jon and annes adventures

Montreal, Quebec City, Acadia, Rhode Island,and the Traveler's Rest

2011-07-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

We drove through Ottowa on the way to Montreal just for a taste of it... planning to return on a
later trip.

By 11:00 or so we made it to Marco's, and the next day Jon had a killer migraine. He threw up in the parking lot of the laundry facility after eating his Alfa burger (sorry no photo), then planked the "ash-fault". I went to McDonalds for free WiFi for the evening and caught up with some stuff while he recovered at Marco's place.

Marco's Mini Truck

Rudee walking up the spiral staircase

Always next to our bags so we won't forget her

Poor Jon outside of Alfa with migraine

Planking the "ashfault"

The next day, Jon was feeling much better and we spent the entire day in Montreal. Marco and his friend Mark took us to an overlook, to Chinatown for some Thai food, and then to the port for fireworks.

Marco with Rudee... zoom in for the penis shaped cotton candy...

the overlook

candy necklace bra and undies

Mark and Marco try on hats to try and capture the ladies...

A dude skating with his baby at the Nascar track

We watched the surfers at the standing wave on the St. Lawrence River, which was really cool until a woman started screaming at us because of Rudee's barking... long story.

Surfing the wave... watch this video to see

kitten in a store window in Chinatown

Mark went inside to confirm the kitten was real

Chinatown stragglers

soup-ticles in Chinatown Thai restaurant

more candy outfits

African Nuts

We really appreciate, notice, and miss Athens' cheap beer prices when traveling. Luckily, however, we found a bar patio offering buy one get one free drafts. There we listened to some street musicians and sat for a couple of hours watching the scene and cracking up about random things (balloon lady... you know what I mean Jon, Marco, and Mark).

Walking around the city at night

fireworks at the port

the strange, small staring lady with Rudee

Kids arguing over giving the street musician a tip. When Jon and I passed back by, he played the theme song from the movie Love Story...

Night Planking...

Mark

Jon

Anne

Marco

Mark tries to plank again but only almost busts his ass

our DELICIOUS, banana and nutella beaver tail!

After Montreal, we headed to Quebec City per recommendation from everyone who had been there, so
we squashed Rudee back in the car and left.

We found a ridiculously expensive camp site and pitched our tent right across from 2 men staring, one in a Pink Floyd t-shirt and one in Def Leopard. They stood around their fire all night, saying nothing, and did the same the next morning. We headed to the city at night and enjoyed walking around, watching people, and listening to music from the Summer Festival Concert Series.

Here's a link about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNSzoyUmbq0

The highlight that night was delicious Poutine from a place called the Snack Bar

Awesome street musicians

Our identifier to make sure we were on the right street back to the car

the concert stage in town


Cool building with purple lights

The next day we went back to the city and pretty much did the same thing...
just walked around and absorbed the city life

Rudee at Montmorency Park

Rudee's bungee leash

We were having a nice walk around until I accidentally left my wallet when posing for a photo... We traced back the photos to see when I didn't have it in my hand, and ran back to find it predictively missing from the cannon or porta potty... and I was bummed.

the spot where I laid down my purse behind the cannon

the spot when we noticed it wasn't in my hand


Jon and Rudee waiting outside of the information office while I inquired about my purse

On the walk back to the car we caught this cool performance, but left early feeling guilty because we had no money to tip

Jon cheered me up with his awesome attitude... even knowing that since I was out of pocket he would have to pay for everything for the rest of the trip until we were home. He even bought us a consolation local beer before heading back toward the car, and we talked about cutting our trip short. I even said we could now go straight to Jon's flatland contest in Pennsylvania, instead of Acadia, and accidentally got him excited.

people watching while having our beer...

the stairs we climbed to get into the old city

We got in the car and started heading out of the city, and just as we were ending our conversation about an awesome flatland riding couple we had met from Hamilton, Ontario (Adam and Rebecca Pergentile), I checked my voicemail to hear that someone had found and returned my purse to a local hotel! The strange thing was... the couple was from Hamilton too!

a cute little scene I passed while looking for the hotel

While waiting for my purse at the fabulous Chateau Frontenac Hotel , I read about the ambassador dog Santol, adopted by the hotel to greet guests because of his kind attitude! Here's the story if you want to see: http://www.fairmont.com/frontenac/MeetSantol.htm

Nothing at all was missing from the contents of my purse luckily and thankfully, so we continued our plans for the rest of the trip, toward Acadia National Park.

We passed two Moose on the road that night in Maine in the blackness of the night. I caught a glimpse of the enormous animals and Jon recognized an adult and baby standing beside the road. We had seen signs everywhere, warning about them, but still thought we'd never see one - turns out they're very common and cause lots of traffic fatalities...

We stopped at a travel lodge around 11:00pm to stay the night, and ate a wonderfully cheap and awesome breakfast at the North Country Variety the next morning before heading out to Acadia.

A photo stops on the way and these were right beside each other, one for me...

and one for Jon...

Once in Acadia , we found a sweet little, private as it could be, camp spot at Seawall Campground
and tried to take it easy, as Jon was having to waddle around with poison ivy thighs.

Literally every person we encountered was very friendly and laid back, and very pet friendly. We rode across the street from the camp site on our bikes immediately to the beach of rocks to read, take photos, and relax in the strange and beautiful scenery.

she's so happy!


blending right in


a pretty poodle dog

a hummingbird puddle!

sea hair on the shore

gorgeously unusual

a handsome man by the sea

After spending the day at the beach, we grabbed our red wine and headed to the cliffs near the lighthouse to watch the sunset. Well, a rock stood in front of our view but we enjoyed it anyway and had an excuse to drink wine : )

a view of the cliffs near where we were sitting

Rudee was a little overwhelmed, but brave

That night we cooked baked beans, pork steaks, and yellow rice, with marshmallows for dessert. We toured around a little more the next day around Cadillac Mountain and the Wonderland Trail, ate some clam chowder and headed to Rhode Island.

a night walk to the water

view of the Atlantic from Cadillac Mountain

handsome guy sitting on a rock in my view

If Jon hadn't been suffering from poison ivy in unmentionable areas... I'm sure we would have found some awesome trails for mountain biking, but we drove the car instead.

Jon's fish sandwich

We had a nice visit with Brian and Hillary Chapman for the night,

Jon and Brian playing ping pong in the pavillion

...but we were ready to head home the next day as we had hit our 2 week mark. We took off on the Indian Princess and the Gazelle to find coffee and breakfast

Breakfast at J.P. Spoonems, per Brian's suggestion... mmm mmmmm!!

These two guys were outside of a labor ready recruitment center somewhere in Rhode Island, note the "slacker" shirt

We've discovered we both get home sick at 2 weeks... so we headed home, detouring at the Traveller's Rest Motel and diner for a cheap dinner buffet and a night's stay per Jon's second migraine.

Here we met a man named Pete Seville, who travels around on his patriotically decorated bike

We finally made it home the next day, around 8 hours of driving around Jon's poor itchy legs and migraines, and had a big yellow squash in the garden.

THANKS LORRAINE!!!!!

