.

Storming ‘Nole Town - A huge storm and deluge cought up with us. The visibility was very low and ofcourse traffic slowed down to a crawl.

Bama’ Mama - Alabama was sweet and easy… much like the drink. Here we started thinking that we would be able to finish in about 14 hours. Lil’ did we know.

Slow Miss - I’m not really sure of the reason the traffic was going so slow around the Mississippi area, but we were still moving.

The Big, But No So Easy - Louisiana, Louisiana…. We didn’t catch a break here. We got bumper to bumper traffic through most of the state, including  over an hour of going nowhere in the junction of I-10 and I-12. We got out at one point and try to wait for the traffic to calm down, but we didn’t have any luck. Vanessa, took over the wheel here and with patience and driving skills got us out of most of the bumper to bumper areas. Not only did we lost the time we were ahead of schedule we also got delayed

Home Sweet Home - You can tell I’m becoming more of a Texan everyday. Once we got to Texas it was dark, we were tired and had no gas. From here on it was a long drive…. especially when we got in 290, it was so dark and uneventful that it was really hard staying awake. <<Dan, this is where I missed the radio the most.>> But 17 hours after leaving Jax, we made it safe HOME!!!

Mis Papás y Vanessa

En honor a mis padres esta entrada en el blog va a ser en español.

En el séptimo día de nuestro viaje manejamos 350 millas hacia el sur, desde Atlanta, GA hasta Jacksonville, FL para visitar a mis papás. El viaje nos tomo como unas 5 horas, pero nos fue bien… bastante fácil comparado a las otras distancias que ya hemos viajado en esta aventura y las que nos faltan.

Papi y mami nos recibieron con brazos abiertos y nos hicieron sentir en casa… fueron muy atentos con nosotros ya que nos preguntaban cada pocos minuto si queríamos algo de comer, beber o dormir. Mami ya nos tenía arroz con salchichas preparado, ya que ella sabía que a Vanessa le gustaba, y luego cocinó arroz con habichuelas y un guisado que estaba bien bueno. Mami nos habló de sus aventuras en la iglesia y papi de su trabajo y su nueva guagua. Nos pusieron al día de casi toda su vida en cuestión de minutos…

Me alegré mucho de haberlos visto ya que no puedo hacerlo muy a menudo, pero también me dio mucha lástima pues yo estaba bien cansado y me veía medio bobito. Me fui a dormir temprano, para salir temprano de regreso a Austin, la parte más larga de nuestro viaje. Pero antes de salir nos llenaron el carro con regalos e instrumentos de música y sillas que le pertenencen a José y a Grace.

Javier, Isis y su Familia

As the majority of the US was trying to cram in to Best Buy’s and other electronic stores around the nation Vanessa and I took a stroll around Atlantic Station in Atlanta. There wasn’t a lot of people and we got a pretty good deals at Express. The shopping was before getting on the road heading to visit my cousin Javier who lives in Augusta, GA.

The trip to Augusta was not bad, it lasted a couple of hours and the traffic wasn’t heavy. I have not seen Javier in about 5 years. It was nice getting to talk to him, meeting his wife Isis and his wife’s family. Let us not forget about their two funny dogs. Isis is pregnant and is do in March. Vanessa and I had a good time there and we were invited to dinner which was delicious…

Around 7 PM we headed back to Atlanta, there we met Vanessa’s friends at the movies and watched “Four Christmases.” The movie had it’s funny moments, but most of them have been seen on TV and it was also extremly short. After, we headed back to the apartment and played, you guessed it, Rock Band…. It seems that’s the game everyone is addicted to. I had to go to bed early because we were living early the next day.

Thanksgiving Dinner @ Fernando

After 4 days of the road it was time for some rest and a nice feast. We got to spend Thanksgiving in Atlanta with a group of Vanessa’s friends which I’m quickly becoming more and more fond of. It was a potluck style dinner which offered a fusion of typical American and Puerto Rican cuisines. The menu included one of the most delicious turkeys, bacon stuffed turkey, meat stuffing, “arroz con gandules,” Puerto Rican pasteles, tostones, salad, potato salad, Italian bread, flan and cheesecake.

Celebrating Thanksgiving in Atlanta is becoming a tradition of Vanessa and I. We have celebrated it there the last three years and each time I feel more like a belong.

