I’m in a Holiday Inn in Roanoke, Virginia now, three hours from my final destination. (whoohoo!!!)

So I’ll share something interesting with you today. Now I am the last person to use a blog as a venting tool, but I think you’ll find this story worth reading. My apologies for the lack of visuals! I didn’t take any photos of the events as they occurred. But please try to read it all the way through!

Here goes!

I was at the height of all frustrations last night. For some reason, one by one, EVERY little thing started going wrong. This series of unfortunate events began as soon as I walked into this Holiday Inn.

First off, it took forever to check in. And I mean FOREVER. There was a family ahead of me complaining about something or other about some wedding and  some room to the clerk, and only one clerk was supposedly on duty. That clerk also moved slower than a freakin snail. The kids were adorable, though.

Meanwhile, dangling from my shoulders were my purse; my laptop bag filled with my work laptop, my macbook pro, all my chargers for laptops, phones, camera batteries, etc.; my clothes and toiletries bag; and my Nikon d40 camera.

All after another 7 hour drive. Yes, my patience was wearing thin.

I end up standing there for a good five minutes (which is long in hotel check-in world) and then retreated for the couch, while keeping an eye on the front desk. Finally after lots of feet tapping and pondering whether or not I should walk to the Marriott next door, the family moved on and it was my turn.

(FYI, the moral of this story is to never, ever go to this Holiday Inn. You’ll see why.)

“What are your rates? Do you offer corporate and/or AAA discounts?” This is the line I rehearsed at every hotel check–in desk on my trip.

“It’s $109/night,” she replied.

Impossible, I thought. For a Holiday Inn in Roanoke, VA? SO I repeat myself. “That’s with a AAA discount?”

“Oh. AAA. I can get you a room for $97.”

My brain pauses and just tells myself the woman is probably just really tired like me. Or just incompetent. Who knows. I agree to the new price. Now all I can do is give her my credit card and ID, and stand and wait.

“The system appears to be down,” she said in a slow, monotone voice. I scrunch my forehead signaling for elaboration. What do you mean the system is down?

“Um. You seeee….. the systems is dowwwwn….. so I can’t sign you in. Um. (looks around) Here, I’ll give you the key. Someone will be up to your room soon so you can sign stuff.”

Someone will be up in my room? Lady, I just drove for seven hours. I don’t want anyone coming into my room unless it’s room service with a three-course meal, chocolate cake and a glass of Pinot Noir. Of course I don’t say any of this. My sweet self just smiles, nods and thanks her for the keys and for her help. I know, I need to work on embracing my inner bitch, as Robin Meade puts it. Who knows, one day when I’m ready, I’ll go public with that other me.

“Can I have my credit card back?” I ask the clerk.

“Oh. Um. Wow. Here,” she hands me back my card, shaking her head.

So I get to my room. Of course, she put me RIGHT next to the elevator on the 5th floor. I don’t mean just one or two doors across. I mean, you can hear people ringing and dinging all day and night. I sigh and just pray it’ll be a quiet night.

Fifteen minutes later, hotel staff came to my room so I can sign my check-in papers. I know, GHE-TTO. Anyway, I greet him with a warm smile as he hands me a sheet of paper marked with X’s on where I need to sign. I look up for a pen. He’s slouching, looking around the hallway with this annoying smirk on his face, and can’t seem to keep his feet still. Maybe he suffers from ADD like me, although mine is self-diagnosed.

“Do you have a pen?” I ask.

“There should be a pen in your room,” he says rudely, as if it were that obvious I should have grabbed the pen before opening the door for this dodohead.

By this point I’m still patient, sweet little Angie. I say, “Oh OK!” and run to grab my hotel-provided pen and run back to sign the paper that I should have been given at check-in which should have happened faster than it should. It gets better.

Then I realize, I’m REALLY hungry. I didn’t eat since lunch! And lunch was only french fries because Burger King gave me a chicken sandwich with rotten cheese (or something was rotting in there) and I got a stomachache from taking one bite of it. So obviously I couldn’t eat that!

I pick up the phone for room service. But the phone’s room service button doesn’t work. So I call the universal front desk number, “0″, and get connected to who else but my favorite lady of the night.

“Hello. What’s the number to room service?” I ask again in my sweet voice which even began to annoy me by that point.

“Um. Room service’s number is Room Service?” she says super rudely.

