It's times like this I wish I had a gambling problem...

**pictures to come soon, I'm having wifi difficulties**


I need to come back to Vegas, like ASAP. This place would by far be the most entertaining venue for a drunken vacation with your bestest friends. I realize that statement is kinda in the "duh" categorey, but you think you'd know what to expect until you actually come here. I mean, I had this much fun and I'm here by myself!

Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself... I went to Yosemite National Park yesterday. It was beautiful, I went for a walk down the stream, did a bit of meditating, took some pictures, yadda yadda yadda... back to Vegas :P

I went for a short walk during the daylight hours, not that interesting. So I went back to my motel and relaxed a bit until the sun went down. When the neon beams hit the pavement, so did my feet. I took plenty of pictures, although I wasn't comfortable giving any of the drunkies my camera so none of them have me in them sadly. For some reason neon lights fascinate me, so I think I had the most fun taking pictures here in Vegas.

I saw the largest video screen in the world (or so the announcer guy claims) as they played this hippie-tastic music video for "American Pie." For some reason Freemont Street was celebrating the Summer of '69, so everything was decked out in flowers and tydye. They even had a few bands playing classic 60's rock. One of which had my future husband playing guitar (the blond int he glasses). If you saw my status, no worries, I didn't actually get elloped to a musician... just fantasized about it :)

I wish you guys could of heard his voice!!! It's like he was channeling a combanation of Van Morrison and Bruce Springstien. I didn't get to talk to him, but I have the band name so you can expect a heavy amount of facebook stalking on my part, hahaha, just kidding... maybe...

Tomorrow I'll be back in Albuquerque with my best friend, Paul. I'm not sure when the next time I'll get to see him will be so when I remapped my route I was sure to include a weekend long visit. Apparently he had to reschedule a date, so now I get to meet her before anyone else! I promised not to be too embarrassing; I'm the wing man, hahaha.

Five more days until I'm back in NY, better make the most of it! Till next time my followers...

Professional Wino

Sorry again for taking awhile to update y'all on my where abouts and activities. Although to be honest I've mostly been doing a lot of relaxing.

I've been to San Francisco before (seeing as I was a hop, skip, and a jump away from moving here), so it's not like I haven't seen the sights yet. So I've taken the opportunity to veg out and give my wheels a rest.

Since my last post, Nikki's parents had a big shin-dig at their house for all their work friends. Nikki, fresh from graduating from bartender classes, provided the cocktails from the party and taught me some fancy tricks to get ahead of the game when I take a class in Boston this fall. I now know how to make lemon swirls, you know, the little twirly garnish made out of the rind that you sit on the rim of the glass. Impressive huh?

After a topsy-tipsy night with the Rayfields, Nikki and I went wine tasting in Sonoma Valley. It might not be as beautiful as Nappa, but I couldn't beat the prices. It was much more affordable, which was apparent in my purchases of two bottles per winery. We went four winerys... you do the math.

I love love love wine. I really want to find a nice bottle of wine from 1986, my year of birth, and save it for some really special event; like my 50th birthday or when I make my first million... I've never been able to age wine, I guess it's the lush in me :P

Grand Canyon, Psychics, and Beer Towers... oh my

Sorry that I haven't posted in a couple of days. It's been pretty low key lately, and I haven't had access to the internet until now. I re-planned my trip while I was in Albuquerque, so the route in my picture is going to look a little different now. After Monument Valley I stayed the night in Flagstaff. Then I went to the Grand Canyon the next morning before driving in to LA.

The canyon looked like a painting, it was SOOO beautiful! Sadly, as seems to be the running theme of this trip, it was a bit hazy that morning too so as great as the pictures came out, they don't do the view justice.





Driving into LA took FOREVER!!! Once I got there I was in such a crappy mood from the drivers there. I thought NY drivers were bad, OMG! I could not live in LA, and thats a scary thought considering I want to get into the film industry. I met up with my old friend, Jay, and went out to some bars in the Hollywood area. It was a fun night, we met a guy from Arkansas who believes he's a bit of a psychic... why do I keep meeting these kinds of people on this trip? After a long discussion about spirits, energy, and religion, I got to see a view of the city at night. Sadly I was stupid enough to forget my camera, so no pictures, sorry!

