The India/Pakistan Border Crossing Pep Rally!

I witnessed a very weird event last night... The official closing of the India/Pakistan border. Each night just before sunset the soldiers of both India and Pakistan ceremoniously parade around for awhile and then officially shut down all cross-border traffic. Cutting off inter-country transit is not unique, but what is unique about this particular event is the amount of pageantry and ceremony complete with fancy uniforms, coordinated marches, and huge numbers of spectators who come to witness their countries cocky display of military might. The event draws so many spectators, on both sides of the border, that large grandstands have been constructed to give visitors a view of the narrow road and iron gates where most of the action takes place. Check out the video below.

As you can see from the video there is a lot of yelling, staring, shouting, crowd cheering, foot stomping, and a lot of macho marching- all part of a decades old tradition and puffed up display of nationalist bravado. It was interesting to see and I thought the whole event to be rather comical. The whole ordeal takes about 45 minutes to complete and it ends with both countries slowly lowering their flags in unison (so that neither country's flag is higher or stays longer). I think it is really funny that this huge event takes place each night and always in front of a packed crowd of avid supporters.

You can barely see quick shots of Pakistan (which would be at the far left end of the road where the men kept marching towards), but they had eerily similar uniforms, shouts, marches, and stomps. The crowd was smaller on the Pakistan side (surely a sign of pride for the Indians) and their cheers were quieter. Also on the Pakistan side the men were on one side of the stands and the women were on the other and there was no mixing. As far as I know, this is the only border crossing where this type of ceremony takes place.

The Blue City of Jodhpur!

I have just spent the past few days in Jodpur which is a very old city located in the western region of the country kinda near the Pakistan border. The city is a maze of tiny streets and alleys filled with small temples, bizarre bazaars, chanting sadhus, painted elephants, pungent aromas, swirling winds, open sewers, and sweltering heat!

The city was quite enjoyable, but the people here have pretty bad manners and the businessmen in this region lack any kind of ethics. Just about everyone is looking to squeeze as much as possible out of every single transaction whether a 15 rupee water that should only be 10, a 60 rupee taxi that should only be 25, or a "handmade, pure silk" scarf that is really a blend of cotton and silk and made by a machine. If you ask for a little, they give you a lot. Like if you say you want a chai (which is normally about the size of a shot), these unscrupulous guys will bring out a chai bigger than everyone else around you is drinking- the biggest you have ever seen in India- and then give you grief when you tell them you want the regular size. It is like dealing with that guy, James, at Four Winds International food in Pensacola! Even if you give a beggar something, they don't say thank you, they immediately ask you for more. The entrepreneurs all call out and even chase down tourists and dealing with their constant pestering can be quite a chore.

However, I did a lot of shopping over the past 2 days and was able to ship the 16 pound package out today for around $75. I guess that is a good deal (well, only if it makes it back home), This part of the country is world renowned for its textiles and some of you women out there would have gone crazy for this stuff and would have easily spent hundreds of dollars. You can actually end up getting a great value if you bargain hard and the quality of this stuff is unrivaled. It usually takes about 15 minutes of bickering to get the price to come down about 25%. Who really ever knows what the true "Indian" price would be for this stuff. The worst is when you walk into a shop that says fixed price and then there are no prices on anything. What a load of crap!!! Indians all over have warned me that the businessmen in this part of the country are real assholes, so I was already expecting it and they haven't let me down.

They only really good guy I met in this city was the proprietor of the guest house I am staying in. He helped me take care of some business and gave me good advice, but even here I think he was skimming a little bit off the top for things he was providing. I am sure that he got a cut of some of that $75 shipping fee, because he called up the company and had them send a boy out for the package. Either way, Yogi's Guesthouse was a nice place to stay, in a quiet part of the city, and was a great value. I would stay here again.

Oh Nooooooo!

Damn rats!!! Look what they did to my truck (which has been parked at my mother's house in Milton, Florida).

My mother emailed me the other day that they tried to crank up the ol' chuck truck and it wouldn't start. So they opened the hood, and.... well... you see what happened. The rats have chewed through a few wires and things and just I hope they haven't done too much damage ($$$).

Check out the Veggie Market!

About every few kilometers there is a market like this. Some are huge, some are small, but in every city and every village there is some kind of open air market selling just about everything imaginable. Sometimes it feels like there is a flea market on every other block. Check out the video below which just shows a quick little clip of the veggie market.

Also, I have started seeing a few urban camels and elephants now. I think in the next few days I might see the dancing sloth bears too. In the tourist areas the animal tamers come around and make these animals do tricks for cash. I am not sure how I feel about the use of an endangered species to make a profit. Kinda gives me a bad feeling you know, like collecting or buying ivory. It just contributes to the species' decline.

Short Video Showing the Local Stick Dancers...

Almost every Hindu Temple in the entire region has been hosting dances like this each night for the past few nights for this festival. Check out the video below.

Climbing Girnar Hill

I stayed in the city of Junagadh and woke up early to tackle climbing Girnar Hill (which I accidentally misspelled in the video title-oops). It was a tough climb for me and even early in the morning it was dreadfully hot. I was soaking in sweat and to make things worse, it seems Indians have an amazing ability to avoid sweating even under the hottest conditions. I don't understand it, but I can be pouring sweat while the Indians next to me will be barely showing the slightest bit of moisture on their brow. There must be some ancient technique they haven't shown me yet.

Check out the video below.

This is a truly religious experience for many Indians and many Hindus and Jains try to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. The trail was crowded with barefoot pilgrims as the Hindu lore states that climbing the hill barefoot earns one a place in heaven.

It was a good day and a nice hike, but now my calves are killing me. I think I got a little dehydrated that day and later on that night I took a tortuously hot, bumpy, and long 13 hour bus ride to get to the next city. I think sitting all bunched up on the bus made things a little worse as I wasn't able to stretch out and move the lactic acid around.

Videos from Diu!

I finally got to a place that had a strong internet connection and I was able to load up my videos from Diu. I have split them into three separate 2-minute-long clips and they are hosted at YouTube. Enjoy!

I really enjoyed this place because it was small, quiet, and relaxing. The town was really cheap and the hotel ample, but the food was not so good. The fish here are very small, so lots of tiny bones to pick out which is a real chore if they throw the fish into a veggie broth or mix it with rice and vegetables and I think the prawns (shrimp) may have been frozen and not local.

Just in case you were wondering....

Damn... I miss this so much. I would do a lot for a good ol' cheeseburger right now, especially something like this cheeseburger, from Five Guys in Chicago, which has been on my mind a lot lately! It looks so D E L I C I O U S!!! It is in my dreams even. I am getting tired of spicy vegetables with flat bread...

Festival of Nine Nights- Navratri

Last night was the start of Navratri, or the Festival of Nine Nights. This festival is very popular in the region I am traveling through. During these nine nights and ten days, nine forms of Shakti/Devi, a female Deity, are worshipped. On the first night of the festival young children and young adults performed traditional dance routines for the villagers. The young dancers wear traditional outfits, and in the case of the women very flashy, colorful, dresses with many sequins and mirrored "buttons." In most of the dances, the young men and women held sticks (almost like drumsticks) which they rhythmically cracked against one another to keep the beat while a small band played and a Hindu prayer song was blasted over the speakers. In all of the dances, the dancers moved in a circle around a Hindu shrine for Shakti and do many twirling, jumping, and stomping moves alone and even sometimes they turn to one another and knock sticks with a partner.