Jon's Mom's place and Toronto...long one but you can just look at the pix

2011-07-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

First of all lemme say... we're currently in Montreal and the people are so sweet and funny. I'm sitting in McDonalds for internet use and a mcflurry fix, waiting out Jon's migraine and my first encounter was with an elderly man who immediately complained to me and mentioned that a woman had almost run over him while walking just now, and expressed to me that he doesn't like his fellow French Canadians. He is very ill about the hastiness of drivers and worse, that people talk on cell phones and pay no attention to the road... per the scar on the bottom of his chin.

Anyway, back to backtracking... so we made it to Ben's house in Scarborough by 11pm or so, then caught up and went to sleep.

this is Ben

We went to Jon's mom's (Lucie's) place the next day in Shannonville, Ontario to visit.

First we stopped at the big Apple and grabbed an apple/caramel pie and laughed at the llamas.

probably wanting to prepare a spittle for revenge from the laughter...


showing his ass

We picked her up and went first to a diner called "Griddle Me This" in Deseranto and had a wonderful lunch and walk around the cute little town.

Our conversations ranged from catching up, to Native American reservations and residents and stuff (Jon's mom lives on one), to Buddha, cats, and details of her move to this little town where we were eating. With her we visited the beer store, the dollar store, the bank, and her new location. We helped her set up a screen for shade for the cats when they're brought over, then I had to break up an argument between Jon and his mom about switching her refrigerator from propane to electric since she would now have access to power. After the argument settled, we had a picnic at a local park with chicken, salads, pork, wine, and irish cream liquor in a brown bag for Lucie. We enjoyed ourselves until dusk, when the mosquitos cut it short.

Lucie's old place


Lucie and Jon

adding flare to her new spot

little boat houses along the lake near our picnic

a fallac tree near our picnic table

two of Jon's mom's neighbors


another

and another

some of Jon's mom's cats

On the way home, Jon and I stopped at another lake (can't remember the name...I'll get back to this) for a picnic of our leftover pork, honey mustard and bread, and a couple o' Heinekens again.

This should say "butt out" instead (zoom for view of cig butts)

our picnic spot on the way home (gotta get the name of the lake)

We reached Scarborough and headed to the Beaches area for rollerblading after Jon rode a little flatland. While Jon rode, I took Rudee right across to the dog park to play... and was entertained by these fellows:

black squirrel

We went back to Ben's, grabbed a Hawaiian pizza from wonderful Pizza Nova, and headed back for beer and pizza and a celebration for something I'm not supposed to mention yet.

The next day we rode into Toronto from Ben's place in Scarborough, and stopped at the Black Bull or something (gotta double check this) for a Steam Whistle pilsner(local beer). We chose this location b/c we thought Taro had recommended it but turns out... Taro had said it was an expensive touristy place, but it we kept it simple with 2 beers and bruschetta anyway. Here, we rested our legs and had a nice view of the CN tower.

We walked around an art market and did the CN tower, which was very cool. We opted for the cheaper view, which is the first notch up... but next time maybe we'll go all the way if Jon's not scared again?

the art market was a beauty in itself, positioned below the buildings of Toronto

ha ha

our scrumptious Shawarmas at Nora Shawarma

reflection of middle eastern onlookers through the plexiglass at CN tower

Jon reflecting

and then launching his tiny paper airplane for take-off

at dusk, red lights

view thru the gated walkway


CN tower at night

We had a $12 pitcher with Taro that night and rode bikes around again, then took the subway closer to Ben's house and peddled home by 2:00 am.

The next day was Jon's, since he had spoiled me the day before for a fun day of looking around, art, CN tower, beer, and people watching. We started the day at Christie Pitts park where Jon rode flatland while I visited a cute little cafe for computer stuff. Then we headed to the dirt trails with Ben, Taro, drifter Dave, Enrique, Tammy (Ben's girl), Scotty, and some other dudes.

Jon shredding

Rudee shredding

That night we cooked out with Taro, then walked downtown for the tail end of the Salsa festival. We saw the last of a parade, a girl fight (wish I had pix...), and then went to an AWESOME little bar

called the Wailers.

salsa girl

the end crowd


a bad ass looking security guard with stance and all

We called it a night early to get some sleep before Jon's family get together the next day. When we arrived in Richmond Hill to Cathy's house, we were proud to deliver the 2 Sweetwater 420 cases (Kroger was out of Terrapin) we brought, because sometimes we forget to be prepared with a booze contribution... but not this time. We had a great time visiting with Jon's awesome family, eating chips, dips, fruit, grilled chicken, salads, and birthday cake for the summer birthdays!

Jon, his bro, cuz, and dad

cake!

Jon's cousin Cam showing the family his special jump


Jon's task

So finally... after making another trip all the way back to Ben's b/c Jon forgot his computer, we headed to Montreal. I'll end with a pic of the weird mannequin in Ben's neighbor's yard...

Headed to Canada for a July Vacation

2011-07-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

So we hit the road at 12pm or so... a tiny bit late from our 8am intentions but nevertheless, we were on our way! Me, with my pre-travel anxieties and last minute computer things to do in the car, and Jon, ready to chill and ride Flatland somewhere once we got there.

We headed out and drove through the gorgeous Smokies and right through little Cherokee, NC where people were hanging out, fishing, and sunbathing... oblivious to the lightning and drizzle and preparing early for the July 4th holiday weekend instead.

this is one of them

two of them, I mean

hangy outers in Cherokee, NC

john frollicking

awesome red firework flowers along the road through the smokies

It was a beautiful drive until we passed through the "gaudiglamoricious" Dollywood filled with traffic, lots of dazzle, kitsch and color, and people flicking their cigs on the ground. We stopped in Tennessee at a place called Golden Girls restaurant because we had starved ourselves waiting for an adorable BBQ place to sit and eat... (my idea) but waited way too long until we only had highway chains to choose from. We were starving and ill with each other and had to make an alternate decision, which turned out to be a fried chicken plate for Jon, and a hot ham and cheese sandwich for me. We were happy again and drove on peacefully.

(I was too hungry to take pix I guess...)

As we headed to Columbus, Ohio we saw tons of fireworks from different places along the highway and it was awesome! And, just as the Cincinatti cityscape surprised us and lit up the highway horizon, we saw a postcard perfect BURST of a beautiful, enormous red explosion RIGHT next to it. I wish I had been able to capture it but we have the photo in our memories instead.

We reached Scott Nagy's at 12:30 or 1:00am and he and his wife were patiently waiting for us and offered us a beer and a twinkie immediately once inside their adorable house. In the morning Scott made us breakfast with eggs and sausage and we met their adorable children, Res who is spitting image of Scott, and Malia who is spitting image of Melissa (personality as well for both).

We later took an hour to look for the car keys, found them, and drove on to meet some of Scott's flatland crew at a park near his house. We had watermelon and apple and peanut butter sandwiches, and I enjoyed skipping rocks and hangin' with Malia at the playground afterward. We headed on after a few hours for a campsite on the Pennsylvania/Ohio border along lake Pymatuning.

