Coral Springs : Climbing over rusty metal.
Today was Halloween, and my first in
Coral Springs : Dammit Janet!
I found a cool place to hang out and did nothing all day but surf, drink coffee and send emails. I took Miriam out to a Karaoke bar at Boca Raton since she fancies herself as a bit of a singer but it wasn’t on that night. My plan of doing ‘Dammit Janet!’ from the Rocky Horror Picture Show would have to wait for another time.
Tags: karaoke, drinks, TravelMiami: Something stormy comes your way.
Taking the most random route I could I made my way back up to Miami beach, looking for a beach with a shower on the way and failing miserably. I was driving through some of the most expensive and exclusive property in the US and public facilities were just not there for hobos like me. I had to be at some club for 6pm for a couchsurfing gathering where there would be a drag show and fancy dress was encouraged. Seems like the North Americans love to get dressed up at lot, perhaps I should sort myself out with a costume… Hopefully I would find somewhere nicer to sleep than my minivan but in the meantime I needed to get a shower. Eventually I found a public beach near Miami Beach and went off for a swim, sunbathe and a shower. When I came back there had been a break in….
Tags: hostel, cars, wheel, hostels, pool, wheels, sleepKey West : Tonight you’re living in a fantasy, do you think Im a nasty girl?
It really rained all night this time, and then rained most of the morning. I couldn’t even take advantage of the free washing machines 
Still my neighbor had gone, I wonder how nice a night they had, I bet their tent leaked everywhere… I grudgingly paid my $46 (should have just thrown $20 at her and driven off) and carried on to Key West. The weather improved as I slowly cruised down and by the time I was there the sun was shining and all was well. I really didn’t want to pay for a hotel down here (and in hindsight I wouldn’t have found one) so I planned on just having a look around and then heading back north. Little did I know the sick perversions that would keep me there longer than I wanted…
Florida : Hey Markey you’re in the keys
The keys are Florida’s holiday capital it seems and there are loads of them all connected by concrete bridges down to Key West where you are then only 90 miles from Cuba. The Weather was pretty crumby, here I was ready to get a tan and it rained on and off all day. I’m sure lots of people have seen True Lies, indeed I saw it the first time I was in the States, we watched it in Virginia Beach and nearly died walking along the highway to the cinema from all the traffic. The bridges in the keys were where they filmed the sequence where Jamie Lee Curtis is pulled from her car as it drops off the bridge. You can see where they repaired the railings to make it look used as further down the bridge was in very poor condition. I now have the urgent desire to watch it again 
Florida: Mark and the Mechanics
Security or not I managed to get a good lie in, even sleeping on a raised platform in my minivan wouldn’t stop me from doing that. The back windows have privacy glass, which means they are quite dark, but not really dark enough. Maybe I would have to make some curtains… But later, I picked up a few things from Walmart (its so handy) and fired up the beast…. click… click… click… Uh oh. My battery was flat! Maybe I was charging something the night before and left it on a bit too long, but this wasn’t a good sign. I asked some helpful guy for a jump start, grateful for my foresight of parking away from the main entrance so he could get in near enough and left it charging up for a while. Maybe it was time for a new battery….? I had a look at what I had and went back in the store for a look. I came out with the largest one they had and a $2 adjustable spanner and proceeded to swap them out… Um, rather I stood there cursing as the bolt that locked the battery in refused to budge as it was rusted shut. I went back in and resisted the temptation to buy a $40 toolkit but opted for a can of WD40 and $4 set of cheap spanners. This was better but try as I might it still would not move, even after a good drenching of oil….
Tags: wheels, rain, cars, sea, beds, job, sun, wheel, beast, Travel, stupidity, sleepFlorida : If Im in Florida why is it raining??
