9-4-2009 New Orleans LA

Today I made the 5 hour drive to New Orleans. I stopped off in Mississippi to check out the golf coast beaches that I have heard stories about. The beaches were amazing. They had the purest white sand that I have ever felt. I had some difficulty staying out in the sun, as the poison on my legs began to get worse. As soon as I go outside my legs feel as if they are on fire. I swear that Ocala National Forrest almost killed me.
I am meeting a friend of mine from Philadelphia today in New Orleans. She is flying in to spend the weekend with me in downtown New Orleans. I picked her up from the airport and we headed into our town to our hotel. Once I parked the car ($90 for 3 days) we headed into the St. James Historical Hotel. For $79 a night, we were not expecting too much. We were very suppressed to find out that the hotel was very well renovated and in a great location. The room was spacious and clean. We were in one of the balcony rooms that had a great view of the city skyline. We washed up and headed to the bourbon street area for some dinner and late night shenanigans. We ate dinner at the Acme Cajun restaurant. We both had po boy sandwiches. They were delicious. Afterwards we headed to bourbon street for some drinks. I have to say that this street is the craziest place I have ever been. The streets are completely packed with bars, strip clubs, restaurants and people. We hopped around for about 3 hours that night. You are highly encouraged to carry open containers in the streets of New Orleans. We frequented the “Big ass beers to go/ Huge ass beers to go” stores. Here you can get a 32 ounce beer for $5. What a deal. Friday we walked around the French Quarter. We had lunch at a restaurant rich in the Cajun culture. I had the Crawfish gumbo. I once was afraid of crawfish, until I went to NO. Now I love them. We then walked around Alexander Park and Jackson Square for a bit. Later that night we decided to go to Mulates Cajun restaurant. I heard that they have a great Zydeco band. Zydeco is classic New Orleans music played with some brass, strings, accordion, and a washboard for instruments. On our way there, we noticed a great Zydeco band playing about 3 blocks from our hotel. This was actually the Louisiana Seafood Festival. The event featured some of the best Cajun food from New Orleans. I really wanted eat there, but I knew that Jamie wanted to go to the restaurant. So we decided to go to the festival on Saturday instead. While at Mulates, the couple beside us had a gift certificate for $200 to spend and were not quite there. They told us to spend the $25 bucks left on whatever we liked. They also had a enormous appetizer that they wanted us to share with them. Considering that I am homeless, and this restaurant was extremely expensive, this was quite a nice surprise. I tried alligator for my first time. I realized on this trip that I absolutely love crawfish and alligator. Now I see why they sell so many alligator heads, its because people actually eat the meat in New Orleans. So Mulates actually cost me nothing so I was pretty excited. We then headed over to Bourbon street for some more nightly festivities. While strolling bourbon street, we stumbled upon a really cool 40’s bar. They was a live 40’s band that consisted of a stand up bass, clarinet, banjo, and drummer. The band was awesome. Everyone was in costume and really gave us the feel that we were back in the 40’s. We hopped around for a few more hours after that. Saturday we headed over to city park for a bit. We found the New Orleans Botanical Gardens along our journey at city park and decided to pay it a visit. We saw some pretty cool plants and trees there. Then we headed over to our hotel to freshen up before our ferry boat trip over to Algiers Island. We wanted to catch the sunset and see the skyline over NO. We struck gold and took the ferry at the perfect time. We were able to see the entire sunset and get some great pictures too. We then headed over to the Seafood Festival for some local favorites. We had some amazing crawfish stew and fish tacos. There was a great Spanish band, followed by an awesome brass soul band. Post festival, we headed over to bourbon street for one last night. Sunday we headed over to a famous coffee and beignets place called Café Du Monde. The food, atmosphere, and service was amazing. Beignets are like little funnel cakes that are covered in powdered sugar. We then headed over to local cemetery. They have over 45 cemeteries where people are stored above ground. It was quite a site to see. We then headed over to a local park to feed some turtles and take a walk. Lastly, we decided to head over to the ninth ward to see the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The ninth ward was one of the areas that was well over 10 feet submerged under water. The houses were completely destroyed even four years after the hurricane. They say that only 20% of the people remained in the ward post Katrina. I would say that estimate was generous. The place was a ghost town. The sight was devastating. We then headed to the airport to drop off Jamie. I decided to drive as far as I could toward Austin Texas for my next stop. I made it to about an hour out before I had to stop at a local Walmart to sleep for the night. This one actually let me stay the night.

