Memories of America

I haven't been keeping up this blog, and not sure if I will continue to in the future... but as I was recently banned from ever returning to the United States of America (despite never committing a crime), I'm inspired to post some of my favourite photos from my travels there over the years....

The Mall in Central Park, New York City 2005

Chillin with Abe in Las Vegas, 2005

Hollywood, 2005

Times Square, New York City 2008

2008... I got to see RENT before it closed...

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge with Mateo and Lucy... 2008

Hanging with Mica in Brooklyn, 2008

On stage with Steel Panther, on my 30th birthday.  Las Vegas

What do you do when you turn 30 on the 30th? GO TO VEGAS BABY!

One of the best days of my life, hands down.  Vegas with my besties, 2010

Central Park with Mateo, 2010

Condoms everywhere! Museum of Sex, New York 2010

Of course I took a photo here.  New York 2010

The High Line.  New York 2010

Impromptu dance party on Freemont St.  Las Vegas 2011

Babes and guns.  Las Vegas 2011

Hi... I'm in... Delaware.  2012

Discovering Four Loko.  Hartford, 2012

Touching an actual dinosaur print.  For realsies.  Dinosaur State Park, 2012

Sunset in Key West, Florida.  2012

We went all the way to Florida to swill in parks and poop behind trees... Key West, 2013

Miami Beach, 2013

New York with many friends, 2013

Memphis TN, 2013

Austin, TX 2013

So glad I got to go here.  Nashville, TN 2013

Sober? Who needs sober? New Orleans, 2013

One of the last photos ever taken of me in my favourite city... New York 2013

Holy roadtrip

WOW.  I bought a car originally so I could drive around Canada and the States, and well...that's being done.   But I don't have a car anymore.

Left Ottawa Tuesday morning with Karine and DD, so we could get ourselves to Austin, Texas in time for http://chaosintejas.com/ on Thursday.  The drive down was gonna be soooooo awesome, here was the plan:

Tuesday: hit the road at 5am, so we could get to Nashville, TN by 9pm or so.  Go out to some crazy cowboy bars,  and stay at a fancy Nashville hotel that I'd booked ages ago.

Wednesday: hit the road around lunch, and get to Memphis mid-day so we could go to Sun Records, Beale Street, etc.  Stay somewhere random Wednesday night after partying on Beale St, then head to Austin the next morning.  Get to Texas around dinner Thursday.

SO.  That was the plan.  Here's what really happened:

Tuesday: hit the road just after 5, closer to about 5:30.  Crossed the border with no issue, so we were happily sailing down the I-81S when we put our hotel name in Nashville into the GPS.  It gave us an arrival time of about 7:30pm, so we were sooooo excited as this meant we'd have an entire evening to go out.

This was right about the time I heard DD's voice in the backseat say 'DEER!'.  Then a large deer appeared right in front of my car, and I slightly swerved to the right and RIGHT into the second deer.  THUMP.  It hit the hood and flew across both lanes of the highway and landed on the left shoulder, and I slowed my car and pulled onto the right.  My first thought was OMG THE DEER, not even thinking of my car, until I heard Karine say, 'Danielle..YOUR CAR'.  I realized that smoke was billowing out of front, and the hood was crumpled.  Got out, grill cracked in half, something leaking out, sunken it.  I have never been so happy to have CAA.  We got lucky to be honest, me were all fine, and the deer didn't hit the windshield.  I was also really happy to be able to say I was not speeding, was not texting, was not doing anything other than driving as I should have been, watching the road, when it happened.  It wasn't my fault at all, if I'd been texting and not looking at the road when it happened I would have felt like the biggest asshole, and biggest idiot.

Thank FUCK I'd upgraded to CAA plus, I originally just had the one with 5km in towing, but now I have the one with 100km so we were safe.  UNFORTUNATELY, the lady at AAA was an idiot, and had the tow truck driver tow us back to Ogdensburg, rather than Waterford.  Ogdensburg was 45 minutes back...and they have no car rental agency.  So by the time we were given the go-ahead by my insurance company, I then had to pay $50 to take a cab to Potsdam to rent a car.  This garbage took us about 3 hours out of our way, if they'd towed us to Waterford we would have saved that three hours and also been closer. UGH.  Really annoying.  All in all the whole ordeal delayed us about ten hours, so rather than get to Nashville in time to go out and do something, we got there at 6am and crashed until the front desk called to kick us out at 1pm.

Now...remember we left Ottawa at 5am.  And Nashville is an hour behind, so it was almost 7am when we got there.  We'd been up and driving almost 26 hours.  We are driving machines!

