a letter of complaint to the state of wyoming and the creators of the computer game "oregon trail" re:Independence Rock

let me start off by saying, i went out of my way to see you. i could have stuck to the interstate, but visions of my childhood beckoned me to something i had once only known in pixelated version. i read the words "independence rock" on the map and instantly i recognized it-- midway between start and finish, do you want to ford the river, all members of your party have died except you, you ANNA ROCKS, you have made it to Independence Rock, Wyoming (which, also, i'm not sure was actually called Independence when people were passing it circa 1840).










well, for your information, I PASSED IT. because, when you're driving through the mountains, you don't generally notice big rocks as unusual unless there's a sign saying otherwise. which there wasn't. unless you count the sign that said "Rest Area"; however, it seems illogical that a monument so integral to our country's heritage should be overshadowed by public toilets and sleeping truckers. in your defense, i know you had signs, but only on one side of the highway, which doesn't help half of the people on the road.


i guess i should thank the parks dept of wyoming for creating such a nicely paved walkway to the stupid rock, directly through a cattle ranch. while it is novel to walk within charging distance of multiple full grown bulls, it is also unnerving. especially when you show up by yourself in the middle of a sunday. i'm just glad i brought my phone with me. you know, in case of a stampede.

also, here's another one of my favorite sidenotes:

because if you leave the gate open, then the cows will definitely try to climb it.


oh, wait. how could they? it's covered in snow and has smooth faces which appear insurmountable. and while i admit that i didn't walk around the entire big rock, i cannot understand how people climbed to the top to write there names on it. i specifically remember a little boy wearing a blue shirt on the game saying "I climbed to the top of the rock to carve my name..." And THAT'S ANOTHER THING, i only saw like 6 names on it, not hundreds of years worth.
also, you warned against vandalism. this seems hypocritical. it's okay for them to do it but not us? seriously.
finally, this is my last and only semi-serious issue: this is the gate i had to pass through


and my serious question is, do you have to be that skinny to enter? cause it's not like the rock's going to sink of you let some bigger people on it. if they can even get on it. not because they are big, but because the rock seems like it is un-climable. i dunno. think about it.

all in all, you should really let triple A know to warn people not to get their hopes up. the rock is neither pixelated nor is it surrounded by conestoga wagons. i would have liked to have known that prior to my trip.

sincerely, anna

thank you officer guapo

so jarilyn and i ventured back into the states today to gather some supplies for a new project. a group is renovating the teen girls dorms, so we went to costco and home depot to buy floor laminate, paint, caulking supplies, knee pads, ceiling fans, and yeah, we may or may not have bought a 5 lb tub of cookie dough. maybe. anyway, we loaded down this 15 passenger van with A LOT of supplies and hoped to make it through the border back into mexico with no problem.

well, we did get stopped. and about four or five different men looked through the van, each asking "what is that?" and jare answers with a stock "glue for the floor. the wooden floor in the back." after being waved through a few checkpoints we found ourselves facing what we had hoped to avoid: we needed to play taxes on the stuff. i looked at jare and said "turn on the charm" and we proceded to act oblivious and pump up the gringa. the officer who finally took us over, whom i like to call officer guapo, explained the different amounts of things we were allowed to bring in and the amount of taxes to be paid. even though we had payed well over $2000 for the supplies, jare told him, "como, quinientos, mas o menos, seisientos?" (500, maybe 6?) guapo smiled and started writing us a form... $400 minus the amount we are allowed to bring in for free = $250 time 15%...about $40.
yey gringas!

in a very large nutshell

since the last legitimate post i have been jack kerouac-ing all over the road with my sister. we started in san diego on a three day carnival cruise with my mother. it was the perfect amount of time and my only regret is that my mom had to take a red eye on sunday night to get home. but, it seems she rolled with the punches... the cruise was my first, and we found plenty of time to learn how to play roulette, win some money, lose some money, drink really strong mixed drinks with really cheap rum, win the "name that tune" contest, hottub it, and eat a lot a lot of food. lucky for us "crazy bonny" came out to play and so the trip was punctuated with sheer silliness. by the end of the three days bons had endeared herself to all of the housekeeping staff on our hallway as well as our dinner waiter jorge, who called bonny his "little champion". her particular favorite part of the cruise was when the waiters sang during dinner. she called this waiter time and compared it to an intoxicating substance which takes one to the pinnacle of happiness.

