The land of soymilk and agave nectar

Well, I'm here. which means my travels are over, at least for a while. I now find myself faced with the daunting task of finding a place to live and some kind of job to help pay the bills while I spend my free time eating delicious vegan food and completing phd program applications.

It seems to be pretty standard here to live with roommates, and it certainly seems like it would be both cheaper, and more socializing to do so. However, I've only lived with roommates for one year ever, and that was an experience I'm not really super keen to repeat. I'm quite a solitary person and I don't think I'd like sharing space with people. I don't even have people over hardly ever. My last apartment I was at, where I lived for two years, only saw not-me people come over maybe three or four times ever (those of you who were there, you can feel blessed).

So with that in mind, I've begun putting out feelers to set up showings for a number of decent-looking (and reasonably affordable) one-bedroom apartments in the SE Hawthorne neighborhood. I've also sent out a few emails to some random people looking for roommates, on the off-chance that I can find some people as cool as KT's roommates.

I feel that a job can wait until after I've already found a place to live, though I'm hoping that apartment applications won't look too harshly on "self-employed" as my source of income.

I am almost in portland

I'm about 3 hours away. I was originally going to try to make it into town for brunch at sweet pea, but I stayed up too late doing laundry. so instead I'm shooting for getting into town around noon to help out with the leafleting at the circus.
After that I'm probably going to spend time setting up a PO box, local bank account, and then chill at the library trawling through job and apartment listings.

Thusly, I send the call out to any pdxers reading this. If you know of a reasonably priced apartment in a convenient neighborhood, or if you know some cool people looking for a roommate, let me know.

Also, if you want to hang out, call me. I'm sure I could use some drinks after stressing out about jobs/apartments. If you don't have my number, email me at j.michael.press@gmail.com.

Some photos from New Orleans

If you haven't seen them yet, I encourage you to go check out the photos I took at Kenny Hill Sculptural Garden near New Orleans LA. There is some really awesome, crazy stuff there. You can click this link to go to the set that has those photos.

Which reminds me, I recently organized all my trip pictures so that they are grouped together by general location. You can find these folders along the right-hand edge of my photostream.

So here it is

After I'm done here in New Orleans, I'm abandoning the rest of my plan and just heading for Portland. The plan was never super-solid in the first place, and upon further contemplation, I'm not really looking forward to spending time in the Southwest, it just doesn't seem very interesting to me. I've had a great time traveling so far, and I've still got a ways to go, but I want to take a more direct route now. I'm getting tired of life on the road, and I think I'm ready to settle down somewhere (at least for a little while).

A dog was humping my leg today

I'm at Kittee's place, in New Orleans Louisiana! Her dog Vee is pretty crazy, but he's gotten used to me now, so that's nice. now if he would just stop humping my leg. Kittee's husband Dazee is pretty awesome too. We made an excellent pizza with mushrooms, seitan, olive salad, and teese (fake cheese).

Tomorrow, depending on the weather, we've got a lot of things to do. Lots of pictures to follow.

Feeling Blah

I know I need to just get up and get moving, but there isn't much I'm actually excited to go do today. Plus it's rainy and drab, and looks to be that way all day. This sort of puts a damper on my usual "go walk around neat neighborhoods" method of seeing the city.

Plus nothing that I was planning on doing today actually feels very interesting. I think I might just take a day off of sightseeing and veg out in my hotel, at least until 8pm when there's a live band playing at the local veg coffeehouse/foodplace. I'll probably go check that out.

Thinking about a change of plans

Because I really don't want to bother with most of the Southwest US.

Ok, off to Savannah today

I'm excited to spend time at The Sentient Bean, it looks like a neat place. Plus museums and historic downtown stuffs. Should be moderately interesting. Tropical Storm Fay is probably not going to be up that far North as far as I can tell from the predictor maps, but there's plenty of other storms that look like they're spinning off from her, so I'm probably going to take Kittee's advice and stick to a hotel while I'm there.

Staying up late watching movies doesn't work very well at campgrounds.

because then you get woken up at 11am by a super-loud bluejay, a weedwhacker, and a riding mower. what the fuck? This state park isn't a campground, it's like a state-sponsored KOA or some shit.

plus the heat. I'm already sweating inside my tent.

I bet this would work much better somewhere cooler. I'm about sick of the heat and half ready to call it quits because of it. Only the thought of hanging out in New Orleans with Kittee and seeing all the awesome things there is keeping me hopeful right now.

Winter is coming, right? That means it gets cooler in the south?

ps: Dexter season two is pretty damn good. well worth staying up until 7am.

Slight change of plans

I've stopped in Myrtle Beach SC, to enjoy some sun and sand and water at the beach. I've got a pretty sweet campsite about a 5 minute walk from the beachfront, plus electricity and wifi at the site itself. This is at Myrtle Beach State Park. Not too bad a deal. I've already been down to the beach and splashed around in the water a bit and laid in the sun for a bit. I'll probably stick around here for two or three days before heading down to GA.

Wilmington is a city steeped in history.