I imagined myself running down the stairs and strangling her (sorry Mom! I didn’t mean that. I’m just venting!) How could hotel staff me this rude! So I ask to be connected to Room Service, and again I am still nice to this b. She does one thing right and connects me.

Then I reach their voicemail. Room service has a voicemail? They say they will call me right back. So I leave a message with my name and room number, and hang up.

I then log onto Hotels.com to book my hotel for the next week. But for some reason, the site wasn’t working and it wasn’t letting me book my hotel. Then facebook’s site stopped loading too. Can this hotel do anything right?

Then I get a call from room service. Thank THE LORD.

I tell her what I want. I want the chicken pasta and a glass of tap water.

“I’m so sorry ma’am,” she says. ”That will take a very long time because I just received an order of $160 from another room and our grill is full.”

“Is there ANYTHING you can make for me that won’t take 45 minutes to prepare?” I plead. I’m starved. I’m desperate. I’ll even eat blocks of cheese at this point and I’m lactose intolerant.

“I’m really sorry ma’am.” She sounded frazzled. I felt bad. I thought back to my old restaurant days when I screwed up a large delivery order and had to deal with unhappy customers on the phone. It’s not pleasant.

So I didn’t place the order and called a local Chinese restaurant instead. It was located several blocks away from the hotel. And again! The worker there was rude also! Maybe it’s just Roanoke, VA people? anyway, after placing the order he told me it would take 45 minutes to deliver. I tell him that’s a very long time and wonder why it will take 45 minutes to delivery fast-food, probably already pre-made Chinese food to hotel a few blocks away.

So I cancel my order and just decide to go on a vending machine search. I couldn’t find one and had to go back to my lady at the front desk who then directed me to the 2nd or 4th floors.

My mouth was disgustingly parched by this point and I stared into the chocolate bars and bags of chips in the machine and frowned. I don’t want any of that. I need protein. I need real food. I need… WATER.

So I turn around and slide my dollars into the beverage machine. But it wouldn’t take my dollars. Then I realize the stupid machine needed exact change to work, and all I had were dollars. Lucky for me, there was another beverage machine right behind it. But the red light was on that too. It was broken! Again I asked myself, does anything in this hotel work??

I go back to my room and by now it’s 10: 20 p.m. I’m dizzy with hunger and just gave up. I called room service back and placed an order for mushroom soup, pasta marinara with chicken, and most importantly — a glass of tap water.

I ran to my door when I heard a knock. Ah. There was my gourmet meal of the night. Finally.

Then I tasted the soup. Believe me when I say it was the worst soup I ever had in my life. It tasted like you were just drinking heavy cream straight out of the carton.

Then I tasted my pasta. The spaghetti was so overcooked I didn’t even need to bite it before swallowing. It just went straight down.

And they forgot my tap water.

I shook my head and just forced myself to breathe before I really lost it. Then I got up to go to the bathroom and tripped over all the wires of my chargers and almost fell flat on my face.

That was when all hell broke loose. That was also when my inner bitch started revealing herself. I actually jumped up and down screaming (somewhat silently), waving my hands ridiculously in the air. Oh you would have loved it.

I ended up eating the rest of that horrible pasta. Yup, that’s how hungry I was. And there’s nothing worse than getting full off of terrible food!

So what did we learn today, class? Never. Ever. EVER. Go to this Holiday Inn.

-Angie

P.S. The only reason I wanted to go to a Holiday Inn was so I can say I went to a “Hotel Motel Holiday Inn!” I guess that wasn’t enough justification for God and he wanted me to have an ughwefrjwoifjaf kind of night. hahahha. Sigh, I can laugh about it the next morning but let me tell you, I was NOT laughing last night.

Food for thought:

Isn’t it strange how some nights, everything can go wrong at once?

Today I whipped out the fleece, and put on socks and sneakers! Goodbye pink polka dotted flip flops I’ve lived on since February! Yup, it’s getting colder… and I actually have a slight cough. Probably from the weather changes and the fast food diet (and the whole driving eight hours a day for a week could also play a part).

Today I am in Greenville, South Carolina.

Yesterday I was in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a toss-up between Atlanta or the Chatahoochee National Forest (just so I could say I’ve been to the Chatahoochee forest) for my next stop. I wound up choosing Atlanta ’cause I’ve never really checked out the city there… and I’m really happy I did. Let’s just say, I can actually picture myself living in Atlanta, Georgia for a couple of years. I never thought I’d say that.

