May 28, 2012

Hole in the ground

By kodakkerouacs

I did not blog last night because I fell asleep. Normally I don’t provide an excuse, but last night I felt the sleep hit me like a frying pan in the face, I turned to Mary and informed her that I needed a nap, then I promptly fell over. Asleep. On top of all my crap and in my day clothes. I also had planned to edit videos and develop film and write post cards and all those lovely things we try to do on the road that don’t coincide with taking thousands of photographs. Turns out this is more difficult than we thought.

Here is a universal truth: When you come to a place with no expectations, it will rock our world.

Yesterday we went to the Grand Canyon. People flock to it from all over the globe, and they treat it as a very big deal. Arizona doesn’t even want to be known for anything else! So we went, to cross something off the ol’ bucket list. I thought it’d be cool to see a really big hole in the ground, but didn’t think much else of it. Well, I found out that it’s so much more than that. It’s not just a hole in the ground, it’s a hole in the ground bigger than I ever realized a hole could be. The size of it is enough to humble anyone. The rock has so many layers and rings that are evidence of more years on this earth than I can really wrap my brain around. I felt it confront me and my limits. My lifetime might be shown in a millimeter of it’s depth. I could be as influential as Abraham Lincoln, but the canyon remembers dinosaurs drinking from it’s river. Abe’s contributions are as small as a grain of sand on the shore, as far as the Grand Canyon has seen. It is physical proof of time and change, and the beauty that comes from it.  It is something you cannot describe or photograph. It is something to experience.

Dog in New Orleans

Kodak Ektar 100, Dog in new Orleans

I miss my dog. This dog above was horrifically bored, and I know Mr. Bingley (my dog) would be as well. He hates long trips. He likes to go home and he has his routine that he totally satisfied with. I saw dogs at the GC who were so happy to be on super long walks, but I do not have one of those dogs.

Question to our readers: when you are scanning in images from negatives, do you think it is okay to leave dust on the image? You wouldn’t if you were printing in a dark room, but the dust really can “send home” the message that this image came from a negative, and was not created digitally. I’m curious. Is there a place for dust?

-V

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May 27, 2012

Take it Easy

By kodakkerouacs

What a day. What a fantastic day.

So much has happened over the past couple of days, actually. We went to Roswell, New Mexico on Thursday, hoping to catch an alien. No such luck, but we did go to the official UFO Museum and learned more than I ever knew about aliens and UFOs. Did you know that there is a close encounters of the first, second, and third kind? There is quite a classification system that I was unaware of.
We shopped around the gift stores (because you can’t leave Roswell without a t-shirt and a coffee mug with a huge green alien on it) and found a great one with an eccentric/wacky/intense owner. We conversed with him for over an hour on conspiracy theories, alien encounters, and artificial intelligence. Apparently the world is going to hell in a hand basket and superbugs will be the end of civilization.

We left New Mexico and headed for a corner in Winslow, Arizona.
(For those of you who don’t get that reference, there is a Jackson Browne/Eagles song Take it Easy)

I’m the biggest Jackson Browne fan. HUGE. If I could only pick one artist to listen to for the rest of my life, it would be Jackson. He speaks to my soul. So I was pretty excited to stand on his corner.

After we left the corner, we set up camp in Homolovi Park, which was pretty cool. And pretty damn windy. Setting up the tent took twice as long because the wind was incredible. It ended up with me inside, laying down while Val frantically hammered all the steaks down, and even after she did we left all of our luggage in the tent so it wouldn’t fly off.

But yesterday. Oh yesterday was worth bugs and moths and flying tents and sleeping in the same clothes for 3 days. We went to the Grand Canyon. Which honestly, I was looking forward to, but I wasn’t super excited. Its such a hyped up national monument, I sort of thought it would disappoint. When I saw Mount Rushmore, I remember thinking how small it looked.

The Grand Canyon is worth the hype. It is an automatic silencer. Val and I tend to talk. A lot. But we both shut up immediately when we viewed the canyon. I wish I could describe how I felt or how it looked, but I feel that words would fail me miserably. At one point, I stopped photographing because you just have to stop and take it all in. It is beautiful and magnificent and will leave you in awe.
The canyon made me feel tiny and gave me a whole new perspective. I highly recommend checking it out.

