right now i am sitting in a hotel room in east grand rapids while my cats explore this strange new ground. the poor things have been in a carrier all day long. they have been quiet though not eating, d
rinking, or using the litter box. i think they are about as stressed out as i have been the last couple of days.
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the drive through wisconsin was not very exciting, as usual. it definitly isn't th
e ugliest state i've driven through. we took the lake express ferry across lake michigan which was very beautiful. it was also very windy. the sunset over milwaukee was cloudless but colorful and the moonrise over muskegon wa
s golden. it was the darkest night i have seen in awhile. the album leaf was a perfect soundtrack to it.
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tomorrow i will go to mars hill bible church which i am quite excited about. and i'm excited that my dad is coming with me. i just hope rob bell is the one that's actually speaking. and after the service it is back on the road for an 11 hour drive to my new home. fun times!
as "the road" by cormack maccarthy and it was bleak and kinda depressing but it was really good none-the-less. now i am reading two books, "cross country" by robert sullivan which is about just that. he has travelled across the country some 30 times in his life and he's writing about it. i also started "the brothers karamazov" be dostoevsky which i have wanted to read for a long time.
g it a little bit but it was almost perfect. i rode my bike (finally a good biking day!) down to the river and sat along it's banks for a couple hours writing a letter and journaling and watching 
people and their dogs. the clouds were really fluffy and awesome. i rode around and took a few pictures and went to the library and walked around downtown. it was a very nice afternoon."being a parent is like your heart leaving your body and walking around out there."
oad, on the way home. this morning was really beautiful in western virginia/west virginia/pennsylvania. it was raining and i turned up the air conditioning and put on a swea
tshirt and drove through the fog. it was great. the rest of the drive wasn't that exciting but it went by fast. there is this song called "in ohio on some steps" by limbeck that was put on a road trip mix made for me. i like the song a lot so i thought that i had to find some steps in ohio and sit on them and listen to that song. so i did. and that was that.
...sunset in indiana...
uperior hwy one than california's) to columbia, going through savannah, georgia. the florida coast is beautiful, lined with expensive houses with private beaches, just the place i would never live. savannah was about four hours from orlando and i was looking forward to spending a little time there. unfortnately, it was 100 degrees and i was dehydrated so after walking around for an hour, i couldn't stand it anymore. at left is the only picture i took. i walked along the river front and had some gelato and walked around a few streets. it's a beautiful city and i would definitly like to spend more time there at some point.
bout everyone (important) in columbia so we were always running into people he knew and i met many that i will not remember if i ever see them again. he took me around to his usual hang outs: a coffee shop, a tattoo parlor (where i awkwardly stood having my chest piece examined for quite awhile by one of their artists), a piercing place, and a community house of sorts where we attended a metal show in their living room. it was fun, though i can feel very uncomfortable around lots of people i don't know, in large part because i am not a conversationalist at all so unless someone approaches me and starts talking, i kinda just sit there. and (sometimes) i'm okay with that. i did really like a couple of his friends inparticular so it was cool to hang out with them.
outside pretty mis
erable. so we went to the state house, to continue in the vein i began in topeka. the south carolina capital is a weird place, very different than the other two i have been too. it's much more closed up and protected and pretty small. we went to the state museum and saw an art show by an artist named edmund yaghjian which was actually quite wonderful. the museum also has a lot of south carolinan history and stuff from the civil war (being the state that started
the thing) and lots of other cool stuff. he treated me to a wonderful sushi dinner which was much appreciated. and we went to the greenville county mountains (the appalachians) where it was at least 10 degrees cooler which was nice. it was really 
hazy but beautiful none the less. we walked around a bit, drove around a lot of winding roads, and enjoyed a roadside waterfall. it was a nice trip. it was nice to have someone to do stuff with in south carolina. i will say that i saw enough maury to last me the rest of my life, and poo on the video store for not having the movie we wanted right when we wanted it, and i have a knack for sitting in "the dog's spot" but at least they seem to like me. i think that about sums it it up; i don't think i'm forgetting anything...
lando wasn't all horrible, niles took me to a really great park that looked like where the lost boys lived in "hook."