Now, did you know the world’s largest aquarium was in Atlanta? and the World of Coca Cola? and that CNN (Cable News Network) Headquarters in Atlanta offered tours of their studios (I should have known this!)?  The city also has plenty of historical museums and art galleries to offer. AND good Korean restaurants and bakeries.

Atlanta, I underestimated you!

Let’s begin with CNN Center located in downtown Atlanta.

This building is huge. At first I thought you needed a badge to get in. But actually, the building is open to the public. You just walk in (there are several entrances) and you will feel like you just walked into the food court of a mall. You look up and will see CNN branded everywhere around you.

If you ever get the opportunity to go to Atlanta, GO to the CNN Center and take the Inside CNN Studio tour. It’s only $13 for a full-hour tour. And let me tell you, this tour is eye-opening. For me, at least. I’m big into news and being a part of reporting news (I miss it terribly from my college days). 

At the tour, you will learn about the life cycle of a CNN news story, the logistics of how they ultimately get a clip shown at your television at home, and – if you are lucky — you just might see some famous news anchors (we saw Christi Paul talking with a fellow anchor outside the studio).

Unfortunately, no photography or video was allowed during the tour. Sorry! But this is where my handy dandy moleskin notebook came in handy (and my sharp memory!). See how print journalism trumps new media and broadcast? You just never know when technology will NOT be an option.

…

Here are the highlights of my tour:

- The CNN building was once the first indoor amusement park. Today’s “food court” is located on what once was an indoor ice skating rink and a movie theatre.

- Before beginning the tour, we went on what seemed like the longest escalator ride of my life. Well, turns out it was! CNN Center houses the longest, free-standing escalator in the world, as credited in the Guinness Book of World Records. The escalator is only supported at the ends (and has no middle). When Ted Turner bought the building in the late 70′s, he wondered what in the world he would do with this extra long escalator. He figured he could charge guests a small fee to ride the “World’s Longest Escalator Ride.” The only problem was, there was no way they could get back down to the lobby without going through the studios first.

And so began Inside CNN Studio Tours. It’s been a tradition since.

- The life cycle of a CNN news story begins with the writer (who scripts the story). It goes through multiple editors and then the fact-checkers who will check every fact, quote and attribution in the story before it goes live. This does not even include the research, photography and video coverage that goes to each story. Depending on the newsworthiness of the story at the time, this process can last anywhere from 5 minutes to several weeks.

- Did you know the weatherman never really knows where he or she’s pointing to? You will see them wave circular motions across the map all the time.  Truth is, they really don’t know what they pointing at. That’s because the screen behind him (as he sees it) is all green or all blue. There is no map as we think there is! The video camera ends up placing the map there for viewers during a weathercast, but the ones reporting the weather actually don’t see it while they’re on air. That’s because the camera needs to differentiate between the colors of the background and the reporter. So, if the weatherman were wearing a green outfit one day, his body would appear invisible.

This technique used widely in Hollywood. Think Harry Potter and his invisible cloak, and Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks had to wear green pants when shooting his running scenes.

Check out this video of a weatherman wearing a green tie during a live weathercast. See what it does?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0CghAKgY4E

- At the end of the tour, they showed a finale slideshow of today’s CNN anchors sharing their reasons to why journalism is so important for this world,  and why they decided to become journalists. Anderson Cooper likes to witness history as it unfolds. And according to Robin Meade, good reporting evokes human emotion.

As for me, I see the best reporters as those who give a voice to the voiceless. A professor once told me there is usually only one or two reporter(s) sent to Africa per news channel. One reporter to cover an entire continent? Insanity.

…

So that was my trip to Atlanta, Georgia! I did go to a Korean bakery and a make-your-own pasta joint before I left… but all I did during that time was read Robin Meade’s new book, “Morning Sunshine!” I’m already half-way through.

Today I am headed toward the Appalachian Mountains. Or Charlotte. Haven’t figured it out yet.

Will connect soon!

With love,

Angie

Remember my new friend Ross?  He was a local I met in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who traveled and painted in Africa.

Ross was kind enough to share some of his artwork with me. With his permission, I am showing you several of my favorites from his collection.

I also dropped into his jewelry store after lunch. Ross and his daughter opened up a jewelry shop just one block from where I ate lunch there. They specialize in uniquely inspired and meaningful jewelry. Their offer these beautiful healing bracelets which I saw at the store.

