regionals, art museums, and learning chinese

While at Ryan's house we played some yu-gi-oh and he asked if I wanted to go to a regional in Des Moines the upcoming Saturday. I decided I would first ask my brother and various other people if they would be going, and upon finding out that they weren't I decided not to go. However, my mind soon changed as I thought of a deck I wanted to try. We watched a bunch more Buffy the Vampire Slayer the next couple of days and had a generally good time, but it was soon time for regionals. I got in a van stuffed with people I didn't really know and headed back to Iowa. Surprisingly enough, nothing felt counter productive about heading the opposite way that I was aimed.

The guys in the Van were pretty funny guys and we had some good conversations, most of which were about yugioh. After we arrived at Des Moines we stopped at a Western Union so I could pick up some cash courtesy of my brother, who had never used a Western Union before so it was a bit of a longer stop than I had anticipated. When we arrived at the convention center there was a mere 12 minutes left before registration stopped. Most of us were used to registration ending at 11 rather than 10:20 so we thought we had plenty of time. I rushed writing my deck list and was not able to make a side deck, which obviously was very detrimental to my results. In the tourney itself I ended up 4-3 and dropped after the 7th round. It was the first 8 round regional I had been to in Des Moines, 141 people which is quite high for an Iowa regional.

The car ride back was hysterical, we joked for ages and since we all lacked sleep everything was even more funny. We had stopped at Taco Johns where I grabbed a churo and some potato oles, which was a mistake due to the fact that I had little money as it was... Luckily for me, 2 of the people were going back to Lincoln, which was my destination.

They dropped me off at the home of Wei Ming, who goes by his english name of Ryan Lim. It was already 12:30 a.m when I arrived so we talked a bit then I went to sleep.

The next morning Ryan and I decided to go around town so he could show me the sights. As he was showing me campus I noticed a severed statue head and we decided to go check it out. Turns out, it was the entrance to a free art museum. I was quite pleased with this, I had always had a love for art for as long as I can remember. I really enjoyed the art museum and the tour of campus, which is just beautiful. I took some pictures with the sculptures around campus and we had a nice walk.

We then headed to the capital building, where we decided to go in on a whim and found that they were giving free tours! Today was my lucky day! I got to learn a bunch of really interesting things about Nebraska and Lincoln and was able to see even more beautiful art. Also, Wei had taught me some Chinese, and I love learning languages and learning about culture. We dropped by McDonalds where Wei bought me a couple of burgers and headed back to his place. We basically watched Iron Man and talked about travel other miscellaneous things.

That's where we leave off today, my next planned stop is Denver Colorado to visit my aunt. Keep reading, and now my blog is monetized so I may make money off it! So visit even more! Hehe, bye now.

Freedom! 1 state down, 4 to go!

Right now I feel more free than I ever have, and I finally feel that real happiness that I've seldom felt in a very long time. It took being free from all the obligations and expectations of "normal" life to make me feel this way, and I'm so happy I began this trip. That being said, it's time to recap what has happened since.

Despite Ben being incredibly hospitable and saying I could stay as long as I'd like up to 2 months I decided it was time to stop being lazy to and finally head out. I gathered my things and Ben offered to give me a ride from Ames to Carroll, which knocked over 60 miles off my trip! We had some interesting conversations on the trip about ethanol and high fructose corn syrup and flying airplanes. Ben had offered to take me up on his first pilot lesson but I would have had to wait 2 more days and decided I could wait to fly. We stopped at a dollar general and bought some supplies for the road and then he dropped me off at the edge of town.

I walked a lot that day, I would say upwards of 40 miles out of the 100 remaining miles to Omaha. I got several small rides from nice people, some of which I didn't get the names of but I got Scott and Bob. And based on the people following me on my blog a very nice gentleman named Graham (Who's name I forgot to get) who was down on his luck and said he picked me up in hopes to change his luck, and I hope he really did. He also offered me some money, which I politely declined. I realize now, if I keep turning down money like this I may not make it very comfortably to San Fransisco... however, my pride keeps getting in the way of taking money. Taking a free meal is one thing, but money seems different to me.

