Saturday, June 16th – Day 6 – Amazon Jungle – Iquitos, Peru

I woke up to Ashuku tapping my foot and saying we were ready to go. I assumed this meant to go on the bird watching morning sunrise hike and I woke Mark as well, went to the main room and got my mud boots on and met some of the other group by the river. Ashuku was getting the frog out of the bag and “massaging” him until he secreted venom and it collected on his fingers, then he would wipe it on his knife. Ray Gonz and Molly Mulhern volunteered to try the experience. I was pretty close, but once I watched Ray do it, I was good. Ashuku took a stick, got it smoldering hot, and made 6 small burn dots on their biceps, then took the collected venom and rubbed it on the burns. They immediately turned red all over and sat down and then laid down after a 5 foot walk, they laid there and sweated. They both said they felt sick, like they had to purge, which is why Ashuku waited until morning, for an empty stomach. He said natives do it to “recharge”, get the blood moving, to clean the system. I was happy with my role as voyeur.

It only lasted about ten minutes, then we began our hike. It was thick and muddy and we stopped along the way to Ashuku point out some birds, iguanas and a termite nest. He took some termites in his hand, squished them and rubbed his hands together and it smelled like wood chips. He said it was a natural mosquito repellent. I let some crawl on me to get a look. We kept moving, seeing some of the jungle property on the way. The houses were basically a large platform that was a floor, open on all sides, with a sloped, thatched roof. Some had walls. When the water rose, the family still lived there, moving up into the rafters and the roof. The water rose 10-15 feet this last year. Crazy. We saw a man planting manioca, similar to tapioca or poi, and evidently you make a tea with human saliva mixed with it. We picked up a couple dog hitchhikers and made it to a swampy area to see more birds, before heading back to camp.

We had breakfast with bread and eggs and took a small rest break. Around 9 am we got in the boat and headed off to Monkey Island(La Isla del Monos), a place (not an island, by the way) where they have saved some monkeys who were injured, sick, etc. and the monkeys end up staying there afterwards. I immediately was the first one to pick one up and let them hang out in my arms and on my shoulders. They had spider monkeys, marmosets, and a few other varieties of monkey. It was awesome! And they all loved me. A few of them bit at some people. Molly got attacked a few times, nothing too horrible, but the monkeys seemed to have a dislike for women. Also one went after an African American who was scared to death of them. They were very interested in our things. They loved my water bottle, sunglasses, etc.

We went further into the “island” and two of the men working there went and found the 6 foot anaconda that was hiding in the bush, dragged it out and put it around a few of our necks for pictures. He was huge! And wild. He was not happy, he had a bulge near his tail end, where you could tell his last meal wasn't fully digested yet. Another man found a 3-4 foot python and grabbed it for us. He was hissing and snapping. We enjoyed the monkeys for a bit longer, gathered for a locally made alcohol drink. “7 roots” made of 7 roots, you guessed it, and fermented bee's honey. You could taste the honey, it was thick and had a spicy, cinnamon, nutmeggy taste to it. One of the monkeys had just peed on our boat, so the driver was washing it with water when we got back to the boat, and we sailed to a pennisula on the river to get in and swim in the Amazon.

The current was not super strong, but continuous, and when you got past where you could touch, it became quite a little workout. On my way back I felt a nibble on my leg, and the ground was thick, cold, soft mud. Both girls got bitten as well, with evident teeth marks that broke skin. Piranhas. We went back on the boat and tried to find the pink dolphins again to try and swim with them, but none got too close. We saw a few off in the distance, but nothing like the day before. Some of the guys took turns doing dives and flips off of the boat, and eventually we went back for lunch with meat and rice. Mark and I packed up, I collected the email addresses of my new friends and we said goodbye.

We left with Kaitlin, the girl who came by herself to attend the Huayawaska clinic, and we picked up a young indigenous woman on the hour long boat ride to give her a ride to the market where she was going to sell some bbq meat. She took photos of me and said she doesn't see many tourists. I think she was just keen on me. I talked with Jorge while Mark and Kaitlin slept in the hammocks. We talked about the economy and his dreams and goals of maybe owning his own tour company one day.

