Back in reality, Germany, work with a thud.

Upon leaving Knoxville we drove through Virginia on up to Washington DC. We got to the hostel, droppped off our stuff and proceeded to find the area with young people and pubs. We were having some trouble finding our way so I asked two hip looking dudes where the party was at.

“I don’t know. We are from Germany.”

Hey so are we, sort of. So that is how we met Paul and André. They were also doing a road trip of the East coast but going north to south instead of the other way around like us. They were just as lost and clueless as we were so we all got along just fine. We warned each other about what to expect on the others respective forthcoming leg of the journey; Cops in Georgia and Florida, Cops in Jersey and New York, Girls in NYC, Girls in Miami.

We all got pretty toasty and I remember a bar with a small white guy on piano singing Jim Croce songs with a voice like Louis Armstrong. On the way home I remember Jens yelling obscene things in German trying to see if it gets anyone’s attention. It didn’t. Maybe he was just yelling them for the sake of being able to and not have anyone understand. That is probably a great feeling: In public in front of God and everybody telling the world just exactly what you feel about it and not worrying about people freaking out about what you said. So public, yet so private.

The next day it pissed down rain so we went to see a few things and took some pictures. Saw the Washington Monument, The White House and the Vietnam Memorial. Even though that memorial is out in the park is is very private. It is hard to find unless you were looking for it. It is just this huge swath of black marble cut into a shallow hillside. There are a lot of names on the Vietnam Memorial. Too many. I was born the year after the last troops were pulled out so I missed the whole era and everything that was going on back then. I just can’t see what the whole thing was about. I can’t see what, if anything, was accomplished. Sad.

From DC we drove on to Stamford, CT bringing the road trip part of the journey to an end. We spend the next few days in Stamford and then on monday the 5th went in to the city to stay with my friend Bob for 3 days.

More about the Stamford/NYC adventures coming soon.

OK Soooo…

Here in Stamford CT. the trip so far has been a blast.

In Atlanta we just ended up taking some night photos that hopefully will be cool. Jens was

laying in the middle of busy intersections trying to get the best shot. Sacrificing it for

art. The hostel there is really nice. If you are in Hotlanta on the cheap, I recommend you

check it out. it”s the one on Ponce De Leon street. We went to a few bars but it seems that

the only place we could find a decent beer with good atmosphere was an Irish pub.

Also highly visible in ATL were the spinning rims on cars, or as I now calls them, “spins”.

I have read about therm but I had yet to see any until I was in America. I am not into what

the kool kids call “Bling Bling”, but I could see myself getting some spins. Sportin those

super fresh all up on my nissan. I would be rocking the Lueneburger Heide. Notice how I

expand the Umlauts because I don’t know how to do them on an American Windows computer.

Anyway, Atlanta was cool but it was only a day.

Next stop was Knoxville, TN. Jens has a cousin that lives there with her American husband.

They are some of the nicest folks I have ever met. They have 2 teenage sons who are also

very nice but not very talkative. It was very weird to be speaking so much German in

America.

While we were there we went hiking in the Smokey Mountain National Park and we even did

some fishing. We each caught a couple of Blue gill and some bass. All were too small to

keep so we threw them back. There might be picture forthcoming.

We had a good time there and Jens’s family was very hospitable.

Of special cultural interest: There are no skunks in Europe apparently (If this is

incorrect please let me know). This is what Jens has told me anyway. When we arrived in

Knoxville and were looking for the house we came upon a dead skunk in the road. The smell

was pretty strong and completely filled the car. Jens was shocked at how bad it smelled and

almost died of laughter right there on the spot.

More to come…..