Day 36: Van Horn, TX to Grants, NM (with a stop at Albuquerque)

Good morning from grants, new Mexico! Was going to update last night but was feeling pretty tired. It was a long day!

Got up and left my campsite at van horn at around 8am. After I drove west for like 10 minutes, I entered Mountain Time Zone- the gift of an hour! I made my way through the rest of west Texas and made it to el paso. What is amazing about this city (besides the shirts they sell that say 'el paso, tx: it ain't kansas' with a handgun picture) is how crazy close it is to Mexico. From downtown el paso, you can see the red border fence. There were times on the freeway today that I was right next to it! Pretty cool (maybe cool isn't the right word. Interesting? Thought-provoking? Who knows).

I got onto I-25 north and headed up to Albuquerque. This was a change in my original plans, but I had the time today and figured when would I get to be in new Mexico again? As the title of the blog says, I was just going wherever the wind took me!

Did you know that new Mexico is the 5th largest state in terms of area? I do now, because the drive felt like forever! Don't get me wrong, it was scenic and such, but the desert setting starts to look monotonous pretty quickly. You go over a hill...and there's another valley that has buttes on all sides and shrubs everywhere. And there aren't many towns on the trip either.

Finally made it to albuquerque after about 6 hours of driving (and after spotting 2 Washington license plates who didn't seem as excited as I did about seeing each other). My first thought is that the city seems kind of small! I don't know what I was expecting but there wasn't much of a huge downtown area. While the residential area was spread out it wasn't as grand as some certain CA suburbs.

My first stop was the ABQ trolley company for a city tour. Since I only had an afternoon there, I knew I probably should do a tour of some sort, and these guys were highly rated on trip advisor. I was not let down- the tour was fun and informative and I saw a lot of the city
(typical tourist stuff and not). The tour was about 90 minutes and went through old town, downtown, historic route 66, the UNM campus, some different neighborhoods, and much more. The architecture was so neat to see, and it was interesting learning about all the different
movies and tv shows that have filmed there posing as different cities. Well worth the money and time. Their website is www.abqtrolley.com - I recommend them if you are in the area!

After the tour I tried to get into the new Mexico museum of natural history but it was closing down for the day - dang! I relegated the rest of my time to the old town area and surrounding stuff. Saw the San Felipe de Neri church which was a mission founded in 1706 and still in use as a parish today. Did some tourist shopping (I am one, after all), ate some dinner at a place the tour guides had recommended, and then it was time to get on the road again.

I drove about 60 miles west to the campground I stayed at last night. Was super windy when I set up my tent (must have been hysterical watching me), but it calmed down eventually and it was a quiet night here. And I am actually wearing a sweatshirt right now- I love cold
summer mornings!! Can't wait for more of that type of weather in northern ca soon.

On my way to the grand canyon today!
Joey

Day 35: San Antonio to Van Horn, TX

Greetings from van horn, tx! What's that you say? You've never heard of van horn? Well, neither had I! Before I picked it on a map as a stoppig place in my journey. But let's go back and start at the beginning of the day...

Woke up in San Antonio at clare's apartment. Jon and Jim were just about ready to leave, so we said goodbye to them as they started their marathon drive back to Ohio. I hung around for a couple more hours bothering clare and packing my things, and then I was on the road again myself!

This marks the end of my friend visits and the start of many days on the road by myself. It felt weird to say goodbye to Dayton friends, and it feels even weirder that I am not seeing a familiar face at the end of the day to talk about it with! Soon enough that will happen again...

Today was pretty straightforward in terms of road maps: drove on I-10 until van horn. Easy! And it got even easier once out of san Antonio city limits, because that's when the speed limit went up to 80. Dang! I stayed at 80 or under most of the time, as I am not one to speed anyways and had heard about the highway patrol that watch west texas like hawks (and this was true, as I saw double digits at least of cars being pulled over).

For the first three hours heading west, the drive was prett scenic. There were lots of trees and rolling hills which then gave way to more mountainous hills and shorter shrubs. Looked kind of like the southwest (or how I would imagine it), and at points it reminded me of central california on 101.

Then I got into the last half of my drive, which was basically flat, treeless, and boring. Luckily it went by quickly! I got to Van Horn around 6pm or so. The city is tiny but is eclipsed on three sides by mountains- very cool. The campground is hilarious- there are chickens and roosters pecking outside my tent (I shooed them away in my best old lady shooing voice).

Did I mention the weather? So beautiful. It is in the 80s probably right now and slightly windy and it just awesome. I could sit outside all day in weather like this!

