Chapter 3: In Which Marlen and I Discover Where Wonder Woman Came From

Marlen and I hit the big time today.

Well, first I had my interview which went really well. I'm just waiting to be called for a second interview by someone currently at their new New York branch. The place was totally cute. I really hope it works out.

From there, I realized that Marlen may actually combust if I didn't take her to In-N-Out Burger. She reports that it's every bit as good as she remembers.

Then, oh then, we went for a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard. Turns out you get frequently accosted by down and out actors dressed as famous characters and people offering tours of celebrity homes.

Marlen ran into Barney (who asked me out to dinner...) but then stealthily took pictures of all the other characters so she wouldn't have to pay them.

We stopped at stars for everyone from Betty White to Chuck Norris, put our feet into the cement footprints of Jack Nicholson, and then ran back to our car to make sure it hadn't gotten towed. We may have lost track of our parking time.

Then we put my room together a bit more. It's really starting to look like a room! And went out to dinner at a sa-weet mexican restaurant with Traci, Caitlin, and Jennie, Julia and Erin.

Now Julia, Erin, Marlen and I are getting ready to head out to The London Bridge of Arizona and The Grand Canyon.

Much photography to ensue.

Chapter 2: In Which Marlen Almost Makes It On TV

So there we were, going to the beach to eat our leftovers, when a reporter from news channels 2 and 9 asked us if we would mind answering a few questions.

Turns out he wanted to talk to people who frequented that beach much more often than us. He did, however, wish us a happy first time at Santa Monica Beach.

Then we went to Venice Boardwalk which had only gotten more interesting since the last time I had been there.

We saw everything from rollerblading grandmas to skateboarding men with their own guitars and amps serenading visitors to "Kush Doctors" selling medical marijuana.

Then we hazarded the traffic back to the apartment for hamburgers and American Idol. We both turned in pretty early, Marlen because she's still on east coast time and me because I'm a big, lazy goon.

Marlen woke up at a normal hour (for the east coast...) while I slept in. We putzed around for a bit, watched my new favorite show Royal Pains, put up some of my pictures (youth group one first :0) then we took off for Babycakes Bakery. We got a bit turned around but ended up passing Scribble Press where I have my interview tomorrow.

We braved some more traffic heading downtown, but it was totally worth it. Even Marlen admitted that Babycakes is where it's at. Not only is it the cutest place, but gluten-free cupcakes, cookies, breads, and brownies? Heaven.

A bowl of chili and guacamole later, we're watching The Goonies and crashed out on the couch.

Interview tomorrow, wish me luck.

Julia and Erin come up tomorrow too.

Then Mexican food, Welcome Eva Dinner!

And possible trip to the Grand Canyon Saturday and Sunday!

Marlen's Here!

My first real drive through the city of Los Angeles was to the airport. The GPS took me over the river, through the woods, and straight across Hollywood Boulevard. Marlen immediately spilled cashews in my car upon her arrival and as we were throwing the nuts out the open doors when we were informed by a nice airport security man that you should never open your doors for longer than you have to at LAX as some careless driver will drive right through them. In fact, he claimed, someone's door was taken clean off just yesterday!

We drove back the way I had come so Marlen could see the city...and Wonder Woman. We passed a man and a woman dressed as Superman and Wonder Woman, in seriously legitimate costumes. Marlen leaned out the window to snap a shot of them and commented on how normal they seemed to think they were.

We went back to my apartment, fixed my bed, then made an awesome dinner a la Mama Gross' syrup/soy sauce recipe. Not to mention, we made and devoured guacamole in true Gross fashion.

Caitlin came over later! We all talked and watched everything from Glee to Sarah Jessica Parker on Letterman then turned in for a long night of sleep in a bed that no longer lost it's slats thanks to mostly Marlen's ingenuity.

Marlen and I are looking up how to get to Venice Beach at the moment and are packing left overs for lunch once we get there. Still need to make it to the gluten-free Babycakes bakery sometime soon.

Interview on Friday.

Julia and Erin come up Friday too.

One more "I made it"

I'm sitting in my new room in LA after a sunny, fun day in La Jolla at the beach with the girls. Erin scaled a giant rock and then realized that thanks to Rockbridge and other such places with rock climbing walls, she had only ever climbed up. Those helpful belayers always let you repel back down. Here she is picking her way back to sea level. Julia's documenting. I'm watching so no one dies.

