Like, Woah.

So we have some major happenings here. Not exactly a quick read, but I've broken it up a bit and will post it over a period of a few days, so get comfortable or do it in sections or something. Not having internet to post as it happens is pretty annoying, this probably won’t get posted til like a week after my last one. So I guess starting with my trip here is the way to go.

I got about ten yards outside the gates of Randolph before the rain started. Actually rain doesn’t really describe it. Something like downpour. Or an adjective like torrential. Never in my life have I driven through rain like that, and I’m not even exaggerating. They said like four inches fell in the San Antonio area that day or something. I was doing about twenty five mph in the fast lane, and basically having to tailgate the car in front of me to see the brake lights and make sure I was going the right direction. The reason I was in the fast lane was that the yellow line was actually visible, whereas any of the others were just lost in the mess. Compared to jaunt from Cali to SA, this one was very relaxed, I only had to drive a couple hundred a day, so there was plenty of time for blog making activities along the way. My first night I hung out east of Houston, having basically accidentally blown through the whole city due to the lack of visibility. I’ll have to hit up the NASA Space Center there on the way back through. That was the nice thing about it, even though the weather was crappy I will have a second chance with too much time on the way back to do much of this.

So since there wasn’t much out there where I ended up staying in my typical Motel 6 or Super 8 other than a mall, I wandered in to see what the happenings were. In typical spontaneous fashion, I saw that a showing of Cold Mountain was showing in the next few minutes, and even though I knew it was romance based and I tend to avoid such I went ahead and purchased a matinee ticket and barged in. Boy am I glad I did. This one gets a solid 6 M’s out of 7. Largely due to the entertainment provided by Renee Z whose last name I won’t even try to spell. Her character doesn’t appear until like an hour in, but makes her presence known in a hurry. Pure hilarity ensues pretty much every time she has a line throughout the film. It adds a comedic touch to an otherwise powerful drama about what a few short moments with “the one” can create inside a person. Great music, great performances, all around superb movie. Definitely one to curl up by the fire with if you’ve got that special someone to keep you company. Even worth seeing for you single folk, although you’ll come out of it wondering when it’ll happen to you.

Next up was a raid at the local Dairy Queen, which of course got me a lot of strange looks because the place was deserted due to the extreme cold and pouring rain, and here I am sauntering in with my tshirt shorts and sandals in typical traveling Cali boy fashion. They don’t have very many DQ’s out in Cali, so I try to pick up the Snickers variety of a Blizzard whenever possible while on the road. The RENT soundtrack was getting some heavy airtime in the ol CD changer while pluggin along, my vocal range fits pretty well with two or three of the parts, so I try to entertain cars next to me whenever possible. I tend to get some stares and some fingers but they’re just bitter they’re not having as much fun as I am.

You know college sweatshirts serve a very useful purpose. It’s a very good way to figure out how old females are. Unfortunately there is an error percentage which sometimes causes some issues. Actually if everyone could just wear their age on their forehead that would be helpful. And better yet whether or not they’re enlisted would be good too. Oh and their hometown because meeting someone from Alaska doesn’t help much.

Driving across bridges is really fun. I always used to force my family to go out of the way to drive across any big bridge that was in the area, and I still find them to be quite impressive. There used to be a run in California that was an 8k that ran across the Vincent Thomas bridge, a steep one that went across an opening of LA harbor. It was pretty fun because the first major portion was uphill, but then of course you’d get to bound down the other side before unfortunately having to turn around and make your way back. But yeah, got to cross some cool bridges, including one over the Mississippi for the first time in several years. There was also a really interesting portion of the 10 where for dozens of miles the highway was elevated on pillars because it was crossing swampland. This led to some beautiful visuals you just don’t see in LA. I’m sure to those who live in the state of Louisiana aren’t too impressed, but it’s just a different kind of terrain for a big city boy. Snapped some pictures on my way into New Orleans, after remembering that I’d brought my camera and wasn’t using it.

The storm was pretty much following me along, so I wasn’t able to do as much in New Orleans as I would have liked. Again though, there’s always the way back. Found a pretty good deal for a downtown hotel over at the Hampton Inn and Suites by the convention center right across from the Riverwalk. Hit up the casino that night of course, and manhandled the poker room for a hundred bucks or so before spraying the money around at various other things trying to make my millions. No real action though unfortunately. Got this real strange compliment though while at the poker tables. Those who know me know I constantly whine about the lack of compliments I receive, so when I do get them it tends to put me on cloud nine for days. So anyway, I’d love to say it was a gorgeous model like character who said it, but in reality it was a lady who was at least eighty and had obviously been around the block a few times. Okay a few dozen. Anyway, I make some comment about having amazing cards and then fold my 2 7 offsuit with a smile, and she’s like “you have the most beautiful teeth I have ever seen.” Which is a little strange because I’ve never even considered that to be a good feature. Usually it’s all about the eyes, which I totally agree with, but the teeth thing was pretty unexpected. It’s probably impossible to notice but even though I had braces and used to wear a retainer I stopped like everyone does and a couple of them moved out of alignment. Then again the lady was eighty and probably half blind so I probably shouldn’t be too impressed. I did get made fun of back at home though on Christmas because supposedly my teeth were so white it was blinding family members when I smiled. I occasionally bother with those whitestrip thingies, but only when I’m trying to impress someone or something. Also should mention the extraordinarily cute pit boss they had working there, which isn’t something you usually see. Definitely gives you something to stare at though in between folding crappy hands. The negatives with real life poker is only playing one hand at a time means you spend the majority of the time with nothing to do if you’re a tight player, and are forced to socialize and whatnot with those at the table or those watching. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it helps if they’re easy on the eyes.

Spent some time afterwards wandering around the Riverwalk and checking out the subject of so many novels and other writings. Afterwards I randomly stumbled upon a restaurant that claimed to have some pretty durned good Cajun food, which is of course a required staple if you’re going to hit up New Orleans. I had the seafood combo special thingy whatever it was, basically like eight different kinds of meat and fish which is of course quite a cool thing for a carnivore like myself. They had a live jazz band playing, which is a genre of music I’ve always enjoyed. They even had a dance floor, and all sorts of people were havin a good ol time, but unfortunately my age group was very underrepresented. You can tell I was in a good mood because not only did I ask the waitress what was good there, but I then even took her advice. Stranger yet was the fact that I tried something I had never had before for dessert. Yes I know, stop the presses, Matt tried something new. I can see those close friends of mine keeling over as I say this. But anyway yeah, I’d never even heard of bread pudding until she mentioned it, and so I decided to give it a shot, how bad can it be. Well it was bad. I’m apparently not a fan or something, but the only good thing about it was the sauce or whatnot over it, but the actual dessert itself sort of felt like eating stale jello. So yeah, SEE WHAT HAPPENS when I try new things.

My final night was spent in Pensacola, Florida. Those who know my story know that this was supposed to be my destination following OTS, but it was not to be. It’ll now be a temporary residence for water survival training for a few weeks later on in the process, but unless I cross train or something at some point it’s unlikely I’ll spend time there outside of that. Adding Florida onto the list put my list of states I’ve been to at forty three or so. Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and South Carolina are now the only one’s left. And yes I know I really should be taking Hawaii off that list as soon as possible. I’m workin on it.

Yeah so eventually I got to Maxwell to report in for ASBC. I guess I’ll pause.