Hitting the hay early tonight so that I can gear up for tomorrow- exciting new plans I figured out today! I will leave you waiting in suspense for them...

Joey

Day 34: Corpus Christi to San Antonio

Now that the months have changed, I really have a hard time remembering what day of my trip this is!

We all woke up in Corpus Christi and hung around (and ate some delicious muffins purchased from H.E.B. Plus the night before - that store really is a godsend). We had decided the night before that we were mainly going to lounge around for the 4th and not do anything too planned - a good choice on our part! We also discussed our favorite 4th of Julys and sang some patriotic songs (much to Clare's chagrin sometimes).

Jack took Jon and I on a campus tour since we had never seen Texas A&M- Corpus Christi (referred to henceforth as TAMUCC) before. The university itself is beautiful; when you entire campus is on its own island, I think that is pretty much guaranteed! The buildings all have a beach feel and are consistent (consistency of buildings is pretty much key to a campus looking remotely nice). The parking lots are named "Jellyfish Lot", "Seahorse Lot", "Starfish Lot", which I think is awesome because the majority of schools just number or letter their boring lots. The University Center that Jack works in is pretty modern and has lots of windows for that Texas sun. Not too bad of a place!

The three of us went back to Jack's apartment and met up with the others at the pool. After getting a little too much sun the day before (Jenny coined the term "slapped by the sun", which I like better than "kissed by the sun"), I opted to stay in the shade and not look like a tomato. I still am half Aherne, after all!

After hanging out at the pool for awhile (Jack's co-worker Amber came down too), we went back to Jack's apartment and BBQed our late lunch/early dinner. Jack made burgers, chicken, and hotdogs. And some Boca Burgers for Clare the Vegetarian! Jim had made potato salad and some of Jack's other co-workers brought guacamole, chips, and lots of Texas beer (and cherry pie for desert!). All in all it was a feast.

After that we said our goodbyes to Jack and Jenny, and Jim, Jon, Clare, and I got back into the Prius for the ride back to San Antonio. We got back here for a late dinner (Pei Wei take out) and some desert (delicious gelato from Pacciugo near Clare's house). Then it was off to bed early after a long weekend!

It was a fun time with Dayton friends for the past five days and good to see them again. I am ready to get back on the road! I am rounding third on the bases of my roadtrip, let you know how it goes!

Joey

Added some of Clare's pictures below over the days in Texas for you to see!

Day 33: Corpus Christi

Jenny and Clare both brought their Gonzaga shirts to sleep in, and Jack and I have the same Davis shirts. Instant classic picture. Maybe I need to think of more creative gifts to give?

Clare and I in the back of Jack's truck rolling down the highway - thank you absence of Texas driving laws!

Hi again! We had a fun and busy day down here yesterday-let me try and remember it all.

We woke up and everyone got ready for the day (as quickly as you can get ready with 6 people and a one bedroom apt). Jack made us blueberry pancakes for breakfast- thanks dude! After some discussion about what to do, we settled on going to the beach.

Side note: any "discussion" this group does usually consists of a lot of passive "i'm fine with whatever" until one person finally makes a decision. Very productive.

We wet to a beach on mustang island, about 20 minute from jacks house. The beach is a small strip of land right on the gulf of Mexico. The weather was nice- hot but windy. The water was still a little volatile but Alex but we still had fun swimming and getting knocked around by
waves.

After hanging out on the beach for the morning, we went into a town (port aransas maybe?) and had lunch at a local place. They would even cook your catch for you! I forgot the name of the place, sorry...

We came back to jacks and decided on another period of sunshine by going to the pool at jacks apt complex (clare wanted to tan as much as possible). We actually ended up playing volleyball in the pool with these people we met there who were very drunk and very funny. We of course won the game!

After that, we had all gotten a little too much sun for the day, so we went back to jack's, hung out, and got cleaned up while deciding what to do for the night (see side note from above). We eventually made our way across the bay to the "South Texas Sails 2010" event at the coast
guard base. They had ships from different countries (Mexico, USA, Paraguay, and chile) that you could tour. They also had vendors, live bands, and alcohol- what else could our group ask for? Clare tried to zumba her way onto the Chilean ship for a private party, but no such
luck. We then watched the fireworks coming off of the bay, went to Acapulco Taqueria for a late dinner and margaritas, then came home and called it a night! A fun day!

Happy 4th of July! Aka the second christmas in the sammut family

Day 32: San Antonio to Corpus Christi

Jim, Jon, Clare, Jenny

Jack, Clare, Me

Hello from corpus christi!