-M

Oh and meeting Angel Delgadillo, the “Mayor of Route 66″ was also was part of the fantastic day. But more of that on the next post.

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May 24, 2012

I’m a Dinosaur. Rawr Rawr Rawr

By kodakkerouacs

What an exciting past two days.
We left Tucumcari yesterday, after having a wonderful stay at the Blue Swallow Motel. Seriously, if you ever stay in Tucumcari, New Mexico please stay there. The rooms were wonderful, there was free coffee all day and the beds were so soft that it was hard to get out of them in the morning. (Dennis from The Midpoint Cafe warned us about this, and he was spot on.)

Oh, did I mention the FREE COFFEE ALL DAY?

If that wasn’t enough, when we woke up and went outside, we were greeted by two adorable golden retrievers who just wanted to play. How could you not love waking up like that?

But we did have to leave, although not before we visited the Dinosaur Museum on our way out. I never knew that Val was such a dino-freak. The entire week before hand, she could talk of nothing else but this museum. I thought she was going to shit her pants when we finally got there. It was pretty cool. There were tons of bronze statues and fossils, and even a kids area where  you could draw your own dinosaur. I made the “Sparkleasaurous” It was rainbow and could breathe glitter.

After the informative and surprisingly fun dino trip, we made our way to Albuquerque. Very cool town. The whole trip in, Valerie kept looking out the window and sighing. I think I may have to leave her here. She’s already said many times she is moving here tomorrow.
I’m sitting here, hot off the road from a day trip to Santa Fe. All day Valerie kept asking me, “Do you know the way to Santa Fe?” I was super close to punching her.
It was a great trip though. We went to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum to check out some of her early work. I didn’t realize what a badass she was. In her documentary, (I’m paraphrasing here) but she basically said “Listen. I’m a woman, I’m a painter, and I like to paint flowers. Deal with it. I live my life the way that I want to and fuck anyone who doesn’t like it”

Thats my girl right there. We would have been friends.

-M

P.S I found out Johnny Depp is filming in town. Our mission has changed from photographing America to meeting/stalking Johnny Depp

Mary told me she wrote a novel. Unfortunately, the whole time she was writing I was busy with another task; I was sleuthing.

We are staying tonight with some of Mary’s family, and they have recently discovered a new resident on their property: an animal that makes a REALLY loud scream that starts at dusk and ends at dawn. The original suspicion is that this was some sort of owl. I found a marvelous forum that suggested foxes (who sound like demons) and frogs and i recalled a toad we’d seen the night before and, 50 toad calls later, I found it. I identified the toad exactly. The toad even started call back to us!


Please watch the toad, and imagine this sound echoing around your house all night. Needless to say, we went for a toad hunt and, though we did not find him tonight, Beth will be inviting him to leave as soon as possible. Of course, Mary has long finished her post and everyone is going to bed and I have to sit on the porch to get wifi, at night, in a cloud of moths that completely obfuscate my screen. My life is pretty difficult.

What I needed to tell you, dear readers, is about our adventures. I will make a list.

1. The Blue Swallow Inn was homey and retro. I felt like I was in a warm, fuzzy time warp. I LOVED it, and it’s history. Made two Golden Retriever friends. Saw our third rainbow here.

2. D I N O S A U R Museum. Lost my shit. Not going to lie. Not only were there dinosaurs, but you could touch a lot of them, and there was one you could ride, and they had multiple displays of ammonites, which have always been a favorite of mine, and, BEST of all, they had dioramas. Raptors eating pterodactyls. Sabertooth tigers jumping off cliffs and attacking a rearing rival on the ground. Raptors leaping in the air. I always wanted to be a paleontologist (seriously considering going back to school for it, no joke) and this was an obvious case of paleontologists convincing the public that what they do is cool.

3. I love New Mexico.

4. Loving New Mexico drew me to daydreams of Georgia O’Keefe having love affairs and abandoning art in New York to be out in the free, open desert. I asked to go to the museum, and we did! We went to the village she made her home and got pretty close. Mary probably mentioned Napoleon.

5. Two other dinosaur statues i didn’t even mention.

6. Stupid miracle stairway.

7. St. Francis!

8. We followed a labyrinth to increase our spirituality and trust God (or whatever universal power you’d like to call him/it/her).