Even here the society is divided along sex lines. Only boys, or only girls dance on stage at one time. The crowd is equally divided- the men sit in chairs in one area, while the women sit on blankets and tarps in a separate area. The sexes rarely co-mingle in public. The dancing was fun and festive and goes on late into the night. As soon as one "temple" finishes its dances, everyone packs up, grabs their chairs and walks a few blocks away to the next "temple" where things are just getting under way. Some of the dances go on until 3-4 am and some of the dancers are as young as 3-4 years old. Dancing like this will continue for the remainder of the festival.

Today is also a Muslim Holiday. Eid is today which marks the end of Ramadan, a month long holy time when truly devout Muslims fast all day.

A Video of More Religious Caves

In this video you can see the two most famous cave sites in India- Ellora and Ajanta. These two areas are separated by about 70 km in distance but both located in Maharasthra State. The two sites are quite large and represent a range of religions in very close proximity (which is a testament to the religious tolerance that has prevailed for thousands of years in India). At each location there are many separate caves in various states of completion and decay. Check out the video, which unfortunately, does the real thing no justice.

Click Image Above For Video

Some carving are a thousand years old. The anthropologists still debate exactly how long the excavations and carvings took to complete and their estimates range from centuries to just a few decades. The thing I kept thinking about was the way in which these carvings emerged top down from the stone (they are all cut right into the cliffs and hillside). At some point, early into the cutting and high up on the hill, the stone-cutters must have been directed to start the top of the temple, then several meters lower make a dome, then below that design and carve sculptures of elephants, and pillars, etc, etc... It is fascinating because we always envision a building being constructed ground up, but for these ancient builders the plan was reversed and came to life from the top down. I wonder if there was ever a master plan, or if the temple just emerged piece by piece.

An Old Man and his Old Loom

This is a short video showing an old man using some very old techniques to produce a hand-made silk sari. The process is very slow and can take many months to complete. One of the reasons it take so long to complete just one sari is the fact that they are usually about 8-9 meters long. The women wrap and wrap and wrap the sari around themselves in some intricate pattern that I will never understand.

These types of saris were very high quality and were usually reserved for special occasions like weddings or holiday celebrations and cost upwards of $100 (which is a lot to an Indian). Some of you folks at home need to let me know what kind of Indian gifts I should bring back. I am sure some of you women would have loved this fabric store because the saris, shoals, and other shimmering, detailed items were very beautiful, flawlessly crafted, and amazingly soft.

Supposedly this is a 2000 year old technique he is using (but again, they will tell you anything if they think it will help them make a sale). They said that this style of production will die with the current generation as all of the weaving processes are becoming automated and mechanized as now silk products are churned out by loud, congested human-less mills.

One hallmark of Gandhi's movement was his belief that wearing hand made, Indian produced cloth would promote a national industry that could help to pull millions of India's poor out of poverty. He held many drives to rid the country of machine spun and especially foreign produced clothes. This, coupled with his strict asceticism, led him to wear the white loin cloths that he is so often remember for and he usually made the cloth (and sandals) himself.

Indian Popcorn!

Here is a very short little clip showing one of the street vendors cooking "popcorn." There occasionally are street vendors who sell American style popcorn, but a taxi driver called this style of cooking popcorn. It is quite delicious, very inexpensive, and found wherever there are big groups of people. After your corn is sufficiently charred, the woman removes it from the fire, takes a slice of lime or lemon and dips the citrus wedge into a spicy masala mix of salt and various peppers. She then rubs the delicious spice mix onto your corn and it is served to you with a few husks to insulate your little fingers from the heat. Pretty delicious- I have had several!

Relaxing in Diu...

Hello All!
I have now made it to the small island town of Diu located in Southern Gujarat on the Gulf of Cambay. This small, sleepy community was a Portuguese colony for about 500 years and has only been under Indian governance since 1961. Some of the locals speak Portuguese, which is kinda weird. It really reminds me of the small, beach towns that I visited in Brazil, especially because the language, but also because the buildings and the forests look really similar too. There are tons of cows running around this town as well. I walked around for about 2 hours today and I must've seen 200 cows. Its kinda hilarious- but you definitely have to watch your step. There is a huge fort here, built by the Portuguese, but financed by Indian Mughal rulers or kings. These two groups formed and alliance to protect lucrative trade routes and ports along the coast hundreds of years ago. The town has a population of about 20,000 which is a nice change of pace from the huge, overpopulated, and hyper-polluted cities I have been visiting. I plan to stay here for several nights and get some good rest and relaxation along the coast. I may sit for several hours tomorrow in the shade of a coconut tree and read my books. I hope all is well back home and I am excited that football season has kicked off (even if I can only see the highlights on the internet). Go Gators!

A little observation...

While at times it seems that there are Indians everywhere and the masses of people and constant hustle and bustle of everyday life can be kinda stressful, the cultural attractions of India are devoid of crowds. For instance, in a city of 4 million people I saw more people working at the City Museum of Ahmadabad than patrons. They had to turn the lights on for me and it was well after noon, so I knew nobody else was in the museum at the time I entered. This museum held a great deal of information about the city's history and also contained some paintings, textiles, sculpture, and also interesting anecdotes about Gandhi (who spent much time at an ashram , or holy residence, just outside of the city. Gandhi made many important speeches during his "Quit India!" campaign for Independence here and also started his famous salt march just outside of town. The art museums of Mumbai were lacking of onlookers and similarly deserted are many of the religious caves that have been cut into rocky hillsides. For instance, Elephanta Island and Sanjay Gandhi National Park, both situated virtually right in Mumbai, were scantly populated by tourists- maybe even more westerners than Indian families on vacation, too. This trend isn't universally true, as the religious pilgrimage sites can be quite full of people (and livestock) and the active temple areas are swarming with locals. So if I am feeling a little burned out by all the crowds, I am just gonna take a visit to a local cultural attraction and breathe a little sigh of relief.

Urban Livestock!

The amount of urban livestock is really impressive. There are literally cows, water buffaloes, and goats all over the place. Even in cities of 2-3 million people there are "farm" animals everywhere. To a lesser extent there are also dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, and sheep living amongst the city populous. Even on busy roads you will find cows laying in the street, in the middle of intersections just non-nonchalantly chewing the cud. Usually the cows, which are holy, have attendants to steer the steers out of harms way, but I guess sometimes those attendants take the day off. Or maybe some animals are too divine to have humans telling them where they can and cannot go. I am not sure, but there are a lot of these city dwelling cows and they find a lot of food in the rubbish and refuse that piles up in certain areas. It is not uncommon to see these animals chewing on cardboard or paper. Sometimes the cows' horns are painted in bright orange, red, or blue and occasionally you see an animal with rainbow painted horns that reminds me of a pack of Lifesavers. I don't know what it means, but I think it is a way to distinguish who owns them and to keep track of them based on the color patterns. As far as the goats, I think they are always owned by someone. I believe that they are not holy and at many restaurants you can have goat meat, commonly called mutton since British times. I think they provide a lot of milk for cheese and things too. At some point I will capture some footage and post it online to show you the zoo of animals let loose on the metropolitan streets. When you combine all the people, honking cars, noisy buses, street vendors, bicycles, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, and animals it creates a rather surreal show!