We got off back at the market on the riverfront and got back in the taxi. We decided after listening to some pricing and “amenities” to stay in the same place we had before. Solimos Hotel, I think it was called. We dropped our stuff, said hello to Jared again and took showers and then headed out to walk around. I found a rent-to-own type place with a cash window to change my dollars for soles. I realized I had left my ATM card in the machine the day before we left for the jungle, so I'm using my credit card to withdraw money and it only lets me get dollars. The city was happy tonight. It was Saturday night, and supposedly Friend's Day. Manana is Father's Day. The place was packed. We went down to the riverfront area, had a couple beers. I watched some guys do kappawea (sp?), the martial art invented to look like a dance to conceal it from the slave's masters back in the day. There were games and vendors, violinists, plays and a giant slide show with fine art. I bought a t-shirt, a homemade version of the main popular Peru shirt from a mouthy, witty, funny young Peruvian. We walked around the main circle for awhile before stopping at the Yellow Rose of Texas again. I also picked up a mask and a pen to take home at a little booth on a side street. We had some beers and I talked with my favorite Peruana bartender, Esther. Some friends we recognized from camp were there as well and we hung out with them all night. Joel from Australia, and Fran from Chile, a couple here for vacation as well.

We realized there are four main groups of travelers here: missionaries, druggies who want the huayawasca, hikers and older tourists. We stayed until 1, but I switched to water a bunch earlier and talked to Esther and we played American music. We said goodbye and all went back to the same hotel, they were staying at the same place, on Maniti's recommendation. I thought about staying up all night, but decided it wouldn't probably be the best decision.

Friday, June 15th – Day 5 – Iquitos

Woke up really early, considering we went to bed around 1:30ish. Woke up about 5 am because we were freezing. (I know, in the Amazon, right?) The room had an A/C unit way up on the wall, and it was fine when we went to bed, but didn't shut off, and we didn't notice it had a remote on the bedside table. But it ran all night and all we had were sheets. I woke up freezing and walked out and down the hallway to see Iquitos just after daybreak for the first time in the light. It is lovely and poor and sad and glorious all at once. Beautiful people, very poor. The young hotel worker, Jared, said he would go with me to find a phone charger and we hailed a mototaxi and found one. On the ride there we talked about the differences between our countries including minimum wage, street maintenance, plumbing, trash collection, how much a job pays and how much things cost as well. He was a cool guy, probably about 22. We made it back to the hotel, packed up, got a breakfast of toast and jam with banana juice and our driver came and picked us up for our Amazon trip. We got dropped off down by the river after driving for about 15 minutes, passing a lot of construction. The project was for a city-wide sewage treatment system. Currently, all the sewage goes to the river, untreated. After the project, it will all be sanitized. We walked through a small market near the water with fresh fish and fruit. I think a lady didn't like us very much and said some things under her breath b/c we didn't buy her fish. We walked down a wooden plank dock to our boat, a 15 foot long wooden boat with benches along both sides and a wooden roof. There were 8 of us. Mark, myself, Ray from the Netherlands, Molly from North Carolina, Mike from Massachusetts, Ray from Wisconsin, and Benoit and Annabelle from France. We saw some amazing birds and were told what each of them were. I remember the turkey vulture. We then came to the point where 3 rivers merge into each other, 1 being the Amazon. You could clearly see 2 black colored rivers flowing into the “milky coffee” Amazon and here we saw some pink and grey bottlenose dolphins breaching all around us. Then we stopped at a small fishing village to see their caiman alligator farm with giant lily pads. I bought a beer from one of the locals and was amazed by the beauty of this place. Saw a macaw, chickens and roosters were running around. Very different here. For example, our camp down river, in the room we are sleeping, there is a goose in a box in the corner of the room incubating some eggs. We saw the alligators, giant lily pads, and huge fish before heading back to the boat and going down river to our camp. First thing we see when we get there is a man carving a boat and fresh fish being dried out on a rack made from sticks. The dock was just a couple of boards and mud steps and the walkway was boards for about a quarter mile so you wouldn't have to walk in mud. The house has a semi-large room with 3 hammocks and the whole thing is screened in for bug control. There is one solar powered light and 2 large picnic tables. There are a couple of lamp lights lit by kerosene and the outhouse bathroom that is lit by glowsticks. There are 3 main sleeping rooms, 2 have about 10 beds each and the third has 3 beds. All the beds have mosquito nets over them and if you were reading this on my notebook as I'm writing it, you'd see many mosquito smudges on my paper, because they're all over. We were served lunch which consisted of cucumbers, tomatoes, some amazon vegetable with chicken, rice, potatoes and lemonade. I took a nap in a hammock and when I woke up, we took a pretty long boat ride and fished for piranhas with rods made from branches and fishing line attached to them. The boat motor barely worked when starting and stopping. I caught 4 sabalus and Mark caught the only 2 piranhas of the group. All-in-all we caught about 25 fish. We tossed them in the bottom of the boat. We headed back as the sun set over the trees. It was amazing. We saw heron, bats, kingfishers and many other birds on the way back. Also, earlier I had gone to a tree down by the river at camp and saw leaf cutter ants all marching from the mud with fallen pieces of flower from the mud, up a small vine, straight vertical for about 4 feet, then across a huge branch, and up the tree trunk further than I could see, it looked like the Planet Earth documentary, very cool to see. Dinner was ready when we got back from fishing. Beef with gravy, rice and pasta. I think we are eating the fish we caught for lunch tomorrow.