Lots of neat stuff here, but certainly not enough to keep me here. I had a good day of chilling with a long-time World of Warcraft buddy and seeing some of the sights. We bummed around downtown (I finally found the requisite hippy/hobo tibetan prayer flags), checked out the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science (pics forthcoming, check my photostream later), the Serpentarium (which is exactly what it sounds like, again, photos uploading to Flickr as I type this), and then went across the river to the Battleship North Carolina, a huge decommissioned battleship. Very neat stuff all around. After all that, we grabbed dinner at a japanese hibachi-style steakhouse, where I got a buttload of veggies and rice...not the most exciting, but certainly filling and more than a lot of steakhouses have. Lunch was a Tempeh Philly "cheesesteak" at a place downtown. They didn't have vegan cheese, so I just left that off, but it was pretty darn good regardless.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Savannah GA. my goal is to find a roadside stand selling peaches and eat one.

The Tater Pig

Originally conceived who-knows-where, it was veganized on the PPK by SonOfSeitan (Mike). He tells us that the original form is a potato with a hole bored through it (as with an apple corer or the like), and then a sausage of some sort (usually a breakfast link?) is inserted through the hole. This is then baked as a normal potato. Serve with salsa, fake bacon bits, vegan sour cream, chili, etc.

Our campfire version used a Yves brand "meatless hot dog" in the centers. Lacking an apple corer, I first made a pilot hole through the potato with a clean tent stake, then attempted to enlarge the hole by twisting a small knife. The other people decided this was too much effort (it was), and instead cut the potatoes in half and used a knife and spoon to hollow out half-hot-dog-sized grooves in each half, then sandwiched the dog inside. Once wrapped in foil, these were then set on the coals for about 50 minutes, and they were damned delicious. Luckily the PPK's Nikitee was with us, and she made awesome chili that we used to top the tater pigs, and she also had vegan sour cream and avocados that we used for toppings as well. Thanks Nikki!

Some Pics from Fallingwater/Ohiopyle

Jill, one of the lovely people I hung out with last weekend in PA, took some pictures and has them uploaded on her flickr stream. You can see just the relevant pics by following THIS LINK.

toot toot

I'm in Wilmington, and it's about to rain really hard. I know this because I slept through the storm last night outside of Charlotte, and then drove through it on my way here. Now I get to chill out in my tent while it ravages Wilmington. Wish me luck!

Charlotte is nice, but...

I actually spent the last couple days in Fort Mills SC, at a lake house with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was quite relaxing, and a very nice change of pace. We ate delicious food, and did some canoe-ing, but mostly just chilled out and chatted. Good times. From here I'm heading to Wilmington NC, not sure where I'm gonna set up camp there yet, hopefully there aren't too many tourists taking up the good camping spots.

Some Pictures

Lots of new pics up on my Flickr photostream. I tried posting some highlights here, but they got cutoff by the margins on the page. Tips on fixing that?

Asheville NC!

I pretty much love this place. It's almost as good as Portland. I'm at an independent bookstore right now, Malaprops, and I'm gonna explore around downtown today. There's a museum I want to check out, two restaurants with lots of vegan food (Rosetta's Kitchen and Laughing Seed), and the city sponsors both free wifi access in the downtown area, and live music performances in a small park downtown.

Last night I hung out with Bryophyte from the PPK and she was pretty darn cool. We grabbed some dinner at Rosetta's and then walked around downtown a bit, but a lot of stores were closed by 5:00, so I'm gonna hit them up today. We also saw a belly dancer/drum performance in the public park, and then grabbed some beers at Jack of the Woods bar, which is owned by the Green Man brewing company. I'm going to do a brewery tour there later today. Hell, if they're hiring I might not leave here.

Logan, West Virginia is boring.

That's where I am right now, or at least near it I guess. There's not much around here.

Anyway, this past weekend I got to meet a lot more PPKers, and they were lovely people and I had a very good time eating lots of tasty vegan food and going down natural waterslides and having water fall on me under a waterfall, and also watching water fall at Fallingwater.

Carnegie Museums etc...

ok so I don't have a ton of time here in the city because I want to get back before dark, it's an hour and a half drive, and I got a late start, but just coming up here for the museums was totally worth it. I couldn't take pictures of most of the Art museum parts, but I got the most important thing from the Natural History section: mother-fucking Dinosaurs! I took pics of other things, but Flickr is being stupid and not letting me upload past a certain amount, so you just get dinosaur pics today. Go check them out here (same link as yesterday, in case you missed it). The newest pics should be at the front I think.

Anyway, the other pics I have are from some neat buildings downtown, and other parts of the natural history museum. I think I'm gonna take Sarchan's suggestion of Quiet Storm for some dinner food before I head back.

Pittsburgh!

I'm in Pittsburgh for the day, at the Carnegie Museum of Art/Natural History. I've taken some pics, I'll post those later when I have a place to plug in for power.

Pictures!

I started a Flickr account (hot damn, I'm rocking the web 2.o now!).
Photostream thing
Right now it's just pics of the park I'm staying at right now. I don't have any Portland Gathering pics up because I didn't take any there, but I'll get around to posting some that other people took eventually.

ok I'm an idiot and must have accidentally deleted the link right before I posted (damn laptop touchpad mouse).

