Stats

I'm catching a plane from Charleston SC to Chicago tomorrow morning - officially ending our 5 week expedition.  I thought i'd wrap up this blog with a few stats:

Drive

• 5,454 Miles
• 8777.362 Kilometers

Limits:

• Northern:
• Passed Through: Portland, OR
• Stayed: Portland, OR
• Western
• Passed Through: Port Orford, OR
• Stayed: Prairie Cummings Creek State Park, OR
• Southern
• Passed Through: Amelia, LA
• Stayed: New Orleans, LA
• Eastern
• Passed Through: Edisto Island, SC
• Stayed: Edisto Island, SC 

States (where we spent at least one night)

• Oregon
• California
• Nevada
• Utah
• Colorado
• New Mexico
• Texas
• Louisiana
• Georgia
• South Carolina
• Mississippi (drove through, didn't stay)
• Alabama (drove through, didn't stay)
• Florida (drove through didn't stay)

Sleeping:

• Portland, OR: Ace Hotel
• Cummings Creek, OR: Camp
• Prairie Creek SP, CA: Camp
• Santa Rosa, CA: Flamingo Hotel
• San Francisco, CA: Globetrotter Hostel
• San Luis Obispo, CA: San Pedro Inn/Motel
• San Diego, CA (Ocean Beach): Josh's House
• Las Vegas, NV: New York, New York
• Moab Utah: Archways Inn
• Ft Collins, CO: Aunt Glor and Uncle Bill's House
• Boulder, CO: Jim and Frona's House
• Santa Fe, NM: Old Santa Fe Inn
• Palo Duro Canyon, TX: Camp
• Austin, TX: Doug and Celina's House
• New Orleans, LA: Caroline and Michael's House
• Savannah, GA: Eliza Thomson House (hotel)
• Edisto Island, SC: Turtle Turf (Beach House)

Duration:

• Shortest Stay: Moab Utah, 12 hours
• Longest Stay: New Orleans LA, 6 days

Fast food restaurants (failures of will)

• Wendy's - Hurricane Utah
• McDonald's - Somewhere in the Florida Panhandle

To be continued in 2015...

The Shitkicker Incident

[Joey officially touching ocean number 2 for the month]

It's been a few days since my last post - things move a little slower here at the beach.  Joey and I arrived in Savannah at noon on Saturday after a tough (boring drive and we were really tired) overnight drive from New Orleans.  Apparently there was a conference of GA Municpal workers going on in Savannah so hotels were hard to come by.  I booked a room for 4 at the Eliza Thompson house on a referral from the booked up Marshall House where i typically stay when I'm in town.

After we parked Joe and I walked to Molly McPherson's to grab a spot at the bar to watch the US world cup match which would start at 2 PM.  Right around 2, Mom and Dad arrived from Charlotte where they had spent the night to break up their drive from Cincinnati.  I met them at the curb, and directed them to the hotel which had just opened up for check in.  We put a few things in the room and walked back to meet Joe at the bar to watch the US get eliminated from the tournament.

After the game we popped into a bar when we heard a Hank Williams tune emanating from within.  We stayed to watch Damon and the Shitkickers - a group of younger guys playing old country standards.  They were really good - mom and i wanted to give them a good tip since we were pretty much the only people in the bar and they were playing our requests, but we had a communication breakdown and ended up accidentally giving them a REALLY good ($60) tip when i put in money for both my mom and I and she did the same.

After the shitkicker incident we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and headed to the Marshall house for a few drinks with the bartenders James and Rex who know me from previous visits - as soon as I walked in James placed my typical order (Hendricks and Tonic with a cucumber garnish ) in front of me without me asking.  We finished our drinks and headed to the Pink House for a delicious dinner.  After dinner we walked around town for a bit before heading back to the hotel for the night.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast in the hotel courtyard before heading out of town to drop the Camry - our home for much of the past month - at the Savannah airport.  The drop of went fairly smooth (i left my glasses in the car and had to have them shipped home) and two hours later we arrived at Edisto Island for the vacation at the end of our vacation.

And that's pretty much it - i'll add one more post in a day or two to wrap things up and close the book on another "civitellobrothers" adventure.

One more for the road

Not too much to report on our last day in New Orleans.  Yesterday we took it pretty easy - went into the French Quarter in the morning, hung out, played chess, and walked around until around 4:30.  We took the Street car back home and then grabbed dinner (Pizza) at Rocky's on magazine st. where we got one of our best compliments of the trip from the bartender:  He was asking where all we had been while in New Orleans and when we told him (Bullet's, Parasol's, BJ's, Candlelight Lounge, Half Moon...) he said that we were better locals than he was.

Today we met Caroline for lunch at the Cake Cafe (pictured) where she works.  We were joined at the table by Maitre d' the semi-stray black cat who has taken up residence in/near the bakery.  After lunch we took care of some logistics for the end of the travel portion of our trip - Hotel, car return, shipping of excess gear, and arranging for Mom and Dad to swing down to Savannah and spend the evening with us before we head to Edisto early Sunday morning.

Tonight we'll be catching one more show before we get on the road to Savannah - right before.  We're going to the circle bar to watch Gal Holiday (click here to see a vid of her performing at the same place we'll see her tonight) at 11:00 pm and plan to be on the road by 12:30 or 1:00 AM.

Life Is a Cabaret

Another night of great music in New Orleans.  After an extended nap to counteract the morning world cup festivities we went to the candlelight lounge in Treme to watch the Treme Brass Band.  We arrived around 9:30, ate some complimentary red beans and rice and waited for the band to come on.  It took a while for all 13 members to show up and get situated, but it was well worth the wait when they started playing around 10:15.  Once again, there was no stage, the band and the crowd slowly intermingled and by the 2nd song, the entire bar was in motion. Dancing, singing, and shouting call and response with the band. I included a little video clip of the show here: [click here]  The sound isn't great and you can't see a lot but it will at least give you a feel for the space. We left after the first set, mainly because we were exhausted from the day, and headed back home for a relatively early night.