9-23-209 Alabama

Today I visited Auburn University in Auburn Alabama. I decided to park my car at Chewacla State Park which is about 3 miles outside of Auburn. I originally wanted to do a 40 mile bike ride that started from the library on campus, but there was no parking. So I decided to take a tour of the campus and surrounding neighborhoods. The campus is pretty sweet. The best being the football stadium. I cant wait until JMU gets a stadium like the D1A teams. I rode about 18 miles then returned back to the state park to get my car. I needed to shower, so I snuck into the campsite facilities and washed up. From there I decided to go to Montgomery AL. This city is very rich in history. I’m not the biggest history buff, but I am pretty interested in the Civil Rights Movement. This is the home of the “Rosa Parks Civil Rights Movement” era. Parking and touring the city was actually pretty easy. I simply paid $1 to ride a tour bus as long as I wanted. The people were very friendly and excited to show an outsider their town. On the tour I saw the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The church where he was a preacher for four years, the state capital buildings, and most importantly the Rosa Parks Museum. I decided to actually pay to go into this museum. I would have to say I was well worth the money. I learned so much about the Civil Rights Movement and Rosa Parks involvement. After the museum, I wandered around town until the sun went down. Some random security guard noticed that I was not from around AL, and he decided to show me all of his favorite spots around town. He was pretty shady, but very informative. I never knew that Montgomery used to be called Philadelphia. Once the sun went down, the town complety shut down. I then went to the local Walmart to sleep for the night. I was immediately kicked out of the parking lot. The security guard told me that you cannot sleep in cars in their parking lot. I actually parked next to an RV that was there for the same reason. He told me that they were fine, but I was not. So I had to go to the local truck stop to sleep for the night. After about an hour at the truck stop, I was awakened by a gentleman banging on my window. I freaked out until I realized that he was a security guard. He simply wanted me to turn my car around. Tomorrow I will head into New Orleans, LA for the weekend.
http://montgomery.troy.edu/ROSAPARKS/MUSEUM/
http://www.dexterkingmemorial.org/

9-21-2009 St. Augustine

Today I visited the St. Augustine Alligator farm. This place was amazing. I was able to see every one of the 26 species of gators in existence. I also pet a baby alligator. I watched a live feeding of the gators that was pretty interesting. Parking is St Augistine is pretty tough with a trailer, so I asked the people at the Alligator farm if I could leave my car there. Then I biked over to the lighthouse for a bit. From there I went over the bridge back into downtown St Augustine. I rode all around town and saw the fountain of youth, Mission of Nombre De Dios, Castillo de San Marcos, and Vilano Beach. Vilano beach had some great body surfing and very warm water. You are allowed to drive your trucks on the beach here. When I arrived to Vilano, the beach had a sign that said “very dangerous water conditions”. I decided to go anyway and had a pretty good time. That night I tried to say in the hostel again, but once I got there, the reception desk was closed. So I decided to break into one of the rooms and steal a shower. From there I had to sleep in my car on the street. I will be heading to Auburn AL tomorrow for some biking and sight seeing. I hope to stay in the Chewacla State Park right outside of Auburn.
http://www.staugustineattractions.net/map.php
http://www.vilanobeachfl.com/
http://www.alligatorfarm.com/