After dinner we walked down to the beach to look at all the stars, which were amazing with no light pollution for miles and miles. We saw the Southern cross and the scorpion, constellations which are only visible in the southern hemisphere. Molly and Ray had some marijuana from Iquitos and we smoked it, then we were supposed to go look for the espinoza frog, a crazy cool bright green tree frog found only in the Amazon jungle and has DMT, a toxin it secretes from its skin, which can have a psychedelic effect on humans. Unbeknownst to a few of us, this required a boat ride. Buzzing from the weed, I was giggly and in absolute awe of the whole experience. This sounds like one of the best stories of my life, sounds like a movie. Taking a nighttime boat ride on the Amazon River, millions of stars, many shooting stars, trekking up a muddy hill in mud boots, nearly knee deep in mud at places, up into a clearing lit only by the moonlight, down to a swampy area to find these brilliant green frogs. Our guide caught 2 of them. He used his machete to clean off a branch and caught one with a stick off of a branch that was seemingly out of reach. It was awesome. We went back to camp with the frogs, and almost everyone went to bed except for me, Molly, Ray and Ashuku, our guide. We stayed up for about an hour asking him questions as I wrote this blog. Whew! I hope I didn't forget anything...what a great day!

Thursday, June 14th – Day 4 – Lima, Peru

ots of Amy Winehouse going on, again, @ breakfast and also there were Amy Winehouse quotes spray painted on walls in the city. And UH – WOW!!! I'm writing this at night after the day has happened, and UHHH.....WOW!

Woke up and got breakfast again at the hotel, Mark and I walked about a mile and found the airline office in Miraflores and bought our plane tickets from Lima to Iquitos, and we were so glad we waited to buy them until we got to South America. It was only $130 USD each for a roundtrip! The internet price back home was about $300+. We went back to the hotel, showered, packed and checked out. We hung out in the lobby talking to my favorite hostesses, Marisol and Ali. They were great. We booked our trip on the Amazon on the hotel computer, arranged for a ride to the airport and waited for our driver to show up. He arrived and we went to the Lima airport, checked in, and went to eat at a place called Manos Morenas in the food court, we had a wiatress, which was different for a food court, and I ordered lomo saltado, a Peruvian favorite. It's a dish with beef and veggies. It reminded me of asian stir fry. When we were done eating, I noticed my camera bag was missing. I racked my brain if I could have possibly left it in the bathroom or something, but I know I put it under my chair as Mark and I sat down and ate in the food court. It was stolen from under my chair as we ate. AARRRRRGGGH! Seriously! Whatever. Trying not to think about my missing $1000 camera, Ipod, chargers, batteries, memory cards I just bought, lenses, brand new camera bag, cash, receipts, list of places to visit while on vacation, and outlet adapters. But it's hard to forget that. Not gonna let it ruin my trip though...At the end of the day, it's just stuff, replaceable stuff. I wish I had those pictures on there though. FUCK! Whatever. I must be more careful from now on. Not safe enough. I contacted security, walked to the police station and filled out a report. They were very nice and helpful, definitely tested my Spanish skills. They said they are cameras in the airport, but that also they pan back and forth, and the thieves are generally so good that they know the timing, so I'm not holding out any hope for its return.