Whew... things are getting a little tough.

Well, since leaving Mumbai things have gotten a little tougher. I am still having trouble getting a mobile phone and have given up on this. However, I have already spent about $75 to get a wireless card for my laptop so that I can surf the internet anytime anywhere. I have been trying now for over 2 weeks to get this thing working, and every damn time I talk to the bastard manager at the mobile company he says it will be activated in the morning. It is getting ridiculous and I would rather have him just tell me the truth then feed me some more crap about this and that.

I have now experienced some real train travel on India's rail system and you get what you pay for when you purchase a ticket. It seems that you pay one way or another, if you get a super cheap ticket you are gonna pay for it in inconvenience. I purchased a general class ticket and this was a total mistake. It was about a 6 hour ride to go maybe 150 miles or so (not so fast, lots of stops). But in general class you are not guaranteed a seat and it is utter mayhem at the train station when the train stops. There is a crush of humanity going both ways, off and on, all converging with luggage and babies and elbows at the small 2.5 ft wide doors into the rail car. Men are literally jumping on and off while the train is moving pretty fast, some people are waiting down on the ground on the opposite side of the platform so they can get at the doors where there will be less of a fight to get in. When the train stops, the poor women folk have to beat men about their heads to get off the train. And once you get on, don't expect any kind of a seat, just be hopeful you can have a tiny little spot to stand where you aren't getting in the way of the boys and girls selling chai tea, peanuts, and snacks or near some babies with stinky pants. When you do this for a few hours, inevitably someone near you will get up and you will have a nice warm seat. Several hours later, you arrive almost on time at your scheduled destination, but the whole event can be rather stressful. No longer will I purchase a general ticket to travel. The ticket cost about $3.75, but in hindsight, I paid a lot more for it.

I have been fighting off a cold for the last few days and now have the leaky bowels just a tad AND I have some kind of bugs from the cheap ass hotel rooms. I saw a few bed bugs at the place in Mumbai and I guess they got me worse than I initially expected. I am hopefull that it isn't scabies, although this ancient scourge is a fairly common problem in India.

I got some concrete dumped on me by some construction workers today as well. The idiots up on the roof of a 2 or 3 story building were pouring concrete and some got splashed over the edge and nailed me. I was upset, but it wasn't such a big deal as I walked about two more blocks, found a clothing store and got a polyester polo fashion-shirt for about $6.50.

I have over-estimated the infrastructure of India-this was a near-sighted miscalculation of mine. I thought that internet connectivity would be much more ubiquitous than it really is. I have had a tough time getting on the net, and when I do find some internet cafes, they quality of the computers is universally shitty. It is like surfing the net at 1996 speeds and on more than one occasion the internet connectivity has totally failed and everyone has had to go home for a while until the connection may or may not re-appear several hours later. I sure hope that this bureaucratic bastard gets my damn wireless card activated like he keeps promising so that I needn't worry about internet cafes anymore.

All in all things are OK. These are just some normal trials and tribulations of traveling abroad in a strange land. I have seen some amazing things in the past week and am enjoying the people watching too. I am going by bus tomorrow night to the large city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state. I plan to spend a maybe 2 nights there before taking another overnight bus to the island town of Diu on the southern coast of Gujarat. The beaches are supposed to be nice, clean, and relaxing, but as I am quickly learning in Indian, I must lower my expectations to avoid disappointment.

More Buddhist Caves in Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park

In this 3 minute video I take you to some large and intricate caves found about 25 km north of Mumbai's city center. To be sure, the entire National Park is encircled by slums, apartments, factories, and bustling urban sprawl. Click the Image below to go to YouTube to watch the video.

(Click Image Above for Video)

There were reports that leopards within the park killed 20 people a few years ago. Finally, the wildlife management team did something by trapping and relocating several large cats. There are small little groupings of squatters all through the park, which is strange to see. You will be walking along and then all of a sudden there will be a grouping of 5-20 hut like houses together in an area with tons and tons of kids running around and lots of wild chickens. It is very interesting, but I presume that some of those little kids did look pretty tasty to some of those wild leopards. Its tough being a kid in India from what I can tell.

However, these caves were really pretty cool and were very well maintained. I think in the video that I said they may be 2000 years old, but in truth I think they are a lot closer to 600-1000 years old. People probably lived in them until the 40's though. Take care and enjoy the video!

Send in Your Thoughts and Ideas!

Here is a new idea I came up with.

If you have anything you want me to investigate or a question you want me to answer or are just curious about anything or how things work in India or what something might look like over here send me a quick little email at FloridaSzy@gmail.com or post a comment on my blog and I will try to answer it with a video or through a new post. Send in some stuff!

A Visit to Elephanta Island!

Here is another video hosted at YouTube. Click the image below to go to the video. Please allow some time for the video to load up if you are using a slow connection.

(Click Image above for Video)

Originally this island had a different name, but the Portuguese renamed it because at that time there was a large stone elephant sculpture which has since deteriorated and been moved and reassembled at a Mumbai museum. This was a very nice place and I should be travelling to some other Buddhist carved caves in the next few days. I believe that there are thousands of caves like these around the country, but many archaeologists consider the above carvings to be among the most beautiful in the country.

Small, but cheap!

Check out my TINY hotel room. Its kinda comical how small this place is! I am sure there are smaller places out there, but this is the smallest place I have ever stayed in.

Hope you enjoyed the video! Ever stay in anything smaller?

One week later...

Hello... I have been in India for a little over a week now. All in all things are good. Check the video below for a quick update.

Also, last night I went to the Hard Rock Cafe of Mumbai. This was the most American-like place I have been so far in India. I looked on the menu and they did have a 100% Beef cheeseburger and hot wings too! I still wouldn't really care to eat them though after seeing the meat markets. I mean, just because this place is swanky doesn't mean that they are getting their meat from anywhere more special than the rest of the city! The main reason I went was because I heard that there was an Indian rock band playing that night. They were ok, but nothing special, kind of run of the mill pop-rock stuff; the guy sung with a strong British accent and their amps kept cutting out during the show. But now I am looking for even more Indian rock and roll venues or shows. I would love to catch some more music while I am here in India's most cosmopolitan city. Once I leave here I doubt there will be much of a modern, western music scene. Ohhhh... and one thing that was TERRIBLE about the hard rock... right before the band went on the all male wait staff of about 12 jumped up on a small wall and did a rather flamboyant dancing bit to the Village People's YMCA. It was so bad only a French person could love it!

First Video Post from India

Click the Picture below to view the Video at YouTube. Again, the video was to large to post on the blog so it is at Youtube... allow some time for it to load up if you are on a slow connection.