9-20-2009 Ocala National Forest

Last night I decided to sleep in my car at the local Walmart. I swear that was the biggest Walmart I have ever seen. I headed into Ocala National Forrest for some mountain biking and hiking. My lovely gps decided to take me and my trailer off on a dirt road into a swampy ATV trail. I got about 2 miles into the forest and realized that despite what my GPS was telling me, this was not the way to go. My car and trailer were wider than the path and were both getting severely scratched by the tree branches. It took me about an hour and a half to finally cut down enough tree branches to turn around my car and trailer. Once I noticed the damage on my car and trailer, I decided to use everything possible to cover the car and make an armor to plow through the trees and return to the main road. Finally I made it out of the forest and headed to Alexander Springs. I had originally intended on mountain biking the trail, but once I parked I notices some signs about diving at Alexander Springs. I asked the forest ranger to tell me about the place and come to find out , this was a natural spring that had some decent cave diving. Best of all, it was free. So after the frustrating commute, I decided to do some surface diving at the spring. The cavern was pretty cool. Since it was only 30’ deep, I was able to dive without a tank. I just grabbed my mask and snorkel and dove down as many times as I wanted. After the spring, I decided to go ahead a do the mountain bike trail. This was a very hard trail that consisted mainly of a sandy/pine needle covered path. After about an hour, I decided to turn around and head back to the spring for an evening swim. On my way back, I got lost on the trail and ran into some pretty crazy looking spiders. Come to find out they were Banana Spiders. While swimming at the spring, I met an old man named Bob. He was a park ranger and was making sure that everyone exited by 7:30. I talked to him briefly about the park. He kept telling me to behave my self and to have a good night. I responded for him to do the same. He replied, “at my age son, there is not much I can do to misbehave”. I told him to just be creative. I then headed to St Augustine FL. Since the Walmart’s in St Augustine are not RV friendly, I decided to head into town to stay at the Pirate Hostel in downtown. This was actually a very nice hostel. The beds were comfortable and the room was spacious. They even gave me an all u can eat breakfast in the morning.
http://www.floridasprings.info/2006/08/alexander-spring-part-of-ocala.html
http://www.stateparks.com/ocala.html
http://www.piratehaus.com/

9-18-2009 Blue Grotto FL

Today I packed up my tent and headed toward Blue Grotto dive resort in Williston FL. This was only about 45min away from Ginnie Springs. Everyone I talked to about Blue Grotto told me that I would love the dive, but hate the prices. This is a privately owned and operated dive resort, and the guy who runs it is pretty stingy with his prices. Besides the price, I did love this dive. This was the deepest dive spot I have ever dove. Blue Grotto is the closest thing to a cave dive that I have ever experienced. With a maximum depth of 96 feet, this dive is equipped with some spectacular cavern views. I met a nice country family from GA that partnered up with me for the dives. My second dive was a solo dive as my buddy had some pressure issues at 15’. This was pretty dangerous considering I was 96’ under ground with no back up air supply. I safely returned to the surface and then did some snorkeling. Blue Grotto has some people friendly soft shell turtles and catfish. After I finished my diving, I met a very nice couple from Florida. The couple told me all about St Augustine FL and suggested that I visit Vilano Beach. Laura also told me that her twin sister just made a move to Denver CO and that I should contact her once I got there. So far, everyone I meet on this trip is trying to help me connect with people out in CO. I am a big fan of the southern hospitality that I receive down here. After hearing about the beaches and attractions in St Augustine, I am convinced that I should pay the town a visit. I began driving to St Augustine, when I start seeing signs to Ocala. I had noticed on the map that they had a pretty good National Forest in Ocala. So then I decided to make a stop along the way to Ocala.
http://www.divebluegrotto.com/uwpready/index.html

9-17-2009 Ginnie Springs FL

Last night was pretty interesting. While driving to Ginnie Springs Florida I ran into some severe downpours. The rain was so bad that I had to pull off the road several times. Pulling a trailer is pretty tough when you are going across country. Finally I arrived at Ginnie Springs Dive Resort and campground only to find out that the gate was closed. I then had to search for a place to park and sleep for the night. I asked some locals at gas station and they recommended that I leave that part of town and head to Alachua FL for some decent hotels. After negotiating with 3 different places, I decided to sleep in my car in front of the Quality Inn. The next morning I headed into Ginnie Springs for a day of scuba diving. Ginnie Springs is one of the best spring dives this side of the country. I dove seven times today. I tried Devil’s Ear, Devil’s Eye, Little Devil, and Ginnie Springs Cavern. The cavern is the best spot by far at this Spring. While diving at the cavern, I had to use some survival tactics to escape because the dive light that they rented me went out in my first dive. If you have ever dove in a cave, you would know that cave darkness is pretty tough to navigate. After my dives, I decided to spend the night at the spring. This is a pretty big party spot for the locals. I set up shop right next to the water and settled in for the night. I talked to a few divers to ask about other dive sites and they all told me to go to Blue Grotto FL. So I decided to dive yet again the next day.
http://www.ginniespringsoutdoors.com/dive.php