We wandered around downtown Nashville for an hour or two, just enough time to be sad we didn't have more time there, then headed to Memphis.  Which we got to...at7pm...right when everything closes.  YEAH.  So we ate some chicken and waffles (delicious!!!!!) and hit the road again.  Drove as much as we could, and around 2am we pulled into a cheap motel in Prescott, Arkansas.

YEAH.  Now I know why I don't stay in cheap motels.  Karine and DD passed out right away, I laid there reading emails for a while (including one from my auto guy, telling me the repairs would be $4900, and they were still waiting for the insurance guy to go inspect.  But since the estimate was so much more than my car even cost, he was expecting it to be declared a total loss.  YEAH).  When I finally tried to sleep, I couldn't stop scratching my arm and foot...and finally realized how long I'd been scratching for and looked at my foot.  BITES.  Definitely not bedbugs, Karine and I had inspected the bed first and nothing, and the bites don't resemble bedbug bites.  I'm thinking some reaction to the sheets, because I then got up and slept in the car and as soon as I got out of the bed the bites stopped itching.

So.  That was our trip here.  No time for the fun things planned, BUT, now that we have a bit more time to get back, we've decided to just do those things then.  When we leave Austin on Monday we're going to drive to New Orleans for a night, then Tuesday we'll drive back to Nashville.  This means we'll be back in Ottawa MEGA late on Wednesday night, and I'll have to get back to Ogsdensburg Thursday or Friday to get some stuff out of my car.  I have a rear hub assembly in the back that Tim was going to put on before we left, thank fuck he didn't have time to do it because now I can return it and get $150 back.

Shitty because this trip was supposed to be really cheap, but I'm looking at my insurance deductible, we had to pay insurance on the rental so the extra drivers would be covered, etc etc.  But it's just money...this trip is still pretty amazing.  I can't even begin to describe how incredible this fest is and it's only the second night right now.  We were up til 5am, ending the night watching bands play on a bridge filled with hundreds of punks.  Amazing.

I'm watching 'UP' and just twenty minutes in, it is definitely going to be a favourite of mine for the rest of my life.  And, it just re-affirms that travel is something that should never, ever, be put off.  They should have gone to Peru together.  But the adorable way he's going on his own... ah I love this movie!

Fort Lauderdale (yes, again)

Yes, I was just here a few weeks ago.  And somehow, I'm lucky enough to be here again.  Ahhhh the hardships of dating an American businessman...always getting to tag along on business trips.

Not that today consisted of much 'business'.  Inside now after spending hours basking in the beautiful, hot sun.  And the water... oh my.  I have to say, this is one of the best, if not actually THE best, beach I've ever been to.  The water is WARM.  Apparently it's always like that.  And as soon as you walk in, it gets deep.  Walk in a few feet, and you can barely touch the ground.  Just enough waves to make it entertaining, but not enough to make you nervous (and I get nervous.  Especially after being left to drown by my snorkelling team in Exmouth, Western Australia last year. I don't think I'll ever get over that).

I hate resorts, but am admittedly falling for this 'resort hotel' deal.  The luxuries of most resorts without being stuck on it all the time; and without the shitty all-inclusive deals where they pad you full of weak drinks and meager buffets.  Here, you are on the beach; there are tons of restaurants and bars in the hotel; but you are also IN the city, not on some remote area where you have to pay a tour bus a hundred bux to get you anywhere.  So, you can lay on the beach if you choose, or you can head out.  I like it.  More than I thought I would, which is actually a nice surprise.  Turns out I'm not *just* a backpacking addict; I could kind of get used to these lazy sunny days.

It has been almost two years since I went to Central America and realized what my true love in life was: travelling (Well, one of my loves.  I also love cats. And cupcakes.  And something else that starts with 'c', but I'll keep this PG for now).

When I got back from Central America, I was so in love with travelling I saved my ass off and took myself to Australia for six weeks. And since then, I haven't left North America.  Wtf?

My man takes me to the States pretty much all the time now, and not to sound ungrateful, but it's not 'travelling'.  He takes me to fancy hotels, and we eat out at restaurants all the time, all possible amenities provided for.  No adventure, no uncertainty. Lots of fun, yes, but.  I miss the uncertainty.

Not to say I've been lacking adventure completely - when A and I did our east coast trip, we decided as we went along where/what we were doing; we turned my car into a bed for three; and we saw things that rival what I saw in Belize, and Australia, for most gorgeous scenery ever.