the sunday that we disembarked we drove back to newport, had dinner at alta and dropped the moms off at LAX and proceded to drive north. we hit bakersfield having to pee and stopped at a sonic, which turned into a long debacle involving one sonicblast, three young employees who were probably high, bonny saying "bakersfield is sketchy", one of the employees not remembering where the water faucet was (here's a hint, look to the soda fountain), and generally the weirdest fast food experience i've ever had. four hours and a melted sonicblast later, we were still an hour away from our destination of modesto, so bonny took the reigns and drove a full 25 mph over the speedlimit. we nestled our heads in a scratchy and janky travelodge and tried to sleep.

the next day i convinced bon to take me to sacramento so we could see something i have longed for- the sign that says "Ocean City, MD - 3073 mi". you can guess that we have one in OC that says the reverse. we found it, but anticlimactly the official large sign had been stolen by some frat boys and all we got was a regular mile marker. oh well, dream realized. we spent the afternoon in davis and then made our way to san francisco. bonny found a great deal on the hilton near union square, so we were sitting in the lap of travelocity luxury. for dinner we ate at the stinking rose (really, too many garlicy details), then lulled ourselves to sleep by watching mtv's taking the stage. i should add that the sleep came easy after a 5-pint pitcher of fat tire.

the next day we found ourselves riding for free on the trolley, holding photo shoots with some sea lions on a public set of docks, and eating the rest of our previous night's dinner before heading off to see sunshine cleaning. we settled the night with pisco sours at a bar called cantina. apparently pisco is a popular spirit of the city, which only made my heart beat stronger for it. the liquor, similar to brandy, is made from grapes not good enough to make wine; i drank it by the liter when i lived in santiago. while in country we were told that valparaiso, chile is the sister city of san fran (they call it pancho, the diminutive of francisco), so the alcoholic tie suits.

now i find myself in baja mexico playing with babies and loving every minute of it. i will post pictures soon so that you can empathize. my favorite is named andres. i want to take him home with me.

lovies,

i'm on a boat

just in case you haven't seen this gem, i encourage you to take three minutes to enjoy andy sandberg, t-pain, and the rest of the lonely island crew who are really on their way up (in my opinion):
so you might understand that when i found myself on a 3 day cruise with my mom and sister i continued to sing "I'M ON A BOAT" over and over and over and over.....