Anyway, we got on our flight, it was almost all indigenous Peruvians, and we met a nice man named Lucas. Matthew, Mark and Luke in the same row. (Christian joke, ha!) He was awesome. A food salesman who lives in Iquitos and he invited us to his restaurant. He spoke little to no English, so my Spanish is definitely getting tested today. He talked fast and quiet and my ear has been kinda plugged up since my shower today, but I understood about 60% of our conversation.

Our ride met us at the airport, you could feel the humidity as we walked down onto the tarmac and we took a twenty minute ride of culture shock/amazement to our hotel. Motos and mototaxis everywhere. Crazier driving than Lima, it is sort of what I had in my head that traffic in Thailand would be like. Dirt roads, poor outdoor shops with no A/C, no tall buildings, and its fabulous. We get to our hotel, our room is on the 2^nd floor, down a long hallway, near a wall that hides the shanty next door. A small, clean, quiet room with A/C, s/70 (70 Nuevo Soles) (about $20 USD total, 10 each) per night. We mention I'd like to try and find a camera, so a hotel employeetakes us around town to several shops looking for one, but the consensus is that there isn't a decent SLR in all of Iquitos. Everyone says to try Lima. Whatever. Now my Amazon pictures will be taken on my PAS (point and shoot), which is starting to have issues as well. Robert took us on a mototaxi, to several shops, an ATM, and we bought him a beer before saying gracias and goodnight to him. Many, many vendors and people on the street wanting to talk. The streets are in bad shape, there are homeless people, and many homeless dogs and cats. We found a place called the Yellow Rose of Texas and we enjoyed the company of the waitresses and Esther the bartender for a few drinks. They looked up music for us online and played it for us. I was listening to the White Stripes in an American owned sports bar in the Amazon while watching the Heat beat the Thunder in game 2 of the NBA finals. Finally, we walked back to the hotel and called it a night. Tomorrow, the Amazon River.

Wednesday, June 13th – Day 3 – Lima, Peru

Woke up early, got ready and headed down for breakfast. They had a nice continental setup. I tried a new fruit, at least in its original form. Passion fruit, looked like an orange on the outside but was full of seeds and a jelly-like milky filling as well. Sort of looked like a pomegranate but the seeds are grey, it was delicate, sweet and a little tart. The banana/plantain was good as well and I had a fried egg with ham and cheese on bread as well. They had multiple fresh juices, one was peach I believe. It tasted exactly like the juice in the can when you buy fruit cocktail. We had booked a driving tour of Lima the night before and we met with our guide and walked around the park we had been to the night before, Parque de Amor. The mayor had started a longest kissing contest in this park in the past because everyone would come here to make out. 42 minutes was the record! We also learned that Lima gets only 5-6” of rain a year because of thermal convection, and because of the sheer cliff banks formed by a tsunami 100+ years ago. The convection is where two wind currents meet, and the cliffs are so high from the tsunami it causes foggy, misty conditions a lot, but no rain. It was very grey and overcast today. We drove through Miraflores, San Ibismo and other districts. Lima is beautiful, crowded and the main things that stuck out were fences and bars on windows everywhere. Many houses had sharp barbs on the metal fences and some had electric fences also. Also, it looks very poor in some areas, with really old power boxes and wiring everywhere. Lima is growing at the rate of 1.5 million people per year! Crazy. The drivers are crazy. There doesn't seem to be rules of the road, everyone just goes.

We drove by olive trees in the park, some pre-Incan ruins, and went down to the Plaza de Armas to see the catacomb museum. We were slowed down quite a bit because many people were demonstrating in the park about not wanting to mine for gold and pollute the water, so they blocked the calle for several minutes as they slowly crossed the roads on their way to the park.