Thanks to the power of the Internet I found out holding down some buttons on the dash would put my van into a test mode and at least allow me to have cold air blowing so that was good. I also splurged $80 on a cooler in Walmart which was pretty big but seems to work ok. Wednesday was when the weather changed though and after a sunny morning it rained most of the afternoon. I had a fun afternoon looking for a place to wash my clothes. The area I was driving through was very posh and all I could see were dry cleaning places. Eventually I found somewhere and got myself sorted out, seemed to cost a fortune though. I got off highway 1 and went a bit closer to the coast, it was raining when I went past the Burt Reynolds museum and state park or I might have stopped for a look. The weather picked up after a few hours though so I pulled into another park and went for a swim with my new camera. The Pentax Optio w30 is really quite cool especially as its waterproof. I think the people on the beach thought I was mad going in the water with a camera but where better to test it out. Still seems to work… I found a Walmart to sleep in that night which was ok, but got quite paranoid by the security that kept cruising past and had trouble sleeping as it was so damn humid. But at least there were no mosquitos…
Titusville, Fl: We have lift off
When I woke up I was surrounded by cars and the fans were making a slight noise. My battery was dead but I had made it. The skies were slightly cloudy but it was sunny, warm, and looked pretty good to me. However Im not a rocket scientist! I said ‘hi’ to the 3 retirees in the car next to mine ‘um, can I get a jump?’. Thank god I had bought some leads for $8 the day before. ‘Sure’ said the guy and pulled forward, popped his hood and …. no battery. It was under the back seat for some reason. The guy in the big SUV saw what was going on and jumped at the chance to help out, despite nearly losing his spot to some cranky woman as we got connected. It fired up ok which wasn’t my previous experience at jumping cars (last time I was messing around in the work car park for 2 hours getting the damn thing going). I left it charging and put on the radio, seemed like there was some ice build up somewhere which might cause a problem. I chatted to my fellow viewers for a while ‘no Im not from London’ and made myself busy tidying up my car. There was stuff everywhere and it was going to be annoying if I couldn’t find something. I sorted out my cameras, set up my point and shoot on the roof on 10 second interval mode and watched the sky and the now rapidly filling grass verge.
Tags: traffic, bleh, Travel, seat, explosion, job, locals, amazement, highways, beds, carsI-95: The road goes ever on and on….
A usual I ignored my alarm clock that I set for 7am and got up about 10am which wasn’t too bad. I was still alone in the car park but there were a few more cars about. Luckily I didn’t get busted, but it would have been just another fine to ignore. Back on the road I just drove all day. Stop for coffee, refuel, keep going. Mum texted me to say the shuttle was still on schedule, Britni kept me updated when the UK went to bed. I ate up the miles but had a break when I saw a walmart to get some supplies. If I was going to be sleeping on the road for the next year I would need quite a few things, cooker, inflatable mattress, pump, pots and pans so I started stocking up on those things when I could find them. It was a warm day and by the time I got to Georgia I was ready for shorts and sandals. The temperature seemed to keep creeping up and at 4pm it was 28 degrees according to the cars sensor. The car had a cool little panel that would tell you the temp/direction, mpg, distance travelled, stop watch etc which you could reset as you went. Hours of fun :p According to that I was getting about 22 mpg at 75 mph, which wasn’t that great. At least the broken AC meant I wasn’t tempted to make it worse.
Tags: seat, sleep, laptop, sandals, google, camping, laptops, beds, Travel, carsNew York : Tensing for the sprint south….
After the excitement of the previous night we weren’t up until late, Marie went out to buy a new phone while I lazed around. We went out for bagels in a cool little store nearby and decided what to do with the rest of the day. I wanted to go to a legendary camera store which was closed the previous day so we set off to walk most of the way there. It was hot and sunny again and, despite my protesting feet, another perfect day to spend in one of my favourite cities in the world. I was really going to be putting the miles in on those shoes, new or not. We took a subway a few stops since the store was going to close reasonably early and its a good job we did. The place was a mad house! Its jewish owned and run, which means its closed on Saturday so it was full of local shoppers who packed the place out. It was a huge store anyway and they stock everything. I got given a catalogue on the way in which was 3 cm thick and despite the masses of staff still had to queue to ask questions. I had wanted to buy a big telephoto zoom but I was still waiting on my last pay cheque so decided to hold off. I did pick up a nice point and shoot though which will now live in my pocket when I need something convienient to take with me. The store has a set of tracks that deliver the items to the assistant within a couple of minutes that is a wonder to see. They didn’t have the elusive backpack I was after though, that will be a job for ebay I think…
Tags: elusive, highways, sandals, facebook, cars, map, pool, circles, wanderings, locals, maps, taxi, stupidity, backpack, sleep, queuesNew York: New York Reality