(Click Pic Above to Watch Video)

Mumbai is a massive city and the shear amount of humanity here is overwhelming. People are literally everywhere. As I wasn't sleeping so well just yet I got up at about 5:30 AM and walked around the city. At this time you can see the huge number of people living in the streets of Mumbai or sleeping in cars and trucks.

I used a guide named Terance who appears in some of the video to show me around the city. We went to many destinations, some straight out of the travel book and some off the beaten path. At one point we walked for nearly an hour through Mumbai's largest slum settlement housing millions of residents. It was quite a sight to see... an assault on the senses of sight, smell, and sound. It was supposedly the neighborhood in which some of Slumdog Millionare was filmed. I was very impressed by the amount of activity in the slum- people were making things happen, not idly sitting around. You can get just about anything you want in the slum too... they had an arcade full of old skool video games, barber shops, meat markets, schools, temples, plumbers, auto-mechanics, psychics, everything but BEEF! The tour of the city was quite enjoyable, but fast paced and hot. I feel like I saw just about every tourist attraction the city has to offer within a 8 hour day.

All in all things are good... the worst thing about the city is how dangerous the traffic is. The cars, trucks, taxis, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, bicycles, bullock carts, buses, and pedestrians all participate in a noisy, maddening dance, defying all laws of traffic, in an collective effort to speed down the road in the most dangerous way possible. No hard and fast laws or rules exist and crossing traffic at some of the largest intersections is very nerve racking. Its a mad dash... kinda like the video game Frogger where you guide the frog back and forth avoiding oncoming cars until you cross the road to safety. I'm getting accustomed to it now, but it is still crazy! More video to come soon!

Oh and I apologize for the poor shooting and editing quality of this video. Some of the shots are kinda crappy and I crop out my own head several times! Gotta get better.

New Experiences...

I did happen to see some holy cows today... and a few street goats too. The most off the wall thing to happen to me yet in India occurred earlier today on the street near a large monument called the Gateway to India. This structure near the Taj Mahal Hotel is dedicated to the first English King who visited India ceremoniously at this point... Think Paris' Arch de Triumph. It is a rather touristy area and so there are a large number of Indians trying to separate Westerners from their money. One man, a "doctor" stopped me and said I had soap in my ear. When I stopped he handed me a card and stuck what appeared to be dental tools into my ear and proceeded to relieve me of ear wax. It was a bizarre experience but well worth the $3. He originally wanted approx $20. No way! I am still experiencing some trouble getting a cell phone in India due to some bureaucratic reasons... hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finally circumnavigate the problems.

Incredible India...

Whew... after a pretty brutal 16 hour plane ride (during which I watched Star Trek, The Great Buck Howard, Valkyre and 3/4 of Bolt) I safely arrived with all my luggage at the Mumbai International Airport. Customs was a breeze and I was able to get money (which goes a hell of a long way around here) out of the ATM. I grabbed a baby taxi (3-wheels open air- just like the movies) and was able to make it to the Hotel. However, at the hotel they were having electrical issues and transferred me over to another hotel that they also own or manage. The room is nice and the AC works great. It has a western style toilet and shower and even has a flat screen TV with 72 channels. So this place isn't exactly a primitive world. Last night a ton of stray dogs were barking all hours of the night and so I didn't exactly sleep well, but I am adjusting to the time change very rapidly. The area around my hotel is really slummy and I will be moving to a better location near the Taj Mahal Hotel of Mumbai tomorrow afternoon. This area of town has more tourist activities and is all around nicer and more modern. I am having some trouble getting the internet connected to my laptop at the hotel so I am writing this from a dingy little internet cafe. Tomorrow I should be able to get a cell phone set up and will post that number here for people who want to call. I shopped around for a cell phone today and found out what documents are required to activate the phone. Also, I registered with the US Embassy, should any problems arise and I visited the Indian National Tourism Office. They gave me some decent information.. some stuff I am going to look over tonite. All in all things are good and I am not worried and I don't feel unsafe. I won't be going out on foot tonite in the neighborhood around my current hotel though. Tomorrow night is Saturday and it is the start of a big annual 10 day long celebration in Mumbai. Tomorrow night I will hit the beach avenues to do some people watching or cultural immersion. Tonite I am just gonna kick back and watch some good old Hindi music videos on the TV and get some sleep. Take care and I will be posting again soon.

Roll Out...

Today is the day. In just about ten minutes I will be leaving my home in Milton, FL and I will be headed to the Pensacola Airport. It seems that we should have fairly smooth weather and when I land in India in about 2o hours I will be entering a hot humid world climatically similar to FL, just stinkier and full of millions upon millions of people. I will be in touch so don't worry... one of my first goals will be to get a cell phone. And I am addicted to the Internet so I will certainly be making updates to the blog and sending emails. Hit me up... let me know how you are doing and just send me a quick shout out... I know I am gonna be homesick, so all the emails from home will be much appreciated. Take care!

Flying to Mumbai on Wednesday...

Hello All!
It's almost time to fly to India. I have most everything taken care of and I have been spending a lot of time with my friends and family. I will be leaving on Wednesday August 19th and will be in Mumbai for several days- maybe even a few weeks. From Mumbai I plan to travel north through New Delhi on my way to the headwaters of the Ganges River. It is said that one dip in the freezing waters at the base of the Ganges glacier is supposed to erase the sins of your ancestors. I plan to get up into the Himalayas before winter sets in and the passes get snowed up some time in October. From there I will make a new plan and decide whether to head east or to head south. It's a pretty open ended excursion that I am on. Also... I just wanted to let everyone know that they are more than welcome to come and join me for a little while. I know that it may seem difficult, but really its not that expensive and once you get to India everything is super cheap. You will actually spend less money in India than you would in many, many American destinations. I will be thinking about everyone and I will surely miss my home, my friends, and my family. I will keep the blog going and once I get to India I am going to purchase a cell phone. I also have skype set up on my computer if anyone does the VoiP thing. I will be using skype to call back to America. Take care and keep in touch.

The boat before it broke down...The hike in the Canyon at Lake Powell

The North Rim Grand Canyon Campsite among the Aspens

The Chuck Truck!

Spent a lot of time behind the wheel- 10,000 miles.

The old pin ball machine made it safely to Bagdad, FL.

Watching the Rockies at Coors Field in Denver with Greg.

Caught a snake and scared the hell out of some girls.

Faustine and I at one of the many waterfalls in Yosemite National Park.

Stepping out and looking over the edge at Grand Canyon National Park.

The truck finally crosses over the 100,000 mile mark. Keep on truckin'.

Fast Forward....

I have not been the best at updating the blog and the videos and posts are actually about a month or more old by the time I have gotten around to splicing all the footage together and posting it on the net. And the people who host this blogspot website have been giving me trouble over the size of the videos I am loading online. So I apologize...

In other news... I am back in Milton. One hundred and eighteen days later, 10,297 miles later. The road trip ends. I had a great time, but unfortunately I didn't take much footage from San Fran on so there won't be any videos. After leaving San Francisco I headed to Yosemite National Park. I camped there for a few days with four French women- only one of which had ever been camping before. I must say it was a very memorable camping trip. And Yosemitie looked great too. We did some hiking and caught the waterfalls and even saw some bears. The girls loved it.

