day two

after a somewhat fitful night of sleep, wade "hides behind signposts" wisdom, gabe "says what too many times" shaukat and i headed to the mcdonald's we dined at the night before. cheap breakfast foods and free wi-fi galore.

while in the parking lot, wade got a call from the fbi alerting him that they are going to offer him a job. now, the three of us all have futures.

we decided to stay in a hotel in metairie, louisiana, a mere 10 miles from bourbon street. we got sally turned on, then we pushed her buttons, and she sent us westward.

most of the day was spent driving near the water. gulf coast is not quite beautiful, but the drive was short. no complaints here.

currently, we're cleaning up and preparing to head to the french quarter. we need showers and booze about equally. the view from our hotel room:

late night update: rue bourbon was pretty fun. smelled a lot like downtown athens, for better and for much worse. we had huge ass beers with our new friend, bartender lynn, and cajun seasoned popcorn at absinthe bar (where we didn't actually purchase anything to drink). after a jovial drive from the intersection of burgundy and ursuline, we hit up the 24-hour ihop attached to our hotel. sarah puryear came through with the suggestion for chocolate chip pancakes and hash browns with ketchup. morning's coming soon.

here's to hot water and hand grenades.

day one

our morning was a comedy of errors, marked by forgotten items, a trip to murray-hobbs's vehicle for a folder dropoff, getting a despondent, academically minded lass to take a few photos of us at the arch, and swinging by the swankiest apartments in athens to drop off wade "cockmiel" wisdom's rent. gabe "scared of bridges" shaukat had predicted a 9:40 am etd, and we left the chick-fil-a drivethru for 316 precisely then.

first stop was columbus, where we bathroom broke and sipped some coke while discussing the sad state of the columbus ledger with gabe's grandmother. we ate lunch at country's, which for all the shit my compatriots talked on it, was not that bad, nor were the waitresses or clientele particularly unattractive. we fired up sally, our dirty slut of a gps unit, and whimsically decided to head to navarre beach, florida, where wade and i had gone for spring break. sally obliged, as she always does.

we hit the beach along about 6:30, after a drive whose soundtrack relied heavily on usher and r. kelly's "same girl." if you haven't heard it, it's definitely worth a listen. our trip mascots, two owl decoys named lochmiel and rockmiel, accompanied us to the shore, where we threw the football for a good long while. wade got introspective, and my arm got tired from throwing into the wind, so i went to the car to make a few phone calls to friends and family to update them on our progress and attain the phone numbers of friends and family along our route.

now, here we sit in the mcdonalds in the winn dixie shopping center, contemplating wade's inability to take pills and reflecting on the day's events. we're not sure about sleeping arrangements, but who needs to sleep anyway?

here's to sandy feet and mcdonald's free wi-fi.