Started yesterday out in San antonio. Jim, Jon, Clare, and I went to Taco Taco for breakfast (the tshirts say 'the restaurant so nice they named it twice'). It was voted best taco in America by Food Network and had a bunch of accolades on their walls, and it did definitely not
disappoint. So many breakfast tacos!

It was then back to clare's to get ready for the trip. Jon and clare got ready while Jim and I took our cars to get oil changes. Nana has been doing so well on this trip and she deserved a break! Jim has a prius so his car was done very quickly, but the mechanic keep looking at nana and making me nervous (I felt like a parent at the doctor's office with my kid). Everything turned out just fine, and the guy offered me a book of coupons "even though [I am] not from around
here". I politely declined. Thanks express lube!

Since I took so long, got back to clare's late and we rushed to get on the road to corpus Christi. The trip is only about 2.5 hours on one highway, so you think I would be fine with it, considering how long I have been on the road recently. But Texas outside of the city is so
boring! And there was some torrential downpours that we drove through that made me a little nervous but Jon drove through them just fine. And we saved the earth by taking the prius down!

We finally got to corpus Christi and met up with jack and Jenny. You have already met Jenny (I stayed with her in Omaha). Jack is one of my best friends from grad school who currently works at Texas A&M - Corpus Chrisi in he student activities office (working mainly with Greek life). Jenny had flown in on Wednesday right before the storm and had been staying with jack since then.

After we got here and all said hi, we drove to downtown and had lunch at an oyster bar (I was not brave enough to try one though). After lunch we walked down the South Texas Music Hall of Fame (bigger than you would think, but the only name I recognized was Christopher cross)
and then went into the surfing museum. Interesting stuff there!

We then walked around the beach and bayfront type area. It's funny that the city is in Texas, because it really resembles a surfing city in Florida (or so I would presume- never been there) or California. The actual city of corpus Christi is on the mainland and faces the bay, while padre island (not to be confused with south padre island) is where the ocean side is.

Other "fun" facts about corpus Christi:
- the birdiest city in America
- the fattest city in America
- the place where Selena was killed
(see, they're not very fun)

Went back to jacks apt and hung out for a bit- that is really what we do best. Then we went to a local bar (burger & co maybe?) and listened to a cover band (Good Night Avenue), ate some food, and drank some Mexican beer. Good times!

It is nice to be around good friends- we talked about it last night how natural it feels when we are all together and how comfortable we all are. And we make fun of each other incessantly which is so much fun! I am the instigator of most of them I feel...

There are six of us staying in a one bedroom apt, which is a little cramped but good! It ended up with jack and I sleeping on an air mattress in the living room, with said air mattress losing all of it's air after about 30 minutes. So sleeping on the floor instead!

Onto Saturday in corpus Christi!

Day 31: San Antonio

June is over! Crazy to think about the places I have been over the
past month.

Spent yesterday in San Antonio exploring with Jim and Jon (and clare
after she got off work). It was overcast and slightly rainy in the
70's yesterday and low humidity. That might sound bad to you but it
was just fine to me!

I actually started out the day with some errands first. Drove around
and found a laundromat to do some wash after two weeks (was sort of
running out of clean clothes there). The best thing that happened at
the laundromat was that this really old dude who was dressed like a
cowboy walked up to me and said, "Ain't ya glad that every day isn't
warsh day?" It was pretty awesome.

After that, I did something that I had wanted to do all trip but never
had the guts to. I knew my parents would disapprove, but I really
wanted to and found a time and place where it could be done for the
right price. That's right...I got a haircut (gotcha! Although my
parents really do disapprove of me cutting my hair. My father will
routinely say 'don't come back until your hair falls to your
shoulders' to me whenever I visit). Anyway, the nice texan lady who
cut my hair did give me some good advice on getting through awkward
periods with growing hair out so we shall see.

After that, went back to clare's, quickly got ready, and was on the
way out to explore San Antonio with Jon and Jim. It felt weird to
explore a new city with other people- I had been used to doing it with
myself for most of a month!

We started with touring the 5 Texas missions- espada, San Juan
capistrano, San Jose, concepcion, and San Antonio (the last one you
might know better as the alamo). The missions were all built in the
1700s in the usual practice of forcing natives to follow "civilized"
European practices (won't get into the politics of it here). They are
still old buildings with history and each except for the Alamo still
has a church that is a parish today.