From Yosemite I traveled to Los Angeles and hung out with my friend Faustine and an old friend Chris from Gainesville. LA is a crazy place-I'm not sure its the city for me, but you can get anything you want in LA (as long as you are willing to sit in 2 hrs worth of traffic to get there). One of the things that bothered me about LA was the amount of homeless people roaming the streets, but I better suck it up and realize that where I am heading is going to have a thousand times more poverty and despair than Southern Cal. All in all LA is cool and beautiful and it's nice to have the sun and the beaches, but the people there are a little too cool for their own good. Everyone was complaining about how hard it was to make friends there and I understand why when you have to spend 2 hrs every day in a car by yourself stuck in traffic. Doesn't leave too much free time after work and everything else.

From Los Angeles, Faustine and I drove across the desert midday in 110 F heat towards Los Vegas. This was a brutal drive. Even with the windows down, 110 F feels like hell. But its a dry heat... yeah sure it was still too damn hot. It was my first trip to Sin City and I thoroughly enjoyed it however we could only stay for about 36 hours. We stayed in a nice room at the Luxor Resort. We went out and partied on the strip and we also did some shopping and wandering around on Vegas's Old Strip. Its a very cool place to visit and I would love to go back. We were super cheap in Vegas and we didn't have enough time to catch any shows. In fact, neither of us even spent a single dollar gambling.

We rolled out of Vegas and crossed more desert on our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The scenery in this part of the country is just breathtaking. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is considerably less traveled and has a lot less tourists. It is only about 15 miles to the South Rim, but the drive takes several hours as you have to go all the way around the Grand Canyon to get there- probably 200 miles. We saw some beautiful sunsets and did some quick, but hot, hikes around the canyon. There were hundreds of mule deer around at night. It was almost dangerous to drive at night because there were so many deer near the road.

After two days at the Grand Canyon the two of us drove to meet my father and my uncle in Page, AZ, a city situated near Glen Canyon Dam and the vast Lake Powell. This man made reservoir is a fisherman and boater's paradise and my father and his brother had already been there for several days fishing by the time we arrived. They met us in the morning and took us on a very cool hike. We traveled far up into a canyon via boat and then abandoned ship and started hiking. The canyon was extremely narrow and the colors and contours of the rock are mesmerizing in the cloudless sun. Words could never describe the way the narrow canyon twisted and turned in orange and yellow waves. We saw a beaver and some small beaver dams along the way. On the return trip in the boat the engine broke down. This was not good, but fortunately the boat had a small back up engine. What should have taken us 45 minutes ended up taking about 6 hours. It was well after midnight before we got the boat on the trailer and out of the water. It was a long, hot, sun beaten day, but the only casualty seemed to be the boat motor- we made it outta there no problem.

From Page we drove to Canyon De Chelly National Park. In this park are the remains of Native American civilizations.... there are paintings and cliff dwelling everywhere. It seems that thousands of years ago a prehistoric civilizations lived among the steep cliffs and even made permanent settlements at the base of these cliff and sometimes even high up on their rocky faces. Its really impressive to see the structures perched in the rocky cliffs, kinda reminds me of an eagles nest. The whole of this part of the country is the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation is its own country within the US. Everyone was an Indian and it was very interesting to see their unique, and beautiful faces. Such proud and interesting people, it is sad to see what generations of growing up on reservations and repressive US policies have done to these people. We weren't able to spend long here and that night we drove on to Albuquerque.

In Albuquerque we did some shopping and checked out a lot of art. We were feeling a little burned out from all the traveling so we took a nice relaxed day to wander around the city and plan our next move. One of my personal favorites in this city was the Rattlesnake Museum. It was a small placed but stocked up with real live rattlesnakes and venomous snakes from around the world. I got to see one of the workers fed a snake a rat and I thought that was pretty cool, but some people may not share my enthusiasm for life and death in such plain view. There was an amazing We didn't stay long and left after just one night driving south through Roswell (where I got some cool stickers) and on to Carlsbad Caverns.

Carlsbad Caverns was in the middle of the desert. Above ground is barren, but below ground and entire new world opens up. Faustine especially loved the caverns and was awestruck with the size of this cave system. We took a self-guided tour through the cave and it took us probably about 3 hours to do the entire cave. Far, far below the Earth's surface exists a gigantic 600,000 sq. ft. room. This cave room could hold something like 16 football fields. It was huge and was the largest cave in the western hemisphere. The stalactites, stalagmites, and limestone columns form phantasmal shapes and the dark can play tricks on your eyes. If you ever in this part of the county, this is not to be missed.

We left Carlsbad Caverns and then started our long, hot, boring, dusty drive across Texas. Hours and hours later we stopped for the night in San Antonio. In the morning we witnessed the Alamo, sweated like crazy, and then cooled off with some drinks at the San Antonio Riverwalk. We were in fast forward mode and had to get to Houston so shortly thereafter we left and drove to Houston. The reason we didn't take more time crossing this part of the country is because Faustine had to catch a flight out of Houston, which was fast approaching.

We arrived in Houston and I spent some time with my old buddy Raymond. He and his girlfriend have a very nice apartment in a very nice part of Houston and I really appreciated the air conditioning. I liked some of the zany stuff in Houston. After saying goodbye to Faustine I saw some good films, some good art museums, and caught some strange folk art expositions (one guy covered his entire house and yard with beer cans over 3 decades and another guy built a "circus" dedicated to the citrus fruit the orange). Houston was great and I would like to go back, maybe when it is a little less hot though.

Upon leaving Houston I drove to New Orleans, LA. That night I camped in the bayou in the back of the truck and had the worst night of sleep of the entire trip. It was so hot and humid and there were tons of mosquitoes that somehow got into the back of the truck. At one point in the night a police officer woke me up while he was running my tags through his radio. He was surprised to see me sleeping in the back, but I was able to convince him I wasn't causing any trouble an he let me be. In the morning I felt like garbage, but traveled into New Orleans to get some good food before making the drive back to Milton. I had a mufalata at my favorite New Orleans Po Boy shop and that sandwich made my day a little bit sweeter! I also stopped by Reverend Zombies Voodoo Shop and picked up some good luck charms and things to protect me in India.

That afternoon I drove back to Milton and arrived in one piece. I had a blast on this trip and I am so thankful that the truck ran flawlessly and I didn't really have any trouble or a bad time at all. I am so lucky and nothing bad happened to me at all! Something that I learned along the way... the more I see, the less I know.

Driving to San Francisco!

So after leaving the Redwoods Parks of Northern California I continued south towards San Francisco. I had a great time driving past the redwoods and also driving along the Pacific Coast Highway which was all curves and cliffs. It was exciting, but it would have been extremely difficult to ride in the passenger seat with me at the wheel. I was probably going a little too fast around some of the curves! I made it to San Francisco for the 4th of July so there is about a 1 month lag in my video updates right now. I really liked this area of the US, from San Francisco north to Seattle. It seems like a very nice place to live...

Redwoods!

