What does your license plate say about you?

We didn't really play the license plate game on our trip per se, but in the 2+ weeks we've been home in Virginia, we've both noticed something what seems to be an inordinate number of personalized license plates.

Now, no offense to those who feel that this is the best venue to express themselves. Wait: I take that back. Really? Dude, get a blog.

I haven't kept a close count...



...but over the course of the past couple of weeks I've counted at least a dozen personalized plates: VA ALUM, WAHOO47, I AM WENDY, URASINR, what have you. Either a lot of people in this area really get a kick out of the personalized license plate, or they're just narcissists.

Today, I hit the laudable Virginia DMV web site, and discovered, in addition to the more than 180 possible license plate styles, that it's only an extra $20 a year to buy yourself a wee billboard for your car. Yay you.

I guess it beats the bumper sticker I saw today on a taxi, proclaiming the driver "Directionally Dysfunctional."

Get hobbies, people.

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Wisdom vs. mercy or, life in a college town

So it's Friday evening, and we're walking to have drinks and dinner at a place called Continental Divide (which, if you're ever in town, has no sign outside that says "Continental Divide" but does have a neon sign reading "Get in here." A little precious maybe, but the margaritas are tremendously strong and the food is right tasty. Lisa had marinated-pork tacos the size of your face, and I had a special of red mole-cooked flank steak that was fantastic.)

We're headed west on Main Street in Charlottesville, and a scruffy-looking dude passes us going the other way and says, "Excuse me." He's got longish hair and a beard and is wearing a big Bob Marley T-shirt; he looks a little like Steve Zahn, if Steve Zahn let himself go a little.



I'm ready to say either, "Sorry, man," if he asks for change or defer to Lisa if he asks where something is. But it's neither, because he says this instead (I'm paraphrasing a little here): "I'm taking a survey. If you could only have one, would you rather have wisdom or mercy?"

Then, seeing our bemused looks: "I've been asking a lot of people, and I'm trying to get my own mind around it, wisdom or mercy."

So now we're intrigued. Our guard relaxes a little, and we actually start to think about it for a second. We both say wisdom. Because -- at least this is how I see it -- wisdom would allow one to know when to be merciful. And, as Lisa pointed out later, if you're merciful without being at least a little wise, well, then you're just a pushover.

The guy didn't ask us why, though; he just thanked us and went on his way. And we went on ours, shaking our heads. "You gotta love being in a college town sometimes," Lisa said.

I imagine that, rapidly aging as I now am, there will be plenty of times in the coming nine months that I'll mutter and curse under my breath about students making my wait for lunch longer or whatever. But she's right: You gotta love it sometimes.

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Klippan-Leksvik-Kviby-Aspelund-Vinstra-Aneboda-Malm-Kramfors-Hemnes-Sval¨øv

Ah, one of the great joys of moving – the classic right of passage: the obligatory trip to Ikea. Which, in our case, involved a two-hour drive to Northern Virginia on our first relocated Sunday. Clearly, we want to assemble some furniture – and we want it bad. And now that we've bought it, eventually we will.


I kind of hate to admit it, but I love Ikea – the goofy nonsensical product names (though, as Rick points out, sometimes they’re not even trying – the name of the grill pan was “Grilla”), the Swedish meatballs, the traipsing through the showroom on the trek to the self-serve bins while I inevitably fill the cart with a pile of stuff I don’t need – but hey, it’s $2, so why not? And over the years, I’ve gotten pretty good at assembling it all – which I admit gives me an inexplicable sense of accomplishment. And a very nice collection of allen wrenches.

Our trip was my first time traversing the interstates, and I got to see for myself the infestation of the “big box” stores. No matter where we were, you could always buy a pair of flip flops or assorted household goods at a Target, buy a book and get a cup of coffee at a Borders, score a flat screen TV at a Best Buy, or satisfy your hardware needs at a Home Depot or Lowe’s. Yes, you can pass from town to town and never really see any local store, or regional chain if you don't look hard for it – and that’s a damned shame. I’m a believer in the mom-and-pops and specialized one-of-a-kind stores. It breaks my heart -- and makes my skin crawl -- when a boutique or small bar is pushed out by a Cheesecake Factory. For every Macaroni Grill there should be three Iotas -- at least.

