The return... of my luggage.

My suitcase has returned. This is one of the things that was in it.

TCB at 601 mph

I'm headed back east for a brief visit. The time has gone quickly, but I can't say that I'm surprised. I've enjoyed myself. To tell the truth, I'm a bit burnt out. My usual diet is a bit out of wack. Looking forwa   I've stayed with family & friends the whole trip. The accommodations have been great everywhere I've gone. Some a bit cramped, but no love was spared in preparation for my visits. It's been moving—very moving.  


What I return home to is my apartment. I've been in my apartment for over seven years. I don't like the place. I have a roommate who, though easy going in most ways, is very particular about certain aspects of the place. Cleanliness is not one of those aspects. He's a bit of a hoarder when it comes to paperwork. It's good to keep records, but I don't really have a kitchen table, it's so covered in old bills. It's time to admit that it doesn't work for me. I have made the declaration to myself that I was going to move out. Because I never said it out loud, I took no action. I have several opportunities for new places. I have been considering the options. Staying in Boston seems easy. Having grown up around Portland Maine, that's also close to my heart. I'm also drawn to Santa Rosa, CA. Anyone who knows me knows I have a niece and nephew there that I adore.   When the JetBlue "All You Can Jet" opportunity first presented itself to me, I was at home. I have JetBlue's Cheeps (Low fares they announce on Twitter) set to arrive as SMS messages.   


The moment the message arrived, I knew I was going to do it. I didn't purchase it right away. I weighed the option. I registered this blog domain. A few hours later I purchased my ticket and my adventure began.   So before I head back out on my journey Friday morning, I will book my last tickets and I will inform my roommate that I am moving out. You have my word.

Some food highlights...

Incomplete and in no particular order:

• Hot Doug's in Chicago. Ostrich sausage with venison paté and plum sauce.
• Mushroom, spinach & bacon white pizza followed by a chocolate pizza with marscapone at Piece Chicago.
• Heirloom & other local tomatoes in Chicago, Santa Rosa & Santa Monica.
• Pulled pork barbecue at The Pit in Raleigh, NC.
• Tacos at Guero in Austin. 
• Enchiladas at Magnolia Cafe in South Austin
• The Godmother from Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery
• Oysters in Manhattan Beach
• Tacos at Classico and at Vallarta Supermarket in Lancaster, CA.
• Double double, animal style in Rohnert Park & LA.
• That Frenched rack of lamb I made in Park City.

I'm now a fan of coconut water too thanks to the JetBlue promotion.

Ghost ship

Lily: Missing the eye on your right.

I'm staying with my family here Steilacoom, Washington along the Puget Sound. Visiting at the same time as me is a pug named Lily. Lily has one eye and a tongue that is often not in her mouth. She snorts, wheezes and flatuates. Particularly due to the farting, she does not live into the name Lily.  I took her for a walk last night. The trains (Amtrak and freight) go along the coast and I wanted to go down to the water to see if I could see any go by. So I leashed Lily and I proceeded to walk down to the sound. 

Puget Sound, Sept. 27, 2010

I have attempted to take pictures of the wonderful dogs I've stayed with. In Austin last week, I took several pictures of my friend Bill's dog Midas would "smile" to greet me when I came through the door. By smile, I mean that he would bare his teeth at me while wagging his tail and jumping. I tried a few times to capture his talent. The past day or two, I've tried to catch Lily at her most bizarre. Turns out to be harder than it might seem. Posing is not one of her tricks.


While down by the sound, I noticed the fog as it hung just over one of the islands. "What a great image," I thought. I pulled out my phone to take a picture when Lily saw someone down on the shore and started barking. She tugged at the leash and the only picture I took was the one above. Realizing I would not have captured the scene as I saw it, I put my phone back in my pocket. The dog and I started walking back up to the house. 


As we walked, I looked up to the north. The fog clung to the water and visible through the mist was top of a ferry. It was headed for port across the sound and it moved in a ghostly manor. I'm no stranger to fog and coastal waters, but this seemed literally fantastic. (adj. 1. b.) Picture a film like Pirates Of The Caribbean and substitute something more modern and utilitarian gliding through the water. I thought what it must've been like in another time to see a ship in the water where you seemingly had not seen one moments before. I imagined pirates or vikings drifting across the water in that same stealthy way. As I was on land, I could not hear any engines. 

Midas: Not smiling.

It occurred to me that I could pull out my phone and take a picture. (It would last longer, as the old adage goes.) I would then own a representation of it and would tell everyone how it did not live up to the otherworldly quality I saw that evening. I decided instead, to enjoy the fleeting moment and leave the phone in my pocket. Like Midas's "smile" and Lily's poking her empty eye socket with her tongue, it was a fleeting image. 

For lunch:

Double Double. Animal style. 

The Mojave border

Austin

Midas: Austin, TX

Bill Small at Donn's Depot.

In the zone.

Mountain, to be specific. I landed safely in SLC tonight. I've now spent time in the four time zones of the continental US.

On love and happiness

en route

Loc: 34741 feet en route to SFO
I was listening to Marketplace Money from last week. One of the articles was on happiness and money. It was put forth that the common wisdom that money doesn't buy happiness may not quite be true. The woman who wrote a paper on this used some examples that were relevant to me. Imagine you bought an expensive sound system for your home and that it cost a significant portion of your income. How much it cost and the resulting lack  of finances might have you think twice about downloading a favorite new song or album. I've had buyer's remorse a few times from larger purchases I've made. On the other hand, I never regret a meal with a good friend. 