The plaza was neat. Beautiful architecture, very old. There were police everywhere b/c of the demonstration, full riot gear, horses, automatic weapons, etc. But it wasn't too scary. We took pictures with the police. There were some Australians in our group and a girl from Chicago that looked exactly like a friend of mine, Nicole Rhoades. Some schoolkids were giving the thumbs up as they walked in front of my camera for pictures and they loved that I said “hola” to them. The catacombs were neat. Old frescoes, Portuguese tile, beautiful gardens, domes, architecture, etc. Then we moved on. We regrouped back at the hotel and went out on foot to find La Mar, a restaurant I had researched, owned by a world renowned chef, Gaston Acurio. We found it eventually, after passing it and walking around for a bit, but not too much trouble. The hostess was maybe the most beautiful woman I had seen in Peru. She sat us at the bar to wait for a table. I ordered a pisco sour, the national drink, as pisco was invented in Peru. Our table was ready, we sat, I ordered a five course ceviche digustation and a potato dish called causas. Ceviche is basically the national dish. It was delicious. Very nice, swanky, world class restaurant, and the two of us ate for about $55 USD. We walked back along the ocean and went down to the beach for a bit. The steps down the steep cliff were hopefully good practice for Macchu Picchu. On a side note, found out that it is Macchu Picchu's 100 year anniversary of being rediscovered. We walked to the Miraflores shopping district. It was very busy, bustling and lively. I found sunscreen, or bloqueador, an adaptor, contact solution, and 2 types of memory cards for my cameras. We then went to have a beer, but were coerced to a tattoo shop by a big American fellow who was excited to see us and wanted us to get tats at his shop. We didn't. He seemed high on cocaine, but was nice, but also said that he had moved here to get away from the cops back home. He had a friend getting a tattoo and we met her outside as she was done. Andrea is a native Peruvian who goes to school in Pennsylvania and her parents made a lot of money in owning real estate in Miraflores and selling it. Miraflores and Lima in general are very high real estate prices. She joined us for a beer, and we talked about the trip mainly, then walked a bit with her until she got a cab and then we walked back to our hotel.

Back at the hotel, Ali, the front desk girl tried to help us get plane tickets to Iquitos, but no go. We got frustrated after the websites wouldn't accept our credit cards. We tried 4 different ones. Something about secure MC and verified visa, an international thing we had not anticipated. But Fernando, the super nice front desk guy, promised to help us figure it out in the morning since the airlines weren't answering their phones either. We figure worst case scenario is we get cash and go to the airport. We'll see... Took my first malaria pill today and looking forward to the morning! Side note: Our new friend told us that Lima is nicknamed “Donkey's Belly” because it is always grey, especially in the winter.

Tuesday, June 12th – Day 2 – Miami to Lima, Peru

Woke up pretty early and enjoyed the continental breakfast at the hotel. Not bad. Eggs, waffles, sausage, bagels, etc. Mark and I decided to spend our day driving to South Beach and walking around before we returned the rental car and got to the airport. So after driving around looking for spots for about a half hour, we did just that. Walked the beach, dipped my feet in the Atlantic Ocean and enjoyed the scenery. Very nice. Saw a completely topless sunbather, caught me off guard, didn't know that was ok in Miami. Took some nice scenery pictures, found a nice little deli, got a banana, an odwalla drink, and an empanada. The cashier was so busy hitting on a cute Italian girl and barely noticed me, it took a few extra minutes, but it was tasty nonetheless.

We walked through South Beach shopping area and then drove back to the airport. It was the easiest drive to the airport ever, got right there returned the car super easy, went through security, with only one....oops! I left my boarding pass in the bathroom! moment, and a quick only take a few things out of the top of my bag security search in the international terminal. But other than that it was super smooth. We had time to get a drink and some wings in the concourse before our flight. I met some very well traveled Dutch girls to pass the time waiting for the flight and boarded the American 767.

Mark and I sat 1 row apart, and I spent time getting to know Jose, a Bolivian residing in Alabama who was going to Peru to visit his wife's family by himself. And also Laura, a freshman at Virginia who was going to intern in the Amazon teaching first aid. Mark met a nice young kid who told us all the ins and outs of Peru. He lived in Florida, but visited Lima once a year to see his grandparents.