But I gotta admit: there’s something comforting about knowing you can always find the familiar, even if it’s unoriginal or impossible to pronounce. My kingdom for a world where the big boxes can live side-by-side with the locals without relying on Chinese mega-factories. Because as much as I will always patronize a local, I really love my Target.

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Holiday Road...

Rick was FAR more systematic in compiling his road music than I. He clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the songs, the way they’d fit together, and the rhythm of the CDs. I put together a list that referenced any kind of movement – driving, flying, sailing, walking, what have you –- as well as any possible reference to a place. A haphazard approach at best – and one that resulted in a 352-song playlist. Excessive.

A sample, minus the overlap with Rick:



“Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix),” Alabama 3 (a.k.a., the song behind Tony Soprano tooling around Jersey)
“Jessica,” The Allman Brothers (no movement or place, but one of the best road songs ever – thank you, Dickie Betts)
“Say Goodbye to Hollywood,” Billy Joel
“South of the Border (Down Mexico Way),” Chris Isaak
“On the Road Again,” Willie Nelson
“Me & Bobby McGee,” Janis Joplin
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” The Band
“My Tennessee Mountain Home,” Dolly Parton
“Truckin’,” Grateful Dead
“Ticket to Ride,” The Beatles
“Big River,” Johnny Cash
“Don’t Fence Me In,” David Byrne
“Ramblin’ Man,” Hank Williams
“Tiny Dancer,” Elton John (I know, but come on)
“Take Me With U,” Prince
“Copperhead Road,” Steve Earle
“Hotel Illness,” The Black Crowes
“Goodbye Stranger,” Supertramp
“Wild West,” Joe Jackson
“Can’t Find My Way Home,” Blind Faith
“Highway 61 Revisited,” Bob Dylan
“Thunder Road,” Bruce Springsteen
“Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” Last Train Home, covering Bob Dylan
“My Ride’s Here,” Bruce Springsteen, covering Warren Zevon
“Train Song,” Mindy Smith
“Where You Lead,” Carole King
“I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.,” The Clash
“Black Cadillac,” Roseanne Cash
“Move On Up,” Curtis Mayfield
“Mississippi,” Sheryl Crow, covering Bob Dylan
“Into the Mystic,” Van Morrison
“The Apartment Song,” Tom Petty
“Take It Easy,” The Eagles
“Midnight Train to Georgia,” Gladys Knight & The Pips
“This is Where You Ain’t,” Glenn Tillbrook
“Highway to Hell,” AC/DC
“Tennessee Plates,” John Hiatt
“That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas),” Lyle Lovett
“2000 Miles,” The Pretenders
“Panama,” Van Halen
“Begin the Begin,” R.E.M.
“King of the Road,” Roger Miller
“I’ll Take You There,” The Staples Singers
“Pony St.,” Elvis Costello
“Ultraviolet (Light My Way,” U2
“Sin City,” Uncle Tupelo, covering the Flying Burrito Brothers
“Luckenbach, Texas,” Waylon Jennings

Continued ...

What we listened to on the trip

The short answer to that is: A lot. We covered a lot of ground during those 10 days, and there was a lot of boring scenery outside the windows. So we had Sirius (primarily Outlaw Country, Left of Center, 1st Wave and the '80s channel), we had NPR -- I came to dig Day to Day over the course of the trip, we had Lisa's iPod and its treasure trove of driving songs.

And, of course, we had CDs, from a fantastic Stax Records compilation -- you haven't lived until you listen to the "Theme from Shaft" on a pitch-dark New Mexico highway -- to The Hold Steady. Our friend Chris gave us a really cool disc of L.A.- and Virginia-themed songs. And I played mixmaster too, putting together three CDs of songs about traveling, songs about vehicles and songs that just sound good in the car. They're after the jump.