Lake Pymatuning

We watched fireworks and a million equally luminescent lightning bugs along the lake, then ate a cheddarwurst/avocado/peanut/arugula salad for dinner and it was wonderful! I got mad at Jon for getting sleepy before we could watch the stars and/or eat s'mores so I pouted and headed to the tent with him and we went to sleep early. When we woke up, my travel anxieties had finally taken their course and I was myself again, thank goodness... We drank hot tea b/c we (Jon) forgot to pack the coffee, and had raspberry flavored Monkey Brains oatmeal for breakfast. The rest of the morning we let Rudee swim and get really nasty before jumping back in the car to Niagara Falls for a view from the American side.

I put my logo on these in case Jon's sexy body makes me lots of money

same

just look at those little paws under the water!

I had seen the Canadian side of the falls already on a trip with Mema, Poppy, and my parents when I finished high school, so I wanted to experience the American side. We walked around for a while, oggling at the mist from the falls and the shadow of the city behind it.... omg it's BEAUTIFUL and fascinating!!! A park surrounds the area and Rudee enjoyed herself as well and even lapped up some of the water, as it's her 2nd natural wonder! The first being the Grand Canyon : )

view above Cave of the Winds

view of American Falls, after I discovered that underexposing the scene really makes the water stand out

the squealing, masked dog that taunted Rudee at several overlooks

view of Canadian side cityscape with people on the American side

rocks down below the falls

city shadow scape with birds

We heard on the radio that Pat Benatar was performing during the ArtPark free concert series but the traffic was to bad so we made a U-turn for Whirlpool State Park instead. We had a little picnic with the rest of our cheddar wurst, bread with olive oil, a little stuffing (per Jon b/c he found an old box in our camping stuff), and a couple o' Heinekens.

Rudee's picnic, water and a bone

a jogger at the park

one of those crazy whirlpool challengers, reminds us of our friend Jody Barber's former mustache

view of the whirlpool

Headed for Canada, we stopped at Target to purchase another GPS b/c Jon accidentally deleted the contents of the 2 he has, and headed to Toronto..

from the Rainbow Bridge to Canada

Sightseeing with Bobby

2011-01-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

The next two days after the jam were so much fun. We went to In Out Burger, then to Newport Beach. It was warm, beautiful, and the guys riding spot was perfectly located RIGHT ON the beach.

I turned around while taking pix and saw this precious audience watching the guys...

Paula Callery

I walked down the beach for a ways to watch people and take photos, since the shark's teeth were scarce.

All kinds of things were going on here in January on Newport Beach, including an accordian player, a photoshoot of a girl and boy surfer, sand castle construction zones, cute dogs, and cute people.

The sky was beautiful by the time I saw the guys again and we lingered around and then headed for dinner. A big deal was made about stacking / stealing / sitting outside vs inside / and then stealing again, but finally we took our seats inside close to the window by the bikes.

Me frantically roller blading while the smooth surfers approach the frame

Our dinner place that night was Charlie's Chili

Charlie's Chili Dog

Later on we took a walk down the Hollywood Strip for the next to last night : (

Check out this video above, we met this guy in Hollywood. He said to check out the Summer of 69...but I can't remember exactly, something like that.

After eating we headed back to Bobby's, did our social media homework, and went to sleep.

The next day Bobby spoiled us and took us sightseeing to Point Dume. We made it later afternoon so we could see the sunset over the ocean. Well, I don't know if Bobby planned it that way but we stayed until then because we had to capture footage of a repelling man. I had leaned over the rock right where he told me I'd get a great view as he descended onto the rocks, but apparently I didn't press record...
We stayed and eventually successfully captured his 4th plunge and then drove back to Hollywood.

Here's the jump we finally captured on video...

I love the light on Jon's Belly : )

We ate at Mel's Diner on Sunset and watched as no celebrities went by, it was a slow night. Tomorrow we head out and we'll soooooo miss it! Thank you Bobby for an AWESOME time!

RAD!!!

Darin's One Love Flatland Jam

2011-01-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

Nice Turnout for Darin's jam at Studio City!

This pic was a little later in the evening but still a good crowd.

Darin let me announce the winners for prizes and I pulled Jon's name out of the Cheez-It Box for real!

Here's Jon hoola hooping one of his prizes

More pix in a minute but for now, dogs...

Now back to more Jam pix...

Adorable little boy

Okay last one...

Darin's new molecule tattoo and Jon feeling his muscle

Shakey's Pizza mmmmm mmmmm

A game of foot down to battle for the last prizes

Cute little girl at Shakey's

We're goin' back to Cali.. cali.. cali

2011-01-15T01:08:00.000-08:00

We left the snow in Georgia and arrived in the warm sun at Burbank airport in California and oh, what an awesome feeling... Bobby picked us up and within 10 minutes of leaving the plane and we were on our way to Hollywood to Bobby's crib (the LabOratory). I had to leave Rudee with Tatiana so we're really missing her : ( but Tatiana sends me photo updates of her which I really love!

This is Rudee and the neighbor's dog "Monty" just before we left -

First stop in Cali was the awesome surfy Wahoo restaurant on Wilshire Street. We had a very pleasant lunch and worth mentioning was the service with a smile x10 (cool, not fake and annoying I mean). Awesome place and great food. I think I must have been too hungry to take my camera?

Jon, Bobby, Hollywood Steve, and several others rode flatland at the Studio City parking lot and I sat in the sun watching. It was soooo beautiful and warm. After the guys got their flatland fill we headed to a Chinese restaurant, then to Hollywood Steve's abode to oggle at his impressive record collection.

When Hollywood got nervous about us all up in his expensive collection, we headed just down the street to a bar for a few expensive beers, then pooped out early on the futon.

The next day was warm enough to get in a bathing suit for a few before heading to see the infamous "Hollywood" sign! First, we stopped at California Donuts to get some coffee fuel and Bobby a donut.

Then drove up to get a sweet view of "Hollywood", yeah!

We were still tired from the 3 hour time difference, plus no sleep from taking off for a very early flight so we chilled a little more at Bobby's before heading to Studio City again.

Around 4:30 we headed out to see who all was in town for the flatland jam, then left to eat Thai food at a place called Torung. Jon and I ordered Red Curry with pork, Pineapple rice, and some kind of ginger soup with sea creatures that we had no problems finishing.

The above photo is Jon's flaming soup!

The ruins of dinner and a bellyache later...

we bounced it off a little by walking Paula and her friend back to the funky metro.

Supahero's, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Toronto and other places in Canada

2010-07-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Metropolis Illinois...

these dogs were partying at a rest stop with friends

But the friends couldn't necessarily "let loose"

After freshening up and taking a power nap from the 8 hour drive, I met up with Jon and the Freestyle guys at the Superman Festival in Metropolis. They've put on their BMX show for 5 or more years at this festival and I couldn't wait to go people watch and check it out. Here are some characters you may or may not recognize...

Pedro or Canadian Superman fan? Either way he was Jon's favorite.

Rob and Russell chatting it up with a character

We asked a guy to take our photo, but he didn't think about shooting a vertical. Either way I like that about it, us and superman's great big package - though looking at it this close, shouldn't they give him a little more?