9. The damn security at the O’Keefe museum is the worst I’ve ever experienced, anywhere. 500 guards armed with laser pointers follow your every move and actually stand at your shoulder while you observe the paintings. it makes it impossible to enjoy the art at times and they really fucking pissed me off. One guy would not go away and an urge overcame me to lick the damn painting just to spite him. It would have been worth the inevitable arrest. She wouldn’t have minded the saliva, I’m sure of it. Ultimately my desire to see Santa Fe was stronger than my desire to taste art and defy the guards.

Now I have to sleep because we are waking up at the crack of dawn to find aliens. Pictures tomorrow when I don’t have to fight moths.

-V

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May 22, 2012

Eye of the Tiger

By kodakkerouacs

Two posts in a row? What craziness is this? I haven’t been able to manage that since leaving for this trip.

I”ve been traveling down Route 66 all day, which gave me a swing of emotions. Passing through small town after small town, I have to agree with Valerie when she described the route.

It is wonderful that people are reviving it. I’m so glad that it is getting the preservation and attention it deserves, but I can’t help but feel a sense of sorrow as we pass through the towns along the way. Elk City was great, Amarillo was amazing, and now that I’m in Tucumcari I could spend a week here. They all seem to be thriving pretty well.

But as well as a few select towns are doing, there are so many more that are struggling or have given up. Like Texola, Conway, Groom, and all the other small towns no one has ever heard of. As we passed through them, most were stripped down to their last motel and gas station.  Many, like Texola, were completely gone. Broken windows and dilapidated houses are all that remain of what I imagine used to be prospering towns.
And I have to think about all the other small towns along the small routes that haven’t gotten the attention that Rt 66 has. Like US 12, the Lincoln Highway. Just as important, but far less remembered.
Or State Route 5 in Alabama. It wasn’t extremely important, it didn’t go across the country or have songs written about it. But  it was a major connection from Birmingham to Mobile, before the construction of Interstate 65. Now, all the towns and people along it are either gone or skeletal remains of what they used to be.

I know that I can’t save all the small routes. And I’m not trying to harp on the interstate. God knows I take it to commute to work, or when I travel out of state. But being on these smaller roads, Route 66 among others, reminds me to take time and slow down. Buy locally, go to a small diner, meet strangers, smell the roses, and stop the car to look at a rainbow. It reminds me to get out of my car and look around. If I hadn’t, then I would have eaten a shitty meal at McDonalds today in 10 minutes, instead of visiting the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas and talking for an hour to the owner Dennis. We traded stories, told him about our trip, and he took our photo together outside in front of the cafe sign.

While it’s bittersweet to look at this mother road because some towns have fallen through the cracks, it gives me hope when I see the towns that are slowly but surely fighting hard to stay alive. They are proof that no matter what life throws at you, you never have to take it lying down; or at all for that matter. Fight for what you believe in. Its always worth it.

-M

Taken in New Orleans with my SLR using 35mm Kodak T-Max 400 speed film

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May 21, 2012

Angry Cows Do Not Make for Happy Milk

By kodakkerouacs

So…this is the post I started out writing yesterday.

Ahhhh a little R&R.

We’ve been go go go for a week and a half, which isn’t that long compared to some well-seasoned travelers. But for two girls who are relatively new at this, it was nice this morning to wake up according to my biological clock, rather than the small but very loud and authoritative alarm clock I have.

We’re in Oklahoma, staying with Valerie’s aunt and uncle. They have been so gracious in putting up two smelly, tired, and worn out girls. We arrived ready to rest, and they had many plans and activities that they thought we might want to see and do.

As the smile faded from my face, all I could think was “I just want to use your shower and pass out.”
Which I did.
I’ve spent the day fighting with my negative scanner, praying it will work. (I think its upset with me for taking it on this road trip against its will) Apparently scanners do not like to ride in cars. But I also organized my suitcase and started uploading the photographs I have scanned onto our flickr account. 

I have not been in my car since last night, and I love it. Although I’m excited and ready to get back on the road (we leave tomorrow morning), it is nice to have a day where I don’t have to worry about finding a gas station, figuring out the best playlist to listen to, or debating on where we should eat.