The next day, yesterday, I drove up to San Francisco to meet up with my old roomie, Nikki! Last night we went to see "Funny People" cuz thats what Nikki and I do, we sit around watching movies together all day haha. We were disappointed though. The movie was WAY too long, only epic dramas and quest films should be close to three hours long, not comedies! It wasn't even that funny, I really liked the concept but the film major in me had a lot of problems with the editing and writing. It could have been a lot better, but I liked Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill's parts in it; and I really like Aubrey Plaza! Adam Sandler has been better. I'd recomend people wait for it to come out to rent if you haven't seen it already.

After that we met up with our friend, Matt Marando. He's visiting Nikki too cuz he's planning on moving out here, but probably down in LA for music industry stuff. The three of us went to a karaoke bar and polished off a beer tower, which I had most of. I need to buy one of these things for my new apartment!!!


After a tower of Mordor's worth of beer, we went up to the stage to sing "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". All in all, a very fun night first night in San Fran.

I've been spending today mostyly just relaxing. It's the first day in two weeks that I haven't had to drive for at least 6 hours straight so I'm trying to take it easy haha. I'll be spending today online and gathering all my things I brought here when I thought I was moving over to the sunnier coast. I FINALLY GET MY DVD'S BACK!!! They're like my babies so this is a very big thing for me. If any of you have been to my apartment you know how many dvd's I actually own; I pretty much have my own blockbuster.

Monument Valley

I spent the other day with one of my best friends, Paul, in Albuquerque. We mostly just hung out so they're aren't any pictures from that, but today I went to Monument Valley in southern Utah. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.



I took a rock as a suvenier and decided to leave a piece of the Hamptons behind to replace it. I happened to have a shell in my car as a decoration, so now either some random tourist will be very confused to find signs of sea life in a desert or I'll return in a year or so and find my shell hidden in the same spot.

Now I'm Getting Hit on by Alien Men?!?

Now don't get me wrong. I had a great time in Roswell, and I would love to go back to home land of abductions some time with a group of friends. But I will have to wear a disguise in order to step foot in the alien museum ever again.


After walking through the exhibit for about, oh... TWO MINUTES, this guy who had to be older than my father came up to me and started asking me if I was a believer yet. I figured the people working at an alien museum probably start conversations with visitors like that all the time; you know, to get them to buy into the whole ET stuff. I made conversation with the guy, and he was actually pretty educated guy so it didn't go too poorly. He thanked me and went on his way to other guests.


He returns asking me what I think so far. I personally believe that our universe is too big for our planet to be the only one with life, but that doesn't make me a believer of the Roswell conspiracy. However, the exhibit actually tells its story pretty convincingly. So I told him that the whole thing would make a really good movie, which lead me to reveal that I'm an aspiring film-maker... probably giving him too much information about myself than I should have divulged. He seemed pretty interested and gave me his e-mail address, he didn't ask me for mine so I wasn't suspicious yet but still kinda wondering why he was spending so much time with me. He left me to look at more of the exhibit. The plot thickens...


While I was looking at this big replica of a Mayan carving, he came over to me and made his move. I'll try to quote him as best as my memory permits (I may have blocked some of it out)... "I like your eyes, they're are intriguing. You're eye lashes and the darkness of your eye-brows and eyes make them look so mysterious." I took the compliment, and quickly turned the conversation back to little green men.


At least I have a story to tell I guess...

The Site of my 25th Birthday!

Austin was much more enjoyable Texas city. I met up with my friend Johnny, and he took me to a spot with a great view of the city and surrounding area. He even pointed out where Andy Roddick lives, and then proceeded to assure me was not a stalker... it's the white house behind the cul-de-sac.