Keeping her pup's little paws cool

Kyle as Superman and Russell as a fairy? Kyle even announced part of the show in Hank Hill's voice, but I don't know if the crowd thought it was as funny as we did.

At night we went to Harrah's Casino (might be spelling that wrong) and I lost 40 of Jon's dollars... that's not too bad though? We did better in Vegas. I just don't have luck with gambling, that's why I used Jon's money : )

Also interesting, I don't remember this happening in Vegas but here they make a video of you before you enter so obviously the guys had fun with that.

Next, Jon and I had a beer at a place called "TailGators" with our new friend Abby Jensen, then we split from the guys and headed to Chicago. It started to get thundrous looking on our way

Driving thru some looming but pretty clouds

We arrived in Chicago & Jon fulfilled his flatland fix with some friends during a warehouse session. I just watched and did computer stuff and enjoyed a cold Heineken with them after.

After the session we headed into Chicago for a grilled cheese plate special at a corner diner and headed to our friend Beth's house for the night.

Beth's roommates gave their cat a haircut and here it is...

You have to see it in person.

Beth has an awesome apartment she shares with equally awesome roommates. We only got to meet Diana in person but the other 2 on a coffee mug I happened to find in the cabinet the next morning. See I thought it was a plain ol' black mug... but when my hot beverage was poured into it...an image was revealed! Cool.

We walked around Chicago the whole next day, not really anywhere particular, just around. We did have tix to the Planetarium per Matt Wilhelm (thank you very much!). It was nice and cool and foggy and I loved it! Beth took us to a cool sandwich shop for lunch, then we ate hawaiian tacos for dinner at a trendy/cool kinda place I wish I could remember the name of...

Here are some foggy Chicago pix:

I remember Jon regretting he didn't bring his nail brush.

Jon learning about the stars in the planetarium

The next day Beth reminded us we could get into the Contemporary Museum of Art for free, so that's where we headed on our way out but first stopping for a big fat gyro plate just around the corner.

The most interesting exhibit was watching Jon's puzzled face. In this pic. he's standing by his favorite piece to hate.

This one was awesome! The photographer projected his image onto barrels of water. Read the info. below if you want.

at the farmer's market outside of the museum

raining on the way out

Awesome Parking Garage in Chicago

We left Chicago and met up with Jon's dad in Gary, Indiana. He's a trucker and happened to be in the area just in time. I failed to bring my camera with me for some odd reason, rain or something? Anyway, it was a nice visit : ) though we didn't get to eat at the buffet like we normally do when we meet up b/c he had already eaten. I love the buffet's at truck stops mmmm mmmmm!

After the brief meet up we headed to Saline (I think), Michigan but not forgetting to stop in Kalamazoo for Shawarma King - an AWESOME middle eastern restaurant referred to us by Dane Beardsley : )

After sharing a heaping plate of shawarmaness we were completely stuffed! Seriously, we SHARED a plate and we could still hardly finish it but we did : )

We arrived in Saline around midnight and met up with Jon's friend, who served us 2 free beers from his bar but wasn't able to offer us a place to stay when we left at 2:30am, so we just slept in the car for the night.

The next fresh morning we headed to Ann Arbor and Jon was ecstatic to find out about a natural history museum on campus. We missed the opportunity to view the cave men and what have ya while in Chicago - so we took a little visit...

Jon is such a little caveman : )

He really looks like one to me, but that's a good thing.

They were overwhelming, can you imagine coming up on one of these?

(Jon I mean)

We then moved along, not forgetting to reminisce in Jon's old neighborhoods and favorite Ann Arbor places from way back, then headed to Toronto for wonderful burgers and awesome salads and sweet corn on the cob and family at Jon's Aunt Cathy's house.

The next day we went into Toronto to the Beaches area - which was really cool! Jon rode flatland with his peeps while I walked with Rudee along the water. There were sooooo many dogs around b/c it's a very pet friendly place. They even have special brown paper bags for recycling and composting the dog poo!

I stubbed my toe when we got there, now half of my nail is missing...

Jon's friend Jay Smith - who spent the day with us : )

Having a beer in the park with Jon's friends

Jay's sister Summer's dog Chuck

Dogs can ride on the streetcars in Toronto!!

Don't know if it shows up, shoulda zoomed, but all I could see is her red lipstick.

Jon and I at Casa Loma in Toronto with my new hat from Chinatown

Jon wearing the Chinatown hat

Pizza Pizza - $5 for 4 slices and it tastes sooooooo good!

Next we went to Jon's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bill's cabin on Snake Island. It was Bill's birthday but that didn't matter b/c apparently there's a party every weekend at this place! All the residents get along and go from cottage to cottage on the weekends for parties - it was awesome! While we were there we went peddle boating, swimming, played volleyball, had a wonderful birthday dinner with Debbie & Bill's sweet friends, and went to a crazy hat party at a cottage further down the island. It was awesome!

Neighbors cats

The same neighbors really fat cats!

Before the hat party

got this pic. outta order but this is the fat cats neighbor's pig

Bill's seriously scrumptious birthday dinner

Bill's seriously smashed birthday cake

Bill's birthday card (lady with a huge rack)

Our way back to the car : (

bye bye fun snake island... until next time!

So we made it next to Shannonville to see Jon's mom. We had a dinner of tofurkey bratwurst, real cheddarwurst for Jon & I, potatoes, salad, and lemon poundcake for a birthday dessert for Jon's mom. We had a nice but brief visit, and Jon's mom read to us the next morning about Buddha. She has four new kittens and had just spayed the frivolous cat to prevent further suprise litters. The kittens are so adorable, climbing ladders and jumping out at ya when leaving the porta potty and such!

One of the cute kittens

Another one of Jon's mom's cats

Outside of the breakfast place on our way out - I think he was howling for bacon?

On the way back to the border, we stopped to do a little wine tasting in Prince Edward County, which has a plethora of little wineries and artists. We chose one called Huff Estates, which also had an art gallery called Oeno Gallery. The current exhibit was a local photographer named Etienne Labbe, who takes pix out of the window of the car to produce beautifully blurred images with colorful streaks and designs. Check it out:

http://www.oenogallery.com/eventdetail.php?eventTag=@pointdefuite@&eventName=point+de+fuite&eventDuration=May%2029,%202010%20-%20June%2027,%202010&eventLocation=Oeno%20Gallery&eventWhen=Past

This was our red wine and cheese plate... mmmm mmmm

We camped in New York at a site we thought would be on Lake Ontario but it backed up to a shallow creek that looked more like a ditch instead. We were pretty tired by then so it didn't matter.

On the way home Jon stopped at his friend Steph Sera's house to ride a little flatland. This guy has his very own sweet flatland warehouse right beside his house in Scranton, PA. Pretty awesome for him.

And last of all finally... Rudee's friend she met at a hotel in West Virginia.

Toronto

2010-03-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

It started off with this nice surprise visit from Jon's dad:

We had a great visit, enjoying the rain and snow and getting stuff done. The snow kept us home to visit, cook, and catch up with several tasks that needed to be done.

We also convinced Jon's dad to play for us!