But I want to get out of my own again.  I want to do my southeast Asia trip.  Me and my backpack.  I want to go somewhere foreign.  Where I'm challenged, every day, to socialize, adapt, and survive.  Life here in North America is pretty damned easy,  no matter where you turn.

This past year I kept trying to recover from my robbery, and couldn't.  And other things happened which changed my life, in very hard ways, and made it difficult to leave.  When you keep losing friends, it's hard to pick up and run off on the ones that are still here.

But I'm still here.  And part of who I am is having to run off from time to time.  It's the biggest reason I do the job I do: I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want.  I have a good income.  So why the hell haven't I left?  Hmmmmmm.

Florida Keys

What a beautiful day.  Drove from Fort Lauderdale right down to Key West.  Traded in the original rental for a convertible, my very first time riding in one - and first time driving one!  God it felt amazing to zip over the bridges between keys, top down, wearing nothing but a bikini.

Stopped at Bahia Honda State Park, and found a beautiful, small, white sandy beach.  Little piece of heaven.  Got onto Key West right before the sun set, so sat on a pier and reveled in that before heading back here.  The drive back to Fort Lauderdale was definitely not as exciting at night as it was during the day, instead it was just LONG.  Flight leaves in 5.5 hours, so now to try and stay awake so I can get to the airport on time.

Although, I have to say, I wouldn't be too upset if I had to stay down here for a while longer... :)

Best drives in the world

Well, A and I did the Cabot Trail, one of the best drives in the world, and today I get to cross another one off that list - I'm about to drive from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the end of the Florida Keys.  Gonna be another day wishing I had more time here, but at least I'll get to do a bit of it!

I know what I'm getting myself in to when I share a room with three people. But does it have to seem weird that i cant sleep inthe middle of a loud bright room? really?  I can't sleep when people are talking/the teevee is blaring/ the lights are on.  I like dark and quiet when I sleep, that's NOT WEIRD PEOPLE it's normal!!!!

DINOSAURS!!!!!

Road triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!!!!

Currently sitting in my hotel room in Hartford, CT, drinking a vodka redbull before heading off to the venue to see a few of my favourite punk bands play tonight.  And today, just about an hour ago, I touched an actual dinosaur footprint!!!!!!!! I love travelling with Karine because instead of just party she likes to check out the area and do cool things, and we discovered last night that Hartford is the site of 200 million year old dinosaur tracks.  We walked in and I was actually shaking with excitement; I think it was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

It's funny because as I'm typing this, the television show in the background is playing 'Kokomo' by The Beach Boys, and it started the song right at the part about the Florida Keys - which is my next trip, in less than two weeks, ha!

My last three trips, this one included, have all been so different from each other it's hilarious.  A friend of mine was laughing the other day about how, looking through my photos, you see me and A on a trip, living in my car, and only two weeks later there I am in the States with my man, living in swanky hotels.  Now I'm in a swanky hotel, but the room is overtaken by punks, and one snores so loudly that last night I set myself up in the bathtub to sleep so I could shut the bathroom door and keep the noise out - seriously

I'm so happy that this year I'm actually doing what I wanted to do - I'm travelling around North America.  There is a possibility that in October I'll drive a friends car down to California from Ottawa - which means that I can stop in Utah, Nevada, and all of the gorgeous scenic places I've been dreaming about.  AND it means that my decision for next year of either doing Western Canada or America will be made: if I drive to California now, then next year will be Western Canada for sure.  And the year after that... well then, by then I think I'll have to step off this continent again :D

I hate flying.

Or more accurately, I hate airports.

Plastic knives to eat with.  $13 cocktails. Not being able to bring in my bottled water.  Sitting here, waiting...waiting...waiting... for my flight, which was supposed to be leaving in five minutes, to start boarding.  FUCK YOU AIRPORTS!

After a lazy Sunday afternoon spent reading a book in Central Park, I'm now sitting in Hell's Kitchen enjoying my last moments of vacation.  This moment includes a mind-blowingly delicious red velvet cookie, oh yeah.

I've had an amazing week, but goddamn I can't wait to get home.  Ten days away, living out of my suitcase; one week home, working my ass off; one week on the road, living out of my suitcase.  Incredible, but exhausting.  And fattening.

I can't wait to get home and wake up tomorrow with my fluffy monsters snuggled in to me.  To not have to get up and BE anywhere (well, until work, but that's not until mid-afternoon).  To go to the gym.  To COOK FOOD.  I haven't made myself a meal in three weeks.  THREE WEEKS! That's nuts.