I had a great time camping among the redwoods in Northern California. I would recommend that everyone at some point in their lives must walk among these silent giants. The shear scale and age of these organisms is mesmerizing. A single tree can live 3000 years and even after it dies can take as long as 1000 years just to rot and decompose. There aren't many areas where there are still old growth redwoods, but I am glad that we have taken the necessary steps to protect these forests for future generations. Its just peaceful and somewhat mystical walking through a foggy forest of millenia old trees. I hope you enjoy the video, but in no way does it do the real deal any justice. This is something you just have to see for yourself. Ok... so I keep changing up the format too.. Click on the picture below to take you to the video on YouTube's website. It is just easier to do it this way, because the people that own the blog site don't like how long my videos are so I have to use YouTube.

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Grand Tetons!

I enjoyed my time in Grand Teton National Park. There was an amazing amount of wildlife in this park and the shear number of large mammals was really awesome. There were huge herds of a hundred or more buffalo, tons of mule deer, and I even saw a moose. The weather was warm and sunny for the most part and I did a difficult but beautiful hike from Jenny Lake at the base of the mountain range up to Lake Solitude, a glacier fed lake deep within a narrow valley. The hike was tough, but entirely worth it. Check out the video to see a montage of my 2 days in the Tetons.

Oh... I started to have some trouble with my videos and this blog site. So I had to host a couple of the longer videos via YouTube.... Click here for the link YouTubeVideo Allow some extra time for the video to load.

The River Disappears...

This was a quick stop that I made just south of Crater Lake on my way into the Redwoods National Park. The Rogue River disappears into a lave tube. Lava tubes are caves which are formed when there is a giant lava flow. The outer layer of lava cools off quickly and solidifies, while the inner lava remains molten hot and slowly drains out leaving a hollow tube behind. There are many of these types of caves in the Pacific Northwest due to the underlying volcanic activity and associated fault lines. Plate tectonics are crazy! I took a geology class in college... they called it "Rocks for Jocks" cuz most of the UF athletes got A's in it. But the professor sure loved him some plate tectonics. Check wikipedia for more details...

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Sea of Grass!

In this video you can see a wide open part of Washington... no trees for miles, just grass or wheat or whatever that stuff was, but it went on in every direction for miles, and miles, and miles.

Short stop at Crater Lake National Park

While driving south after a brief stay with my aunt and uncle in Bend, OR I stopped at Crater Lake National Park. As you can see in the video it was a beautiful, sunny day and the lake looked amazing. The water is ridiculously blue, such a deep, deep hue. About 8000 years ago there was a huge volcano there. It erupted and then collapsed inward on itself creating the huge crater we can see today. I didn't spend much time here as I was in quite the rush to get down to see some friends in San Francisco. Enjoy the video.

Hiking the South Sister near Bend, Oregon

While in Bend, OR I decided to hike up to the top of one of the nearby mountains. There are actually Three Sisters (each its own peak) and Mt. Bachelor very close to town. Bend is a very nice town although it is growing tremendously fast. I guess all the other people out there think it is nice too and have moved in from small rural communities. Most people don't really think of Oregon and Washington as dry, but on this side of the mountain range it is a desert. All of the rain gets dumped on the coastal areas like Seattle and Portland and then very little of it makes its way into the central parts of the states where Yakima and Bend are located. Both of these towns were founded because of the rivers flowing through the area. It is a very unique kinda place. Well, check out the short video of the hike. It was a tough hike, but well worth it and the view from the top was spectacular. Also, I found a quick and fun way down part of the mountain.

Yellowstone's Thermal Activities

Here is a video showing some of Yellowstone's geysers and hot springs. The Earth's crust is super thin at Yellowstone and the Earth's natural geothermal heat causes these geysers and hot springs to form. There are tons of areas in the park where these thermal vents occur and many of them are easily accessible and quite beautiful (although stinky. Sulfur= rotten eggs). Certain species of bacteria are able to live in the super heated water, but only in the "cooler" pools. In the video you will be able to see that the bacterial mats are found on the very edges of pools or in the small run-off streams away from the direct heat source. Check out the video. If you don't give a damn about geology... well then just skip it! Also, check out the latest issue of the National Geographic for a more in depth look at Yellowstone's geologic anomalies.

Bear Vision!

So in this video you can see one of Yellowstone's many bears. I had been hiking all day, but I actually saw this bear on the side of the road when I inadvertently took a wrong turn. It turns out that this is a very efficient way to see wildlife- whenever you see people pulled over on the side of the road with their binoculars and gigantic cameras you know there is something worth stopping for. That is exactly how I found this guy. During my hike I saw some animals- the highlight being a bald eagle- and a few bear tracks in the mud but no bears on the hike. It was actually pretty unnerving seeing the fresh tracks. I felt a little alone at the time because there really weren't any other people around on this hike. I guess I was glad in a way that I didn't have a closer encounter with a huge grizzly. Enjoy!

Okay... so the blog kinda sucks right now...

I gotta admit that the blog kinda sucks right now because I haven't made any updates in about a month. It's lame... I know. I am currently in Houston and I have some solid internet access so I will try to reconstruct what I have been doing over the past few weeks. Take care, enjoy the movie and I will have some more stuff online in a matter of days! Word!

The Oregon Trail...

Another goofy face... this time from the middle of Wyoming near the historic Oregon Trail. Check out the quick video.

In the last several days I have traveled quite far and been to a lot of different places. Currently, I am in Seattle, WA but in a matter of minutes I will be rolling out for a few days of camping in or near the Olympic National Park. I have been to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and Rocky Mountain National Parks in the past few weeks. Lots of snow. I have done more than my fair share of hiking, biking, and camping, but I am headed out into the wilderness for a few more days. I have seen tons of wildlife, some amazing landscapes, and lots of good, dry starry nights. I even saw a bear and a fancy lady walking her Persian cat in the middle of the Grand Tetons! More videos to come. What have you been up to?

Rocky Mountain National Park

Hello all!

I just returned to civilization from a quick little camping trip up in the Rocky Mountains. I stayed at a small campsite in Rocky Mountain National Park that was perched up at about 10,000 ft. above sea level. On the first morning I woke up pretty early to get a good start on the hike. I climbed up 4000' vertically and about 4 miles into the mountains to reach my destination- Chasm Lake. This alpine lake was entirely frozen over and at the lake the weather was pretty brutal. The lake is well above the timberline and I spent much of the hike on alpine tundra- a treeless, rocky, and frigid landscape. Though life is hard in this harsh climate, wildlife can be seen everywhere. Marmots, chipmunks, mice, elk, ptamargins, hawks, wildflowers, and numerous shrubby plants and lichens make up a very unique and bio-diverse community. Even under such difficult conditions, nature has found a way to adapt and survive.

(I can't help it but the videos always show me with a terrible look on my face... jeez!)

As snowy as it was in Colorado, I'm a little worried aobut how much snow there will be in Yellowstone and also in Washington. Given the conditions here I am sure that I will find some areas with a tremendous amount of snow on the ground while high up in Rocky Mountains.
I am planning on going to a Colorado Rockies game tonite, but I am uncertain if I will make it. They play the Seattle Mariners, and I don't know too much about either team. The great part is the tickets only cost six bucks to sit in the outfield and we can take the bus all the way to the game from Boulder which is probably about 25 miles away.
This weekend I will be out camping with my Colorado friends at some place called the Ironclads about half and hour north of Boulder. Take care!