He was awesome and even stayed up a little past his bedtime to entertain us!

We had a wonderful weekend after a busy week, and then we were Toronto bound as of Thursday afternoon. On the road again!

I'm gonna keep the text short...per Jon's suggestion...

During this trip, we visited Jon's very nice and accomodating family, who were very sweet to put us up so very last minute! Thank you Debbie and Bill, Wendy and Nick (and family!), Taro and Lucie (Jon's mom). We also went to the Toronto bike show for another Flatland contest Jon entered and scored fourth place in!

RADICAL!!

We camped out our first night of the 16 hour drive b/c we like to get good sleep and eats on the way, we're not hardcore about driving all night...thank goodness!

Rudee came along of course. She loves to travel! She just sleeps most of the time and makes us laugh. Her poots are killer though! Kept us awake!

We made it across the border with no probs, though I had to have Winterville Animal Clinic fax ppwk for Rudee's health record just in case. We were concerned about getting her across but it turned out to be no big deal, the border lady didn't even notice her sleeping in the back seat.

Anyway, thanks to my vet!

Ambassador Bridge

Our first stop:

I love it! We had a sandwich, soup, and wonderful tasting coffee.

Our next stop was Toronto for $7.75 beer. Oops, overspent by surprise on beer,

but we only had 3 between us.

Then we stayed the night with Bill and Debbie and went to an awesome place for breakfast called Wimpy's Diner.

After a huge wonderful breakfast we headed to the Bike Show

where Rudee met a sexy Chihuahua : )

We stayed for a while, Jon won fourth place, then we headed out with Jon's friend Taro. We met up with everybody after the show for dinner and drinks and flatland talk. Luckily, bloody wrestling was on TV so I entertained myself while they talked frames and old school trix.

Despite the conversation...I really like the flatland crew. Everyone has been so cool and friendly and I really enjoy meeting and hanging out with this awesome group of very talented guys (and girls of flatland - Paula!)

We stayed with Taro that night and had breakfast the next morning. Baguette's from Taro and Pancakes from Jon...with Peanut Butter and Nutella.

Taro has a darkroom in his kitchen...I'm so jealous!

After breakfast we headed back to the bike show, then walked around Parkdale, a neighborhood in Toronto where Jon once lived with his mom. This was a nice walk, and I took tons of pix but here are just some of them:

cool art installation in Parkdale

a little slice of Lake Ontario

We left Toronto and headed to Bill and Debbie's to meet Jon's Aunt Cathy, Uncle Frank, and Nicholas for a short visit. No pix of this but next time...!

We then headed for Nick and Wendy's for some surprise wonderful grub and awesome company!

We had a wonderful night's sleep there before leaving for Belleville to see Jon's mom.

On the way to Belleville we stopped by to see Jon's Aunt Dilys, then his grandmother at the nursing home. Rudee was able to come with us and really enjoyed it!

Wendy left us bacon & eggs in the fridge!

Jon's bike stashed in their dining room

Jon's Aunt Dilys

One of her awesome cats

Jon with his Grandmother

Setting up the photo

After an awesome visit with tea and cookies, we headed to Belleville to find Jon's mom. On the way though, we stopped by Jon's hometown of Peterborough and stopped at a couple of his old dwellings and favorite spots...

Jon at Ace Submarine, across from the gas station where Jon worked

A house where Jon used to live

Another one of Jon's old homies

Jon's graffiti that says, of course, "RAD", and something else I can't remember

Peterborough Liftlocks - look at the frozen water!!!

So we finally made it to meet Jon's mom after a few stops and an hour late...

We met her at a Chinese restaurant called "Modern Cafe"

She showered us with gifts there at the restaurant...even hooked Rudee up with dog food and a huge bag of little tiny milk bones- she hadn't even met Rudee yet!

She also had "Queen Anne" cordial cherries for me - I LOVE those, my dad used to buy me those all the time!!

Later that night we drove her home, had some red wine, got to know each other, talked about Buddhism mostly (her fav. subject!), and woke the next morning to take pix of this unique place...

she calls home for now!

Jon's Mom's boots

Our picnic from remnants in our cooler and Jon's Mom's veggies. We had pasta salad, 3 bratwurst (split them) salad with carrots, tomatoes, and celery, potato chips, and fake cheese. Then cherry cordials for dessert! Yummy.

We had a very nice visit and headed home around 3pm, Athens bound. On the way out of Canada however... we stirred a little trouble with the border for going thru the "Nexxus" line. They gave us hell and made us stop and go in for questioning, they acted like jerks and Jon didn't like it so he shared his thoughts but we made it out within 30minutes. I think Jon just wanted to make our exit exciting - he kept me concerned about border patrol, which I didn't really believe b/c of our ease of entry. He just likes to make an exit...I guess that's why they call him the "Duke"?

hWy 1, San FRanCisco and WyoMing

2009-12-27T01:15:00.000-08:00

jon: So we finally left Venice later than we wanted too on Sunday. We had planned on driving all the way to San Fransisco but it was getting dark only a couple hours into the trip. We really wanted to enjoy the drive and see the view so when we noticed that there was camping on the beach. We stopped in Santa Monica to do just that! A truly enjoyable experience to camp on the beach and watch the sun go down and listen to the ocean roar!

The next day was spent driving up the Pacific Coast with breathtaking views and the occasional stop to take pictures. At one point we came up on Elephant Seal Beach. What I sight to behold! Enormous beasts littered the beach. These creatures are big!!!! Looking like an Elephant crossed with a mermaid that has an eating disorder. Apparently December is mating season so there was a lot of commotion with the males.

We pulled over at one point to see the view and up the road came this dude that blew me away! Pretty sure this was Jesus reincarnated. This is how I would want him to come to me if he ever did! :) Ha ha
Pretty sure he was riding a walmart special in low gear pulling a trailer. all his belongings wrapped in a tarp. I said thats how you do it. he said "it's a one way trip my friend!" for some reason this hit home. awesome.

Eventually we maid it to Graeme's house. We met with Graeme, Karen and baby Emma. What a beautiful family! Good work Graeme :) Graeme then took us to a great Burrito Joint!

The next day after going out to breakfast with our hosts Graeme took Anne and Myself for a bike ride all around San Fransisco. I'm so glad we brought the bikes!

After the ride Graeme took us to an amazing Indian restaurant where we enjoyed delicious Indian food! Yummy!!!

The next day we woke early even though we were tired from the day previous. We loaded up and after breakfast started heading east for Toronto.

The first night we stayed in Nevada. The next day we decided to pull an all nighter and try to make our way to Ann Arbor, Michigan - but about 2 in the morning the weather got really poor and shut down the Interstate. We tried to find a hotel but the one we went to was closed so we slept in the car.

(wal mart looking for stocking stuff)

Today we are still stranded at the Quality Inn waiting for the roads to open. At least we have each other today :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

anne: we left venice a little later than expected but just in time to see the sunset at a beach close to santa monica along hwy 1 and camped there for the night. our spot was between highway and ocean and the ocean was so loud at times i thought it would take us under during the night! we made pasta with bok choy salads (donated to us by Matt Potter from his very own garden) and blueberry pancakes the next morning and headed toward san francisco. we also snacked on the bok choy in the car.

