To see more pictures from Austin, and the rest of Texas, click here.
We were told we had to see Austin…and in seeing Austin we now see why. Through Couchsurfing we met Scott, through Scott an amazing community. “The Compound”, as it was affectionately nicknamed, was a collection of six homes, a couple BBQ pits, and a swimming pool in the hills of Austin. We stayed the first two nights in our van, but soon met Jon and Lana who offered us their spare room. In return we did our ‘Slattery special whole house scrub down’. With this group of friends we quickly found something to do every night. If someone in the group wasn’t performing at a live venue, there was a BBQ being thrown on the front lawn, or a group hike to the “green belt” and a swim in Bouldin Creek. There was never a lack of unique activities or amazing people to spend your time with. The spirit of Austin really is one of community. Soon after arriving in town we decided to give up stocking our fridge and explore the hundreds of unique and healthy restaurants in Austin. We found Spider House to be one of our favorites of the many eclectic coffee shops there. A community in itself, it occupies more than a whole square block of town. It consists of several different serving areas, a performance venue (where they were practicing fire twirling,) an outdoor free cinema, a video rental store, and organic t-shirt shop. It was the kind of coffee house compound we can only dream about with property costs in LA. We met the friendly owner who took time to give us some advice and ideas about creating this kind of community venue. I, having worked at several Whole Foods, was excited to visit the flagship store in Austin. WF was born in Austin the same year as me, and the original founder, John Mackey, still shops there. Many people may not realize that Mackey opened the first vegetarian market in all of Texas in his garage in Austin all those years ago. He has since obviously done very well, but only takes a $1 a year salary and has donated all his stock to charity. We ate at this original location one night, buying a smorgasbord of food and a bottle of wine before enjoying it under a starry sky on the roof of the store. Austin was definitely my favorite city so far, and if it had an ocean with surfable waves I’d probably still be there. But California is calling and as the sun moved so slowly to the west…so did we. -Ryan To see more pictures from Austin, and the rest of Texas, click here.
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Couchsurfing remains one of the greatest resources of our trip…it’s how we met Marc. He invited us to hang out with his horses and learn about the alternative training he teaches. It was really fun for me to be hanging out with horses again, I haven’t ridden in probably seven years. It had me trying to convince Ryan that Boomer could haul a horse trailer. –Lane There may or may not be a secret bar on the campus of Rice University. Wether or not it is hidden behind an unmarked door underneath the Chemistry building we can not say. Is it possible that this place is staffed completely by volunteers who serve 95 cent beers from unmarked animal shaped taps? We can neither confirm nor deny that such a magical land exists.
We stayed a week in Tampa, Florida, but we can comment little on the city itself. We spent almost our entire time there at Gram’s Place, where 'time stands still and the music plays on' as the sign reads. Originally built in by Mark Holland as a tribute to Gram Parsons, it is now run by Mark’s brother, Bruce. Hidden in a forgotten neighborhood, cattycorner to a cemetery, behind a tall fence lies Grams Place. Walking through the entry gate you find yourself in another world. With two outdoor bars, an in-ground homemade Jacuzzi, multi level patios, two catwalks and a roof-top crow’s nest, it really did seem like a city unto itself. We spent most of the week in the hostel telling stories late into the night with travelers from around the world. I was able to swap out a kitchen sink and retile a bathroom in exchange for use of a shower and a few beers around happy hour (the clock in the bar always reading 5:00.) If you are ever anywhere near Tampa, Gram’s Place is more than a place to stay, it’s a place to go. Swing by on a weekend night and you’ll likely catch one of their outdoor concerts -Ryan To see more pictures of Gram's Place and other Tampa fun
(including a 9 person ski pyramid) click here. For some reason I like to go places that look on a map like there is no good reason why someone would want to go there, so despite all of Ryan's protests, we decided to camp for a few days down in Flamingo, Florida. Look it up on a map, you'll notice that there is one lonely road that leads all the way through the Everglades to a campground called Flamingo…nothing else for miles and miles. I should mention here that Ryan has a strange sort of sweet blood …we can go to the same place and he will cover every inch of skin in clothing and douse himself with DEET 250 and still come out looking like a five year old with the chicken pox. I, on the other hand, can walk through the swamps barefoot at sunset and never see a bite. Needless to say he wasn’t too excited about a trip to the swamps, but after showing him that the 'mosquito meter' was only on 'moderate' and enticing him with the idea that Eisley might get eaten by a crocodile, he agreed to go. We took a canoe out into the Everglades waterways and got to see lots of crocodiles, some baby crocs, amazing hawks and eagles, armadillos, wild pigs, and one very friendly manatee named Hugh (get it?) Eisley, somehow, did manage to make it out alive, though I did have to pick her up a couple of times when a big hawk would start circling. -Lane To see more pictures from the Everglades click here.