Check out their gallery and learn their story here: http://www.lewallenjewelry.com/

Their facebook fansite is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jewelry-handcrafted-by-Ross-Lewallen-and-Laura-Lewallen/50409409946

His healing practice website is:  www.rosslewallen.com

Enjoy!

Hello! I owe everyone an entry on Memphis. That was yesterday but I was way too tired to write a good entry last night — and believe me, you want me to take my time when I write about Memphis. It’s been my most interesting stop yet.

For the one night and several hours during the day I spent in Memphis, I already have so many interesting stories to share. Did you know Memphis is actually the 4th most dangerous city in our country? I believe Compton, CA ranked 17th, and that is known as the capital of the ghetto. (I don’t know if it’s really called that but I just thought of that name now)

So last night I ended up driving very safely on the right lane at about 50 mph for two hours (via Atlanta, Georgia). It felt awesome not to be so focused on passing every car on the road (I love to be ahead), but just to cruise and enjoy music the whole time behind a truck. I drove from Memphis, Tennessee; through Mississippi, through Alabama, and into Georgia.

I am currently staying at the Palomar Hotel in Midtown Atlanta. WHAT a GREAT hotel. If you ever come here, stay here.

Here’s my latest video with a special on the hotel’s leopard robes:

Atlanta has funny robes!

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My good friend also thought of me and drew me on my road trip. The subject line of the email was: “I was inspired and had to draw this.” I thought, awww he was probably inspired by my VERY inspiring Sedona entry!

Then I opened it and saw this:

The image was entitled: “Fast Food is a Killer”

Oh what I’d do without the support of my friends….

And FYI, Burger King was my latest food stop. Their fries beat McDonald’s, Wendy’s and KFC’s potatoes any day. I actually ate all the fries and didn’t even touch my sandwich! This photo is actually very appropriate for how I feel these days.

Click play for music:

I almost forgot to post an entry on my drive across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles! This was back in Day 5.

I was forewarned about this drive. It’s a 9-hour stretch of nothing. I know I covered Oklahoma in the previous entry, so let me focus more on Texas here.

I stopped at Amarillo, Texas for a night. It’s a surprisingly large town (just picture a massive truck stop that kind of smells like poo) with familiar chain restaurants and stores like Target and Best Buy. I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express which was, as of that day, the best hotel I stayed at during my trip. The hotels just kept on getting better!

Now, if you ever do a drive across the panhandles, here are my recommendations to keep yourself awake:

1) Stop at the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. You can pray and/or laugh at how ridiculously random this cross is in the middle of nowhere.

Random cross in Middle America

Inside the Route 66 Museum

2) Visit the nation’s Route 66 Museum ($3 entry after 4 p.m.) in Elk City, OK. It’s an interesting stop and located just across the street is the KFC drive-through that had me sick for days. The people at the museum actually asked me if I came in the other day. Apparently there’s an Angie look-a-like driving cross country right now too, who stopped at the museum. They couldn’t get over how similar we looked. Well, looks like she’s ahead of me!

3) Gamble at a casino in Oklahoma. There are several of them off the highway, which I never would have expected. I didn’t stop at any but this is definitely a good pit stop, assuming you don’t have a gambling problem.

4) Invest in audiobooks. I listened to the book, “Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert. It’s a book on the science of happiness, and it kept me entertained for two hours of my panhandle drive. Did you know that humans are the only animal that can “plan” for the future? It’s because we have a large frontal lobe in our brains. If this lobe gets damaged, we won’t be able to imagine or “see” a future anymore.

5) Sing your heart out on the road.

Make the most out of a boring drive through the panhandles

Fun Fact on Texas Panhandle:

According to Wikipedia: As of the census of 2000, approximately 402,862 people lived in the panhandle. Of these, 68.9% were non-Hispanic White, 23.8% were Hispanic, and 4.6% were African American. Only 2.7% were of some other ethnicity.

Oh, I don’t know. “Some other ethnicity” as in Asian? What about Native Americans? Come on, people. =)

Click to play music below:

OK I’ll give you another shot. I didn’t like your state last night, but maybe today we’ll have more luck.

Welcome to Oklahoma! The state of nothing but cows and trucks.

