Unemployed in a Small Town: stories from the road and a few photos...

I love traveling! Its like a drug for me, I feel so free when I'm on the road, not a care in the world. I could go anywhere, do anything. Its like a dream. So, as you know Nicole and I left South Lake Tahoe on the 12th of February and hit the dusty trail - destination: Vermont...but first San Francisco (where we found a sculpture made out of a graveyard that played music with the rising tide), Big Sur Coast (where we couldn't stop stopping just to look at the beauty and the big fat elephant seals!), Santa Barbara (to walk on the beach, admire the palm trees, and search for Sean and Gus...), Grand Canyon (to have a quick look, fix a quick sandwich, and continue onward), Phoenix (to visit Jess and Allison, climb a mountain and visit botanical gardens), Austin (to visit Becca, explore the city, and do some yoga in the park, and decorate our windows), New Orleans (just to experience the magic of it...and the pandemonium that is Bourbon Street), Tampa (to see Becky, Saint Pete's, more beaches, and fabulous sangria), Orlando (Ashley and Justin awaited us there...not to mention Disney, wine bars, and Stepford....I mean Celebration), Ocala (breakfast with Nicole's grandparents), Charlotte (for dinner with Cory, nighttime tour of the city, and a close encounter of the streaking kind), Baltimore (To visit Emily, John, and Maggie and a serious Mauritania memory sharing session, not to mention a visit to the Ace of Cakes), then bad weather at home and a serious desire for the trip not to be over, we headed to Hershey, PA (to take a realllly cheesy free but totally fake tour of the candy factory and spend some time in the gift shop) and then to New Jersey (to drive an hour and a half out of our way to go to a Victoria's Secret outlet - worth it) and then into Albany at midnight when the weather had calmed down. 2 nights there and then I was on the last leg flying solo - to Vermont 2 weeks after I left my last home I was pulling into my new one.

Now I'm back at home, coming down from the high of the trip and realizing I came here with really no plan; I pretty much just left for the road trip. So here I am, living with my parents, turning 25 in just a few days, and working as a cashier at Grand Union for minimum wage with a bunch of highschool kids. Pretty sweet. Guess I didn't really think this one through, but it was worth it for the trip. On the bright side I have already made new plans! I'm proud to announce that I will be moving to the Virgin Islands this May to work for 6 months as the front desk person at a little hotel on St. Thomas. Then I'll be off to Taiwan for a week with Cory to visit Hsaio-Han and if I'm feeling crazy I might just go straight from there to Australia and New Zealand for a visit or a year, depending on my enthusiasm and my ability to obtain a visa. Big plans! Big plans! I'm excited! I have a purpose and a plan and now I just need to work work work so I can save save save...

Anyway now that I've spilled my guts about all my plans I'll follow it up with some of my favorite pictures from the road trip!