Here it is
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29402485@N08/

Podcasts?

I've been filling the driving hours by listening to the Dungeons & Dragons podcast. Give me some other suggestions on podcasts to download. I like things about games, electronic gadgets, and camping, but most of you probably know me well enough to figure out what else I find interesting.

Addicted to Internet

You know there's a problem when you can't go more than two days without checking your email/forums/etc. Even when you have to drive an hour to find wifi access.

Just a general heads up: I don't seem to have any cellphone reception at all in my campground or surrounding environs, and for some reason text messages haven't been reaching me, so if you've tried to contact me recently via those means, I'm sorry that I haven't gotten your message. (even with full bars like I have here, text messages aren't coming through. Not sure what's up.)

Yay Starbucks

edit: I'm currently camped out at Ohiopyle State Park in SW Pennsylvania. I'll be there through Monday or Tuesday.

I have no idea where the fuck I am. I just told my GPS to find a starbucks near my campsite and here I am. Quick post before my two hours of free internet are up.

I think that I will be taking the following route after this weekend. I have no idea when I'll be in each place, but I'll try to contact people at least a few days in advance.

From Stewart PA where I am now:

to Asheville, NC (I hear this place is good for vegans)
to Charlotte NC (you can stop bugging me to visit you now! :)
to some place in SE NC (wherever Timeline lives...Wilmington? I'll PM you)
to South Beach FL (sup Traff)
to New Orleans (Kittee when are you moving? I want to visit you)
to Houston/Austin/Dallas TX (Which of these is most awesome?)
to Albuquerque (because why not? (thanks Brecca))
to Flagstaff (on the way anyway)
to San Francisco (maybe if I get here by July I can go to the LSA conference there)
to LA (visiting more internet friends)
to Portland (hopefully to settle down for a while).

The following items were factors in my decision:
The route that let me visit the most people that I like
The route that seemed more fun in general
The route that wouldn't be butt-ass cold in the winter, so I can still camp out
The fact that I probably have a 0% chance of getting in to Amherst, so why bother? (sorry L...I'm still applying there though)

Columbus Ohio

Chilling outside the Columbus Museum of Art. It's closed on Mondays, but the Wifi is still free!

I'm feeling a lot better about things today, thanks to everyone for the encouraging words. I think I just needed some alone time after two days being constantly around people. I'm still not sure where I'm going after PA, but that doesn't matter so much right now.

Last night was a KOA outside of Indianapolis. I'm probably not going to stop at a KOA again unless I have to, since they're stupidly expensive even for a primitive site ($28! nearly twice the price of most other places primitive spots). I'm not too pissed though since it was close to the showers, and there was a swimming pool that I spent a little time at.

Lafayette IN

Hanging out at a place called Local Mountain Coffee Cafe, which gave me 2 free hours of wireless for the mere cost of a soy latte. Hooray.

I had a great time hanging out with M and D in Chicago, I ended up spending two nights there on their futon (which was previously mine!) We did some El and bus exploring the first day, and then some of their friends came over and took us out bowling that night.

Second day was a thorough exploration of Chinatown. We ate at a place called Evergreen, which was on some street that started with a W. It focused on Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine, and the waitress seemed to know what "vegan" meant, so I was happy. I had a spicy tofu and veggie dish that was damned tasty.

My next planned stop is Ohiopyle, PA, home of the Ohiopyle state park. I'll be meeting some PPKers there and going to the Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater thing. I'll probably spend about 5 or 6 days there, since the camping is relatively cheap, and I'm a bit ahead of schedule.

At this point, I need to make a decision on what to do once the mini-gathering in PA is over. My original plan was to head towards Connecticut, visit my friend L, and we'd go up to Amherst MA to do a tour of the UMass campus there. I'm a bit hesitant to do that though, primarily because I really really really want to just go back to Portland, and I feel like I'd maybe just be wasting gas (money) by going out there and back.

I'm also partially considering it because settling down somewhere (Portland) would be a bit of return to normalcy, which I'm missing quite a bit right now. Living on the road is harder that I thought it would be, though not really from a "meeting physical needs" aspect, as the getting from place to place, and feeding myself issues haven't been a problem so far, but more in the "feeling of stability in life" aspect. I initially thought it would take me longer to get to this point to be perfectly honest, and I'm a little disappointed in myself. I'm going to give it a while longer though, to see if I can get more used to it. It's not like I'm panicking every day because I don't have a place in mind to stay each night, but it just feels unsettling to not really know where you're going to end up at the end of each day.

Where's Jeff? Morrison IL

camped at the Morrison Rockwood State Park last night, and it wasn't entirely unpleasant. I would have preferred something less humid, but I think that's going to be a rarity until I get out of the midwest.

I'm parked in the parking lot of the Morrison Dairy Queen, using their wireless connection. Yay. Once done here, I'll be on my way to visit my friends M and D in Chicago for a day or two.