Sylva, NC through Atlanta, GA

Brian: Oh, it’s so nice to be in a clean Lucy. We vacuumed her out completely and got rid of all the trash before setting out for our next destination, which as was revealed in the end of the last post, is Atlanta. I know Nick and I promised not to go to the south, but I’ve heard good things about the city and western North Carolina is only about two hours away. In terms of a cross-country road trip that’s only a quick skip, so why not? Plus, we sent out a bunch of Couchsurfing requests and got a lot of promising responses. Finally, Atlanta has the nations largest aquarium so that’s definitely on the to-do list.

Nick: Fish are friends. The first order of business in Atlanta was to meet up with Katherine at her apartment, a fellow couch surfer and vegetarian extraordinaire. After a dinner of eggplant and sweet potatoes over rice, we hit the town. First stop: a place called Star Bar featuring a live band, cheap beer and no cover. The band, Katherine explained, was categorized as “Rockabilly” which I wasn’t especially familiar with. Take a 50’s Do-Op band, throw in gram of grunge, a pinch of punk, and a general assortment of tattoos and piercings and you’ve got Rockabilly. The band played their set, then we headed to the next location, which was a coffee shop that just so happened to have a liquor license.

Brian: It ended up being a pretty rock n’ roll night because the defining attribute of the coffee shop/bar was a giant projector screen with Rock Band on it. I grabbed a guitar and unabashedly played rhythm and sang harmony to Ballroom Blitz, which is my specialty. In keeping with the theme of the night, I handed my plastic guitar to my fake roadie, who was really just the next guy on the list, and headed out for a smoke out front. The second I stepped outside, about 10 cops pulled up… and ordered coffee. We bounced out of there and headed for our last stop of the night, which was Katherine’s friends’ house. I played real drums there, but that was probably the last rockin’ thing that happened that night.

Nick: It’s unrealistic for us to be expected to rock all night, especially if we’ve already partied every day. On that note, we headed home and watched a few episodes of “Curb your Enthusiasm,” which is honestly not my favorite. Seinfield is also not my favorite though, and those shows are supposed to be similar. I don’t get it. That about does it for the first day in Hot-lanta. So far, I’ve had a nice time, but my earlier prejudices still haven’t been dispelled. Traffic was a nightmare. Brian and Nick O-U-T

Bass River State Park, NJ through Philadelphia, PA

Brian: Next stop, Philadelphia. But as it is literally impossible to leave New Jersey without paying a toll, we wanted to see as many touristy things as possible before we crossed over. By combining the powers of the Weird US book and the Intermet, we located about 4 or 5 attractions that would take us on a parabolic route through the state. Stop one was the world’s largest light bulb. Naturally to be found in the town of Edison.

Nick: Naturally to be found? I’m no English major, but I am a little suspicious about the grammatical integrity of that sentence. Anyway, the light bulb was way up on a giant pole-tower thing, so climbing in, on, or around the artifact was out of the question. Next stop was Hitler’s toilet. As the story goes, New Jersey somehow ended up with Hitler’s yacht. The state, in an effort to destroy what might possibly become something of an homage to history’s greatest tyrant, disassembled the vessel and dispersed its components amongst the townspeople. The ship’s toilet, as it turns out, consequently resides in a grungy auto-repair shop. Despite the degradation of the toilet’s condition along with a familiar yet viciously pungent odor, I felt truly moved by such an important piece of world history. Awe struck even.

Brian: Der Fuhrer’s shittentrapper. Indeed impressive. After a quick chat with the mechanic, we moved on to the next attraction. Like the Skowhegan Indian (and I apologize for bringing it up) Mighty Joe was located to the side of a gas station. Unlike the BFI, when I beheld Mighty Joe, I did not fall into a deepening spiral of humanity questioning despair. Mighty Joe was a 40-foot gorilla statue/memorial for a deceased body-building son. I believe gas stations are the family business (it is lamented on the plaque that Joe did not live to enter the family business) and so it makes sense that Mighty Joe would be located on gas station property. Another notable event: at the gas station, a rather rough and beat-up looking youth kindly saved the life of a stick bug. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Nick: Hmm. The next stop was the world’s largest miniature trainscape. OK, so, I know that doesn’t sound super exciting to some of you, but I used to build trainscapes and it was a great hobby so yeah, I was pumped. Also, who doesn’t like things in miniature? But alas, it was closed. Tuesday’s are not good days for train watching. Who knew? No biggie, we just headed to a local coffee shop that looked good. You know, take some time out of the day, do a little blogging. What? Cool local coffee shop is closed on Tuesdays too? What’s your game New Jersey… The next real stop was Brian’s friend Julie’s house. It was to be our respite for the night.

Brian: The evening was relatively casual. Julie suggested that we go to the world’s best grocery store (according to the food network, maybe?) to purchase our evening’s beverages. We decided to branch out from our usual Yuengling Lager, and sample the Yuengling Black and Tan. It was a delicious accompaniment to a night of Rock Band with Julie’s siblings, Jack and Steph. Thank you to her father for cooking us a delicious dinner of chicken and mushrooms. It was a nice change of pace from hotdogs over an open flame. Although I doubt I’ve seen the last of those.

Nick: Hope not. That about does it for our Tuesday, we’ve got some pics for you this post. Enjoy. Brian and Nick out.