ATL

Atlanta, GA to Charlotte, NC - 238 mi
Song of the Ride - Down In It by Tiga
July 13th-July 14th






Man I really need to do this everyday because this whole writing it down all at once thing isn’t working for me. I forget half the stuff I was going to tell y’all...and it takes too long when I have to cover 6 days at once. Like... I did so much in Atlanta...and that’s like...a lot to typpppppeeeeee. I stayed there for 3 nights, which was an extra night than I had planned. But, I am so so so glad I stayed...I'll tell you in a sec why. Mmk so I get there at liiiiiikkkkkkeeeee 5 or 6 right Emily? I’m not sure... And AAA freaks me out a lil bit because I didn’t have to ask Emily for directions but I got to her place just fine. She lives next to what I would call a "ghetto"... it probably isn’t half as bad as a real ghetto buuuuuuuuut it was still pretty ghetto-like. It’s real strange because Emily's neighborhood is a lot like Boerne/Georgetown...but they aren’t next to ghettos...and I mean RIGHT next. IM NOT LYINGGGGGGG. This night is all about the Katey relaxing because she drove and was hot a lot. And the Next two days are really relaxing compared to the last two. Atlanta is a really cool city. I think the combination of Ted Turner owning everything and having the Olympics there really put a lot of money into the city. On our first day she takes me into the city to see a lot of touristy stuff. I get to ride a train.......orrrrrr metro...whatev you wanna call it. Since I'm really 5 yrs old on the inside this made me excited. She took me to Underground Atlanta which Id say is Atlanta's equivalent of the River Walk. Same concept... stores.... restaurants... vendors... bunched together around some type of walkway. This is where I saw

Asians fulfilling a stereotype and I'm sorry if you think this is going to hell worthy but I had to take pictures.

Even though it's incredibly touristy, and really just a way for coke to rake in more money, I want to go to the Coke museum so that’s what we do nexttttttt and this is where I start my "thing” of wanting to hug things in my pictures. There were giant cokes and polar bears though, so I can’t be blamed. They had a buncha diff flavors of their coke products from other countries and I wish I tasted the watermelon coke but oh well. IIII didn’t really read any of the history or anything because reading is a lot of effort when you’re on a road trip. Take it from me guys, I would know, I am on a road trip right now, reading is tough. So I look at the neon, giant, flashy things and I'm out. Anddddd since I wanted to see the city we walk to our next destination which is Centennial Park, I think... It ends up being a longer walk than I thought, at least I'm getting a work out but it's so dang hot out. On our way over there we see the CNN building and decide to go innnnn. Pretty damn cool building, didn’t take the tour though... probably should have but at least I got to see Anderson Cooper times 10. And take a picture with CNN in big lettersssss...I'm making a newscaster face if you can’t tell.










From there we go to the park and I get to stand in a circle of water next to a guy that looks like John Ritter. We pass on anymore walking and head back to her house via closest MARTA station. I’m definitely getting old because I’m realllyyyy tired when we get back, all that being outside, and doing stuff, I’m not used to it. The original plan was that I was gonna leave in the morning but I decide to stick around because theres more to do.








The next day she takes me around her town; where I took pictures with statues. And then to Little 5 Points to a strange store called Junk Man’s Daughters….wide variety of things in there, good weird but fun gift shop. The best part comes after Junk Man’s when we’re walkin down the street to go to another store and I see all these music posters and I’m like what’s that? Cause it doesn’t really look like an open store. But when we go in it’s this really cool record shop. That guy had everything. I’m pretty sure all the employees were foreign too. He has a lot of kick ass posters on the wall and barely any of them go over 7 bucks. I get a Wolfmother one for 3.50 and he threw in free stickers!







And when I ask him for a phoenix one (cause I thought of you EK and wanted to get you one) he told me to look in this pile of FREE posters and I was like what the crap is it my birthday? Of course, there were no Phoenix one’s left, but he had a lot of others that I took w/ me (including Muse). Man that made my day. Good work Emily, I bet that was your plan all along. DODODODOD Cruise round rich neighborhood and then time to, once again, relax. Monty Python’s pretty funny…I watch it when I was like 10 but didn’t remember a thing, cept for the coconuts; we watched it that night while I packed. Atlanta was a success for sure.