9-16-2009 Atlanta Georgia

Today I woke up in the hostel (thank god). The stay wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I planned my trip to downtown and headed out for the day. The hostel was walking distance to everything. First I went to the worlds largest aquarium. This place was absolutely amazing. They had tons of exhibits of marine life from all over the world. The best was the last exhibit which was the worlds largest tank. It held over 6 million gallons of water and thousands of fish. The coolest thing I saw was a whale shark. It was about 20 feet long. After the aquarium, I headed over to Olympic Park right outside the aquarium. This was a monument of the 1996 games that were held in Atlanta. Later I headed over to Piedmont Park. I really wanted to go there because Dave Matthews recorded an album of his live show in the park. It was truly amazing. I have never seen such well kept greenery. On the way back, I was caught in a downpour so I made a stop into a coffee shop to pass the time. This shop really lived up to the Atlanta reputation of being a gay friendly community. I think I was the only straight one there. I then returned to the hostel to pick up my car and head out of town to meet up with a friend from work. I hadn't planned on going out in GA, but Amelia talked me into it. She promised me a true red neck experience, so I had to check it out. Come to find out we went to a Mexican restaurant in a strip mall. Hardly a redneck bar. The clientele however lived up to my expectations. This place is really good for people watching. I was very surprised how Georgia girls thew down. One of Amelia's friend offered to let me stay at her place for the night so I couldn't resist. She did however have her blacked out boyfriend with her who also stayed at her house. His kids lived at her place, so I had my choice of a room with bunk beds or a princess room with a double bed. I chose the princess room and made myself at home. They had a hamster that would not shut up all night so I had to evict him to the bathroom. I made sure to make my way out of the house before the boyfriend woke up in case he changed his mind about letting me stay at his girlfriends house. I then made the 6 hour drive to Ginnie Springs FL. After running out of gas (coasted right to the pump) I stopped at a Starbucks for about 4 hours to work on this blog. I plan to sleep in my car tonight to save some $$ for scuba diving tomorrow. I hope the weather clears up as it is pouring out right now.

9-15-2009 Stone Mountain Georgia

Today I drove 4 hours to Stone Mountain GA http://www.stonemountainpark.com/. This is the worlds largest granite rock. The park was pretty cool. I did however have some troubles there. After paying $10 to park my car, the lady that took my money failed to tell me that all of the attractions in the park were closed until the weekend. When I discovered this, I was pissed. I decided to make the best of it and venture off into some hiking trails. After about 2 minutes of walking, a torrential downpour decided to happen. I was stuck at a picnic area for about 2 hours until it cleared up. Once it did, I had a great time. I walked around the lake on some of the nature trails. After that I decided to check out the quarry exhibits. There was some pretty interesting facts to learn about the granite industry. Then I decided to hike up to the top of the mountain. This hike was spectacular. I have never climbed such a large rock. The hike was about an hour top to bottom. Once I reached the ground, I decided to catch the sunset then head into downtown Atlanta. Since I was viciously attacked the night before, I decided to treat myself to a hostel. I guess this is an upgrade from my tent full of ants. The hostel looks pretty cool, but still has its shady hostel charm. I hope I don’t get robbed or raped in here.

9-14-2009 Congragee National Park

Today I visited Congaree National Park in SC http://www.nps.gov/cosw/index.htm. The park is somewhat on the way to Atlanta Georgia so I decided to give it a shot. There was not too much to do other hike or canoe. Considering I did not own a canoe, I chose to hike. The main attractions was the fallen trees and the swamp. This was a very “forestry” type of hike. After about a 3 hour tour, I decided to set up shop at the free camp site on grounds. I was excided that it was free, but that was about it. When I arrived, it the campground was deserted and sketchy. After about an hour or so a group of drunken rednecks showed up. They immediately harassed me because of my gigantic tent. They were already drunk and carrying a case of natty, so I did not take their insults to heart. I was unable to find a subway or any other form of food for miles, so I had to resort to crackers and peanut butter for dinner. While eating at the picnic table by my tent, my foot was attacked by some fire ants. This experience brought me back to an awful experience I had as a young child. Since the sun was going down and the bugs were getting bad, I decided to go into the tent for the night. After a few hours of reading my road trip book, I decided to go to bed. Besides the crazy drunk rednecks a few spots down, everything was going fine until I was attacked. I made quite a few mistakes that day, first setting up the tent in a fire ant colony. Second, knowing that I set up the tent in a gauntlet of firey death, and not moving the tent. Third, leaving my open peanut butter and crackers on the floor of my tent. I was awaken at about 12:30 completely covered in fire ants. I had received hundreds of stings over my arms and legs. After freaking out for about 20 minutes, I decided that the thousands of ants that had taken over my tent had won the battle. I abandoned the tent and everything in it to sleep in my car. Needless to say, I did not get too much sleep. Things were way better at Mikes place.