I am super excited for our next stretch because….we will venture onto Route 66! The land of broken down gas stations, abandoned motels, kitschy souvenir shops, and hundreds of townspeople waiting to tell you their story of how they came to be involved with the mother road. I can’t wait.

Oh and I made a new best friend. She’s a horse.

Sorry Val.

Totally good right? We were ready to post…and then the giggles happen. Oh the giggles. They were no ordinary giggles. They were toxic and contagious. Valerie started it. Then it spread to me. Then it spread to facebook. Be thankful that 98% of you are not our friends on facebook. Your feed would have been bombarded by us. It had to do with looking at photos of cats with dumb captions. Nothing good can ever come from that.

Okay, now I’m officially losing you due to the length of this post. Long story short, we are now traveling on Route 66 (yay!) and are headed to New Mexico tomorrow. We’ve already stopped a million times to photograph abandoned buildings, towns folk, and managed to piss off a heard of cows.

-M

 

Today we began our adventure on 66. We made it to a few fun stops: El Reno Fort; Kobel’s place; and Lucille’s. We shot the filling station and ate at the restaurant. We’re slowly making progress through wind and rain, but we’re forced to come to grips with the fact that we can’t see/do/shoot everything. Six weeks is not a very long time when you are trying to cover an entire country.

Driving on 66 brings you face to face with your dreams of freedom and the open road. But it’s sad, far more sad than I anticipated. All the while we’re driving I try to picture what it once looked like, how the stops must have appeared to those who saw them in their heyday, how the neon lights must have glowed from either side of the street, and the chrome must have gleamed. Now it is all rusty, broken, forgotten, and lost behind trees. Much of it is demolished. A sign by the road reads “Pool and Restaurant” but can only direct you to what is currently a field of maize. I see lost jobs. I see towns half empty and drowning in an economy no longer supported by tourism. The big roads take you to big stores and everything else is gone, or only functioning as a shell of what it once was. Don’t get me wrong, it is beautiful and exciting. There are so many people who are dedicated to reviving the road, and some stops are surging with the hope of a much brighter future. But, as we navigate broken stretches of roads, I can’t help nostalgia for it’s younger days (even if I never saw them).

We came to 66 from my aunt’s home in a small town. I didn’t know her before, so I spent the day and a half we were there trying to get to know her and, naturally, regroup for the next four weeks. She loves to travel. She has photo albums filled with photographs of this and that national park they visited on horseback. She is the first relative I’ve known who really likes to travel and see the things I like to see. My parents are homebodies, though my mother likes to travel to see her family. She doesn’t travel to places because she thinks it might be interesting to see such a place. I enjoyed seeing that in my aunt, and hearing my uncle call her (and all my aunts together) inflexible. They get their way. I like that. I LOVE to get my way. They told stories of my dad when he was younger. It was truly amazing to finally have that contact, I know almost no one in my dad’s family. There’s no dark tale behind it, just your average case of distance and life getting in the way. If it is not enough that we’ve collected amazing pictures and adventures in this trip, I think expanding my family is worth the trip for me.

-V

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May 16, 2012

Magic Tricks and Zombies

By kodakkerouacs

This trip is whizzing by. We’ve gone from city to city, campground to motel to campground, and I can’t believe it’s already been a week. Of course, I also can’t believe it’s ONLY been a week. If I could express this feeling to you, it would look like this picture taken from the sun roof of Mary’s car (with Kodak film, of course. Kodak Portra 800 to be exact). I’m dizzy with it.

Road

Yesterday we woke up from a shitty motel, after spending the night developing our B&W film and scanning some of our color rolls. Exhausted is an understatement. But it was made up for by meeting Shannon and all of her fabulous kids, and her lovely back yard. She whipped up a perfect lunch for us (I fucking love Caesar Salad) and we ate by her creek and talked about, well, garlic and tampons and all the most inappropriate things that your mom wouldn’t let you say over dinner when you’re growing up. We aren’t appropriate ladies, it would seem. Then her kids came home from school and we were inundated with magic tricks and papers with 100 written at the top and origami masterpieces and smiles peaking around corners and stories about rocks. It was AWESOME. I can’t say enough, but maybe I’ll say some more when I get the negatives developed.