it was pretty awesome. i went back there a couple times. i went to the orlando science center and saw the "body worlds" exhibit which was crazy, weird, amazing. i wandered around a lot, wrote some letters, slept, and watched "the godfather" trilogy. those are good movies. i did go to the beach one 
day and that was fun, but it was weird. i haven't swam in an ocean since i went to hawaii...three years ago-ish. it's salty! and the sun was intense; i got a sunburn, of course. i'm much more of a pacific-northwest beach person and that whole surfer town, long white sand beaches, palm tree thing just isn't my scene. but it was beautiful, and the first time i've been to the atlantic since i was 13. so that's fun. after a few days there, i was ready to not be doing stuff alone all the time. i love doing things by myself but i don't like it when i have to. niles is fun and good company but he was busy and i felt after awhile, like i was a burden. he was very hospitable though.
cities that proclaim to be the frog capital of the world, the buggy capital of the world, the cajun capital, the duck capital, and the crawfish capital, it has the longest bridge over water in the world (at 24 miles over lake pontchartrain), and is the only state without counties (it is separated into parishes). it is also home to the largest fresh water basin in the world and that is a lovely sight. a long section of the freeway is almost completely over water, swamps with trees growing out of it and grasses above the water line. there were a lot of storms we drove through, with some very brooding clouds. it made for slow traffic but beautiful scenery.
ived and checked into the hotel/condo timeshare place my dad got for us and it was so fancy! it was much nicer than we had expected. so we looked forward to sleeping in those nice big beds after staying on love seats in texas. unfortunately, we didn'
t actually do much in new orleans. our only full day there, neither of us were feeling very well so it wasn't until the evening that we got out and walked around the garden district. the houses are big and beautiful and there are beads hanging from most of the trees, remnants of mardi gras passed. and then because of the heat and lack of food, we did not go farther. it was such a beautiful city, the parts i did see and i definitly would like to go back.
i am reading "notre-dame de paris" by victor hugo (otherwise known as "the hunchback of notre-dame") right now. it's been a slow start. there are a lot of descriptions of paris with it's architecture and city layout that have nothing to do with the actual story. but it's good anyway, one that will give me a sense of accomplishment when i finish it. and the music that is getting stuck into my head, and thus listened to the most, is rocky votolato's album "makers." so beautiful.
state capital in square footage, and 15 feet taller than the nation's capital. the goddess of liberty stands on top, holding a star (which is everywhere in this state) and a sword. the dome on the left is not the dome you see from the outside, but is lighted by skylights and the star at the top is actually 8 feet across. texas was it's own country from 1836 to 1845 with it's own government and navy. weird! but not surprising. anyway, it's a beautiful building with beautiful grounds.
peacefully and in his house like he had wanted. i have been so worried about my grandparents and their declining health that i didn't think about tim dying... the last time i saw him was about two years ago i think and i have written to him a few times since then because i always liked him so much. he was a gardener and made my grandmother's backyard one of my most favorite places to be ever. i spent many hours out there as a kid, exploring and admiring, swinging in the beautiful big maple and following tim around. anyway, it was a blow to hear of his death. my dad is down there right now planning for the funeral and i really wish that i could be there for it... i will miss him. much love tim.
ne of the warmest lakes i have ever been in (i didn't swim, just waded) and i found a lovely garden that had some amazing flowers in it. i took a lot of pictures and hung out for awhile. it was really nice and not too hot. amy and joe were so hospitable and kind and generous. it was quite unexpected. i had a great tim
e seeing them and i hope that it isn't another 4 years before i see them again.
my entrance into the park was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen. the sun was shining through rain clouds over the lake in estes park with the snow covered mountains in the background. and the drive over trail ridge road is at times, breath-taking. the alpine tundra is a rare place to be able to go to, where the environm
ent is too harsh for trees to grow and the flowers take years to grow a mere inch. there was a lot less snow then when i was here last year but it was no less beautiful.
ittle pond covered in lily pads and a couple trees growing next to it. i could have spent most of my day there but i had other things to get to. so from there i went on to a place called big meadow which was just that. it had a stream running through it and wildflowers and beautiful views of the mountains su
rrounding it. and the clouds have been so amazing! then i continued on to my real goal which was granite falls. i almost felt like i was never going to get there, the trail just kept going and slip-on vans are not the best hiking shoes. but it was all worth it. the waterfall was so cold, but that felt good to my weary feet and i even dunked my head in. i ate lunch there and took some pictures and it was lovely. then i began my 5 mile hike back which of course didn't seem to take as long. when i was about a quarter mile from my car, a dark cloud passed over head, there was a roll of thund
er, and it started pouring. it was actually a great way to end my long hike.-pola.jpg)