We ate dinner, then I drove the two hours north to LA. Traci and Ryan were there to greet me and help me move a few things in. It was so good to catch up with old friends! Not to mention crawl into bed. It seems like I've been up past my bedtime for over a week now.

Now for the adventure of LA traffic. Tomorrow morning I'll brave the wilds of the Los Angeles roadways to pick up Marlen from the airport and do some perusing of the area. Maybe a gluten free bakery stop along the way...

More to come!

Thanks for reading, everyone! But the trip's not over yet. I'm heading up to LA today after Julia, Erin, and I tool around San Diego for a bit. Erin's going to hang out with Julia for a bit. I'm going to pick up Marlen in LA tomorrow and then we're all going to try to meet to road trip it out to the grand canyon this weekend. Adventurous? Why, yes. Thinking of you all! Love you all and hope all is well!

Driving in the Sky

WE MADE IT! Drove from one coast to the other in seven days. We left after church last Sunday and made it before church this Sunday!

Julia is minutes away from driving us to her hip, west coast church called Flood. In the meantime we're watching the Parent Trap...with Lindsay Lohan...basically we're vegging.

We drove another 6 or 7 hours today from Phoenix to San Diego. On the way we encountered tons of desert, dunes, mountain, and a lot of Mexican border.

As Erin says, Route 8 kisses the Mexican border. We kept seeing signs saying "Exit for Mexico."

Right before we got to California we passed through Yuma, Arizona. Directly off the interstate is the old Yuma prison. THE ONE WHERE RUSSELL CROWE WAS BEING SENT IN 3:10 TO YUMA.

We took tons of pictures of us in the cells and read stories about prisoners escaping to Mexico, only to be "volunteered" for the Mexican Army. It. Was. Great.

Then we drove through the sky. We started out after Yuma at sea level and within half an hour we had creeped up to 4000 feet. The clouds that had been so high up were almost eye level.

Then Julia had dinner waiting for us! She even made apple pie filling, thoughtfully, for her gluten free sister.

We're going to do fun things in San Diego tomorrow. More to come.

Random Fact: The instruments are totally fine thanks to my ever vigilant, super paranoia.

Racing the 3:10 to Yuma

We hit the America of dust storms, trains, and cacti today. We also debated the plural of cactus. Cacti? Cactuses? Just plain cactus, the same way moose is both singular and plural?

We had an amazing morning with the Padillas. What a wonderful, witty family. We said goodbye then headed out to Phoenix.

I joked yesterday about Tombstone and 3:10 to Yuma but today we actually passed Tombstone, Arizona! (I'm your huckleberry). We saw what had to be 5 0r 6 different trains going different directions, but one in particular ran right along the highway and I swear I saw a prison car. With Russell Crowe in it.

We were repeatedly warned by road signs that visibility could possibly be zero and that we should drive with EXTREME caution! We did see dust swirls off in the distance and felt the intense wind on that wide open highway, but didn't come close to zero visibility, thanks signs.

Erin also gave me a mild heart attack when, through a series of last second turn offs and near instant deceleration to make it to an exit where we could more closely see these crazy rock formations, she made me think that we were literally about to implode. I yelled something about the stick shift, put it in neutral maybe, simultaneously looking for the space invaders or flaming wreckage we had to be trying to avoid.

That said, they were cool rock formations. They looked like they were teetering on the brink of falling and rolling down the highway.

Oh, and we got stopped by U.S. Border Patrol in New Mexico. We thought we had taken a wrong turn and headed toward actual Mexico (which we had promised numerous people we wouldn't do), but it turns out this station had been there for a while. After a quick "Are you citizens?" chat we were free to go. He also wanted to know where we were going but didn't really seem to care.

Now we're sitting in the Haymons bright Arizona home, welcomed yet again by a wonderful family. Erin and I are sitting alongside Andrea and Trish, all of us on laptops doing a variety of tasks including facebooking, blogging, creating a globe from beach ball and construction paper, researching Yuma prison, and the ever important, eating of ice cream sundays. Thanks, Haymons!!

One last long leg tomorrow to get to Julia and San Diego! With a promising stop-over at Yuma prison...

Random Fact: We will be very far from actual prisoners as Yuma prison operations was moved to Florence, Arizona in 1909.

I also discovered it is possible for truck stop yogurt to taste like truck stop.

Did I know what long haul was before I drove from Houston to El Paso?