At around 6:30 I was in a real rut, I had been walking for quite awhile with nobody picking me up and it was getting on towards dark at this point. I had already called my Omaha host Ryan Newburn to let him know I may not make it. Finally, somewhere in between Dunlap and Woodbine a trucker picked me up. It really surprised me that a semi pulled up next to me at first, but then I hopped on in. I had never had a truck driver pick me up thus far but he was a really nice older fellow by the name of Bob. Bob was going to Missouri valley to rest for the evening but when he found out I was going to Omaha, which was his final destination anyway he decided he would take me all the way there. What an awesome way to end a very tiring day!

I called Ryan to let him know I was actually going to be at a truck stop in council bluffs called sapp brothers or something along those lines. He said he would come pick me up but had to wait until his brother got home so he could have a car with some gas in it. I read a new Orson Scott Card book, Ender in Exile, which I desperately wanted to buy because it's part of my favorite series of books by my favorite author but knew I was already packing pretty heavy and couldn't spare the cash.

Ryan got there to pick me up and we headed back to his place, where we watched Buffy the Vampire slayer and played some yugioh with his friends, as well as scoring a nice meal. I went to bed pretty early being entirely too tired and slept for around 11 hours! We spent the next day largely resting and watching more Buffy. I awoke this morning and checked the weather, decided it was pretty nice out and decided to go explore Omaha a bit, I found this library I'm currently at and asked if I could use the computer for a short period of time to write my blog, they luckily allowed me to do so for free despite it normally being $5.00 charge. Tomorrow morning or the next I'm off to either Lincoln or Wahoo and then I will improvise my way to Denver!

Thanks for reading, keep it up and tell your friends! The more the merrier!

Wanderlost

So, normally what I talk about in my blogs is strictly my experiences exactly as they happened. However, I think I'm going to deviate from that a little today and talk about how I am currently feeling, then get on with what happened.

It's strange, I've been in Ames nearly 4 days now and I'm not likely to leave until midday tomorrow. Honestly, I think I'm getting a little too comfortable. All of the bad habits and bad tenancies that have built up over the years are starting to reoccur. I'm being lazy, I'm taking things for granted, and I'm not making any progress because I am procrastinating. I could make all the excuses in the world about how it's just been cold out and I wanted to stay warm inside, but really, a week ago that wouldn't have stopped me. I am eating expensive fattening food, taking advantage of the abundance of hospitality in Ames, playing video games and watching TV, and drinking. I just wanted to make it clear that I was aware of this and hope to fix it now that I am aware of it. Now on with the story.

The morning after my last entry I stayed for a bit longer with Rebecca, I watched TV while Rebecca went to a garage sale, I was basically dog sitting Henry. After that was done with and my laundry was done Rebecca gave me a lift to the residence of my next hosts, Josh and Emily. They welcomed me in and we introduced each other while watching a bit of Iron Man. We later went for a walk and they showed me around campus town. And we scavenged some stuff left over from garage sales and met some cool new people. We hung around the house for a bit and then Josh offered me a bottle of amaretto and invited me to a party, I knew it was gonna be a good night!

Later we headed off to a random house, I'm not really sure where it was or who's it was, the only thing I got out of anything was that twins probably lived there and I was armed with 2 liters of amaretto and coke! I met some awesome people and got quite tipsy! But best of all, I met 2 guys named Ben and Mark who seemed cool who offered me their couch for a couple days since I hadn't gotten a hold of my friend from Omaha yet! So I agreed and continued having a grand time.

The next day, Emily and Josh dropped me off at Ben and Mark's place and I literally played X-box live for about 6 hours. We then went to eat pizza with some girls in a giant yellow toaster! (It's a vehicle of some sort, but looks like a yellow toaster) Actually, from this point on it's mostly me finally getting ahold of Newburn so I have someplace to stay in Omaha and playing more X-box 360. Kind of depressing really, but there shall be more adventure soon I promise!

Thanks, and keep reading!

Crawdads, busses, and tri hike to Ames

So, shortly after the last blog was typed I decided to go check things out around cedar rapids. I decided my vague goal would be the mall. I wandered down past a creek and a garden which I decided I would visit on my way back and surely made my way downtown, where I was assaulted on all sides by various restaurants and chain stores. Now, this was certainly taxing on me seeing as I had little money and could smell all of the delicious food cooking, but I persevered. I made my way down to the mall finally. The mall was somewhat boring, I had extensive conversations with the employees of gamestop and of the candle store, but other than that there was nothing going on. I left shortly in favor of bed bath and beyond where I nearly fell asleep on one of the beds.