Quick visit to Florida...

I just returned from a quick visit to Florida for my stepsister's high school graduation and to catch-up with friends and family. It was nice and I really enjoyed being back in my hometown. The weather was absolutely great. The thing I enjoyed the most was hitting the beach with some old friends- just laying out in the nice Florida sun without a care in the world. I really needed some sun and some heat! I also did a little hiking, biking, and kayaking on the Juniper Creek just north of Milton. Very serene day out there, but the mosquitoes were atrocious due to the recent flooding.

I flew back to Boulder, Colorado and have been staying with my friend again. Today I am heading out into the Rocky Mountain National Park just a few miles north of the city. I will be camping out in the mountains for two nights, then I return to Boulder. I hope to get some good mountain footage to make a little video. The weather looks pretty crappy though... the rain has been hounding me everywhere I go.

We are all going to hit the town on Friday night and then on Saturday a group of us are going camping a little bit closer to Boulder, but still in the mountains. On Monday, after the camping trip, I plan to drive up to Yellowstone and plan to spend some time there before heading further west to Boise, Idaho.

I am starting to get a pretty good itinerary worked out for the remainder of the trip. I plan to spend the Fourth of July in San Francisco watching the fireworks over the Golden Gate Bridge and I plan on being in Pensacola by August 1st. I am very close to purchasing my one way ticket to India.

Here is a rough itenirary... Boulder>Yellowstone>Boise, ID>Bend, OR>Yakima, WA>Seattle, WA> Monterrey, CA>Yosemite>Los Angeles, CA>Las Vegas, NV>Lake Tahoe>Taos, NM>Houston, TX>Pensacola.

I hope everyone is doing well at home? Anybody want to join me on the road at some of these places? I'm flexible- so hit me up with your ideas, please!!!

Fort Collins, Nebraska

I didn't spend but a few minutes at this roadside museum and attraction and the video pretty much sums it up. It was Buffalo Bills Wild West Show at the Fort Collins Interstate 80 exit. Obviously a tourist trap.

I got a few more stickers for the truck, some Buffalo Bill postcards, and was really tempted to fork over $25 bucks for some cow horns to put on the front of the ol' truck but talked myself out of it. A few hours later I made it to Boulder. The last 100 miles or so of the drive was through open cattle country of the Great Plains.... very few trees, only grass and gentle hills for mile after mile. As I approached Boulder, the Rockies were shourded in a dark mist of clouds and rain but I awoke this morning to their full splendor. I am looking forward to my days here in the mountains.

Finally... A video of the Cubs at Wrigley

Finally got the video footage from my day at the ballpark posted online. My cousin Chas, his friend Fred, my Uncle Chuck and I all had a great day at the game. It was great weather and was one of the most fun days I have had so far on the trip.

We drank a ton of beer that day (as some may be able to tell) and biked all over the city. It was a blast! I hope to catch a Rockies game while I am in Denver/Boulder and lets all hope that the Cubs keep on winning.

Playing Pinball in Iowa

Hello all! Below is a short video showing the antique pinball machine that has been in the Szymoniak Family since the 1970's. I don't really know the true story of how it ended up at my grandparent's house and there are two competing stories I have heard in the past week. One is that my grandfather just showed up with it one day a long time ago. Another is that my Uncle Tom bought it for $25 dollars from a kid named Benny in the neighborhood. Supposedly my uncle was babysitting this kid at the time. I am inclined to believe the first story, cuz my uncle's story had and element of bullshit to it! Anyway, the pinball game was at my aunt's house for the last decade or so, but now will reside at my brother's house in Bagdad, FL. If anybody wants to try it out just give my brother a call.

Like a Bullet Across Nebraska...

Hey, just thought I would post a quick update before I roll out for Boulder, Colorado to stay with my old friend and former roommate Greg. Tomorrow morning (Monday) I will leave Des Moines and drive about 9 hours across Iowa and Nebraska before begging my climb into the Rockies. Tomorrow I am going to drive straight through... no stops and virtually no turns as I cross vast stretches of farmland planted in the flat and fertile Great Plains. I have heard the drive across Nebraska is pretty bland... not looking forward to it. Somebody told me this... "You have to hate Nebraska before you can love it," and I suppose tomorrow I might experience the former. Recently, I heard someone call the melancholy of the Midwest "The Plains." It is the feeling synonymous to "The Blues" of the South. I am excited to hit the open road again tomorrow and I am looking forward to entering the true West. More videos are on the way. Hit me up in the comment section if you know what I mean when I say I am suffering from a case of the plains.

Gorham, Illinois Update

Here is a quick picture of the original "Gorham" sign. If you don't know what I am talking about check out the previous post on the town of Gorham, Illinois. This sign is hanging in my cousin's farm house in Illinois not far from where my mom grew up.

Been a while...

Well, this is my first update in the past few weeks and I apologize for taking so long to get something out on the Internet for everybody. I have been outta touch with a lot of people, but I hope everyone is doing well. Hit me up in the comments section and let me know what you have been up to.

Since the last update a lot has happened. I was in New York city for 12 days. I had a blast and it was great to see my friends and family too. I traveled by ferry to the Statue of Liberty and also to Ellis Island. It was really interesting to read (in their own words) the accounts of why the immigrants risked it all to come to America. Some came to escape religious persecution, others to evade famine, some to seek gold and riches, and others for their myriad reasons. On a side note, all the entrepreneurs (shop owners, florists, restaurant owners) in New York city are foreigners. You hear so many languages just by walking down the street in the city. Parts of family emigrated from Norway and Poland and my ancestors definitely came through Ellis Island. The officials actually "Americanized" my last name and changed the spelling (just slightly). Makes you wonder how crazy it must have looked before the changes.

My Uncle treated a friend and I to dinner in his old neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen and then to a Broadway Play - Reasons to Be Pretty. The play was OK, but I wasn't too thrilled with it. There were several very heated scenes where the actors/actresses did a remarkable and invigorating job on stage, but overall the play didn't move me. It was kinda dark and definitely not too heart warming. In summary, it was kinda like life beats you up and gets you down sometimes...

A week later my friend and I went to another play that I enjoyed much more. It was a tragi-comedy called August: Osage County. I was set in rural Oklahoma where a family was reunited after the disappearance and death of the family's patriarch. A three hour play, with three separate acts, showcased one of America's most dysfunctional families. I thought it was very well written and would recommend it if you were in the mood for something raw and emotional with a dash of wit and wisdom mixed in.

I also enjoyed several museums, great food, nice long walks, central park, lotsa bars/pubs, and toured the United Nations Headquarters. People watching in the city is unparalleled. It was great to visit the city, but I am unsure if I could really live there. Its a tough town- you have to be a certain kind of person to cut it. I would need some serious motivation to live and work in the "city that never sleeps". If I was just lackadaisically floating along in life, I wouldn't do it in this city. While New York has everything to offer; great culture and probably the worlds greatest cuisine, there are some downfalls too. There is never a moment of true privacy and it seems to me that there is too much pressure, life is too fast paced, and the city is too cold (both literally- winter would kill me- and figuratively- New Yorkers lack compassion and have a very matter-of-fact outlook on life). Plus, the city is one of the most expensive places on Earth. Overall, its probably better to visit, than to make your life in the Big Apple. Don't get me wrong though... I really did enjoy my trip to New York.