After we ate, we spent time making fun of each other, talking about Cubero and his milk offering, Jorge’s thirst for Cubero’s milk (nobody stills knows what was happening here), Alexis jumping the line and Goñi’s interpretation of the Riverdance. We also played Rock Band and it is not a party until somebody plays dominoes

Gwendolyn N Me @ BB King

Today we rode! And we rode for a long time. Early in the morning Vanessa and I got in the car and left Tulsa. It was 7 AM and I was cranky, but Vanessa was nice enough to drive until my sleepiness went away. The drive would be a total of over 780 miles from Tulsa to Atlanta, GA. On the way we crossed Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and finally Georgia.

The good news was that we were stopping in Memphis, Tennessee to catch up with my dear friend Gwendolyn, who delayed her road trip to Michigan in order to meet up with me. I love Gwen like a sister and it shows in my nicknames for her Gwendolinga or Gwendolingiña. Her nickname for me is much simpler to say; “Freak!!!”

We got to Memphis around 1 PM and what was suppose to be a lunch stop with a friend turned out to be a bit longer, but way more enjoyable than suspected. Gwen met us in some part of town she said we wouldn’t get mugged (at that point I was a bit afraid). She showed us around, including the Peabody Hotel, where the ducks own the penthouse and they take them out eat and shower in the fountain. She also showed us the music notes walk of fame and the famous Beale Street, where there are a number of restaurants and jazz clubs. We should definitely visit during the night.

We went to eat at BB King’s restaurant and I really think my cholesterol doubled after we were done. Everything in the menu was deep fried or BBQ’ed. We had some breaded and deep fried pickles and green tomatoes and the “Word Re-known” ribs. The pickles and tomatoes were good, the ribs were good, but I don’t think they were as good as some the ones I’ve had in Texas. In part because of the sauce they used was too sweet and it covered most of the ribs’ natural and seasoning taste. We talked and drank a few and for a moment it felt like I was back in the old days in Miami…. seating with Gwendolinga at Fridays with our favorite bartenders…. I miss Gwen. Last but not least, specially in the calorie count, we shared a slice of breaded deep fried Snickers Pie. I know it doesn’t even sound good for you,  but it was delicious. We also passed by the Hard Rock Cafe picked up a set of glasses for our collection and pair of drumsticks for some additional style when playing Rock Band

We then saddled up and got back on the road to Atlanta. We got to Atlanta around midnight and met up with some of Vanessa’s friend, but we were too tired for any major action… but we did get to play a couple of Rock Band songs before retiring for the night.

Route 66 through Tulsa, OK

In our second day in Tulsa we went for a walk around downtown. Tulsa, as most of Oklahoma, is a very conservative christian area and it was clear after a stroll through what Vanessa called Church Street. There was a number of large elaborate churches for most major christian denominations, including Catholic, First Christian, Episcopalian and Scientology (I thought I may see Tom walking around, but no luck) in one street.

We visited the Catholic church and it was very beautiful in the outside, but even more impressive in the inside. Featuring radiant stained windows depicting a number of religious scenes, intricate masonry details and vibrant colors it reminded me of a European style Cathedral.

Route 66, seems to be a tourist attraction in Tulsa. It is great because it’s free and we got to stand on it, cross it and even drive on it No we didn’t get any T-Shirt, but I bet they had it. I think a good one would be, “I got a ticket on Route 66″ or “I was run over in Route 66.” Either way, it is one of the most exciting attractions here.

Around 4 PM we got together with Jose and Grace in order to drive into Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma City Thunder game vs the Phoenix Suns. For those of you not aware, starting in 2008 Oklahoma City has their own NBA team named the Thunder. Previously know as the Seattle Super Sonics and they are still just as bad. Coming into this game they had a 1 – 11 record, they had fired their coach and it was the new coach’s second game, but for most of the game they looked like a real basketball team and they lead the Suns by as much as 16. We thought we were going to witness the Thunder’s second win of 2008. Sadly, the Suns gain the lead at the worst possible minute for OKC, the last one. On the fourth quarter, Nash turned it on and the Suns came back from a 13 points deficit to win in the last minute, 99 to OKC’s 98. It still hurts seeing the faces of the three girls seating in front of us, these ladies were dancing and breaking it down the whole game, it wasn’t their fault that OKC came up short, they gave it their all and left it all on the “bleachers.” The good news is that we were in the last row possible, we almost had to wear seat belts to the wall, and we could still see. Now I know why Atari had such crappy graphics in their Magic vs Bird basketball game; their designer were sitting up there. Now that the designer get to sit in the front row, we get much better looking games. The bad news is that at this point OKC still has not won their second game (1 – 14) and they are probably looking for their third coach this season.