socal

i have partially dedicated my residential status to the area of southern california. i've been here for a few weeks with my sister, minus one day trip to see laura and kim in vegas. kim put $20 down on a roulette table and ended up playing for hours, as i stood and cheered her on like i was her girlfriend, and we befriended a couple from santa cruz and the dealer who was from armenia. kim declared "i don't even know how this works" and he handed her a printout with the odds and the payouts. she asked if he ever came to gamble when he's not working and he replied "sweetie, do you come to work on your days off?"
bonny is finishing her quarter in school so while she's been out her friends, which i guess are technically fully and officially my friends now have been entertaining me, and i've also been entertaining myself with the dvd player and a little thing called hulu.com.
this weekend we were lucky enough to catch bonny's best friend jarelyn in san diego. she currently lives in baja mexico working for an orphanage, but she spent the week in the usa helping her very pregnant friend. we drove down on friday and had dinner with her and bonny's bf david at filipi's pizza, aka the best pizza in san diego and they ain't lying.
after dinner i took jarelyn home and swung down to point loma to see my friends from ocean city, nate and kate. kate is in school at point loma nazarene university? or college and nate moved to sd two months ago from philadelphia. we piled in the car and headed downtown, and promptly dropped our movie plans in exchange for eating at hooters. lucky for all of us a certain matt rumsey just so happened to be in sd too at the end of his spring break, so he cruised by with his former roommates and we had ourselves a grand old time. afterwards we went home and stayed up until 3am talking about high school and drinking beers. or at least, i was drinking beers.
the next day kate and i went to the store and bought two of everything because she says they get her with the twofer deals, even though i explained that you can buy just one. we made breakfast sandwhiches and then walked around ocean beach. it was so great to see both of them and chat about old times. nate's bro noah was there, too, and it was nice to meet him.
i drove back on saturday afternoon to get my hair cut by tina and then she, layla, a few other friends and i went dancing in laguna beach. i had a great time, but am slightly embarrassed that i tried to tell a marine that he should handwrite a letter to barack obama to end the war on terror.
my mom is landing in orange county on my birthday which is a really nice present, and bons and i are also going to fabio from top chef's restaurant in LA. i reaaaaaally want him to sing happy birthday to me. i'm going to santa monica with friend-since-kindergarten maria mueller for st. patty's day, and there are many more travel plans in the mix. so HAPPY IRISH DAY! if i don't see you, which i probably won't.

besos,

IN N OUT BURGER

WHY DO I ALWAYS GIVE UP BEEF FOR LENT? AND THEN COME TO CALIFORNIA???

wait, they don't love you like a love you....maaaaaaaps, wait

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a little physical manifestation of the last month spent in the car (amongst other places)

a-ha!

i had my epiphanic, glorious, jack kerouac moment on the road today. i was in west texas, past fort stockton, and Don't Stop Believing came on the radio. there was nothing but me, the road and that song for miles and miles. just in case you were wondering.

more on the serendipity of carlsbad later.

keep austin isolated

i'm not even going to lie (or in the words of my mother, i'm not even lying) i really LOVE Sonic Drive-Ins. besides being made of greasy and cheap food, i am also drawn in by the novelty of ordering from a parked car and the possibility of rollerskates. saturday night particularly i realize i'm crrrrraving their signature ice cream dessert, the Sonic Blast. i tell my host, jeffrey:
-we gotta go to Sonic tonight.
-why?
-because i want ice cream.
-well, we could go to Amy's. It's Austin ice cream.

uggggghhhhh. i've done it again. it's like a sin in this town to dare to support anything but a local austin business. i ask to go to starbucks, and we end up at Austin Java. i need to go to the grocery store and jeff picks a local market that wraps up my ground beef in deli paper. i commit another crime- asking for a plastic bag at said store. i'm given paper. because that's just how they do it in austin.

besides being the capital of the state that thinks the most of itself, i didn't learn all too much more about the history of austin. the city boasts something a lot more organic as its ultimate offering- its own culture. it's as if someone plopped williamsburg or portland in the middle of the world of straighlaced and standard. jeff explains how someone even wrote a book about the ubiquitous spirit of individualism -
Keep Austin Weird.

since then there's been an ironic twist of commercialization on this statement, as well as the counterstatement- Make Austin Normal. we couldn't help but comment on the similarity of just about everything in the city to any town in southern california... the terrain, the people, the attitude. so if you never thought there was anything in texas worth caring about - especially now that W is back home, don't forget austin, a big little city.

highlights from the visit:

• alamo drafthouse - a movie theatre that serves dinner. we saw Wendy and Lucy.
• the austin kite festival, aka try not to get nailed by a falling kite.
• jeffrey's birthday party (happy birthday jeff)
• party barn drive through beer store
• jeff's parents taking us to lunch
• botanical gardens
  

i'm off to new mexico and then california! can't wait!
pieces,

p.s. here are more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2139838&id=7408023&l=d00e9

i survived mardi gras!

but was there any doubt that i could?

meaning to wake up early early on friday morning, i slept through my alarm and woke up to a text message at 9:30am (i wanted to leave before 8). all i can say is that i blame karaoke, really cheap drinks and a 3 am last call. anyway, savannah, josh, evan, mike and kate c. showed me a hell of a good time in georgia.