Volume 1

"Ramblin' on My Mind," Robert Johnson (that's him up there)
"Drive My Car," The Beatles
"Dakota," Stereophonics
"Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," Lucinda Williams
"Utopia Parkway," Fountains of Wayne
"The Distance," Cake
"Radar Gun," The Bottle Rockets
"Can't Get There from Here," R.E.M.
"Drive South," John Hiatt
"Diner," Martin Sexton
"Calling All Friends," Low Stars
"Hot Rod Hotel," Billy Bragg & Wilco
"Bring the Noise," Public Enemy
"One O'Clock Jump," Count Basie Orchestra
"Popity Pop," Charlie Parker
"The Weight," The Band
"Midnight Rider," The Allman Brothers Band
"Now We're Getting Somewhere," Crowded House
"Left of the Dial," The Replacements

Volume 2

"Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)," Parliament
"In the Street," Big Star
"Kiss Me on the Bus," The Replacements
"Car Song," Elastica
"Try a Little Tenderness," Otis Redding
"Nervous Breakthrough," Luscious Jackson
"Ruby Soho," Rancid
"Roadrunner," Modern Lovers
"I'll Fly Away," Allison Krauss and Gillian Welch
"It Ain't Me Babe," Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
"Get On the Bus," Royal Crescent Mob
"Sister Havana," Urge Overkill
"Lawyers, Guns and Money," Warren Zevon
"Jill Can Drive," Trip Shakespeare
"Fast Cars," Buzzcocks
"Laser Show," Fountains of Wayne
"Let Me Ride," Dr. Dre
"Let's Go for a Ride," Cracker
"The Road Goes on Forever," Robert Earl Keen
"Polyester Bride," Liz Phair

Volume 3

"Come On, Let's Go," Los Lobos
"Green Onions," Booker T & the MGs
"Folsom Prison Blues," Johnny Cash
"Brown Sugar," The Rolling Stones
"Theme from Shaft," Isaac Hayes
"Keep on Moving," Bob Marley
"I'm the Man," Joe Jackson
"Rudie Can't Fail," The Clash
"Pumping On Your Stereo," Supergrass
"Singing in My Sleep," Semisonic
"Time the Avenger," The Pretenders
"Paradise City," Guns n' Roses
"Boom Boom," John Lee Hooker
"Whole Lotta Love," Led Zeppelin
"Runnin' with the Devil," Van Halen
"Sweet Jane," Velvet Underground
"Good-bye to Carolina," Lyle Lovett
"The Long Cut," Uncle Tupelo
"Layla," Derek and the Dominos

Continued ...

Home.

Ten days, four hotel rooms (all with curved shower rods, so that was cool), three freeloading stays with family, countless roadside religious icons and porn shops and 3,726 miles (including side trips and driving around places we stopped) after leaving my old home, I'm in my new one.

There are boxes and piles of crap everywhere, but all my clothes are put away and the fridge is stocked with groceries. One of the local weeklies just published its best-of list, so I'm armed with information about how not to look like a tourist.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna like it here.

Continued ...

That is one giant cross

Catching up after a few days, following Austin, Oklahoma City, and St. Louis – to be sure to commemorate the photo above. One of the many things I've noticed on our trek across this great land of ours (more on this to come): we love our expressions of faith. Mega-churches with billboards that tell the weather, little churches situated next to cornfields, landscapes that make you exclaim "Oh my God!" (Without disrespectful intentions, of course.)



Then you come across something like this. Rick was keen enough to spot the URL http://www.crossusa.org while I was busy gaping open-mouthed and fumbling for my cell phone to take a picture. According to the site, the Cross Foundation, dedicated to building both faith and family on an ecumenical basis, "has completed a 198 foot Cross at the intersection of Interstates 57 & 70 in Effingham, Illinois. This site is intended to serve as a beacon of hope to the 50,000 travelers estimated to pass the site each day. In addition, the Cross Foundation will promote the values of faith and family through other programs." The cross was built in 2001.

I'm all for anything that gives people hope, makes them happy or gives them another reason to participate in the world around them. I'm probably not in the target demographic, but the Cross Foundation sure did get my attention.


One of the other things I've noticed: we sure do like our racy things. Within 10 miles of the giant cross – a giant highway sign for a XXX adult super store.

Continued ...