It’s Day 6. Setting: Oklahoma City, OK. (whee) My stomach is killing me. Probably from all the fast food. See, I had a list of restaurants to go to from the show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network, BUT whenever I try to eat at one it ends up being closed. SO, I made up my own drive-ins tour and just went to all the fast food places I haven’t gone to in years.

See, I actually gave up fast food years ago in college and only eat it on average of about once per year. So, you can imagine how excited I was to drive through a KFC again, eat McDonalds fries, and order a chalupa from Taco Bell (mmmm!). But you can also imagine what a toll it had on my stomach! I think the poor thing went in shock. No more fast food for Angie.

Eating Honey BBQ wrap and mashed potatoes at KFC!

Now, about Oklahoma. I’m really happy I didn’t write this entry last night. I hated — no — I actually despised Oklahoma last night. I’m surprised I didn’t get the hell out of here as soon as I could. I was originally going to just write a blank entry for Oklahoma with the headline: “Oklahoma — A State of Absolutely Nothing” and leave it at that. But now, I feel refreshed and ready to give the dullest state in America another try.

Let’s begin with the reasons why I hate driving through Oklahoma (ha ha):

1) No people: Honestly, there’s a higher cow population than there are humans here in Oklahoma. I’ll bet money on it. There aren’t even people at the rest stops. I even pulled into random towns and only found one person just walking around. I must say though, my cow knowledge has gone up exponentially during my time here. I had no idea there were cows in so many different colors. I saw black cows, light brown and dark brown cows, some with white spots, some all black cows with white faces, and even the brave cows walking out super close to the highway, and BULLS with horns… and I saw goats and other farm animals I never saw before.

Oklahoma takes pride in their animals. This is Elk City, OK.

2) Roadkill and Litter: Dear state of Oklahoma, CLEAN your streets! There is litter and roadkill everywhere here. Used, run-down tires too. When I stepped out of my car, I almost stepped on an empty beer bottle. Then I looked around and saw at least five of them just lying around on the grass. Oh, Oklahoma.

3) Random traffic: OK I shouldn’t say there are NO people. There are plenty of people (mostly truck drivers) driving THROUGH Oklahoma. I just question if there are people actually living in Oklahoma. Apparently once I hit Oklahoma City, there was a ton of traffic getting out. It was totally random and actually quite annoying. I couldn’t stand it and just turned around, went to a Best Buy and bought my new Kodak video camera . But come on, traffic in Oklahoma?

4) No Parking in Hotels: It took me forever to find the parking spot I have now, and it’s a decent walk away from the main entrance to my hotel. It’s super strange, but I actually had to leave the hotel I was originally going to stay at because there just weren’t any parking spots available. I thought about it, and because everyone’s usually just driving through Oklahoma, everyone is probably just going straight to hotels and crashing there.

Basically, this state is just really boring. When I entered Oklahoma City lines, I saw about nine police cars lined up on the side of the highway with their lights on. Then I looked ahead and saw a bunch of people walking across a field toward the cop cars, from a building a so wanted to be a prison. Some of the people walking were cops. Others were just regular people. I got so pumped that something just MIGHT happen in this state and actually hoped there were prisoners escaping at the moment and all the state cops had to congregate on the highway to capture them.

But my imagination was short-lived. My friend checked the news and the biggest thing happening in Oklahoma at that time was a dump truck accident. Go figure.

I hate Oklahoma.

I’ll post more on the REST of Oklahoma and the Route 66 Museum later tonight! Below I’ve made a running list of things I’ve lost and forgotten during the trip, and things I’m currently losing (ha).

AND I just found out its 12 p.m. here now! not 11 p.m. like I thought. I have to run!!!

Enjoy the latest video attached too!

Love, ANG.

Things I lost/forgot so far:

1. My glasses in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
2. My friend’s memory card in Amarillo, Texas.
3. To write an entry on Amarillo, TX and the Panhandle! I completely forgot I went there!

Things I’m losing:

1. My memory and my mind.
2. My ability to spell.
3. Time

Video: (you may have to scroll up and turn the music off if you want to hear)

angie in the morning, angie in the evening lalala

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Hi everyone! My eyes are in no condition to write tonight. Sorry!

But I made you a little video surprise instead! Take it as a special message from the writer, half-way into her cross country adventure! The video is of me exhausted and at my worst, so don’t laugh. I wanted to do something special for you guys and this is all I have the energy for tonight.

P.S. Oklahoma sucks.