This morning we woke up from a deserted park full of deer, raccoons and owls, only a few RVs held other humans. It was nice. We’ve been taking it easy today. We ate in Bellville, TX at the most amazing bakery that’s named after a CASTLE in TX. Mary’s best donut of her life (I’m sure she has more to say). We couldn’t see the castle today, but it’s on the list for our next trip.

Currently we are in Austin, TX at Thunderbird Coffee enjoying a glass of wine/beer with iced coffee and I had a cranberry/walnut/goat cheese salad, which I’ve been craving for about 4 days. YUM. In a few short minutes we are going to see….

wait for it….

get ready…

OH MY GOD….

…the FIRST PHOTO EVER IN THE WORLD!!!!!! It’s at the University of Texas at Austin, and we are going there and we are going to look at it with our own eyeballs. You have permission to be very jealous right now. Since you can’t be here, and you can’t see this marvel; you can be satisfied with this picture of Mary sitting under a FUCKING RAINBOW in Biloxi, MI. It was taken with Kodak Ektar 100, because it’s good like that. I haven’t had a chance to really fix my images, so forgive/embrace the dust. This is film. It gets dirty, and we kinda love that. -V

Mary's raingbow

Haha, I’m not sure I can top that post. And I’m not going to try. I’ll just agree with everything Val said, and then some.

After waking up in a beyond shitty motel, we explored the little known town of Opalousa, LA. I never heard of it, but its the third oldest city in Louisiana, and the birthplace Zydeco. Who knew? Who knew what a Zydeco was? I sure didn’t, but Val was quick to educate me.

We took photo after photo after photo, and decided that if we wanted to meet Shannon before dark, we’d better be on our way to Texas. I was sad to leave Louisiana, it was nothing what I expected and I quickly fell in love. I’ll be back.

But we had to leave to meet Shannon of Dirt N Kids. She was everything we were expecting and more. I mean, we came in, sat down, and she made us lunch. Lunch! For someone who has been traveling on the road, a free lunch is always welcome, but hers was fucking delicious. Her backyard is amazing, it really is her saving grace. Her kids are lovely and couldn’t wait to show us their rooms and inform us about zombies. (I’ve learned from her two sons how to first identify a zombie, and then properly decapitate it to make sure its really dead)

I was super impressed with her son John’s magic trick. No, seriously. He made a ball disappear from my hand. Watch out Criss Angel.

She was lovely and I just want to say thanks again for letting us into your home. (Plus now now that I know she lives next to one of my favorite bands, I will be back visiting!)

After Shannon’s house, we wandered up the road a ways til we came to our first Texas state park. We were the only ones there, which was nice because we were exhausted and not really in a mood to chat with other travelers. We set up camp and passed out shortly afterwards.

Now I find myself sitting in a cafe in Austin, ready to see the first photograph ever, wondering how I got here. Its only been a week, and already this has been completely worth shitty motels and minor tiffs with each other. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the county brings us.

“I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.”
Jack Kerouac, On the Road

-M

P.S Texas has the best donuts. Period. I visited Newmans’s Bakery in Bellville, Texas. My palate will never be the same.

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May 14, 2012

Monday mornings are perfect for a hangover

By kodakkerouacs

New Orleans is beautiful. Mardi Gras beads hang from picturesque trees like spanish moss. Everything is old and dirty and perfect. I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say that we had the time of our life here.

Getting to New Orleans was a bit of an adventure. Lots of driving down grassy (often dull) stretches of road in Alabama. We found a couple really awesome abandoned buildings (pictures to come, don’t worry), and I found out that I was running in the local election for a judge’s position. We were tired and maybe even a little cranky until Mobile, AL which was a pretty neat town and had some of the charm we would find through Louisiana. We cruised down 90, by the ocean, facing a beautiful sunset. We pulled over and ate dinner under a full rainbow over a pier. Yes, we’re just THAT good. By the time we rolled in to town, it was 9:30 and we were wind-blown, exhausted, and looking forward to bed. But that is not what you do in New Orleans on a Saturday night. no. oh no.

We went to Bourbon street.

We got wine and daiquiris TO GO. and drank them while WALKING DOWN THE STREET.             IN PUBLIC.  It’s LEGAL.