The inflight movie was one with, I think her her name is MacDonald from Wedding Crashers, she played a woman who got partial amnesia in a car crash, romantic comedy, didn't catch the name. Lasagna for dinner. I passed the 6 hours watching that movie, napping, and not listening to my uncharged ipod. There were some nice folks on there, except for the old woman who tried to cut a bunch of rows on the plane, but only got as far as right next to me, making it difficult to get my things without hitting someone because she was literally pressed up right next to me. One unique observation was it felt as if the plane had landed already, the engine stopped, and movement seemed to stop before we actually landed. Everyone just looked around at each other. I came to find out that because of the mountain/ocean drop off and the air currents right by the Lima airport, the engines get oxygen deprived somehow, possibly from a gas emitted from the sea, shuts down, and you actually coast into Lima. New to me!

We landed, customs and immigration were a breeze, ended up in line with the young kid Mark sat next to and got his advice for awhile. We had a quick scare when our driver wasn't there waiting for us when we got out. We sat down, examined our options, looked for the hotel contact information, and decided to check again. He was there. I think our flight was a little early, but it was a relief to see him there. The driver for our Bed & Breakfast, Casa Bella, held up a sign with “Mathew Steward”, close enough for me. We got in his car and avoided many aggressive cab offers on the way out. The drive was almost 15 minutes. We saw lots of billboards, more than home, it was about 70 degrees at 9pm, and the time zone is the same as CST in Omaha, etc. It is the start of winter here now and the temps this week are 60-80 degrees, lows to highs. The driver was very nice, and I was pleased to realize I was understanding about 80% of his Spanish and talking with him pretty well. We rode through some fairly busy metropolitan areas, some slum type areas with shanties that consisted of one room “homes” made of concrete with corrugated metal doors. Prostitution is legal here according to the driver and he was surprised it was not where we came from. Didn't really see any, just came up when we were talking about the differences between our countries. Drove a bit more, right along the Pacific Ocean, near La Barranca and up to Miraflores, a very nice area. We arrived and checked in to Casa Bella, a 12 room Bed & Breakfast, with a very neat, homey feel. Our room is small, but nice. Two beds, alarm clock, flat screen TV, DVD player, desk and bathroom. Evidently plumbing is fairly new and the pipes are small, so you don't flush toilet paper here, you throw it away. The floor is beautiful wood and the DVD player has a USB port in it so I can charge my stuff. Good thing because the outlets are different than what I had read they should be. Need to buy an adapter tomorrow. The front desk lady was beautiful and very helpful, describing the Miraflores area for us, and Fernando was great too. We spent all night talking about Peru, the U.S., and life with him while enjoying some Cusquenos, a beer made in Cusco. We also made reservations to do a driving tour of Lima in the morning. Mark and I walked down by the ocean and there was a great little park with mosaic art and many sayings in Spanish decorating the place. We remarked how cool it was to be at the Atlantic Ocean in South Beach and the Pacific Ocean in Lima at midnight the same day. We returned to the hotel and told Fernando about Jack Johnson and Pandora after finding that he had been listening to John Mayer on YouTube. His wife teaches English and he lives in a $500 USD apartment that is about 900 square feet. After booking the tour and arranging for a wake up call, we called it a night, both wrote in our journals and listened to some Thom Yorke. My first music experiences in Peru are the Metallica phone ringer of the cab driver and Amy Winehouse on the hotel sound system. Hoping to see/hear some local music tomorrow, but not disappointed at all. Mark's a little culture shocked, knowing very little Spanish, but I feel good, and he assures me he will too...just might take a few days.

Peru! Monday, June 11 - 1st day -Omaha to Kansas City to Fort Lauderdale

I worked all day and night to finish my last website and do laundry and dishes and clean and work on another website and get all the things in order that need to be in order when you're not going to be home for a month. Beth called to come over and say goodbye and I didn't even realize it had been 8 hours of working. I quickly finished everything and went and had nachos and a $4.50 Bulleit bourbon on the rocks at the Old Dundee bar and grill and then headed out in my car to Kansas City.

The drive was fun for me. It was lightning the whole time, illuminating the sky every few seconds, and didn't rain at all for awhile. Then it did. It rained hard enough to almost make me pull over and stop under a bridge. But I didn't, I did slow down to about 45 in a 70, though. Still fun, I love the rain.