This morning Joey and I headed down to the Quarter to explore (what we intended to do on Tuesday before being rained out).  We walked around for a bit and then stopped for lunch at the Royal St oyster house.  Sadly, due to the BP spill, the oysters are now being imported from Oregon.  Based on that, we originally ordered non oyster dishes - i had an Alligator Po Boy and Joey had blackened chicken (both very good) - but then we decided that it wasn't the fault of the guy whose sole job it is to shuck oysters that they're coming from Oregon, so we ordered 6 raw and 3 charbroiled to compliment our meal.  Not being oyster connoisseurs we really couldn't tell the difference, they were still good.

After lunch we wound our way through the quarter to a coffee shop, Cafe EnVie, where we plan to hang out for a while, read, play, chess, etc... before heading back to Caroline's.

Bullets and BJ's

It's not a rap song, Just a Tuesday night in NOLA. We saw some amazing music and a great slice of New Orleans last night.  We started the evening at Bullets, an unassuming bar on the first floor of a house in the 7th Ward.  We arrived in between Kermit Ruffins sets and the mixed crowd (about 85% black ranging in age from 21 year old college kids to 80 year old black ladies) was having a great time dancing to the hip hop playing over the speakers.  Kermit came on a few minutes later and we worked our way up towards the front of the room (there was no stage he was just playing from the floor of the bar) to experience some awesome New Orleans jazz made even better by the crowds revelry.  At one point, Kermit handed the mic to a server who delivered a 5 minute long rap as an interlude to one of his songs before handing it back, picking up her tray and continuing with her duties.  After the show we filtered outside and shared a plate of ribs and baked beans (best i've ever had - sorry mom)  from the BBQ truck outside.  As we ate around the cable spindle turned table, the wife of the guy who ran the truck noticed that I didn't have a drink and brought me over a glass of freshly brewed iced green tea.

After bullets we headed to the Bywater for a few drinks at BJ's.  A little gem of a bar that you had to access by ringing a doorbell before being granted admittance by the tough as nails but very nice female bartender.  We listened to country music and aquired a healthy sheen courtesy of the un-airconditioned space which actually added to the ambiance.

This morning, Joey and I got up at 8 and walked to Parasol's in the Irish Channel to watch the US/Algeria soccer game.  When we arrived there were exactly two empty seats and a pile of McDonald's breakfast sandwhiches (courtesy of Sarah, the barkeep) waiting for us.  Michael joined us a little later, and we watched the game punctuated by frequent yelling at the TVs as the US failed to capitalize on several goal attempts.  We were rewarded in the 2nd minute of additional time, however, when the US scored a goal which won them their group for the first time since 1930 and sent them to the 2nd round of the tournament.

After Parasol's we ate Po' Boys at Mahoney's and went to the "tree of life"  (above) in Audubon park, tossed the frisbee, and had a few beers.  We got back to the house around 4:30 and have been resting ever since .  Tonight: Treme Brass band at the Candlelight.

Here are some pics from the day - i'll add captions later.

If you're in trouble, If no one else can help, and If you can find them...

Joey and I hopped the St Charles streetcar into the Quarter this morning, where we planned to get some breakfast, explore the streets, and settle into a bar for the afternoon.  A few minutes into our first chess game at Cafe Beignet, however, the skies opened up.  We tried to wait out the downpour with a couple more games of chess (i'm making a comeback with 4 consecutive wins but I'm still down an embarrassing 16 games to 6) before we decided to ditch the Quarter for the movie theater.

We saw the A-Team which, but for the fact that i can't get the theme song out of my head, was exactly what it was intended to be: Good fun and lots of things blowing up.  After the movie we grabbed a quick bite and headed back to the house for some downtime before the evening festivities.

Those festivities are still forming up but we're thinking of  either checking to see if Mother In Laws is open (apparently it's only open sporadically) or heading to Bullets to see Kermit Ruffins. Tomorrow we'll  get up early and walk to Parasols to watch the US/Algeria and England/Slovenia world cup matches.  Tomorrow night (assuming we recuperate from the morning) we'll most likely go to the Candlelight lounge in Treme to catch the Treme Brass Band.

Yesterday, we explored the lower garden district, had some awesome po' boys at Zara's grocery, and then bellied up to the bar at Half Moon and watched the Spain/Honduras soccer game.  Last night we ate a quick dinner at the Avenue Pub after an early evening nap before heading back to the house for a few games of chess.

Theo and theTaqueria

We left Austin on Sunday morning after a Saturday evening spent in at Doug and Celina's:  made pizza and played Texas Hold 'em with spare change (I won).  We got on the road about 9am and made Houston a little before noon.  We got a hold of Theo (cousin) when we were about 60 miles outside, and made arrangements to meet him for lunch at Goods Taqueria on our way through Houston.  It was packed with the Sunday/Fathers day crowd, but the lunch counter style setup proved very efficient (and the enchiladas were delicious).

We spent about an hour catching up with Theo before we got back on the road towards New Orleans.  The trip was split between highway (I-10) and back road (182) which slowed us down a bit but was well worth the ability to drive with the windows down and enjoy the steamy hot breeze. we arrived at Caroline's (below) house around 8 pm, got settled, and headed to Juan's Flying Burrito in her lower garden district neighborhood for dinner (I had the pork and slaw tacos - very good).

This stop is our first stop longer than 3 days (we'll be here six) and we're excited to settle and and really get a feel for the city before we head out for Savannah on Saturday.