That was the biggest cluster of people and jazz and drinking and strippers and men dangling beads over balconies and drag queens and brides to be and business men and homeless men and drunk men and women dressing in full glitter costumes and masks and voodoo and hipsters and hippies and tourists and poets and every last one of them were partying. The jazz electrified the air. the alcohol poured freely into the street. everyone was dancing and singing. I was shamelessly blinding all of them with my flash and collecting several rolls full of wild ecstasy.

The day after is a blur of shooting and exploring. The highlight being a bar Mary barged into for a cold beer. Our feet hurt, we were tired from walking everywhere, we needed a rest and we were hungry. Unfortunately they didn’t have any food I could eat at the bar, so Mary had a beer, I had a water, my feet had a break, and we planned to jet out as soon as we finished; but these unexpected times are the times when shit happens you won’t forget. Mary left for the bathroom and Mary, our bartender, came out from the kitchen and she and I started chatting and venting about bar patrons who give you an ungodly amount of unwarranted, personal information and we were neck deep in a conversation about suicides and parties when Mary returned and the conversation only got brighter and more tangled as Paul, the other bartender (BT Mary’s brother from another mother, and he declared her his sister from another mister) came out and joined in with us. We found ourselves accepting 100 proof minty shots, the four of us shooting and coughing and crying, and we bonded with New Orleans right then and there. I gave BT Mary our bumper sticker and she let Mary put it on the bar mirror and we took pictures, and I tell you that we all must have been friends in a former life. They felt like family. It was wonderful.

Last night we partied pretty solidly. A lot of wine. One shot that tasted like swill. Lively conversation with our hostess, Coleen and her friend Justin. Bar hopping. A blur of loud opinions and debates and stories. A blur. This morning found us crawling out of the French Quarter, “like iguanas,” doing the walk of shame that can only come, I believe, from New Orleans. Here, it’s accepted, expected and widely done. Here, you live your life and that is your life and you will not be judged or scorned or bothered. I fucking love this jazzy, spicy, dirty city.

-V

 

Holy Hallelujah. I love New Orleans.

I had no idea what to expect. Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting anything. I mean, I thought it was cool we were going to drive through, and even better when I found out that we had a place to stay for free. But I’ve been so focused on getting to Arizona (and definitely getting out of Alabama) that I didn’t really give New Orleans much thought.

My bad.

We drove through Alabama all day and as Valerie said above, we found some cool abandoned sites like this one

Abandoned post office off of Route 5 in Alabama. Taken using 35mm Kodak Gold 400 speed film. M.Miller

But by the end of Alabama we were cranky. Mobile was much prettier than I  thought it would be, and we stopped for coffee. While we stopped and consulted the map, we realized that we both suck at U.S geography. Both of us thought that Louisiana was the next state.
“Okay, after we leave here we’ll drive for an hour and then totally be in New Orleans.”
EXCEPT THAT THERE IS A STATE BETWEEN LOUISIANA AND ALABAMA. And it’s called Mississippi.

Apparently I’m not smarter than a 5th grader. I apologize Mississippi. I didn’t mean to overlook you.

So we arrive in New Orleans around 9:30pm and immediately headed out to Bourbon street with Coleen (who graciously put up with us, our luggage, and our antics for 2 days). It was AWESOME. I know that if you’re a native here you’re probably thinking “Oh God, another tourist on Bourbon street. How original”
Yeah, well you can suck it. I LOVED it. The people, the atmosphere, and energy, the COCKTAILS TO GO. As Valerie stated above, we were both stoked. We took many photos, had many drinks, and stumbled back to the apartment.

Sunday was just as wonderful, exciting and unexpected. We walked around as much as we could and discovered that New Orleans is just as cool during the day when you’re sober, as it is when you’re shit faced at night. I wont re-tell the bar story above, but needless to say we were thrilled. Now our sticker resides at Mike’s Place off of Canal St. Go check it out.
Sunday night was just going to be relaxing with wine at a courtyard. Except that one glass turned into a bottle and then another bottle, and then Colleen’s friend Justin came and more drinks were had. Then we headed over to another bar where more drinks were had (can you see a pattern here?). This bar was great because as you’re drinking your beer (or shots of unknown liquor like Val did) you could watch the B slasher movie on the screen behind you.