I have twelve days of normality before hitting the road with Ashley for a punk fest in Hartford.  That promises to be a weekend of extreme fun and gluttony, so the next twelve days have to be focused on healthy eating, sleeping well, and working out.

I love that, even though I've had to keep postponing my big trips, I'm managing to jam so many incredible short excursions into my life.  As much as I'm ready to be home now... I can't wait to hit the road again.

Almost home again...

My mini-American roadtrip is coming to an end, and even though I'm on a train to my favourite city in the world (NEW YORK!!!) I'm feelings pangs of sadness, but not because the trip is ending.  I miss my man already.  These long-distance things...ugh.  I love it in a way, because when we're together I can kind of close the rest of the world out and just focus on us.  But I hate it too, because if during that time you're not feeling 100% (like me yesterday), it's hard to hide that and remain positive.  I don't want to spend a day of our limited time together feeling sick, but what can you do?  In my head I want us to be happy every minute we're together... but I guess that's just not possible. You have to decide at one point, am I going to pretend it's all good, in order to keep up this idea of being a fantasy, or are you going to admit you're grumpy/nauseous/tired and accept the reality that no one can really be a fantasy *all* the time?

Stupid reality...

It's funny how within the last few weeks I've had two such differing trips, each one so amazing.  A and I and our limited budget, stopping at every tourist attraction to take silly photos, sleeping in the car, soaking up every minute of the incredible Canadian landscape.

Then this American trip, money not really an object (although I kept telling him it should be, it's hard to get the stinginess out of me sometimes!), sleeping in fancy hotels,  eating and drinking like gluttons, trying to fuck in as many States as possible (we hit six on this trip, missed out on three though, grr!), and planning to hit tourist attractions but passing them up to spend time together instead.  American monuments just don't seem that interesting when my hot American boyfriend is laying in our giant bed.  

Normally when I return from a trip I just need to adjust my mind back into the reality of Ottawa and my daily life.  Now, I need to adjust my mind back to the reality of Ottawa and my daily life... and to try not to feel too wistful that I have to wait weeks again before I have my man in bed beside me.  BUT, mixed in with that wisftulness is the excitement and anticipation of seeing him again in a few weeks - ahhhh life.  Everything is a double-edged sword with you!

In Philly. Off to a bar where I can drink beer in bumper cars and eat vegan corn dogs (I'd say pogos, but I'm in America so I have to speak American).

Tomorrow I will ingest both a vegan and a regular Philly cheese steak.  Good thing there's a sweet fitness centre here and I brought my resistance tubes for a good workout.  In Canada, I'm able to go to Goodlife anywhere, so on my east coast trip I still hit the gym 3-4 times.  Here, I'm being spoiled and treated to gorgeous hotels, that are all decked out with fancy cardio equipment and pools.  Whoa. La.  

Now for a little American History

Will be spending the afternoon checking out Civil War monuments and purrhaps the Edgar Allan Poe museum in Richmond, VA, before spending the night in Washingon DC! Got a room right by the Lincoln Memorial, so I foresee a drunken me screaming JENNY!!!!!! like I'm Forrest Gump later.  Also gonna see the White House, Washington Monument, Smithsonian.... oh yeah!!!!

Today will also be my first time driving a vehicle other than my own car ever (well I drove Katie's car for my drivers test, but that's it), and my first time driving on American roads.  Stay off the roads, my American friends :P

Philly tomorrow and Friday, then NEW YORK CITY Saturday night!!!!

Home again

Survived the 15-hour drive home.  And only drank two cups of coffee and two energy drinks to make it (I was the only driver).  Been home about three hours now and feeling really wonky, every time I move my head it's like a haze and I know I should be asleep but I can't shut my brain down.  Ugh.  Hoping to wake up feeling okay tomorrow, because I have a lot to do this week before hitting the road again in a week! This month will bring about TWO mini-American roadtrips, YAY!  Can't wait!

Trailer Park Bitches

Yes, we dressed up like the Trailer Park Boys and went to the park where they shot season one.  Meet Julianne, Rikki, and Boobles.

We rule.

Bay of Fundy

Did you think it would be possible for me to gush even more about how amazing this trip is?

Tonight we walked through the mud in the Bay of Fundy, watching a group of girls go mud-sliding.  Goddamn it looked like fun, but they had clearly come prepared for that adventure - their car was parked beside ours, and the entire interior was coated with garbage bags. Our feet and ankles were coated in this red, clay-like mud, that took three washes to come off my feet.  And we just walked out into it - we weren't doing mud-angels and slip-n-slides like they were.  But were they ever having a time, if I lived out here I think I'd go out and do the same.