After the stalking that wasn't stalking, we went to get some vegetarian friendly Tex-Mex and then to sixth and fourth street for some bars. Johnny pointed out this one 25-plus club that has a glass dance floor with freakin' sharks underneath!!! Now I have something to look forward to when I turn 25... all my good friends should start saving now cuz we are going to Austin for my 25th birthday! The spent pretty much the whole next day kinda hung over on an eight hour drive out of Texas through no-man's land... so yeah, I had a fun night but a not so fun morning. Thank you's go out to all who talked to me over the phone on that drive!

Christian Rock rules the Arkansas Radio-waves

The Graceland mansion was more like a really big house, but it was still pretty cool. The inside was decorated just how the King left it, 70's chic. Bright colors. Gold plated everything. And plush carpeting... on the ceiling! The Jungle room was awesome; I didn't realize Elvis had such a knick-knack fetish.


After crossing the Mississippi my drive became pretty bizarre, but not for the reasons you might think.


At one point while driving I realized that I hadn't seen a fellow NY license plate since I getting into Virgina. Not a second after that thought went through my head, a New Yorker passed me. Then, while driving by Hope, Arkansas, the moment I read a sign announcing it as the birth place of former President Bill Clinton, a commercial on the radio about 90's music made a Monica Lewinski joke. Needless to say, I think proceeded to focus all my thoughts on a million dollars... no luck though.

Once I got to Dallas I had to veg out. The drive took forever, and beyond that, I was staying in the swankiest Best Western I'd ever seen. I had a king sized bed and 5 fluffy pillows. I ordered room service and watched "Heavy Weights" on TBS, best night ever!

Before leaving Dallas I went to see the JFK memorial, because it was the only point of interest I found interesting. Sadly it proved to disappoint. The concept for the memorial was awesome, however the structure itself was an eye-sore. It's a cement cube hollowed out with no top (so basically a stone room in the middle of the city with no roof), the idea however was to provide an area to think where you can block out the city but still stay connected to the sky and earth.


Cool idea, bad execution. Supposedly it looks a lot prettier at night when it's lit up, but wouldn't you want a memorial that doesn't need darkness in order to look good?

Walking in Memphis... in the middle of the pouring rain

So little known fact about Peter... I love bluesy rock n' roll. It's the kind of music I like to listen to when I have some alone time. This was one of the cities I was most excited about seeing; which makes it really unfortunate that it's also the one I feel most unsafe in so far, but it's nothing that Boston hasn't taught me to be able to handle.


After my earlier post/rant, I went to the Memphis Rock n' Soul Museum. They mostly had items from the slave era and musical memorabilia, but the information on blues was really interesting. They had a lot of old blues song samples on their audio tour head sets so used it as an opportunity to expand my itunes library and took pictures of the song lists. This one is off of an old juke box, the songs on it aren't really blues but I thought the picture came out cool.


After that I walked down Beale Street, which I HAVE TO go back to with a group of friends some time. The street is blocked off so you can walk down it Disney World style and then lined with bars and blues clubs. I was planning on coming back and going into one for a beer, but then it started pouring again and I already was feeling unsafe so I decided against it sadly.


At the end of Beale Street I arrived at the famous Sun Studio where a Mississippi boy changed the sound of music for rest of time. I stood at the exact spot where Elvis recorded some of his most famous hits. I literally had tingles going down my spine realizing the musical history that went on in that room, beyond just Elvis too. Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Muddy Waters, B.B. King... needless to say, I had fun today.


Tomorrow is the King's lair; tomorrow is Graceland!

Tennesse HATES Starbucks!

I thought it was funny when I didn't notice any Starbucks on the way to Nashville or even in Nashville. But I didn't fully realize the unpopularity of the coffee company until I didn't see one on the way to Memphis either. When I stopped for gas and ice for my cooler, I asked the woman behind the counter if she knew where the closest Starbucks was. And with this I am not over exaggerating AT ALL... she burst into laughter, practically falling over (she was standing, not sitting), slapping her knee and she needed to cough in order to catch her breath. Apparently this overweight, yellow/black toothed, sans eye-brows madame thought I was funny.