9-10-2009

Today I arrived in Charleston South Carolina. My fraternity brother Mike Ray put me up in his condo right outside of downtown. Mike took off work early and we decided to get right to it and head into Charleston for some food and drinks. Later that night we went out in his town at the Wild Wings Factory. We went to this establishment several times throughout my stay. They have great happy hour deals, and some pretty good scenery as well. Friday I decided to go into town while Mike was at work. I rode my bike around the city for about 4 hours. While there I visited Battery Park, the waterside, college of Charleston, the Straw Market, and Rainbow Row. Once Mike got home from work, I returned to his place and prepared to go right back out to Charleston for the nights festivities. One of our fraternity brothers Wayne Moore came into town for the weekend as well. We started the night at Market Street Saloon. This is a "Coyote Ugly" style of bar. We had so much fun there, we decided to spend the majority of the night at this bar. Mike fell in love with the cocktail waitress and was taken for a $200 bar tab (thanks for the shots Mike). Afterwords we visited his buddies sandwich shop for some grub. Then we ended up going to some friends of Mikes for the closing activities. We all ended up sleeping at their place. The first thing Wayne could think of on Saturday morning was to go to a bottomless mimosa bar for breakfast. About 2 hours and 10 mimosas later we were right back where we started last night. We then went to a cigar shop for some stogies. On our way home, we saw a guy hauling ass on his beach cruiser and completely crashed his bike right in front of us. That was extremely entertaining. Once we got home, I passed out for a few hours until the JMU game against Maryland. One of Wayne's friends Shelby from out of town came to visit us and hang out for the evening. Saturday night was also a show. We started out the night at Wild Wing Factory for some live music and drinks. We closed down that bar and headed to a late night club for some closing activities.... Sunday was a day of recovery and watching the Redskins.

9-4-2009

Today I completed packing all of my belongings into my trailer and began my journey south. My first stop was in Southern Shores "OBX" NC. I drove down to my friend Josh Engelken's house to stay for labor day weekend. This is a yearly trip for my closest group of friends. This year Jeff Brundage, John Glenn, Josh Engenken, Kyle Engelken, Ashley Sparkman, Katie, and a guy named Scott made the trip. We did the usual. Hang out at the beach Saturday. We went to Kelly's that night for some live music and schannagans. We all had a pretty good time. Jeff in particular was a dancing queen that night. I am surprised he returned home with no lady friends. John somehow racked up a $100 bar tab all on his own.. Good work buddy. Sunday was another great beach day had by all. We closed it out with some late night drinks on the beach. While on the beach, we decided to hang out on some mansions private deck. Kyle freaked out and ran off with Scott. We then had a great rock out session on the walk home. Sunday was a rainy day, so we decided to go bowling with Josh's Dad. We all had a great time. I believe Josh was the highest bowler, followed by myself. Post bowling Jeff, John and I went to Walmart to pick up some necessities. As we returned to the car, we decided to smoke some cigars and listen to some music. We were only there for about 15 minutes before my car battery died. Luckily we actually in the parking lot of a place that sells everything including car batteries. 15 minutes later, we were back in action. Our final mission was to pick up the legendary "High Cotton" Carolina BBQ. This a tradition of ours and we usually close out the OBX weekends with it. I then said my goodbyes to my best friends and headed back to Virginia beach to visit my parents one last time.

8-31-2009

Today we returned home from our cruise. We had a great time. My usual activities included waking up at 6:30 am to get an early breakfast ad to head to the Flow Rider for the early morning session. If you have never heard of the Flow Rider, check out this link http://www.flowrider.com/. It is absolutely amazing. We ate dinner every night at 6:00. We usually went the show after dinner for the nightly entertainment. I discovered that since my parents were diamond members (10 cruises or more) they were granted access to the concierge lounge (free drinks top shelf). I spent quite a bit of time there drinking my gin and tonics and talking it up with the old people. The cruise did not have too many people my age, so I had to entertain myself a lot. I pretty much spend a ton of time riding the flow rider and spending time with my parents. After we docked in Ft. Lauterdale Florida. We had some time to kill, so I decided we should go alligator hunting at a local air boat tour shop. This was my first time on an airboat and first time seeing a live alligator. After the tour ended, my parents dropped me off at the airport and I flew back to Arlington VA.