at the southernmost point in the continental USA I’m not sure if it was soft white sand and turquoise waters, or the diversity of the island’s nightlife or the awesome people who welcomed us into their community there, but something made Key West one of our favorite spots so far. the view from Alan's patio We were only planning on staying in Key West for a couple of days and ended up there for almost two weeks. This is due largely to two different houses that took us in thanks to www.couchsurfing.org. We had an extra room in a beachfront condo with a beautiful view and a Jacuzzi. We spent our days on the postcard perfect beaches and our nights hanging out in town with Eric and his friends. I know that most people think of Key West as being very touristy with nothing but t-shirt shops and bars, but Alan showed us a different side of the island. We ate in little local Cuban cafes and hung out on some of the beaches not open to tourists. I guess I’m a sucker for the romantic, but one of my favorite moments in Key West was a sappy one I’ll probably get flack for writing about… One evening we found our way to a rooftop patio where the locals go to watch the sunset and avoid the crowds of Mallory square. We watched the sun soak the buildings below as a musician sang above the light hum of conversation. Just as the sun touched the water with the most amazing sunset I think I’ve ever seen, we stood and danced as the singer broke into “At Last”* and I felt like Key West was romancing us to stay. If you want to see more pictures from Key West (including pictures of Ryan and Eisley chasing roosters) click here. -Lane Always good to see family, we visited my uncle Jim and my aunt Sue and in Palm City, Florida and spent four days at their beautiful home. In the nearby town of Stewart we met the owners of Ohana surf shop (www.ohanasurfshop.com) who are fellow VW owners. They hooked me up with a surfboard and wetsuit, so I got some surf time in on the east coast. Heading down A1A to the Keys… Ryan See more pictures from Florida here. -Ryan
After the madness of Mardi Gras had has wound down we found ourselves exploring a quieter New Orleans one morning while walking through the ‘garden district’ we popped into Three Brothers, a tiny little twenty-four hour dive-bar. Dave, the bar tender who works the two am to ten am shift greeted us and pointed us to the restroom.
On the way out we got into some banter with Dave about rather or not beer was in fact a solid breakfast food. He must have won because in the end we agreed to have a drink with him (on the house). We listed to him tell stories about his version of New Orleans and invite us back to stay at his place for St. Patrick’s Day. There was something magical about ‘the prettiest yellow dive bar in uptown’, as Dave called it. Patron after Patron came into the bar, hugging Dave and bringing him home cooked food. Turns out Dave has set up a kind of informal pot-luck food exchange program with folks in his neighborhood. He proceeded to brag on his ‘made from scratch lasagna’ and invited us to come and stay in his neighborhood and eat with his people anytime. -Ryan These two, who we had the pleasure of exploring New Orleans with, almost put our trip to shame. Traveling with only the gear shown in this picture they have cycle-toured through North and South America. Jeff (on left) is a Canadian who has been going for almost four years, logging over 10,000 on his bike and Dave (on right) is an Englishman who’s been at it for the last year. Just when we thought we were roughing it, these guys made our van feel like a luxury hotel. -Ryan
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