Enjoy!!

Mid-point Video

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Click play before reading:

Setting:  Santa Fe, New Mexico (Founded in 1607 by Spanish)

The streets of Santa Fe, New Mexico

Day 5. I started talking to people today. I know, I know. I promised not to talk to strangers. But come on, how long did you really think that was going to last?

Meet my new friend, Ross:

@ The Shed

Ross, meet everyone.

Ross lived in New Mexico for over 30 years. A native from Chicago, he now owns a jewelry shop in Santa Fe and regularly dines at The Shed, a fabulous, local and authentic New Mexican restaurant located one block from his shop. We happened to sit next to each other in the Shed’s bar area during lunch.   

In his lifetime, Ross explored and painted in Africa for seven months, went on a 5,000-mile road trip with his wife (who was once a journalist), and get this – he loves New York City. Can you see where he and I connected?

Perhaps, with his permission, I will share with all of you a few of his amazing photos and paintings from his trip to Africa.

Now, meet my new Native American friends from Santa Fe.

Handmade Native American Sculptures

This one saw me taking pictures of the marketplace and was the only one who smiled and threw my camera the peace symbol:

The vendor to the far right was a funny one

This vendor hand-makes earrings for a living. He actually has a patent for his designs (see below). I purchased two sets of these earrings — one for me and one for my sister. What makes them unique is that they have no back to them. It’s just one long spiraly, silver metal coil with different colored beads placed in the middle. You take the tip of the coil and push it through the hole, and just keep pulling the wire from the other side and voila! you have an adorable, un-losable earring.

Native American Coil Earrings

Check out the U.S. Patent! Ooh lala

The earring vendor and I chatted for a while. He asked where I was from, and I replied by giving him my usual, long-winded answer of: “Well, I grew up around New York City but recently lived in Los Angeles and am now moving to Northern Virginia.” This response tends to lead to more questions, and more conversation. Half the time, it just leads to the question, “No, where are you FROM? Like, what country?”

Ohh, the ignorance. The best is, “Wow. What ARE you?” I got that a lot in Massachusetts. Err, I’m human? hahahah. This cracks me up still.

ANYWAY, so my no talking to strangers rule lasted for a good two, three days I’d say (this excludes Vegas). Now don’t worry, I’m using my good judgment before chatting up my usual storm with random people. But talking to people just makes the trip much more interesting and worthwhile. It also makes this blog more fun to read, now doesn’t it?

Santa Fe (which means “Holy Faith” or “The City Different” in Spanish) is a super friendly place, which is why I felt more comfortable talking to strangers there than anywhere else. Santa Fe also ranks 2nd place in my favorite stops in this road trip thus far (Sedona’s the obvious #1).

Every person needs to visit Santa Fe. I mean it. Picture a town where Native Americans still follow their traditional lifestyles, where men and women walk around wearing big cowboy hats and knee-high boots, and where people still live in clay huts and adobe-style homes. You won’t even feel like you’re in America anymore — you’ll feel like you just time-traveled to hundreds of years ago before the Pigrams took over.

New Mexican Adobe Home

The food is also very different from what I expected. I expected your usual Mexican dish — but just 10x better like food usually is when you have it authentically made. But New Mexican food has a different taste and a new kick to it than “regular” or Americanized Mexican food has. It was almost like trying a new ethnicity of food altogether.

At first, the new taste took some getting used to. It was almost like the sauce on my enchilada was an acquired taste. It had a new kick to it, almost like I’ve never tasted these kinds of peppers before.

The homemade guacamole, though, was hands down the best guacomole I ever had in my life.

They used blue corn tortillas for my beef tacos, and put cooked cabbage around the sides. It took me only a few bites to get used to the taste, and I finally understood why Mexican people can’t stand Americanized Mexican food! Same goes with why Chinese people can’t stand it when American people call Chicken Lomein and Sweet and Sour Chicken ”real” Chinese. It just isn’t and you’re doing an injustice by saying that, because REAL Chinese food, and my newly discovered REAL “New Mexican” food, is clean, not unbearably greasy, and just fabulous!

My Authentic New Mexican Lunch at The Shed

Day 4. 3:23 a.m. Exhaustion.

Setting: The Lodge in Santa Fe, New Mexico (in a totally rustic cabin meets Native American motel room)

 New Mexico is my favorite state so far. You’ll have to drive through it at sunset to understand. It is an unforgettable sight, even while watching it through a rearview mirror and dirt-covered back window. I also found the moon to look much larger in New Mexico. I’m not an astrologist, I don’t know how. But it just does.