Overall we had a great day and we had a ton of fun cheering and screaming at the game. It was good hanging with my lil bro and Grace. We also had to say good bye because Vanessa and I were hitting the road again the next day, but hopefully they will be coming down to visit soon.

Jose and I at Kilkennys in Tulsa, OK

Today was our first full day in Tulsa, a Monday and I was impressed by the lack of cars in the streets. Monday morning in downtown Tulsa and barely a car to speak of. I’m not really sure if that is good or not.

Vanessa and I went for breakfast at The Coffee House on Cherry Street, conveniently located… yes that’s it…. in Cherry Street. Nice welcoming place, you can find all your coffee needs found in big chains as well as light breakfast. You can read more about The Coffee House on Cherry Street and coffee houses in Tulsa in the article Bean There by Katherine Kelly.

After breakfast I got to hangout with my little brother and his wife. I was excited since I have not seen him in almost 2 years and I have only met Grace once. We (Vanessa and I) went over to their house in the morning and got to meet his dog, Zero, a funny, playful and loving Lab mix. He is also big, strong and a bit hyper…. but if you caress his head he will melt at your feet.

I had to make a couple of calls for work and finish some things, but later that night we went to eat at “In The Raw” in downtown Tulsa. Great sushi place and I hear it has the best steak in Tulsa. We didn’t eat steak, but we did tried a number of the rolls, including one of the chef’s specials. You can ask the chef for a creation of their own and you tell him what type you like… for example I wanted fried and spicy…

After dinner we headed to Cherry Street and stopped at the Irish Pub Kilkennys. Sadly it was about closing time already, but we got to have a beer, make fun of each other, take some pictures and talk about our favorite topic during the trip, our dogs.

Hopefully soon I will have a post of my visit to Germany and seeing my other brother, Gerardo, for now I’m sticking to places that Old Faithful can take me

Viewing Stop in Oklahoma

I finally got access to a steady internet connection and got to write the “Day 1″ article of the first annual Thanksgiving Road Trip 2008.

The day started with intentions of taking Killian in our week long road trip across the South, but the attitude changed early in the morning when Killian ran out of the house and made Vanessa run around the neighborhood looking for him. Then he ran into the fenced area behind our house and she had to stand in the other side calling him and waiting for him to come back. Needless to say she was not to kind of the idea of taking him. But I also thought that he is not ready to stay calmed in a car for 12 hours or more. Ended up leaving him with Erik for the week

On day one, we traveled from Austin to Tulsa, Oklahoma via I35. The picture for this post is an HDR renditions of one of the Rest Stops in Oklahoma. I edited it in a trial version of Photomatix, which adds the watermark , but the picture looks good. The negative is, that what you see in the picture is probably the most excitement you will see during the whole trip, except for the occasional cow. For some reason you also see a lot of people walking along the highway and cars left behind. It is definetly not due to high gas prices since Oklahoma is where we have seen the cheapest gas prices at about $1.50.

We stopped in Norman for dinner and ate at BJ’s, a brewhouse similar to NXNW. Food wasn’t great. Once in Tulsa Google gave us directions to the wrong DoubleTree Hotel (it may have been user error) and we ended up going from south Tulsa to Downtown… we were lucky that Tulsa is pretty small.

The rest of the days will come soon…..

Old Faithful

In preparation for our Thanksgiving Road Trip 2008, I decided to take my good old Jeepy to get an oil change. Of course it couldn’t just end at that. The guys at Firestone found couple of problems that they thought I should fix before a 3,200 Miles road trip.

I decided in showing my buddy some love and replace its belts, replace the cooling system hoses and flushed the system, oil change and some differential work. A grand total of around $475 of work. Well worth it, for a safer trip.

It has already given me a few great road trips and over 111,000 miles of fun. You just can find a car with that “character.” LOL Even with a missing radio.

Thanks,
Miguel

Drinking Buddies

the month. We had a good time, ate some appetizers and tried out the seasonal Brown Ale selaction and ofcourse my North By favorite the Amber Ale. By the way, it was the first time I see Dmitriy take a zip of alcohol… Lately I have not been using my Mug Club membership enough in NXNW, need to visit more often.

After North by, we headed over to my complex Happy Hour, themed Martinis and Sushi. Good stuff, and got to hang out with new neighboors. Didn’t win anything on the raffle Oliver and Jacob and his family met Vanessa and I at the HH and walked over to my place.

We had a good time having a few more drinks, playing Rock Band, and talking smack at each other…. A great time with friends.