It was mostly foggy throughout hwy 1 but still pretty beautiful. we stopped to see the elephant seals and then the sun finally broke through the clouds late afternoon and gave us some wonderful pix! we stopped at one point just before big sur when the sun was breaking through.

we arrived in san francisco later that night at jon's friend gram, karen, and 1 1/2 yr old emma's apartment. the next morning we went to bernie's for coffee, la boulange for breakfast, then rode around san francisco on bikes with gram. we saw all kinds of cool things by bike, thanks to gram's lead! jon got a little queasy on the golden gate bridge so we turned around halfway : ) thank goodness gram wasn't serious about riding up the really big hills...I can't imagine people riding bikes up those steep streets but maybe they do? that night he took us to the most awesome indian restaurant called chutney and ordered his favorite dishes for us to try. we later met jon's friend captain brownie at a bar called blur, then headed home via the zeitgeist bar - which we now wish we'd skipped... the next morning we ate breakfast at la boulange and ordered large coffees which came in soupbowls, then headed out toronto bound on 80...

by the time we reached close to cheyenne, wyoming, we saw nothing but white - and realized we were being blinded by a snowstorm and spent the night in our car beside the post office in elk mountain, wyoming b/c we couldn't travel any further and there were no hotels around!

(waking up in the car)

we drove further in the morning but made it only to laramie, wyoming when we found out 80 was closed. we ate an awesome breakfast buffet at a truck stop and found a great deal at the pet friendly quality inn with an indoor pool and spent christmas day there. we opened stockings we made for each other and skyped our families but we're really bummed about not following through with our visiting plans : (

rudee even looked bummed, even after giving her some chew stix in her stocking.

waiting on the road to clear up, we walked around the town - which is very cool, and had hot tea and awesome soup at a place called jeffery's.

GraND caNYon, Las VEgaS, aNd vENice BeaCh

2009-12-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

ann: It's been a little while since we've written so lemme see...
we got a hotel at the Knight's Inn in Flagstaff, az and had big piles of snow all around. We cooked pasta on the coleman right outside of our room and updated our blog. I might have said that already in the last blog... anyway, we spent a little time the next morning for breakfast at the dwtn diner in Flagstaff and stopped in az bikes to say hello to someone Jon's friend Jared knows from living there.

So anyway, the Grand Canyon was really beautiful with the snow capped buttes and ridges. I almost busted my arse several times by wearing slick cowboy boots. We stopped at several overlooks and even saw an elk grazing around in the snow at one of the overlooks. I thought it was a mule deer but I overheard someone saying it was an elk? We enjoyed looking into the canyon but next time would love to camp & hike inside of the canyon, maybe in the spring.

after absorbing the beauty of the grand canyon we left for sin city! We went over the Hoover Dam at night and into the lights and glamour for my first time in Las Vegas. We scored a room at the Stratosphere for $25 per suggestion of Daryl McMahon, Jon's tax guy. We had to stuff Rudee in Jon's backpack b/c pets aren't allowed there... no exceptions. She was great, especially after we confirmed our bribe with a cheeseburger for no barking and being a great dog. I think she's thankful we took her with us.

Las Vegas is crazy! Next time too, we learned, we're going to give ourselves an extra day to accept an offer to view a resort so we can get free show and dinner $. We first went to a show called "Bite" which is was basically sexy topless ladies gyrating to 80's hair bands. It was actually pretty cool though. One of the girls even pulled me out of the audience and put me on stage. They couldn't have picked a more nervous, self conscious person...I just tried to look cool. Jon took some pix but they didn't turn out so we have no evidence of this, just a show poster. We hung around our casino most of the time which was pretty cool. Jon won money playing blackjack and I got pissed at losing $20 at it.

Then we decided to take the shuttle bus the wrong way home and waited at the bus stop for the driver to take his 30m break amongst shady but interesting people until finally getting home at 4:30 am. The next day we walked around and oggled and won our brunch money playing blackjack. Jon has good luck and was able to pay himself back for our hotel and stuff too! I'd say Las Vegas was a successful trip and I can't wait to try it again! We dropped Rudee off in the car, went to the top of our hotel and had a nice view, filled up our bellies with platefuls at brunch, and then left for California by around 2:30.

after las vegas we left for Bakersfield, Ca to have a visit with my cousins. They had the most !awesome! pizza I've ever eaten accompanied with a Sam adams beer and christmas sugar cookie. It was awesome seeing everyone again and I can't wait to come back for a longer visit.

We left for Venice around 10pm for Matt Potter's house. The next morning Jon did perfect pullups, then we went outside and enjoyed the most awesome weather and most wonderful characters on the strip! We had lunch with Jon's friend Bobby at the Sidewalk cafe, checked out the beach and scene on bikes, then went back to Matt's to get Jon's bike to ride with Bobby before sunset. It was soooooo beautiful! Jon ran into an innocent adorable child named Zephyr accidentally - crashed head on, bmx to scooter but Zephyr ended up ok and his mom was super cool. It wasn't that bad really.

Later that night we ate big fat burrito's at Whole Foods per Matt's suggestion and went back home to watch a movie which we all fell asleep during because of eating those big burrito's. The next day Jon and I rode bikes and ate breakfast at one of the many beach cafe's, went to Jon's bmx jam in studio city, and walked around Hollywood that night. also, I had my first "in out" burger and it was awesome.

That night Matt had some friends over and we had kind of a pot luck of meats and stuff and had an awesome time. The next morning Matt lead us by bike to the farmer's market where we had awesome fresh omelettes, fresh oj, and bitch's brew coffee.

Jon: We woke in Flagstaff, AZ to snow everywhere! After packing the car we decided we still had a few minutes before the maid came so we took advantage of that ;)

We then rolled into town after calling my good buddy and wielder Jarred. Jarred had lived in Flagstaff 6 months prior. I figuered he could reccomend a good place to eat. He suggested we check out AZ bikes downtown and to talk with the owner Brice, Brent, Blair or something like that? Cool dude and a sweet shop! Next door was the Downtown Diner where we got some breakfast. Good eats and good window seating. They just couldn't manage Anne's honey request. After about asking four times we did finally get some honey :) I would still recommend the downtown diner to anyone looking to grab a decent breakfast.

After breakfast we headed to the Grand Canyon!

Apparently 60 million years ago the tectonic plates shifted and lifted the Arizona plateau creating the Colorado river and the start of the Grand Canyon. Everyone needs to see this place for themselves! What an amazing place!

Next stop Las Vegas! We got room at the Stratusphere. Only $25! I showed Anne around a little and played some Black Jack. We headed to the Sahara and then decided to take the bus home which was a mistake. We somehow headed the wrong way and wasted an hour of potential sleep time. After it was all said and done I walked away about $125 richer which more a less paid for our hotel, show and food. I was happy with that :) Las Vegas is always a good time!

So after Las Vegas we headed to Bakersfield to meet some relatives of Anne's. They were delightful and fed us some delicous pizza! We also saw a coyote right of the side of the road there!