Driving in Manhattan seemed easy enough on thursday night at 9pm but I was about to try it on a Saturday morning which was going to be fun. I gave myself plenty of time… I thought. The traffic was pretty heavy, I wouldn’t like to do this on a weekday, but I just had to go for it and cross my fingers. I was hopelessly lost after a while but Yoda knew where to go. I was thinking ‘when am I going to go over the bridge‘ before I realised I was already halfway downtown and had missed the junction. It cost me less this time too as I missed all the rip off toll places that had cost me a fortune the night before. I saw Jax again on a billboard as I turned into the Theatre district which was funny. Glad to see she’s still working and has an excuse for not mailing me and inviting me to a load of model parties! :p
Tags: swede, maps, queues, bridge, money, fortune, bleh, Travel, pints, genius, carsNew York: Chasing Dinosaurs
George went to work early and I tried to remember how I get to the train station for my express train into Manhattan. Finding the station was fine, getting back wouldn’t be so easy. I took the 10.05 express train to 125th in Harlem and got off and went looking for the subway. Its a pretty poor neighborhood and the African Americans outnumbered everyone else by 20 to 1. I started wondering if getting a late train back from here at 1am would be a good idea…. I decided to buy a 7 day pass, I might only stay in NYC for a few days but it would be a saving if I used it for 3 or more days. I jumped on a train heading downtown, went too far, came back and failed to read the subway map correctly, ending up on the west side and thinking I was on the east and then walking the wrong way. I was saved by a local girl when she saw me looking confusedly at my map and pointing me in the right direction. I was there at 11.25 and no renae. She had no mobile either so I had no way to contact her, nothing to do but grab a soft jalepeno pretzel and wait and see. She came about 15 minutes later having sat at her subway stop waiting 30 minutes for her train. She only had 10 minutes travelling time but when the trains dont run you go nowhere.
Tags: map, sally, seat, guitars, Travel, museums, mistakeThe road to New York City
I managed to haul my ass out of bed at 10am or so and sorted my stuff out. Renae had mailed me the previous night to say there was a NYC party on that night and when that happens it usually means something. She needed someone to go to a gig she wanted to see too so my next stop looked like New York. I went and got the car, loaded up and then what? NYC was quite close, only about 4 hours away and the gathering wasn’t until 9pm so I had time to kill. I decided to see something of Rhode Island so started driving south. I grabbed some lunch in Providence which is the state capital but you would never guess it from looking at it, it’s tiny. I carried on down to Newport and stopped at some mall for a couple of hours for some supplies, I went to the dollar store and got basic camping and cleaning gear as well as some stuff from Radioshack as my power inverter was lost in my little bag. I was still on a budget of sorts though so refused to get a $20 tape adapter. Shocking prices. I had a minor heart attack when I got back and found I had walked off and left my trunk wide open!
Tags: wanderings, mail, photo, cars, traffic, highways, girls, map, sea, mistake, photosBoston MA: I fought the law and….
Well, it didn’t work and they called the cops. Looks like I might be deported and my car impounded for not having plates. Disaster!
Tags: cars, disaster, rocks, Travel, paperwork, photographs, insurance, jobBoston MA: Master forger….?
The minivan was mine, Eric turned up Monday night, we did the paperwork, he counted the $2200 (in $20 bills) and I finally had a vehicle. Tuesday was the day to get everything together. I hit the net and phoned a few places, I also called Nicholas, the French Guy, who had just completed a 10k journey around the states for the address of theinsurance place he used. It was pretty far away, he also told me his car had been towed in Boston, twice! Tickets I can live with (and ignore) but towing was $100. Still, a snip compared to the £600 you can get charged in the UK. I checked the phone book for somewhere local and walked up to Mass Av to check out place with 7 insurance companies. Turned out it was the same place and he told me to get insurance I would need to get a Mass Licence within 30 days. Bleh. A few doors down I walked into another place and they seemed fine with my EU licence, with one minor, or major caveat, my counterpart to my plastic licence was in my missing small bag. No licence, no insurance, no road trip. 3 weeks to get a new one and I was a car owner with no way to get going…
Tags: journey, mail, cars, borders, clothes, Travel, bleh, laptops, insurance, job, laptop, locals, paperworkBoston MA: Wheeler Dealer
I was woken by Eric with the minivan ringing me up, his phone was dead so he only just got my message. I sleepily started negotiating, blah blah, broken AC, there is a better one with AC and less miles for $3k,blah blah, so I offered him $2k. He said he only wanted to go as low as $2200 which was ok, that would be fine so I offered him that and he said he would have to check with his wife (!) and get back to me. I said I needed a couple of days to get the cash from the ATMs as I could only get $600 a day. He said ok and I started looking for insurance. He phoned back to say his wife said ‘stop messing about and take the offer’. Cool. Seems like I had a minivan. Or not…
Tags: Travel, insurance, cards, hassle, money, bleh, atmBoston MA: When will I be famous….? Um, 3rd November….