The blackberry snapshot doesn’t do it justice. What do you think?

Driving through New Mexico

So my plan was to arrive in Alberquerque, NM by 5 p.m. today, eat a hearty Mexican dinner and then drive north for an hour to Santa Fe, which is where I booked a hotel for the night. I left Sedona, AZ (my last stop), at noon today. And according to Mapquest, I should arrive in Alberquerque promptly at 5.

But then I got hungry and pulled over for food. Did you know a PB&J from a gas station has 740 calories?

Then I took the wrong highway out of Sedona which took me on a loop-around back to the right highway. It showed me more beautiful views of the red rocks, though.

And then I found a meteor crater.

Meteor Crater in Arizona

Yup. Things never go as planned.

I had to pay for all these stops I made eventually. It required me to drive, once again, in the dark for three hours. I arrived at my hotel past 9 p.m. again. Luckily I just had the song: Heartbreak World by Matt Nathanson on repeat for half the time which kept me upbeat and awake. (If you haven’t heard this song, you MUST. It’s the perfect song about moving from LA, following your dreams and driving ‘until the summer gives’)

By the way, now that I was driving over different time zones on the day of Daylight Savings, I’m all mixed up and have no idea what time it really is. My hotel clock says one time, while my laptop says something different, and then my car clock and two cell phones all don’t match either. I don’t know which are lying to me and which I need to change! Then my eyes and body are exhausted, while my mind says to keep going, so my internal clock is out of wack too. I mean, come on, it’s 3:52 a.m. (according to my laptop) or it could be 4:52 a.m. (according to WordPress), and I’m up writing.

I didn’t plan for sleep problems during the road trip, but I guess now I’ll have to. I don’t think I can drive 9 hours as planned tomorrow if I’m still in this condition. What a shame. My timing is no way near what I hoped it would be.

I also never had that Mexican meal. I actually mapquested a restaurant that was recommended to me before I left LA. Instead I had to eat McDonalds which has my stomach hurting still.  

Tomorrow (or today I should say), I will eat my Mexican brunch in Santa Fe, drive to Alberquerque and look around for an hour, and then head over toward Texas and Oklahoma. Ideally I wanted to be in Oklahoma City by tonight, but I can tell you know there is no way that’s happening. I will probably crash somewhere in the boonies in North Texas just before Oklahoma.

Before I go, I just want to thank all my readers, friends and family who are following me on this road trip. I am checking my blog stats religiously and I must say, I am very impressed that the numbers are going UP rather than down every day. The numbers are really impressive and I had no idea I knew that many people! It really brings up my spirits to know that people are keeping up with my writing — and hopefully (crosses fingers), just hopefully, sharing it with others too. All of this means the world to me and gives me the energy to keep going with my road trip.

Wish me luck on catching some sleep. Classical music in the background isn’t even doing the trick this time. If anyone is up reading this, please give me a call and recite me a bedtime story. Thanks.

With love,

Angie

Early evening of Day 3. Halloween 2009.

Location: The red rocks of Sedona, Arizona.

Red Rocks of Sedona

Sedona, I have missed you! My mom, sister and I came here years ago and always talked about going back. My mom told us if she ever disappeared or ran away one day, Sedona would be the place to find her.

Our tour guide then (who had a secret crush on my mom ha ha) told us the best time to come to Sedona is October. Well here I am in Sedona on the very last day of October. The sky is a rich blue, the weather perfect, the air crisp, and the rock formations and soil as red as I remembered them. Sedona is a place that’s incredible at any time of the year.

“Legend” has it that Sedona brings energy to those who visit it. How? The town has areas of “energy vortexes” where subtle amounts of swirling energy will flow inside of you. You can believe it or not, and my skeptical side isn’t sure if I believe wholly in this idea either. BUT, I could honestly say I got a sudden burst of energy when I arrived in Sedona this afternoon. Realistically, I’d say it’s from the sudden change from highway to breathtaking scenery. But hey, you never know. Maybe I drove through an energy vortex. =P

Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona, Arizona

Now, before I left Sedona, there was one stop I HAD to make — and you must too if you ever visit here. That stop is the Chapel of the Holy Cross. This chapel is perched high on an elevated set of red rocks, surrounded by the most spectacular views of greater Sedona.