I just want to say thanks to Matt Potter for putting us up and to all the dudes the came out for the unofficial Hollywood Jam! Jon

CaRlsBad, RoswEll, CaNyon de cHelLy, and MetEOr CraTer

2009-12-16T02:03:00.000-08:00

anne: (first of all - excuse my lack of capital a's b/c I have to copy and paste them since my keyboard doesn't type them and i get lazy)

So it's been a while since we've gotten to blog but we're sitting here on our computers at the Knight's Inn in Flagstaff currently catching up. Before I forget, we'd like to mention a thank you to my mom for making the most awesome chocolate chip poundcake we didn't forget to devour on our trip already, and to Jon's dad for letting us use his camping stove and equipment b/c we certainly have!

The road to Carlsbad was awesome, we had a clear, starry night and nobody was on the road but us - for real! We even stopped at one point and Jon turned the car lights off so we could see how pitch black it was and we saw like 5 shooting stars! It was really freaky though...being SO pitch black but then again really beautiful...

We stopped in Ft. Stockton, Tx to get gas and found this cool restaurant called La Casita. The food was awesome & they even have a small appetites option. There were cool murals on the wall & at the end of the meal they even walked around offering holiday shortbread cookies, which was my favorite part!

In Carlsbad we found a camp spot right at the entrance road to Carlsbad Caverns and negotiated our car camping price for the night (see sexy photo below). Sunrise woke us up in the car and after more beauty rest we got up, made some coffee and apple and pb sandwiches and headed for the caverns.

Well...Carlsbad Caverns is pretty awesome!!! I'm sure people have probs. with disturbing this natural cave to the public but then again it's pretty awesome to be able to see it and enjoy the "underworld". It's so fascinating and unbelievable you feel like you're in the evil world of a comic book or some mystical legend. Then again, some formations have such other similarities...

Here's a pic. of our parking/no stealing strategy - parking up close to sharp prickly things - and jon putting his ass on a prickly pear.

Our next stop was Roswell but only for coffee and an alien drive by. We met a very informative shop owner who suggested we see the Three Rivers petroglyphs. We bought a mug and listened to his stories about area 51 and entertained our imaginations up to the scary coyote noises but cool campsite near Three Rivers. Oh...also Jon got a speeding ticket for $71 on the way!

We managed to cook our meal of rice and beef stew while pretty much kind of freaking out about hearing the coyotes all around. We made Rudee stay in the car so she woudn't roam around and get eaten. While we ate we watched "Carnival of Souls", which was one of a series of 3 disks of classic horror films we picked up for $5 at a Wal Mart in Ft. Stockton. The next morning we met the campground host and his 1 1/2 yr. old punkish hair grandson who was awesome and took me on hikes while Jon heard cool stories from Johnny the park ranger. also, here's a pic of our super sticky sweet morning coyote survival thank you pancakes.

Then we parked and left Rudee (not pet friendly) in the car for venturing through the petroglyphs and then stopped a few more places on the road to take pix at this beautiful spot. We also saw a road runner, which Jon identified - see below.!

On the way out we even stopped at a little chapel called Santo Nino De atocha, which is just down the road from the petroglyphs.

On our way to Magdalena, NM, we stopped to get gas (forgot to take pic of the name) at this adorable place that just happens to sell the most delicious homemade fudge...smart. We took with us a sampling of peanut butter and chocolate, rocky road, mint, and a couple of other kinds for emergencies.

We found a nice, very reasonable hotel called the Eagles Nest in Magdalena, NM for our visit to see the "very large array" just down the road. We took showers and made pork n' bean, rice, and swiss cheese wraps and watched our classic horror movies while soaking in the joy of not camping in the car in the cold that night. Jon was able to proudly negotiate our price for the room too! The next morning we ate a big fat breakfast at a cafe called Magdalena's Cafe and headed to the VLa, which takes only about 30m to see.

after the VLa we headed to Canyon De Chelly, our next destination. We passed through Gallup, NM to change our minds about mt. biking...then headed with muddy virgin bikes on the rack for a night journey to the frozen campgrounds of Canyon De Chelly. Once there Jon cooked up some fat steaks we bought at the grocery store in Chinle, which we ate along with salad, corn, and potatoes in the dark on a picnic table in 30 degree weather b/c we're tough. after eating we snuggled in the car to keep warm under the blankets with Rudee between us and watched horror movies again until falling asleep and waking up in a frozen car. In the morning we had breakfast at the Best Western and loaded up for the canyon.

Canyon de Chelly is Navajo owned but maintained by the national park service so it's free to check it out by driving to the overlooks or hiking the "white house ruins" trail into the canyon, but you need a Navajo guide and special permit if you want a tour into the canyon, which is what I highly suggest. Jon and I, I mean Jon... was able to negotiate a wonderful price for the two of us by giving away 2 freestyle connection t-shirts as part of the bargain. We had an awesome guide named Daniel from "Twin Trails Scenic Tours" who grew up inside of the canyon patiently answered our many questions and took us to special, privately owned sections of the canyon! This was an absolutely enchanting place to see! We saw private properties with cattle and shade houses, wild horses, petroglyphs and anasazi ruins and cliff dwellings among just awesome, dreamy scenery. My favorite canyon beauty is the cottonwood tree, though we also saw plenty of Juniper and Pinyon pines. This canyon is awesome!!! I can't wait to come back sometime for camping in the canyon...hopefully!

after visiting the canyon we carried on to see the meteor crater near Winslow, az. The drive was absolutely gorgeous in the late afternoon light especially! We even let Rudee drive for a while, who sweetly stopped for all of the crossing cattle.

We arrived at the meteor crash site just an hour before closing and as soon as we pulled in we were told that although the observance site was about to close, there is no discount on the $15 per person entrance charge. This place rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning. I was excited to see the crater, but was unimpressed by the attitudes of the unenthusiastic workers. This site is just banking on the entrance fee and it shows they don't really care about anything else by the crass way they treat visitors. aside from this...the site is pretty cool to see and the visitor center is informative.

So next...after our Denny's breakfast tomorrow morning - we're headed to the Grand Canyon and then Las Vegas I believe? Is Jon really good at Black Jack and do you think he can negotiate his way to a winning table?

Jon: After leaving Austin we stopped in at a little restaurant in Fort Stockton, TX for some delicious Mexican food! with a cozy and cute atmosphere. From there we drove straight to Carlsbad and after negotiating on a camp site fee we finagled on the price and got a site for $10 from $23! We camped here in the car and watched some classic horror movies we had purchased earlier at a Wall mart.

The next morning after we packed up we checked out the Carlsbad Caverns. I you ever get a chance? Check them out! Very impressive place. The big room is bigger than a football field and its 700ft down!

After Carlsbad we headed to Roswell, NM. Immediately we noticed the alien head shaped street lights! Ha ha. We hit up a few shops and learned a bunch about the Roswell incident from a clerk who had heard it all! The same clerk suggested we check out Three Rivers Campground and the famous petroglyphs in the area that were made 900 to 1400AD!