There is so much nothing in between San Antonio and El Paso, Texas that Erin and I began wondering how the one house we saw would possibly even get toilet paper. I bet Amazon.com, but we didn't stop to ask.

We trucked today. We drove around 750

miles and never left the great state of Texas. Pretty soon after Houston the landscape really began to change. Somewhere between San Antonio and El Paso we crossed some invisible, yet very apparent line between landscape that I felt I knew and the rugged mountainous ranges I associate with the likes of Val Kilmer in Tombstone and Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma.

I took a nap and woke up in a western. One of my favorite parts of the day had to be when we stopped for gas (one of the only places for miles) and Erin in artistic fashion began taking pictures. As we were gassing up, a man approached us who

looked like he had come directly from an oil rig. His only question: What are you taking a picture of? Erin was crouched in front of my car holding her camera up it's grill.

"There's a butterfly that's dead, but looks like it's still flying," she responded, pointing to just that.

To which the man looked mildly amused and moved on smirking.

We did finally make it to El Paso and in good time. The Padillas, who I only knew from missionary prayer cards at church, are a wonderful, warm family who immediately welcomed us into their home. Thanks, Padillas.

Also, thanks to everyone who asked around for places for us to stay in Arizona, we totally have it covered now. Turns out Dave Dorst is quite the travel agent and has hooked us up with his former neighbor's family recently moved to Phoenix.

And so. Moving on tomorrow to Phoenix. Then on to San Diego in time for church and Sunday dinner with Jules.

Random Fact: If Erin's sandals are still in my car, we don't know where...

Sitting in a car and...

Stealing internet. We are half-way through leaving Houston, having departed from our gracious hosts Uncle David and Uncle Paul. We're sitting in a Barnes & Noble parking lot to update you all.

Last night we were wined and dined with the best of them! The meal was fantastic and lavish and it was amazing to sit in a steakhouse in Texas and talk about how great the Rist family is. Which they are. Erin had an amazing time reconnecting with her uncles and I was privileged to meet such great new friends.

We had spent the day in art galleries around the city, toting instruments we didn't want to catch on fire in the car in the Houston heat. As far as the actual art goes, I think Erin might have gotten it a bit more from it than I did. Ask her about the taxidermy artist if you get a chance.

Going back even farther yesterday, we had the most fabulous breakfast with Mrs. Crosby in her glass paned house on Buffalo Bayou. We left the Crosbys feeling like family and leave Houston knowing that we could always come back.

Erin made friends with a frog

Safe and Sound in Houston

Judging Houston based on the Crosbys, this is an amazing city! We ate Texas BBQ ribs in a restaurant that featured not just one but many stuffed buffalo objects. My hands still smell like ribs!

We got a driving tour of the area, including a house that was almost entirely encased in thousands upon thousands of squashed beer bottles. So. Cool.

www.beercanhouse.org

We ended the night with wine and American Idol. So. Perfect.

Afterthoughts:

I was really pulling for Crystal, but now I think it's anyone's game...thoughts?

James Spence, aren't you a Texans fan? We drove by one of their player's houses today.

Also, Erin is telling me she thinks Texan beer is the best beer she has ever had.

Everything is bigger in Texas...including Texas.

We're putting lots of miles behind us today. Miles full of bridges, bayoues, and flat Texas landscape.

We made it late last night to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and the old Lagniappe Church building, where we promptly crashed (ourselves into bed, not the car into other objects). We had been told that breakfast would take place from 6-7 a.m., then with every good and noble intention in the world, we ignored our alarm and slept like the dead until 8.

It was great being back where we had spent such great summers and were thrilled to find the Potomac Hills sign we made from construction scraps on the second trip we took to Bay St. Louis.

We headed on our way and made a pit stop in New Orleans for Beignets, coffee, and a gluten-free Saints Super Bowl Champions t-shirt. But headed on our way to make it in time for dinner with the Crosbys.

We're about an hour away from Houston now and Erin is driving stick-shift fabulously, contending with rude old men tailgaters. The clouds are crazy low and look like they've been fluffed and hung by the best of interior decorators for a Toy Story themed children's bedroom.

Earlier we passed a sign for Iowa, Texas. Was that really necessary, United States? You needed to name a city after a state that is a completely different state than the state in which said city resides?

Also, the fact that we are passing mile marker 807 is somewhat unnerving. That's a lot of Texas...