one ibuprofen and big gulp of mountain dew later, i was heading down I-95 to Jacksonville, FL and then hours and hours on I-10 through the panhandle. my excitement at finally getting to see alabama and mississippi was quickly diminished by a traffic jam in mobile that had me sitting stationary on a bridge for an hour. once through, i was only a short drive (because drive time has become so relative) from my destination of new orleans. after getting directed rather directly to the parade route (text message from katherine: park at napolean and st. charles. i'm wasted) i knew i was really in the midst of my first mardi gras.

after marching directly with the parade to meet my newest dear friend, kathering buras, i was greeted with a strong hug and given a beer immediately. i can't say i caught any beads that night, but i was given many in the spirit of true southern hospitality. one hour and several BK nuggets later, Katherine was asleep on her sofa and her college friends were making fun of her.

the next morning we made our way downtown to the hotel room which katherine's family has occupied every mardi gras in recent memory. sitting atop st. charles street, the second floor balcony made the perfect perch to watch all the parades and catch more beads than i even knew existed. as kate's family- uncles, aunts, cousins- buzzed around us, the day seemed to melt into exactly what new orleans is; as the creoles say: laissez les bons temps rouler.

kate's aunt convinced us to take a nap in between parades, and i drifted into dreams of that scene in gone with the wind when all the girls go upstairs to rest. i woke up two hours later, head starting to throb and still sleepy. i told myself i must need another beer, and went into the bathroom to grab one from the tub.

the next few days are sortof a blur. wake up early, head hurting, beer in hand, carrying ice chests and lawn chairs and catching more beads and beer cozies and stuffed animals and then crashing into bed to start again the next day. on monday after watching orpheus (i think) uptown we went home, all thinking that we were still on the trajectory to "go out". i made a phone call, and when i emerged from the house, the crew had collected food orders for Burger King and started a fire on katherine's front patio. we made smores, drank beer and ate nuggets and fries. i was the first out, around 11pm, but was still outdone on Mardi Gras day, when kate and her friend lauren were up before me around 8am.

yesterday, mardi gras day, was rather anti-climactic. we watched zulu, a traditionally african american parade in which the people wear black face, grass skirts and throw coconuts (eeesh, right?). we finished by watching the truck parade, which as melanie put it "give's everybody a headache. all you hear is apple bottom jeeaans- BRRRRRRPT (truck horn)- boots with the BRRRRRRRRT"

we all had a feeling that it will take several days to wear this holiday off, but what a time it was. katherine was a gracious host and i can now say that i have been to mardi gras! thanks new orleans.

georgia

i've said it before and i'll say it again-- i love the south. i love the south.
i've spent the past few days in savannah, ga, and here are several examples of why it rocks:
.spanish moss on every tree
.a continued dedication to the fallen south, including lore of the terrible things the union army did to the city
.many many many parks and squares, which create interesting traffic circles
.the founding of the girl scouts
.being greeted by every person i pass on the street
.pirate stories, ballast stone paved streets, nautical romanticism
.piggly wiggly
.cheap cigarettes

today i went to charleston and spent a few hours just walking around, trying to not look like a tourist. the city is absolutely gorgeous, and every corned i turned opened a new avenue of colonial facades and a sense of history and beauty. there is something rather sleepy about the streets i've been walking, and it's very comforting.

