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.