Shout outs:

David Robert Dorst, way to know everyone in this United States! Thanks for hooking us up with awesome people. Look for presents in the mail.

Daniel Silvernail, we are obsessed with your CDs.

Sarah Silvernail, we found two guys in New Orleans who knew about an American tradition of throwing money to the bride and groom at their wedding. Weren't you looking for something like that, since you're not marrying a Greek?

Random Facts:

If Erin Rist ever constructs what she calls a hanging art gallery in your car made of ribbon and trash/souvenirs from every place you've been thus far, left in the New Orleans heat, the green crayon will simply melt out of it's wrapper onto the passenger side seat, startling you into thinking that a gorilla may have blown it's nose on your upholstery.

Also, amid the noticably larger pick-up truck population of easter Texas, we just passed a bright yellow mini-cooper, straight out of the Italian Job.

Did I just see a dead armadillo or am I...?

Let me back up. Last night after spending a LONG, grueling, entire three hours on the road from the Rambishes, we found ourselves in the home of Sophie and Kay Dillard.

They are amazing.

And their kitchen looks like a 50s diner.

We had a perfect meal, sparkling drink concoction to match the bubbly conversation with good friends. After quickly being caught up on each others' lives, we moved on to more pressing topics including stories based on the range of locations in which some of us have locked ourselves.

We siphoned internet and discovered that our couch in Arizona had fallen through. If you know anyone in that general area who would like to meet two lovely, young travelers, let us know.

Then Ms. Sophie showed us a night on the town. Let's just say that pieces of a broken skip-it now adorn her car and Erin achieved her one and only goal for the trip; to play Ninja with strangers (not scary ones, worriers, just friends of friends we hadn't met).

This morning we said goodbye to the Dillards as they headed to Savannah for vacation and we took off for the Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta. It was like a walking, talking Coke commercial where you get free commemorative bottles of soda and, sometimes, water thrown in your face (that's a whole blog in and of itself).

We skipped out of Hotlanta (as Erin continually referred to it), and headed south toward the old Lagniappe church building and New Orleans. As we passed through Alabama we tossed around the idea of going to see the Hefners or the Crenshaws in Pensacola and before we knew it we were eating a DELICIOUS meal in a crab shack with Tiki and Lane Hefner and walking the beach, far off storms gathering in the distance.

We hit the road again, made it to Bay St. Louis, and here I am fighting sleep yet again. I'll leave you all again with another

Random Fact: Cans of tuna fish can be opened with a giant knife in parking lots in Alabama. They cannot, however, be opened with Gatorland souvenir bottle openers...

Remind us to tell you what happened when...

"Hey Eva, do we go east or west here?"
"Just stay on Route 29."
"There is no Route 29."
"Shoot."

Thus began Eva and Erin's grand adventure. We have agreed that it would be fine with us if Lynchburg fell off the map (no offense to the helpful residents of Lynchburg...or Belford).

Don't look those up in comparison to Route 29. I will tell you. They are on either side, encompassing quite a bit of out of the way driving, inersection stalling, and downpour impeeded driving. It all makes you a better person, right?

Rocky starts notwitstanding, we made it to the Ramish lakefront paradise. We were introduced to "The Boys," the sweetest set of Golden Retrievers I've known, Jackson and Jefferson. Then we were shown to seperate guest rooms, each of which could easily have held the entirety of my car in the driveway below carrying all my worldly possessions.

A great night's sleep later, Buch cooked us a breakfast to rival the greatest diners. We had a peaceful paddle around Morning Lake and claimed dock-side chairs that have held many a Potomac Hills buttocks before ours'.

As far as ratings go, we give The Rambish Bed and Breakfast every available star and then some.

After a quick return trip for a fogotten bag, we made up for the strenuous driving last night by only venuring three hours today. Our next connect the dot visit was to Sophie and Kay Dillard, from whose adorable, 50s style home in the Atlanta suburbs I'm typing this now. The fold out couch one room away is a bit too much of a temtation at the moment, so I'll leave you all with this for now:

Random Trip Fact:

Certain Flying J gas stations sell decorative air pressure valve caps. Not regular ones. Sometimes you have to buy and rock them on your car because when you stop to check your air pressure you notice you have three valve caps for four tires.

Giving up the fake news game for real life

The blog has a new do! Erin Rist and I are driving across the country and are documenting our trip for everyone we love. That's YOU! Be writing in the car. Updates as we find internet! LOVE YOU ALL!