The missions are all located on a 12 mile route so they were fairly
quick to get to by car (some choose to walk or bike between them, but
not us!). While the first mission (espada) is in the middle of
nowhere, the last (the Alamo) is right in the heart of downtown.

The Alamo itself was impressive but did have the slight twinge of
faint tourism. Also, the Alamo seems to be one of those historic
places whose actual details are lost in patriotic fervor. For
instance, the Alamo was abandoned as a mission almost a hundred years
before it's use in the war for Mexican independece. And the famous
arched ceiling that is so recognizable wasn't added until decades
after the famous seige. But I digress. It was still neat to see and it
was intersting to note that while the other missions are run by the
national park service, the Alamo is operated by the Texas daughters
league or something like that.

After the alamo, we went souvenir shopping, as Jon was trying to find
identical rings for him and his brothers. No such luck, although we
did get to see every tacky Texas souvenir you could think of (and some
you couldn't).

Also, we kept seeing people by the hundreds wearing these green
lanyard nametags and wandering around. We finally stopped to ask who
they were, and it was a national AA convention. They were all over the
place, and there was a ton of merchandise being marketed and sold to
them. I was impressed by the size and scale of the conference, and it
must have been a boon for the economy here (yes, except for the bars).

After that, we headed back to clare's and waited her to get off work.
We then all went downtown to the riverwalk. This is the famous part of
san Antonio with shops and restaurants located directly on the river
(like 15 ft below normal downtown stuff) and lots of scenery,
walkways, and boats. It is a fun place to walk around and take in the
sights, and we found a British pub to eat dinner and hang out at.

Good times in San Antonio- off to corpus Christi today!

Day 30: New Orleans to San Antonio

Jon, Jim, and Joey in San Antonio!

My day yesterday was once again full of driving, but I will try to make it interesting. I say bye to Vil, Boston the dog, and New Orleans and got on the road around 8:30am. This day of travel made me a little nervous, because Hurricane/Tropical Storm Alex was coming in that night and bringing a lot of rain and wind to the entire Gulf Coast area. All my fears proved unfounded, as the entire trip just basically had some light rain and not much else. Maybe I should be paranoid more often!

The day before, I had talked with Jack (my friend in Corpus Christi) and had decided that I would be going to San Antonio instead of Corpus Christi. San Antonio is further inland and would get less of the intense weather from the hurricane/tropical storm, so it made more sense.

The route I took was fairly easy- I-10 west from New Orleans to San Antonio. I still turned my GPS on though (and got annoyed the whole way by it). Went through southwestern Louisiana and over some beautiful swamplands and rivers and bayous. Also drove through Baton Rouge and other small towns.

Then I got to Texas. Oh, Texas. For some reason, I have been predispositioned to dislike the state my whole life. Maybe it's because the dallas cowboys are the 49ers main rivals, or because my mom didn't want to take a job there, or because it's filled with republicans (sorry for bringing politics into it). Anyway, I tried not to let my irrational annoyance at Texas get in the way of the drive.

Texas is big- real big. The sign right at the entrance to east Texas said "El Paso- 858 mi" and I thought to myself, I'll be there in a few days! Oh dang. From what I saw of Texas, it looked pretty boring and flat. But isn't that basically how most of our country looks? Central CA, eastern WA, IA, NE, OH- you name it, and I almost guarantee it's got at least one flat and boring stretch.

Went through Houston at around rush hour but didn't hit much traffic. Finally arrived in San Antonio at around 7:30pm (after seeing all the signs for Buc-ee's and not going in- I am a little disappointed in myself for that). Found my way to Clare's apt where Jim and Jon were already there and waiting.

Let's see, how do i describe these people? Clare went to grad school at UD too. She got her masters in pastoral ministry and now works in San Antonio at College of the Incarnate Word organizing missions trips. Jon and I worked at grad assistants together at UD where he got his masters in public administration (and will be getting his Ph.D. in political science at Kent State starting this fall). And Jim is a campus minister at UD (he may be old, but he's our friend!). They had all been waiting on me, so we went to dinner at Broadway 5050 (conveniently located at 5050 Broadway Ave) and had some burgers and shakes and caught up on everything going on in our lives (or I just made a lot of jokes and they politely listened).

The living arrangements are kind of hysterical, as the three of us are staying with Clare in her studio apartment. We actually fit rather comfortably! One more night of staying at Clare's, and then on Friday we will all be driving down to Corpus Christi for the weekend, where 6 people will be sharing a 1-bedroom apartment (it's gonna be cozy!).