These petroglyphes were a site worth seeing! truly awesome!! Johny the ranger at the three rivers site was also a very interesteing dude with a confirmed UFO sighting of his own! This ranger reminded me of a cross betreen the Crocadile hunter and the blue collar cable guy. Meeting guys like this or what rode trips are all about! :)

Pix from the VLa:

Anne and myself slowly worked our way over to Canyon De Shelly. We found a free camp site next to the visitors center we we took advantage of. After grilling some steaks in below freezing temperatures we retired to the car for some more horror movies and wine.

We woke the next morning in the car freezing cold but in good spirits :) I must admit that Anne is a tough cookie letting me talk into saving a few bucks by sleeping in the car. HA ha.

After some investigating we learned how the canyon tours work. You must hire a guide if you don't have your own 4x4 vehicle. We were quoted $130 by Twin Trails scenic tours. Nether Anne nor I wanted to part ways with that much cash so we bartered with the guide and got the full 3 hour tour for $80 and two Freestyle Connection T-shirts! :)

The tour was amazing and its awesome to see such ancient structures in North America. Its easy to forget that people have lived in the Americas for thousands of years before any Spaniards or even

vikings made there way over here! The yellow stuff in the photo is corn pollen - b/c coyotes are bad luck to the navajo - so they carry this with them and sprinkle on the road in the occasion that a coyote crosses the road in front of them - like a black cat.

After the tour we high tailed it to Meteor Crater to check it out. Truly amazing to think this 150ft wide meteor created such a massive crater thats still so visible even 50000 years later!

After Meteror crater we headed to Flagstaff and looked into a KOA camp site. Camping was going to cost nearly $36.00 for a site and internet so we opted to pay a few more bucks and grab a cheap hotel room. Judgeing by all the snow outside I would say it was a good idea :).

Tomorrow the Grand Canyon!!!

frEEzing OuR asSes off iN aUstin

2009-12-11T01:06:00.000-08:00

anne: we left new orleans with time to visit aunt cornie in baton rouge. we had a short visit and enjoyed coffee with her while exchanging travel and family stories. it was the very first time rudee has ever pee'd in someone's house - right on the dining room table leg! anyway, after the visit we were off on the long haul to austin. jon and i had our first argument in the car when he wouldn't let me unwrap his burrito for him while he was driving. we're okay now though.

we arrived in austin first to a parking lot so jon could ride flatland with some notorious dudes. it was pretty cool - but FREEZING! oh my gosh, austiners are even shocked the weather is this cold!

finally, when my fingers couldn't mash the shutter anymore b/c they were frozen, we left for stu's house, our very sweet and accomodating host with a wonderful smile! we met dave thompson, one of stu's current subjects, and his roommate pat. also, we were lucky b/c stu had just turned on his heat the day before! the next morning we ate breakfast at this awesome place called magnolia's.

after breakfast stu took us to empire bmx where i got to meet tina and check out the store - then jon and i took our bikes from stu's van and rode bikes for the rest of the afternoon with rudee (by the way - i'd like to give a shout out to sara at z-dog for her awesome treats - keeping rudee very happy : ) ) first stopping at the 9th street dirt jumps so jon could shred them on his mountain bike, then through the park along town lake trail by congress avenue bridge. we headed home when we couldn't take the cold any longer but found several places to take pix along the way. later we ate dinner with stu and his friend billy at a wonderful place called mother's cafe and garden - jon had the veggie lasagna with a house salad and i had artichoke enchiladas with a guacamole salad, both with the most awesome cashew tamari salad dressing. this place was awesome and even had someone playing a harp!

tomorrow we're moving on to carlsbad caverns to experience our first night of roughing it in the car or tent. did i mention it's very cold?

Jon: Yesterday was spent largely driving from New Orleans to Austin with a brief stop at Anne's Aunt Cornie's house, in Baton Rouge. Aunt Cornie was a interesting lady with many stories of oversea adventures her and her partner had taken over the years. It was delightful meeting her. Sorry Rudy got excited and peed on the floor :) First time she has ever done that?

Finally we made it to Austin's flatland spot in a parking deck. I was surprised to see so many riders present on a bitterly cold night! Thanks to everyone who showed up. Good times even if I was riding terribly :) Even rode with Jon Yaul from Homeless Trash!!! Just started riding again after a 15 year hiatus. Awesome!

After a couple of hours of not pulling tricks I said goodbye to Rad Dad the locals and made our way to a grocery store and then Stew Johnson's house.

Today we woke. drank coffee, took showers and went with Stew to eat at Magnolias Cafe. Met some of Stew friends Chunk and his lady Sara. Thanks Stew for buying us Breakfast!

After we went to Empire to spend some money and from there to 9th street to check out the famous dirt jumps! From there we found a bueatiful bike path along the river and followed it through town. Eventually we decided it was too cold and pedaled back to Stew's to warm up and drink some hot coco: ) !

Tonight we are going to eat at Mother's? Bet it will be good?

take off and new orleeeeens!

2009-12-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

anne: We took off about 3 hours late, needing our beauty rest : ) and then headed down lavendar road and on on journey to our first destination, new orleans! the honda is packed but jon built us a shelf to stack most of our stuff so we could still sleep underneath it when the moment arises! we made it to our first friendly host, doug morrison and his girlfriend jamie : ) who have an awesome little apartment right near the trolley line! rudee was so happy to have little "king kong" to hump. she's just so excited to be included on the trip!

we went out the first night for these wonderful po boys but i can't remember the name of the restaurant...all i recall is jon slobbering all over his po boy and slurping his beer, saying it was the best sandwich he'd ever had. the next morning we started the day with bignets and cafe o laits (gotta check that sp) at cafe du monde, bloody mary's at molly's, red beans and rice with abita pecan harvest and jackamo beers at coop's, and another expensive but should've really been cheap beer somewhere near bourbon street. we mainly decided to view the nawlins behind beer goggles and oggles. we met characters and enjoyed the warm, windy weather in december.
we loved getting on the trolly from doug's house, and jon asked the driver 100 questions on the way into town. today our ride was free b/c the machine was broken! so we used our money saved to tip the musicians at cafe du monde. here are a few pix from today:

jon: Today we woke up at our friend Doug Morrison house in New Orleans. Doug and his girlfriend Jamie were wonderful hosts showing us to some of the tastiest Philly Cheese Steaks I have ever had last night!

Today Anne and myself woke casually, made coffee and played on our computers for a while.

Then we rode the trolley into town. New Orleans has the oldest operating trolley system in the world! The cars we rode on were 86 to 87 years old! They don't even have windshield due to historic preservation reasons? Local people living here 86 years ago must have felt there city has cutting edge and a real city of the future!

We wondered down Decatur Street and poked our heads into a few shops finally making it to our destination Cafe de Mond where we enjoyed street musicians playing some street jazz, coffee, and some delicous donuts called Beignets. Beignets are to die for!!!!

After a few bloody mary's and some interesting conversations with the locals we were roaming the streets. Eventually we settled in at Coops for some rice and beans with sausauge. Sooooooo Good!

Later we caught the train back to chill at Dougs pad.

Can't wait for tomorrow!