Van Horn, Texas

After finishing up training in Jacksonville, I rented a twenty-six foot Penske truck, smashed all my stuff into the back, shipped my car, and started the first mile of a 4,000 mile trip. I left Sunday early evening and made it as far as Marianna, Florida. Still not out of the stupid state. Day two had me past Pensacola, through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and into Texas. Wonderful Texas. The greenery lining the highway was now a bunch of brown dirt and tumbleweeds, but I was out of Florida and that's all that mattered. Day three had me going through El Paso - basically Mexico in the United States. I could see the border, which was just a giant brown see-through fence about fourteen feet high. That immediately brought back unpleasant memories of a trip to Ensenada. An hour later I was out of El Paso and back on Highway 10 surrounded by brown hills of dead weeds. A few hundred miles ahead was a town I hadn't visited since I was ten or so - the illustrious Van Horn, Texas.

Back then, my Grandpa, Mom, sister and I took road trips from California to Austin, Texas to visit my Aunt. I remember staying in this one street town twice and eating at a local Mexican restaurant both times. The town seemed a lot smaller to me then, which may be surprising because it's still incredibly small. Here are the outskirts (gas is only 2.59!):



Further in:

Here is Chuy's, the same restaurant I ate at more than a decade ago:

I'm really disappointed this one didn't turn out too well because I'll probably never drive through here again. But here it is. Still the John Madden hall of fame too.

And back on the road. I never actually stopped in the town because stopping a twenty-six foot truck and trying to find parking isn't worth it...even if I'll never return.

There I go on the right of the picture. A friendly driver took this for me. Just kidding.

The Ninth Ward - New Orleans, Louisiana

While in New Orleans we decided to take a drive to the Ninth Ward - the hardest hit and most destroyed part of the city after Hurricane Katrina. CJ said we would get shot by squatters hiding in the wreckage, but we went anyway.

Welcome to the Historic Lower Ninth Ward...we couldn't really figure out where the upper half is. First sign I see after entering:

I thought it was pretty funny until I found out ACORN stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Not so funny anymore. Once we turned off the main road things got a lot quieter. Cement foundations were all that remained of some of the houses. There were no cars or people to be seen anywhere and the only sound was the wind blowing through overgrown weeds. It was eerie.

While driving around everything looked pretty much the same. There would be three or four abandoned houses in a row followed by one or two that were fixed up and had families living in them again.

The "X" mark was on all the abandoned houses and was placed there by rescuers / search parties after the hurricane. It varied a little from house to house, but basically showed the date the house was searched, the search party organization, any hazardous chemicals found inside, and how many alive / dead were found.

A lot of the houses had broken windows and no doors. The one above was missing a door and you could see up to the second story. In many of the houses the previous occupant's furniture and miscellaneous items were visible through the broken windows.

About an hour later we left the Ninth Ward having managed to not get shot. The few people we did see were either residents occupying the fixed homes, or old men staring off into the distance and sitting on the porches of abandoned houses with crumbling walls and no roofs.

New Orleans Part Deux, Louisiana

I had a five day weekend and decided to do something other than sit around and rot in Jacksonville. After a few minutes of contemplating, I decided to visit CJ and New Orleans once again. I left Friday, July 17 and arrived ten hours later after a brief stop in Pensacola. Matt also came for the weekend from Little Rock but could only stay until Sunday. Sucker. Unlike the last trip (Mardi Gras), the weekend was quiet overall and we got to see much more of the city, which I think is far from the drunken insanity that comes to mind when one mentions New Orleans.

Here's canal street - so calm and peaceful.

The Gumbo Shop someplace on Decatur. It was really good. After we finished eating I was on the verge of throwing up the rest of the night because I was so full. Probably shouldn't have eaten that entire loaf of bread.

The famous Cafe Du Monde and Matt stuffing his face. It's hard to see, but his giant mug in the foreground is full of a wine and coke mixture.

Outside Cafe Du Monde where this guy stopped and posed for us.

For lunch on Sunday CJ took us to some small seafood shop where we bought five pounds of crawfish, a pound of shrimp, corn and potatoes for thirty bucks. We then went across the street to a local bar that let us eat on their patio as long as we bought drinks. Amazingly good. The title picture is of a fountain outside the bar.

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New Orleans Riverwalk

Sunday we also took a trip to the Ninth Ward - one of the hardest hit areas by Hurricane Katrina. More on that later.

Bye CJ!

Monterey Park, California

Welcome to the Asian capitol of the United States. The city is approximately 43% Chinese according to a recent survey. You know what that means... Asian drivers. The city motto is "Pride in the Past, Faith in the Future." Good alliteration!

Monterey Park should be most famous for one of its residents - Laura Scudder, who invented the potato chip bag. Before her invention using cellophane, potato chips were "packed in barrels or tins, which left chips at the bottom stale and crumbled." Such a sad fate. She was also the first to print freshness dates on products. Her Monterey Park factory is now probably a cafe that changes it's name every few months to avoid additional taxes.

Thanks to Russell for knowing that information.

Anyway, the top picture is a flawless panoramic I created of my balcony's view. Since I don't know how to use photoshop, I decided to leave it that way. (click for higher resolution)

Here is the main park of Monterey Park known as Barnes Park where residents partake in park-related events.

It's a relaxing place to go nowadays. Lots of memories here. Back in elementary and high school we used to play tennis, bike, and go to local festivals such as this:

Across the street is the world-famous Bruggemeyer Library which has been completely redone and now stands two stories tall.

Here is the local transit system - The Spirit...since at least July, 2001.

This is possibly the busiest intersection in the city. You should shop and dine in Monterey Park. The white building in the background holds the prestigious title of tallest structure in the city.

This is main street - Garvey Ave. I have no idea why it's so empty.

Garvey Ranch Park

Here's a pretty crappy picture of Sequoia Park, a park that I live 3 seconds from.

The infamous, severely underfunded Mark Keppel High School. Go Aztecs.

This is the bridge that connects Monterey Park and Alhambra. Keppel is on the right. (photo taken on the bridge)

Twilight, or The Gloaming, taken July 5, 2009. The Gloaming sounds so eerie. Here's to you Monterey Park - the best city in the United States. You make Jacksonville cry. I will return again someday to drink your Boba milk tea and eat at your B-rated cafes.

St Augustine, Florida

St Augustine is a historic town about thirty miles south of Jacksonville. The streets are narrow and half the buildings don't even have electrical connections...which means no air conditioning...which means miserable during the summer. The architecture somewhat resembles the buildings in New Orleans.

Here is the world famous Castillo de San Marco National Monument. The red "X" flag means death to the English if they ever try to invade the Spanish fort.

Go florida.

Here's one of the alleyways.

This was on the bathroom door.

No air conditioning.