Sunday, June 15, 2008
The Big Easy Longhorn: New Orleans & Austin
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday!
And, as with everything that comes in vapor form, the farts came to an end shortly after getting on the road. Don't get me wrong, the frequent Safeties made it feel like Chinese water torture, but I was thanking the gods of the road our lives could resume with normal breathing. My nose, forever scarred.
Thank them also for GPS and my new Blackcherry. Together, they've trumped faith in the Bible belt, and despite what the waitress at Bill Spoon's BBQ in Charlotte said about faith and how some dude in Florida was able to see through his glass eye because of a revival, I'll take the GPS unit.
Bill Spoon passed away recently, but his 40+ yr old restaurant was inherited by his grandson, who is successfully making this Eastern North Carolina BBQ place a continuance of food loving. Even though we were initially treated with first-time-to-see-an-Oriental stares, the staff quickly warmed up to us as we tag teamed them with pi class charm.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Day One slash Two: Love in DC
Erick and Sopicha, also referred to as "Ay" and thus difficult to differentiate when calling someone else by saying "Ay, come over here", met two weeks ago, just as he graduated from BU. Despite the reality that he would soon be returning to Hell on Earth, also known as Los Angeles (irony strike now), he instantly fell in love with her. And she with he. Or him. Uh, he. Meeting at a club, there was instant love making. In the club. Like the song. They met through their friend Evan, who likes breaking beer bottles and fitting car keys between his knuckles to brawl with tiny people. Also known as Asians.
The romance was instant, as I just said. Literally, over the course of the past six days, Erick and Aye fit in a lifetime of a relationship into a microcosm of time.
They rode the famous Duck Tour, they took cliched photos with roses bought from Costco, they took leisurely rides in Erick's now broke down (revised) '96 Honda Civic, they picked Stephen up late from the airport because they were. ahem. preoccupied. Nonetheless, love flourished.
On the last day of this love, or at least the last day of this chapter, because who knows how many chapters there really are in a story of love after all, Erick said farewell to Ay before putting coolant in his car, shedding a tear that made Stephen even more nervous about the ability to make it cross country, and farting at the Lincoln Memorial.
Every hour, on the hour, Erick, Marion, and Stephen talked about our pudgy pledge bro's love for Ay. Every night, and so far there have only been two, we've gone to sleep listening to the gentle sobs of our best friend. Every morning, we've watched him eat a buffet for breakfast. I think that's the only time he wasn't thinking of Aye. Food = Love #1. Ay = Love #2. Here's an interesting fact. Erick has tear ducts on his back. ugh...
And here we are, at the end of our DC rest stop, about to head down to Atlanta, meet up with some foos fo' dinna, and hopefully watch the Lakers make up for last night's debacle. By the way, this photo is from a bar called Martin's Tavern. It is said spies met here in WWII, and presidents visited here to escape Watergate, and pledge bros hung out here on a stop through their Asiamericana roadtrip.
Here are some photos from the Vietnam War Memorial:
A moment.
Erick's reflection screws up a perfectly good thug pose.