Something about sitting in this church just made me whip out my Moleskin notebook and start writing a novel. See, I’m pretty sure the majority of our world’s population suffers from ADD, myself included. And there is never a place where I can just sit in stillness without feeling the need to check my blackberries (yes I have two), twirl my hair, people watch, eavesdrop on conversations, check CNN, think about the next thing I have to do and how I’m going to do it, etc. — no place that is but this chapel (and a few other churches and temples).

I sat and prayed in the chapel for a very, very long time (didn’t keep track of time so just take it for what it is). Something about church – and just about any religious establishment – just clears my mind and lets me find myself again. There are no distractions, no outside influences, no worries, no hate, no toxicity. It’s your time to connect with God (or whoever, whatever you believe in) again. Hey, I’m open.

Stillness has now become a ”waste of time,” which I find very unfortunate. We constantly feel the need to do, to move, to talk, to plan, to succeed, to make money. Our bodies have developed this habit of tensing up and not taking moments to breathe; trying to get so many things done and ultimately only reacting to people, machines and plans; and not acting on our own instincts. Silence freaks us out and causes us to reach for the phone, or turn to facebook, in order to connect with someone — anyone – just so we don’t feel alone. We’ve become robots that rely less and less on human interaction and more on technology. People meet and flirt virtually now and don’t quite know how to handle themselves when they’re out in the “real” world. More and more people would sleep with their blackberries and laptops rather than another person.  No wonder we’re all either depressed or just content, and never really fulfilled. Our lives are losing meaning and we are constantly reaching for the wrong antidote.

Inside the Chapel

Society makes fun of people who take comfort in recharging alone on a Friday night. We laugh at those who are openly deep, passionate and spiritual. We call them boring and no fun. Why talk about real issues and be the debbie downer to a conversation? Yet the ones laughing are usually the same people who come back and say yoga and meditation have changed their lives, and are the those people who cry during movies like The Pursuit of Happiness, Life is Beautiful and I am Sam.

I think we all just want to be happy and fulfilled but I very rarely find people who are nowadays. Especially people in their 20′s and even early 30′s. They are freakin lost and hopeless, probably because they’re used to having their lives planned out for them, and they grew up with all this technology in their backyards. After schooling, they realize the world is a lot bigger than they thought, and a lot harder to tackle than their elementary, high schools and colleges were. There are now too many options (i.e. should we follow our realist or idealist goals?), and no one to help them steer. Or there are just too many voices telling them what to do, who knows. I know I’m one who needs to learn to tune those voices out and figure out what I want, not try to do what they want.

People always say I’m old school and ask me why a 23-year-old girl like me (who still gets carded for lottery tickets and has the voice of a 12-year-old) acts like she’s 35. I honestly don’t know. I actually think I can act like total child sometimes. But they make a valid point. I mean, I haven’t turned on a TV for weeks and no, I am not suffering from any withdrawal. I know nothing about pop culture. I prefer anything print over Web. I’d rather talk about world issues than boys and parties. I despise the iPhone. I love snail mail. You get the jist.

I know most of you still can’t figure out why a young girl like me wanted to drive cross country alone for 12 days.  But trust me, I’ll be just fine. I really needed this trip, and I am using it as preparation for the day I fly to Africa on a whim. Maybe then I will write my first novel.

But anyway, please don’t worry. I am having a blast. My adrenaline’s pumping and it’s nice to have some adventure again in my life. It’s also super nice to have time to write again (and to find topics I’m passionate enough to write about). I actually think everyone should go on a trip alone at least once before they die. You really learn a lot about yourself.

I guess something about Sedona really did open up my spiritual side. I wonder if New Orleans will have a similar effect. ha ha ha.

Anyway, I am headed to New Mexico today. Farewell serene little town of Sedona! Thanks for all the insight and the ENERGY (ooh lala). Until next time.

-Angie

P.S. My highlight CDs today were Keri’s, Paul’s and Justin’s. Keri wrote me a poem to go along with the songs (another kudos for creativity and effort). Paul’s CDs were just amazing and perfect for the road. And Justin wins the award for best variety. He actually labeled his CDs based on mood — so there would be a set of “Relax” CDs and “Energy” CDs. I don’t believe anyone made classical piano CDs… which is too bad! I will have to plug my iPod in for that one.