Texas Our Texas to Georgia On My Mind

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My House to SU - 119.8 mi July 7th-9th
Song of the Ride - Not Big by Lily Allen
July 7th-9th

Hell yea Su was my first stop. I got there late Friday night, and of course stayed with Allison. We spent Saturday with Leslie and Laura, painting Al's new room, and chillin in Austin. There were some interesting conversations; Leslie seems to stumble onto the subject of sex often. Bottom line: these girls= a kick ass time. I get this killer head ache on Saturday night and the fire alarm going off at 2a.m. reallllyyyy helped it. It also helped me to get up at 5:30 a.m. Did y'all know that the Pleurocoelus is the state dinosaur of Texas? whaaaaaaaaa????? This is since 1997 apparently....

For the TTW's

SU to Monroe, LA - 442 mi

Song of the Ride - Let's Get Lost by Elliott Smith
July 9th-July 10th

I'm all ready and packed by 6, get some Whataburger on my way out because I know I wont be having any or awhile and I love BOB's, and I'm off to nowhere in particular. I'm just trying to get as far East as I can today. As soon as I get East of Dallas the landscape changes, which I wasn’t expecting, but I know little about the geography of le U.S. I was expecting a lot more of the South to be barren like Texas, but no, it's just us with the shitty highway view. Ok so maybe not JUST us, but seriously the highway I was on all day didn’t have as much development and a lot more (tall) trees. blah blah blah Nothing really happened I don’t think...I completely forgot I'd be going over the Mississippi River. I wouldve gotten out probably, if I had realized beforehand. As it were the exit was there and glone before I knew it. Mississippi had a pretty 'Welcome' sign. That day feels too long ago to remember much so FF to me getting a hotel room in Monroe. Buy now I'm whipped so I just ind the nearest hotel with a room ready. I watch the World Cup final and still can’t believe Zidane head butted a guy in the chest. I eat Taco Bell so that Allison doesn’t feel so far away and try and go to sleep....it's like 6pm. I can’t go to sleep till like 2 am and wake up at 5:30 again. I have to go all the way to ATL today, longest leg of the trip.


Monroe, LA to Birmingham, AL - 354 mi
(Few Hour Stop)
Song of The Ride - Heartbeats by the Knife
July 10th

The not much sleep doesn’t affect me much except for the very beginning of the trip. I've decided to stop in Birmingham because I don't want to push Amadillo. I don't really have a clue where I'm going because I have directions for straight to Atlanta. I just follow the signs that say downtown, circle 1 to 43985237406598327-ish blocks a few times and find a sub shop. I get it to go so I can go to a park and eat. I saw this park on my way in and didn’t realize it was the Kelly Ingram Park that I had read about in a travel book a few days before. I don’t really care for the whole museums and blahblahblah I like the stuff that I can just....enjoy, preferably with someone who knows a lot about the area. I guess I don’t like the planned tourist attractions as much as stumbling along something, is what I'm trying to say. So anyways I meet this guy there....I know what y’all are thinking...but I'm still alive so he wasn’t a murderer or anything. Anyways he was a local and gave me a lil tour of sorts of the park. He had a way of not making any of it seem boring, or rehearsed; it was obvious the history o the city meant a lot to him. He talked bout how his parents would come home drenched but wouldn’t let the kids know what was going on and he later figured out that they took part in the demonstrations that took place there, where the park was located, where police and fire fighters arrested, used attack dogs on, and hosed down demonstrators. Then he showed me the 16th street Baptist church. Which was a church that was bombed, killing 4 girls. It just became a historical landmark this year, but in order for it to be a historical landmark it has to be restored with the same materials that were originally used when it was built. So, I took a picture of a crack that was left by the bomb because it won’t be there pretty soon. By now I had been in Birmingham for a few hours and figured Amadillo was well rested. This is when I figure out I have a pretty good sense of direction cause I find the Highway I was never suppose to get off and got 2 more hours till Atlanta.


Birmingham, AL to Atlanta, GA - 146 mi
Song of the Ride - (Far From) Home by Tiga
July 10th-July13th

Welllllll I cant remember anything really happening now...til I get to Atlanta I mean. There was a convoy of corvettes.....there was a tank....anddddd I liked the landscaping cause on this leg of the trip I start to see these vines covering trees and it just looks all lush and lively......sooooooo of course I take pictures cause what else am I suppose to be doing? paying attention to the road? pfffff. This part of the trip (Monroe to ATL) wasnt as bad as I thought it was gonna be when I thought about it that morning. I love driving though. At first I had a really uncanny feeling like "Why the Hell are you leaving home?". I didn't notice that feeling dissolve as I got further and further away; replaced by calm.