le chattanooga choo choo

for the past few days i've been crashing the lovely home of julie, a friend from ocean city. the visit started with an entertaining trip to a mexican joint called las margaritas where we met a filipino waiter who we later christened Rufio after his strong resemblence to the character of the same name from the film Hook. Some highlights from the night: Rufio sits down with us at the booth, hits on Julie's roommate Bekah, then bites the cotton candy tattoo of her friend Elisa. seemed like a good start. the next day i attended a Systematic Theology class with Julie, learned about Christology and got a little lesson on Vatican II and the term ex-cathedral. I was happy to note that Julie's professor, also the Dean of the School of Religion, knew the correct definition of immaculate conception, which refers to the Catholic principle that Mary was born without original sin.... but I digress. After thrifting, going to Sonic twice in one day and eating at a Five Guys (they have those here!), we had thoroughly exhausted Cleveland, Tennessee.
today we awoke, watched a few episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and headed down to Chattanooga, where i was able to see the sign for the Choo Choo from the highway. after crossing the pedestrian bridge, we shopped and then ate some delicious ice cream at Clumpie's Ice Cream Co; i had apple cinnamon. then we walked through the art district, admiring a sculpture of a horse made out of wood, or what was actually metal made to look like wood. after a continued strolling, we ate calzones the size of our heads at Lupi's, which besides offering wondering pizza options, also has one of the widest beer selections i have ever seen.
here are a few photo opportunities:
love and kisses,
also, happy VD!

Foamhenge

while detouring in natural bridge, va

goucher college/first leg

a photo diary of the beginning (and preamble) of the trip:

72 degrees on sunday in oc: mom birdwatching at the inlet

packing

feelin it in emily's goucher dorm room


as i was leaving to start the drive to tennessee, i found these well wishing words on the steps to the parking lot; it does in fact say "ayy" at the end...

playlist selections

although i'm not scheduled to leave until, well, monday-ish, i seem to keep thinking of things i want to share with the world (see previous post inspired by h&m online shopping). today while driving to salisbury i felt inspired to spread this tidbit a little farther--

mother mother, just about my favorite thing to ever come out of canada, will be supplying much of my musical entertainment on the trip. their wacky and tightly constructed first album, touch up, fell into my hands as a sophomore working at wvau. i was in love. it featurs songs about spying on neighbors, maintaining masculinity while cross dressing, and moving to the country:
"I choppin' firewood choppin' firewood (Chop! chop! chop!)
Just like a country boy should be chopping wood (I country)
My kindling sticks are the perfect little width (Kindling sticks)
Get gone from a dirty town"
this past fall they released their second cd jam packed with the kind of hits that creep into the back of your brain and wait for several days until they gradually turn themselves up; then you're left wondering...what is that song?
and so it's no surprise that once i settle myself in to drive, this is what i want to hear-- especially this single, Hay Loft, which will have you singing "My daddy's got a gun, g-g-g-g-gun!!"
enjoy.

retail therapy

god bless the u.s. post

i got to go to the post office on 71st street twice today because sometimes the people authorized to help you apply for a passport need you to provide the instructions for them. just saying, at least the weather was warm enough that i could smell the salt in the air. ocean city is really pretty sometimes.

y-ello

greetings from the seaside! having finished my undergraduate career at american university, i find myself on a great frontier: four months, no job, no classes, no time constraints. and so, while i still hold the appealing option of spending even more time on my mother's sofa watching enough television to qualify me for a degree in pop culture, it's time for me to do that which i rarely managed to do in college: take a roadtrip.

a thousand dollars of work into the good old mercury sable, white, aptly named Bettie the Boat, and i find the major obstacle to the journey out of the way, but where to go? over the summer i had dreams (literal sleeping dreams) of driving to chile, a repressed vision or twisted interpretation of some motorcycle diary fantasy mixed together with my friend andrew's own desire to use the transcontinental highway, US-5, to reach the southern cone. perhaps somewhere in texas i may take a left turn and see how far i get before i run out of money paying border fees, but perhaps not. the supposed list of destinations (and people to visit) is as follows:

• cleveland, tn - julie t
  
• clemson, sc - cousins
  
• savannah, ga - friends at SCAD
  
• baton rouge, la - eric shuster
• new orleans, la - mardi gras 2009; katherine buras
• austin, tx - jeffrey
• san diego, ca - nate and kate
  
• newport beach, ca - final destination. bonny o'neill, aka my sister

love and tidalwaves,