New Orleans has the coolest bars.

If you’re still reading this, thank you. We didn’t mean to write  a novel, and even more happened than we wrote. Swamp rats, transvestites, showers with wrenches, 24 hour bars, serenading bicyclists, strangers beds, cats with extremely small legs are just parts of the many experiences we had that made up our stop in New Orleans. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it.

I felt like Jack Kerouac this weekend
-M

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May 11, 2012

Tow Trucks and Space Shuttles

By kodakkerouacs

Day Three

We’re sitting here in a coffee shop in Huntsville, Alabama scanning negatives and downing coffee. People are giving us quizzical looks.

Day two was great. We started off in Chattanooga, TN. We left the motel at 10am (we did sleep in, but it was the first day) and planned to be at our first stop within 30 minutes.

Two hours later, we arrived. We got a little distracted, i.e lost along the way.

Which I think, is half the fun. Valerie, however, gets antsy and anxious and is always begging me to pull out the GPS. Then I refuse and insist that I know where I am going, and even if I don’t, that makes it even more of an adventure. Then she gets quiet and tries to sneak a peak at it when I’m not looking. I don’t want to end up in the woods alone and resorting to Donner Party habits, but I believe that its a good thing to get lost and be disconnected for awhile. It’s like a reset button for your mind, body, and spirit.

I know where I’m supposed to be when I get there.
Taken with a Holga using 120 format Kodak Ektar 100 speed film

Getting a bit lost was good, because we stumbled upon the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. We were intrigued by the large cannon in the woods, so after a short hike we found a field of them, along with monuments to the soldiers who died there. It was weird to imagine a battle taking place there, because it was so quiet and peaceful. War is not the answer kids.

Statue dedicated to all the men from Iowa who lost their lives in the battle of Chickamauga.
Taken using a Holga using 120 format Kodak Ektar 100 speed film.

After there, we headed into downtown Chattanooga, cruising around until we found our destination: The International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum.

Yes kids, thats right. I can’t make this shit up. A towing museum. A museum devoted to towing. AND a Hall of Fame. Whaaat??? How could we not stop? It was wonderful. We both learned a lot about tow trucks, or wreckers as they are more commonly called by people in the industry. It was totally worth it for the semi-creepy but well intentioned memorial outside the museum, dedicated to all who have lost their lives in the line of towing duty.

Chattanooga takes towing very seriously.

Afterwards, we had a quick bite to eat at the Grapevine Cafe (great Caesar Salad and homemade fries) and then we were off to Huntsville, Alabama. I have to say not much else happened afterwards, because we were both exhausted and delirious. We developed our film, set up camp for the night and we to bed at 9:30pm.

Next up, the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center.

Because after all, life is really just about tow trucks and space shuttles.

-M

We tried our first attempt at geocaching yesterday. Yes, an attempt because we failed miserably. Even though I updated my maps on Garmin (thanks a lot) we still hit a detour and the road it wanted us to go down was closed to traffic and stated that there would be “NO TRESPASSING” and there wasn’t a great place to leave our car to walk it. We had places to go and people to see, so we abandoned the venture, but there will surely be more.

Mary doesn’t like the fact that, if we don’t actually have a map, then you have to look at the map on a GPS map. She starts yelling. I think she might need something to get over her hate of technology. If I have a map, I am perfectly content to look at a paper map, we just need to physically have said map. As you can tell, when you put two opinionated women in a car, you get an argument or two. Come hell or high water, we’ll have to buy state maps as soon as we enter said state from now on. Maps are superior anyway, GPS likes to only give you the information they think is important. We like to have all the information, whether we use it or not. We love that our GPS devices tell us where to find the nearest coffee house, that is purely good.

Mary said most of everything you need to know. I want you to know that I got to sit on a FUCKING CANNON and it was awesome. I also felt strangely proud of the Arkansas brigade that protected their hill with cannons and didn’t report any casualties. I think my ancestors were in Arkansas at the time of the civil war, so those men would have been hometown men! It was painful to immagine that hill littered in bloody bodies. It was so peaceful.