Upon returning to Chicago, my cousin, my uncle, and I attended a Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field. It was an awesome, warm, sunny day and the Cubs won (Does it get any better?) We rode bikes all over Wrigleyville and even made it down to Lake Michigan that night and really tied one on. It was a blast and was one of the most fun days I have had on this trip (so far)! We also took a little weekend trip over to Michigan and had a bonfire with some of my cousin's old college buddies.

Unfortunately, the road trip hit a little speed bump last weekend... my grandmother suffered a massive stroke and passed away this week. I was planning on visiting her in Des Moines, Iowa and I made it to her bedside before she passed. I was able to say goodbye to her and I was thankful that she hung on long enough for me to tell her how important she was to me and how much she will be missed. I truly love and respect my grandmother and she will continue to be an inspiration in my life- Elaine Szymoniak was a woman who made a difference (In the comments section I will attach her obituary if anyone is interested in checking it out). A former city council member and Iowa State Senator, she was a very cool old lady who loved whitewater rafting and camping out under the stars. Today (also her 89th birthday) was her funeral and she will be missed, but I am also happy because she lived an awesome, full, healthy, happy, and meaningful life. No need to be sad when we look back and see all of the amazing things that she was a part of. Take care all and I hope to get some more videos and updates posted soon. Sorry that this post is sooooo long!!!

P.S. For a video on my grandmother follow this link to the local news station. The video should load up in the upper right hand corner of the screen. It should probably be hosted on their website for several more days.
http://www.kcci.com/news/19528629/detail.html

The Journey Continues...

I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport right now while en route to New York City. I am going to be in NY for nearly two weeks visiting with friends and family and hopefully having a blast. Who knew... but the cheapest way to get to NY from Chicago runs through ATL. I have time, but no money, so I have to do everything the cheapest even if it takes longer... (I'm sure you are all feeling sorry for me at home, huh? HA!)
I am actually flying into the Newark, New Jersey airport and I am going to have to take some trains and make some transfers to get to my final destination in the city tonight. Through the course of the trip I will have been in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Georgia, New Jersey, and New York. I don't have the mileage added up just yet, but I am definitely racking up the miles.
The truck is running great, but I left it with my aunt in a Chicago Suburb. When I return from NY in 13 days I will pick it back up and hit the road again. Before I roll out of Chicago I believe my cousin Chas and I are gonna go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. When I finally leave Chicago I am gonna head straight to Des Moines, Iowa. As far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be too much to do in between Chicago and Des Moines. Just head straight down Interstate 80 past the world's largest truck stop. Anybody have any ideas about things I definitely should do over the next few weeks? In New York I plan to go to Ellis Island, the Immigration Museum, the Frick Collection, a Yankees game, just got tickets to a live taping of David Letterman, MOMA, The MET, and a few other odds and ends... Hit me back with some suggestions!!!

Uploaded ALOT today!

Hey, I made a ton of updates today. More updates than will even fit on the first screen. If you have time scroll down to the bottom of the web page and hit the "older posts" button to view some more updates that have recently been put on the blog. Hit me up if you have any questions and please add comments to the entries. Take care everybody!

-Matt

Horse Racing!

The other day my cousin Chas, my uncle Chuck, and I went to the horse track for some wagering. My uncle has quite the system down, but I don't know anything about betting on the horses. The track gives you a program, but the information is super detailed and very confusing. I didn't win anything until the final races and ended the day down about $60 bucks. Not too bad! I certainly learned a lot and maybe next time I will come out ahead. Its a short video, but we were there for several hours. They run 10 races and in between each race is a 23 minute break.

I also went to the Polish Museum of America. It was a pretty decent but small museum. From the looks of the place, the placards, and the posters, the museum acquired everything in a single purchase. Everything on display came from the Polish Exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair in New York! I got a few postcards but I still didn't learn enough about Casimir Pulaski... he has a whole day dedicated to his memory here in the city of Chicago (which has over a million Pols and is the largest concentration of Pols on Earth outside of Poland). Anyone out there ever heard of him? Let me know what you know about Ol' Pulaski!

The Art Institute of Chicago

If you want you can quickly check out many of the masterpieces currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. In this video I fade out the background noise and instead play a Flamenco guitar cover of Led Zepplin's Stairway to Heaven... Skip this video if you don't care about art!

Video Montage!

If you want to see what Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has to offer check out this video.

It's time for a montage!

I've been going to this aquarium since I was a little kid!

Cairo!

Cairo, Illinois is a weird place... Today, this city- pivotal in American History- resembles a ghost town. There was so much beauty in the sadness of this town... Its people all know the town is dying, but seem to hold on to their rose tinted dreams of yesteryear. And it is a desitnation that any wayward wanderer should visit...

Here is the History (thanks Wikipedia)Cairo was founded by the Cairo City & Canal Company in 1837, and incorporated as a city in 1858. For 15 years the town grew slowly, but the sale of lots and the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad, attracted settlers. By 1860, the population exceeded 2,000. It was an important steamboat port in the 19th century, with its own Customs House. It has since been converted into a museum.

During the Civil War, Cairo was a strategically important supply base and training center for the Union army. For several months both General Grant and Admiral Foote had headquarters here. The town has numerous fine examples of prosperous 19th and early 20th architecture, including the Italianate Magnolia Manor and Second Empire Riverlore Mansion. Much of the city, even in some areas of decay, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

With the decline in river trade, like many other river cities, the population of Cairo has declined from a 1914 high of 16,000 to 3,632 in 2000. There is a movement to stop this gradual abandonment, restore Cairo's architectural landmarks, develop tourism focusing on its history, and bring new opportunities back to the community.

Cairo, a former slave trading hub, was the scene of the circus-like lynching of the black resident Will James in front of a crowd of hundreds in 1909. In 1969, Cairo was the site of an intense civil rights struggle to end segregation and create job opportunities. The threat of violence resulted in the National Guard being called in to restore order. The United Front civil rights organization led a decade-long boycott of white-owned businesses -- meaning all of them. Its economy crippled, Cairo has emerged slowly from the contention.

The city today faces many significant socio-economic challenges for the remaining population, including poverty, issues in education, employment and rebuilding its tax base. Historical populations

CensusPop.

1850242

18602,188

190012,566

192015,203

194014,407

19609,348

19805,931

20003,632

At one time Cairo was the largest city in the region but the population has been steadily declining. As of the census of 2000, there were 3,632 people, 1,561 households, and 900 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 35.93% White, 61.70% Black.The median income for a household in the city was $21,607, and the median income for a family was $28,242. Males had a median income of $28,798 versus $18,125 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,220. Of the population as a whole, 33.5% lives below the poverty line, as compared with 27.1% of families. Out of the total population, 47.0% of those under the age of 18 and 20.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Check out this link to learn about Cairo... Strangest City on the River
Here is an NPR story on the town... Lessons from Cairo, Illinois