Yesterday I was honored to be at the wedding of two friends. I was moved by the ceremony. Stef and Matty made official something they committed a while ago. I knew many of the people at the wedding and made some new great new friends and acquaintances. The bride and I, in addition to several of the guests worked at Starbucks together. 
In conversations and other interactions with my friend Amy, I was present to great affection. I'm not talking about romantic love as Amy has her man Adam and I expect they will be together a long time. The thing I saw in my interactions with her and others is that I am loved. Perhaps even stronger than the feeling of loving someone is know that we are loved. And if that is true, then maybe best thing we can say when someone says "I love you" is "I know." (Han Solo was a man ahead of his time.)


The experiences I'm enjoying as part of my journey have brought me much happiness this past week. These experiences will never leave me unlike various electronic gadgets.

Raleigh: A brief visit

On Friday, I flew into RDU for a brief visit with one of my best friends and his family. We hung out on Friday night and did yard work on Saturday. It's now a mere 36 hours and I am now headed back to Boston. A wedding in the works.

Realization

I need a real suitcase.  I've been really good about not buying more stuff to carry with me, but I need more room for the stuff I have.

A Chicago slideshow

An experiment I did using a time lapse feature.

Elwood: If my estimations are correct...

Elwood: If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza!
Jake: That's where they got that Picasso.
Elwood: Yep. 

 

As it turns out, there's also a farmers market.

Day Two: Chicago

Slow start to the day. See: $2.50 draft night.

Jen and I made a trip to the Green City farmers market. This was one of the best markets I have ever been to. There was a lot more locally raised meat. Jen picked up some elk jerky and some goat butter. I got a beautiful heirloom tomato and a sweet orange pepper.

I did some solo exploring of the city. I hopped on the red line and headed down to 1060 West Addison. I went there more out of my love of The Blues Brothers Movie than any Cubs allegiance. For as long as I've loved baseball, I've been a Red Sox fan, so I am no stranger to heartbreak.  After that brief visit, I went down to the lake. The thing that impressed me about Lake Michigan is that I could see into the water. It was clearer than I expected.  After a wander into downtown, I went over to Wicker Park to meet up with Jen and some of her friends for dinner.

We got a white pizza with bacon, mushrooms and spinach. Piece Pizzeria & Brewery makes cracker crust pizza. They also brew some damn fine beers. Piece is owned by Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen. I was impressed-- as far as guitarist owned businesses go, this was better than Joe Perry's barbecue joint.

Chicago

Ostrich sausage with venison pâté & plum sauce

It was an easy flight into Chicago. Taking my sister's recommendation, I picked up a 3-day CTA pass. I got off the blue line at Western and went to Ipsento Coffee for a sublime cup of Guatemalan coffee. 


Then it was time to grab lunch at Hot Doug's, The Sausage Superstore. My sister had been talking this place up for a few years and it did not disappoint. There were many great choices. I finally settled on the ostrich sausage with plum sauce and venison pâté and a Chicago classic. (Tip: when you get a Chicago classic hot dog, the pickle is supposed to be in there; it didn't fall into the bun by mistake.)                      

The Hopleaf

Lunch was followed by a nap.


The later that evening, we made it out to the Hopleaf Bar. We stayed only for one beer, but it was great to visit this fine beer bar. The Hopleaf was followed by a visit to Farragut's for $2.50 draft night. I enjoyed a couple of Three Floyd's Alpha Kings. I got some great tips on my future visit to New Orleans from my sister's friend Denise, who's from the area.


Day Two found me rather hungover. No regrets.

Day One

It's a clear, cool morning. Great day to fly.

Day One: packed and on the road

Preparation

The luggage. Not full yet.

Six days until take off. I'm going through everything I think I may want to bring with me.

The first five days are a test of sorts. I have a couple of days with my sister in Chicago and then I'm off to Raleigh, NC for about a day. After that, I'll be back in Boston for 24 hours. During that day I will go through my luggage and figure out what is dead weight and what is missing. The big consideration is whether or not to bring my computer. Let's weigh the pros and the cons:

Pro:

• Speed: I can adjust flights easier and finalize my plans. 
• Connection: Having it with me will make it easier to monitor finances. (This is important as I am looking to travel on the cheap.) Also, since I am working for myself, it would be a useful tool for keeping up with my business.

Con:

• Weight: It's a MacBook, not some little netbook.
• Redundancy: I have an iPhone. It can't do absolutely everything I need.

For the first leg of the trip, I'll bring the computer and see how much it weighs me down.

The next thing to figure out is clothes. I have a hoodie from scottevest. This will be useful for any overworking air conditioning I encounter. I also expect it will serve me well later in the trip when I'll be in the Pacific Northwest. (Cooler in the evening, right?) Of course the big reason for anything from scottevest is the pockets. I can wear this to the security gate with all my crap loaded into the 11 pockets. All I have to do is take the thing off and it through the scanner. Hopefully this will ease some of the anxiety I get, that has me triple checking whether my wallet, phone or keys are still in the little plastic bowl.

As far as the rest goes, I'll bring one pair of pants, a pair of shorts, a bathing suit, 3 pairs of socks, 3 undershorts, 2 t-shirts and a button-down shirt.

Did I mention what I'm packing all of this into? A have a Timbuk2 courier bag. Chock full, this thing is a great carry-on size, but the thing I'm worried about is weight. Over the weekend, I'll do a trial run with this thing packed full. We'll see how it goes.