Three months and thirty-two states later..

We're home!

Jeanie and I left Albuquerque and drove through to Amarillo. With plans of leaving that night we got something to eat and headed east. While along the way I had grown to love the ale that was Fat Tire and I knew that (for whatever reason) it was not sold in Oklahoma- so we made our way to purchase some Fat Tire before crossing over to Oklahoma.

It was 12:10 when we made it to the cash register with two six packs.

"I'm sorry folks, but it is after midnight."
"Hmm?"
"You cannot purchase liquor after midnight."
"Really? What about beer?"
"Nope."
"Dang."

We decided to stay in Amarillo for the night and wake up early, load up on Fat Tire, fill the car with gasoline and make our way on home. So, we did just that.


Along the way we saw the 'biggest cross in the midwest!'



and just over the Oklahoma border we saw a field of windmills. Go Wind Power!



We drove into Oklahoma City and stopped at Super Cao Nguyen for groceries then drove south for Norman! Woo!



The roadtrip was officially over. We left Febuary 22 and returned May 23. Three months and thirty-two states later we are home!



There was a lot of living on this trip. While the common question was 'was it fun?' our general feeling is that it was a lot of things- it was living. We had so much fun! But we also had every other feeling there is in and out of days on the road. We have been asked 'was it fun?' We have answered 'it was lving and it wonderful'.

Since we have been back we enjoyed Tim's moustached birthday dance party, saw a lot of good friends, Jeanie and I got our kitties from the nice ladies who took them in for us, Jeanie and Amanda have found a house in the city that they are super excited about, Joe and Joleen have left for traveling, Jeanie, Alyssa, Ryan and I went down to Lake Texoma for the night, there has been wicked hang out time all around.

Oh and Tim, David, and I have a house on University and Grey. It is a bungelo style so we have dubbed such 'The Bungle'. There will soon be this sign that way you'll know it when you see it.



Tim and I have been cleaning up the basement so I might have a room of my own someday.



Before
and now



If you are ever in Norman, Oklahoma and would like to say hello, need a place to sleep, or for any other reason- stop by The Bungle. We'll hang tough and loose, I'm sure.

There was so much love and so much living done on this trip. I Thank you for reading throughout our travels.

Beautiful.

Live,
Marshall

everyday a new day.

I would like to begin this post with a statement regarding the sheer greatness of modest mouse. Modest Mouse is undisputedly the band that i can enjoy all of the time. If i were trapped on an island with only one cd and a solar powered cd player, i would bring a comp with every modest mouse song ever on it. Maybe that's bending the rules a little, but i don't care. This is my fabricated scenario, after all, and it is really just an illustration of my high regard for Modest Mouse.

That said, damn! there were so many people at that show! Stupid everybody loving the band i love. Stupid universally applicable music. (Universally, as used in this sentence, should be understood to encompass only people between the ages of 13 and 30 who reside in western countries. Maybe with a few outliers.)

But enough! This is such a small part of what has happened, and there are no photos worth posting. On to more interesting (possibly) adventures.

We left San Jose on Thursday, and headed straight to the Sequoia forest. California, with all of its bounty, blessed us with a few fruit groves full of ripe things to eat. So we stopped, and picked, and ran away. Here is an example of one of these actions:



There are a number of amazing trees in the forest, but the most renowned is probably General Sherman. Here is a little taste of what a big tree it is:







We circled back to the highway after spending a day in the forest and drove all of the way to Bakersfield, CA. I think that Anthony's dad said a lot of people from Oklahoma live there. Maybe they do. All i am sure about is that it smells like engineering and a fox jumped on our car in the middle of the night. And i think i woke up sometime and set the clock ten minutes forward.

Oh, on the way, we saw the most incredibly honest gas station we've ever seen. The people there weren't even fazed by the name.



It is!


Soon after Bakersfield (maybe the next day?) we drove to New York and Paris. Just a joke! It was Vegas!





Las Vegas is a strange town. It is hot all of the time, and we were constantly bombarded by advertisements for strippers. We were not bombarded by impressionists. We saw a lot of fish and some lions, and a lot of people were either happy or apathetic. I can't remember anyone that wasn't trashed being sad. But, by four in the morning, most people were trashed. Yay, free drinks!