Snack globally, eat locally

Since we left L.A., we've been undertaking a snack-food survey, sampling several different kinds of Doritos, some rather tasty wasabi Funyuns and Tom's Bacon & Cheddar Fries. None has been bad, but none has been a revelation either. We've also noticed, with a small measure of disappointment, that what you get at a gas station in Barstow is pretty much what you get at a convenience store in Tulsa.

(Although, I should note that the two best chips we've tasted thus far are regional ones: Tim's Luau BBQ, available mostly out West, and Uncle Ray's Kosher Dill, which are from Detroit and we found in Tulsa. Thes were maybe the best we've had, with visible flecks of dill on the chips and a slightly sour, not-too-salty taste like a good pickle. Plus, there are little stories on each bag.)



When we actually get somewhere, though, we've been doing our best to have food that we can't find everywhere else. Other than a couple of expedient and weather-forced fast-food stops on the second day of the trip, we've done a pretty good job of it so far. The only chain meal we've had since then were subs from Jimmy John's one day in Austin.

But we've also had great tamales from a shop half a block off the highway in Pecos, Texas; great Mexican at Jorge's, chicken-fried steak at Threadgill's (pictured above) and ice cream at Amy's in Austin; fantastic tacos at Benito's in Fort Worth -- thanks to Texas Monthly's "The Greatest Tacos Ever Sold"; and some fine Greek food from Zorba's in OKC.

Thursday night, in The Hill neighborhood of St. Louis, we poked our heads into a couple of delicious-looking Italian restaurants before settling into some great, great tapas at Modesto. Everything we tried was delicious, but the two highlights were a dish of cured tuna with smoky roasted peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers and bacon-wrapped, Cabrales cheese-stuffed dates that were just about perfectly balanced.

We're only a couple stops from home now. The last two days:

Wednesday: 400 miles
Route: Straight up I-35 from Austin to Oklahoma City.
Time: 7 hours and change
Consumed: In addition to some of the stuff mentioned above, we stopped at Robertson's Hams just over the Oklahoma-Texas border. Picked up a little gift for our host for the night (hi Lisa!) and some pretty good, all-natural beef jerky.

Thursday: Just shy of 500 miles
Route: I-44 from OKC to St. Louis.
Time: 8 1/2 hours
Consumed: Those Uncle Ray's chips, a solid BLT and grilled ham & cheese at Hood's Truck Stop in Bois d'Arc, Mo., and whole bunch of samples from a Wisconsin cheese outlet shop in Lebanon, Mo. We also bought some stuff there, and had a few white cheddar curds flavored with garlic and dill. Good food day.

Continued ...

Bats!

OK, so the photo above is not the best one you'll ever see, even on this blog. But trust me when I tell you that the dark blotches on the underside of the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin are a few of the million-plus Mexican freetail bats that reside there and make nightly pilgrimages out from under the span to search for food.

This image gives you an idea of what we, along with several hundred other people on top of and beneath the bridge, looked at Tuesday night. It wasn't quite as pretty as that, but it was really pretty darn cool.



We might have been better off on top of the bridge, watching the bats come out below us. But we chose the low angle, and a little after 9 p.m., watched as the little creatures began to stream out from their resting places below the bridge. Though they were at times tough to see against an already dark sky, eventually we got ourselves under a streetlamp and looked up to see a constant stream of wings flitting by, turning the air between the lamp and our eyes a hazy brown as they zipped past.

My description, like my picture, doesn't do the sight justice: It really is something to behold, like the transition in an old Batman cartoon come to life. If ever you find yourself in Austin during the summer, it should be high on the to-do list.

Continued ...

All right, all right, all right

Those of you who know us know that between the two of us, we're probably well into the triple digits in viewing Dazed and Confused. Heck, Lisa even got me a tie-in book as a gift once.

And if you know Dazed and Confused, you will doubtless recognize the sign above as that of Austin's Top Notch, the drive-in where Mike sorts through jalapeno burgers and soggy fries and Wooderson tries to get Cynthia to ditch the two geeks she's in the car with and join him on the way to the party at the moon tower.

Alas, when we arrived there Monday night, it was already closed (although we were stuffed with Mexican food and Amy's ice cream, so maybe that's not such a bad thing). But our time here wouldn't have been complete without a pilgrimage.

Continued ...