I hadn’t drank that much (wouldn’t be clever with a very expensive camera around your neck) and the cops didn’t beat me up so I felt suprisingly refreshed the next morning. Brad had to scoot off to work and the 4 of us left decided breakfast would be a good idea. On the way we got a call from Eli to tell us that the news crew from CBS Channel 7 were at his place to interview him about couchsurfing and all his guests had either left for the day or permanently. He needed some foreigners to be grilled, and who would be most eloquent….? Mark to the rescue, but only after coffee and omlettes…
Tags: beers, Travel, money, bleh, greetings, stupidityBoston Ma: Police Busts and Strip Jenga.
I had another fun weekend all told. I woke late on Helens couch and it was warm and sunny outside. I checked craiglist and there were now a glut of reasonable looking vehicles. Great.The distance they at was not so handy but I phoned one of them and the guy, Eric, offered to drive down to show it to me the next day. Cool. There were a few more but this one looked pretty decent and it had the advantage of a broken AC unit so would be a lot cheaper. I decided to go for a wander over and around Harvard and mentally prepare myself for the party at Tony Daggets that night.
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Back in the U.S.S.A!
Well I made it to the States, Boston to be specific, although I wasn’t completely sure it was going to happen. Customs and immigration were a nightmare and we got here extremely late on the Monday night. I had hitched a ride with the Boston crowd who had come down for the weekend and they were a good group to know. The previous night we had spent dancing until the early hours and I threw myself upon their generosity and begged for a lift. I had to get out quick before Daniella‘s crazy room mate came back and knifed me in the early hours. I really need to check up on what I said still.
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Boston Invasion Party time!
Living near the center of Montreal with Daniella meant I could finally do some easy tourist things, but that didn’t really happen as we spent most of the day in Sex Shops. I didn’t get pictures. The previous day was really nice and we had hiked up to the Mount Royal which the city is named after to eat Ice Cream and watch the mad guy rant to himself in the sun. Plenty of tourists and a nice place to hang out, was maybe the last nicest of the year for the Canadians in that neck of the woods as winter had started its move south and wouldn’t be stopping for a while. They say in Montreal that the spring lasts for 2 hours it is so quick, I was hoping the fall would be a little slower.
Tags: Travel, photos, karaoke, sun, girls, consistency, clothes, daniella, tourists, rain, cardsI can’t wait for the weekend to begin
When I was working all the time weekends were either spent on the job or cacthing up on sleep, my social life was a disaster and a constant stream of no-date Saturday nights was boring and depressing. Since I left all that has changed and I am so happy with life right now. Maybe people will think its just superficial nonsense, meeting up with strangers, having drinks with people I met on the internet but its so much deeper than that. Everyone deserves to live, travel and have an interesting life and the people I meet are either stuck somewhere and saving to go away or living their dreams of moving around the planet. Couchsurfing is definetly the way to live you life, I love it!
Tags: drinks, disaster, daniella, sleep, cars, job, metro, fridays, TravelDancing in the Dark
Today was a great day in Montreal. After going to bed at 5.30am (gulp!) I woke up at 11.15 and set off for my cycling date with Daniella. I had been playing poker the night before with the Montreal boys and the time had literally flown by. How they all manage to stay up until that time and not worry about work I never found out, although I suspect Louis and Yorvis are secretly millionaires, Mikhael was between jobs and Andres was working afternoons. Never found out what Ben was doing, but in the morning he was gone. I only lost $10 over 2 games though and didn’t buy in, so I think my gambling problem is under control and now I have had a good practice for Las Vegas!