I won ten dollars on a quarter machine. I really just played it for the old-timey pull handle, but hey, I didn't mind free money.

We drove to the Grand Canyon the next morning, which was Sunday. We drove over the Hoover Dam on our way.



Sunday night we camped the Canyon, and we woke early to commence some life-risking experiences. We are mountain goats. Or just lucky. Or lucky, lucky mountain goats.






From the Grand Canyon, we drove to albuquerque, where we are currently sitting on a couch in a coffee shop and soaking up some air conditioning. We are scurrying home, excited about friends and showers and beds. Yay, home! We're ready for you! Get ready for us! Prepare your arms for hugs! Prepare your mouths for conversations! Prepare your hearts for love!

Yay!

j

It has been a long road since last we wrote.

Highway One and California have treated Jeanie and I very well these last few weeks.

After leaving Crater Lake (last post) on the fourth, we headed south to Medford, Oregon. While we were there, we hung out at a local coffee shop, dumpstered a bit, and got into the movies. It was a really fun night. We saw about twenty minutes of 'The Condemned' (booo), all but the first few minutes of 'Hott Fuzz' (woooo!) and all of Spider-Man 3 which wasn't too bad. We got in on opening night for free so that made it a lot cooler. Later that night we crashed in the car and headed south in the morning.

Our first stop was a beautiful Redwood grove.

(be prepared for way too many pictures)











Before we left the grove, each us gave a biiiiggg tree a biiiiiggg hug.






The first town we arrived in California was Crescent City. We started talking about how nice a shower would be, so we decided to stay at a motel for the night. It was only our second time to stay at a motel on the trip and the last was in Virginia Beach. So, we hung out and took long hot showers and enjoyed having a bed.

The next morning we went down to the water and saw the sights! (The ocean was beautiful!)












After Crescent City we drove south along Highway one. Every now and then we'd stop in cool small towns to hang out on the beach. At one point we snuck passed the toll booth and drove through a redwood tree. (wooo, we are such tourists!) Then later we watched the sunset in Mendocino. (a proud town of 500). Actually, they called it an 'official village', which meant that there weren't any coporate chains or street lights, only stop signs. The town was beautiful- as was the sunset.










Goat Rock in Sonoma National Beach was an amazing find. It seemed that it took pride in being named the second most dangerous beach in Califonia. There were warnings all over about sleeper waves that would take you under if you swam or even wade in the water. So- we waded in the water, chased birds, saw seal along the shoreline (!), and while we walking we discovered drift wood huts on the beach.














After we walked the beach we drove back into the closest town Jenner, bought some Fat Tire, went back down to the beach, made our own tipi style hut and stayed the night on the beach. It was really awesome night.




The next morning we got ahold of Anthony who recently moved to San Jose. We left our beautiful tipi hut and headed south on Highway One to San Jose. Driving through San Francisco we saw the Golden Gate bridge in person for the first time. Though it was covered in fog, it was an exciting moment. Then we had pay the toll to get through- booo.







So, we made it to Anthony's houses. We've been hanging hard for the last few days. We visited Brandon at Stanford, hung out on the beach in Santa Cruz a lot,



we made a fire on a secluded part of the beach with Anthony and his cousin,







and we stenciled the streets a bit. I'm not sure what it means, but there are arrows on the streets and sidewalks pointing different directions with 'USA' sprayed underneath- so we added our own homage.



We hadn't spent much time in San Francisco so yesterday we made a sign and caught a ride to Golden Gate Park. From there we walked around the park, saw beautiful flowers, walked around Haight-Ashbury, talked to traveler kids, and accidently ended up at a free Dinosaur Jr. show at Amoeba Records. Then we made a sign and caught a ride back to San Jose.







So, today is our last day in San Jose. We're going to get the car all ready to go, pack up everything, and then go to Man Man and Modest Mouse show tonight! Woo! They're playing in San Jose tonight and Dylan got us on the list because he rules at being awesome. Yeah!

See you super soon friendlys.

Love,
Marshall