I find it interesting how people choose which corporate teet they like to suck on, and then judge all other company nips as if theirs is more "mom & pop." Across the street from this gas station was a McDonalds and right next door was an Arby's. I don't judge anyone who attends those establishments, but obviously southern hospitality was lost on this beastly woman. In the words of Katie Stock... "You've been Judged."

Obviously I finally did find a 'bucks in Memphis since I'm online and able to finally post my adventures, but apparantely it's the only one in the downtown area and it'll be closing in two weeks. In the end I've come to realize that Tennesse just hates Starbucks.

The weather is still not the best, so I'm spending today at some museums and then I'll go to Graceland tomorrow when the weather is hopefully more agreeable, and then return to this Starbucks to post everything since I can't rely on finding another one on the way to Austin.

Howdyyyyyyy!

So I broke my promise to myself, I didn't go to Dollwood today. The rain continued through the night into this morning, so I decided to drive straight to Nashville instead. But once I got there the skies where completely clear, just in time for me to get in touch with my Country roots... HEY! I could be a little bit country, but I guess I'm mostly a little bit rock n' roll (Ok ok, that was a horrible joke, but I'm a corn-ball, you all know this).


I spent a good portion of the day at the Grand Ole Opry, taking the back stage tour and walking through the Opry Mill mall. The tour was a lot of fun; I can't get enough of the southern twang everyone has down here and the history of the Opry House was actually pretty interesting. They took a peice of the old stage that every performer stood on and put it in center stage of the new one so all the new artist could stand where their idols once stood.


Country may not be my favorite genre, but I have a few artists that I like and I really admire their strong sense of community. The mall was pretty nice too. I geeked out over Marvel Comics with the guy in Barnes&Noble and I had some free time, so I saw "The Proposal" at their theater. I really liked it. It was very well written, especially for a romantic comedy, and I love Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, and of course Betty White.

Then I went to see the Parthanon. I'm not entirely sure why Nashville is the site for the full sized replica of the famous Greek temple, but I figured it was a must see for a Greek boy. It was pretty impressive. They had it all painted and sculpted the way historians believe it looked when it was originally built.


I've come up with quite a few ideas for my movie so far, but I pose this separate idea to you guys... the Housewives of Nashville!

And the Thunder Rolls...

As my title suggests, it's raining at the Smokeys, which is unfortunate. The above picture is pre-storm and below is post, but I suppose it's fitting for the Great Smokey Mountains to in fact look smokey...


This time I did get to do some hiking, but the looming storm decided to unleash its furry on my way back to camp. Even better, being the smarty pants that I am, I decided it was a good idea to wait after my hike to pitch my tent. So instead of attempting such mechanics in the rain, I'm spending the night in the back seat of my car. It's a warm rainstorm anyway so the whole ordeal isn't frustrating or anything. I just had to acknowledge my brilliance.Actually the only part of the whole experience that I didn't like was the fear of knowing that I'm on a mountain during a thunder storm and the chances of me and my handy little metal canteen getting struck by lightning were too high of a percentage for my taste. With each flash came a vision of me becoming that guy in "Benjamin Button."


For now I have the sanctuary of my Hyundai Sonata, and the promise of Dollywood in the morning!


PS... I learned something new today. Apparently if I ever want to have a butterfly garden someday, all I need to do is load up a room with horse dung and they will come.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Jesus Fish

How did I realize I was in Virginia? The migration of holy trout on the highway. Seriously though, all hick jokes aside, Virginia was BEAUTIFUL! I requested a way around the toll booths on map-quest and its response was to put me on this scenic drive through farm land and hilly meadows. I tried to take pictures along the way, but sticking my hand out of a moving car doesn't produce the best photography.