Highlight of the towing museum: statue/fountain of a tower saving a woman and child with one hand, above a pool with a car bumper sticking out. Seriously? I’ll upload their video to our YouTube account.

Also, best camping experience ever. Warm dinner, dry tent, tea before bed and a shower in the morning. That is life.

-V

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Road Trip

May 9, 2012

The Adventure Begins…

By kodakkerouacs

We finally hit the road!!! Yay!!

I know we said we were leaving May 8th, 2012. Our kickstarter project said that, our proposal said that, and every person who asked us when we were leaving was responded with “May 8th, 2012″

We left May 9th.

Oh well. No big deal, just had a few last minute things to take care of (Valerie).
Truth be told, I was glad we had an extra day. But we finally hit the road today, and 10 hours later we made it to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Home of tow trucks and “choo choo trains”.

The day went off without a hitch. Kind of long but thats what happens when you avoid the expressways.

Big score of the day? Finding an abandoned Chinese restaurant right off the road near the Tennessee boarder. Photographs to come later this week, after we develop them.

Can’t wait to see what else this trip will bring us!

-M

 

The day we’ve been waiting for finally came. Well, it came and went, without fulfilling it’s promise because I had to repair my car in order for it to pass inspection and renew the tags that expired and for which I received a lovely ticket. That’s right, my tag expired, a cop PULLED ME OVER, and gave me a ticket totaling $215. Why didn’t they just send me a second piece of mail? stupid stupid stupid. But if it’s all fixed I can submit for a dismissal and get out of paying for the ticket (hopefully), it just sucks that this had to happen mere days before our trip. So, the day we waited for passed, but today we left!

It’s beautiful to put an end to the planning and actually get to the doing. Now, I’m not going to hide the fact that we nearly killed each other in the process of packing. It’s true. Mary is bossy and mean and I had to leave my Bisquick, and my liquid light, and my DSLR. I don’t blame her for my leaving my hair dryer, I did that myself, but there was no way that my shampoo and my hair dryer would fit in the suitcase, so I made a choice. A difficult one. But this trip is not about hair, or the fact that I didn’t re-paint my gross, chipped toenail polish. No, those things can be brushed to the side, this trip is about freedom (possibly from good hair) and it is about creating a legacy of images from across this great country. Even if there are trucks on the road bearing bumper sticked that say “Show me your tits.” Thank God they have the right to express there gross and demeaning point of view.

So, it’s our first day and we survived a rain storm, drove through a waterfall, got free coffee from a gas station, discovered an abandoned duck-themed restaurant/motel (I had a severe case of low blood sugar sillyness and had to pull over and let Mary drive), and we made it to our destination in a safe, dry hotel. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Also: snapshots of Beevis and Butthead graffiti. -V
Beavis and Butthead

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Road Trip, Videos

May 8, 2012

Versatile Blogger Award

By kodakkerouacs

The wonderfully funny and kind Dirt n Kids has nominated our blog for the Versatile Blogger award!

Thank you Shannon, you always keep us laughing and your posts on how to be more eco friendly inspire me to do more.

Its very exciting and flattering to be nominated for one award. I mean, I had my whole Sally Fields moment, thinking that I wouldn’t have another chance to make a speech. Now here’s another award?
Well I wont bore you with antiquated cultural references, (although don’t think I don’t have a few up my sleeve)

Both Valerie and I would just like to thank Shannon again, for nominating us and continuing to read our blog.

Alright, so we have to nominate seven bloggers for this award.

Here are seven blogs that are funny, versatile, creative, and deserving of this award.

ooamerica

jessseeker

goldenoldieads

Doctor Quack

tuningtheheart

waterfallsandcaribous

click click, shutterbug

There you have it. Now according to the rules, the nominated blog is also supposed to divulge seven facts about themselves. Well, Valerie and I have been switching between being busy, then stressed, then happy, then busy again. If you didn’t know, we’re leaving on our grand adventure tomorrow and we still haven’t packed the car.

**I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, weren’t they supposed to leave today?” You are correct! But due to a minor affair, we’re leaving Wednesday. I’ll save the details on that for another post**

So anyway, I think we’re going to have to save the facts about ourselves for later in the week when we’re already on the road and more carefree.

Thanks again Dirt N Kids for the nomination!

 

-M

5 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Life

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