The sun was starting to set so we decided to drive around and find a place to camp and spend the night.  I wanted more than anything to camp right on the beach, like Mike and I did last year, but the tides are extremely high at this time of year and there would be no BEACH on the beach at high tide, just tide.  So we drove for over an hour down the coastline, looking for a road to bring us anywhere suitable to park for the night.  Every thing that looked like a road turned out to be someone's driveway.  I was way more disappointed than I let on when I suggested just heading back to Truro and spending the night somewhere there.

Then, we found it.  A tiny roadside pointing us to a dirt road, which we followed until it turned into an even smaller dirtroad, fallen trees lining it on both sides.  A was terrified, and I was making jokes about how in a horror movie, we'd be yelling at the screen 'TURN BACK YOU IDIOTS!!!!'.  But I couldn't even stop and turn around, because it was so narrow.  So we kept going.

And now I'm sitting the back of my car, about 30 feet away from the ledge overlooking the Bay of Fundy.  There are two campers here, so we're obviously on someone's property, but they're not home and it's late, and it's the east coast, so even if they show up I highly doubt they'll be mad at us.  So this means we get to stay in a Canadian paradise tonight.  And in the morning, we get to walk out onto the Fundy shore, and make a fire and watch the sun come up over the coast, before heading to Burncoat Head Park, the site of the worlds highest recorded tides, where we'll jump in the beach before heading back to Halifax.

Travelling these days is so odd.  Here I am, at the end of a dirt road, on the edge of the Bay of Fundy.  Yet I'm still typing away on my netbook, and I still have cell reception.  Which reminds me, I need to get an new phone plan, because I just got my phonebill from a month of international texts with my man... and it's even scarier than the drive to this spot was, ha.

Technology is amazing. We're in Maccan, waiting for the highest tides in the world to come  in. Basically in the middle  of nowhere, nothing  but water and trees around  us...but even way out here, and even though he's on the other side of the continent, I'm able to sext my man.  AWESOME :D

Cape D'or

I'm not sure how it's possible, but every day out here so far has been my favourite.

I am sitting here winded and sweaty, having just walked down to Cape D'or, and back up the steep climb.  It was breathtaking.  I mean that literally - as Alanna and I stood at the literal edge of the rock cliffs, you could hear the intake of breath as we stood there, awestruck.

Today we woke up after spending the night in the car in a truck stop parking lot and headed to Joggins, where we were stoked to see the fossil cliffs.  Along the way, I pulled off to check out some wetlands, and we discovered we had accidentally come across one of the areas to view the 'tidal bore'.  To quote the guidebook, 'the Bay's incoming tide is so extreme that it temporarily reverses the flow of several rivers that empty into the bay.  When the tide and rivers collide (twice a day), a notable wave called a 'tidal bore' can be view moving upriver'.  It was pretty cool to see it rush in, and move past us in seconds.

We then continued to Joggins, which failed to impress.  It was awesome to stand on the beach and have the high tide push in on us, we had to give up our hunt for fossils and head back to the stairs out when the tide was almost pressing us against the cliffs.  But overall, not that exciting.

I do have one complaint about small-town Canada.  GET MORE GAS STATIONS.  We drove through four or five smalls towns with the needle on empty, passing signs counting us down to the next gas station - and the first sign said it was 56km away.  I was trying hard not to stress, while blasting through the winding country road at 120km, and A kept a good poker face on even though I'm pretty sure she would have killed me if I'd ended up stranding us on the side of the road.  But we made it, and I learned that I get at least 35km of driving even after my gas light has come on, so at least I'll know that for next time :P

Our next stop was Parrsboro, where A wants to go to the geological museum.  Along the way signs pointed us to Cape D'or, and we decided to check it out.

WOW.  Wow wow wow wow wow.  I was just standing, just now, on the edge of a copper cliff who knows how high up.  It was so surreal - jagged rocks everywhere, the water covered in fog, it felt so unsafe, which is something I'm not used to in Canada.  Here I'm used to ropes and things keeping you away from the danger.  But here there was simply a sign on the edge that said 'DANGER - actively eroding cliff'. One teeny little sign.

I can't believe I'm here.  It's been so amazing.

Tonight we're going to camp somewhere on the Fundy shore, before heading back to see friends in Halifax for a couple of nights and then... home to Ontario.  UGH!  At least I have a roadtrip with Ashley coming up to look forward to, and right after that my man will roll back in to town for a few days.  Without that to look forward to, I honestly wouldn't even want to go back.  I love it here.  I think I may have found my new home.

death to all mosquitoes