On my way back I neared the stream again and decided to go hang out by it. Shortly after sitting to enjoy the beauty of nature I was interrupted by a bunch of teenage looking persons tromping around in the stream looking for crawdads. This, of course, looked terribly fun so I decided to join. I spoke with a couple of the students and the teacher and found out that this was a field biology class. They all had shoes meant for tromping around the river, and I had gone barefoot... so, of course, I fell down in the river, stubbing my toe in the process. I soon after decided to go to the gazebo in the garden I had seen earlier and hang out there, it was peaceful but nothing to write home about.

After returning to Vince's place I watched some movies until Vince got home and then we talked and watched Criminal Minds and NCIS or something like that. I hadn't seen either of those shows before and decided I quite liked them. But it was eventually time to sleep as I had to wake up early.

When i woke up it was raining, which was a problem. So I rechecked the bus schedules and headed out in my poncho. Apparently because of road construction going on, the bus that I was planning on catching no longer ran through that particular area, so I walked around a bit until I was pointed out to a different bus stop by a friendly employee of the Lutheran church. Unfortunately, I had no idea what time the bus came, and the phone number on the sign didn't work. So I figured, "Can't be too long of a wait!" I figured wrong. I waited for 50 minutes and still no bus! So I finally got the bright idea to take shelter under a porch and use my handy dandy phone internet to check the transit website, which I promptly used to find the number and find out that I would be waiting another half an hour.

Before getting on the bus I met this very strange girl who I ended up giving 50 cents for the bus, making her the only person I know to get spare change from a vagrant! I rode to the transfer station, where I studied the routes until I found out how to get onto highway 30. I then boarded bus route 12 and headed as far south as I could manage until I was a couple short blocks from highway 30. And I started walking, the rain had slowly deteriorated into a drizzle at this point making it much more bearable. I was expecting to walk a couple miles and then someone pick me up, that didn't happen. So I stopped under a overpass to refresh myself on hitch hiking laws, finding that as long as I stay off the road hitch hiking is perfectly legal in Iowa.

So I started hitch hiking, unfortunately, this made absolutely no difference other than making my arm tired in general. I walked for hours with my thumb out and still nobody picked me up. It was now the afternoon and I was quite tired from all the walking when an elderly gentleman by the name of Ray picked me up. Ray wasn't going that far, only about 12 miles down the road, but it really made a hell of a difference being able to rest for a bit and make it in 12 minutes what would have taken me 3 hours to walk.

I put my poncho back on since it had started sprinkling again and I was cold and wet and started walking about. I walked another couple of hours or so with my thumb out until finally a couple stopped and picked me up, their names were Scott and Tina. They were an older couple who had horses and were very friendly. Scott had beer in the back seat and offered me one, which I obliged to take. They offered to let me stay at their farm, where they raised horses but I told them I had already said I'd be staying in Ames and didn't want to slow the pace of my journey. They then tried to set me up with their trucker friend who usually went to Ames daily, but unfortunately was doing maintenance on his truck that particular day. So they drove me within 45 miles of Ames and dropped me off and wished me good luck.

The next person to pick me up didn't wait long. I had barely left the small town I was dropped off in by Scott and Tina, and what's more surprising is the fact that it was a woman. I had yet to have a woman pick me up, so this was strange and sort of messed with the stereotypes that I had generated in my mind. Mandy was a very nice lady who actually gave me a ride all the way into Ames despite it being out of her way, I really appreciated it and told her so!

From then I followed the directions given to me by the person who I would be staying with this evening, Rebecca. Unfortunately my gps on my phone was being glitchy and so I ended up taking twice as long to find her house.

Once I finally figured it out for myself and found the house I had the pleasure of meeting Rebecca and her dog Henry. Rebecca made eggs and bacon for supper for the two of us and we watched 300 talked about our experiences with couch surfing so far and about foreign cultures and various other things that are of interest to me. I was all showered and ready for bed so I slept in Hannes' bed, because he had moved out the weekend prior and was the person I originally got ahold of to couch surf. It was the first time I had slept on a real bed in ages and it felt good.

I awoke and almost immediately got on to update my blog fearing I would forget various things. And here I end, for now. Keep reading and thanks!

