love love love me some blues! inspired to listen and sketch while I drink a soda (same price as a beer). almost forgot i had this skill. blues got ahold of me!

New country (or same) = new hat! and if youre going to spend one saturday night in memphis. 5 dollar tall drinks are going to make blues rock your soul to your toes....

Feel like I'm somewhere different. Somewhere gritty and full of deeper music. Full of neon signs. Fried Catfish. And the blues. This city is far from perfect. But im charged up, a little nervous, and feeling alive. Memphis baby! Memphis!

Traveling the Mississippi, in a canoe.

I've been conflicted about traveling thru hostels, as opposed to being thrifty, and meeting locals, thru Couch Surfing. On the other hand, I've meeting great people from around the world (and the U.S.) and getting new ideas. There's 3 bunk beds in my hostel room (the Pilgrim House Hostel inside of church in Memphis). Its just me and another guy, who's Scottish and a resident of New York. He's  been canoeing solo down the Mississippi for the 5th time and is on his third month. Camping. Avoiding flying carp. And making crafts out of beer cans, to pay for his bar tab. Perhaps I can join him later on his trip.

Where am I?

Still in Nashville. This is the worlds only full scale replica of the greek Parthenon. Amazing? well sort of. It started as wood and plaster mock up for an early 1900s Expo and stood next to a giza pyramid and the worlds largest see saw. When everything came down the pathenon stayed and was redone using modern concrete. Even the original statues were recreated using concrete. Those statues dont look great. Seems like one of those things that shouldnt have been done. But the parl and lake from the expo were also kep startung the wonderful park system in Nashville. The Nashville art museum is asmall collection of impressionist paintings on one floor and a massive 40ft Athena statue filling the 2nd floor. Looks like massive buddhas in Asia minus the gold paint and charm. The museum is not worth the $6 but is worh $2 to learn why they would build a parthenon. If someone asks you where
there is a full size Parthenon in the US. Now you know.

Southern Foood and biking. Living the life!

I am happy that this delicious meal of fried catfish, collard greens, cornbread, mac & cheese, and sweet tea was followed by 5 hours of urban biking. I rented a bike from the hostel for $10. The weather was sunny but brisk; outside the city the wind was strong. I rode in all directions. Found the long strip of houses which serve as record labels for the thousands of never be country stars and tote such talent signing as Kings of Leon.
Through the city the re were well marked bike lanes. Loads of signnage 'Music City Bike Way' and 'Bike Parking'. The trail had a bike lane thru town. And then a super wide bike/walking brick sidewalk which led far out of the city. One bridge had been converted to a pedestrian bridge. Crossing over brought you to a trail around the stadium then down past factories and past gold courses and long parks. There was rarely a time I felt threatened by vehicles. and all of the buses local and the free city loop bus had bike racks. But where were the other riders?

When asked if you are a college student, the answer should always be YES. $15 tix to Nashville hockey! unfortunately, now I have to watch hockey. ha ha.

I feel like ive made it somewhere important. Nashvilles wild baby!

Knoxville, Tenn.: Tired of waiting around in the bleak bus station I found it was a short walk to downtown. Old brick buildings line the streets. There seem to be a good amount of nice looking bars that play music. Also lots of creative design firms. The local transportation appears to be wheeled trolleys. The city is pretty flat, theres a lot of bikes (and bike racks). Low mid-day traffic and more suits walking around then Asheville . Apperently this is an energy company hub and there is VW plant. Lots of restrauraunts, some classier, and vegetarian options. Train tracks border the town. No hostel here; and ive got some funny looks wearing my backpack. Lots of country music history here. Well planned city on a river.

The beauty of bus travel scheduling left me with two options to get from Chattanooga from Asheville (a 4 hr destination): 5 hour layover in this luxurious lobby or boomeranging out to Nashville west, transferring and heading back east for a total of 6 hours on a shaky bus and slightly reclining seats. I'm building my lobby fort. My neck hurts already. And the ticket guy joked in an unfunny way that I'd be locked in which wasn't true (like when I was locked into a Chinese police friend's apartment). On the trip to this station the previous bus station manager told me to board the bus; then the bus driver was disgruntled with me for having boarded the bus. I understand that these operators deal with a lot of shit but i couldnt be more friendly or apologetic in these situations. Hoping for attitude improvement as I continue my travels as Id rather be promoting bus travel.

Every now and then a pub crawl of amazing breweries happens. And  and the walnut gorgonzola mushroom w sesame crust pizza was delicious. and soon it wil be 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11.......

The key to the cities: UNLIMITED bus pass.

Here it is, unfettered access to almost any destination in the US and Canada (at the slowest possible pace). At 6AM I was on the train to Hartford tiredly gazing the sunrise; don't think I've yet begun travel without a sleepless night of preparations. 

At the Greyhound counter the attendant priced the ticket at a 100 more than the website (citing lower online prices). She wasn't nice, however the other attendant was, especially when I questioned if the ticket price was higher because they had given me a 60 day pass (rather than the 30). I was correct, but decided that an extra month for a $100 was a good enough deal to hang onto (and hadn't been advertised): $556 to go anywhere. How will this change my plans?

Overnight all the way thru to Asheville, NC - 24 straight hours. Sorta comfortable, mainly because of the frilly travel pillow I brought not because of the seats or cold air. Half of the Greyhound attendants and drivers are mean, half are amazingly friendly. Guess they deal with a real mixed crowd.  Should I be hopping trains like Kerouac?

Preperations.

What is necessary to travel from place to place for several months? Shoes (maybe just flip flops), a pair of pants, a t-shirt. Passport. And cash. I think that's all you really need. A towel and a toothbrush, if you want to get fancy.

In a world full of personal possessions ("stuff" as George Carlin would say), narrowing my life down to a bag full of necessities is absolutely freeing. Last trip I over-packed, and for a short time I believe my neck vertebrae separated due to the weight of my shell (seems fine now). I have since learned that bootleg Lonely Planet guides can be bought in Cambodia for a dollar

Welcome to my new blog!

Ah...My first post on the new blog. Love that new blog smell! OKAY... A lot of people asked, "Hey Tom, What happened to the old blog? Why'd you stop? You deserve a Pulitzer. yada yada..."  Well, as it turned out, the internet in Asia, especially behind China's firewall, was pretty crappy (and often expensive, pitting precious blog money against precious drinking funds). I could barely access the sluggish Word Press site; and I definitely couldn't upload photos, or even respond to comments. Finally, I decided to live the moment and stopped messing with the blog, and computers. I continued to write to myself, for free, and sadly you missed out on a ridiculous amount of adventures -- the boring stuff like crashing my first motorcycle, eating a live snake, and free climbing up a cliff (to come back down with a heart-stopping leap into the water). I wasn't able to share my mind full of introspective, detailed accounts of amazing people, descriptions of beautiful landscapes, notes on efficient public transportation, reflections on lifestyles far removed from our own, or those tender romantic moments (I am a gentleman!).

On my return, I was very glad to hear people enjoyed my blog,