As expected, my enthusiasm for this trip has been fluctuating. I'd be lying if I said it had nothing to do with Scooter, but watching these families camping out together is emphasizing my lack of conversations other than with myself. Even the weird Amish family looks like they're having fun... are they still Amish if they own a car?


I'm in my tent at Shenandoah National Park. I decided to use this time to sit, relax, and maybe do some reading (eat your heart out Anthony Marando). Skyline Drive was amazing, but it took forever... on top of my 5 hour drive just to get to the park. I'm exhausted and the idea of attempting a hike is too painful right now. Besides, all the hikes I had planned for this park lead me to high elevated spots with a view and Skyline provided me with endless outlooks into these awesome valleys. Sadly its been a bit hazy today so the pictures loose the full effect of the view.


PLUS! I'm getting attuned with nature all in the comfort of my own tent. These campgrounds are crawling with does (deer) and stags. One practically came right up to me while I was putting up my tent!


Shenandoah is great place for a future camping trip with some friends. Very calming. I spent a half hour just looking at the scenery and watching this massive puffy cloud morph into different shapes. I'll rest today so I can wake up bright (or in this case dark) and early to get to the Great Smokeys in time to get some hiking in.

R.I.P. Scooter

This trip is officially dedicated to my family dog, Scooter. This morning my mom informed me of his passing. I'm taking it surprisingly well, or at least I'm not letting myself fully comprehend it yet.


Scooter had one of the most adventurous spirits I've ever seen. I think its fitting to continue this quest in his name. I'll love you always Scoot.

The Starting Line

Leaving home was bitter sweet. Mother nature christened my journey with a torrential downpour for the first 20 minutes of the drive, but then the skies completely opened into one of the more beautiful days I've seen this summer. Saying good bye to my family was difficult, even Mia (my cat). It's scary how well she can read me. As I was walking to my car I heard her meowing, and sure enough, she was standing behind the screen door calling for me. I'm pretty sure she knew I wasn't just on my way to work. I really do wish I could have brought her along. Having a companion that can't request alterations to the route is an enticing thought. But day one was anything but lonely...


I've been to Philly before, but the only touristy thing I did was eat a cheese-steak; now that I'm a vegetarian I can skip that heart attack. I met up with Sophie and her friend/our tour guide, Kevin, to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Katie joined us for a stroll down South Street, an artsy, less expensive version of Newburry Street. After spending an already decent chunk of my allotted cash, we proceeded to get emotionally bitch-slapped by my GPS trying to get back to Sophie's house; you'd be surprised how angry a monotone voice can sound when she repeatedly tells you to make a U-turn in the middle of a busy street. Once we had dinner, the three of us (Kevin parted ways halfway through our South Street exploits) stayed up until about 1am picking out future breasts for Katie in "People" magazine and a future occupation for me from Weezer's "Undone."


All in all I would deem Day One a success. Tomorrow I drive to the south... wish me luck?

Goodnight Room...

The car is all packed, check list triple checked, and my first few days are planned out... all I have to do now is sleep. I'm afraid that will be easier said than done, but this trusty glass of wine will help me with that :)

My friend Billy hit the bulls-eye with his comment on my earlier post... this is the kind of experience that teaches you something about yourself. Mark Twain once said, "I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." Let's hope I like what I learn.

Tomorrow I'll be in Philly. I'm meeting up with my friends Katie Stock and Sophie Schwartz (as well as a possible surpise addition). We'll see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and a sex toy shop that will apparently put Condom World on Newburry Street to shame. There will be pictures.

As for now, my glass is empty and I must get my beauty sleep if I want to look good for the hitchhickers. Goodnight room, and goodnight cow jumping over the moon...

Traveler's Eve

It's the day before the journey begins... I'm collecting my thoughts, I'll post something very profound in a few hours :P

Notable mentions...

I have two last minute additions to the marathon list...

A)
B)

A movie marathon worthy of Louis & Clark

True to form, I've constructed a traveling movie marathon to mark the 10 day count down to my journey across the nation...

10.9.
8.
7.6.5.4.3.2.1.