Cedar Rapids pt. 1

So, shortly after making my last blog post I decided it would be a good idea to check the bus schedules. With the help of a professor from the college I managed to find the schedules online. Apparently the next bus was 7:45, which was within 20 minutes, which worked out great for me. I texted Vince to let him know I would be making it there via bus, he said he was gonna be at work but could come open up since his work was nearby. So I hopped the bus and inquired of the bus driver how to get to Vince's location, she told me the proper transfers and it was a pretty painless process. I transfered to the proper bus downtown and was soon mere blocks from Vince's house. I texted Vince that I was nearly there and he seemed incredibly surprised that I was there already. So I found my way to his house and plopped down in front of it for a nice rest while I waited.

When Vince got there we had quite a conversation about everything ranging from travel, to the military, to cell phones. Vince was at least as great a guy as I could have hoped for, if not more so! Once Vince returned to work I decided it was finally time to get that shower, and it was heavenly. Being subjected to such abuse the last couple of days, my body seemed quite at ease with this normal and familiar gesture. I then decided it was time for a well deserved nap while I did my laundry, which was quite rank!

Upon waking from an awesome 4 hour nap, (I say nap, but really thats more than I had slept the night before) I decided I better get done setting up some more couch surfing destinations. I needed Ames or Des Moines, and then eventually Omaha. I sent several messages to CSers from Des Moines and Ames and didn't receive any immediate response. I did, however, find one in Omaha. My old yu-gi-oh friend Ryan Newburn lived in Omaha, and happened to be online on facebook! I told him what I was up to and he decided that it would be cool for me to stay with him when I was in town. With this problem solved, and the more immediate stops in progress I decided to watch a movie until Vince got home.

While watching Ali G in da house Vince came home and we ate a bit of food and were trying to decide what to do. Vince's friend Cat was apparently busy so could not hang out with us that evening, so we decided to go to the spy bar and have some beers. At first things at the bar were quite chill, we were just trying new beer and having light conversations. Then, the salsa dancing started and the bartender pulled out the patron tequila and my memory was jogged. IT WAS CINCO DE MAYO!!! Vince got the bottle of tequila off the shelf because the bartender couldn't reach it, she then proceeded to reward us with FREE SHOTS! Upon taking a shot with the lime and salt I remembered an old highschool friend. It was Lacey Brinkman's birthday, easily one of the easiest birthdays to remember. Now, I had barely talked to Lacey in the last few years, but we were such good friends I hardly thought that mattered. So I got her number off facebook and called her up. She seemed very pleased that I remembered her birthday, which made tequila face Ryan very pleased! I had forgotten why I stopped drinking tequila, it affects me more than other liquors. So we talked to Vince's friend Daryl, who is a salsa instructor and then called it a night.

Upon arriving back at Vincent's place I found that there was only 1 reply from couchsurfers, and it was a negative, she would be out of town. So I went to bed mildly disappointed but pleased I would be getting a full night sleep!

I didn't get a full night sleep. I woke up at 4:10 (Wierd huh, same time as yesterday to the minute) with a horrible head ache. I took some aspirin (thanks mom) and waited for half an hour. Even after the head ache went away, something still didn't feel right, I was probably sick from spending so much time out in the elements. So I went to the toilet and did the only thing that made sense, threw up until I was gasping for breath. Being the resilient fellow that I am, I immediately felt better and went back to bed.

Upon waking Vince had already left for work so I got to decided what to do for the day. First things first, I checked my phone. Luckily, there were several messages from couchsurfers. Sadly, only one agreed to let me stay with her, but that wasn't until Saturday, which would set me a day behind! Luckily, by time I had showered and gotten ready I had already received 2 more messages; one telling me that he no longer lived in the same appartment, but would contact his roommates, and another from his roommate saying she would certainly let me crash in the original guys room. I was set!

I then decided to blog and here I am. Thanks for reading, keep it up! I will be in Ames Friday and Saturday and in Omaha Sunday so wish me luck!!

Monticello to Cedar Rapids

After leaving the library I decided I would give the church a go in order to see if I could find a place to crash or see if I could work for a meal or some small amount of money. There were two churches in town, a Lutheran and a Catholic. Initially neither had anyone in them so I came back later. I finally found a religion teacher and her class in the catholic church. I asked where I could find the father, she led me to him. I got in and waited with the receptionist, she was very cold and seemed to look down on me when I explained my situation. I hoped the father would be different, but as I listened to his superficial phone conversation in the other room for half an hour as I waited I highly doubted it. He did not disappoint. The catholic priest did not show so much as a glimpse of warmth and was very dismissive. I left disappointed.