What I did not love was the fact that my buddy totally forgot we had made plans for me to stay the night and get a ride to the airport in the morning at 530am. He was out of town. So...I arranged to park my car at another friend's house, who was also out of town, on her honeymoon, leave my key and a note in her mailbox just in case anything were to happen. I slept in my car and called a cab to the airport at about 5 am.

It wasn't quite that simple, though. The cab I had arranged to pick me up at 530 called at 5 to say he had a flat tire and his jack wasn't working, so I should call another cab. I had another number in my phone from calling a couple places the night before, got them on the line and arranged pickup. He called back at 520 to say he was stuck in a flash flood and couldn't make it, and gave me a 3^rd number. Finally, the third man arrived and it was raining so hard that going from my car to his, 4 feet away, I almost locked my keys in the car and was completely soaked.

Finally got to MCI, to see some young punk almost punch an airline employee for not allowing his grandpa to bring a huge bag on board. I got on no problem, I had all my things for carry-on. A pretty big backpack and a chest strap camera bag. No checking, Mark and I decided, was the way to go. I had a good flight, chatting with my neighbor and napping to Dallas Fort Worth for a plane switch. Had a 30 minute layover and met a nice flight partner from Arkansas named Jennifer. We talked for awhile, then I slept again for about 2 hours.

In Fort Lauderdale (FLL) rented a Chevy Impala, drove to Daria Beach, in between Fort Lauderdale and Miami to meet up with Mark, my journey mate at our hotel, a very nice suite. I immediately found him at the pool and I changed and relaxed, laid out and swam for about an hour or so. Then we showered and got ready for the baseball game in Miami. Marlins vs Red Sox, $20 tickets.

Drove to Miami with help from my phone GPS. The stadium was pretty cool from the outside, but inside was kind of kiddish, neon, weird, with a crappy field. We watched several innings, I spent $20+ on a cocktail and a subpar cuban sandwich and we looked around the stadium, seeing different innings from different angles.

Afterwards, hit up the Walgreen's across the street for a contact case, since mine had leaked in my bag. Saw some drunk guys tickle an employee, bought some $6 sandals and headed back to the car. We had sort of a weird experience earlier where we weren't sure if our parking space was legit or not, you had to call a number and they told us they wasn't a spot there, we told them there was and it was weird. Nonetheless, our car was still there, and we headed out.

Even with GPS, we got lost 2-3 times trying to find the interstate entrance in pretty heavy game traffic. Finally, we righted the ship and made it back to the hotel. Had a cocktail at a nearby bar and to bed. Even with the naps during the flights, I had only gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep. It is 116am. Goodnight. Hello Lima tomorrow!

Road Trip – Omaha to Seattle – Recap, Thoughts

It was a great trip. I have seen some amazing natural beauty. I went through definite ups and downs along the way. Rain, car troubles, etc. could have gotten me down, but more often than not, it was just fine and sometimes enhanced the experience. I know the car thing already has made for great conversation starting. $1000, but who cares? I wonder how much money I have made in my life to this point? It always seems to come and go. Sometimes there's plenty, sometimes it's tight, but I have always made it through just fine with very little sacrifice. I know the experiences I have had on this journey by far eclipse any issue I have with money and hopefully I carry this attitude for the rest of my life. I regret not getting into Canada and I wish I could spend another day or two in Seattle, and maybe go further down the Oregon coastline, but that sounds like it would be a nice little trip sometime in the future. It got a bit lonely at times, but not too bad. In the future, I will probably try a trip like this with someone else, or have a trip like the one last year, where every few days I was meeting up with a friend. Probably the last long trip my Outback had in her, but, we'll see. Trips like this always leave you with time to think and put things into perspective. I am grateful for my friends and family. Also, Omaha seems boring in so many ways compared to many places I have been. It wouldn't be that bad, but there isn't really even anything close that is cool. You know, if you lived in Portland, you are less than an hour from mountains and less than two from beautiful beaches along the ocean. In Omaha, you're an hour from Lincoln and two from Des Moines. Maybe a couple State recreation areas, but not even any state parks and definitely no National anything. Oh well. C'este la vie. I have had many other thoughts in the days past about the trip and life and many other things, but this is what I feel today. I hope I can do something like this again soon. I love it.