So now I returned to the park, where I would presumably be sleeping and listened to music until near sundown. The camp ground where I thought I would be able to take a shower was watching me very closely because I refused to pay $12.00 to sleep in the ruddy garbage dump they called a camp ground. Seriously, the camp ground was the only unattractive part of Monticello that I had seen.

So I fell asleep on a nice comfortable hill in the park for a short period of time until sudden movement woke me from my slumber. It was an animal about the size of a medium sized dog or a very large cat. I grabbed for my pepper spray and it sprinted at my sudden movement. This obviously wasn't going to work out, so I decided to head towards the gazebo. I slept one of the most uncomfortable nights sleeps of my life, it was rainy, cold, and headlights kept passing by. I made a pillow from my towel and scarf and wrapped myself in my sleeping bag.

I woke up at 4:10 a.m. It was still raining a bit so I put on my parka and headed over to the camp grounds to see if the lobby was open so I could sneak into the shower, unfortunately, it was locked. I decided it would be best to just start walking towards Cedar Rapids at this point as I wasn't going to get more sleep. I had a vitamin and cereal bar for breakfast and headed down 151. At around 6:00 or 6:30 a cop stopped me and asked if I was hitch hiking, if I had a weapon, and all of the usual questions. I answered honestly, told him I had mace and a pocket knife on me and that I wasn't specifically hitch hiking but I was taking rides if they were offered. He left me alone and told me to be careful and stay off the road.

At about 6:40 or so a man named Joe stopped and asked if I would like a ride, I accepted. Joe was a really nice guy who goes to Kirkwood college in Cedar rapids, he had similar musical taste to me and was about my age. Joe bought me coffee and even went so far as to give me his student access number so that I can update my blog. I gave him the url to this blog so that we can check out my progress and proceeded to go in and start writing, which is were I leave off.

P.S. I talked to my dad last night and mentioned the priest I had talked to. My dad actually went online and found his number and called him lol. Funny stuff.

From dubuque to Monticello

Alright, so I came back from Nobrandcon feeling completely exhausted. I was not able to leave Monday morning as I had origionally hoped. However, this did give me more time to spend with my parents before I left, and it's a good thing I did. My parents had gotten some things to help me on my journey; new shoes, a pancho for the rain, and a sleeping bad among other things. I was pretty much set for anything at this point.

Tuesday morning my plan was to get up by 6:15 and leave by 8:00... I didn't wake until nearly 7:30 but still managed to get ready by 8:00. My mom thought about my cousin going to school in Peosta and how that would save me about 12 miles worth of walking. So my cousin Nicole said if I waited until about 9:30 she would give me a lift that far. She let me off at a Peosta gas station and offered me 20$, which I declined. I feel as if I will be safer if I have less money because it will be one less reason for somebody to harm me.

Walking up hills with my heavy hiking backpack was hell, but luckily after a couple of miles it was much more downhill than up. After a period of time I was tired of passing semis throwing rocks and dust into my eyes and by some awesome stroke of luck found a near perfectly intact pair of sunglasses.

I had obviously missed my turn onto 151, and was starting to feel somewhat discouraged, then a man in a truck by the name of Don Regby happened by and asked if I would like a ride. I obliged and asked him where he was going, he said about 2 miles out of Monticello... Wow, things really seem to be working out perfectly in my favor don't they? Don had an adorable little puppy named calvin who quickly cuddled up to me for the entire ride. Don and I discussed past jobs we have had and our ambitions to travel, the ride seemed almost too breif as we reached his home. I bid Don fairwell and he wished me good luck on my journey and I continued down the road.

Now, Monticello is an absolutely GOURGEOUS town. Anybody who finds old style architecture and a plethora of trees and flowers and artistic decorative pieces pleasing to the eye would love this little town in Iowa. When I reached it I was excited for several reasons; first, I had reached my goal for the day before 1 p.m. second, the town was so beautiful I couldn't help but be excited, and third, the first things I saw as I walked into town were signs pointing to campgrounds and a park which gave me solid options for sleeping tonight.

I called my dad to let him know I was alright and sat down to a meal of beef jerky and granola bar in the park while enjoying the view. I then found my way through the town to a church so I could ask if perhaps they knew of someone who needed odd jobs done in exchange for a meal or small amounts of money or a bed/shower. Unfortunately, nobody was at the church... So I made my way to the library, it was very easy to find due to the fact that the town is pretty small and here I sit typing this blog entry.

I will keep you posted, thanks for reading!